Doug Warner

Here's the command I found to set the default gnome-terminal height:

gconftool-2 /desktop/gnome/applications/terminal/exec --type string -s 'gnome-terminal --geometry=85x40'

Now when I hit "meta-t" I get the size gnome-terminal that I like.

Oh, to get "meta-t" to work, you might want to set this as well:

gconftool-2 /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/run_command_terminal --type string -s '<Mod4>t'

While I've owned (and will continue to own) silfreed.net for about 9 years now, I think it's time I reasses my online personality.

"silfreed" will probably be a part of me for a long time, but more and more in online and open source circles I'd like people to know who I really am, not some pseudonym.  This will make it easier to communicate with people and make connections.

So, as of today, I'm beginning my migration away from silfreed.net.  I'll probably the old domain for a long time, but I'm looking forward to the new personality I can offer from the new one.

As usual with these things, please let me know if you know anything broken.

Last night I got a letter from Shippensburg University that stated they would no longer being accepting Visa cards for online payment of classes.  The reason Visa has dropped is because the university is looking to begin charging a "convenience fee" for using credit cards which will theoreteically save the university $280,000/yr.

The payment processor Shippensburg University has chosen, Official Payments, clearly supports Visa.  It is solely the desire to charge this convenience fee that has driven the university to drop Visa as a supported payment method.

It appears that Shippensburg University isn't the only one that is going this route; Brooklyn College has an almost identical story from last september.

I don't think the university has fully through through the cost savings brough to them by using credit cards.  They will incur a significant cost if they choose to only accept paper (check) transactions from students.  They will incur an even greater cost if students decide to stop taking classes from this decision.

Personally, paying by Visa was my only way of meeting their ridiculously short deadline for payment (typically two weeks from the time you get the bill), so it's likely I won't be continuing my graduate studies at Shippensburg University unless they reverse this decision.

I couldn't get KeePassX to import my PWManager files natively, so I needed a way to do this in a multi-step fashion (I want to use keepass format so I can have the same password program/database on my computer and G1).  The easiest appeared to be:

1. Export from pwmanager as CSV
2. Custom script to convert from CSV to keepassx XML format
3. Import in keepassx

So this "step 2" was the problem.

I found a forum post on the keepass xml format, so the next step was writing something to convert it, and so we have the PHP KeePassX XML Generator.

Currently it's set up to convert the CSV file generated by pwmanager (entered on stdin, xml dumped on stdout).  But I created a set of classes that should be easy to use for generating a valid keepassx xml file.

After some fiddling to get MMS working, this is my complete APN setting for AT&T Wireless (blue) mMode:

Name: mMode
APN: proxy
Proxy: 10.250.250.54
Port: 8080
Username: <Not set>
Password: <Not set>
Server: <Not set>
MMSC: http://mmsc.mymmode.com
MMS proxy: 10.250.250.55
MMS port: 8080
MCC: <unchanged>
MNC: <unchanged>
APN type: <Not set>

The next problem I ran into is sending text messages.  I believe this is due to my old AT&T Wireless (blue) SIM card.  I found instructions on how to set the SMS Center phone number.

*Download Any Cut from the Market.
*Open Any Cut and click "New shortcut"
*Click "Activity", then "Testing", then "OK"
*Go to your home screen and click "Testing"
*Click Phone information
*Scroll all the way down
*Where it says "SMSC:" ...

I found the AT&T SMSC number in the howardforums archives: +19078319301

Of course, I love cell phones.  They're my gadget crack.  So it's not surprising to my friends and family that I bought a new one for my birthday.

I picked up a T-Mobile G1.  It's a nice touch screen device that runs an Open Source OS (Linux) with it's own software stack on top (Android).  So far the hardware is really nice; having a touch screen and a keyboard is very handy, especially for using a terminal to log into remote systems.

Brady's gone ahead and done some research for me already (here, here, here, and here).  I actually bought two G1's - a black one that I received already and am playing with that's in perfect condition, and a bronze one that I've yet to receive.  I'm going to resell the one I don't like, but I haven't seen the bronze one in-person yet to know if I like it or not.

I've only run into one real problem so far, when using the voicemail auto-dial button with the number AT&T sends down OTA I get a "invalid MMI code" error.  This is apparently due to the pound sign at the end (#) from my pin number being saved; adding a comma to the end for a pause seems to resolve this.

I'll probably need to root whichever device I end up using so I can use the wifi tethering apps; otherwise just having access to an SSH client on the road will be awesome.  Once a SIP client comes out for the phone I'll be able to officially get rid of my Nokia N81.  That was a nice phone while it lasted; it just can't compete with a touch screen and a hardware keyboard.

You'll be two years old tomorrow, and it's been an amazing experience watching you grow.

Your first birthday was lots of fun, but you were just beginning to interact with people around you.  You had a great time smashing your cake, but you didn't really "get" what was going on.  I imagine this birthday will be much different.

In the past year you've gained a tremendous amount of independance.  You can walk up and down stairs without help. You can tell us what you want with words (and some signs) instead of fussing as much.  You know where your toys, books, and colors are and will pull out what you would like to do (whether we want you to or not).

Your vocabulary has grown every day, learning new words and phrases making us ask, "where did you learn that?" For example: <finger on chin>, "Hmm", followed by <finger pointing in air beside head> "I have an idea!" At your last birthday you loved having us sing to you, where now you can sing the songs yourself, sing along with my clarinet to tunes you recognize (with correct intonation), and even make up your own songs such as the "Candy Cane Song" or the "Blue Song" (which frequently just repeats the subject of the song over and over in various pitches, speeds, and lengths).  You can sing the entire ABC Song and count to thirteen (fourteen and fifteen are added on, but don't sound right yet).  You know all your primary colors and can sign them.

Understanding emotions aren't out of your grasp, either.  "No cry; [it's] okay," you tell Jared.  When Mom or I pretend to be sad you run over right away to give us a hug.  You tell us when you're "so happy."  If Mom and I are having a "discussion" you interrupt with, "No Mommy! No Daddy!" to tell us we need to be quieter.

You've also grown so much.  5 inches in a year doesn't sound like much, but it means you can reach many more things you couldn't previously; the running water in the bathroom from your step-stool, the markers and crayons, and you can put Jared's bottles in the sink.  You've thinned out a good bit.  So far you have kept your curly, blonde hair, but it's gotten long enough that Mom has had to trim your bangs a couple times to keep them out of your face.  And you're so cute in pig-tails or a pony-tail!  On top of that, you got your ears pierced this last weekend and are doing a great job with letting them alone so they can heal properly.

Things you love?  Books.  You go through phases with which ones you like; earlier it was these animal board-books we had, then Christmas ones, then the "Pigeon" books, and now Dr. Seuss books.  You used to love to sit on our laps and have us read them to you, and while you still like that, now you love to tell us the stories. "LET [ME] DRIVE [THE] BUS!" you'll tell us while reading "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus."  You also love coloring; definitely with markers (the ones with the special paper are nice, but not as exciting as real ones - thank god they're washable!) but also with crayons and colored pencils.  Last year you mostly just scribbled, but you progressed to "snakes" (lines) and circles.  Now your scribbling is starting to become pictures in your mind (that Mommy and Daddy need to label on your picture so we don't forget).  You also love clouds and pointing them out.  It'll be warm out soon and we can go out and see them again.

So much has changed in the last year, and it's just the beginning for you.  I know this next year you will enjoy spending time with your brother more as he learns to sit, then crawl, then walk.  I'm sure you'll love playing with him and teaching things.  In your own right, you'll be making new friends when you move to a new class in Day Care and will probably start making friends on the playground when we go out.  And you'll continue to grow and learn, and we'll be there to help you.

I'm trying to get an hdhomerun set up and my firewall is getting in the way.

After stracing the hdhomerun_config binary and seeing that the discover calls out on the network broadcast (192.168.0.255 here) on port 65001 I did some tcpdumping (also knowing my hdhomerun was at 192.168.0.16 and I'm at 192.168.0.15):

$ sudo tcpdump -i br0 -nn host 192.168.0.255 or host 192.168.0.16
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on br0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 96 bytes

11:08:07.093315 IP 192.168.0.15.53247 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:07.093653 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.53247: UDP, length 20
11:08:07.093707 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56
11:08:07.593858 IP 192.168.0.15.53247 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:07.594196 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.53247: UDP, length 20
11:08:07.594239 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56
11:08:08.093823 IP 192.168.0.15.53247 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:08.094166 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.53247: UDP, length 20
11:08:08.094221 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56
11:08:08.593821 IP 192.168.0.15.53247 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:08.594135 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.53247: UDP, length 20
11:08:08.594179 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56

11:08:14.843469 IP 192.168.0.15.55604 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:14.843778 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.55604: UDP, length 20
11:08:14.843845 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56
11:08:15.093830 IP 192.168.0.15.55604 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:15.094152 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.55604: UDP, length 20
11:08:15.094228 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56
11:08:15.593791 IP 192.168.0.15.55604 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:15.594095 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.55604: UDP, length 20
11:08:15.594149 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56
11:08:15.843824 IP 192.168.0.15.55604 > 192.168.0.255.65001: UDP, length 20
11:08:15.844131 IP 192.168.0.16.65001 > 192.168.0.15.55604: UDP, length 20
11:08:15.844195 IP 192.168.0.15 > 192.168.0.16: ICMP host 192.168.0.15 unreachable - admin prohibited, length 56

So I can see that the hdhomerun is responding, but from random ports.

So poking a hole in my firewall for responses from 192.168.0.0/24 (in case I have m udp source port 65001 I can communicate with this.  Now I'll have to see how streaming works once I get it added to MythTV.

I've been tagged by Brian.

Seven things:

1. I was completely new to the Mozilla community when I started at Mozdev.  I barely even used Firefox (gasp! I used konqueror, so it wasn't all bad).  Now I know my way around a bit, but still seem to be too involved in Mozdev-dev to get to know the larger community much.
2. I was a band geek in high school.  I marched snare drum and went along with our band to the Atlantic Coast Championship for the Tournament of Bands in Group 2 my senior year.  We were also quite successful in our Indoor Percussion group both my junior and senior year.  I also played clarinet, bass clarinet, and dabbled in the basoon in concert band and played electric bass in jazz band.  I was also ran the lighting side of our high school "tech crew" since I was a freshman for all plays, musicals, and presentations and knew all the ins-and-outs of the massive light box and spot room we had.  Man I wish I had some pictures of those times.
3. I met my wife in band in high school and we started dating my senior year (over 11 years ago).
4. I've been working with computers since 1988, web technologies since 1997 (first web company - webgaia.com in 1998, first blog on tripod in 1998), and Linux since 1999.  This stuff just facinates me and I sink way too much time into trying to Do It Myself.
5. My first computer was a Commodore PC10 w/ an 8088 processor running MS-DOS 3.2.  I learned programming by transcribing programs for GW-BASIC from a 3-2-1 Contact magazine.
6. I'm an Air Force Brat, but have now lived in the same area for 20+ years now.  The South-Central PA area may not be very tech-savvy, but does seem to have a small group of us that know better.
7. I'm an introvert. Wait; maybe you knew that.

The rules:

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

I think most of the people I'd prefer to know more about have been tagged and I don't want to spread this disease to other circles.

Lots of stuff have been going on around here.  I've been busy with a number of household projects and Jocelyn and Jared continue to grow.

Project-wise I've been busy setting up some home-automation. It's mostly focused on Christmas-y things right now, but I'd like to move it past that.  I finally found some wall switches that will allow me to replace my midi wall switches without converting everything to the paddle-type wall switches so I'm planning on replacing the switches for the outside lights so I can then remotely control them to turn them all on/off at the same time.

We also got a 40" Samsung LCD TV (LN40A550) for Christmas and I've been busy fixing various things to accomodate that.  I updated our Logitech Harmony remote to include the proper inputs for activities, but needed to contact Logitech to have them fix the input switching (it cycles to the previous input if the same input is selected again - a problem when switching to another activity that uses the same input).  I'm also having some problems with my PVR - video tearing and no surround sound.  The former problem is new, but I knew about the latter one for awhile, just hadn't looked into it.  I've ordered a new video and sound card to try to rectify those problems, so we'll see how that goes.

I've also been trying out new photo management software.  f-spot seems pretty nice and I'm pretty much ready to start importing photos into it. I have a problem where photos edited with it are inheriting the incorrect umask which needs fixed first.  This is one of the reasons I'm so behind on updating photos on my website; once this process is smoothed out I hope it goes a lot faster.

One of the reasons I haven't made more headway in that department is because I was sick for a couple days last week with a nasty stomach bug.  It only really lasted one day and another day to recover, but it of course removed an entire day of productivity that is difficult to get back with two little ones.

Jocelyn is growing up so fast.  Yesterday she started saying "love you" which was very exciting.  She's forming 3 and 4 word sentences for some things now, and her vocabulary is definitely growing every day.  She's not thrilled about going back to day care yet, but I'm sure she'll adapt quickly.  New schedules are always difficult.

We had tried taking her pacifiers away over Christmas but it Did Not Go Well.  There was a couple days where she refused to nap and was a royal grump.  We tried trimming the pacifiers since they were starting to die anyway, but that didn't work either.  After a couple days we ended up buying her new ones since she needs the sleep right now.  She only uses them to sleep and she definitely isn't the oldest toddler I've seen with one.  I'm sure it'll come in time.

Jared is getting big and learning new things as well.  He's at least 15 lbs (14 weeks) and sits very well in his Bumbo seat.  He has big grins for his mom, dad, and sister.  Jocelyn's really starting to warm up to him, and I'm sure once he starts sitting up and really playing with things in a couple months she'll be very interested in playing with him as well.

Dennis and Michelle moved up a couple weeks ago and we were able to go out to dinner with them last Friday.  It twas really nice to be able to see them and to be able to just sit and talk with friends w/o the kids around.  Tiff and I hadn't been out by ourselves since Jared came along and the break was very nice.

Tiff started back to work this week since taking off for maternity leave.  So far things have been going well, but it's too early to tell how much her kids will like her compared to her sub. that was in for most of the school year so far.

Other projects going on?  trying to build a new firewall that uses vlans and runs Fedora instead of CentOS to provide access to more up-to-date software.  Cleaning the garage.  Fixing my laptop.

Oh yeah, I need to write about the laptop.  My Dell Latitude D630 (purchased in Feb 2008) seems to have two primary problems right now:

1. The battery is dead.  It last about half an hour and reports its run time incorrectly.  Luckily I contacted Dell about this before the warranty ran out (1 year on batteries)
2. I have the dreaded "vertical lines" problem with my nVidia GPU.  Its looking like I'm going to get a motherboard replacement out of it. Joy.

While the battery problem wasn't critical, the video problem locks my laptop up when it happens, and it happens frequently after the computer is warmed up -- typically a couple minutes after booting now.  Evil.

Because of my laptop problems I've re-visited my need to get my homedir into a VCS.  I'm slowing getting this set up and will blog more once I have a better solution.  The biggest problem I'm running into right now is needing a way to symlink dot-files in place from my checked-out folder to my root home dir.  ie, If I check out my .vimrc to src/homedir/dotfiles-core/vimrc I need to symlink ~/.vimrc to ~/src/homedir/dotfiles-core/vimrc.  And I'd prefer to not do this manually.

I'm also moving my rss feeds from akregator into rss2email on my server.  This gives me two things: 1) I get updates even when my laptop is off, and 2) I can check my feeds from webmail.  I can also add new feeds remotely by ssh-ing into my server if needed, but that happens pretty infrequently.  I'd probably just email myself the link to add later.  The biggest thing going on with this right now is re-categorizing my feeds.

To categorize my feeds I'm giving them a custom email address to send the updates to; something like rss-(category)@.  Then my .mailfilter looks like this:

if (/^User-Agent: rss2email/:h)
{
    include ".mailfilter.rss"
}

and then .mailfilter.rss has:

if (/To:.*rss-([\w-]+)/:h)
{
    to "Maildir/.INBOX.rss.$MATCH1/"
}

# other lists
to "Maildir/.INBOX.rss/"

This allows me to easily add folders and categories without modifying my maildrop rc file.

I think that's it for current going-ons.  Maybe the next update won't be so huge.

I've written a little shell script I'm calling gajim-pinger.  If you use gajim for IM and ping.fm for updating your social networks, this simplifies things by:

1. updating ping.fm
2. updating your gajim status message

It does this by using zenity to ask you what you're doing, then gajim-remote to send a message to the ping.fm xmpp bot (which you need to have added to your roster before-hand) and also using gajim-remote to update your status message there.

I got my rack in working order, moved thor (file server/MythTV backend) out to it (with associated wiring) and got my Comcast Digital receiver hooked up with an iguanaWorks iguanaIR usb IR transceiver.

We also went for a nice walk with the Beecher family down to the creek, enjoying the fall foliage.

Michele Little also came to visit Jared.

Other misc photos:

Updated Warner family
Tiff, Jared, and Jocelyn sleeping on the recliner
Brenda and Rick's Anniversary
Tiff's 28th Birthday
Jared visiting w/ the Warners
Brooke, Dennis, Brenda, and Brady with Jared
Jocelyn with a full pony-tail
Jocelyn and Mom looking out the window at a bunny
Jocelyn coloring with Pappy Warner
Jocelyn painting pumpkins
Jocelyn eating popcorn
Jocelyn in pigtails and camo
Jocelyn sleeping under the changing table

My photos for CPOSC are now online as well.  Now to just work on transcoding video..

Ooo.. Look at me! [1] [2] [3]

Here are my slides for the talk I did at CPOSC 2008.  The title of my talk was Architecting a Community: How Mozdev Runs and Grows and had the unfortunate conflict with the Git Sucks talk which drew in almost all the attendees.

The event was great and I'm glad I was able to attend and particpate.  I hope that the guys do it again next year.