DWL-122 and linux

If you've got, say, a DWL-122 from dlink, and you want to use it under linux (ubuntu unknown version, or what I've got - SuSE 9.2), here a page that tells you how to get it to work (after months of fiddling with it, it finally works! YES!).

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-4041.html

The pertinent parts are:
FOR USB USERS:

A) Make sure your kernel usb support is running
B) Plug in the Prism2.x USB device
C) Run 'modprobe prism2_usb prism2_doreset=1' to load the driver into memory.
D) Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable' to initialize the
driver+MAC functions.
E) Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid= authtype=opensystem'
to enable the MAC in Infrastructure Station mode.
F) Run 'ifconfig wlan0 '

NOTE: they really should add 'rmmod prism2_usb' BEFORE step c. Otherwise, if it's already loaded it won't load it again...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Okay, my mom got me a thingy. It's got metal balls which you pop onto a springy surface, and it's kinda like a skeetball (sp?) thing, you try to get points. I'll probably take it to work for stress/comic relief.

My inlaws got me The West Wing: Season 2 DVDs. All I can say: YES!!!!! I'm watching it now on the DVD player (I would on my computer, but my third present has screwed up my computer's ability to play DVDs).

My best present, however, is from my wife. The ATI HDTV Wonder card. I've been drooling over the box every time I see it. Well... here's my review: (DTV = Digital tv, versus TV mode which is analog)

1. ATI *still* can't make a decent media center! My mother has an ATI TV Wonder LE or VE or somesuch card. Their MMC sucked then, it still sucks. You can't use the TV function when in the full screen "EasyView" or whatever mode - it switches out of that, and you can only use the remote in that mode, so the remote doesn't work for the TV part. The DTV part, however, works great. Good quality, you can switch channels, the full screen interface is rather good in my opinion, at least the parts that they've implemented (ie. no normal TV ability, or DVD playing ability, so most of the remote's buttons seem useless).

2. The antenna which it comes with sucks. There are many antenna amplifiers (well, technically they're signal amplifiers, but still) out there that will help ALOT. I live in East Aurora of the Denver, Colorado area. Thanks to a rather sucky and stupid city of Golden, there isn't a full-power antenna tower. Why? Because they thought it would cause cancer by reducing the number of TV towers from 2 or 3 down to just 1, and with lower-output signals. What are they smoking out there?!! Anyways, because of that, the local stations have to use low-powered transmitters from their studios. Which means that getting a good signal can SUCK. Anyways, with the amp I'm able to get more stations than without.

3. Some channels I can get video and audio (ie. normal operation): Channel 9.2 (9News Weather Plus), Channel 31.1 (Channel 31 from normal tv, in 720p!), and Channels 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3 (local PBS station times three). I like the PBS stations, actually.

4. Some channels I can only get audio on, and only sometimes: Channel 2.1, Channel 4.1 (VERY sporadically), Channel 9.1 (normal channel 9) and Channel 20.1 (Channel 20).

5. And JUST now MMC has decided to start crashing, AGAIN, when I run the DTV app. But the TV works now correctly. I am rather annoyed that ATI STILL can't get this right! Microsoft has made these things work (XP MCE), and they have NOT been in the field of desktop-TV type apps as long. Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition seems to work on my father in law's computer just fine. So now I have to do the reinstall all the apps in the right order dance and see if sacrificing a chicken or perhaps a lamb would work. ARGH!!!

6. Oh, and yes, you can record the HDTV. If you have a computer with a super high speed magic bus that sends the HD data down to your hard drive without killing your CPU. Point: My computer is an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.19 GHz (Intel Equiv: 3 GHz according to HP). My computer could not keep up. And at that point, you can't use your computer, not even to open Task Manager to kill the app. Good thing you can always yank the power plug. Grrr.... At least recording normal TV works well and takes very little CPU (~5% for me). But for recording DTV, I have no clue what they want from your computer, but mine just doesn't have it.

*sigh*. Well, when it works, it IS cool. I really don't want to take it back, I've wanted HDTV for awhile. But ATI still needs to learn to make decent software. The hardware's good, no crashes of the OS or anything. But their software makes me want to gag. And while other software can access the normal TV functions (WinDVD creator will record from TV and all), the DTV isn't implented in a way that those programs can use. And in general the DTV parts of the driver seem to suck. I've played with this all last night and then a few hours this evening as well.

In short: I would NOT recommend this card to anyone. Unless you are DYING to get HDTV, you've done the research and know that your area has it, and even then, download everything from ATI, don't use the crap that comes on their packaged CD. And expect to have alot of problems getting it to work. The crashes of atimmc in particular are not something that one can do much about, because the program can't tell you what's actually wrong, just that it's not working. What, are they not checking their pointers in C and all?? I mean, there's no excuse for not giving a meaningful error message. Even just "Windows is telling me the driver's not loading", or somesuch. This is 2004, not 1995 after all.

(And yes, my computer EASILY meets all of the requirements, so that's not the issue.)

But, I plan to keep the card, when it works, it's cool. (Although I can't get in 9.1, 'cause then I could see West Wing in HDTV, which someday I will get working, and that's what's keeping me going on this.)

Marking this happy mood, although I'm also aggravated due to ATI.

I've decided that I like PHP. I knew this before. But we're looking to switch from ASP to PHP, and the syntax is just cleaner.. I got the sproc code working under PHP for MS-SQL - I was putting the php.ini in the wrong place, so safe_mode and other stuff was screwing up the TDS library. I've ported over most of the common code from ASP -> PHP in about 2 hours. Then I got to work on a stupid billing system problem that was $3000 worth and was just 19 records. Grrr...

I setup Solaris 10 on a box today. And when it was done, I had no clue how to add packages, or anything. I had chosen the core distro only, and so no X or any of the X-based admin tools... And I just wanted to reduce the junk programs (and possibly security exploits) by not installing everything. So, I get to go back, reinstall installing just about everything, and try again.

Paper Mario for Gamecube

Okay, gotta get Paper Mario for Gamecube for , she just loves it.

Also gotta start going to shul more often, I hope to tomorrow night. It doesn't help when I never know if it's a Friday night or a Saturday day thing...

I also want to get back into open source programming, but I can't seem to find a project that just grabs me (which it has to, otherwise it won't keep my attention long enough). So I dunno.

(I'm finally going to try posting in my journal more often, hopefully I don't get too pedantic or boring...)

Have I mentioned that I love the internet? Oh, and my laptop. Ah. I can watch play Paper Mario (which she wants - we rented from Blockbuster 'cause Mom got a $50 gift card there, she hates them, and gave it to us). I can order pizza (from Pizza Hut, 'cause they know how to put more than one piece of topping on a pizza, fer ... well... someone's sakes) online, pay for it online, and now I'm just waiting for the delivery. Ah... it feeds the laziness so well.

Went to the doctor today, because I was concerned with some dull chest pain. Seems it's probably just acid coming back up my escophagus (sp?). The doctor did mention that he wanted an ultrasound of my neck, as he thought I might be building up plaque (which usually isn't a concern 'till you're 50 or so, but the sound was a little unusual, so we're going to be sure). Insurance should cover it well enough, so I'll probably call tomorrow. I was happy to hear that it was a stomach problem, though, and not a heart or lung problem..

Need to call the Rabbi. Really need to call and make an appointment. I did the doctor thing, I was a good boy and didn't put it off or just ignore it. Now I need to talk to him about getting back on with conversion. Particularly since we're looking to start having kids soon.

Oh, found out that we'll owe $700 in federal taxes. 's company kept back $60 in federal taxes for last year, but she made over $9,000. Even if the W-4 was screwed up, that's still a little messed up, but we're going to compensate for it for next year. So, I'll be working on budget changes, to make sure that I save up enough.

Well, gotta go help pass some thing in the game.

Okay, so I'm a nerd..

Biblical Bloopers

Biblical Bloopers

[from an article by Richard Lederer in the National Review, December 31, 1995]



These student bloopers are all genuine, authentic, and unretouched. (None, of course, was written by your child - or any youngster in your school district.)

It is truly astonishing what happens to Bible stories when they are retold by young scholars around the world.

In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off. Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. Noah's wife was called Joan of Ark. Noah built an ark, which the animals came on to in pears. Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.

The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals. Sampson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah. Sampson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the apostles.

Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterward, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Amendments. The First Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple. The Fifth Commandment is humor thy father and mother. The Seventh Commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then, Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol. The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Finkelsteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

When Mary heard that she was the Mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta. When the three guys from the East Side arrived, they found Jesus in the manager. Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption. St. John, the Blacksmith, dumped water on his head.

Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained, "Man doth not live by sweat alone." It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tomb stone off the entrance.

The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels. The epistles were the wives of the apostles. One of the opossums was St. Matthew, who was by profession a taximan. St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage. A Christian should have only one wife. This is called monotony.