Antibiotics can cause insomnia

I learned something new yesterday. Antibiotics can cause insomnia. Specifically Levaquin. Scary stuff.

Free wifi on delta today

On my way back from Dallas...discovered that I can get a free wifi session on my Delta flight. Coupon code "deltatrygogo" expires today. Enjoy....tom

C-64 Muse setback

I finished wiring the C-64 Muse keyboard, and it does not work. Actually, 5 of the keys work. I delved more deeply into the C-64 schematics and discovered that I can't piggyback a second keyboard matrix on top of the first.

What I'm planning now is to use the PC board from a C-64 keyboard and wire the matrix lines directly to the PC board. I'll remove the keyswitch tops for those keys that map to piano keys. I believe that I can still use one of the matrix axes to reduce the wire count. This will increase the wire count from 12 to (8+4) to 28 (24+4), which is not as bad as 48 (24x2). Just thinking it would be nice have this done by the time of my Dallas trip so that perhaps I can visit Paul Slocum while I am there.

Bizarre "Mobile Computing News"

I'm not sure what to make of this "Mobile Computing News" site.

Mobile Computing News

Here are some review excerpts. Decide for yourself.

Sony Vaio VGN-P31ZK/Q (who thought up that name?) :
"For instance you can check out the all new Sony Vaio VGN-P31ZK/Q which has a unique rectangular shape which looks pretty cool."


Asus Eee PC MK90H Disney: Decorated Netbook for the Kids
"The processor is the soul of any computer that is why this netbook is installed with a very powerful Intel Atom N270 processor."

Sony Vaio VPCW12S1E/P: Definitely One of the Most Attractive and Suave Pink Netbooks Around
"The device is provided with a warranty which makes it a reliable product. The fantastic rechargeable battery installed in this netbook offers long battery back up as well.

Netbook operating systems - Back to Jolicloud

This past weekend I tried out some different Linux based operating systems for my Dell Mini 9. Going into the weekend, I was running the alpha of Jolicloud, which for the most part, I have been happy with.

First I tried Easy Peasy, which is a Ubuntu fork, originally developed for the Eee PC. Used Unetbootin to create a bootable USB key and installed. Discovered that wifi requires additional drivers to be loaded manually to support the Broadcom card in the Mini 9. Didn't notice a lot of difference from Jolicloud. Easy Peasy prompted me to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.1, which immediately failed due to lack of drive space. That's what I get for using a 4 GB SSD.

Next I tried Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) 9.1. Install went fine, but upon rebooting, I was greeted with messages of imminent drive failure. Some quick online searches show that the S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring routines in UNR falsely indicate drive failure on Solid State Disks (SSD). My Mini 9 is running a 4 GB SSD. Just like Easy Peasy, the wifi did not work.

So, I reinstalled Jolicloud. This time, I left the default keyring password blank. Otherwise, the keyring password is required when connecting to wireless access points that require login keys.

Trying these 2 other systems made me appreciate Jolicloud even more. It just works.

Why not Windows? My Mini 9 shipped with XP, and I don't use it. Everything I do on my Mini 9 is in a web browser (Google Docs, Reader, Toodledo.com), so Windows is unnecessary. And slow. I've been quite impressed by Jolicloud on my Mini 9, and it runs on a 4GB SSD with almost 1G to spare. If your netbook is supported, I would try it.

Recycling the Baldwin 172 - the keyboards

Got a non-working Baldwin 172 from Craigslist for free. Took it home, it made some sounds, but could never quite get it to behave. The next day, all I could get was a single droning note. So on to the parting. What is the value in a 1983 vintage organ with cheesy built in sound effects? Even with non-functioning tone generation, it is loaded with useful parts.

- Two 3.5 octave keyboards
- A 1 octave bass pedal assembly
- Lots of control switches
- Spring reverb
- Volume pedal
- amplifier w speaker
- Furniture grade sides and top

Primarily, I'm looking for piano keyboard assemblies, the rest is bonus.

I've been taking photos. I'll get those pictures up shortly.

The keyboards, unfortunately, do not have a separate switch/key, they are wired in a matrix. The C-64/Cynthcart project requires a different matrix encoding, so the existing switches are not usable.

Fortunately, the switch mechanism is not recessed like in the gutted Oxygen 8 keyboard I started with, so replacing the switches should not be too difficult.

Another lucky break...these keyboards were designed to be easily adapted to different lengths, so creating a mechanically sound 2 octave keyboard should be pretty easy.

Music keyboards for the C-64 and Cynthcart

I've been playing with Paul Slocum's Cynthcart software for the C-64 :

http://www.qotile.net/cynthcart.html

The software is fun, but the interface leaves much to be desired. I would prefer a labeled control panel and a real piano keyboard. Of course, there are some complicating factors.

First, the switches on commercial music keyboards are matrixed completely differently than the C-64 keyboard.

See this diagram :

http://www.doepfer.de/DIY/Matrix_25.gif

This requires a complete rewiring of the keyboard. I tried to rewire one of these by hand, and it was a disaster. Consumer grade circuit boards were not designed to be modified. They fall apart. PC traces come off the board, etc.

The plan now is to build a panel to hold 25 micro switches, and I will wire the switches by hand. If I wanted to build just one of these, I would hack it out, but this may be more universally useful, so I'm considering designing a panel that would be cut on a laser cutter, with holes for the switches. I can then wire the switches however I wish.

Nokia 6350 for Mom

Mom prefers the old black and white Nokia phones, but they have started to become unreliable on the AT&T network. So yesterday, I got her a Nokia 6350 from the AT&T store. I wanted something that would be simple to use, and that would let me create a slide show for the wallpaper (for family pictures).

The slideshow feature I discovered by poking around in the phone. Google searches did not locate any mention of the feature.

I adjusted the fonts to the largest size, cleared out all the AT&T phone number cruft and added contact info for Kerry, Jennifer and myself.

I had purchased a 2GB SD card to hold pictures, but was unable to get the phone to properly recognize it. Instead, I configured the slide show to come from the "Recieved Items" folder. So all I have to do is send a picture over via Bluetooth and it automatically appears in the slide show. A more elegant solution anyway.

Big Junk Night : I'm 3 for 3

My sister lives in Bowling Green, Ohio, which is the home of Bowling Green State University. Every year, as the students are about to move out, they hold a "Big Junk Week" where residents load the curbs with unwanted "stuff" and turn the entire town into a week long free yard sale.

In past years, my sister scored replacement bathtubs and toilets for her early 20th century home. I've gotten functional music keyboards (some MIDI, some not). Last year, she brought me a first generation PS2, which required a laser adjustment.

This year's haul has been a fruitful one so far :

- Another 1st gen PS2 - disc detection on the PS2 uses the laser. If it gets dirty, no disc is detected. Fixed with a cotton ball and some alcohol

- PS2 Guitar Hero Guitar - Had a broken whammy bar. Fixed with 2 rubber bands.

- Wacom Tablet - not officially "big junk"...from my brother in law. Appears to work

- Micro USB cable - Generally not such a big deal, but we needed one at work to test a new SMS system, and no one else had one


It has also come with stuff that should have stayed "thrown away"

- A Sharper Image roll up piano - What a piece of junk. Totally unplayable.

I'm planning on making to trip to Bowling Green next year. Big fun.

---tom

Psychological Traffic Calming

I live on a street in old Cary which has turned into a speedway, especially near my house. I live at the end of a stretch of straight road that the leadfeet (leadfoots?) in my neighborhood can't resist. Here is a clever solution from a fellow in Hamburg : a Fake Traffic Camera.

Looks like a fun project. I have an official looking watertight box (thanks NCSU Surplus!) and stuff that looks like a lens (maybe even a lens...). Add a padlock to the box and I'm all set.

Bought another SSD for Mini 9

Picked up a 4 GB SSD pulled from a Dell Mini 9 for $8.50 (shipped) on eBay. Now I will have boot drives for OS X, XP and Ubuntu. Not exactly triple boot, but the changeover only takes a few minutes.

The MIOS studio software that is used to program the Midibox SID is unsupported on Mac OS X, but works under Linux, so this will provide me a way to reprogram my MidiBox SID after I upgrade the processor.

--tom

Saw III sampler figurines

These figurines are seriously creepy. First job was to remove and trash them. I'm thinking about recording scary sounds and have this activated by a motion sensor for a Halloween setup.

Another Dell Mini in the family

When Aidan saw the Mini 9 I bought, he was immediately jealous. So, we got him one for his birthday. Bought this one at the Dell Outlet, just like mine. In this case, I bought him the Vostro A90, which is a Vostro branded Mini 9. Only difference is that the black A90 is all black, where mine is silver below the keyboard.

Since I was planning on eventually loading mac OS X on mine, I didnt want to purchase another copy of XP. It adds about $50 to the cost. Rather than getting the Mini 9 with an 8GB SSD XP, I got him a Vostro A90 with a 16GB SSD, Bluetooth and the webcam for $10 less than the Mini 9. I figured we would use my XP license after I loaded OS X.

We fired up his Vostro and got to see Ubuntu. Visually, it just looks better than XP on the Mini 9. They have really done a nice implementation. The only problem that we had was the wireless was unable to properly negotiate a connection with my new 2Wire AT&T router. I had to explicitly set the 2Wire to PKA2, then everything worked.

Turns out now that Aidan wants Mac OS X on his Vostro. He is more familiar with my iMac than Kerry's Dell. Looks like I'll be doing the install sometime this week. I have a 16GB SSD and 2 GB memory upgrade on order for mine.

Merrill Lynch account liquidated

Finally liquidated my Merrill Lynch account. A 27% loss from it's peak. Sigh. Time to implement the Black Swan portfolio...

xpud - shortest path to the cloud....wow

Saw a forum reference to xPUD (http://xpud.org) as a lightweight OS to run on my Mini 9. Downloaded and installed it to a bootable 64 MB flash drive.

I changed BIOS options on the Mini 9 to allow booting from USB. Then I deleted syslinux.cfg, and renamed isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.

Moment of truth. The Mini booted in about 30 seconds (maybe less). The entire OS loads into RAM (not SSD, the RAM) and then boots from RAM. This setup is amazingly fast. I can leave the default boot setup as Win XP, and boot xPud whenever I want. I am impressed.

Chronulator circuit board done

Finished the Chronulator circuit board last night and hooked up some meters. I haven't decided which meters to use yet, so I wired in some old transistor sockets and plugged in the resistors that control the meter scaling. Used the big meter for minutes and the small one for hours.

My next one will probably run on a small off the shelf arduino/freeduino kit with built in USB. That will give me a solid power source and the ability to control the meters from the computer.

Mini 9 is excellent

I've had a few days with the Mini 9, and I'm sorry I didn't get one sooner. Win XP runs faster on the Mini than on any other system I own. Excellent tool in the server room.

Refurb Vostro A90 available. Grrrrr.

Ordered my Dell Mini 9 from the Dell outlet earlier this week. Waited too long and all the Mini 9's with webcams were gone. Just discovered that the Dell Outlet Business section is selling the Vostro A90, which is the same as the Mini 9. With webcams. For exactly what I paid, $249. They even have units with 16 GB SSDs. Doh!

Dell Mini 9 memory expansion options

While waiting for my Mini 9 to arrive, I'm looking at SSD expansion. It comes with an 8MB SSD, which is fine for Linux, but a stretch for Mac OS X. There are basically 2 brands of SSD expansion : Runcore and Super Talent (STEC).

The Runcore is slightly more expensive : 16GB $78, 32 GB $127
than the Super Talent : 16GB $63, 32GB $109

There is a slower (2X slower writes, almost 3X on reads)
Super Talent : 16GB $49, 32GB $89

The big advantage of the Runcore is that the module has an integrated USB port. This allows Mac OSX to be installed on a Mac while the Runcore is attached as an external drive. This makes the install go much faster, and is simpler.

If you look at the high end Runcore vs. the Super Talent, the ease of installation on the Runcore is a slam dunk. For the 16 GB, the Runcore is only $15 more, with the 32GB, it is $19 more.

Comparing to the slower Super Talent is a different story. For the 16 GB, the Runcore is $29 more, the 32GB is $38 more.

Still, if this is something that you will use extensively, it's worth paying the extra $40 one time cost.

I'll probably upgrade the RAM to 2GB right away, install Linux and do the 32 GB upgrade down the road. It's somewhat hard to justify an immediate $130 expense to upgrade a $250 computer. Perhaps I can pick up a used 16GB from an upgrader.

This posthas a good rundown of Runcore vs. STEC

compromise

The mini 9's on Dell Outlet sold faster than I thought. By the time I checked yesterday, all that was left were Mini 9's without webcams. Ordered a 1GB, 8GB SSD, Bluetooth configuration. I could have gotten a 10, but I wanted small.