transcript

I was contemplating creating a flow chart
outlining the jeep hobby
from newbie
to burnout
and all the various stages that occur in between
There are several funny stages in the middle
that often occur
James: heh
are you at burnout, already?
me: A: I'll get a loan and finish my jeep right
B: I'll open an offroad shop with my buddy who knows everything, but mysteriously does not have an offroad shop already
C: Me and someone else will set up axles, and make a fortune
D: I'm selling my jeep
E: I'm not selling my jeep
James: laugh
me: F: Your jeep sucks
G: My bruiser chassis is on order
E: I lied
F: I'm going hydro steer
G: I'm settling for this steering
H: I dont give a fck about the DOT regs
I: The ticket i have to pay now sucks
J: I know what the bearing preload is
James: [smile]
me: K: There are metal fragments all over the pavement
every time i hear someone say something in my list
James: (that can be the ``jake'' stage)
me: i just laugh inside
even worse is the budget boost stage
which should in all cases
be skipped entirely
James: gill is stuck there...
me: nooo
James: and he's going straight from there to stage D
i don't see much hope for him.
me: it alwasy happens
budget boosters
are 50% more likely
to go to stage D
is he in socorro
James: very sad
Sent at 4:23 PM on Thursday

Problems with vmware-server-console in edgy eft resolved

Based on this article I was able to correct my startup problems with vmware-server-console on Ubuntu Edgy Eft.

I had been using vmware-server-console without issue on Ubuntu Dapper Drake, but after a dist-upgrade to the new edgy eft release, I was unable to start vmware-server-console. It would just sit there, never launching the GUI.

The debug messages written to the console indicated that it had a version information problem with libpng12.so.0, that libcairo required that information to start. The article above indicated that you should remove the libpng12.so.0 shipped with vmware-server-console and symlink to the ubuntu distribution installed copy.

Additionally i had to remove libdbus-1-2.

Here is the core of the instructions presented on the article above, but please read it directly as well:

* Remove the libpng12.so.0 file delivered with vmware-server-console
* Create a symbolic link from the Debian libpng to vmware-server-console directory
* remove the libdbus-1-2

Red Jeep and Grey Jeep Operational

Finally I have both jeeps running at one time. Scored a set of BFG All terains from a friend for free, along with rims, for the Red stock height 92 Jeep Cherokee. After replacing ball joints and transmission mount, it's running quite a bit better. I still have to change out the vacuum actuated coolant valve, since that is leaking, but it's still much better than it was.

I already experienced the benifits of having two working vehicles. I happened to have both of them parked at work the other day, and I managed to lock my keys in the grey jeep. Having a seperate set of keys for the red one, I was able to drive home and come back the next morning with a spare set of keys for the grey one.

My cat is typing on the computer, what does it mean

My cat sat down on my computer today and wrote this.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeTttttttttttttttttttttfffffffffffe65

What does this mean. Is it in code?

Scanning a bunch of photos at once using scanimage in linux

Just replace the plustek:libusb:001:002 with whatever sane-find-scanner comes up with for your scanner. This script, once started, will just keep looping. It starts at 2.jpg incidentally, but you are free to modify it if that bothers you.

You will end up with a directory of images, hitting enter between each scan, so that you have ample time to swap the image on the scanner head.

The measurements below are set up for a 4x6 picture at the marked corner of the flatbed.


#!/bin/bash
VAL=1
while true; do
VAL=`expr $VAL + 1`
echo "Now scanning $VAL.jpg"
scanimage --resolution=300 --depth=16 -d plustek:libusb:001:002 -l 0 -t 0 -x 151 -y 101 > output.pnm
convert output.pnm $VAL.jpg
echo "Press enter for next scan"
read

done


Requirements
1. Sane, along with the various sane utility packages.
2. Imagemagick
3. Bash
4. Compatible scananer.

My internet speeds at home are fixed

Looks like upgrading to the 10mbit package from brighthouse fixed the slowness issues I was having. I'm comfortably downloading at 950KBps, which is a far cry from the 64KBps that I was getting previously.

First cold of the year

Just got over my first cold of the year. Took me about two days to beat it.

I really do need to learn to take it easy. I dont sleep a lot usually and it probably does not help my immune system out.

Was very nice to be able to work from home though. Using a bug tracking system I was able to get quite a lot done, even without being in the office.