2003 Blog
Christmas in San Diego
Allyn, Ian, Ruwani and I spent Christmas in San Diego. Ruwani cooked a fantastic meal that was almost "too good to eat". We had a honey glazed ham, chicken salad, grilled vegetable salad, and Potatoes Gratin. For desert we had berry cheesecake.
Afterward dinner we went for a drive along the coast down to La Jolla which
turned out to be a bit of a mistake. It had been raining most of the week and
just happened to be worst today. It was also very windy which the
trees hadn't expected so there was a lot of debris on the road. It
turned out OK but I was a little worried about the outside of my car
.
Oh we also saw Paycheck although that hardly rates a mention.
Last Minute Trip to Austin
I wasn't expecting to travel anywhere this week but I ended up flying to Austin, Texas on Sunday night to work on Monday and Tuesday. Austin actually reminded me a little bit of Sydney because it's a little hilly, lots of trees, dynamite cut roads through some of the hills etc...
ATI fglrx drivers for Radeon 9000 Mobility
I'd been using XFree86 4.3.0 and the built-in, open source, radeon driver. 2D support seemed fine and 3D support was definitely there although I wasn't getting the performance I had expected. This was based on doing timedemos in Quake III, my old Matrox G400 on my desktop system was able to get better scores than the Radeon!
So I decided to try out the ATI proprietary drivers for my vid card. The web site says there aren't any for the mobility chipsets but the standard driver works fine. I downloaded fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-3.2.8.i586.rpm and used alien to convert it into a .deb. Yes I was using XFree86 4.3.0 before but went back to the standard 4.2.0 release for Debian unstable for the purposes of testing out the ATI drivers.
Component: ATI Radeon 9000 Mobility Distro: Debian unstable (2.4.22-ac4) Hardware: IBM T40 (2373-96U) Driver: ATI flgrx with XFree86 4.2.0 (deb: 4.2.1-15)
- convert the RPM: alien fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-3.2.8.i586.rpm
- install the DEB: dpkg -i fglrx-glc22_4.2.0-4.2_i386.deb
- build the fglrx kernel module. In my case I am using both the standard
agpgart module and fglrx. I had been using the radeon DRI module and
needed to unload it before the fglrx module would load. These
instructions are in the readme file provided by ATI:
- cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
- ./make.sh
- cd ..
- ./make_install.sh
- You should be able to "modprobe fglrx" now. I added it to /etc/modules.
- Run fglrxconfig to generate an XFree86 config file. NOTE: it seems to want to create one from scratch which is pretty annoying. I made a copy of my original file, used the config program to create a new one then only copied over the video card "Device" section.
- startx
Issues:
- laptop will freeze/hang/lock-up if I suspend while in X and try to
resume. The work-around is to switch to a text console before suspending
and it seems to resume OK.
[UPDATE 2004-01-03] It looks like the glx XFree86 module must not be loaded for the laptop to suspend correctly. i.e. have 3D support disabled. If it is loaded then the text console and X become corrupted on resume and a reboot is required. - mplayer vidix output doesn't work correctly, I get a window or screen of garbage. I never tested this out with the XFree86 driver though, so I can't say whether it has anything to do with the fglrx driver. XV output is fine though.
3D is much faster and 2D seems to be snappier. Overall I'm pleased and I'm sticking with it.
Muncie and Seattle again
I'm back from a week in Muncie and a week in Seattle.
Muncie was very cold.
It rained all week in Seattle.
Thanksgiving Long Weekend
Ruwani and I didn't have a very traditional Thanksgiving with turkey, tons of food, and family. Instead we had a Thai green curry that was super hot/spicy and stayed at home. We'd attempted to get to Las Vegas for the weekend but left it too late and the flight availability was pretty bad not to mention the prices.
On Friday we headed up to Hollywood and spent the night at the Renaissance
Hollywood Hotel. Very nice! On Saturday we drove out to Santa Monica and spent
a couple hours shopping and walking around before heading home. We dropped in
on Ian on the way back and had a spa .
Although we didn't see any American celebrities in Hollywood, we did run into Madeline West in an elevator. She plays Dione in Neighbours back in Australia, well used to play, don't know if she's still on the show.
Ruwani arrives today!
Ruwani arrives late tonight! We decided to get back together a couple months ago and it took a while to arrange everything so she could come over here.
A week in Albany, NY
It was a productive week in Albany with Brad Collins, we left the client very pleased. Unfortunately it was the 2nd week in a row where I lost my Sunday travelling across the country :( Oh well, next week I'll be here for sure because Ruwani is arriving on Tuesday 18th.
Albany was pretty cold, it actually snowed the last couple days. I had a
jacket but I wouldn't say I was well prepared, it was below 0°C when I
arrived on Sunday night and I was wearing shorts .
Atlanta and Maryland
Monday and Tuesday in Atlanta, Wednesday at Colledge Park in Maryland. It was a bit of a busy tip but I managed to get a couple photos from Atlanta. Some nice buildings there.
Fires in San Diego
Some pretty serious fires around San Diego at the moment. News coverage has been continuous all day with many properties already burnt down, a few deaths, and the fires are still out of control plus high winds. I'm a fair way away from the fires here in Del Mar but the sky is all dark from the smoke and orangy looking.
New York and Reston
I'm back home after a long work trip. I spent the 9th - 12th in New York city then flew down to Reston (about 30 mins drive from Washington DC) and stayed there until the 18th. I'm glad to be home but I also had an amazing time!
New York is just amazing! I was working on the Friday but had Saturday and Sunday free so I spent both days doing as much sight-seeing as possible. I was staying at a hotel with Neil Coleman, a co-worker from the London office, so we teamed up to explore the city. Take a look at my photos.
I arrived into Newark airport without a clue how to get to my hotel. After
asking a few people I ended up on a train to NY Penn Station. It was about
11pm when I got to Penn Station and it was mostly empty, except for a crowd
watching a midget pulling some serious dance moves. I made my way up to the
street and I didn't really know what to expect but it was extremely busy, and
this at 11pm! The streets were crowded and the roads a mess with traffic and
beeping. I caught a taxi to my hotel in the SOHO district, walked in and heard
some booming night-club style music. There was a desk but no one attending it
and a constant flow of people wearing funky clothes walking in and going up
stairs toward the music. After waiting a couple minutes I saw a bellman who
said the check-in desk was up stairs. So I headed up stairs to find a
nightclub/bar with live DJ and check-in desk .
On Friday night I headed out to Time Square for dinner and to look around. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera so I didn't get any photos.
On Saturday, Neil and I covered the area between SOHO and Central Park (i.e. North). We saw Little Italy, China Town, Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, Park Ave, 5th Ave (many department stores), Trump Tower, Central Park, and generally a lot of walking and little subway travel. That night we headed out to East Village for dinner and to check out the bars. Again I didn't take my camera so missed out on a lot of photo opportunities :(. We got back to our hotel pretty late and stayed for a drink in the hotel bar.
Both Neil and I had a fairly big night on Saturday so we were both hurting
a little on Sunday and the weather turned sour to match how we were feeling
but that didn't stop us . This time we headed south to the
financial district. We saw Wall Street, the World Trade Center site, and
Battery Park where we caught a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. That
afternoon we split up to make our way to Reston.
Micromuse was holding their North American Partner, User Conference, and Tech Services and Sales training from the 13th - 18th in Reston, Virginia. Although it was great work wise, I had a chance to meet a lot of people and learn more about our products, it was a pretty boring place and nothing to see. I would have liked to head into Washington DC to see the White House and Pentagon but we didn't have time.
Belkin Wireless USB Adapter and Linux
I bought a wireless USB adapter for my desktop PC. USB because it's more flexible, i.e. easily unplug and plug into some other PC or laptop.
This is what I did to get it working:
Component: Belkin F5D6050 (version 1101) Distro: Debian unstable (2.4.22-ac4) Hardware: VIA KT400
- using atmel drivers from: http://at76c503a.berlios.de/. I downloaded the latest CVS version (2003-10-05) although v0.10 would probably be fine too.
- (for VIA users) you may need to patch drivers/usb/hub.c in your kernel:
--- orig/hub.c Sat Feb 22 19:07:23 2003 +++ new/hub.c Sat Feb 22 23:01:14 2003 @@ -690,7 +690,9 @@ usb_disconnect(&hub->children[port]); /* Return now if nothing is connected */ - if (!(portstatus & USB_PORT_STAT_CONNECTION)) { + /* jal, added STAT_RESET, because the VIA KT133A root hub does + reset _CONNECTION while resetting the port */ + if (!(portstatus & (USB_PORT_STAT_RESET|USB_PORT_STAT_CONNECTION))) { if (portstatus & USB_PORT_STAT_ENABLE) usb_hub_port_disable(hub, port); - uncompress the atmel tar ball and compile (make) then install (make install).
- $ modprobe at76c503-rfmd
- plug in the wireless USB adapter, it should be detected and you'll be left
with a new network device. For me (Transmit bit snipped off for readability):
$ cat /proc/net/dev Inter-| Receive face |bytes packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast lo: 2136 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 eth0: 45368 462 0 0 0 0 0 0 wlan0: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - in order to get WEP working I had to:
$ iwpriv wlan0 auth_mode 1
because "iwconfig key restricted" didn't seem to work.
Segway HT
I saw someone riding a Segway Human Transporter today.
Car Crash
Allyn was involved in a car crash last night. Luckily no one was hurt but his car took a beating.
I have a new niece!
Say hello to Ruby!
Dallas, Texas
I'm on my way home from Dallas where I spent the past couple days training SEs at the Micromuse office on NETWORK HARMONi products. The couple photos I took are pretty bad, unfortunately I was busy and didn't have a rental car to go exploring.
Texas is located in south central US. Dallas is pretty warm and humid so not the kind of weather I'm too fond of. Sorta like how Sydney can feel during summer. You may know of Dallas as the place where JFK was assisinated. Nice people around here though, it's a fairly religious area, guns are popular and the favourite food is meat with meat coming in a close second. Oh, Bush grew up in Texas too.
I managed to get on a earlier flight so I'll be back around 3:30pm San
Diego time, just in time for my weekend !
Pissed Off
I'm on a flight out to Dallas as I type this entry and once again I feel pissed off at the crap you have to go through to get on a plane here. While going through the security checkpoint a guard decided to take away my laptop for further testing. I'm not sure what he did since my vision was blocked, but it was probably a swab test or similar to check for the presence of explosives. He must have opened my laptop lid slightly and closed it straight away - the result was it resumed operation but didn't re-suspend. I didn't realise when I put it away because I was putting my watch on, my shoes on, keys, wallet, you get the picture. So about an hour into the flight I get out my laptop to find it's almost too hot to touch. I turned it off and put on the air to help it cool down :(
I must have had my 'want to hijack a plane' look on when returning from Muncie a month ago. I noticed my boarding pass had some crosses on it and when passing through security they told me I was 'special' and my prize was extra searching. This was almost too much, but what could I do but cooperate? I'd actually been working till 2pm, spent the last couple hours driving not sure I would make it to the airport in time, it was hot, I'd made a few errors on the way delaying me further, and was looking at another 6hrs of air travel and waiting. I just wanted to get changed and wash my face but decided to get my boarding pass and go through security first. I thought it'd be a bad idea to walk into the bathroom and walk out in different clothes after that.
Diary Update
I've added titles and categories to diary entries. This is just the first step to make this more blog-like. I intend to make entries searchable by category (e.g. clicking on '/misc' will show all misc entries), and the ability to leave comments.
San Diego Festival of Beer
We had a big weekend with the San Diego Festival of Beer on Friday night and hitting the local scene on Saturday.
The San Diego Festival of Beer was great! We met some new people, tasted a
lot of beer , and took a few photos.
Afterwards we went to The Bitter
End before heading home.
TV out on my laptop
My laptop (IBM T40 with Radeon 9000 Mobility) has an S-video connector which I managed to get working thanks to atitvout ('atitvout -f t'). There were some problems under X using the radeon driver with the colours going out of whack, as if the brightness was turned way up. Others have experienced the same thing and suggested the vesa X driver. That worked OK except playback was unacceptably slow. In the end I didn't bother with X since mplayer can play videos from the command line using the vesa output driver.
LVM
LVM broke on my desktop machine after a reboot. I tracked the problem back to /proc/partitions showing devfs style entries when I wasn't actually using devfs. devfs support was compiled into the kernel but not mounted. I don't know what changed between one reboot (working) and the next (not working). To get things working I recompiled the kernel (and upgraded to 2.4.22-pac1) without devfs support at all. I had to do a little pvcreate, vgcfgrestore, and /etc/init.d/lvm restart to get it going again, but it's all good now.
Baseball: Padres vs Giants
Rusty, Allyn and I went to see the Padres play at Qualcomm stadium
last night. Rusty managed to get his hands on some free field-level tickets
. None of my photos really turned out which was a little bit of
a disappointment. Especially since one would have been absolutely amazing. I
had lined up the Qualcomm stadium sign with the full moon above it
and when I took the photo someone hit a home run and the ball was sailing in
between the sign and the moon! You can _just_ make out a faint streak but the
rest of the photo is crappy (blurry). doh!
Work Trip Cancelled
30 minutes before I was due to be picked up on Monday morning to head down to the airport I check my email and find out the trip has been cancelled! Doh! I was kinda looking forward to checking out Milan and Frankfurt :(
Friday Night
Went to the races again last night with a few people. It was a bit
late by the time we got there so I only bet on one race, which of course I
lost . Afterwards Super Diamond played and sucked
so we promptly left.
Later we met up with Becky and some of her friends at a strip club. Now
that was an interesting experience, especially when one of the girls we were
with got a lap dance. Sorry no photos .
Photos are GO
The photo section is online! I've only got 2 sets of photos up at the moment though, I'm going to try adding a couple sets a week.
Photos
I've put together the pieces to support photos on my website! It's 3am
right now so I think i'll wait till tomorrow before uploading the changes. I
also changed the style of diary entries, articles and news items to be a
little more modern .
I wrote some utilities to handle converting photos and adding the to the DB, but I'll still need to give them titles and descriptions. That's going to take some time!
It was suprisingly easy in the end, good old Site Builder and SB-DB did the trick. A couple new source files, a couple subroutines, a couple templates and the web side of things was done.
Our Washing Machine Stinks
Our washing machine really stinks. You open the lid and KAPOW it smacks you about a little. A bit of research lead to a few recommendations of doing a load of washing with a couple cups of vinegar. I'm trying it out right now.
[later] Awesome, it worked!
Quiet Weekend
It was a quiet weekend and that suited me just fine. I had a chance to recoup and get my web site up-to-date but that's only a start. I plan to slowly enhance the diary section into more of a blog and I'm in the process of adding a photo gallery.
Allyn lent me his smaller surf board today and I enjoyed it more than his larger boards. The surf was crap though, so I didn't get much practice in. (yes, I've been learning to surf)
Muncie, Indiana
Another week, another business trip! This time I went out on my own to Muncie Indiana. It was a pretty small town about 1.5 hours drive from Indianapolis. I was doing an OpCenter install for Cardinal Health, their IS department is located in Muncie. Not much going on out there and I didn't get any photos. It was a successful trip but travelling for 2 weeks straight took it out of me a little. I'm glad to be home and I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend!
Micromuse acquires NETWORK HARMONi
Well it's official, Micromuse has acquired NETWORK HARMONi. Our CEO, Craig Farrell, has also been appointed the new CTO of Micromuse, congratulations!
At this stage I'm still not exactly sure what I'll be doing for Micromuse but it'll get sorted out over the next couple weeks (I hope).
Seattle, Washington
I spent the last couple days in Seattle with Duke giving a training course to some Micromuse customers. We didn't have too much time to look around but packed in what we could!
We went up the Space Needle,
visited the Experience Music Project
(EMP) next door but didn't pay to get access, we didn't have enough time. We
then cruised around for a while checking out the city and stopped at Pike Place Market for a bit of a
walk. There wasn't too much going on at the market cause it was pretty much
closing up for the day. We walked around the block and found a great
restaurant for dinner - I should have written down the name .
It's monday night and I'm just finishing up on a 3 day weekend before going to bed. It was a perfect opportunity for a road trip with my new car but I didn't realise it was going to be a long weekend until late last week plus I had no one to go with, so instead I took it easy :)
On Saturday I did a little shopping for some household stuff I was still missing plus I got a wireless Cable/DSL router and wireless PCI card. I'm still without Internet access at the moment but it should be connected on Thursday this week. I now have the router configured and ready to go for Thursday and spent a little time getting wireless going on my laptop too. I needed to haxor up the kernel a little to get the driver to compile but at least it's going! Unfortunately things aren't as peachy with the PCI card for my desktop. I have a driver but it's binary only and doesn't seem to be working correctly, I'll get it sorted out later when I actually have Internet access going.
That night Allyn and I caught a meal at a local bar and saw The Matrix Reloaded. I think I liked the first movie better but this had some awesome visuals like the highway chase scene etc... There were some stupid things that stuck out and pissed me off. Usually there are a whole bunch of things that you might think of on reflection or when seeing the moving subsequent times but I was thinking these things during the movie :( Worth seeing though!
I'm hopeless on the weekends, I wake up around lunch time and Sunday was no different. So with half the day gone I hit the beach with Allyn and our other tennants from behind our place, Rusty and Becky. I went in for a swim earlier on but the water was very cold. The waves weren't that good plus I was having a hard time breathing cause it was so cold so I didn't stay in too long :) We played horse shoes and drank some beer over the afternoon and then Allyn and I headed back for a BBQ which didn't turn out to be a BBQ cause we were missing BBQ bits (Tanya and Jamie had taken them on their camping trip). We met up with Allyn and Tanya's previous roommates, John and Amber, in the evening along with a bunch of Amber's friends from the military. I had an amazing couple games of pool followed by the usuall crappy pool I play :)
Today I was hoping on washing my car since living so close to the beach it seems to get covered in spray or something pretty quick. I prepared my chamois and bought some sponges but had no hose so the car's still dirty. Other than that I was messing around on my computers a fair bit trying to get things working.
Arrived in the US
I'm there.
[ see entries for: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, misc ]
