Penguins-On-Hudson

As Joel Spolsky put it: “Distributed Version Control is here to stay, baby”. If you’ve read Joel’s stuff, you know he has a way of making sense — a quality of writing which can be tough to find on the Internet. As a Git user, I can’t say Joel converted me, but he did get me thinking about why I too hung on to familiar ol’ Subversion long after it’s obsolescence. Rather than boring you with that, herein lies a minimalist guide to getting started with distributed version control. Continue reading »

In most cases, Ubuntu desktop systems will automatically detect and mount removable media, and this is largely done with software that is part of the X Windows system; for server systems without X Windows however, this sort of thing requires a bit of work.

Now some may ask, “Why automount removable media at all?” It is unwise to remove an active device, such as unplugging a USB drive without first unmounting it, and automounting may encourage this sort of recklessness. I don’t contend this, but if one runs a server using an external USB drive, there are two words which should spark an immediate interest in automatic mounts: power failure.
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Sound problems fall in to three basic categories, and the first thing you want to do is determine which one you’re dealing with. The easiest thing you can do is test your speakers with something else, using the same cable. If your speakers and cable are confirmed to be in good working order, then the problem must be either: Continue reading »

I have resisted the urge to display caller id on my MythTV as somewhat obvious. I’m always looking for ways to demonstrate the freedom which comes from using open source software, but I prefer the zesty freshness of an original idea rather than anything that’s been done, redone, and done again. My wife, however, thought that Myth caller id sounded like a great idea and asked me to set it up. What follows is how I did this with the least possible effort. Continue reading »

This past Sunday I joined my brother-in-law in watching Christmas in Yellowstone, but we only caught part of the program, so I decided to record a later showing in high definition; unfortunately my MythTV box is about 360 km southeast of my current location. I thought MythWeb might be useful but I was not familiar with it, nor had I installed it. Now that I am, and have, I wish I had set this up earlier. Off site management access is just the beginning of MythWeb’s feature set. Continue reading »

One of the reasons I’m a consultant is because I love to solve problems; this does not mean, however, that I enjoy all the problems I solve, nor that the pursuit is always rewarding in itself. This week I got stuck in a mind-bender that had all the satisfying crunch of a soggy pretzel. Continue reading »

The first Ogg-friendly music player I purchased was a Neuros II; this was late in 2004 and hardware support was fairly new as the Vorbis codec didn’t reach 1.0 until 2002. Then, as now, the best place for information on Ogg-friendly devices was XiphWiki. I recall being quite impresssed with Neuros’ willingness to open up the device specifications and embrace the Open Source community, unfortunately the device suffered from a number of design flaws that no amount of firmware hacking could ever resolve. Ultimately the combination of charging problems, a design plagued by awkwardness and bulk, and the manufacturer’s shift to focus on newer devices doomed the Neuros II to my technology junk drawer. Continue reading »

Summer in Peekskill has turned out to be quite nice and my wife and I have spent the last couple weeks refactoring our hardware configuration with procedures occasionally referred to as “foundation planting” and “buying porch furniture”. Naturally, porch life in the Hoffman home requires adequate wifi coverage, so I got to thinking about how to extend my router’s wireless signal. Continue reading »

I have music on my mind. I’m listening to Voodoo Child (ten point bonus if you know how this relates to Doctor Who) and thinking about my next portable music player. Like most geeks, the first question I ask about any digital music device is, “does it play OGG?”

Generally superior to MP3, Ogg Vorbis is a must for any lossy digital music collection, but it’s not the only feature I look for in a music player. I use four basic criteria to judge music players: Continue reading »

During the summer of 1982, I borrowed a 35mm camera from my father and enrolled in a photography workshop; I took surprisingly decent photographs with that old Argus C3 and found that I very much enjoyed working in the darkroom as well. Still the oldest camera I own, the Argus has long been retired to my camera collection in favor newer models, most recently a Canon Digital Rebel XT. Today I am writing from the perspective of one fortunate enough to enjoy the intersection of two interests. Continue reading »