Category: Geekitude

The last few years have seen Google replace many other traditional forms as the de facto standard way of doing research. If a question comes up or a person is doing research, invariably the first thing folks do is ‘google it’.
While working on my current Java project, I’ve had to learn a ton of new technologies. Generally the way I do this is google a term or concept and pick which of the answers best seems to answer my question. This works quite well, and in general I get the information I need.
Many times however I’ll find a paper, a page, a set of answers, etc that -seem- helpful, but the problem is I don’t know when they were written. The person publishing the page simply does not datestamp the page anywhere. This is particularly maddening when dealing with a constantly evolving technology such as Linux or Java. What was ‘best practice’ or ‘the new method for doing [x]’ 5 years ago (or even 2 years ago) is no longer the appropriate process.
Too many people are publishing pages that simply don’t give a time reference.
The most recent one was when I was looking up information on Linux tablet PC drivers for a set of tablet computers I saw on eBay. That took me to LinuxSlate, a page apparently about, well, slate drivers. Duh. 🙂
No where on that page is a hint of a datestamp. When was it last updated? How recent is that information? If it’s old, then I know to continue looking around for more current documents.
So, for the greater good. if you publish documents or pages detailing in particular technical information for the greater good, fer chrissake, DATESTAMP IT. A footer saying “Last updated: 1/2/33” is all that’s needed. Really.
This has been brought to you by the Society for a More Helpful Internet.

I’ve just switched my RSS feed into LJ over to the new format I’ve been working on. This may cause a huge update into LJ, but due to how LJ handles feeds, there’s nothing I can do about that.
The new footer has a dynamic counter that shows how many comments have been posted on an article in real time. If you refresh your LJ page, you’ll see the comment counter update.
I’ve also changed the text around a little bit to make it easier to read comments and add new ones.
For those reading via other aggegators, this has replaced the old RSS feed for LJ. If you want to subscribe to it, use https://planet-geek.com/lj.xml.
Feel free to let me know if you have any comments or suggestions or just plain criticisms 🙂
[Update : apparently it didn’t cause a huge cascade. I’m relieved :)]

There was an interesting article posted on Slashdot this morning, pointing to a Windows Guru’s impressions of Mac OSX Tiger, the next version of Apple’s OS for Macs.
In the Slashdot posting, the author says:

In the article, he actually confesses that he has ‘been a Mac fan [his] entire life.’ Interesting, considering some of his criticism of Apple’s work in the past.”

I posted a reply, reproduced here for those not willing to wade into Slashdot’s comments forums – a decision I can totally understand 🙂 :

Very few people can dispute that Apple has made some of the sexiest, most interesting systems that have come down the pike. The Mac was a masterful bit of design at introduction, and even though it was looking a bit long in the tooth as MacOS 8 and MacOS 9 were coming along, you couldn’t argue that the environment set the tone for making GUI’s useable as a primary interface.
OSX is a FANTASTIC piece of software, jumping the Mac platform squarely into Unix land (where we all knew desktop systems should have been all along, right?) while also providing a wonderful desktop experience.
On the other hand, Apple the corporation has made truly painful decisions that have alienated a lot of the ‘apple fans’. The one that comes to mind was the decision to cancel the Newton, just when it was showing promise. Apple has a history of driving new technologies through to maturity, and with the Newton 2100, the platform had just gotten to the point of usefulness when it was cancelled. Did this make me less of a Mac fan? No. Did it make me less of an Apple fan? Absolutely.
I have on my desk a Mac Mini (for my mom), an old iMac (to test Safari pages), a Shuttle box running Windows XP, and my primary platform, an IBM T40 running Debian Linux. Of the 4, the most pleasant to work on is the Mac Mini. The most productive is the Linux Laptop. The best for game playing is the XP machine. The iMac is just there to look cool (as cool as purple gumdrops get).
I’m still a fan of Macs. I’m an okay fan of Apple. The OSX decision was masterful. Will I use it as my primary platform? Probably not, the price point on their proprietary hardware is still too high (Thinkpad T40 used: $800. Powerbook of similar power used: $1800, plus OSX licenses).

Remember way back when when I was having problems with the KVM and signal loss?
Well, we’re a week and a half later now, and I’ve changed over to a Zonet KVM3112 purchased from NewEgg for a mere $31.00.
This is a nice little KVM. It’s a simple 3″ square box that dangles from the cables that comes with cables already attached to the unit The cables are bound with USB connectors as well, so there’s only one cable going to each switchable device, and the USB connector breaks out at the end.
At the moment I have it between the Mac Mini and my IBM T40 laptop. I’ve tried it also between the laptop and the Shuttle PC I use for Windows stuff, and between the Laptop and the Mac, and in every case, the laptop image has a slight shadow to it, while the other machine is crystal clear.
My guess is that the laptop has a weak-ish video signal on the external port (heck, it was never relaly meant to be a desktop machine like this). I’ve ordered a docking station for it, we’ll see if that has a better signal on it. Even without that, though, this is quite useable.
So, the short answer is “When doing KVM work, get a decent unit, don’t scrounge. They’re not that expensive.” I can pretty well recommend the Zonet 2 port switch – very inexpensive, works exactly as planned, and has the benefit of NOT require an external power supply. It switches VGA and USB signals without a glitch, using a keyboard macro (scroll-lock scroll-lock arrow).
I’m using a Microsoft natural keyboard (these things are getting hard to find – 2 stores I went to didn’t have them – just flat keyboards), and a Logitech USB mouse. Both of these are patched directly into the KVM, and they’re being switched between the laptop and the other system.
Now I just wish I had a 3 port unit 🙂

Wow is this thing cool.
I won one of these in a listener giveaway at THE BEST ONLINE RADIO STATION EVUH! (that would be RadioParadise, if you hadn’t guessed). It just arrived today, and I had it up and running in literally 30 seconds.
The model I have is a Roku 500 (the ‘bottom tier’ version). It’s basically an embedded linux media player with a nice VFD display on the front. It came with a CF 802.11 wireless card, which socketed right into the side of it. I plugged that in, plugged it into the stereo, and powered it up.
First thing it did was basically go “Hmm. Okay… Homeport, right?” (that being our wireless network name). I hit [Enter] on the remote, and it continued setting itself up. Next prompt was “No music player found. Would you like to listen to online radio? [Ok]” Hmm, well “Ok” [Enter].
Pick a music station *scroll scroll scroll* Oh! Radio Paradise. Sure. [enter]. And voila, I was listening to RP on my stereo.
It’s a sexy little unit. It has an automatic updateprocess that let me upgrade the firmware in it in about a minute. I found the whole experience quite surreal, but couldn’t help grinning all the way through it.
Chances are we won’t get around to setting up the Windows or Mac only ‘music server’ for quite some time. I suspect the primary use for this thing will be up in our house in Maine so we can listen to DECENT radio stations on the house stereo (can’t get much up there in the woods).
If you like your online music library, and you really want living-room-access to online radio stations, this is a great looking and capable unit.

This is a handy reference – a page on MozillaZine acting as an FAQ on ‘how do i…’ in Firefox.
Very very helpful. One for the bookmarks:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=197645

I’ve been annoyed with a problem with RSS feeds lately, particularly when it comes to Livejournal

The problem is that if I post an article to my blog, it gets posted, and then is made available in an RSS feed. The biggest user of this feed is Livejournal, but I have a fair number of folks who read the feed via Bloglines and Sage and the like.

So anyway, folks read the article, but to actually see if anyone has commented on it, they have to click through to the article, and navigate the comments. This is tedious and unwieldy.

There are some hacks that put comments posted on articles into feeds, but then you have to subscribe to the comments feed to see them. Ick.

So over the last few days I whipped up a tool I’m tentatively calling “mtcc” for Movable Type Comment Counter (since it’s quite specific to Movable Type) which can generate a graphic image on the fly representing the number of comments on a specific blog post.

Since RSS feeds are not generated dynamically, but -will- render images as soon as the feed is read by the user, the image is pulled from the MT host of the blog with the correct counter embedded in the image. If someone adds a comment, and someone else reading the article via a feed refreshes, they’ll see an updated count in the image.

This feed is still in testing, and I’d appreciate hearing comments (and tests!) from people. It’s active now, but not available to Livejournal (due to the braindead way LJ handles feeds). I’ll publish it as my LJ feed once I get the final version up.

If you’d like to preview it, and you’re using an RSS reader already, the feed is located at https://planet-geek.com/lj2.xml

This weekend I finally replaced my aging Yaesu 2meter radio in my car with a much nicer Alinco DR-605 I picked up used off the local MMRA mailing list.
The radio came with a nice dual-band antenna, so I needed to rewire the cable ‘snake’ that runs down the middle of the car from the dash to the mounting hardware in the trunk. Not a big deal, took about an hour.
It’s nice being back on the repeaters. There’s a great crew of folks that talk every morning and afternoon, and I can usually join in in the afternoon on the way to Zach’s school.
Feel free to drop in. The repeater I’m using is the one located on top of the ‘rocketship’ in West Marlborough. I’m usually on the 2meter side, 147.270 (see here for the entire repeater listing.)
The 147.270 repeater has ENORMOUS range, and can easily be chatted with from downtown all the way to Worcester, due to it’s outstanding location (check out the views from the tower in the above link 🙂
Anyway, 73’s! … KB1FWR.

I posted this to a local tech-chat list, but let me also throw it out to the wider blog world…
I just moved to a Belkin desktop video switch to switch between my
Thinkpad running Linux (my primary work machine), and my Windows XP box
(my game machine).
I’ve noticed an immediate signal degredaton – my monitor is not nearly
as clear as it was. The LCD to switch cable is about 3′, and the switch
to laptop cable is about 5′ long. I suspect these cables are he
culprit, and I’m going to order shorter VGA cables, but would like the
collective wisdom of TF to comment. Before I get new cables, is this a
good step?
Also, I’m noticing the Belkin is dropping keystrokes pretty regularly –
I can’t 100% pin this on the switch but it wasn’t happening before I put
the switch in. Has anyne else seen this?
I’d be willing to invest in a hig end vide switch (particularly one that
could take more than2 channels – this model i an F1DZ102T :
http://www.digitallyunique.com/i157737.html ) if I was guaranteed now
gettin video signal loss when everythng was hooked up.
Any help would be appreciated 🙂

I’m a gamer. I admit it. I love gaming, I love playing games on the computer, I love getting into a good game for hours on end. Great escapism.
My most recent interest is playing Evil Genius, which I first played at Ubercon about a year ago. This isn’t a new game, and it’s not a darling of all the first person shooter Halo nuts. And there, alas, is it’s downfall in the eyes of the Transgaming folks.
By the way, dont’ get me wrong here. I value highly the work they have done bringing WineX to a commercial product. My problem is that I don’t think it’ll really work. The obstacles are too high to overcome, the number of games too many, and the number of ways Windows is an unstable moving target in application development terms makes their job (the concept of running Windows games on a Linux platform) unwinnable.
The games that get the attention are the darlings of the hard core gamers. We’re talking World of Warcraft, Doom3, Age of Empires, etc etc etc. These are what folks are playing NOW. Transgaming just does’nt have the manpower or resources to go back to games that are ‘yesterdays news’ or uninteresting.
I bought a Cedega license and will continue to support them, but I feel their mission is not going to be winnable. I’d even settle for useable, but even that failed me while trying to get Evil Genius and other games running.
So far, I’ve tried 5 different games. The only one that had a hint of maybe working was Warcraft 3, arguably one of the most successful games in the last 2 years. The others simple failed silently, or locked up entirely. Cedega’s ‘games database’ on their site is worthless, and their website is full of unreferenced information and incomplete details.
My advice is, if you want to run one particular game, and it’s in Cedega’s ‘supported games’ listing, you might get it running, go for it. If you want to use Cedega as a tool to let you run some of those games you’ve been missing from your Windows days, you’re SOL. Get a video switch, spend $150 on a older pentium box, and just run Windows on it. You’ll be a lot happier.

My Mom’s new Mini-Mac arrived last week, and this morning I set it up to test it out, get the updates onto it, and start transferring her files over to it.
“Well, maybe I’ll play around with it a little bit.”
Plugged into my nice 1280×1024 LCD monitor, running at 1.25gighz, 512meg, for $550.
Apple may have finally gotten it right.
But, putting Nanosaur 2 and Marble Blast on there were low blows. *stretches after an hour of flying a dinosaur around*.
That wasn’t nice.