Latitude and Longitude is usually reported in one of three formats, using degrees, degrees and minutes, or using degrees, minutes, and seconds. There are 60 seconds to a minute, and 60 minutes to a degree. Whichever of the formats is used, the smallest unit is often represented as a decimal.

Thus

47.89149246116762°, -121.65393948554993°

is the same as

47° 53.4895476700572′, -121° 39.2363691329958′

is the same as

47° 53′ 29.372860203432″, -121° 39′ 14.182147979748″.

To convert the decimal portion of degrees into minutes or the decimal portion of minutes into seconds, simply multiply the decimal portion by 60. To go up, divide by 60.

Update: I’ve written a little online converter here: http://ideaharbor.org/ll/.

Some notes for working with Wi-Fi on Linux:

View available wireless networks:
sudo iwlist eth1 scanning

Bind to a network (request ip address):
sudo dhclient

Check connection status:
sudo iwconfig

Disable wireless:
sudo ifdown eth1

Setup Kismet:
edit /etc/kismet/kismet.conf and change source= to
source=ipw2100,eth1,mycard
sourcetype is one of the sources listed in /usr/share/doc/kismet/README.gz; mine happens to be the nickname given by iwconfig. You may also need to set suiduser= to your login.

I have an old Hawking Tech HWU54G Mini Wireless-G USB Adapter which runs a ZyDAS ZD1211 802.11b/g USB-WLAN-Chip. There’s a Linux driver at:

• http://sourceforge.net/projects/zd1211/
• http://old.nabble.com/ZyDAS-ZD1211-Linux-Driver-f3220.html
• http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_part.php?brandname=Hawking+Tech&zoek=brandname

…and other multimedia codex.

Playback

Ubunty’s come a long way since 2005. Now just about everything you need is at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats. I especially like the Medibuntu repositories.

As such most of the below is no longer needed.

Helpful links:

• VLC
  • http://www.videolan.org/
  • http://nanocrew.net/2005/09/01/compiling-vlc/
• Xine
  • http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/linuxdvd.htm
  • http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/

sudo apt-get install vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc videolan-doc

##########
# from: http://soundlinuxtraining.com/portal/mod/book/view.php?id=2340&chapterid=26
#$ sudo apt-get update
#$ sudo apt-get install totem-xine gstreamer0.8-misc gstreamer0.8-plugins gstreamer0.8-mad
#$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg libmad0 msttcorefonts libdvdread3
#This adds the totem player, gstreamer, Micro$oft fonts and the ability to watch DVDs.
#Now run the dvdread install script and the gstreamer register program.
#$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
#$ gst-register-0.8
This is great and all, but still gives me:
The source seems encrypted, and can't be read. Are you trying to play
an encrypted DVD without libdvdcss?
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-lame
gst-register-0.8
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
did the trick.. but it's choppy..
##########

# multimedia codecs
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-plugins
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-lame
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install w32codecs
sudo apt-get install libdivx4linux
sudo apt-get install lame
sudo apt-get install sox
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install mjpegtools
sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
gst-register-0.8

sudo apt-get install libxine-extracodecs

# dvd library; see http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/doc/plf
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

# mplayer
sudo apt-get install mplayer-386 mplayer-doc
sudo apt-get install mplayer-fonts
sudo apt-get install mozilla-mplayer
# maybe (done):
 sudo cp /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf_backup
 # replace vo=x11, with vo=xv,
 sudo vi /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh

Ripping

AcidRip

The default setup rips a ~550M single .avi without subtitles.

drip

Couldn’t find my libdvdcss; all well.

dvdrip

The default setup rips ~7G per dvd as .vob files. It’s easy to select which subtitle and audio tracks are ripped. Records everything on the DVD (extra features, etc), but not the menu.