The WareHouse

My new sailing blog

Wed, 7 May 2008 14:04:47 +0000

I have created a new blog to chronicle my adventures in learning to sail. I really could have just blogged about my sailing from this site, but I could not find a good way to post to a Nucleus based site via email. Posting via email is important if I ever get a chance to go offshore and want to blog via single side band radio or satellite phone. So hear it is:

Where is Serenity

Site Repaired

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:13:19 +0000

Well I was trying to see how long I could go without writing a new post. Made it to 565 days. Guess that is not to bad.

I realized yesterday that the website was not working correctly. Permalinks were working, but links from the main page were not. Also the comments section of each post spit out some ugly SQL code. So today I rolled up my sleeves and dug around until I got everything fixed. Apparently the website has been broken since late January when I had applied a upgrade to the sites database. No one complained, so I guess that says a lot about how many visitors I get

The most popular section of the website is the Genealogy section. It was working fine since it uses a different database.

The WareHouse has moved again!

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:45:45 +0000

Well here we are all moved into our new home in North Carolina. This is the third house that we have bought and with each home my “server room” has gotten more elaborate. In our first house it was in the Den Closet. The second house air conditioned and under the back stairs. Here in our third house, the server room is a new addition built in the garage.The garage has very high ceilings, about fourteen feet. Also, the garage is not square, it has a set back of about seven feet in one corner. So what I have done is built a insulated room in the corner with eight foot ceilings. This will allow me with some creative plumbing to put a window air conditioner on the rooms roof and have a nice air conditioned server room contained inside the garage. As a nice benefit the room is large enough that I can also use it for storage for things like Dive equipment that should not be stored in the heat.

Of course the server room would be worthless without access to the rest of the house. So I now have twenty data drops (RJ-45 connections) in the house that terminate in the server room. I also have ten 110 volt outlets in the house that connect to the UPS in the server room.

Above is a photo of the network wall in my server room (Click on the photo to see a larger image).

Area 1 is the data drops. One panel for upstairs, one panel for downstairs.

Area 2 is the electrical runs. Connecting these outlets to the UPS protects various outlets through out the house.

Area 3 is the phone wiring. The upper block is the household phone wiring. The two lower blocks are for VOIP and TELCO. I am using Sunrocket for VOIP phone service (I recently switched after using Vonage for two years) so the pig tail is plugged into the VOIP block and all the household phone jacks are VOIP enabled. If however I decide to go back to using Bellsouth or some other traditional phone service I can quickly switch the household wiring back by plugging into the other block.

Area 4 is a thermostat to control the Air Conditioner.

Here is a photo of the rest of the room. As you can see it still needs some work. Give me another week or two and it will be done.

Finally, the door had to have a push button lock.

DIY: Digital Picture Frame

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 22:04:34 +0000

I have just finished hanging my second Digital Picture Frame (DPF). My first DPF was created almost a year ago, and it hangs on the wall in my office at work. It has been running fine for almost a year, with very little need of attention. The second DPF is now displayed proudly in my living room. Both frames were created from old laptops I had lying around the house. I started thinking about making a DPF after I bought a Ceiva for my Grandmother in 2001. Then last year I saw several do it yourself DPF projects and thought, hell I can do that.



* When powered on, the frames should boot, log on to x
  windows, and start a slide show automatically.
* The frames will connect to a TCP/IP network and
  receive an IP address via DHCP.
* If the IP address changes, the frames should email me
  with the new IP address.
* SSH server should be enabled and will be the primary
  way to interact with the frames when needed.
* The frames should phone home very so often and sync its
  local copy of photos with those contained in a  directory
  on one of my home servers.
* The display on the frame should be set to turn off during
  the night and turn back on in the morning.

I wanted my frames to require no user interaction. The frame that I built a year ago has only stopped working once, and then it was a problem related to a rule on my home firewall. I have Broadband connection and a small home network, with a several windoze workstations and a dedicated Linux box that acts as file server. Photos are stored on the file server via a SAMBA share. I decide to create a folder within the SAMBA share point to store photos for the frames. The frames use a program called rsync and check very four hours for new photos on the SAMBA share. FEH, an image viewer program, restarts every night and adds any new photos to the random slide show presentation.

Since the SAMBA share is a mapped drive on the windoze boxes, it is easy for my wife to put new pictures on the frames without having to use Linux commands. She simply copies the photos to the frames folder on a mapped drive on her windoze box.

Linux was my OS of choice for the frames. I guess I could have tried to use Windows, but remote administration and scripting of events would have been problematic. I much rather open a remote shell and modify a few bash scripts than fight with Windows. I decided on Damn Small Linux (DSL) as the distribution, because it was easy to install and required virtually no configuration. I simply did not require the power of Gentoo, Debian, or one of the other larger distros.

I installed DSL version 2.3. I will walkthrough the steps I used to create my latest frame and provide the scripts that I am using as well. However, I will take not responsibility for any damage that may result if you decide to follow my lead.

Now I decided to install Linux on the hard drive, but you certainly could boot from a CD-ROM and run everything from memory if you wanted.

Getting Started

Download and burn a CD image of Damn Small Linux (DSL)

Boot from the DSL disk and on the DSL desktop, right click and select:



Apps > Tools > Install to Hard drive

Walk through the installation to the local hard rive.

After you reboot successfully into the GUI open a terminal and get to work:

Enable auto log on by editing /etc/inittab



	root@0[dsl]# vi /etc/inittab

Change line:
~~:S:respawn:/bin/bash -login >/dev/tty1 2>&1 
to
1:12345:respawn:/bin/bash -login >/dev/tty1 2>&1

Now DSL will auto login as the user dsl and start your x manager.

Configure the SSHD server on the frame to auto start on boot to ease remote administration



	root@0[dsl]# vi /opt/bootlocal.sh

Append the following to the end of bootlocal.sh

# start sshd
/etc/init.d/ssh start

Edit the .xinitrc file to keep the screen from blanking out, to start x windows, and to start the slide show on the frame.



	root@0[dsl]# vi /home/dsl/.xinitrc



# put X windows programs that you want started here.
# Be sure to add at the end of each command the &
# 
xset s off
noblank
xset s off
/usr/bin/aterm -T “Bash” -e /bin/bash &
#startx &
/home/dsl/frame/cron_start_frame.sh &
fluxbox 2>/dev/null

Change to the dsl home directory and make a directory that is called frame and a directory inside of frame called photos.



	root@0[dsl]# cd /home/dsl
	root@0[dsl]# mkdir -p /home/dsl/frame/photos

The frame directory will be where the photos are stored and the scripts that manage the frame reside.

Edit the /home/dsl/.bash_profile file



	root@0[dsl]# vi /home/dsl/.bash_profile

#!/bin/bash
export IRCNICK=DSL
export DISPLAY=:0
SSH=`env | grep SSH_CONNECTION`
RUNLEVEL=`runlevel|cut -f2 -d' '`
if [ -z “$SSH” ]; then
   if [ $RUNLEVEL -eq 5 ]; then
       startx
   fi
fi
cd /home/dsl/frame

The "export DISPLAY=:0" line is very important. With out this line, any scripts run from a remote ssh connection will not show on the display.

Now lets install the software we will need to turn this Linux powered laptop into a digital picture frame



Click on the MyDSL icon on the desktop and select

	   MyDSL > System > gcc1.dsl.info
	   MyDSL > System > dsl-dpkg.dsl.info

This will allow us to download programs using the Debian package utility.

Open a terminal and run apt-get



	root@0[dsl]# apt-get update

This command updates the local cache of available programs



	root@0[dsl]# apt-get install rsync

The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the differences between two sets of files across a network link.



	root@0[dsl]# apt-get install feh

FEH is an image viewer program that is used on the frames to function as a slide show viewer.



	root@0[dsl]# apt-get install unclutter

unclutter removes the cursor from the screen so that it does not obstruct the image.



	root@0[dsl]# apt-get install ssmtp

ssmtp is a send-only sendmail emulator for machines It provides the functionality required the scripts to send mail. Make sure that you edit /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf to point to your out going email server.



	root@0[dsl]# apt-get install mailx

mailx is used to send email from scripts

Scripts

These scripts work for me. You will want to modify them for your installation. I have had no training in programming and I am sure that it shows. If you use any of these scripts and update them, I would be interested and seeing your changes.

ip.sh is the script that checks the IP address of the frame and emails me if there is a change.



	root@0[dsl]# cd /home/dsl/frame
	root@0[frame]# vi ip.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Script to email when the IP address changes
# drware@thewares.net
#
RECIP="Your email address here"
mv /tmp/ip.tmp /tmp/ip_old.tmp
/sbin/ifconfig > /tmp/ip.tmp

diff /tmp/ip.tmp /tmp/ip_old.tmp > /tmp/ip_diff.tmp

RUNNING=`cat /tmp/ip_diff.tmp | wc -l`
NUM=10

if [ $NUM -lt $RUNNING ]
then
        cp /tmp/ip.tmp /tmp/ip_mail.tmp
        head -n 2 /tmp/ip_mail.tmp| tail -n 1 > \
        /tmp/ip_mail2.tmp
        cat /tmp/ip_mail2.tmp | mailx -s “DPF IP Change: \
        `date +%k%Mhrs-%Y%m%d`” $RECIP
fi

exit 0

The turn_off_screen.sh script does what is says and is used to turn the screen off via cron



	root@0[frame]# vi turn_off_screen.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to turn off display
# drware@thewares.net
#

# Set display so that script will effect screen on frame
export DISPLAY=:0

/usr/X11R6/bin/xset s reset
/usr/X11R6/bin/xset s on
/usr/X11R6/bin/xset s 1

exit 0

Surprise, turn_on_screen.sh is used to turn the screen on via cron



	root@0[frame]# vi turn_on_screen.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to turn on display
# drware@thewares.net
#

# Set display so that script will effect screen on frame
export DISPLAY=:0

/usr/X11R6/bin/xset s reset
/usr/X11R6/bin/xset s off

exit 0

The cron_start_frame.sh script is used to start the slide show after the frame is powered on or rebooted.



	root@0[frame]# vi cron_start_frame.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to run Digital Picture Frame using Feh
# drware@thewares.net
#

# Change number below to the duration, in seconds
# for each photo to be displayed
DELAY="300"

# hide the cursor after 15 seconds
/usr/X11R6/bin/unclutter -idle 15 &

# Start slide show
/usr/bin/feh --quiet --recursive --randomize
--full-screen \ --slide show-delay $DELAY \
/home/dsl/frame/photos/ &

# Phone home and sync
/home/dsl/frame/rsync.sh

exit 0

The cron_reload_frame.sh script is used to restart the slide show on the frame via cron. Restarting the slide show will add any new photos that have been copied to the frame to the presentation.



	root@0[frame]# vi cron_reload_frame.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to run Digital Picture Frame using Feh
# drware@thewares.net
#

# Change number below to the duration, in seconds
# for each photo to be displayed
DELAY="300"

# Set display so that the script will effect
# the screen on the frame
export DISPLAY=:0

# Stop the currently running Slide show
/home/dsl/frame/kill.sh feh

sleep 10s

# Start slide show
feh --quiet --recursive --randomize --full-screen \
--slide show-delay $DELAY /home/dsl/frame/photos/ &

exit 0

The manual_restart.sh script is used to restart the slide show from the command line. The script asks for input on the duration in seconds that each photo should be displayed.



	root@0[frame]# vi manual_restart.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to run Digital Picture Frame using Feh
# drware@thewares.net
#

# Set display so that the script will effect
# the screen on the frame
export DISPLAY=:0

# Stop the currently running Slide show
/home/dsl/frame/kill.sh feh

clear
echo “”
echo -n “Enter the number of seconds for photo rotation”
echo -n “and press [ENTER]: ”
read var_seconds
echo “”

/usr/bin/feh --recursive --randomize --full-screen \
--slideshow-delay $var_seconds /home/dsl/frame/photos/ &

exit 0

The dir_frame.sh script is used to restart the slide show from the command line and will ask you which sub directory to display. I use this script when I want to show off photos from a recent SCUBA diving trip or vacation.



	root@0[frame]# vi dir_frame.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to run Digital Picture Frame using Feh
# drware@thewares.net
#

# Set display so that the script will effect
# the screen on the frame
export DISPLAY=:0

# Stop the currently running Slide show
/home/dsl/frame/kill.sh feh

clear
echo “”
echo -n “Enter the number of seconds for photo rotation ”
echo -n “and press [ENTER]: ”
read var_seconds
echo “”
echo “Available options for the directory are:”
ls /home/dsl/frame/photos
echo “”
echo -n “Enter the directory of photos to display and”
echo -n “press [ENTER]: ”
read var_dir
echo “”

/usr/bin/feh --randomize --full-screen --slideshow-delay \
$var_seconds /home/dsl/frame/photos/$var_dir &

exit 0

The kill.sh script is called by other scripts so the slide shows can be stopped and restarted.



	root@0[frame]# vi kill.sh

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -z “$1” ]; then
  PROCESS=$1

  PIDS=`ps -ax | grep $PROCESS | sed -e “s/.*killp.*//”
          -e “s/ *\([0-9]\{1,6\}\) .*/\1/” | grep -v “^$”`

  if [ ! -z “$PIDS” ]; then
    echo Killing $PROCESS pid=$PIDS
    kill -9 $PIDS
  else
    echo No process $PROCESS in process list
  fi

else
  echo Usage : $0 process_name
fi

The rsync.sh script syncs the photos on your frame with the photos on your central workstation or server.



	root@0[frame]# vi rsync.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to copy and remove photos on the DPF
# Script requires that a rsync server on a machine
# separate from the DPF be running and configured
#
# drware@thewares.net
#

PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin

EXTERNAL="EXTERNAL IP OF RSYNC SERVER"
INTERNAL="INTERNAL IP OF RSYNC SERVER"

#When frame is inside your network and will connect
#via an intranet
rsync -azv --password-file=/home/dsl/frame/.rsync.pwd \
--delete --bwlimit=2048 dpf1@$INTERNAL::dpf1 \
/home/dsl/frame/photos/

#When frame is external to you network and must connect
#via the Internet
#rsync -azv
--password-file=/home/dsl/frame/.rsync.pwd \
#--delete --bwlimit=2048 dpf1@$EXTERNAL::dpf1 \
#/home/dsl/frame/photos/

exit 0

As the user dsl run the crontab -e command and automate the functions of your frame.



	dsl@0[frame]# crontab -e

#
#
MAILTO=""
#
#
# Phone home and sync every 4 hours
15 */4 * * * /home/dsl/frame/rsync.sh

# Check IP address every 30 minutes
*/30 * * * * /home/dsl/frame/ip.sh

# Restart Frame every morning at 5:30
# to include any new photos in rotation
30 5 * * * /home/dsl/frame/cron_reload_frame.sh

# For Frame at work:
# Turn off display every night at 7:30 and
# turn on display at 7:59 every morning
# Monday - Friday
#30 19 * * * /home/dsl/frame/turn_off_screen.sh
#59 7 * * 1-5 /home/dsl/frame/turn_on_screen.sh

# For Frame at home:
# Turn off display Sunday - Thursday at 10:45 and
# Turn off display Friday, Saturday at 0:15 and
# Turn on display Monday - Friday at 5:59
# Turn off display Monday - Friday at 7:30
# Turn on display Monday - Friday at 15:59
# Turn on display Saturday, Sunday at 7:59
45 22 * * 0-4 /home/dsl/frame/turn_off_screen.sh
15 0 * * 0,6 /home/dsl/frame/turn_off_screen.sh
59 5 * * 1-5 /home/dsl/frame/turn_on_screen.sh
30 7 * * 1-5 /home/dsl/frame/turn_off_screen.sh
59 15 * * 1-5 /home/dsl/frame/turn_on_screen.sh
59 7 * * 0,6 /home/dsl/frame/turn_on_screen.sh

45 3 * * * crontab -l > /home/dsl/frame/crontab.bk

Construction

We now have a laptop that is running Linux, when powered on will login automatically, and start a full screen slide show. Problem is it still looks like a laptop. Now is the time to start taking the laptop apart until you have something you can stuff into a picture frame.

It is very easy to turn the laptop into a non-working, smoking pile of junk, so proceed very carefully and in small steps.

I decided that I would remove everything from the screen or lid of the laptop until I had the LCD striped down to its bare components. Then I cut down a thin piece of plywood and hot glued the LCD in place. I then placed the plywood in the frame with a piece of glass and a mat.

Pile of parts removed from the laptop.

Laptop stripped down and ready for framing.

There are many ways to build the actual frame. For me the easiest was to buy a large wooden frame (18 inches by 23 inches) and then build a shadow box on the back.

Shadow box in place, laptop installed.

I mounted the keyboard and touch pad on the back of the frame just in case I am unable to access the frame via SSH.

Back of frame installed with keyboard and touch pad in place.

So there you have it. A DIY: Digital Picture Frame that rsyncs with a central server running SAMBA and requiring little or no user interaction to function.

Second Frame hung in my home.

First Frame hung in my office at work.

Photo Gallery is now skinned!

Sun, 9 Apr 2006 20:52:52 +0000

Well, It has taken me several months, but I finally got the Photo Gallery skinned to match the rest of the site. After several false starts I figured out that the Photo Gallery needed to be “visually embedded” into my site by editing Gallery2 theme templates. I was trying to make things too hard and create a theme from scratch.

Internet Explorer 7 beta

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:25:42 -0100

I recently installed Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 and was surprised to find that it supports transparent png files. This means that my site looks like it should when using Internet Explorer 7. No obnoxious white boarders around the sheet, navigation, and comment pallets. Since about 70% of my visitors use Internet Explorer it will be nice when they can finally see the site as it was designed. I would still suggest that everyone switch to a standards compliant browser like FireFox or Opera, since Internet Explorer 7 still has other issues with formating and CSS, but over all Internet Explorer 7 is a big improvement.

Online Genealogists be careful!

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 13:03:04 -0100

Desert Morning News recently reported about a software company that has produced and is selling a program called Fake Family. Fake Family can create genealogy websites with thousands of pages of bogus data. Why? To make money of course. Such sites generate revenue from advertisements. Yet another reason to document and double check all your sources.

Hat tip: Techdirt

New type of Scuba Mask

Wed, 9 Nov 2005 14:20:04 -0100

Dive masks have changed very little since Jack Cousteau first invented SCUBA and strapped on a tank in the 1940's. Sure the materials have changed and vast improvements have been made in comfort and seal, but the dive mask of today is still a flat piece of glass trapping air against your face. This flat piece of glass still causes refraction when light moves from water to air making items appear larger and closer than they are and greatly reducing your angle of vision. I can still remember as a new diver reaching for something only to have my hand pass in front of it by a good 12 inches. Well things are a changing. A company called Hydro Optics has hired some NASA engineers and developed and new type of dive mask that apparently gives you panoramic views 350% greater than traditional flat diving masks.

Cruising

Fri, 4 Nov 2005 13:59:01 -0100

We are getting ready to go on a Radisson cruise aboard the Seven Seas Voyager for our 10th anniversary. It is going to be a really fun trip and I feel like we could use the vacation!

For the curious, here is some additional information:

Radisson Seven Seas Cruises website
Review of the Voyager at CruiseCritic.com

Check back after the cruise I am sure we will post a review and upload some pictures.

SHIP STATISTICS
Overall Length: 670 feet
Beam (width): 94.5 feet
Draft: 23 feet
Passengers: 700
Officers: European
Crew: 447, European / International
Passenger Decks: 9
Shipyard: T. Mariotti, Genoa, Italy
Gross Tonnage: 46,000
Cruising Speed: 20 knots
Ship's Registry: Bahamas
Propulsion System: Dolphin Pod® System

We will be staying in stateroom 643 which is on deck six.

Rodney “Moon” Crossman

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 10:22:11 +0000

I really like Google Alerts. I have about ten of them setup to email me when new information is found on the web. You never know what new and unexpected information an alert will provide. My alert for San Salvador Bahamas just fired off, [“San Salvador” Bahamas] with a news story about Rodney Moon. I knew Rodney when he was a Divemaster and we worked for a short while together at the Riding Rock Inn and Marina on San Salvador. Apparently Rodney is now a Sport Fish Captain and has just won the 2005 New Smyrna Beach Billfish Invitational in Florida. Congratulations Moon!