Triumph Over Madness

hand crank coffee grinder is fun

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:48:00 +0000

hand crank coffee grinder is fun
Originally uploaded by reedwade

but, I can understand why our recent ancestors attached motors to these things, it's a bit of a work out

Linux Mint 12 + Gnome 3

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:41:00 +0000

I like it.

I've just installed the Mint 12 RC and I'm surprised how much I'm liking Gnome 3. It's different from 2 but not startlingly so -- feels tidier, simpler.

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1858

Movies Are Cool

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:01:00 +0000

I've just finished my first day at Weta Digital as a Production Engineer. The group I'm working with help to keep the world spinning in the correct direction so the creative folks can do their thing.

Lot's of smart and interesting people. Tons of things I need to learn still but I don't feel out of step there at all.

Someone asked me today if the movies seem less magic now that I've had a peek behind the curtain. It's had just the opposite effect -- the effort, the energy and the creativity is massive. Looks like the best kind of magic to me.

The Python Standard Library by Example -- get it

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:02:00 +0000

My copy of The Python Standard Library by Example arrived this morning and it's totally kick-ass.

I don't much go for paper style books, especially chunky looking tech books but the python standard library ages pretty well and this is a collection of usage examples which is always nice to have at hand.

It turns out in this case the chunky book format is the perfect thing for thumbing through and discovering things that have been in the standard library all this time but you never noticed before. I've already spotted about 3 things I expect to use this week.

And it's written by Doug Hellman, the fellow who introduced me to python (via Zope even) on a project we worked on together a long time ago and it really saved the day. I've been loving python ever since.

Get it.
- from Amazon
- or bookdepository.co.uk (which tends to be cheaper where I am)

Flickr Backups - PicBackFlick, but really digital autonomy

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 08 May 2011 02:52:00 +0000

I've been working on a Flickr backup utility and it's far enough along now for other people to give it a go.

See http://reedwade.net/picbackflick/
code at https://github.com/reedwade/PicBackFlick

It's written in python, is a command line script, is suitable for running via cron, has a handy locally browsable HTML photo viewer, etc.

It works well and there's more features it needs which I'll be adding over time but if you feel like lending a hand then please do.

--

I like using tools like gmail and flickr but I don't like the idea of depending on their good nature to keep my stuff safe. Keeping my own copy of the originals and meta info in a place I control is only sensible.

So, this takes care of photos, now I need similar tools for:
- gmail (and contacts and calendars)
- twitter
- blogger
- linkedin

HP Mini Mobile Drive, er USB connector

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 05:42:00 +0000

Laptop vendors get silly ideas sometimes. Some (all?) HP Minis have a slot for "HP Mini Mobile Drive" which is a recessed USB connector but machined to fit a proprietarily shaped USB stick. I recently picked up some cheap little zero profile mico SD adapters and they shove up in there just fine.

So, not sure this really helps as I was already using this in the sd slot w/an sd adapter. But, now that's freed up if I want to copy things off my camera easier.

And since it is recessed it can stay there mostly all the time w/out getting in the way.

Jeeze, I need to dust my gear, sorry.

Update: Yeah, the handle broke off and so the card is wedged down there permanently. Or until I decide to dig it out -- still works tho.

I work with awesome folk

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:13:00 +0000

As described here--

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/schools-in-for-open-source-advocates

I think it's cool we even rate comment trolls who don't approve of educating students. Must be doing something right.

Part Two: Koha Development Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 05:47:00 +0000

This page has moved to the Koha Wiki @ http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_Dev_Env_Setup and will not be updated here.

This section describes how to wire in a Koha checkout on your desktop to the Koha installation you've just created. It assumes you've already followed the steps in “Part One: Setting Up Koha”.

Step: NFS Export Your Home Directory

It would be nice if you didn't need to copy files from machine to machine and could do your editing and other work on your desktop machine that has all the right dev tools in place. We use NFS to export your home directory to the virtual machine.

You may need to install the nfs-server package on your desktop if it's not already. If your desktop machine doesn't have an /etc/exports file you'll need to do that. Then:

desktop$ sudo vi /etc/exports

adding this line:
/home 192.168.122.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)

then export the filesystem

desktop$ sudo exportfs -a

You should take some time to understand what you've just done. Any machine on the 192.168.122.0 subnet (the one used by QEMU/KVM) can do anything it wants to any file under /home on your desktop machine. You could be a little more strict about this by exporting just a single directory like /home/reed/koha-dev-dir and you could be more specific about exporting to just the single host. It's a balance of convenience and security. Different working environments will have different requirements.

Now mount the filesystem on kohabox.

kohabox$ sudo vi /etc/fstab
adding one line
desktop:/home/USER /home/USER nfs

then
kohabox$ sudo mount /home/USER

replacing USER with your username, now cd to your newly mounted home directory

kohabox$ cd ~/

You should see that your home directory is now on kohabox also; you should be able to edit files there.

After making changes like this I have a habit of rebooting the virtual machine or at least fully log out and back in. You've mounted a file system atop one you were using and it's just an odd situation to be in.

Step: Check Out Koha via Git

If you don't already have it. Install the git package. Git can change a bit from version to version. I'm using v1.7 and you probably want that too. If you are new to git but have experience with csv or svn you will find the usage model can be a bit confusing but it's useful and powerful enough that you'll eventually come to appreciate it.

desktop$ mkdir ~/koha-src

desktop$ cd ~/koha-src

desktop$ git clone git://git.koha-community.org/koha.git

You'll now have a checkout of Koha in ~/koha-src/koha/

Step: Point This Koha Instance At Your Development Code Checkout

Now we need to modify the apache configs so that instead of using the packaged Koha code, the system is pointing to your code checkout in ~/koha-src/koha/

You will be editing 3 files in /etc/koha/ (As always, save copies of the original files in case you need to roll back.)

In /etc/koha/apache-shared.conf change: (set USER as appropriate)
SetEnv PERL5LIB "/usr/share/koha/lib"
to
SetEnv PERL5LIB "/home/USER/koha-src/koha"

In /etc/koha/apache-shared-opac.conf :

replace /usr/share/koha/opac/htdocs with /home/USER/koha-src/koha/koha-tmpl
replace /usr/share/koha/opac/cgi-bin with /home/USER/koha-src/koha/

In /etc/koha/apache-shared-intranet.conf :

replace /usr/share/koha/intranet/htdocs with /home/USER/koha-src/koha/koha-tmpl
replace /usr/share/koha/intranet/cgi-bin with /home/USER/koha-src/koha/

Restart apache and confirm it works.

Now make some changes in the code and see them in action.

Step: Next Steps...

[ I need to add pointers to the wiki where it talks about about getting going with git and submitting patches. -reed ]

Setting up Koha in a Virtual Environment + Using That as a Development Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 05:37:00 +0000

This page has moved to the Koha Wiki @ http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Setting_Up_Koha_in_Virtual_Environment_+_Using_That_as_a_Development_Environment and will not be updated here.

This describes one way of setting up Koha in a virtual machine and how to configure that for use as a development environment. Virtual machines are used here to create an operating environment which is repeatable and well defined. It assumes a working knowledge of Linux systems though my intent is to describe things with enough detail that not much experience should be required.

I've repeated this process a couple of times so it should at least work -- but I would be grateful for comments, corrections and improvements.

This is aimed at development and experimental use. It may or may not work for a production environment depending upon your needs and situation.

This is written in two posts, the first one here gets you a working Koha installation. Part Two sets you up to do some development against it.

I use Nginx as an HTTP routing engine. Nginx is a lightweight, high performance web server which is close to my heart. It's used here to forward HTTP traffic into your Koha machine(s). It is optional if you only need to connect from your desktop machine.

My desktop development machine is running a recent version of Ubuntu and many of the instructions I provide here are specific to that environment. I'm using QEMU/KVM for the virtual host but this scheme works nicely with VirtualBox as well. (Ever since they tattooed the very large Oracle logo over the top of VirtualBox I've been stepping away from using that as much as possible.)

To help avoid confusion, I'll use the desktop$ prompt in examples below for things you should type from your desktop development machine and kohabox$ for the virtual machine running Koha.

Step: Create a Virtual Machine

Install QEMU/KVM and the Virtual Machine Manager. You can do this using the Ubuntu Package Manager. Select: virt-manager and qemu-kvm (I think that's all you need—let me know if not so I can update these instructions), then 'apply' to install. I had a problem with running this right after installation so a reboot at this point is probably a good idea.

Download the installation cdrom image (iso file) from which your new virtual machine will be built. I'm using Debian 6 (squeeze) which at this moment is still officially in testing. Go to http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ and get the i386 netinst CD image. Save it someplace on your machine.

Now, start up Virtual Machine Manager. Once you've installed it this will probably be under the System Tools menu on your desktop.

Create a new machine and name it kohabox.

Select the Debian CD image you just downloaded as the install media.

The Debian installation screen will appear. Select 'graphical install' and answer most of the questions using the defaults (except where it makes sense to diverge like when selecting your country and time zone). For the hostname, use kohabox. Set the passwords to something you will remember. When asked to create a new user, use the same user name you use on your desktop machine.

At the 'Partition disks' step there is a 'Write changes to disk?' question. The default is No for safety but that's not useful, answer Yes there.

When you get to the 'Software selection' page, add SSH server, unset Graphical desktop environment.

If you run into problems or enter the wrong things or forgot the passwords you gave it just shut off the virtual machine, delete it and start over. That's part of the fun of virtual machines.

Step: Static IP address for your new machine

(This section is specific to QEMU/KVM.)

Your machine will have been assigned an IP address via the QEMU/KVM DHCP service. It would be nice if that address is one that never changes. One way to do that is to configure the DHCP service to always give the same address to that host.

Shut down your virtual machine and then:

desktop$ sudo virsh net-edit default

change the section that looks like--


<dhcp>
<range start="192.168.122.2" end="192.168.122.254" />
</dhcp>

to--


<dhcp>
<range start="192.168.122.2" end="192.168.122.100" />
<host mac="52:54:00:e4:af:84" name="kohabox" ip="192.168.122.101" />
</host>

with 52:54:00:e4:af:84 being the MAC address which was generated for the network device on you new machine.

Now, active the new configuration:

desktop$ sudo virsh net-destroy default

desktop$ sudo virsh net-start default

Then, add an entry to /etc/hosts like this (and skipping ahead, we're adding a kohaadmin and koha entry to be used later):

desktop$ sudo vi /etc/hosts

192.168.122.101 kohabox koha kohaadmin

Start up kohabox and confirm it is now using the 192.168.122.101 address.

Confirm you can ssh to it from your desktop:

desktop$ ssh kohabox

(NB: I've tested this a few times and normally it just works. I did have one case where it's needed a restart or two before the new address took for some reason.)

Step: sudo and desktop hosts entry

sudo doesn't seem to be installed on the virtual machine, so do that:

kohabox$ su -

Password:

root@kohabox# apt-get install sudo

root@kohabox# vi /etc/group

and add your user to the sudo group

root@kohabox# vi /etc/hosts

and add an entry for the desktop host

192.168.122.1 desktop

You may need to log out completely from the virtual machine then back in for the new group membership to take effect (or at least open a new shell).

Step: Install Koha

We're going to simplify our lives in a big way now by installing Koha from packages. This will install the dependent packages for us and just makes sure our pipes are really clean before we start tampering with it for our development work.

You should review http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Debian before starting.

kohabox$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

adding this line

deb http://debian.koha-community.org/koha squeeze-dev main

kohabox$ wget -O- http://debian.koha-community.org/koha/gpg.asc | sudo apt-key add -

kohabox$ sudo apt-get update

kohabox$ sudo apt-get install koha-common mysql-server

This step will take a while. Take the time to spare a loving thought for Lars Wirzenius who organised the package build and Robin Sheat who now maintains it (and even one for our employer, Catalyst, which funded that work).

When done, create (or replace) /etc/koha/koha-sites.conf.

kohabox$ sudo vi /etc/koha/koha-sites.conf


DOMAIN=""
INTRAPORT="80"
INTRAPREFIX=""
INTRASUFFIX="admin"
DEFAULTSQL="/usr/share/koha/defaults.sql.gz"

You may want to review /usr/share/doc/koha-common/README.Debian to understand where config files are landing.

The koha-common package sets up a system for creating multiple Koha instances on a single machine. It's just as useful for creating a single one which we will name “koha”.

kohabox$ sudo a2enmod rewrite

kohabox$ sudo a2dissite 000-default

kohabox$ sudo koha-create --create-db koha

Once those are done you should be able to see something at http://kohaadmin/ and http://koha/ from your desktop machine. The admin user will be koha_koha, find the password by looking in /etc/koha/sites/koha/koha-conf.xml

Step: Configuring Your Koha Instance

Go to http://kohaadmin/ and login in as user koha_koha. Step through the web installer selecting default values except:

MARC flavour, no default given, use Marc21 (dunno if that's preferred to unimarc, I picked it because it was listed first)

On the “MARC Frameworks: MARC21” setting page, set the 3 Optional items:

marc21_default_matching_rules
marc21_fastadd_framework
marc21_simple_bib_frameworks

In the bottom Optional section enable:

auth_val
parameters
sample_itemtypes
sample_z3950_servers options

You may choose to select others but it can be educational and tidier not to. For the following example to work correctly you should at least set those I've listed. Leaving one or two out can give you a configuration which could be confusing/frustrating for someone new to Koha. (I'd be happy for someone with more knowledge of this to suggest a better starting configuration or a pointer to better information here--thanks.)

For the indexing engine, go ahead and select Zebra. It's a commonly used complicating factor so you'll want it if you plan to do any useful development work. Plus it's already going to be configured for from the package installation.

Ok, you're done. You should now have a working but not very interesting Koha installation.

Step: Add A Book (for non-librarians)

I am assuming you are a software developer but not a librarian. Also, that you don't really have a library other than a stack of books in your home. Adding a book sounds simple enough but it's important to know that you must first create a catalogue entry for the publication then, separately, create a record representing the physical instance of the book. Getting right with that was a key ah-ha moment for me anyway.

Quick detour, before adding books you'll want turn on bar code auto assigning. Go to System preferences and find autoBarcode under the Cataloguing section. Set it to something other than 'not generated automatically'.

Second detour, you need to create a library for your book record to have a home. Do this from the “basic parameters” configuration page.

Ok, so, imagine you have a book in your hand and you've got the ISBN which is printed on it somewhere.

In the Koha staff interface, select 'Add MARC Record' (under Cataloguing on the home page). Then hit the button marked “z39.50 Search”. A new window pops up with various search options. You'll also notice a list of search targets. These were added during the configuration step. Each is a publicly accessible searchable collection of catalogue records. At the moment you have none and need to copy one for each book you want to catalogue.

Enter 1400079764 for the ISBN and hit the Search button. You should get at least one result. Select “import”. The search window will close and the MARC Record page will be filled in with a catalogue entry for the book.

Select Save. You may get a pop up message saying some required field (CONTROL NUMBER IDENTIFIER) is not filled in. You will also see that it's got a candidate value now filled in for you. Hit Save again and you should be good.

You will now see an item record entry titled “Items for The Anchor book of modern Arabic fiction / (Record #1)”. Selecting the date and bar code fields will cause them to be filled in with useful values. Feel free to set and others or not then hit “Add Item”.

Sweet, you now have a book in your library.

Visit http://koha/ and search on part of the title “arabic”... well that's odd, no results (maybe)...

This is because the Zebra search indexer has not run. This is run from cron every 5 minutes. So, just wait a bit then try again.

Step: Configure Nginx

You can safely skip this step. Routing traffic through Nginx allows clients from outside your desktop machine to connect to your Koha machine. It also allows you a central place to manage HTTP traffic to your virtual machines.

desktop$ sudo apt-get install nginx

Now create a configuration for request forwarding.

Create a new file called /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/forwards and put this in it:


server {
listen 80;
server_name koha kohaadmin;
location / {
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_pass http://kohabox/;
}
}

Edit your desktop /etc/hosts file changing:

192.168.122.101 kohabox koha kohaadmin

to

192.168.122.101 kohabox

127.0.0.1 koha kohaadmin

Now restart (or start) nginx:

desktop$ sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

With a web browser, visit http://kohaadmin/ and http://koha/ again. You should see no difference.

[ I need to add an example here of how you would get to Koha from a 3rd machine to make this actually useful. This will be a bit complex because to depends a lot on the local network environment so need to lay out a few scenarios. -reed ]

TripIt.com -- you want this

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 05:49:00 +0000

Thanks to Nicole and Chris for turning me on to Tripit.com.

I'm knee deep in planning a trip with about a dozen flights, a couple of cars and happily just one hotel -- and this TripIt.com thing is slick as hell.

It's very simple to use, you forward the mail you got from your airline to some email address and it peels out all the info into a highly useful and detailed time line. (Two separate bookings in my case and it was able to knit them together perfectly.) It adds information you didn't tell it about your flights.

You can add to it by hand and it connects the dots. I told it I was flying to Syracuse but staying in a hotel in Kingston, ON that evening so it dropped a driving map in between and predicted what my hotel check in time would be from that (and offered if I wanted to rent a car, which I kind of do need).

And it lets you share all this with your peeps so they can know all your flight info and etc.

I've seen a lot of attempts at solving this in past but nothing that ever came close. It's just very very simple to use and yet provides a lot of useful info.

Reed Is Phone Crazy / New Phone Love

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:38:00 +0000

But still--

all my friends have Android phones and now finally I do too.

LG has a mid range phone out (GT540 Optimus) which can be had locally from Vodafone dealers (not actual Vodafone stores) at $399 (US readers, yes that's a fab deal for here, Google phone is $999). It was very shiny also, so I bought it.

It's got the resistive touchscreen instead of the fancy pants capacitive type but it's a good one. I'd been agonizing and wanting one of the high end HTC phones but the budget just wasn't there--normally I'll get an hour of insanity and drop the cash anyway. The GT540 came along just in time to save me from that.

Google has owned all my mail and calendaring for a while now so having a phone that syncs nicely and is fun to use is nice. I'm still fond of my Nokia e71 but the OS it runs is really stuck in the past.

Maps integration is a lot nicer than the Nokia. I had stopped using the Nokia maps thing after initially liking it a lot because it kept getting into some mode where it wanted to interact with me and ask about downloading random things -- right when I just needed it to show me a freaking location I was driving to. I stopped trusting it to be usable.

Coding for Android is pleasant so far. The hardware and the OS make things much simpler than Palm or BlackBerry did -- a lot less brain twisting to get a nice result.

Installing applications you've written is pretty simple also. No signing the app needed plus with an ftpd running on the phone you just copy the package and install it. It gives a feeling of control and freedom over the hardware you don't get with most phones. I'm assuming there is some signing needed if I put things on the Android Marketplace.

Anyway, happy new phone times for me.

Linux v Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:03:00 +0000

I know it's an incredibly boring argument but I couldn't help commenting on this thread - http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/connector/3770144/Linux-the-other-operating-system

Afterwards I thought of a nice analogy: the difference between using Linux and Windows is the difference between renting and owning your home
-- except the house you own was free, a gift from a group of friends
-- and the one you rented was from a crappy landlord and smells funny
-- and you still have to cut the grass either way.

KoboTool.py - Kobo Command Line Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:56:00 +0000

I've put together a simple (python) command line tool that lets you do simple things with the on-device database.

Comments and fixes happily accepted. Add comments on this posting.

You can get it from: http://reedwade.net/kobo/

The README--

KoboTool.py
5 June, 2010
Reed Wade, reedwade@gmail.com

This is experimental. You should back up your Koboreader files (particularly the
contents of .kobo) before using this. It might wreck your reader, etc.

This is a command line tool and library written in Python which I use to manage
my Kobo ereader. The most useful features are removal of the Kobo provided books
(by wiping the database) and setting a book to Finished if you not longer want
it to appear in your "I'm Reading" list.

I don't use any DRM'd books on my reader and I don't use the Kobo desktop application.
It's possible that could interfere with the settings I'm tweaking.

All my testing has been under Linux.

How To Use:


to list all available options--

   $ ./KoboTool.py -h

to show a summary from the device database--

   $ ./KoboTool.py -d /media/KOBOeReader/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite -i

to list all books on your reader--

   $ ./KoboTool.py -d /media/KOBOeReader/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite -l
  
This lists all books along with their internal ID which you'll need to pass in for
the book-specific commands.

to set the status of a book to finished--

   $ ./KoboTool.py -d /media/KOBOeReader/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite -f 'file:///mnt/onboard/reed/books/Wesley Allison - His Robot Girlfriend.epub'

Interesting Presentation on Kobo Business

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Michael Tamblyn talks about Kobo business--

http://blog.kobobooks.com/2010/04/20/12-months-of-learnings-about-ebooks-in-40-minutes/

I was struck by how clearly he understood the concerns of ebook purchasers and how it appears the large book publishers are all excited to go down the same crazy wrong headed path that the antique biz model oriented music distribution industry is taking.

Reed Got a Kobo

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Fri, 28 May 2010 23:39:00 +0000

I've got a little addiction to small electronics--the hackable the better. This is mitigated lately by my move to NZ which has reduced my pin money budget plus I really am trying to have less stuff in my life.

I've been wanting a hot fresh Android phone. But $1000NZD for the one I want is about 2x what I'm willing to spend. I've been in new toy withdrawal. Happy for me a friend walks up to my desk the other day and says, "Whitcoulls is selling ebook readers, wanna go check it out?"

Half hour later we're back at the office with our new toys. We got the last two in stock. The person at the shop said it would read epub and pdf documents. I didn't know much about epub files (I didn't buy the thing because I needed to read ebooks, I just wanted a new toy that I could tell myself would be useful--and I had been meaning to read more on my commute so that made it ok) --- anyway, pdfs I understand. I was hoping it wouldn't be too hard to overcome whatever obstacles there might be to putting some content on the thing.

It turns out, the Kobo people don't hate their customers (unlike Apple and most cell phone carriers who go to a lot of effort to control the gear you think you own but they think they still do for some reason..).

Anyway, so I connect the USB cable and it acts like a normal disk device. I drop a pdf file there then disconnect it. Cool! It shows up in the Documents list and I can view it just fine. Browsing and scrolling a document with an A4 page size is a bit painful, the zoom works but scrolling is funky and unpleasant -- but it works, the device doesn't hate me.

Next, let's connect the machine back up and poke around the file system. I see a .kobo directory and a KoboReader.sqlite file. That looks promising. And sure enough, the sqlite file is easy to read and highly controllable.

More about that in a moment. How usable it is?

These e-ink screens are strangely pleasant to look at. You'd think it was printed on a plastic sheet.
There's no backlight so you need a similar level of light to read as with paper.
The UI takes a little getting used to but isn't bad.
Page switching is accompanied by a full screen dark flash. This isn't distracting once you're reading. I'm told this is a solution to the pixel persistence feature / problem of e-ink displays.
The machine is slow. Sometimes annoyingly but never unusably so.
The button layout is for right handed people. But not a huge problem.
I wish there was a side jog wheel for page turning.
The overall feel, texture, size, etc it very nice.
Book management and chapter switching could be improved, too many steps sometimes. Particularly noticeable when reading a news feed because you want to skip a lot of items.
Can't figure out how to seek into a book without a lot of page turns. Some clever UI work could solve that. (I'm imagining a grid of dots representing each page that I drive to and hit go.)

Some things I've learned--

NOTE: I haven't bricked my device but only because I saved a copy of the original disk contents first (otherwise I would be sad now). So, only do the things I describe if you're comfy with that.

-

It comes with a nice selection of 100 public domain books. This is really great for getting a feel for how to use the device but it is a lot of clutter (well, several I do want to read). The book management UI on the device isn't horrible but it is limited. I can imagine a few refinements which may come in future firmware.

Pretty quickly you find you want to get rid of those 100 books so you can more easily see the ones you have added and care more about. There's no way on the device to delete a book--or, better, to put it into a "don't show me this in the main book list" group.

If you're handy with sqlite tools (I'm using Sqliteman) you can remove them and all other book content by clearing 3 tables:

delete from content
delete from shortcover_page
delete from volume_shortcovers

and to regain the disk space:

vacuum

You may also want to remove everything from the .kobo/images/ directory.

-

I tried deleting the KoboReader.sqlite file. Upon reset the device created a zero length file but couldn't deal with the condition and didn't notice the books I had copied to the machine. It reported no books or documents found.

Replacing that with a minimal sqlite file (the 3 content tables emptied as above) put it right again and all was happy.

-

When you disconnect the device it populates the database and the images directory from bits found in new files you've dropped onto the device. That rebuild can take a while.

Unlike the original 100 books, the full content isn't copied in but a lot of info is. There's a record per chapter at least.

-

Lot's of info and activity here:

* http://wiki.durbn.net/koboko/index.php/Main_Page
* http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=223
** has some Kobo people responding to questions in a for more open way than I'm used to seeing companies operate

-

The Kobo people are making a Linux version of their management app available to anyone who asks for it. That's very very cool.

The app doesn't totally work (for me) but it's a lot of the way there. I expect once they have a little more time they'll get that sorted.

There seem to be a couple of Linux management apps underway for the device already.

-

I am think of writing an app just to manage clearing of bookmarks and related info. I've already got a (quickly based) app that reads the DB and lists books. It's way too raw and uninteresting to share yet.

-

I haven't put any DRM'd books on the machine or signed up for that. I may never. O'Reilly is selling DRM-free books that work and I've already bought 3.

There are enough out-of-copyright 1920's sci-fi and self-published / small-outfit-published non-DRM books that I suspect I'll be happy without DRM in my ebook life.

I've been using http://www.feedbooks.com/ to convert RSS feeds into epub files. I've set up one for Stuff which you can use if you need a dose of NZ news: http://www.feedbooks.com/newspaper/9757

There's really just no shortage of content.

-reed

Easy Macron Input In Ubuntu (Ūbūntū?)

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:15:00 +0000

[ This assumes you're using Ubuntu or similar. If you're still using Windows, you just need to catch up. Very few of the old excuses for staying with MS products still fly. ]

If you live in New Zealand (probly other places too) you will at some point find yourself wanting to type a macron form vowel. If for no other reason, you will be wanting to at least spell Māori correctly.

The standard solution is to go find some document or web page and do the copy / paste trick. That works pretty well but there's an easier way.

This first step is to set your Compose key. The standard keyboard settings do not define one.

From the System / Preferences menu, select Keyboard (not Keyboard Shortcuts).

Select the Layouts tab and from there the Options button. This opens a new window. Find the Compose key position setting. In this example I've selected my left side Windows key because I don't use it for anything else.

(click to embiggen)

Close that window. You are now ready to go. You can experiment in the "Type to test settings:" box or anywhere you like.

To enter a macron form vowel, press and release the Compose key, then the dash (-) key, then the vowel you want.

Entering other characters not found on your keyboard is suddenly easier now. Experiment with likely combinations to learn more.

See also: http://www.google.com/search?q=Linux+Compose+Key+Sequences

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on HP EliteBook 8440p

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sat, 08 May 2010 08:48:00 +0000

[ note: I'll be updating these instructions to be a little simpler to follow -- right now this is the raw notes ]

I just got a new laptop at work and it's working nicely now with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. There were some obstacles that took a little research to sort out, so, this info may be useful to others.

Model Info:
HP Elitebook 8440p
WL655PA
Intel Quad Core i7-720QM 1.6/2.8Ghz, 6MB cache
NVIDIA NVS 3100M with 512 MB video memory

Higher end versions of the 8440p use Nvidia graphics and this caused some trouble from the start. Installation fails without some manual assistance because the graphics card isn't handled very well.

* after booting from the installer USB stick (probly works w/CD also) you will need to select the nomodeset option, then install

* after installation, hit shift during boot to get grub screen

* change 'quiet splash' to 'nosplash nomodeset' on line that starts w/ 'linux'

* crtl-x to continue booting...

* after logging in, get a popup regarding proprietary drivers for nvidia, activate them

* edit /etc/default/grub, changing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT per-- GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nosplash nomodeset"
* then "sudo update-grub"

Everything seems to now work other than brightness control.

* add
Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
to Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf and reboot

* see that (as root)
echo 80 > /proc/acpi/video/DGFX/LCD/brightness
echo 100 > /proc/acpi/video/DGFX/LCD/brightness
suddenly now does something useful

* see also that the up/down brightness keys still don't work .. haven't had much luck with this yet; you can control brightness from the power mgmt interface

* until the brightness controls really work then you may prefer to remove the xorg.conf entry; at startup the brightness seems to be set a bit low and it would be annoying to reset it each time

No Longer Dating

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:51:00 +0000

!
Originally uploaded by reedwade

After a little over three years, New Zealand and I have decided to stop with the just fooling around and we're now living together for real.

Maybe in another 5 years we'll take the next step.

I would pay $1400 for this

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:59:00 +0000

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/3262044/Sharing-Air-New-Zealands-Skycouch

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:50:00 +0000

"Hampton said the bear forced its way in through French doors that were closed but not locked."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/2767039/Bear-attacks-woman-in-her-home

Koha 3 on Debian/Lenny

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:19:00 +0000

!! This is maybe useful but out of date, see INSTALL.debian-lenny in current Koha distribution

---

Following the existing Debian install instructions that come with the Koha install tar ball are mostly correct for Lenny. I'm in the process of documenting the changes/additions that worked for me. WARNING: This is a work in progress, I'm very new to Koha and I wont yet claim the end result is a correctly functioning system.

I used debian-501-i386-netinst.iso.

While intending to be explicit and complete, this posting assumes you have at least some familiarity with Unix systems administration.

---

Make a fresh Lenny install. I like to pick "standard system" because I don't know what might come with the other settings. We'll be selecting the additional packages we truly want anyway.

That gets you a pretty raw system. You can't do much without ssh and sudo, so once the machine is up and running install them.

root$ apt-get install ssh sudo

Then add the user you created during the Debian install to the /etc/sudoers

root$ visudo

Now logout and back in as the non-root user (the one you just gave sudo permission to). You'll do everything else as that user.

----

Get and untar the latest stable Koha release.

$ wget http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.01-stable.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz koha-3.00.01-stable.tar.gz
$ cd koha-3.00.01-stable

Read through INSTALL.debian. This posting includes what should be a complete and correct replacement of all the steps needed from that document but it's possible there's something important I've missed.

---

$ sudo apt-get install dselect

Add these lines to install_misc/debian.packages (top or bottom or between I'm nearly certain it doesn't matter):

libcgi-session-serialize-yaml-perl install
libemail-date-perl install
libgd-gd2-perl install
libhtml-scrubber-perl install
libnet-z3950-zoom-perl install
libpdf-reuse-perl install
libpdf-reuse-barcode-perl install
libclass-accessor-perl install
libmarc-charset-perl install
libmarc-crosswalk-dublincore-perl install
libxml-rss-perl install
libhtml-template-pro-perl install
libdata-ical-perl install
libgd-barcode-perl install
libmarc-xml-perl install
libbiblio-endnotestyle-perl install
libpoe-perl install
libschedule-at-perl install
libmarc-record-perl install

$ sudo dpkg --set-selections < install_misc/debian.packages

$ sudo dselect

Pick Install then each of the remaining options through to Quit.

---

There are two items there isn't a Lenny package for so:

$ sudo cpan SMS::Send Algorithm::CheckDigits

There is a Algorithm::CheckDigits package but it doesn't appear to be a correct version for Koha.

---

MySQL setup:

$ mysqladmin -uroot -pmysqlroot create koha
$ mysql -uroot -pmysqlroot

mysql-prompt> grant all on koha.* to 'kohaadmin'@'localhost' identified by 'katikoan';
mysql-prompt> flush privileges;
mysql-prompt> quit

---

Create the koha user and group.

$ sudo addgroup koha
$ sudo adduser --ingroup koha koha

--

Now build Koha.

$ perl Makefile.PL
(accept all the defaults)

$ make

$ make test

$ sudo make install

--

Apache set up.

$ sudo ln -s /etc/koha/koha-httpd.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/koha

Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/koha, changing 127.0.1.1 to * in two places.

Edit /etc/apache2/ports.conf, adding two lines:

NameVirtualHost *:8080
Listen 8080

Activate the rewrite module, the koha host config and restart apache:

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
$ sudo a2ensite koha
$ sudo apache2ctl restart

---

hit the admin site at 8080

http://192.168.56.5:8080/ for me

The username/password will be the same as your DB config username/password, kohadmin/katikoan in this example.

---

I haven't attempted any Zebra setup but..

$ sudo -u koha zebrasrv -f /etc/koha/koha-conf.xml
$ sudo -u koha misc/bin/zebraqueue_daemon.pl

seems likely

---

Please send fixes to reedwade@gmail.com

thanks,
-reed

My Temperature Clock Just Flipped Over

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:07:00 +0000

I was setting up a new machine and discovered when config'ing the weather widget that using degrees C instead of F seems more normal to me now.

If I start wanting beans on toast I'll know I'm done for.

My Father and My Pen

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:33:00 +0000

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-affordable-pens-geeks-love.html

Made me think about the pens in my life.

Like a lot of people, I care about my serious work and play tools. I spend more time than makes sense looking for just the right pen and the right paper to make the mood. I've gone through a lot of pens.

I keep coming back to the PaperMate Flair, in black:

It's got just the right tip, you can make an expressive line with it. It's easy to write with--it's wet enough that you can brush the paper's surface if you're in a rush or you can linger for emphasis.

The only thing I wish is that it was permanent ink. My guess is the smell and other properties of the ink would make this a bad trade. So, hard to complain too bad.

And yet, I hate this pen. I don't want it in my life.

This is the pen my father used. I imagine he liked it for many of the reasons I do. But, I don't want to be anything like my father.

I keep looking for a replacement. And then I keep grabbing for one of the Flair pens that are scattered around the place. It's just the right pen.

So, hooray for me. I get to just fucking get over it and make it my pen instead of his.

Next step is to see if I can get a cheap source for these in NZ.

---

(2nd fav is the Pilot disposable fountain pen)

People Do What Cute Robots Want Them To Do

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:47:00 +0000

http://www.tweenbots.com/

Is interesting in a lot of different ways.

Sunday Night Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (Reed) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:29:00 +0000

Every Sunday evening I get an 'oo, is that an earthquake ... ' and then 'oh, no, it's the person next door rolling their trash bin to the curb'.