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Paul's Time Sink

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DNS zones after upgrade to FC4

Paul Westbrook | 20 August, 2005 21:31

I just registered a new domain, and I was in the process of setting up my secondary domain server, and I noticed that all of the other zones were missing from the DNS server.

It looks likes the latest rpm for bind moved the file /etc/named.confto /etc/named.conf.rpmsave.  I am sure that there was some mention of this in the install log file, but I didn't see it.

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Ear Force AXT

Paul Westbrook | 20 August, 2005 12:15

Axt Full MicOne of my friends sent me this link to this new headset.  I mentioned before that I want to get a headset that would allow me to play SOCOM II with with headphones.

It looks like the Ear Force AXT is a headset that is meant to be used with an Xbox.  it has a RCA input to connect to a Xbox or a receiver, and a "mic adapter" to plug into the Xbox communication module for the communication.

This could be used for playing SOCOM II on a PS2.  If the "mic adapter" is a standard headset connector, I should be able to use it.  I use the DATEL GameTalk Headset, and this provides a USB adapter for standard headset.  Is the Xbox headset compatible with cell phones?
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More BlueTooth thoughts

Paul Westbrook | 19 August, 2005 20:50

Now that I have had a chance to play with my phone, I have thought of some things that I would love to get.  I would love to use more of the Bluetooth functionality.

I would love to use this on my computer.  I want some software that will automatically pause iTunes and lock my computer when I walk away.  Also I would like CallerID information to be presented on the screen when someone calls.  I know that Sailing Clicker and Romeo supports this, but they are not compatible with the Motorola E815.  BluePhoneElite does support the CallerID display, but it doesn't support the proximity features.

I also want to get a Bluetooth headset for the phone.  In addition to that, when I replace the car head unit, I want to see if someone makes a headunit that has a BlueTooth hands free unit built in.  This should cause the music to mute when the phone is answered.  I imagine that an external mic would be mounted somewhere on the dash.

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Script to prevent memory leak

Paul Westbrook | 19 August, 2005 20:09

I have still been having problems where apache is spawning threads that are not responding.  I am not exactly sure what the problem is, but in the mean time, I have written a script that will kill and restart apache.

I set the script up to page me when it fixes this problem.  I really need to look at what type of access is causing these apache threads to get stuck.

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Motorola E815

Paul Westbrook | 18 August, 2005 20:04

Mot E815Yesterday the Motorola E815 that I order arrived.  I finally got it activated this morning.  It is exactly what I wanted.  It is a BlueTooth camera phone, that can sync with my Mac though iSync.

The interface is pretty much the same as my Motorola T730, but the screen is larger and has a higher resolution.  I had no problem having the phone recognized by my computer.

I actually took a test picture and wanted to figure out how to get it to my computer.  It looks like Verizon did not enable the file transfer profile, so I am not able to directly copy the images over. 
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Printserver with CUPS

Paul Westbrook | 15 August, 2005 18:16

I finally got around to configuring printing after upgrading to Fedora Core 4, from Red Hat 9.  Fedora Core 4 doesn't have lpd available, only CUPS.  I previously had configured lpd to be a print server for two attached USB printers.

This page has instructions for configuring CUPS to be a print server.  Everything worked perfectly just following the instructions.  I actually didn't have to do steps 3 & 4, as Mac OS X already has the CUPS daemon running.  It also automatically recognizes the printers that are broadcasted by the server.

CUPS is very cool for network printer sharing.  The broadcast protocol, lets the clients know what type of printer is running on each queue.  Also, I assume that it is making the printer description available to the clients, so that the clients can do some processing.

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Spotlight in Mail

Paul Westbrook | 15 August, 2005 07:54

I have started to play with Spotlight in Mail, and it is pretty cool.  Doing on demand text based searches is very fast. 

Today, I just started to creates some Smart Mailboxes and I think that they have potential.  One thing that I think is missing is to be able to use the Account as a qualifier in the searches.  For example,  I would like to have a Mailbox that contains messages with attachments, but only for my work account.  I am not able to specify an account, but I can specify "Any Recipient contains:"

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Setup Harmony 880 Remote

Paul Westbrook | 14 August, 2005 19:37

6614.jpg
I finally set up the Harmony 880 remote that I got a while ago.  It was pretty easy to move my configuration to the new remote.  All I had to do was connect the USB cable to the remote and the computer, and update the configuration from the web site.  All of the settings that I had configured before automatically got transfered.

Now that I have used the new remote for a while there are some things that I like and some that I don't like.  When I first got the Harmony 688, I noticed that it was harder to use the remote without looking at the buttons.  The 880's buttons are even harder to distinguish with out looking.  It does have a solution about this problem.  There appears to be a gyroscope in the remote.  When it is moved, the buttons light up automatically

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Stingray firewall

Paul Westbrook | 13 August, 2005 20:46

Topview LaI saw this post on Gizmodo about the Stingray Hardware Firewall.  It is a device that is supposed to sit in between your Cable/DSL modem and your computer.  It is supposed to automatically configure itself for the different network and virus threats.

They claim that you will not need to configure it to make this work.  (I think that is only true if your ISP is setup to give you an ip address with DHCP.)  Also I doubt that this firewall will allow any inbound connections.

I don't know if the protection provide by this is any better than any gateway that offers SPI.  This is pretty expensive.  They are charging  $129 CAD, while the Linksys WRT54GS is $71, and it gives you a WiFi access point.

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"Discovered" feature of Navigation

Paul Westbrook | 13 August, 2005 20:06

I am sure that this was in the manual, that I haven't read, but I just noticed a cool feature of the Honda Navigation unit.  If you click on the icon that shows the GPS signal strength, it will show you the GPS coordinates.  Then it also gives the address that is closest to your current position.  It also allows you to save this position for later.

I think that this is an easier way to save your current destination, as opposed to doing a lookup for the name of the business or address.

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My wife was on the news

Paul Westbrook | 13 August, 2005 19:24

My wife was interviewed for the CBS 5 Eyewitness News.  Someone killed a bunch of ducks at a local car wash, and my wife went there to offer condolences, and she was interview while she was there.

Here is her blog post about the incident.  Here is the video of the news segment.

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Exchange support in iCal

Paul Westbrook | 12 August, 2005 19:57

I launched iCal today, for the first time after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4, and I noticed something interesting.  There was a notification that was asking me if I wanted to accept a meeting.

We use Exchange at work, and iCal looked at the mailbox in Mail and noticed that one of the messages was a meeting request.  It parsed that and presented this notification.  When I accepted it, it put it in the calendar that I chose and it sent an email to the person who scheduled the meeting.

I then looked at the preference settings for iCal, and I saw that this functionality is optional. 

Mail Exchange
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2 cool Dashboard Widgets

Paul Westbrook | 12 August, 2005 19:33

Indextop20050412Now that I have upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4, I have started to play with Dashboard Widgets.  I found two very cool widgets

PHPQuickReference
Since I have been doing a lot of php programming, I have been going to php.net to look up functions.  This is a widget that will allow you to look at the function reference and user notes for each function.

JiWire
This widget shows the WiFi networks that your computer can see.  It shows the SSID, Channel, Signal Strength and an icon that indicated if it is secured with a passowrd. 

The other thing that it does is it will show a list of the WiFi Hotspots near a specified address.  The strange thing about this is that it doesn't cache the list of addresses, so if you don't have access to a network, you will not be able to find where you can get network access.

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NeoOffice/J review

Paul Westbrook | 12 August, 2005 11:19

MacDevCenter has posted a review of NeoOffice/J, that really goes into whether it can replace Microsoft Office.

At the end of the review, there is an interview with the lead developer.

[via TUAW]

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Hawking Network Camera

Paul Westbrook | 11 August, 2005 22:22

5292109332243966.JpgGearBits has a review of the Hawking HNC230G Wireless Network camera.  This is a relatively inexpensive (under $90) camera that allows you to see pictures of anywhere you have network access.

I would love to get one of these, especially since it has a good price.  This may not work in my current network setup, as I use WPA for wireless encryption, and I didn't see what type of 802.11 encryption it supports.  Also, it looks like a Windows computer is required to set this up.  I wonder if the http server is available, but maybe not supported, so you can use a Mac or a Linux computer.

[via Engadget]

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