How to edit .wmv videos on Linux using asfbin (UPDATED 12-16-09)

Thanks to a handy little command line utility called Asfbin, Linux users can edit .wmv videos without having to re-encode them. So your edited .wmv’s look every bit as good as the originals. Plus, asfbin is free and very fast at doing its work.

Getting & installing asfbin
Go to the download section of the Radioactive Pages and download the Linux AsfBin command line version. Extract the program from the zip file and place it in the /usr/bin directory.

How "Single Payer" Health Insurance works

Perhaps this is not that topical, since single payer insurance is not even one of the reform options currently being debated in Congress. What is being debated, Public Option insurance shares some of the benefits of Single Payer, but really does not go far enough in reforming how we pay for medical insurance.

A few notes about Ubuntu Karmic Koala Netbook Remix ALPHA 6

I installed the Alpha 6 build of Ubuntu Karmic Koala Netbook Remix this weekend on my Acer Aspire One netbook. Here are a few quick notes:

  • No problems installing from a USB drive, I think it took about a half hour.
  • 21 second boot time. That seems pretty good considering the number of services that start by default.
  • Sexier user interface, and nice icons.

The Credit Crisis explained in an animation

Clive - An open source command line tool to extract videos from websites

The new video sharing websites like Youtube, Google Video have wealth information such as tutorials, but saving them to your hard drive can be a time consuming. While there are lots of tools for downloading videos from video sharing websites, clive is probably the most useful of them.

Using flickr to browse Art museum collections

Forget the museum websites. Use flickr to find your favorite pieces of art. There are a few tricks to doing this:

MMS - A (simple) media center for Linux

MMS (My Media System) is a is an open source media center application for Linux. With MMS you can playback videos, brows digital photos, listen to music, or even get the local weather report. Best of all, you can run all this with a remote control.

mms on a monitor
mms running on a 22 inch monitor

How to convert Cross Country Ski Poles into Nordic Walking Poles

Caveat: I do 95% of my Nordic Walking on dirt trails, so I have not extensively tested these modified poles on paved streets. What I have found it the little rubber feet do slip off on occasion when walking on paved roads, but are still quite usable.

Given the current state of the US economy, it's pretty hard to justify spending $100+ on a pair of Nordic Walking poles. Cross Country ski poles are nearly the same thing, and they usually cost about half as much. Fortunately, with a hack saw and a little adhesive you can convert Cross Country ski poles into Nordic Walking ones pretty easily.

How to add a built in search for Thunar using Catfish

One of the things Micro$oft actually did a nice job on was the file search capability that came with their file browser Windows Explorer. You could simply right click on any folder to search. As handy as this was, the same feature does not come with Ubuntu or Xubuntu. Sure there is the "find" command, but having a way to search using the GUI is handy too.

Fortunately there is an easy way to add this feature using a free Linux tool called Catfish. This article will go into how to install and configure Catfish, and integrate it's search capabilities into the Thunar file browser. When finished, you will be able to right click on a folder in Thunar and get an option to recursively search that folder.

search feature in Thunar

Printing in Xubuntu with a2ps

UPDATE 05-30-08: The issue with Mousepad and similar applications not printing in Xubuntu has been fixed since Gutsy. So this post is no longer not needed by anyone with an recent version of Xubuntu. I'll leave it up just in case someone finds the technique useful in another OS.

Xubuntu is a fantastic OS, but it does have one persistent annoyance -- you can not print from Mousepad. That's kind of a problem if you are like me and always writing short little how to notes in Mousepad.