The Hydrogen Project - Computers

Power loss

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:52:00 -0500

Yesterday morning, high winds caused a power outage on my street. This somehow managed to totally reset my Westell 7500 DSL modem and wireless router. The official install process failed to work, just as it has never worked, so I had to call tech support. Since I ended up listening to about 15 minutes of pre-recorded advice that was completely irrelevant before getting to wait on hold for the helpful technician who actually called me back when my call got disconnected (Verizon Wireless's great network in action!), I will document the repair process here in case this happens again.

Note, at any point, you can reset the modem back to the original state by poking the little reset button on the back with a paperclip.

First, turn the modem upside-down and note the serial number and WEP key. The serial number is the default SSID, and the WEP key is just that.

Connect to the wireless network, or connect your computer to the router with an Ethernet cable.

Visit this URL: http://192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm

Click the 'DISABLE' button. You will eventually be asked for a password. The username is 'admin' and the password is 'password'.

The next screen will ask you to change your username and password. Change it to something besides the default. At this point, you should be able to connect to the Internet.

Go into Wireless Settings and twiddle the settings how you want. Most likely everything you need is under Basic Security Settings.

You will likely need to double check your firewall settings as well.

I hope that helps anyone in my situation. Naturally, if you need this advice, you probably can't get on the Internet anyway.

Power loss

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:52:00 -0500

First, turn the modem upside-down and note the serial number and WEP key. The serial number is the default SSID, and the WEP key is just that.

Connect to the wireless network, or connect your computer to the router with an Ethernet cable.

Visit this URL: http://192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm

Click the 'DISABLE' button. You will eventually be asked for a password. The username is 'admin' and the password is 'password'.

The next screen will ask you to change your username and password. Change it to something besides the default. At this point, you should be able to connect to the Internet.

Go into Wireless Settings and twiddle the settings how you want. Most likely everything you need is under Basic Security Settings.

You will likely need to double check your firewall settings as well.

I hope that helps anyone in my situation. Naturally, if you need this advice, you probably can't get on the Internet anyway.

fs1rgen progress

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:29:21 -0500

I have created a small subproject of fs1rgen in order to get a really basic app working that uses a genetic algorithm. It's called tonegen, and instead of generating random FS1r patches, it generates random noises. (By default, 44.1kHz 16-bit audio with a 1/440 second sample) 10 of these noises are created per generation using some horrific mishmash of Objective-C and C++. (Seriously, there is no reason for me to use Objective-C for what is now a command line app that interfaces with Core Audio, a C API)

FS1rgen will be the same, for the simple reason that Cocoa is written in Objective-C and GALib is written in C++.

If you would like to try tonegen, you can grab the source code from github and you'll need the latest GALib. You'll need to muck with the XCode project file to make it find GALib, since I really haven't bothered with a autoconf or even a Makefile.

Project Progress

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:31:07 -0400

fs1rgen

I have mostly completed the XML document that describes the FS1r data model, at least enough to start writing code to parse it. Because spending 30 minutes at a time reading Xerces-C is almost useless, I have abstracted away the XML parser so that I can write a Xerces-C driver later and a RapidXML driver now. Since the RapidXML driver was, well, rapid, I am now onto writing a very basic test XML so I can build the genetic algorithm component using GALib. A lot of my ideas about the data model have had to change to adapt to the GALib environment; I'm awfully glad I started reading the manual before I wrote all that code.

For fs1rgen I am using git. I made a public repository on github for it, but since I'm always in a hurry to get off the train when I check stuff in, and I haven't really figured out git anyway, there's not much there.

LoopCollector

I have abandoned the C++ command-line version and I am now thinking of writing a third prototype in Perl before implementing the VST version. I have started the VST version but the VST scaffolding is a little tough to figure out a half hour at a time. I may implement a prototype in ChucK, Pd, or CSound, whichever I can figure out the quickest.

eyeCalendar

I have taken eyeCalendar off my sidebar here after some performance problems. It's a low priority now that I'm not actively tracking Boston music events since the whole baby thing keeps me craving sleep more often!

Blogging

I have been offered a spot as a contributor at Way of the Spatula. In addition, I am spinning any non-DJ type musical content into a separate blog: The Republic of Nynex. There's no content there, yet. I need to finish my software projects first!

If anyone has a suggestion on a Linux RSS reader that can handle HTTP authentication or cookies, let me know. I would like to stop using LiveJournal as my feed reader. I tried RSSOwl but I do not like it.

Updated list of stuff to know

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:30:47 -0400

LLVM

Erlang

J2EE

VST and CoreAudio/MIDI

Stronger Objective-C

More Perl (Moose)

GALib

PD/Max and SuperCollider

Linux kernel hacking (at long last) and all the other stuff about Linux I forgot over the past 6 years of not having a daily Linux beater.

strong Python (work requirement, blah)

C++ topics (boost, template hackery)

Clojure or some other functional language

more J2EE since I appear to be working on that in the office now also

Assorted Projects Update

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:25:52 -0400

eyeCalendar

eyeCalendar is my WordPress plugin project. It fetches iCalendar format files and merges the contents together, allowing totally custom formatting on the part of the site administrator. Until recently, it featured on the sidebar over yonder → aggregating Hydrogen Economy events with many other Boston events sucked down from Facebook, Going.com, a number of public Google calendars, and Upcoming.

A bug in eyeCalendar resulted in my PHP installation consuming all available CPU on its server. As of now, it's disabled until I fix the problem. I think the root cause is in the fetch code, but I can't be sure until I test and test some more. As such the widget is disabled until I fix that problem. Since the project has not seen an actual release, I'm sure nobody actually cares except me! There is one other developer attached to the SourceForge project but he hasn't done anything.

LoopCollector

LoopCollector is an audio effect inspired by an event described by The Custodian. It cuts source audio into arbitrarily long chunks and rearranges those chunks to form a rhythmic pattern. I created this project mostly to teach myself how to program AudioUnits and VST plugins.

I began by prototyping the algorithm in a Perl script. A second version of the Perl script followed. Neither was satisfactory. Currently I'm implementing a command line version in C++. These three are all totally dependent on sox to decode and encode audio. The perl scripts open up pipes to sox and I'm pretty sure the C++ version will too. I originally wrote the code so that it could eventually form the basis of both the VST and AudioUnit versions, so I used all manner of wacky C++ template crap so that I could write code that handles floats and ints and chars and shorts without rewriting anything. I've scaled back on the wacky templates since I realized that this all a prototype anyway and probably would require massive work to fit into a VST plug-in!

I haven't got any sound samples yet, because I haven't had any satisfactory results, but as soon as I do, I will probably post them.

Music

I have radio shows on May 29th (covering NCP part 1 from 7PM to 10PM) and June 5th (Test Pattern the subject matter of which I have not yet decided, so 6PM to 7PM)

Susanna from Rare Frequency is doing a Raster-Noton Test Pattern May 29th as a preview for the Alva Noto/Byetone appearance at Middlesex.

I have some actual ideas for some actual productions bouncing around in my head. I will get them out on some format if it takes me years. The InfiniteStateMachine series on the creation of the ISM label has only helped fuel my musical aspirations.

fs1rgen

I bought a Yamaha FS1r a number of years ago and I still don't have a clue how to program the damn thing. I originally bought as the sound module to a wind controller I never bought (although maybe some day I will purchase one of the new Akai EWI USB units). The front panel is far too tiny for all the options in a single patch, and the only available Mac OS X editor is complicated despite the larger screen. What I have decided to do is use the MIDI implementation described in the manual to create a genetic algorithm of sorts that can generate patches.

Because I haven't started coding yet, I'm going to write up a design here. I'll even put it under a cut so you can skip it.
Continue reading "Assorted Projects Update"

How not to do version detection

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:30:47 -0500

Irrespective of your opinion of Flash, the following situation has arisen now that Flash 10 is out, and it bothers me greatly. A bunch of websites look at the Flash version string in order to figure out which version is installed. This string looks something like 'Shockwave Flash 10.0 r12' and is accessible from JavaScript as navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"] or similar. Some websites requiring a minimum version of Flash perform their version checking by finding the dot in the version string and then converting that character to an integer. Now that Flash 10 is out, browsers with Flash 10 installed are completely barred from some offenders. Others may at least allow a user to bypass the version detection. Of course the proper thing to do is to match against a regular expression like "\b(\d+)\." and use a backreference, which you can very well do in JavaScript (RegExp.$1 in this case).

Ch Ch Changes

nospam@example.com (mkb) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:25:54 -0500

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated this site. Over a month! For that I am sorry. I have a number of good excuses though.

The first is that I spent a lot of time in October trying to find a new job. I started this past Monday at Akamai Technologies, where I will be working on log processing. That may sound boring, but think about what Akamai does, and how much traffic they handle every day (6 million hits per second!) That results in some ridiculous number of terabytes of log data per day!

The second is that I have been preparing for my second batizado. I have never actually talked about capoeira on this site before, but I have been training in capoeira for the past two years, and I aim to keep going until I need to get joints replaced. A batizado is an annual event for a capoeira group where students who qualify move up in rank. I received my second cordao, which meant that I had to fight seven masters of capoeira until one of them finally got me on the floor. Maybe it wasn't seven; I lost count. :) I am spending today recovering my strength.

Anyway, I will be posting some old playlists here. I will also be writing more about computers and capoeira, since I don't actually write so well about music.