Linux From Scratch

A few years ago, I posted a how-to on building your own bootable Linux flash disk. At the time, I was a little peeved about how much buying a pre-built Linux disk cost and how little it did, so I basically wrote out a recipe to pare down Slackware, swap in BusyBox, and arrive at a ~32MB Linux image.

Overall I've been quite pleased with the results-it's proven to be quite reliable. Unfortunately it's also frozen in time-it's very difficult to add or update system software, or even to update the kernel for that matter. So with that in mind, I started looking at the Linux From Scratch project to really do it right this time around. If you're curious, here's how to do it:

1. Get yourself an external hard drive, and start reading Linux From Scratch. Do everything on the external hard drive-you're effectively building yourself a development environment for later use.
   
2. Get yourself a boot device (Compact Flash card, another hard drive, etc.) that you'll use for your embedded project. Install your newly-minted Linux distribution on it.
3. Add features and functionality with Beyond Linux From Scratch.

And that's about it-of course I've leaving out steps like shrinking the final image and so on, but this is the general outline of what to do. If you're curious I can post the full recipe.

My end product came out quite nicely-although it's much larger than the original Linux image I made way back when (167 MB compared to 32 MB for a minimal install), it is a much better engineered product and has a lot more functionality. What you end up with is an image to be installed on your embedded device, plus that external hard drive of yours ends up being a portable development environment-you just chroot in from any Linux machine, compile your software, and it'll directly port to your embedded device.

All in all I can definitely recommend LFS as probably the best place to go for the DIY crowd. I'd have to say that it's also given me a deeper appreciation for the reasoning behind the GNU/Linux vs. Linux nomenclature debate. You really begin to realize as you progress through LFS and BLFS that the Linux kernel is really just one part of a much larger system that makes the complete OS. I don't know if I'm ready to adopt the GNU/Linux label just yet, but I do understand now where its proponents are coming from.

Workstation Recommendations?

Long time, no write. Among other things, my aging R3000Z has been a huge factor in the lack of posts-it's now to the point where I simply don't trust it for anything more complicated than web surfing. Some days it seems barely capable of that-YouTube videos are a big no-no. As a result most of my work at home has ground to a complete halt, blog included.

Which brings me to today's topic-workstations! I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'd like to go desktop this time around, but I'm looking for something with a lot of horsepower and a fairly long useful lifetime. Here's my short list of candidates, along with what I'm thinking about them right now.

Dell XPS 420
Strictly speaking, not a workstation, but I think it compares favourably with a nice Quad Core and I'm not enamoured of Dell's workstation line. I've never owned a Dell, and I'm a little leery of the build quality here. I do like the looks of this system (Wow-I never thought I'd say that about a Dell!), and I suppose I can always slap Linux on here alongside Vista.

Sun Ultra 24
This appears to be a fairly new system, or at least I don't remember seeing it until recently. I've been experimenting with an Ultra 60 for a few months now and I've been very impressed with Sun's build quality. Solaris seems to be a rock solid operating system, if a little dated visually; hardware compatibility is possibly an issue here as well. Of course as an x86 machine the Ultra 24 will handle Linux and Vista, but I don't know if I like the video card options here-NVS290 card seems to be a requirement in that you can add another video card but you can't opt for replacing the NVS290 instead.

Apple Mac Pro
I like the expandability and potential for customization here. I've heard the rumours that a refresh of the line is coming down the line in early 2008 (January maybe?), so it might be worth holding out for a while just to see. There is the issue of the "Apple Tax" here, although price-wise it competes favourably with other Xeon dual processor machines I've looked at so far. Video cards seem a little dated, though.

TuxBox FullTails
Boutique sellers like TuxBox offer a lot for the money, and I expect that the build quality here is quite good. I am a little leery of smaller outfits as unknowns in general, and the TuxBox site seems to be unavailable semi-frequently. They're a fairly new outfit I think, so it could just be growing pains for the company.

TuxBox LabCoat
Another nice TuxBox system, although AMD isn't my Number 1 choice for processors right now.

CyberPower
JNCS
Xi Computer
Thinkmate
Just some of the other boutique sellers I've looked at-no particular makes or models in mind.

If you think I should look at another system or run screaming into the hills away from one of the ones I've listed, let me know!

Circumvention

These days I spend more and more time getting around goofy computer policies at work. I can understand making me run with limited privileges, that's just about a given. Things like taking away my "Run..." command under XP's Start Menu, though, well those are just stupid.

One of the most common IT rules is in blocking access to certain websites, usually the ones that don't have an obvious "for work" usage, eat up a lot of bandwidth, or have iffy content.

If you run into this problem and have a Windows machine with an available USB port, go get the XeroBank Browser (formerly TorPark) and put it on a USB drive. The xB browser uses Tor to anonymize requests for pages, so that your corporate firewall doesn't know what sites you're actually after.

It's slower than a regular browser, and you're still not protected if your boss has software installed to see your computer screen (e.g. VNC) so I wouldn't use it to check for a new job at work or anything. But if you need the occasional jaunt into YouTube, it might be worth a look.

Job Offer-Director Of Quality (Dallas / Ft. Worth)

Seeing as I'm never going to pay you to read this blog, I suppose I should give you some reason, right? How about getting you a new job?

Right now we have a request in to help find candidates for a Director Of Quality position in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. I've got the full job description posted elsewhere, but really they're looking for somebody who's not afraid to get their hands dirty NDE-wise but can also handle running press conferences and other public functions. It's a fairly high-profile position with a Fortune 1000 company, so if you get to the interview stage I definitely recommend a tie. :)

If you think you might be interested, feel free to let me know.

Kids Today

I had to let a student hire go a couple of weeks ago for job abandonment (long story), so I'm now in the process of interviewing replacements. I'm supposed to be interviewing a prospect right now, but so far no show. I was supposed to be interviewing another one tomorrow, but he confused me with the University Of Texas and had to cancel.

I forgot how flaky college age kids are...maybe I need to start recruiting little old ladies. :)

Ouch

I've got to stop playing Wii Sports so much-I'm starting to get tennis elbow. I wish I was kidding. :)

Where's The Skippy?

Today a post from the "not all that interesting department." Unless you're me.

For about a year now, Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter's been all but impossible to get in Austin. It began with spotty availability in my grocery store, to the point where if I saw it I bought a few jars whether I needed it or not. When they stopped carrying it, I found it in a couple of local dollar stores. Last week, it disappeared completely, and I'm left with Amazon Grocery for my "fix." Walmarts, Targets, all have been searched locally, none carry it.

This all started way before the Samonella in the peanut butter scare, and of course Skippy's not even the brand associated with the recall. So I'm left to wonder why it's so scarce. Did they discontinue it? Texas production plant sucked into a wormhole? What's the deal?

Water Transmission

Being in Austin, water is in the news at least once a year. Like other Colorado River communities, the water supply issue is a big concern. Couple drought with a massive influx of new residents, and it's not hard to see trouble on the way.

In all the discussion about rationing, conserving, etc., I've noticed that there's one little tidbit about water that hasn't been discussed-the efficiency of the water transmission infrastructure. Generally it's bad to awful for most communities-if a city gets 80% of the input water through the system, it's high-fives and backslaps all the way around. Getting 60-70% out is considered acceptable, 50% efficiency is time to worry.

Among other things, the water is lost because of old water pipelines. Water pipelines corrode, they get holes, water leaks out. In some cases, the original pipe corrodes away-there are some places where water is transmitted by the "fossilized" remains of the pipe, the actual pipe having been corroded away years ago. I know of a couple of cases where a utility found out that a pipe they've used for a hundred years turned out to be a section of stove pipe, and at least once case where the pipe turned out to be a log!

Granted, 100% efficiency is more a theoretical ideal than anything. There will always be some loss, that's an inescapable reality. But how nice would it be to squeeze an extra 10% out of a city's water supply? What if we made 80% efficiency acceptable and saved the kudos for 90% efficiency? It's an expensive proposition to replace all that dead infrastructure in every town and city along the Colorado, but it seems to me that it isn't enough to ask the consumers to conserve and be efficient. We should be asking the suppliers to do the same.

Unintended Consequences

I think I'm going to get my neighbour evicted, whether I meant to or not.

The story thus far: the house I'm renting now is by no stretch of the imagination a palace. It's an inexpensive older place that's quiet and (mostly) doesn't leak, so good enough for right now. As any of my fellow renters out there will know, your top priority in renting is to make sure you're not on the hook for any damage that isn't your fault. Your second priority is to make sure you're not on the hook for any damage that is your fault, but that's a story for another day. :)

Anyway, the fence between the place I rent and my neighbour's backyard was rickety from the first day I moved in, but the neighbour's dogs are helping it die all that much sooner. If I'm in my backyard, the dogs act like every other dog in the universe-they bark their heads off at the stranger and they push and claw and jump at the fence. Fast forward a year or so, and the dogs have managed to make a few holes in the fence and pull the pickets out in a couple of places.

Remembering the Renter's Top Priority, I let my landlords know about the fence-don't know if the fence is theirs, don't really care if they fix it or not, just want to be on the record as saying that I didn't break the fence. Just to ensure I'm not hit with a massive bill for damages when I try to move-like I said, longterm renters will know what I'm talking about. It's all about getting that damage deposit back and/or not getting a surprise bill in the mail.

The landlords ask for photos. No problem, I figure-just more "on the record" evidence to make sure I'm ok when I move.

The landlords note that I said "the dogs next door," and ask how many dogs are actually over there. Now I'm a little concerned, but it's not like I can't say anything now, so I let them know I think it's two.

You can probably see where I'm going with this. The neighbour house is also a rental, so I suspect that the landlords own that place as well (they own several houses on that block), and the tenant(s) didn't mention that they had two dogs. I think my neighbours are probably going to get evicted and/or hit with a big bill because of me.

I hope this doesn't happen, because it's not at all what I set out to do. I suppose the way to look at things is that if I didn't mention the fence, I might have been stuck with paying for what amounts to their responsibility, and that it's really their own fault if things pan out that way. I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble, I'm trying to stay out of trouble. Still, I can't help but feel bad about the whole situation.

Important Proposal Tips

If you're about to write a proposal for funding from the Feds or elsewhere, it is absolutely essential that you get the buzzwords and background right, particularly if you're writing a scientific or technical proposal. No proposal is complete without the following buzzwords:

• nanotube
• real time
• power scavenging
• condition-based
  

Make sure you don't dispel any wild ideas or misconceptions in the proposal topic either. For example, your reviewers don't want to hear that what they're asking for violates the laws of thermodynamics, they just want to hear how you're going to break the law and get away with it. Or how you'll use power scavenging to power your device inside an airtight, cold, pitch black silo. Suggest that you'll use an Entropy Gathering Engine to power your device, and you're off and running.

But the second someone comes back and says, "Brilliant idea! Just think of all the entropy that goes to waste every year!" you need to run away from them very quickly. :)

Voq How-Tos

Note: more for my own edification than anything, although if you can make use of it feel free to help yourself and/or offer your own tips. I'll update this posting as required.

• Hard reset, courtesy Mobile Gadget News: with the Voq turned off, open the QWERTY keyboard and hold down both the space bar and the on button. You should see a blue screen "Factory Reset" and "Erasing Flash" messages. Wait a minute or two for the process to finish, and your Voq's fresh as a daisy.
• Cingular GPRS Data Settings, courtesy Voq: create new GPRS Connection with the following settings. Access Point => WAP.CINGULAR, Username => WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM, Password => CINGULAR1 . Note-these are the MEdia settings, any other GPRS data account may vary.
• Cingular SMTP, courtesy Voq: CWMX.com.

Code Igniter = Great!

I'm not much of a PHP coder-like a lot of people out there, I can hack something together given sufficient time and coffee. This week I was asked to take a stab at returning a formatted report based on a database query, and the thought of jumping into something like that was a little daunting. I could probably half-ass it, but I'd rather make it at least appear halfway decent. :)

Enter Code Igniter. CI's a fantastic PHP framework that really took the sting out of the whole process. It takes care of most/all the nitty gritty details and leaves me to think about the higher level stuff. There are a lot of other frameworks available for PHP, but CI stood out for me for a couple of reasons.

1. It works with PHP 4 and 5. I know I should be using 5, but not every web host makes it available. And not knowing much about our internal server config (secretive IT and all that), I couldn't chance it.
2. Easy installation. Extract one zip file, edit two files. Bingo bango, Bob's your uncle.
3. Absolutely fantastic user's manual. Probably the best I've ever seen for a web framework.
4. Your code just looks clean. There's really not much to it, and it's very easy to follow. Moreover CI makes it easy to follow the MVC Pattern, in fact CI finally made this famous pattern clear as day to me.

If you're in the market for a PHP framework or a MVC framework in general, you really need to check out Code Igniter. I know a lot of folks turn their noses up at PHP, but CI really polishes it up and I think it's worth a look.

Wii WiFi Resolution

As posted earlier, I've been having problems with keeping a network connection with the Wii. Google + Nintendo suggest that switching from dynamic to static IP might help, and it's looking to be the case for mine at any rate. If you're going to do the same, I'd suggest setting your Wii's IP to be the last allowable by your WiFi router. In my case, that's 192.168.0.49, yours might be different of course.

From that same post...I wonder if Spartan: Total Warrior might give me a "close enough" fix so I don't have to get a PS2 just for GoW2. :)

I'm A Nerd

You know you're white and nerdy when you're watching the video, and something just doesn't seem right about that equation. Then you take the time to look it up on Wikipedia.

And it turns out, you're right. And so you blog it. :)

DIY Projector HDTV

Slate has a good article up on building a high definition entertainment system around a projector. It runs down some results on six "low" cost ($1000 or less) projectors, based on how well they did with DVDs, HDTV broadcasts, and so on. If nothing else, it's a good reference to what you'll be buying if you decide to go HD.

Bear in mind though that if you just want HD, have some room available, and don't require 82 inches and up for your viewing pleasure, you can get an actual TV for around the same price. Check out CNET's review of the Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42" plasma, for example.

For me, I'm tempted to go projector simply because InFocus has the terrific habit of running big rebates every few months-I need to spend $1000 on a TV about as much as I need an 82" screen, which is to say not at all. As the article mentions, you can pick one up now for $599 with a screen after a $300 rebate. Keep an eye on Woot! too, they tend to feature it every once in a while at a pretty good price.

Wii, 2 Weeks Later

It's been about 2 weeks since I got my Wii, so it's about time I checked in with an update. Rather than take the time to produce a thoughtful and concise writeup, I'll just present my thoughts in point form. They teach us in the workforce that bullets help to bring across a point faster anyway. :)

• I'm surprised how much I like Madden 2007. This is a great example of how intuitive Wii controls can make a game-there's just something about flicking your wrist for a pass rather than mashing a bunch of buttons. The rumble is just about useless though, and drains the batteries like you wouldn't believe. Thank goodness you can shut it off.
• Call Of Duty 3 has been getting rated as average to bad (GameSpot's review is one of the more favourable) but I think it's actually pretty good. Wrestling a rifle from an enemy soldier got really bad marks, but I didn't have any problem with it and I am by no means a proficient, skilled player.
  
• The wireless connection seems a bit wonky. So far I seem to have to make some minor change on my router to re-enable an otherwise lost connection (best seems to be to toggle MAC address filtering). Nintendo suggests that it's a low signal problem, but my router is about 3 feet from my Wii. I'm wondering if it's because the router lets IP addresses expire and the Wii's not compensating. More research required.
• In most of the Wii Sports games, I tend to use motions similar to those in real life. The exception is golf-I seem to get better results by using smaller motions. A golf swing doesn't work for me, but moving my wrist like I'm trying to skip a rock across a lake does.
• Favourite Wii Sports game: baseball, without a doubt. Followed up by bowling, golf, tennis, and with boxing bringing up the rear.
• No Wii-related injuries to report as of yet, although I did notice that Wii Sports + my weight training on same day = general bad feeling in shoulders and arms. One or the other, not both on the same day.
  
• GameCube Wavebird wireless controller works great, as do GameCube games in general. Not being familiar with the Wavebird, it looked pretty bulky to me but it turns out to be very comfortable. I'd recommend one of these over the Wii Classic Controller...at least for now. If Wii games begin to support it in the future, it'll be a tougher call.
  
• Good luck getting a hockey game! Nothing for Wii or GameCube for 2007; NHL 2006 was made for GameCube but you'll never find it brand new. I settled for NHL 2005.
• Speaking of GameCube games, you can't save 'em to Wii main memory or SD cards. You have to shell out for GameCube memory. It's pretty pricey too, so I wouldn't just pick it up on a whim unless you plan on using GameCube games.
  
• Polling my friendly neighbourhood Walmart, last weekend was the first weekend that they had Wii peripherals in stock. Picked up a second Wii remote, and the aforementioned pricey GameCube memory. Initializing the second remote was dead simple. Why can't everything be this easy?

All in all I'm really pleased with the Wii thus far. I just hope God Of War 2 doesn't make me pick up a PS2 as well. My SO'd kill me.

Basecamp and ITAR

Here's something to consider if you're thinking of using Basecamp as an online project management tool: ITAR. If you're doing anything with export-controlled data, you have to ensure that only U.S. persons--U.S. citizens and permanent residents, within the U.S.--have access to said data. That means that foreign persons--everybody else, including U.S. persons outside the U.S. (I think)--can't have access.

Basecamp uses Rackspace's network, which includes data centres in the U.K. By itself that means that you can't use Basecamp with export-controlled information, but consider also that even if all the data centres were in the U.S. you can't be certain that only U.S. persons would have access to your data.

I don't mean to pick on Basecamp, I think they offer an excellent service and for 99.9% of users this would never be a problem. If you're in that 0.1% group though, you should seriously consider hosting your own service to make sure your ITAR-compliant. Suggestions for this kind of functionality would include phpCollab and activeCollab. You might also want to take a closer look at any other web services and/or applications your company may be considering. Better safe than sorry!

F-15E Flight Test-Success!

If you've been looking at Linux for an embedded project and wondering about its suitability for harsh working conditions, wonder no more. Today I'm finally able to report that LAHMP successfully completed its first flight test! The tests were performed back in September 2006, but we didn't have permission to release the details until very recently. Official press release is available from TRI's web site.

The flight test was on board an F-15E Strike Eagle, and I'm happy to say that my gizmo performed without a hitch. We were able to acquire data throughout the entire test and never lost a second, even during a few (limited) aerial maneuvers.

In testing running up to the flight test, LAHMP was shown to survive +/- 6 G six-axis shock testing and in our own testing was fully operational for any temperature between -40 C (-40 F) and +85 C (+185 F). We used my home-grown Coughlinux for both the initial testing and the flight test itself.

Standoff Resolved Peacefully

I'm pleased to report that as of this morning, Nintendo and I have resolved our situation to mutual satisfaction. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank NowInStock.net for mediating the arrangement. :)

(Seriously, if you're employed and don't feel like camping out overnight in front of a megastore, go check out NowInStock. They cover PS3's and other must-haves as well.)

I'd have to say that my first impressions were right, this thing is fun! I've got a couple of Wii games on the way next week, but so far I'm really enjoying Wii Sports. Bowling is #1 with me, followed by baseball and then golf (haven't tried the others yet). Packaging Wii Sports with the console was pure brilliance, otherwise I'd be grousing all weekend about the expensive brick sitting in my living room until I got my games next week.

Graphics are actually pretty good (digging the cartoony look so far), sound very good as well. Granted, not PS3/Xb0x 360 good, but I knew that going in. All in all, it's a lot of fun.

Now...let's get a decent hockey game on this thing, huh? Don't make me start up another ultimatum. :)

Rather Unusual

Now there's something you don't see in Austin every day. Check out the video evidence of actual snowing:

• http://www.chriscoughlin.com/dnlds/MVI_0157.AVI
• http://www.chriscoughlin.com/dnlds/MVI_0158.AVI
• http://www.chriscoughlin.com/dnlds/MVI_0159.AVI

I'm on Day Four of my weekend, thanks to this stuff. :)

Nintendo Ultimatum

All right Nintendo, time to lay the cards out on the table. It's a couple of weeks before my birthday, and I'm liking the looks of the Wii. Problem is, it appears to be well nigh impossible to lay your hands on one these days without camping out in front of retailers or buying a mega-bundle for mega bucks.

So here's the deal. I'm going to get a console for my birthday. If you can get more units out there and somehow convince the retailers to not wrap them up in $600 bundles, I'll go with you. If not, I'll go for my second choice and get a PS2 bundle* for around the same amount of money I'd otherwise be giving you. Sure, it doesn't have the Wiimote, but on the other hand it plays DVDs.

Ball's in your court, Nintendo. The Wii might be my first choice but it's not my only choice. Somebody's going to get that green, and I'd rather it was you than Sony or Microsoft. So let's say we just make this happen, ok? :)

* Why not Xbox360 or PS3? I'm at most a casual gamer (something to kill time when TV sucks), and they're both a serious outlay of cash for the non-hardcore group, where serious outlay is defined as my SO reaching for the nearest blunt instrument when she finds out.

Affordable Source Code Control For Visual Studio

I bit the bullet and picked up a copy of Visual Studio 2005 a few weeks ago. Most of my development is done in Eclipse, which has great source code control integration with CVS and Subversion. Outside of Eclipse, I tend to use command line systems (darcs being my personal favourite for cross-platform and simplicity) for the most part. I have to admit that I'm a huge fan of Superversion though, so if you're looking for a dead simple system I can't recommend it enough if command lines and IDE integrations aren't that high on your list of priorities.

Anyway, source code control in VS depends on the SCCI interface. Do some searching and you'll find that there are quite a few source code control systems that use this interface, including

• ionForge's evolution;
• Perforce;
• Sourcegear's Vault;
  
• etc.

The three listed above all offer free single-user licenses, and are well worth a look. You'll find plenty of other possibilities out there as well, but I'm interested in affordable/free solutions. Most of the rest tend to be on the "they want how much?!?" side.

I really wanted to use Subversion or CVS if I could, simply because as free products I can use them both at home and at work. I really don't want to learn 10 different SCMs and/or shell out for something for work. One Solution To Rule Them All and all that.

For Subversion there are really two solutions for Visual Studio integration: AnkhSVN and VisualSVN. I haven't tried VisualSVN, but I did use AnkhSVN for a week or two and while it worked as advertised it did seem to slow Visual Studio down perceptibly. I've since seen anecdotal evidence that suggests that it's because AnkhSVN is structured not as a SCCI provider but as a plugin. Can't confirm that, though.

I really wanted Quma Software's QVCS to work. Out of all the commercial offerings it was the most reasonably priced for the solo developer and appeared to be the most straightforward to use. I was able to install the trial version and use it as a separate client without any trouble, however I could never get it to work in Visual Studio. It would be recognized as a valid SCC plugin, but would report an error every time I tried to check in a sample project.

Serious web scraping ultimately led me to the TamTam CVS plugin. It sits atop a CVSNT installation and plugs directly in to VS.NET. I've been using it for a few hours now and it seems to work as advertised with no perceptible Visual Studio slowdown. The initial documentation on getting set up could be a little clearer, but once you get it up and running it's essentially a seamless part of Visual Studio living. Considering it's only $10, it's probably worth your time to take a closer look. Ultimately I've decided to go this route as the best combination of price and ease of use.

One final note: my favourite Windows text editor Zeus actually comes with its own CVS-SCC source code control system. Although it works great within Zeus and it does register as a potential SCC source code system in Visual Studio, I wasn't actually able to get it to work. Which is to be expected, according to a post by Zeus' author.