Ubuntu, CPU Scaling, Battery life and You

My laptop was almost burning my legs tonight so I did a little looking for CPU scaling options in Ubuntu. I found a very useful page on how to adjust the power save method in Gnome on Ubuntu 8.04.

Ubuntu, CPU Scaling, Battery life and You

Last Nights FDLLUG Meeting in Review

Here is a list of things from last night to review, if I miss anything
feel free to let me know. Thanks to everybody who helped.

1. MPTC blocks IRC, work a rounds were needed to join the "fail safe" channel.
2. MPTC wireless issues, most of use had issues joining the network/getting an IP. Once on the network with an IP things were ok.
3. Streaming video over EVDO Rev A. isn't to bad. (Sprint)
   
4. Group audio is an issue. (headsets would help)
   
5. I want a better camera
6. DimDim might work best for whiteboard, and maybe presentations, audio and video kinda lacking yet. Only the presenter can stream a small video. Limit to 3 Audio mics and seemed laggy.
7. Stickam had decent video and audio for a presenter, might be one of the best options to stream video.
8. Adobe Breeze was kinda neat, was the best "shared" video experience We got 4 streams going at once everybody had the same size video window. Audio was also decent. Sharing docs was better in DimDim.
9. I should get a headset with a mic built in.
10. Learned a bunch about the touchscreen thingy that controls the room. It is east to use but we still don't know everything.
11. Having more than one internet connection was nice when we started loading on the video.
12. We could have used more time and been more prepared.

Other thoughts and ideas.

• I had an idea that might be good to try. We have two projectors that can be hooked to two different computers, for presentations coming from a remote source we could combo a shared presentation on google docs on one screen and a stickam session showing video of the presenter with audio on the other.
• More research about what we can do at MPTC with what the room is equipped with might help.
• Maybe look at Talkshoe for audio, didn't have time for this last night.
• Look for other video options. I'm sure there are other options that might have andvantages.
• It would be nice to figure out how to record the audio/video for later distribution via a podcast.

New Podcast and FDLLUG News

I added the new gdgt podcast to my listening today done by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block.  The podcast can be found at http://gdgt.com or in iTunes.  I have listened to a little over half of the first weekly podcast.  This podcast is going over things in the gadgets in the past year. It sounds like future podcasts might be more about the current weeks gadget news in the future.  Audio quality was good and the two make a good team, I think this podcast will stay in my subscription list.

I am also preparing for the next FDLLUG meeting, so far things are going ok, I think we will have enough things to test to keep us busy for a little while.  It looks like DimDim might be a good option to use overall, but we will see what that night brings.  If things go well, I might be able to wrap everything up into a podcast and release it also.

NSLU2 Internet Gateway

I had an idea to try to setup my NSLU2 as a Internet gateway to be able to share my HTC Mogul's Internet connection when needed. I've almost had it working over bluetooth pan except the NSLU2 doesn't seem to be getting an IP address. Once I get that issue figured out I hope to have a full guide. I hope to have it setup before the next FDLLUG meeting in hopes to attempt see how streaming video over Sprint EVDO Rev A. works.

Debian on the NSLU2 - Success

I finally succeeded in installing Debian on my NSLU2, now to play around and see what it can do. I am considering making it a webserver to server content to my Wii via the browser.

This is my first arm based linux box so it will be interesting to see what I can do with it. I also wonder how the 133Mhz is going to hold up. The NSLU2 can be modded to remove the factory underclocking, but there are some concerns about stability when running full speed. Time will tell what I can do with it now that it is a working linux box.

iContact for Windows Mobile

I came across iContact for Windows Mobile today. The iContact app brings iPhone like finger-friendly contact management to windows mobile. The out the authors website.

Debian on the NSLU2

I've now made a couple attempts to install Debian on my Linksys NSLU2. The NSLU2 has a very limited amount of memory so installing is a challenge. My big issue is seems to be running out of memory while formatting my drive. I've been lucky so far that it hasn't locked up because I am remotely accessing the machine via ssh from home. It looks like it isn't going to work again, I think I will have to prepare the drive in another computer and try again tomorrow.

Internet Laptop Update

I've made some progress on my fast booting internet laptop. Right now its booting in just under a minute. I hope to do some more tweaking and tuning yet, but 45 seconds is seeming harder to hit off of my Ubuntu install. I have already delayed starting of most non critical services until after firefox is loaded. Laptop is working decent otherwise except I also want to scale the CPU down a bit after its done booting to help with heat and battery life. Hopefully I will post a full guide after I'm happy with the results.

I still haven't made much progress on my simple web based wireless card manager. I have thought about it and I'd also like to maybe include a few other things like battery life info on this web page. I would really like to be able to get any computer information I need directly from firefox.

Project: Simple Internet Device

Goal: Create a fast booting laptop to get me to a browser asap and have simple wireless setup.

I have a laptop that boots up ubuntu base install with fluxbox right now. My plan is to have it boot up and start firefox. My current issue is I want to be able to setup wireless without having to fire up anything extra on the gui. My idea to fix that is to create a web based wifi manager to find and connect to access points. I lack php skills so this may be an issue, but I don't think it will be that hard to do.

Hopefully I can round up some help on this project. Once I can get a handle on the wireless then its time to start tuning the boot time and add some firefox extentions to fill in any other gaps.

I think this would be great to be able to apply this same idea to a web tablet, but until tech crunch comes out with their web tablet, I'm hoping this will be the next best thing.

Ubuntu 8.04 mogul usb tethering

I got my Windows Mobile Sprint Mogul to work via USB tethering and Internet Connection Sharing on my Ubuntu 8.04 install.

Here are my simple steps.

apt-get install subversion
svn co https://synce.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/synce/trunk/usb-rndis-lite
cd usb-rndis-lite/
make
sudo ./clean.sh
sudo make install

Next plug in the usb cable, and fire up Internet Sharing and click connect on the phone.

On the computer click on the network icon on the top panel and select "Wired Network (Unknown USB Wireless Interface)" from the list and shortly you should have a IP address and be all set.

As a side note to make tethering work make sure that you turn on "Enable advanced network functionality" under "USB to PC" icon on the connections tab in your windows mobile settings.

3 Phase Makes the Motor Go Round

I did a little reading today about the Tesla Motors sports car that is coming out next year. The Tesla car makes use of a 3 phase AC motor with regenerative braking. I also did some reading on frequency drives today. The frequency drive is how you can control the speed and torque of an AC motor, and reduce power draw during startup.

I don't know how easy it would be to do, but the question I am asking at the moment is can I make a computer control the frequency drive? If not full control it would be fun at least to be able to have three profiles that we can use. I'd like to be able to adjust from max battery/econo mode to performance/max acceleration mode with just a click or knob adjustment.

Well off to more research.

Dominic's First Christmas

Today was Dominic's first Christmas. While he is kinda young to understand what is going on, I think he had a wonderful Christmas. Dominic got a lot of stuff, but I thought I would take a moment to share one gift we got for him that I really liked. We got him the Sakar Crayola Keyboard. This is a keyboard designed for younger kids with easy to use large buttons. Dominic is only 9 months, so he has a long way to go, but its never to early to start. More details on the keyboard here.

Dominic likes playing on the computer while we are trying to use it, so I want to set him up with a computer and software designed for infants and toddlers. I hope to start him out right from the start with a linux computer.

Fond du Lac Technology Conference

I had an idea a few weeks ago to have a Fond du Lac Technology Conference. My idea is to help help boost technology and linux/open source on a local scale. Details are scarce at the moment, but I am looking for anybody who might be willing to help. My goal is to make something happen by 2009/2010. One of my goals in this idea is to promote the Fond du Lac Linux Users Group (FDLLUG) and promote people and businesses that make a living of open source. If your interested or have suggestions, please email me at t i m f d l l u g . o r g

Blog Change

I'm giving the blogging thing a try again. In the past this blog was mostly planned to be computer related, but I'm changing it up a little. I hope to keep it a little more up to date with what I'm doing. Why I need to write a blog post to say this, I don't know.

Stay tunned for more stuff.

Steam power and Turbines

I know I posted the other day about want to convert a car to electric, and while telling somebody about it today, I was reminded of a past idea. I want to teach my son how everything works, one thing I always wanted to do what to build some sort of steam engine. I think it would be an interesting shop project for the two of us to work on. I justed wanted to write this down someplace while I was thinking about it. I wanted to follow up the steam project with a homebuilt turbine, but thats a different days project.

On a side rant, maybe it would be could to be able to recharge my future electric car with a steam powered generator.

Electric Car

I have been tossing around the idea of late of building an electric car. I know I can't afford it at the moment, but its always fun to dream and plan. I want something I can use for my daily commute to work. Most days I put on less than 30 miles, but I would like to be able to safely make a 150 mile trip. I'm working on some research, and things are in the early phase right now, I just started looking up things today.

Being early in the research phases yet its hard to say where this goes. One vehicle I would like to convert is something like my wife's 2002 Ford Escape. I really like how it handles, and it is a handy vehicle to have, plus I like the idea of having a 4wd EV.

Hopefully I will do more planning and you will see more blog postings here.

AstLinux

Its been a while since I posted any updates. Currently I've been playing with Astlinux. My previous post talked about trixbox, a linux distribution designed to be the easiest way to get a Asterisk box up and going. While true, the web-based config seems to be somewhat of a pain.

I was talking with a friend and he really like Astlinux, so I went to work on trying it out. Astlinux is a striped down linux disto designed to boot from a compact flash card. In my test setup, my machine is booting from a 64mb CF card, and has a USB thumb drive to store voice mail and other data.

I have to say it was more effort to get the Astlinux machine going and achieve the same things I was doing with Trixbox, but in the long run I learned more and much prefer dealing directly with the config files over the web interface of the Trixbox.

My test setup now has the Astlinux box and a phone at my home, and the Trixbox and a phone at work. I am now able to call between home and work via Free World Dialup. I am also experimenting with a Skype to SIP program, It would seem like I can get my SkypeIn number to ring in on my Asterisk box.

I don't know exactly what I'm going to do next with the setup, I may be getting a land line in my home so, at that point I might push that number into my system, and I also might be connecting to anyother VoIP provider to handle long distance calls.

In the future I would like to be able to connect an Asterisk box to the work Shoreline system, allowing me to extend my work phone, to where I'm working and break me away from the desk, but I'm not sure I really want to be that reachable to the point that I will spend money on the hardware required.

TrixBox

This week I had some time to play with Trixbox, for those unfamiliar with Trixbox, it is a linux distro based on centos designed to easily setup an Asterisk VoIP server. I was able to get the machine setup with a couple Polycom 501 phones, but I haven't had much time to setup much else yet. I'd like to experiment more and what advanced features I can use to benefit me. I have a few projects in my future that might benefit from me doing some further testing.

Wanted, pair of computers

I guy I work with came up with an interesting idea, and I'd love to play with it just a little bit to see if it would really work. The idea is this, have a pair of machines both the same, one that backs up the other machine. Nothing really interesting about that until we start talking about the details of the proposed way of achieving redundancy.

Newer Linux 2.6 kernels support AOE (ATA over Ethernet) protocol designed for high volume data thoughput over Ethernet interfaces without TCP/IP overhead. Unlike most network storage AOE volumes appear to the OS as block devices in /dev. Now because the OS sees the drive as a block device, you should be able to add a remote drive to a software mirror.

The long and short of it is you have two systems connected via a crossover cable, one system boots up normal, the other boots up in slave mode. In normal operation Server A is mirroring all data to server B via software raid. In the event of problem with server A, server B could be promoted or rebooted to be the master. Server A could be repaired or replaced and resume operations as a slave to B.

I have to say it may seem kind of crazy, but I have to agree I like the idea of using raid to mirror volumes over any other way I can think of. I was also worried about network overhead, but I think gigabit Ethernet can outtransfer most hard drives, and AOE keeps network overhead down. Exact details about switching a machine from slave to master are still in the works, but it just might work.

I'm trying to find a pair of machines just to some basic testing.

Qemu

Today's app of interest is Qemu. Last night at the Fond du lac Linux Users Group (FDLLUG) meeting, Rene Horn did a presentation on Qemu. Qemu is software to emulate a virtual machine within your existing operating system. Before last night I had never used Qemu, however I do have to say it seems interesting. Today I got a chance to play with it a little bit and it seems to work fine, I haven't had a chance to do much yet. I do have to say that it seems to have some interesting options that VMware doesn't have. I'll have to do further testing before I can talk on the full usefulnes of Qemu.