X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/92b9fd0b35e532ab3f9f2c52f503f3d469c3ff05..aaf3a8d6ac3f87b3060fda22f11cb474d2e37af0:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 818312008e..940ce3ba7d 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -19,6 +19,74 @@ +
+
Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support
+
21st October 2018
+

Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to +distribute content on the Internet. It is used all by all sorts of +content providers, from national TV stations like +NRK, Linux distributors like +Debian and +Ubuntu, and of course the +Internet archive. + +

Almost a month ago +a new +package adding Bittorrent support to VLC became available in +Debian testing and unstable. To test it, simply install it like +this:

+ +

+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+

+ +

Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian, +several improvements have been made to it. In version 2.2-4, now +available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to +teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or +magnet links. The last part is thanks to me finally understanding +what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files +are used for. By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry +in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will +suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page. The +end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster og Sid, +one can visit any +Internet +Archive page with movies using a web browser and click on the +torrent link to start streaming the movie.

+ +

Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin. One is the +fact that it will hang and +block VLC +from exiting until the torrent streaming starts. Another is the +fact that it +will pick +and play a random file in a multi file torrent. This is not +always the video file you want. Combined with the first it can be a +bit hard to get the video streaming going. But when it work, it seem +to do a good job.

+ +

For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test +if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest. I tried, but do not +know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working. For now +the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was +successfully loaded by VLC. If you have any suggestions, please +submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, verkidetfri, video. + + +
+
+
+
Release 0.2 of free software archive system Nikita announced
18th October 2018
@@ -656,82 +724,6 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
-
-
Sharing images with friends and family using RSS and EXIF/XMP metadata
-
31st July 2018
-

For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images -with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to -place images from my personal life under the control of strangers -working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox. The last few days I -have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to -share it with you. I would like to publish images on a server under -my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some -free and open standard to the images I published. As my primary -language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using -UTF-8. Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable -of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the -<enclosure> RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier -of such frames. In the end I gave up that approach.

- -

Some months ago, I discovered that -XScreensaver is able to -read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on -my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from -NASA. This proved to work well. More recently I discovered that -Kodi (both using -OpenELEC and -LibreELEC) provide the -Feedreader -screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news. For -fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up -a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a -screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.

- -

Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate -a RSS feed for the Kodi instance. I adjusted my Freedombox instance, created -/var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract -title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the -RSS file. I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the -libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP -tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not. The relevant EXIF -tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives. XMP -seem to have the support I need.

- -

I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to -use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software -photo managing software. I ended up using the tags set using this -exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:

- -
-exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
-  -description='The RSS image description.' \
-  -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
-
- -

I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were -invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject". I -use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be -shared with my family. Images with this keyword set are located and -copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.

- -

Are there better ways to do this? Get in touch if you have better -suggestions.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

-
-
- - - Tags: debian, english. - - -
-
-
-

RSS feed