02/04/13
Linux Chrome users were jonesing for cat videos all weekened because someone at Chromium.org thought it would be a good idea to push a Pepper flash update at about 8 p.m. Eastern on a Friday afternoon. As can be seen on the Chromium issues page this had the effect of breaking flash for Linux Chrome users all weekend. A fix was supposed to have been pushed out and hour ago but it hasn't shown up here as of yet.
Unitl the fix propogates the least offensive way to fix the problem appears to be executing the command
chmod 000 ~/.config/google-chrome/PepperFlash/11.5.31.138/
This is an excellent example of why you shouldn't push software updates on a Friday.
09/07/12
The short answer is if you want to watch purchased or rented movies from Google Play on Linux, use Firefox, not Chrome. Now read on for the whole story.
When I finally got video on my EEBOX running smoothly at 1920 by 1080 in Linux it was thanks to Google Chrome and there implementation of Flash using the Pepper interface. Imagine my disappointment when I found that the free Google Play movie I received when I purchased my Nexus 7 wouldn't play. This was a bit disappointing, since most of the video rental places are now closed it seemed like being able to rent movies from Google Play was a viable legal option to use on the EEBOX attached to my big screen TV. It already has XBMC but XBMC doesn't have a solution for Google Play movies, for that you need to fire up a web browser and use Flash. A bit of Googling and I found an Adobe page that discussed playing protected Flash content on Linux. The page includes a link to a reference video player and a protected video file http://drmtest2.adobe.com:8080/Content/anonymous.f4v.
I tried Adobe's test player and file and as expected it didn't work in the Google Chrome browser. I verified that I had HAL installed and running as instructed on the Adobe page so I thought I might as well give it a try in Firefox. I have abandoned Firefox for Chrome because Firefox has decided not to continue support for the Pepper version of Flash that Google has moved to since the have taken over support for Flash on Linux from Adobe. To my great surprise the test worked in Firefox and when I went to Google Play the movie played too. Though Google taking over Flash support from Linux has produced some benefits the lose of ability to play protected content on Linux is a large step backwards. The ball is in Google's court, when will protected content play in the Chrome browser on Linux? Only Google knows.
09/02/12
My sister moved to Pictou Nova Scotia a few years ago and we decided that we would take a week this summer to go visit her and explore some of the other interesting places in Eastern Canada. Here is a slide show of my pictures from the trip along with a few of my favourites. Along the way we stopped at Edmundston, Moncton, Pictou, Charlottetown, Summerside, Quebec City and Montreal.
Pictou NS harbour, view towards the Hector replica
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| From Our Great East Coast Adventure |
The beach at Caribou/Munroes Island Provincial Park
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| From Our Great East Coast Adventure |
The Hector replica in Pictou Nova Scotia
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| From Our Great East Coast Adventure |
Chelton Beach Provincial Park in Prince Edward Island, note the Confederation Bridge in the background
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| From Our Great East Coast Adventure |
Notre Dame de Quebec Cathedral alter
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| From Our Great East Coast Adventure |
06/06/12
Unlike the 2010 Men's Soccer Word Cup where CBC is offered Canadian soccer fans free live streaming TSN has let Canadian football fans down when it comes to free live streaming of the UEFA 2012 European cup. Though all the Euro 2012 games are available for free to TSN and/or TSN2 viewers if you want live game streaming it will cost you. If you want to watch the UEFA 2012 Euro tournament on your Windows or Mac computer you have to pay. Single-Day soccer streaming is $4.99, the playoffs are $9.99 and complete tournament streaming can be purchased for $19.99. Further details and links to order the live football streaming can be found at http://www.tsn.ca/euro2012/feature/?id=68392. If you are a Bell Mobility or Virgin Mobile subscriber you can also watch the games on TSN Mobile TV. You can also get an app for your tablet that offers replays of goals, penalties, shots, saves don't expect to be stream soccer to your tablet unless you are a Bell Mobility or Virgin Moble customer who can take advantage of TSN's mobile streaming offerings. Links to the tablet apps can also be found at http://www.tsn.ca/euro2012/feature/?id=68392.
If you don't want to pay and audio is good enough you can listen to live audio streams on TSN Radio.
Of course Canadian Linux soccer (or football) fans are out of luck, the EUFA 2012 Euro streaming is only offered for Windows and Mac users.
05/13/12
I was sitting around with a couple of people and we got to chatting about classic Canadian Cartoons from the NFB. We ended up watching not so good versions off Youtube on my tablet. A bit of research on the National Film Board of Canada webiste turned up these beautiful versions.
The Cat Came Back made by Cordell Baker in 1988.
This hilarious Oscar®-nominated animation is based on the century-old folk song of the same name. Old Mr. Johnson makes increasingly manic attempts to rid himself of a little yellow cat that just won't stay away... Also won the 1989 Genie Award for best animated short film. (text shamelessly taken from the http://nfb.ca page http://www.nfb.ca/film/the-cat-came-back )
The Log Drivers Waltz made by John Weldon in 1979
This lighthearted, animated short is based on the song "The Log Driver's Waltz" by Wade Hemsworth. Easily one of the most often-requested films in the NFB collection, Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing along to the tale of a young girl who loves to dance and chooses to marry a log driver over his more well-to-do competitor. Driving logs down the river has made the young man the best dancing partner to be found. (from http://www.nfb.ca/film/log_drivers_waltz/ )
