• Category Archives Computers

  • Imagine a life with no computers……ahhhh……bliss…..

  • &*#^&#%@*& Computers!!!!!

    Posted on by beno 8 Comments

    Right! I was going to keep my mouth shut, but I have decided that venting is better for my mental health than just keeping a lid on it (besides, Gary and Dan are going to have field day with this one for months!!!)

    So, you may recall that I upgraded to a brand new computer a few months back. My first ever brand new computer.
    I bought a power house one because its got to last me for a long time and because I hope to get into more photography and HD video editing…. So, I got me a quad core (with hyper threading, so yeah, I got an 8 pot screamer) with 12gB of RAM and 2.5Tb of hard drive.
    Nice.
    I put Ubuntu (Linux) Studio on it as it is set up for this sort of machine and function.
    I was pretty happy for the first few days, as you are when you get something like this going…. Then you start using it and the cracks appear.
    First up, I have fallen in love with Adobe’s Lightroom for my photography. It handles my RAW photos with ease…. The problem is that there is not a version for Linux. So, I installed the Sun VirtualBox. This allows me to run Windows XP on my computer, and on that I can run Lightroom. The problem is that VirtualBox only uses 1 CPU no matter what. They openly say it on their web site…… As if that is not bad enough. Linux throttles things back if you don’t need all 8 cores going flat out, it brings them back to 1.2Gh if they are not doing anything…. So yeah, my Lightroom is running on half of one core….. Yeah, it runs like a wet three legged dog.
    Not happy Jan, not happy at all.
    Then I go to burn a CD of some photos for one of the make up girls. No problem. 2 days latter I go to burn another. No. Don’t think so. You think that I can get the CD draw to open… not on your life…. Turn to my source of answers… Google… yeah, seems I am not alone. Most everyone that does much burning has the issue.. The way to fix it? Reboot……Hmmmm, sounding a lot like Windows here, move the mouse? Reboot your computer……
    On top of all that the sound on YouTube videos only works once… Uh Huh, you watch 1 video and you have to restart your browser……. I am trying to view some photography videos, and its losing its fun factor when you have to restart after each…… Flash and Linux, a match for insanity it would seem.
    Lastly I wanted to share a directory for the family. One place for all our photos and music, one place to back up everyone’s Linux laptops (yeah, we are all running Linux on our computers, the kids love it)….. You think I can share a directory over the network. Nop, don’t think so.
    A few hours with Google, no joy, and I am thinking I need to get a life!

    So, a few days back, I had a thought……. I have the cart before the horse… I need multimedia before Linux here….. I am not doing anywhere near as much of that intense Linux sort of thing anymore, I just want my photography and video stuff to ‘just work’, I know, I will load Windows7 on and do everything in that… how hard can it be???

    HAH! Before you get all clucky Gary, let me tell you how long all that lasted!!!!
    So I downloaded a 30 day trial version of Win7. Burnt it on Terry’s computer (my DVD was still jammed shut from the last attempt) and installed it…..
    Funny how Ubuntu can fit on a CD at around 700mB and have a fully functional computer after an install, Windows needs 3.7GB and the video is broken, no sound and only USB1……
    Of course while all this happening (or not happening), my web site is down. Not that big a deal, there are only 4-5 of you hitting it every few hours, but still, its in the back of my mind that I need to get my site up pretty quick……
    So, I throw WAMP on it and copy my site over.
    The blog is broken and so is my photo gallery. Only the two most important aspects of my site.

    Digging around I find that the blog is messed up because of the mySQL settings, get that sorted, the photo gallery is much the same, so I get that sorted.
    HOWEVER, I soon find that I can not upload photos to the gallery… not much good having a photo gallery that you cant add photos too.
    Some quality time with Google tells me that I need to make the photo gallery directory (and sub directories) writable.
    Ok, so some more time with Google teaches me how one might go about that.
    For the record, in Linux you say ‘chmod 777’. That’s it.
    4 hours latter with Windows, I give up…. I am a broken man. I don’t care about Lightroom speed or burning CD’s, I just want it to work….. so, I rebooted back into Linux and all is good with the world again.
    I was beaten down from the lofty world of Windows7 because I could not for the life of me make a directory writable. It always reverts back to read only.

    I was an interesting few days. I am all about using the right tool for the job. I guess I am at the place where I have a pretty interesting job and no one tool is going to do the job.

    The answer is to reproduce the same set up I had in Buninyong, two computers. One Windows and one Linux, side by side. Together, getting the job done…. If only my pocket was that deep…….


    Computers

  • Uranquinty weather is back on the Internets.

    Posted on by beno 2 Comments

    Good news folks… late last night (Aust time) Matt and I got Uranquity weather data back up and running.
    There was no real problem as such, Matt had a hardware issue with the weather station and I had swapped PC’s.
    Once he got the data coming in, I set him up on the new computer and we are back!

    In case you are wondering, we still have to fix his weather web camera. Those pictures are not updating.
    And yes, I know that my all sky cam and humming bird cam are also not working… Its all to do with the new computer. Its a pretty big job to change it all over. (So hence I bought what I hope is a pretty powerful one that will last me for many years to come!).
    I plan to do some work on the cameras this Sunday, but we all know how plans go……

    Anyway, welcome back Uranquinty weather, sure have missed you!


    Computers

  • Sometimes a hack is the right tool to use.

    Posted on by beno 2 Comments

    Before we go much further, please take a moment to read (at the very least) the definition of a hacker on this web site here…… (I will wait for you, really I will).

     

    Ok, to answer your question, yes. I consider myself a bit of a hacker…. “Someone who is good at what he does with computers is a hacker”. Like it or not, I fall into that camp.
    The point of this blog is also to talk briefly about how sometimes, using a hacker (me) to write a software hack (what I did in PHP with Google’s help this week) is the right thing to do.

    I am all about using the right tool for the job. Just ask Gary (ok, perhaps not), while he was over here we had extensive, long (pointless and conclusionless) discussions about whether Windows or Linux is best. My stance then, and now, is thus; it’s a matter of using the right tool for the job.
    Zim asked me the other day if my new computer would be a Mac or not.
    You can read my answer by following that link, but I will repeat it here….. I firmly believe in using the right tool for the job. There are some things that Windows is really good at, some things that Linux is really good at and some things that a Mac is really good at. Why in the world would I use a sledgehammer to clean my teeth??? Perhaps you can get a Mac to host a web site, run a weather station, control Opto and host a blog, but, woza, it sounds like a tough way to go about it.

    There are lots of talented engineers here at Opto, all of them real programmers, so why in the world were Google and I mashing together some PHP code to massage some data?
    A few reasons; it had to be done quick. Doing something right is not always fast.
    It only had to demo the concept, not be a bullet proof production version.
    I was already up to speed on the project.
    The engineers are working on things that will make the company money, I am able to spend the time to hack something together for a trial that may or may not make us money.

    So, what in the world has all this got to do with someone sitting in say, Perth Australia? (Hi Gina).
    Well, I picked up this link via Twitter from my friend Jason. Its very short article about finishing projects. It perfectly describes both my programming efforts and some of my 365 Project photos…… Some times you just have to hack something together to get the job done and nothing more.
    We can often get too hung up on our big and small projects, spending time making them perfect, when really, we just need to get them done.

    Sometimes, a hack(er) is the right tool to use.


    Computers Photography

  • The power of the internet.

    Posted on by beno 2 Comments

    Going to be hard to stay on topic with this one, but lets have a go……….
    (Warning, mild geek content…. (Its all your fault Dan ;-))
    Had a conference call with a few key players in the current project. Up shot was that they needed our gear to do some interfacing with some of their existing equipment and the software system of a third party.
    The brief was pretty straight forward; hit a URL, get the CSV response, parse the data, put all of it it into a mysql database but also put some of it in a text file in a specific file format and ftp that file to the third party. Last thing was to set up a way for the third party to trigger an action and send a tweet via Twitter when that trigger is sent.
    Got a day and 1/2 to get it going in time for an important demo.
    Do 99% of this using PHP.

    Easy? Well, sort of. I have never learned PHP, well, not really. We touched it at night school in the Uni course I did on web site design, but nothing in depth, and nothing like DOING things with it, we just talked about using it in web pages. 
    Its the usual case of ‘its not what you know, its who you know’.
    I happen to know a thing called Google.
    Enter the power of the internet.
    I simply Googled each of the tasks one by one and found PHP code snippets for each step.
    Testing each step as I went, I was able to build up the whole program over the space of a few hours.
    I was pretty blown away with the power of the internet. Thanks to people smarter than me that took the time to put their knowledge on the web, Google then indexing it for me, I was able to do something that was way past my ability and knowledge to do.
    In the old days, it would have been off to the library to get the books to have a go at this.
    Perhaps I might have been able to contact someone what was willing to help, or paid a contract programmer to come in and do the do.
    Both options would have been expensive and time consuming.
    Sure, there was some Googling skills required, and some php hacking skills, but that’s another topic for another blog in the next few days.

    Till then, I am just asking you to take a moment and reflect on how the power of the internet really has changed the world and given people new abilities.


    Computers Opto22

  • First power and then cable…

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    What is going on? Is the world ending and because I am not on Facebook no one thought to email me????
    The cable died at 6:10am this morning, right when I was reading my daily news from Australia and the world whilst eating my home made cereal…. Not happy, but what can you do….
    Some 7 hours latter, TimeWarner fixed what ever the problem was and I am back on the air. Phew. For a LONG time I hope!

    They are forecasting hail and thunder this afternoon.
    9 to 16 inches of snow on Palomar….. might have to go for a drive….


    Computers Life in the USA