Some people already know this, to one degree or another. Others either do not know or have ignored the writing on the wall.

I am an Atheist.

I feel that there is insufficient empirical data to support the existence of god(s). Therefore, I do not live my life assuming any do.

In order to maintain the status quo – people of faith are allowed to discuss, shove in your face, and be loud about their faith while anyone who does not subscribe is expected to keep their mouth shut, lest they offend – I have, for the most part, kept quiet about my beliefs, or lack thereof.

The status quo is shit.

It’s a new year and it’s time for a change. I will no longer participate in maintaining the status quo. I will no longer hide ashamed because I don’t believe.

The upshot is that if you read this blog, follow me on social media sites, or engage me in discussions on religion, expect to see/hear things from me that you may find “offensive.” If this is likely to cause you to be bothered beyond what you think that you can handle then feel free to unflow, defriend or otherwise ignore me.

Happy New Year

In my post “On Licensing and Training [guns]” I looked at data from the CDC to see if there really was an epidemic of accidental gun deaths that justified mandated government firearms training. In the post I said that I narrowed my focus to unintentional gun deaths because: “death is the most serious, and least ambiguous type of injury.”

While that’s still true, in the spirit of completeness, and to perhaps further illustrate my point, I decided to look at the unintentional nonfatal gun injury data.

The following data is from the CDC’s WISQARS Nonfatal Injury Reports which has data from as recently as 2009. I queried the WISQARS data for all unintentional gun injuries for all ages and all dispositions (the status of the injured person when released from the emergency room).

The WISQARS data shows that in 2009 (latest data available) there were a total of 18,610 unintentional nonfatal gun injuries.

2009, Unintentional Firearm Nonfatal Injuries

Not even one-percent of the 2009 population suffered an unintentional nonfatal gun injury; hardly an epidemic.

When you parse the WISQARS data further you find that the majority of the injuries (64%) were not serious enough to require hospitalization or extensive medical treatment.

2009, Unintentional Firearm Nonfatal Injuries | Disposition: Treated and Released

Even if you look at the injury rate over time (2001 is as far back as the WISQARS data goes) the injury rate has been consistently low.

Unintentional Nonfatal Firearms Injuries 2001-2009

The dip in 2006 – just 14,678 injuries – is interesting, as is the steady climb back up to the 18,000 range between 2007 and 2009. Though it’s that not surprising, since it was between 2007 and 2009 that reports of higher gun sales started surfacing. With increased gun ownership one would expect to see a more gun injuries; at least for a bit.

With anything that caries the risk of injury, the more people who take part, the more injuries you’re going to have. After a period though there is either a decline, or leveling off of injures as people either get better or stop participating.

Compared to nonfatal gun injuries, in 2009 471 times as many people – well over 8 million (2.8% of the population) – had a nonfatal fall injury.

2009, Unintentional Fall Nonfatal Injuries

It would seem that you are more likely to be injured (and killed) from an accidental fall then you are from an accident involving a gun.

Again, the available data does not support the argument that gun owners (new or old) are so inept that they need to be forced by the government to get training. Nor does it support the claim that guns are unreasonably dangerous and should be banned outright.

Contact your representative and demand that they oppose the Internet Blacklist Bills (PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House).

It’s only been a week since Wisconsin passed their concealed carry law and they’ve already made a major change. There is no longer a mandated four-hour training requirement to be issued a concealed carry license. You still have to provide proof that you’ve received training but there is no longer a mandated training length.

From doj.state.wi.us:

On 11/7/11, The Joint Committee For The Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) suspended portions of the emergency rules affecting the training requirements for concealed carry licenses. Proof of training is still required to apply for a license. The changes include:

• Elimination of any time requirement for the firearms safety and training course
• Elimination of the word test from the definition of firearms safety and training course
• Elimination of any time requirement for firearms instructor training
• Elimination of the instructor’s signature from the certificate affirming they taught the course to the student
• Elimination of any instructor contact information on the certificate
• Elimination of the location where the training was provided from the certificate

Any application submitted prior to these changes will be processed in accordance with these revisions. If your application has been returned as a result of any of the above training issues, or because you did not have an out-of-state affirmation form; please resubmit the application with all necessary forms and the fee to the CIB Firearms Unit, PO Box 2718, Madison, WI 53701-2718, for reprocessing.

While not perfect, this is another step in the right direction for Wisconsin.

Training is important. Very. Important. Owning, much more carrying a gun is a huge responsibility that should be taken very seriously. If you own a gun you should know how to use it, you should know and exercise firearms safety. That said, it’s not the place of the government to mandate training, much less to require a license to exercise an intrinsic right.

the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Fundamentally, placing a barrier that frustrates or prevents the free exercise of a right is an infringement on that right. Requiring a licence to own firearms, conceal carry, open carry, etc. is as absurd as it would be to require a licence to exercise free speech.

Yes, I praised Wisconsin’s passing of their concealed carry law because it’s a step in the right direction. It’s probably as good as one can hope to get from a state that didn’t recognize Second Amendment rights in the first place. Like any shall issue state, Wisconsin’s concealed carry law is good, but it’s not perfect.

Why is there such a push to for licensing? Why do even vehement supporters of Second Amendment rights support licensing for concealed carry and even licensing just to own a gun?

First, licensing allows the government to set requirements that must be meet in order for an applicant to be issued a licence. One of the requirements that’s always included is training. Some of the most vocal supporters for government mandated training are firearms instructors. The NRA noted that firearms instructors in Wisconsin were lobbying for a training mandate. Government mandated training spells “cha-ching” to firearms instructors.

Second, licensing allows politicians to ride the fence on the gun issue. It allows them to support pro-gun legislation like Wisconsin’s new concealed carry law, while also kowtowing to their anti-gun constituents by supporting licensing which invariably limits, frustrates, and sometimes prevents people from being able to exercise their rights.

Licensing is purported to have two main benefits:

1. It helps keep guns out of criminal hands.
2. It forces people to get training.

The questions then are:

1. Does licensing really keep guns out of the hands of criminals?
2. Do gun owners really need to be forced to get firearms training? Are there so many firearms accidents that it justifies government intervention?

The first question is easy to answer — criminals are criminals because they don’t care about the law. Criminals in Wisconsin (for example) were carrying concealed guns long before there was a legal way to do so. It’s doubtful that criminals will see fit to get a licence to legally carry a concealed firearm. It’s also doubtful that any type of licensing would keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

It’s utterly naive to think that someone who would commit a criminal act with a gun, would not be willing to circumvent the law to get that gun.

The second question requires a little digging. I queried the CDC’s WISQARS Fatal Injury Reports for 2008 (the latest available) to see what the data said about firearms accidents. I focused on unintentional firearms deaths because death is the most serious, and least ambiguous type of injury.

2008, All Injury Deaths and Rates

In 2008 there were a total of 181,226 injury related deaths. Of those, 31,593 (17%) involved a firearm.

2008, Firearm Deaths and Rates

Pardon me while I digress: of the 31,593 firearms related deaths in 2008 18,223 (57%) were the result of suicide; over half. In addition, 12,179 (38%) of the 31,593 were the result of homicide. It’s common for anti-gun rights people to included suicides to inflate the numbers. Since there is invariably intent behind suicide, it would be disingenuous to classify them as accidents.

One of the main reasons government mandated training is pushed is to help prevent accidents. It’s often implied that fatal gun accidents happen so often it’s nearly an epidemic. With gun owners being so stupid, they need the government to make them get training. Anyway, for the purposes of this discussion we need to look at how many of the 31,593 firearms related deaths were accidents (i.e. unintentional).

2008, Unintentional Firearm Deaths and Rates

So, out of 31,593 firearms related deaths 592 (1.8%) were unintentional. I do not want to seem crude, but not even one percent of the 2008 population died via a firearm accident. 40 times more people died in 2008 from unintentional falls (24,013).

2008, Unintentional Fall Deaths and Rates

Should we start requiring people to get walking licence?

I’m not trying to belittle the importance of training. Again, training is important and I think that everyone should, at the very least, get basic gun safety training before doing anything with a gun. But the data doesn’t support the supposed epidemic of accidental gun deaths.

There are well over two-hundred million privately owned guns in the US. The current US population is a smidgen over three-hundred million. Estimates put gun ownership at 45-50% of the population (and growing). There are an estimated six-million people (just under 2% of the current population) with concealed carry licences. Four states do not require a licence to conceal carry; thus no government mandated training. Most states do not require a license, or any kind of training to simply own a gun.

It’s probably safe to assume that the vast majority of gun owners have not been forced to get any kind of firearms training.

If gun owners are so unsafe and so in need of training, wouldn’t the number of accidental deaths involving guns be be higher?

Again, to be clear, training is important. I’m not tying to say that it’s not. What I think the data shows though is that despite the lack of a government mandated training there is not an epidemic of accidental deaths involving guns as some would like us to believe. I think the reason for this is the gun community actively encourages gun safety and training and even with gun ownership on the rise the number of unintentional firearms deaths has declined.

Unintentional Firearm Deaths 1999-2008

The data does not support the argument that gun owners need to be forced by the government to get training to keep the public, or themselves safe. The data shows that despite a lack of government mandated training people either already know how to use firearms safely, or they are getting at least basic safety training on their own.

Sold under the guise of public safety, the truth is that any firearm licensing system (to own, conceal/open carry, etc.) is designed to prevent the free exercise of a constitutionally protected right. Licensing is meant to limit, frustrate, and prevent the free exercise of a right because it makes some uncomfortable.

To the chagrin of many, the Second Amendment exists. It protects a right that is as relevant and valid as any other right. If you don’t like the Second Amendment then work to get it repealed. Until then, stop using false pretenses to infringe on my right to keep and bear arms.

Since I’ve never talked about this subject, let me just get this out there so you know where I’m coming from and can stop reading now if you want — I am a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. I support the individual right to keep and bear arms and to engage in righteous self-defense. I support both concealed carry and open carry (open carry to a degree but I’ll save that for a different post).

To get an idea of what I think the Second Amendment means, watch this clip from Penn & Teller: Bullshit!:

I recommend you watch the Bullshit episode on gun control (psst: it’s available on YouTube start here).

With that out-of-the-way, on with the show.

Wisconsin has become the 49th state to allow concealed carry and the 37th to allow it on a shall issue basis (4 states, Alaska, Arizona, Vermont, and Wyoming have no restrictions). Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill into law on July 8, 2011 and it went into effect on November 1, 2011. Shall issue means that if you meet the requirements, the Wisconsin DOJ must issue you a concealed carry licence. This leaves Illinois as the last state that denies concealed carry.

[note: some states call it a concealed carry permit and some call it a concealed carry licence from this point forward I will refer to both as concealed carry licence.]

Over at madison.com, a web-based Wisconsin rag, a letter to the editor was posted last week. The letter, by Nicholas Wiedenhoeft, speaks firmly against Wisconsin’s new concealed carry law. Please read the letter in its entirety.

As far as I can tell the letter is Copyright 2011 madison.com. Isn’t it nice how madision.com claims copyright on a letter it didn’t write? Anyway, I will be quoting chunks of the letter here to clearly refute the assertions made. This use of the letter, I believe, falls squarely under Fair Use.

From Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter:

The new concealed carry law is the worst possible idea for Wisconsin or any state.

One thing that I’ve learned since I started to pay real attention to the “gun issue” is that people who are opposed to gun ownership, concealed carry, self-defense, etc. are prone to argue using extremes. A lot of their augments are also appeals to emotion — “think of the children” — and all that.

Take the quote above from Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter: is Wisconsin’s new concealed carry law really the “worst possible idea”?

I don’t think it’s the “the worst possible idea” for a state to change its laws so that citizens can exercise their rights. Police cannot be everywhere and often arrive too late. Police have no obligation to protect individuals. Individuals have a right, protected by the Second Amendment, affirmed by the Supreme Court, to protect their lives using a gun. If anything, Wisconsin is behind the times in recognizing this right.

From Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter:

The basic premise is that people will be safer because they can carry hidden, on their person, a deadly force. This is the civic version of mutually assured destruction.

It’s a little disguised here but this is the classic “the streets will run with blood” argument. This argument has been parroted by everyone who opposes concealed carry. The problem is that they can’t prove that it’s true.

In fact, the data shows that even when gun ownership goes up, and even when liberal concealed carry laws are enacted, crime drops.^{1, 2, 3} Also, contrary to this argument, when concealed carry laws are relaxed the streets do not run with blood from people shooting each other over parking spaces.

From Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter:

This notion assumes that crime will be held in check because the criminal will never know who is armed and therefore fear to attack. This is extending to the criminal significantly more intellectual range than is in most cases possessed. Violent crimes are not committed by rational people who are thinking clearly, or who are in the least concerned about whether you are armed or not. It also encourages the assailant to simply shoot you first in case you’re armed.

The notion that crime is held in check when gun laws in general are relaxed, and concealed carry laws specifically are enacted or made more liberal is supported by the data. I’ve not run across anything that supports the notion that liberal concealed carry laws lead criminals to shoot their victims outright. Criminals do worry more about meeting an armed victim then they do meeting the police ⁴ and will generally try to avoid the former which helps to explain the correlation between reduced crime and liberal concealed carry laws.

From Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter:

A person carrying a concealed weapon must be capable distinguishing real from perceived threat. It would be foolhardy to believe that a person who is so terrified they cannot leave the house without a loaded gun is capable of distinguishing a real threat from their own fearful worldview.

I take the most issue with this assertion. For one thing, it’s an ad-hominem. Mr. Wiedenhoeft doesn’t have anything substantial to say here except “they must be crazy.” Mr. Wiedenhoeft has to resort to name calling. Besides, if Mr. Wiedenhoeft is corect then police officers, military personnel, and private security must all be crazy too.

It’s true that people who carry concealed firearms could misidentify a threat and shoot an innocent bystander. I could not find anything that suggested this happens with any statistical significance, however. There is research showing that citizens can be competent with guns in self-defense situations.⁵

During the 2011 Tucson shooting, Joseph Zamudio ran towards the shooting to offer help. He was legally armed. According to Zamudio he had clicked the safety off and had his hand on his gun as he was running towards the shooting. When he arrived on the scene he saw a man with a gun. That man was not the shooter but rather someone who was holding the shooter’s gun and was helping to subdue the shooter. Much is made of how Zamudio could have fired on an innocent bystander, Zamudio himself admits that he had to make big decisions very fast and that things could have gone wrong. Zamudio was able to make those decisions under unimaginable stress despite not having any military or police training, he didn’t fire on the innocent bystander, he didn’t even pull out his gun.

Zamudio’s story is noting more than anecdote but it does serve as an example, showing that “ordinary” citizens are capable of distinguishing between a threat and a non-threat and acting accordingly, even in extreme circumstances.

From Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter:

Perhaps the worst aspect of concealed carry is that it will replace our “constitutional rights” with “might makes right” — literally placing in the hands of the people who can obtain the permit the ability to decide who in our community will live and who will die.

Concealed carry is not about vigilante justice, or denying people their rights. Concealed carry is about recognizing an individual right to bear arms and to self-defense. In District of Columbia v. Heller the Supreme Court held that self-defense is “the central component” to the Second Amendment.⁶ Mr. Wiedenhoeft ignores that individuals have a right, protected by the Second Amendment and affirmed by the Supreme Court, to defend their lives using a gun.

Mr. Wiedenhoeft also fails to recognize that people who would use deadly force in self-defense must do so in accordance with the law. A concealed carry licence is not a licence to kill. Self-defense laws very from state to state but in general lawful use of deadly force requires that a reasonable person, faced with the same circumstances, would feel an immediate fear of grievous bodily harm, or death. “If the use of deadly force is to be justified, it cannot be criminal at all.”⁷

Contrary to Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s assertion liberal concealed carry laws allow people to exercise and protect their rights, not take them away from others.

From Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s letter:

For you basically good people out there who think concealed carry to be necessary please ask yourself: Do you truly believe the world will be a safer place when globally all factions have nuclear weapons?

This is noting but hyperbole. Allowing people to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms and defend their lives with handguns is hardly apt for comparison to nuclear weapons.

The heart of Mr. Wiedenhoeft’s argument is that Wisconsin’s new concealed carry law it makes him uncomfortable. He gives a few anecdotal, emotionally charged, arguments but does not back them up with any real data. That’s fine, he has the right to feel uncomfortable and he has the right to voice his opposition to the new law.

That said, Mr. Wiedenhoeft seems to think that one’s comfort level should dictate whether people are allowed to exercise their Constitutionally protected rights. For very good reasons, it just doesn’t work that way.

Of all the issues this country is facing at the moment, Congress feels that the most important thing to do is reaffirm “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States. Yep, glad the House took time out to work on this utter waste of time:

From Concurrent Resolution 13:

Reaffirming ‘‘In God We Trust’’ as the official motto of the United States and supporting and encouraging the public display of the national motto in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions.

In their dissenting view Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Robert Scott (D-VA), Melvin Watt (D-NC), Judy Chu (D-CA) said it best:

Today we face the highest budget deficit in our Nation’s history, a national unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and an ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis. American forces are deployed in combat on several fronts, while our children who—by the very circumstances of their birth—are placed into a cradle-to-prison pipeline. We are also in the midst of reacting to a natural disaster of unimaginable proportions that recently occurred in Japan and the resulting nuclear disaster, which may have worldwide import. Yet, instead of addressing any of these critical issues, and instead of working to help American families keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables, we are debating whether or not to affirm and proliferate a motto that was adopted in 1956 and that is not imperiled in any respect.

I’ve really never been bothered by “In God We Trust”. Though I’ve recently considered starting to black out “In God We Trust” on my money in subtle protest; it’s just not an issue that keeps me awake at night. Don’t get me wrong, it should not be printed on our money, nor should “Under God” be in the pledge (one reason I don’t recite the pledge anymore) but it is what it is. Besides, I don’t think that we are in a position to get it changed and in the scheme of things it can seem like a rather petty issue.

What irritates me about Concurrent Resolution 13 (which passed with disgustingly overwhelming support) is that it was a complete waste of time. It doesn’t do anything, as a House Concurrent Resolution it doesn’t have force of law. It’s just posturing by a Republican-majority House. It’s a waste of time and money (more than $215,000 in Members’ salaries and floor operation costs) when we can’t afford to waste either.

Ok, maybe there is more that irritates me about this. On top of being an utter waste of time and money the language of the bill makes it clear that its authors wish to promote force a single monotheistic god on the American People. Concurrent Resolution 13 shows a complete and utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the drafters and everyone who voted “Yea” (complete list here) violated their oath to uphold the Constitution.

From Concurrent Resolution 13 [emphasis mine]:

and encouraging the public display of the national motto in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions.

I get the sense, from reading the dissenting view, that there is a concern that not only is Concurrent Resolution 13 plainly unconstitutional but that if it passed (which it did) it could cause issues for the “In God We Trust” institution.

From the dissenting view:

We are concerned that H. Con. Res. 13, its apparent purpose, and the manner in which it has been put forward, raises serious constitutional issues. The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment exist to protect religious liberty. They are not in conflict with each other, but rather reinforce religious liberty in different ways.

The Establishment Clause not only prohibits the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion. The Establishment Clause protects the private rights of conscience of all Americans from governmental interference or involvement in religious affairs.

“In God We Trust” has survived largely because of its ambiguity. The Supreme Court noted in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984), that the motto has “lost through rote repetition any significant religious content”. Concurrent Resolution 13 seems to take any ambiguity out of the motto and solidify it is a religious motto, meant to endorse a single god.

From Concurrent Resolution 13 [emphasis mine]:

Whereas in times of national challenge or tragedy, the people of the United States have turned to God as their source for sustenance, protection, wisdom, strength, and direction;

Whereas the Declaration of Independence recognizes God, our Creator, as the source of our rights, ‘‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’’;

Concurrent Resolution 13 was clearly a waste of time and money. This is not something the legislature should be worried about now, or ever. It’s also clearly a means to subtly subvert the First Amendment. No doubt, there are some in the House who are having a circle jerk celebrating its passing.

I wonder though, if its passing could have a negative (or positive, depending on your view) affect on the “In God We Trust” institution. The words survived thus far because the Supreme Court felt that they had lost their religious meaning. Not only did Concurrent Resolution 13 reaffirm “In God We Trust” as out national motto, it also clearly restored religious meaning to the words.

Besides being a colossal waste of time and money, it seems to me that the zealots who insist on pushing their religious ideology on everyone may have shot themselves in the foot with Concurrent Resolution 13.

One can hope anyway. I’m probably just trying, desperately, to find a silver lining in this sheer act of stupidity.

Image source: Wikipedia (Public Domain)

Point of clarification, when I say “physical media” I’m referring to both CDs, and digital copies (MP3s). Also, I’m not a subscriber to Spotify or Rhapsody. I do use Pandora often though. I’d also like to mention that I’m a fan of Scalzi’s work and recommend you check out any of his books.

A couple of weeks ago John Scalzi made a post on his blog titled “How I Buy Music, 2011 (Featuring John Wesley Harding)” where he described how he bought a John Wesley album from Amazon MP3 but didn’t download it. Instead, after buying the album from Amazon MP3 he went and streamed it via Spotify.

Scalzi explained his reasoning in the post but I was still confused so I asked him to explain further. You can read our dialogue in the comments section; I posted as Rocketboy001. In our dialogue Scalzi makes it quite clear that he thinks it’s the consumer’s responsibility to make sure that an artist is adequately compensated for their work and he throws on a heavy dose of guilt to drive his point home.

Let me first make one contention: Scalzi didn’t implicate guilt in his post; not directly anyway. But in our dialogue he did imply that consumers should feel bad if they get their music solely through streaming services because what an artist makes via streaming is “appallingly miniscule.” It’s disingenuous of Scalzi to deny (as he did) that he was trying to place guilt on the consumer in his dialogue with me. Scalzi says that if you care you’ll buy the artist’s album, and if you don’t then you don’t care about the artist.

That’s a guilt trip if I’ve ever seen one.

I Disagree

There was one question that Scalzi didn’t answer (despite me asking it more than once): isn’t the artist responsible for what they make via a given distribution method?.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Scalzi didn’t answer this question. If Scalzi had answered the question honestly it would have invalidated his whole argument, the responsibility and guilt he was placing on the consumer, and it would have made his public display of altruism look like a simple act of grandstanding (not that it didn’t already).

Whatever Scalzi’s reason for not answering the question, I’ll answer it here:

The consumer’s responsibility is to make sure the content they consume is legal. That’s it. The consumer is no more responsible for what an artist makes then they are for what their plumber makes.

In our dialogue, Scalzi asserted that it’s the consumer’s responsibility to make sure an artist makes enough money, that they can eat. I don’t think it is.

Frankly, I think it’s a bit naive to assume that the average consumer cares, or even considers what an artist makes. How many people ask their waiter if they are making enough money to eat? Does Scalzi? Probably not. How many people ask their UPS person if they are making enough money? Does Scalzi tip his UPS man? Probably not. Why should artists be treated different from any other person who is providing a product or service?

Like I said, a consumer’s responsibility goes no further than making sure that the content their consuming is legal. Streaming services, like Spotify or Rhapsody, are perfectly legal. Artists get paid when their music is played on these services. There should be no guilt felt by consumers for using these services.

But They Don’t Make Enough

Scalzi thinks that what an artist makes via streaming is “appallingly miniscule.” But, that’s a subjective opinion, not a cold hard fact. Ask ten people what an artist should make from the sale of an album or song and I bet you’d get ten different answers. Sure most people would agree that an artist should make something but what that something is and how much of it they should get is completely subjective.

It varies but generally an artist gets paid fractions of a cent per stream. There is this chart that compares what an artist makes for a given distribution method. If the data used to make the chart is correct, then it’s clear that artists don’t make a lot from streaming when compared to other distribution methods; but so what? Artists do make money via streaming.

Not Meant to Be

Scalzi says that streaming services are not meant to act as a replacement for consumers buying physical media and that the amount artists make from streaming reflects that.

Scalzi acts like an artist’s music is put on streaming services against their will. I think that it’s safe to assume that if an artist’s music is available on a streaming service then the artist is ok with it being there, and they’re satisfied what they get paid for making it available there. Mind you, a lot of artists might only be ok with it so far as their contract obliges them to be ok with it.

If an artist isn’t satisfied with what they make via streaming, it’s not the consumer’s problem, it’s the artist’s.

There is noting that says an artist has to make their music available to streaming services. No one is forcing artists to put their music on Spotify or Rhapsody. If an artist does not feel like it’s a good financial move to make their music via streaming, then they don’t have to make it available via streaming.

An artist makes a conscious decision to make their music available via streaming. At the very least they make a conscious decision to sign a contract that gives other people the power to decide for them. It’s the artist’s responsibly to make sure what they get paid is enough.

It’s also worth noting that both Spotify and Rhapsody don’t market themselves as supplemental services. A few seconds browsing their respective site’s makes it clear that their goal is to replace the traditional methods of music consumption with streaming.

Based on what I’m seeing, streaming is the future of mass market music consumption. Let me qualify that, Spotify has over a million paying subscribers, Rhapsody has over 750,000 paying subscribers. People want this type of service and they are willing to pay for it. When Apple gets into the streaming game (I believe it will) it’ll be game over for mass market sales of physical media.

Mind you, there will always be a need for physical media, it’s nearly 2012 and people still buy LPs. There will always be the need, or desire, for a copy of a song or album. It would be difficult to use a streamed song in your home movie, for example. But the majority of music consumption will take place via streaming. The shift is already starting with movies and TV and it will happen to music too.

If an artist is too naive to understand that streaming companies are marketing themselves as a replacement for physical media and that consumers are going to use them as such… well that’s the artist’s problem.

Artists should be aware of the shift towards streaming. If the pricing scheme of streaming does not allow them to make enough to survive, then they either need to force a change in the scheme, or find new ways to support their work.

One thing is for sure, it’s not the consumer’s responsibility.

Image source: craigCloutier (Creative Commons)

Dear people of faith,

You really should stop invoking god to support your position.

You know what you do – you invoke an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect being and assert that he/she/it supports your position. Since this god is so beyond everyone else you can assert their authority as an irrefutable argument to support your position.

I know, invoking god is your golden ticket and I can understand the appeal…

That said, I think you should know (if you don’t already) that invoking god in support of your argument is nothing more than an – argument from authority. Arguments from authority are almost always fallacious; and yours is no exception.

If your going to invoke the authority of god, you might as well invoke the authority of unicorns while your at it.

See, the problem is that if you are going to use god to support your argument you’re first going to have to prove, empirically, that your god exists. And then you’re going to have to show why your god should be taken as an authority. Until you can do both you cannot use god as a legitimate point of argument.

Your religion or faith may inform your views, but it is not fact that you can bring to the table in support of your position.

Sistine Chapel image source – Wikipedia (public domain)

I first came across the metal binder idea from Instructables. I then came across the traffic sign binder via Make. Having a middle schooler who can’t seem to keep a binder intact for longer than a week the metal binder idea appealed to me.

The Build

At first I was going to use sheet metal but came across an old STOP sign at a construction recycling center. The rest of the materials consist of a piano (continuous) hinge, a donor binder, and some rivets.

I used a Avery 2 inch heavy-duty binder because I wanted the heavy-duty 3-ring.

I cut the plastic off the binder so I could use it a template.

If you were curious - there is a difference between the cardboard used in the "heavy-duty" binder (bottom) and a standard binder (top). The cardboard from the heavy duty binder is stiffer and more dense.

Because the heavy duty binder is over-sized (compared to a standard binder) the STOP sign was not quite big enough. The back of the binder is missing it's corners. I think this add to the mystique.

I used a jigsaw (with a fine metal cutting blade) to cut the sign and the hinge. If I do this again I'll make a jig to help make the cuts straighter. A file and Dremel were used to dull the edges and corners.

I used a punch tool to make sure the holes for the hinge stayed centered while drilling

I riveted the sign and hinge together.

The final product.

I attached the 3-ring with screws rather than rivits, so that it could be replaced more easily if need be.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned before – if I make another one I’ll use a jig so that the cuts with the jigsaw are straighter. Also, as can be seen in the picture above, I used washers to makeup for the hinge holes being too big for the 1/8″ rivets. I have some doubts about how robust this will be. For now I’m going to see how it works but I may need to either use something else besides washers or track down bigger rivets.

Back-Story

As many of you reading this already know I’ve been looking for a way to record phone calls on my iPhone for some time. I’ve come up with a couple of different ways to do it (iPhone Call Recorder and iPhone Call Recorder V2) but neither was elegant, convenient, practical, and both suffered from various other drawbacks.

Back when I published details of the first iPhone Call Recorder I was hoping that it would gain enough attention that someone would either point out an existing solution or be inspired and devise something better. Despite getting the attention of Gizmodo noting came along that peaked my interest. I continued to try to improve my iPhone Call recorder but failed to come up with anything viable.

A Better Way

Ultimately the best solution to recording calls on the iPhone is a native app, but that remains impossible due to limitations in the iPhone API that Apple is unlikely to change. It’s my understanding that Android suffers from the same limitation (that is: no API access to the mic input and speaker output during a call) so Android fans may want to pay attention because this solution works with any Bluetooth enabled phone.

A few months ago someone behind a new product called the Call Mynah posted a comment on my iPhone Call Recorder V2 post inviting me to take a look at what he said was the solution I’d been looking for.

I took a look at the site and got the gist of what the Call Mynah was and how it worked. On the surface it did look like the best solution I’d seen so I contacted the company behind the Call Mynah – Intelligent Recording Limited – and we worked out a deal so that I could get my hands on one to test and review. I’ve spent the last several months testing the Call Mynah and have found it to be an excellent solution that puts both my attempts to shame.

Price

The Call Mynah retails for $199.00 plus S&H. The price is a bit steep and I admit to suffering from sticker shock when I first saw it. I’d honestly feel better with price somewhere in the $50-$60 range but the device serves a niche which means the price is going to be high.

Comparatively, if I were to sell my iPhone Call Recorder the price would be around the same as the Call Mynah and it’s not nearly as elegant a solution as the Call Mynah.

Features/Specs

• Up to 340 hours of call storage (via 2GB of internal storage).

Intelligent Recording Limited says 340 hours enough for a year’s worth of calls. I’ve not tested this but I’ve also not run out of space. A recent firmware upgrade also lets you adjust the recording quality between low, med, and high which will give you 340 hours, 140 hours and 68 hours respectively.

• Connects to any mobile phone via Bluetooth.

I’ve tested the Call Mynah on a couple of different iPhone 4s and a couple of generic flip phones without issue.

• Automatically records all calls (manual recording options too).

The automatic recording requires that you make/answer the call via the Call Mynah. If you make the call from your phone then you need to manually record. Both recording options worked without issue for me.

• Saves all call details (date, time, number, duration, call type)

Works but if you want the contact’s name to show then you need to add them as a contact in the Call Mynah. This isn’t a huge deal and honestly is not something I’ve bothered to do since I can just get the contact name off the iPhone. It would be nice to see the Call Mynah pull the info from the iPhone (or whatever phone that it’s connected to).

• Add comments to calls and flag as ‘Important’

Lets you add pre-canned (you can add your own) comments to a recording.

• Upload calls to your PC for easy management (software supplied)

Here is my biggest gripe with the Call Mynah – calls recorded the device are saved in a proprietary file format (.xtr). Proprietary is bad. The only way to get them to any usable format (i.e. wav or mp3) is via the Intelligent Recording Limited desktop software (Windows/Mac). I’d rather see the calls recorded to the device as a wav or mp3 to begin with.

• 150 Hours standby, 8 hours talking before battery charge.

The battery on your phone will probably run out first in my experience.

• Call recording warn tone or prompt can be sent to callers (optional).

Some jurisdictions require that all parties are notified that the call is being recorded. You can set a voice notification, or beep. It’s a nice feature to have if you need it. It’s even nicer that you can turn it off.

• Handset, Speakerphone or Headset (supplied) operation

The handset operation (using it like a phone) works well but the earpiece quality could be better (I’m told this has been improved in the latest hardware revision). I have heard no complaints about my voice quality when using the Call Mynah in headset mode. The speakerphone operation is hindered by low volume and lackluster sound quality (I’m told this has been improved in the latest hardware revision). The supplied headset works well if you are ok with a single earbud. The headset jack is a standard 2.5 mm jack which I’ve found to be of standard wiring. I’ve used a couple of different headsets and a 2.5 to 3.5 splitter/adapter to plug-in a couple of different 3.5 headsets.

• Security features to prevent unauthorized listening to your calls

Just simple PIN based security that lets you lock out the keypad and/or USB access. Nothing fancy useful against casual lookiloos. I don’t necessarily consider this a negative as implementing hard security would be difficult in a low powered device such as the Call Mynah.

Overall Impressions

The Call Mynah showing the home screen. The background image is customizable.

When I first received the unit I was a bit worried because it was so light. Except for the battery I doubt it would weigh anything at all. First impression was that it felt cheap, and it still does. For $200 I’d expect that the device would feel less cheap. However, the device does what it is supposed to do – record calls – and it’s survived the past few months being in my pocket, and riding around in my EDC bag suffering only minor scratches. So while it feels cheap, it’s proving to be robust.

The interface is reminiscent of a cell phone from the 2000s. It’s a simple and relativity intuitive to use no frills (which is a good thing) interface that gets the job done. To manually record a call, even with the Call Mynah disconnected from the phone is relativity quick and easy (at least on the iPhone) and does not interrupt the call. At most you’d need to ask the caller to “hang on a second” so you can “connect your Bluetooth headset”.

The root menu of the Call Mynah.

You connect the Call Mynah to your computer via USB. It’s nice that Intelligent Recording Limited used a standard Mini-B USB port and not a proprietary port. When you want to connect the Call Mynah to your computer to pull recordings off it you have to first go to the main menu and select USB Mode. This makes your computer see the Call Mynah as a removable drive and you can use the included desktop software to listen to and export your recordings. Whether in USB mode or not the Call Mynah charges when plugged into your computer or via the included wall charger.

I have had some issues with my Call Mynah not being recognized by the computer when connected in USB mode. This is solved after unplugging and plugging it back in a few times. I’ve also noticed that the low powered ports (such as ports on the front of a computer) can cause issues with the Call Mynah being recognized so your best bet is to plug it into a port on the back of your computer if you have issues.

The USB issues are an annoyance but have not prevented me from using the device. I hope it’s resolved in a future firmware and/or hardware upgrade.

As of firmware v1.01.12 I’ve not had any issue connecting via USB. As with the earpiece and speaker phone, I’m told that the USB issue has been addressed in the latest hardware revision

The headset and USB connectors on the bottom of the Call Mynah.

Recording a call is dead simple. If the Call Mynah is already connected to your phone via Bluetooth then all you need to do is answer the call with the Call Mynah, use the Call Mynah as you would your regular headset and the call will be automatically recorded. From that point you can stop and start recording at any time via the record button on the side of the Call Mynah.

The record start/stop button is conveniently located on the right side for easy access during a call.

You can automatically record a call by answering or dialing via the Call Mynah.

If the Call Mynah isn’t connected then all you need to do is connect it like any other Bluetooth device and press the record button. Again, the worst you’d have to do (presuming you didn’t want the other party to know you are recording) is tell them to hang on a second and then connect the Call Mynah to your phone. I’m not sure it could be easier to use.

The volume controls are located on the other (left) side of the Call Mynah.

The speaker phone (located on the top) is unfortunately lackluster in this hardware version of the Call Mynah but I'm told it has been improved in the latest hardware revision.

I found that I could use a 2.5 to 3.5 splitter/adapter to plug in a mic/headphone set to use with the Call Mynah which I prefer over using the included earbud. The only complaint is the low volume, there are times when I’ve needed it to be a smidgen louder. I’m told that this issue issue being addressed in a hardware revision.

2.5 to 3.5 splitter/adapter (not included) plugged into the Call Mynah lets you to use various headphones and mic sets.

As noted before – the Call Mynah records calls in a proprietary format (which sucks), if you want to listen to your recorded calls you either have to listen to them on the Call Mynah or use the XtR Call Mynah Desktop Software (Windows/Mac). To be fair Intelligent Recording Limited uses the proprietary format to allow comments, the important flag and other data to be recorded with the call. The desktop software will allow you to listen to and export you recordings to wav file. Still, I’d prefer if the Call Mynah recorded natively as a wav or mp3 but at least you can export them to a non-proprietary format. Using a non-proprietary format would also make the Call Mynah easier to use by eliminating the need to learn and use another pice of software.

The Call Mynah Desktop Software is easy to use but it's another step. Personally I would prefer to be able to just copy a wav or mp3 directly from the device.

With the desktop software you can also set and control various settings on the Call Mynah.

Sample

Here is a sample recording from my the Call Mynah – it’s me calling the local Batteries Plus to check on a replacement battery for a UPS. The sample was recorded prior to the recent firmware update allowing for quality selection so it was recorded in the low (340 hours) setting. It is unedited and exported directly from the Call Mynah desktop software.

Call Mynah Test

Pros/Cons and Final Thoughts

Pros

• Compact and light – easy to take on the go.
• Can be used on any Bluetooth capable phone.
• Proving to be robust – has survived floating around in my bag and pocket.
• Easy to use in terms of recording calls.
• Long battery life.
• Recording quality even on the low setting is more than adequate for phone calls.
• Does not force you to have a notification that the call is being recorded.
• No wires.

Cons

• Proprietary file format sucks – in my opinion it adds unnecessary complexity and forces the use of more software but it is being used for a reason (notes, flags, etc.).
• Lackluster earpiece and speaker performance – improved in the latest hardware revision but I have to base this on the hardware version I’ve tested with.
• The recording levels can peek, distorting the recording if you or the person you are talking to get loud. It would be nice to see a way to check the recording levels and a way to adjust them. I’m probably asking too much from such a simple device so this isn’t really playing into the final score.
• Feels a bit cheep – This hasn’t been a problem (see pros) but I prefer my devices to have a bit of weight to them. A $200 device should feel like a $200 device.
• I don’t care for the buttons – I’d prefer a more tactile raised buttons over the flat ones. I think the buttons contribute to the cheep feel.
• Sealed battery – always prefer removable batteries.

Overall I like the Call Mynah and would say it’s probably the best wire-free way to record calls on your iPhone (or other BT capable phone) and would recommend it. As noted there is room for improvement but the device functions as advertised. I’ve used the Call Mynah since January and it has not failed to record a call that I’ve used it on. Intelligent Recording Limited also seems to be dedicated to the device – they’ve promised improved hardware and have pushed out several (free) firmware/software updates since I received my device.

The Rating

With all the pros and cons in mind I give the Call Mynah 8 out of 10 the two points are lost primarily from the lackluster earpiece and speaker performance. Again, I’m told this has been improved in the latest hardware revision but I have to base the score off what I’ve tested.

Call Mynah $199.00 via callmynah.com – Desktop software included/free. Future software and firmware updates are free as well.

Full Disclosure

Here is the deal that Intelligent Recording Limited and I worked out – I paid less than retail for my Call Mynah. Beyond that I’m getting a credit when the link to the Call Mynah site on this post are clicked, up to the point that I get the price I paid for the unit back. That’s the deal as it stands now. There is was no requirement that my review be favorable towards the Call Mynah and the folks at Intelligent Recording Limited were made aware that if I thought it sucked I’d say so.

For the sake of clarity and brevity I will use TOS to refer to both Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

After I wrote my post on the EFF’s “Open Wireless Movement” essay I realized that in addition to trivializing the need for wireless security the EFF also failed to point out that sharing your home Internet connection is likely a violation of your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) Terms of Service (TOS). Violating your ISP’s TOS could get your Internet service suspended or terminated.

For example, Comcast’s residential TOS reads [emphasis mine]:

All Comcast High-Speed Internet customers and all others who use the Service (the “customer,” “user,” “you,” or “your”) must comply with this Policy. Your failure to comply with this Policy could result in the suspension or termination of your Service account. If you do not agree to comply with this Policy, you must immediately stop all use of the Service and notify Comcast so that it can close your account.

From the Prohibited Uses and Activities section [emphasis mine]:

resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly. The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business enterprise or purpose (whether or not for profit);

Verizon’s residential TOS reads [emphasis mine]:

Termination and/or Suspension by Verizon. Verizon reserves the right to change, limit, terminate, modify or temporarily or permanently cease providing the Service or any part of it with or without prior notice if we elect to change the Service or a part thereof or if you violate the terms of this Agreement.

Restrictions on Use. The Service is a consumer grade service and is not designed for or intended to be used for any commercial purpose. You may not resell, re-provision or rent the Service, (either for a fee or without charge) or allow third parties to use the Service via wired, wireless or other means. For example, you may not provide Internet access to third parties through a wired or wireless connection or use the Service to facilitate public Internet access (such as through a Wi-Fi hotspot)…

Any, if not all, residential grade ISPs will likely have similar prohibitions against sharing your Internet connection with those outside of your home. Business services most likely don’t have these restrictions, for example Comcast’s TOS for business reads [emphasis mine]:

make the Service available to anyone other than your business or your business’ authorized employees, contractors, or users (i.e. members of the public, customers of an establishment, hotel or motel guests and patrons, or persons in a residence hall or apartment building) unless done with Comcast’s written approval in accordance with an applicable Business Services Agreement;

resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Service Location(s) the ability to use the Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, unless expressly permitted by the applicable Business Services Agreement;

Comcast business customers can share their connection so long as they share it with people within their service location (at least that’s the way I read it). I could not find any language in Verizon’s business TOS that deals with sharing your business Internet connection with a third-party. Since it’s pretty much expected that a business will have Internet access for their customers I’d imagine that most business class Internet service does not prohibit sharing the connection.

The residential sharing restrictions are mostly likely there to prevent neighbors (or neighborhoods) from sharing a single connection and splitting the cost of it, or one customer renting their connection to their neighbor(s) at a lower cost than what the ISP would charge (this happens). Unless the ISP could prove that this is what was being done, I don’t think that it’s very likely that Comcast, Verizon, or any other ISP would terminate a residential customer for simply having an open WiFi connection. It would be a dick move that could lead to bad publicity, especially since most people have no idea how or why they should be securing their WiFi. I have not heard of anyone being terminated for sharing their connection (inadvertently or otherwise) and I’m not aware that it’s something that ISPs are actively monitoring.

I suppose there is the possibility that if the EFF’s Open Wireless Movement has any degree of success it could wake a sleeping dragon and ISPs could start cracking down on Internet connection sharing (bad publicity or not) by suspending or terminating customers. Lest we forget that ISPs are greedy bastards – AT&T recently imposed bandwidth caps on their DSL customers. If we live in a world where ISPs think bandwidth caps are ok, it may not be completely insane to imagine that they might start driving around neighborhoods cutting off any customer that has an open WiFi connection; at least those who appear to be doing it intentionally.

I don’t agree with the idea that I can’t do what I want, how I want to, with a service I pay for. As I pointed out in my post Steal This Wi-Fi (the safe way) I have an open WiFi network at home so obviously I’ve never paid much attention to the TOS of my ISP. Again, I don’t think (at this time anyway) that there is any reason to think that ISPs are going to start enforcing their sharing prohibitions. Then again, if sharing you Internet starts becoming the fashionable thing to do ISPs may start to take notice. After all, every person who uses someone else’s connection for free is a customer that’s not paying them for the privilege.

The real issue though is that the EFF published their Open Wireless Movement essay without mentioning that their recommended action (sharing your Internet connection) is likely a violation of your ISP’s TOS and could get your service terminated. If anyone should know this it’s the EFF but their essay makes no mention of it. Shame on them.

Also see my related post EFF’s “Open Wireless Movement” Could Get You Terminated

I discussed the issue of leaving your WiFi network open back in 2008 after reading an article in Wired were Bruce Schneier mused that an open WiFi network (that is, one without encryption) is nothing to worry about and went as far as to recommended that everyone open their WiFi up to the world.

It was a bad idea then and it still is but that does not stop the normally privacy and security conscious EFF from going against their own advice and publishing an essay that trivialities the effectiveness of WPA and implies that everyone should disable WPA (because it’s not doing you any good anyway) and open up their WiFi for the greater good.

WPA is Secure

From the EFF essay [emphasis mine]:

The problem that’s really killing open WiFi is the idea that an unlocked network is a security and privacy risk.

This idea is only partially true. Computer security experts will argue at great length about whether WEP, WPA and WPA2 actually provide security, or just a false sense of security. Both sides are partially correct: none of these protocols will make anyone safe from hacking or malware (WEP is of course trivial to break, and WPA2 is often easy to break in practice), but it’s also true that even a broken cryptosystem increases the effort that someone nearby has to go to in order to eavesdrop, and may therefore sometimes prevent eavesdropping.

This essay explains why the progressive locking of wireless networks is harmful — for convenience, for privacy and for efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The essay never explains how securing WiFi is harmful to privacy. I really wish it had because that would have been a huge revelation to me. That statement alone is almost enough to call for a ceasing of donations to the EFF until they get their head on straight and print a retraction.

I have never heard any security expert debate whether WPA and WPA2 “actually provide[s] security” even in his 2008 article Schneier admits that WPA is “very good.” I’ve also never heard any debate about whether you should enable WPA, the answer (from those who know better) is always an unequivocal yes. To date WPA has not been cracked and the only effective means of breaking into a WPA protected WiFi network is if the password (i.e. pre-shared key) is a dictionary word and/or is too short.

From Aircrack-ng (folks who make software to crack WEP and WPA networks) [emphasis mine]:

The only time you can crack the pre-shared key is if it is a dictionary word or relatively short in length. Conversely, if you want to have an unbreakable WiFi network at home, use WPA/WPA2 and a 63 character password composed of random characters including special symbols.

And that’s for home networks, corporate networks are likely using WPA with a RADIUS Server that dynamically generates and assigns keys to clients, which adds another layer of security because it eliminates the use of a static key. In Episode 13 of his show Security Now! Steve Gibson said this about WPA:

even the weakest form of WPA encryption, if it’s done properly, is absolutely uncrackable as long as no one gets your key.

The only know weakness in WPA is when weak passwords are used. For WPA to be effective you need to use a long, random password. Most people do not know this (or don’t care) and use words or phrases that can be found in a dictionary which can be easily (and quickly) brute-forced. For the record, a proper WPA password should look like this:

)4y2uqiCpiB`KBeo,=(y3k|{wwTr_GatybbQysxj<8

That’s 63 random printable ASCII characters (generated using GRC’s Perfect Passwords) and for all intents and purposes would make for an uncrackable WPA password. The only known way to crack a WPA password that is not in the dictionary is to brute-force it. If the password is of a significant length and randomness a brute-force attack it grossly ineffective because it would take too long.

How long? Well, according to the Last Bit Password Calculator a 20 character password (the longest you can test) that has upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation would take 1,000 computers, trying 1,000,000 (million) passwords a second: 779,503,646,902,420,500,000 (seven hundred seventy-nine quintillion, five hundred three quadrillion, six hundred forty-six trillion, nine hundred two billion, four hundred twenty million, five hundred thousand) years to crack. Of course, that’s assuming, again, that the password is random and does not contain word(s) that can be found in the dictionary. The WPA cracking service that the EFF essay linked to uses a cluster of only 400 computers.

That said, most people do not choose sufficiently long and random WPA passwords. So the EFF is partially correct that “WPA2 is often easy to break in practice” but that does not mean that you give up on security and privacy and imply that everyone just turn it off because it’s not doing them any good anyway. In reality, even poorly implemented WPA protects you against casual intrusion, even WEP (which is woefully broken and insecure) is better than nothing. It is possible that WPA could have an undiscovered weakness that could render it as insecure as WEP or worse but none has been discovered (and it’s not for lack of trying) so WPA remains secure.

I Agree

I agree with the premise of the EFF essay that having open WiFi networks serves the greater good and I agree with the idea that protocols need to be developed that allow people to easily secure their network while allowing them to share their connection if they so choose. But to suggest that people blindly open their networks in the interim is irresponsible and goes against the EFF’s own creed to “educate the press and public”. Today more than ever security is of primary concern for the average (i.e. non-technical) user. Network storage devices are becoming increasingly popular in the home and people are storing vast amounts of personal information and sharing it on their home network. Having an open WiFi network allows even the most causal intruder to gain access to those files. Not to mention people who have home business, or work out of their home, and have not just their personal and business files but client files assessable via their network. And that’s just getting access to file shares, never mind that open WiFi makes tools like Firesheep and other sniffing tools that much easier to use.

I also agree with the EFF that “none of these protocols will make anyone safe from hacking or malware.” That’s true, no matter how secure WPA is if you venture out on the Internet your computer is at risk. Arguably, putting your computer on the Internet is a greater risk than having it connected to an open WiFi connection. But the insecurity of open WiFi is still a real concern for a number of reasons and just because one threat poses a greater risk does not mean that you ignore all the others. Would the EFF suggest that we not use antivirus software because it unnecessarily takes CPU cycles, causing our computers to use more power and thus contributes to global warming?

Ethically Irresponsible

The EFF should have written an essay on why open WiFi contributes to the greater good and educated people on how they can give to that greater good while maintaining their security and privacy. They should have written an essay on why and how to properly implement WPA encryption. To write what they did, to trivilize WPA and suggest that its use is harmful for security and privacy is ethically irresponsible. The EFF should know better than to trivialize the security of WPA and the need for secure WiFi.

The EFF’s essay is a slap in the face for those who have supported their mission to advance privacy and security. It may well undo a lot of work by those of us who have worked hard to educate users on why they should suffer the minor and temporary inconvenience of implementing WiFi security.

Let me make it clear, I agree with the basic premise of the EFF’s essay: that open WiFi serves the greater good. I think it is great that the EFF is getting behind the effort to push for open WiFi standards and protocols. I do not agree with and feel it is ethically irresponsible to trivialize the need for WiFi security and to dismiss what is an effective way to secure a WiFi networks. I have no doubt that because of this essay a rash of people, with the best of intentions, will turn off WPA and blindly open their WiFi networks.

There will also be people who will use the essay as ammo against experts (people like myself) to challenge the assertion that securing WiFi is necessary. After all, if the EFF says the security protocols are infective and leaving my WiFi open serves the greater good, then why should I not? This places experts in the awkward place of having to decry the EFF’s position on WiFi security. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt at odds with the EFF, I’ve always been in step with their views and efforts but this essay is beyond the pale and the EFF should be ashamed.

We have a nice big freezer in our laundry room that we use to store overflow and other “deep freeze” items that we don’t (or can’t) keep in our kitchen freezer. The door on the freezer needs a good shove to get it to close fully and due to the sometimes absent-minded adults and kids in our house it has been left ajar more than once. In one case we had a near complete defrost of the freezer and the loss of quite a bit of food.

After Sandi found the freezer ajar again a few weeks ago I decided that I needed to rig something up to alert us when the freezer door was left open. After some searching I found a simple timer circuit based around the famous 555 IC. I used the timer circuit in conjunction with a Normally Closed reed switch to make an alarm for the freezer.

Video

In the video I completely mixed up the whole open vs. closed switch and referred to the reed switch as a Normally Open, it’s actually a Normally Closed reed switch as explained below. Also, I said that the buzzer was rated at 80dB, it’s actually rated at 100dB.

Schematic

Even when a schematic is available I like to draw my own. I find that it helps me understand the workings of the circuit better.

The circuit is simple, once power is applied (switch turned on) the green LED lights to indicate that the timer is counting down, once the limit is reached the green LED goes off, the red LED turns on, and the buzzer sounds. The duration is adjustable via the 100M potentiometer (variable resistor) between 1-10 minutes, it’s not precise but it works for what I need it for. With the potentiometer all the way down (no resistance) I got a countdown of ~27 seconds, which is about as long as I’d like the freezer door to be open. Perfect.

On Reed Switches

Reed switch contacts (click to make bigger). Image via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reed_switch_(aka).jpg

Reed switches are really cool. In a Normally Open reed switch two contacts are aligned very close together in a glass vial, so close that when a magnet is placed near the reed switch, the contacts touch, completing the circuit and allowing current to flow. However, I needed the reverse, I needed a reed switch that completed the circuit (i.e. turned it on, let current flow) when the magnet was taken away from the reed switch. This can be done any number of ways but the simplest is to use just use a Normally Closed reed switch.

The whole Normally Open, Normally Closed thing can be a bit confusing. In the case of reed switches they are in their normal state when a magnet is too far away to have an effect on them. So a Normally Open reed switch does NOT complete a circuit when the magnet is removed, where as a Normally Closed reed switch DOES complete a circuit when the magnet is removed.

In any case I used a Normally Closed reed switch as I needed the circuit to be completed (the timer to be turned on) when the magnet was removed (i.e. the freezer door was left open).

The Build

Breadboarding (i.e. testing) the circuit.

The buzzer I used can run off 3-12VDC and is rated at 100dB at 12VDC, I’m not sure what the dB level is at 9VDC but it’s plenty loud enough to be heard even on the other side of the house.

I cut a piece of perfboard to fit in a mint tin and marked out where the buzzer and battery would go.

The perfboard where the battery sits was later removed because it made the battery sit to high, preventing the tin lid from closing completely.

A hole was cut in the tin to accommodate the buzzer.

The assembled alarm on perf board. I had to cut the knob on the potentiometer so that it would clear the tin lid.

Perfboard where the battery sits was removed to allow the tin lid to close fully. Ignore the extra holes in the tin...

The reed switch wires coming out of the tin.

I was not allowed to put holes in the freezer so I used double-sided tape to mount the reed switch and magnet in place. I used a hard drive mounting rail to extend the magnet so it was close enough to the reed switch.

I used a magnet from an old hard drive (which are super strong neodymium magnets) to mount the tin to the freezer.

The alarm mounted to the freezer.

The alarm works great, the reed switch is sensitive enough (the magnet needs to be within ~4mm to open the reed switch and turn off the alarm) that the door has to be purposefully closed in order for the alarm not to sound. The buzzer is loud enough that we can here it from any room in the house and when the freezer door is closed (which is most of the time) the circuit does not draw any power, so the battery should last a good long while.

Parts List

I have a file server (AKA – Enterprise) that I have been using for the past 4 years or so. It’s a modest and simple setup, consisting of four 80GB IDE drives in a RAID 5 array. After the overhead (capacity of one disk) of the RAID array, and file system (NTFS) is taken into account it gives me a modest 223GB of storage space; 70GB of which is currently in use.

The RAID array on Enterprise serves as my primary “archival” storage, I put data there that I want or need to keep but that I’m not necessarily working on at at the moment. Enterprise also has a couple of other non-RAID drives that I use to store non-critical data.

RAID?

For an in-depth discussion of RAID you can check out the Wikipedia page. Simply, RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. In a RAID 5 array the capacity of each disk is combined (minus the capacity of a one drive) to form one large disk. Parity is spread across the array (which is why you lose the capacity of one disk) and serves as the mechanism for redundancy. What this means is that any one of the four drives can fail and all I need to do is replace the defective drive; I don’t lose any data. In theory and in practice this is a great setup. In fact last year a drive in the array failed and fixing it was as simple as swapping the dead drive out with a new one.

Not a Backup

The Redundant in RAID may lead one to think that RAID is all one needs to keep their data safe. However, as recent events reminded me RAID is not perfect, it can fail, and it can take every bit of data with it. With RAID 5 I’m hedging my bets that only one drive will fail at any given time. It’s a pretty good bet. However, it is possible that a double, triple, or quadruple drive failure could occur. It’s unlikely but possible. More of a concern is a RAID controller fault. The RAID controller is the hardware (or software) that does all the work to keep the RAID array functional, if it has a bad day it can destroy the array taking the data with it. Even more of a concern then multiple drive failure, or controller failure is fire, flood, theft, or act of stupidity.

All that to say that, as good as it sounds, RAID is not an end all be all backup solution. It’s great for high availability and mass storage but a backup it is not. Your data is not safe unless it exists in at least two geographically diverse locations.

The Example

A few days ago I was accessing some files on Enterprise via my VPN connection. All was going well until I went to open a text file with some sever configuration notes. When I tried to open the file my system kept spitting out a message saying that it could not find the file. I connected to Enterpirse via Remote Desktop to see if I could figure out what was wrong but my connection was dropped almost as soon as I connected. Something odd was going on but I’d have to wait till I got home to figure out what it was.

I got home and plugged a monitor into Enterprise (it normally runs headless) and found a pretty BSOD greeting me. Lovely. I rebooted the system and during post the RAID controller was showing that three of the four drives were “disconnected or missing.” Frak. I pressed Esc to let the system continue to boot into Windows. Things didn’t get any better, the RAID management software was not showing the three drives either and was giving a warning that the array was “degraded.” No kidding.

After digging through the event log, and testing each of the four drives I determined that it was drive 4 that failed. But, even swapping out the failed drive with a fresh one didn’t bring the array back. No, despite my best efforts whatever had happened to drive 4 had a cascade effect on drives 2 and 3. I feared that the RAID controller had gone on a murder suicide spree, killing drives 2, 3, and 4 before taking it’s own life. But after replacing drive 4 (which tested as bad), and building a new array, several hours of testing didn’t reveal any issues with the RAID controller.

The standing explanation is that drive 4 suffered a catastrophic failure, setting off a chain reaction that corrupted the parity data on drives 2, and 3. Since drives 2 and 3 lost their portion of the parity the controller no longer recognized them as part of the defined array and marked them as “missing or disconnected.”

The Lesson: Pack a backup chute

RAID is not a backup. The redundancy that RAID provides is like the primary parachute a skydiver uses – when it works it’s great, but if it fails you’d better damn well have a backup chute packed. As I said above: Your data is not safe unless it exists in at least two geographically diverse locations.

My backup chute is Backblaze – once I realized that I was not going to be able to recover the array I logged into Backblaze and initiated a restore of the of data (all 70GB of it). I opted to download the data so it took a couple of hours for the Backblaze to prepare the backup and several hours for it to download.

Once the backup was finished downloading, and my data was back where it belonged, I realized that while I may not use it everyday (in fact I hardly think about it) I’m really, really, glad that I have Backblaze as my backup chute… and it only costs me $5 a month.

Thanks Backblaze

Full disclosure: The link to Backblaze is an affiliate link.

In the past couple of weeks I have watched red light cameras go up in two intersections that I pass through on my way to and from work. It struck me that as law enforcement agencies and governments become more and more reliant on technology, the right of the people to use similar technology is increasingly being attacked.

This isn’t a gripe over red light cameras. No, it’s just me pointing out that since I can remember law enforcement agencies have been using audio and video recordings to protect themselves but arrest people on bogus charges for doing the same. It’s a gripe that as the government is constantly hiding its actions behind a veil of secrecy it seeks a backdoor into the private communications of the people.

Law enforcement agencies and the government do not care for the democratization of photography and video recording technology. They hate that just about every cellphone sold today has the ability to record audio and video. Why do they hate it? Because they can’t control it, they can’t delete the footage captured, they can’t make it go “missing”. They hate it because their veil of secrecy has formed a hole and they must now be held accountable for their actions.

So what do law enforcement agencies and the government do about this? Do they hold themselves accountable? Do they operate within the scope of their authority, and the law? No, that would be too difficult. It’s far easier just to make everyone with a camera a terrorist.

W3 Total Cache (W3TC) is a great caching plugin. Using it on my modest server (512MB VM from Rackspace) I’ve seen both a dramatic decreased in page load times as well as reduced server load. However, it can be a chore to get it working correctly, I’ve had issues with the Rackspace CDN integration. Fortunately their support is top-notch and the developer listens to you when you submit a bug.

I like to play with the inter-workings of awaitinginspiration.com, which sometimes means that I break things and then have to fix them. I was messing around with the permalinks on the site a few days ago and didn’t notice that as a result I broke several posts, including my original iPhone Call Recorder post (the single most popular post on the site). The issue seemed to be somewhat sporadic, sometimes a problematic post would show correctly, and sometimes you’d get a message saying that the post could not be found. I was not sure what was going on. Eventually, like just about an hour ago, it occurred to my that the issue may stem from my permalink hi-jinks the other day and the W3 Total Cache plugin. Sure enough, it as a simple as clearing all the W3TC caches. Once the caches were cleared posts came up without an issue. So, the takeaway – if you use a caching plugin/system and make changes to your site; clear your cache.

via: atheistcartoons.com

Posted below are a couple of videos of me testing a photo detector circuit that I’m making for a project. The circuit is based of the design by Rob Paisley.

FYI – The two videos were shot using my iPhone 4 – the first one is available in HD on Vimeo.

Is there a legitimate reason why label makers leave such a huge margin between the text and the ends of the label; no matter how much text is printed? I’ve seen this on every label maker I’ve used. The one used to make the labels pictured is a Brother PT-1000. You can configure the PT-1000 to use a smaller margin but it still prints the same 1″ tail on either one side of the label. The only thing setting a smaller margin (either 1/2″ or 1/6″) does is print dots as a guide to cut the excess label off.

Seems like an awful waste and a good way to keep label refill sales going strong.

Update: July 27, 2010 – I added an image showing how a label comes out of the PT-1000 with the smallest (1/6″) margin set and corrected an error in the above text.

From: Jim
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Adam
Subject: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

Since, when dug up, it may well die I’m not willing to pay anything. However, if you have no takers and simply want it gone I’d be willing to do the work and remove it on Saturday.

From: Adam
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Jim
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

It’s so nice of you to offer to take something for free that we are *selling* for a not quite insignificant amount of cash money. Give yourself a pat on the back! While your waiting to to see if we have any “takers” might I suggest that you browse the freeloader section of Craigslist.

thankyouverymuch,

Adam

From: Jim
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Adam
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

Not a problem … actually ‘Buy’ a lot of things from craigslist and also sell and give away a lot … truly thought I might be doing you a favor.

Sorry you took offense … it was not meant that way.

I hope you have a blessed day anyway.

From: Adam
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Jim
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

No, offense taken.

But…

If I wanted to give my plant away for free I’d probably of posted it in the free section. In your first reply you tell me point-blank “I’m not willing to pay anything…” It strikes me as a bit audacious because clearly my intention is to sell my plant, not give it away.

Would you walk into a super market and tell the checker “I’m not willing to pay anything for this loaf of bread… but I will save you the trouble of having it in your store by taking it home with me.”?

Maybe it was your choice of words that rubbed me wrong: “I’m not willing to pay anything…” gives me the impression that you feel entitled to get my plant for free. There are a number of people I would gladly give my plant to for free. Since I don’t know you, I think it’s safe to assume that you are not one of those people.

In any case, I am *practically* giving my plant away for free. Considering the asking price for one of comparable size on Craigslist is $3000 (and the buyer has to dig it out). Do you have any idea how many Jelly Belly Beans I could buy with $3000? Nether did I, so I looked it up on Amazon. I could get 440lbs of Jelly Belly Beans with $3000, I’d even get free shipping. Could you imagine 440lbs of Jelly Belly Beans? Gosh, if only life were that good.

There is one thing that does offend me though. In your last reply you used the font Comic Sans. Comic Sans offends me. You’re writing an e-mail, not a comic. I don’t think your 5 either. Maybe it’s time to pick a font that’s more appropriate for the medium and your age.

Peace,

Adam

From: Jim
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Adam
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

You are entitled to your opinion … and I do pray the rest of your day is blessed and you are not bothered again by people like me

Image Credit: YXG via Flicker

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, 49 Assorted Flavors, 10-Pound Box (Amazon.com)

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans 3 pounds Canister (Amazon.com)

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, 49 Flavors, 2-Pound Stand-Up Pouch (Amazon.com)

There is an eruption brewing regarding GPL licensing issues with the Thesis theme I have been using here for some time. Until it’s cleared up I have switched to the WordPress 3.0 default theme and may switch to something else entirely. As for my position on the matter – I don’t have one as of yet.

The United States is not a Christian Nation and to suggest that it is perverts what the Founding Fathers worked so hard to create. You are free to practice any religion and have as many days of prayer as you want but religion has no place in government. The president has no place endorsing, or publicly participating in, a National Day of Prayer for any religion.

New FFRF Bus Sign Campaign “America is NOT a Christian Nation”

FFRF celebrates National Day of Prayer victory

Most of your so called “psychics” use a technique called cold reading to dupe people into believing they can talk to the dead or see your future. Most of our exposure to these “psychics” is via the media where segments are edited down to portray the “psychic” in the best possible light. So what does an unedited cold reading look like?

It’s pretty comical actually:

I almost feel some sympathy for James Van Praagh – his “readings” don’t seem to be going very well and he’s visibly distressed about it.

I said almost because James Van Praagh and others like him (yes I’m pointing at you Sylvia Brown and John Edward) dupe millions of often grieve-stricken, hurting people into believing their complete and utter bull-shit for one single reason: profit. It’s despicable.

Companies like Monster Cable were walking a fine line with their high priced analog cables because most people can’t tell the difference between gold plated, gas injected cable and coat hanger. But when the switch to digital started Monster was quick to cross way, way over that line by duping people into thinking they needed an overpriced cable to connect their HD devices. The problems is, HDMI is a digital signal and unlike analog signals (like composite video), it’s either there or it’s not. So, whether you have a $250 cable or a $6 cable your TV is going to look the same.

This is something that geeks have known all along but Monster, along with retailers like Best Buy, prey on the ignorance of consumers convincing them that they need grotesquely overhyped and overpriced cables.

You do not need a $250 HDMI cable, you don’t need a $50 HDMI cable: check out firefold.com or monoprice.com. I’ve personally bought from both and my TV has not blown up from the use of $6 cables.

And if your friends start harassing you for not buying into Monster’s bullshit show them this info graphic [via MintLife Blog]:

DANGER: This project deals with mains voltages which, among other things, can KILL you DEAD. If you choose to replicate any portion of this project I am in no way responsible for any adverse conditions that may result.

So, I have this vapor tight light fixture that I’ve wanted to make blink on and off, like a radio or cell phone tower signal light but was having a hard time coming up with a practical way to do it.

The main problem is that the light fixture runs off of 120 volts and I was not finding a practical cheep a way to control a mains voltage light. Sure I could use a DMX controller but that’s expensive and overkill. I found light socket flasher buttons (insert the “button” between the bulb and the socket and heat change makes the light blink) but those are old school, hard to find, wear out over time, and the flash rate is not customizable.

Of course I thought about using a microcontroller like my Arduino to control the light, but interfacing mains voltage devices with low voltage micro-controllers seems to be something a lot of people steer away from (the Arduino forums seem to be particularly against it). So, I was having difficulty finding circuit designs that would put me on the right path.

I finally came across this blog post which had a low voltage switching mains circuit; exactly what I was looking for.

Switching 120 Volts with 5 Volts (or less)

The circuit is really nice, it allows you switch mains voltage devices while keeping whatever low voltage trigger (e.g. a microcontroller) you’re using completely isolated from the mains voltage. I only made one change to the circuit by adding a 2200 uF capacitor on the low voltage side to help with flash timing:

The circuit was perfect, I only added a 2200 uF cap on the low voltage side.

The key component in this circuit is the MOC3020M, an opto-isolator/triac. What happens is when light from an internal LED (pins 1 and 2) comes on the emitted light causes a change the resistance between the internal triac (pins 6 and 4) allowing it to conduct. The internal triac on the MOC3020M is used to trigger a second (external) triac, in this case a 2N6073A, which is used to switch the mains voltage device.

By using an opto-isolator you break the physical (i.e. electrical) connection between what’s on the side of pins 1 and 2 (your low voltage trigger) and what’s on the side of pins 6 and 4 (high voltage device). The 2N6073A triac is used simply because it can handle larger loads (up to 4 amps if a proper heat sink is used) than the MOC3020M can handle on its own. I used a 2 amp breaker to keep the 2N6073A well away from its 4 amp limit for a couple of reasons: one, I don’t plan on using a 480+ watt bulb in the light (currently using a 25 watt) and two, I could not fit a proper heat sink on it.

With this circuit you can switch and mains voltage device with as little a 1.5 volts.

Making it Blink

I had originally intended to use my Arduino to control the blinking of the light, and though it works great and offers a lot of control options (variable blink speed, etc.) I decided to go a different route and use a simple LED blinking circuit because I just wanted the light to blink on and off and the Arduino (or other microcontroller) solution felt like overkill.

I decided to use a simple transistor based LED blinking circuit because I already had the parts for it, and it was relatively simple to modify the flashing speed to get what I wanted:

Notice that I used 1Mohm resistors instead of the 100k used in the original circuit. The two 1Mhom resistors along with the capacitors control the blinking speed. Lower resistor and capacitor values means a faster blinking rate. If you wanted to be slick you could probably use potentiometers in place of resistors to make the blink rate adjustable on the fly.

The circuit is designed to flash two LEDs back and fourth and is admittedly superfluous; a single LED flasher would have worked just fine. I decided though that I wanted to use the second LED as an indicator on the enclosure of the flasher circuit.

Instead of connecting an LED on the right side I connect the mains switch. The combination of resistors and capacitors that I used on the flasher circuit gave me a blink rate of nearly 20 flashes per minute from the vapor light. In case your wondering, 20 flashes per minute seems to be the slowest flash rate that the FAA permits^{(pdf – page 43)}.

Notes

• The flash rate is controlled by the two 1Mohm resistors and the capacitors on the flasher circuit. I had to experiment with various configurations of resistors and capacitors to get the flash rate I wanted. Using the two 1Mohm resistors gives you about 1.6 volts to the LEDs which is not enough to make an LED light up very bright but is enough to trigger the mains switch.
• The 2200uF capacitor used on the mains switch is not necessary but in this case is used to help get the flash rate of the light where I wanted it.

In Action

Build Pictures

Here is the mains switch laid out on a breadboard for testing. I tested that the circuit worked several times before connecting mains voltage to it.

The flasher circuit laid out on the bread board. The tape on the left transistor is there to identify it as bad (I fried it during testing).

The mains switch in its final form.

The flasher circuit in its final form.

I hadn't really worked out enclosures for everything before starting the project. I finally decided that there was enough room to put the mains switch inside the vapor light's junction box and run a cable out to control it.

I cut a piece of acrylic for the mains switch to sit on when mounted in the junction box.

Belive it or not I managed to get everything to fit in the junction box, even the breaker. The red CAT5 cable (with the two orange wires) will connect to the flasher circuit.

The breaker is as much for safety as it is to protect the 2N6073A from being overworked since it does not have a heat sink. Since the junction box walls were a little too thick for the retaining clips on the breaker, I used a little hot-glue to help keep it in place.

Tip – I used a stepper bit/Unibit to drill the hole for the breaker. Stepper bit/Unibits are great for drilling holes like this, if you don’t have a set, seriously get yourself one. You will not regret it.

After stuffing everything in the junction box I tested it with the flasher circuit.

I used a CAT5 cable from the light to the flasher box so I could plug it in with an RJ45 plug. This way I can easily change what controls the light if I want. I used a barrel adapter for power so I'd have the option to use a wall wart; here it's powered by a 9v battery pack.

Mains Switch Parts List

Flash Circuit Parts List

I’m a bit uneasy about labels… at least when it comes to applying them to people. Labels can cause us to think too narrowly of people. We slap labels on people and it’s assumed that they will always fall strictly within that label and we don’t like it when they diverge from their labeling.

I have been labeled an introvert all my life and for the longest time I hated it. The label itself isn’t bad; it’s simply describing a personality type. The problem is that the label ‘introvert’ comes with all kinds of negative connotations.

It can be confusing because under the right circumstances, I can be the exact opposite of an introvert. Few people have seen the extrovert side of me and those that have are surprised by it. It’s difficult when you’re labeled an introvert and you’re in a situation where you feel like you might want to be a little extroverted because nobody likes it when someone acts outside of their labeling. I’ve been labeled an introvert so I better damn well act like an introvert.

So here I am, expected to act within my label but also being told all the bad things my label means. It’s really frakked up when your labeled, told you label is bad, but when you try remove it you kicked in the balls for trying.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started to allow myself to be proud of being labeled an introvert; to be proud of who I am. There was a realization that I was bowing to the negative connotations of the label introvert; uselessly expelling energy to try to fix something that wasn’t broken. There was also a realization that it’s ok to act outside of my labeling if I was in a situation where I was comfortable with that.

Good or bad we label people, it’s how we define them and define our expectations of them. But you have to be careful with labels because they can cause us to define people too narrowly, to define ourselves too narrowly. Labels can poison our perception of people and ourselves.

This is another time-lapse video of my drive to work. This time the camera is positioned in the back seat, centered with the windshield, so you can see out the whole windshield. I placed my iPhone on the dash and ran the stop watch so you can get an idea about how long the trip takes.

The interval between shots on this video was 3 seconds (every 3 seconds a picture was taken) and the pictures are played back at 24 frames per seconds (standard film rate) but the video was slowed down just a smidgen to get it to end where I wanted it to with the song.

I’ve been playing around with some time-lapse video and decided to mount the camera in the passenger seat of my car to record my drive to work:

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to Windows 7 and I have to say that compared to Vista it’s actually a usable operating system and I’m quite enjoying it.

However, there was one issue that was bugging me – I have several remote desktop sessions for various servers set and saved to open in a 1024×768 window, in Windows XP those RDP sessions worked great.

Windows 7 seems to have a bug where, no matter what the windows size it set to the window opens slightly to small, causing you to have to stretch the window to get it to the proper size.

I consulted Google for a solution and found this forum thread where Kristin L. Griffin posted a solution [3rd post from the top].

The solution is simple but you will have to edit each of your saved RDP sessions individually:

1. Open the saved RDP session in notepad (it’s really just a text file).
2. Locate the following three lines:
   1. desktopwidth:i:
   2. desktopheight:i:
   3. winposstr:s:
3. desktopwidth:i: and desktopheight:i: are the size of the RDP window.
4. For example, if the RDP window was set to open at 1024×768 these two lines would look like this:
   1. desktopwidth:i:1024
   2. desktopheight:i:768
5. The winposstr:s: line controls the RDP window positioning and size and is the line that needs to be edited to fix the sizing issue.
6. Edit the winposstr:s: line like this:
   1. First value should be 0
   2. Second value should be 1
   3. Third and fourth value should be 50
   4. The fifth value comes from taking the desktopwidth:i: size and adding 90 to it. In the case of a 1024×768 RDP window it works out to be 1114.
   5. The sixth value comes from taking the desktopheight:i: size and adding 90 to it as well. In the case of a 1024×768 RDP window it works out to be 858.
7. After editing winposstr:s: it should look like this:
   1. winposstr:s:0,1,50,50,1114,858
8. If you have your RDP sessions opening in a different windows size then the last two values of winposstr:s: will be different than the ones shown.
9. Save the file and your RDP window should open sized properly.

It’s expected that at the end of the year most people who keep a website or blog will write some tribute to the past year and it seems that 2009 is no different.

In the past few weeks I have had Google Reader filled with various people listing the top 10 best of this or worst of that for 2009. The last time I did an end of the year post was to welcome in 2008, and I didn’t say anything in it except “Happy New Year.”

So here I am quickly running out of time but feeling obligated to post something whimsically relevant about the past year, or if I’m feeling particularly psychic about the New Year, but unable to come up with any of my own top 10 best/worst lists.

A lot of really cool things happened in 2009 and a lot of really bad things happened in 2009. Anecdotally though I’d say that overall, it wasn’t too darn bad. Humanity survived not just another year but a whole decade!

For me personally one event makes 2009 the best damn year since 1982:

On April 1st, 2009 I married Sandi and her three boys Jay, Zane and Gavin.

Yep, best damn year ever.

Happy new year, see you in 2010.

Posting this for two reasons – first and foremost “White Wine In The Sun” is a beautiful Christmas song, I really like it. Second reason is to test the new embed feature in WordPress 2.9

You can buy the “White Wine In The Sun” single on iTunes (itunes link)

UPDATE: 12/9/2009 – Col. Van T. Barfoot gets to keep his flagpole!

I came across this story via Whatever. Gist of it is – 90 year old WW2, Korean and Vietnam war veteran Col. Van T. Barfoot, who also happens to be a Medal of Honor winner is being sued by his Home Owners Association for putting a flag pole up in his yard.

Why did Col. Van T. Barfoot win his Medal of Honor? From the Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy. With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his tommygun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot.

Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech.

While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot’s extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.

Holy frakking cow! Sussex Square Homeowners Association should be putting the flag pole up for him.

The Sussex Square Homeowners Association should be ashamed of themselves, the Coates & Davenport law firm (representing the association) should be ashamed of themselves.

John Scalzi said it well:

Dear homeowners association: When a Medal of Honor recipient wants to have a flagpole in his front yard, you say “Yes, sir. By all means. Thank you, sir.” Because you know what? Dude’s earned that damn flagpole…

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

Brief History

V1 of the iPhone Call Recorder worked great but I found it suffered one issue after I published the post about it. I realized that the capacitors used to isolate the headphone and microphone needed to accumulate a bit of charge before they caused enough isolation to prevent talk back on the opposite end of the call. This meant that you needed to have a recording device plugged into the iPhone Call Recorder that puts out ~3 volts and both parties had to talk (to cause a charge to go through the caps) before the caps charged effectively. This really isn’t a big deal but I felt like it could be improved.

The [simple] Solution

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

I tried several other ways to try to accomplish what I was after but I mostly just ended up with a headache. From V1 this project was both incredibly frustrating and something that I just couldn’t let go of. What I kept coming back to was that the capacitors simply needed to be “pre-charged” but to do that required putting voltage into the system, not something I was keen on doing unless I could keep it from getting to the iPhone and the recording device.

The solution turned out to be quite simple:

Don't pay too much attention to this schematic... there are errors.

The design in pretty much the same as V1, except for the 9v battery, a couple 330 ohm resistors, an LED, power switch, and an additional capacitor. The battery pre-charges the two (primary) capacitors whilst an additional capacitor is used to keep the DC from passing out the recording output. The two primary capacitors isolate the mic and headphone (to prevent talk back) and also keep the DC from the 9v battery from getting to the iPhone. The 330 ohm resistor is used to knock the voltage down because having the full 9v going to the caps causes to much charge and completely blocks audio from the recording output.

The upshot to all this is that from the get-go the talk back problem is eliminated, even if you don’t have a recording device plugged in (or one that does not output voltage) there is no talk back. The one drawback is a slightly less punchy level on the recording output for the iPhone side of the conversation; I haven’t found this to be a big issue.

V2 Improvements and Features

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

• Improved talk back prevention – filter capacitors are now pre-charged via a 9v battery.
• Smaller (less fugly?) enclosure.
• Smaller and higher quality potentiometers.
• TRRS jack for iPhone compatible headsets – for instance you can use the ear buds that came with your iPhone to record a call.
• iPhone input is via a jack – Version 1 used a hacked TRRS cable coming out of the enclosure – this was inelegant and would make it difficult to repair if the cable was damaged.
• LED – ’cause LEDs make everything cooler.
• If the battery dies (or the switch isn’t turned on it functions the same as the V1 iPhone Call Recorder.

V2 Pictures

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

The following pictures are of a couple of V2 iPhone Call Recorders I made. The first one uses a small enclosure that is nice in that it has a battery compartment built in and is compact but its small size makes it difficult to work with. If you plan to make the iPhone Call Recorder V2 and you don’t have a lot of experience with electronics; I’d recommend using the alternate enclosure (noted in the parts table below) which offers a bit more room to work with.

This alternate enclosure is easier to work with than the one pictured previously. I like this enclosure better for that reason... and it's brushed aluminum and we all know brushed aluminum makes the world a better place.

Existing Options

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

Just to reiterate – Looking at my server logs I see thousands of Google searches related to recordign calls on the iPhone. I have no doubt that this is functionality people want built into the iPhone. People don’t want to have to use a bulky box and cables to do it, like me they want an app. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there is no way for an app to be written that will record calls without the need for a third party (paid) service. It’s simply something that Apple hasn’t allowed, or for one reason or another, in their API.

There are two apps that I know of that facilitate recording calls on the iPhone – SpoofApp and Recorder 10:

• SpoofApp – In the time between my Version 1 Version 2 SpoofApp landed in the App Store and no longer requires a jail-broken iPhone. SpoofApp is a free app but you still need to purchase per-miniute credits in order to make any use of it. I briefly played with SpoofApp and it works well for recording outgoing calls.
• Recorder 10 – Available in the App Store for the low price of $0.99 but again, it only records outgoing calls and you have to pay per-min charge.
• Neither SpoofApp nor Recorder 10 lets you start a call recording mid-call.
• Both services require that your recorded phone calls sit on a third party server (privacy issue).

I would pay $50.00 for a native iPhone app that allowed on the fly recording of incoming and outgoing calls, saved the calls on the iPhone, and allowed for easy transfer of the recordings off iPhone. Unfortunately, it is my understanding that even if a developer wanted to, it’s not possible to interface with the iPhone during a call in such a way that would allow the recording of phone calls. For one reason or another Apple has not included APIs in the iPhone SDK to allow it. SpoofApp and Recorder 10 overcome this limitation by routing your call through a third party phone system which works, but has limitations.

Again, my solution is not perfect either, anything besides a native app is going to feel like a kludge. My solution is expensive, bulky, and requires basic soldering skills to make. However, it does surpass current apps in that it allows on the fly recording of incoming and outgoing calls and does not require you to pay per-miniute fees. It does what current apps can’t. Beyond the app I described, there is certainly room for improvement on a hardware solution, someone smarter and better equipped could make a hardware solution orders of magnitude better than mine.

DIY

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

I made a couple of V1 iPhone Call Recorders for people and a couple of V2s before publishing this and received dozens of requests for pre-made iPhone Call Recorders. However, most people lose interest really quickly when they find out it would cost them over a hundred bucks for one.

To be fair to myself, and the family I support, I have to charge for the time it takes me to assemble the iPhone Call Recorder. When you add all the costs up (parts, labor, shipping) a pre-made iPhone Call Recorder is expensive. For most I think this is a novelty item and they see some electronic bits thrown together by some guy in his garage (actually I’m in my house) and think it’s going to cost five bucks and get really sad when they find out it’s a lot more.

Besides that, It’s just not something I want to commit to at this point. I’d like to move on to other projects.

So, I’m not going to be taking requests for pre-made iPhone Call Recorders but what I have done is draw up a nice schematic and made a parts list complete with supplier links. I have tried to make it as easy as possible for you to get what you need to make your own iPhone Call Recorder V2. It does require that you have some basic electronics understanding and soldering silks (or a friend who does) but it never hurts to learn.

If you want to make one yourself, which I encourage you to do because making stuff is fun, I’ve posted a nice schematic and parts list with suppliers:

The Schematic

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

Here is the iPhone Call Recorder V2 Schematic drawn up in Visio [click to embiggen]:

For better resolution you can download the schematic as a PDF – here

The Parts

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

UPDATE – 04.26.2009: I have updated the parts list to reflect the parts that I use for pre-made iPhone Call Recorders and what I recommend you use if your going to DIY. The small black enclosure shown above is no longer listed because I recommend the larger (and easier to work with) aluminum enclosure. However, the part numbers for it and the custom perf board are: 546-1593PBK and 854-PR1593P respectively.

As always, if you have questions please leave a comment (preferred so others can benefit) or e-mail me at adam [at] awaitinginspiration.com.

If you make your own iPhone Call Recorder please, please, please, let me know and send me some pics.

As we were driving down a dark road, in the middle of nowhere, on our way to Redmond, OR we passed this small car lot when something caught my eye:

Me- Oh, my god! Oh my god!

Sandi (distressed) – What!?

Me – It’s Eleanor!

Sandi – What!?

Me – It’s the Mustang from the movie Gone in 60 Seconds!

By this point we were a quarter mile past the lot and we’d already been in the road for three plus hours (all of which Sandi drove) but despite that, Sandi (who is the awesomest wife) – looked over at me:

Sandi – Do you want to go back so you can look at it?

Me – YES!

The lot (unfortunately) was closed so I could only look at it through the glass [click to embiggen]:

Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds was a one-off made by Cinema Vehicle Services for the movie. Later, Classic Recreations started to produce the car using ordinary 67 Mustangs and if they’re still available they go for around $100,000.

I’m not sure if this is a genuine Eleanor but it looks like it is. Wow, sitting in some car lot in the middle of nowhere.

I keep getting reminded that I need to print, and keep copies of The Photographer’s Right in my camera bag; so I can give them to ignorant buffoons who seem to think taking pictures in public is a crime.

So, just before Halloween Sandi and I took our boys to a local pumpkin patch where they had a pumpkin cannon. While Sandi and I waited for our boy’s turn at the Pumpkin Popper I started to take a bunch of pictures of the cannon, in an attempt to try to get the timing right to catch a pumpkin leaving the barrel.

The picture above was the first one I took, just a quick shot to check settings, and even though it goes against my SOP I thought the little boy trying to get his pumpkin in the cannon was cute. It isn’t a very good picture, at least not of the boy in particular, his face is blown out and it’s a wide shot… it’s the only picture I took of any kid besides our boys.

As a rule I avoid taking pictures of kids I don’t know unless asked to. I understand having a stranger taking pictures of one’s children can make one uncomfortable. Even though, in public it’s perfectly legal to take pictures of anyone, even kids.

We had to wait about 15-20 minutes before our boys were up, and while we waited I continued to take pictures of the pumpkin popper in action. Kids (and adults) would go up, load their pumpkin, and walk back to launch it. When I was taking pictures there was no one, kid or adult, near the Pumpkin Popper.

To anyone not stifled by utter stupidity it was clear that I was taking pictures of the cannon and nothing else.

As we were waiting for another pumpkin to be loaded I called out to Jay, our son, who was waiting in line to launch his pumpkin and snapped this pic:

The other two kids visible in the picture are Zane and Gavin, who along with Jay make up the lot of our kids. What’s important here is that I called out to a child by name, several times, and so did Sandi (kids and their selective hearing) who was standing next to me. Clearly, I knew at least one of the kids present, and clearly the women standing next to me (Sandi) knew the same kid and even helped me get his attention for a picture.

Camera Owner/Photographer = Criminal

About 5 minutes after taking that picture of Jay, I was back to trying to get my timing right to capture a pumpkin leaving the barrel of the cannon, when a lady walked up to me and asked: “What are you taking pictures of?!”

It wasn’t her question that jostled me, it was her inflection, her tone and mannerisms. She was up in my face, staring me down (well staring me up… as she was shorter than me), clearly something was wrong. I was worried that I missed a sign somewhere stating that photography of the Pumpkin Popper was prohibited. I certainly didn’t want to get into a confrontation, or get us kicked out, at least not before our boys got the chance to launch their pumpkins.

I stammered out something like “I’m just taking pictures of the cannon…” Unless I’m prepared for it, or have time to warm-up, I just don’t do well when suddenly confronted like that. Thankfully, Sandi, who does much better in public than me, was near enough to hear what was going on and came over.

The lady started in on how she wanted to make sure I wasn’t taking pictures of any kids because they had some “creepy” guy in her neighborhood last Halloween taking pictures of kids. She explained that her and her neighbors “had to call the police on him.” She went on about how she was “on high alert” this time of year.

Despite the fact that, at this point, this lady had it coming to her, Sandi was very nice and explained to her that I was not a creep; that she was my wife, I was taking pictures of the cannon, and our kids were waiting in line.

She muttered an “I’m sorry” and happily walked away, apparently feeling pretty good about herself. I guess it was no big deal to her that she walked up to a complete stranger, and accused him of being the worst kind of criminal, based solely off the fact that he had a camera.

Not The First Time

This has happened to me before – at a soccer game where a man douche bag thought I was taking his picture and didn’t like it. I was actually taking a picture of Sandi and I told him that. I also explained to him that, as were in a public place, I could take his picture if I wanted to (I was feeling a bit more snarky that day).

It’s absolutely ridiculous. I have every right to take pictures at a pumpkin patch, soccer filed, or any public place without having someone get in my face and accuse me of being a criminal.

Despite the assumption of idiots like the lady from the pumpkin patch, if your in a public place (including private property open to the public) where you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, anyone who wants to can take your picture, your kids picture, and even your dog’s picture.

I generally try to avoid being a jerk, and don’t like confrontation, and I don’t set out to make people uncomfortable. So, it’s my general rule not to take pictures of people (especially kids) unless I get an ok, they ask me, or the situation warrants it. I think it’s a good rule to go by. But while I’m making it a point to not make people uncomfortable, this dipwad decided it was ok to accuse me of being a criminal simply because I have a camera. Ridiculous.

So, it’s time to print off copies of The Photographer’s Right and put them in my camera bag so if something like this happens again, I can simply pull out a copy and give it to the uneducated twat. While I’m at it I’ll probably print off some I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist Bust Cards.

Oh, and I did finally get the picture I wanted:

Having theme issues related to a PHP update…

Fixed!

Ok, there are a gazillion DIY digital picture frames out there, this is nothing new. I figure I’d share it though because it shows a good use for outdated hardware but it also serves as documentation so six months from now when I’m asking myself “how did I do that?” I’ll have somewhere to look.

A few months ago I acquired an iMac G4 Lamp (Apple officially designates it the “iMac G4 Flat Panel”), which these days is a pretty useless piece of hardware; especially if it’s missing the OS like mine was. However, even with the hardware to slow to be of any real use, I felt like it would be a shame dump it. The iMac G4 has a great 17″ LCD so I figured it would make a great digital picture frame. Since my G4 was missing the OS, I decided to use the PowerPC version of Ubuntu¹, and after some searching, testing, and cursing, I found that these instructions, with some tweaks to suite my needs worked the best.

EDIT: 3/24/2010 – Added missing step to install Samba, edited the fstab code to remove a space, and made note about Ubuntu version.

I won’t get into it here because there are already tons of HOWTOs (Google is your friend) but the first thing I did was to install Ubuntu Desktop.

NOTE: I originally set this up with Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) when I upgraded the Ubuntu install to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) something broke and feh refused to read pictures from the Windows share (despite is being mounted properly). I troubleshot the issue for a little bit to no avail and so decided to just go back to 9.04. Since this is not a production system (i.e. no used for anything but a digital frame) and has no access to the internet (blocked by firewall) I’m not worried about running an outdated version of Ubuntu. 9.10 may work perfectly fine and my issue could have stemmed from an in-place upgrade, not sure.

After Ubuntu was up and running I installed the image viewer feh by opening a terminal and entering:

sudo apt-get install feh

Like Vegard, my pictures are stored on another computer but accessible through a network share. I wanted to setup feh to display the the pictures stored on that computer; but unlike Vegard my frame will be connected to my network via a wired connection so I don’t need to mess with rsync like he did.

The first thing you want to do (if your pictures are stored on a Windows share like mine) is install Samba so that you can connect to it using cifs.

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

That’s it no Samba configuration is necessary.

The second step is to create a mount point for the share. In a terminal I entered:

sudo mkdir /media/framepics

Next I edited the fstab config so that the share gets mounted to /media/framepics and stays persistent even after a reboot. Again, in a terminal I entered:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

This opens the fstab config in nano for editing. On the last like I entered:

//enterprise/phat_drive/data/pictures/imac_frame /media/framepics cifs username=yourusername,password=yourpassword,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0

Note – the above code should be placed on a single line.

Here’s a quick explanation of the fstab edit:

The first part:

//enterprise/phat_drive/data/pictures/imac_frame

Is the UNC path to the share where the pictures are stored – enterprise is my server and the rest of the path phat_drive/data/pictures/imac_frame leads to the folder where the frame pictures will be stored.

The second part:

/media/framepics

Is the mount point I created, after the share is mounted I will be able to access the share from /media/framepics as if it were a local directory on the iMac.

The third part:

cifs

Is the file system used when accessing the share and as far as I can tell this is the best option; the share that’s being mounted is on a Windows box.

The fourth part:

username=yourusername,password=yourpassword

Is where I put the user name and password needed to access the share on the Windows server.

The fifth part:

iocharset=utf8

Is the character set used when accessing the share on the Windows server. Again, as far as I can tell from my reading this is what you want to use.

The sixth part:

file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0

Is the file permissions set for the mount point – 0777 gives full access to the share from the iMac. Last two 0s are used to set the dump option and mount order, for this purpose 0 on both is fine.

Once the line was added to fstab I hit Ctrl X and answered Y to save the changes and exit out of nano. I then rebooted to make sure the share mounted properly after a reboot.

The next step was to set feh to start after a reboot, rescan the image directory periodically, and set the iMac to automatically turn the screen off at night and back on in the morning. I used the scripts from Vegard as a guide:

The first script is used to start feh:

#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0
feh --quiet --recursive --randomize --hide-pointer --full-screen --slideshow-delay 300 /media/framepics/ &

delay is the time in seconds that the image is displayed; in this case 5 minutes. /media/framepics is where feh will look for images. I saved this file in my home directory (you could stick it anywhere) as start-feh.sh and gave it execute permissions. I then went to system > Preferences > Startup Applications and added the script to the start up entries so feh would start automatically on boot.

The next three scripts are used in conjunction with cron to restart feh periodically and turn the screen on and off at scheduled times.

When feh starts it reads the images currently in the directory and will only show images that existed when it started. In order for newly added images to show I need to stop and restart feh periodically:

#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0
killall feh
feh --quiet --recursive --randomize --hide-pointer --full-screen --slideshow-delay 300 /media/framepics/ &

killall feh kills the feh process and the next line is exactly the same as the start-feh script. This script is also saved in my home directory as sync-feh.sh and given exicute permissions.

This script turns the screen off:

#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0
xset +dpms
xset dpms force off

This script turns the display on:

#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0
xset +dpms
xset dpms force on

They were are also saved in my home directory as screen-on.sh and screen-off.sh and given execute permissions.

The next step is to setup cron so that sync-feh.sh, screen-on.sh, and screen-off.sh run at set times. Form the terminal:

crontab -e

I added the following:

00 07 * * 1-5 /home/adam/screen-on.sh
00 09 * * 0,6 /home/adam/screen-on.sh
00 23 * * 1-5 /home/adam/screen-off.sh
30 0 * * 0,6 /home/adam/screen-off.sh
0 * * * * /home/adam/sync-feh.sh

The first line sets cron to run screen-on.sh at 7AM Monday – Friday.

The second line sets cron to run screen-on.sh at 9AM Saturday and Sunday.

The third line sets cron to run screen-off.sh at 11PM Monday – Friday.

The fourth line sets cron to run screen-off.sh at 12AM Saturday and Sunday.

Finally, the fifth line sets cron to run sync-feh.sh every hour, to refresh the images. Every hour is probably excessive but whatever.

I then removed the desktop background image and set the background color to black, removed the desktop icons (I had to use gconf-editor to remove the mapped drive icon) and completely hid all the panels. With the background set to black, the icons and panels removed, all that shows when sync-feh.sh runs every hour is a blank black screen.

¹ The PowerPC architecture is no longer officially supported by Ubuntu. However, it is still available and supported by the community.^↵

Image Source: oskay

This is partly a review of the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, henceforth referred to as EMP|SFM, and mostly a rant about stupid rules.

Update: EMP|SFM responded to this post on Twitter

EMPSFM @adambyers FYI – the bag policy is now changed as well – we restricted bags because large bags in crowded galleries = no fun for anyone.

EMPSFM @adambyers another old rule that wasn’t always needed except for certain small galleries. Sorry you got hassled and thx for sending to me.

[review]

This last August my family and I visited the EMP|SFM on the invitation of a friend. The EMP|SFM is a cool museum, but it’s far from living up to the hype surrounding it. The exhibits were both neat and educational, lots of Jimmy Hendricks stuff, the Guitar Gallery (offering a history of the electric guitar) was really cool and educational, and the Sound Lab was again fun and educational (after 30 or so minutes in there Jay was playing the drums pretty good).

The Science Fiction Museum (arguably the part I was most interested in) was a cool in that it offered you a chance to view props from various sci-fi movies and TV programs, as well as sci-fi history and the usual “did ya know?” type of stuff.

Still, after it was all said and done we were left with the impression that the coolest thing and arguably the exhibit the kids had the most fun with was the giant LED screen:

Apparently this is the world’s largest LED screen and before it arrived at the EMP|SFM it belonged to U2, who used in at concerts and later donated it to the museum.

We had fun, no doubt, and we learned stuff, no doubt. However, our fun probably had more to do with the people we were with rather than the museum itself. The staff at the museum seem to have an elitist attitude and most acted like they were doing us some kind of favor by letting us in their museum. The atmosphere of the EMP|SFM is a stark contrast to other famous North West museums we’ve been to – like OMSI and the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum where the staff is friendly, welcoming, and treats you as though they appreciate your visit. The EMP|SFM is kind of an awkward place, and for all the hype we were left feeling like there was something missing.

If I needed to sum up EMP|SFM in one word it would be: meh.

[stupid rules]

In total we were a group of 11 people, to eat in out would have been spendy, and complicated, so we brown-bagged lunch. We had all the lunch stuff in a couple of paper shopping bags and after we parked the bags were loaded on a stroller. The plan was to pause our EMP|SFM visit at some point to go out and eat in the park nearby. Our bags would have happy stayed on the stroller during our tour but we quickly found out that the EMP|SFM is paranoid, into stupid rules, or both.

From EMP|SFM site:

Does EMP|SFM offer bag check?
Yes. EMP|SFM offer complimentary bag and coat check for museum guests.

Bags larger than 16 inches are not allowed in the gallery spaces.

Ok, so we had to check our lunch bags, inconvenient, and stupid but not a huge deal. However, if your going to have stupid rules at least have the courtesy to explain why they exist. Maybe it’s to help enforce their (understandable) no food rule:

Can I bring food or drink into EMP|SFM?
Food and drink are prohibited in all gallery spaces. They are permitted in the public areas (such as the ticketing lobby or the retail store).

Maybe the TSA style bag check is designed so that terrorists can only bring in bombs smaller than 16 inches? Maybe it’s designed to inconvenience you enough so that you don’t bring sack lunch and eat at the EMP|SFM food court? Who knows? Our friends were allowed to bring in their, larger than 16 inches, diaper bag but as is often the case with stupid rules, there are people who take them too far.

My wife and her friend got to talking to a couple who were forced to check their two week old baby’s diaper bag before they were allowed into the museum. Apparently the museum expected them to just walk back to the front of the museum if they needed anything.

After my wife and her friend brought the issue to the attention of a EMP|SFM employee (the only one who didn’t act like a pretentious douche bag) he quickly retrieved the diaper bag for the couple and apologized. Still, it should have never happened and wouldn’t have if they didn’t have stupid rules that gave EMP|SFM employees the opportunity to go on power trips, which is the only reason for denying a mother and father ready access to their two week old baby’s diaper bag.

What could be more stupid then the mandatory bag check? The EMP|SFM policy on photography. When we asked, were told there are parts of the EMP|SFM where photography is allowed and parts where it’s prohibited. For instance your allowed to take a picture of a child molesters Michael Jackson’s jacket:

You can also take a picture of a giant funnel of guitars:

Besides the Sound Lab and the LED wall, those are the only two exhibits your allowed to take pictures of, and where carrying a camera won’t get you stalked by EMP|SFM staff. Stupid rules be damned! I took pictures:

These are really neat old guitars, it's a good picture too... wish I could show it to you. Perhaps it would inspire you to go see them for yourself but EMP|SFM does not allow photography. I wasn't supposed to take this picture.

I took others, I was sneaky, I shot from the hip and didn’t use a flash and I wasn’t the only one. Several other people were taking pictures, some being a lot more obvious then I was. I almost got out scot-free; until the Science Fiction Museum.

As we were exiting the sci-fi museum there was an exhibit with props from Lost in Space including the famous B9 Robot. I was admiring the exhibit when Sandi said “you should get a picture of that.” I had gotten too relaxed and made the mistake of holding my camera to my eye to take the shot (no flash). Just as the shutter snapped I heard “Sir! Sir!” and saw a man quickly approaching me. The man was an EMP|SFM “security guard” and he was quick to tell me that I had to delete the picture. “Frak!” I knew that if he watched me delete that picture he’d see another I wasn’t supposed to have taken pop up.

At this point I was thinking “Ok, I got caught doing something I wasn’t supposed to do, I’ll suck it up and take it.” I showed him my camera and deleted the picture I took of the Lost in Space exhibit. I tried to turn the screen off fast enough but he was hovering over me and he saw another picture that I wasn’t supposed to have taken and demanded that I delete that. After deleting that picture a third one came on the screen and he again demanded that I delete it. After deleting those three pictures a picture I took of the Yoda exhibit popped up and he demanded that I delete that picture as well. By this point I was annoyed enough that I refused.

My kids love Star Wars and I took that picture for them and this guy’s power trip was getting tiring. The picture wasn’t even a good one, burly, as is was shot from the hip. I was sick of this guy leaning over me demanding I delete my pictures. I told him I wasn’t going to delete any more pictures, that we were leaving anyway, and I’d put the lens cap on. I walked away and meet up with the rest of my group, who were talking to the couple with the two week old baby.

This is (one of) the original Yoda puppets used in the Star Wars movie.

I’m not sure if the EMP|SFM “security guard” was allowed to, even if photography is prohibited, demand that I delete my pictures… it felt like illegal search and seizure to me. Since we were with other people I didn’t want to push the issue and get us completely kicked out or worse, which is why I complied as far as I did.

From The Photographer’s Right:

They Have No Right to Confiscate Your Film
Sometimes agents acting for entities such as owners of industrial plants and shopping malls may ask you to hand over your film. Absent a court order, private parties have no right to confiscate your film. Taking your film directly or indirectly by threatening to use force or call a law enforcement agency can constitute criminal offenses such as theft and coercion. It can likewise constitute a civil tort such as conversion. Law enforcement officers may have the authority to seize film when making an arrest but otherwise must obtain a court order.

The same EMP|SFM employee who brought the couples diaper bag to them (again the only one who didn’t act like a pretentious douche bag), talked to Sandi and I. He was very nice, apologized for the other employees behavior and explained why they didn’t allow photography.

The photography ban stems from the fact that the EMP|SFM does not own all the exhibits and some of the owners don’t want their exhibits photographed and since it would be difficult to limit photography to only exhibits the EMP|SFM owns, they ban it altogether. The EMP|SFM employee agreed that it was a stupid, outdated rule and told us the new CEO was trying to get it lifted.

Exhibit owners and artists think that allowing people to take pictures is going to devalue the artwork or exhibit, which is just crap. Wake up people! Allowing people to photograph your artwork or exhibit and share it on their blog, FaceBook, Twitter, insert name of latest social network here, is only going promote the museum, which makes the museum money, money that the museum can pay you, the exhibit owner or artist, to have your exhibit or artwork displayed.

Ironically, as I was (slowly) writing this post this article came out in the Seattle P-I:

Sad you couldn’t get a shot with the original Death Star on your last visit to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum?

Starting Sept. 26, you’ll be able to strike a pose with the relic of a galaxy far, far away — not to mention Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Stratocaster, Captain Kirk’s Enterprise chair and every other object in the museum’s permanent collection.

EMP/SFM is about to change its photo policy. And if you ask staff, it’s about time.

Egads! Photography of items in the EMP|SFM’s permanent collection is now permitted! The article goes on the explain that traveling exhibits may still restrict photography but it does not seem that enforcing it will be of much concern to the museum:

“You can worry ’til the cows come home on a lot of this stuff, or you can sort of try to minimize the amount of potential damage,” said senior curator Jacob McMurray.

“At some point you have to decide, do you want to waste resources pushing back against something that can’t be solved, can’t be fixed?”

Of course flash photography is still prohibited, which I agree with. Whether or not a flash damages an artifact is debatable but a dozen flashes going off in a dark room would be annoying so I’m down with no-flash.

The EMP|SFM needs to update their web site because according to it photography is still prohibited:

Is photography allowed in the EMP|SFM galleries?
No film or video photography is allowed in the museum galleries. Any commercial or other unauthorized use of any transmission, picture, film/type, writing, drawing, or other depiction or description of any Experience Music Project or Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame name, mark or logo is prohibited without prior specific written approval from the EMP|SFM Marketing and PR Department. Call 206.770.2700 for more information.

I’m glad to see the EMP|SFM dispensing with the stupid no photography rule, it shows progress on their part. Perhaps allowing people to take diaper bags in and training employees not to act like pretentious douche bags will be the next step froward for the EMP|SFM.

Look closely into the magic pyramid and you will find fun, freedom, and riches beyond your dreams.

UPDATE 11/16/2010: Amway agrees to pay $56 million, settle case alleging it operates a ‘pyramid scheme’

Dear Jeff,

If your reading this then you have received the CD I sent back to you with a link to this post. I’d first like to start this letter with a couple of quotes from Wikipedia:

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered.

Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries, including the United States…

As I’m sure you recall we meet briefly at The Home Depot in the surge protector/extension cord aisle about a week ago. I was looking for a couple of surge protectors with right angle plugs (they fit better behind desks) when you walked up and started confusingly looking at Home Depot’s surge protector offerings. After sifting through various surge protectors I found what I was looking for, grabbed a couple, and started to walk away. Before I got too far you stopped me by asking me something to the effect of “what surge protector is best?”

Your question through me for a loop, it’s not that it was a dumb question, or that I was not willing to help you out but I’m just the sort of guy who goes into a store, gets what he needs, and gets out while attempting as little human interaction as possible. I’m just not used to interacting with people in stores unless I start the interaction… it’s an introvert thing I guess. However, I try hard to be a nice guy and even though it went against my standard operating procedure, I decided I’d help you. Plus, you asked a tech. related question… I tend to like answering those types of questions.

In any case I asked you what you were planning on plugging into it, gave you a brief idea of what to look for, and recommended one of the brands available. You asked me if I was in the tech filed and I said “Actually, I’m the IT guy at [name of company] down the street.” You said something about that being cool, thanked me for my help, and I walked off feeling pretty good that I was able to help you out. I was still weirded out by the abnormal interaction though.

Apparently you were listening when I told you where I worked because about an hour later you called me there. I’m guessing that you looked the name of the company up, called the main number, and asked for me. I admire you for remembering my name because I’m terrible with names and frankly I would not have remembered your’s 5 seconds after you told me; even if my life depended on it.

Anyway, what was at this point a slightly abnormal occurrence for me – talking to a stranger in a store – now moved to the category of this is too frakking weird, my head is going to EXPLODE!. Honestly, my first reaction was “what the frak is this guy calling me for?!” You eased my nerves a little by telling me that you realized this was all coming “out of left field.” It helped knowing that you realized how frakking crazy it was that you tracked me down and called me… of course you realizing how crazy it was, and still doing it, could actually make you more insane than not.

Oh, by the way, I hate sports metaphors.

You told me that you appreciated my help at Home Depot and that you thought that it took integrity to help a stranger and all that. Then you really came out of left field and asked me if I would be interested in doing some part time work for your “internet company.” Wow. I doubted that it was possible that I made such an impression in our brief exchange that you would track me down and offer me a legitimate job of some kind but I didn’t want to squander a possible opportunity so I said “sure.”

You didn’t say much about your “internet company” what you did say was that you wanted to meet sometime to discuss your “opportunity,” so we set a date and time to meet at a Starbucks down the street from where I work. This was not too odd, I had interviewed for jobs (and got them) at Starbucks before. You then told me that you had some information about your company that you wanted to send me and asked what address you should send it to. When I asked if e-mail would work you told me that you were going to be mailing an audio CD so standard mail was easier. I found this odd because for someone who has an “internet company” I’d think that you’d realize that the internet is a pretty damn good way to distribute audio. Anyway, I gave you the befit of the doubt, maybe you were just the money man and you had people to handle all the technical stuff for you. In any case I gave you my work address and by the end of our conversation I was pretty sure that what you were offering would not turn out to be anything; but I was curious to see what, exactly, it turned out to be.

A few days later I received the CD you sent me titled “Fun and Freedom.” I listened to it. Some guy who went by the name Wade Simmons talked for a few minutes about a system he had that would gain the follower, wait for it… Fun and Freedom! Egads!

Not that I needed to (I already knew what this was) but I did a bit of research – I could not find any information on Wade Simmons, other than some mountain biker out of Canada, who I was pretty sure had nothing to do with any of this. Printed on the CD label was “Copyright TEAM INA.” Googling TEAM INA only turned up this Yahoo Answers post where the answerer said they’d been to a TEAM INA meeting and determined that it was a pyramid scheme. Further digging turned up this^(pdf) California Class Action Suit against Quixtar (later dropped). Quixtar is in fact Amway Global, a company known to run, wait for it… pyramid schemes! If you look on page 13 of the suit where it lists Quixtar’s “lines of sponsorship” on line f. you’ll see listed InterNet Associates (INA).

Here’s the thing Jeff – I helped you that day in Home Depot, it may have not been for anything particularly significant but I did help you. I’m not saying I deserve a medal or anything but I could have easily given you a B.S. response, or ignored you; either of which would have actually been easier for me. Instead, I not only answered your question I took the time to pass valuable knowledge to you and you responded to my kindness by trying to scam me.

Ok, I’m not so native as to actually think that you were really looking for a surge protector and genuinely needed help picking one out. I’d imagine your “working” day is spent loitering around stores looking for marks, people you try run your little scam on. Make no mistake Jeff, pyramid schemes are scams and people that perpetuate their existence are, in my opinion, criminals.

I hate, hate, hate, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, whatever you call it a rose is a rose and a scam is a scam.

Jeff, you’re despicable, and if it existed you would burn in a very special level of Hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater¹.

Oh, and I left your CD in my car for a couple of days and it got pretty hot in there… so if you CD is a little warped I apologize…

Or maybe it was the heat gun...

¹ “Firefly” Our Mrs. Reynolds (2002)^↵

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

8/26/2009 – I have seen some comments around some forums that this device is illegal. It’s not. It’s perfectly legal to make a device that enables you record phone calls and it’s perfectly legal to record phone calls to which you are a party of. However, depending on your jurisdiction, you may have to notify the other party that the call is being recorded. It’s always illegal to record a phone call to which you are not a party. Your mileage may vary, when in doubt do some reading, and consult a lawyer.

The Problem

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

I’ve wanted a way to record phone calls to and from my iPhone since I’ve had it but hadn’t really looked into solutions until a couple of weeks ago. What I really wanted was a native iPhone app that would record incoming and outgoing phone calls – there is SpoofApp but it requires a JailBroken phone, per-minute fees, and looks like it only works on outgoing calls. Another iPhone app Recorder 10, does not require a JailBroken phone but like SpoofApp you have to pay per-minute fees and it only records outgoing calls.

Exhausted after searching for something I assumed would be out there already, and finding nothing I figured that the only way I was going to get what I wanted was to do it myself.

I had a few criteria that I wanted to meet:

• Portable as possible.
• Record both sides of the conversation.
• The ability to start recording the conversation midstream.
• As little indication that the call was being recorded as possible.

Before I go any further – laws regarding the recording of phone calls vary from state to state and federal laws may apply as well. Don’t be stupid, do some reading and if in doubt talk to a lawyer. If you make this device and get yourself into trouble using it I’m not responsible. I’m also not responsible if you release the magic smoke from your iPhone.

The Obvious Solution

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

When you talk on a phone, whether you notice it or not, you hear a smidgen of your voice through the phones speaker. If phones didn’t do this it would sound strange when you talked on the phone. So my first test was to just record the headphone output [using a splitter] of the iPhone to see if I got both sides of the conversation. You can record both sides of the conversation like this but the iPhone side of the conversation is unacceptability low.

This is the method used by Rory but he uses the built in microphone on his Mac to record his side of the conversation. So, while Rory has a workable solution it requires the use of a computer so it’s not all that portable.

8/25/2009 – Previously I incorrectly stated that this method causes an echo on the recording but after going back and trying it last night I could not replicate this effect; go figure.

With this method you’re relying on the smidgen of audio that the phone feeds back to your ear piece. This is not enough to get a decent recording of your side of the conversation, which is why Rory uses his Mac's mic to record his side of the conversation.

Without using a second recorder (in Rory’s case his Mac) for your side of the conversation using this method your recording sounds like this. Notice you can barely hear my side (iPhone side) of the conversation and when it gets loud, you can’t hear my side at all.

A Better Way

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

So, I started to look at the pinout of the iPhone headphone jack which is a TRRS (Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve) jack. I stumbled across this post that gave instructions on how to wire a breakout cable so that you could use your own headphones and mic with the iPhone and after some dabbling I came up with this:

In this schematic the W, R, Y and NS (White, Red, Yellow, and Not Shielded) note the color of the individual wires for the TRRS cable I used.

Which, if you haven’t guessed already, does not work. Well, It actually does work. It records both sides of the conversation beautifully. The problem is that the person your talking to hears everything they say repeated back to them (delayed by a millisecond) in their ear peace, very loudly and very clearly. Not only would this “talk back” be very annoying for the person your talking to, it would defiantly indicate to them that something odd was going on with the call.

It seems obvious now but it took me awhile to figure out what was going on – to get the recorder to work the way I wanted, I needed to combine the headphone output and the mic input (my side of the conversation), to one single output that would go to the recorder. By doing this I ended up feeding the headphone output of the iPhone back into the mic input of the iPhone, which is why the person on the other end heard everything they said repeated back to them. The obvious solution was to not combine the headphone and mic to one output, but to record the calls I’d either need two recorders (one for each side of the conversation) or a recorder that had multiple inputs. I wanted to get it working using only one recording output.

I wondered if using a mixer would solve the problem and to test this I connected the headphone and mic outputs to my little Behringer mixer on separate channels and it worked beautifully. Unfortunately, as beautifully as it worked, it required the use of a small but not so portable mixer. So I consulted Google and found some schematics (link 1, link 2) for some simple two channel mixers. However, using simple mixer did not do enough to keep the headphone and mic separated, it helped but it wasn’t enough. Finally, by using strategically placed capacitors I was able to virtually eliminate the “talk back”problem.

The Solution

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

To keep things simple I combined the left and right headphone channels [see: Stereo-to-Mono Summing Box] to make a mono signal going to the recording output but the headphone output for the iPhone user (you) is still stereo. Also, you could probably use lower resistor values all around since the signal coming from the iPhone isn’t that hot but I decided to err on the side of caution for now. The potentiometers are your garden variety (Radio Shack) 100k audio taper pots; you could use 50k or probably even smaller with this setup and they only control the signal going to the recording output, which gives you some control of the recording levels.

Depending on the headset you use, you may need to modify the cable to have the headphones and mic on separate jacks; the one pictured here was made with separate headphone and mic jacks. Here I have the iPhone Call Recorder hooked up to a hand held voice recorder (which has a mic input) but you could use any recording device that accepts a 3.5mm jack.

Click here to listen to a phone call recorded using the iPhone Call Recorder.

Notes

There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone? Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

• It’s very likely that this is not the best (in fact it’s not), or the only way to accomplish recording phone calls on the iPhone, but it does work and it works well. I agree that the best solution would be a native iPhone app. but it’s my understanding that it’s not even possible to write an app. that records phone calls on the iPhone without using third party services like Recorder 10 and SpoofApp do (which they charge you for and are limited in functionality).
• As Gizmodo “journalist” Joanna Stern pointed out this is a “fucking ugly” solution. What she fails to note though it that it works and is in several ways it’s better than any of the software solutions available.
• While “Fucking Ugly” this solution does not require you to jailbreak your phone, you don’t have to pay per-min fees to use it, you can record both incoming and outgoing calls with it, your recording stays with you and is not on some third party server, it gives no indication that the call is being recorded, it lets you start recording mid-call, and it affords you the ability to use an external set of headphones and an external microphone even if you don’t want to record the call. In any case it’s certainly better than just rolling over and paying for an app. that does not do what you want/need it to do as “journalist” Joanna Stern suggests we all do.
• Despite “journalist” Joanna Stern’s assertion this is not a “switch box” it does not use any switches at all.
• I agree with everyone that it’s rather large but I used a project box that I had lying around; it could certainly be made to fit in a smaller box.
• Several people have asked “If you willing to go through the trouble make this breakout box, why not just jailbreak? It woudl be easier.” First, I have not jailbroken an iPhone, but based on my understanding of the process, I’d say that for me the amount of work between jailbreaking and making this breakout box is about equal. For someone less familiar with electronics this may in fact be more work than simply jailbreaking but you only have to make this breakout box once, by jailbreaking your iPhone your entering a never ending arms race with Apple (at least if yo want the latest iPhone OS). Also, the only app. that is available for a jailbroken phone that records calls is SpoofApp. SpoofApp seems like a great app. but as mentioned in the beginning of this post it not only requires a jailbroken phone, you have to pay per-min fees to record calls, only works on outgoing calls, and your recording ends up on a third party server that you have no control over; a privacy issue.
• You still get a little “talk back” but it is so mild that unless you were really, really, really listening for it you would not notice; it’s extremely mild. You actually have to blow in the receiver hard to get it to produce the effect.
• The headphones act as a microphone with this setup but it’s so weak that it has no effect on the recording.
• The headphone volume on the iPhone affects the level of the recording output.
• Obviously (or maybe not) this setup requires that you to use a separate headphone and mic during calls – you could just use something like this.
• The iPhone puts out ~3 volts on the mic line because it’s expecting an electret microphone. You could filter this with a capacitor but it probably won’t hurt anything. I’m assuming that I’ll always be using and electret mic so I didn’t add one.
• The TRRS cable I used was actually just a 3.5mm video cable. This type of cable comes with a lot of video and digital cameras. TRRS jacks and cables are surprisingly hard to find – Mouser does have a TRRS plug but I could not find TRRS jacks anywhere.

Build Pictures

UPDATE: There is a better way to record calls on your iPhone or any other Bluetooh enabled phone – Check out my review of the Call Mynah.

On this day in 1969, Man set foot on the Moon. It was an achievement that forever changed what we considered possible. It is an achievement that should be remembered and honored not just by Americans but all of humanity.

Space exploration has always held a special place in my heart – Always looking up at the starts; I remember looking at the moon through my first telescope. I remember making a Space Shuttle model rocket that flew from the launch pad in a perfect arch, landing nose first in the ground… We lived in Lancaster, CA most of my life and as a kid, my mom got (from a patient at the dental office she worked at) our family press level passes to see the Space Shuttle land at Edwards Air Force Base. I was also able to participate in a tour of Space Shuttle Columbia while it was at Lockheed Martin for maintenance; I believe this was just before its last mission in 2003.

I believe now, as I always have, that we need to go back to the Moon, we need to relearn the lessons that Apollo taught us 40 years ago, we need to relearn to land on another world so we can go beyond our planet. Space is the final frontier and we need to commit to exploring this frontier, we cannot let ourselves become complacent for if we fail to explore, we fail ourselves and the generations of people before us who gave so much to discover.

I needed a cheep and easy way to mount a computer under a table – some aluminum stock, Velcro, and bolts made for a quick and dirty mount for around $12.00.

The aluminum stock was bent to shape in a vice and 1/4" holes we drilled for the 1" bolts.

Velcro squares were used to keep the computer from moving around.

Rip-ties were used to keep the cables under control.

IMPORTANT:This post details the personal and legal encounter we had with Teri Gunn (who at the time lived in Dayton, OR). You may have found this post via Google or other search engine. In order to avoid issues of mistaken identity please be aware that posted below is a picture of the Teri Gunn this post is written about. Additionally the Teri Gunn this post is about has two web sites: Design Explorations and The Beauty of Decay. Hopefully this information will avoid any possible mistaken identity issues.

If it existed, Teri Gunn would burn in a very special level of Hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater¹.

UPDATE: Sandi realized that the images of the e-mails and letter we sent to Teri were hard to read, especially at lower resolutions. The links now point to PDFs of the e-mails and letters.

FYI: Since this post was published Teri amassed a couple of web sites Design Explorations and The Beauty of Decay.

[why]

First, a brief explanation of why I’m writing this post:

It’s a warning, even as unlikely as it is that you will come across Teri Gunn, you will no doubt be presented with an opportunity to deal with someone like her. Your gut will tell you not to trust them but you will still want to; because it’s who you are. Let my words serve as reinforcement for your gut; do not trust them, run away, avoid people like Teri Gunn as you would avoid a zombie horde.

It’s payback, Teri hurt my wife Sandi and me – caused us undue stress, time, money, and caused a rift to form between Sandi and members of her family. Her inhumane behavior brought Sandi to tears and that’s frakking unacceptable. So, this is me taking the opportunity to drag Teri through the mud; and I am completely unapologetic about it. She deserves it; Teri is a liar, and a thief and I’m going to do everything I can to let the world know that.

[truth]

What you are about to read is the truth – it’s obviously written in my own words but it is nevertheless the complete truth. Teri and others on her side would of course claim otherwise – and they’d be lying².

[story]

Sandi and I got married on a budget and didn’t have a whole lot of money for a wedding photographer, but obviously still wanted pictures of the day. I was going to ask my uncle³; until Sandi’s sister-in-law Kim told her that Teri, a friend of theirs, was interested in photographing our wedding.

Before talking to Teri or my uncle, among other things regarding our wedding pictures, Sandi and I established that we wanted the raw⁴ pictures that our wedding photographer shot. So, whoever our photographer was; we needed to make sure that they would be ok with giving them to us.

Sandi and I decided that if she wanted to do it, we’d use Teri as our photographer because my uncle was already videotaping and we didn’t want to add anymore to his plate.

I am strongly against the practice of a photographer maintaining ownership (copyright) of pictures they are being paid to take. If I am paying you to take pictures – they are mine thankyouverymuch. Most photographers will make you sign a contract – signing away your rights to the pictures you’re paying them to take. It’s about trying to suck you for every penny they can, they want to make sure that you have to come back to them for prints, etc. Some photographers will release their rights after a period of time (years) or for a very handsome fee, which is ridiculous. The idea that a photographer maintains ownership of pictures you paid them to take is bunk; but it’s been happening so long that people don’t know any better, it shouldn’t be tolerated and people should seek out more enlightened photographers.

Several weeks before our wedding Teri called Sandi and officially offered to act as our wedding photographer (before we even asked her). I walked into the room part way through Sandi and Teri’s conversation and Sandi told me that Teri offered do our wedding photos. The first thing I asked Sandi was if she [Teri] was ok with giving us the raw pictures and Sandi nodded indicating to me that she had confirmed that Teri was ok with it. Still wanting to be sure I asked Sandi several more times, I asked so many times that Sandi gave me a look because I was being annoying; I wanted to be sure.

It’s simple, if Teri was not ok with giving us the raw pictures she would have not been our photographer.

During the conversation when Sandi asked Teri how much she’d charge us, Teri told Sandi that she would do it for free and gave Sandi a number of reasons why:

• Sandi was her friend.
• Sandi was there for her even through tough times, when no one else was.
• Sandi was the reason she met her husband⁵ met.

Teri said she wanted to photograph our wedding as a gift to Sandi, plus as a student photographer she wanted the experience of photographing a wedding and the pictures to start building her portfolio. Having Teri do our wedding pictures, no charge, was obviously advantageous to us, given our limited wedding budget. Given the risk we were taking on an inexperienced photographer though, it seemed like a fair trade.

I want to make it clear that at the time Teri was not a professional photographer; she approached us as a student photographer. Teri had no portfolio⁶, no professional experience and our wedding would be the first she had ever done.

The deal that Sandi and Teri hashed out was straight forward:

• Teri would photograph our wedding on April 1st 2009, no charge, she refused to be paid because it was to be a gift to Sandi.
• Teri was ok with giving us the raw pictures, Sandi confirmed this several times.
• If Sandi and I wanted any prints, either from Teri’s edits or my own we’d order them through Teri.
• And of course Teri was free to use our wedding pictures for her portfolio.

Sandi and I had been warned, by several people not to deal with Teri – she has a reputation of being unscrupulous, of screwing people over, and going back on her word. The problem is Sandi and I are far too trusting for our own good, and generally give people the benefit of the doubt; so we dismissed the warnings. After all Teri was Sandi’s friend, a friend of Sandi’s sister-in-law and what kind of person would frak with someone’s wedding right?

About two weeks before our wedding Teri called Sandi and asked if we could pay her $125.00 for photographing our wedding. Several weeks ago she was more than willing to do it as a gift to Sandi but something changed⁷ and now she wanted to be paid $125.00. It was two weeks before the wedding so we were a bit stuck so we agreed to pay her the $125.00, nothing else changed.

It could be argued that it’s ridiculous for a student photographer, one with no experience, to expect to be paid anything; and in fact, it is. As a student photographer they should be content with the fact that someone is willing to take the risk on them in the first place. But Sandi and I are far too nice for our own good, and thought it was fair that Teri get paid a little for taking the time out of her day.

It’s fair to say that since Teri was being paid now, even the small amount, our wedding was now a paid gig and so the stakes were raised a little higher. Our expectations went up a little compared the freebee gig she had offered us before but we were still aware that Teri had no experience.

Our wedding day came and Teri showed up with her camera and one 512MB SD card. It was a cloudy, cold, and rainy April day; so as we expected, outside pictures were not going to happen.

When we started to take pictures Teri immediately started complaining about not being able to take pictures outside, the poor lighting inside, and her camera. Teri’s complaining didn’t help Sandi who was already nervous and it was so incessant that it caught the attention of our guests and the manager of the facility. The facility manager told Sandi that she felt bad, and was turning every light on that she could… but the lack of light was not the problem though, it was Teri’s complete lack of knowing what the frak she was doing.

Again, Sandi and I were aware of Teri’s lack of experience, but one also expects that an adult who is trying to start a career would be able to maintain at least a minimum level of professional composure. That said, Sandi and I had largely forgotten about Teri’s behavior, and dismissed it. We understood that this was her first wedding and she was probably just nervous.

It’s now two weeks after our wedding and we’ve not see any of the pictures Teri took, except for three of our cake that she posted on Facebook.

Sandi was on Facebook when she got a message from Teri, via Facebook chat. Teri started the conversation with normal conversation banter and then said she had worked on our pictures that day. Sandi asked when we’d get to see them and Teri said “soon.” Sandi asked Teri about the raw pictures, and told her that she didn’t need to spend time on them (of course she was welcome to) since we’re just going to get the raw pictures and I’d Photoshop them up and go from there.

Then, the same person who brought one 512MB SD card to a wedding, the same one who complained incessantly about the weather, lighting and her camera said:

No, remember I told you I can’t do that. Anything that goes out with my name on it has to be to my quality standards.

First, Teri said she was ok with giving us the raw pictures several weeks back, second why is she so concerned with her “quality standards” now, when she was willing to represent herself so poorly at our wedding?

Eventually, Teri told Sandi that if we wanted the raw pictures we could pay her $800 for them. Teri said she’s a professional, and she needed to maintain “creative control” over her work and denied agreeing to give us the raw pictures. I find it laughable that Teri called herself a “professional” – between her incessant complaining about the weather, lighting, and her camera, only bringing one 512MB SD card to a wedding, having no experience, and no portfolio, Teri is hardly a professional.

At this point watching our wedding pictures slip away Sandi was in tears, I got on the chat and thanked Teri for bringing Sandi to tears. I called Teri a liar, and reminded her that she agreed to give us the raw pictures, and again she denied it. Like a coward she then left the Facebook chat, saying “we’ll talk later” but she never came back.

I felt like we needed an advocate, so I called Sandi’s mom and apprised her of the situation hoping that maybe she could talk to Teri (who she knew) so we could come to some resolution; but Teri would not take her calls, or ours.

Turns out, Teri was busy calling Sandi’s sister-in-law, telling her that “Adam called me every name in the book” during the Facebook chat. Sandi’s sister-in-law Kim (the wife of a pastor) then called Sandi’s mom and blatantly lied, telling her that I cussed Teri out. When Sandi’s mom told Sandi and I what Teri and Kim were saying, I was thankful that Sandi was smart enough not to close the chat window… I took screen shots to show whoever needed proof that I did not utter one curse word to Teri during the Facebook chat. Given the fact that Teri was screwing us over, Sandi and I were both rather nice.

Unfortunately, the damage was done; Teri’s actions, involving people who had nothing to do with the situation had already caused the rift to form between Sandi’s sister-in-law Kim and her brother but that is a whole other story.

The next day we sent Teri an e-mail^(pdf) – Since she was so willing to call herself a professional I outlined some issues Sandi and I had with her unprofessional behavior at our wedding and offered her some advice. Though critical of her, it was not mean. In the same e-mail we remind Teri that she agreed to give us the raw pictures and that she originally offered to photograph our wedding for free, only to ask for $125.00 two weeks before the wedding. We asked her to just give us the SD card she used for our wedding and we’d give her $25.00, more than enough to replace the 512MB card she used.

Teri replied:

Sandi and Adam,

I’m sorry you are choosing to do this. I will not play your games, and I can’t be bullied. I am not going to respond to all this rubbish. We all know the truth and if you decide to admit it and stick to the agreement we made, I will order your proofs and then prints for you. You cannot have my files, sorry, not a deal, EVER. As soon as you pay me the $125 we agreed on, plus printing, and a signed contract, the order can be placed. I would be willing to GIVE you select files for use in your video, but only with a signed contract limiting the use to your video. You can also choose not to purchase you photos, and I will write off the $125. If this is the choice you make I will consider our verbal contract void and there will be no need for further communication about this.

Teri

Hum, I don’t recall that a contract limiting the use of our pictures was a part of the “agreement we made.”

At this point Sandi and I had both emotionally written off the pictures but were not ok with what Teri was doing. She went back on her word, lied about me to Sandi’s family and was effectively holding our wedding pictures hostage, demanding ransom. It was now about the principal, about not taking Teri trying to screw us lying down.

Sandi talked to a family member, a lawyer, who told her that whatever the agreement was at the time Teri took the pictures is what we should stick by. So, we wrote Teri another e-mail^(pdf) in which we told Teri that we talked to a lawyer, and were going to go by the agreement that was in place when she took the pictures. We’d pay her $125.00, and she should give us the raw pictures. Obviously, at this point getting prints from Teri was out of the question. We also warned Teri that if she did not abide by the agreement then we would file a small claims case against her.

Teri replied:

Good luck, no contract! No proof. I told you that if you did not accept my deal that you should not contact me again. If you choose to do so I will contact authorities and get a restraining order. Yes this is serious and the law is on my side. Copyright laws are clear and you have no grounds for a lawsuit. As I told you, I will not be bullied. I am not afraid of your hot air.

Teri

Again, hum, “Good luck, no contract! No proof.” it’s true, we didn’t have a signed contract but why is she taunting us about it? She also tells us that if we don’t do it her way, she is going to get a restraining order against us; which is laughable because she has no grounds but it shows you the type of person we were dealing with. We’re trying to resolve the situation and she is threatening restraining orders.

As a last ditch effort, we sent Teri a demand letter^(pdf) via certified mail, which included a check for $125.00; we gave Teri 10 days from the date of the letter to surrender our photos. In a demonstration of utter responsibility Teri waited till the ninth day to pick the letter up from the post office. Sandi and I waited five more working days for Teri to respond, and then we filed a small claims case against her.

Now, Sandi and I both understood that it was our word against Teri’s, but we did not feel that we should take this lying down, it was the principal of the matter. With cases like this, it comes down to who the judge believes, whose story is most likely the truth. Given our stance on the issue, what’s more likely: that we’d use Teri who would not give us the raw photos unless we paid her $800, or that we’d use my uncle, or someone else who would just give them to us?

As part of the process of filing the small claims case we were required to put the dollar amount we were seeking, we could not put that we just wanted our pictures. Obviously, wedding pictures are priceless, but Sandi and I sat down and figured out how much it would cost us to recreate our wedding pictures and we came up with $3,700.00. So that’s what we filed the small claims case for, but we still just wanted the pictures, or at least to let Teri know that she couldn’t get away with screwing us over. It was not about money.

Teri was served the court papers via sheriff and we had to wait fourteen days for her to respond, she had three options:

• Deny the claim.
• Deny the claim and file a counter suit.
• Ignore it and risk a default judgment against her.

Teri decided to deny the claim and counter sue… she counter sued us for $3,700 which is laughable. First, because the most amount of money she ever asked us for was $800. Second, because that’s the same amount our suit against her was for. Teri’s counter-claim was the definition of frivolous.

In between waiting for our court date we actually got an offer to appear on Judge Judy^(pdf) and have our case arbitrated on the show. Sandi talked to a producer and got the low down on what would happen and we agreed that we would go on the show. The producer then talked to Teri and even though Teri seemed interested at first, she stopped communicating with the producer.

The producer later told us that Teri would not go on without Kim, Sandi’s sister-in-law who took Teri’s side from the beginning. What we think happened was that while Kim was willing to lie to me, Sandi and everyone else, going on TV and lying was a little too much for the wife of a pastor. Since Kim was not willing to do Judge Judy, neither was Teri. We were a little surprised; a free trip to California, free hotel stay, free food, $100 appearance fee and the show pays whatever judgment is found, it’s a sweet deal. But again, it would have required Teri and Kim to both appear on national TV and lie; it seems that they both prefer to keep their lies local.

It’s now been two months since our wedding and we have still not seen any of the pictures Teri took. Teri claimed she had amazing pictures but up till this point she refused to show them to us.

Yamhill County requires that both parties attempt mediation before the case is heard by a judge. The process is simple, both sides go into a room and two trained mediators do their best to try to get both sides to come to an agreement. It’s actually a good thing, because it forces you to listen to what the other person has to say (you are not allowed to interrupt), you have to be civil and it allows the parties to come to a mutual agreement rather than a judge forcing a decision on you.

We went first stating our side to the mediators, we told the mediators that we were still willing to adhere to the agreement that we had in place when Teri took the pictures. We’d pay Teri $125, she gives us the raw pictures like she said she would and we’d part ways. For obvious reasons we were not willing to get prints through her. The thing was that we had pay to file the small claims case against her and we felt that Teri’s unwillingness to work out the situation outside of the court system forced us to file the case; so we said we’d pay Teri $2.18 which when added to our filing costs added up to $125.

Then Teri told her side, continued to lie, said that we could get prints from her, for whatever amount she decided to pull out of her disgustingly oversized butt at that moment and we could only have the raw pictures if we paid her $800. She droned on about being a professional, it was really the most frustrating part, having to sit there and listen to Teri blather on knowing full well that she was lying.

After we both stated our sides the mediators started to… mediate. We went back and forth, neither of us willing to back down from our position. We weren’t willing to back down because we were not going to allow Teri to lie, cheat, and steal from us. Teri was not backing down because she’s a stubborn thief.

The mediators asked to speak with each of us privately, we went first. We basically told the mediators we were not going to back down; Teri agreed to give us the raw pictures and we were not going to give her the satisfaction of paying her any more money than we agreed to. It wasn’t like we had $800 just to slap down and give her anyway. Sandi was very emotional at this point; it was incredibly frustrating that even in a court house Teri would not admit that she agreed to give us the raw pictures. We also discussed Teri’s counter suit, as frivolous as it was, it did present a risk to us. If we went before a judge there was a possibility that we could end up being ordered to pay Teri even more than the $800 raw picture fee she pulled out of her disgustingly oversized butt.

Teri then took her turn to meet with the mediators privately… what they talked about we don’t know but I’d stake my life that Teri continued to lie. After Teri was done lying to the mediators privately we were called back into the room.

I’m pretty good at reading people, the mediators were frustrated because they really wanted to find a resolution to the situation and even after nearly two hours of mediation Sandi and I were not budging and neither was Teri. I’m obviously biased but I felt like they were sympathetic towards Sandi and me⁸. It was getting to the point where they were going to have to call it and we’d have to go before a judge.

Sandi summed it up very well when she told the mediators – What we are purposing, sticking to the original agreement does not cost us or Teri anything. What Teri is purposing does not cost her anything, but costs us $800, on top of the fact that it goes completely against what Teri agreed to in the first place.

The mediators told us Teri was willing to show us some of the pictures she brought of our wedding; maybe if we saw them we’d be willing to budge a little. Up till this point Teri had been unwilling to show us any of our pictures unless we paid her, so this was progress.

Sandi left the decision up to me and I thought for a little bit and finally told the mediators: If we look at the pictures, and decide that they are not worth fighting for, or paying $800 for, then we will just walk away and drop our suit as long as Teri drops her counter suit. Sandi added that Teri also has to agree to destroy the pictures. Teri refused to agree to destroy the pictures, she insisted that one day we’d come to “our senses” and pay her for them. Not likely.

Teri tried to get the mediators to add that Sandi and I could not “talk bad about her” to anyone… the mediators gave her a look like “are you five?”

We finally came to an agreement that if we looked at the pictures, did not feel that they were worth it we’d drop our suit, Teri would drop hers and Teri was barred from using any pictures from our wedding in any personal or professional capacity; in other words – she might as well destroy them because they would never see the light of day anyway.

Teri slid over a sheet with four pictures printed on it – I looked at them, Sandi looked at them. I wanted to jump across the table and beat the living crap out of Teri. How dare she put Sandi and I through this, how dare she taint our wedding day like this, how dare she force us to this room, on this day, only to show us the complete and utter pile of crap that were the pictures she took of our wedding.

Sandi and I were thinking the same thing: If you were trying to convince someone that your pictures are worth something, wouldn’t you bring your best examples? Holy monkey balls, there is no way that we’d pay her $8.00 for those pictures let alone $800.

After seeing the pictures Sandi, emotionally spent, asked me to make the final decision to drop it or see a judge.

Throughout all this Teri kept telling us what great pictures she took, and we kept reminding her that she hadn’t shown any of them to us. If she had just shown them to us in the first place, it would have never gone as far as it did because the pictures simply were not worth the fight. Sandi and I were operating off the principal of the matter, we’d already emotionally written off the pictures but Teri was trying to screw us over and we were not going to take that lying down. Before this, I thought justice would be Teri giving us our pictures per our agreement, or a judge ordering her to do so. But then, looking at those pictures, I realized that justice could be found simply by telling Teri that her pictures were not worth fighting for.

I threw the pictures back at Teri and told the mediators we’d be dropping our suit, per the agreement.

[conclusion]

In the end Teri did not get any of the money she claimed we owed her tried to steal from us and she can’t use our pictures for anything⁹, not her portfolio, not anything. Sandi and I maintained control – Teri agreed to our terms to end the suit, she didn’t even get her laughable “can’t talk bad about me” condition put in the agreement.

Teri’s hope in all this was that we’d want the pictures so bad that we’d do anything for them, and she was wrong. If we had taken the suit to a judge we would have been sending the message to Teri that the pictures were worth something and they just weren’t. In fact, had Teri not been such a twat and shown us the pictures to begin with, we would have dismissed the issue long before we filed a case against her.

Teri thought she saw an opportunity to make a quick buck; she tried, and failed to hold our wedding pictures hostage for ransom. I’d suggest that if Teri wants to try this scam with anyone else, she should do some reading and actually get pictures at least worth the paper they are printed on.

[grace]

Sandi and I still have plenty of pictures of our wedding, friends and family, decent human beings, who took snapshots have freely given us the pictures they took; no undue payment or contracts required. We do not have the “posed” pictures but we have had several people (including a real professional photographer) offer to do those for us if we want to dress back up.

¹ “Firefly” Our Mrs. Reynolds (2002)^↵

² Though I believe what is written here to be factual, it is in the end just my opinion of Teri Gunn and what she did to my wife Sandi and me. I trust that you, the discerning reader have the capability to read this, digest it, and form your own conclusions. After posting this if Teri offers a rebuttal I will be more than happy to post it here. Until then, or if your just in the mood to be lied to; you can contact Teri via e-mail and get her side of the story – rtgunn4him@msn.com. Teri also has a couple of web sites Design Explorations and The Beauty of Decay^↵

³ While not a professional, he is a more than capable photographer.^↵

⁴ A little explanation – In this case by “raw pictures” I mean the pictures directly from the camera, untouched, as shot. If we had hired a “real” photographer I’d be referring to both the untouched, as shot pictures directly from the camera, as well as the any full resolution (uncompressed) edits that the photographer may have made.^↵

⁵ You know those people that just look like child molesters, even though they may not be? Teri’s husband, Rob, looks like that. It’s completely irrelevant to this topic but worth pointing out I think.^↵

⁶ When I say portfolio, I mean a real portfolio not a few pictures posted on FaceBook.^↵

⁷ We found out later that Kim (Sandi’s sister-in-law) found out that Teri was going to photograph our wedding for free. Kim apparently had an issue with this and told Teri she should charge us $150. Apparently $125 was a compromise.^↵

⁸ Obviously, the mediators do not take sides. They never once stated an opinion one way or the other. I just felt like they understood where Sandi and I were coming from.^↵

⁹ The verbiage used is clear and we made sure of that. If it’s of our wedding, and she took it, she can’t use it in anyway shape or form. If she took a picture of the grass at our wedding, she can’t use it. Those family pictures she was taking while deleting ours? Nope sorry, bummer for you Jim and Kim. She can’t print them, show them, sell them, give them away, hell it could be argued that she can’t look at them. Oh, and those pictures of our wedding cake she has on her FaceBook – need to be pulled off. If she uses them in any personal or professional capacity she will find herself back in court.^↵

I was sitting in a waiting room with a TV tuned to the “History Channel” (which I happen to like). Since I was not there to watch TV, and the audio was down to a waiting room volume (i.e. you could barely hear it) I was only half watching. I did decipher that the program had something to do with UFO conspiracy theorists, trying to get presidents to admit that the US Government has evidence that we have been, or are being visited by aliens. I guess in UFO conspiracy circles there is a belief that the president is briefed on all the UFO happenings that our government knows about.

Now, I’m not going to get into the fact that there is zero scientific evidence that Earth has been visited by aliens, other than to say that while it’s cool to think about, entertaining and makes for good TV and movies – UFOs are bunk.

But it got me thinking…

So, what if the president admitted to UFO conspiracy theorists that the US Government is engaging in an active cover-up to hide evidence that we have been visited by aliens? Would they believe him? Could they? After all, they believe that the president is a part of the conspiracy to begin with. So, even if the president did admit something, even showed them evidence how could they believe him? He’s a part of the conspiracy after all.

The people that believe this sort of thing, UFO conspiracy theories, will never be able to accept truth; even if it’s the truth they wanted to hear. So, even if the president did confirm a UFO conspiracy theory, UFO conspiracy theorists would just turn around and claim that his admission is a part of a larger, more elaborate conspiracy to cover up another even more elaborate conspiracy, so on and so on.

#4 in “100 Things About Me” referenced a tattoo I have; figured I should show it to you:

When swapping out the computer that my SmoothWall was running on I found that while the old one had a BIOS switch allowing the system to continue booting without a keyboard (the system runs completely headless) the new one, oddly, does not.

I found this method to make a keyboard loopback; but it did not work as the system seems to want to initialize the keyboard circuit. So, rather than have a full keyboard getting in the way I took the circuit out of the keyboard and put it in an Altoids tin.

The sacrificial keyboard.

The keyboard circuit in its new home - Used bubble wrap between the tin bottom and the circuit board and everything was hot glued in place.

All buttoned up.

Plugged in and working great. Fast, simple, and effective.

Saw this sign while paroosing local garage sales with Sandi:

We have a utility pole in our backyard (previous owners had a trailer there) and it’s not that nice of a thing to have in one’s backyard (at least when it’s not doing anything). So your left with two options: take it out, or build something on it… guess which one I’d like to do:

FYI – Utility lines have already been removed.

Now, I’d like to build this for our boys (it would be great for Airsoft); but it can serve a second purpose – pull up the ladder and it would make a safe (at least temporary) shelter from the zombie hordes.

The main platform is 10x10 with the "deck" being 4x4. The utility pole is roughly 16 feet tall; the floor would be ~7 feet off the ground. Canvas would be used to enclose the sides completely - that way it can be rolled up to open the house for a 360° view.

The idea is to have to pole supporting all but the deck of the house.

I was tired of breathing solder fumes so I decided to make myself a fume extractor – in its simplest form a fume extractor sucks the soldering fumes up and passes them through a filter, in this case I used and activated carbon filter.

You can buy fume extractors from anywhere $30 to thousands but since I already had everything to make this (except the carbon filters and the tin) I decided to go the DIY route. The filters were $11 for a big roll (enough to cut a few dozen filters for this) and $3 for the tin.

Parts - small round tin, 40mm high speed fan, 12v wall wart, mini toggle switch, adjustable (gooseneck) lamp neck, carbon filter, and a pink pencil.

The tin I found (at Fred Meyer) had a magnet glued to it that had to be taken off.

The magnet peeled cleanly off.

Before I cut into the tin I drew out on paper how I was going to cut the fan opening.

I used blue painters tape so I could draw the cutout pattern on the tin. The darker lines get cut (used a Dremel).

Fan opening cut and mounting holes drilled.

I ran the power cable through the lamp neck.

I extended the leads on the fan and had to cut one corner off to get the fan to clear the neck bolt.

All secure - I had to scrap the toggle switch because it broke

I cut the carbon filters to fit inside the tin lid (popped out the plastic that was there). I found that layering two filters worked best for filtering while still giving enough air flow.

Works like a charm.

I can clamp it to the base of my PanaVise or anywhere else I may need it to suck fumes.

I needed a light for my “100 Things About Me” pictures and this idea has been sitting in my bookmarks for awhile.

So, I decided it was time to make my own and this is the result:

Taken using the Ring Light.

First "100 Things About Me" picture taken using the light ring.

My ring light was completely inspired by Joe Holst’s blog post on his own DIY ring light. Stop by his site and take a look at his – it’s much prettier than mine.

I have a 1U dual processor rack mount server that is particularly loud even sitting in a closed closet because (as is the case with most 1U rack mount servers) it uses several (4) tiny high speed fans to blow air through the case to keep it cool. Tiny fans like these can move a lot of air but have a habit of creating a loud high pitched whining sound when running and having 4 of them on, in addition to the two CPU fans, can be quite loud. Too loud.

I tried just unplugging the fans and leaving the top cover on but found that it got real hot, real fast. So, I left the top cover off and found that even with the tiny exhaust fans off everything stayed at a reasonable temp but I still wanted to move some air around to keep everything a bit cooler. If nothing else it was an excuse to “make” something.

What I tried was to hang a 120mm (15v) fan above the open server, hoping it would blow cooler air onto and push hot air away from the server. After I had the fan wired up and hung I did some tests to see if the hanging fan did any good:

Operating as designed – cover on, tiny fans running:

CPU1: 84.2°F
CPU2: 87.8°F
MOBO: 101.3°F

Operating with cover off and tiny fans unplugged:

CPU1: 118.4°F
CPU2: 124.7°F
MOBO: 131.0°F

Operating with cover off and hanging fan running:

CPU1: 102.2°F
CPU2: 103.1°F
MOBO: 113.9°F

So the hanging fan does help keep the Opteron processors away from their 156-158°F max operating temperature and it’s much quieter than the 4 tiny fans. It’s certainly not cooling as well as the 4 tiny fans with the cover on but it is acceptable.

Seems as though FedEx got there hands on a Blendtec Blender and decided to do their own “Will It Blend?” test on my order from Adafruit Industries.

Fortunately, Adafruit is sending out a replacement overnight (at no cost to me), which is really above and beyond considering that this was a FedEx FAIL and I was a bit of an ass to Adafruit about the issue initially blaming them rather than FedEx.

It's obvious that FedEx put the package in a plastic bag to hide the damage.

What FedEx didn't want me to see (the reason it was wrapped it in a plastic bag).

The economy being what it is – a friend asked me how much it costs to have his office computers running 24/7. So, I used my current measurement interface and multimeter to measure how much current one of the systems drew in various states of use. Knowing the current draw I could figure out how much wattage the system was using in those various states of use.

volts x amps = watts

I found the Oregon commercial electric rate of ¢7.63 per kilowatthour from here and used the following formula to figure out the cost to run one system 24/7:

watts x 24 hours x 30.5 days/month = watt hours (Wh)

Wh / 1000 = kilowatthour (kWh)

kWh x ¢7.63 = cost per month to run computer 24/7 for month

What’s most interesting is that when the system and the monitor were powered off they were still drawing 9.6 watts! That’s ¢54 a month just for the privilege of having the device plugged in!

Wikipedia – Vampire Power

In my 26 years of existence I’ve learned that life is hardly ever fair; in fact a lot of times it can feel like life is kicking your face in, when you’re already on the ground from it punching you in the stomach. In all the times that life was punching me in the stomach, or kicking my face in – I learned some things:

• Even though life is hardly ever fair, it’s still worth living.
• Life is worth living because of other people, and the experiences both good and bad that we share.
• Life should not be lived alone – it should be shared with friends, family, and even those you can’t stand.
• Don’t over analyze, life isn’t that complicated – just live.
• Don’t let the punching and kicking make you bitter – let yourself be happy.
• Be yourself, always.
• Every now and then life stops punching and kicking and hands you a gift, and when it does you should grab on to it and never let go.
• The single most precious gift that life can give you is people that accept and love you for who you are because being you is really what your life is meant for.

Sandi (that’s with an ‘i’) is beautiful, smart, funny, and caring person someone who makes it worth going though the kicks and punches of life. She is one of those precious gifts that life gives you; and in order to grab hold of that gift and never let it go I have asked her to marry me. She said yes.

Dates set for April 1st (Yeah, I know April 1st! w00t)

-I love you Sandi and Boys-

It what is certainly an exercise in self absorption – at least a couple times a month when the mood strikes I will post a picture of myself holding a white piece of paper. Written on that paper in sharpie will be one fact about me. As the title suggests this will continue till I reach 100 things about me.

The pictures are pretty self explanatory – just an easy way to get a computer up off the floor with supplies available at any home improvement store:

[click on images for full size]

Give her a video of her kids reading her favorite story for Christmas:

Book – “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch

Music – “Breathless” by Daniel Rudd of Stock20

Both of you – get your damn act together. Stop fighting like a couple of prepubescent twats, and put the programing people pay for back on the air. I really don’t care whose “fault” it is; the fact that it came down to an entire local channel being pulled off the air is ridiculous and both parities should be ashamed of themselves.

Fisher Communications, inc. forces DISH Network to Remove its ABC lineup

KATU no longer available to DISH Network Subscribers

My “Easy (and cheep) Panavise Weighted Base” post was featured on the Make blog! w00t!

This was an easy and cheap way to add a weighted base to my Panavise 201 Jr.

You can buy weighted bases that are specifically made for the Panavise 201 Jr; but I had the materials lying around and a lot of times making stuff is funner than buying it.

I used a 2.5lb plate weight (or dumbbell weight) for the weighted base. The only modification needed was the drilling of three holes for mounting the Panavise:

Introducing the Panavise to its new base:

Test fit – the screws will be trimmed later:

Screws trimmed and rubber feet added for grip and screw clearance:

All done; time for eggnog:

Related – Panavise Weighted Base on MAKE

I had a root canal (or Endodontic therapy for purists) on this tooth a bit back because it had fractured. My current dentist told me that I needed to have a crown put on it to keep the tooth from breaking off.

This is what it looked like before the crown was put on, a large portion of the original tooth is removed to make room for the crown:

I have a temporary crown in now, the permanent one takes two weeks to make.

I can. Over the weekend I moved awaitinginspiration.com from Media Temple’s (gs) to a Media Temple (dv) server. Loading times have vastly improved both on the back-end (WordPress) and on the front-end.

The (gs) was great but it suffered from slowness and had availability issues – I’m hoping that (cs) resolves those issues. Maybe I’ll go back when it’s available. Until then I’m really liking the performance and absolute control that the (dv) gives you.

WARNING: The following project deals with mains voltage, which can cause serious injury or death. Should you choose to replicate any part of this project I am not responsible for any injury or death that may result.

I wanted a way to easily and safely (or semi-safely) use my multimeter’s current measuring function (ammeter) on 120Vac devices.

To measure current with an ammeter you need to break the circuit and insert the ammeter so that the electricity flows through the ammeter on its way to the device being powered.

To do this easily and safely with devices powered via mains voltage (120Vac) I made this “interface.” One side of the circuit goes directly to the outlet, and the other is broken and goes to a terminal strip. An ammeter is connected to the terminal strip, completing the circuit and allowing the ammeter to measure the current being drawn from the device plugged into the outlet.

This was easy, took only about an hour to make, and all the parts can be picked up from any decent hardware store:

I started with a standard plastic surface mount switch/outlet box:

I used small angle brackets to attach the terminal strip to the box:

Drilled holes in the box to mount the terminal strip:

Cut some machine screws down to size:

The terminal strip attached to the box:

Drilled a hole for the wires to pass through to the terminal strip:

Wired up the outlet – this is wired the same way you’d normally wire an outlet except that one side (positive in this case) of the circuit is being broken by the terminal strip:

All together:

Only the last two terminals are used, the rest are just extra:

Measuring the current draw of a desk lamp (CLF bulb). Notice that I used longer screws on the terminal strip to allow alligator clips to be clipped on:

Now I can measure the current draw of a 120Vac device (or devices) easily and relatively safely using my multimeter. I say “relatively safely” because the terminals are exposed so caution should be taken when in use. Also, it should only be used for quick measurements, noting long term.

By measuring the current draw (amps) of a device you can easily figure out how many watts it’s pulling by multiplying the source voltage by the amps.

volts x amps = watts

My CFL bulb is drawing 0.12 amps, times that by 120 and we get 14.4 watts.

Another call to renew a “free” subscription – and me having fun with the person on the other end of the line.

Download as mp3 – right click “Save Target As/Save Link As”

Related – “I’m not getting you…”

OK, plagiarism is wrong, copying content without attribution is wrong. Individuals and companies should make it clear what can and can’t be done with the content they publish on line. A Creative Commons license is a good way to do just that. However the content is licensed, it’s best to notify people of your restrictions without sounding to bitchy.

Case in point:

All that “This site is monitored daily” business makes me want to copy something off their site just to see what happens. And I love the “Share on Facebook” link right under the ominous do not copy anything off this site warning. Also, I’m lost on how monitoring their own site is going to protect their content; seems to me they’d want to monitor the internet for copies of their content and not their own site.

Again, it’s important to let visitors to your site know what is and isn’t OK when it comes to the use of your content. But a simple copyright notice or link to your usage terms is all that is necessary. Warnings and threats like this only serve to make you look like an ass; not something you want if you’re trying to run a business. Save the bitchiness for the person that missuses your content, not the innocent visitor to your site.

Bitchy copyright notice – merrickmgt.com

Most of the time I’m polite and say something like “sorry I don’t have time” and hang up; this time I decided to have a little fun.

Download as mp3 – right click “Save Target As/Save Link As”

Related – “Do you need an organ?”

Just testing the WordPress iPhone app. Seems to work pretty well… Would not want to make a long post though.

After updating to the latest WordPress release (2.6) I was checking out the new Post Revision feature when I inadvertently tried to compare a revision to itself. What resulted scared the #@$& out of me at first… then I realized that it was the Easter Egg the WordPress folks deny is there.

NOTE: This Easter Egg existed in the 2.6 release candidates; what’s funny is that it survived to the official release.

See the WordPress 2.6 Easter Egg in action:

I am proud to announce that I am finally the owner of the domain adam.com… well, sort of. Let me explain; see the domain adam.com is owned by ADAM, Inc. a health benefit company of sorts and no matter how nice I asked I doubt that ADAM, Inc. (considering their company name) would be willing to part with the domain. So, how did I get the domain adam.com you ask? In a fit of geek inspiration I thought “binary!”

01100001011001000110000101101101.com

That string of 0s and 1s the binary bits that run our modern world when converted to text spells “adam”. Fortunately for me the domain 01100001011001000110000101101101.com was available; so I registered it. Now I can sleep at night knowing that I finally have the domain adam.com… sort of.

An Instructables book is being made and they are taking votes to see which Instructables will be included; the voting is open now and ends August 11th. Prizes are the glory of having your Instructable published in the book and a free copy when it comes out. I have entered my Instructables in the contest and there are tons of other great entries so go vote!

An Instructables account is required to vote but it’s easy and free to sign up.

Once you are registered (if your not already) follow the links below and click on the “Vote Now!” button at the top of the page.

My Instructables entered in the contest:

Zero Point Shelf

Industrial Picture Frame

Kee Klamp Shelf

Framing a t-shirt (on the cheap)

The subject of this post is a US based Curves Health Club and has nothing to do with the plus size clothing company Dearcurves (dearcurves.com).

Original post removed on 7/5 due to threat of legal action by the owner of the Curves franchise but I don’t like being bullied and censored so I have decided to put the original post back and reopen comments.

After speaking with the owner I believe that the Curves in question takes this matter (data security) very seriously and that a similar situation will likely not take place. I believe that this was an isolated oversight and that the owners have learned a valuable lesson (i.e. they were scared shit-less and will probably be more careful).

I should clear some things up:

• Beyond the phone numbers and addresses contained in the letters (WordPerfect docs) there was no other data found on the system.
• The Curves database was encrypted and NO EFFORT was made to circumvent this encryption; no billing information (if any existed) was exposed.
• I was slightly misquoted on The Consumerist – no credit card information was found. My original post pointed out the potential for billing information to be found based off information I read on the iGo software.
• The hard drive was wiped (by me) using DBAN and no copies of the original data exist.
• Upon request demand of the owner the computer (and hard drive) were returned to them.

For future reference appropriate means of contacting me regarding posts on this blog are:

• Via the comments form that is shown below every post.
• Via my e-mail address adam [at] awaitinginspiration.com which is posted on the CONTACT page.

Inappropriate means of contacting me regarding posts on this blog:

• Coming to my house.

update: someone (TroyM27) calming to represent the owner of the Curves in question posted a comment on The Consumerist.

update: mranderson2008 makes some very good points.

update: Tyler Reguly posted about this on his blog.

Original post:

About two weeks ago now a relative found a Dell Inspiron 4500 sitting in the trash at the complex where he works. As the computer looked perfectly fine and it was obviously thrown out, he grabbed it to take a look at it. When he got it home and booted the system he found that the hard drive was still intact and other than running very slow the system seemed fine. He chalked it up to possibly having an infection, spyware or virus and determined that the folks who threw it out didn’t know any better than to just throw it away. It was later determined that the problem was a misconfiguration in the BIOS, the CPU was set to “compatibility mode” rather than “normal mode.” Once the BIOS was configured correctly the system ran perfect. Additionally, it was determined that the computer came from the Curves that resides in the complex.

Now I can cut Curves a small break for being idiots and throwing away a perfectly good computer, I mean the whole “compatibility mode” thing almost got me. However, what is completely inexcusable is the fact that they left the data on the hard drive intact; both customer and employee data.

I was able to find several documents (Word Perfect) that contained mostly trivial data, while still others contained phone numbers and addresses of both employees and clients. Even more disturbing the system still contained the Curves database “iGo Figure” which is really just an Access database. By looking at the features of the “iGo Figure” software you can see that the database potentially contains extremely personal information (i.e. credit card information). The database is password protected and while I didn’t; extracting the information from the database would likely be trivial.

I contacted Curves corporate office and was told by Pete that (I’m paraphrasing): Each Curves is responsible for their own systems, maintenance, etc. but he felt that this was inexcusable and he would contact the manager of the offending Curves to discuss the matter with them. He also asked me to wipe the hard drive.

No matter who you are or what your knowledge is if you run a business it is your responsibility to educate yourself (or pay someone) on how to handle technological issues like proper data disposal. There is simply no excuse for a scenario like this to occur.

The Access database:

Notice the ironic warning about giving out phone numbers to clients:

There were a few letters to clients, some contained full addresses:

After taking these screen shots the hard drive was wiped using DBAN. After editing all original versions of the images (to hide full names, addresses and phone numbers) the originals were securely deleted off my system.

Not that it’s news, just showing my support at this point but Firefox 3 has been released and is available for download.

Download Firefox 3
View new features in Firefox 3

In my post “Framing a t-shirt (on the cheap)” I used an acrylic box frame to frame a t-shirt. The acrylic frame worked well but admittedly it was a bit haphazard and the masking-tape backing (which held the t-shirt in) was starting to come off. So while perusing the local Michaels for something unrelated I came across some shadow boxes and thought that they might work better.

This is the 8×10 shadow box frame I got from michaels, it goes for ~$14.00 but it was on sale for ~$9.00; either way it’s still inexpensive. Notice how tall the sides are – you will see the benefit of this later on.

A piece of foam core was cut to fit inside the frame:

The foam core was then placed inside the t-shirt and test fitted in the frame. Note that you may need to cut the foam core a little bit smaller to compensate for the t-shirt:

The high sides of the shadow box frame allow the rest of the shirt to be stuffed inside the frame:

Before the final fit a lit roller was used to remove any fuzzes from the t-shirt:

Gave the glass of the frame a good cleaning too:

After the final stuffing the the back of the frame was put in place:

Final result:

A jackalope is a jackrabbit/antelope hybrid. Contrary to what you might hear in places with names that start with “hick” and end with “ville” the jackalope is not real animal.

This jackalope piggy bank (henceforth known as Steve) was acquired by a friend who traveled to such a place whose name starts with “hick” and ends with “ville.”

It seems that Steve shares my affection for Del Taco…

Jackalope reference on Wikipedia

I was going to post a rant about TBS interrupting my “Family Guy” reruns in a pathetic attempt to advertise the “Bill Engvall Show” but Jason Kottke did a fine job of it:

They paused the TV show, ran a little mini-commercial for some show that no one cares about, and then returned to the last two seconds of the segment before going to commercial.

Not only did they do this just a few seconds before going to an actual commercial, they did this in the middle of the show as well.

Not normally a movie critic, I don’t listen to movie critics… I prefer to see the movie and make my own conclusion and let others make theirs. Movies are art and therefore subject to one’s individual interpretation… I determined a long time ago that it’s pointless to try to convince someone a movie is good or a movie is bad, doesn’t mean I don’t try though…

My family and I saw “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” this past Friday. I was excited about seeing it because I loved watching the original “Indiana Jones” movies as a kid. Let me point out that the silliness and corny nature of “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is not what I have a problem with, it goes in line with the previous films and is part of the “Indiana Jones” signature. I loved it when Mutt flew through the air swinging on vines like a monkey, I can even go with Indy surviving a nuclear explosion in a fridge. Harrison Ford still has what it takes and plays Indiana Jones beautifully; Shia LaBoef manages to not be annoying and pulls his character Mutt off well. The acting, cinematography, visual effects are all great! The problem is the story – I can do aliens, or interdimensional beings, I will even give you crystal skeletons that are alive. However, the movie had no point. They discovered apparently super intelligent beings who in the process of trying to impart their “superior” knowledge killed Irina Spalko and then split town destroying any evidence that they ever existed… I mean really. I sat in the theater waiting till the end hoping that there would be a line, a scene, something that would bring it all together that would make it all make sense… didn’t happen.

Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Lucas – I want my money back.

[photo credit]

I had a dream last night about Captain America and we were whistling up and down this giant phone trying to sing the chocolate milk stain out of the lips and then Chris Farley showed up and said “if I only had a brain” while waving a flag with Lindsey Lohan and holding spaghetti in the other hand. It was weird.

[original photo credit]

When I decided to start awaitinginspiration.com one of the first things I started to work on was hosting for the domain, since I was on a limited budget for the project I decided to host the domain myself rather then pay for hosting. The only thing I needed was a computer that I could use as a web server. Normally, getting my hands on a computer wouldn’t be a problem as I generally have at least one old system lying around. However, at the time my surplus of spare computers was limited; I had a couple of computers that I could have used but they were all dedicated to other tasks and I needed a dedicated system for the web server.

When cleaning out my garage I came across an old Tandy 102 Portable Computer. It didn’t occur to me at first, but later I wondered if somehow I could use the Tandy 102 as my web server. I started to take a look at the system and realized that being manufactured in 1987 it was never conceived that someone might want to use the Tandy 102 as a web server for their blog. There were some definite problems that had to be overcome:

• Very limited memory – 32K
• Very limited storage – but it has an interface for a tape drive
• No Ethernet port – but it has a modem

Through some trial and error I was able to interface a standard 80GB IDE hard drive with the tape drive port on the Tandy 102, I thought about using a flash drive which may have been easier to interface but I wouldn’t have gotten the storage I need. Getting the phone port (modem) interfaced with an Ethernet port was a bit more complicated but I was able to do it eventually. To get passed the memory constraints of the Tandy 102 I interfaced a 1GB USB flash drive to supplement its 32K. I decided early on in the project to use Ubuntu as the Linux distro, this made setting up the LAMP server easy as Ubuntu has a server distribution that has an automatic LAMP install. It took some doing but eventually I was able to get Ubuntu installed on the hard drive and get the Tandy 102 to boot form the hard drive.

After some configuration of the LAMP server I installed WordPress, configured the DNS settings for the domain to point to my home’s public IP address and the server was live. Overall I’m quite pleased with its performance at only 2Mhz it serves the site pretty well. It also has low power consumption and can run off 4 AA batteries for hours – built in UPS!

photo goodness: (click on image for full size)

If you were on AI at all today you may have noticed the strangeness that was the upgrade to WordPress 2.5. So far only