MacPorts Python 3.6.0 and NumPy/SciPy import bug

Python 3.6.0 NumPy and SciPy from MacPorts crash on import bug [1].
[1] https://trac.macports.org/ticket/53453

Google Books Text-To-Speech

Google have implemented my idea to make Google Books TTS work like an audio player – it can now work in background and being controlled with bluetooth headset – so I can play, pause and rewind paragraphs of the book read by speech synthesizer just as it was music. This is soo fantastic!!

I have been proposing this solution to Amazon to implement in Kindle for Android, but for years they did not listen. I have switched to Kindle application after Amazon bricked my Kindle3 3G reader with a software update (and all other devices worldwide). Now I just wait until Google Books allow to import my Kindle library, and I will never go back to Kindle. Greedy loses twice.

OrangeADE: Orange Autonomous Device Evaluation

I have recently started the OrangeADE project [1], that is Orange Autonomous Device Evaluation, an online platform to evaluate security level of network equipment and verify against known vulnerabilities. OrangeADE is released as Open-Source under the “new” 3-Clause BSD license. Enjoy the work in progress! :-)

[1] https://github.com/CeDeROM/OrangeADE

Is Blend4Web a Blender Game Engine replacement?

You just need to see this awsome Mars Curiosity [1] simuluator [2] made by NASAJPL [3] with Blender3D [4] Blend4Web [5] HTML5 [6] WebGL [7] Free and Open-Source Software :-)

Screen Shot 2017-01-15 at 15.25.15

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl
[2] https://eyes.nasa.gov/curiosity
[3] http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
[4] https://www.blender.org
[5] https://www.blend4web.com
[6] https://www.w3.org/TR/html5
[7] https://www.khronos.org/webgl

Blender 3D and DS4 PS4 Bluetooth controller

Blender 3D can work with DualShock4 Playstation4 wireless controller over Bluetooth [1].

[1] http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/78315

FreeBSD Synaptics Trackpad/Touchpad

Use advanced features of your Synaptics Trackpad on a laptop running FreeBSD [1] with:

  • set in /boot/loader.conf:
    hw.psm.synaptics_support="1"
  • set in /etc/rc.conf:
    moused_enable="YES"
  • set in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Mouse0"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Protocol"      "auto"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/sysmouse"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"  "4 5 6 7"
    EndSection

If you want to have “MacBook” like two-finger scrolling along with other parameters you can set in /etc/sysctl.conf:

hw.psm.synaptics.min_pressure=16
hw.psm.synaptics.max_pressure=220
hw.psm.synaptics.max_width=10

hw.psm.synaptics.vscroll_hor_area=1300
hw.psm.synaptics.vscroll_ver_area=-600
hw.psm.synaptics.vscroll_min_delta=50
hw.psm.synaptics.vscroll_div_min=100
hw.psm.synaptics.vscroll_div_max=150

hw.psm.synaptics.weight_current=3
hw.psm.synaptics.weight_previous=6
hw.psm.synaptics.weight_previous_na=20
hw.psm.synaptics.weight_len_squared=2000

hw.psm.synaptics.div_min=9
hw.psm.synaptics.div_max=17
hw.psm.synaptics.div_max_na=30
hw.psm.synaptics.div_len=100

hw.psm.synaptics.margin_top=200
hw.psm.synaptics.margin_right=200
hw.psm.synaptics.margin_bottom=200
hw.psm.synaptics.margin_left=200

hw.psm.synaptics.window_min=4
hw.psm.synaptics.window_max=10
hw.psm.synaptics.multiplicator=10000

[1] https://wiki.freebsd.org/SynapticsTouchpad

FreeBSD NTFS FUSE FSTAB

If you want to use NTFS volumes on FreeBSD [1], you need to use FUSE infrastructure andNTFS-3G [2] port. Syntax of fstab is a bit differen in this case:

/dev/ntfs_partition /mnt/ntfs_mounpoint fuse rw,locale=pl_PL.UTF8,mountprog=/usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g 0 0

Also remember to put fuse_load=”YES” in /boot/loader.conf and install the sysutils/fusefs-ntfs port. Do not use hibernated volumes.

[1] https://www.freebsd.org
[2] https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/fusefs-ntfs

FreeBSD on a Hybrid Graphics Laptop

If you happen to get a nice laptop with a powerful graphics card, such as polish HYPERBOOK SL502VR [1], it is highly probable that you will use UEFI boot mode. In that case you need to use SCFB [2] driver instead of VESA. Use the xf86-video-scfb package to get Xorg running.

Hybrid Graphics at first used MUX device that did a LCD connect to a selected video card on boot. Nowadays both cards use common Video Framebuffer [3] to draw over a screen. The simple video card (Intel in my case) is always active, while the more powerful and power consuming video card is started on-demand (nVidia in my case). This however requires a dedicated DMA BUF implementation, which is not yet available on FreeBSD, so none of the cards can see any monitor connected, resulting in “No Screens Found Error” from Xorg.

I have already reported a bug/feature request to nVidia. Also developers of FreeBSD are working on the Hybrid Graphics implementation.

[1] http://sklep.hyperbook.pl/hyperbook-sl502-vr-p651rp6g-gtx-1060-p-25965.html
[2] https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/SCFB
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framebuffer