Month: November 2010

Screencasting in Linux

I came across an excellent tutorial on how to do screencasts in Linux. The original article is in Russian, so I just grabbed the important bits and translated them below.

Install screencast recording application. recordmydekstop is available via yum install recordmydesktop and comes with a simple and straight-forward interface for both KDE and Gnome.
Record a screencast.
If you want to edit the screencast (cut out mistakes, add music, etc), install a video editor. These came recommended: Pitivi, Kino, Kdenlive.
Edit your screencast.
Convert to AVI if needed (recommended before uploading to video hosting services, such as YouTube, as they don’t always work well with Ogg). ffmpeg -i screencast.ogv screencast.avi should do it. ffmpeg is also available in most distributions. You can play more with parameters, or prepare the video during the editing stage.
Upload the video and share.

This is the kind of a guide that I need once in a while, but which I can’t seem to find when I need it. Hopefully now that I have it blogged, it’ll come handy.

Day in brief

Beautiful morning. Unfortunately no sign of the upcoming winter. #
Shared: Install Android 2.2 Froyo on your jailbroken iPhone 3G over-the-air with Bootlace http://bit.ly/9w6q0u #
Shared: Apache Declares War On Oracle Over Java http://bit.ly/cEBjRJ #
I favorited a YouTube video — Speedflying in Wengen 2010 http://youtu.be/UwWLnaME0CI?a #
I favorited a YouTube video — WILLIAM SPENCER-HOLLARADO! http://youtu.be/BT_45XGhE1o?a #
Car termometer shows +30C outside. Some November… #
I favorited a YouTube video — Millimetres Matter http://youtu.be/Y6nshKhqyqU?a #
Follow @longreads if you like reading long, well written articles from across the web. Some awesome stuff there. Not enough time. :) #
I don't even know how to retweet the long cat, so here you go with a screenshot. http://twitpic.com/35lbrq #
About to teach my kid how to bust baddies in NFS Hot Persuit Demo. This way I can buy the full game for him for Christmas. #
Yeah, parental control is for lousy parents. :) #

Day in brief

I got an email from Google recruiter again. I failed miserably with my previous two attempts. Wondering if I should try or give up now. #
I favorited a YouTube video — Harum Scarum Printers – Dot matrix printer music – Nesem… http://youtu.be/NcmP6fzj2KM?a #
My pension age is not up until 2043! This fact just thew me into a deep depression. I need Plan B, as I'm not even sure I'll live that long. #
Bookmarked: AIS Dispatcher – Linux version http://tinyurl.com/2c359wm #
Bookmarked: PrimeTel speed test http://tinyurl.com/24qlrne #
Bookmarked: XE – World Currency Symbols http://tinyurl.com/2dcjs74 #
Bookmarked: Hellenic NetBanking for Personal http://tinyurl.com/287rlaa #
Bookmarked: What Page of Google Am I On? http://tinyurl.com/2bmxeu6 #
I am now pushing all my public Delicious bookmarks to Twitter automatically, using http://twitterfeed.com/ #
Shared: LHC generates a mini Big Bang http://bit.ly/cYlDeo #
Added 'tweet' tag to my Google Reader, made the feed public, and added it to TwitterFeed. This way I can selectively tweet shared items. #
Twitter is my social glue.I want it to have an update from social activity,so that it ends up blogged in the daily digest via Twitter Tools. #
Bookmarked: twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter http://twitterfeed.com/ #
I wish I had better tools to integrate Google Buzz with my blog, my social networks, and my non-iPhone/non-Android/non-Blackberry phone. #
Shared: Microsoft's new slogan gets official http://bit.ly/94pqyH #
Bookmarked: lagger – Project Hosting on Google Code http://bit.ly/aw6ZW7 #
Bookmarked: PHP Console – Google Chrome extension gallery http://bit.ly/cN31fF #
My boss smokes at work all day long… http://twitpic.com/35e5vr #

Download Squad reminds us that it has only been 6 years that Firefox is with us. That’s true, but I find it so hard to believe. What was the web experience before Firefox came along? I remember that Firefox made it way better, but I don’t really remember how bad it was before that. And even though I spend most of these days using Google Chrome, I clocked thousands of hours in Firefox and it is almost like a relative to me.

Happy birthday dear browser! Best wishes and may you continue to improve, especially now that you have some competition to get you going.

You are not welcome to Cyprus

Just a few days after I’ve posted “Welcome to Cyprus“, Cyprus News reports about the clash between the anti-racism festival goers and nationalist groups.

THE effects of last Friday’s fracas between nationalist groups and festival goers at the antiracist Rainbow Festival were still being felt across Cyprus.

With one Turkish Cypriot singer stabbed and at least 12 others – foreigners and locals alike – injured, it was commonly agreed that even this violent outcome was nowhere as bad as it could have been.

THE effects of last Friday’s fracas between nationalist groups and festival goers at the antiracist Rainbow Festival were still being felt across Cyprus.With one Turkish Cypriot singer stabbed and at least 12 others – foreigners and locals alike – injured, it was commonly agreed that even this violent outcome was nowhere as bad as it could have been.

The video, perhaps, can illustrate what happened a bit better (if you just want the action, skip to 5:35).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlXk4ogvrY4]

While I’ve seen nationalist and xenophobic Cypriots before, this is the first time I see so many of them at the same place, so organized, and so dangerous. Actually, while I was watching this video, I had a strong feeling of deja vu. I’ve seen this somewhere before. Have you? A crowd of young, aggressive guys, well organized, with drums and loudspeakers, with sticks and other weapons, throwing chairs and what not, and having no respect for police at all – sounds familiar? There is only one other group of people that I know in Cyprus that fits the description – football hooligans.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrPjJmiShUc]

Is there really a connection between football hooligans and nationalist groups? I don’t know. But they do look quite similar to the outsider. And what else worries me is the police. It seems that at the state the police is in right now, it can’t really stand against either football hooligans or violent fascist raids.