Category: Uncategorized

Davy Crocket with an iPhone or gPhone?

digitaleagle Interesting Articles, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I came across this post a while back.

http://blogs.oracle.com/mwilcox/2009/03/davy_crockett_would_have_carri.html

While I agree with the post, I wonder if Davy Crocket would choose an iPhone or a gPhone.  I just wonder if he would choose a tool he could tweak and write his own software for.  It just seems to me that frontiersmen would have to do much more of there own than buy things pre-made from the store.  In today’s day and age, would that mean buying something a little less proprietary?

— Just a thought

IE Tester

digitaleagle Great Links, Interesting Articles, Software to Watch, Uncategorized, Windows, Wine Leave a comment

I saw this link on a new IE Tester.  It looks like a really great idea.  I only looked at it quickly, but I think it only runs on Windows.  My big problem is that I don’t normally use Windows period and don’t have access to any version of IE.

Here are the links for the IE Tester:

Another option: run IE in Wine.  You can have multiple Wine homes in which you could load multiple versions of IE.  I know I have seen tutorials for loading IE6 in Wine, and I think just recently some tutorials for IE7 popped up.

Grub Boot Error

digitaleagle Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized 1 Comment

If you have any suggestions, please post a comment!

I have an old computer with an Abit VP6 motherboard.  I attempted to install Xubuntu 8.10 on it, but it does not want to boot.  It stops at “grub loading stage 1.5”.

I initially thought it had to do with the fact that I installed an SATA controller and started using an SATA drive as my OS drive (the only drive in the system because my IDE drive failed).  I thought that maybe the BIOS did not support booting off the drive, but it is at least getting to grub.  I don’t have grub installed on anything else that is bootable when the CD is not in the drive.

I have tried reinstalling Grub using these instructions, but that did not help.

Update: I installed Xubuntu 8.04 on the same machine, and installs and boots with no problem.  (My wireless card doesn’t work and the video driver needs work.)  So, I am pretty sure this isn’t a hardware issue.

Update: I posted a question to the forum here.

Sprinkler Project

digitaleagle Uncategorized 2 Comments

We are planning to put some sprinklers in, and I wanted to try to use my computer as the controller rather than buy one.  But, I need some help.  Please comment if you have any expertise in this area or any tips.

This article is very similar to what I want to do:

Acacia Projects — Sprinkler Controller

First of all, I am not exactly sure how the “24 VAC Plug Pack” comes into play.  I am assuming that the valve needs more power than what the card produces, and the plug pack gives it that boost, but where do you purchase one?  I am assuming that you need one for each station.

I think I found where they were talking about buying the board from: Elexol.com

One of the problems that I might have is that my computer is on the opposite side of the house from where I might want to place the valves.  I thought about using Ethernet to get the signal closer to the valves and place the card nearer to the valves.  This product looked helpful:

Ether I/O 24R

I found a couple of other examples, but they didn’t have quite enough detail for me:

Embedded Linux Router Hacked for Sprinkler Controller

This link does seem to have more detail:

Sprinkler control with embedded…

They mention using the USB Bit Whacker board.  I think I found where I could buy it: SparkFun Electronics.

Skype Problems on Ubuntu 8.10

digitaleagle Uncategorized 2 Comments

I have been having trouble getting Skype to work.  If anyone has any ideas, please post a comment.  I at least have it working, but the microphone is quiet.  Also, at this point, I only get output on the left speaker.

One thing that helped was going into the System > Preferences > Sessions and changing the Skype command from “skype” to “padsp skype”.

Here are some articles that I have looked at and tried:

Installing Office 2007 on Ubuntu

digitaleagle How To, Microsoft Office, Open Office, Uncategorized, Windows, Wine Leave a comment

Here is a little script that I put together that installs Office 2007 for me.

Now, this script makes the following assumptions:

  • I already have a directory created called wine in my home directory.
  • I want Office installed in a separate directory/wineprefix
  • I have the Office CD mounted already at /media/cdrom0
  • I have winetricks in my path (which winetricks = /usr/local/bin/winetricks)

Also, just for information, here is my setup

  • Ubuntu 8.10
  • Wine version 1.1.16
  • I believe I installed Wine with apt-get using the repository at http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt
export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/wine/office2007

mkdir $WINEPREFIX
winetricks msxml3 dotnet20 gdiplus riched20 riched30 vcrun2005sp1 allfonts ie6
winetricks vista
wine /media/cdrom0/setup.exe
winetricks winxp

I hope it helps.

Linux Evaluation

digitaleagle Great Links, Ubuntu, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Just recently, I came across a very interesting evaluation of Ubuntu from a Mac User’s perspective:

Two Days Without Mac OS X Leopard: Ubuntu 8.10 Review

One of the most interesting things is how a supposed Linux newbie can point out applications that I hadn’t heard of even though I have been working with Linux for quite some time.  I don’t if that is a mark against me or if there is something to be said for fresh perspectives.

I noticed the part about Quicksilver, but Gnome-Do was not mentioned until the comments.  Should Gnome-Do be installed by defaults or should the settings have something there that would install it when enabled?

The fonts was interesting, and I went through the tutorial that he mentioned.

Also, the mumbles was interesting.  I am giving that one a try too.

I have noticed issues with the sound, and it is nice to know that I am not the only one having those issues.  I thought maybe it was the hardware on my PC.