Categories
Device Open Source Solutions

Downloading Garmin GPS Data in Ubuntu

One of the simplest ways to download Track, Waypoint and Route information from your Garmin GPS in Ubuntu is using gpsbabel.

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Install gpsbabel via apt-get

sudo apt-get install gpsbabel

Connect the gps via the cable provided to the serial port of the computer or via a serial to USB converter to the USB port on your desktop/notebook.  To extract the infrormation all you need to do is, execute the following command:

gpsbabel -r -t -w -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx -F data.gpx

The above command copies Routes(-r), Tracks(-t) and Waypoints(-w) from a garmin device (-i garmin) located at Serial-USB interface (-f /dev/ttyUSB0) and saves the info (-o) in the standard gps format (gpx) in the file data.gpx. You can omit the information you dont require and even choose other fromats like kml for google earth:

gpsbabel -r -t -w -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o kml -F data.kml

You should now have a file “data.gpx” which can be used to retrive or map your gps data.

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Categories
Solutions Web

AdBlock for Opera 10

If you are like me and totally obsessed with Opera 10, but still a new user to the browser, then you might be wondering how to do a few things on it. One of my biggest problems was to get an Ad Block system up and running in the browser. A little web search gave me the way to do it.

Here are my notes:

  • Opera requires you to save a java script file that does the adblocking for it.  I found one here
  • Save the file into a folder of your choice.  I suggest creating a new folder as you will need to specify the folder not the file in future steps
  • Open Opera and hit “Alt – P”
  • In the corresponding dialog, click on the advanced tab
  • Click on “JavaScript Options…”
  • Hit “Choose” and navigate to the folder where you stored the file and hit “Ok”
  • You might need to refresh the pages for the adblock to take effect.
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Categories
Media Open Source Solutions

XBMC – No Cast Info from IMDB

XBMC
Image via Wikipedia

If you have been using the latest release of XBMC you might have noticed that XBMC does not seem to pick up the cast information of a movie from IMDB.  The problem here is that Imdb recently made minor changes to its api  and the infomation we are looking for is not available in the same location.

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The Fix

You just need to open the imdb.xml file in “/usr/share/xbmc/system/scrapers/video/” directory in linux systems(you will need to open the file as the superuser: sudo nano/usr/share/xbmc/system/scrapers/video/imdb.xml ) and “system/scrapers/video/” directory under your Xbmc installation directory in Windows.

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Categories
Media Open Source Solutions

Organizing Media With XBMC

XBMC
Image via Wikipedia

If you didnt know, I happen to have a huge media collection. Everybody has Giga bytes of music and maybe a few episodes of their favorite tv shows. I have that and about 80 unwatched movies on my comp at any given time 😛

For me one of the biggest problem was to decide which movie to watch next. Normally what happens is that, I read a review of a movie or someone recommends one to me… I get my hands on the movie and forget about it. Months later I browse thru the names and wont recognize the movie… I am too lazy to lookup IMDB each time so that basically means I wont watch it for the next few months as well.

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Categories
Hardware Laptop

Fixing the HP Tx1000 series Laptop boot problem…

Image representing Hewlett-Packard as depicted...
Image via CrunchBase

The HP Tx1000 series laptop has a unique problem with its Nvidia chip. Due to a really poor design wrt to the heat sink to the GPU, the chip reaches very high temperatures during operation causing the system to not boot properly. This problem is apparently very common and occurs within about two years of moderate use.

HP will replace the motherboard if the laptop is in warranty, if not their recommendation is a 400$ replacement of the motherboard. The laptop is awesome bar this problem and that solution is simply ridiculous…

Here is an alternative solution that worked for two of my friends and me. We all had different versions of the tx1000 series laptop and the system is working perfectly now… As an added bonus the system has better heat emission and easily reduces the temperature of the GPU by over 25%

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