Autor: Chelín

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.

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.

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.

I finally decided to drop Windows from all of my home computers (currently three systems) and move them all over to Linux. I had already moved two of them, one that I use for a home theater, and one I use for general work. The third was being used for general work and for controlling my old home automation system.