Looks a non-starter but trying to find a way to enable video acceleration in Ubuntu.

You can list the hardware you've got from the prompt via:

lspci -v | less

From that I know my chipset's an Intel GMA 965, Intel one's are better supported so might be possible....

Doing this tells me I have direct writing 3d support enabled,

glxinfo |grep direct

Fusion-Icon may help,

sudo aptitude install fusion-icon

Allows you to switch between different window decorators (compiz & metacity), plus change some of compiz's options.

Sorted

Found a way to improve it, in terminal type

gstreamer-properties

Hit enter, this'll popup a dialog to alter the audio and video properties of your linux distro.

From here click the video tab and change default to X Windows System (No Xv), hit test to be sure, should improve the video.

You can also manage and test your webcam from here ;-)

...just might be The Stig ;-)

Flash 9

sudo rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
sudo yum install nspluginwrapper.{i386,x86_64} pulseaudio-lib.i386
sudo yum install flash-plugin
mozilla-plugin-config -i -g -v

After that you should have the 64-bit edition of Flash 9 running in Firefox, the 32-bit edition is much easier.

Quicktime

sudo yum install mplayer mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts mplayerplug-in mencoder
sudo /usr/bin/mozilla-plugin-config -i -f

Re-open Firefox and you should get some new video plugins enabled.

• Fedora 8 media links

New toy arrived today, the Slingbox Solo!

This is a cool little device that basically allows you to stream any AV source across the internet, and is perfect for watching tv wherever you happen to be.

Here's how it works.

• unpack your slingbox solo (bought from amazon.co.uk).
• connect the slingbox to your broadband router, via the supplied ethernet cable.
• use the scart passthru connector to connect your ntl / virgin / etc. box to your TV, and plug the composite cables into your slingbox's IN ports.
• plug in the supplied IR cables and rig them top & bottom to your cable's IR port (the LED you aim your remote at).
• turn it on, download the software from the slingbox website and your away!

Basically it takes over your cable / av source mimicking what the remote would normally do, then streaming the video across the web to whatever receiver you happen to use; your laptop or mobile phone via the Slingbox software.

The Slingbox Solo allows you to stream one AV source at £119; and considering you can give your friends overseas access to your box, suddenly your Eastenders-Hungry cousins can finally get their fix.

Awesome tool, and possibly the end of the TV.

• Slingbox

Clustering in effect provides a very high-level of availability and performance to your application.

In layman’s terms it involves setting up a series of nodes within the data warehouse, with each one containing a live concurrent copy of the same data. In the event of failure of the primary node, the connection is automatically routed to the secondary node (which then becomes the primary), once the original node is available again connection shifts back to the first node. Thus keeping your application online and available with very little downtime (at most 5 minutes).

Not just a component of MySQL, this can also be found in SQL 2005 and Oracle 10 it allows you to keep your system up and performance balanced across your data network; and moving these nodes to different locations / buildings allows greater redundancy in the event of major physical damage (e.g. a nuclear strike).

Worth the effort if your keen about keeping your job, here’s some links to get you started…

Guides

• Wiki: MySql Cluster

• MySQl AB: Official Info

• Alex Davies How-To

Videos

• Google MySQL Cluster Talk

• MySQL Cluster in 5 Minutes

• MySQL Performace Tuning