Mark's 20 Percent Timetag:blogs.halibut.com,2010:/marks20percent/72010-02-16T07:59:54ZWhat happens when a full time wage slave, husband and father gets fed up with not having his own creative time.Movable Type 4.3-enUpdate. Work on Puffer.tag:blogs.halibut.com,2010:/marks20percent//7.10682010-02-16T07:48:23Z2010-02-16T07:59:54ZSince I last posted, I've built my new computer, but gave up on Xen for the time being. I was having more troubles than I wanted to deal with, and I just wanted my computer to work. So I installed...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
one of these, an nVidia 8400GS with a PCI interface, and supposedly component Video output (my TV doesn't have VGA or anything digital.) Two problems I'm still having: 1) The video card doesn't want to detect the analog TVs. As soon as the driver loads, the TV outs shut off. 2) Video decompression isn't as fast as I expected it to be. Honestly, I can't tell a difference between the 8400 and the onboard Intel 945 chipset, which is completely unaccelerated. I assume I'm doing something wrong, but the instructions I found on the net suggest I did it right.
So, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do here. I'm tempted to just cut my losses and get a Boxee Box when they're available.
As for what I've been doing tonight... I've spent most of the evening reading documentation on Postfix, ClamAV, SpamAssassin, Amavisd-new and Mailman, trying to make a plan of attack for the rest of the week (have I mentioned that Cindy and Zoe are at Disneyland this week? I've got the evenings to myself!)
My goal is to get email setup on the new system (puffer) and start migrating domains over to it. Postfix has pretty good documentation on itself, but all the documentation about how to integrate the other apps into it tends to be in the form of "do this, then do this, then do this and *MAGIC!* it works." I really want to understand what's going on under the hood. Also, they tend to show how to integrate a single item, but given how Postfix works, I'm not sure how to integrate more than one at a time.
So, yeah. Lots more learning to do here.
I might be home by myself, but it's still damn late. G'night world.]]>
NaNoWriMo is done. Next up?tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.10302009-12-21T03:42:17Z2009-12-21T04:01:15ZI'm nearly 3 weeks done with NaNoWriMo and still haven't picked up another project yet. I've gotten the parts for my new desktop, the one on which I hope to install Xen, Win7, Ubuntu 9.10 and possibly someday MacOS. I've...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
I'm nearly 3 weeks done with NaNoWriMo and still haven't picked up another project yet.
I've gotten the parts for my new desktop, the one on which I hope to install Xen, Win7, Ubuntu 9.10 and possibly someday MacOS. I've played a bit with Xen and haven't gotten to the point where I can easily build a DomU with full-screen (read: usable as a primary desktop.)
I'm officially at the point where I need to just make the machine workable and start migrating stuff from the old box. So I think I'm going to dedicate one drive to Win7 and one drive to Ubuntu and dual-boot for now. Maybe someday down the road I'll throw a third small drive in to run Xen and a Dom0 and can just attach the physical drives to their respective DomUs.
So, that's what I'm going to do tonight. The Goal: Have a working Win7 (see below) and Ubuntu 9.10 install tonight.
I have installed Win7 on this new system already, and it needed new network drivers for my motherboard. I also tried to get it to do software RAID on the OS drive and I think it didn't like that. So I plan to just start over. I also plan to download a new network driver on the old system and put it on a USB stick. :-)
Time to get working.
NaNoWriMo update: 10011 words, one day earlytag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.10062009-11-30T06:23:45Z2009-11-30T06:35:59ZYup, you read that right, I've hit my word count goal of 10k. I've never actually been a writer, so I set a more realistic goal for myself, one that gave me a chance of actually succeeding. And there you...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
hit my word count goal of 10k. I've never actually been a writer, so I set a more realistic goal for myself, one that gave me a chance of actually succeeding.
And there you have it, I did.
I didn't do so good on my other goal of writing at least a little bit every day. I probably hit about 2/3 to 3/4 of the days, but there were several days where my schedule just did not permit it, and at least one or two where my energy level had a thing or two to say on the matter. But there were more days where I didn't feel like it, but I did it anyway, and that's what I was going for.
I considered cut'n'pasting my manuscript into the NaNoWriMo validator 5 times to compensate for the fact that my personal goal was 1/5 that of their goal. I hit MY goal and I felt I should get something for that. But, I didn't hit THEIR goal, so I decided against it.
Now. The question becomes, what happens next? I'm only about half way through the outline I already have, which is only about half to a third done. And, the 10k words I've written now are filled with TODOs. Read: There's a crap-ton more work to do on this story if its ever to see the light of day.
NaNoWriMo was an interesting experiment. I'm glad I did it. I might even try it again next year with, say, a 20k word count goal. But a lot of other things have been put on hold for this that I really should get back to. I'm about a year late for some Between The Lines editing, I have about four new computer projects in progress that I really need to get back to, and my Seebeck Clock is collecting dust and staring me in the face every time I sit down at my desk. I'd really like to see this story finished, but it will probably have to wait a while.]]>
NaNoWriMo updatetag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9972009-11-19T05:37:42Z2009-11-19T05:42:57ZI'm ahead of my word count goal so far at 6855 after tonight's writing session. Unfortunately, the last two days I didn't write at all, but I blame work. I "worked" from 7am to 11pm in our Scotts Valley office...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
I'm ahead of my word count goal so far at 6855 after tonight's writing session.
Unfortunately, the last two days I didn't write at all, but I blame work. I "worked" from 7am to 11pm in our Scotts Valley office (200 miles away) on Monday, and went to bed early on Tuesday after driving home. So I'm down by 4 days total for the month, with good excuses though. It's not like I'm getting lazy.
...that's my story, and I'm sticking to it...
Having said, that, I just closed out chapter 3 and my brain is mush. This writing thing certainly doesn't come easy for me. Though, I suppose if it did, I'd have started a lot earlier in life. I think I'm going to watch an episode of FarScape or two and go to bed.
NaNoWriMo is going well!tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9942009-11-13T15:11:18Z2009-11-13T15:21:48ZLet me start off by saying that since this is my first serious attempt at writing ANYTHING, my personal goals for NaNoWriMo are: 10k words by the end of the month, and to write at least a little bit every...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
Let me start off by saying that since this is my first serious attempt at writing ANYTHING, my personal goals for NaNoWriMo are: 10k words by the end of the month, and to write at least a little bit every day.
Open Office and the NaNoWriMo page disagree on my word count by 119 words, but in either case, I'm at about 5500 words right now, a bit ahead of schedule, which is good.
However, I am already down by two days toward my goal of writing a little bit every day. The first day was caused by other commitments (see below) which I made up for by writing twice the next day. The seconday (yesterday) I threw under the bus of my personal well being. Between work pages and family waking me up whether I want them to or not (the dogs too; not just Zoe), I haven't been sleeping much lately. So last night I went to bed at 8:30pm and woke up on my own this morning at 5am, an hour before my alarm. 8.5 glorious hours of sleep: precisely what I needed.
So, I've spent the last hour writing before anyone else got it, and got in nearly 800 words, and developed back stories for 7 characters. I'm very pleased with how this mornings writing went.
As for the other commitments I mentioned: I've been helping a friend of mine work on a hardware project involving a tiny surface mount camera, and interfacing said camera to an FPGA. I won't go into the details here yet (I need to get ready for work), but suffice it to say that I finished the circuit and board layout on Tuesday night this week (the first day I missed NaNoWriMo.)
Right. To the day job!
It's NaNoWriMo time! Let's roll!tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9882009-11-01T17:10:42Z2009-11-01T17:15:44ZI said before that I was crazy enough to attempt NaNoWriMo and so it appears that I am. It starts today, but I've not been able to get started yet (it's family time right now," he says while writing a...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
NaNoWriMo and so it appears that I am. It starts today, but I've not been able to get started yet (it's family time right now," he says while writing a blog post on his phone.)
Maybe a little later today.
In other news, MovableType works, but not exceptionally well, in Safari on the iPhone. ]]>
Status 2009-09-29: Ham Radio on Motorcycle Integrationtag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9652009-09-30T04:23:59Z2009-09-30T04:36:25ZI wasn't really planning on banging out this project so quickly, but it turns out there is a triathlon this weekend that I volunteer for every year (Scott Tinley's Not-Dirty-But-I-Still-Call-It-Dirty Aventure) that's at Lopez Lake, spitting distance from my house....Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
Scott Tinley's Not-Dirty-But-I-Still-Call-It-Dirty Aventure) that's at Lopez Lake, spitting distance from my house. I thought about how far the radio integration project was and realized that if I took the iPhone part of it out of scope, it was nearly done. So I banged nearly all of it out last night, and finished up just a little bit tonight (had to solder 4 more wires).
I just got back from my test ride, and the audio reports are pretty universally positive. There's a little bit of wind noise at freeway speeds, but all things considered, very readable. The GPS is getting signal and broadcasting updates every few minutes on APRS, as KR6ZY-2.
A few things I'd like to fix as time allows, but not blockers for this weekend:
The PTT is a little flaky. It's spent a lot of time in the elements and can stand to be replaced.
Audio is only in one ear. I know why and its easy to fix. I just need to bridge two pairs together.
I still need a UHF antenna (Ok, I lied. This IS a blocker for this weekend, but I think there's one waiting for me at the shack at Cal Poly)
The audio is a bit tinny, always has been. I think there some caps in the audio path that are too small, making a high-pass filter. I'd like to increase these some to drop the frequency response a bit.
Make the whole radio system switched with accessory power. Right now, it pulls directly from the battery; if I forget to flip the switch in the luggage, it'll kill the battery pretty quickly.
Integrate iPhone audio. This is the much larger project, involving mixing and audio amps, and microcontrollers so I can hit the big stop/start button and what-not. Being able to charge the iPhone while riding is a plus.
So, yeah. Just a few things... ;-)
Thanks to Nick, KF6UZB, for helping me out with the audio checks this evening.]]>
NaNoWriMotag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9552009-09-20T05:20:25Z2009-09-20T05:23:44ZIn further Mark-Doesn't-Have-Enough-Time-For-His-Current-Projects-What-The-Fuck-Is-He-Thinking-Now news, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo. I have no real clear understanding WHY I've done this, but I have. I kinda have a story idea in mind, but not anything closely resembling a plot or outline or...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
NaNoWriMo. I have no real clear understanding WHY I've done this, but I have. I kinda have a story idea in mind, but not anything closely resembling a plot or outline or anything.
...NO idea what I was thinking...]]>
Status 2009-09-19, for reals this time.tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9542009-09-20T05:05:41Z2009-09-20T05:13:57ZStrictly speaking, today wasn't a 20% day, but since Cindy is itching to have some of this work done, I was able to spend a bit of time working on Koi today. Some more research suggested I need to get...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
Go bears!]]>
Status 2009-09-19^H^H18tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9522009-09-19T22:28:40Z2009-09-20T05:15:26ZOops, forgot to write this yesterday when I was done. I wrote out so many wonderful ideas to work on with koi (the name of the new server.) I was expecting the OS install to be the easy part, right?...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
In the many hours I was waiting for koi to do thing, I started researching media PC options. I looked at MythTV, The Roku Box, and Boxee.
I have a Myth front-end on my neighbor's back-end which is cool, but it a) is illegal, b) only kinda sometimes works, and c) likely has a limited time-line once Charter decides to ditch their analog channels. We're looking for alternatives.
The Roku box looks pretty cool as a hardware platform, but it only supports NetFlix, Amazon Video On Demand and Major League Baseball (which I really couldn't care less about). Those two are cool, but I really want a better selection, and Boxee seems to be the best available. Roku claims that they'll add more as time goes on, but I'm not willing to bet $100 on that just now.
So I'm really looking for something that will get legitimate content, and a wide array of it, over IP. Of the three, Boxee running in Windows seems to be the most functional option. Windows is required for Silverlight and therefore Netflix. This is a bit of a bummer because it means I likely won't use the system for anything else. But if I can build a small, low power, quiet system that'll do Boxee, I'll be happy with that. So that's what I'm playing with. I'll let y'all know how that turns out. :-D]]>
Today: Hath Server Rebuildtag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9502009-09-18T17:13:17Z2009-09-18T17:37:46ZToday's project is to keep working on the rebuild of our home file/DNS/DHCP/everything else server. I have a new low-powered motherboard and a pair of Western Digital Black 1TB drives and a quiet power supply. I just need to put...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
The obligatory DNS, DHCP, Samba, and print server
iTunes streaming server (DAAP) of the files contained on the server
Possibly a media player, connected to the TV in the other room.
Off to investigate software options for the above.]]>
Status 2009-08-20: DNS and Blogs are movedtag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9252009-08-21T06:59:39Z2009-08-21T07:16:34ZTurns out, ns3.halibut.com hasn't been working for quite some time. My buddy who used to host off-site secondary DNS for me apparently shutdown the VM he was using months (years?) ago. I vaguely remember him telling me this, but I...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
Random system cleanup and lock-down.
User accounts (home directories)
The other websites (tied to user accounts in most cases)
Email
Postfix (including authenticated SMTP relaying over TLS)
SpamAssassin
ClamAV
Dovecot (IMAP)
SquirlMail (web mail)
Mailman (or similar mailing list software)
So, yeah. Still lots more work to be done. I look forward to being able to retire chiba. It's been a good host. :-)
-Mark]]>
Working again!tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9222009-08-20T17:40:53Z2009-08-20T17:59:56ZI have taken a 20% day today. I'm going to work on puffer, the new chiba.halibut.com replacement. Chiba is over 9 years old now and _REALLY_ needs to be upgraded. I've installed a CentOS v5.2 system about a year ago...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
I have taken a 20% day today. I'm going to work on puffer, the new chiba.halibut.com replacement. Chiba is over 9 years old now and _REALLY_ needs to be upgraded. I've installed a CentOS v5.2 system about a year ago (maybe more). I'm bringing it up to v5.3 now and will start migrating services from chiba to it. I certainly won't _FINISH_ today, but I think I can make some good progress and move certain services that have their own hostnames over today.
The plan:
- Upgrade the OS (in progress)
- Copy DNS data over. Should be pretty quick and easy. (*)
- Configure chiba to update puffer when changes are made.
- Setup puffer with the ns1.halibut.com role
- Copy httpd configs over. There is a fair bit of clean-up I want to do here, break virtual hosts into their own config files, etc.
- Setup Movable Type on new system. If possible, migrate blogs.halibut.com to puffer today. Involves migration of a few other domains too: 3guys12songs.com, blackmoondog.com, jlm.us (I think; confirm this)
(*) I'm considering switching back to Bind. I really like DJBDNS, but DNSSec is _FINALLY_ being deployed by the root servers and I would like to support it someday, and DJBDNS won't do that for me. Bind used to be Teh Suck(tm), but Bind 9 seems to have gotten a hell of a lot better. *sigh* Dunno if this will happen now.
I think that's more than enough to keep me busy today. Now, to get to work.
-Mark
BlogFade? No way!tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.9162009-08-14T22:06:27Z2009-08-14T22:12:10ZJust a quick post to let y'all know that I haven't died. DefCon went REALLY well. The talk seems to have been well received. The room was pretty full (standing room only, actually) and no one got up and left...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
Just a quick post to let y'all know that I haven't died.
DefCon went REALLY well. The talk seems to have been well received. The room was pretty full (standing room only, actually) and no one got up and left during the talk, so that's good. Aside from my talk, we competed in the Badge Hacking Contest and got an honorable mention for being the only group to successfully get all seven badge types together at once and talking. I'm pretty pleased with that, though I _REALLY_ effing want an Uber badge. Next year.
After DefCon, I became a single father for almost a week as Cindy went to a sock knitting convention in Portland Oregon, Sock Summit. She had a great time, and so did Zoe and I. But, being a single father, I didn't make any time to do personal projects; it was all about Zoe.
This week, since I was out Monday (when Cindy came back from Sock Summit), and I have a lot of catch-up work to do at The Day Job(tm), I decided not to take a 20% time this week. I probably will next week, but not the following week since I'll be out Monday and Tuesday for a family vacation.
Then, after that, I'll try to pick up a normal 20% Time schedule again. DefCon has given me several ideas for projects to do before next year, and not just the inductive coupling for EtherSniff... I've got a lot of work ahead of me this year. :-D
-Mark
Status 2009-07-23: Prepping for DefCon, Releasing Codename: Curious Georgetag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/marks20percent//7.8982009-07-23T22:55:52Z2009-07-23T23:59:12ZI've put my Seebeck Clock project on-hold for the time being while I get prepped for the hardware demo I'm giving at DefCon in a bit over a week for Project: Codename Curious George. I _WAS_ planning on bringing a...Mark Smithhttp://blogs.halibut.com/mark/
In short, it's a method for passively sniffing the traffic of an established Ethernet network link. Picture there's an Ethernet cable running through the drop ceiling above your desk, or along the wall near by, any place you have physical access to it that won't be noticed. Let's say you wanted to monitor the traffic going through that link for some reason (white-hat reason, I'm sure...) I've figured out how to do that without being noticed.
Here are the slides for my talk at DefCon that provide a lot more detail.
I'll do my best to post next Saturday (August 1st, not July 25) and report on how the talk went. But between now and then, I'm likely to be quiet here as I'll be at BlackHat learning how to break into Xen systems!
Oh. It's not a _TECH_ project perse, but over at my other blog, I've made a new batch of root beer. It doesn't scratch the same itch as my tech projects, so it doesn't qualify as a 20% time project, but I thought you might be interested anyway.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading! -Mark]]>