kenschwarz's Xanga

Remote Doorbell

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:47:28 GMT

I'm now able to hear the doorbell in my garage thanks to a pair of X10 devices. One device senses the AC voltage being applied to the doorbell and the other is a remote announce device. I used a small audio transformer (in series) with the 16V AC of the doorbell circuit. When the doorbell switch is pressed, the output side of the transformer produces a smal AC signal to the detector device. Now I can hear the doorbell in the garage, and I have a extra announce device that I can take around the house and plug it into any 120V outlet where I might be out of earshot of the front doorbell.

External USB

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:54:12 GMT

One step closer! I now have kubuntu running on an external USB drive. The initial instructions that I had would only work on an actual flash drive, and not an external USB. Thanks to the dd command on linux I was able to clone the flash drive partition to the USB disk. A separate dd command took care of the MBR and I'm now live with kubuntu. I like this distrubution, but I've found that many of these thumb drive distros lack some convieniences like audio drivers. My plan is to turn this drive into the mainstay development disk, and continue to experiment with Sidux as a side project. UPDATE: Unfortunately this disk does not boot on my old laptop (sigh!)

Down and dirty with the kernel

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:47:55 GMT

This Thanksgiving I've decided to (once and for all) learn how the stinkin' Linux kernel gets loaded. I've re-inherited an old (Circa 1998) Dell Laptop that my wife used to use. The bios does not support booting from USB and I've got this fetish about having a *single* external USB drive that carries my development environment. I've spent some time building bootable USB flash drives, but they just don't fit the bill. It's great that the drudgery of building a bootable flash drive has gone away with some great tools out there, but as a developer, I found them lacking. I came across Sidux Linux recently and it's pretty dang great, so I want a bootable USB drive running Sidux that also will boot on my *old* laptop also. That's a pretty tall order, and I'm not there yet. The puzzle get's more complicated because there are some distributions that *will* boot on my old laptop (Puppy Linux and MCN Live for example). Having used Linux for years now I have a passing familiarity with lilo and grub, but it was never intersting enough for me to really explore at a detailed level. After lots of experimentation I cam across Martin Purschke's rescue CD which is a wonderful and thorough example of the kernel boot process. I've been experimenting with quite a bit. More to follow ...

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:00:59 GMT

Well, after many (four at least) weeks I've finally upgraded my media box to SLES 10 SP1. This is not a problem unless you want to really use the computer for any modern media interaction (youtube anyone?). Through some great resources (outlined here) I can wrestle SLES 10 reluctantly into a state of utility. I'm a bit jaded by the product, and I'm not really jazzed about it currently. I *have* successfully been able to have SLES10 on all my development platforms including my laptop (still don't have wifi with SP1, however but I'm (guardedly) optimistic. The defining feature that was keeping SP1 from being my media disk was that I was not able to install tvtime, allowing video input on my system. So often these days I've become a software researcher not a software developer when I encounter problems. After some googling I found the magic bullet on how to compile tvtime from source. This is what I was looking for. I already had Pandora working, and youtube as well as DVD playback, but no video input. This completed my initial testing requirements for SP1.

Disclosure: This (unfortunately) is a retouched photo. Because tvtime does not play well with any Linux screenshot utility, the above image is a hack. The tvtime authors glibly proclaim that it's not their fault (sigh).

P.S. Still haven't forked over the twenty bucks to buy Window Blinds after the 30 day trial expired. Maybe when my stimulus package refund gets here :)

Update ... way too long between posts

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:09:22 GMT

Ooooh such nerding that has occurred. Blogging has been on the backburner for no damn particular reason, except that I've a new laptop, and it's take a bit of time for me to get it configured. My Dell D800 completely died one Monday and was replaced by a Latitude D810 which I'm quite happy with. I've delayed the inevitable until 2008, but I finally migrated to Windows XP (what?). Strange as it may sound I never found a compelling reason to use XP on my home systems. I now have (gulp!) two systems at home that are using XP. A screenshot of my desktop show my spiffy new Window Blinds theme (from wincustomize.com):

I *finally* found the flat screen that won for price/performance for me. After way too much looking I settled on a Samsung 40". For the price I'm really quite satisified and the picture looks great hooked up to my laptop via VGA. After almost four months of shopping I'm done shopping. Quite a relief.

Stereo Nerding

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:57:38 GMT

Painfully, I'm going through the process of shopping for a new HD Television. The technology has been changing so rapidly over the past five years, it's really hard to know when to jump in (especially when I'm not much of a TV watcher). For me, the stereo is much more important, so I started there. I'm still stuck in a rut trying to decide what the best price/performace combination is when the prices are falling so rapidly, and OLED (Organic LED) technology is just around the corner. I'm temped to get an inexpensive 720p TV and wait a year or two while the prices continue to drop.

The best part about my new stereo is the squeezebox which allows me to play MP3s and listen to internet radio from my stereo. This is a very cool WiFi box that joins my home network and gives me access to my music stored on my PC. While music is playing time and temperature appear on the display thanks to custom screensavers. A bit pricey, but very, very cool.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:51:09 GMT

After a frustrating half hour on the phone to India the HP support desk finally helped me with the magic bullet to keep my camera from eating my photos. Evidently the camera has a demonstration mode which does eat the photos. Makes sense actually for a display unit -- let a customer walk up, snap a few shots, and then delete them automatically after they leave. NOT A GOOD WAY to ship a camera however, especially with no instructions how to kill it (press and hold the "back" button and the "zoom out" button -- there will be no feedback that you've left this mode). Up to the last two minutes of the call I was convinced that I was speaking to a robot on the other end of the line. It must be an incredibly frustrating job, but humbly I will admit that they kept me from returning my camera (yea!) I'm liking the convenience of having an ultra-portable camera, and I'm feeling the need to start having a workflow process to handle the 1-2 GB of data that I'm starting to produce each week.

I've been buying larger flash drives, and I've returned a few. I started being concerned with scrubbing the flash drive before I return it. The following command will work on linux (assuming that the flash drive is /dev/sdb)

while [ 1 ]; do time dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1048576; done

This writes zeros to the device, and the card will need to be reformatted (which my camera will do).

Nurding from I-dee-ho!

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:33:58 GMT

Crisis on the road! I bought a brand-new digital camera for my vacation. To my shock and dismay I lost some photographs. This was excruciating for me because this sh*t doesn't happen on my watch! I'm very meticulous about backing my digital data up and I was completely distraught when I found out that a day's worth of pix was gone. After going through some feelings of panic, loathing, self-criticism, and a bit of denial I finally decided to try to get my photos back. First stop - Best Buy ... big zilch. On to some office supply stores, but I didn't find anything that I was convinced that would work, and they wanted 60-70 bucks and there was no guarantee that they would work. I went back home and looked around on the net and found PhotoRec, which worked fine on my liveCD distribution (more about that later). Version 6.8 worked great for me and I was able to retrieve (what I believe is) most of my photos. I havent' tried the windows version yet, but I'm adding it to my USB drive that I carry with me.

After a bit of looking around I found the HP Photosmart R837. My first impressions were that this was a camera I could keep in my pocket for quick candids and had quick response after power-on. Unfortunately this sucker eats the photos of the SD card. I'll see if this is just a bad unit, or if I should have picked a different brand. I'm cooling off on the Kodak camera I've had for a year, because it's sloooow for kid pictures (matter of fact it's slow for pictures of adults too).

Back to a more pleasant subject. I frisbee'd my old Ubuntu 7.04 Live CD's for surfing on my laptop on the road. What!?!? My new love is Linux Mint, because it has (as far as I can tell) full multimedia support so going to YouTube and streaming internet radio is painless from this CD. Go get this ISO RIGHT NOW and burn it! It will be the best 700MB you download this year -- no kidding.

BTW, SLES10 on the laptop is working well. Had to add driver support for the CDROM (strangely through the ide-cd module). I'm still not able to play DVD's or record CDs (but that will come I'm sure).

No activity on the MythTV front, but I'm hoping to get that back online sometime this winter. I was bummed to find out that the free Zap2It service is gone. Fortunately a low-cost option is now available -- yea!

SUSE laptop networked!

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:13:31 GMT

Such goodness! I've had SLES 10 on my laptop all this year, but unfortunately my USB wireless device would never work. Most of the time this was not a big deal because I could plug in via Ethernet most places I would go, and thanks to Ubuntu 7.04 I had Linux WiFi when I absolutely needed it. It still bugged me (the geek in me) that I could not have what I wanted. In a *very* part-time fashion I tried and tried to get the Zydas driver (zd1211) working on the laptop. The biggest challenge was finding the driver in the kernel when I downloaded a new kernel release. I'm not a kernel noobie but I don't update kernels all that often (only to get hardware functionality) but I never made any progress month after month, and messing with the kernel part-time is almost futile, because you never feel like you get "over the hump". Also adding to the confusion is some cryptic documentation on the driver, where both the vendor and the Open Source team seem to be in a state of flux regarding the chip, and the codebase which supports it.
Alas the magic bullet:
Do a make menuconfig and then search for your driver with the "/" command . This provides info on the driver, and what other features need to be enabled. When those prerequisites are satisfied, hapily the kernel will comply. I'm blogging from my laptop using the 2.6.22 kernel with zd1211rw. Now on to actually *using* my computer instead of administrating it.

Helpful Links:
make menuconfig to search kernel config
other zd1211 links

Knees, interrupted

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:51:58 GMT

I'm posting this as and update for my friends and family on our adventure over the last three weeks. What a ride ... some in trucks with lights on top. On the ninth of this month I slipped and fell on my front porch (I'll spare the details *why* but needless to say I was "in a hurry"). My right foot slipped forward as I was bending down to pick something up. As I slipped *all my weight* slammed straight down on my left knee (Ow! OW! OOOOW!). I then fell backwards and my left foot stayed glued in place. In a flash I'm on my back with my left ankle at my hip thinking my knee is dis-located (I had dislocated my knees a time or two when I was in high school ... this was *much* more painful). Beka had just pulled in with Sammi behind the house and thankfully some neighbor boys got her to come and help me. She had this panic moment when she didn't know whether to take care of Sammi in the car seat or her husband on the front porch. With her help I managed to get inside and catch my breath. I still thought I had a dislocation at the time. So many stories to tell about the sequence of events, but the best one is we called my brother-in-law Chris who is a firefighter in Plano and an EMT. He's always the go-to guy when ever we have any trauma (the previous one was when daddy got a de-merit when he lifted baby Sammi above his head into the ceiling fan). I actually couldn't find my kneecap - the swelling was already ballooning and things weren't where they were supposed to be. Beka told him "Ken can't find his kneecap". Chris kept this to himself, but he thought to ask Beka if I had checked my pockets ... He later apologized. Making memories!

Fast forward to the emergency room. As they tried to get me on the X-Ray table I screamed like a little girl. Any weight bearing that my leg had to do on my own resulted in this *huge* muscle cramp that slammed into my knee ... not something you want to experience yourself. The staff kept asking what pain level I was at and I told them zero (which was true) but when my quadricep started to seize I went from zero to excruciating in no time flat. I still cringe as I write this. After a few hours more they immobilized my leg with a brace that goes from the groin to the ankle, offered some Vicodin and sent on my way to spend the weekend pondering how jacked-up my knee was. I was told that I could take the brace off before I went to bed. I had the brilliant idea to take it off *before* getting into bed. Poor Beka got to see her husband give a repeat performance of his girl-cry that she missed in X-Ray. Baby Sammi also doesn't like to hear her Daddy yelling, so Beka was stuck (yet again) with two kids both calling out for Mommy. Ken learned his lesson that day. Monday we went to Dr. Moon who is our GP, and the good news after he examined me was that there was no ligament damage (whew!). The XRays revealed that my knee was *not* dislocated, but it was swollen up like a cantaloupe. He cleared me to go back to work, but to also get an MRI of my knee.

ENTER THE SPRING BREAK FACTOR

Last year's details involving Sammi's birth were totally messed up because of Spring Break in Lawton. This year we ran into some "difficulties" with Spring Break. Beka's plan was to leave Sunday the 11th to enjoy Spring break in San Antonio, but because of me she stayed with me. I knew she was yearning to spend some quality time with her sisters, but she bravely decided to delay going down. After we received the good news (a muscle tear, not ligament damage). I felt more confident to start working my knee more. I even went in for a few hours Tuesday, and for half a day Wednesday. The plan was for Beka and Sammi to go down Wednesday, and for me to hook up with everyone Wednesday night in San Antonio. So far, so good, except at about 10:00 at night I decide to take a bathroom break then get a cup of coffee at McDonalds in San Marcos (~ 1 1/2 hours north of where we're all getting together). I had been doing quite well with my knee, so I hadn't bothered with my crutches at work that day, or as I was getting out of the car. Steps were still a problem (but I did have one good leg at the time). As I got both feet on the curb, just about to go into the entrance of McDonalds, I suddenly lost all strength in my bad knee. Things happened so fast it's hard to recall all the details. All of my weight shifted to my right knee (my "good" one) and suddenly it lost all strength -- now that I think back at it (and cringe) I'm sure that's when the injury occurred. I can't begin to describe to you the feeling of having both knees suddenly stop working at the same time and to feel all your weight compressing down on joints that don't work. I still get the "willies" as I think about it. Slam I go onto the concrete with my *right knee* stuck at 90 degrees and it won't move and hurting like a mutha. I'm laying there thinking that if this leg is dislocated I might as well force it straight ... it's not going to hurt any worse. I'll save you some of the details about my interactions with the assistant manager at Mickey-D's but suffice it to say I was asked several times if I wanted to file a claim. That was furthest from my mind.   Ambulance ride ... Beka leaving Sammi with her Aunts and coming to scoop her husband up ... 3:30 AM hobble into the house (all the time me being terrified that I'm going to fall again).

(Note: My right kneecap is about three inches too high due to the rupture of the patellar tendon ... at least I could find it!)

Lots of logistics to figure out:
How do we get my car home?
Do we stay for the weekend, or try to get back to Plano to be seen by a doctor?
Do we go *back* to our GP for the second knee or will he refer us to an Orthopedic since I know have *two* bad knees?
If I'm approved to get an MRI on my left knee will they do one on my (much more damaged) right knee also or do I have to freaking come back another day!
Beka, brothers and sisters-in-law, my Mother-in-law (who we call "Mother-in-love"), and my nephews were super to me in the midst of this. In the blink of an eye I'm an invalid, and they kept their cool as I drifted a time or two towards a pity party. I love them so much.

HOBBLING BACK TO PLANO

Baby Sammy (the Uber-Traveller) takes it all in stride. Beka is dog tired, and sleep deprived, but we decide to hook it back to Plano to get my MRI's done on Friday. Another story I don't have time to tell about the procedure, but I was quite proud of myself that I was able to keep still enough for both knees. Spend weekend number two waiting for a doctor visit on Monday. Fortunately I'm starting to get used to asking for help, but I tried to keep my rear end planted in a chair all weekend. No way those braces are coming off!
Monday's quick trip to Dr. Moon starts the catch phrase I'm hearing a lot these days: "We've never had a patient who's injured both their knees at the same time". Joyus. I'm the "guy" they get to tell stories about.   A ton of people must have been injured this week, because I left a message to the orthopedic office the day after my second injury (Thursday) and by Monday of the next week they still hadn't called us back. Finally on Monday we got an appointment with Dr. Sutker on Wednesday for a surgical consult. His diagnosis (and the Doctor reading the MRI): Complete rupture of the quadricep tendon on the left knee and complete rupture of the patellar tendon on the right knee.

(NOTE! don't click on the image above if you're squeamish ...)

Two keyphrases I learned this week "surgical intervention" (we gonna cut you open) and "bilateral" (both knees). Everything is pretty straightforward and not unexpected until he talks about the recovery period. FOUR TO SIX WEEKS with my legs straight out and locked (not bendable). Translation: I can't drive for at least a month, which means I can't work for a month. Those of you who work with me know that I've got a *HUGE* deadline June 1st that isn't moving. Pick my jaw off the floor. All my expectations about some sort of quick arthroscopy are shattered into little pieces. Beka and I look at each other with the deer-in-the-headlights look. I can't even begin to explain how hard it was to relay the news to the folks at work. I get the "punched-in-the-stomach" feeling often when I think about it too much. I have faith in the folks there, and they'll make good in my absence. Still it's amazingly frustrating to have been waiting for seven months for game time, just to be sidelined.

Surgery Tomorrow

I got a call from my anesthesiologist who gave me the good news that I can have coffee in the morning (did you know that coffee is considered a clear liquid?) I've got both knees shaved kissibly smooth in preparation. I spent my last day of vertical motion frantically trying to get as many chores done as I can in preparation for our house closing -- by the way we're selling our current house and buying another one 65 miles away!

A bit of Perspective ...

Well, here we go heading in to this ... I'm not looking forward to the next week, but I'm glad that I'll be on the climb back after surgery. Beka has been truly amazing during all this in the midst of taking care of Sammi and having to wrestle with her commitment to lead worship at Women's retreat. I've been reminded in a very strong way why I married this woman and what a treasure she is to me. I have absolutely no doubt that God is demonstrating his sovereignty in this situation and that there's specific lessons He wants me to learn from this. There's been very expensive tuition paid to get where I'm at ... I'm trying to be a good student.