Converting Video for Use on iPod Nano

I wanted to leave my kids some video messages on their iPods for camp (7th generation Nano devices). I did this last year using the Photobooth app on the Mac and just loaded them into iTunes and there was no problem. Naturally this did not work again. Linux to the rescue, however.

Checking out just a little with Subversion

We have a huge source tree in subversion and I don't want the whole thing on my laptop. There is a top-level trunk directory and then project directories within it, and I only want a few of those project directories. Ordinarily I would just check out the individual ones I want separately, but this leaves them unrelated and when you have to make changes to multiple projects and want check them in all at once with a single commit you simply cannot. The alternative, checking out the entire trunk, seems to be a bit excessive as well. Luckily there is another alternative: checking out the root directory with a depth of empty, and then updating only the subdirectories/projects that I want within that directory.

Exporting Video from OpenShot for Android

I was having trouble finding the exact combination of video and audio settings to use for exporting a video from OpenShot to view on my Android phone (specifically, I was using my Nexus 4 to view the videos on my LG TV via Miracast). There is not a preset, so after trying several combinations I just copied the codecs and settings used on video recorded on the device itself and everything fell into place.

Making a Deployment Package From a Git Repository

I have a Django application in a git repository, and the whole thing needs to be moved to a server. I want to copy the application, but I don't want to drag the git repository info along with it.

Python triple-quoted strings vs. raw strings

Python lets you include text as strings in a number of ways, but picking the right one is important. There are two specific types of strings that I get confused and occasionally need a little reference to sort out: triple-quoted strings and raw strings.

Syncing an iPod Nano with Windows under VirtualBox in Ubuntu

I bought an iPod Nano (7th generation) for my son, and decided I wanted to use a Windows 7 virtual machine to house the iTunes software necessary to manage the gizmo. Apple items need to be managed with iTunes running on a Windows or Apple computer (there are options for dealing with iProducts from Linux, but since this is my son's gizmo I don't want to have to deal with them). I have been using Linux on my desktop and laptop for some time now, and the only things I use that have to run on Windows (for which I created the VM) are some tax software and the sync software for the Fitbit. And now this.

Since tax season is past and since my Fitbit split apart into a kazillion pieces, I have had little need to run the VM, so the first problem I had to deal with was the excessive number of Windows updates to be sifted through. Once that was done, installing iTunes was easy but connecting to the iPod was unsuccessful. Windows kept telling me that it could not start the device, could not find the device, could not find the appropriate driver, etc. It turns out that the problem was USB 2.0 compatibility--the iPod quietly requires USB2.0 and the current version of VirtualBox doesn't support it directly. Instead of going through the whole troubleshooting story, which would bore you to tears, I will just cut to the chase and tell you the things I did to get it running properly.

Resolving tree conflicts in Subversion

On the list of things I can never remember how to do when I need to do it: resolving tree conflicts in Subversion. Tree conflicts happen to me often when I am working in a branch of the main code and I merge from trunk to keep things current. I can't explain why they happen a lot in the system I work with (perhaps I should find out?), but I can fix them easily when they come up. But I always have to look up the simple command to do it. Well here is how it is done...

Django, Ajax, Post, and CSRF

I was having a little trouble putting together a simple ajax request and response with Django. It seems like it should be simple task—just use the jquery ajax methods in the html page to call a simple view from the Django site. How hard can that be? Well it turns out that there are three major issues I had to overcome, but taking those into account it is actually very simple.

CSS preprocessing with SASS

Don't write CSS directly.  It's just not worth it anymore.  Use SASS and precompile your CSS to avoid repetition, make changes easier, and to use the nesting features that should have been built into the spec in the first place.  The SASS website explains how to install and use it, but if you are clever enough to be using Linux you can just install it from the repositories.  Don't be put off by the Ruby connection if you are not a Ruby person...it is written in Ruby but the CSS it generates is completely independent of any backend languages.

Good hype-free overview of using data

I came across Lessons for a Data Driven Business the other day and found it a nice, succinct overview of the things that are important for managing data at the enterprise level.  He breaks it down into five basic points:

• defining and communicating a “single version of the truth”
• creating an auditability chain from your metrics to your raw data
• establishing specific, actionable KPIs
• ensuring around-the-clock availability of data
• accepting the limitations of your data

This is a good roundup, and he didn't even have to use buzzwords like "cloud" or "big data" even once!