A Car Too Far » Working Online

Device drivers for OV511+ Webcam

Matt — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:04:25 +0000

This post wont mean much to regular readers (?! as if I was even a regular blogger!) but it serves as a page to help other who have been suffering from the same issue as me.

This Christmas the family was struggling with trying to make an old webcam work. Unfortunately it was a VERY old cam, with no marking that gave you a clue as to what it was or where it came from (memory tells me it was an old Safeway thing!) Anyway, the marking on it led me to http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids which persuaded me it was based on the OmniVision OV511+ chipsets. I FINALLY came across the following website http://www.downloadwindowsdrivers.info/usb/vid_05a9/pid_a511/ which provided me with the following files:

Drivres for OV511+ webcam

If you need some help, just post a comment.

Enjoy.

Installing Eclipse Plugins on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Matt — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:21:31 +0000

Recently I have been trying to install some plugins on the Eclipse IDE (I was installing the CDT (C++ toolchain)) and ran into some issues. If you have an issue that looks something like this:

Problem Occurred
An error occurred while installing the items
session context was:(profile=PlatformProfile, phase=org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.phases.Install, operand=null –> [R]org.eclipse.ant.ui 3.4.1.v20090901_r351, action=org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.actions.InstallBundleAction).
The artifact file for osgi.bundle,org.eclipse.ant.ui,3.4.1.v20090901_r351 was not found.

… then you probably want to look here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eclipse/+bug/477944

The short story is that you will want to install pde and jdt extensions first. Thankfully you’re in Linux so you can do it in one command:

sudo apt-get install eclipse-pde eclipse-jd

…bliss

’tis the season (to be loosing people’s data)

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:54:43 +0000

Maybe it’s something in the air at the moment, or maybe it’s because the darkness is drawing in early but it appears that all that fumbling in the dark has caused a few data “blunders”. Just when you think there’s something pretty bad coming out of the Apple stable (there appears to be a bug in Snow Kitten that just deletes all your data) but Redmond comes bounding back on to the stage, re-affirming it’s position as the bumbling idiots of IT. Oh yes, Microsoft have managed to “almost certainly” loose all the data that customers paid them to look after.

… we (Microsoft) must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost

No official line yet on Apple doing similar, but we’re holding tight for Google.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Arrives and Mostly Disappoints

Matt — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:15:08 +0000

Whilst I’m in the throws of trying to decide for myself whether or not to plump for a new iPhone when it finally comes onto Vodafone it’s painfull to hear that Windows Mobile 6.5 will arrive soon and it’s likely to suck.

I’ve loved my Windows Smartphones for many years now, mainly because of its fantastic integration with Exchange, but iPhone has that now too so what am I left with in Windows?

Decide amongst yourselves.

Study finds PCs in Mac homes

Matt — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:55:06 +0000

Some studies I come aacrossare pretty useless, some are very useful and some are between. This study which shoes that works out that people who own Macs, tend to have more money and buy other stuff too. I think the comments explain most of the sentient points and for once, it hasn’t dissolved completely (yet) into a “mac/pc is better than pc/mac”.

Large income households buy more stuff, which includes possibly a Mac. “Mac users have more money” is not necessarily true.

… quackadilly (in the comments)

amen.

Waving goodbye to email?

Matt — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:13:47 +0000

Depending on your exposure to all things Geek, you may, or may not have yet come accross a new technology that is being touted as “the new e-mail”. Bold claims like this are nothing new, they just carry more weight when they’re carried by “the big G” (Google).

The new technology is called “Google Wave” and is a pseudo e-mail system that looks something like a constantly updated (dynamic) email. In essence it’s an attempt to solve the problem of ever expanding email messages that get bits added and added, then broken (when the message gets Forwarded to someone outside the original CC), and add some extra functionality. This video (attempts) to give a better description (judge for yourself!)

All clear? Excellent.

OK, so where is it now? Well Google has opened up a “Beta” (an initial implementation that allows them to fix bugs and make it good enough for full public release) and invited 100,000 users to give it a go. Will it catch on? Well who knows. It’s a bold move, and they’ve taken a good step in making it all open source so that others can have have a go making clients and integrating it into whatever system they’re running. Whilst they’re taking a “we’re just trying to make life better” stance, it does, to me, smack a bit of AOL’s attempt to privatise the internet. We like GOOG but we know that they can be just as dangerous as AOL and Microsoft in their quest for world domination. The “Wave-Protocol” is not just the “Wave-Protocol”, it is the “Google Wave Federation Protocol”.

At least you can always “Opt-Out”

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

Financial forecasts – eCommerce

Matt — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:30:31 +0000

Has anyone done this? It’s not an easy thing to do with any degree of accuracy.

I’ve been working off my own homegrown financial models, based on a number of KPIs, namely:

“Organic” Visitors (predicted)
PPC traffic based on Google Adwords Estimator
Average Order value (estimated on market knowdlege)
Average conversion rate (based on data from here)
Unit shipping costs
Amortised Returns Factor (A % of gross order intake)
Card processor margins
Staff rates etc

Does anyone have any good models built, or some spreadsheets with a better starting point? Would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Matt

A little help testing my new beta

Matt — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:33:55 +0000

Was just hoping any readers could take a second out of their day to maybe do me a favour. I have setup a beta stage for a new revision for the Freetxt site, and I was hoping you could give it a good hammering and let me know how it stands up. The beta is located here and it would be great if you could fire it up and let me know how it goes.

The thing I am most worried about is security. It uses a particular type of authentication and session management that I haven’t used before and I don’t know how hackable it is. Please pass me any feedback in the comments. I know there are some basic layout issues still, but please let me know about broken links, unexpected behaviors or security holes.
Thanks for your time if you can manage it. Much appreciated.

Happy Christmas

Matt

Spying on your competitors…..

Matt — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:38:17 +0000

Not tried this yet, but it seems reminiscent of the old GoogSpy (what happened to that. did it become something else in the end do i remember?)

Anyhow, I’ve been hearing good things about this so though I would put it out there and let you test for yourself.

Keyword stealing care of Keycompete