Source Code Management with Git

Linus Torvalds is the man who started Linux. Known in it’s early stages as the Open Source Unix. Since then, it has evolved into something even bigger than I think he even imagined. Maintaining the source for a project that large can be time consuming and difficult. Linus said that he would maintain revision control with tar balls and it was easier than using CVS. But he needed something that would work in a distributed fashion and allowed for easy merging. But there were no open source options available.

This, GIT was created. It is designed from the ground up to be a true distributed repository. Think of torrent source coding. There is no one central location, but everyone has the master branch at any one time.

I have been a big fan of subversion, but after listening to this talk, given by Linus at Google, I am considering switching to GIT. And to think, I recently paid $60 for a Subversion application to run on my mac. Ouch!

Hosting At Home on DHCP with Comcast

So you have a Comcast connection as home and you want to run a server? The problem is your IP Address is  DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) assigned so it is constantly changing. In order to do this I will be assuming two things: 1) you are using linux on the server you want to setup as your local web server and 2) you already have your domain name registered from somewhere like godaddy.com. Once your domain is registered, you will also need to make sure to set your DNS records to point to ns1.everydns.net, ns2.everydns.net, ns3.everydns.net, and ns4.everydns.net.

If you have these in place, we are ready to move on.
Read more

Run Linux With Mac Interface

Mac4Lin UI

Have you ever wished you could run the Mac UI on Linux? Wish no further. Mac4Lin has hit v.1.0 and will install the Mac look on Linux with one installation script. It currently supports Gnome (sorry KDE users). It integrates well with some apps too like Firefox. Looking at the desktop you will think you are running a Mac with only one exception; the Apple logo is not bundled with the package.

Mame Cabinet 2.0

Ok. So a lot has happened in the past few weeks. The cabinet is coming along nicely. I had an old AMD PC I gutted and mounted inside the cabinet. I stripped the outer red formica off of the sides and painted it black. I replaced the rubber molding on the cabinet. I stripped down an old 19″ CRT I had laying around and I am using that for the monitor. I connected a J-PAC card to the existing jamma harness that came with the cabinet. I wired the built in speakers to the J-PAC card and ran it through the sound card on the motherboard. I replaced all of the joysticks and buttons. I replaced the locks on the back access door and the coin doors.

In order to get the games up and running, I loaded the hard drive with Ubuntu 8. It works nicely. The most difficult part has been finding and easy to configure front end that prevents the desktop windows from showing (to keep it looking as close to arcade quality as possible). Currently, I am running gxmame as the front end. It’s not very pretty, but it works.

To get it up and running, I ran the following commands:

wget http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gxmame/gxmame_0.35beta2-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i gxmame_0.35beta2-1_i386.deb
sudo chmod 0777 /usr/share/games/xmame/roms/

- put any/all ROMs in the above location

Problem with changing to different workspace in middle of game play:
sudo vi /usr/share/gconf/defaults/10_

Mame Cabinet – Video Arcade!

Old Aero Fighters Arcade Cabinet

So, it’s been a long time since I purchased the plans for a mame cabinet. I found some plans on ebay about 4 years ago. I have been wanting to build one since then and have never found the time or desire to pull out the saws and lumber. I attempted to once and ended up scrapping it. It looked really bad.

After talking with the guys at work however, my mame excitement was rekindled. One of my teammates found an empty cabinet forsale on craigslist. I said what the heck and purchased it. So now I am up and running. I already have the form factor, now I just need to put the guts in.

Real-Player with Amarok

1. Go to http://www.real.com and download the real player for linux. If you do this from linux, the link will default to the linux version of the player.
2. Load the shell and run the following:
• chmod 0777 RealPlayer10GOLD.bin
• ./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin
3. Follow the prompts and setup the location where you want the software to be installed. (I used /usr/local/RealPlayer)
4. Open Amarok and goto Settings->Configure Amarok.
5. Select the icon ‘Engine’ and switch the sound system to Helix.
6. Configure the location to point to the Real Player installation.

You’re ready to go!

iTunes on Linux?

I love iTunes! I wish Apple would make a version to run on my Linux box. I love the fact that I can add the album cover, quickly build playlists, convert the songs encoding on the fly, easily search for songs and albums, and everything else it does for my vast collection of music. Would you believe there might be something better?

Read more