The first problem (incompatible format) can be solved by transcoding the video to a compatible (mp4) one. Using the free cross-platform Handbrake app, I transcoded a 700MB .avi file in about 40 minutes. While it did play well after moving it to the AirStash, the procedure was time consuming and would be quite a nuisance to perform on every .avi. It also did not solve the second problem of having only the built-in player with limited features to watch videos. Here is a much better solution.

There are at least two, and probably more, iOS video apps that will play streamed media. The two that I am familiar with are the OPlayer and the BUZZ Player. In this this tutorial I will reference the BUZZ Player although the instructions are similar for any player that supports streaming media.

Preparation: Install BUZZ Player in your iDevice. With it’s USB plug, insert the AirStash into your desktop computer. Open the AirStash icon on your monitor and copy/move the desired .avi file(s) into it. The file will upload into the AirStash. Repeat for other files as you wish. Safely eject and unmount the AirStash from the desktop computer.

Step One: Start the AirStash by pressing its button until the green light blinks.

Step Two: Go to Settings on your iDevice,select Network and switch to AirStash.

Step Three: On your iDevice, launch a browser (Safari will do) and browse to http://airstash.net/files. A list of files on the AirStash will display.

Step Four: Select your .avi file, longpress on it until the menu displays.

Step Five: Tap COPY to place the URL on the internal clipboard.

Step Six: Quit Safari and launch BUZZ Player.

Step Seven: At the bottom of the screen tap the “+” button to bring up the URL dialog.

Step Eight: Longpress in the URL box until “Paste” is displayed.

Step Nine: Tap “Paste” and enjoy your movie!

Although the iPad is currently the front runner due to the astounding number of available apps, all tablets have many things in common.. touch screens, lightweight, ultra-portable and unfortunately limited storage capacity. While desktops and laptops have hard drives of at least 320 GB, tablets are offered in 16, 32 and 64 GB models. This is sufficient for quite a few software “apps” and their related data but when you start adding videos, full length movies, photo albums and etc. the space gets gobbled up.

Most tablet owners will want to store  files and media on some sort of external device. Storage on an external device not only saves space on the tablet but (if networked) will  provide a location through which the owner can share files with others  Apple iPads do not have USB ports. However, many iOS apps do provide connectivity to remote  servers, Depending on your needs you can use several types of remote external storage.

Cloud storage gives you the ability to share files on a remote server accessible to anyone with proper credentials (password). For several years Dropbox has been avaiable and is extremely popular. For “small” users, Dropbox provides 2GB of free storage. Users who need more will have to pay a fee, but it is reasonable. That is, it is reasonable only if you truly need to share files remotely with others, via an Internet connection. For sharing via a local network, or just taking your files with you when you are away from home, other solutions may be more practicle.

You can share files with others on your local network, including your own tablet computer by installing a local file server on your desktop machine. The easiest way to do this is to enable a WebDAV server. If you are not familiar with WebDAV, it is a replacement for old fashioned FTP but is much simpler to use offering a “drag and drop” interface and accessible via a web browser. WebDAV is built into both Mac OS X and Windows 7. Ubuntu users will need to install “apache2″  if it’s not already there. In all cases a few steps must be taken to enable it. I am providing three “howto” links that were good as of this post. Otherwise put the keywords “WebDAV’, “setup” and your OS name into your favorite search engine.

• Windows 7 users look. here. Windows Vista/98 users go here first.
• Mac OS X users look here.
• Ubuntu (or other Linux) users look here.

Users of Apple’s iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) on the iPad take note! iWork apps will, of course, connect to Apple’s own iCloud service that is now in beta and will be available to the public soon. iCloud will offer 5GB of free storage and will be a serious competitor to Dropbox, at least for small users. At this time iWork apps will connect to a WebDAV server.  With or without iCloud there is an an incentive to enable a WebDAV server on your local computer.

Recently appearing in the maeketplace are some gadgets that also provide portable WiFi storage, They are expensive (as compared to a USB stick) but can easily pay for themselves if you are now paying for cloud storage, The Kingston Wi-Drive and the AirStash devices are available now. The Hitachi G-Connect drive will be avalable soon. Personally, I like the concept of the AirStash drive. It costs $99 and uses standard SD memory cards (not included) for storage. SD cards are small and easy to carry. They currently retail for less than $3/GB. I have a couple of 8GB cards on hand and I have ordered the AirStash device. Upon arrival, I will share the device with my wife and give her an SD card. In a future post I will review the product.

Which solution is right for you?

Hackers quickly discovered that the missing multi-tasking gestures could be enabled by Macintosh users. Many “how to’s” quickly appeared on the Internet. For your convenience, here is one of many links. I have enabled the gestures on my iPad and while I highly recommend the procedure I will point out some caveats. First, and obviously, only Mac owners running the latest OS version (Snow Leopard) can implement it. Second, the procedure requires the installation of the Mac XCode package. This package is over 4GB in size. It took me several hours to download. Finally, after installation, running xcode will not be obvious to a Mac newbie. It does not appear in the Applications folder. There are several ways to bring it up, the easiest being to type “xcode” into the “spotlight” box in the upper right corner of the screen. Another is to go to the /Developer/Applications folder and double-click on the xcode icon. As of this post I have not seen any comments from Apple.

A Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9×9 grid of cells sectioned into 9 3×3 blocks. When completed, each row, column, and block will contain the digits 1 through 9 once and only once. Many cells are left empty for the solver to find but enough are already filled in so that a unique solution exists. Although using numerical digits to distinguish the cells only logic, and no calculation, is used to solve the puzzle. In fact some Soduko puzzles replace the digits with colors to emphasize this. The solution begins by examining the peers of a vacant cell. This consists of all the other cells in  its row, column, and block. Any digit (or color) not occurring amongst the peers is a candidate for the cell. A good way to begin a puzzle is to select a row, column or block for which many of the peers are given and pencil in the remaining candidates. As the solution progresses penciled candidates will be eliminated until only one remains. 

Sudoku puzzles are rated by difficulty. The names given to difficulty levels vary but the beginning solver will quickly discover that some puzzles are easier to solve than others, and some are so difficult that the solver uses trial and error as a last resort. One might think that the more difficult puzzles start out with fewer cells (the “givens” or “clues”) filled in. Actually the difficulties arise as known “patterns” or techniques fail to match the puzzle. It is often the case that a puzzle is half completed when it becomes difficult to solve. The best way to learn the “patterns” is to discover them yourself through practice. The key to learning is really simple. Begin by tackling puzzles that are rated “easy” or “simple”. Solve enough puzzles until that skill level is no longer challenging to you. Then progress to the next level that might be called “medium” or “moderate”. As you progress, you will learn more and more patterns. Soon you will be ignoring puzzles rated at the easier levels.

There is an iOS (Apple devices) app called Sudoku Takeout. It has four difficulty levels.. easy, meduium, hard and evil. I used this app for most of my learning. I started at the easy level and before playing at the evil level I solved over 200 puzzles. The evil level is a bit of a misnomer. Many of the puzzles are at best of medium or hard difficulty. However I have encountered a few that truly live up to the name to the point where I have entered them into another app with a “newspaper” mode discussed below.

At some point it will help to read a printed guide. You will find an excellent one at www.sudocue.net. Here you will be able to put a name to the patterns that you discovered yourself and to learn a few that you did not. The list of patterns documented here is quite extensive. The content probably goes beyond any video that you might purchase and it is provided at no cost. You might want to print it out for reference. Another site that you will certainly want to visit is www.enjoysudoku.com. At this site not only will you find extensive instructions but you will be able to solve actual puzzles at a difficulty level of your choosing. What I really like about this site is the ability to get hints for the more difficult puzzles. The hints, when I have needed them, taught me a few advanced  techniques. The site developer (Jason Linhart) has also published Sudoku apps for various platforms including Mac OS X, iOS, WebOS, and Android.

Some of the Sudoku apps feature a “newspaper or magazine” mode. This allows you to copy the “givens” from a puzzle published in printed media. Combined with an app by Mr, Linhart that provides hints, you can solve nearly any Sudoku puzzle on the planet. This brings up another challenge. Sudoku apps provide enough options to make solving too easy. The challenge (and fun) lies in your ability to solve the puzzle without them. Most apps have an “autofill” feature that will fill in all the possible candidates for the vacant cells. Personally, I do not use this feature. Correctly resolving the candidates is part of the puzzle. Also, you will find that as the candidates are entered, patterns will be seen, and you will enter the solution to many cells long before all candidates are determined.

Finally, in a really difficult puzzle, if you must resort to trial and error, use an app with an “undo” feature. You will soon know that an error exists when no candidates remain for a cell. Then, hitting the “undo” button back to the point where you made the wring guess will allow the solution to proceed normally.

Air Sharing was an early (September 2008) entry into this arena. Currently the basic version that supports WebDAV is priced at $2.99 and a $6.99 upgrade adds print (to a wireless network printer) and email capabilities. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug in Ubuntu that is preventing the setup of wireless printing. Once installed, Air Sharing will play or display all file types synced to it and supported by the iPhone platform. I have successfully synced a 350MB movie file and played it.

WebDAV is a file transfer protocol natively supported in both the GNOME and KDE desktops. The iPhone/Touch app will report its assigned IP address on the local network. Typically this will look something like http://192.168.1.101:8080. A GNOME user will go to Places>Connect to Server… and enter the IP and Port into the indicated fields. Depending on the app either a window will open or a folder will appear on the desktop. Files can now be synced to the device via drag and drop. Similarly, KDE users can use Konquerer to open “webdav://192.168.1.101:8080. With documents available locally, printing locally is possible despite the Ubuntu bug.

GoodReader is priced at 99 cents. The basic version supports WebDAV and email and like Air Sharing it will display/play all or most file types. A 99 cent upgrade adds the ability to sync with Google Docs. Again, the printing problem is solved. GoodReader has a free Lite version that will let you try all features before purchase. It is limited to five files. Another upgrade will add FTP ability if you prefer that protocol.

In combination, all the above apps provide you with an office suite for your iPhone/Touch. They will also work on the soon to come iPad. Apple has promised an office suite for the iPad. I can only wonder about what abilities that app will add.

Back in the days when I was a student, I always wondered if classmates who took copious amounts of notes ever really learned anything. It’s much the same with learning Linux. You can copy and paste a lot of commands but that is just blindly making changes. It is not learning.

Apply a tweak in the same way that you would use the command line. You should never issue a command until you understand exactly what it is doing. Neither should a tweak be applied unless the user completely understands its effects. I have pointed out before that the GNOME configuration editor is purposely not enabled in the menus to avoid newbies from messing up their desktop. And if you do tweak, I would strongly advise keeping a record of it in case strange events start occuring at a later date. I practice what I preach, and believe me, good notes have saved my day numerous times.

Tweak only with caution!

Transcode is available in the standard repositories. Install it from the command line (sudo apt-get install transcode) or use Synaptic. Here is the syntax of the command:

transcode -i input.avi – P 1 -s <desired gain> -N 0×55 -o output.avi

Let’s clarify this a little. Input.avi and output.avi are the names of your input and output files. If your input name contains spaces you should rename it to something without spaces. Otherwise you will have to use the “escape” character “\” for the command to parse correctly. For example “My Rip.avi” would be entered as “My\ Rip.avi”. This gets messy, so just rename the file.

0×55 is telling transcode that you want the output sound to be mp3 encoded. You can have other encodings if you so desire. Read the manual by entering man transcode on a command line for further information.

<desired gain> requires a little knowledge about decibels. Decibels follow a logarithmic scale. To double your volume you would enter a value of 3. A value of 6 would quadruple the volume. A value of 2 would result in an increase of about 60% Stay with low values, A value to high could damage your speakers, and sound distortion is likely. Replace <desired gain> with a value of your choosing.

That’s it for now. Let’s hope Ubuntu finally gets sound right in Lucid.

This post at UbuntuGeek instructs on how to install w32codescs and the mplayer plugin. Read the comments as they make some minor corrections to the post. Your success rate will immediately improve but will not be perfect. You might find, as I did, that using a stand alone media player like Banshee, xmms or VLC might be a better way to play the station than with a browser. Let’s use WRTI (Philadelphia) as an example. I like their music selection and I simply ignore the weather and traffic reports that are irrelevalent to me in Florida.

At the WRTI website you will see a LISTEN LIVE button. Clicking on the button will not work. However, if you right click on the button you can Copy Link Location to your desktop. It is a file with a .m3u file extension(classical-247-mp3.m3u). Open the file with gedit or any text editor. This reveals the url of a generic mp3 stream (http://wrti-ice.streamguys.net:80/classical-247-mp3). Opening this location in Banshee or in xmms will play the station. For some reason on my machine Exaile did not like it.

Your success with using Firefox will also be improved by installing the Novell Moonlight (aka Silverlight) plugin. Go to this wesite for installation. Please, no complaints from mono haters. I’m just telling you how to do it, it’s your choice whether to do it.

Finally, you can try RealPlayerGOLD11. It’s open source and promises to play Winows streaming media. I have not tried this but I want you to be aware of it.

Good Luck and Happy Listening!

The GNOME Configuration Editor is installed but not enabled by default. It is a powerful tool and should be used with caution only when needed. This was one of those times. To enable it, go to Applications>Preferences>Main Menu. In the left panel select System Tools. In the right panel check the box next to Configuration Editor. It is now enabled and obviously will appear under System Tools.

Start the Configuration Editor. Navigate the editor by clicking on the arrows next to the subsections. Click on the arrow next to apps. Then nautilus followed by preferences. Scroll down the options until you find the one called “show_desktop”. The box next to the option must be checked. To be sure, double click on the option and it should show a value of “True”. If it does not, recheck the box until it does.

The desktop icons on my machine reappeared. If you follow this procedure and you are not the sole user of the machine, you might want to go back and disable the editor for security.

Doh! Finally I realized that my graphis card might be the limiting factor. So how can you determine your card’s possible resolutions? First install the hwinfo package from the repositories. Bring up a terminal and issue..

sudo apt-get install hwinfo

Or, if you prefer, use the Synaptic Package Manager.

Then from a terminal issue..

sudo hwinfo –framebuffer

Your graphics card will be identified and you’ll see a listing of all possible resolutions. In my case, there was no vertical resolution greater than 768. Oh well!