If your php application is processing media files like mp3, then it might need to find details of the mp3 file like its playtime, bitrate, encoder etc. There is a very useful php library called Getid3 that can extract information from mp3 files. Its written in pure php and does not have any dependencies. Needs… Read More »
Flareget – The flashget for linux Flareget is a featureful file download manager for linux. The conventional file download managers available for ubuntu/linux are kget, wget, curl etc. But each of them has some sort of limitation or lacks certain features not making them easy for common users. This is where flareget comes in. It… Read More »
Softmaker Freeoffice Softmaker Freeoffice is an office suite that is available for both windows and linux, with a free and paid version. The free version can be downloaded from the website The suite provides the following 3 applications Textmaker This is the wordprocessor. Supports microsoft formats like docx and doc. However the free version can… Read More »
Gedit is the default text editor on gnome desktop. If you notice that it takes quite some time to launch after clicking the menu icon, then here is a simple trick that can speed it up. 1. Open gedit. 2. Go to Edit > Preferences, Plugins tab. 3. Disable the plugin named "File Browser Panel"…. Read More »
VNC – Virtual Network Computing VNC is a remote desktop sharing protocol that can be used to control the desktop of a remote system over the local network of internet. To setup desktop sharing with vnc, a vnc server has to be installed on the remote desktop that shall be controlled. And a vnc client… Read More »
Fedora can be easily installed on virtualbox if you want to try it out without doing a real install to your hard drive. In this tutorial we are going to do that. Since we shall be using 64bit fedora, virtualbox would need to have the VT-x/AMD-V virtualisation feature in bios. These are the virtualisation extension… Read More »
Wired Network Lets say you have an existing wired network setup at your workstation or home somewhat like this Adsl Modem/Router (192.168.1.1) => Switch => Multiple Pcs (192.168.1.10, 192.168.1.20 …) Now you want to add a wireless access point to this existing wired network so that you can connect to the internet wirelessly from your… Read More »
Websockets Websockets is a new feature available in browsers as a part of the Html5 specs that allows javascript clients to open bi directional socket connections to a server. Currently all major desktop browsers support the api. Websocket is not an independant socket protocol, but is based on the TCP protocol just like HTTP. Therefore… Read More »
Revolute Joint Revolute joint is a useful joint in box2d that allows 2 bodies to be pinned together at a point without restricting rotation. The joint can be made between 2 dynamic bodies or between a static and dynamic body. The pendulum on left is a static circle joined to dynamic rectangle. Whereas the cart… Read More »
Weld joint in box2d The weld joint can be used to join to bodies tightly at a common point. Here is an example A weld joint is created like this //create distance joint between b and c var joint_def = new b2WeldJointDef(); joint_def.bodyA = b; joint_def.bodyB = c; //connect the centers – center in local… Read More »
Rope In this experiment we shall make a rope like thing in box2d. There is no rope like structure that box2d supports directly. But if multiple small units are connected together at their edges using a revolutejoint, then it was act somewhat like a rope. You can move any part of the rope using your… Read More »
Distance In the previous post on mouse joints we learned how to interact with box2d objects using the mouse. Now its time to take a look at another joint in box2d, the distance joint. Distance joint connects 2 bodies maintaining a fixed distance between them, its like metal wire connecting the 2 bodies, such that… Read More »
Mouse Joint Out of the many joints that box2d has, one is mouse joint. It is not used in physics simulations, but helps to make the physics world interactive by making a body move towards a specific point, like the mouse coordinates for example. So objects can be picked up, dragged etc by the user…. Read More »
Html5 Audio The html5 audio element provides a simple api to play sound files like mp3, ogg, wav etc. It can be created by putting an audio tag in the html or by creating an instance of the Audio object in javascript. Here is a quick example of using it from within javascript code. var… Read More »
The Audio element of html5 does not yet have a stop function, but has a pause function. So here is a simple trick to add a stop function to your Audio elements by modifying the prototoype of the class. //Give the Audio element a stop function HTMLAudioElement.prototype.stop = function() { this.pause(); this.currentTime = 0.0; }… Read More »
By default google chrome would keep webgl features disabled if your gpu driver does not support 3d acceleration. However there are options to force enable it. To enable webgl in Google Chrome launch it with the following flags –enable-webgl –ignore-gpu-blacklist Here is the command: $ google-chrome –enable-webgl –ignore-gpu-blacklist Now test webgl by opening the following… Read More »
WebGL WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics and 2D graphics[2] within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. It is analogous to a 3D graphics api like OpenGL but runs inside a web browser and programmed in javascript instead of C or C++. The important thing… Read More »
Sometime back I was making a browser based game in the html5 canvas tag which had some audio too. The html5 audio tag is an easy option to add sound/music to any webpage. It can play variety of formats like wav, ogg and mp3. However format support itself varies across browsers. The audio element can… Read More »
I recently needed to convert some mp3 audio files to ogg format so that the html5 audio tag could play them in mozilla firefox. Had to search a bit to find out how to do this easily and here are the results. There is an excellent application called soundconverter ( soundkonverter for kde users )…. Read More »
Demo First lets play the game that we shall be making in this tutorial. Its called Fruit Hunter. Tested on Chrome and Firefox. Click in the game then start using the arrow keys to control the monkey. Press the left, right and up arrow keys to make the monkey move and jump. Do not fall… Read More »