french accents on fedora; via unicode !

Had to assist with some homework this week; the kids using the fedora gnome netbook...

they needed characters with accents: Ééek!

now at the school, they have windows machines, and use alt+{nnn} codes, and they tried that at first.  Panic!

after some searching of the web, I found the page for using unicode on gnome:

CTRL+SHIFT+u {hex code}

so for above two codes
c9 and e9

looking up the rest on wikipedia

we have success!

Minecraft Pi 0.6.1 cannot talk to the updated Android version 0.7

Oh no...

updated my android minecraft;

(looks nice)

but now can no longer connect to our raspberry pi minecraft :(

so now it is a waiting game;  I assume minecraft_pi will be updated?

so if you read this, and have not updated minecraft... you may want to wait...

Minecraft pi supports words on signs

Found, by accident, that the minecraft pi supports signs with words,  if you create the sign with an android pe client.

The default behaviour on minecraft pi is to place a blank sign.

They do survive saving and restarting.

need to dig into the python api to see how to do it there...

pidora minecraft how to

Just downloaded pidora: http://pidora.ca/

and the first thing to check:

Does it run minecraft_pi?

Yes !  but not immediately.

found had to install 2 libraries, and then add permissions to the graphics device;

so, as root:


yum install libpng12.armv6hl SDL.armv6hl

chmod a+rw /dev/vchiq

and then you can unpack and run minecraft_pi !

Notes:

1. the window decorations on the default window manager, do not quite work for me; so the minecraft window "floats" above the border.
2. I know I should look at a better way of handling /dev/vchiq, but above will work
3. the screensaver!  defaults do not understand the minecraft window works, so if you let the default locking screen saver start, you have to "type blind" as the minecraft window likely is sitting on top of the normal re-login screen.  I turned the screen saver off for now.
4. Firewall !!  Fedora has firewall enabled; so was not visible with my android minecraft pe;  had to call up the firewall gui and enable port 4711 ...

multi user minecraft on a pair of Raspberry PIs

Minecraft on Raspberry PI, supports multi users!

we have two original (256 meg) raspberry pi in the house, and have tried out the multi user mode.

one on the old composite TV, second on an HDMI monitor.

[screen shots pending]

notes:

• the composite TV at ~600x400 is a slightly squished (and blurry) version, but easily playable.  runing with the minecraft window maximized.  Could switch the window manager to a simpler version : Blackbox ?
• StevePi on the network as the user id... need to look at changing this default (both currently say the same, so need to look at the IP)
• running on an internal network, not on the "bare" internet.

p.s.

Android + PI

Found the Demo Android version of minecraft fails to connect;  you need to connect with the full version; so then your android device can also participate.

Joining the Android ecosystem: good or bad?

Recently acquired yet another android device, the Asus/Google Nexus 7.

There are reports of a new, better, cheaper faster version due to arrive in a month or two.
So the Nexus 7 is often on sale at some "big box" computer stores locally.

Picked one up for less than the Google web site's price, before shipping...

got the "blue" cover for it.

Setting up a new environment seems like a lot of work;
Currently have *not* rooted the device.

Now that we have the tablet, what do I actually use it for?
Do find the Nexus 7 a little heavy for me to sit and read, like a paperback;
usually need to prop it up on something if sitting for an extended period.
Viewing angles are fine; speed seems ok;

it is running 4.2, so have tried the multi-user setup.
That seemed to slow it down; switching users is not instant.
one annoyance (at least so far) is I cannot share/install apps on the second "guest" user.
investigating:
scenario I want:
my guest user (kids) do not have a Google account (nor should they)
I would like to put some apps onto the guest accounts.
Default setup does not make this obvious...
may be the item that causes me to root the device...


below is a list of apps with comments installed;

any reader comments/suggestions welcome...

video chat: skype
I would really like to install an open source alternative, but skype is available on pc, linux, windows, ipad, iphone...
so is the only one that works with all those other humans I want to talk to ...

Browser: Firefox
+ browser plugin: adblock plus!
surfing without adblock is a very different experience, on my Linux desktop, use adblock with both chrome and Firefox   found chrome unstable, but it does have adblock;  adblock not easily found on the android version; so using Firefox more.

browser privacy: orbot
works with Firefox on a non rooted machine.

ebooks: tbd;
overdrive is used at my local library;
also have FBReader ...
do like the default google books, but does not currently seem to support the epubs.

video player: VLC
plays more formats than the original player

voice/sound recorder: tbd:
trying out a few, will update.

camera app: tbd:
Nexus 7 does not have a camera on the back;

games: Minecraft, World of Goo
words with friends
do try out many free ones, only pay for a few.

email: gmail
so far;
looking at replacements, alternatives

sharing: tbd
dropbox, microsoft sky drive, google, evernote, or the new bittorrent?

photo organizer: default google/tbd
flickr? google?

writing/notes?: tbd
have not used it for that, too many other machines with keyboards around the house easily accessible  and usually on.

ftp/scp/filemanagement: tbd
this one a current "hot" item.  trying out various versions.

Development environment: trying QPython/Kivy
default android sdk seems a bit heavy for my needs, do like the mit app inventor, currently trying out QPython.  Initial impressions are good, but the code seems to be the default android java wrapped in python...
Kivy seems to be better documented;  found creating a few quick samples easy;  now need to port some pygame samples across...

Dead wall wart := no internet

Lost internet for half a day!!

On the home system, still not wireless;
running a DSL connection with a DSL modem.

Been running that way for 6+ years, no problem...

then, suddenly no connections.

a quick call to my service provider, late at night, identified the external power transformer (wall wart type) as the problem...

So a physical hardware failure.
Not something I usually worry about;  more about viruses and os updates..

did have my cell as a backup (to lookup the helpdesk number ;)

Firefox Beta on old LG P500h

Working with Firefox Beta on an old phone:

LG-P500h

running android 2.3.3 (carrier's latest for this phone)

unsure if it even meets the new low end firefox OS hardware requirements...

Notes:

using this phone in a "voice only" mode, just for calls; on a prepaid service.
for data use wifi only.  Have turned off the cell data .

phone has limited memory; do occasionally get an out of memory error when trying https+search on google

like addons
** Adblock Plus working !!

not so sure about apps yet;
installed a game, and wikipedia;  seem slow to start, wikipedia not much different than just the mobile site;  Game's UI a bit slow and unresponsive on this old phone.

tabs:
work well, do keep only a few open, not trying to stress out with dozens open...

iPython Notebook + raspberry pi + minecraft api

using iPython notebook with the raspberry pi minecraft api for quick experiments.

using a second x86 linux machine that hosts iPython, running Fedora 18, default iPython install.

• copy or unpack the api/python directory
• modify the minecraft.py : change 'localhost' to the ip address of your raspberry pi
• start notebook from api/python directory (for import commands to match samples on the web)

ipython notebook --pylab inline

then you have

import mcpi.minecraft as minecraft
import mcpi.block as block
mc = minecraft.Minecraft.create()

print mc.player.getPos()
mc.postToChat("hello from iPython")

Raspberry Pi Minecraft python api observations

playing with the mincraft-pi and python.

the addition of the api allows you to build structures using blocks that are not usually allowed:

a few fun items I found after a few calls ...

• lava flows down to the ground if a block of lava placed in air;  you end up with a glowing tower of lava
• lava turns to stone if you drop lava into water, or if water is dropped onto lava
• water flows like jello, if you try to create structures above ground of water blocks, they will flow down and ooze.
• water flows faster than lava; you can drop lava on top of a hill, then later drop water...

[inserting screen shots here, simple shots seem problematic, using phone camera]

result of loop to place an instance of all blocks; the lava and water flow over the side

did place a solid block below, as physics will cause some blocks to fall out of the sky (SAND,GRAVEL)

some geek math ... exploring the lower section of a Mandelbrot set

Fedora 18 + MythTV

Yet another Fedora upgrade.

background:

been running fedora for the past few years at home; 
Started when I found a machine from a local store that came with it pre-installed (!).

So been updating to the "even" builds, on my mythtv machine ever since.

last update was Fedora 14 -> 16, but did make some mistakes on it then:

did not get the boot sequence correct, and grub was not installed correctly;

ended up installing older second hard disk to boot, and left all my videos on a second "data disk"

Further note:  This machine has "evolved" over time;  Original motherboard died twice, finally gave up and picked up a new motherboard, with a different cpu, went from celeron to amd e350


this time:
Fedora 18 install on a clean 2GB disk, then manual copy the mysql mythtv database + data files.  Did this via an external usb and a netbook on my network...

beginner gotcha: straight scp will make copies of symlinks.... if you have created a subdirectory of symlinks, you end up with two copies of all the files!

Notes so far:

mythtv not in the default fedora repos.
added repo and installed vanilla mythtv+mythweb
copied over the mysql database.






have almost 1TB of video files... that takes a LONG time to copy over a slower network and /or external USB drive or WiFi ...

if you can: use USB3, eSata, or connect both drives to the internal sata !

on initial start: mythtv upgraded database:  nice!
(I let it, as I had the original)

running now:

still have some issues with selinux;

did not allow mysql or mythweb to run;  need to manually setup these


will add further details as I think of them...

red Wii mini review

our old "classic" Wii seems to have a lot of trouble reading disks;  Thought it was just scratches

Finally a brand new game disk failed to read (a holiday gift)

so went out and picked up the "only in Canada" red Wii mini.

Comments:

• reads old "bad disks" just fine.  Mostly the Lego {x} series were problematic on our older "regular" Wii
• do miss the SD card for looking at pictures ;
• do not mind the missing WiFi ;  Could try a usb network port, but have not yet.
• we never used the wireless connection to our DSi
• odd red colour does make it look a bit out of place, sitting next to the TV
• electronic store's 30 day return policy made it low risk

theory:

the older Wii 's DVD drive mechanism appears to be failing:

guesses:

• spinning speed
• led power
• head alignment
• phase of the moon?

Could have tried to break open the case and manually replace, but the red mini was inexpensive enough to spend the time playing the games, rather than soldering ;)

now that we have a second Wii... looking at the homebrew channel for the older one...