Playstation3 (ps3) mediaserver in Java!
Playstation3 has often some problems with various media servers. Some can work with MKV files, some can not. Others can work with subtitles, other can not. Well, this playstation3 media server can work with almost any format, supports subtitles and is written in Java which makes this media server platform independant! A MUST have for every ps3 owner!
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
Note - Like the author describes, mkv files need a wired (gigabit) ethernet connection.
Netbeans GIT plugin
Recently I discovered a netbeans edition for php ( Netbeans - a new player on the market ), which seems to work great!
The only thing I was missing was a GIT versioning plugin to clone, commit and update my php files. After a short googling I found a google code project called "nbgit" which provides this functionality.
You can download the 0.3* version at the following site:
http://code.google.com/p/nbgit/
Note - The 0.3 version was the most recent version at the time writing. A new version might already be released.
Cakephp and ACL – how to work with users and groups
Today my webdevelopment collegue Eelco pointed me at an interesting article at the site komunitasweb. The tutorial explains how to work with ACL and how ACL is implemented in CakePHP.
Definitely a must read if you write webapplications in cakephp which need user or group based restrictions
http://komunitasweb.com/2009/03/cakephp-acl-tutorial-what-and-how/
Learning Linux Part 2/15: Basic operations
Today part 2 of the 15 linux lessons. Have fun!
Contents of this lesson are:
- Booting and bootloader
- Logging in
- Piping
- Redirection
- Need help? Man, info and help
Learning Linux Part 1/15: All about linux
Today the first part of the learning linux series.
I write this whole learning thing as my contribution to the linux society.
Fresh new start!
Ok, thanks to the wordpress worm I was forced to setup my blog again.
Well, not really.. but installing a new wordpress version seems the easiest way for me.
Enjoy this new start!
New Skype for Linux version released!
After almost two years of silence, the Skype for Linux team presented the beta of the new, shiny Skype for Linux desktop 2.1!
The beta includes several bugfixes and improvements, which can be found at the release page
Couple of great enhancements are:
- High Quality Video support.
- Skype's SILK audio codec.
- PulseAudio support.
- SMS sending support.
- Chat messages editing/removing support.
- Contact groups support.
- Typing notification in chat.
- Chat picture support (add/change/remove) for group conversations.
- Mood messages are visible in contact list and tooltip.
- Video/Mobile icons are visible in contact list.
- Bookmarked Chats are visible in contact list.
- Contact labels/tags.
Download the new version at this page
A Minimal PHP MVC framework
This evening I was reading a remarkable article of Rasmus Lerdorf on his blog. The article describes how to build a minimal mvc framework for your own application in php5. Earlier I was shocked by Rasmus his theories, but after reading more of his work I'm quit charmed towards his ideas.Rasmus has a very good theory, but on the other side I think that I don't have to reinvent the wheel again.
Read more over here: http://toys.lerdorf.com/archives/38-The-no-framework-PHP-MVC-framework.html
Netbeans for php , a new player on the market
On a search to git compatible php editors I stumbled upon the blog of this blog telling about Netbeans ( original java editor ) which now seems to support PHP.
My first reaction was, "oh not another eclipse wannabe". But this turns to be a big mistake!
Netbeans is instead a very neat php editor with a lot of extra helping functions for html as well.
Check it out, it has turned to be my favourite editor within one day!
Preview here : http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/php-editor-screencast.html
UPDATE
While playing around, I must and cannot say anything else, then "THIS ROCKS".
Almost everything is included, from Ajax/Javascript library support ( dojo, scriptaculous, prototype, jquery ) until GIT versioning control, database graphical and text layouts.
Extended/Bridged my wireless network without wires!
At home / my headquarter, my broadband modem is located in the front of the living room, and my office is right above that part of the living room. For printing, backup and several other features I wanted to extend my wireless network, without making holes in the ceiling nor the wall. So I decided to take a look around at the internet to see if this was possible. All the search results pointed at flashing my current Linksys WRT54GL to DD-WRT ( firmware with more options then the regular firmware ).
Ok, one thing was clear... I needed some other Linksys wireless router to extend from. But wait (!), my LaCie Ethernet Disk was also having problems so this was a good time to also replace that disk too and create a good setup for my backups!
After some searching at the websites of local computer stores I found the Linksys WRT54G2 to be my primary wireless router.For my Brother printer (HL-2030 series) I wanted USB printing support, for my Sony Playstation3 I needed an UPnP mediaserver, and for backup I wanted a NFS file server. I found all these features in the Synology DS-108j Diskstation (that comes with 1 disk bay, so no disks included by default). I also needed some storage for this diskstation, so I decided to spent my money on a Western Digital 500Gb SATA disk.
Alright, I went to the computer shop bought all the stuff I needed and then the fun part began. One of my wireless routers had to be the primary router and the other one needed to be configured as "client bridge". I decided to flash the best router of the two ( linksys wrt54gl ) to the dd-wrt software and to set this router up as the secondary router ( the client bridge ). Setting up this server is quit simple, as I followed the steps at http://dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge.
Ok, setting up the Synology diskstation was quit easy too, just insert the disk in the bay ( or consult the manual if you don't know how to do this ). Then boot a Windows machine ( oh my... where did I left Windows, everything is linux around here 
), insert the cd-rom and start the Synology install process. The installation took about 10 minutes and after that I was very, very amazed with the nice features that this diskstation had! ( printing support, several webservices and even surveillance support, all in a beautifull ajax portal ).Now giving the diskstation a static ip as this seems the most logical for this kind of devices to me . ( and no, hostnames do not work for me since I don't have my local DNS ).
The printing support was even much easier and faster, just plugged USB cable the Brother printer in the Synology system and it was ready to serve as printer server.
As the last part the NFS server had to be setup. Therefore I used the default shared, which can be found at the "Shared Folders" option in the webinterface of the Synology Diskstation. Selecting a share by clicking on it, and after that clicking on 'NFS Privileges', the setup screen for NFS privileges came up. Simply filling in the network from where the share could be accessed was the only thing needed ( all other things are taken care of). Now for mounting the NFS share for example in Ubuntu, try the following commands:
# apt-get install nfs-common
( nfs support needs to be installed first!)
# sudo mkdir my_mountpoint
# sudo mount -o tcp -t nfs 192.168.1.111:/volume1/photo my_mountpoint
( mouning nfs over TCP using type NFS )
Ofcourse there is also a much more permanent way to store your NFS shared, but I'm not gonna explain that one ( the internet is full of it ) So take a look for permanent mounting here