floodgate.blog

I guess I could go ahead and delete the “goals” post I just wrote, but I’m beyond that whole “no, I didn’t really say that” phase. So, here I go…

Part 1: I started working on a way (via the web) to take videos from our camcorder (or other source, so far it’s non-discriminatory) and have them converted and uploaded for Wordpress to use. This really means that I am converting video content from it’s original form (currently mpeg and wmv9) into the flash video format and slap a flash wrapper on it to play it on a website much like (ok, exactly like) youtube, google video, etc, works. SO, I actually succeeded by using ffmpeg (had to recompile it about 6 times, probably a post coming about that soon) and after the headaches of getting that to play nice, I succeeded in converting the video, then uploading it to the appropriate location for a blog, and also provided instructions for inclusion into a blog via a plugin that i hacked a bit that I use for youtube content. …and it all worked, until I fired up IE7. I hate IE. I’m almost at the point where I will ignore it’s stupidities and just code for Firefox/Gecko and Opera (and safari, for all you expensive computer heads).

Part 2: After seeing how (relatively) simple things were once I ironed out the kinks with the video conversion, I decided why not take it to the next level. So I am starting FGMS (FloogGate Media System) which is exactly what it says — a media distribution system for in-home use, built upon as much OSS as possible (preferably all OSS). Some of the features include streaming audio and video, file conversions (really this is for the itunes people, to convert various formats to those that are best suited for an ipod), and otherwise a primary storage location for everything. The *system* part of it is that the interface is via web browser, and there are client computers that are setup for delivering content on TV’s, stereos, etc… more coming..

Part 3: Gentoo is lovely.. i mean that with about as much of a lack of sincerity as possible. I actually do like gentoo as a linux distro, but you have to be patient.. broken ebuild scripts, sometimes shotty documentation, and yea, patience as you are compiling EVERYTHING. So here are a few of the gentooisms from today:

• If you don’t set up a static IP correctly (correctly, surprisingly, is not the way they show you in the handbook!), it will rewrite your nameservers on each reboot (essentially making the machine inaccesible remotely after a reboot). You need the following:
  dns_servers_eth0=( “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” ) so that it can blow away your resolv.conf file with the nameservers instead of whatever it thinks it should (which it appears is like what it would do if dhcpcd was running, and I didn’t even compile it!)
• Broken ebuilds suck! Compiling ffmpeg today with all codecs lead to some broken ebuilds and I was forced to go to earlier e-builds. I guess this is normal, but it’s a HUGE pain. Again more about this once I make my massive blog/website migration which will include the massive project page I’ve been working on and my trac system.

That’s all.. enjoy the geek-factor for the day