Adventures in DVD ripping

Tags

acidrip, anysubs, dvdrip, fedora, handbrake, k3b, k9copy, vobcopy

I haven’t found a good system for ripping DVDs in Linux until recently. I have tried AcidRip and DVD::Rip. It somewhat works, but I am unsatisfied with the interface. Both are also seems unmaintained (last updates are in 2010). Some modern portable devices (phones, tablets) don’t have DVD player, so it is desirable to convert DVDs to more appropriate digital format.

HandBrake is a nice option, but it has several problems. First it can’t read encrypted DVDs without external help. When it can read DVDs at all (unencrypted, or, it can’t copy the content to hard disk first, which is my preferred procedure. Fedora repositories don’t have it, and the developers have stopped offering Fedora builds since version 0.9.8. Last Fedora builds offered are for version 0.9.5 (from 2011).

Even so I decided to use HandBrake to rip some DVDs I borrowed to a more readable format for tablets. First problem is to find a convenient program to copy DVDs to disk. Various options exist: for command line program I guess you can use dd or ddrescue, but I have only tried vobcopy. It works, but coughes on some bad DVDs.

K3b is often touted for working with DVDs. It can write DVD images (ISO format) to disk, but again it stutters when facing scratched DVDs. A more flexible application is K9copy. It can copy DVD chapters selectively, a feature I use when I found a DVD can be copied well except for the last (unimportant) chapter.

For subtitles you can use the subtitle tracks from DVD (VOBSUB). This usually means you shouldn’t only copy the VOB files (which is the default action of vobcopy), but also the subtitles. The easiest way to ensure this is to copy the whole DVD content.

The subtitles in DVD are actually pictures. If you prefer text format, you can either run text recognition program on it or just download available subtitles from sites like AnySubs. Handbrake can handle both format: VOBSUB and text (SRT) with no problem.

DVD ripping is a very computationally intensive task. I found that HandBrake consumes almost all computing power from the processor.  It needs about 30 minutes to 2 hours to convert the DVD, depends on the quality setting you choose. The trick is to find a setting that do the task in convenient time length without compromising the quality too much.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Not really interesting report, nevertheless, I’ll share it with you, dear readers.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Reading the data journalism handbook

Tags

data journalism, data science

At last I found the time to peruse the data journalism handbook. For me this kind of journalism is interesting: I am a journalist (although not a very good one), with some interest and (slight) education in programming and math. I have skimmed the book before, and it gave me the impression that data journalism needs exactly those skills, plus some knowledge in graphics. So I read the handbook more closely to get better idea about this kind of journalism.

Other than my own background, my interest in learning data journalism comes from the desire to find out how computers impact modern journalism. A lot of discussions have been made about how the Internet influence the publishing world, how it obsoletes and marginalises printing media. More recently, more attention has been paid to social media. But I haven’t heard much about discussion about how computers (and Internet) impact the process of journalism itself. There are some mumblings about “citizen journalism”, which is enabled by easy Internet access but it seems it doesn’t have significant effect.

Statisticians have long known that computers make it easy to analyse data, and more recently computer scientists have developed algorithms and tools to learn from the web and social networks. The tools have been used for various purposes, like decision making and business intelligence. With data journalism, journalists use data analysis and code to tell stories. The handbook tells how data analysis can change journalism: for example, journalists can shifts their main focus from the first ones to report to telling us what a development might actually mean.

In the handbook we can find some case study and examples how media organisations did data journalism to tell their stories. Sadly there are not enough details in the book if you want to start doing data journalism, but it is a great starting point. I am still digesting the information in the book. Hopefully I can tell you more about data journalism.

Jakarta’s public wi-fi

Tags

foke, jakarta, transjakarta, wifi

A typical Jakarta citizen will know that the gubernatorial election has finished. The current governor (soon to be former) Fauzi Bowo doesn’t get his second term, and Jakarta will get her new governor. A more observant, technology-oriented person will note that one of the last acts of Fauzi Bowo administration is the  installation of free public wireless access points at several places in Jakarta.

I only noticed the existence of the public wi-fi system yesterday, when I was trying to use a borrowed iPhone on the go. The phone was supposed to be connected to XL cellular data network, which seemed to be nonexistent not long after I paid the fee. The iPhone seems to refuse to connect to other data network other than 3G (EDGE or GPRS might have existed). I might haven’t been able to use the phone on the the Transjakarta bus if the access points hadn’t been installed yet. Not all Transjakarta bus stops have the access points: it seems only the ones on the Kota-Blok M route get it. I also noted the existence of several access points in the Monas area.

The Wi-Fi system may be helpful to me, but I really question the usefulness of the access points at the bus stops in general. People generally don’t sit down and open their laptops or tablets at such places, and more often will access the  Internet using their phones, which have their own connection to cellular data network. As my friend said, adding more buses to  the Transjakarta fleet will be much more useful to Jakarta residents than free Wi-Fi at the bus stops.

Udacity CS101 impressions

Tags

coursera, cs101, python, udacity

If you’ve read my previous post about online free courses, wanted to join one, but haven’t done so yet, well it’s too late. The enrollment has been closed now. In fact, one of the courses has ended this week. Time to stop and do some reviewing.

I am not doing well. Model Thinking class seems interesting and intellectually challenging, but I’ve missed some quizzes. They are not that hard if you pay attention to videos then read the notes and additional materials. I simply do not have time (or failed to motivate myself to allocate the necessary time).

Algorithm Design seems not that interesting at first, but after I dive in it is quite fun. And hard. So hard that I haven’t even finish the first assignment, although I am already on my way into the third week’s materials. I have already covered topics about algorithm analysis, mergesort and quicksort. I doubt I can obtain the certificate of accomplishment, but I intend to complete the assignments.

The only course I am certain to complete is the Udacity’s CS101. It was aimed at pure beginners. I am not really one, so you can say I am a wimp for choosing the course. Still, it was interesting and harder than I thought. The course taught several basic computer science concepts, and basics of Python programming language. I’ve read and practiced Python a little bit, so I didn’t really find that part hard. I’ve also learned some programming in formal courses, and concepts like variables, for-while loops and conditions are familiar.

The challenging parts for me in Udacity’s CS101 were concepts like hashing and recursion. I’ve read about recursion before, but never had the practice. Hashing is only a hazy concept for me. Combined with Algorithm course from Coursera, this course gave me good grounding in recursion and good introduction to hash tables.

In the discussion forums, it was said that the course was somewhat easier than the version taught by the teacher in the University of Virginia. Still, I learn some useful things.

About those free online courses

Tags

coursera, cs101, model thinking, online education, udacity

I am now enrolled in several free online courses from Udacity and Coursera. I take the CS101 course from Udacity, and Model Thinking, Design and Analysis of Algorithms from Coursera. You can read the background story about these courses, termed as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on The New York Times (incidentally, this acronym reminds me of MMORPG, massive multiplayer online role playing game).

There are several things that attracted me to these online courses. First is curiosity of the subjects taught. I know some programming but it was largely self-taught. I am interested to learn computer programming in more structured way but taking a formal course in a university will be overkill for me (and I am not interested in getting the degree). Hence the CS101 and Design of Algorithm courses. I take Model Thinking because it seems interesting. The course taught several models applied to social science problems. I am only familiar with models in science and engineering subjects, so this modelling approach to social science is rather novel for me.

I am also interested to see how the course staff solve the problem of delivering lectures to a lot (in the order of tens of thousands) of students. Online video lectures are not new: several OpenCourseWare courses integrate videos, and then there is the Khan Academy. The main problem with these courses is interactivity. You generally cannot speak to or ask questions directly to the staff. Another problems are grading and evaluation. Because the students are so many, you have to automate the process. You cannot use essay writing to evaluate the student’s comprehension of the subject, for instance.

As it is, the courses try to solve the interactivity problem with the use of online forums. Problems will be discussed in those forums and often answered by the students themselves. The staff sometimes chime in and answer directly. More interesting questions are addressed by additional videos (“office hours”).

Grading is the harder problem: the automated systems are not yet perfect. There are complaints, which are usually addressed promptly (at least in the CS101 course). But it is clear that you can’t yet use them as evaluation systems in paid distance learning courses.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview: touchscreen use advised

Tags

metro, virtualbox, windows 8

Windows 8 Consumer Preview, in a virtual Machine

Finally I relented and agreed to try out Windows 8. My main obstacle to experiment with the new Microsoft operating system was mainly bandwidth: the ISO file is about 2.6 gigabyte (larger if you choose the 64-bit version), which would suck up my measly “unlimited Internet” personal wireless subscription quota dry. The office network limits file download to 10 MB each. But my dear assistant editor asked one admin in office network to download the Windows 8 beta ISO.

I installed Windows 8 in VirtualBox 4.1.8 and gave it 2 GB RAM and 2 virtual processor cores (2,1 GHz each). The installation ran without hiccups, except the one time when the installer asked a serial key. It turned out that Microsoft provides the keys on the download site. After that Windows 8 installed itself quickly in the virtual machine, much quicker (I think) than previous versions.

I can confirm that it looks like the Windows Phone interface (Metro), and it would have been nice to use with touchscreens. As it is, I use it with the usual keyboard-and-mouse (well, touchpad) combination, and it feels rather awkward. “Windows” name is also a misnomer with this new version, because the standard Metro applications run full screen, without windows.

I am sure I will find nice things to say about Windows 8 later, but for now I only wish I have a nice x86 tablet to install the OS on. The tiles on the Metro interface beg to be touched, not clicked. I can’t stand using it for prolonged time with the mouse.

Skype on Linux

Tags

fedora, fedora 16, Skype, verne

I rarely use Skype for two reasons: because I know very few people on Skype, and because last time I tried it it failed to run on Fedora. Admittedly it was a long time ago, so I decided to have a go once again.

Skype still provide beta version for Linuxes. There are several packages for Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora. I downloaded the Fedora one, which is a 32-bit package (I use Fedora 16 64 bit). The latest version is 2.2.0.35 Beta.

I installed the package using yum (which I thought would resolve automatically the dependencies), and it went through without complaints. It didn’t download anything, so I assumed the necessary additional packages were already installed. But when I tried to start Skype it failed silently. To see what was the problem I ran it from the command line, and it turned out that it needed several files to run. I had to hunt the necessary packages (using yum provides command) and installed it one by one before Skype can start.

After initial difficulties, Skype runs without problems so far. It detects the video camera and works with PulseAudio (which caused problems in the past). Now let’s hope it will stay that way and Microsoft, the new Skype owner, do not abandon the Linux versions.

Messing with Joomla

Tags

content management system, cpanel, joomla, MySQL

Foolishly, I was persuaded by an acquaintance to help setting up his brand new website. Being somewhat uninformed he didn’t know that he only paid for hosting service, and the service didn’t come with adequate content management system tools. I was asked to look into it. I advised him to get professional help, but he suggested that I played with it for a while.

I decided to have a go and installed Joomla, partly because this was the software recommended to this particular acquaintance. The installation procedure looks easy. To prepare for installation, I created the necessary MySQL database via cpanel interface. Then I follow the instructions: upload the zipped installer, extract the package in the root folder, open a particular URL to begin installation. It was recommended to create a sample website, so I did it.

The result is a site with a content management system, but still without any content (other than sample articles and tutorials). I messed around with the configuration for a while, but then decided that I’ll just hand over the site to the owner and let him design his own website.

A new laptop, with Fedora 16 on it

Tags

asus, crunchbang, fedora, intel, kde, sandy bridge, verne

A new laptop at last. I chose to buy an Asus A43E-VX038D machine, which pretty satisfies the requirement I have laid out before. For US$ 519 laptop this machine has rather good, if rather basic, specification. It is powered by Intel Core i3 2130-M 2.1 GHz, a Sandy-Bridge dual-core processor which supports hyperthreading (and expose four logical processors to the operating system), 2 GB memory (easily expandable to 8 GB), a much better integrated GPU than older Intel chips, a rather roomy 500 GB hard disk and six-cell 5200 mAh battery, an Atheros chip which supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, and a card reader. Sadly no ExpressCard slot, no Bluetooth, and it only sports USB 2.0 ports, which will be a bad news if I ever wanted connect use high-speed external hard disk to it.

As planned I installed Fedora 16 (Verne) Alpha with KDE 4.7 on it, and quickly updated to latest version (still Beta as I write this post). As all Linux users can testify, hardware problems are the rule than exception. Good news first: graphics is no problem (it is Intel chip after all). Fedora detects and supports the media keys on the keyboard and it can be used to control media players like Clementine or Amarok. There are other keys that control wi-fi and screen brightness as well. They work out of the box.

The bad news are: (1) the power management is bad. It failed to suspend and hibernate, and I suspect it consumes too much power on battery. In fact KDE power management module estimates about 3 hour battery life, which is rather disappointing. (2) Fedora fails to detect the touchpad, and sees it as ordinary PS/2 mouse.

Fortunately there are various tweakings that can be applied to make the battery lasts longer. First is to utilise pm-utils. A good thread at Crunchbang Linux forum reveals how to create an appropriate script. Another riskier tweak is to fiddle with several power saving features in Linux kernel which are not usually enabled by default for stability reasons. I edited the file /etc/default/grub into this:


GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet rhgb pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.i915_enable_rc6=1"


Next step is to update grub entry (on Fedora 16, which uses GRUB2, this means applying grub2-mkconfig and grub2-install commands consecutively). This tell the kernel to enable ASPM (active state power management) on PCI Express bus, framebuffer compression and rc6 power management feature on Intel integrated graphics processor. Enabling ASPM seems not to cause any problems here, but sometimes I experience screen corruption when framebuffer compression is activated. These settings may be enabled by default in future kernel updates, and these tweaks will be no longer necessary.

I successfully enable suspend, by following instructions from this blog post. Incidentally the author of the blog owns Asus K43E which seems similar to my laptop. Unfortunately I haven’t found a good way to enable Fedora to detect the touchpad correctly. The aforementioned blog post suggests to patch the kernel, which I am rather reluctant to do. So for now, I left it as it is.

Update (15 Nov 2011): the touchpad is succesfully detected with new Linux 3.1.1 kernel.