Reflexión = 2 x flexión [english]

2 new songs!

2008-07-17T01:24:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day, a couple of songs I made for two local desingers (well, one of them is 50% persian).

You may listen to them here: Break the fashion show.

Theses songs were played live in the FITCA fashion show that took place on friday 11th.

Hope you like them!!!

New Scarlett Johansson's album: "Anywhere I lead my head"

2008-05-19T01:20:00.000-07:00

Some days ago the Scarlett Johansson's new album "Anywhere I lead my head" was released, and as a good "fan" I listened frome start to finish, and sincerelly it was endless.

I love all of her movies, specially when Woody Allen is the director (I want to watch Vicky Cristina Barcelona!!), but I didn't like the album at all. It's really boring and besides it's not so well produced (from my point of view). The voice is a little bit hidden (... maybe intencionally because my opinion is that she's not singing quite ok. From the movies I heard her with a hoarse voice but I didn't think it was that much!

Well... this is a modest critic and I guess a lot of people will like the songs, so "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

Virtualbox - Clone virtual machine ubuntu hardy

2008-04-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Hi again! Today I will write the second Virtualbox tutorial: Cloning Virtual Machines.

What we need is having a virtual machine already set up, with its virtual hard-drive and configuration file, i.e., a virtual machine fully operative, which will be the one to clone.

To clone a virtual machine, from a previous installation, we cannot do that by simply copying the virtual disk. If we copy the disk we will not be able to run the virtual machine aside the original VM, because each virtual disk has a unique ID.

So for cloining we have to use the tool provided by Virtualbox, which is "VBoxManage". We open the console, "cd" the virtual disks directory (the folder containing .vdi files) and if our VM is called UbuntuJEOS, it is logical the disk has the same name: UbuntuJEOS.vdi. Let's say we want the cloned virtual machine to be called UbuntuClient01. Therefore, we type the following:

VBoxManage clonevdi UbuntuJEOS.vdi UbuntuClient01.vdi

Once we have done that, we already have our VM cloned and ready to use!. We only should go to virtualbox and create a new VM, configure it with the virtual hard drive just created.

Troubleshooting:

We have no network, the network devices are scrambled or are missing.

This is due to the systems based on Debian, such as Ubuntu, have a very useful feature when we use actual hardware, but it is not that good when we clone VM. This feature assign a unique name to a network interface with a specific MAC address.
Debian, and therefore Ubuntu, make this by using UDEV rules, so as to solve it, simply we delete the rule created in the cloned machine for the original network interface:

sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Reboot and voilà! There is network again!

New website! davebv.es

2008-04-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ole!

At last I got my own domain!! Today I've opened the web which it lacks a lot of content, it will be soon filled with my music and several art and engineering stuff which is in my head.

davebv.es

It is possible I will be porting some of the tutorials here to that web, I will keep you all informed!

VirtualBox Ubuntu Hardy 8.04

2008-03-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

Update!! 2008-04-27

Today I am going to post about VirtualBox, a virtualization product like VMWare or VirtualPC, but this one is plublished under GPL licence and is open source.

Currently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, MacOSX and OpenSolaris, and supports guests virtual machines such as Windows (XP, Vista, 2000...) Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE, Mandriva... with kernel 2.4 y 2.6) and OpenBSD.

More official info: Innotek VirtualBox

I am going to do a tutorial series about virtualization with VirtualBox. I will be explaining what I am experimenting. The tutorials will be:

Installation and configuration of VirtualBox.

Ubuntu JEOS virtual machine Installation.

Virtual Machine Clonning. Network problems troubleshooting. Ubuntu Hardy.

Other tutorials, about application I will be trying in virtual machines.

So let's get started:

In this case I am using VirtualBox on Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 (Development branch, but damn stable!). One of the advantages os using Ubuntu is that VirtualBox is in the official repositories, and we just have to activate Universe and Multiverse repositories to install it [1][2].

If you want to install VirtualBox, read more!

First, to isntall it we do the following:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-generic

If you are using another kernel (such us -rt), install de module to the corresponding version. To see what kernel flavour you are running:

uname -r

Once you have done it, in order to use VirtualBox, your user will have to belong to vboxusers group.

sudo useradd -G vboxusers -a tu_usuario

And also we have to modprobe the module for virtualbox:

sudo modprobe vboxdrv

So far, we are able to run VirtualBox to install our favourite Operating System.

In the next issue, I will explain how to install Ubuntu JEOS, a reduced version of Ubuntu for virtualization, in a virtual machine.

Melodyne and the impossible.

2008-03-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

For we all who used to work with audio, we dreamed sometimes with doing something which was very difficult or maybe impossible.

How many times have you had to record something again because in the chord you played you missed only one note? What if now instead of recording the complete sequence of chords, you are able to modify just that note?

It seems that sooner than later it is going to be possible:

Melodyne crew, getting the impossible done.
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna

Finally, I finished!!!

2008-03-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

I have just graduated! After a little bit more than 5 years... (ejem) Last monday I presented my final project and couldn't end it better. The "more-than-5-years" are justified, I went to the delicious Stockholm, Sweden for a year. I falled in love with that city. And I started to work more than a year ago in the Microsoft Technology Center in Walqa (Huesca, Spain) for about 5 months.

The global feeling about these years in University are ok, I mean, not bad, but no so good also. Of course, I learnt so many things, but the greatest moments during this period were stuff done outside the university. I dedicated as much time as I could to music, and one of the good university things is that I applied technical concepts to my creativity.
Of course, there are exceptions, but sadly, the bad things usually cast a shadow over the good ones.

The last few months, on the other hand, have been great (except for the last course I took, which I passed quite good but with effort). I enjoyed doing my thesis, the long conversations with my director and the people in the laboratory has been really cool, which helps quite a lot when things get harder.

But really, by graduating I feel good, really good, no preasure, no tension, no nervous... my brain works again as it used to!

How xrandr can save your blowing-mind dual monitor config in Ubuntu.

2008-03-03T01:50:00.000-08:00

Long ago I got mad at linux because the dual monitor configuration was a mess. I had not a fast and intuitive way to use external monitor or a projector. I had to edit the xorg.conf. And if you do not have so much idea (which was my case) it was a tedious task.

Last week, I found out something relatively new: RandR (Resize and Rotate extension).

With the X extension for RandR, we can configure the monitors almost automatically and with no xorg.conf editing. There are several GUI, but they are not mature yet and what I recommend to use is the console application XRandR.

If you dispose a compatible driver such as radeon or intel (I don't know about nvidia, and fglrx does not work) I am going to give you some tips to experiment with:

To see what monitor you have connected and which ports:

xrandr -q

If you want to auto-configure them (which is possible not to work properly)
xrandr --auto
On the other hand, if you want to activate the external monitor, given the first command told us there is a VGA-0.
xrandr --output VGA-0 --on # --off to deactivate

For changing its resolution:
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1440x900 (for example)

If it gives an error about maximun resolution, you should add the following lines to the monitor section of the xorg.conf


Virtual 2624 1200 # max horizontal and vertical resolution.

Now, if you want to extend the main desktop to the external monitor:
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1440x900 --right-of LVDS # given LVDS is your laptop display

More info here:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2

KDE4 not ready yet

2008-03-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Of course... the installation of the KDE4 CD of kubuntu has been a failure...

Going nuts...

2008-03-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

I thinkg I am crazy, I just downloaded the first Alpha version of Kubuntu KDE4 and I am about to install it...

I hope I don't regret it!

Kubuntu KDE4

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu-kde4/releases/hardy/alpha/

When your killerapp does not work...

2008-02-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

If there is any reason, above all, for which I did start using linux with KDE, that would be Amarok.

That kind of feeling about deciding what distribution, or what kind of OS to use is called the killerapp effect. The application which force you to use the system which better integrates.

But... what happens when it does not work? My Amarok, after upgrading to the latest version of KDE 3 series (3.5.9) does not recognize the removable devices properly. I cannot use my mp3 player as before and, the fact itself it's a little bit stupid, but quite annoying. I am freaking me out!!!!

I used to sync my music database with the iPod and now... I cannot do that automatically... I thought I could even compile it from source... but not so much time right now to do it. How could I be so desperate??!?!?!

Now I am looking for the solution in the forums, IRC... but nothing! aaaarghh

What happen to you if your killerapp does not work??

Your music... (tip of the day)

2008-02-15T01:47:00.000-08:00

... is in your brain, not in your fingers.

So you better think before play something.

EGO - Soundtrack for a designer

2008-01-31T02:00:00.000-08:00

Yep, here it is, Spartak VJ made a video for a fashion designer and took some of my songs for the soundtrack. Hope you like it!

Ernie and Bert rule!!

2008-01-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

Ernie and Bert, teaching the kids how a good music song must sound. xD

KDE4 released

2008-01-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

As of yesterday night, KDE4 is available for downloading. It is welcome with great expectation and I am also expecting to install it in a few days.

I will post screenshots and comments about the new desktop environment, but if you are curious, you can take a look here:
KDE4 screenshots

For mor information:
http://www.kde.org/

Movies in your Wii: TVersity

2008-01-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

Let's imagine the following scenario:

We have a Wii plugged to the TV in the dinning room,
We have a PC somewhere else in our home, connected to the local area network, and with loads of movies and other multimedia content which we would like to watch it in the TV.
It is a mess to move the PC to the dinning room

How could I watch those movies in the TV without moving the PC? Pretty easy!!! Through the Wii!!
We only need the stuff before, the internet channel on the wii, and TVersity.

Tversity is a software to make our life easier, configuring a streaming server and creating a web interface which we will be able to acces from the Wii.

So the only thing we've got to do is add the folders with multimedia content to the TVersity and we are instantly able to watch them: pics, music, and movies, from the Wii.
The media center looks like the following pic (read more...)

You got more screenshots here: http://tversity.com/screenshots/

How to install TVersity:
First: Download Tversity from http://tversity.com/download/.
Then, in order to play our xvid and divx videos we need to install the proper codecs. I personally use K-lite Mega Codec Pack (in free-codecs.com you can download it and many others)

Now we proceed to install the codec-pack, and once we have completed the installation, we install TVersity

Now open the control panel and add the folders you want to see from the Wii:

Once we have done this, it will take a while to scan the folder's content, but you already are able to watch some stuff in the Wii, through the internet channel you have to enter the IP address of the PC in which TVersity is installed. (it is the type of x.x.x.x plus the port: 41952 by default).
For example: 192.168.1.100:41952

If you have active the Windows Firewall it will be necessary to add an exeption with the mediacenter.exe, which is located in a default installation here: c:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server

NB: make sure you have the service active.

So there it go! Now enjoy you multimedia in you TV through the Wii!

On week to go: KDE4

2008-01-03T08:38:00.001-08:00

KDE4 will be released in one week!! (counting down)

New year in the Digital TV!

2007-12-31T10:09:00.001-08:00

¿Have you ever changed between same channel but in analogue and Digital TV? ¿Have you noticed the same you just heard in the analogue one, you hear now in the TDT?

You watch it the digital a little bit delayed. And for a normal show it does not matter but... imagine now you are expecting the new years' 00.00h While all you neighbors are celebrating the new year... you still are waiting for it to come in the Digital Terrestrial TV!!!

Reccomendation: don't synchronize your clock's time with the TDT otherwise you want to go delayed a few seconds! ;)

head tracking wiimote

2007-12-21T07:55:00.000-08:00

This guy is awesome!!

Now he is presenting a head tracking system based on the wii remote. Just watch the demo.

Lo podéis ver aquí.

More info in his web: Johnny Chung Lee

Real Time Kernel FGLRX 7.12 Ubuntu Studio

2007-12-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

[Edit]
I don't know what happened, but I have no longer the fglrx with the rt kernel, and I am not able to re-build them. Any suggestion/solution?
[/Edit]

It works!!!!!!!!

Just did the steps in the post before, within the linux-rt kernel!!!!

Install new ATI Catalyst 7.12 Ubuntu

2007-12-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a new version of Catalyst driver for linux was released. (Catalyst 7.12).

I wrote this for you not to freak out like me installing this, since one step has been removed and another one was modified.

I am going to try it on the Ubuntu Studio's -rt kernel to see if I am lucky this time.

The steps to complete the installation are the following:

Install the needed tools:
$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential fakeroot dh-make debhelper \
debconf libstdc++5 linux-headers-generic dkms

Install FGLRX (ATI Wiki):

First, download the driver from here:
Catalyst 7.12 ATI FGLRX

Make the DEB package:
$ sudo bash ati-driver-installer-8.443.1-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy
Blacklist the old fglrx module
$ sudo nano /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
GNOME: change "nano" by "gedit", KDE: by "kate".
And add "fglrx"

Once we have done this, install the .deb:
$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Take care of the dependencies:
$ sudo apt-get -f install
Delete the old sources
$ sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
$ sudo apt-get -f install

And then create the folder:

$ sudo mkdir /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile

and the symbolic link:

$ sudo ln -sf /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/fglrx.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/volatile/fglrx.ko

In order to configure the driver, we have to edit the file xorg.conf
$ gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and then, in the adapter section change "vesa" of "ati" by this:


Section "Device"
 [...]
#       Driver          "vesa"
 Driver  "fglrx"
 Option  "VideoOverlay"  "on"
 Option  "OpenGLOverlay"  "off"
 [...]
EndSection

We're done!!

If you have a problem with a corrupted screen, follow the instructions in this post:
Solved corrupted screen fglrx. Ubuntu (fglrx).

Duke Nukem Forever Teaser

2007-12-20T00:32:00.000-08:00

For those who don't know yet, a tremendous news!!!

The Duke Nukem Forever Teaser... in case you don't remember this game was announced 10years ago and it's not out yet!!!

If it took 10years to release the trailer... how long will it take to launch the game?

PS: I still remember the good times I spent with DukeNukem 3D!!!

Confirmed, Teruel exists

2007-12-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

I already knew, I was there long time ago, but the memories were blurred and so much confusion made me not to know if it was true or not.

But yes! yesterday I was there and I am able to confirm, I saw it with my own eyes: Teruel exists.

An I have pics to demonstrate it:

Just in case you do not know about Teruel:

"Canon" nearly to dissapear?

2007-12-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you ever heard of the famous "Canon", the fee spanish people pay every time we buy a CD, electronic device, a band play a "registered" song... (generally speaking).

This is really controversial because it is not a fair fee, there is so much money being collected and only a very few see that money, the majority of the artist represented by the rights management society don't get any money. Also the way it is collected is not so well done, becaouse given this, we all are supposed to break the law making ilegall copies of copyright material before we even have the chance to do it.

But now, the Spanish parliament has made a big step to the freedom, they've suggested the government to have one year deadline for removing the digital fee.

Will it become true?...

Isn't it ironic?

2007-12-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

Today, I was in a traffic jam, somehow desperate because driving through an avenue of around 500m long, took me about 20 minutes. (Suppose fluid traffic, 20min is what it takes to get to my final destination "farther away")

The situation has been kind of funny and ironic at the same time, since I was just behind the VAN you can see in the pic.

"CRY"... yeee, just missing a sticker with a man laughing and pointing at you... "you're in a traffic jam, wretch, now cry!"