Recently in Linux Category

Starting to cool off- feeling a lot like Fall! Jackets in the morning, shorts in the afternoon.

So, what's up in the life of Fozz? Too much... and none of it seems very interesting to me.

Geeky PDA Linux syncy stuff

First off, I finally got my Treo 650 to sync with FC4. How did I do it? I had to go over to the Fedora Core development repository and find some source RPMs for udev and hotplug. Once I compiled these, installed them, and rebooted (that's really the only way to restart udev), I could sync with jpilot just fine.

The problem with the Treo 650 and Fedora Core 4 has something to do with how long it takes udev/hotplug to create the /dev/ttyUSB* devices. It was usually about eight seconds before they'd show up. That seems to be fixed with these new RPMs

A little background: Unlike older Linux device paradigms where the /dev directory is full of device files for every possible device for which the kernel has support compiled into it, the more recent Fedora Core kernels take advantage of udev and hotplug to create device files dynamically as they're needed.

Getting ready to run to Colorado

This weekend Sons Of Nothing will be taking the FloydShow to Grand Junction, CO and Steamboat Springs, CO. We're all stoked about the shows because this is the first time we'll be playing the Mesa Theater in Grand Junction, which seems like a really cool joint, and we'll be returning to Levelz in Steamboat Springs where we had a great reception back in January.

In addition, it's very likely we'll be debuting the new Sons Of Nothing Screenonifirer. Some people who consider themselves to be technical geniuses might look at it and say, "That's just a video projector," but they're wrong. We've harnessed secret powers of the supernatural underworld to make this, oh, so much more.

We also got a heavy duty, fancy pantsy fog machine -- also enhanced with supernatural, underworldly, neato thingers -- and it created beautiful fog at Ciseros a couple weekends ago... for about forty five minutes... and then... it died.

I think it's a thermostat or something.

Anyway, it was a new unit all covered by a warranty so it's riding the big truck to Florida for some free repairs. In the meantime, we should be able to get a sit-in (fog-in) for this weekend. After all, a FloydShow wouldn't be a FloydShow without the omnipresent fog.

Ahhh, how far I've come. In high school, I manufactured a fog machine using an aluminum garbage can (anyone remember those?), a water heater heating element, a small electric fan, and dryer hose. Filled with water which was heated, we would lower a wire basket containing chopped up dry ice (frozen CO²) into the water, producing a thick carbon dioxide vapor which could then be blown out of the dryer hose.

I remember sitting in my room my first year of college, running a fog machine like this, playing Pink Floyd, and placing 25 watt colored "party lights" into a cardboard shoebox with small holes punched into it. The light emanating through these holes cut through the fog like tendrils reaching out into the room.

I didn't need drugs to have otherworldly experiences while listening to my space rock. All I needed was... hardware. ;-)

So, now we have fog production, the kind of video projection device we need, and a nice big screen. My goal is to focus on supplemental lighting gear now - a couple DMX scanners, some modest PAR cans, and a DMX computer interface. And, of course, getting everything to run flawlessly on Linux.

Won't that be nice.

Home stuff

Christine's stressed about work and it sucks. There's only so much I can do from afar. I offered to beat the people up who are causing her stress, but somehow I don't think that would be the end of her problems.

Just stick in there, girl. Do your job good and the stupidity of others will either stop or begin to be painfully obvious to people in charge.

Lucy's in her second week of preschool and, of course, loves it. Maya just does her thing: She goes to school, does excellent, comes home, draws tons of pictures for everyone, and reads herself to sleep.

I insisted on saving a bunch of my favorite books from my childhood for my kids. I made this decision when I was a kid and I never really could imagine what it would be like to actually pull that box out and hand those books to my own children, but here I am. Maya's eating them up. She's a better reader than I was and I was a really good reader. She's in second grade and reading "big" books like Laura Ingalls Wilder novels. I keep joking about throwing the Lord Of The Rings trilogy at her.

Eli's a weed: Just keeps growing. Not really talking a lot, but he sings a lot. It's cute.

I bought a trailer recently. I need to get a hitch receiver for the car so I can actually use the trailer. It'll be nice, though, when everything's all done. I'll be able to haul some bigger items without bothering my dad or my brother. We'll be able to go camping for a couple days if we want. It's just a flatbed with short sides- like an ATV trailer or a lawnmower trailer.

Our backyard is coming together almost on schedule. The sprinkler lines I wanted to get in by October 1 are all in. I've just got a couple things to finish at the valve box. We've probably got about 5-700 square feet of sod to put down and I've been landscaping the dirt where that's going to go.

I won't be able to do sod this weekend -- I'll be in Colorado -- but maybe next week or the next weekend.

Then, I can start working in the basement again!

This is a report on our recent mini-vacation.

Wednesday: Bed & Breakfast Linux Users Group meeting

Wednesday evening was planned to be the beginning of our vacation. We arranged for my mom to have our kids stay overnight at her house so Christine and I could go stay overnight at a bed and breakfast in downtown Salt Lake City.

Then, I remembered Damian Conway was coming to speak at a special PLUG event. I cancelled our B&B reservation and convinced Christine it would be fun to come with me to the Linux user group meeting.

I'm so happy I have a geeky wife!

The meeting was awesome and I got to get Damian's latest book autographed. The book is awesome, btw.

The presentation was littered with geeky pop-culture references to Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, 2001: The boring space odyssey, and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

After the meeting, Christine and I grabbed some dinner at Dennys and then went home.

Thursday: A Day in Salt Lake City

Thursday morning, we picked up the kids at my mom and dad's house and drove to downtown Salt Lake City.

We had lunch at The Gateway, then walked over to Temple Square and caught a courtesy van that took us to Welfare Square for a tour of the facilities the LDS church operates there.

It was a fascinating tour and we learned a lot about what the church does to help members and non-members in need.

Learning about volunteer opportunities at Welfare Square

Maya and Lucy at Welfare Square

Some bread baked at Welfare Square.

After the Welfare Square tour, we went back to The Gateway. The kids spent a few minutes running through the water fountains at the north end of the plaza. Then we had some Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

At the Gateway Plaza

We planned to see a show at The Clark Planetarium at 5:30, but wanted to visit some of the planetarium exhibits beforehand, so we went over there around 4:30. Christine chased Eli around and they rode the big elevator up and down and up and down. I took the girls around to some of the exhibits on the main floor and tested their patience by trying to explain everything to them.

The show we attended was Ultimate Universe and it was a starshow which showed a simulation of the big bang, the formation of stars and galaxies in the early universe, and then made its way to our galaxy, our solar system, and finally our planet.

Lucy's favorite part was at the end: our planet. Very cute.

We were worried about Eli: Would he be bored and restless the whole time or would he fall asleep? He was engaged, captivated, and fixated on the screen. He finally fell asleep about two thirds through the show.

Maya and lucy checking out the polished rocks.

The kids... on the moon

We had dinner at Thai Siam, a Thai restaurant on south State Street in Salt Lake City. Christine had heard nothing but good things about the place and, despite my reluctance, we checked it out.

It was fantasmagorical!

After dinner, we drove up to Park City and checked into a condo we'd reserved at the Red Pine Condominiums.

Friday: Park City

Friday morning, everyone got up early to go swim in the pool and dip in the hot tub. When Christine and the kids went to the clubhouse at 8:30, they found a sign that said the pool wouldn't be open until 10. So, they came back and waited until 10.

When they went over at 10, they discovered the pool area was reserved from 10 until 11 for "adult swim" and you had to be 16 or older to use the hot tub.

Man! What a rip!

So, we waited yet another hour and went back at eleven. We all got about 45 to 60 minutes of swimming in before we checked out and went into Park City for lunch.

We went to the Park City Mountain Resort and had lunch at the Baja Cantina. It was fantastic and delicious. Then, we let the kids play for close to an hour in a village of those huge inflatable playland-type things frequently rented for birthday parties. The kids had fun and I got some good pictures.

After all the climbing, bouncing, and sliding, it was time for some snowcones before we went up to get tickets for the Alpine Slide. When we got up to the ticket counter, however, we were told the slide was shutting down because of rain, much to our disappointment.

Instead, Maya and Lucy decided they wanted to do some bungie-cord trampoline jumping.

Saturday: Bingham Copper Mine

On Saturday, we got some lunch at Carl's Jr. in Riverton and then drove up to the Kennecott Bingham Canyon copper mine visitors center which is not far from our house.

It's hard to believe I grew up in the shadow of Kennecott's operations and now we live just a couple of miles from the entrance to the road that goes up to the visitors center and I'd never been there before. I was excited to finally see it.

It was very interesting. I wouldn't mind going back when I didn't have the kids with me so I could spend some more time studying the historical exhibits in the visitors center.

Eli fell asleep on the way up and slept most of the time we were there. Maya and Lucy enjoyed the visit more than I really expected they would. One of the exhibits in the visitors center featured some microscopes so that visitors could get an up-close look at some of the materials mined from the ground there. The girls really enjoyed that. They both got some rings from the gift shop as well.

At the visitors center	Maya & Lucy peer into the microscopes.	Christine reads about the WWII time capsule.
Maya & Lucy look out at the open-pit mine from the visitors center theater window	The girls looked through tourist binoculars	Posing with a huge dumptruck tire.

A panorama from 4 separate images. Click for original (i.e. HUGE) image.

I am really enjoying Fedora Core 4 on this laptop! It boots and shuts down so fast it reminds me of when I was using Linux exclusively at my job at Sorenson Vision in 1998 or so and my computer could get up and running into AfterStep much faster than anyone else in the office who running Windows.

Right now, I'm riding with Thom, Matt, and "de lovely" Juli, in Matt's Durango in Northwestern Colorado an unknown number of miles outside of Rifle where we will probably stop to rest, stretch, and use facilities for a few minutes.

Well -- now you know -- after the incident involving Matt's truck a few weeks ago, Matt got a Durango -- a lot like Juli's, but a different year.

Sons Of Nothing will be playing at The Sandbar in Vail this evening and tomorrow evening. I've been privy to the planned setlist and it's very exciting. The band is planning to knock returning fans on their butts with two very cool lineups of Pink Floyd selections and new Sons Of Nothing originals.