Linksys BEFSX41

My wife bought me a Linksys BEFSX41 router for my birthday. Our old Linksys WRT54GS was starting to fail.  The wireless on that router stopped working, and periodically the router needed to be rebooted to keep access to our broad band connection.

The main reason that I wanted the BEFSX41 was for the VPN endpoint.  I have been forwarding ssh connections to a computer inside our network.  Then I forward the connections through this computer to other computers on the internal network.

That's My Boy!

Our 4 year old son has been taking a computer class at his school.  We got this note from his teacher after he finished the first session of classes.

Our last computer class for the term is next week. He is amazing! He is so focused when he is doing the mission. He needs little direction and just goes. We have add-on programs for the students who finish ahead of the rest. I've seen Morgan finish before the 2nd graders and go further in the add-ons then the rest of the class. You have one adorable and bright son there!

Notifications in Google Calendar

I have been having a hard time getting notifications working in Google Calendar.  I have configured my account with my cell phone number so I could receive sms notifications before the start of the meetings.  None of this has been working.  But this afternoon, I received a text message before one of my appointments.

I found out what the problem is.  This Google Help Center page states that Google only sends notifications for, for primary calendar.

It will be nice when they support notifications on all calendars.  I use several calendars to keep my various events organized.  Once this feature is added, I will not need to use iSync to sync the calendars to my phone to get notifications to work.

Sqlite performance optimization

Here are some pages that describes some tips for optimizing SQLite usage

http://web.utk.edu/~jplyon/sqlite/SQLite_optimization_FAQ.html [broken]

http://codificar.com.br/blog/sqlite-optimization-faq/

http://wiki.tcl.tk/17365

http://katastrophos.net/andre/blog/2007/01/04/sqlite-performance-tuning-and-optimization-on-embedded-systems/

http://www.sqlite.org/optoverview.html

Status of Caltrain rss feed

It looks like Caltrain has started blocking the script that I was using to generate the rss feed of the Caltrain news.  (It looks like the blocking started to happen about a week after someone from Samtrans started subscribing to the feed) 

It also doesn't appear that they are planning on creating their own feed.  This seems pretty short sighted, as this is a pretty useful way to disseminate their information.

So if you are subscribed to this feed, I don't know how reliable it will be.  (I will try and keep it up as long as possible.)

Spanning Sync (Re)opening Public Beta

The public beta for Spanning Sync has reopened.  With Spanning Sync, you can synchronize your iCal with your Google Calendar accounts.

Now that I have tried it out, I am impressed with how well it works.  I was easily able to synchronize a calendar in my Google Calendar account with a calendar in iCal.  In fact, this was a Google Apps for Your Domain account, so there doesn't appear to be any problem working with these, as opposed to a regular Google Calendar account.

VoomPC

The VoomPC looks like a computer that I would love to install in my car, when ever I have the time and money.  It has a 1.5GHz x86 processor, USB 2.0, FireWire Ethernet, PCMCIA and CardBus ports.  In addition, it has VGA and S-Video outputs.

If I were to install something like this, this is what I would include

1. VoomPC, running Linux


2. EVDO CardBus card for network access


3. USB GPS receiver


4. Google Earth Plus for displaying current position (It doesn't apper that Google earth will do turn-by-turn directions.)


5. 4" - 7" touch screen custom mounted into dash.


6. USB XM radio receiver

[via Gizmodo]