About me I've been a computer programmer since I first started typing in program listings on a Commodore Vic 20 when I was about 8. My hobbies include electronics, CNC manufacturing, photography, beer and winemaking.
I live with my wife and lots of left-over parts from unfinished projects in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.]
Blog
24 January 2014, 17:06 UTCGot A Chromebook
I have been wanting a travel computer lighter than my 15" laptop
but more capable than my Nexus 7 combined with a bluetooth keyboard.
And, frankly, I had just had gadget envy for the Samsung ARM Chromebook
since it was announced.
When I'm on the go, my needs are basically:
- Modern web browser with adblock and greasemonkey
- A ssh (or, better yet, mosh) client
- A comfortable keyboard
- Fairly light
In particular, some things I didn't need are
- Hundreds of GB of local storage
- Four or eight cores of computing power
- Full compatibility with desktop Linux or x86
I felt it would be nice to have
- Long battery life
- Ability to install Linux or customized ChromiumOS if I decided I needed it
- Inexpensive enough to buy without being 100% sure it'll meet my needs
From my experience with Chromium-browser on Debian, I know that Chrome is an
adequate web browser with Adblock, Ghostery, and TamperMonkey (though it's not
100% identical in function to Firefox), and I was aware of ssh apps for it. I
also tried out the Samsung's keyboard at a local Best Buy and found it adequate.
So when Amazon had them for $230 last week, I decided to treat myself.
I've now had the device for a few days, and it's been a positive adventure.
I immediately placed the device in developer mode and installed debian wheezy
via crouton, but I'm not
presently using anything in my debian chroot. For a short time, I used Secure
Shell to ssh to the wheezy chroot and run mosh there.
I found that after a few customizations, mosh-chrome is a pefectly adequate
mosh client. After I resolved a problem building
it, I customized the colors to match my rxvt, added the ability to send a
remote command, and hardcoded my default connection settings. However, on at
least two occasions, mosh-chrome has failed to resume its session after
suspending and changing wireless networks, so I'm not sure it's as reliable as
desktop mosh.
Other thoughts:
- I had to rewrite one of my private GreaseMonkey scripts to work in
TamperMonkey.
- Adblock and ghostery both seem to work adequately on the ChromeBook.
- I do miss having a compose key.
- I wish there was a SIP client I could use with callcentric, but I haven't
found one yet.
- I haven't had a chance to assess the battery lifetime yet.
- Emacs users rejoice, you can map the "search" key (in the position of "caps lock" on a standard PC keyboard) to Control.
10 December 2012, 20:21 UTCNew hardware
I'm in the process of setting up a new machine to be a home server. I'll
include more boring details about this here.
Trust me, it's pretty dry reading.
20 January 2012, 13:51 UTC30+ years of computers
During some downtime, I made a list of all the computers I could
remember owning. The list is surprisingly long, and goes back to 1992
(before which I had a Commodore 64 but that barely counts, does it?) When I
originally wrote this article in 2012 I came up with 10 desktops and 7 laptops,
or a new machine nearly every year. By contrast, in 2020 I'm using a 7 year
old laptop and it's fine. On the other hand, the 3 Chromebooks I bought in the
last 6 years just didn't last.
Still in use as of June 2021: Dell 5155, Dell 3190, Ryzen 3700X, i7-4790k
13 August 2011, 17:58 UTCLinux RAID Misdetection (and fix)
Earlier this year, I began using a setup with LVM inside of a RAID5.
RAID5 gets me 2TB of storage from 3 1TB drives, with redundancy in the
case of the failure of a single disk, while LVM gets me the ability to
allocate and resize individual filesystems at will. However, I had a
problem that prevented my system from booting unattended, which became
a big problem when there was a storm-related power failure while I
was out of town.5 May 2009, 1:43 UTCqq: quick & dirty terminal
qq is a quick and dirty terminal application for beagleboard. It's written in
Python and requires python-serial. I didn't like cu (no CLOCAL that I could
find) or minicom (terminal emulation, keyboard shortcuts and configuration got
in the way of real work)
Except for tilde-specials (similar to rsh, ssh and cu), qq just copies data
between the local terminal and the given tty. Two tilde specials are
defined:
<CR>~.: quit
<CR>~b: send break (useful for "alt-sysrq" actions on beagleboard)
Files currently attached to this page:
qq 4.0kB
Copyright © 2009 Jeff Epler <jepler@unpythonic.net>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
2 May 2009, 12:56 UTCNew hardware
Last week my GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G-based system bit the dust
(capacitor plague?).
I'll be updating this blog entry through the weekend with progress setting up
the replacement hardware, which arrived Friday.1 May 2009, 13:34 UTCDAT-160 USB tape drive on Linux
I recently decided to replace my DLT-IV backup system with DAT-160, mostly
because of the greater capacity (80GB native vs 35GB native). I wasn't able to
find a lot of information online about Linux compatability, but I took the
plunge and bought Quantum's CD160UH-SST, an internal USB tape drive.29 April 2008, 16:13 UTCNew Laptop
I recently got a Dell D830 laptop. I'm reasonably
satisfied with it so far. Read the link for more of my
impressions.
24 December 2006, 21:08 UTCPluto_Servo has landed
18 December 2006, 3:20 UTCPluto-Servo: EMC2 Servo Controller
6 December 2006, 19:36 UTCDo not buy: PCI-8255
4 December 2006, 2:39 UTCPluto_servo progress: It's running cradek's lathe!
2 December 2006, 17:43 UTCMore on the pluto-p (including FPGA pin numbers for the "JTAG" connector
24 November 2006, 22:46 UTCSoftware Uploader for Pluto-P board
20 September 2005, 3:08 UTCLinux on iDEQ 220k
9 June 2005, 12:39 UTCPhil Askey continues to impress us with his crypto savvy
Got A Chromebook
I have been wanting a travel computer lighter than my 15" laptop but more capable than my Nexus 7 combined with a bluetooth keyboard. And, frankly, I had just had gadget envy for the Samsung ARM Chromebook since it was announced.
When I'm on the go, my needs are basically:
- Modern web browser with adblock and greasemonkey
- A ssh (or, better yet, mosh) client
- A comfortable keyboard
- Fairly light
- Hundreds of GB of local storage
- Four or eight cores of computing power
- Full compatibility with desktop Linux or x86
- Long battery life
- Ability to install Linux or customized ChromiumOS if I decided I needed it
- Inexpensive enough to buy without being 100% sure it'll meet my needs
From my experience with Chromium-browser on Debian, I know that Chrome is an adequate web browser with Adblock, Ghostery, and TamperMonkey (though it's not 100% identical in function to Firefox), and I was aware of ssh apps for it. I also tried out the Samsung's keyboard at a local Best Buy and found it adequate. So when Amazon had them for $230 last week, I decided to treat myself.
I've now had the device for a few days, and it's been a positive adventure.
I immediately placed the device in developer mode and installed debian wheezy via crouton, but I'm not presently using anything in my debian chroot. For a short time, I used Secure Shell to ssh to the wheezy chroot and run mosh there.
I found that after a few customizations, mosh-chrome is a pefectly adequate mosh client. After I resolved a problem building it, I customized the colors to match my rxvt, added the ability to send a remote command, and hardcoded my default connection settings. However, on at least two occasions, mosh-chrome has failed to resume its session after suspending and changing wireless networks, so I'm not sure it's as reliable as desktop mosh.
Other thoughts:
- I had to rewrite one of my private GreaseMonkey scripts to work in TamperMonkey.
- Adblock and ghostery both seem to work adequately on the ChromeBook.
- I do miss having a compose key.
- I wish there was a SIP client I could use with callcentric, but I haven't found one yet.
- I haven't had a chance to assess the battery lifetime yet.
- Emacs users rejoice, you can map the "search" key (in the position of "caps lock" on a standard PC keyboard) to Control.
New hardware
I'm in the process of setting up a new machine to be a home server. I'll include more boring details about this here. Trust me, it's pretty dry reading.
30+ years of computers
During some downtime, I made a list of all the computers I could remember owning. The list is surprisingly long, and goes back to 1992 (before which I had a Commodore 64 but that barely counts, does it?) When I originally wrote this article in 2012 I came up with 10 desktops and 7 laptops, or a new machine nearly every year. By contrast, in 2020 I'm using a 7 year old laptop and it's fine. On the other hand, the 3 Chromebooks I bought in the last 6 years just didn't last.
Still in use as of June 2021: Dell 5155, Dell 3190, Ryzen 3700X, i7-4790k
Linux RAID Misdetection (and fix)
Earlier this year, I began using a setup with LVM inside of a RAID5. RAID5 gets me 2TB of storage from 3 1TB drives, with redundancy in the case of the failure of a single disk, while LVM gets me the ability to allocate and resize individual filesystems at will. However, I had a problem that prevented my system from booting unattended, which became a big problem when there was a storm-related power failure while I was out of town.
qq: quick & dirty terminal
qq is a quick and dirty terminal application for beagleboard. It's written in Python and requires python-serial. I didn't like cu (no CLOCAL that I could find) or minicom (terminal emulation, keyboard shortcuts and configuration got in the way of real work)
Except for tilde-specials (similar to rsh, ssh and cu), qq just copies data between the local terminal and the given tty. Two tilde specials are defined:
<CR>~.: quit
<CR>~b: send break (useful for "alt-sysrq" actions on beagleboard)
Files currently attached to this page:
| 4.0kB |
Copyright © 2009 Jeff Epler <jepler@unpythonic.net>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
New hardware
Last week my GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G-based system bit the dust (capacitor plague?). I'll be updating this blog entry through the weekend with progress setting up the replacement hardware, which arrived Friday.
DAT-160 USB tape drive on Linux
I recently decided to replace my DLT-IV backup system with DAT-160, mostly because of the greater capacity (80GB native vs 35GB native). I wasn't able to find a lot of information online about Linux compatability, but I took the plunge and bought Quantum's CD160UH-SST, an internal USB tape drive.
New Laptop
I recently got a Dell D830 laptop. I'm reasonably satisfied with it so far. Read the link for more of my impressions.
Pluto_Servo has landed
Pluto-Servo: EMC2 Servo Controller
Do not buy: PCI-8255
Pluto_servo progress: It's running cradek's lathe!
More on the pluto-p (including FPGA pin numbers for the "JTAG" connector
Software Uploader for Pluto-P board
Linux on iDEQ 220k
Phil Askey continues to impress us with his crypto savvy
All older entries
Website Copyright © 2004-2024 Jeff Epler