Ode to Spot

Ubuntu 11.10 Install with LVM

2012-02-04T08:43:00.001-08:00

Having some problems with Fedora 16 that I didn't feel like dealing with, so I downloaded the Ubuntu

11.10 LiveCD. Booted up my netbook with the USB CDROM just fine and started the install.... Crap! It's not finding my LVMs! Well, it turns out, lvm2 isn't loaded on the regular LiveCD, I'd have to download the alternate CD, which means I'd have to burn a new CD and I'm cheap and don't want to do that... Here's how I got it to install:

Fortunately, wifi works perfectly, so I configured it to connect to my router (the installer guided me through this part)
Enter a terminal:
sudo apt-get install lvm2
modprobe dm-mod
vgchange -a y
Choose to do a custom partition install, and boom! all my lv's where there! Fortunately, I left a Fedora 14 root lv so I could boot into Fedora 14 and use system-config-lvm to make an Ubuntu root lv... Don't use the lvm cli enough to remember what to do... ;)
The instructions I was using said: DO NOT PRESS Restart Now... But I didn't read that far ahead... Instead, I restarted and realized Ubuntu could not access my LVMs since lvm2 was not installed... Boot back into the LiveCD again, do step #2 above, then continue.
Mount the new root:
sudo mkdir /mnt/root
sudo mount /dev/mapper/vg_kelvin-lv_ubuntu_root /mnt/root
sudo mount /dev/sda5 /dev/root/boot # assuming /dev/sda5 is your boot partition
sudo chroot /mnt/root
Next, install lvm2 on your new root partition:
apt-get -y install lvm2
Hopefully you'll see some info about it updating your initrd.img, which means lvm2 is being added to it.
Now reboot and hope for the best!

Stopping the Click

2011-09-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

Finally I stopped an annoying clicking sound on my mountain bike. It only happened when I pedaled under load. Here's what I did to stop it (using http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/keepitquiet.htm):

Removed the water bottle cage and all other bolts in the frame and greased them up.
Re-greased the seat post and seat post bolt
Loosened the front derailleur clamp and greased it up
Put a dab of chain lube on each part of the frame that the shifter cables run through
Bought new pedals (Candy 2s :)
Bought a new bottom bracket (noticed mine had some slight side-to-side play in it)
Used teflon tape on the threads of the new BB
Removed each chain ring bolt and applied some loc-tite
Removed the crank arms and greased them (octa-link... never do this to square taper!)
Finally, I sprayed silicon lube on the right crank arm where it is in contact with the large chain ring. That did the trick!

Virgin Mobile Customer Service Sucks!

2011-07-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

Never, NEVER, call 1-888-322-1122. The people there suck and have no clue. Call 1-855-250-5271. It's some escalation number that the sucky, non-English-speaking people at the first number will never tell you. They will claim they are the only customer service available.

The person I spoke with at the 855 number was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. If you call the 888 number, swear at them, but be kind to the people at the other number.

As a side note... I used Virgin Mobile's only form to send a message (complaining about their customer service). They ask for my name, phone number, and personal pin. I received a "message received" email back from them. The email included BOTH my phone number AND personal pin! That's the information I use to log into their webiste!!! That isn't very secure for many reason.....

By the way, I got the phone number from this blog:

http://www.screenwerk.com/2011/02/20/virginmobiles-bad-customer-service-im-starting-to-rank/

Windows CMD .bashrc equivilant

2011-03-30T11:29:00.001-07:00

This is the best thing ever! I could never find a way to automatically source a file no matter where/how I started "cmd" from Windows.

But here it is:

http://mindinthewater.blogspot.com/2010/11/bashrc-for-windows-cmdexe-shell.html

Bottom line:

Create some file like: C:\Windows\cmdauto.cmd
Add some stuff, like: doskey cp=copy $*
Add a String Value "AutoRun" to this key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor]
Put "C:\Windows\cmdauto.cmd" as the value.

Now, no matter where you start cmd, it will execute "cmdauto.cmd" first.

Dare you to look at this site...

2011-01-29T07:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.penisland.net

(probably not what you think)

Quote of the Day

2010-08-31T18:09:00.001-07:00

If you force a yawn, then more will spawn.

Loan Calculators

2010-08-06T12:31:00.001-07:00

All I wanted to do was to punch in my loan term, monthly payment, and rate, then see what the total of my payments would be and the total interest... I searched for at least 30 minutes trying to find a page that did that! Every other page wanted me to punch in the principle as part of the calculation, but I did not have that info at my finger tips...

Here's the page:

http://www.dinkytown.net/java/SimpleLoan.html

A kangaroo walks into a bar...

2009-12-11T09:36:00.001-08:00

A kangaroo walks into a bar and orders a martini. The bartender
figures that a kangaroo probably isn't very economically aware, and
charges him $50. The marsupial orders a beer next time, and is charged
$60. Finally, the bartender's curiosity gets the better of him. He
casually remarks, "You know, we don't get too many kangaroos in here."
The kangaroo replies, "At these prices, no wonder."

Linux Media Server

2009-12-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Trying to set this up right now...

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?p=924980

Mountain Bike Noises

2009-11-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

Strange clicking noise while peddling? What's making that rattling sound? Check out this site:

http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/keepitquiet.html

Really nice list of clicks, creaks, rattles, etc, and what the most probable causes are and how to fix them. Very handy indeed!

PDFCreator

2009-10-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

PDFCreator is a free little PDF creator (duh) for Windows. It "adds" a new printer to your system to print to PDF.

I never print anything at home... Mainly because my printer is out of ink and I'm too cheap to by more. However, with PDF Creator, I can print receipts from online purchases to PDF and archive them. When I need a hard copy, I can easily print it somewhere else (*cough* *work*).

Plus, I don't have a bunch of receipts laying around that I never really need.

Use "dislocate" to created a re-connectable process

2009-09-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Use: dislocate

Eventually, use ^] to disconnect. Later on, reconnect to the Linux server, run "dislocate" w/o parameters, and choose the session to reconnect to. Much easier than "screen" for simple situations!

Upgrade Fedora 9 to Fedora 10

2009-09-17T17:46:00.001-07:00

I know... 11 is already out, but I didn't feel like messing with it. Now that 9 is no longer supported, I figured I'd take the plunge.

I got some error about missing dependencies for:

avahi-0.6.17-1.fc7.i386

yum remove avahi-0.6.17-1.fc7.i386

said it erased it, but it was still there.... rpm -e gave an error about the script returning an error...

Eventually, this worked:

rpm -e --noscripts avahi-0.6.17-1.fc7.i386

Breaking through a restrictive proxy

2009-09-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

I have sshd running on a small linux box at home. This allows me to access my home network from anywhere, except from work... The proxy wouldn't let me through. I tried proxytunnel, putty, and a few other toys, but none seemed to work. Then I found httptunnel :)

On my linux box, I created a new service with the following command:

/usr/bin/hts -p /var/opt/hts/PID -F localhost:22 81

That starts the httptunnel server with:

-p to write the PID to the file /var/opt/hts/PID

-F to forward to port 22 on the local host

and finally it is listening on port 81

Next, on my Windows machine, I downloaded the httptunnel package for cygwin. From a cygwin terminal, I could then execute:

htc -P : -A -F 8888 :81

Where:

-P is the proxy address:port

-A is my username:password for the proxy

-F is the port to use on the local machine

followed by my server:port

Once htc is running on my machine, I can do:

ssh -p 8888 -l localhost

Like magic, htc wraps everything inside some http "stuff", hands it off to the proxy, which passes it to my home machine. hts on my Linux box gets rid of the http garbage and passes the packet on to sshd (and visa-versa).

Very nice indeed! Now I can use ssh to tunnel all kinds of apps, like remote desktop, or even firefox.

As a side note, here's how to use my isp for browsing:

ssh -p -l -D localhost:8889 localhost

In Firefox:

Edit --> Preferences

Advanced Tab

Settings

Select "Manual Proxy Configuration", enter "localhost" in the SOCKS host field and port 8889.

Woo Hoo!

More Perl "Hidden Treasures"

2009-07-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hash::Util

This gives you some very nice options - such as locking a hash so that no more keys can be added! Seems like a very nice way to avoid some typos!

Also look at

Class::Struct

That could come in handy to make some quick little objects without messing around with the constructor and accessors. Maybe it is possible to use Hash::Util with it to make it "read-only"???

See:

Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core, part II
By Casey West
June 19, 2003

Removing a Version from ClearCase UCM

2009-07-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a good blog about removing a version of a file from ClearCase UCM:

http://doublepaddle.blogspot.com/2008/01/clearcase-eraser-versions-recorded-in.html

My First (Semi) Manual!

2009-07-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

I got the track stand down pretty good, so I began trying to manual. Normally, I would jerk the bars up as hard as I could to try getting over an obstacle, but I've realized that really isn't the best way.

So, I got a copy of Mastering Mountain Bike Skills and began reading (it's a very good book). Between that and the author's website www.leelikesbikes.com, I finally started to "get" just how to do a manual.

These posts at Lee's blog also helped immensely:

Between those posts, the responses to the posts, and the book, these are the tips that helped me the most:

I lowered the seat to practice. This let me shift my hips back much more easily. I'll practice with my seat at my "standard" XC height once I get this down.
Really focused on using the "third brake" (ie, practically scratching your butt with the rear wheel because you shift your hips back so far). Basically, Lee said you probably aren't shifting nearly as far as you think you are, so I really tried to "over-exaggerate" the entire motion (my over-exaggeration was probably closer to the "real" motion).
Finally, really pushing forward with my arms and driving my legs down and forward.

The first time the wheel came up, it felt like some Jedi was lifting the wheel with the Force! It was a very strange feeling since I was used to muscling it up. The wheel just needs to pop up a bit before your shifted-weight takes over. The more you pre-load and the faster you push yourself backwards, the faster it happens.

So far I have bailed off each time it gets up, but I'll get used to the feeling soon enough and learn to control it. I have found that once it comes up to a certain height I start pulling myself up. I just need to let it happen. It seems like minor shifts of the hips should stabalize it, as well as a few pumps with the legs (you can see the kid to that in this video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnuqtPSnyLY

Once I'm better at this, I can finally begin working on some nice, high bunny hops!

ClearCase UCM Triggers

2009-05-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize this page existed on the CM Wiki. Unfortunately the links seem to be broken... If anybody reads this and knows why, please let me know. I'll post if I find out any info.

ClearCaseUnifiedCHangeManagementTriggers

Google Chrome Proxy Server Setup

2009-05-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome uses IE's Proxy settings... However, you can force it to be something different using the "--proxy-server=XXXXX" switch. Or, just use "--proxy-server=" to use no proxy.

This is really nice, because now I can set up two Google Chrome shortcuts - One to fire up Chrome at work and use the proxy, and the other with the "--proxy-server=" switch so I can use Chrome at home!

I like that better than going into the settings of FireFox each time I start it up (I haven't found a proxy plugin that works well yet...). Maybe FireFox has a similar switch?

Rear Derailleur adjustment

2009-04-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

There's some time of black magic behind adjusting the rear derailleur. It's as hard as trying to remember how "derailleur" is spelled!!! When I read some tips on adjusting it, it seems easy. About 30 minutes later, my chain is all over the place on the rear cassette.

Anyways, this seems like about the best article I've found so far. At least my chain shift through *most* of the gears now!!

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html

http://garynuke.homestead.com/derailleur.html

*** After some more reading and monkeying around, I realized it isn't quite as hard as I thought... I just wasn't getting it for some reason at first...

Mountain Bike Technique - track stand

2009-03-28T16:37:00.000-07:00

A track stand is something I really need to practice:
http://www.mountainzone.com/videos/category.asp?cid=401645

More related videos here (the "Beginner" section is kinda funny to watch... The lady doing the stuff is just strange)
http://www.mountainzone.com/videos/category.asp?cid=300545

The advanced technique also describes bunny hopping in good detail.

And the drop:
http://declinemagazine.com/visuals/fluidride/fluidride_vol1.htm

Various technique:
http://www.goclipless.com/techniques/

After that, I'll work on these:

http://www.trashzen.com/bunny-hop-blunt.php

;)

Temp file in Perl

2009-03-03T08:18:00.001-08:00

Use the following to generate a temporary file in Perl:

use File::Temp;
my $fh = tempfile;

print $fh "temp data";

Also, this finds the directory of the Perl script being executed:

use FindBin;
my $program_dir = $FindBin::Bin;

This, and some other useful Perl things, are found here:

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/05/29/treasures.html

Auto Repair

2009-02-17T12:48:00.001-08:00

Just changed a wheel bearing on the Impala, thanks to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-TsTn-3ktk

Also came across this good blog:

http://free-auto-repair-advice.blogspot.com/

perlboot

2009-01-08T06:57:00.001-08:00

Beginner's Object-Oriented Tutorial

It's a pretty nice tutorial accessible via 'perldoc perlboot'

As usual, it's also available on the web, for example:
http://perl.active-venture.com/pod/perlboot.html

Picture Backups

2008-12-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to mark down my backup command... I also throw SSH in there sometimes to backup to a remote machine:

(cd /cygdrive/c/my_backup ; tar czf - Pictures_Backup) | gpg -o - -c - | split -b 512M - backup_

I noticed the flavor of "split" varied between cygwin and RHEL.

UPDATE:

A couple of new notes:

tar cvzf - DirToBackup | gpg -o - -c - | ssh me@some-server 'cd /backups/backupdir ; cat | split -b 512m - date_tar_gz_'

Then, use the following to produce "differential" backups:
tar cvzf - --newer "YYYY-MM-DD" DirToBackup | blah blah blah

(note to self: one canine pound)

Linux Kernel Modules

2008-11-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

Just some info about Linux kernel modules. This faq gives some small examples to write. I'm just jotting it down because it's something I'd like to know a little more about in the future:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/kernel/x571.html

Perl and Dates

2008-11-04T06:16:00.000-08:00

Just a quick code snippet I through together to remember some of the date parsing modules that seem to come standard with Perl 5:

use Date::Parse;
use Date::Format;
use strict;

my $date = "2008-12-30 05:00:00";
my $machine_time = str2time($date);
my $week = time2str("%U", $machine_time);
my $month = time2str("%L", $machine_time);

print < < EOF;

Date is: $date
Machine Time is: $machine_time
Week is: $week
Month is: $month

EOF

OO Perl

2008-10-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to jot down a good OO Perl site I came across:

http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/PERL/node123.html

Wikipedia had a decent example that got to the point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_module

So, here's some poop I through together just to use as my own reference. It's a Poop class!

(NOTE: Some of the lines may have been screwed up during the copying and pasting... but I don't care right now)

package Poop;
use strict;

our $VERSION = "1.0";
my $DEBUG = 0;

=head1 NAME

Poop - A pooping package.

=head1 SYNOPSIS

use Poop;
my $boy = Poop->new();
$boy->eat("Candy Bar", "Ice Cream");
$boy->poop() if $boy->turd();

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Just an OO Perl template

=head1 METHODS

=head3 new

my $cat = Poop->new();
my $dog = Poop->new(eat => @food, debug => 1, size => $size);

Instantiates a new Pooping object.
If a list of C<@food> is given, the object eats right away.
If $size is given, the object's stomach is set to that size (default 10).
If "debug" is a true value, debugging will be turned on.

=cut

sub new {
my $proto = shift;
my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
my %params = @_;
my $self = {};

bless ($self, $class);

$self->debug($params{debug}) if exists $params{debug};

$self->{TURD} = 0;
$self->{FOOD} = [];
$self->{SIZE} = exists $params{size} ? $params{size} : 10;

$self->eat(@{$params{eat}}) if exists $params{eat};

return $self;

}

=head3 eat

my $dog = Poop->new();
$dog->eat("Dog food", "Dog bone");

Causes the object to eat the items in the list. The object will quit eating when it has to poop.
Returns a list of food it couldn't eat if it can't eat it all.
Returns an empty list if it ate it all.

=cut

sub eat($) {
my $self = shift;

$self->_DEBUG_PRINT("Eating...");

while (@_ && ! $self->turd()) {
my $f = shift;
push @{$self->{FOOD}}, $f;
print "-- Mmmmm... $f\n";
}

return @_;

}

=head3 turd

my $dog = Poop->new();
$dog->poop() if $dog->turd();

Reports whether the object has a turd. And object with a turd cannot eat anything else.

=cut

sub turd() {
my $self = shift;

$self->_DEBUG_PRINT("Checking for turd...");

return 1 if @{$self->{FOOD}} >= $self->{SIZE};
return 0;
}

=head3 poop

my $dog = Poop->new();
$dog->poop() if $dog->turd();

Makes the object poop. If there is no turd, it will return 0 and not poop.

=cut

sub poop() {
my $self = shift;
my @sounds = ("Grunt","Plop","Spphhlll","Splash","Pfffft");

$self->_DEBUG_PRINT("Entering pooping phase...");

if (! $self->turd()) {
$self->_DEBUG_PRINT("No turd to poop with...");
return 0;
}

while (my $food = shift @{$self->{FOOD}}) {
my $sound= $sounds[int(rand() * @sounds)];

print "-- $sound... $food\n";
sleep 1;
}

$self->{TURD} = 0;
}

=head3 puke

my $dog->puke();

Expells the most recent item ate. Returns the item if it existed, otherwise returns undef.

=cut

sub puke() {
my $self = shift;

my $last = pop @{$self->{FOOD}};

if ($last) {
print "-- Blahhhhh..... $last\n";
return $last;
}

return undef;
}

=head3 debug

$dog->debug();
$dog->debug(0);
$dog->debug(1);

Returns the current debug setting, sets it to false, or sets it to true (respectively).

=cut

sub debug($) {

my $self = shift;

return $DEBUG unless @_;

if ($_[0]) { $DEBUG = 1 }
else { $DEBUG = 0 }

return $DEBUG;
}

sub _DEBUG_PRINT ($) {
my $self = shift;
return unless $DEBUG;

print "-- DEBUG: " . shift;
print "\n";
}

1; # Really only need this unless you make this a .pm and "use" it.

#
# Just putting it all in one file...
#

package main;
#use Poop;

sub feed(@) {
my $obj = shift;

print "Feeding it: " . join(", ", @_) . "\n";
my @full = $obj->eat(@_);

if (@full) {
print "Couldn't eat: " . join(", ", @_) . "\n";
} else {
print "Ate it all. Good boy!\n";
}
print "\n";
}

my $dog = Poop->new(size => 5);

feed($dog, qw/Bones Chocolate Cat Soap/);
feed($dog, "Saw Dust", "Dog Food");
print "Puked up " . $dog->puke() . "\n";
print "Puked up " . $dog->puke() . "\n";
feed($dog, "Pie", "Hot Dog");
print "Go potty, boy:\n";
$dog->poop();
print "Good boy, here's a treat!\n";
$dog->eat("Treat");
print "Nooo!!! Don't puke in here!!!\n";
print "Puked: " . $dog->puke() . "\n";

Firefox Memory

2008-10-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

Just a useful setting I found for Firefox to reduce the memory usage:
http://www.litfuel.net/plush/?postid=118

Basically, do the "about:config" and change the browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers setting. By default, this caches 10 pages per tab.

Copying a hard disk with Knoppix

2008-10-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

I slapped together a computer for my parents a couple of years ago. They really only surf the net, so it did not need to be to impressive. I had a 20 GB hard drive I was going to stick in it, but I dropped and broke it.... I ended up putting an extra 8 GB drive in it instead. With XP installed, it didn't take long before that was filled up and there was hardly any swap space left (something that Window's OSes seem to need a lot of for some reason...).

Anyways, I finally got around to getting a 30 GB hard drive for them. I didn't feel like reinstalling everything, so I figured I'd try copying their old hd with "dd". I used a Knoppix 5.1 disk and this page as a reference:

http://www.nilbus.com/linux/disk-copy.php

What's needed

Some flavor of Linux on a bootable CD (Knoppix 5.1 in this case)
dd
gparted and it's dependencies
a new hard disk

Steps

Shutdown and unplug everything and put in the new hard drive (I switched the original to slave and made the new one master at this point)
Boot up the PC and get into the Setup mode (usually by pressing F2, Delete, or some other key).
Make sure everything looks savvy with the new hd. While in there, be sure it's set to boot from the CD first. Also, if you don't have a floppy drive, be sure it is disabled in the bios, otherwise gparted will hang while trying to access it.
Save and boot to Knoppix
Once Knoppix is up, fire up gparted and format the new drive to NTFS (I don't think this is necessary because of the way we will use dd, but I did it anyways. Besides, gparted gave me the peace of mind to know I was working with the correct partitions). You really should reboot after this to be sure the kernal picks up the new partition correctly, but I didn't (as noted early, I probably didn't need to format it anyways).
Once that is done, start an xterm and do:

dd if=/dev/hdb of=/dev/hda
One thing I didn't do was enable dma on the hard drives. I had read that would make it faster, but oh well. dd will run for quite some time. NOTE: If you use the wrong device for "if" or "of", you could really screw yourself!!!

While dd is running, it won't give any status. But, from another xterm, you can send the USR1 signal to the dd process and it displays a status:

kill -USR1 3274 (or whatever pid)
After about 2000 seconds, all 8+ GB of the old drive was copied over. Since I used "/dev/hdb" as the infile, the MBR and all that good stuff was also copied to /dev/hda. So, I fired up gparted again and was happy to see that /dev/hda now had a primary partition the exact same size of the original. I rebooted at this point.
Once rebooted back into Knoppix, fired up gparted one more time and expanded the /dev/hda1 partition to fill the entire 30 GB disk.
Finally, I rebooted again and was very happy to see that Windows was starting up. XP wanted to do a chkdisk since the partition size increaesed, so I let that take place. Once it was back into Windows, I defragged

So, I was very happy to see that dd worked so well. Once again, a free Linux-based solution worked as well or better than some commercial software!

First Blog

2008-10-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

My first blog... How exciting. Anyways, I'll probably try to use this as a space to post anything I think will either A) help me out in the future, or B) might be useful to somebody else at some point in the future.... Stay tuned.