Link: How to Emulate Google Chromecast on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktop

by Admin

Google’s latest hardware offering, Chromecast was an instant hit as it promised a better way of beaming/ controlling  multimedia content from your mobile phone on to a TV than the current choices we have right now. Now when a popular company like Google is trying to solve an age old problem that haunted Android, with a less expensive ($35) hardware, we should expect it to run out of stock. That is what exactly happened to Chromecast as it ran out of stock on all popular online stores including Google’s own Play store. Now if you have already pre-ordered a Chromecast or is in queue, here is something for you impatient folks, ready to play with few command lines.

Github user (dz0ny) has developed a Python package called Leapcast that can emulate the Chromecast hardware in Chromium environment running on your Mac, Windows and Linux. In order to achieve this hack on your computer all you have to do is carefully follow the steps below.

Full article here:
How to Emulate Google Chromecast on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktop (Compixels)

Link: OctoPi – 3D Printer Web Server Distribution for the Raspberry Pi

by Admin

I am happy to say that I am a backer of the Rigidbot 3D printer, (which you can pre-order already), I am expecting it to arrive in August. In the meantime, I have ordered a Raspberry Pi to play with and started visiting a local maker community known as XLN.

This led me to find a really cool project called OctoPrint, which lets you control 3D printers using a Raspberry Pi over a web interface, however people were not installing it on their Pis because there was no out-of-the-box solution. Today I am happy to announce that a solution is here! I give you Octoprint + Rapberry Pi = OctoPi. A raspberry Pi distribution which runs OctoPrint out of the box, with support for time-lapse video on webcams (there is also an experiential version in the works that supports streaming from a raspberry Pi camera).

Full article here:
OctoPi – 3D Printer Web Server Distribution for the Raspberry Pi (Guysoft’s Weblog)

Android users: Hate Google Hangouts? Here’s how to get Google Talk back (links)

by Admin

We know that Google really, really, REALLY wants you to use Hangouts rather than Talk. And we also know that many of you are less than enthusiastic about being switched to Hangouts, for various reasons. Well, it turns out that it may be possible to get Google Talk back. We don’t guarantee this will work, nor that if it does work, it will work forever. But we can at least give you the links that might give you what you actually want, rather than what the Google Overlords would force you to take:

How to get rid of the new Hangout app and revert back to Talk on your Android Phone (for the good, that is!) (Plugged In)

I dont like Hangouts, anyone have the latest Google Talk apk (XDA Developers)

Link: Say hello to PiCast, the open source solution to Chromecast using a Raspberry Pi

by Admin

There is a lot to love about the Chromecast. It lets you stream your browser, your desktop, and a number of apps directly to your TV with little more than a $35 dongle that plugs into HDMI on your TV. However, lately, a few problems have arisen. For one, it’s really difficult to find one unless you’re willing to wait weeks for the next stock to come in. Additionally, the root method that was discovered over at XDA has since been patched. So Google isn’t letting everyone play fast and loose with their new dongle. It’s still a great device, but it’s not perfect and now there is an alternative called PiCast.

PiCast was started by a developer named Lance Seidman. The premise? To use a $25-$35 Raspberry Pi computer to do almost exactly what Chromecast can do. It’s an open source project that’s currently in development and it has a lot of promise.

Full article:
Say hello to PiCast, the open source solution to Chromecast using a Raspberry Pi (AndroidAuthority.com)

Link: Linux How-To: Use ANY IR Remote In The House to Control XBMC

by Admin

Use Any IR Remote In The House

This tutorial will show you how to use ANY IR remote in your house to control XBMC.
I have used this method with COMPLETE success on many remotes. I have yet to find one that wont work.

To demonstrate this technique I will download and install the latest XBMCbuntu Live CD (Frodo 12.2) to verify it works “out of the box”
If you deviate from the Live CD XBMCbuntu install you are on your own installing and configuring LIRC.

Full post from the XBMC forum:
Linux How-To: Use ANY IR Remote In The House to Control XBMC

Link: Automatically restart SSH sessions and tunnels Using Autossh

by Admin

autossh is a program to start a copy of ssh and monitor it, restarting it as necessary should it die or stop passing traffic.

Automatically restart SSH sessions and tunnels Using Autossh (Ubuntu Geek)

Video and Link: Turn a Raspberry Pi Into an AirPlay Receiver for Streaming Music in Your Living Room

by Admin

Few things are better than kicking back on the couch and streaming your favorite album wirelessly to your stereo from your phone. It’s a remarkably easy thing to do with AirPlay, but if you don’t want to pay for Apple’s solutions, a $35 Raspberry Pi does the job remarkably well.

Full article:
Turn a Raspberry Pi Into an AirPlay Receiver for Streaming Music in Your Living Room (Lifehacker)

Links: How To Set Up A Wireless Hotspot (Access Point Mode) That Supports Android In Ubuntu

by Admin
A wireless hotspot enables a computer to serve as a router over Wi-Fi. Ubuntu lets you easily create a wireless hotspot by using the Network Manager, but it uses an ad hoc network and most Android and Windows Phone devices can’t connect to such networks.
For this reason, I’ve created (in collaboration with Satya) a script called AP-Hotspot that automatically creates an infrastructure (Access Point mode) wireless hotspot in Ubuntu that should work with Android and Windows Phone devices. The script uses hostapd and dnsmasq and it requires Access Point mode support for your wireless card – AP-Hotspot checks for this automatically and won’t run if your wireless card doesn’t support it.

Full article:
How To Set Up A Wireless Hotspot (Access Point Mode) That Supports Android In Ubuntu (Linux A.I)
Alternate location of above article (WebUpd8)

If you don’t feel comfortable running a script, the script is based on these instructions, so if you want you can do it manually:

[GUIDE] Making infrastructure wifi hotspot on ubuntu 12.04/12.10 (xda developers)

Link: Chromecast: Exploiting the Newest Device By Google

by Admin

Chromecast-stockOn Wednesday, July 24th Google launched the Chromecast. As soon as the source code hit we began our audit. Within a short period of time we had multiple items to look at for when our devices arrived. Then we received our Chromecasts the following day and were able to confirm that one of the bugs existed in the build Chromecast shipped with. From that point on we began building what you are now seeing as our public release package.

Exploit Package:
Our Chromecast exploit package will modify the system to spawn a root shell on port 23. This will allow researchers to better investigate the environment as well as give developers a chance to build and test software on their Chromecasts. For the normal user this release will probably be of no use, for the rest of the community this is just the first step in opening up what has just been a mysterious stick up to this point. We hope that following this release the community will have the tools they need to improve on the shortfalls of this device and make better use of the hardware.

Full story here:
Chromecast: Exploiting the Newest Device By Google. (GTVHacker)

Additional comment: These devices might be a lot more useful to some of us if someone could figure out how to 1) Add a wired network connection, 2) Add an optical audio output for those of us with older receivers (that don’t have HDMI connections) and TVs (that don’t pass audio from a HDMI port back to the receiver). They’re obviously selling these to the low-income crowd, so why would they not assume that you might want to connect this to perfectly good but slightly dated equipment that requires optical audio, or maybe even to a large screen computer monitor that doesn’t have any audio capabilities?

Additional additional comment: If the XBMC developers could create an add-on that would emulate the Chromecast device and in effect turn XBMC into a Chromecast receiver WITHOUT the need for the Chromecast dongle, that would make us VERY happy!

 

Link: How to Add USB Storage to the Raspberry Pi

by Admin

You will find that in order to add, store and remove data to a Raspberry Pi, you have three main options:

  • SD/SDHC card
  • USB flash drive
  • USB hard disk drive

You can also use network drives, USB DVD-R drives and NAS devices (perhaps powered by a Raspberry Pi!) for additional storage, but those listed above should be considered your three primary options.

We’ll take a look at the three options in more detail, how they can be used most effectively and at any shortcomings or drawbacks.

How to Add USB Storage to the Raspberry Pi (MakeUseOf)

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