Installing Guitar Pro 6 on Ubuntu Maverick 64-bit

To install Guitar Pro 6 natively on Ubuntu Marverick 64-bit (ie: without WINE) you must:

1. Obtain the .deb from the Guitar Pro website by clicking the 'Free Trial' link and then picking the Linux download.
   
   
2. Install the deb with 'sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture <.deb file>'.  Install any missing dependencies using apt and try again if it fails.  If your apt ends up in a funky state you can use 'sudo apt-get install -f' to fix it and then try again.  I just needed to install libportaudio0 and libportaudio2 on my machine.
   
   
3. Now you need to install the missing 32-bit libs by downloading this library bundle and extracting the contents to /opt/GuitarPro6.  Now you can launch Guitar Pro from Applications->Sound & Video->Guitar Pro 6.  If you want to run the trial that's it, you're done.
   
   
4. (optional): To activate Guitar Pro you must enter your user-id + key-id when prompted and install only the update to Guitar Pro.  After the update manager dialog closes you can now launch Guitar Pro and do the full update.  If you don't update Guitar Pro it will keep asking for your password on every startup and you'll forever be stuck in trial mode.

Some photos of Chateau de Lucy in the snow.

Is variable scope in Python broken?

I've come across this weirdness before when trying to write functional python code.  It seems you can access the variables declared in the function above but not alter them in anyway or you'll get a UnboundLocalError.  In PHP you're allowed to alter the variable but the changes will only take place in the current scope (unless you global it first).  Python just gives you an error.

Example code:

#!/usr/bin/python

def myfunc1(var1="VAR 1"):
    var2="VAR 2"
    def myfunc2():
        print var1
        print var2
    myfunc2()
myfunc1()

def myfunc3(var1="VAR 1"):
    var2="VAR 2"
    def myfunc4():
        var1 += " WORKING!"
        var2 += " WORKING!"
    myfunc4()
myfunc3()

Expected error:

UnboundLocalError: local variable 'var1' referenced before assignment

If anybody knows why this is I'd be interested to hear why.

How to fix UPNP on Rhythmbox under Ubuntu Lucid

I just got fuppes installed on my shiny new Drobo FS but I realized that whenever I try to connect to it via the upnp plugin in Rhythmbox it throws an exception:

File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 371, in _runCallbacks
    self.result = callback(self.result, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/lib/rhythmbox/plugins/upnp_coherence/UpnpSource.py", line 135, in new_process_media_server_browse
    seconds = int(h)*3600 + int(m)*60 + int(s)
exceptions.ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '54.00'

To fix it I just changed line 135 of /usr/lib/rhythmbox/plugins/upnp_coherence/UpnpSource.py to:

seconds = int(h)*3600 + int(m)*60 + int(eval(s))

Dashboard widgets coming to Linux. Again.

UPDATE:  Code is now available from git on the new StormOS server.

I was bored Saturday morning so I decided to check up on Jackfield to see how its development was coming along. Turns out it hasn't changed much since I last checked it out 4 years ago. Since there was a huge list of comments on the original authors (Stuart Langridge) blog from people mourning the death of the Jackfield project I decided to resurrect the project.

I quick list of what I've done so far:

• Migrated everything over to WebKit instead of Embeded Moz
• Added support for synchronous Dashboard APIs (async already implemented)
• Added support for moving widgets around the screen (yay!)
• Started implementing the fancy new Apple Button classes (see how the Youtube info button is different to the rest -- its using the newer API)
• Now runs uninstalled without hacking the source

Update all but one package in Gentoo

Update all but one package in Gentoo. Using Banshee as an example:

sudo emerge `emerge -pvuD world | grep -o '[^ ]*/[^ 0-9]*' | sed s/-$// | grep -v media-sound/banshee`

New and improved version:

sudo emerge `emerge -pvuD world | grep -o '[^ ("><]*/[^ )",.]*' | sed s/'-[0-9]\+$'// | sort | uniq | grep -v media-sound/banshee`

Controlling Banshee on Gentoo with you Android Phone

Installing the client

Download and extract this file. You'll find the APK (android package) under BansheeRemote/bin. Install it.

Installing the server

You need to upgrade to Banshee 1.5.2, but first you'll have to unmask it. Comment out '=media-sound/banshee-1.5*' in /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask and the just 'emerge banshee'.

Now grab 'Banshee.RemoteListener.dll' from here. It says its for 1.5.3 but works fine with 1.5.2. Just put it in /usr/lib/banshee-1/Extensions

Setting it all up is pretty self-explanatory.