I am using Ubuntu “Daily builds” for some time inside Suns VirtualBox. Unfortunately the daily builds are not longer booting inside VirtualBox for more then 2 weeks now. Christian told me about a new feature of Grub2. You can boot ISO images directly from your hard disk without burning them on CD or USB. Awesome feature and I had to try it today. Here is the description on how to do it with Ubuntu 9.10.

First I am using this tiny script to update all daily builds with the zsync tool. It transfers only the changed parts of the ISO so you and the Ubuntu teams save a lot of traffic.

zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/lucid-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
cd kubuntu
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/lucid-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
cd ../netbook
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/daily-live/current/lucid-netbook-i386.iso.zsync
cd ../xubunutu
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/daily-live/current/lucid-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
cd ..
rm `find ./ -name "*.zs-old" `

This script keeps all my daily builds up to date.

Next Step is to enable the grub menu. In Ubuntu it can be done in “/etc/default/grub“. Change the following lines

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false

With this change you will see a 10 seconds count down when booting up. With the shift-key you get access to the grub boot menu. Next is to add the ISO images to the grub menu. Change to the “/etc/grub.d” dir.

Here you can find the grub menu entries and configuration files. Add your ISO images starting with 50 here. For example my entry for the normal Ubuntu ISO image (50_ubuntu) looks like this:

echo "Adding $(egrep menu[e]ntry $0 | cut -d'"' -f2)" >&2
 cat << EOF
menuentry "Ubuntu 10.04 Daily Build" {
       loopback loop (hd0,3)/ansi/software_and_config/ISOs/ubuntu/lucid-desktop-i386.iso
       linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ansi/software_and_config/ISOs/ubuntu/lucid-desktop-i386.iso file=(loop)/preseed/ubuntu.seed quiet splash bootkbd=sg --
       initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

My ISO files are stored on sda3 under /ansi/software_and_config/ISOs/ubuntu/. In order to change it for your needs there are 3 elements to change. The loopback line contains your hard disk in grub style (hdx,y  x=0->sda x=1->sdb aso) and the path. The third element to change is in the linux line. Store this file as “50_ubuntu” in “/etc/grub.d“, make it executable with “chmod a+x 50_ubuntu” and activate the changes with “ubdate-grub“. After a reboot you should be able to activate the grub menu with the shift-key and select the new entry. Have fun.

I found some pages on this topic but the description there was not working for me so I changed it. But take a look on your own:

• http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/lucid-lynx-ohne-cd-brennen-auf-realem-system-/#post-2326751
• http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/GRUB_2/Konfiguration

I just run through several Chrome Extensions and here is my list of extensions I can recommend. Please write some comments if you have additional  recommendations.

• Read It Later, very usefull to store webpages for later reading: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bkikpncfbjndhfkipijhdoddiadaipaa
• Gmail Notification: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/mihcahmgecmbnbcchbopgniflfhgnkff
• Use Gmail as default mailer: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/pgphcomnlaojlmmcjmiddhdapjpbgeoc
• Forecastfox: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ihffmkcfkejomlfnilnmkokcpgclhfeg
• Delicious: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/anlkjppofaicbdanhhpbbogknfodfhfm
• Last.fm: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/nbjfhhdfhoccglhllgdfcknjgjbifcjk
• TwitterBar: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/pbadgdglepgngpoeijdgicjccomadekm
• Page reload: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/njoipeaphfnaplplihpbgndfojhdhmjo
• Google Latitude: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bhencimpdjidjlgopdgofmkeojbiacie
• Remember the milk: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/chieodlkhimccchlojdmiondhiggkhmf
• Youtube with HTML5 instead of flash: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/kchoimdlcbapmcdnheaahjcdpdjdpfco
• Beautify Facebook: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ipnenhkngeiigfbhacdhadcnjjklhblm
• Facebook Extention: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hfdhelbngglkahnmlggcbjlkbddhkffm
• RapidShare Download Remover: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/iciefpkfldmhehakpkphbclofdhiojih

Letzte Woche auf der Suche nach einem netten Abendrestaurant durch Stuttgart gelaufen und durch “Zufall” ins Trollinger geraten. Aber sehr ueberrascht worden. Das Essen war sehr lecker, das Fleisch sehr zart, die Portionen uebergross und die Bedienung war superfreundlich und sehr schnell. Obwohl ein “Zufallstreffen” werden wir oefters vorbei schauen. Kann ich sehr empfehlen.

Mein Beitrag zu Weinstube Trollinger – Ich bin AnsgarSchmidt – auf Qype

1. The easy but not always working way
   1. Turn off the phone by holding down the Hangup button for some time.
   2. Plug in your earphones
   3. Turn on the phone (if you see the earphone symbol everything is fine now)
2. The not so easy but always working way
   1. Download the APKatcher App from the Market (market://search?q=pname:nEx.software.Apps.APKatcher) 
   2. Enable 3rd party apps on your mobile in order to accept apps from other locations then the market
   3. Get the toggleheadset application from google code.
   4. Send the app to your phone via email
   5. Install the app
   6. Add the toggleheadset widget to your phone desktop

After that you can toggle between your earphones and the internal loudspeaker.

Eigentlich waren wir auf der Suche nach einer Tatort Kneipe und sind haben das “Maulwurf” mit dem Ackermanns verwechselt (ist die gleiche Internetseite). Leider gab es dann in diesem Ackermanns kein Tatort. Aber dafuer haben wir eine sehr sehr schoene Kneipe entdeckt. Lecker und guenstiges Essen. Nette Atmosphere und super nette Bedienung. Wir werden da wohl oefters hingehen. Die Bier und Whisky Karte ist super und sehr sehr lecker.

Mein Beitrag zu Ackermanns – Ich bin AnsgarSchmidt – auf Qype

I just played a little bit with APRS igate on Linux. There are some igate software available on Linux but the most supported package (javAPRESSrvr) is not available today because of an error on Yahoogroups where the files are hosted.

Therefore I installed xastir from Sourceforge and connected the the local running instance with the APRS-IS network. Now DM1AS is visible on FINDU.

Nice side effect on this, the server generates an Google Maps page every 5 minutes with APRS stations around my home. Maybe tomorrow I connect my radio to the igate and there will be more local stations available.

So far you can see the map here:http://tinyurl.com/nacc5k

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I love Peters Bikemap.net page. Using this service to plan all my bike tours. Unfortunately my Garmin (GPSmap 60) does not understand the gpx file from Bikemap export. I wrote this little script to modify and split the route into smaller routes. GPSmap 60 only handle 250 points per route. Therefore the script splits the route into smaller pieces, renames the note names into “rtept” resp. “rte” and uploads the route via USB to the connected garmin.

What you need to run this script are gpsbabel and the unix commands: sed, split,cut and head .

Here it is, as usually no guarantee.

#!/bin/bash
filename=$1

gpsbabel -i gpx -f ${filename} -o csv -F out.csv
split -l 200 out.csv splits
rm out.csv

for i in `ls splits*`
do
 gpsbabel -i csv -f ${i} -o gpx -F ${i}.gpx
 sed 's/wpt/rtept/' ${i}.gpx > out
 rm ${i}.gpx
 mv out ${i}.gpx
 rm ${i}

 linenumber=`wc -l ${i}.gpx | cut -d " " -f 1`
 let linenumber-=1

 sed -n 10,${linenumber}p ${i}.gpx >a.gpx

 rm ${i}.gpx

 cat ${filename} | head -n 9  >${i}.gpx
 echo "<rte>"                >>${i}.gpx
 cat a.gpx                   >>${i}.gpx
 echo "</rte>"               >>${i}.gpx
 echo "</gpx>"               >>${i}.gpx
 rm a.gpx

 sudo gpsbabel -r -i gpx -f ${i}.gpx -o garmin -F usb:0
 rm ${i}.gpx
done

Just found on Slashdot the article on the new Monkey Island. Its points to rockpapershutgun. Go and read on your own or just watch this cool movie with preview and background information and hey also great impressions on the new Monkey Island. Cant wait to have it:

I spend this rainy day working on an old project and I am happy to announce its 99.8% finished. Now I have a nice Atmel Board screwed to the wall with an ethernet port. Nice little project where you can access measurement values and digital I/Os via normal http access. For now I have 3 temperature sensors running. One outside, one on the ceiling and one on the floor of my office. Idea is to control a fan when the temperature between the ceiling and the floor is to hight. I have this problem specially in winter times when the heater is on. Next week I will attach a light sensor as well. For now you can find all the measurements on pachube feed 1303. For example here is the outside temperature sensor. Time is in utc.

My blog will be offline on sunday for some time because I will reinstall the server with new HD and Ubuntu 9.04.

If you ever wondered if geeks are social here is the answer. Yes they are and they are very social and organising some very cool events which are called “geekends”. Combination of weekend and geek. Not just going for hiking with friends. No developing, building, ironing and coding very cool and geeky things.

As being a reader of the very cool MAKE magazin I read the article on a brain machine the other day. This project is great for a geekend. Something to build, some hardware, software and after all a great toy to play with.

The idea is to build one of these Brainwave (aka Light and Sound Machines) on your own with a little micro controller. Lets see if we can optimize the hard and software a little bit. The original one is based on an other project and therefore the hard and software is not optimizes for a LSM.

More Information on the original project you can find the the blog here.

Stay tuned to my blog to read more on this geekend.

Religionsunterricht ist Betrug

Moin

Saw it today and I have to support it!!!!

After six very long years of waiting… here it is Star Trek 11

Together with a friend of mine we are planning to take the opportunity and make a nice friday-easter-geocaching-event (fege). We are planning to make 3 or maybe 4 multicaches and several single caches on the road. Here are the stages for the multis (must do)

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and here are all stages from the multi and a lot of singles arround Bad Cannstatt.

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As you can see on the picture sitting with Thinkpads can be very social. Reminds me of this famous picture with guys sitting on a not yet finished skyscraper.

Last weekend was a big event in Stuttgart. Its called “Lange Nacht der Museen“. Many many museums and galleries are open until 2 o’clock in the morning. Lift organized this event and they also hired a log (well not enough) buses to transport all the people around Stuttgart. Well most of the time you spend waiting for totally overcrowded buses but nevertheless it was a great event. Thanks to Lift for this. Besides the Mercedes Museum, Boat tour in the Stuttgarter Harbor (yes Stuttgart has an Harbor), Wine Museum we visit the bunker below the marked place. Here are some pictures of the former bunker which was an hotel after the second World War and was given up completely long time ago. They had some pictures on the wall how the hotel was looking before when it was still active. And besides that they invited the last active hotel employee who talk about old times.

• 2 connectors for the bus (i2c and power)
• 3 connectors for LEDs (transistor connected)
• 3 PWM servo connectors (with current (resistor) measurement)
• 1 SPI interface to flash the atmel onboard

Well its not a big deal but maybe someone finds it usefull. Next week I have to fight with placing it on a board without to many crossings.

And here is the video I promised:

Had some time this weekend to make next steps on my robotic project. This time the topic to work on was hardware. And yes real hardware not PCI carts or so. We started to think about how to design and construct the leg. Having no CAD software (and no idea how to use it) I just used a pen and a paper to draw a leg. Well it worked out and the leg works. But it looks more like a bone than like a robot leg.

I also made a movie of the leg moving but Youtube is still processing the data. As soon as they are ready I will post the movie here.

Just read an article on Heise Technology Review on “Die-selektive-Loeschung-von-Erinnerungen” (selective remove of memories). Not on a computer, on mice brains!!! The researcher say it will be very great to help patients with post posttraumatic stress disorder. Well I am a great fan of Science and Research but just think how you can easily misuse this drug. On one hand as being a victim of it (leaving your company and get a small bye bye pill) or as misusing yourself (“I never did it!”). I think the researcher working on this project now have a lot of new friends from all kind of business.

While searching for PWM for my atmel I found this video. If you want to see a robot dancing to WMCA and”Walk Like an Egyptian” have a look at the video.

ItoWorld produced an impressing Video on OpenStreetMap mapping. Its absolutely impressing how fast a community can develop something like OpenStreetMap. Crowdsourcing is not only about shifting the work towards a community. Its more about how a community can change the world. Meanwhile countries like USA or the Netherlands are disclosing their maps for OpenStreetMap. Take a look at the video and you will understand why OSM will change the world.

OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo

Found this on youtube. Impressing technology from Sesam.

And if you wander why Americans are not so beloved in Baghdad….

Find more information on

http://www.urbangathering.de.vu/

or

http://www.stuttgart-blog.net/flashmob-urban-gathering

Hope we are many people and it will be a lot of fun. See you there.
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SeeqPod – Playable Search