Tech of the day: Debian static IP

My Dockstar has been getting its IP via DHCP. And I want to assign it a permanent IP address so I followed this guide. Basically commented out the line for dhcp in /etc/network/interface and add static IP like:
iface eth0 inet static
[tab]address 192.168.1.200
[tab]network 192.168.1.0
[tab]netmask 255.255.255.0
[tab]broadcast 192.168.1.255
[tab]gateway 192.168.1.1
[tab]dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Then I restarted networking:
/etc/init.d/networking restart

Musician of the day: Jon Eriksen

I picked up harmonica again recently. (Harmonica and I went way back! It was the first instrument that I attempted to learn by myself, and with a bit of input from my mom. She taught me how to play the scale. That's all :D What my mom bought me was a tremolo harmonica that is really popular in Asia. A few years ago I took a break from guitar and tried playing 10-hole diatonic harmonica. The hurdle I couldn't get past was bending/overblowing so I wasn't able to play any tunes with accidentals! This time I bought myself a chromatic harmonica, on which I could play accidental without bending/overblowing, which I should learn eventually but at least I could play some real music!) It was a great coincidence that I saw jazz multi-instrumentalist Jon Eriksen playing during lunch time at Rincon Center. His playing was great on both harmonica and vibes. Check out his page on Jazz Harmonica Summit.

我很老土

記得小時候（八十年代），父母喜歡聽徐小鳳鄧麗君，那時我們都聽Alan Leslie 陳慧嫻陳百强，所以覺得父母很老土。如今想起來，實在要為他們平反！為何要平反？皆因今日已為人父母的我和當日的他們相比起來，更老土得多！事實上，當時聽徐小鳳鄧麗君的歌，只不過是十年或以內的舊歌。我喜歡聽的流行曲（古典及爵士不應計在內）有多舊？都是八十年代的歌！前一排抄了一大堆落memory stick放在車裡，早幾天才播來聽：簡直首首喜愛！例如Alan的Don't Say Goodbye呀，Leslie的愛慕呀。至於電台頻道，聽得最多的也是以播舊歌為主。當今最流行的歌，例如Ke$ha, Jay Sean甚至Black Eye Peas唱那些，都覺得實在難聽。喜歡的只有Katy Perry一個！

Music of the day: Phantasia

What was that background music used by Patrick Chan (Canadian Figure Skater)? That's the question I had when it was on TV. And I was not the only one who asked the same question!

Tech of the day: Dockstar as print server

It seems that one major use of embedded device/plug computer is print server. Setting up printers on Linux was not known for being a user-friendly process though. It has changed a lot thanks to CUPS. (I wrote about it before for my Arch Linux install)

For Debian, I found its Wiki entry very useful. What I did was very similar:
1) apt-get install cups cups-client hplip
I used hplip because I have a HP PhotoSmart printer.

2) I edited cupsd.conf as suggested.
So I was able to administer CUPS on port 49631 from other PCs (which is necessary 'coz I am not running X on my Dockstar!)
Then I added my HP printer as a local printer by picking one of the choice listed: HP photosmart 7350 USB MY25S3308N3Y HPLIP (HP photosmart 7350)
However, I was not able to add the printer on my Windows 7 PC using HTTP URL.

To do that, I followed the steps from CUPS Mini-HOWTO at LinuxFoundation and edited /etc/samba/smb.conf.

Finally my Win7 box was able to see the printer on Dockstar automatically when I chose to add a network printer. The only remaining step is to manually pick the driver in the Generic section labeled MS Publisher Color Printer as suggested by the aforementiond Debian Wiki.

I found lots of info from other links like 1 and 2 but these are kinda outdated.

BTW, my root partition became full quickly halfway through installing CUPS and became unusable. My fix was to move /var and /usr out of it (by following the instructions found here):
1) use fdisk to create a new partition. Don't forget to format with mke2fs or it won't mount.

2) mount the new filesystem in /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/new
# mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/new

3) tar up /var/*

4) untar in /mnt/new

5) Rename the /var directory (to make sure this has worked before deleting it!)
# cd /
# mv var var.old

6) Make new var directory
# mkdir var

7) Unmount the new partition
# umount /dev/hda3

8) Remount it as /var
# mount /dev/hda3 /var

9) Edit /etc/fstab to include the new partition, with /var given as the mount point

I also did something similar for /usr. Instead of a primary partition, I created an extended partition (sda4) and then a logical partition out of it (sda5, which is the one to be formatted and mounted) (or I would have used up the maximum of 4 primary partition and won't be able to create any other partition in the future)

Tech of the day: Dockstar w/ Debian file sharing

Before we could share anything, we need to mount the drive(s) first!

I have some NTFS as well as FAT32 formatted drives in USB Enclosures. To mount them, first find out the "name" (sdb1 or sdc5) of your attached drives by:
fdisk -l

For NTFS, I installed NTFS-3G:
apt-get install ntfs-3g

Then mount as:
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 [dir name]

For FAT32, simply mount as:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 [dir name]

Next, install and configure samba following these steps. Basically we need to add a user to the server (useradd) and add a SMB password for this user (smbpasswd -a) Then edit the followings accordingly:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
/etc/samba/smbusers

[Update] After the above steps, I was unable to move/add/delete any file on the USB drive if I'm not logon as root to Dockstar, which isn't very useful. I google quite a bit and got many suggestions:
- chmod 777 [the mount point]
- add writeable = yes to smb.conf
- add the mount point to fstab with umask=000 in the 4th column
Well, I did all 3 and it works for me now (not sure which one is the key though)

Tech of the day: Debian on Dockstar

I bought a Seagate Dockstar (for fear of it being discontinued soon! Amazon is pushing its newer replacement) last week. I have no intention to use the remote file sharing service PogoPlug (requires payment after the 1st year) And Dockstar cannot be used without PogoPlug unless you modify the firmware. I might as well run Debian (or OpenWRT) on it. Here are my steps:
0) Connect it to a PC running Linux (e.g. booted from a Live Ubuntu CD) with an Ethernet cable. Turn off internet on the PC.

1) Find out its IP by following Alexander Holler's instructions.

2) Plug in a flash drive and mount it
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

3) Backup the stock image to /mnt
Using the instructions from the same link as (1)

4) Disable PogoPlug's daemon so that it won't attempt to phone home
killall hbwd
killall hbplug
mount -o remount,rw /
vi /etc/init.d/rcS
press "i" (to get into insert mode)
change the line "/etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start" to "#/etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start"
[esc] and ":wq" (write & quit)

After shutting the Dockstar down, it would be a good time to copy the backup images by unplugging the flash drive and plug to the PC.

5) Now the Dockstar is ready to be connected to the internet (by plugging the Ethernet cable to the router)

6) Follow Jeff Doozan's guide to install Debian (on a flash drive)
In case you couldn't find fdisk, it is under /sbin. Delete any existing partition. Hit 'n' to add the first Linux partition as primary partition 1. Accept the default first cylinder and +512M for the last cylinder.
Make it bootable.
Hit 'n' again to add the 2nd partition as primary partition 2. Also accept the default first cylinder but +256M for the last cylinder.
Hit 't' to change the system type of the 2nd partition. The Hex code is 82 (for Linux Swap)
Finally hit 'w' to write the partition to the drive (and wipe out everything you had originally!)
Now the drive is ready for Debian installation (just follow the rest of Jeff's steps)

Next I'll configure it for Samba and file sharing.

Music of the day: David Tanenbaum & SFCM Guitar Ensemble

I went to this concert today. Judging from the description and the organizer (San Francisco Chamber Orchestra), I expected a program of old and new classical guitar materials, probably from the likes of Fernando Sor and Leo Brouwer. What a surprise I was in! First of all, I saw the co-host holding a Samick acoustic (folk) guitar. Then another performer (turns out to be Mr. Tanenbaum) holding a resonator guitar (best known for its appearance on the cover of Dire Straits' classic album: Brothers In Arms) Also, the show was not in the format of your traditional concert. Instead, it was in the style of a variety show, with music-related games in between performances, not to mention detailed explanation given by performers/composers. Mr. Tanenbaum told the story of his resonator guitar. This type of guitar originated in 20s and is made of steel and consists of "speaker cones" to make it sound loud. The brand of his is National and it came from National's factory in the lovely city of San Luis Obispo. And his is not your "ordinary" National Steel Guitar but one custom fretted in Just Intonation (the alternative to equal temperament, which most musicians are more familiar with. You could see how unique the guitar frets look) Tanenbaum teaches classical guitar at conservatories. You might wonder why he didn't play it at the concert. It was because he has asked composer Lou Harrison to write a piece for him for a long time. Finally Harrison wrote one, not for classical guitar but a National Steel guitar with Just Intonation. He wanted to write something special and it turned out to be his last work before he passed away. It's called "Scenes from Nek Chand" which is based on the sculpure and architecture of Nek Chand in northern India and was indeed very Eastern sounding.

Another guest on the program was violinist Jeremy Cohen. I didn't know he was the founder of Quartet San Francisco, of which the music I really enjoyed! He played a violin solo piece and a viola duet (Tango #8, with himself and Ben Simon, SFCO's director, both on viola) piece from his etude books and also the jazz standard Honeysuckle Rose (with himself and Julian Smedley both on violin) What a versatile player! (in terms of instruments and styles)

Topic of the day: Parenting advices (with a hidden agenda)

This article started off making a lot of senses: who, as a parent, hasn't receive contradicting advices from different sources before? (e.g, the grandparents, the friends, the media......) It suggested parents shouldn't be frustrated when facing those contradicting advices as long as they love the kids (and do 9 other things on their list of 10) Well, it turns out to be religious propaganda!

9. Religion. You support spiritual or religious development and participate in spiritual or religious activities.

So I am a bad parent if I'm not religious? This is ridiculous. Fortunately I'm not alone in identifying the hidden agenda (read the comment section)

Sports highlights: Golden Gate Park to Golden Gate Bridge Ride

Normally I don't talk about my own sports activities here. For one thing, I don't do that much. The only things I like are golfing and biking. I still haven't played my annual 18-holes (not even 9-holes) this time of the year. Doesn't seem like it's gonna happen. I used to do a few hours of bike ride about once a month and I've tried almost all flat trails in the Bay Area but my biking has been reduced to mostly 15 minute trips between Caltrain and office. Nothing really interesting to share, until today. Well, everything changed in August when I thought my folding bike was broken (and thus gave me a perfect excuse to buy a long-wanted road bike as a replacement) I started with some easy routes (like this) and then some harder ones. Finally I have the most fun bike ride in years. I took me 4 hours to hit all these landmarks: Conservatory of Flowers, Palace of Fine Art, Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, Legion of Honor, Cliff House and back to Golden Gate Park (photo).

Music of the day: Telemann Viola Concerto in G

On Aug 30th 2010, 103 violists played this piece together in Berkeley (this ViolaMania was probably a record breaking event)


Too bad I hadn't started on viola at that time yet. The event allowed everyone who could play the piece to bring his/her viola and play!

Sports highlight: 由1993等到2002，等到星期一

講的當然就是新科棒球World Series冠軍三藩市巨人隊。我由92年左右開始追Baseball，看得最多的是Rangers, Astros, Braves, White Sox, Cubs。（前四隊都在近十五年打入決賽。）不過92年球季最令我印象深刻的是當時在Pirates的年輕巨星Barry Bonds，在季後賽對Braves失利無緣打入決賽！此後Bonds加盟巨人隊，由於經常到SF/Oakland遊玩，也漸漸對巨人隊及A's產生好感。該球季初至中段，巨人隊勢不可擋，暑假我在香港，最期待姐姐寄來巨人隊及A's新聞的剪報(Thanks!)，誰知季尾竟然又被Bonds的死敵Braves追過，連季後賽也無法打入！2002年WS Game6功虧一簣，又再次失望。今季不被看好，竟然就是成功的一季。要分析，十萬字也寫不完，還是看專家Peter Gammons吧（我覺得很有見地）

Topic of the day: the digital music business

As a long time Rhapsody subscriber/listener, I didn't even know the company was spinned off. Doesn't sound like good news. I guess it's really hard to make money there. A former player in this business, Imeem's founder Dalton Caldwell, explained why. Of course, current players like startup MOG's founder David Hyman sings a different tune. I recommend reading
this. It's an interesting read because what the author said about MOG was rather negative.

Tech of the day: java.util.HashMap

I used to think of HashMap as a easy-to-use class. You put a key-value pair in. Get a value out using the key. How complicated could it be? Oh well, apparently it's more complicated that I gave it credit for. I learned 2 things in the past few days. I tried using objects that I defined as keys. I knew for sure I need to override the boolean equals(Object obj) method so that two keys that are different objects but representing the same data will be treated as the same key. What I didn't know was that I also needed to override the int hashcode() method! Without overriding it, keys that are different objects but representing the same data will have different hash code and thus treated as different keys. One simple way (not always distributes the objects well in the Hash, depending on your data, but it will work) is to keep a running total starting with 0. Multiply by a prime number and add the hashcode of a data field to the running total. Repeat for all data fields you use for representing the same data. Another mistake I made was that I needed to iterate through all the keys and remove some of them depending on its value, I got a java.util.ConcurrentModificationException. The fix? Instead of removing keys from the HashMap, simply call remove() on the iterator to remove the element last seen. (Yes, the underlying HashMap will reflect this removal)

Musician of the day: Chrissy Steele

I just "discovered" this female metal vocalist. The track was actually from her album released in 1989. She has left the music business (and guess what? worked as a computer programmer!) already. Too bad. The track sounded awesome. I thought I heard Vixen or Lita Ford. Once again it showed how important luck is.

BTW, I heard the track on Radio IO's hair band channel. Yes, I actually enjoy hair band music (because it's guaranteed to have guitar solo) It was also useful to block out co-worker's voice :P

Topic of the day: Caltrain unfriendly to folding bike users

I like my folding bike a lot 'coz I could carry it in my car without a bike rack (and worry about the bike falling off or scratching the exterior of my car) I used to like the idea of taking my folding bike to ride Caltrain and then bike to where I work (without my bike, I need to walk 30 minutes) but it doesn't seem to be a good idea anymore after a few incidents:

1) This happened a year or 2 ago: a Caltrain passenger/cyclist told me I had to fold up my bike instead of parking it in the bike car like every other cyclist do, so that a space could be "saved" for other cyclist with non-foldable bikes. The intention was good but where am I supposed to put my folded bike? Caltrain's rule says that folded bike should be put under the seat (which is not possible for mine or most other reasonably sized bikes) or on luggage rack (which is 3 cars down. Dragging my bike through 3 cars was a workout that I didn't need) so I declined and that dude wanted to continue to argue with me but stopped by other fellow passengers. I didn't say another word and problem solved.

2) This happened today: instead of asked by a passenger, I was asked by a Caltrain conductor to do the same. To make things worse, this time another passenger (a 架兩) actually chimed in to support the conductor! I explained the problem again. And the conductor gave me permission to violate the aforementioned rule: she told me to put my bike on the seat! (And allowed me to seat in another one) Well, how was I supposed to refuse such a good offer? Since the aisle is too narrow for me to push my bike thru, I have to pull it off the ground and carry all the way to the empty seat in the back of the car. And this was the by-product:



Oh yeah, I told the 架兩 it's none of his business.

[Update: the bike chain grease stain on my pants were safely removed by Shout (Triple Action Stain Remover)]

Sports highlights: Iowa, NASCAR, F1, LCS

What a weekend for sports fan like me! The Saturday didn't get off to a good start: Texas was upsetted by Iowa State after upsetting Nebraska the week before. I guess this team is just inconsistent. Wisconsin beat the other Iowa team though, in a really close game. Then came the news that the Giants has finished off the Phillies in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. Finally, while waiting for the rain-delayed Korean Formula 1 GP, I have time to watch my taped NASCAR Nationwide race, featuring Danica Patrick and Justin Allgaier, who drove very well but couldn't win because of poor pit stops. It's sad to see that he might not get a ride next season. I thought with his good image and talent he should have been signed for the Sprint Cup series for next season already! I heard it has to do with his sponsor (Verizon Wireless) has to drop out because NASCAR has exclusive sponsorship deal with Sprint! BTW, Danica had another solid finish (22nd place)

I have waited and waited for hours for the start of the F1 race. Finally it's green flag and the championship leader Webber crashed with Rosberg and yellow flag flew again. Then I gave up and went to bed. I like the outcome though. With 2 races remaining, the championship is still wide open.

Nothing could have been more surprising than the Oakland Raiders beating up its rival Denver Broncos though. The Raiders was leading 38-0 in the 2nd quarter! I was interested in this game enough that I turned it on while driving (not enough to stay home and watch though)

Finally, I watched another taped NASCAR race. Fell asleep at the 400th lap (out of 500) Again, I like the outcome: Denny Hamlin won and is only 6 points behind 4-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson. So there's no guarantee that JJ will win it all again (boring!) but I think he's still the favourite (BTW, I read some fans comment that NASCAR helped JJ to win by choosing race tracks that favors him last week. I don't agree at all. JJ was simply GOOD! Last week he spun and got a flat tire. He didn't panic at all. All he did was patiently got in and out of the pit and gradually move up to the front again. I haven't seen another driver like that. Not even Jeff Gordon today)

Sports highlights (and lowlights): football, auto racing, baseball and golf

It has not been a very good weekend because almost every team/player I rooted for lost:
Texas losing to Oklahoma was kinda expected but they dropped out of Top 25 for the first time since 2000!
Wisconsin losing to Michigan State was not too surprising because they usually had a good start and then start losing to some semi-decent teams.
Will Power losing the IndyCar Racing League championship was not too surprising either given his not-too-great performances on the oval. It was disappointing to see his car hitting the wall and was not even able to finish the race.
As far as US losing the Ryder Cup to Europe is concerned, I wasn't even sure which team was the favourite. I was glad that Tiger won a few of his matches though. Give him some time and he will be back.
I didn't feel too bad to see St. Kilda losing the Aussie Rule Football grand final to Collingwood because I didn't root for either of them. It was just that the loss was too lopsided.
Man U didn't lose, but tying Sunderland while Chelsea beat Arsenal equalled to 2 points loss in the standing.
For a while I thought the Giants would suffer the same fate. In fact, they lost the first two games of the San Diego series to pave way to the dramatic finish: winning the division by winning the last game of the regular season! It was their first title since 2003. To be honest, before the season starts, it's hard to predict them to win without a premier hitter, which make this title an even bigger achievement!
Another exciting event was Chinese fighter made history in MMA in US. Tiequan Zhang, nicknamed the Mongolian Wolf, won his debut fight in WEC in US. Wish him more success!

Topic of the day: Taylor Guitar and GE Commercial

I was watching Ryder Cup coverage (on the background) and this commercial caught my attention: It's about Taylor Guitar got money from GE and one of GE's employee played their guitar at the factory, and played very well!

Oh well, too well! She didn't actually play it. It was achieved by clever videoediting.



The "real" guitarist was Marija Temo. Here is a video of her:

香港有史以來八間發鈔銀行

係邊八間？
答案在此