Video: Hardware Troubleshooting on the Linux Commandline

I put up one more video for 2023. I hope you'll find it useful.

Have you ever wondered how to troubleshoot hardware issues in Linux, especially from the commandline? In this video we'll take a look at tools you can employ from a Linux shell session to help identify hardware, diagnose and troubleshoot issues, and work toward solutions to hardware problems.

Thank you for watching my video. If you found it helpful, please give me a Like, Subscribe, and Share. There's more to come!

ALL LOGOS AND DISTRIBUTION NAMES ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

PDF COPIES OF THE SLIDE PRESENTATIONS CAN BE FOUND ON MY GITHUB SITE:

https://github.com/InformationTechWithDave

SOURCES FOR LINUX INSTALLATION MEDIA IF YOU DON'T HAVE RELIABLE BROADBAND INTERNET:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3R4gu9Y

LinuxDiscOnline: https://www.linuxdisconline.com/

NOTE: AMAZON LINKS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS. IF YOU CLICK ON THE LINK AND THEN BUY SOMETHING I WILL RECEIVE A SMALL COMMISSION AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU.

New Router

A couple years ago I installed an Asus RT-AC66U 802.11ac router at home. A few weeks ago it started acting flaky, requiring frequent reboots, and finally crapped out entirely yesterday. To get our home network back online I took my Comcast XB2 Arris TM862G gateway out of bridge mode, enabling routing and WiFi.

The performance stunk, largely because it's 2.4GHz only and I'm in a subdivision, so I get a lot of interference on that band. The fastest I could get on speedtest.net was about 20 Mbps down, totally unacceptable for what should be ~100 Mbps service.

So, yesterday afternoon I ordered a Linksys WRT1900ACS router from Amazon, selected one day delivery (I have Prime), and it was dropped off this morning while I was eating my oatmeal.

My initial impressions are generally favorable and setup was straightforward. Performance is plenty acceptable. After installing it I ran a test and got about 96 Mbps down. I just ran a test and got this:

I can certainly live with that.

The Linksys offers some features I'm unlikely to take advantage of, e.g., USB ports to serve files or a printer. However, it does support DynDNS and NoIP, so I may setup OpenVPN on it for remote access and possible as a private VPN for when I travel.

Desktop PC Upgrade With SSD

This weekend I upgraded my desktop PC with a 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO Solid State Drive. (I bought the SSD locally at Microcenter but Amazon has it cheaper.)

The PC is a Microcenter PowerSpec B707 that I bought 4 or 5 years ago. It has a Core i5 CPU and I’ve upgraded a few components over the years, including the RAM to 16 GB, the video card, and the power supply (to handle the video card). The last remaining component to upgrade to improve performance was the hard disk.

Aside from the excellent reputation of Samsung SSDs a major reason that I chose one of their disks instead of a Crucial SSD is that Samsung includes a nice disk cloning software. I wanted to migrate my existing system over rather than rebuilding it from scratch, which would take days. After installing the cloning software, I used a USB-to-SATA adapter* to connect the SSD to the PC, then let it run for about six hours, finishing up after I went to bed last night. This morning when I checked on it the clone was complete.

Note that if you want to upgrade a Mac to an SSD, you can use SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner, both of which are free. There are free Windows disk cloning tools, but other than CloneZilla, I don’t have any experience with them. Samsung’s clone app was easier to use and better for less technical people. It’s very pointy-clicky.

To install the SSD in a desktop you’ll also need a 2.5” to 3.5” drive bay adapter, in order to mount it in the case.

With the drive cloned and the SSD installed, I booted the machine, which went a lot faster than before. It did require a reboot to install the Windows drivers for the SSD. Then I installed the Samsung Magician software, which helps you monitor the health of the drive and optimize its performance. One thing it suggested to do was put the drive controller into AHCI mode by going into the BIOS. Unfortunately, that’s something you need to do before you install Windows. Windows blue-screened before booting fully when I tried this, so back to IDE mode it is.

The machine boots much faster, and I get a usable desktop much more quickly after I login. Even large applications like Word and Excel open very quickly from the SSD. I expected all this, based on my previous experience upgrading my mid-2009 MacBook Pro with an SSD.

Another nice thing is that the PC is a little quieter without the spinning disk.

If you have a PC that’s a little older and in need of a performance boost, replacing the spinning hard disk with a solid state drive is probably the best bang for your buck.

 

 

*Mine is a Newer Tech USB-to-IDE or SATA adapter that I got from Macsales.com several years ago. One of the cheaper USB-to-SATA units should work fine, if you never  have need to read IDE disks.

Asus Transformer T100 Tablet/Laptop

My daughter Alexandra just got an Asus Transformer 10.1" tablet/laptop from Amazon. This post will offer my initial impressions.

A couple notes: First, this is the older model that comes with MS Office 2013, instead of an Office 365 subscription, which is a plus in my book. Second, she spent her own money on this. She already has an iPad but they use Windows in her school district.

Up until now I have not been a fan of Windows 8.x. Having used the Asus briefly, I can say that with a touchscreen it doesn't totally suck. If it was mine I'd still probably install Classic Shell so that I could have a Windows 7-like user interface, if my primary use involved the keyboard. Without a touchscreen, the Metro UI (or whatever MS calls it nowadays) blows.

During the initial setup I let it scan my home network, where it automatically detected my Brother HL-2270DW printer and installed it. Pretty slick.

You almost have to have a Microsoft account (e.g., hotmail.com, live.com, or outlook.com) to use the full features of Windows 8.1. I set Alexandra up with one and she got 15 GB of cloud storage for free. She's going to be using the Asus for schoolwork so by having her save everything to her OneDrive it will be automatically backed up.

I was able to set her MS account as a child's account. I'll get notified of her usage and they will filter inappropriate content. To do this I had to sign in with my live.com account and let them charge $0.50 to my Discover to confirm that I'm an adult.

Alexandra uses a GMail account and the Windows 8.1 Mail app was able to connect to it with no problems.

There's a USB 2.0 port on the tablet itself and a USB 3.0 port on the docking station/base/keyboard unit. The tablet has HDMI out, too. Network access is strictly via WiFi.

The machine seems to be pretty responsive. Considerably more responsive than my 2008-vintage MSI Wind U100 running Windows XP, 7, or Ubuntu. It came with Office 2013 Home and Student, and both Word and Excel launch quickly. The CPU is a quad-core Intel Baytrail and the tablet has 64 GB SSD, but C: shows a capacity of 49 GB, and about 35 GB free. It didn't come loaded down with too much bloatware, but there is a recovery partition.

The screen quality is excellent. Images are very sharp and text looks crisp.

It was about $350 after tax from Amazon. The combination of its size, light weight, and the ability to run most Windows apps is very appealing. It would probably make a good machine for portable ham radio digital mode use, or if you want something light for travel. Hopefully it’ll hold up well and the battery life will be good. Asus claims an 11 hour battery life, but I expect this varies widely depending on usage.

One caveat to be aware of with the Transformer is that if you put it in a case like this one and aren’t careful to reconnect the keyboard, you’ll have to reseat it firmly or you’re stuck with just a touchscreen. For that reason, for my own use I’d probably rather have a more conventional laptop if I could get it in the same size. It would be a great evolution of the netbook concept.

If the Asus develops any problems I’ll post a follow up.

MacBook Pro SSD Upgrade

This morning I drove down to MicroCenter and bought a Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD (Amazon link), which I used to upgrade my mid-2009 MacBook Pro. The machine has 8 GB of RAM and a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, so it was still useful, although before I replaced it with my current work MBP was starting to feel a bit pokey. My goal with the SSD was to improve performance, and especially battery life, for use with my ham radios while camping.

The SSD is smaller than the original Hitatchi disk (256 GB vs. 320 GB) but I don't plan on keeping multimedia files on the machine, so it should have enough space. While at MicroCenter I added a $5 USB 2.0 external enclosure to my cart, into which I put the old disk. I can bring it along for extra storage if need be.

The SSD went in easily and I did a clean install of OS 10.6 Snow Leopard onto it from a disc. I then had to update Snow Leopard to get the App Store, so I could then download and install OS 10.9.4 Mavericks. This all took a couple hours. After getting the OS configured like I wanted I installed the apps I need:

• CHIRP
• Fldigi
• USB drivers for my Baofeng programming cable and for my Icom 7200's USB interface
• LibreOffice
• MS Office for Mac 2011
• TextWrangler
• Skype
• Chrome and Firefox
• Evernote
• StatusClock (to display UTC time in my toolbar)
• Various other utilities

The laptop is noticeably faster in both boot time and how quickly applications open. Excel 2011 in particular opens much more quickly.

Next weekend I'll be taking the MBP into the field, so I tested that CHIRP works with my Baofeng UV5RA and that Fldigi can send and receive PSK31 when connected to my Icom 7200.

As an aside, OWC sells a larger capacity battery to fit this old MacBook Pro. If I find myself getting significant use out of the machine I may invest in one.

I should note that I had considered upgrading the hard disk in my MSI Wind U100 netbook instead. It's certainly handier to pack into the field for use with ham radio ops, but I chose to upgrade the Mac because (a) it's way faster, and (b) the larger keyboard and screen and much easier to use.

Performance and battery life are already noticeably better with the SSD. If you have a laptop that's a few years old changing out the old spinning disk for an SSD is a quick way to give it a new lease on life.

The Baofeng UV5R 2M/70cm Ham Radio

The Baofeng UV5R and variants like the UV5RA have become popular with preppers because they are a very low cost way to get into ham radio. Back in June a friend who is a new ham and I both picked up UV5RAs, and for the money, we’re both impressed with them.

As handy talkies (HTs), the Baofengs allow you to have a small, light, and inexpensive two-way radio for communication on the 2 meter (144 MHz) and 70 centimeter (440 MHz) ham bands. They can be used in simplex mode or with repeaters, allowing you to communicate over longer distances.

The Baofengs will also receive FM broadcast band stations, NOAA Weather broadcasts, and can be programmed to operate on FRS, GMRS, and MURS frequencies.

Note that the Baofengs are not FCC type-accepted for FRS, GMRS, or MURS, so it is illegal to transmit on these freqs with them unless it’s an emergency.

There are a few accessories you should get with one of these little HTs in order to maximize their usefulness:

• The stock antenna sucks. The Nagoya NA-701 offers improved reception and transmission without being too long.
• For use in a vehicle you want an external antenna. The Tram 1185 is an inexpensive mag mount antenna that works well. You’ll also need this jumper to go between the HT’s antenna connection and the Tram’s SO-239 plug.
• This Baofeng speaker-mic will improve audio for both transmission and reception. (I originally got a Pofung speaker-mic but it was DOA. I returned it to Amazon on their dime and got the Baofeng branded speaker-mic in its place.)
• When I’m using the UV5RA in my truck I use this battery eliminator to power the radio. Note that this is not a charger, despite the Amazon product description. Rather, it replaces the battery with a regulator that powers the radio from your vehicle’s 12V outlet.
• Finally, programming the Baofeng by hand is a tedious, frustrating job. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and use your computer and this USB cable. If you already have a programming cable for Icom radios it will be compatible. Check out Miklor.com for troubleshooting any issues related to driver installation. Don’t use Baofeng’s software, which sucks. Rather, use the open source, free software CHIRP, which supports both the UV5R and many other radios. CHIRP is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD.

Everything linked above, including a radio, can be bought from Amazon for under $100.

Although my friend and I both got the UV5RA, were I purchasing again I’d probably go with the plain UV5R. The insides of the two radios are the same but there are extra capacity batteries that fit the UV5R that don’t fit the UV5RA.

This thread on Arfcom is a gold mine of information on how to get up and running with a Baofeng UV5R radio:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/664274_Baofeng_UV_5R_information.html

Despite their popularity, the Baofeng’s are low end radios. HTs from any of the Big Three – Icom, Kenwood, or Yaesu – will be sturdier and have better performance. But, they are a lot more expensive. E.g., even the relatively simple Yaesu FT-60R will run you more than three times the cost of a Baofeng UV5R. The Chinese radio is good if you’re on a tight budget or if you need to use a radio in an environment where it’s susceptible to loss or damage, and it’s cheap enough to keep extras on hand. If you have at least your Technician license or are looking to get it, the Baofeng UV5R is not a bad choice for an entry level radio.

The First 3D Printed METAL Gun

The smart guys at Solid Concepts have created the first 3D printed metal gun, a 1911 in fact. Here’s a video of it being test fired.

World’s first 3D printed metal gun

Yes, it had a few functioning issues. However, as a proof of concept they’ve done a fantastic job. Now it just needs a bit of debugging.

The technology enabling this is not yet affordable for the masses. Remember when personal computers first came out? Your smartphone has vastly more power at a faction of the cost. Or remember when the first Apple LaserWriter came out and cost around $4,000? You can now get a better laser printer delivered to your door from Amazon for around a hundred bucks. Even if 3D printers capable of doing laser sintering for additive manufacturing don’t drop to similar levels, they’ll come down in price to the point where you can go in together on one with a few buddies without breaking your bank accounts.

Combine affordable 3D metal printers with easily downloadable CNC drawings or even the G-code needed to run the printers, and the statist dream of unilateral civilian disarmament fails utterly.

Hey Feinstein, Schumer, Obama, Bloomberg, Cuomo? You can’t stop the signal!

Raspberry Pi Light Sensor

Today I brought my Raspberry Pi into the office and got the GPIO connectors working, then followed this tutorial to setup a basic light sensor using a photocell.

One of my goals is to come up with an RPi-based system that measures, logs, and reports temperature. Once I get it prototyped I want to setup several of these systems in our 3100 square foot data center so we have a better idea of how each part of the room is being cooled.

Skyrim

Back in the 90s I did a bit of computer gaming, e.g., Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D. However, it's been several years since I did any gaming. After seeing a thread about Skyrim which made the point that it allows you to participate in sword and sorcery fantasy more effectively than movies, along with posting a link to an in-game video, I decided to give it a try.

I'm running it on my Microcenter Powerspec B707 PC that I got last year. However, I had to upgrade the video first, which in turn required a new power supply. Today I picked up an EVGA nVidia GeForce GT520 PCI-E video card and a 650W Antec power supply. Swapping the PS was simple and adding the video card presented no problems. It's replacing the box's onboard video; I didn't replace an older video card.

As for the game, wow! I watch virtually no TV and I've been to the theater maybe six times in the last decade. There have been a couple movies which I eventually saw on TV that I'd wished I'd seen in the theater, but as far as I'm concerned, Hollywood could drop off the face of the Earth and I wouldn't miss it one bit. Skyrim, in contrast, has me looking at getting back into gaming. I figure I'll play it for awhile and then start looking at other games.

TSB and Flintlock.org Back Online

I finally have The Shooters' Bar and Flintlock.org back online.  TSB remains the Internet's oldest freely available list of pro-Second Amendment attorneys, having its inception as a post on Fidonet back in 1997.

I had been using Flintlock.org for photo hosting and that remains my primary use for the domain, but unfortunately all the links I had to the old site are broken. I used Hostgator's automated tool to install Gallery for my image hosting.  When I was hosting it at home I was using Zenphoto.

The box on which they were hosted -- shoebox.davemarkowitz.net -- got zapped when lightning struck close to my house last week. I decided that instead of hosting them behind my cable modem as I'd previously done, I'd use a web hosting provider instead. After checking out a few I decided on Hostgator, which seems to offer a good balance of features vs. cost.

It was very handy at times to have a Linux box available via SSH and SFTP. I used it for testing remote access to various sites, an SSH proxy, and the occasional file transfer. I haven't decided if I'll gut the case and replace the innards, or maybe just leave my Windows 7 PC on and accessible via Logmein. Or maybe I'll just bag the idea of having an always-on, remotely accessible system.

Patriot Xporter XT 16 GB USB Flash Drive

For the past couple of years I've had a Microcenter house brand 8 GB USB flash drive on my keychain. It's handy for keeping a backup of my most critical data with me at all times, as well as keeping installers for various Windows programs easily available.

I noticed over the weekend that the drive was starting to act a little flaky. A couple of times when I had it connected to my MacBook Pro when it dismounted itself. This might be a sign that it's dying.

I've wanted a USB drive with a bit more capacity and with faster read and write speeds, so this gave me an excuse to get something new. So, I ordered a Patriot Xporter XT Boost 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PEF16GUSB. It's $42.99 with free shipping from Amazon, and there's a $15 mail-in rebate if you order by 7/31/10. The final price will be about the same as what I paid for the 8 gig Microcenter drive a couple of years ago.

The drive is encased in a soft rubber outer shell with the cap made of the same material. The packaging claims that it's water resistant. We'll see how durable it is. I expect it to show some wear after awhile since I carry it around in my pocket.

Without taking any scientific measurements, it's obvious that the Patriot's read/write speeds are faster than my old 8 GB Microcenter drive or a Kingston 8 GB drive I have at work. After getting the Patriot I booted my MSI Wind into Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix and used it to turn the Patriot into a bootable UNR install drive. I then booted the netbook off the Patriot and performance was a bit snappier than when I'd done so using the Kingston drive.

I didn't really want to keep the Patriot as an Ubuntu disk, so I rebooted the Wind into Windows 7 Home Ultimate and did a quick format. (I did this in Win7 because I wanted to ensure that the drive would remain readable in Windows. Since reformatting the aforementioned Kingston as FAT32 in OS X and Linux, I've had problems reading it in a couple Windows boxes.)

With the Patriot once again blank, I stuck it in my MacBook Pro and copied over the same stuff I keep on the Microcenter drive, plus the 4 GB TrueCrypt volume in which I keep my private data. The data transfer went smoothly, much faster than with the Microcenter drive.

My initial impression of the Patriot Xporter 16 GB USB drive is quite favorable. My one area of concern is the keyring loop molded into the rubber casing. I carry my USB stick on an A&P Mechanic's keyring from Countycomm, and I can see this wearing through the loop. To minimize wear, rather than attaching the Patriot directly to the keyring, I attached it with a cable tie.

New Home WiFi

This past week and a half has been a real PITA at Chez Markowitz.  All of us, except my younger daughter, came down with some form of sinus/bronchial crud.  I missed two and a half days of work last week, a half day this week, and still have congestion and a cough.  So, when Judith called me up Monday afternoon to let me know she couldn't get online at home, and that one of my UPSes was beeping, I was not too happy.

Something caused one of our breakers to trip.  After getting the UPS back online I found that the SMC 802.11n WiFi router which I've been using as an access point for the past couple of years was dead.  No lights, no nothin'.  So, after getting a bite to eat I took a trip down to Microcenter.

I looked over the various WiFi routers and access points they had on hand and wound up getting a Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL.  I could've gotten it cheaper at Amazon or NewEgg but didn't want to wait several days for it to arrive, since we all use wireless access daily.

I chose the WRT-54GL for a couple of reasons.  First, it has a very good reputation for reliability.  Second, there are several projects which are dedicated to providing open source firmware which extends the box's functionality.  E.g., dd-wrt, OpenWRT, and Tomato.  As explained below I'm using it only as a switch and a WAP for the time being but this might change in the future.  (Note: If you're interested in putting 3rd-party firmware on a Linksys router, make sure you buy the WRT54GL.)

Why an 802.11g router instead of a new 802.11n router?  Even with the 802.11n SMC, I had to keep it in g/n mode, since we have a few g-only devices.  E.g., Judith's iPod Touch, my Droid, and an Apple iBook.  In g/n mode I wasn't seeing any better performance than with it in n-only mode.  Also, I the Linksys's Fast Ethernet ports are not a handicap for my needs, as they are plenty fast to handle my Internet connection.  Internet speed tests give results about the same as before.  We don't do any major file transfer between systems on the LAN.  I just don't need Gig-E now.

One advantage of the SMC box was that you could put it into bridge mode, which disabled the routing functions.  My router is an SMCD3G DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem/gateway, so I don't need the WiFi box to do routing.  The WRT-54GL does not support this, so instead of connecting it to my SMCD3G via the WAN port, it's connected using a LAN port.  The DHCP server is turned off on the Linksys so there's no conflict with the SMC's.

After using the WRT-54GL for a few days it seems like the WiFi signal coverage is a bit more uniform than the dead SMC gave me.  So much for 802.11n as a range extender.  Aside from wireless protocol, antenna design and transmit power play a big role in the range of one's WiFi device.

My home webserver, showebox.davemarkowitz.net, is plugged into the Linksys box.  The web server has the same publicly-routable IP it's always had, while the Linksys has a private IP on the same subnet as the SMC's private LAN interface.  There's no problem with running more than one network on the same wire.

Finally, along with the WiFi router, I bought a new APC UPS Monday night.  My old Back UPS 650 was due for a replacement.  This time I got a 1000 VA APC box, which will provide backup power to shoebox.davemarkowitz.net and the Linksys.  I have another Back UPS 650 powering the SMCD3G, my Arris eMTA, and our cordless phone base unit.  I can wait awhile before I'll need to replace that one.

Sharing Volumes Between Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux

As anyone who's read this blog for awhile knows, I use a couple of different laptops.  My primary machine is a Macbook Pro running Mac OS 10.6.2, while my secondary machine -- Hobbit -- is an MSI Wind netbook, currently running Windows 7 Ultimate.

The Mac is owned by my employer while I own the Hobbit.  Since I use the Mac for personal purposes as well as work-related tasks (which is OK with my employer) I needed to have a reliable means of backup in the event I change jobs.

On my desk at work I have a Lacie Quadra drive which I use for Time Machine backups over FireWire 800 (it also supports FW400, USB, and eSATA).  It would be pretty easy to restore my data from it to a personally-owned Mac.  However, getting that data onto a PC would be a real chore, requiring the use of a Mac as an intermediary.

I also wanted a portable means of backup that would work with either machine and that wasn't dependent on a network which might not be available.  I might also need to access my data using a Linux system.  The cheapest means of doing so is a USB hard disk.

The USB disk I chose is a Western Digital Elements 640 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDBAAR6400ABK-NESN.  It's a 2.5" drive in a plastic external case.  It's bus powered, so no external power supply is required. Compared with the FW800 connection on my LaCie, or even a FW400 connection, USB 2.0 is noticeably slower for sustained transfers.  However, this isn't much of an issue once the initial sync is done.

One problem you run into when sharing disks between Windows and either Mac OS X or Linux boxes is the NTFS file system.  Linux has its own filesystems.  Macs use HFS+.  PCs use NTFS.  Mac OS 10.6 includes read-only support for NTFS.  Windows 7 cannot read HFS+ disks without third party software.

Luckily, there are solutions for sharing an NTFS volume between a Windows machine, and a Linux or Mac OS X machine.  Th one I picked is called NTFS-3G and is available in a higher-performance, proprietary version, as well as a free open source version.  As described in Wikipedia, "NTFS-3G is an open source cross-platform implementation of the Microsoft Windows NTFS file system with read-write support."  NTFS-3G is availabele for OS X, Linux,

I installed the open source version of NTFS-3G on my MBP and so far it's worked very well.  I have'n had problems syncing data between the Mac and the WD disk using CronoSync.  Likewise, I am able to sync the WD disk to Hobbit, using Microsoft's free SyncToy.

Now I have a backup which I can share between my Macs, Windows and Linux boxes.  That's pretty handy.

My New Home Server

Back on January 24th I mentioned that I'd ordered the components for a new home server.  I received the parts from Tiger Direct in a timely manner and the box has been up and running for around a week now.  The server consists of the following components:

• Intel D945GCLF2 Atom motherboard, with a 1.6 GHz dual-core Atom 330 CPU
• Apex MI-100 ITX case
• Kingston 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz RAM
• Western Digital 320 GB hard disk

After putting it together I first installed 64 bit CentOS 5.4.  I found it to be a bit unstable when running X11, so I blew away the disk and installed 32 bit Debian Lenny.  I figured that with only 2 GB of RAM, having a 64 bit OS wasn't going to offer any significant advantages.  I'm pleased with Debian.  So far it's been stable and its package management is top shelf.

To get the OS installed I used an LG USB DVD burner.  You could also make a bootable Linux USB stick for the install on similar hardware.  See Unetbootin for an easy way to do that.

I named the new machine shoebox.davemarkowitz.net, due to its size and shape.  Compared with the MSI Wind barebones system I was also considering it's a little noisier, but not what I'd call, "noisy."

Currently, shoebox is setup as a LAMP box hosting The Shooters' Bar, my list of pro-RKBA attorneys, as well as a "parking" page for Flintlock.org.  I've also used it as an SFTP site for a project at my gun club.  It's handy having an Internet-accessible server at home again.

Shoebox's small ITX format is great for my needs.  I currently have it on a separate IP space from the rest of my home network, but a similar box, maybe with two hard disks in it, would be a good choice for a SOHO file server/NAS box.

Home Network Changes

For the past few months I've been using an SMC-D3G DOCSIS 3.0 cable gateway for my Internet service at home.  It's a solid box but unlike my SMC8014 DOCSIS 2.0 cable gateway, I wasn't able to get it provisioned with a static IP.  The bottleneck in my Internet access isn't the gateway so much as my WiFi LAN, so I decided to go back to the 8014 with its static IP.  Which leads me to my second change ...

Today I placed an order with Tiger Direct for an Intel 945GCLF2 barebones kit.  This is a Mini-ITX format system on which I'll be installing Linux to run as a headless web and email server.  The dual core Atom should provide more than enough horsepower for my needs, and the 2 GB of RAM will also be plenty.

To round out the box I also ordered a 320 GB Western Digital SATA drive.  I won't be installing an optical drive.  To install Linux I'll use an LG USB DVD burner I picked up last Fall from NewEgg, and I'll temporarily connect the box to a monitor and keyboard.

When looking at hardware I wanted something small, cheap, quiet and with low power consumption.  The other main contender was an MSI Wind nettop barebones system from NewEgg.  Based on experience with a similar machine I built for my MIL towards the end of 2008 it would have worked just fine.  However, but after adding 2 GB of RAM and a hard disk the combo deal at Tiger Direct was cheaper.

My intended use for the new system will be to host a couple of low traffic web sites, email, and general experimentation.  For the distro I'm leaning towards 64 bit CentOS, which from what I've read runs well on this hardware.

For security, the new machine will get assigned a routable public IP (it'll still be firewalled), while the rest of my home LAN will run on a private, RFC-1918 compliant IP space.

I haven't run a server at home for a few years, this should be fun.

Motorola Droid Phone

Thursday on Thanksgiving my brother came over with his new cell phone, a Motorola Droid on Verizon.  I caught a bad case of geek envy and wound up getting one of my own on Black Friday.

Although I've been happy with my Verizon BlackBerry 8330 I've been interested in something better.  Apple's iPhone was interesting but I have zero desire to switch to AT&T, whose 3G network is not nearly as widespread as Verizon's.  I also don't like the idea of a non-swappable battery.

Aside from a better wireless network, the Android has a slide out QWERTY keyboard which you can use instead of the touchscreen keyboard.  The keys are small but usable, at least for me.  It would be better if the keys weren't flat, i.e., if there was a more pronounced edge or space between adjacent keys.  There's also a square trackpad/scroll thingy on the keyboard for screen navigation.

The 3.7" screen is very nice, clear and sharp.  This is the first phone I've seen with virtual desktops, three total.

Of course, the Droid has a camera.  Resolution is good at 5 MP.  It also takes video.  I haven't done much with either yet but if I plan on taking pics I'll be grabbing my Nikon S560, not my phone.

The hardware seems like it has plenty of power.  When connected to my home WiFi network browsing, checking email, and downloading applications all go very fast.  Browsing on Verizon's 3G network is a bit faster than it was on my BlackBerry; it appears that pages render faster on the Droid.

I've only made a couple phone calls but quality seems fine.


The Droid uses the new Micro USB connector for charging or connections to a computer.  This is good in that it's a new standard across cell phone brands but bad for me in that I had to shell out for a new car charger.  C'est la vie.

Overall, the hardware feels very solid and well made.

So far I've mostly been using the Droid like a pocket computer, at which it is quite a bit more advanced than my BlackBerry.  The applications which I've installed are:

- Dolphin browser.  (Supports multi-touch like an iPhone.)
- Google Finance. (So I can watch my portfolio crater.)
- GPS App. (Gives you a compass and other stuff.)
- My Verizon. (Basically a shortcut to my online VZW account.)
- Weather Channel.
- OneKey Terminator. (Provides one touch killing of all open apps, in case your phone gets sluggish due to having too many open.)
- ScanLife barcode scanner. (Allows you to scan bar codes and look them up online. In the case of books takes you to the Google Books entry.)
- OI File Manager. (File manager for your SD card. The Droid comes with a 16 GB card.)
- Wardrive. (Scans for and detects wifi networks then stores them in a map database.)
- Wifi Toggle Widget. (Adds a one touch widget to the home screen to enable/disable WiFi.  This is handy because leaving WiFi on when you're not using it eats battery life.)
- Star Wars Sounds & Ringtones. (I'm in tech. Being a Star Wars nerd is pretty much required.)
- CIDR Calculator. (For calculating subnets and masks.)
- AK Notepad.
- ConnectBot. (SSH and Telnet client.)
- Tricorder. (Displays gravitation and magnetic field, environmental and geographic information, including a compass.  Also has a WiFi monitoring mode. The GUI is styled after the tricorders in ST:TNG.)

All of the above apps can be found in the Android Market, accessible through on Android phone.

I've also also using the included email, Gmail, Facebook, Google Maps, and YouTube apps, all of which work smoothly.  The Google Maps Navigation feature turns the phone into a car GPS.  If I was Garmin, Magellan, or a similar company I'd be concerned.

Like the iPhone, tethering is not yet supported on the Droid.  As I understand it, Verizon will be supporting tethering sometime in the Spring.  While I occasionally used tethering on my BlackBerry I doubt I'll spring for it with the Droid, saving myself about $15/month.

Since getting the Droid yesterday it's been hard to put down.  For gadget freaks this thing will be like crack.  For computer geeks like myself it's simply amazing.  Jerry Pournelle has said that his iPhone is almost the manifestation of the pocket computers from The Mote in God's Eye.   The Droid is another version of the same thing.

Edit 11/29/09: Thanks to a Facebook friend, I now can tether my Droid to my MacBook Pro or Hobbit (my MSI Wind netbook) using PDANet, even though Verizon does not yet officially support tethering the Droid.   PDANet supports only Bluetooth tethering on Mac and Linux, while Windows users can install a desktop client and use USB tethering.  Speeds on the Mac were slow, around 100k to 300k.  On Hobbit, though, it's around a 1 Mb connection, which is very usable.  Best part?  No monthly fee.

Windows 7 on the MSI Wind U100 Netbook

Earlier this week I decided to install Windows 7 on Hobbit, my MSI Wind netbook PC.  Hobbit shipped with Windows XP Home SP3 installed, to which I added Ubuntu Linux in a dual boot configuration.

I have a couple reasons for installing Windows 7.  First, it's a much more up-to-date OS than XP.  In playing around with it at work I've been impressed.  Second, as an IT professional it behooves me to keep up with new technology.

To install Windows 7 on Hobbit, I first needed to acquire a USB optical drive.  I bought an LG Electronics GP08LU10 8X Slim LightScribe DVD+/-RW External Drive. (11/17/09 - Link updated from NewEgg to Amazon.)  Aside from creating the recovery media, booting DBAN from System Rescue CD, and installing W7, it will allow me to access optical media more conveniently on Hobbit.  (Previously, I've copied files from CDs and DVDs to a thumb drive using another computer, or accessed discs over the network.)

I then burned an XP recovery CD.  MSI ships the Wind with an XP recovery partition but no media.  They do include a utility to create a recovery disc. 

For my W7 install I wanted a clean slate, i.e., no OSes on Hobbit's hard drive.  I selected a Custom install, deleted the existing partitions, and created a 50 GB partition for C:\.  (I later formatted the remained of the drive as D:\ after I was up and running.)

The install went smoothly and all my hardware was detected.  After installing the Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus/antimalware suite, Firefox, and a few other apps, I used Hobbit over the weekend.  (My previous favorite AV program was AVG.  The last couple of versions have become increasingly bloated.  I've had good results with MS's offering.)

I am impressed.  Windows 7 runs very nicely on this hardware (1.6 GHz Atom CPU, 2 GB Kingston RAM, Intel 4965agn WiFi card).  In fact, I'd say it runs better on Hobbit than XP Home or Ubuntu 9.04 did.

So far so good.  I'll be using this setup frequently.  But if the initial impressions hold up I think MS has a winner on its hands.

Pocket Computers

On one of the mailing lists where I participate, we were talking about pocket computers.   Jerry Pournelle has referred to his iPhone as approacing the pocket computers that he and Larry Niven wrote about in The Mote in God's Eye.
 
Similarly, my Blackberry 8330 approaches being a pocket computer, although there's no way to hook up an external mouse, monitor, and keyboard.  But it's a phone, still camera, video camera, GPS, and more.  Specs here.

An example of the usefulness of these capabilities occurred last weekend while my family was on an overnight getaway.  I have the Google Mobile apps installed.  I was able to use Google Maps to get a real-time traffic report for Marshall's Creek, PA, which is in the Poconos, well outside where you can get traffic reports on the radio.  I was also able to use the Google Maps search feature to find a place to stop for lunch.  (Note that while Verizon doesn't allow Google Maps to talk to the internal GPS, the app can give you a rough idea of your location by triangulating from cell towers.  If I need the GPS, I need to use the OEM Blackberry Maps application.  I am hoping this handicap is not present in my next phone.)

To heck with tablet PCs.  I've tried them and they are neither fish nor fowl.  They are too big to use comfortably without a keyboard.  If someone introduces a smart phone device to which you can connect a docking station with a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and Ethernet adapter, it'll be game changing.  You'll be able to take all of your data (or a large subset) with you, yet still be able to use a comfortable user interface when in the office.

Refurbed Panasonic Toughbooks

eCost.com is selling refurbished Panasonic Toughbooks for $385. LINK. The specs are modest by current standards but one would make a good secondary machine for keeping vital info on in the event of an emergency and you must evacuate, especially if your primary computer is a desktop. (See ShaneS's Listening to Katrina for why you want to do this.) You'll probably want to add more RAM and a WiFi card, but those are cheap.

Note: I have no relationship with eCost.com although I have bought a couple things from them with no complaints.

Nikon Coolpix S560

I picked up a Nikon Coolpix S560 point-n-shoot digital camera over the weekend to replace my 2001-vintage Sony DSC-P50.  The Sony still works but it's only a 2.1 MP camera, while the Nikon has a resolution of 10 MP at its highest setting.  The Nikon is also smaller (pocket sized) and accepts larger memory cards.  I got an 8 GB SDHC card to go along with the 44 MB memory that's built-in.

The Nikon uses a rechargeable Li-Ion battery, something I wanted rather than AAs.  It came with a charger. The Sony battery could be recharged while in the camera but the Nikon battery must be removed.  I may pick up a spare, looks like a replacement from Nikon is only about $23, while aftermarket batteries are even cheaper.

The Sony has both a viewfinder and an LCD screen, while the Nikon does not have a separate viewfinder.  I rarely used the Sony's viewfinder anyway, as one of the things I like about digital cameras is the preview you get from the LCD on the back of the camera.

The S560 will shoot in continuous mode, and has different scene modes to account for different kinds of shots, e.g., portraits, on a beach, landscape, or action shots.  I'm still going through the manual.

The macro mode seems to work well.  Sample shot of my Smith & Wesson Model 28-2 (click thumbnail for full sized picture):



I still want to get a DSLR some day but don't want to spend the money on one now.  The Nikon was $179 at Microcenter.