zen.org Communal Weblog

I had been trying to use the Internet Wizard for setting up my D-Link DCF-650W wireless CF card, but everything was still in Japanese. Even working my way thru that, all I saw was WEP for 40-bit(64-bit) key, not a 104-bit(128-bit) one. This morning, instead of choosing Wizard in Settings->Network, I just did ‘Add’. A tabbed window of configuration bits appeared, all in English. Voila, on the WEP tab is a Key Type entry that includes both key sizes.

This post is being made using the SL-C860. Wahoo! I was able to use the CF card from our camera and copy a photo from it onto the Zaurus, which then used scp to bring the file over onto our Web server. (Had to Edit->Copy the image, then change the folder up to the Image Folder in the internal flash memory.)

I found that ssh works fine for root,but tried as the default ‘zaurus’ user you get the error

debug: Waiting for server public key.
Disconnecting: Bad packet length 1349676916.

A post talks about ssh protocol 1 vs 2 being a possible cause, but editing /etc/ssh/ssh_config for that didn’t seem to make a difference. Of course once I found that root worked fine, I put off more digging for now.

The NetFront Web browser it uses doesn’t display the WordPress weblog content properly. I don’t know yet if it’s due to what’s being emitted by WordPress or if it’s the fault of the browser.

Oh, and Patrick quickly moved on from playing with the drawing program to learning the inner workings of the C860.

E gave me the coolest gadget ever for my birthday: the Sharp Zaurus SL-C860. It’s only sold in Japan, which means it comes by default with everything only in Japanese. A company in the US has a business going for selling them in the US with 97% of the content converted to English after bringing them over from Japan. Unfortunately, my C860 was shipped without the required change being made.

Today I finally got the file used to do the conversion, but they didn’t include any instructions. Gahh. I asked for the details via email, but while I was waiting I decided to see if my original Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, bought with my buddy Doug a few years ago on a visit to California, could help out. Yup, got the SL-5500 going again (its fatal flaw is that if the battery dies, you lose everything you did since the factory copy booted) and was able to copy the file over onto the SDRAM card. Pop out the card, pop it into the new SL-C860.

But what to do with it? I was able to look at the Backup/Restore program on the old Zaurus, and find the program on the C860 that looked the same (even if all characters were in Japanese). That was enough to go through the steps to make it restore this image from the company, which did all of the work.

Next game is getting the CF cards for either wireless or wired networking to work. That’s okay, this was the impossible part (I sure hope). 🙂

December twenty-sixth at about 15:06 UTC there will be a full moon. Last full moon the skies where clear. Though outside of Philadelphia tomorrow night will be closer to a full moon tonight is clear as it was last month.

Didn’t get a small telescope for Christmas though I am thankful for the many gifts I did get. Maybe I’ll get one for Zoë next year, or the year after.

As 余艾蕾, Zoë and I are going to be spending most of Christmas Eve and day at my parents house we opened our presents after our Solstice Day dinner. Zoë got a LEGO® QUATRO™ Bucket, 余艾蕾 got a coffee grinder, and I got a Bose® Companion® 3 Multimedia Speaker System.

I plug my Bose® Companion® 3 Multimedia Speaker System in to my computer and start playing some Christmas tunes. The Wynton Marsalis Quintet playing “We Three Kings of Orient Are” sounded great, Dave Edmunds playing “Run Run Rudolph” was way cool. Then the woofer kicked in with Run D.M.C. doing there “Christmas In Hollis.” Wow! Maybe I need to get more Hip Hop songs.

A really cool read: John Perry Barlow’s description of a real Taste of the System: unacceptable searches of checked baggage on an airline, and his efforts to use the case to resuscitate the 4th Amendment.

And, the 200+ comments accompanying his post.

Tonight Patrick and I went into a wine merchant to pick up a bunch of Stimson Merlot for the upcoming holiday festivities. We walked up, and who was leaving the shop but Elvis Costello. He held the door open for us, as polite as can be. I didn’t have the nerve to wish him luck at the Grammy Awards next year, nor to be honest did my brain recognize him until seconds later after the door had closed. That’s okay, though—he was just another guy getting some wine, and I wouldn’t want to intrude on his ability to live a calm life away from his work.

As I learned when E and I were in Los Angeles, it’s cool to know the person behind the name is a nice normal human being, and not drowning in their own greatness. Even enough to still do common courtesies. 🙂

MMmmmm…good enough to eat.

Gingerbread Computer

I found this idea really funny: somewhere up above is a satellite that’s pinpointing the location of cheating wives right now. Score!

Subject: Profile has been added
Date: Tuesday 21 December 2004 17:36
From: …
To: brendan@…an-old-address…

4 Cheating-Wives have been matched for you in your area:

1) Jessica, 120 lbs, 5’9, 36c, 10 miles away, available Dec 21-23rd
2) Laura, 127 lbs, 5’8, 36d, 8 miles away, available Dec 22-28th
3) Tabatha, 117 lbs, 5’6, 34b, 19 miles away, available most nights(husband
works midnights)
4)Sandra, 134 lbs, 5’9, 36c, 21 miles away, available most
week nights(looking for side-fling)

All 4 women are waiting to speak with you live & have photos. Webcam’s are
available for all 4.

http://…

Today, at 12:41 UTC was the Solstice. I was rolling out of bed at that time, so I faild to observe it.

I have several vacation days I need to use before the end of the year or I loose them. So tomorrow my holiday starts. I hope to make a nice vegetarian Solstice dinner for 余艾蕾 tomorrow, purge the body before the lox, meatballs, ham, herring, and lutfish at my Mom’s Julbord. I know my Mom’s Julbord will be good, hopefully my meal will not be too outré.

I just finished putting on the final gloss on the white parts of our magnolia+white bathroom upstairs. When we first got our house here in Ireland, we hired someone to paint everything so we could get it out of the way. He did a shitty job in the upstairs bathroom (among other places). No primer coat on anything, meaning it’s been peeling ever since he was here.

A few weeks ago we finally decided we’d do the entire room over again. It had bothered us for years, and we weren’t going to put it off any more. Sand away the gloss from what he did, prime parts that had plaster still exposed, paint paint paint. Undercoat. Paint. More priming of the wooden step that runs the length of the bath and the box of pipes going along the floor, and they finally get painted, too. More undercoat. And the doors. And the trim. And and and…

And even finally took care of that big oval blotch of plaster up in our bedroom ceiling. It was the repair for a hole in the ceiling where the idjut builder trying to convert our attic (a long horrific story to be told another time) put his leg through the attic floor and into our bedroom.

Tonight I inhaled far too many fumes finishing the baseboards, bath step, and lots of other bits. Next time, we’re saving up and hiring someone again. 🙂 But we’re holding out for picking someone who’s referred by someone we know, not a shot in the dark using the golden pages (aka yellow pages).

E and P are both asleep upstairs (we’d both painted most of it, but today I chose to finish it instead of other things), so I’m just relaxing in the livingroom with my laptop next to a fresh pint of Guinness and some homemade raisin bread that Patrick and I made yesterday. I’ll spend a some time listening to a couple of podcasts,Daily Source Code and Rock and Roll Geek Show, then move Patrick back to his own bed so I can have somewhere to sleep. Patrick decided the center of my pillow would work, but better to be sure and sleep diagonally across my half of the bed.