Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Linux Monologue



10/23/2012
Had to re-install my linux box. I stick to older Ubuntu (11.04) because it is much harder to disable Unity in more recent distributions. In short: Unity on a pad might be okay, but Unity on a computer sucks. 
Big time! 

When it is no longer supported by Canonical, will have to move to some other Debian flavor I think.

Stuff to do after installing a fresh copy:

Playing DVD/Restricted 
(versions: 10.10, 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04)


$ sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Reboot might be necessary for the change to take effect.




For programming in Python I would need to create a file .vimrc in the $HOME directory. The content of the file should look like this:

set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set number

Explanation of some settings:
To insert space characters whenever the tab key is pressed, set the 'expandtab' option:

:set expandtab

With this option set, if you want to enter a real tab character use Ctrl-V key sequence.

To control the number of space characters that will be inserted when the tab key is pressed, set the 'tabstop' option. For example, to insert 4 spaces for a tab, use:

:set tabstop=4

After the 'expandtab' option is set, all the new tab characters entered will be changed to spaces. This will not affect the existing tab characters. To change all the existing tab characters to match the current tab settings, use:

:retab

To change the number of space characters inserted for indentation, use the 'shiftwidth' option:

:set shiftwidth=4

For example, to get the following coding style,

No tabs in the source file.
All tab characters are 4 space characters.
use the following set of options:

:set tabstop=4
:set shiftwidth=4
:set expandtab

Display the numbers which help diagnosing problems with programs, set the following option:

:set number

The best way is to create .vimrc file in your home directory and type in all required options.





I experimented with bitrate and this one produces high quality conversion it seems.

mencoder -forceidx rush.code.flv -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1350 -oac mp3lame -o rush.code.avi





This one fits perfectly the Youtube type video conversion

mencoder lab174.ogv -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts pass=1 -o lab174.avi