StressCrack

Facebook And Viruses

2009-03-02T13:08:00.002-06:00

Evil-doers the world over are coming around to the idea that Facebook and other social websites are a potential treasure trove: the BBC's got a story worth a read on the subject.

This is just the beginning, you can expect to see more virus delivery systems and identity theft schemes hit in the future. As always, careful what you make available on Facebook, and don't just install any ol' app just because Joe Blow tagged/bit/slammed/whatever you with it.

PS3 Is Awesome

2009-01-19T09:56:00.005-06:00

Over the holidays I took the plunge and finally went HD-new TV, sound system, the whole nine. The most useful piece of the whole setup, short of the TV that is, has proven to be the PlayStation 3. Here's why.

Blu-ray
Until recently the PS3 was just about the best Blu-ray player there was, and even now it's still a top contender. The fact that its firmware can be updated means that as the BD standard evolves the PS3 can keep up. Some of the earliest Blu-ray adopters can't get the BD-Live content for example on their older players. The PS3 also ranks pretty high when it comes to startup time-some cheaper BD players can take nearly a minute to get you to the root menu on a disc.

Media Center
This goes for the Xbox360 as well-both consoles are great for media centers. You can either download the music, photos, or videos straight to their hard drives, plug in an external storage device like a thumb drive or USB hard drive, or stream it across your network. I'll give the leg up to the 360 for now with the Netflix support (but read on for the PS3 alternative), but if you're thinking of Blu-ray I think you have to give the advantage to the PS3.

So far the PS3 browser's support of Hulu is touch and go. I can usually get it to play the "HD" (480p) episodes of Dilbert in full screen for example, but only after a few minutes of crashes. Hopefully this will get better soon. Youtube is flawless, even more so since they launched their TV beta for easier browsing from the couch.

For better Hulu and to add Netflix streaming, I recommend dropping the $40 for PlayOn instead. I got in on the beta, and after a day or two of using it was convinced to pick it up. Playback is flawless, even though I'm streaming over WiFi. I find the fast-forward / reverse controls aren't exactly stellar, but that's a standard gripe for both Hulu and Netflix and doesn't have much to do with PlayOn itself. Other than that it works perfectly...quality is identical to watching in a standard browser window. Which means you are not going to be blown away by the video quality. :)

Rentals
New to the PlayStation Store is the ability to rent (and occasionally buy) SD and HD movies and TV shows. Prices aren't too bad (or maybe it's better to say about the same as any other online rental service) and the selection is decent for a brand new service, but for what it costs to rent 1 HD movie you can have Blu-ray movies added to your existing Netflix account for half a year. I do like the option though because PSN movies hit the store before they're generally available from Netflix, and you can't beat the "instant" access rather than waiting for the mail. I have my PS3 connected to my home network over WiFi, so "instant" for me is more like "download it tonight, watch it tomorrow." And I'm not a fan of the expiration-expires in 2 weeks, or in 24 hours the second you press Play. Unfortunately that's not all that different than other download services though. I blame Hollywood.

Games!
Turns out this thing plays games too. I'm not a huge gamer, but I did pick it up again a while back. I blame my brother for that-had too much fun playing a FPS last time I made it back to the old country. Right now there aren't as many games for the PS3 as the 360, but things are improving.

Speaking of the Old Country, just about 99% of what I've described here for my setup flat-out won't work in Canada. Last I heard Hulu, Netflix streaming, and PSN are all U.S.-only. Sorry relatives. You can definitely blame Hollywood for that.

E71 Round II

2009-01-19T06:45:00.002-06:00

Two months to the day I first wrote about the E71, I'm back with a few more thoughts. I've had some time to really get used to this phone, and thanks to 2 firmware updates in the interim it's really come along.

The latest firmware upgrade among other things adds 4 new themes, and they're a marked improvement. They use the same stock icons as the original themes, but as it happens I don't notice them as much with the new themes for some reason.

Nokia's Download! app (think iPhone's App Store) has really filled out. If you bought the unlocked E71 (and not the E71x coming soon to an AT&T near you), a lot of the apps are free for the downloading. Among other things that means that instead of buying Psiloc Connect to seamlessly switch between cell and WiFi networks, you can download a free copy of Birdstep's SmartConnect. It could be that Psiloc packs in more functionality with the paid application, but I've been using SmartConnect for a couple of months now and it's been flawless. Other free apps worth checking out include Slifter (price checking in local stores), Locr (tag your photos' locations automatically with the GPS), and a handy Gizmodo reader for the techies. There's even a Facebook client available-I'd offer my $.02 on it but since I never use Facebook I've never bothered to check it out. :)

I used Nokia Email (now Nokia Messaging) for a month or two and found it to be quite good. Definitely a step up over the email clients built into the phone. As you might expect with the always-on "push" email though, it did eat the battery-on average I had to recharge about once every two days. I've since stopped using it mainly because I don't really have a need for instant email and because they'll eventually be moving to a paid service. Without it I find I have to recharge about once every 3 days or so. You can also fake push email with some services like Gmail, if you're looking for the free alternative to the service.

All in all I still recommend the E71-iPhone and Blackberry fiends will still find lots to loathe, but if you don't fall in either camp there's lots to love here as well.

Nokia E71 Review

2008-11-19T12:47:00.004-06:00

If you're interested in the Nokia E71 QWERTY smartphone, you've probably already seen a half-dozen reviews by now. If not, The Boy Genius Report and Engadget Mobile are two good places to start. I've been using this phone for a bit over a week now and thought I'd jot down some points I didn't find when I was wondering whether or not to plunk down for one.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, my previous phone was the Samsung Blackjack I. I really like this phone, but it was getting a little long in the tooth and couldn't do everything I wanted. I was sorely tempted by the Blackberry Bold, but at $349 with 2-year contract extension on AT&T it was only $20 cheaper than the E71 that was free and clear of any other obligations.

The bullet points:

The default themes for the E71 are pretty ugly. Two-second fix: I recommend babinokia.com and Bandez Themes as excellent sources for replacements.
Out of the box, there is no threaded SMS. If that's important to you, Nokia's Conversation beta might fit the bill.
Since the office doesn't have Blackberry support, I don't lament the absence of Blackberry Connect on the E71 all that much. It does support Exchange out of the box however, and Nokia Email Service might be an option for you as well. Other push email options: SEVEN, emoze. Personally, I'm pretty happy with Gmail right now, and the new Gmail Mobile client is pretty good.
General integration of the various applications is quite good. Example: my office's webclient throws up and refuses to open an HTML email. Forward it to the E71's email client, opens up without a hitch (though it does use the web browser to read the HTML as an attachment). Email contains link to PDF, link opens directly on the PDF viewer. Easy peasy.
Web browsing is excellent, complete with Java and Flash support. Some reviews skip the built-in browser and go straight to Opera Mini but honestly I haven't had any reason to as of yet..I've got Mini installed but there just hasn't been anything the built-in browser couldn't handle. I thought that the d-pad would be a poor option for scrolling around a site in comparison to a touchscreen or Blackberry trackball, but it works great.
Fantastic reception so far-the E71 can grab a 3G signal in my living room where the Blackjack could only muster EDGE.
Back in the bad ol' days if you bought an unlocked phone you had to troll the forums to find the right web access settings. The E71 grabs them for you and so far has worked great on AT&T. I wish it had the ability to switch automatically to/from WiFi and the cell networks, but I can live without that. Psiloc Connect can handle it for you if you're so inclined.
Speaking of WiFi, connections work great. It took all of 11 seconds to get connected to my network at home, and most of that was in getting the E71's MAC address to add to my router's filters.
Keyboard is excellent. With the Blackjack I had to purposefully slow my typing down and really think about what keys I was pressing, which I find I'm not doing as much or even at all on the Nokia. Couple this with the auto-corrective text feature and I think after a month or two you could really blaze on this thing.

All in all I can't say enough nice things about this phone. If you're a Blackberry or iPhone fan, you'll probably find more than a few things worthy of a gripe. The phone isn't perfect-I wish the email client was a little more full-featured among other things-but being mostly platform agnostic I decided a long time ago that there's no such thing as a perfect device. Blackberries and iPhones have their warts too. But for me, this phone looks like it'll do what I want and it'll do it fairly well, and that's really all I'm asking for anyway.

Update Wed Nov 19 14:35:43 CST 2008: and word is that a version of the E71 is headed to AT&T. Little sleeker looking with the black (?) repaint, but the tradeoff is potentially heaps of bloatware and possibly a little crippling thrown in for good measure.

Self Interest

2008-11-11T12:50:00.004-06:00

I've been noodling on this for a while now.

Last month in testimony Alan Greenspan said he'd discovered a flaw in his thinking (see the Times article among others for reference) about the "self-interest" angle in capitalism. Specifically, the theory was that you could always rely on financial institutions to act in their own best interest.

The self-interest principle really got me to think, and I've come to the conclusion that it's correct but not in the way it was generally interpreted. What it boils down to is that you have to consider the self-interest from an individual's perspective, not from a collective self-interest. You can rely on a person to almost always act in their (perceived) self-interest, which may or may not align with a larger institution's interests.

Once you start with that idea it's easy to see why things went the way they did. A loan officer might approve a risky mortgage knowing full well it's a risk to the company if for example she was earning a commission for each loan brought in to the company. The commission probably isn't tied to the perceived risk to the company so much as its size. A CEO might push for risky financial moves if for example he's pressured by the shareholders after they notice the competition pulling them off, and so on.

In each case, the person in question knows that this isn't necessarily something in the best interests of the company. But their self-interest is in conflict with the company's self-interest, and what's good for them in their minds will trump what's good for the company.

Finally, I think the other key factor in all this is the fact that people tend to favour the more short term self-interest over the long term. That's just basic human nature and it's why we buy that HDTV instead of putting the money in our retirement. It's also why people went with the ARMs and interest-only mortgages-sure it costs more later, but it's cheaper now! Ditto for filling out next quarter's profit margins vs. worrying about the balance sheet 10 years down the road.

So if I had to summarize my theory, it's that individual self-interest dominates, and the more immediate the interest the more it dominates. Sadly I don't see how this helps any of us, but at least it helps me make sense of where things went wrong. :)

Linux From Scratch

2007-12-13T07:59:00.000-06:00

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:

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.
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.
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?

2007-12-12T12:37:00.000-06:00

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

2007-08-06T12:24:00.000-05:00

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)

2007-04-23T09:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-03T09:38:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-03T09:34:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-03-05T12:50:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-23T13:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-23T08:29:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-21T06:32:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-09T08:47:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-02-07T14:48:00.000-06:00

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.

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.
Easy installation. Extract one zip file, edit two files. Bingo bango, Bob's your uncle.
Absolutely fantastic user's manual. Probably the best I've ever seen for a web framework.
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

2007-02-07T14:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-01T13:15:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-01T12:48:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-01T12:17:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-01T09:34:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-01-22T14:15:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-20T12:50:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-16T12:24:00.000-06:00

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

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

Nintendo Ultimatum

2007-01-09T13:24:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-05T18:39:00.000-06:00

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.

Process Throttler, Found!

2006-12-29T12:20:00.001-06:00

About a month ago I posted a request for a service or task throttler. After doing some more digging, I came across Process Lasso and I have to say it really seems to fit the bill. Although it wasn't able to reign in the virus checker, it is able to kill that runaway process entirely. Not an ideal solution of course, but at least the computer's functional.

Incidentally it turns out I'm not the only one that's been griping about Symantec's Norton AntiVirus. Try searching for rtvscan.exe, the name of the AV process (or one of them, anyway) that was killing me. Nothing but "pegged the CPU" as far as the eye can see, for a wide variety of platforms and computers of varying horsepower.

Remember folks: security is meaningless if it turns your computer into a hot brick. What's the difference between not being able to use my computer because it's infected with viruses, and not being able to use my computer because it's looking for viruses?

Sorry For The Delay

2006-12-29T12:10:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the quiet period folks, I've been playing with the mother of all allergy attacks. One of the big downsides of Austin is that there is no winter, so my sinus cavities never get any time off from pollen. Here's what my front yard looked like Christmas Day:

Yes, I really do need to rake and mow. I'm not going out there without a Darth Vader-style breathing apparatus, though.

Happy Holidays!

Windows Live Search For Mobile-Not Just For Phones

2006-12-03T09:51:00.000-06:00

Gizmodo has an excellent review of Windows Live Search and declares it the winner vs. Google Maps Mobile on Windows Smartphones.

It's worth mentioning that Windows Live Search isn't just for Smartphones-it works great with my Axim 51v PocketPC both in its cradle and via WiFi. It's very responsive and navigation with the D-pad is quite good.

At left is a screen capture from my Axim, showing the conventional road view. This is with traffic updates enabled, so that every 2 minutes the maps update with the latest traffic details.

Seeing as it's a major pain to get Google Maps Mobile (or any other Java midlet for that matter) to run on a PocketPC, I declare Live Search the winner virtually by default of being the only contender for the platform. It's actually quite a polished application, though, so even if it had serious competition I'd probably still give it the gold star.

At right is the same map as shown above, but in aerial view.

To install on your PocketPC, just visit the Windows Live Search for mobile beta site with your PocketPC and download the CAB. Install as per usual and you're good to go. One hiccup I did encounter, though-it installs itself as Search in your Programs folder, or rather it tries to since I've already got a Search program there. So look for Search(1) in your Programs folder. It's a minor little quirk but you can always rename it later, right?

What Is It About The Wii, Anyway?

2006-12-01T11:47:00.000-06:00

No doubt you've already been bombarded about the newest offerings from Sony and Nintendo, the Playstation 3 and the Wii respectively. I'd offer to link to someplace you could pick one or both up, but such a place does not exist. :)

Now, I am not a gamer. The last console I had was the NES I bought for $20 from my brother, who needed the dough to trade up to a SNES. During my last trip home my brother convinced me into playing a first-person shooter on his brand new Xbox 360. Cool game and all, but I got my butt handed to me in multi-player mode because I didn't have the 80 different button combos memorized like everyone else did.

Having said all that though, I find myself interested in the Wii. Here you have somebody who's never paid more than $200 in his entire life (counting PC, PocketPC, and the ol' GameBoy) on gaming, seriously considering plunking down that much and more on this new system.

What's the attraction? This thing looks like fun. I look at the PS3 and the Xbox 360 and I think they're cool, but the word "fun" never really pops into my head. Not having your typical button-studded controller, the Wii looks different to me. It looks like the kind of thing that takes all of 10 seconds to learn and you're off and running.

The other consoles also have an intimidation factor, for lack of a better phrase. I don't have a HDTV. I don't even (gasp!) have a large-screen TV, or even a home theater audio system of any kind. Sony and Microsoft's offerings would make me feel like I'm wasting their talents somehow, by hooking them up to an inferior audiovisual experience. The Wii looks like it would fit in just fine with my good ol' mono CRT TV.

If Nintendo can manage to get a good library of good games for the Wii, this thing's destined for greatness. The gamer crowd might turn up their noses but it could really be a hit for the rest of us. This non-gamer's already sold.

(Picture courtesy Marcin Chady. View the original entry here.)

Mini How-To: Recover A Notebook Hard Drive

2006-12-01T06:46:00.000-06:00

So your notebook decides to go belly up, and you've got important files on the hard drive. If you're inclined to just "pop it in the desktop PC" you'll soon discover that it won't work-a desktop normally uses a 3.5" drive and your laptop's drive is probably a 2.5". Never mind the fact that they use different connections.

So what's the cheapest way to get at the laptop hard drive? Buy yourself a USB 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure. For about $10 (such as this Sabrent model ) you get a box that houses your HD and turns it into a external USB drive. You plug the drive in on one end, mount it up, and close the box. Done. Your notebook hard drive is now the same as any other flash drive you've ever used and it'll plug in to anything with a USB port available. From here, you can run your favourite system diagnostics and recovery tools (I recommend System Rescue CD among others) if required, or otherwise just get at your files.

For the frugal out there, if you can't bear to toss out that "perfectly good hard drive" after you get a new notebook, why not use the enclosure to make yourself an inexpensive backup drive? If you think about it, you'll probably pay at least $20 to pick up a new 1GB flash drive...why not put that old 1GB hard drive to good use and save $10?

For the handymen types out there, I'd suggest picking up one of the 2.5" enclosures and one for standard 3.5" desktop PC drives. Handy in an emergency!

Service / Task Throttler?

2006-11-27T07:22:00.000-06:00

We have a, shall we say, enthusiastically vigilant IT staff at work. Among other things, our computers are scanned 6 times a week for malware. I haven't worked out what scans what when, but there are at least 3 scans done as soon as the PC boots up and there are 3 that kick in right at noon. Leaving aside this kind of scanning frequency for a second, the problem we encounter is that Symantec's scanners max out CPU usage for about 90 minutes for each scan. It doesn't seem to matter how powerful the system is, the CPU usage is always 100%. So I'm left to conclude that the scanners are resource hogs and will take whatever's available.

If anyone knows of a task throttler that can force these gluttons to only devour 50% of my system resources, let me know. Right now, I just kill the processes as soon as they kick in. That's right, IT dudes: no scanning here. The alternative is for me to just pull the plug every time it kicks in. :)

Back to the frequency of scanning issue, am I alone in thinking this is a little excessive?

In the interests of full disclosure

2006-11-20T12:32:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday's Meet The Press had interviews with two new Senators, Jim Webb of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana. I'm not much of a partisan for any side-I'm a universal pessimist in that I think that no matter who's in charge I'm going to get hosed somehow. :)

One thing in the interview did stick with me though, the issue of transparency in government. Honestly, I don't think it matters what side of the political spectrum you fall on, doesn't it make sense that your representatives disclose their contacts? Their freebies? It seems only fair-every other level of government below more or less does it already.

One of the "perks" of The Day Job is the free coffee. It's pretty awful-tasting, so whether it's an actual benefit or not is up for debate. A cup of our coffee is like an airplane landing-any one you can walk away from is a good one.

Despite all this when we have a government visitor we frequently have to put a cup out to collect change. Why? Because they aren't allowed to accept so much as a free cup of coffee.

If the lower echelons of the Federal Government feel the need to account for even a 25 cent cup of coffee, is it really asking the higher ups all that much to be accountable themselves?

RFI: Stamp Press Inspection

2006-11-13T15:23:00.000-06:00

I have a request today for any U.S.-based (Missouri preferred) NDT service providers that can inspect stamp presses:

"I need to have nondestructive testing done on eight stamping presses to
test for fractures in the frame and drive train components. The presses
are 6, C-110 Bliss presses and 2, 5-40 toggle presses."

If you're interested, leave a reply to this post. Or feel free to contact me offline (contact info at the bottom of this post).

Java GPL'd

2006-11-13T11:25:00.000-06:00

In case you didn't know, Sun's releasing Java under the GPL today.

I know a lot of people are rejoicing about this, but frankly I wonder if this really is a good thing for Java or not. Not from a technical point of view, mind you, but in the uncertainty it might create.

1. Forking
Let's face it, Java will fork. Over technology, philosophy, language, etc. It'll happen. I don't think that this will be a major concern for veteran Java developers-after all, they're used to dealing with multiple systems (Sun, IBM, etc.) by now. It might give pause to management considering what development tools to use in their Grand New Project, though. Even if you as a developer know better, the PHBs of the world sometimes do not.

2. Confusing Licensing
Although my take on the licensing is that you'll still be able to develop proprietary (aka "closed source") applications, I find the fine details and the discussion/debate confusing. I'll convince myself that closed source apps are still a-ok, then I'll read another opinion that half convinces me the other way.

The new licensing is supposed to work much like the GNU Classpath License, which (if I'm right) allows for closed source development. I'm not a lawyer but it looks as though I might have to start playing one considering Sun's take on the subject. Worse yet, this response suggests not all the JDK components will be under the Classpath Exception!

Look, I know that according to Sun's FAQ on the subject that they'll continue to make and distribute a commercial JDK, so if you're truly terrified of the GPL you can stick with what you know. Actually, come to think of it this might drive people to Sun's VM over anyone else's...I wonder if Java will ultimately fork into Commercial and Free versions?

3. Conclusion
Despite everything I said, bottom line I think anything that encourages more people to use Java is a very good thing. I plan on steering clear of the forking/licensing thing entirely until the dust settles and only using / targeting Sun commercial Java.

I also plan on taking a look at C#.

Update November 13 2006 19:08 CST: David Illsley has an interesting take on the JDK distribution question. Hopefully some of these questions will be addressed in the (very) near future.

Vista And Developers

2006-11-12T08:07:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about what the imminent Vista drop will mean for developers as of late.

While some of the hand-wringing for the User Account Control feature is probably a bit overdone, I do think there is some cause for concern. For example, the Java developers out there might want to check out SE 6's Vista Notes to see what's new. Developers in general should check out Microsoft's Application Compatibility Cookbook for a good rundown on the potential problems and workarounds.

Coming from a Linux background these new security controls don't seem all that onerous to me, so I think the main issue for developers will be how long it will take end users to get used to UAC and the other security features in Vista. Some commentators are worried that Joe Average won't know how to run as an administrator and won't bother to run/buy their applications if it's a required step. What's forgotten though is that there will be a ton of applications in this same situation: at some point if Joe wants to run anything, he'll have to bite the bullet and figure it out or get someone to do it for him. In other words, Joe'll come across some app he simply must have and learning to install that will be the door opening for the rest of us.

Remember, there was a lot of doom and gloom talk when XP's user accounts were first announced too.

I think that Vista is a great opportunity for REALbasic developers (and web developers for that matter), since RB apps are normally self-contained...no DLLs or runtimes to worry about under UAC. If you can tailor your application so that it doesn't require global R/W access, or anything else that runs contrary to the new Vista security model, you might have a leg up on your Java/C++/other language of choice competition.

Speaking of Java, while it's heartening to hear that over 60% of all new PCs ship with a JVM, it's going to be tough to beat 100%: every new Vista machine will come with .NET installed. I've never really taken a look at C#, because Java did everything I need it to do.

(That and the fact that developing commercial apps under Java is essentially free, but with C# you have to buy the obfuscator, new UI controls, etc. For a lot of SMBs that aren't development houses, free is important.)

Now I find myself looking more towards C#. From my experience with delivering Java desktop apps I know that just because "a" runtime is installed it doesn't make it "the" runtime you need, but it's a step in the right direction. Now with Vista's release, coupled with Microsoft's partnership with Novell and its ramificiations for Mono, it may finally be time for me to take a look at C#.

Anybody know of any free C# obfuscators?

What The Deuce Is Nondestructive Evaluation?

2006-11-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

I realized today that I've been throwing around terms like "nondestructive evaluation" or "NDE" without actually bothering with definitions. Time to correct that particular oversight.

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE), also known as nondestructive testing (NDT), nondestructive inspection (NDI), etc., is just a catch-all for any method of physically examining something without damaging it (taking samples, cutting into it, etc.). In materials sciences, we're mainly looking to gauge the physical condition of a structure. Things like whether it's corroded or rusted, whether it has cracks or holes, that sort of thing.

As you may have already guessed, destructive evaluation is a process of physically examining something that also causes damage to the object in question. In general, destructive analysis is usually much more accurate than NDE, but of course that's at the cost of damaging the object. Damage is a subjective thing though and not everyone agrees on what's destructive and what isn't-take hydrostatic testing for example. To test whether or not a SCUBA tank is safe, it's pressurized to say twice its maximum pressure. Conventional wisdom is that a hydrostat is not a destructive test. My take is that it is a destructive test because by over-pressurizing the bottle you can create damage, e.g. if a tiny hairline crack forms.

My favourite analogy for NDE has always been the doctor's office. If your doctor thinks you might have broken your leg and orders an X-ray, that's nondestructive evaluation. If your doctor opts for exploratory surgery, that's destructive evaluation (cutting into your leg).

You can get more info on NDE from Iowa State's NDT Resource Center. A good public forum for NDT-ers is NDT.net. I'm a little hesitant to add Wikipedia's entry on NDT, but there it is. The page itself isn't very useful at the moment as it seems to have been hijacked for lack of a better word, but the links are useful anyway.

So there you have it. Hopefully you won't see "NDE" and think "near death experience" any more. :)

Ordering Scientific / Technical Articles

2006-11-07T10:24:00.000-06:00

By the way, if you've just found a technical article of interest and need to order a copy, I highly recommend CISTI (Canada Institute For Scientific And Technical Information). I've used them a number of times over the years and they're just about the most inexpensive source for technical publications you'll ever find.

Scientific And Technical Information Network

2006-11-07T10:12:00.000-06:00

The entity formerly known as NTIAC has one of the most extensive nondestructive evaluation libraries in the world, at last count more than 65,000 entries. Generally speaking, if you're in the market for NDE information, you contact us and we perform the search for you, as the library isn't generally available online.

Or at least it wasn't, until I noticed last week that STINET (Scientific and Technical Information Network) has a free public interface that covers most of the NTIAC holdings. Some of the restricted documents aren't there, along with new entries from the last 2 years or so as far as I can tell, but other than that the lion's share of the NTIAC database is up and ready for your perusal.

STINET covers more than NTIAC of course, but I'll leave that up to you for experimentation. If you've ever been frustrated trying to do a technical article search on conventional search engines, it's definitely worth a look.

Mini-Review: REALbasic 2006r4 Linux

2006-11-06T14:17:00.000-06:00

Whoops! In my haste to do a REALbasic Mini-Review I forgot to say much of anything about the Linux experience!

The REALbasic IDE GUI builder is actually fairly sluggish in Linux in my experience. Granted, this may be because I run less than optimal Linux workstations at the office, but I should point out that NetBeans' Matisse is infinitely more spritely under the same working conditions. Still, the RB IDE loads much faster than NetBeans, but NetBeans comes out ahead when it comes to running apps from the IDE.

Other than the general sluggishness of the IDE the experience in Linux is about the same as it is for Windows. In my experience with both platforms, there's one aspect of XP work that's mercifully absent in RB Linux, and that's debugger-firewall collisions. The RB debugger stub uses a network interface to communicate with the IDE, and as a result I've yet to find a firewall under XP that didn't complain. The problem stems from the fact that even though you can generally grant permission to use certain ports and IP addresses, your firewall will still notice that the application in question (the one you're trying to debug) has been "altered." If anyone out there has a better approach let me know, but right now I tend to just disable the firewall while in REALbasic. Sub-optimal. Thankfully, Linux development in REALbasic doesn't seem to have the same hangup.

The applications built for Linux in REALbasic perform quite well, on par with a "conventional" application. There is a bit of a startup lag but it's not very bad, certainly less than that observed for a standard Java app. I've used RB Linux apps in embedded spaces for a while now and even on smallish devices the lag isn't a show-stopper. The Linux apps tend to be around the same size as their XP brethren, 2.5MB or so. Not a major problem, but they do stand out in the dynamic linking world of Linux.

If you're looking for comparisons with other RAD tools under Linux, I'm probably biased but I find the REALbasic GUI builder to be far superior to most of the other tools I've used. That's a personal choice for each of us to make though, but suffice it to say that if you're not a fan of the Matisse or .NET schools of RAD REALbasic isn't going to impress you either. If you are a fan or you're open to trying something new, it's worth a look.

All in all I stand by my earlier recommendation for REALbasic. Under Linux RB faces some pretty stiff competition (not to mention some pretty entrenched opinions about commercial closed-source applications) but I think it holds its own and will only get better with time. Since it's free under Linux, you might as well take a look even if you're inclined to disagree!

Amazon 2.0?

2006-11-05T14:26:00.000-06:00

I was all set to write a snarky post about Amazon needing a "show only Amazon.com" items filter, when I noticed it was already there under the "Narrow By Seller" heading. So instead I'll just say why I was looking. :)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm frequently hit by the dark lure of free shipping. Yes, I know that it would cost me less in most cases to just "bite the bullet" and give UPS/FedEx their due. There's just something about "paying for nothing," though. If I pay $5 for shipping, I have nothing to show for it. Except for the book at my doorstep, of course.

On the other hand, if I add $7 to my cart, I still get the book at my doorstep but now he's brought a friend! It feels as though I'm getting more for my money. With that in mind, problem number one with other sellers on Amazon is they don't count towards the free shipping I'm forever striving for.

Problem number one is compounded by the myriad shipping and return policies you have to navigate when you look at Amazon sellers. It's just like eBay in this, and the main reason I frequent Amazon is to avoid the eBay experience entirely.

Speaking of eBay, this leads us to problem number two with Amazon sellers: trust. I know what to expect and what I'm in for when I buy from Amazon, not so with third parties. I know 99% of them are above board, quality retailers. But again we're back to the eBay experience I'm trying to skip. I've bought many items from third party retailers through Amazon and I've never been burned or less than satisfied, but it was still only as a last resort that I went that route. There's always that twinge of uncertainty in the back of your head, isn't there?

So. Web entrepreneurs, here's your opportunity. Develop a marketfront for third party retailers that'll allow for free shipping for customers, even if they add multiple items from different vendors. Thoroughly vet any prospective vendors, and guarantee the customer's satisfaction.

Profitable? I have no idea. I assume you'd have to charge a premium to cover both problems, so you'd have to compete on quality of service and not on price. Still, there might be a certain percentage of the population that'd take you up on it, I know I'd take a look.

Mini-Review: Voq Professional Smartphone

2006-11-02T11:56:00.000-06:00

Summary: probably the best new smartphone you'll get for less than $150.

Today's little review is on a much-maligned smartphone, the Sierra Wireless Voq. I say much-maligned, because while "official" reviews have generally been positive, let's just say that the user comments in said reviews tend to be less forgiving. I've been using one for months now and thought it was time to post my experiences.

I'd have to say that I actually like this phone: it feels solid, it does what I want it to, it's a great intro to the whole smartphone concept, and it's cheaper than most other unlocked phones you'll come across with half as much functionality. What more could you want?

Other than WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. Still, it's a good office phone for this very reason. Without all that connectivity, camera, and other gewgaws, the battery life is better than some other smartphones too. I won't lie to you though: you will get looks using this phone. I convinced my boss to pick one up a while back-his experience has been that gawkers peg it as a phone from the 90's. Until you open the keyboard and start typing, that is.

The Voq was cancelled in 2005 due to lack of consumer interest. Back then it was a pricey little number ($600 U.S.), and if you do any searching on the Voq most reviews you'll come across will say something along the lines of "Nice, but not for that price." So any Voqs you find today are leftover stock. The good news is that they're very inexpensive for a smartphone-Tiger Direct frequently runs rebate specials that put it under $100 U.S. and Amazon is currently selling it for $119 U.S. Consider that new unlocked RAZRs are still in the $199 category, and you're in the right frame of mind to look at this phone.

The highlights:

It is a little on the chunky side for a phone, but it doesn't bother me to wear it on my belt because it isn't very wide. In fact I notice the RAZR more than the Voq in the same situation.
Accessories can be hard to find, but eBay searches are usually productive.
As far as connectivity goes, forget Bluetooth and WiFi, it's not going to happen. It has a SD/MMC slot but it won't support SDIO cards so I hope you're ok with IrDA (infrared port) and USB tethering.
The fold-out keyboard is a little cramped compared to other smartphones, but other smartphones tend to be wider as a consequence. Once you're familiar with it though the Voq's keyboard is very easy to handle.
Sound quality is excellent and cellphone reception is terrific, much better than my RAZR.
Battery life is fairly decent for a smartphone. I tend to need to recharge about once a week or so with fairly minor call times but with push email activated.
Internet (GPRS only) connectivity is quite good, something of a headache to set up with your provider but not much worse than setting up any other unlocked cell phone.
Push email works great and works with a lot of different email clients and applications. I can't believe it works with Groupwise-nothing ever works with Groupwise!

All in all this is an amazing phone for the price you're paying. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you're just testing the smartphone waters the Voq's an inexpensive place to start.

Closeup of the fold-out keyboard:
Size comparison with a standard RAZR phone:

NASA Seeks NDE Scientist

2006-11-02T10:27:00.000-06:00

I'm a little late in posting this, but in case you haven't seen it yet, NASA's Langley Research Center is looking for a NDE Discipline Expert. Translated, they're looking for an engineer or scientist with an expertise in nondestructive testing and evaluation.

NASA's Engineering Safety Center (NESC) is a first-rate facility with a lot of very smart and talented people. Believe me, you could do worse!

What's In A Name?

2006-10-27T10:33:00.000-05:00

For the curious, the name of this blog is inspired by the term stress corrosion cracking (SCC), not from your humble host wigging out under duress. :)

(I just thought "stresscrack" sounded cool.)

SCC's a fairly common problem in materials science and nondestructive evaluation, e.g. do a quick search for 6351-T6 and you'll see some effects of SCC. Technically these SCUBA / SCBA ruptures are said to fail because of a different phenomenon, but when you boil it down it's virtually the same thing.

(By the way, if you have 6351-T6 aluminum bottles in your garage, do yourself a favour and pitch 'em. Please.)

SCC's a major issue with oil and gas pipelines too, in fact the Holy Grail of MFL inline inspection (ILI) tools is SCC detection. SCC tends to be very fine and spidery and not easily detectable by MFL; ultrasonics and Remote Field Eddy Current technologies usually have a little more success.

So now you know.

Untapped Web 2.0 Market

2006-10-26T15:12:00.000-05:00

I'm surprised I haven't heard more about this, but in my illustrious opinion there's an untapped Ajax / Web 2.0 market out there, the embedded space.

A fair number of microcontrollers with network interfaces rely on embedded Java applets for their UIs. Check out Zilog's eZ80 Development Kit Application Notes for an example. Applets have been popular because most of the user interface heavy lifting is done by the client device. Which makes sense, particularly if you're using an 8-bit MCU like the eZ80. No sense taxing it when you don't have to.

So a Java applet can help with offloading processing to the end user, but there's still the potential storage issue-your microcontroller has to keep a copy of that applet to serve in the first place. That's where a nice light Ajax UI might come in handy. Not only that, but it'd really help in the design and testing phase-it's just text after all, not a binary blob like an applet.

Right now in my own embedded applications I usually favour the CGI approach. I've been fortunate because my embedded devices usually have a bit of horsepower to them, and so it isn't a big deal to have them do some/all of the UI work. But as Ajax libraries mature, I find myself thinking a lot more about moving everything to the client. That is, once there's some support on handhelds, anyway. :)

So what's the marketable product here? To be honest I'm not quite sure. At first blush I would think that a ISO C library that could auto-generate a GUI would be a viable product, similar in nature to ncurses or perhaps even dialog. As far as customers go you'd probably be looking to sell to MCU consumers rather than the MCU producers, but I could see licensing it to some producers for them to include in their C compiler kits.

Mini-Review: REALbasic 2006r4

2006-10-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

Summary: best Windows GUI development system around, standard library is a little thin.

I've been using RB (the Pro version) for about a year now, and I have to say that it's hands down the best GUI development system you'll ever come across for Windows. That's it. Go buy it now. I'll wait.

A little more detail? Alright. The latest versions of Visual Basic.NET and Netbeans both have comparable GUI editors, and to be fair their GUI toolkits (.NET and Java Swing respectively) are both richer than RB's (more controls, etc.). So you couldn't be faulted for choosing either alternative. I use both myself. But if you're looking for something that you can hammer out in an afternoon and email to Mom, you can't beat REALbasic.

I really enjoy using RB for GUI development, which has never been my strong suit. Coming from an embedded background, most of my coding's at the console level in C, C++, or Lua. Sure, I can usually put something together in wxWidgets, FLTK, Swing or TkInter, but it tends to be a little on the homely side. It works, but man is it ugly.

RB makes it difficult to create an ugly GUI. Just like Netbeans' Matisse or good ol' Visual Basic, the GUI editor offers guidelines as you drag and drop components on the window. I find RB's GUI editor to be a little more nimble than its competition, however. It's painless and quick, and so I find myself tending to align components as I create them, worrying about the presentation of the user interface. It's almost like you'd have to go out of your way to make it ugly.

Where REALbasic falls behind is in the depth of its standard library, the classes, functions, etc. that come pre-canned with RB. It's got the basics to be sure, but if you're coming from .NET or Java you'll feel naked without all that extra support. Personally, I consider this almost a blessing-it's a lot easier to wrap your brain around a compact library. You'll be up to speed faster than in other development environments. Still, I'd really like to see the image formats supported beefed up-only BMP and PNG files are natively supported in Windows. You could install QuickTime for all the rest, but I don't see that as a selling point.

Of course, you could always write your own extensions to RB to support whatever functionality you require, but that isn't always an option. The good news is that each new release of RB tends to have more "goodies" for your development pleasure.

The Pro version offers cross-compilation (write on any of Mac, Win, Linux, and deploy on all three) as well as a few extra niceties. The niceties aren't anything you couldn't code yourself given time and effort, but for many it's worth the price difference to just have them available.

And speaking of deployment, it's dead easy. REALbasic creates a single self-contained app (no DLLs!), and you're done. I haven't tried RB on the Mac yet (possibly due to the fact that I don't have one), but I can confirm that the Linux version is equally painless. When I have to develop one-offs at work, I can't tell you how great it is to just email a single file and know it'll just work without knowing a thing about the user's machine.

All in all I can't recommend REALbasic highly enough. Some developers might feel constrained by the shallow standard library, but all of the building blocks to "roll your own" are there.

Job Opening-Junior Scientist

2006-10-24T11:55:00.000-05:00

About once a year or so I post online about a job opening here in Texas, and with exactly the same frequency I don't get any response. So I'm left to assume that the unemployment rate among engineers and scientists in the U.S. is 0.0%.

(I suppose it might be because nobody reads anything I post.)

In this spirit of futility then I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that TRI is looking to hire again. Unfortunately, the job does require U.S. citizenship-the lion's share of our work is for the Government. The last thing the higher ups would want is another alien like me they can't send anywhere. :)

If that one's not up your alley, keep your eyes posted. As I say, I tend to post about once a year for job openings. Previously advertised jobs included...

Senior NDE Scientist (a.k.a. Chris' New Boss)
Student Research / Library Assistants
Linux Hardware Guru
Linux Device Driver Guru

I bet I've posted the Linux jobs about 5 times in the past 5 years and I've never had a single applicant. I suppose I need better marketing skills. :)

Why A9?

2006-10-23T18:38:00.000-05:00

When I first read Amazon's search engine A9 was dropping retained data, I honestly didn't see the BFD one way or the other. After all, I'm careful enough to only search for fairly innocuous things. At least in anything that can track me, anyway. As long as I kept my precious 1.57% discount on Amazon, I didn't care.

Since then of course it's come to light that the A9 Instant Reward I enjoyed so much was one of the axed features. If you take the time to read the /. story above, you'll see I wasn't the only one using A9 because of the Amazon discount. I'm also not the only one to drop A9 like a bad habit the second the discount evapourated.

So my question is, is anyone using A9 now that the bribe's a thing of the past? If so, why? I'm honestly curious as to what you find compelling over the other search engines currently available.

Allow me to introduce myself

2006-10-23T14:38:00.000-05:00

As promised in the last post, a brief introduction to your inhumble host, Chris Coughlin.

Proud to be Canadian, I've been living and working in the U.S. for seven years and five days. Originally here under the TN-1 visa, then the H1-B, finally became a permanent resident ("green card" holder) a couple of years ago under the National Interest Waiver program. Meaning that it would hurt America if I lived elsewhere. How's that for egocentric? :)

Deciding that "Doctor of Philisophy" didn't sound half as cool as MASTER OF SCIENCE, I opted for a MSc. in Physics. In Canada, unlike the U.S., you don't "lose" the PhD. and settle for the Master's, it's a genuine goal for academic programs up there. Focus of research was on Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL), and how to use it to inspect steel pipelines.

I worked for a company called Pipetronix Ltd. for a year before they were bought out by their arch-rival, Pipeline Integrity International. Which was promptly bought out by General Electric. Before all that buying and selling, though, I was working on a multi-diameter pipeline tool (MDPT) for Statoil's Asgard and Norne-Heidrun North Sea pipelines. My main responsibility was "experimental verification of electromagnetic finite element analysis." Loosely translated, I told the computer jockeys whether or not their models of the MDPT even vaguely resembled reality.

Since then, I've been working for the Texas Research Institute. If you Google me, I'll most likely come up first as formerly of NTIAC, the Nondestructive Testing Information Analysis Center. NTIAC ceased to be in 2005, but I'm still involved with its successor.

These days I don't do much in the way of MFL, most of my time's spent on developing embedded health monitoring systems. I mashed together an immodestly-monikered embedded Linux distro towards this end you might be interested in if you're looking to "roll your own" Linux device.

Well, that's probably enough stalker fodder for now.

Dog's Breakfast

2006-10-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

For all zero of you coming here from The Dog's Breakfast, welcome! Please consider this as your home away from home, or at least as a place to gather until I sort out all the bloggy details.

For all zero of you coming here from elsewhere, double welcome! Sadly the link above is probably dead by the time you're reading this, so I'll have to provide you with some sort of introduction. Later. Right now let's just get the DB evacuation centre up and running.