Since Aviva decided to post about it (and credit me, thank you) on her new and burgeoning blog, I thought I might make a rare post and add some thoughts about the Lumenlab micRo.  The micro is a low cost CNC machine available in variously complete kits up to a fully assembled and tested package.  It very standards compliant and uses a PC as a controller; cheap old Dell minitowers preconfigured with Ubuntu and design and control packages.

Let’s get this out of the way: it is great and geek lust worthy; I have spent the better part of today not buying this kit.  That said, it has issues.  I suppose it is a consequence of the size (which is wonderfully tiny), but the work area is too small and it could use at least one more axis (i.e. object rotation).  If the base were extensible (hinged foldover or a notched edge with a lay in extension)  with the rails thread tapped for extension rails, this would be much more valuable.  Additionally, It would be nice to not need the PC as a controller:  take an Arduino and slip it a SD card with G-Code on it, and there is no reason to need to have the computer next to it.  Or even networked: HTTP POST via Ethernet, anyone?

(As an aside, how does the title of this post only result in six Google hits as of this writing?   So obvious.)

Lagom LCD monitor test images

Very useful.

When a Math/Compsci Professor comes to your apartment, peeks his head around a corner and exclaims

- with sarcasm, suprise, and a hint of disgust -

“Oh look. Another computer.”

Missed Last HOPE? Wanted to hear the OpenSSL lecture but couldn’t get into Turing?

The ridiculously overpriced DVDs ($20 per talk, $100 for ten) of the lectures are being ripped and tracked here.

Note that the video quality issues (poor color and contrast) are DVD issues, not a consequence of the ripping.

Just a note, for using OpenVPN on Nokia Internet Tablets – dont use a verb[ose] level of 4 (or greater? I didn’t test) .

When I redid my VPN this month, it took me an hour to track this down. Somehow I doubt it will be patched, either.

Simple fix, tho.

If you are rocking a Swift Folder through the city, one day you are going to find yourself in the rain.  If you got a custom Swift (as opposed to the stock Xootr one) you might have gone the fixed gear route, as I did, in which case FOD to the chain (such as your unrolled pant leg) can be exceedingly dangerous.  There is a solution to these problems – a chain guard.  Neither Xootr or Peter Reich offer a chain guard option for the Swift.  However, one time when I was at bfold (my local folding bike dealer, whom I strongly recommend) , I recalled that David Lam had an unused guard laying around.  Once I jogged his memory, he found it in short order and I no longer suffered from torn pant legs and unexpected drifting.  You can find the part here. 

Now the biggest problem with the guard is not its fit over the chain, but securing it to the seat tube.  If you are riding a Swift Folder, you probably know that the seatpost alone is a solid 34mm (as this is the means for locking the rear triangle into place) and the seat tube is even larger.  I still have not found a a clamp that will properly secure it to such a diameter.  The current method is to use a smaller clamp with the right tab, place it over a rubber shim (this is very important, especially on the powder coated frame, as the clamp will rotate and cause the guard to hit the chain) and zip tie the balance of the space.  If you do find a proper clamp, let me know…

I should mention that Velo Orange sells a guard with which I have no experience, but may experiment with in the future.  If anyone’s tried that on a Swift – or a SS BMX bike for that matter – I’d love to hear about it as well.

For now though, the jury rigged clamp and guard serves my purposes well, and the translucent guard allows me to eyeball the clearances around the chain.

The one button mouse is Intelligent Design.
The multi button mouse is Evolution.

Which do you prefer?

Haven’t posted in ages, mostly cause I’ve been having too much fun biking around the city on my new bike.  I’ll post pics when I’m done adding/swapping parts to my liking.

Since I bought my Yeasu VX-7R, I’ve had some fun listening in to the world around me – especially FRS channels in the hood.  And while I had thought about putting together a van Eck setup (I still use CRTs for the gamut), I expected to wait until I had at least a mobile, if not base, radio to play with.

For some reason, this page was open in one of my insanely large Firefox tab sessions.  More than the software – which is a neat way to demonstrate a type of vulnerability end users never consider – the links from that page to various papers and sites make this worth at least a few minutes of your time.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I reflashed my Nokia n800 because something had gone terribly wrong: it seemed that the power saving features no longer worked. I would have the machine plugged in to the outlet, screen locked and the machine set to offline mode – neither of which, to Nokia’s credit, should grant significant power savings – and then, after unplugging it and leaving it in such a state would hear the dreaded low power notice play but a few hours later. Since I have made significant changes to my n800, I assumed that this was the result of some obscure switch I flipped in a conf file in an all-too-small vim session. Accepting the fact that tracking down the cause of the problem would take longer than the total system wipe – and that I had been intending to rebuild my system at some point anyway – I took the coward’s approach and reflashed. And all was good.Until a few days ago.

The power drain returned.

This time, I had a newly rebuilt system with nigh complete Hebrew support and all the applications i wanted. Reflashing, though an option, was no longer acceptable. This time the behavior was limited to an effect of the software installed over a few prior days and thus, more easily debugged. To make a long enough story somewhat shorter, the cause of my problems turned out to be the Autoscan package.

Let me be clear – these are my problems – the package is clearly marked as arm, not armel, marked as for the 770, not the n800. The developers did no wrong.

Still, the package manager installed just fine, and it provided functionality I wanted. However, it was also creating a server which constantly ran network traffic, irrespective of the status of the client software or network connection. From this, I have learned two lessons which I hope will be of use to someone else facing four hour battery lifespans on the n800:

1. The differences in 770 and n800 software can be significant. Just because a package installs and runs does not mean happiness will ensue. The power management differences are more important than I considered.
2. The value of a good, ps-like, Hildonized task list/manager cannot be underestimated. Load Applet is my choice these days. My choice prior to reflashing displayed Hildon apps only; had I known about the Autoscan daemon I could have saved myself hours of reinstalls and reconfiguring.