tzblog

How To Update Dropbox on Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:15:00 +0000

I keep forgetting how to do this... so am posting to myself.

To update to the latest dropboxd:

In your $HOME dir:

mv .dropbox-dist .dropbox-dist.old

/usr/bin/dropbox start -i

This should open a download dialog to get the latest version, install and start it.

The Spaces Inbetween

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:58:00 +0000

There seems to me to be a growing disparity between the music industry and the people creating music.

There are now more people making better music than ever before due to the number of tools being available and the general accessibility of multitrack recording software/sequencers/looping. Further, we now have global distribution available to us at our desktop. No longer are we forced into signing record contracts to get access to either studios or distribution or anything... anyone can do it themselves and regularly do. However, the upper tip of the music industry pyramid is still chugging away using the same old models.

In fact, it seems that the separation is expanding. The hits machine is staying the same or shrinking while the base is growing. While it may be difficult to pick up if you just listen to mainstream music, I think it is clear that there is more music being generated today than every before and much of that is completely separate from the Music Industry Inc.

My theory is that eventually it will just usurp the Music Industry entirely - and probably when least expect it (ie. soon). Once enough music is being generated outside of the Machine that is of high enough quality and is easier to access than the music being provided by the Machine - we'll just start buying direct.

You want some examples? How about AOL? It used to make sense for a large group of people to use a service to get them access to online sites. It also made sense for those sites online to engage with AOL to provide access via their services. Eventually we all grew up, Google came along to provide good search and voila - we all could directly access the Internet without having a filter.

On a similar though different slant, I expect the same will happen with a lot of things. Seems a somewhat similar disconnect is happening in finance as we have the lower portion of the pyramid of incomes financing the multi gajillionaires and huge banks at the top via mutual funds and investments (and tax funded bailouts, but I digress). Eventually us suckers in the middle & lower class will be either a) broke or b) wise enough to see that our money is going directly into the money clips of a few and the party will be over for the top.

How about politics? There is currently a complete disconnect between the top and general public. I mean, its clear that the vast majority of the population is either not in agreement with the leaders or is not at all interested in what is going on. Look at the Tea Party. Not that I agree with their politics, but you have to admit that they are a huge grassroots movement in the States. If only us in the silent liberal types could organize.... but that would mean I'd have to put down my bottle of wine. Perhaps next week ;-) Again, I digress....

Ah, perhaps this is all wishful thinking. Perhaps it has always been this way and always will be.

There is no progress or future point when we win, its just an mirage created to keep us all moving forward.

Dabbling in the Visual Arts

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:43:00 +0000

Though I love the visual arts, I've never been much to do anything myself. I'm a terrible painter/drawer - perhaps that is why I never explored it. Though, I have always had interest in photography etc.

Anyway, I took a few pics on the weekend and GIMP'd them up.

I'm not claiming to be an artist or that I put much time into them, but I thought they were interesting. Might use them to brighten up my office or the studio.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Roger Waters - The Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:02:00 +0000

Thanks to my buddy Lee, I had the opportunity to go see Roger Waters - The Wall on Saturday in Vancouver (Rogers Arena) and, as expected, it was fantastic.

First, a bit of background to give context on my perspective. I've been a huge Pink Floyd fan for about 25-30 years now, own pretty much every album (still short Atom Heart Mother and Obscured by Clouds) including a bunch of unreleased/bootleg stuff, have watched The Wall the movie numerous times, read books etc on the band and their albums/tours etc, and listened to The Wall album more times than I can count. While my 'fandom' has waned a bit in the last few years, it is mostly because I'm just so familiar with the music that there is not much 'new' I can get out of it. Also, I've seen Pink Floyd live 3 times (Momentary Lapse of Judgement once and Division Bell twice) and Roger Waters (DSOTM) once.

I had also read about and seen pictures/footage of the original Wall tour in 1980, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect; however, that is _not_ to say that I wasn't looking forward to this concert. It was more just a shock that I was _actually_ going to see this concert. After the acrimonious split up and the subsequent lawsuit(s), after the public barbs from Roger that David G. was just 'flogging' the PF name to make money, after numerous times hearing PF folks say that doing another Wall tour just wouldn't happen/wasn't economical - here I was, going to see it.

The concert itself (detailed here) was really flawless. Musically it sounded great - the musicians were fantastic (especially Snowy White), though I really missed David Gilmour. Robbie Wyckoff covered Dave's vocal parts while Dave Kilminster covered most of the guitar parts. Robbie was all right and Dave K definitely has the chops to play Dave G's solo (in fact most were pretty much note for note) but I kind of wish Snowy had taken on a bit more of the guitar work. I find (as I did during Roger's DSOTM tour in 2007) that Kilminster is technically a fantastic guitarist and definitely does Gilmour's solo's justice; however Snowy's guitar work has much more life and soul. So, while Kilminster's solos probably sound a lot closer to the Gilmour originals, I think Snowy's come closer to matching the life/feeling of the solos while not necessarily matching them note for note.

Either way, I'm nitpicking - the concert was fantastic. And ultimately, you just aren't replacing Dave Gilmour (or Rick Wright (RIP) or even Nick for that matter).

I believe the show also had a bit more political overtones than the original with many of the illustrations/content containing digs at capitalism, government, war etc etc. These are all sermons that Roger has preached for years/decades, but really strike a chord today as so many of his topics are very current: unbridled capitalism -> financial collapse/global recession, greedy corporations, unending wars, fear peddling, widespread suffering. So, with minor updates/tweaking of the message, The Wall still works.

In fact, I was a little surprised at how well it actually did work. I went in thinking it would be just a wall with Gerald Scarfe and other animations projected on it - but, it really was much more than that. The wall offers such a large canvas with so many opportunities/possibilities - it is really an interesting artistic environment. It serves as a massive display for projecting all of Roger's ideas, concepts, fears and opinions, a backdrop for the giant Scarfe inflatable characters, Roger's living room in Nobody's Home, and obviously, even on its own it still represents and embodies all the symbolism of isolation and hints of authoritarianism that it always did. It was interesting to see the possibilities of what can be done when you combine more than just music and video - but also add animation, art, performance, political opinion...

Anyway, enough talk. Here are the thumbnails - the full size pics are better:

My View

So ya, thought ya might like to go to the show

The Wall

Intermission already??

There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me

'cause if they catch you in the backseat trying to pick her locks

they're going to send you back to mother in a cardboard box

Waiting for the worms

The way you made them suffer, your exquisite wife and mother....

Tear Down the Wall

Drupal Login Silently Fails

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:24:00 +0000

Just a quick note on a fix if you happen to be experiencing a problem logging into a Drupal site.

The behavior is the login seems to silently fail. No error message, no log messages, nothing. Login/password is accepted (and bad passwords will fail - so it is hitting the db properly), but after submitting you are returned to the front page not logged in.

I solved the issue by checking the cookie_domain setting in the settings.php file. The domain name is parsed from the $_SERVER['HPPT_HOST'] php variable using some regex. If this is done incorrectly, the wrong domain will be set in the php session.cookie_domain variable which will prevent logins. To fix, you can hard set the $domain variable in the settings.php file. There are notes on this in the settings.php file, but it is a little obscure.

What a Fantastic Place To Be

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:13:00 +0000

I'm not sure it gets any better than this.

Sitting here on my deck, a beautiful July Kelowna night - about 24 degrees outside and its midnight.

It is truly fantastic. Family, friends, music, a drink in my hand...

The title of this post is in reference to my favorite song of all time, a fairly obscure song by The Rhinos. Every time I hear that song, it reminds me of exactly how I feel right now.

Right now is truly a fantastic place to be.

Linux Audio Production Software Stack

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:57:00 +0000

When I first started poking around for audio production software in Linux, I must say, my hopes were not high. I assumed there would be the odd bits of clunky software available - but nothing that would be useful for my needs. Was I wrong!

From software synths (Qsynth / Fluidsynth, ZynAddSubFX) to guitar processors (Rakarrack), to audio editors (Audacity), to drum sequencers (Hydrogen), full blown midi sequencers (Rosegarden, Seq24, Muse), Digital Audio Workstation/multitrack recording software (Ardour), to mastering software (JAMin) - Linux is overflowing with great quality audio production software.

And what's more, they all tie together with an audio system called Jack. Jack works as a real time, low latency audio patch system to connect any jack aware hardware and software together - however you want. As with any recording system, latency is a huge concern, so ensuring that any 'handling' of the audio is done as efficiently and quickly is vital - this is Jack's job.

I could really spend a full post talking about each of the pieces of software I listed, and I just might do that...

And as usual, the Linux community has prebuilt a few distros with multimedia creation and editing in mind. I chose Ubuntu Studio for my distribution. It comes prebuilt/preconfigured with many of the applications I listed above - and any others are usually just a apt-get install away. Further it comes with the real time kernel (RT) as default - something that you will need to run if you want low latency/overrun free audio recording.

There definitely was a few hoops I had to jump through to get everything up and running (setting of a few processor priorities etc) - I'll discuss those in a later post, but from unboxing my computer (with no OS) to running audio applications under UbuntuStudio took me under 30 minutes.

Did I mention I love Linux?

Here's a screenshot of my desktop running Hydrogen drum sequencer, Qsynth and Jack. (click for full size)...

Hydrogen/Jack/Qsynth

Been a little busy....

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:38:00 +0000

So I finally bit the bullet and bought a couple of treats to sassify my music habit.

First I updated my workstation. Nothing extravagant - I priced out a good cheap desktop that fit my needs.

Second, I got a nice audio interface. Since my music workstation is Linux all the way, I researched my best option. Based on this research, I wanted to get an RME PCI card and external interface... but that was _way_ out of my budget. So, I decided firewire was my second best choice - especially given how well some of the devices were supported via the ffado project. The device I finally chose was a Focusrite Saffire.

Focusrite Saffire

It's a sweet little box - lots of ins and outs, nice preamps, great sound and reasonably priced. Lots of good reviews. As a bonus, since its a couple of years old I decided to check on eBay. Turns out there was a guy that lived about 20 minutes from me selling one for a reasonable price. Met up and picked it up the same afternoon. It took me a little to get it fully functional, but I'll cover that in an upcoming post...

OK, so that has the computation and the interface covered... now what about the inputs and outputs? First the outputs, since you can't do anything if you can't hear what the hell you are doing - and while I was running my audio through my old Onkyo stereo system with Axiom speakers, it was difficult to know how the amp/speakers were affecting the sound. I needed some near field studio monitors to hear exactly what was being produced. Enter the KRK Rokit 6's

KRK Rokit 6

Nice reviews again, and fairly reasonable.

Finally, the inputs. I already have a Shure 57 for most recording needs, but I wanted a good mic for vocals etc. I haven't ordered it yet, but I got my eye on the Rode NT1-A.

Rode NT1-A

All in all I'm really looking forward to having all of this set up and running soon.

As I mentioned, I'm going Linux all the way. I've installed Ubuntu Studio - a great distro that comes prebuilt with much of the software required. But again, I'll delve into the software stack and setup in an upcoming post.

Lovin' the Rockman

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:33:00 +0000

As I've mentioned, I'm slowly working my way back into music. Until recently, for any guitar playing I was using an old classical guitar I have lying around. However, a couple of weeks ago, my old bandmate Wayner let me borrow one of his Jackson guitars and his Marshall cab to play around with.

This has been great! I had forgotten how nice an electric feels - and reacquainting myself with a little distortion has been nice. The kids and I are having a blast. However, with the kids around, I haven't had a chance to crank it up and get that old feeling of a blastingly loud G chord as it rattles your teeth and ruffles your pant legs. Enter the Rockman...

For those uninitiated, the Rockman is a headphone guitar amp that was originally designed/built by Tom Scholz of the band Boston (he was also an MIT trained engineer).

I remembered that I still had Wayne's Rockman from way back (1989 or so) sitting in a box in the closet, so I decided to bring it out and give it a try. Well, let me tell you... I forgot how great this thing sounds! Throw on some headphones, crank it up and suddenly you have the _exact_ chorus/echo guitar sound of Boston.

Loud, kickin, rockin, nice.

The cool thing about the Rockman is how well designed/thought out/built these things were. Little things like having an aux input (so you could play along with other input like a tape/cd player) and multiple headphone outputs. Also, it had such a clean signal you can even use it for recording. Just a great design.

Tick tick ticking in my head

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Finally got my warranty replacement set of ZAGG Z.Bud earbuds (my first ones failed within a week) - and these ones are much nicer! Generally a great set of iPhone buds.

But that's not the point of this post...

A conversation occurred between Michelle and I that got me thinking. While trying out different earbuds for her she commented that she didn't like them because it sounded as if the music was right in her head. I didn't think much of it at the time and since I was still wearing the awful standard Apple iPhone buds, I wasn't experiencing the feeling at the time so didn't make any connection. Now, since receiving my Z.Bud's and re-experiencing the effect of good earbuds, I totally agree with her. It does in fact sound as if the music is originating in your head; however, contrary to Michelle's opinion, this is _exactly_ what I've always wanted.

This got me thinking (again... as usual) - why is this? Then, while listening to Metallica "Disposable Heroes" emnate from the centre of my brain it hit me...

My thought is this - the experience of having music occurring in your head is very similar to the experience of musicians. When playing music, this is very much the experience. Not only are you hearing the music you are producing externally, but you are also hearing the music you want to produce internally at the same time. That's why when you play in a band with others, it is so enjoyable. As the music you are hearing and producing coincides with your feelings and thoughts it becomes pure ecstasy. I think this is especially true when writing or improvising. Anyone that has jammed with friends know that magical moment when the tune comes into focus and external music matches internal music.

For me it's almost a relief sensation when everything - external, internal physical, mental - matches. The stress leaves.

I think you can probably expand this beyond just audio also. For example, for me the same feelings apply when writing in general. Sometimes the thoughts/feelings are knotted up in my brain and it is not until they are expressed externally by writing that I get that relief feeling. Further, the closer the external release matches the internal condition, the better the feeling. This is why music is so good as an expressive method since it connects with your inner feelings on so many more levels.

Need to feel that again.

Dropbox

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:43:00 +0000

Lot of buzz lately about Dropbox, and I gotta say, it is NICE!

Available on Linux/Mac/Win, it adds a Dropbox folder that is automatically synced securely to the cloud. Set it up on multiple machines and you have immediate/automatic syncing of files/folders etc etc. You can also selectively make files/folders generally public or available to specific users. You get 2GB free, else $10/month gets you 50 GB or $20/month gets you 100GB.

Check out Maximumpc's entry on 15 cool features too for some added info.

Fedora 11, Anaconda and dmraid

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:56:00 +0000

I had an issue when first installing F11 that I failed to blog about at the time unfortunately. However, this is a long running issue with Anaconda that was exacerbated in F11 - so thought it was worth noting my fix.

The issue occured while installing Fedora with Anaconda (the standard Fedora installer). When I arrived at the disk partitioning stage, Anaconda did not list either of my sata drives available on the system. Apparently what is happening is that Anaconda does not recognize any drives that have raid meta data written to it. This is true even if after you have raid turned off in bios. As long as software raid was at some point activated, meta information is written to the disks and Anaconda will reject them as available disks.

The normal fix for this issue (pre and post F11) was to start Anaconda with the nodmraid option:

linux nodmraid

The behaviour is described in this bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=499733

Since this fix was not available in F11 (as described above), I had to find another work around. Ultimately, the work around is to actually fix the problem by removing the meta data altogether.

Standard Disclaimer
Obviously this will kill any raid you have setup - so be careful. In fact, don't do this. Why are you following my advice, I wouldn't.

Unfortunately, I don't have the _exact_ notes from when I went through this; however the basic steps are to ensure raid is disabled in bios and systematically remove the meta data on each raid disk.

To list raid disks, as root run: dmraid -r

To remove meta data on all disks, as root run: dmraid -rE

To remove meta data on a specific disk, as root run: dmraid -rE /dev/name_of_disk

If I recall correctly, you may be able to do this from within Anaconda by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F2 to get a terminal.

man dmraid is your friend.

However, unfortunately there seems to be another related bug, where dmraid will not erase invalid meta data. Check https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=517761 for more info. Basically, the fix is to just run Anaconda with the 'nodmraid' directive.

Thunderbird and IMAP - Immediately Showing Email Moves on the IMAP Server

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:34:00 +0000

I've been investigating an issue I was having with Thunderbird and IMAP.

The frustration was that any email or folder moves that were done in my Thunderbird client were not being reflected on the IMAP server until I either compacted the folders or closed the client.

So, for example, in Thunderbird I have multiple mail filters that automatically move incoming mail to specific folders based on content and source etc. If I leave my Thunderbird client open on my desktop, incoming messages all get automatically moved within Thunderbird; however, if I check on the IMAP server (via a web interface) or with another client (my iPhone) those messages are NOT shown as moved.

As mentioned, closing Thunderbird (or compacting the folders) forced the changes to the server.

I finally found the answer in a few places on the web - but it was a lot harder to find than I think the issue deserves, so I'm writing it down for myself ;-)

The problem is that apparently IMAP does not have a 'MOVE' command - the commands that are actually sent are a 'COPY' and 'DELETE'. So, what is apparently happening, is the copy command is sent when a filter is applied (you can check this - the emails actually appear in both locations), but the delete is deferred based on the settings in Thunderbird.

Thunderbird, by default (in 3.5.5 anyway) is set to only expunge deleted files (actually delete them) on close or compact. Now, this _may_ be solvable by just setting your Account Settings ->Server Settings to 'When I delete a message -> Remove it immediately' However, I did not want this - I wanted deleted files to be moved to the trash folder.

You'll also notice the 'Clean Up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit' setting in the Account Settings location. Again, useful (may solve the problem) except it only updates when you exit the program (not useful).

The Better(tm) setting is in the advanced config.

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Config Editor
(you'll need to bypass the warning)

Change the Config entry:
mail.imap.expunge_after_delete to TRUE

This should make any email and folder moves and deletions done in Thunderbird available to other IMAP clients immediately.

Sony STR-KS360 Bell Expressvu (DishTV) Remote Code

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:47:00 +0000

For anyone trying to get their Sony STR-KS360 Amp/Receiver working with their Bell Expressvu remote, the code is 766.

Here is the code/procedure:

Press and hold the Aux button for three seconds (until the lights blink)

Press 2 (to select Tuner/Amp)

Press 766

Press #

Aux should blink. Voila

If you'd like your remote to control your amp/receiver volume while watching the satellite:

Press and hold the AUX button for 3 seconds.

Press #

Press + (the volume UP button)

Press 0 (zero)

Press #

Note: I finally found a good code list in the DishTV docs (I believe it is the same remote) here along with good clear instructions on programming the remote can be found here

Reverse VNC to a Reflector

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:17:00 +0000

Start the reflector listening as follows:

Host: *
Port: Whatever (note reflector minuses 5900)
Password: password of vnc server

If Windows:

Start VNC Server
Right click and choose Reverse Connect?
Connect to reflector:port

If Linux - NON :0 Display:

Start a VNC server (vncserver :2)
vncconfig -display :2 -connect reflector:port

If Linux - :0 Display:

./x11vnc -rfbauth ~/.vnc/passwd -connect reflector:port

So, How Do You Write A Song Anyway?

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Apparently not the way I used to write, and unfortunately, I'm not sure anymore.

While thinking about writing lately, I've been thinking about how I wrote in the past. The lyrics were a mishmash of styles ranging from free association to focusing on a specific topic, to writing to existing music for a specific purpose. I'm not sure I ever found a 'standard' method. The music was almost always written with the help of, or entirely by others. While there were two or three songs written almost entirely by me, I would say the vast majority of the musical writing was done by others with me adding tweaks and suggestions.

Which brings me to now.... how do I write songs now that I am not in a band where I can lean on others for help in the areas I lack? Well, apparently I'm not the only person wondering, as a quick google search for "how to write a song" (with the quotes) returns about 59,000 entries.

Given the new direction of writing using loops, while I'm intrigued, I'm not yet sold. Further, while this would seem to be a good method for rhythm, beat, feel... it wouldn't seem suited for writing melody - the area I need the most assistance in. Since I was only moderately passably talented on any particular instrument, I don't have a particular instrument I can turn to for melody.

Not particularly interested in solutions or options - just pushing the thoughts around my head. I think since I didn't have a stable consistent method to begin with, I find myself now swimming. Lots of thoughts, ideas with no concrete way to translate them into useful strings. Just thoughts.

Signs of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:27:00 +0000

It's strange, I've seen a little bit of passion in my life lately - just a touch. Don't get me wrong, I'm passionate about my family and kids - but this is something different.

It has been a long time.

When I hit 25/26 with no career and no real future, I started reevaluating my decisions. It wasn't that I regretted anything, indeed just the opposite. I knew when I decided to focus on music during my high school and early post HS years that I was sacrificing my educational and career side. I was taking 'a flyer' on music as a career - but I'm not sure I ever really thought about it as a life long path.

Another sacrifice during the music years was my intellectual and academic interests. I completely dropped my interest in learning, advancing, exploring anything to do with academics, technology - anything outside of music really. When I reevaluated my life, this all changed. I decided that I needed to refocus on the things I had left behind, and (as I am wont to do) immediately swung the pendulum to the extreme other end. I dropped all musical interests and focused solely on academics, career and family.

This worked great for the most part. I think the next ten years of my life were the most productive years I could have hoped for - and I eventually caught up from my years of 'slacking'. Unfortunately, what I didn't realize is that I had completely removed my creative outlet.

The pressure I had put on myself was extreme - to 'catch up' - exactly what I wanted. To prove to myself that I could do it, could perform at a high level. What I didn't realize was that without the designated outlet, pressures find a way to release in other areas. I became a much more stressed person that I was originally, much more uptight, much less forgiving. Eventually anxiety issues crept in and forced me to confront many of the issues I had long since buried away. I then realized how removing one facet of my life and removing the creative outlet was really affecting all aspects of my being.

Given our recent move into a new home and the settling back into routine, I now find that I have had a chance to relook and rediscover some of my old music interests and it has jolted and reignited my passion for music and a little.

So, I'm rebuilding my music world piece by piece. A computer here, a keyboard there - a mixer, some mics, a guitar. Further, I'm re-initiallizing my songwriting. Its hard, and the flame keeps wanting to go out - but I'll continue to blow on the embers and feed it kindling in the form of equipment and song ideas and "purposeless play".

Connections

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:58:00 +0000

A friend of mine just reminded me a _great_ series from the late 70's called Connections. Thanks, Ian! It was a James Burke show that tied history and technology to show the web of ideas/thoughts/concepts/inventions that needed to weave their way through history to end up with a technology that is available today.

Needless to say, it was a fantastic series. As Ian noted on his blog post, Burke really nailed what would happen over the next couple of decades since the show aired. You really should watch it - (again as Ian mentioned), even if only for the white leisure suit ;-)

He followed up the Connections series with Connections^2, Connections^3 and The Day The Universe Changed. All are great. Here's a link to the playlists:

James Burke Playlists

Have fun

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:09:00 +0000

OK, so I just checked my content generation rate... and it's a little poor. 7 measly public posts in the last year. Well, I have an excuse... I've been busy!

Over the last year I've changed jobs, changed cities and completed my degree.

Last summer I started poking around for job possibilities at UBC Okanagan and was lucky enough to secure a great position within ITServices here in Kelowna. I'm continuing my work with WestGrid, but now working within Research Support at UBC Okanagan. It has been a great move for our family - much more quality time and much nearer to family.

Also, I finally took the time to finish my practicum. I'm now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Systems With Distinction.

I'll be trying to keep up with a bit more posting as we get more and more settled here in Kelowna.

Permalinks Changed/Fixed

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:48:00 +0000

Finally got around to fixing the permalinks issue of having 'index.php' in every permalink.

This will probably mean that any existing bookmarks/google results are wrong, but it had to be done. You should be able to just remove the index.php portion and the link should still work.

Sorry for any inconvenience!

OpenSuse Build Service

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Thanks to a colleague, I've been introduced to the OpenSuse Build service - and let me tell you... it is _cool_. (Thanks SteveC!!)

Basically, it is a service that allows you to place the src rpms for your project onto their servers and have it built for any number of distributions / architectures. So, for example, you can upload your src.rpm (in a cvs type manner - ci, co, etc etc), add build targets and away it goes, building your software on the desired platforms/architectures. The architectures range from xUbuntu, RHEL4/5, CentOS5, Fedora 8/9/10, Debian Etch, SLES9, SLE10,. openSuse10.3/11/11.1. Wow.

It's pretty cool too - basically it creates you a xen virtual machine for development, with the requirements listed in your spec file and builds your software on it. You can view the build logs as they are being generated to monitor build progress as it goes, or view them after the build to see the results etc. It also provides a 'dashboard' type interface for keeping track of projects, build progress, status, etc.

Nicely, there is also a command line interface via the openSUSE (build service) commander or 'osc' program.

Great Tutorial Here:

http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/Tutorial

My Notes Here:

http://toddz.thenibble.org/p/opensuse-build-service-notes.html

Have fun...

iPhone Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:14:00 +0000

Sweet! Just installed the Wordpress iPhone app and it looks nice.

I've been a little busy lately (as you can see from my lack of posting) but should be posting an update soon.

Firefox - Load Tabs in Background

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:21:00 +0000

In Firefox, I like to have my tabs load in the background since my typical usage is to open multiple tabs from a site (multiple news stories for example). This is true when opening from a site, bookmarks or from a third party app such as my RSS Aggregator or email.

While the default is for Firefox 3 to load tabs in the background (links from other tabs), when loading from bookmarks or external apps, Firefox will move to the foreground to load the tab.

To change this behavior:

Enter about:config in the address bar.

Press OK to move pass the warning

In the filter bar enter: browser.tabs.load

Change the settings as required to True

The three relevant entries are browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground, browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground and browser.tabs.loadInBackground.

As mentioned, loadInBackground defaults to true; however, the other two default to False (meaning focus is switched to the tab). I set all three of these to True.

The [Un]Canadian DMCA

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:47:00 +0000

For anyone that has been living under a rock the last week, 'our' government has introduced a new bill on Copyright Reform - Bill C-61. It is being sold as a "unique made-in-Canada approach to copyright reform" and a "bill [that] balances the rights of creators on one hand and consumers on the other" by Industry Minister Jim Prentice.

This is not a 'made-in-Canada approach' - more an American Digital Millennium Copyright Act approach that is completely one sided.

If you don't feel like being labeled a criminal for simply copying a DVD to your portable device, or making a backup copy of a CD you own, I would check Michael Geist's reaction and commentary for the true story. Michael is the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. Be sure to check all the links from his site to other opinions so you get all the facts.

Then... do something about it. Here are some suggestions from Michael's site:

1. Write to your MP, the Industry Minister, the Canadian Heritage Minister, and the Prime Minister. If you send an email, be sure to print it out and drop a copy in the mail (no stamp is needed - c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A0A6). If you are looking for a sample letter, visit Copyright for Canadians.
2. Take 30 minutes from your summer, to meet directly with your MP. From late June through much of the summer, your MP will be back in your local community attending local events and making themselves available to meet with constituents. Give them a call and ask for a meeting. Every MP in the country should return to Ottawa in the fall having heard from their constituents on this issue.
3. If you are not a member of the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group, join. If you are, consider joining or starting a local chapter and be sure to educate your friends and colleagues about the issue and starting working through the list of 30 things you can do.

"I Thought I Knew" Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Zimmerman) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:15:00 +0000

Technically the fourth mix, but I've skipped the real third one (Screamer) until I can get a handle on the song and figure out what the hell to do with it.

Anyway, this song is called "I Thought I Knew". I would say, for the moment in time when the album was recorded, this represents one of the definitive 'Felix Amour' songs. For me it really sums up our style. It's heavy on the Floyd influences, broody, moody and nice.

Musically the song ventures from a dry, cold place to a heavier, more confident world. Since the song describes a journey / change, it was important that the music also represented that. If I recall correctly, the original version was much heavier right from the beginning of the song, but during recording we decided to tone the start down to bare minimum. I sometimes regret that, only because the guitar sounded so great screaming in straight from the opening drum/bass line; however, this version clearly matches the lyrics better. As was the case with Circles, we obviously had something against placing a standard chorus in standard recurring places. We tended to write musical narratives (musical - not necessarily lyrical) rather than songs. Still love this song musically - drums/bass/guitars.

Lyrically the song is one personality addressing another, with the now passive personality regretting the decision to allow the dominant personality 'airtime'. The passive personality remembers awaking 'one night' during a dream to find that the dominant personality had completely taken over and now is relegated to the sidelines. There is a hint that the fight is far from over, as in the final lines the now hidden personality describes sitting and waiting for an opportunity for a return. To personalize it, it's a pretty clear condemnation of the person I had become in my opinion. The vocals were intended to be 'dry' at the start representing a confused and defeated sound, although I wonder if they aren't perhaps a bit too dry and drifty on pitch - overselling it. Later in the song when the narrator accepts his new role, gains a bit of confidence (and bitterness) and starts to plan for the future, the vocal style follows suit. I'd probably rerecord the vox if I had my druthers.

Don't remember much about the recording of this song, but the mixing was definitely a challenge. Not sure how we originally did it, but we had tracks crammed in every conceivable blank space on the 8 available tracks. Jeff and I could never quite could get the live mix correct, for good reason, so the mix on the original cassette lacked in my opinion. I ended up splitting out the tracks to 13 tracks. Also, I did a bit of cutting and pasting, removed a redundant musical stanza that never panned out. and removed some other cruft. Added more of the 'one night' vocals around to fill out the song. As mentioned in a previous blog post, this was the first mix that I attempted to get spatial separation. I used a HRTF effect to separate the tracks spatially, and the Haas effect on the lead guitar. All in all, I think it is a much more mature mix than my previous attempts - although, that may only be true in headphones. I haven't tested in on many monitor setups.

Here are the tracks. A note about file types and relative qualities - the range of qualities is:

Best
I Thought I Knew.flac (47MB)
I Thought I Knew.wav (92MB)

Next Best
I Thought I Knew.ogg (23MB)
I Thought I Knew.mp3 (20MB)

I'd use the flac or the ogg (details on how to set it up can be found here), but that is just me. For Windows users it's probably easiest to just grab the mp3 or the wav.

As usual, comments/suggestions on the mix welcome.