& Etc.

Finally: The 1600-volt Compact Hairdryer

Mark Treadwell — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:10:43 GMT

You have to love Amazon. They will sell you anything.

Get them while they last!

Configuring the Synology DS1511+

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:40:33 GMT

My last post related the sad story of a dead HP MediaSmart Home Server. This time, I will relate the steps I took to configure the Synology DS1511+ for use. To avoid unnecessary typing, I recommend this post to provide the basic details. It is written for the older DS1010+, but the process is the same for the DS1511+. … OK, now that you have read that, I have different drives in my NAS so I had a different kind of problem.

I chose to go with five Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green SATA II drives (WD20EARS) because of their availability, great price, and presence on the Synology compatible hard drive list. That "Green" technology is what is causing the problem.

When I examined the SMART data after only 10 hours of run time, I was puzzled as to why the Load Cycle Count (LCC) values were over 100. Some searches showed that the recent WD Green drives have an aggressive Idle3 power saving feature that is not compatible with Linux standard settings. While the drives are certified to 300,000 LCC cycles, the drives in the Synology would get to that level in one year instead of 5-6 years. There is even an entire discussion board concerning the Western Digital LCC issue on the Synology website.

The WD Green drives have a default of 8 seconds before they park the drive heads and increment the LCC value. That value is changeable, but you have to run a custom application. Western Digital provides one (WDIDLE3) that runs under DOS. That is OK for laptop/desktop users who can put it on bootable CD, but it is not useful for a headless NAS appliance.

Since WDIDLE3 is a Windows application, it does not run on the NAS under Linux. The DS1511+ has an Intel Atom D525 1.8GHz x86 Processor, 1GB of 64-bit DDR2 RAM (expandable to 3GB). The solution is to create a native Linux application.

There is a SourceForge project to set the Western Digital Idle3 drive setting here. The goal of this exercise is to get the Idle3 Tools to run natively on the Synology NAS. To do this on a fresh, unmodified Synology box, I did the following from a Windows 7 machine. (This is a compilation of several posts on the Synology website.) I recommend compiling the source code locally on the NAS.

From the Synology DSM web interface, configure the NAS for remote access
- Open the Control Panel, click on the Terminal icon in the Network Services section, select "Enable SSH service", and click OK
In Windows, download and install PuTTY if you do not already have a SSH client on the PC
- Configure PuTTY using the IP address of the NAS on port 22 (I saved it as a new session for easy recall)
- Establish the PuTTY session with the NAS
- Login to the NAS as username "root" with the same password as the administrative password of the Synology system
In Windows, download and extract the Idle3 Tools source code to the Synology box

I downloaded the file "idle3-tools-0.9.1.gz" from here (It is listed as a .tgz file, but it is not.)
When I extracted it, WinZip could not read the archive correctly, so I had to use 7-Zip
I extracted the archive to a new "\\DISKSTATION\public\idle3-tools-0.9.1" directory on the NAS (You can use any shared directory. I used the "public" directory I created.)
In that directory, I opened the file "Makefile" in Notepad and removed the "?" from lines 13 and 14

"CC ?= gcc" was changed to "CC = gcc"
"STRIP ?= strip" was changed to "STRIP = strip"

Save the Makefile and close Notepad

Using PuTTY, download and install the Itsy Package Management System (IPKG)
- Change to a temporary directory by entering the command "cd /volume1/@tmp"
- Download the IPKG bootstrap by entering the command "wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-i686/cross/unstable/syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh" (this takes some time)
- Install IPKG by running the downloaded script with the command "sh syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh" (this takes some time)
- Delete the IPKG script file with the command "rm syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh"
- Close PuTTY by entering the command "exit"
From the Synology DSM web interface, reboot the NAS
- Click the top left arrow, click on "Restart", and close the browser tab
Using PuTTY after the NAS restarts
- Login to the NAS again user "root"
- Change to the Idle3 Tools directory by entering the command "cd /volume1/public/idle3-tools-0.9.1/"
- Update IPKG by entering the command "ipkg update" (this takes some time)
- Download and install the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) via IPKG by entering the command "ipkg install gcc"
- Download and install Make via IPKG by entering the command "ipkg install make"
- Run Make to compile the Idle3 Tools by entering the command "make"
- Test for proper compilation with the command "./idle3ctl –h" which should display the lines
- Run the Idle3 Tools and set the the values on the drives as desired. The default timer value is "80" for 8 seconds. Because I have five drives in the NAS, I had to run the utility five times to disable the timer on each one. Set yours as desired.
From the DSM interface, shutdown the NAS (This is required for the drives to read the new Idle3 setting on power-up.)
- Click the top left arrow, click on "Shutdown", and close the browser tab
Once it is fully off, restart the NAS

Your NAS disks should now have stopped their LCC cycling. This kind of process is why I am staying with Windows as much as I can.

Quieting Outlook 2010

Mark Treadwell — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:36:56 GMT

I had an Outlook irritation that I resolved recently. I have many irritations with Outlook, but the one I fixed was some of the sounds it makes.

Every time I viewed a new folder, it made an irritating noise. Every time I deleted an email or RSS item, it made a different irritating noise. With no program option available other than the new mail sound, I went into Control Panel | Sound | Sounds tab for some surgery. Scroll down the Program Events list until you get to the Microsoft Office section.

To quiet the folder change sound, I deleted the value in the “Sort” line. To quiet the deleted email/RSS item sound, I deleted the value in the “Delete Row” line. Now I have blissful silence. You can also choose one of the more subtle noises if you prefer.

This will apply across all Office applications, but I can live with that. I hope this can help someone else who is tired of the noise.

Black Friday

Mark Treadwell — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 02:02:09 GMT

Retailers are desperate. Amazon has “leaked” their entire Black Friday movie deal schedule. More deals here. I have used their daily deal too.

I Choose iNada

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:43:06 GMT

As a laptop and Kindle user, I have been looking at the usual cyclical Apple frenzy in the press with the same kind of amused tolerance I give my three-year-old son. They never seem to learn, and they keep repeating the same things. However when I read articles like this, I am reminded that that is not always the case.

I am a happy user of a monster-sized HP HDX laptop, HP touch screen all-in-one system, and multi-screen Dell desktops at home as well as a HP business laptop at work. I have no iPod, iMac, iTouch or any other relationship with the company who wants to trademark the prefix “i”.

I have not missed them.

That is not to say that I have no technological gadgets. I do. They just do not dominate my life.

Every company wants to preserve their customer base, but Apple just does it too rigidly. The buy-in necessary rubs me wrong. When the fanboys scream about the next great Apple iThing which will kill off another market segment (this time, the iPad will kill off laptops), the amused tolerance returns.

From what I have seen, the iPad virtual keyboard is a poor substitute for an actual keyboard. It was intended to let you get some kind of text into a device that is not really intended for keyboard input, but rather for touch manipulation of a designed interface. I like the virtual keyboard on my LG Dare cell phone for text messages, but you will not catch me writing my next novel with it. But, you hear, you can connect a real keyboard and get info from another computer. That is when you realize that the iPad is not a true standalone device like a laptop. You have to make more hardware purchases to get what you want. It is an expensive accommodation to get you a different form of freedom.

So if Apple made a product with me in mind, you can have it. Everyone gets to make their own choice. My choice is the iNada.

Blocking the "Green Meanie" Popup Ads

Mark Treadwell — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:32:49 GMT

I am not sure why it took me so long to implement, but I finally had it with the Vibrant Media IntelliTXT in-line text advertising and their intrusive pop-ups. You have probably seen them yourself. They are the highlighted green words with a double underscore present in many news and blog pages. While they generate money for those sites, they are as irritating as hell, so I decided to remove them.

I opened a web page which I knew would display the Vibrant advertising. A few seconds after the page displayed, the green meanies appeared. That indicated a remote Java script. Viewing the page source HTML, down at the bottom was a pretty clear text comment: "start Vibrant Media IntelliTXT script section". Target found. Well, that was easy.

The script source link was to the IntelliTXT web site, so it was clear that blocking that web site would stop the green meanies. I use IE8, so I went to the Internet Options, Security tab, Restricted sites zone icon, Sites button. I added the following to the restricted sites list: *.us.intellitxt.com. While I was at it, I also included *.tacoda.net to block their behavioral tracking.

Do it yourself for free.

Note: I know there are many add-ins which will do this for you. I try to run the computers in our house with a minimum of software which needs regular updates.

Update: I also added *.kontera.com to block their "blue meanie" popup ads.

Emergency Food Distribution

Mark Treadwell — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:03:17 GMT

While walking a street in Old Town San Diego one evening after a busy day on a business trip, the scene below was one I just had to take a picture of with my phone. I am sure the church did not intend the juxtaposition...

Maybe the trash truck crew had some fun though.

I Was CompuServe 73700,3344

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:28:18 GMT

My first remote computer access outside my home was via CompuServe in 1985. I sat at my original IBM PC and connected via a Hayes Smartmodem 1200 to the service. I spent lots of geeky time sucking text through that modem and its replacements. I used CompuServe from all over the country as I traveled, and even internationally a few times. It worked great and kept down the long distance phone bills.

Remember those? Back in the day, we had to call long distance to a company's bulletin board service (BBS) to get info on hardware and software updates. Mind you, you could not buy things that way, just read about them and maybe get a patch.

That octal user ID was a function of the PDP-10 architecture of the original system. That worked great as long as things moved through slower modems. I recall things getting clogged up as the cable modems arrived.

I even tried Prodigy, God help me, and found it slow and clunky. I heard too many AOL horror stories to ever try the service -- though I got lots of CDs from them. Both CompuServe and Prodigy worked well as long as you stayed within their sandbox. Go outside the box, and things got harder. I ignored the CompuServe 2000 stuff entirely and stayed with what became known as CompuServe Classic. I canceled my service in early 2004. I recall that it was not easy, and required several phone calls. You could not cancel online. My last email from that account was from an old Fawcette newsletter telling me how to "Build a Longhorn App."

CompuServe really had no way to compete with the wilder and wider web. The fact that it has hung on this long says that the miniscule support was still covered by the few people who still paid real money to use it -- probably because it was familiar. No more. Goodbye. It was fun.

Blogiversary

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:01:58 GMT

Wow. Five years of posts. Of course, the last eight months have been pretty empty, but I am starting a new WPF project at work that looks to be very interesting. I hope to get back into the posting routine as the work evolves. We are working on the design right now. More to follow on that.

I may also be posting on management of a distributed software development team.

LCD Screen Drawings

Mark Treadwell — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:59:35 GMT

My children's artwork adorns the walls of my house in several locations. It is regularly replaced with the most recent efforts, since the preschools seem to excel at a multitude of different craft projects. At home, we favor crayons and washable markers, but we keep close control of them.

This evening my three-year-old decided to climb up Daddy's chair and get onto my desk. A ball point pen beckoned from a pen holder placed far from a child-accessible edge. The canvas -- two 19-inch LCD screens. She seemed pleased with her art work when I came in, but I certainly was not.

I tried several cleaners unsuccessfully, but then had great success using full-strength isopropyl rubbing alcohol. I have been meaning to clean them for awhile. I just did not want to get around to it for this particular reason.

Technorati Tags: LCD, cleaning