Converting mp4 to mp3 in linux

hi folks welcome once again to this blog. Well today my semester exams got over and i was freaking out when suddenly i required to change a .mp4 file i had downloaded to a .mp3 format . This can be very easily done in linux as follows:

1. you must have faad and lame files installed in your system .
2. to convert foo.mp4 to foo.wav write as faad foo.mp4
3. next, to convert the .wav file to .mp3 , write as lame foo.wav foo.mp3

and yupiee you are done with
hope this was useful
enjoy linux :)

upgrading Bios(post+bios+setup)

hi folks, i was trying to upgrade my BIOS programme when i came across this wonderful site .It really provided a great help in understanding what BIOS is and how to correctly update it .Moreover it also provides links to various hardware tools . Thumbs up to these people

MOUNT ISO IN LINUX

Hello all! This time i am going to tell you how to mount an iso file an iso file in linux .
Step 1 : Become the super user

Step 2 : make a directory where you want to mount the image file
e.g. cd /mnt

mkdir dir

Step 3 : mount the iso file as: mount -o loop filename.iso /mnt/dir

A loop device is a pseudo-device that makes a file accessible as a block device. Loop devices are often used for CD ISO images and floppy disc images. Mounting a file containing a filesystem via such a loop mount makes the files within that filesystem accessible. They appear in the mount point directory using above commands.

whoa your done ! congrats you've just mounted an iso file in linux without any extra software!

any problem when updating to new firefox in fedora?

hello! this time i am going to tell u all about a problem which i faced recently while updating to the new firefox 3.5 from an older version in fedora 10 . Well , i downloaded the .tar file from the official site and extracted it but when i tried to run the firefox file inside that folder, nothing seemed to happen! I thought the read me file might be useful but it didn't provide any help either.So i searched the net but didn't get any satisfying answers .Finallly i removed the older version through yum and then ran the same firefox file again and this time i succeeded!
The next problem i faced was that the quick launch icon on my desktop couldn't find any such process so i followed as:
System->Preferences->Look and Feel->Main Menu->Internet
then right click on the firefox option and on the properties part add the path to the new firefox file in the command option and there you go!

hope this was useful

Be open and spread openware!

Pirates of the Silicon Valley

yesterday i saw a very interesting movie named "Pirates of the Silicon Valley". It is based on the war between Steve Jobs ,and Bill Gates, and some really interesting points about them. Being a software engineer it was really it was really a good experience to know the past of all that began before the two giants were born. A must see movie and highly recommended specially for the techies.

Play with mp3 files in linux

well i was busy a bit so it has been long before i last blogged ,but here's a great tool in linux that helps in mp3 editing. It's called poc. It's a great tool which one can download from sourceforge . to install it just follow the readme file and after doing the necessary make commands go the folder where you have extracted the file and then you can perfornm the necessary actions

Water crisis!

It seems that crisis of all sorts has become a part of our life in the college too.A few days back there was power cut due to which we had nothing to do (specially being an IT person) and now water seems to have betrayed us.As i woke up this morning ,i found people roaming all around the hostel with buckets and mugs dangling in their hands.It didn't take long to realize ,the cause of the pandamonium.Yes,we were hit by a water crisis!.
I too joined the long run but it was too late.There was no water in the hostel and then Ravi,Anand and I decided that we must venture out other halls for they should be our only rescue.We went to hall 6, the best of halls,but to our despair,the condition there was no good.
Finally we went to hall 3 and by God's grace, we could finally answer to Nature's call and take bath.. Oh! how do they live without water in some places? Come on folks,it's high time that start taking these things seriously.Use water wisely!

Enjyoing @ IOTA

Well I am writing this blog just after half an hour since the programme finished. It all started on 28th Aug when some of my friends and I were asked to be as part of the IOTA,a programme in which teachers from various colleges were to be given free training on open source and how to use it.It all started in not an expected manner as just before the start, the lights went off and worse still the weather turned cloudy making the ambience all very gloomy. The day ended like this and we thought that the next day the attendance would drop markedly.the next day was sort of compensation and we really enjoyed "teaching" the teachers. On the second day we showed them the installation procedure and they looked quiet satisfied,nodding as they understood.we had our lunch too and wrapped up the day with a few slides on open office.. The third and the ultimate day was the most satisfying, both for the teachers and us. This day we gave them details on how to use open office and gimp and showed them the advantages it had over ms office.. They really looked amazed at the progress open source had made .. the day went on and where we would return to our rooms , there was hardly anything left in us ..Hats off to the teachers round the globe who spent relentless hours like these upon us. At the end of the day during closing ceremony , came the moment of the day when one of the teachers said that she was very much pleased with the way we had taught them. and one of them even said that "if we would have had teachers like you then we could done much better!" ..well that was the most satisfying moment for us and then I realised how happy the teachers feel went they find their students doing well .... hoping for some more IOTA next year :)

Protect your grub!

hi all , here is an important and useful tip as to how one can protect the grub through password.

type " /sbin/grub-md5-crypt " on command line(without quotes )
you will be asked to enter the password and then re enter it. After that you will be provided with a md5 cncrypted password .. Copy it and paste it to the /etc/grub/menu.lst file at the top of the page just after the commented lines as:
password --md5 "encrypted password "

hope dats useful!

Dynamic programming is amazing!

Well its an awesome field to work on in algorithms.By this technique one can do DNA sequencing,find the longest common sequence ,and even the minimum transformations required to transform a sequence to another! [:)]

Change wallpapers automatically

hey i recently found that a tool in linux called wallpapoz exists by which one can change the wallpapers automatically. its really cool tool....

Find me!

Well it's very easy to find me by the way....

Socket programming in java

hi , i really am ecstatic at this moment becoze i've a solution to a very common problem .. This time its in java. In sockets the PrintWriter output stream does not clear the output buffer autumatically so u need to clear it by adding true as one its parameters .... It was really hectic b4 cming to this solution.

A common problem regerding flash-plugin in firefox-solved!

It's very common that suddenly the flash-plugin in your firefox browser stops working and whenever you open sites requiring flash (e.g. youtube) pop up with messages like : "Ether javascript is not enabled or you have an older version of adobe flash" ... but you check your browser settings and find that javascript is enabled and start to wonder. You then install the latest version of flash through yum or an rpm package but the problem still remains!!

So here's a solution to your problem: Download the .rpm or .tar.gz package from the adobe site and extract it. After browsing through the folders, you would find a file named "libflashplayer.so ". Next,make a directory named "plugins" in /usr/lib/firefox (Note: make this directory in the newest version of firefox if you have updated firefox e.g there might be firefox 3.0.5 and firefox 3.0.10, so make the directory in firefox 3.0.10 ) Just copy this fle into /usr/lib/firefox/plugins.. Close your broswer and restart it ,then check by typing "about:plugins" in the address bar of your browser,you will find a heading "Shockwave Flash"... Well thats it, it done! ... try opening youtube and see a vedio ! hope that helps.......

Back up im mysql- using mysqldump

hi, this is regarding a very useful; command in mysql by which u can backup your databases and transfer it to another server (which may or may not be mysql) .


to backup go in command promt or shell and type:
mysqldump -u username -p name of database to be backed up > name of backup file
password : *******


after this a backup file having .sql xtension will b created .
now to restore the database (first u must copy the .sql file to the computer u want to restote in) go to command prompt of the other computer and write:


mysql -u username -p
$password : ********

this will create the backup database and you are done~~~~~ :)

Using vnc

hi this video tells you about the working of vnc on linux operating system.. though it lacks audio but careful attention should be able to help you ... cheers!!