Getting Started with Amazon EC2

Today I was trying to use Amazon EC2 and was successful deploying an image and working with the deployed images. It went pretty well, thanks to this great video. Yes these instructions are on windows but it will be pretty much similar within Linux too.

The command line tools they've provided are wrappers for java Web services stubs which will call amazon Web services. The sad thing is that they have used XFire to generate the clients without using currently active Axis2 or CXF projects. XFire project site clearly states (as of now) that their won't be any more developments in that project.

Anyway the tools seems to be great, at least from the usability point-of-view and now I need to write my own wrappers using Axis2 clients.

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Running OpenGL within Windows - An Easy Way

I'm (temporarily) using win XP inside my laptop and have trouble doing my openGL assignments, as openGL needs X windows.
The first thing I was trying to do was to setup hummingbird within windows, but it didn't work for some reason.

Then the next thing I tried was to get VM player, get an Ubuntu image and do openGL stuff within it. Fortunately it worked, and this is how you can do that.

1. Get VM Player from here and install it.

2. Get Ubuntu 8.10 image from here and host it within the VM player. This Ubuntu is really good as it detected most of the devices in my host system and most importantly it had my internet connection working, when I started up.

3. Then follow my previous blog post to install OpenGL within Ubuntu VM and you are ready to go.

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Randy Pausch Last Lecture

This is one of the greatest talk I've ever listened to. Lots of things to learn from him. (Thanks Zaneer for pointing this out)

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Developing/Installing OpenGL in Ubuntu

I'm taking Advanced Computer Graphics course this time and had to setup my Ubuntu 8.04 box to develop openGL in it. I thought these instructions will be helpful to others as well.

Setting Up OpenGL

In a terminal type

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev freeglut3-dev mesa-common-dev

Setting up man pages

sudo apt-get install ncompress imake

# download
cd /tmp
wget ftp://ftp.sgi.com/sgi/opengl/doc/mangl{,u,x}.tar.Z

# unpack (you need the ncompress package for this to work)
tar xf mangl.tar.Z release/xc/doc/man
tar xf manglu.tar.Z release/xc/doc/man
tar xf manglx.tar.Z release/xc/doc/man

# configure and make (you need the imake package for this to work)
cd release/xc/doc/man/GL/
for dir in * ; do cd $dir && xmkmf && make && cd - ; done

# install (will install them into /usr/X11R6/man)
for dir in * ; do cd $dir && sudo make install && cd - ; done

# clean up
cd /tmp
rm -rf /tmp/release

(instructions extracted from a post in ubuntuforums from geirha)

Setting Up Eclipse

Download Eclipse Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers. I had problems with ganymede, so I am using Europa release.

Follow the simple instructions found here

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Very Good Primer on CFC (ColdFusion Components)

Found this very good primer on CFC (ColdFusion Components). I guess this will help, if some wanna get a glimpse in to things inside cfm files.

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Getting Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse working with Ubuntu 8.10

Got a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse as a gift and didn't have time to set it up on my Ubuntu box. This is how I finally got it working.

(Pre-Conditions : Your bluetooth adapter/dongle should be working)

1. Fire up a terminal and type

hcitool scan

You should see something like
Scanning ...
00:1D:D8:92:59:F6 Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000

Copy the hardware address found above.

2. Go and edit hcid.conf

sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf

And put following at the end of that conf file.

device HardwareAddressHere {
name “Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000”;
}

3. Restart the bluetooth system with the config file.

sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

You should see some thing like

* Restarting bluetooth [ OK ]

4. Now you need to pair the devices with the computer. Type

sudo hidd --search

You should see something like

Searching ...
Connecting to device 00:1D:D8:92:59:F6

Done. Your mouse should be working now.

This was adapted from this post to suit my requirement.



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