Firstly, apologies for a distinct lack of posting in the last few weeks (months? ). I hope to improve on this. I do have a few projects in the works, which will be revealed here hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

Quick pimp for an excellent piece of software called Zattoo - it basically allows you to watch terrestrial TV on your PC over the internet (no TV card required, but you should have a TV license). A great way to add another TV to your house.

mrBen

I’ve talked about support before. And I’ve had an idea for helping people who (in particular on forums) try to provide useful support. The guys over at the Ubuntu UK Podcast were talking about the CLI vs GUI on their latest show, so I thought I’d share the idea.

The idea is, essentially, to provide an easy web interface to a big library of animated GIFs (yes - it could be videos, but GIFs are easier to embed into a forum). These GIFs would be short clips of clicking on menus and opening the various applications and settings dialogues available in Ubuntu (or your system of choice).

My plan was to build it in Django, because it, by default, has good handling of urls. So to embed a GIF of someone clicking on, say, System -> Preferences -> Keyboard, you would just embed http://www.ubuntugif/system/preferences/keyboard/ and Hey Presto! I think some would also just be images of the dialogue boxes without animation, too.

The hope would be that, because the syntax is so simple, people wouldn’t have to think about it when putting it into a support forum, and people reading the forum would be able to see actually what is supposed to happen.

So - I guess I might get around to building this at some point. If you’re interested in the project, please let me know either in the comments or via IRC

mrBen

Even if I’d had the time, inclination and knowledge to write about this, I couldn’t say it better than davee: http://www.sungate.co.uk/?p=312

mrBen

It doesn’t really seem like it, but apparently it’s been a year since Mira was born.

Happy Birthday Munchkin

mrBen

mrBen

Those of you with long memories (pun intended) may remember me talking about Elephants Dream, a short cartoon built in Blender, the open source 3d modelling software.

Well - they’ve just released the trailer for their latest project, now named “Big Buck Bunny”, and it looks _stunning_. Hopefully it will also be slightly less mad than ED, which was madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year’s Mr Madman competition.

Enjoy.

Big Buck Bunny - Official Trailer from Andy Goralczyk on Vimeo.

(as with Jono’s post, bonus points for recognising the reference in the title)

mrBen

Another good idea ™ from the stables of the ‘Moose. Actually - this probably isn’t all that original, but I wanted to post it online anyway.

I’d really like to see an online groceries shopping system which, rather than being tied to a supermarket, was tied into the local butchers, bakers, grocers, fishmongers, etc in your area (based on your postcode). The idea being that the suppliers subscribe to you, and the consumers do too, and you link them together in a single website that acts like a supermarket.

mrBen

For the last 3 years now, I’ve endeavoured to relisten to the entire back catalogue of LugRadio episodes in the run up to the awesome LugRadio Live. Last year, I got caught a bit short, but I wrote a little program to keep track of my listening.

This year, I’ve started a lot earlier (144 days to go), but I thought I should add something to the script. So I’ve included listening times to it. Hurrah. Or Something.

Enjoy!

Notes:

1. The % are still based on number of shows, not on listening times. So sue me.
2. The code for the original is still at http://mrben.jedimoose.org/listener.html - when I get around to it I’ll post the updated code (which is even uglier

mrBen

* Apparently this analogy is not, and has never been, accurate.

Those of you at LugRadio Live last year, or who read my review may remember the quiz software that I wrote for it, which did a dual screen setup, and used the Namtai Buzz! controllers for the buzzers.

Anyway - I’ve finally got around to releasing the code into the wild, under the GPL, using launchpad. You can get it here.

(Hopefully someone talented will finish it )

mrBen

Every now and then I feel the need to put up a post purely because it took me ages to find a solution to something online, and I reckon that it might save the next person a bit of time. Apologies to the regular reader for the purely functional nature of this post

The Background
Linux (or specifically Ubuntu) uses a neat program called Network Manager to manage all the network connections. It’s taken a while for it to get there, but I personally think it’s pretty good. It remembers the details of my home wifi network perfectly, and seems to have a better time connecting than the ‘IBM Access Connections’ program that came preinstalled on the Windows half of my work laptop. However, in my case it took it’s trick of remembering stuff too far.

The Problem
I setup my new Linksys router with WPA2 encryption, which works fine under Linux. Sadly, Windows XP doesn’t come installed with this by default (at least, teh wifes laptop didn’t have it as an option). Rather than faffing about with Windows Updates, I thought it would be easier to change it to standard WPA encryption - took about 30 seconds in the Linksys control panel. However, NetworkManager insisted on continuing to try and connect with WPA2, which doesn’t work. In order to connect to the network, I needed to use the “Manual Configuration” option, which wasn’t ideal.

The Solution
One solution would have been to rename the ESSID on my wifi, but I didn’t want to do that, really. There is, however, a better way. NetworkManager stores all it’s data in “gconf” the registry-like component of gnome. Fire up gconf-editor, and navigate to /system/networking/wireless/networks/. All your saved wireless network details are in there. You can then either delete the entry, or, as I did, edit the wpa_psk_wpa_version from 4 to 2 (if you did the same thing as me in the first place). Problem solved.

mrBen

Dear Lazyweb….

Following from my previous post about my projects for the year, I could do with some help on identify the most suitable backup solution.

The setup is that there are a number of Windows clients, and a Linux server (probably with software RAID running a mirror setup over 2 drives, allowing for drive failure). The Windows machines may or may not be on the network at specific times (because they’re either laptops, or they’re powered down), and as there is no on-site sysadmin there is also no guarantee that there will be 100% (or 99.999% for that matter) uptime for the file server either. I want to backup important files from the Windows clients to the Linux machine in the most seamless, transparent (for the end user) way.

Originally I had set my heart on iFolder, which would allow me to simply set up “My Documents” on each client as an iFolder, and they would synchonise whenever both client and server are on the network. However, although iFolder is a fantastic piece of software, the project seems a bit dead in the water, and thus I’m not sure I want it in a production environment (plus there aren’t any Ubuntu or Debian packages for it, so I’d need to run CentOS, which I’m less familiar with).

So, I’m stuck for a decent solution. Ideally, as I say, I want it as transparent as possible - I could setup network drives with Samba (in fact, I had it this way in a previous incarnation), but that is not particularly transparent, and would require me (ideally) to setup all the users on the fileserver so that Windows will log in to the drive automagically. Plus, I’d still need some sort of client running to do the backing up, and I would still end up with the problem of it needing to be done on an “adhoc” basis, rather than a schedule.

Any thoughts?

mrBen

Hopefully I’m not the only person who has dozens of unfinished projects lying around both physically and virtually. I thought that maybe if I wrote some of them down I would actually get around to completing some of them:

• MythTV - despite seeing PVRs drop in price (sub £100 now), I would still like to get my MythTV box back up and running, this time with Mythbuntu rather than Knoppmyth. Sadly their website is down currently, which is a PITA
• Church office - there are 3 projects in the church office that need done:
  • Fix the display machine - it’s got a weird bug, possibly hardware, that is causing it to crash when displaying for any length of time. Needs a bit of onsite PD at some point…
  • Build the file server - I have a fileserver box sitting in the flat, which was originally set up with a nice software RAID, which I had hoped to turn into an iFolder server. Sadly iFolder hasn’t developed as quickly as I had hoped, and I’m worried about putting it on a production box. So I need to find another seamless backup solution for a mixed OS network.
  • Upgrade the firewall - Smoothwall 2.0 is running fine, but Smoothwall 3.0 has been out for a while.
• Linkpot - I have a load of ideas for the completion of Linkpot (well - the next phase anyway) but just haven’t got around to it. What may happen here is that I build up a bigger team around the project to get it all done. Watch this space
• Church website - another half-finished Django project that needs some time and TLC.

And if I get all that done, there’s always:

• MythTV wiring and frontend - having a Myth backend is all well and good, and being able to watch content on my desktop is great. But the eventual aim is to get ethernet downstairs and a silent box of some sort into the TV so that it’s actually, well, “useful”
• I’d love to play a bit with Asterisk/Trixbox……

Of course - I have many household/family duties which undoubtedly come waaaay before any of this tinkerage. But here’s hoping that I can properly schedule myself to get these done.

mrBen

Not sure how much I’m going to be online over the festive period, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope that you have a great time, and get lots of lovely presents

We’ve got a few things in store for the ‘Moose next year, plus we might actually get around to having a party!

Be safe.

mrBen

I’ve just discovered the sad news that Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. He’s been a prolific author for many years, and brought sci-fi/fantasy into the mainstream. He may have his critics, but no-one can deny his influence.

Best wishes to him and his family - I hope that he will be able to live a “normal” life for as long as possible.

mrBen

I finally managed it - a full 5 day working week with cycling to work. Plus I’ve notched up almost 200 miles now - will hopefully hit the 250 mark before Christmas. I’m certainly getting more used to it, I even managed the wet weather 2 days last week. Might need to wrap-up a bit better if it gets much colder, though

While I’m here, a couple of useful biking links:

CityCycling is a monthly online magazine which hails from Edinburgh. Has some really good articles, and is well produced. Check it out!

Not that I participate in the National Lottery, I would be pleased if they gave £50 million to Sustrans for improving the cycle network in the UK. Vote here *Would’ve been helpful if I’d posted this when I first heard about it, rather than a day after the voting closed…..

mrBen

Found this video - a really nice explanation of the principles of the Creative Commons licensing - if you are a writer, musician, artist, or other creative-type then this is something you should know about.

Via LivingOS.

mrBen

It’s been a good few years since I attempted any maintenance on a bike, other than pumping up the tyres. But on Saturday, I bit the bullet, and splashed out on some “proper” kit and did the deed.

From my “LBS” (Local Bike Shop) sold me some degreaser and chain lube, and Halfords (I know, I know) supplied me with a chain cleaner and a Park Tools gear cleaning tool. Pretty much everything worked well - the chain cleaner was a bit fiddly, but once I’d figured it out it did a fairly good job.

Then I set about adjusting my rear mech. Now - with my previous bike I had attempted this a number of times, with no real success. But it turns out I was missing 1 really important piece of information - at the point where the gear cable meets the derailleur there is a barrel adjuster. This is for adjusting the indexing (ie making sure that the gear lever (or in my case twist-shifter) selects the cog correctly). I wish I’d known this before - credit to Cycling Plus

So - now everything is working nicely. Happiness abounds, etc. Well - until the next rainy day, in which case it will probably need doing again….

mrBen

Not sure if I should be happy or sad about this result

43

[edit]Did this one too
87% Geek[/edit]

mrBen

Yup - it’s time for the seasonal sequel. We need to organise some dates for the party, so here are some suggestions. Essentially it’s probably going to need to be a Friday or Saturday night, and if we get too near Christmas itself, we’ll probably clash with work nights out, etc. So - please indicate in the comments which dates you can make from:

30th November
1st December
7th December
8th December
14th December
15th December

Looking forward to it already!

Updates:

• I’ve struck the 1st December due to a prior commitment - sorry
• Struck 30th November for work night out

mrBen

Contrary to what you might think, given recent postings, I haven’t bought a new bike (yet). But I have bought a new car! (Or rather, I will have bought it when they’ve finished putting it through it’s MOT). It’s a 52 plate Mazda 6 TS 2.0 turbodiesel estate - a “big” car in garnet red for those who prefer that kind of description. And it will, by my reckoning, be Thorp family car number 7 in 8 years. So here’s a little retrospective:

• Fiat Uno - nice little car given to us when we got married that unfortunately got hit by a lorry while parking on Kelvin Way about 2/3 weeks later, writing it off
• Nissan Micra - lovely little runabout that did a lot of good service and, despite virtually dying a couple of times, managed to get sold on to a guy at work and got a:
• Toyota Corolla - Heather’s Granddads old car, and the only automatic I’ve ever driven. Died suddenly one morning - wouldn’t start, and the garage declared it DoA.
• Rover 100 Kensington- Little red metro, basically. But it had remote central locking Sold it on to a friend.
• Rover 420Si - Bought by Heather’s Dad at a car auction and sold on to us. Probably my favourite car so far - big, powerful car that was nice to drive, with lots of electric doodads. PITA to park though. Sadly it failed it’s MOT shortly after Rover died, and the parts were not on the horizon for a good long time. Traded it in for:
• Renault Megane 1.4e - Done a reasonable job, but felt like a step down from the Rover for me. Getting a reasonable trade in value for:
• Mazda 6 2.0TD TS

Sadly the pick up has been delayed while they await a part, but hoping to have it by the weekend

mrBen