Author Archives: wrostek

How to compile a single module in Ubuntu linux

Occasionally you may experience problems in a specific kernel module that requires a patch.  Once patched, you can follow these directions to compile only the module affected, saving a bunch of time. Assume the following, for this example: You are …

11 Comments

Ubuntu fail to login after upgrade to 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Just upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), and it was working somewhat until after a few reboots it would not allow me to login any further from lightdm. A quick look in /var/log/auth.log showed that I was receiving the …

17 Comments

Simple JQuery hover effect

Here is a simple hover effect you can implement with JQuery. I use this trick occasionally when I want to give buttons or images a hover effect, but don’t want to spend the time creating alternate versions of each image, …

Leave a comment

Ubuntu 11.10 Waiting up to 60 more seconds for network configuration…

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot was released last week, and has brought a few issues with it. One distressing new feature I found was that when booting it would hang for around a minute with the message ‘Waiting for network configuration…’ …

46 Comments

Development with the Canada Post shipping API

If you are developing a shopping cart and require real time shipping estimates via Canada Post, they provide an excellent and simple API you can use via CURL. The first step to using the API is to contact Canada Post …

2 Comments

Ubuntu Linux 100% digital audio ( pulseaudio AC3 passthrough with a52 encoding )

For a long time, my Ubuntu machine could only play AC3 passthrough sound or Desktop sounds separately. If I was watching a DVD, and accidentally made a desktop sound effect the DVD AC3 audio would stop, and the desktop sound …

Leave a comment

Poster Grabber via PERL and IMDB

OK, so you are sitting at home, looking at your collection of legally obtained movie trailers. But what is missing? The cover art! wouldn’t it be great to have the poster image of each trailer stored with it? Yes! Luckily, …

1 Comment

Shell Script for recursive video transcoding

So here is the situation, you have a folder of videos in MKV format that you need demuxed and converted to avi’s using xvid codec and AC3 sound. How to do this? First step would be to run mkvextract to …

Leave a comment

Very simple Captcha function for forms

There are tonnes of bot scripts floating around the web these days, causing form hell for website administrators who have to sort through the spam hell. One solution to the problem is the use of Captcha codes on web forms. …

Leave a comment

Simulated CSV File Download in PHP

One of the most often requested features in websites dealing with accumulating data is a method of exporting it.  CSV format is an excellent choice for most situations, since it is extremely easy to generate, and Microsoft XL is so …

Leave a comment