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Compiling Ivy Generator for Ubuntu 8.10 64bit

I stumbled upon this site:
http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/

And thought it warranted a closer look. Downloaded it and tried running the binary only to find that it couldn’t find some of my libs, so I decided to compile it instead - because it looks like that might have been compiled for 32 bit.

Here’s the steps on how to do it:

Download and extract the files somewhere you like to work, I usually just do it on ~/Desktop but you can mkdir your own tmp in $HOME.

To start, make sure you’ve got the right qtlibs, I had to run this (intrepid ibex):
sudo apt-get install libqt4-opengl-dev libqt4-dev
This installs some development files needed for compiling qt4 programs.

Next, we need to make sure that the project file is modified so it can actually use OpenGL, edit src/src.pro, adding this line:

QT += opengl

I put it after the INCLUDEPATH directive if you have troubles placing it elsewhere, kudos to “jacek” at the qtcentre.org forums for having the answer to that (I googled and found this: http://www.qtcentre.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-7914.html )
Next, make sure you remake your make file with qmake-qt4 (the project is qt4)
Then type make. This will make an application in the src directory called src
mv src ../bin/IvyGenerator if you want, then go to the bin directory and run it!
Here’s a picture of it running on my 64 bit Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex:

UPDATE: Here’s a shot of it with some vines on some terrain I found online:

Tags: compiling, development, IvyGenerator, libqt4, linux, ubuntu

How to encode videos for iPod in Intrepid Ibex

Simple. It’s probably the easiest thing in the world.

Get podencoder from here:

http://code.google.com/p/podencoder/
Download and save to somewhere in your path, /usr/bin might be a good place, then:
sudo chmod +x /path/to/podencoder

Next, Install the medibuntu repository:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
then, open up a terminal:
sudo apt-get install mencoder
Find your file in the terminal and then:
podencoder <your file>

To make it even easier, place it in ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/ and you’ll have it in your right click menu in nautilus - Mark Pilgrim, the generous developer of podencoder, already developed with zenity, which allows for gnome status dialogs. w00t!

This goes well with the virtualbox post I did a while ago - now you can batch process a bunch of files all at once, then load them up in virtualbox and you’ve got yourself some videos to watch when you’re bored!

Tags: iPod, linux, mencoder, mplayer, podencoder, ubuntu

Crontab and you

Ok, I was having some issues with crontab, which I found out later was because of some issues with my scripts and where cron was trying to find values.

I wasn’t getting any STDERR output from the script I was running into any logs I was writing - so I couldn’t figure out why it was working on the command line when I was logged in as the user and not when it was being run as cron. So, I had to redirect STDERR to STDOUT. To acheive this, just add 2>&1 to your cron entry.

2>&1 means redirect STDERR (2) into STDOUT (1) - this means that anything written by STDERR (php errors or command line errors) will be written out to whatever file you choose.

For example:
15 * * * * php some_php >> some_php.log 2>&1

Means at 15 minutes past the hour, cron will run some_php and append (>>) to some_php.log, including the STDERR, which is conveniently redirected (>) to STDOUT.

Using this I was able to find out that cron wasn’t using the same path locations as the user calling it! A ha! Problem solved.

Tags: commands, computer, crontab, linux, STDERR, unix

Why Windows PC users are insecure morons

I read an article I stumbled upon complaining about Mac users here entitled: “Mac Users Are Whiny Losers. Love, Maximum PC”. I know it’s a troll, but I had to respond. These are just too moronic and someone out there is going to read these reasons and think them true. All of these are myths and should be treated in the same fashion as any other superstitious bullshit. (more…)

Tags: linux, macs, maximum pc, OS wars, windows

How to install skype on Ubuntu 64 bit

Ubuntu 64 bit does have some drawbacks, namely, some proprietary vendors won’t make a 64 bit package for ubuntu.  However, all is not lost, you can generally install ia32-libs and get some 32 bit programs to work natively in your 64 bit ubuntu.

I needed skype specifically and I found some directions for it here:

http://macprolinux.blogspot.com/2007/10/skype-on-64-bit-gutsy.html

There are a couple of commands you need to use sudo, and I use hardy, but it’s a nice walkthrough.

Tags: free voip, linux, skype, ubuntu

Diablo 3 is under production

Funny Conversation I had with my co-worker about Diablo 3

(more…)

Tags: apple, ballmer, blizzard, catamite, diablo 3, games, jobs, linux, mac, starcraft 2, steve