If you have noticed some video/graphics issues in LinuxMint or another Debian/Ubuntu based distribution along the lines of slanted tooltip fonts, random desktop environment restarts, and strange menu issues in Java apps, you may have the same problem I have been having.

My issues were a lot easier to resolve than I though they were going to be. The problem stems from an older version of the AMD/ATI video drivers that are found in the repos. If you have installed them and see these issues, then I may have the quick and easy solution for you.

This is the post on the LinuxMint forums that helped me considerably:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=96957#p553730

Weird video issues in LinuxMint (and others) Gnome 3 + Netbeans Re-Revisited is a post from: SupremeTechs

There are various ways to do what we need to do. Some require you to rip the bluray first and then watch the resulting MKV. I found that this took 15 minutes or so on my 8-core system. However, there is another method which uses a program called makemkv and pipes the output to VLC using a network stream. I found this method on the web but found that some of the links were screwed up, so I couldn't use it directly. After some searching, I found the script I was looking for and edited it slightly. For your convenience, I'm rewriting the HOWTO and including the files all here.

First of all, create a folder called makemkv in your home directory. You can use a different location if you prefer but for simplicity we'll put it in our home directory.

mkdir ~/makemkv

Change into that directory and grab two zipped tarballs from the makemkv author. Then extract them.

cd ~/makemkv
wget http://www.makemkv.com/download/makemkv_v1.7.2_bin.tar.gz
wget http://www.makemkv.com/download/makemkv_v1.7.2_oss.tar.gz
tar xvf makemkv_v1.7.2_bin.tar.gz
tar xvf makemkv_v1.7.2_oss.tar.gz

Yes you need both the bin and the src.

Make sure you have some dependencies.

sudo apt-get install build-essential libc6-dev libssl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libqt4-dev curl vlc

In other HOWTOs, the curl dependency isn't mentioned. You need curl for the script we will download later.

Next compile and installed the two packages.

cd makemkv_v1.6.12_oss
make -f makefile.linux
sudo make -f makefile.linux install
cd ../makemkv_v1.6.12_bin
make -f makefile.linux
sudo make -f makefile.linux install

Finally download and run playBluRay.sh. I gzipped it so the site wouldn't complain about the file type. Just gunzip it and execute it.

It will run makemkvcon to decrypt the bluray and setup a stream on port 51000 of your computer. Then it will start vlc using the network stream. It may take a few moments to load it all.

Note that sometimes a bluray won't play correctly even with this method or you may see a behind the scenes segment before the movie. I had this problem on my Rambo bluray.

How to play a Bluray movie in Debian Testing is a post from: SupremeTechs

The one I'm going to focus on is TextEntity, which is great for adding text to the screen. However, I was unable to change the text color for the text directly using the setColor() method from the Entity class, which is inherited by TextEntity. There's not a lot of documentation for either Slick2D or Marte, so I wasn't exactly sure if I was missing something or if I had found a problem with the class.

Fixing the problem is rather simple. I created a new class called MyText and copied everything over from the TextEntity class. I could have extended it, but instead I wanted a new class which extends Entity directly. Then I changed the code in the render() method as such:

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public void render(GameContainer container, Graphics g)	throws SlickException {
	if (font == null) {
		font = container.getDefaultFont();
		this.calculateHitBox();
	}
	g.setFont(font);
	if (text != null) {
		g.setColor(this.getColor());
		g.drawString(text, x, y);
        }
}

I then added a new constructor that takes a color as the fifth parameter:

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public MyText(float x, float y, Font font, String text, Color color) {
	super(x,y);
	this.setColor(color);
	this.font = font;
	this.setText(text);
}

This gave me the functionality I was after. This change basically just sets the graphics object color property to the Entity's color property, which is exactly how I thought it should have worked to begin with.

If there's a better way to accomplish this, let me know. I'm only intermediate with Java.

Marte Engine TextEntity setColor() is a post from: SupremeTechs

Getting rid of Hiccups is a post from: SupremeTechs

It isn't that I have anything against Google or that I have anything to hide myself. However, Google having this amount of data can be very hazardous with our government in the state that it's in. There's way too many tyrannical laws being passed through Congress these days. The government has given itself way too much power and we're just waiting around for the executive to be elected that will make full use of this power.

Google's data collection may be great for their ad revenue plans, but the chance of the government deciding that it wants access to any or all of that data is what upsets me. Google should reconsider the amount of data it retains from it's users. This is essential to eliminating the "big brother" factor.

Big Brother Google is a post from: SupremeTechs

One of the most entertaining emails I received daily is the vWorkers mailer. It is a list of all the latest freelance work that is available at vWorker.com. It's entertaining because of some of the amazing things some people want written for peanuts. There are many foreign programmers waiting on jobs like this, and they are willing to work for near nothing. However, it still gives me a good chuckle when someone thinks they have come up with some amazing idea and just need someone to code it. Why is that funny? Because most people have good ideas, even those idiot code monkeys. The main difference is that a code monkey realizes when an idea is ridiculous.

Today's job posting was funny for a whole new reason. The irony in this post is just amazing. Here is a screen shot of the listing. I've highlighted a clue to the irony. Enjoy!

Funny vWorker Job Posting is a post from: SupremeTechs

I've recently become addicted to Minecraft. Here is something I built.

8bit Mario in Minecraft is a post from: SupremeTechs

Flash has been used for everything from buttons and banners to games and complete user interfaces. It's a very powerful tool, but it is outdated and is maintained exclusively by Adobe. While the Flash player browser plugin is completely free, the tools to create Flash content are not. There in lies the trouble. Being closed source, Flash depends on Adobe development. There are many people who use 64-bit Linux as their primary OS. Adobe has canceled development on the 64-bit version of there Flash plugin. This means that simple things like Youtube videos won't work on 64bit Linux.

This is why proprietary formats are bad. Hopefully things will improve as more and more webmasters turn to HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript for their Dynamic content needs.

Adobe Cancels 64bit Linux Flash beta is a post from: SupremeTechs

Recently I decided to take up iPhone app development. I found a great course on iTunesU. It's a complete Stanford Univerity course on iPhone development. It is made up of around 20 videos.

So I started to browse through some of the other courses available on iTunesU. Man, I can not explain how excited I was when I started reading through all the available course. I know, most people won't care about lecture videos. However, I love it. I'm sitting here watching a lecture on Physics from MIT. This is great stuff.

iTunes University is a post from: SupremeTechs

Pull the Genie out of the Compiz Fusion Magic Lamp is a post from: SupremeTechs