Thibaut Wdowiak

Easy to sale ain’t Easy to build

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Thibaut Wdowiak

Easy to sale software:

has a nice UI (neat logo, neat look and feel)
is easy to set up quickly and to demo (has a lot of “by default” options so you don’t need to tweak everything to start with)
has graphical configuration (business users envision that it will be easy/cheap to maintain and that they will not need the IT department
to make a little change)
is sold by great sales people (people who focus on the strengths of the software and lie about everything else)

Easy to build software:

has different configuration levels (graphical / configuration file / coding against an API / overriding code).
enables a flexible implementation process (modifications / parrallel work …)
is well documented technically
has a responsive technical support
has very few bugs

Dear customers, choose “easy to build”!!

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Yahoo Pipes is web ETL

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Thibaut Wdowiak

Lately I discovered Yahoo Pipes. I was actually looking for a tool to union all my feeds from twitter, this blog and flickr and make one feed. I found Atomisator, written in Python, but I needed to install it on a server, read the code, write the plugins… I was tired before having begun.

By the way, Atomisator is the typical side project developed to address a specic purpose, and then generalized in a kind of framework… without proper documentation or user interface. You see where it aims at, it is there right before your eyes … but in the end you have to do 70% of the work.
Browsing the web, I ended up creating a yahoo pipe. It is very similar to what ETLs do in enterprise data processing world (SSRS, Data Stage, Talend, etc…), It takes input in the form of connectors and apply transformations to every items or computes aggregates. It has loops, variables. It is kind of cool.
The result is here.

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Building a music library: mp3 and flac

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Thibaut Wdowiak

I just wrote a set of utilities to build a music library or at least to improve an existing one. It is quite specific to my needs, but maybe the convert utility could be reused. It converts between mp3, ogg and flac and copies tags from one file to the other.

Summary

This collection of utilities aims at helping in the process of improving the quality of a music library. The music library we are trying to build is made of 2 sets of files in 2 seperate directories: flac and mp3. The 2 directories have the same directory structure, except the mp3 is larger: it contains more files than the flac one.The music library is like this:

flac
 |- Artist 1
    |- Album 1
       |- File 1.flac
       |- File 2.flac
       ...
mp3
 |- Artist 1
    |- Album 1
       |- File 1.mp3
       |- File 2.mp3
           ...
 |- Artist 2
    |- Album 2
       |- File 1.ogg
       |- File 2.ogg
       ...

We suppose the library well organized with a directory structure Artst > Album > Files (you have to build it beforehand), and that the flac library and mp3 library have the same directory structures for their common part. The mp3 library is correctly tagged (you have to do it beforehand).
The goal is:

to copy the tags from mp3 files to their flac counterpart.
to ensure all files in the mp3 directory are .mp3 and are of sufficient bitrate. In order to do this, we either convert from flac, or from ogg if it is possible to do so.
to build a direcory called best, made of the same directory structure as the mp3 one and containing hard links to the flac files if they exist or else to the mp3 ones.

Command line tools

3 command line tools are included:

convert.py

Usage: convert [Options] from_file to_fileConverts between music files. Accepted file formats are Flac, Mp3 and Ogg.
Options:
  --version   show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  -t          Do not convert files. Copies tag from from_file to to_file
  -b BITRATE  Specifies bitrate for encoding mp3
  -v VERBOSE  0: errors, 1: operations, 2: info, 3: debug. Default = 1

musicfix.py

Usage: fixmusic [-flac | -mp3]Fixes flac library from mp3 library or the other way round.
Options:
  --version   show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --flac      Fixes flac library
  --mp3       Fixes mp3 library
  -v VERBOSE  0: errors, 1: operations, 2: info, 3: debug. Default = 1

makebest.sh

Usage: ./makebest.sh [-n] [-h] -c conf -a actionDescription:
      Maintains a directory of music files DIR_BEST by copying the directory structure of
          DIR_MP3 and linking files from DIR_FLAC if they exist or DIR_MP3 if they don't. All
          directories and files must exist in mp3 in the first place.
Options:
      -n     NOT YET IMPLEMENTED dry-run, do not perform anything on files
      -h     print this help
      -c     NOT YET IMPLEMENTED configuration file
      -a     action to perform, see Actions below
Actions:
      analyse     find flac directories not existing in mp3
      makebest    update directory structure, linking flac if the file exists or else mp3

Posted in music, tagging | Leave a comment

Install of ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx on a Sony Vaio VPCS12V5E

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Thibaut Wdowiak

I lastly bought a brand new shiny Vaio laptop to replace my 6 years old HP. Of course it ships with window$ $even preinstalled. As I have been using Ubuntu for years, I want to use the latest version, and keep windows as a fall back solution in desperate cases. So I want dual boot.
Here I go with the latest ubuntu cd. All in all, it is not that bad: everything works except the microphone. But it didn’t work like that out of the box. Let me tell you:

Black screen on booting from cdrom
It boots, starts to load stuff in memory, and then the screen goes black.
As I understood it, it has to do with the nvidia graphics card.
To get rid of that, choose nomodeset on the F6 install menu.

Black screen on next boot
The next boot will be from hd. So you need to tell grub not to go graphic at ounce.
Bonus: when booting in the train, you’ll make a strong impression with all the text flying by. Yeah you’re a hacker dude!
Edit /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"

Have the touchpad recognized
Edit /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset i8042.nopnp"
Then in a terminal
update-grub

Install nvidia drivers
First of all, you have to know that the screen of this computer is not well recognized by the nvidia graphics card. Somehow the card can’t manage to read the EDID sent by the screen. But you have paid for this nvidia card with dedicated video memory, you have to get this working! So you have to provide the driver the correct information in a separate file. To get this file, you have to boot from the windows partition, then download a program like softmccs.

Click on file, save edid in .bin format.
Copy this file to a usb stick.
Then, reboot under ubuntu.

Add ppa repositories to get the latest nvidia drivers :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install nvidia-185-modaliases
Copy/paste the edid file on /etc/X11/edid.bin
Then goto System > Administration > Drivers
Choose the nvidia proprietary driver.
In a shell, execute nvidia-xconfig. This will generate the xorg.xonf file.
Edit xorg.conf and tell the driver where the edid information is:
Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0" Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/etc/X11/sony_vaio_edid.bin" EndSection

Sound not working
The sound is actually not working out of the box.
All you have to do is activate the backports in /etc/apt/sources.list, then
apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-lucid-generic reboot
And there you go, you can play some music.

What still does not work
The internal microphone does ont work. Which is quite annoying for such a great Skype terminal. Too bad, I did not investigate any further when I understood it was a kernel module problem fixed in version 2.6.36. We are going to have to wait for ubuntu to catch up on the kernel developments.

Thoughts
I thought ubuntu was supposed to be for the average Joe coming from windows or for the computer newbie. It is supposed to just work. And it is really getting better and better on that matter, but not on the newest hardware. New hardware is always what gets in the way. For people like me who absolutely want a linux box, it is not really a problem, we are going to fight our way through anyway. It can even be fun, because you get to understand some technical details. But for people who consider computers are just a tool to go shopping on the internet or on facebook… ubuntu linux still has a long way to go.

Posted in laptop, sony vaio, ubuntu | 2 Comments

First steps as a webmaster

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Thibaut Wdowiak

I have been a member of my current tennis club for about 3 years. 2 and a half years ago, another member and I decided that the website needed a little fresh air. We needed something to communicate with the members and something to show the club’s inner life, something easy to update. The two of us started out looking for solutions and finally settled on a spip system. Yeah yeah… I know, it might not be the most up to date, blooding edge technology but it sure works really well. It relies on php and mysql which make it a perfect fit with our current web hosting service and I wanted something stable, well documented, easy to custumize and maintain.

My colleague focused on the contents and handled the integration, customization, html hacking part. The result is at http://www.tennispoissy.com.

Events are done with Agenda 2.0
The design is based on Multiflex 3, with some custom squeletons
Images display smoothly with Fancybox
Email alerts and RSS are provided by Feedburner, which I added very recently.

Posted in software, SPIP, webmaster | Leave a comment

USA trip / The rest of the trip

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Thibaut Wdowiak

A little while ago, I started a series of posts about the trip my girlfriend and I made to Western US in April – May. I must confess I have a hard time finishing up. The truth is that it is no longer hot, I am not excited anymore by the trip. And I don’t remember the little details that make a story sound true and interesting to read. So, just for the sake of completeness, here are the other places we visited:

Stop #4: Mesa Verde National Park

Not as terrific as the other parks, but we learned a lot about the particular way of life of the ancestors in this region. The rangers have a true talent, they tell you the story with details.

Stop #5: Arches National Park and Moab

We stayed 1 night in Moab and went rafting on the Colorado river (under the rain) from there. Arches NP is nearby.

Stop #6: Bryce Canyon

Only one place like this. It is so beautiful that I did not want to leave.

Stop #7: Las Vegas

Sin City. Well… you have to see it once, it is just crazy.

Stop #8: Death Valley

God this is a hot place. And I mean hot. The main feeling hiking outside is that you could die. It is weird, nowhere else have I been aware that if I stay too long outside, I will die.

Stop #9: Yosemite

Waterfalls, wildlife, landscapes and bears, real bears with fur and claws.

Stop #10: San Francisco

What a shock when we got to SF. We were back to civilisation. SF is a nice city to visit. Good food. The cable car, the ups and downs, the Golden gate bridge.

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USA trip / Stop #3: Monument Valley

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Thibaut Wdowiak

Fully rested at Lake Powell, we were ready for some intensive touristic activity. Monument Valley is actually in the middle of nowhere. We took the full measure of how vast the US are. We got a sense of the pride US citizen could feel to be part of a nation that controls such a huge and diverse territory. We saw the need for big comfortable cars. In this country, the world is big, anything is possible, you just have to get there, to just do it.
Anyway, we got to this incredible place… and I made pictures.

Posted in Monument Valley, National Park, USA | Leave a comment

USA trip / Stop #2: Lake Powell

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Thibaut Wdowiak

Our first stop at the Grand Canyon left us flabbergasted, absolutely amazed and has really set us in the mood for traveling, exploring and just enjoying this wonderful feeling of having 2 entire weeks ahead of us for the sole purpose of tourism. It felt like whaaaaa, here we are, this is it.
At the same time, after a day ‘s walk down and up the canyon (not ’till the bottom to be honest) our brainworker’s legs were aching a little bit.
So Lake Powell was more of a rest for us than an opportunity to explore. We drove around the area and scoped out nice places and views and nice pictures to bring back home. I really regret that we did not have the time to go to Antelope Canyon, which is nearby. But that’s the drawback of having everything planned out beforehand: you have to stick with it.

Posted in Lake Powell, USA | Leave a comment

USA trip / Stop #1: The Grand Canyon

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Thibaut Wdowiak

I spent my last holidays in the US, visiting the national parks and the cities of Las Vegas and San Francisco along a road trip. It was a nice long trip (2 and a half weeks) like I never made before, we rented a car and went from place to place every night, riding the long straight and desert road. I am planning to release a few pictures of the tons of pictures I took there in a series of posts. Here I go, this is the first one. So after having landed in Las Vegas, we cruised to the Grand Canyon. Amazing sights, infinite landscape.

Next stop is Lake Powell.

Posted in Grand Canyon, National Park, USA | Leave a comment

Gear to shoot the lights of Las Vegas

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Thibaut Wdowiak

I am really excited, I finally got a tripod for my DSLR camera. I wanted this one exactly (SILK Sprint PRO) because it is the best trade-off between weight, size and stability on my budget. It weights 1,1kg, has got nice pads to manipulate it when it is cold. It really is a cool equipment you can take with you on holidays.

Posted in photo gear, photos | Leave a comment