I will show you how to filter out the noise using your Fedora machine:

First we need to install the necessary tools and add ourselves to the jackuser group:

yum install jack-rack qjackctl pulseaudio-module-jack ladspa-swh-plugins
gpasswd -a felix jackuser

Of course these commands need to be run as root and you need to replace felix with your username. After you’re done with that you need to log off for the changes to become effective.

Now launch QJackctl from the Applications menu and start configuring it. The following screenshots show my settings. The don’t necessarily need to be your settings, so this is a little bit trial and error.

After you changed the settings you can start the Jack daemon by pressing “Start” in the QJackctl window.

Now you fire up Jack-Rack from the Applications Menu as well. For anything to happen with your audio within Jack-Rack you need to connect your audio devices to the Jack connection of Jack-Rack. This can be done using QJackctl. See below screenshot on how I connected Jack-Rack with my sound devices:

And finally you need to add the filters to Jack-Rack. I used a serial setup of four “Mag’s Notch Filter”. You can add them by clicking on the “+” button at the top left of the Jack-Rack window. Then go to Frequency -> Filters -> Notch -> Mag’s Notch Filter.

Here’s a screenshot of my filter settings:

Frequencies are 233, 466, 932 and 1864 Hz.

Kudos for the information on frequencies go to Surfpoeten.de.

Now you need to hook up the sound output of your TV or cable/sattelite receiver to your computer’s audio input and in turn connect your computer’s audio output to some speakers or headphones.

I usually leave both filters at the end of the rack disabled as that allows for more atmosphere while keeping the vuvuzelas down

It’s not perfect but seems to work okay. If you manage to tweak your setup to achive a better sound feel free to add your findings to the comments.

And now enjoy the next world cup game without those annoying vuvuzelas

Edit

Here’s a command line for mplayer to achieve the same within mplayer:

mplayer -af pan=1:0.5:0.5,sinesuppress=233:0.01,sinesuppress=466:0.01,sinesuppress=932:0.01,sinesuppress=1864:0.01,sinesuppress=232:0.01,sinesuppress=465:0.01,sinesuppress=931:0.01,sinesuppress=1863:0.01,sinesuppress=234:0.01,sinesuppress=467:0.01,sinesuppress=933:0.01,sinesuppress=1865:0.01

Found by Thomas Moschny at http://pastebin.com/KunkS0uk

I selected WD’s pre-exchange service where you enter your credit card number and they send you a new drive right away. After you received the new drive you have 30 days to send the defective drive to them.

So now here’s what happened:

• I ordered the replacement drive
• The drive is shipped via UPS
• I get a tracking number and link to check the shipment status
• Didn’t check on it for a while
• 20 days later I recieved an email stating “Thank you for sending in your defective device” and I was like w00t!
• Called WD support to get the status because the tracking shows that the drive was shipped to a place about 200km from where I live.
• Guy tells me that everything is 100% fine, my credit card will not be charged because they already received the defective device.
• I told him that I did not receive a replacement drive and that the defective one is still producing bad blocks in my server
• He promised to call me back

Turns out that they sent the replacement drive to their own logistics center. Of course it contained the RMA number and barcode. So the people there scanned it into their systems believing it was the defective drive I sent.

Well done, WD!

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is by far my favorite F13 Feature. The mobile broadband signal strength display. Although the applet icon could use some polish. I’d prefer if the “H” for HSDPA was on a Black Background and the signal bars were in a dark grey to match the new GNOME Icons in F13.

NetworkManager: <info> (rfcomm0): found serial port (udev: hal:GSM)
NetworkManager: <info> (rfcomm0): ignoring due to lack of probed mobile broadband capabilties

I worked around this by setting all rfcomm* ports to be “probed” modems via an udev rule. I know that this probably is not the nicest way to do this but hey, it works. Furthermore I updated the script to the new Python 2.6 popen functions.

Here is what I came up with:

dialup-bluetooth.py
90-rfcomm-nm.rules

The udev rule belongs in /etc/udev/rules.d. The python script can be put anywhere you want but keep in mind that it must be run as root.

Have fun browsing the web on the go!

• 3 visits from “location falklands”
• 1 visit from “cable & wireless antigua”
• 1 visit from “cable & wireless falkland islands”

All in all since I started to use Fedora Planet people with funny ISP locations keep visiting my blog. Maybe I’ll post a list of my favorites someday.