Spoiled by Linux again

This evening’s spoilage is the Penguin Liberation Front repositories.

They contain stuff like a passel of multimedia codecs, and a newer version of Opera than I had. So... the big, serious update command reads like this:

urpmi --auto-sel

Woof, that’s hard!

For context, I’m comparing this with the traditional process of manually checking version numbers & finding downloadable chunks which will install an upgrade, then downloading them, running them, finding the broken bits & patching those, renaming and/or moving some pieces, editing mystery config files (or registry entries), fetching some “glue logic”... lots of stuff which I have no interest in or reason for doing, because I use Linux.

My previous non-PLF update had just sharpened my ClamAV database, so I didn’t even have the excuse of blundering across a virus somewhere.

Not that I ever have (in Linux) but the tripwire was there in case I somehow did this time.

Later, I used my shiny new Opera to browse some interesting astronomy images & read a book. It’s a very fast, efficient, neat & safe web-browser, so I do appreciate it.

Comments

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b...

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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