Android app focus: Link2SD

Link2SD

Category: Utility
Cost: Free
Requires root access?: Yes

I have decided to highlight Android applications I think are useful, interesting or fun. First on the list is Link2SD.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buak.Link2SD&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5idWFrLkxpbmsyU0QiXQ..

Its main goal is to alleviate the problem of limited internal storage of an Android phone by allowing you to move user applications and their data to a micro SD card. Although there are several scripts to do the same for custom ROMs, they can be very ROM-specific and Link2SD is easy to use and has wider ROM compatibility. Link2SD's features also include the ability to freeze apps and automatically move them to SD storage.

If you find the internal storage of your phone is getting low, try Link2SD.

Google Hangout hints and tips

Overview

Google Hangouts are a free service provided by Google, which allow for video chats between up to 10 people.

To participate in a Hangout only requires a modern PC web browser, or an Android phone with the Google Plus app installed.

Installing the required bits and pieces

When you participate in a Hangout for the first time, the required plug-ins will be installed.

It is therefore recommended to attend a "fake hangout" with a friend before your maiden Google Hangout so the appropriate plug-ins are installed ahead of time.

On Linux, you will be asked to add a new repository, and may also need to perform an update after the repository is installed before you can install the plug-ins.

Microphone/Headset

If you are using the Gnome 3 desktop environment, setting your USB headset or microphone as the default device can sometimes be difficult.

Using Gnome 3 extensions will help you immensely to ensure your headset or microphone is the primary device during a Google Hangout.

Installing the Pulse Audio Shortcuts Extension

1. Visit https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/109/pulse-audio-shortcuts/
2. Install the Extension.
3. Install the suggested packages in the description of the extension (not doing this will make the extesion useless).
4. If the extension does not appear in the task bar, restart your Gnome 3 session
   Alt+F2, then type restart or r.
5. Plug in your USB headset or mic.

Setting your input/output device

1. Open the Volume Control menu in the task bar.
2. Select Pulse Audio Shortcuts, and then click Volume Control.
3. Click Volume Control.
4. In the volume control window, select Configuraton.
   Your Internal Audio and <Headset/Mic Name> will display.
5. Select the "OFF" profile for the Internal Audio device.
6. The USB headset is now the only device that will playback and send audio on your PC.

When you have completed the Google Hangout, unplug your USB device, and reverse the configuration in the Setting your input/output device procedure.

Hints and Tips

Wired vs Wireless

If possible, use a wired network connection because you're likely to get better video quality.

Testing... testing... Is this thing on?

Since a Google Hangout uses both audio and video sources, you need to check the audio settings of your desktop environment (DE) AND those of the Google Hangout.

1. Before starting the Hangout, check your DE's audio setting, making sure that the volume settings are OK and that your microphone is on;
2. Once the Hangout is started, click on the Settings icon and again confirm that your microphone is on.

Forgetting to do both these checks may result in an award-winning Marcel Marceau impression.

Add your national flag and screen name to your Hangout window

When you start a Hangout, there are many add-ons (called Apps) that will enhance your experience, particulary when talking with international folk, or in a full room.

Once such add on is "Hangout Toolbox". This app will superimpose your name (of your choosing) and your national flag as a "lower third" of your hangout view window.

This makes it really easy to work out who is speaking, and what their name is.

1. In a hangout session, select Add Apps from the left hand list.
2. From the list of available apps, select Hangout Toolbox and install.
3. Hangout Toolbox will display in your left pane apps list.
4. Click to open the menu.
5. The first menu is the "lower third" menu.
6. Set the following
   1. User Name
   2. Role (in the second field)
   3. Select Country (your flag)
   4. Set the slider to ON.

      Talk to the camera, not the screen

7. The configured options will display the info like you see in news broadcasts. Very cool.

Use Events to make fancy meeting invitations

Google Plus has an Events tab, and it is simply awesome for making meeting invites for work meetings.

You can create an event, and invite people you know on G+ directly. If the invitees accept the meeting, it will appear in their Google calendar as an appointment, and will remind them to attend.

When the user visits G+ to join the hangout, a "join now" button displays at the event start time.

Note
     If you are the organizer, you can not start the Hangout earlier from the invite. You must wait until the start time ticks over before you can launch the Hangout. Otherwise you get an "Untitled" hangout, which none of the other participants will know about.

Talk to the camera, not the screen

When you are the one talking in a Hangout, it is natural to want to talk to the person you see on the screen. This has a weird side-effect: you appear to be looking "somewhere else", not at the person.

Take a leaf out of broadcast television: the camera is the audience. Talk to the camera and engage your participants.

Linux+Browser+Laptop = Chromebook?

I recently tried and failed to boot Hexxeh's Lime and Vanilla builds of Chromium OS on my MSI Wind U200 laptop. While I saw it as a set-back it got me thinking: isn't Linux+Browser essentially an equivalent configuration?

I'm trying to achieve much the same functionality as is provided by a Chromebook:

An OS which boots quickly (up to 30 seconds) and presents the user a web browser in full-screen.

Extra details of what I'm seeking are:

• Built-in advertisement suppression. Installing an appropriate extension would achieve this goal.
• Multi-user support. Having multiple Firefox desktop icons would achieve this goal.
• Synchronisation of bookmarks, history etc. Enable Firefox's native synchronisation would achieve this goal.
• Printing support. Installing and configuring CUPS should achieve this goal.
• Domain blocking. Either "installing" an appropriate hosts file or doing this via my router should achieve this goal.

What I don't yet have worked out is the "wrapper" to all of this: a Linux distribution which boots quickly into the browser and only a browser, allowing the user to quickly and easily shut down the PC when they're finished.

My thoughts are to do a minimal Salix OS installation, probably Fluxbox edition, and instead of using GDM or similar, write an .xinitrc which starts Firefox immediately, perhaps followed by the "shutdown" command, so that exiting Firefox shuts down the PC without further user intervention. If this is to be a multi-user installation, I could have large desktop icons labeled with each user's name which start Firefox with their own profile.

I'll report my progress via follow-up posts here.

HOWTO: Cut the end off a video file using ffmpeg

I had a video file from which I needed to cut the end off from a specific point. I didn't want to use a video editor since it seemed a simple enough task, so I went look for alternate solutions.

The following page gave me a solution using ffmpeg:
http://quickhowto.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/how-to-truncate-video-using-command.html

ffmpeg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -i [inputfile] -ss [start] -t [duration] [outputfile]

My first attempt failed because I specified a duration of 36 seconds and I wanted 36 minutes. Reading ffmpeg's man page confirmed that the duration needs to be specified in the format hh:mm:ss. In my case I needed "00:36:00".

FLOSS advertisements here

My blog tends to be quite sparse because I don't like to tell people about myself. However I realise I use some cool FLOSS which others may not know about. So .... I'm going to start advertising FLOSS here on my blog. Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of stuff. :)

HOWTO: Store notes online and offline

I have mentioned on this blog several methods of storing notes so that they're available both online and offline. Since when online I usually have a browser open, it seems logical to seek browser-based solutions to the problem. The problem then was how to make these same notes available when offline. So far none of the services I have tried offered all the features I wanted.

Help is here, though, because I have thought of another method and am trialing this now. I won't go into a long explanation as to why I'm trying this method or how to set it up but simply present my current solution:

Installation Method

1. Install Dropbox client
2. Create a subdirectory in the Dropbox directory to contain the notes

Storage of notes
Individual notes are created as plain text files and stored in the "notes" directory (or a sub-directory).

Searching
Use the command-line tool 'grep' to search notes' content. An optional feature would be to added specially mark-up "tags" so that you could search by tag, finding matching notes. Example tags could include "todo", "project", "howto".

Formatting
While the notes themselves are plain text files, an optional extra is to use the Markdown markup method to apply formatting. When viewed in a text editor they are still easily read but when viewed using a Markdown viewer, their formatting makes complex notes more legible. One method is to install a Markdown viewer in your browser, give each note with Markdown markup an ".md" extension and associate files with an ".md" extension with the browser. I can then easily browse my notes in a file manager and easily view their contents.

Although I am using Dropbox in my current experiment, I could use a FLOSS alternative.

The beauty of this approach is that it is cross-platform, since each component is itself cross-platform.

HOWTO: Create a simple, private online photo slideshow

TL;DR I can recommend PhotoSwipe to anyone who needs to create an online photo slideshow on their own web host.
I was recently asked to create an online photo slideshow. Despite being web savvy, I had never done anything like this so I asked my colleagues for suggestions. As a result I used PhotoSwipe, and found it was incredibly easy to get working. All I needed was a web host and access to upload the files which made up the slideshow application.
The steps required were:

1. Download PhotoSwipe;
2. Extract the contents of the PhotoSwipe zip file;
3. Upload PhotoSwipe to a folder on the web host;
4. Edit the index.html with the names of the images and configuration options;
5. Upload the images.

Other hosted options such as Dropbox's native slideshow option would have achieved a similar result but in my case I needed to keep the slideshow private.