Autor: Chelín

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Israel – Informe de viaje de 1983

Prefacio: Esto ocurrió en diciembre de 1983. Yo acababa de cumplir 32 años.

Capítulo 1

Y los santos….

Empezó como un día normal, tan normal como puede serlo un informático. Estaba recostado en mi escritorio, contemplando distraídamente las gotas de lluvia que brillaban en la ventana con la luz matutina. Mis pies descansaban sobre el escritorio, algo que muchos creerían imposible dada la cantidad de impresiones y componentes informáticos que allí se almacenaban permanentemente. Mis dedos descansaban ligeramente sobre el teclado que descansaba en mi regazo. La postura estaba diseñada para dar la impresión de estar trabajando y, al mismo tiempo, proporcionar el máximo descanso.

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Mi biblioteca

I am finally getting around to cataloging the books I own. Now that I am running Linux I found a free piece of software that does what I want: Tellico. While it is for KDE I had no problem installing and using it with a Gnome desktop. So far I have cataloged over 300 books, which has been very easy due to the internet search feature of the software.

Another feature of the software that I liked at first was the ability to output an HTML report. I wanted to post my book list on this site and I thought that would be the easiest way. It was easy, but didn’t have the format or features that I wanted. Fortunately, the software also exports to an XML file. So I exported the XML and wrote my own javascript program to display the list.

You can see the list here: robertjwallace.com/books

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Re-purposing an old Windows Phone

While I was web surfing the other day I stumbled upon an article about things you can do with old phones. One of the ideas was to use it as a web cam. I thought that was a great idea so in a very short amount of time I had a new “cat” cam.

My old Windows phone is a Lumina 920. I charged it up and installed a free app called Win IP cam (there are similar apps available for Android and Iphones.)

The next step was to get a phone tripod to hold the camera. I found a nice one on Amazon Prime for $8.00. It even has a quick release plate.

cat cam

While I normally just use a web browser to watch Abby, I also wanted the option of capturing the video to a file, so I googled and found a nice open-source piece of software that runs in Linux (as well as Mac and Windows), called OBS Studio. It took about a minute to get it installed and running.

So with an investment of $8.00 and a little time I now have a “cat” cam.

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Saltos de tijera

Básicamente se trata de un truco de ascensor con cuatro jotas, aunque podrías usar ases pero entonces el nombre no tendría sentido.

Coloque las cuatro jotas boca arriba sobre la baraja boca abajo. Use el Técnica de adición de Braue Para cambiar dos jotas por dos cartas indiferentes, voltea las jotas boca abajo sobre la baraja. El orden de las cartas, de arriba a abajo, es: jota, carta indiferente, carta indiferente, jota.

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Remote Desktop in Linux (zorin/ubuntu)

I have a need to connect to my office using Sonicwall’s netExtender. Once connected I need to use RDP to open a remote desktop session to my work computer. But for some reason I ran into two issues on my AMD-based HP home desktop. First I was unable to get the netExtenderGui to run. It kept throwing errors. And second, I was using Remmina for the RDP client and discovered that it did not support dual monitor displays.

After some googling and yahooing, with a bing or two thrown in I had a solution.

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Monty Hall Paradox

The basic premise is that there are three doors, behind one is a prize. The contestant makes a guess as to which door has the prize. In this case the odds of winning are one in three. But after the guess is make the host of the game opens one of the two remaining doors, showing no prize behind it. The question is should the contestant change his guess from the original door to the remaining closed door.

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Mochad, HA-Bridge and CM19a on Zorin

So, in ditching Windows I had to find a solution to my Windows-based X-10 home automation. On Windows I had a CM19a USB based transceiver for issuing X-10 commands to the X-10 modules controlling my house lights. I used a piece of software named Alex10 to command the CM19a, and a Philips Hue Bridge emulator (HA-Bridge) to allow me to give voice commands via my Amazon Echo.

The HA-Bridge software was a Java program with a web interface, so it ported over cleanly from Windows to Linux. What I had to find was something to replace the Alex10 software. Searching the Internet I found some software that did exactly what I needed, Mochad.

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