Updating Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) ATI driver

Posted by on November 5, 2011

Ok if your like me you’ve been wanting to update ATI driver but doing it through Jokey is broken so here are the steps to do it.

  1. Download the latest driver for linux from http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx
  2. Next make the file executable. After this run the command bellow which should build and install you new packages. (The file bellow is for 64 bit replace with the file that you downloaded if for i386) 
    sudo chmod u+x ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run
sudo ./ati-driver-installer-11-9-x86.x86_64.run --buildandinstallpkg Ubuntu/oneiric
  3. Done

As a side note if your having problems installing make sure the old files are removed properly with

apt-get install aptitude;
aptitude purge fglrx fglrx-dev fglrx-amdcccle

Apple HTML5 on Chrome or Firefox

Posted by on June 5, 2010

Apple released there HTML5 demo page today. The main problem is when you click on any of the links it says the demo will only work with safari ??? The whole point of HTML5 is that you can use it with diffrent browsers. Even more if your like me and use Linux there is no Safari.

Well have no fear if you use Chrome or Firefox there is no need for Safari. Just install there user agent switchers(Chrome Firefox). Simply install can then make your browser pretend to be Safari and you to can enjoy all the HTML5 goodness.

http://www.apple.com/html5/
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/aafciojnlamllgpkpdkbamkfgbofhgcj?hl=en
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59/

Reply to Simon Dingle “Why I won’t be quitting Facebook today”

Posted by on May 31, 2010

Simonhttp://simon.co.za/facebook-suicide/

I had a couple of problems with Simon’s view on people being anti facebook. Though I should say that I’m not planning on leaving facebook as there are no alternatives as yet. I have tried a couple others but none have the required polished. The closest I could get to was orkut and it needs some work. Bellow is my reply:

The issue with facebook is not that they are trying to make money or that that they want the information open.

Its that initially the promised to keep the information private. Which they needed to do get people to start using them.

Now times have moved on and they are wanting to make the information public. The correct method would be to say all people joining from now on by default your information is now public and all current users you may now choose to make what was private previously public.

Instead they went and made information of users that was private public. Yes you can go and change your setting and make it private. you as someone with the knowledge you have and awareness of whats going on have.

The problem comes in with people who don’t.

As you said they are a company making money and it is there system which they can do what ever they want with it.

Though as users we have the write to get upset when they break promises to us.

New codec WebM to rule them all from Google

Posted by on May 20, 2010

Google has just added there own codec to the mix for HTML5. Name WebM and derived from VP8 video codec, Vorbis(OGA) as the audio codec container format based on Matroska.

This new codec seems to be supported by most of the larger names in browsing namely Google Chrome(of course), FireFox, Opera and surprisingly IE9. The IE9 support being announced on the blog of Dean Hachamovitch (General Manager, Internet Explorer)(http://bit.ly/cn88VW). The obviously missing player being Apple.

This I would imagine is going to be the last nail in the Theora open format as apparently the VP8 codec is superior. Though it could also mean the fight for one standard could take allot longer to finalise which we’ve seen from previous battles of this kind just causes problems for developers.

I know we’ve already had enough intresting problems just supporting the current 2 options and while there is a transition away from Theora to WebM there will be three.

Ah well I suppose we will have to make do :) as it will mean that we will have a royality and restrictive licenses free codec to use that at they same time will produce videos of a high quality(the main stumbling block with Theora). Leaving no valid reason for h264 winning (though apple never need a valid reason).

Now to wait and see what Apple do. Though looking back at there past they are as bas as Sony at sticking to there own proprieterial standards.

One last thing though to consider though is that there are no hardware support as yet for the new codec which could also be a problem for now.

http://www.webmproject.org/

Flash to add P2P capabilities

Posted by on May 20, 2010

Its seems that Flash is upping its game by adding P2P capabilities to its future versions of flash called “Stratus”.

As a content provider this would be a really cool feature as it would reduce the required bandwidth needed and resulting cost. Secondly it should, if implemented correctly, help improve the stream quality.

My main question though is the a bit late. With HTML5 streaming ahead and apple seemingly hell bent to not allow flash to work on there devices. It removes the ability to use this as soon there may be no users on the other side to use this.

Just something to note you would have to agree to in a manner similar to allowing flash to use your web cam before they would be used in a swarm.

For a more extensive right up look at the the following article http://bit.ly/aP1GEP on torrentfreak.com

QR codes as business card http://www.the2dcode.com/qr-code-generator

Posted by on May 19, 2010

We need to do some new bussiness cards for work today. So I got to implement a plan that I’ve had for a while which was to add a QR code to them.

The main advantage of this is the ease it is for someone to now add the detail to there phone by simply scanning the bar code in. Saving them from typing the details into there phone or as some people do getting business card scanners.

The other advantage to us being a technology company is that it adds a certain cheekiness to the card :)

Heres the link to the best site that I’ve found to generate business card QR codes. http://www.the2dcode.com/qr-code-generator

To the right is one I also created for myself for Lets Talk Geek. You can also add an address but it does increase the size of the QR code.

Google update android market

Posted by on May 17, 2010

I saw today that android market place is looking a bit different http://www.android.com/market/. Though must be honest and say i still don’t like. Wheres all the trending data. The interface just feel wrong and I can’t work out what they are actually trying to do with it. For a far better experience i would still use http://www.appbrain.com/

Create your own critter

Posted by on May 16, 2010

Hers something fun to do if your into paper craft. You can style and create your own paper critter http://www.papercritters.com/