X-Geek

Extreme geekiness

There are 700 posts filed in X-Geek (this is page 45 of 70).

Google to offer 1Gb Internet service in trial program

Today Google announced that it will be stringing fiber around a few lucky cities to study how ultra-high-speed Internet service might be used. Speeds of up to 1Gb will be offered and competitively-priced with fiber being deployed directly to the home.

I think the Triangle would be ideal with its concentration of networking companies (Cisco), storage companies (EMC, NetApp), software companies (IBM), and pharmaceutical companies. Raleigh was one of the North Carolina municipalities to oppose Time Warner’s efforts to close off competition, so I would hope the city would be looked upon favorably.

Google expects interested municipalities to respond to the RFI via the web, but you don’t have to be a city official to express interest. Google provides a link for interested residents to nominate their city.

Let the jockeying begin!

Linux’s networking stack gets confused

I just saw this unusual response when I pinged my local server:

root@sundowner:/etc/network# ping maestro
PING maestro (192.168.3.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2091 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2094 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2077 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2040 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2043 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=2051 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=2046 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=1065 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=63.8 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=1.39 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=1.35 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=1.53 ms

The odd thing about this is that the first 8 responses actually returned in less than one second, in spite of ping reporting times over 2000 ms. For the math-impaired out there, 2000 ms equals two seconds.

I don’t know why Linux was reporting a ping response returning in two seconds when it actually returned in less than one second (and most likely a fraction of a second). It’s very strange.

Cheap Thoughts: The “Boss is Coming” screensaver

Yesterday’s Bluetooth screensaver idea gave me an idea of a great way to extend its functionality: the Boss Is Coming feature. Your laptop will automagically display a boring spreadsheet whenever your boss approaches. Then once she’s gone you can go back to playing QWOP.

BlueProximity is open source and thus changing it should be easy. Right now the user selects one device out of a list and triggers the screensaver (or other script) based on that device. A Boss Is Coming feature would require being able to trigger different scripts for different devices.

Ok, geeks. Get coding!

Update 1:24 PM: It looks like BlueProximity already supports multiple devices! Just select the “New” button next to the “Selected Configuration” box, select the desired device, and create your script.

It remains to be seen what happens when a device is selected which has not been paired with the laptop. I doubt one’s boss will let her mobile phone be paired without permission.

Lock your screensaver using your phone

blueproximity_conlogo

I’ve often wondered what it would take to have my PC know who I am without having to type in my password every time. Typing passwords is so second millennium! There should be a better way.

Today I found that there is. My friend Tarus mentioned a Mac app called AirLock that will activate and deactivate your screensaver using a Bluetooth-equipped phone. I thought that was pretty cool, so I went searching for a Linux app that does the same.

I found it, and it’s called BlueProximity. The good news is that it’s been in Ubuntu for over a year. Simply type

sudo apt-get install blueproximity

…and you’re all set.

This of course made me wonder if my $WORK could replace all the proximity card readers at the entrances with Bluetooth sensors. Why should I carry a badge if I’m always carrying my mobile phone? And why couldn’t this take the place of my car keys or door keys, for that matter?

In a nice coincidence, I got a Bluetooth headset from woot.com last week for a net price of $0. It’s only been a few days since I turned on Bluetooth on my phone. Now I have two cool things to use with it!

Camcorder crash

aghvx200a

Once again we’ve had a Sony camcorder mysteriously die on us. Our almost-new Sony DCR-TRV280 gave me a “reinsert cassette” error this morning all of a sudden and would not accept the tape no matter how many times I put it back in.

We purchased this camera about 3 years ago in an effort to have something that would play the dozens and dozens of Hi8 8mm videotapes we have in our collection. Like our last video camera this one has apparently suffered a failure of the tape transport system, essentially rendering the whole camera useless. The cost to replace the tape transport mechanism exceeds the value of the camera.

I’ve been jonesing for this Panasonic HVX 200 HD camcorder I’ve seen on Craigslist but I don’t have the bank to buy it now. That’s probably for the better because if I owned it I would be tempted to buy a beefy Mac and a few terabytes of storage to make beautiful videos with it.

Hmm. Maybe I could buy it and make it the centerpiece of a new business doing video production. Yeah, that’s it!

Another MythTV mystery busted

mythtv

For the past few weeks I’ve been puzzled by the significant load shown on my MythTV backend generated by the kdvb-fe-0 process. The server was running at 50% load or higher even when there was nothing being recorded.

I poked around and found that the kdvb-fe-0 process is created by the Linux DVB drivers, which is the driver used for my TV capture card. Because this driver is running so close to the kernel I am not quite sure how to troubleshoot it. The software tools I would normally use may not work at this level.
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MSN can’t take no for an answer

Earlier this week I banned MSN’s msnbot from spidering my website. I did this with an entry in the robots.txt file:

User-Agent: msnbot
Disallow: /

I checked with MSN’s robots.txt verifier to make sure this would keep msnbot from spidering my site. The only problem is that I also blocked the MSN IP addresses. Thus msnbot couldn’t fetch robots.txt to tell it was no longer wanted.

So, I unblocked the IPs and allowed msnbot to grab the robots.txt file, which it did repeatedly (this is a small sample):
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Daylight saving time experiment

This winter I thought I’d try something new: a somewhat altered Daylight Saving time change. The goal is to minimize the impact of the time switch.

My idea is to switch clocks like everyone else but adjust my waking schedule by only 30 minutes, not the full hour. So as I currently wake at 5:45 AM EDT, I will awaken at 5:15 AM EST after the time change. Thus I’ll be waking up effectively 30 minutes later than I do now but the rest of my schedule will match others.

If I were brave I would continue to wake and sleep at the same time I do now but I’m not yet ready to take that on! We’ll see how a half-hour difference goes first.