I just wanted t let everyone know that Gpredict 2.2.1 has been released. This release fixes some bugs that prevented windows users from updating the TLE data. It also improves the layout of the TLE sources editor.
Software Lab
Software experiments. Mostly open source.
Using the Logitech C920 webcam with Gstreamer 1.2
A lot has happened since I posted my ugly hacks required to take advantage of the H.264 compressor in the Logitech C920 webcam. Gstreamer 1.2 now includes a uvch264src that can be used to read H.264 encoded video stream from the camera eliminating the need for an external capture application.
Gpredict on Android
Today we have a guest post by Kirill Snezhko (@argrento) who describes how to get Gpredict working on Android tablets. Note that this is not about a native Android port of Gpredict, but how to get Linux installed as an Android app and run Linux applications like Gpredict.
Using the Logitech C920 webcam with Gstreamer
You may already know about my existing enthusiasm for Logitech webcams, which is due to the combination of relatively good image quality, high resolution and easy to use UVC interface. I was therefore very happy to learn about their newest camera, the HD Pro Webcam C920, which in addition to the standard HD webcam stuff we already know from the C910, also provides hardware encoded H.264 video stream! This is rather new and there isn’t much software that can take advantage of it; however, with a little tweaking and hacking we can get the H.264 stream into Gstreamer, where after we can do pretty much whatever we want.
Daily Gpredict builds for Ubuntu
Thanks to Jan Simon, DL2ZXA, we now have daily builds of Gpredict for Ubuntu 10.04 – 12.04, both 32 and 64 bit. Jan’s recipe fetches the code imported from SourceForge, merges it with the translations done in the Launchpad, then builds the packages and puts them in the Gpredict teams Daily builds PPA. You can … Read more
Unity, Gnome 3 and my way out of this madness
I will remember 2011 as the year when the Linux desktop took a huge step backwards. After decades of evolution we finally had a nice Gnome 2 based desktop providing a clean and efficient environment where one could focus on getting the work done. Even the Ubuntu variant with their this-makes-me-wanna-puke-brown and purple theme was okay, because it took only a few mouse clicks to switch back to something more pleasant looking, e.g. the Clearlooks theme. All this is gone now as the majority of Linux desktops come with either Gnome 3 or Unity – two equally useless and pathetic attempts at making the Linux desktop look like a cellphone.
Module-wide satellite selection in Gpredict
Up until now, users of Gpredict could click on a satellite in any view to make that satellite selected. For most views, selecting a satellite meant highlighting it and showing some additional info about it, or for the case of single satellite view to display the data for that satellite. In case you are not familiar with the terms module and view in Gpredict, a module is a logical object which groups a number of satellites and a ground station together, while views are the display widgets used to visualize the satellite data in different ways like map, list, polar plot, etc. A module can have any number of views laid out in a grid.
Gpredict 1.3 released
Gpredict 1.3 has been packaged and released. The source code is already available from the SourceForge download site. Binary packages will follow soon.