Rick's Quasi Blog

More Android Stuff!

2011-05-27T20:24:00.001-04:00

Now that I have a Droid-X, I need to start a collection of links related to Android.

First up, at Google-IO this year, they announced a project that allows you to use your Droid with an Arduino project board:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/05/why-google-choosing-arduino-matters-and-the-end-of-made-for-ipod-tm.html

The developer's kit needed to work with the board. You also need to have a newer version of the Android OS that supports USB-Host mode. My Droid-X currently doesn't have this version of the OS - Bummer!
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html

The regular Android Developer's SDK installation instructions:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html

High Speed Photography with Arduino

2010-12-04T18:13:00.001-05:00

Cool! I think I may have to try this project! Sounds like a combination that's just right for me - photography and computers.

In this video, Matt Richardson demonstrates an Arduino project that fires off your flash when it hears a sound. He demonstrates the outcome capturing a balloon in mid-pop.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/11/how-to_arduino_high_speed_photograp.html

I think I'll build mine using the Arduino Mega board - more than what he used but it looks like it would have potential for other projects.

I might use the PC Sync port on my flash in which case I'd need this cord:

Automated Webpage Retrieval with Perl

2010-08-21T23:26:00.003-04:00

Now that our local Blockbuster went under, we're looking for alternatives for movie rentals. I looked into NetFlix and saw that they now offer one DVD at a time with the ability to download movies (perhaps to a Roku device). That got me to thinking that I could have a problem with downloads now that Comcast has bandwidth caps.

Comcast has a page to monitor your monthly download count. The problem is that I rarely (make that never) visit the Comcast main page - they're just an internet connection provider to me. So what I want is something that will reach out to the page and pull off the usage number and then relay it to me via some other means such as email or perhaps a log file.

Part of the challenge of this is coming up with a way to get past the log-in screen so that I can get to the month-to-date download stats. Here's where Perl comes to the rescue again. This article from IBM covers how to use the WWW::Mechanize and Crypt::SSLeay modules to crack this egg! Now it's just a matter of parsin

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/wa-perlsecure.html

Order of the Arrow

2010-08-21T23:26:00.001-04:00

Now that my son as moved up to Boy Scouts, I'm looking into renewing my membership in the Order of the Arrow. Tuckahoe Lodge 386 is our local lodge. It'll be interesting to see how things play out now that our council has merged with Keystone and the two lodges become one.

http://tuckahoe386.org/

Convert AVI to WAV

2010-04-17T17:04:00.001-04:00

On Linux, the following allows you to convert an AVI file to WAV for playing in your CD player.

mplayer -vo null -ao pcm:file=mywav.wav myavi.avi

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=183887

Flat File Extractor

2010-03-25T22:20:00.001-04:00

I just read about this tool on the Ubuntu Geek site (http://www.ubuntugeek.com/).

It looks like it could come in handy for file manipulation on *nix platforms.

ffe - flat file extractor
http://ff-extractor.sourceforge.net/

Converting Video on Linux

2010-01-24T01:31:00.001-05:00

I made a video of our Pinewood derby and edited it together in Movie Maker. (Yes, Windows. I tried three or four Linux based ones and couldn't find one what worked for me.)

Anyway, in the end I have a WMV file that I wanted to convert to AVI. I used ffmpeg to do the trick. Originally, the video images were distorted due to the sampling and compression. I ended up using the -sameq option to retain the original video quality.

Here's the command that I ran:
ffmpeg -i Derby2010.wmv -sameq Derby2010.avi

Android Development Resources

2009-12-19T23:21:00.001-05:00

Android Snippets Site: http://www.androidsnippets.org/

Android Questions on StackOverflow.com http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android

Android Developers Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers

New resources on the developer site. http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-resources-and-sample-code-on.html

Removing An Android Lock Pattern

2009-12-19T20:54:00.001-05:00

I generated an Android VM for testing a couple days ago. During my test I added a lock pattern. Unfortunately, when I went back to the image last night, I forgot the code. D'oh!

http://www.naschenweng.info/2009/09/17/android-too-many-pattern-attempts-phone-is-locked

This page has the steps for removing the lock. You need to connect to a running VM using adb and issue two SQLite commands to turn off the lock. Since I was running the VM without running Eclipse, I had to attach to the phone using the connect command before running the rest of the steps

adb connect localhost:5554
adb shell

#

sqlite3 data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
sqlite> .exit
# exit

TweetDeck on Ubuntu Karmic

2009-12-04T18:20:00.001-05:00

I read a review of TweetDeck and thought it looked interesting. It's an Adobe Air base application. I have Air installed on my system but when I went to the TweetDeck site, the express installation link bawked that I needed to upgrade to the latest Flash Player. I already have the latest avaiable for Ubuntu.

What I ended up doing is using wget to pull the .air file locally and then used the Adobe Air installer to do the TweetDeck installation.
wget http://downloads.tweetdeck.com/TweetDeck_0_32.0.air

Eclipse Coughs on Karmic

2009-11-29T20:06:00.006-05:00

There's a problem with Eclipse when running under Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) that causes some of the buttons to stop working. I did some searching on Google and stumbled on this quick fix. You have to export a GDK setting to fix it. I ended up putting it all in a script that I run from the Ubuntu menu. The problem reoccurs though if you switch workspaces.

#!/bin/bash
#-------------------------------------------------
# Set a Gnome override that is needed in order
# to make Eclipse work on Karmic.
#-------------------------------------------------

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true
~/eclipse/eclipse

# End of Script #

The same thing happens with the Android AVD Manager application. It too had to be executed via a script.

#!/bin/bash
#-------------------------------------------------
# Set a Gnome override that is needed in order
# to make AVD Manager work.
#-------------------------------------------------

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=true
~/android-sdk-linux_x86-1.6_r1/tools/android

# End of Script #

Android Developer

2009-11-29T00:52:00.002-05:00

Found this animated graphic... Pretty cool!

Facebook Command Line

2009-11-28T12:57:00.001-05:00

This command line interface to Facebook looks interesting.

http://fbcmd.dtompkins.com/commands

Compressing Firefox Database Files

2009-11-23T20:37:00.001-05:00

Firefox is using SQLite for storing some of its data. In order to remove any rows that were deleted in tables, you need to use the "VACUUM" command.

cd /yourFirefoxDefaultProfileFolder
find . -name '*.sqlite' -exec sqlite3 {} "VACUUM" \;

I'm hoping this will make things a little snappier.

Coffee On the Trail

2009-11-22T00:29:00.005-05:00

Been looking at camping gear to get for when we move on to Boy Scouts. Since I'm a big coffee fan, this Jet Boil system may be the ticket for me. Jerry from The Scoutmaster Podcast spoke highly of the Jet Boil system. This one includes the optional coffee press.

Brittany's Blog

2009-11-21T00:30:00.002-05:00

Tonight I helped Brittany set up her own blog. She's starting a column for giving tips and advice to college freshman. Check it out at this URL
http://thecollegiatecourier.blogspot.com/

Android Without Eyes

2009-10-13T07:05:00.001-04:00

Interesting presentation from Google IO conference on using Android when you can't look at the screen.

The one "circular" keyboard very similar to what I used on the Zaurus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS-ju61vOQw&NR=1

Android Developer Links

2009-09-24T23:08:00.001-04:00

I'm starting to look in to writing apps for the Android based phones. Here's the collection of links:

Main Android Developers Site: From there you can get information on the APIs, tools, and other things needed to get you started. It includes a link to the Eclipse IDE and their Android Developer Tool (ADT) plug-in.
http://developer.android.com/index.html

Motorola is making a big push for Android Development work. They have the MotoDev site for getting started and getting help with problems.
http://developer.motorola.com/

Motorola is also pushing their own twist on the Eclipse IDE. You can install MOTODEV Studio which has Eclipse, ADT, and they add in Snippets to help with boilerplate code. I've downloaded it but as of this post have not tried it yet.
http://community.developer.motorola.com/t5/MOTODEV-Blog/Code-Snippets-in-MOTODEV-Studio-for-Android/ba-p/1691#A109

http://developer.motorola.com/docstools/motodevstudio/

MOTODEV is also hosting a Technical Library.
https://developer.motorola.com/docstools/library/

So many things to play with!

Update 10/09/09: Found some more useful links:

DroidDraw - This is a tool to drag/drop components on to a pallet to generate an Android UI screen. Click Generate and it'll create the XML contents for your main.xml file.
http://www.droiddraw.org/

Google Android channel on BriteHub.com
http://www.brighthub.com/mobile/google-android.aspx

Android Tapp. Information & news about Android and applications for Android.
http://www.androidtapp.com/

Android Apps. A site that review Android apps. This site includes a video of the application in use on a phone.
http://www.androidapps.com/

Create Maps from your GPS Tracks

2009-08-19T23:33:00.001-04:00

I got a copy of the GPS data from our local Boy Scout Camp. The file was in GDB format but I was able to use GPSVisualizer.com to convert it to other formats.

But in the end, I created Google Maps with the waypoints marked on them using this tool on their page:
http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input

Very cool. Cumbersome because of all the false starts. Originally, I tried to convert to a format that could be used with OpenStreetMap but I couldn't get a clean conversion that would work.

Hearing Different Voices

2009-08-13T22:21:00.001-04:00

In Festival...
This forum post has the instructions to download and install additional voices for Festival.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=677277

sudo apt-get install festlex-cmu
cd /usr/share/festival/voices/english/
sudo wget -c http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cmu_arctic/packed/cmu_us_clb_arctic-0.95-release.tar.bz2
sudo tar jxf cmu_us_clb_arctic-0.95-release.tar.bz2
sudo ln -s cmu_us_clb_arctic cmu_us_clb_arctic_clunits
sudo cp /etc/festival.scm /etc/festival.scm.backup
sudo echo "(set! voice_default 'voice_cmu_us_clb_arctic_clunits)" >> /etc/festival.scm

Editing Nikon NEF EXIF Tags

2009-08-11T23:28:00.001-04:00

I needed to add a Copyleft notice to some of my RAW images. I tried a bunch of tools to update the tags but the only one that worked was exiftool. I tried exiv2 and it was able to dump with great detail all of the EXIF tags but was not able to update the tag on a Nikon RAW file.

The final command string that worked was:
exiftool -Copyright='Creative Commons Attribution (BY) Rick Stoner [RLStoner@GMail.com] - 2009' *.NEF

Alcohol Burner Stoves

2009-08-01T12:13:00.001-04:00

I head about these on The Scoutmaster's Minute blog when Scoutmaster Jerry interviewed the company's founder. They sound interesting. Slow cooking but light weight.

http://minibulldesign.com

Tons of information on how to build different types of stoves:
http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm

WikiPedia article on Alcohol backpacking stoves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove

Mountain Biking Revisited

2009-06-24T22:39:00.001-04:00

My son just upgraded from his single speed bike to a used 21 speed mountain bike. So that event plus just finding out that one of the guys on my team is an avid mountain biker got me to remisicing for the old days of riding the trials around Lambs Gap and Millers Gap.

Dirt Rag Magazine http://www.dirtragmag.com/
National Off Road Biking Assoc. NORBA http://www.norba.org/
Mountain Bikers of Michaux http://the-skinny-on-mbm.blogspot.com/
Susquehanna Area Mountain Bike Assoc. SAMBA http://www.sambabiker.com

International Mountain Bicycling Assoc.'s National Mountain Bike Patrol. There isn't a patrol in this area but I think it's a cool concept. It would make for an interesting Scouting project, combining mountain biking with Emergency Preparedness & First Aid. http://www.imba.com/nmbp/index.html

.

Google AppEngine Overview

2009-05-20T19:48:00.001-04:00

I need to work on an application and then a demo for our JUG.

http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/java/overview.html

Working Smarter

2009-05-20T19:46:00.001-04:00

Interesting approach to getting things done and cutting out some of the communication interruptions during the day.

http://lifehacker.com/5161561/simple-guidelines-for-workday-quality-over-quantity?skyline=true&s=x

FIT Fitnesse

2009-05-10T19:31:00.001-04:00

http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=39417

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-cq02286/index.html?ca=dgr-jw22JUntFITTesting

http://fitnesse.org/

http://fit.c2.com/

Maven & FIT
http://mojo.codehaus.org/fit-maven-plugin/usage.html
http://mojo.codehaus.org/fit-maven-plugin/examples/running-fit.html

Interesting post about Selenium. The guy references a Selenium Firefox extension for recording tests.
http://brill.no/creating-automatic-acceptance-tests/

Trinidad - "In-Process test runner for FitNesse". Allows you to run Fitnesse test from jUnits within your IDE. Also allows Maven to run tests. I wonder how this compares to the fit-maven-plugin? Trinidad's syntax sure is gnarly.
http://www.fitnesse.info/trinidad
http://neuri.co.uk/resources/projects/trinidad/maven-trinidad-plugin/run-tests-mojo.html

Sample stuff from the FitNessw wiki:
http://localhost:4333/FitNesse.FixtureCode

FitNesse page on using the DoFixture class. This is a pain to get working. The Ensure stuff from the book didn't work (or I couldn't figure it out).
http://www.fitnesse.info/fixturegallery:fitlibraryfixtures:dofixture

Rotate an AVI Clip in Linux

2009-04-10T21:50:00.001-04:00

I used our Canon PowerShot digital camera to take a clip of my daughter. I am used to taking photos in portrait mode and didn't think when I took the movie clip in portrait mode.

Here's the command to rotate it using mencoder on Linux.

mencoder MVI_2210.AVI -o MVI_2210_b.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc -vf rotate=1

I love using Linux!

Webelos Scientist - Making Model Rockets

2009-03-26T16:56:00.003-04:00

http://www.jamesyawn.com/modelrocket/intro/index.html

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-build-a-custom-model-rocket-from-scratch-234075/

Digital Signing a PDF Document

2009-02-28T22:47:00.001-05:00

The Local Tour Permits from the BSA now have a provision for doing a digital signature. From checking around, I found a page on FlatMtn.com that had instructions on using OpenSSL to generate a PKCS12 digital signature file.

http://www.flatmtn.com/article/setting-openssl-create-certificates

I used OpenSSL and created a Certificate Authority for RainBark.com. From that master certificate, I created a personal one for me. Perhaps I'll pursue an SSL certificate for RainBark.com from some place like GoDaddy so that there is a chain of authority to the cert.

http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/ssl/ssl.asp?isc=sslqgo012c&ci=8979

Adding Fonts to Ubuntu

2009-02-28T19:16:00.001-05:00

I was reading a post on LifeHacker.com's Linux section about adding fonts for a Conky app. It pointed to daFont.com for downloading fonts.

This link on the Ubuntu Wiki has instructions on manually adding TTF fonts.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Fonts#Manually

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography on Linux

2009-02-19T23:14:00.001-05:00

I've heard this mentioned several times on TWiP and tried to do one my self on Linux using Gimp. My experiment with HDR involved a photo of my son's Pinewood Derby Car. I did two exposures, one for the car and one for the LED headlights. Here's how it turned out.

Tonight, John Flinchbaugh told me about Qtpfsgui for doing HDR on a Linux machine. He's used it for several photos. I'm anxious to give it a try.

RAW Image File Processing on Linux

2009-02-19T23:02:00.001-05:00

Tonight, I had a chance to talk with John Flichbaugh after our Java User Group meeting and he told me about RAW Studio for working with Nikon RAW image files on Linux.

http://rawstudio.org/

John demonstrated how the tool allows you to adjust the white balance and exposure levels and that you have more latitude when using the RAW file compared to using the JPEG file.

The guys on This Week in Photography have mentioned previously that we need to become familiar with the histograms in order to tell if the images are being exposed correctly.

http://twipphoto.com/

Next Year's Derby Car...

2009-02-10T22:24:00.001-05:00

I would like to have an array of flashing LEDs. Perhaps I can get something from this site to help build it.

http://www.nerdkits.com/videos/ledheart/

Inter-Patrol Scoutmaster's Challenge

2009-02-08T15:36:00.001-05:00

I'm considering breaking our Webelos den/patrol into two smaller patrols so that we can begin doing competitions and it'll give the Webe's more chances to lead a smaller group.

http://scoutmaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/08/interpatrol_sco.html

The Strobist

2008-12-22T21:48:00.001-05:00

The Strobist website has tips on using your strobe light for photography.

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

I heard about this site on a recent episode of This Week in Photography. http://twipphoto.com/

BSA Innovation Engine

2008-11-21T21:26:00.001-05:00

Website for submitting ideas and voting on others that have been submitted.

http://ideas.scouting.org/

Enlarging the VirtualBox Disk

2008-11-11T00:23:00.001-05:00

My VirtualBox machine for Windows is running out of room. Here are some instructions that I found for increasing the size of the virtual disk.

12/27/08... Followed these procedures and it worked like a champ! Very cool. One thing that I was worried about was the GParted step would actually run the virtual disk up to its maximum size but it didn't. The virtual disk is still only sized to what I'm actually using not the full size.

» How to enlarge a VirtualBox disk.

Video Editing on Linux

2008-11-11T00:21:00.001-05:00

Is a pain...

Haven't found something that works yet, reverted to using Windows. Here's the list of projects that I'll be checking out though.

http://jahshaka.org/

http://cinelerra.org/getting_cinelerra.php#hardy

http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2008/05/howto-install-cinerella-video-editor.html

Already tried Kino but I need a new Firewire cable to import digital video.

Tried Open Movie Editor - Couldn't get it to work for me.

Tried Avidemux - was able to use it to pull off a small clip of video but it was a pain.

Backpacking Hints, Tips, & Wisdom

2008-11-04T21:15:00.001-05:00

From the Scoutmaster Blog.

Scoutmaster: Some Sources of Backpacking Hints, Tips and Wisdom

Team Building Games

2008-10-27T23:03:00.001-04:00

Heard about this on the Scoutmaster Podcast.

Team Building Activities, Initiative Games & Problem Solving Exercises

10 Essentials Things to Carry

2008-10-05T13:10:00.001-04:00

The Scoutmaster Minute: Don't Max the Minimum

Hibernate/JSF/Links

2008-09-02T11:11:00.001-04:00

http://ondra.zizka.cz/stranky/programovani/java/index.texy

http://balusc.blogspot.com/2006/06/using-datatables.html

http://java.dzone.com/articles/harder-than-it-should-be-hiber

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-jsf3/

http://java.sun.com/mailers/techtips/enterprise/2006/TechTips_Aug06.html

http://facestutorials.icefaces.org/tutorial/converter-tutorial.html

Great Lecture

2008-07-28T22:23:00.001-04:00

One of my buddies recommended watching this lecture from Prof. Pausch.

Slashdot | "Last Lecture" CMU Professor Randy Pausch Dies

Hardy / Intel 945 Poor Frame Rate

2008-07-06T13:26:00.001-04:00

grumpymole: Ubuntu Hardy - Intel 945 Graphics Driver Needs Some Tweaking

Google Earth has poor performance on my daughter's Dell laptop. The video board is an Intel 945. The post listed above shows some tweaks to the Xorg.conf file to get the frame rate up.

It helped gxlgears but didn't do much for Google Earth.

Managing Large Cub Scout Den Advancement Reporting

2008-06-25T19:37:00.001-04:00

PackMaster for managing & tracking each Cub's advancements.

PDFCreator for capturing the reports from PackMaster as a PDF document.

VirtualBox for running Windows under Linux.

PDFToolKit for splitting the reports into separate pages for each Cub.

Linux.com :: Manipulating PDFs with the PDF Toolkit

Mutt for generating an email to the Cub's parent with the Cub's advancement report attached as a PDF.
http://www.shelldorado.com/articles/mailattachments.html

So the plan is to fire up Windows in VirtualBox, start PackMaster and enter their progress. Next use PackMaster to generate the Rank Award report listing the un-finished requirements. The report is "printed" to PDFCreator which is a virtual printer. It captures the output converting it to PDF format.

The PDF file is stored on a Linux folder that's shared with the Windows virtual machine.

Next switch back to Linux.

A Bash script will use PDFToolkit to split the report out by Cub scout based upon page number. The Cub's page of the report will be emailed to the parents by attaching it to an email using Mutt.

It wasn't too bad doing this by hand with a small den but with 13 Cubs, it's now time to automate getting these reports out... And no more sifting through a stack of manuals trying to figure out what was and wasn't entered since last time.

Boy Scouts of America Open Source Software

2008-06-10T23:15:00.001-04:00

Cool! Love OSS! Hope we can make this work.

Open Source Software from the Boy Scouts of America

https://opensource.scouting.org/

The article posted in ComputerWorld:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9095238

Limestone Springs Trout Preserve

2008-06-05T21:46:00.001-04:00

We went here on Saturday 5/30. Nathaniel caught 5 (he says 6 because he used the netted the one that I caught on my fly rod) Rainbow trout. The guys working there will clean the fish and pack them in ice for you but won't fillet them. Great place to take a kid fishing. Guaranteed to catch at least one.

http://www.limestonespringspreserve.com/index.htm

Limestone Springs Preserve 717-866-2461

GMail's IMAP in Thunderbird

2008-05-22T21:13:00.001-04:00

I've been using the IMAP option for about a month but it wasn't quite working right. I just found this entry on LifeHacker and decided to tweak my settings tonight. I'll see if it makes it work any better

http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/turn-thunderbird-into-the-ultimate-gmail-imap-client-314574.php

Maven to Debian Package

2008-05-22T12:47:00.001-04:00

This Maven plug-in can be used to build your Java project into a Debian package that can be deployed to Debian based Linux machines.

http://mojo.codehaus.org/deb-maven-plugin/using-deb.html

Cool...

Jr USA Shooting Team

2008-05-11T16:57:00.001-04:00

This is from the advertisement shown in Scouting magazine. Kids who shoot a score of 35 on the rifle course can earn the 2008 rifle shooting patch. A similar patch is available for hitting 7 of 25 clay targets.

http://www.nssf.org/JrUSA/

Print out the target, score 35 in 5 shots, sign and submit the target for the patch.

Cub Scout Online Reference

2008-05-11T14:26:00.001-04:00

BSA National Council's (Scouting.org) Cub Scout reference section.

Find material for leaders, parents, etc.

http://scouting.org/CubScouts.aspxC

Also the place to go to get their podcast.

Links for Whittlin' Chip Award

2008-04-20T21:18:00.002-04:00

Time to start working on the Whittlin' Chip award for my Bear cubs to end the year. Here are a collection of links to get me started (besides the stuff from POW-WOW).

WHITTLIN' CHIP Requirements - The Virtual Cub Scout Leader's Handbook

Wood Carvers Website... FAQ Page.
http://www.woodcarvers.org/faq.htm

Scouter Network discussion forum on Whittlin' http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=110822

Baloo's Bugle page on Whittln' Chip. http://usscouts.org/bbugle/bb9808/bb9808wit.html

HACC's Campus Paper

2008-03-01T12:13:00.002-05:00

Brittany is writing for Harrisburg Area Community College's newspaper The Fourth Estate.

She wrote the feature article for the March 2008 edition.
future link here

Her Entertainment Column for the February 2008 Edition:
http://www.the4estate.com/site/view_section/52?archive_id=1

Battlefield 2

2008-01-11T20:02:00.002-05:00

My BF2 Stats page
FlintNFrizzen

Secrets of Battlefield...
http://www.secretsofbattlefield.com/

Tracking BF2 Buddies with BF2Tracker.com
http://bf2tracker.com/bf2_buddylist.php?groupid=

Alternative to Nalgene Bottles

2007-12-31T19:44:00.002-05:00

Klean Kanteen :: 40 oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle

Ubuntu - Fix for Festival

2007-12-07T21:29:00.002-05:00

I've been a fan of Festival text-to-speech but it never worked on my laptop with Feisty nor with Gutsy. I just found this discussion thread and the two parameters recommended worked just fine.

Before, I'd get an error that /dev/dsp could not be opened.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=211821

I did not have a .festivalrc file so I had to create one and it only contains the two parms referenced in the discussion.

(Parameter.set 'Audio_Command "aplay -q -c 1 -t raw -f s16 -r $SR $FILE")
(Parameter.set 'Audio_Method 'Audio_Command)

Tech Article Submissions

2007-11-24T10:39:00.002-05:00

Anything interesting to say?

» Sound off: Write your own The Right Tool for the Job? review | The Right Tool for the Job? | TechRepublic.com

Laptop HDD powercycles

2007-10-31T22:09:00.002-04:00

These are some of the articles on the problem with the laptop drive's load cycle.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/30/1742258

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3675960&postcount=26

http://www.linux-hero.com/rant/explanation-ubuntu-hard-drive-wear-and-tear

http://ubuntudemon.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/laptop-hardrive-killer-bug-should-get-critical-status/

VirtualBox CLI Reminders

2007-10-22T00:12:00.001-04:00

VBoxManage sharedfolder remove vWinXP myData
Stop sharing a virtual drive called myData.

VBoxManage sharedfolder add vWinXP -name myData -hostpath /home/yada-yada
Add a shared virtual drive called myData for machine vWinXP from host mount point /home/yada-yada

VBoxManage list vms | more
List information about the virtual machine(s) and shared drives.

VBoxManage startvm vWinXP
Start the virtual machine vWinXP from the command line. (As opposed to using the GUI.)

Mounting a shared folder from within Windows will need to find the drive on the host server as:
\\vboxsrv\myData

Feisty Upgrade Borks NVidia (Again!)

2007-10-06T01:30:00.000-04:00

Well, this stinks. Another large number of packages installed, adept has problems, then when I reboot, nothing but a black screen and a blinking cursor.

Did some Google searching and found other references to Feisty updates breaking the NVidia driver. Stumbled upon this guy's website: http://albertomilone.com/index.html

Tried to install his Envy utility but it wouldn't install.

Finally tried running:
sudo apt-get install linux-generic

This ran through the packages and seemed to fix things up. After it finished, I rebooted and I'm back into XWindows.

This is getting to be annoying.

Feisty Upgrade Borks Nvidia

2007-09-01T16:59:00.001-04:00

Last night I noticed that I had four packages waiting to be installed so I sent Adept Updater off to do the work for me.

When I turned on the machine today, it went through the booting process and I could watch the Kubuntu progress screen working and then I was left with a bank screen and a blinking cursor.

I checked /var/log/Xorg.0.log and noticed errors between NVidia and the kernel modules.

I did some searching on the web and found out that the Debian package history is stored in /var/cache/apt/archives. I check there and sorted the *.deb packages by date and found the four that were installed last night. I used the dpkg command to install the files again. I installed them in this order:
sudo dpkg -i linux-libc-dev_2.6.20-16.31_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.20-16-generic_2.6.20-16.31_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.20-16_2.6.20-16.31_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.20-16-generic_2.6.20-16.31_i386.deb

After doing the installs, I rebooted and now I'm back with XWindows, KDE, and Beryl.

I'm running:
Feisty Fawn Ubuntu 7.04
KDE
NVidia video card with the proprietary NVidia drivers.
Dell 6400 laptop.

Resetting the WPN824v2 Router with Perl

2007-08-26T02:13:00.001-04:00

I got a new Netgear WPN824 WiFi router to handle our laptops. I've been using the MAC id to assign IP addresses so that I can run DHCP on the laptops but dole out known addresses on the network.

I noticed though that after a period of time, the router would not honor the MAC-IP assignment and would assign addresses at the low end of IP range. If the router was reset, either by turning it off/on or by clicking on one of the buttons on the web interface, it would begin handing out the "correct" addresses.

I came up with a Perl module that, from a command line, will log into the router and click on the reset button. The next step is to move the script to my main server and then schedule it with cron.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use WWW::Mechanize;
use WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller;
use URI::URL;
use HTTP::Request::Common;

my $agent = WWW::Mechanize->new( autocheck => 1);
my $formfiller = WWW::Mechanize::FormFiller->new();

# Cache the router's userid and password.
$agent->credentials( 'your_router_userid','your_router_password');

# Do a get on this page because it's rather simple
# but has a button that will reset the router when
# clicked.
$agent->get('http://routerlogin.com/WAN_wan.htm');

# Cause the "Apply" button to be 'clicked'.
print $agent->click_button(value=>'Apply');

exit 0;

The key was using the WWW-Mechanize Perl object (http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/).

The key parts were the credentials command and then the click_button command. See command details here (http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm).

Pretty cool, for a first Perl module!

Revised 12/18/2007:
I upgraded my laptop to Gutsy (Ubuntu 7.10). I loaded the WWW-Mechanize and SSLeay Perl packages from the repository. I then manually added the FormFiller folder and FormFiller.pl files to the /usr/share/perl5/WWW/Mechanize folder. I got the FormFiller modules from a tar/gz file that I downloaded from CPAN.

It looks like Hardy (8.04) will have FormFiller as an installable package.

Using KDialog with Scripts

2007-07-23T22:50:00.001-04:00

If you need to prompt the user for information, or to choose a file, use KDialog to create dialog boxes. See this tutorial.

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/kdialog/t1.html

.

Leading Your Team

2007-07-23T21:48:00.000-04:00

Ten tips for leading a team to their best performance.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6180549.html?tag=nl.e101

Lots of Beryl Tips

2007-06-23T00:21:00.000-04:00

Can be found on this page...
http://www.liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=72

Old School Scouting

2007-06-10T20:18:00.000-04:00

Found this site while looking for information on making rope and tying a lariat.

http://www.inquiry.net/

Close the Window...

2007-04-20T23:32:00.000-04:00

My new Dell Inspiron 6400 is booting Ubuntu Linux 7.04 natively and MS Windows XP is gone!

Here's my install log:
1) Need to get ndiswrapper to get the WiFi card working.
http://ubuntu1501.blogspot.com/2007/01/fixing-wifi-on-dell-1501.html

2) If you have problems installing the ndiswrapper, there might be one that's already installed or you may have had a bad install previously. In that case, use ndiswrapper -u bcmwu15 to remove the old one before installing the new version.

3) For the machines using the Intel 950 video card, install the 915 resolution driver. After the install, instead of tweaking the X config files, just CTRL-ALT-Backspace to restart X and pick up the changes.

4) Get Automatix2 for Feisty. Load up with lots of goodies.

5) Switch to KDE by using Synaptic to install the Kubuntu Desktop.

6) Copy the WPA-PSK key to the machine

7) Set up ssh
8) Set up the /etc/hosts file with machine.
9)

Look at this article as a way to get CPU temperatures on a Laptop when lm-sensor doesn't work: http://lists.lm-sensors.org/pipermail/lm-sensors/2005-April/011905.html

JSF Articles

2007-04-16T10:48:00.000-04:00

Sun's main JSF page
http://java.sun.com/javaee/javaserverfaces/

Sun's Java 5 Tutorial. See Chap 9-13 for JSF:
http://java.sun.com/javaee/5/docs/tutorial/doc/

IBM developerWorks Java for nonbelievers (Four Parts)

O'Reilly's On Java Introduction to JavaServer Faces
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/07/30/jsf_intro.html

Exadel's JSF Kickstart
http://www.exadel.com/tutorial/jsf/jsftutorial-kickstart.html

JSF / HTML Tag Reference Guide:
http://www.exadel.com/tutorial/jsf/jsftags-guide.html

Intel / AMD CPU Meanings

2007-04-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

This article goes over the current listing of processors from Intel & AMD. Helpful if you're trying to make sense of the model numbers and what they mean.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6151205.html

Dual Heads on Laptop

2007-04-04T20:41:00.000-04:00

This article gives instructions on how to run Linux on a laptop with two monitors. The built-in LCD and an external monitor. He also includes a skeleton script that checks for an external monitor and switches from single to dual head mode.

http://sernaonubuntu.wikidot.com/multiple-monitors

Fixing VMPlayer

2007-02-28T22:11:00.000-05:00

For some reason, VMPlayer will crap out on me and I have to rebuild it with the command:
sudo /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

If it fails to run because it can't find appropriate kernel headers in /usr/src/lib, then you need to get the version of the headers to match your kernel. Do the following:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

If you get an error that the GCC compiler is working:
sudo apt-get install build-essential

Edgy Ubuntu / Beryl / ATI 1400 card

2007-02-26T22:22:00.000-05:00

http://lhansen.blogspot.com/2006/10/3d-desktop-beryl-and-xgl-on-ubuntu-edgy.html

This blog walks through installing Beryl on a Dell laptop with an ATI 1400 card.

Scouting Knot Awards

2007-02-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

Here's a page showing pictures of the knots and the requirements for earning them.

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/square-knots.asp

Observatory in Lewisberry

2007-01-28T22:14:00.000-05:00

Here's the observatories page on setting up a private party.

http://www.astrohbg.org/star_parties.php

Help for Wolf Scout Den Leaders

2007-01-13T23:24:00.000-05:00

The Boy Scout Trail website's page for Wolf Cub Scouts.
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts/wolf-scouts.asp

Google Calendar Test

2007-01-09T01:45:00.001-05:00

OK, now I'm experimenting with Google Calendar and Google's page creator to come up with a free way to do a Cub Scout Den's website and calendar. The guys on The Java Posse are always talking about Google Calendar so I'm giving it a try.

Here's the Den calendar page:
http://pack39den3.googlepages.com/home

Cub Scout Prayer

2006-12-19T22:42:00.000-05:00

From Baloo's Bugle... http://usscouts.org/bbugle/bb0501/bbpray.html

A Cub Scout’s Prayer
Baltimore Area Council

O Lord, that I will do my best,
I come to Thee in prayer.
Help me to help others every day.
And teach me to be fair,
To honor my Mother and Father,
And to obey the Cub Scout Law, too.
This I ask, that I may be a loyal
Cub Scout true. Amen

A Cub Scout Parent’s Prayer
Baltimore Area Council

Look down upon my son, Dear Lord
This smiling Cub of mine.
Please take his hand along the way,
So that he may never stray.

Bless my son tonight, Dear Lord,
And help him walk with Thee.
Give him comfort, warmth and love;
He’s all the world to me.

Bless his daily efforts,
And make them strong and true;
For life’s a heavy burden,
And we’re all in need of you. Amen

Scout Uniform Guides

2006-12-13T23:44:00.000-05:00

Site (or sites if I can find more) dealing with where patches and badges need to be placed on the scout uniform.

http://www.geocities.com/~PACK215/cubinsignia.html

Pinewood Derby Sites

2006-12-06T18:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a start:
http://members.aol.com/randywoo/pine/index.htm

Photos of various cars, tips on performance:
http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/derby/

Stan Pope's on-line text book "Learn to Build A Winner":
http://members.aol.com/standcmr/lbw1.htm

Down and Derby - the movie about a Pinewood Derby race:
http://www.downandderby.com/home.php

Linux Video Encoding for Creative Zen Vision:M

2006-11-21T21:15:00.000-05:00

This blog's entry talks about libmtp (on SourceForge) being available for Linux allowing you to see the Vision M on a Linux workstation. The poster also covers the encoding command to convert a video to be played on the Vision M.

http://blogs.ign.com/namlas/2006/07/12/24727/

My laptop only had mencoder installed yesterday so that is what I ended up using. The video content has to be resized to 320x240, max bitrate of 800kbps for video, and 320kbps for audio and using mpeg4, mpeg2, or wmv format.
I converted a divx (640x480, 1800kbps) file using the follwing string:
mencoder file1.avi -o test1.avi -vf scale=320:240 -oac mp3lame -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=800

The post also references the utlity GNomad2 (on SourceForge) as a GUI to transfer files to/from the player.

Something for me to check out.

Websphere Information Integrator

2006-11-17T13:32:00.000-05:00

Q Replication Worksheet http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?&uid=swg27006473

CSS Menu System (No Sripts Required)

2006-11-15T21:01:00.000-05:00

On an episode of Security Now, Steve Gibson spoke about working on a menu system for his website that didn't require Java Script (nor any other client side scripting). He said his solution would be done only in CSS.

See GRC's CSS Menu page. http://www.grc.com/menu2/invitro.htm

Hopefully I'll be able to use this for my new website...

More Cub Scout Leader Resources

2006-11-12T22:18:00.000-05:00

I got this from the Den Leader Fast Start program (See earlier post). The National coucil's website (Scouting.org) has an on-line version of the Cub Scout Monthly Helps flyers. The flyer covers the (National) theme for the month and then gives meeting plans for each week. But, your pack could be doing its own monthly theme.

You can get the current month's flyer and next months at:
http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=ca

Things to look into:
A copy of Cub Scout Leader Book.
Cub Scout Leader How-To Book
Denner - does he get a patch for his uniform?
Den Meeting Planning Sheets
How are field trips and permission slips handled?
Do we have a contact list of the families in the Den / Pack?
New Leaders Essentials training.

Seven Parts to a Cub Scout Meeting. (Note - the Monthly Helps flyer has items for each of the seven parts.)

Before the Meeting Starts.
Have supplies ready and the room set up
Gathering
Activity for the Cubs to start with as soon as they arrive.
Lead by the Den Chief.
Use the time to take attendance and collect dues.
Opening
Pledge, Promise, Law of the Pack
Business Items
Review monthly theme
Presentation for monthly Pack meeting
Activity
Make things toward the Pack meeting skit
Game or other activity
Closing
Such as the Living Circle
After the Meeting
Denners help to clean up
Assignments for next meeting
Review plans for the next meeting

A Denner is a Cub elected by the den to be Den Leader's helper for 2 months. The Assistant Denner helps the Denner and usually becomes the Denner during the next "term". Neal Smith, on the other hand, recommends rotating the position to all the boys instead of doing an election at this age. See his page (http://www.wtsmith.com/rt/denprog.html)

Code of Conduct for the Cub's Den (each can do their own). A desription and suggestions are on this site: http://www.wtsmith.com/rt/behavior.html#CODE

York-Adams Area Council's website
http://www.yaac-bsa.org/index.htm

Bill Smith's collection of Cub Scout links (a huge list of links)
http://wtsmith.com/rt.html

Cub Scout Resource List

2006-11-12T12:45:00.000-05:00

The Boy Scout Trail website has a collection of information for Cub Scouts. Visit the page at:
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts/

Cub Scouts are now wearing belt loops for various activities and interests. To see what is available as well as the requirements for each, visit this page on the Boy Scout Trail website:
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts/acad-sports.asp

Scouting Links

2006-11-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

Cub Scout Leader On-Line Learning Center
Start with their Cub Scout Leader Fast Start session.
E-Learning

U.S. Scouting Service Project. A collection of links related to Scouting.
http://www.usscouts.org/

Using SSL for IMAP

2006-10-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

IMAP Security - encryption and authentication

Using this article, I was able to generate an SSL key for my VPS and now I can use Thunderbird to retrieve mail over an SSL connection.

On your Linux box (this one is a VPS running Fedora Core)
as root:
cd /usr/share/ssl/certs
cp imap.pem imapd.pem.orig
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out ./myImap.pem -keyout ./myImap.pem -days 1825
mv myImap.pem imapd.pem

Now on your Thunderbird configuration, under Server Settings, click on the SSL radio button.

Using Beagle on Linux

2006-10-06T21:29:00.000-04:00

http://beagle-project.org/Searching_Data" Link on using Beagle to search for documents on Linux.

If you're using KDE, then look for "Kerry", the KDE front-end for Beagle.

Cub Scout Research?

2006-10-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

Ideas for making a helmet for his costume:
Medieval Helmets | Medieval Knight Helmet

Coat of Arms:
http://www.fleurdelis.com/coatofarms.htm

Making a Coat of Arms for kids
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/her_act.htm

Festival & Voice Files

2006-09-14T00:23:00.000-04:00

http://hts.ics.nitech.ac.jp/download.html
This site has additional voice files that can be used with Festival text-to-speech. For my Ubuntu (Dapper) distro, I had to put the files in /usr/share/festival/voices/english.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-195579-highlight-festival.html
This posting suggests using the "CMU US SLT ARCTIC" voice, which I agree sounds nice.

Switching to the new voice though required a different tweak. I had to create the ~/.festivalrc file and added these two lines:

(voice_kal_diphone)
(set! voice_default 'voice_cmu_us_slt_arctic_hts)

Once I did that, I was able to hear the new voice (sounds like a female voice).

The new voice causes a segfault though. In order to "mask" that, at least at this hour in the morning, I redirected the syserr to /dev/null. So the new command for having the system speak is:

echo "Hello Rick" | festival --tts 2>/dev/null

PA History - French & Indian War

2006-08-18T00:12:00.000-04:00

The beginning of the French & Indian War. Start with the Kidnapping of Mary Jemison near Chambersburg.
ExplorePAHistory.com - Stories from PA History

Tour these sites:
Fort Pitt
Bushy Run Battlefield
Western PA Rural History Museum. This link starts with a log cabin from the 1770's but shows how the early cabin were made.

Books to read for kids:
Indian Captive, The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski. 1946 Newberry Honors Book. This is one version of the story about Mary's experience. ISBN 0-06-446162-9

Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. Newberry Honors Book. Not from this geographic area and its time period is about 10 years later but it is about a boy and his family who build a cabin in the Maine wilderness area. In the story, the boy, Matt, and his father build a cabin but then the father has to return to Massachusetts to get Matt's mother and sister. Matt is left behind to fend for himself. ISBN 0-440-47900-2.

Design Patterns

2006-08-16T08:59:00.000-04:00

John Flinchbaugh did a presentation on design patterns at our April 2005 Java User Group meeting. Here's a link to his presentation material. http://www.harrisburgjug.org/display/JUG/2005-04-21+Design+Patterns

One of his references is the PatternShare.org website.

Ubuntu Resources

2006-07-29T23:31:00.000-04:00

Ubuntu Forums A resource for researching problems or posting questions to the user community.

Ubuntu Starter Guide for v6.06 (Dapper Drake) This was a big help once I got past the initiall problems.

How to restore a hacked Linux server | MDLog:/sysadmin

2006-07-21T17:11:00.000-04:00

How to restore a hacked Linux server | MDLog:/sysadmin

WII Fast-Track Guide

2006-07-20T15:03:00.000-04:00

Fastrack to building a Federated Replication (PDF)

This is supposed to help you get started with using Websphere Information Integrator, DB2 UDB, & Oracle to replicate data from one DB2 instance to a Federated DB2 Instance and then on to Oracle.

This, of course, assumes you can figure out what freak'n Fixpacks need to be installed. UGH!

Ohloh

2006-07-17T15:08:00.000-04:00

Ohloh

From a SlashDot.org posting, former MS employees have this site that resents information about various OSS projects.

Remote desktop - FreeNX

2006-05-22T23:56:00.000-04:00

Here's an article on using FreeNX on a Linux server. The article covers some of the steps required to install both the server and NoMachine's client application. I was able to install FreeNX and the required libraries on my Mandriva 2005 server and then use a remote KDE session on it from a Windows box. The NoMachine / FreeNX is much snappier than the VNC setup that I was using.

I had problems making connections using the version of FreeNX on Mandriva 2005 but when I installed the RPM from the Mandriva 2006 - it worked right away. Very cool! The next step is to try a really remote session from outside my firewalls - perhaps over a Hamachi connection?

Linux.com | Faster remote desktop connections with FreeNX

11/12/2006 - Update: I've been using FreeNX and NXClient since posting this entry in May and I love it. I use thsi all the time for running X apps from my Ubuntu workstation on my Windows box.

z/OS Unix System Services

2006-04-26T16:33:00.000-04:00

z/OS Unix System Services

Bill Lalonde maintains this "Big Iron" page and has information on using the Open Edition services on zOS machines.

Java Tools for SOA Provider Apps

2006-03-24T09:33:00.000-05:00

Apache's WebServices Project (Axis)

Sun's Java Architecture for XML Bindings (JAXB)

Spring Framework

The Server Side article - Intro to Spring Framework

Hibernate Core for Java

Apache's Ant

You'll need HSQL Java based stand-alone DBMS to run the Hibernate examples.

Not related directly - for future research:
LogMeIn by 3AM Labs - You got to love that
company name.

Eclipse & Tools:

Eclipse IDE

MiddleGen IDE

Web Tools Plugin Get the files in the requirements section too. There should be links to:

EMF-SDO-XSD
GEF
JEM

Hibernate Tools . It helps with setting up the Hibernate mapping files.

DB2 Related Blogs

2006-03-20T12:36:00.000-05:00

These came out on a posting on our local DB2 Regional User Group list.

Getting the Most out of DB2 for z/OS

An Expert's Guide to DB2 Technology

Both won "Best Of" prizes for 2005.

Also, if you listen to PodCasts (Net Casts is the new term being used by the TWiT crew) try The DB2 Cocktail Hour by Susan Lawson & Dan Luksetich at: http://www.db2expert.com/index.php?page=podcasts