Author: Chris A. Matenaers

Working in Digital Marketing, strong liberal world-views & privacy advocate. My hobbies are scuba-diving and coding. I'm also a huge Star Wars fan.

Fix the upside down on uvc webcams

Hi everybody,
it’s a very quick how-to that will help you to solve the problem of those webcams who give back upside-down images/videos!!!
This help is intended only for those who have a UVC capable webcam.
But it will be usefull only if your webcam supports YUV image format and the applications that use your webcam request YUV format to your webcam!!! I’ve tested it and it works with:
skype, amsn, kopete, luvcview, mplayer!!

So…let’s start!!!!

In order to know if your webcam is UVC capable you just need to open your shell and run:

Code:
lsusb


you will get something like this:

Quote:
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID xxxx:yyyy “Your_Webcam_Model”
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Then type:

Code:
sudo lsusb -d xxxx:yyyy -v | grep "14 Video"


If you get something like the following, your webcam is UVC capable:

Quote:
bFunctionClass 14 Video
bInterfaceClass 14 Video
bInterfaceClass 14 Video
bInterfaceClass 14 Video


If your webcam passes this test, you can go on reading. Otherwise, your camera needs to use propertary driver, because it doesn’t use standard protocol/command.

Well,
now you need to donwload the UVCVIDEO driver sources, but they are on a SVN repository, so you need to install the SVN client:

Code:
sudo apt-get install subversion

and now you can download the sources:

Code:
svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk


The sources will be saved into a folder called “Trunk” in the path from where you run the previous command.

Next, you need to use a patch to update your clean uvcvideo driver. Please download this.

Then proceed..

Code:
patch < patch_solution1_mirrored.patch

Well, now the worst part has been done!!!
We just need to compile our modded file and to install the new driver, so from shell you have to go to the "Trunk" directory and type:

Code:
make

there shouldn't be errors!!

Then, ONLY if you are using one of the Ubuntu distributions (ubuntu, kubuntu, etc.), open with you editor the "Makefile" and change the following line:

Code:
INSTALL_MOD_DIR := usb/media

with

Code:
INSTALL_MOD_DIR := ubuntu/media/usbvideo

Now we just need to remove uvcvideo module (if you have previously installed it):

Code:
sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo

Then:

Code:
sudo make install
sudo modprobe uvcvideo

Now everything should work!!!

Let me know!!

Fix ‘Hardware error’ for Adobe CS2 running over wine

PERMANENT FIX: The permanent fix is actually very simple. The problematic file is the General Settings file, “Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp”, which references the default fonts Adobe expects to be installed. If for any reason these fonts, or any other files, are not installed or not functioning as expected, the application will terminate to the desktop. This settings file is located here:

In Wine:

/home/[USER PROFILE]/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/[USER PROFILE]/Application Data/Adobe/Photoshop/9.0/Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp

In Crossover Office:

/home/[USER PROFILE]/.cxoffice/[CS2 INSTALLATION BOTTLE NAME]/drive_c/windows/profiles/crossover/Application Data/Adobe/Photoshop/9.0/Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp

Naturally, replace [USER PROFILE] with the user name you are working under, and replace the CS2 INSTALLATION BOTTLE NAME with whatever you named the bottle you installed Photoshop CS2 under in Crossover.

Now, if you’ve encountered this error, you’ve already run CS2 twice, and the settings file has already been created and corrupted. Although deleting it will allow you to start CS2, it will again store a corrupted file when you exit the application, and next time you start the application, you’ll repeat the same fatal error as usual.

So, having located this file, perform the following steps:

(1) Rename or delete the corrupted file
(2) Start CS2. It should start just fine.
(3) IMMEDIATELY after it has started, change the permissions on the newly re-created settings file (Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp) to READ ONLY. You can do this in your file browser, or, if you are at the command line, use the following command:

chmod -w ./Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp

Logitech VX Revolution

I struggled for a long time to use the ‘back’ and forward button on my mouse in some applications. Especially the open source apps seemed to not recognise the button 4 and 5.
I tried assigning key macros, so that I maybe be able to use simple copy paste actions, but this didn’t work either.

I finally found the solution: Simply switch of the SetPoint software that launches with windows start. Started working like a charm right away…

A new post!

After month of quiteness… A new post.

As always, I’m rather busy at work, I have a new laptop after my old one was stolen and I have experimented around with different operating systems.

Computer-wise I’m now running an ubuntu system and I have to say that I’m quite pleasantly surprised… Apart from my sound-card, the hardware is sorted. I can’t very well use USB devices in Windows which is annoying, but I think I can live with that for the moment.

I’ll be working on the design of the blog in the weeks. And I will see what else I got time for. I see if I can blog some more, maybe add different themes

rapebear (or: how to write screenplays. badly.)

congtratulations to jeremy slater and dan whitehead, probably the funniest blog i have seen so far:
“how to write screenplays. badly.“

it was last year mid-summer, when i discovered the screenplay follow up call to “rapebear” – the bear that rapes. i laughed so hard that even a year later i feel that this blog needs to be revisited by as many people as possible.

You can find the rapebear story right here!

Great site about Redlichkeit: [but only in German language :( ]

Some years ago, when the internet was still young and some people though it was only made for exchanging pornography and hack into banking servers, I found this really amusing website.

It’s the only link that I have kept for years. I’ve stumbled accross it in the sad year of the lord 1999 when Helmut Kohl’s era ended and 8 years of depressing socialism plagued the land of Germans. the here author claims to be incapacitated – meaning he is not allowed to manage his own money, or vote (or be alone with children)

Note, that it is hosted on Geocities (and it’s still live!!!):


Werden Sie züchtig und keusch!

——————————————————————————–
Lieber Fußgänger, Sie haben gerade von einem redlichen Menschen einen Flugzettel in die Hand gedrückt bekommen und fragen sich nun, was das soll. Bitte nehmen Sie sich kurz Zeit, den Zettel durchzulesen und besuchen Sie danach meine Internetzseite.

Es stört Sie

  • daß ältere Menschen die Internetzsprache nicht verstehen können, da sie aus wahllos zusammengewürfelten Wörtern deutscher / englischer Sprache besteht?
    (Bsp. e-Mail [e-Brief], Internet Explorer [Internetz Erkunder])

  • daß manche Menschen Sie lapidar mit “Hallo” begrüßen, oder mobile Telefone benützen, obwohl die Strahlung lebensgefährlich für alle anderen ist?

  • daß Rauchen und Alkohol immer noch nicht verboten sind?

  • daß es Menschen gibt, die sich nackt im Internetz oder gar in der Öffentlichkeit präsentieren?
    (Bsp. FKK-Strände, Schmuddelseiten)

  • daß es im Internetz immer wieder Menschen gibt, die ihre Aggressionen an guten Menschen auslassen?

Oder haben Sie gar selbst Probleme, ein züchtiges Leben zu führen? Das ist kein Problem. Besuchen Sie meine Internetzseite, denn ich lebe vor, wie man gut und züchtig ist und sich so auch noch viele Freunde verschafft!

http://www.geocities.com/reinhard_pfarrpfeifer
Ihr Reinhard Pfarrpfeifer

Fake or real?