A while ago, I succeeded in getting my Creative Vista webcam to work on Ubuntu Gutsy. I didn't use it for quite a while, then upgraded to Hardy, and as a result the webcam did not work anymore. I'm writing this partly as a reminder to myself so I get it up and running more quicky the next time 
So here's what you need to do if your webcam stops working:
- Remove any old ov51x-jpeg-modules-x.xx.xx-xx (using Synaptic or the like)
- Check rastageeks for any updates, i.e. the latest version of the ov51x-jpeg driver
- Usually there already is a .deb-package for convenient installation on Ubuntu: install it, ignoring any warning by gdebi
- Follow the installation instructions, especially:
sudo module-assistant a-i ov51x-jpeg - Now you can
sudo modprobe ov51x-jpeg; if that fails, check dmesg for any error message, there may be options set in /etc/modprobe.de/options and/or /etc/modprobe.de/ov51x-jpeg - Enjoy!
Update: Using the webcam with Skype didn't prove that easy. There is a bug (in Skype, as I'm told) that prevents the ov51x-jpeg driver to work with its video function. There's a patch floating around in the Skype forums (ov51x-jpeg-core.noblock.patch.txt). Downloading this, however, requires one to sign up to the Skype forums :O( Then, I couldn't simply apply the patch to ov51x-jpeg-core.c because it seems to be for version 1.5.5 or so. That's why I had to manually add a couple of lines to ov51x-jpeg-core.c and then recompile it. Finally, I had to add options ov51x-jpeg forceblock=1 to /etc/modprobe.d/options. And now it works.
Half an hour ago, I read the news that there is now a beta version of Google Gadgets available for Linux. Since I've been plaing around with Google Gadgets for a while, I decided to give it a try. And, although I'm usually a KDE user, right now I'm a little bit dissatisfied with KDE since I upgraded to Kubuntu 8.04 a while ago; so I switched to Gnome to see if the bugs appear only with KDE (they don't).
Anyway, I followed the instructions, installed some extra libs that are needed (actually, I've got the feeling that I installed a couple more libs that aren't really required), went through the configure-make-make install routine, and voila:
Das 750 Seiten starke Buch "Serendipity - Individuelle Weblogs für Einsteiger und Profis" von Garvin Hicking ist vor kurzem bei Open Source Press erschienen und gestern schon per Post bei mir eingetroffen. Das ist wirklich die erwartet umfassende Referenz geworden, aber ich werde einige Wochen brauchen, um mich da durchzufräsen ;O) Zur Feier der Veröffentlichung verlost der Autor in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Verlag fünf Exemplare des Serendipity-Handbuchs unter allen, die wie ich über das Buch bloggen oder unter Garvins Blogbeitrag einen Kommentar hinterlassen. Mitmachen ist ausdrücklich empfohlen!
Da ich mich durch meinen Trackback auch automatisch an der Verlosung beteilige, obwohl ich ja schon ein Exemplar besitze, verspreche ich, im Gewinnfall auf meinen Gewinn zu verzichten oder aber das Buch weiterzuverlosen - wir regeln das dann schon!
Yesterday, the regional web crowd got together at the Brotfabrik in Frankfurt for the 13th edition(?) of the famous Webmontag. After the last web mondays' attendance figures were relatively low, Andreas and Darren had been very active in inviting lots of people and advertising the event. Accordingly, the number of participants was significantly higher than before, which was a good thing apparently.
Contentwise, the session covered topics as diverse as presentation zen, Google Web Toolkit, Selenium IDE, OSGi, and MySQL Proxy. Pretty technical, one must admit, but mostly interesting nonetheless. I can say that I enjoyed it. As usual, socializing began immediately after the last presentation ended. Some interesting conversations ensued with other participants, I had a delicious chickpea-cilantro soup, and the WiFi was free. What more to expect from a Webmonday? Thanks to Andreas and Darren for organizing the event, and to Harry for kindly hosting the event.
A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled over the CHDK project where some fine people develop additional firmware for a wide range of Canon digital cameras. Since I call a Canon IXUS 800 IS - also known as Canon SD700 in other parts of the world - my own, I was instantly captivated by the amount of additional features that can be added by means of loading an small piece of software onto my cam. Yesterday, I tried to get it to work and was set up within a couple of minutes.
Some of the new choices I am given are that I can now save pictures in RAW image format (one of the reasons I got myself a Canon EOS350D on ebay a couple of weeks ago), a live histogram appears on the display, the state of charge of my battery is shown, and I can download and apply a large number of user scripts that combine batches of actions and permit to trigger them with a single button. And the best thing: The original firmware does not get overwritten!
Ever since I installed Rockbox on a Sansa digital audio player, I'm a big fan of user-contributed, open source alternative firmware. And this one is no exception, it's simply a glorious extension to my digicam. Let me show you a couple of pics of CHDK's new menu and display options:
