I'm looking for a MP3 Ripper/Player for Linux... I've got an old Pentium 200 that I plan to use as a standalone component in my stereo system.

Eventually I'd like to rip all of my CDs (must be close to 200 now) in order to have them conveniently stored and accessible.

Must-have features:

Console interface (this box will not run X11)

Easy-to-use playlist features (sorting, selecting, etc.)

Semi-automated ripping

Interface to CDDB

Nice-to-have features

Web interface so that it is controllable from a browser on another PC

Ability to show album covers (although this is probably not possible in a console app)

GNUCash has a strange UI, and doesn't come with all of the bells & whistles that Money did, but it is working for me at the moment.

I continue to be amazed by Linux and the Linux community. I love the choices and the ability to "dig in" to any sources that you wish. While I do mention about that GNUCash doesn't have the bells & whistles that MS-Money did, it still meets my needs just fine.

Found here: http://www.csoft.net/docs/faq.html.en

If the file is in DOS format, the line break character at the end of the shebang line may cause "bad interpreter" errors. Make sure the file is in UNIX format. You can convert a file from DOS to UNIX format using:

$ tr -d '\15\32' < dos-format-file > unix-format-file

This problem has been bothering me at least an hour now!!

/var/tmp/portage

Everything in here can be removed, although be careful if you are currently installing (emerging?) something, as this is where the source is extracted to. Generally this directory doesn't take up that much space unless you've had a few ebuilds that bombed... In this case all of the source will still be here.

/usr/portage/distfiles

All source code is stored in here, so you can simply delete everything in there to free up space. If you have a broadband connection, this probably won't be of concern. However, if you've got a dialup connection, you might want to burn these files to CD so that you don't have to download them again if you want to re-install something.

/usr/portage/packages

This is where the binary packages are located, if you downloaded any. You can blow these away also.

Always learning. Today I wanted to emerge a newer package than portage would allow. This is simple with the "ACCEPT_KEYWORDS" variable:

bash-2.05b# ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge mozilla-firebird-cvs

I wanted to emerge a newer version of rioutil, namely 1.4.4, because it seems that no one on SourceForge is having problems with it. This is the way that I emerged it, and it works fine on my machine.

Kim can finally use the MP3 player that I bought for her birthday. :)

Switch to the source dir
cd /usr/src/linux

Use the kernel config tool
make menuconfig

Make dependencies (2.4)
make dep

Make the kernel (2.4)
make bzImage modules modules_install

Make the kernel/modules (2.6)
make && make modules_install

Mount the boot partition if you need to
mount /boot

Copy the kernel and other stuff there
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.4.22
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.4.22
cp .config /boot/config-2.4.22

Edit grub.conf
vi /boot/grub/grub.conf

MisterHouse

Turned out to be way more than what I need. MisterHouse has the capability to talk to a heck of a lot more devices than just X10, and integrates speech as well as voice commands. All of this is through Perl and a web-based interface. It is constantly writing device states to disk, and for timed control of lighting, requires that the PC be running all of the time. Slick, but I just wanted a method to program the CM11A. It will readily send basic commands through the CM11A, and I did have this working without a problem. If you want industrial-strength home automation software, MisterHouse is what you're looking for. Set up your PC as a web server and check status/control devices from anywhere in the world.

A.L.I.C.E.

Can be found on SourceForge under the name JHome. I found this package to be extremely buggy so far. The interface is confusing at first, but I think this will turn out to be a nice package when it's finished. It is completely written in Java and the GUI uses Swing components. Still needs a lot of work in my experience, but as of last week it was rated at 75% activity at SourceForge. (If anyone understand these ratings, please comment.)

Heyu

This is exactly what I was looking for. I am actually going to stick with an alpha version of heyu2, (but I also tried out the original heyu). Heyu2 is a command-line tool that lets you program the CM11A, create macros and triggers. Using your home latitude and longitude, it will calculate the dusk/dawn times for your house depending on calendar day. The macros, triggers, and timers are very easy to set up, thanks to the included example files. The macros are sweet, allowing you to create "virtual devices" if you want. For example, I have two quartz lamps in my basement that I would like to have automatically dimmed when I watch a movie. These lamps are both connected to a switch with ID "A3". I've got a macro stored that will allow me to dim them to the movie-watching level by turning on device A1. I highly recommend this program for Linux users wanting to simply control the CM11A. As it is written in C, I would guess that it could be ported to Win32 as well. Note: The author cautions against programming the device with Heyu2 and then using the X10 Windows software. The original Heyu has very similar functionality and development of heyu has been frozen.

My parents have an outdoor woodstove that heats their house. Water is circulated through the woodstove and heats the detached workshop (approx 1,500 sq. ft) and the house (a huge 3,000+ sq ft.).

The water is first passed through the gas-fired boiler inside the house. If the temperature of the water coming from the woodstove is too low, the boiler will fire up automatically.

My dad has to continually check the temperature of the woodstove water by running down the driveway to the stove, which is not very convenient. I was wondering about a wireless solution for him to check the woodstove water temperature from inside the house.

I remember seeing X10 modules in Heathkit catalogs as a kid in grade school. After all these years, X10 is still around and one of the most popular choices for those about to get into home automation.

Here is where (I thought) X10 would come in. The X10 protocol includes provisions for data transmission, so I thought if there were a thermocouple module available, this data would be easy to transmit.

I thought I'd purchase some of the stuff myself and play around with it BEFORE I get anything for my parents.

I bought the following devices for around $70:

CM11A computer interface

Universal IR/RF remote control

Credit card RF remote control

Two (2) wallswitch modules

Lamp module

Universal low voltage module

After just an evening, I've got the wallswitch modules installed and functional. Dimming lights for watching movies or automatically turning my outside light off will be entirely automatic from now on. It will be very easy to go overboard and purchase about 10 more lightswitch modules for the house!!

I'm going to try out MisterHouse as a way of controlling everything under Linux.

With gdm I can pretty much try whatever I want. So I fired up KDE. Holy cow this is unreal. I think anyone with a few minutes of tinkering around with KDE could feel as if they were using a Windows box. The current theme is a little too "toy like" for me... I'm going to see if I can find some other themes or something.

But wow -- these guys [KDE] have been hard at work!

2. I switched to openbox as my wm. It *is* fast. But I guess I like the "gimmicks" in GNOME. In a previous journal entry I marveled at how ALT-TAB worked just as I thought it would... It doesn't work in openbox anymore. Couldn't find much about how to fix that -- I just found a couple of other posts from people saying that theirs didn't work either.

3. Didn't even attempt to get my Bluetooth USB dongle working. It's a generic unit, so who knows, it might not be supported.

So far I'm liking it -- has not crashed even once yet. But really I haven't had much going except a browser and XMMS, plus maybe a compile going on in the bg. Will get Open Office installed sometime shortly.

Enscript.

Now that Linux thinks I have a PostScript printer, I can use some of the utilites I used to use back at Michigan Tech...

I don't remember printing any text files unless I used:

enscript -P -2Gr whatever.txt

I had to Google for it because I couldn't remember the name. I think the search string I used was something like, "print two columns use instead of lpr". Found it.

Just typing it brought back the options without looking at the man page.

This has to be the nerdiest entry yet.

Now it seems to work. The CUPS interface is pretty slick, it's the USB support under Linux that still seems to be weak.

So this is almost a week later, and the machine runs (very well I might add), sound is working, and I can print. If I could get my USB Palm Tungsten to sync, we'd be golden.

I have a Bluetooth USB dongle here that is dying to get used. I don't think so for tonight though, I've got to get some good sleep for a change.

Today, "/dev/usb/lp0" doesn't exist anymore, I just see "/dev/usb/lp1".

CUPS, which had me printing perfectly yesterday, is now saying that I have a device called /dev/usblp0 (with no slash). No such device exists under /dev.

When I try to reconfigure it as /dev/usb/lp0, it won't let me. So after an hour or two of dicking around, I've stopped the CUPS daemon and removed it from my startup. I'm installing GNOME-PRINT right now to see if that is any better. I see a lot more frustration in various forums.

I set up and configured cups and it seems that all is well with printing.

Also disabled Bluetooth support in the kernel in favor of USB Bluetooth support, will see if I can get my BT USB dongle to work.