Random Thoughts - Page 9 of 25

December 4, 2019September 17, 2023

Israel – Trip report from 1983

Preface: This took place in December 1983. I had just turned 32.

Chapter 1

And the saints….

It started as a normal day, as normal as can be for a computer jock. I was lounging at my desk idly pondering the raindrops which glistened in the early morning light on the window. My feet were casually propped on my desk, which many would believe impossible because of the mass of printouts and pieces of computer hardware that permanently resided there. My fingertips were lightly poised on the keyboard resting in my lap. The whole posture was designed to convey the impression of work while providing the maximum rest potential.

November 18, 2019November 18, 2019

Exporting a list of your Kindle e-books from amazon

Amazon does not make it easy to get a list of the e-books you own, especially if you want to put the list into a spreadsheet. This solution uses a javascript bookmarklet, a small piece of code that you drag and drop onto your bookmark tool bar in your browser.

November 5, 2019November 5, 2019

My Library

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

October 27, 2019October 27, 2019

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.

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.

September 15, 2019September 15, 2019

Jumping Jacks

This is basically an elevator trick with four jacks, although you could use Aces but then the name wouldn’t make sense.

Display the four Jacks face up on top of the face down deck. Use the Braue add on technique to switch out two of the Jacks for two indifferent cards, as you flip the Jacks face down onto the top of the deck. The order of cards from the top down is Jack, indifferent card, indifferent card, Jack.

August 1, 2019August 2, 2019

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.

August 1, 2019June 11, 2021

Mathematical Card Tricks

I like a good mathematical card trick. While they usually involve too much dealing of cards, they still can be entertaining, or at least puzzling. I have a friend who is a retired mathematician who taught a Rutgers University and these are a few that I liked showing him.

July 8, 2019July 8, 2019

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.

July 5, 2019July 5, 2019

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.

July 3, 2019July 6, 2019

Moving from Windows to Linux

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.