So, das Studienjahr geht doch tatsächlich dem Ende entgegen. Die letzte Klausur ist geschrieben -- und sie stand übrigens was das Niveau angeht einer deutschen Klausur in nichts nach.
Flash video and no sound on OSX
One of the newer technologies on the web are the flash video players used by Google Video and YouTube.
Every once in a while though, on Mac OS X it can happen that these Flash video players don't have sound anymore.
It is pretty hard to figure out why, and the solution is quite random, but on macosxhints I found a comment mentioning that it could be a sampling rate problem:
- open
/Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup - check the properties for Built In Output.
- It might be set to 96KHz. Change it to 44KHz and audio in Flash will return immediately.
Now, I don't know what software it is messing up that setting, but I am glad it can be fixed.
I am still wondering why the Flash player would care about MIDI settings. Obviously it's no MIDI file that is being played as movie sound there.
Walhalla-Zwiebeln
Schon allein des Namens wegen habe ich dieses Chili ja kaufen müssen:
Anzeigetafel am Karlsruher Hbf
Ubuntu Dapper Drake and WPA-Encrypted Wireless
I am a Ubuntu Linux user. On my laptop and at work, I was running "Breezy Badger" (Ubuntu Linux 5.10) since last fall.
But one of the worst things about it was its inability to connect to WPA-encrypted Wifi access points. Eventually, I wrote a few shell scripts that made me able to connect to my AP at home, but it was far from being handy.
Now yesterday, I installed the new release, Dapper Drake on my laptop. The installation was straightforward, and by the way I liked it a lot that the installation CD is a live CD at the same time so that new users can "try before they buy".
When everything was installed, I realized that my wifi card was recognized and activated automatically, yet I was not able to connect to a WPA encrypted network. Instead it tried to connect to one of my neighbors unencrypted access points. Downgrading my connection to the demonstrably weak WEP encryption was not an option earlier, nor was it now.
Already being a little disappointed, I searched the Ubuntu forums and after a while, I came up with a thread about WPA access points with Ubuntu Dapper Drake.
In short: Nine seven steps to WPA encrypted Wifi with Ubuntu Dapper Drake:
sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant(might already be installed)- (You might have to do a
sudo apt-get updatein order to fetch the newest metadata for apt-get) sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnomesudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces-- Comment out everything but "lo" entries in that fileCreate a file called/etc/default/wpasupplicant, add entryENABLED=0- Reboot your system
- Left-click the network manager icon in Gnome and select your wireless network
- Follow the prompts for password, type, etc.
- It will ask you to choose a password for your new "keyring".
- Be happy ;)
Now everytime you boot up and log in, the network manager will connect you to your preferred WPA-encrypted network as desired.
There are only two caveats that I currently know of:
- The connection is only made once you log into Gnome. So if you plan to run this connection on a server or if you need a network connection before you get to the login prompt (i.e. during bootup), this method is not ideal for you.
- A current bug is that you are asked for your keyring password twice (?) everytime you log in. This can be annoying, but rumor has it, it is already fixed and an update will be released soon.
As you see, Dapper Drake made a big step towards the usability of Linux on laptops. Hope you give it a shot. It seems to be worth it.
Update: Removed two unnecessary steps. Thanks, Martin and Zakaria!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Schlimm genug, dass ich zum Anpfiff in der Vorlesung sitzen musste (9 Uhr morgens...).
WWW steht für Wireless-Wirrwar
Manchmal ist das Leben schon ungerecht: Als ich zuerst hier eingezogen bin, hat es so vier Wochen gedauert, bis der Kabelmann kam und uns Internet brachte.
Musikalisches
Wie schon angekündigt, gab es ein paar Mitschnitte von Ensembles, in denen ich mitgespielt habe.
World Cup: Taping and Trading
Filled with deep sadness I have to realize that I can't watch the games of the soccer world cup 2006 in Germany live on TV.
Why? They are on, aren't they?
Ah, well, yes. But they are on around noonish, and at work, we don't have cable, so I am stuck with taping them and watching them later. Which is not even remotely as spicey as watching a game live.
However, I can probably be sure that I won't meet anyone all day who cares about the world cup, so at least nobody will spoil it for me ;) Back home in Germany, it wouldn't take any more than like 10 minutes until somebody cheered outside, telling you who won.
Especially when it was the German team who won.
By the way, if you are into betting on sports events but don't really want to spend money, try Stoccer. It is a market research project from my home university back in Germany and it works like a stock market for national team "stocks". They try to predict who'll win the world cup from analyzing what users "buy" what teams. Sounds like fun, I think I will join it!
Oregon live
Aus meiner unendlichen Reihe "Wetter in Oregon" ;) : Letzte Woche hatte ich Besuch da, der sich prompt original regnerisches Oregon Wetter antun durfte. Stürmische Brise am Pazifikstrand inklusive.