The keyboard locale during system boot is different than the one used when booted in the Debian OS GUI.

To edit the bootup language, edit /etc/default/keyboard

/etc/default/keyboard:
XKBLAYOUT="ca"
XKBVARIANT="fr"

The post How to change keyboard layout used during boot-time in Debian appeared first on Techy Things.

In file included from /opt/STM/STLinux-2.3/devkit/sh4/target/usr/include/c++/4.2.4/bits/char_traits.h:46,
from /opt/STM/STLinux-2.3/devkit/sh4/target/usr/include/c++/4.2.4/string:47,
from /opt/STM/STLinux-2.3/devkit/sh4/target/usr/include/c++/4.2.4/bits/locale_classes.h:47,
from /opt/STM/STLinux-2.3/devkit/sh4/target/usr/include/c++/4.2.4/locale:44,
from ../vfcommon/vfstring.h:39,
from ../vfinclude/vfcommon.h:24,
from vfrpc2.cpp:20:
/opt/STM/STLinux-2.3/devkit/sh4/target/usr/include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_algobase.h: In function ‘void std::fill(unsigned char*, unsigned char*, const unsigned char&)’:
/opt/STM/STLinux-2.3/devkit/sh4/target/usr/include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_algobase.h:598: error: ‘__glibcxx_requires_valid_range’ was not declared in this scope

Solution

You have a file called debug.h in your project that shadows the system header file. Rename your debug.h to something else and the error will be gone!

The post STL library compilation error: ‘__glibcxx_requires_valid_range’ was not declared in this scope appeared first on Techy Things.

Like many and many of us have stumbled upon and were forced to upgrade to 2010, there is no way anymore to enter your license information to install VS2008 on Windows 7. That is a shame. Fortunately someone found a way to activate the dialog that is normally found in the setup.exe to enter your legitimate license key. Here is how :

- Download and install AnVir Task Manager Free (has a built-in windows inspector)
- Load the VS2008ProEdition90dayTrialENUX1435622.iso into your favorite CD/DVD emulator
- Run the installer, stop at the screen where you see the three options  "Add or Remove Features", "Repair/Reinstall", "Uninstall Microsoft Visual Studio 2008"
- Launch AnVir Task Manager as an Admintrator
- Go to the Application tab
- Right click Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Setup - Maintenance Page and select Detailed Info
- Go to the Windows sub-tab
-  Expand Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Setup - Maintenance Page, you will see a couple of items with four named one at the bottom
-  Expand the unamed item just above the four bottom ones that are named one, this is the current dialog
-  Now right-click all item and make sure they are both Enabled and Visible
- Magica!!! Now you have the place to enter your serial number  

Troubleshooting

You could come across file permission error when running the installer normally. This could be because Visual Studio was installed by an administrator on your system (i.e. another user). You just need to give full permission to these files for your user:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\x86_amd64\vcvarsx86_amd64.bat

Otherwise if it still fails, try to copy all the DVD files to your hard-disk in a folder. Right-click the executables in the main folder and make sure they are "Run as administrator", then re-launch the autorun as Administrator.

The post Update license information to remove the trial version of Visual Studio 2008 in Windows 7 appeared first on Techy Things.

So you want to connect with SSH in python, or maybe upload files securely with SFTP from python? Paramiko will do the job.

There are two ways to install this, (i) from sources, (ii) with an online package via easy_install. But first let's gather the prerequisites.

Prerequisites - Ubuntu

Install openssh-server on ubuntu
$> sudo apt-get install openssh-server
$> sudo service ssh restart

setuptools:
$> sudo easy_install setuptools

Prerequisites - OSX

Install from sources pcre-8.31.tar.gz
Install from sources swig-2.0.7.tar.gz

setuptools:
$> sudo easy_install setuptools

Prerequisites - Windows

(i) Install python into C:\Python27
(ii) Add to path: c:\python27;c:\python27\Scripts;
(iii) Install setuptools : http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py
Run: python ez_setup.py
(iv) Install pcrypto .msi (32-bit or 64-bit *must* match python installation of 32/64-bit)
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto

(v) Optional: $>easy_install winpexpect
This allows you to socket-related-code that runs in windows as well. Otherwise the .select() function doesn't work.

Note: You might need MinGW or cygwin temporarily for the installation, then you can remove it. Please first try without it.

From sources or from existing package ?

If you are on OSX, the latest package that you will get dates back to 2008. That's too old and you will need to install from sources. At the time I am writing this the latest version is 1.7.7.2.

To install pre-built package (don't)

WARNING: Do not do this, at the time of writing, even if it works, you get a version that dates back to 2008 which is buggy.

Anyhow the syntax to issue is :

$> sudo easy_install paramiko

Build from sources

Do not checkout paramiko_scp from the Bazaar repository. This repository is old and hasn't been updated since 2008. You might be tempted to checkout the Bazaar repository because some documentation says so. Instead, fetch the latest sources from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/paramiko/
Extract and go to the directory, then build and install paramiko_scp:
$> sudo easy_install ./
or in windows: $> easy_install ./
NOTE: The ./ is important, it indicates easy_install to install the source code present in the current directory; it is thus important to also be in the correct directory

Miscellaneous problem solving

To fix the following error:

{{{
To fix error: ImportError: No module named pkg_resources
}}}

Install ipython:

$> sudo easy_install ipython

WARNING: There are many places to find paramiko. Even newer version are missing some ssh keys and you might at some point stumble on the following error. This means you are using a too old version of paramiko, or unpatched :

{{{
ssh.connect(host, username=username, password=None, pkey=privkey, key_filename=None, timeout=6)
File "build/bdist.macosx-10.7-intel/egg/paramiko/client.py", line 315, in connect
File "build/bdist.macosx-10.7-intel/egg/paramiko/client.py", line 469, in _auth
paramiko.SSHException: Unknown private key cipher "AES-128-CBC"
}}}

The post How to install paramiko (paramiko_scp) appeared first on Techy Things.

Canon XS

The Canon Rebel XS, a basic 10.1 MP Reflex EOS model with separate body and lens, with a DIGIC III processor, worth 500$ at the time. The lens used is a standard 18-55mm with IS (Image Stabilizer). Release in 2008.

Canon SX40 HS

And the Canon SX40 HS, a one-piece consumer-level 12.1 MP,  with a DIGIC 5 processor, worth 400$. The lens is a built-in 24-840mm 35X with IS (Image Stabilizer) and ultrasonic focus. Released in 2011.

The battle seems interesting and I first presumed that the SX40 would outperform the old Rebel XS since 3 years of development separates them and they are both in the same price range, however as you will see, the SX40 is cheap and gives an overall poorer pictures compared to a basic Rebel.

Noticeable aberrations on sides of image

The first bad point about the SX40 is that noticeable distortion appears outside the center of the image, something that I never noticed on the Rebel XS.

Image Quality

The second thing I noticed on the SX40 is that it does not perform well for closeup shots (macro shots). In both automatic and manual shooting mode, there is no way to get as much resolution as the Reflex XS. On regular shots with the flash, both are comparable and the SX40 performs well. As soon as you turn off the flash (which I often do to have more balanced colors), the Canon Rebel XS wins. See these comparison shots below. The colors are all washed out in the second picture while the skin pattern is still clear on the first one. On average it takes 4 or 5 shots with the SX40 to get one that is crisp - while under the same conditions all shots are good with the older Rebel XS. Note that both pictures where taken with the same settings at the same moment (ISO 800, Large image size, same distance, automatic colors, single-point focus on the chameleon's body) :

Zoom/Crop - Canon XS - ISO 800 - No Flash

Zoom/Crop - Canon SX40 HS - ISO 800 - No Flash

For references these are the original pictures

Original file - Canon XS

Original file - Canon SX40 HS

Other differences

For one thing they have fixed the problem where if the SD card is ejected too quickly after opening the little door, the Canon XS doesn't have time to write the table of content and the SD card appears corrupted. There are other noticeable improvements on the SX40 such as the automatic subject finder (Intelligent Subject Analysis System) which is impressive - artificial intelligence coding was done inside the processor and it works well.  If you buy the SX40 for its zoom, note that the last stretch of the zoom is not satisfying - consider it like a 25X - the last 10X is just useful for Canon's marketing department

Conclusion

My conclusions are that the SX40 HS optics were optimized for long-range shooting and not so for macro shots. I does well on movie recording too. It feels like a 200$ camera equipped with a big lens in a large body, below professional grade. On the other hand the Canon XS feels like a 600$ camera locked down on the megapixels and sold at 500$.

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