Tag Archives: linux

Converting video files

Posted on by

My daughter wanted to watch on the TV some music videos that a friend sent to her, but the problem was that some of the videos were on WMV format and our DVD player only supports DivX (in fact I think that no players with support to those formats exist, yes, I checked on Amazon).

An option was to see the videos on the computer (my computer has a bigger screen and I have the codecs to watch those formats on Linux), but the experience is not the same. So I started a search for a converter but the ones I found were for windows and these days I don’t trust anymore the free software for windows, in fact I don’t have a windows partition.

Then I found AlltoAvi and problem solved!. AlltoAvi is a software project that can be used in Linux and Windows. In Linux I only needed to install mencoder and worked flawlessly.

To convert a file you need to enter the directory where the files are located, filetype, subtitle and audio track IDs, bitrate desired, the codec you want to use to convert and the width and height of the output.

Continue reading →

Got my Ubuntu 7.04 CDs

Posted on by

Ubuntu CdsToday I got a nice surprise when I got home, my Ubuntu 7.04 CDs requested from Canonical using the Shipit service where in the mail

Why does this deserve a post? because I like to measure the time things spend in the twiligth zone before arriving at my home from other countries (Like this post). This time I requested the CD’s on May 08, and arrived on May 30, so the envelope were 3 weeks in transit from the Europe to Mexico city.

Continue reading →

Twitter from the command line

Posted on by

Here we go with another post about Twitter of the many in the web every day.

To send a post to your account there are many ways, the most basic is going to the site and write it in the text box provided, or you can add Twitter to your IM account (doesn’n matter which, I think it supports all the clients/IM services) and sent whatever you want as a message which will be posted in your account or you can send a SMS and get the same result.

Mac users has Twitterific, a widget specific for this with some other options, Windows users have several widgets that do the same. This widgets allows you to update constantly (cool for Twitter addicts) and a lot easier than going to the site or sending a SMS, updating thru IM is similar in the sense that usually everyone has their IM client and is a matter of a couple of clicks, writing the message and that it.

But, what about Linux users?, to update we have the same options I mention above and in widgets there are some initiatives like glTwitter which in my case I didn’t want to install it (ok, compile it) in my computer because I needed some dependencies. But it’s not what I was looking for, because implied opening another app and since most Linux users spend a lot of time with console window to type commands I was looking to allow me send a post to Twitter in a quick and easy way and if it’s from the command line what can be better?

Continue reading →

30 dias con Linux

Posted on by

Hace un par de dias lei este articulo titulado 30 dias con Linux en donde el autor usa única y exclusivamente Linux (en este caso Ubuntu) para dar su opinion concreta en cuanto a migrar de plataforma de Windows debido a todo el buzz creado por la salida de Vista y los requerimientos de hardware para poder usar sus “mejoras”

El articulo esta muy bien escrito y describe los problemas (que en realidad son pocos) con los que se encontro al cambiar de plataforma, asi como también las ventajas y su experiencia en general al instalar e usar aplicaciones, agregar nuevo hardware, usar dispositivos externos, cambiar configuraciones, etc..

Uno de los puntos difíciles de siempre y que seguira durante mucho tiempo en Linux fue en el area del entretenimiento jugando, de todos los juegos que salen al año un porcentaje realmente pequeño sale con una version para Linux. Cada vez son mas los juegos que se pueden ejecutar en Linux si no hay una version nativa para este mediante wine o Cedega, ese es el único aspecto donde Windows mantiene una ventaja.

En el aspecto del escritoria que tambien se menciona en el articulo, Windows tiene Aero pero en Linux esta Beryl que no le pide nada y requiere mucho menos recursos ademas de tener muchas mas opciones de configuracion y personalizacion.

Yo no llevo 30 dias, llevo mas de 6 meses usando únicamente Linux tanto en la oficina como en casa (Ubuntu y openSUSE respectivamente) y en el aspecto de productividad realmente no he necesitado de Windows para nada. Únicamente para usar ciertas aplicaciones de las que aun no hay una similar en Linux o para jugar (solo la beta de Dungeon Runners, si hay cliente de SecondLife para Linux).

Para programar, crear documentos, hojas de calculo, ver y editar imágenes, ver DVD’s, videos, escuchar musica, codificar CD’s a mp3 u OGG, codificar videos y obviamente responder emails y “navegar” en Internet no he tenido ninguna dificultad, al contrario han sido mas las ventajas y opciones con las aplicaciones para Linux que las que hay en Windows.

Continue reading →