Posts Tagged ‘Skype’
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 Facebook and Youtube has become for just a few years a defacto standard service for 80% of computer users in our age.
This is true and it seems there is growing tendency for people to adopt new easy to use services and a boom in the social networks.
We’ve seen that with the fast adoption of the anti-human freedom program Skype , the own privacy breaching FaceBook as well as the people interests tracking service YouTube.
We’ve seen similar high adoption rates in earlier times as well with the already dying (if not dead MySpace), with the early yahoo mail boom etc and in even earlier times with the AltaVista search engine use.
However this time it appears Youtube and FaceBook are here to stay with us and become standard online services for longer times …
Many people who work in office all day staring in a computer screen as well as growing teenagers and practically anyone in the developed and the development world is using those services heavily for (in between 5 to 10 hours a day or more). The Software as a Service users spends approximately half of their time spend on the internet in Youtube or and Facebook.
Its true Youtube can be massively educative with this global database of videos on all kind of topics and in some cases facebook can be considered helpful in keeping in touch people or keeping a catalog of pictures easily accessible from everywhere, however when few services becomes more used and influential than other provided services on the internet this makes these services harmful to the communities and destroyes cultures. The concentration of most of the human popuplation who uses high technologies around few online services creates a big electronic monopoly. In other words the tendency, we see of amalgamation of businesses in real world (building of big malls and destroyment of small and middle sized shops is being observed in the Internet space.
Besides that Facebook and Youtube and Twitter are highly contrary to the true hacker spirit and creates a big harm for intellectuals and other kind of tight and technical community culture by creating one imaginative casual disco culture without any deepness of thought or spirit.
Its observable that most of the people that are heavily using those services are turning into (if not exaggerate) a brainless consumer zombies, a crowd of pathless people who watch videos and pictures and write meaningless commentaries all day long.
You have as a result a “unified dumbness” (dumbness which unifies people).
Even if we can accept the grown and fully formed character people are aware of the threats of using Youtube or Facebook, this is definitely not the case with the growing people which are still in a process of building personality and personal likings.
The harmful resuls that the so called Social networks create can be seen almost everywhere, most of the cafeterias I visit the bar tender uses facebook or youtube all da long, most of random people I see outside in a coffee or university or any public institution where internet access is available they are again in Youtube and Facebook. The result is people almost did not use the Net but just hang around in those few services wasting network bandwidth and loading networks and computer equipment and spending energy for nothing. The wasteful computer and Internet deepens the ecologic problems as energy is spend on nonsense and not goal oriented tasks but on “empty” false entertainment.
Hence the whole original idea of internet for many is changed and comes to few words ( Skype, Youtube, Facebook etc.
Besides that youngsters instead of reading some classical valuable books, are staring in the computer screen most of their cognitive time at only this few “services” and are learned to become more a consumers than self opinion thinkers and inventors.
I have not lately met any growing real thinking man. I’ve seen already by own experience the IQ level of younger generations than mine (I’m 28) is getting downer and downer. Where I see as a main cause the constant interaction with technology built in a way to restrict, a consumers technology so to say.
Facebook and Youtube puts in young and growing man’s mind, the wrong idea that they should be limited choice people always praising what is newest and brightest (without taking in consideration any sight effects). These services lead people to the idea that one should always be with the crowds and never have a solid own opinion or solid state on lifely matters. As said own opionion is highly mitigated especially in facebook where all young people try to look not what they really are but copy / paste some trendy buzz words, modern style or just copying the today’s hearoes of the day. This as one can imagine prevents a person of getting a strong unique self identity and preference on things.
Many of the older people or computer illiterates can hardly recognize the severe problems, as they’re not aware on the technical side of things and does not realize how much security compromising as well as binding the constant exposure to those online hives are.
The purpose of this small post is hence just a small attempt to try to raise up some awareness of the potential problems, we as society might face very soon if we continue to follow the latest buzz trends instead of stop for a moment have a profound think on what is the moral consequences of giving so much power on Internet medias like Facebook and Youtube? …
Tags: adoption rates, age, AltaVista, altavista search engine, amalgamation, computer screen, computer users, consumer, Culture, defacto, disco, downer, earlier times, Engine, facebook, freak, freedom, freedom program, global database, half, human freedom, impact, internet space, mail boom, malls, middle, monopoly, Myspace, negative impact, opinion, popuplation, quot, screen, Search, service users, Skype, social networks, software, technology, tendency, time, tru, yahoo mail, youtube
Posted in Everyday Life, Various | 7 Comments »
Monday, July 25th, 2011 If you have to use Skype as a mean to call your employers and you do some important talks related work via Skype it might be a good idea to keep a voice logs of Skype peer to peer calls or the conferent ones.
On Windows it’s pretty easy to achieve voice skype calls recording as there is a plenty of software. However on Linux I can find only one application called skype-call-recorder
As I’m running Debian Squeeze/Wheeze (testing unstable) on my notebook, I decided to give skype-call-recorder a try:
I’m using a 64 bit release of Debian, so first I tried installing the only available version for Debian which is natively prepared to run on a i386 Debian, however I hoped it will run out as I have emulation support for i386 applications.
Thus I proceeded further downloadded and installed with the force-all dpkg optionskype-call-recorder-debian_0.8_i386.deb
root@noah:~# wget https://www.pc-freak.net/files/skype-call-recorder-debian_0.8_i386.deb
root@noah:~# dpkg -i --force-all skype-call-recorder-debian_0.8_i386.deb
...
However installing the debian i386 version of skyp-call-recorder seemed to not be starting due to problems with missing /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 and /usr/lib/libaudid3tag.so libraries.
Thus I decided to give a try to the skype-call-recorder amd65 version which is natively aimed to be installed on Ubuntu release 8/9.
root@noah:~# wget https://www.pc-freak.net/files/skype-call-recorder-ubuntu_0.8_amd64.deb
root@noah:~# dpkg -i skype-call-recorder-ubuntu_0.8_amd64.deb
Installation of skype-call-recorder with this package went smoothly on Debian, the only issue I had with it is that I couldn’t easily find/launch the program via Gnome Application menu.
To work around this I immediately edited /usr/local/share/applications/skype-call-recorder.desktop e.g.:
root@noah:~# vim /usr/local/share/applications/skype-call-recorder.desktop
In skype-call-recorder.desktop I substituted the line:
Categories=Utility;TelephonyTools;Recorder;InstantMessaging;Qt;
with
Categories=Application;AudioVideo;Audio;
A consequent quick Gnome logout and login again and now I have the program launchable via the menus:
Application -> Sound and Video -> Skype Call Recorder
The only thing I dislike about Skype Call Recorder is that the program current interface is build based on QT KDE library and thus when I launch it, the program launches a number of KDE related daemones like DCOP which eat my system an extra memory, still I’m happy even though the bit high load I can record the skype voice sessions on my Debian GNU/Linux.
Tags: amd65, application menu, AudioVideo, call recorder, deb, debInstallation, Desktop, dpkg, freak, Gnome, gnome application, Install, InstantMessaging, lib, libaudid, libraries, Linux, login, logs, noah, notebook, package, recording, root, share applications, Skype, software, Sound, squeeze, tag, Ubuntu, vim, wget, work
Posted in Linux, Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Linux Audio & Video, Skype on Linux | No Comments »
Sunday, July 17th, 2011 It seems Skype has troubles installing on 64 bit Ubuntu via Ubuntu’s Graphical Package Install manager which in Ubuntu 11.04 is called (Ubuntu Software Center)
During my attempt to take advantage of the nice GUI apt frontend, I encontered the error:
Wrong Architecture amd64
And Skype install failed, as you see in below’s picture (which you might be unable to read since it’s stating the error in Bulgarian 😉
The error is quite understandable, since the Skype deb package which tried to install was built for the i386 architecture.
Since the Software Center was not intelligent enough to work around the issue, I finally fixed it myself using the good old apt-get in terminal, like so:
root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install skype
...
apt did not even complain that the package had a different architecture for i386 and installed skype without any errors as well Skype worked immediately even though the arthictural difference.
This is probably because even though it’s a amd64 Ubuntu it has a kernel module loaded to support i386 binaries 😉
Now my sister can enjoy her skype on the shiny Ubuntu 😉
Tags: amd, apt frontend, architecture, arthictural, attempt, binaries, center, deb, deb package, ERROR, frontend, Graphical, graphical package, Install, issue, kernel, manager, Module, package, root, sister, Skype, software, software center, terminal, Ubuntu
Posted in Linux and FreeBSD Desktop, Linux Audio & Video, Skype on Linux | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 There seems to be a new version of Skype for Linux.
This would be a joy for every linux enthusiast … if only it had worked.
I’ve tested skype_static-2.0.0.72.tar.bz2 on Debian unstable and it prooved to crash
the same way the previous skype release was crashing. What ugly proprietary
software skype is! I truely hope some software as a good substitute for skype
will come along to free us from this evil proprietary software!
Tags: Debian, Linux, Skype, Unstable, version, working
Posted in Skype on Linux | No Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009 After I’ve recently upgraded to the latest current Debian Unstable release I stumbled upon many problems, many of which are discussed and fixes provided on the prevoius posts. One of the many terrible things I had to fix MANUALLY (I’m starting to hate that word), are the issues with sound and microphone in Skype. I’m using Skype 2.0.0.72, because skype_static-2.1.0.47 gives me worries, crashing every now and then. To fix my problems with sound and microphone while Googling I found this nice Aryn’s Blog post .
Here is what worked for me to fix the issues.
Execute1. apt-get install libsdl1.2debian libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio2. apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio3. apt-get install paprefs pavucontrol padevchooserNext 4. open gnome-alsamixer and make sure your “Mic†is not muted (in some cases it might be some capture field muted ain’t sure?)5. Start pavucontrol and make sure in the Input Devices the mute button is not selected6. Go to the gnome panel System -> Preferences -> Sound and make sure in the Input menu Microphone is not muted7. start aumix and Make sure your Microphone is “Mic†and “Igain†is not set to low volume8. Execute: alsactl store to make sure that alsa settings are not lost on system restart9. In your home directory edit ~/.asoundrcAnd add— SNIP —pcm.card0 { type hw card 0}ctl.card0 { type hw card 0} —–10. Edit /etc/libao.conf and make sure it contains default_driver=pulse11. Edit ~/.profile and add: export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulse to it12. Open Skype go to “Sound Devices†and set sound in, sound out and ringing options to:HDA Intel (hw:intel,0)
If you’re lucky with God’s help and grace your skype’s sound output and input via mic should be working just fine :)END—–
Tags: Debian, microphone, pulseaudio, Skype, squeeze, Unstable
Posted in Skype on Linux | No Comments »
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 Arrghh. After I’ve upgraded a couple of packages on my Debian unstable I’ve came across the
same old problem. Skype’s sound input, output and ringing refused to work again.
It took me like 4 hours to resolve the problem!!!!! ARGHHHH.
It’s the right time to say that skype is a complete diarrhia m*ther fucking bullshit!
I’ve tried evething. Like experimting with volume settings in:
1. /usr/bin/gnome-volume-control.gstreamer2. /usr/bin/gnome-volume-control3. /usr/bin/gnome-alsamixer4. /usr/bin/aumixthe list goes on !! You name it. And everytime it was nothing.I’ve realised some of the updates mangled my
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
.
Thus I had to add again
default-fragments = 8default-fragment-size-msec = 5
into it.
I’ve tried everything my ~/.asoundrc
pcm.pulse { type pulse}ctl.pulse { type pulse}pcm.!default { type pulse}ctl.!default { type pulse}pcm.card0 { type hw card 0}ctl.card0 { type hw card 0}pcm.dsp0 { type plug slave.pcm "hw:0,0" }
Well that’s not all the latest update of the lib32asound2-plugins Debian package is missing the pulseaudio required libraries
. Huh ?!
Anyways let’s get back to business.
To make skype work I had to create the following script:
#!/bin/shexport SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulse;/usr/bin/linux32 /opt/Skype/skype_static-2.0.0.72/skype
in /usr/local/bin/skype
Next I had to execute:
amixer set 'Input Source' 'Internal Mic'
and
echo "amixer set 'Input Source' 'Internal Mic'" >> /etc/rc.local
And yes you need to have downloaded static version of skype 2.0.0.72 and put it in
/opt/Skype/
directory.
Well if you’re lucky. Hooray Skype might work again ? If God fix it for you 🙂
END—–
Tags: again, Debian, Problems, Skype, their, Unstable
Posted in Skype on Linux | No Comments »
Saturday, September 26th, 2009 Since Skype 2.1 is not working with Debian amd64 Unstable. And I’ve seen people looking for the 2.0.0.72 static binary, I decidedto put it here on my blog for download. I just hope this might be helpful to anybody out there.
Tags: download, Linux, Skype, Static
Posted in Skype on Linux | 1 Comment »