YouTube Sound and Ubuntu 7.10

Lost sound on YouTube (no bad thing sometimes) after upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10. Found the fix, eventually, here. But the fix is a simple file removal:

mv ~/.asoundrc .asoundrc.old
mv ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf.old

Saw (and tried) some other very abstruse fixes before this. Should have known it would be something simple.

whymacs?

This is for my own benefit - there's nothing here that hasn't been said before and better by someone else, but it's a necessary part of the mac catharsis I need. I'm going through one of my periodic bouts of technolust, in which my desire for new hardware far exceeds my more reasonable consideration of what my requirements are.

I'm fairly convinced I'm not a lone sufferer; but that doesn't help. My must current obsession is getting an iMac. I made the mistake of going into a PC World (when is going into PC World not a mistake?), and seeing the latest incarnation of the iMac: brushed aluminium screen and keyboard surround, anti-reflection screen etc. It's beyond lovely.

Playing with OSX sank the hooks in further. I use Ubuntu Linux (mostly) at home. It's fantastic, obviously, with the new version (7.10) being really spectacularly stable, attractive, and packed with useful stuff. It lets me tinker. The new desktop effects feel rock solid and add a much-needed element of fun (can anyone still be pretending they are a productivity enhancer?). It has software packages that let me do anything I realistically want or am capable of doing (except for GIMP: when you're used to Photoshop, there's really no going back).

So why am I so consistently drawn to buying a computer that is manifestly not what I need, does nothing that I cannot do on my Ubuntu setup (except Photoshop), and is probably rather overpriced? Is it because I'm longing to think of myself as one of the arty types macs are supposedly aimed at? Is it because I think that if I use an OS that doesn't offer the same scope for tweaking, adjusting, and generally cocking about with settings as Linux I might actually use the PC for something useful? Is it a general desire for something I don't have, no matter how pointless?

OSX is, based on my admittedly cursory use of it, very together, undeniably beautiful, and may or may not enhance my productivity. What really differentiates it from Ubuntu (and puts it light years ahead of Vista) is that it's tasteful. It just feels like it's designed by a company that puts aesthetics at least on a par with functionality, instead of being a product that adds a veneer of graphic design to a collection of applications and functions. I almost feel sorry for Microsoft: how do you instill that kind of culture in your architects and developers?

I guess, as usual, it starts at the top. I'm only guessing, of course, but I'll bet Bill Gates' multi-million dollar mansion is full of cool and innovative technology, while Steve Jobs' place is full of objets d'art. Anyone who loves the technology really shouldn't be in charge of how it gets designed. I'm sure an art appreciation course for Bill and his boys and girls would make a world of difference.

Mind you, fair play to Bill: he's the one who is giving away billions of dollars to fund the eradication of unfashionable diseases like TB, which certainly beats launching a trendy mobile phone in the list of worthwhile things to do with your time.

Supernova!

I'm now the proud owner of a Supernova dinghy, one of the fastest non-trapeze single-hander dinghies. Except when sailed by me, apparently. Similar size and weight as a Laser, but with a fully battened mylar sail, I'm told it will go like a rocket in a decent breeze. There was almost no wind when I went out last time, so we'll see; that didn't stop me making a complete a**e of myself at launch, when I almost capsized right in front of the clubhouse as soon as I tried to climb in. V humiliating.

GRUB Error 17

Every time I update the kernel image, GRUB's menu.lst file gets altered so it doesn't which partition to mount first. I have my linux root in the third partition on my second disk, so the GRUB's root should be (hd1,2); when I change the kernel, it always gets changed to (hd1,3), resulting in a GRUB Error 17, cannot mount partition. I thought I'd trashed the system at first, but it's relatively easily corrected by using GRUB's editor to change the line root (hd1,3) to root (hd1,2), and the pressing b to boot. I then need to edit menu.lst to correct it more permanently. It's a bit of a weird error though.

I Love Caitlin Moran

Easily the wittiest writer in England (sometimes outdone by her husband Pete Paphides, but not often). Read her here: you won't be disappointed.

I'm convinced she's one of the main contributors to Popbitch, too. Also a great read.

BBC, Downloads, and DRM #3

Gosh, this is turning into a series. Now the FSF is up in arms about this, accusing the BBC of corruption. A lot of people seem to miss the point about the Windows downloads, and think it's the use of Windows Media Player that's the issue.

It's not the player codec that's the issue, it's the DRM. The BBC was pushed by content rights holders to apply DRM to downloads, and the most widely available solution is (unfortunately) Microsoft's. The BBC aren't the only ones: BSkyB use in on their broadband service too (where it was hacked pretty quickly anyway). If it were up to the BBC, I'm sure they'd make it all available unencrypted, but for all those who make the programs, get money for repeat fees, DVDs, etc that's obviously not going to be commercially unacceptable.

There's going to be another revolution akin to the MP3/downloading/bittorrent decimation of the music industry's traditional business models soon based on this stuff, so they need to think of other ways of making money from it. Until then, they're going keep on insisting on DRM wellies while the floodwaters rise around them.

At least the BBC Trust has insisted on a commitment to making a platform-neutral solution available "in a reasonable timeframe". The problem is, who makes a DRM solution that is going to be politically acceptable to everyone? Real? Apple? Are the clever boffins at the BBC interested in developing and policing a BBC own-brand DRM system? Is *any* DRM going to be acceptable to some people?

If the BBC is guilty of anything, it's really only in underestimating the firestorm announcing an MS-only solution, even for a trial period, was likely to cause. And being dumb enough to believe the MS DRM is going to keep their content safe - MS can't even keep their own software from being ripped off. Why would you trust your crown jewels to such a natural target?

Moving /var and /tmp in Ubuntu

Note added 16 April 2008: Since I wrote the below, I subsequently discovered some problems - only once in a while, but they were hard to diagnose - with certain programs that were resolved when /var was left as Ubuntu expected it to be. To be honest, I think it was an exercise of dubious value anyway to the home user.


Why would you want to move /var and /tmp to a partition of their own? Well, since frequently changed files cause disk fragmentation, putting the frequently changed directories of /var and /tmp on their own partition limits the effects of the fragmentation.

But when you first installed ubuntu, unless you'd read up on ideal partitioning structures beforehand, or you're freakishly prescient, you didn't know that did you? So now you're faced with the problem of how to move live directories around without breaking your system.

Now, messing around with partitions on a live system is a bit of a tightrope act, but it is possible to do it without hosing your setup if you're methodical, careful, or extraordinarily lucky. However, there is a chance you could lose everything, so make sure you've backed up anything irreplacable before you do anything else. (Obviously, if you're like me, you'll ignore this advice and hope for the best; however, you have been warned, however futile the gesture.)

Anyway, there's an excellent guide on how to move partitions here at Daniel Robbins' Funtoo site. Before you charge headlong into doing it, though, there's an important difference between Daniel's instructions and their use in Ubuntu. If you simply replace Daniel's sections on copying /var and setting up symlinks with those below, you'll be fine (hopefully :0).

Copying /var in Ubuntu

This section is slightly, but importantly, different for Ubuntu users.

Unfortunately, Ubuntu -- at least up to and including Feisty Fawn -- requires certain subdirectories of /var, particularly /var/run and (I think) /var/lock to remain under the root filesystem, and therefore /var cannot be moved wholesale to the new partition. Grateful thanks are due to Chris Seibenmann for uncovering this.

Moving /var completely will result in networking wierdness: although the loopback interface will come up after boot, it will be without its 127.0.0.1 IP address. Symptoms include very slow DNS lookups, certain applications taking an age to load (e.g. the Gnome Network configuration app.), and (of course) inability to use anything that references localhost or 127.0.0.1.

However, there are /var subdirectories that are still worth moving, for all the reasons given previously. Having created the /mnt/rwstorage/var directory, I would advise you to rename it something like /mnt/rwstorage/varstore, just to prevent confusion since we will leave /var on the root filesystem. The rest of this section assumes that name is used.

First, create the directories you are going to move. The list below has worked well for me, but I don't run anything taxing like web-servers accessible to the public, so you may need to experiment a little based on your own setup.

Code Listing: Creating the new subdirectories

# cd /mnt/rwstorage/varstore
# mkdir cache lib log spool www

You then need to make sure they have the right permissions.

Code Listing: Setting permissions

# chmod 777 cache lib log spool www

Now we copy the contents of the relevant /var directories to their new home.

Code Listing: Copying the data

# cd /var/cache 
# cp -ax * /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/cache
# cd /var/cache 
# cp -ax * /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/lib
# cd /var/lib 
# cp -ax * /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/log
# cd /var/log 
# cp -ax * /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/spool
# cd /var/www 
# cp -ax * /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/www

Back up and create symlinks

After the above, you'll have an exact copy of the relevant directories in /mnt/rwstorage/varstore. So now we need to get Linux to use these /mnt/rwstorage/varstore directories and /mnt/rwstorage/tmp instead of their defaults in the root directory.

This is easily done using symbolic links -- we'll create the new symbolic links, /tmp, /var/cache, /var/lib, /var/log, /var/spool, and /var/www, which point to the correct directories in /mnt/rwstorage/varstore. First, let's back up the original directories:

Code Listing: Backing up the directories

# cd /var
# mv cache cache.old && mv lib lib.old && mv log log.old &&
mv spool spool.old && mv www www.old
# cd /
# mv tmp tmp.old

The last line is probably not necessary, since it's very likely that you don'thave anything important in /tmp, but we're playing it safe. Now,let's create the symlinks:

Code Listing: Creating the symlinks

# cd /var
# ln -s /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/cache cache && ln -s /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/lib lib &&
ln -s /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/log log && ln -s /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/spool spool &&
ln -s /mnt/rwstorage/varstore/www www
# cd /
# ln -s /mnt/rwstorage/tmp /tmp

Well, that's the end of any specific instructions for Ubuntu, so back to the main guide to complete the move.

Conceptual Art

From Reading University's Meteorology Department.

The Perfect Linux Desktop Environment?

The search continues. I'm using Xfce at the moment, which is superb: very light, very fast, very intuitive. The file manager, Thunar, is excellent; not dissimilar from pcmanfm, but without the deletion drawback. I'm really happy with it after a solid week's use. To install in Ubuntu, just do sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop, and you're away.

A tip for Firefox (and Swiftfox) users: I've personally always disliked the default radio buttons, checkboxes and other form-based paraphernalia in Firefox, and I stumbled over this. Makes a huge difference.

Mondeo Intermittent Car Alarm

Symptoms:

• Car alarm keeps going off at irregular intervals (including at 3am, twice).
• Try everything to cure all kinds of possible causes (vents in the car causing draughts that trigger the sensor; windows partially open doing the same; broken door seals etc.).
• Sleep deprived madness
  

Cure:

• Replace the bonnet catch

The bonnet catch on a Mondeo is alarmed, and can only be opened with the car keys. If you try and open the bonnet, even with the keys, when the alarm is set, the alarm goes off. Since the bonnet switch is exposed to all kinds of crud, not surprisingly it can get corroded, switch itself on unexpectedly, and set the alarm off.

The new catch is very easy to fit (and I'm no mechanic). If you can't get a new catch immediately (but need to get some undisturbed sleep), just remove the alarm wire from the old catch - it's plugged into the bottom and can be pulled out quite easily. This stops the alarm going off, but also stops the alarm arming. You can get around this by shorting this wire: being a serial bodger, I just duck taped a hoop nail between the terminals.

KDE vs Gnome

I read recently of a 'dispute' between the Gnome development team and Linus Torvalds over the Gnome 'less is more' design philosophy, which, he says, treats users as idiots. Torvalds always recommends people use KDE.

Being an idiot, I've used Gnome pretty well since the day I started using Ubuntu (I used KDE on SuSe for a while, but got fed up with the Toytown graphics style), and I have been quite happy with it. Naturally, reading that a man of Torvalds' stature prefers KDE meant that I had to try it again. Fortunately, it's a snap to install in ubuntu (sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop, login choosing a KDE session, and you're away).

Things I like about KDE (from the point of view of a Linux novice, obviously):

1. Konquerer is a fantastic file manager, really flexible. If there's one thing I don't like about Gnome, it's the Nautilus file manager. In fact, I've started using PCfileman, which is tiny, and has an almost perfect functional scope (it's only drawback is that the delete function does actually delete files, rather than putting them in a Trash folder, so it's pretty unforgiving of clumsy typing, as I've found to my cost).
2. Kate is a very good editor, though it doesn't seem to be that superior to gedit.
3. Konsole a pretty good terminal, but again it doesn't seem functionally much superior to gnome-terminal.

And that's about it. Things I don't like, though, are legion. Some of them may just be because I'm used to Gnome, or unique to the Kubuntu distro. Just three of the things I don't like:

1. The default graphical style is style really unpleasant, to my eyes anyway. Although it does have plenty of configuration options and bling to let you change things, the themes that are supposed to keep the whole desktop design coherent are pretty hideous, on the whole.
2. I had the hardest time trying to get the display sharp using Nvidia's proprietary drivers. So hard, in fact, that I ended up hosing my xorg.conf file in the process. My fault, obviously, rather than KDE's, but I never got the display to show fonts as sharply as with Gnome.
3. KDE analogs of Gnome (or GTK-based) applications - e.g. Amarok vs Exaile - seem bloated, rather with more functional.

Anyway, I'm back with Gnome again. Maybe when KDE4 comes out I'll try again. But for now, I'm a Gnome idiot.

Ubuntu: Changing File Associations

I was trying, unsuccessfully, to change the default program for .mov files to be Mplayer instead of Movie Player: I kept getting the message 'cannot add application to application database' when I tried to change the default 'Open with' program (via right-clicking on the relevant file and selecting Properties -> Open With). Anyway, for some reason my ~/.local directory was set to root ownership. Resetting it to my user level ownership allowed me to make the change.

Ahhh, Linux: every day's a journey into the unknown :-)

BBC. Downloads, and DRM #2

Received, to my astonishment, a response from the BBC trust re DRM. See below. Obviously, it's the content providers pushing for the DRM. Equally obviously, it's doomed to fail, like DVD regionalisation, FairPlay, the last Windows DRM Sky was using on their broadband service that got hacked...


Thank you for your email of 30 April 2007 to the BBC Trust regarding the BBC’s on-demand proposals. I am responding on behalf of the Trustees as I work in the Trust Unit which provides advice and support for the BBC Trust.

The Trust shares your view that BBC content should be available to all users, regardless of which operating system they have on their computer. Trustees noted the strength of feeling on this issue evident in the public consultation on the BBC's on-demand proposals.

As you are aware, under the BBC's current plans, one element of the on-demand proposals - catch-up television over the internet - will be available in the first instance only to users of Microsoft software. The Trust is requiring the BBC to make seven-day catch-up television available on a platform neutral basis within a reasonable timeframe.

I am sorry that you feel disappointed in the length of time required but there are real practical difficulties to achieving platform neutrality immediately.

The issue arises because of the necessity to apply digital rights management to enforce a time-based restriction on viewing. This restriction is a condition of third parties (such as independent producers and the music business) who hold rights in BBC content. Without their agreement, content could not be offered on-demand at all. Currently, only Microsoft's DRM system meets the requirement for a time-based restriction on viewing.

In order to achieve platform neutrality, the BBC is looking at possible DRM solutions which will work across different operating systems. But when these will be available is completely in the hands of the companies developing them, and not a factor the BBC can control.

So the Trust has taken the decision that, in the meantime, to allow the BBC to go ahead with seven-day catch-up television over the internet just with Microsoft DRM. The Trust's view is it is preferable to provide a service of significant public value now, to a majority of users, rather than wait until full platform neutrality can be achieved. But Trustees understand how frustrating this is in the meantime for people using other operating systems.

The Trust accepts the BBC Executive's assurance that it is fully committed to platform neutrality and working hard to achieve this. The Trust will hold the BBC Executive to account by auditing its progress every six months.

You can find more information on this issue on the Trust's website at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/closed_consultations/ondemand_pvt_faqs.html

I hope this information is useful to you.

Yours sincerely

Rebecca Asher
BBC Trust Unit

The Loves of my Life #1

BBC, Downloads, and DRM

Wrote to the BBC Trust yesterday complaining about their decision to make content downloads available only on Windows platforms (and only Windows XP and later!). Even though they've set a two year limit for the BBC to support other platforms, I still think it's pretty outrageous.

Anyway, on the remote chance that anyone's reading this, and the even remoter chance that they give a rat's ass about the decision, here's what I wrote.

I have been disappointed to read of the Trust's decision to back the BBC Executive's decision to apply Windows' DRM protection to catch-up TV downloads.

Although, as a Linux user, I am obviously disappointed that an institution like the BBC should be seen to be lending such high profile support Microsoft, I am more concerned that the BBC is building its on-line service rather on a foundation of sand.

The primary reason given for choosing a DRM system (i.e. to make available downloads on a fair play basis to ensure playback quality is maintained), though laudable, will almost certainly end up losing content providers - including the BBC - revenue. If the downloads are of good enough quality to be copied to DVD an played back on a TV, then they will be. There is no doubt, at all, that the Windows DRM system will be hacked/broken within a very short space of time. Microsoft has a dismal record in content protection - indeed they are unable to protect their own latest operating system from widespread piracy. To exclude a significant minority of potential on-line service users through restrictions (however temporary) to Windows Media is therefore misguided at best. It is simply amazing that the industry believes that Windows DRM will succeed where DVD protection failed.

To concentrate on the quality of playback fundamentally misunderstands why the internet catch-up service should exist. People who use the BBC's (excellent) internet radio Listen Again feature do not give two hoots about the AM quality of the audio signal, and anyone used to viewing video on YouTube, GoogleVideo and the like certainly isn't watching for the quality of the video. For on-line video, what would be prized above all would be the sheer convenience of just being able to watch a programme one thought one had missed, or had never known went out. That, and the pure serendipity of being able to browse BBC programming, maybe watch a few minutes of something before moving on. This will not be possible if one has to download a file before playing any of it out. It is a great shame to restrict the opportunities for content browsing by restricting it to a download-only service. It is almost counter to what the internet is all about.

Video streaming would have been a much better choice of delivery mechanism. The quality of the video could be considerably sacrificed to fulfil this requirement, and no-one would complain. Given that most will view it on monitors at close quarters, the video window size need only be small to be perfectly satisfactory. This would remove the need for DRM, since there would be little point recording material played out for viewing on a PC monitor since it would be all but unwatchable on a TV. It would allow the content to be available on all platforms if the MPEG-4 coding standard were chosen, which would in turn reduce the bandwidth requirements for both consumers and the BBC.

The two year window to make playout available on Apple and Linux PCs is just silly - Steve Jobs is trying to persuade industry executives to drop DRM (from audio, admittedly, but shows where his thinking lies), and Open Source Linux will never support DRM on principle - so the BBC cannot win there.

Anyway, I don't really know why I'm writing this since I doubt it will have any effect. I just wanted to let you know that I think the Trust & Executive have made a mistake, and to express my disappointment.

Have you ever considered...

...that this might be a monumental waste of time?

Reading Half Marathon March 2007

Screwed up my courage, got myself organised, and did it. Went well until the 11th mile, after which I was being overtaken by people using zimmer frames. Made it in 1hr 40min and 55sec; came 1,961 out 15,000.

Couldn't understand why an official at mile 10 was stood with her hand out to the runners with a huge gob of petroleum jelly on it - only ten minutes after the finish discovered what nearly two hours' running does to your inner thighs. Spent next two days walking like an arthritic John Wayne.

Vowed never to do it again as soon as I'd finished; changed my mind the next day.

That copyright sign bothers me: don't I have copyright on my own image?

Kernel updates - Another big adventure

After updating to the latest recommended kernel for Ubuntu (2.6.17-11), there was the predictable nightmare of getting everything working again that was perfectly ok before the update.

Most annoyingly, I wouldn't even have bothered with the update except the Synaptic update daemon kept bugging me about doing it, since it doesn't seem to give me anything I didn't have before - except grief, obviously. [Why can't there be a simple 'No thanks' option to refuse recommended updates?]

Anyway, it screwed both my display settings (X server crashed) and my sound (there wasn't any). After installing and running Envy (kudos, I believe is the term, to Alberto Milone for that), that fixed the display problem.

I looked everywhere for sound answers, and ended up downloading and installing new Alsa drivers, libs, and tools. Running alsaconf sorted out the sound.

One of the many times I've had to remind myself that linux is a beautiful thing in both principle and execution, maintained - largely thanklessly - by a dedicated and brilliant community of volunteers. Hats off to you all. Again.

Linux Eye Candy

I recently had to reinstall Ubuntu Edgy and, tragic as it might seem, the thing I was most bothered about getting going again as quickly as possible was the Beryl/Emerald OpenGL accelerated desktop that I had spent (literally) hours getting running before the reinstall.

A lot of people seem to be a bit sniffy about Beryl and Compiz, and to be honest I was one of them before I tried it, because they don't really do anything for you in terms of productivity. In fact they're anti-productive: I often find myself just minimising and closing windows, or swapping desktops, just to watch the effects - it makes me smile. Yes, I know, it's pathetic, but computers should be fun as well as useful shouldn't they, if you want them to be?

Apple seem to think so. I'm convinced that a huge number of people choose Macs just because of the wacky ways windows appear, or their nice screen savers and window designs; nothing to do with freedom from viruses or them 'just working' (I don't believe that anyway - I think it's equally true of Windows, though it grieves me to say it).

Anyway, now I've got Beryl working again. I don't think I could go back to the default Metacity desktop now I've used Beryl for a while; it just seems so dull (sorry Metacity developers - I loved it until I used Beryl). So, I'm really happy... and unproductive.