SHOCM » Shocm

I need a web site

Shocm — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:43:37 +0000

All to common of a conversation.

Nasty Bug – Ubuntu 10.04 on VMWare Fusion OSX

Shocm — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:54:42 +0000

Came across a nasty little bug when I installed the latest Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS) into a virtual machine using VMWare Fusion 3.02 on my OSX box. This was a fresh install and the install itself went smooth, the problem occured when the initial login screen appeared. Although my mouse worked just fine and I was able to click on the user to log in, I wasn’t able to type anything. My keyboard was completely unusable within the virtual machine. I was not able to type any input via the keyboard.

After doing some Googling I discovered that once you got past the login screen the keyboard would work fine. The only way to login was to initiate the on-screen keyboard and type in your password. You can bring up the on-screen keyboard by clicking on the Universal Access icon on the lower right hand side of the screen and choosing “Use on-screen keyboard”. One side note here, when I first checked the box to use the on-screen keyboard, the keyboard would flash and disappear. What I needed to do was keep the box check and reboot the machine, when the login screen returned, the keyboard was there.

Once I logged in the physical keyboard worked fine. I was able to use it in all the applications and didn’t notice any problems, but once I logged out and returned to the login screen, again no input from the physical keyboard. Now I needed to fix this.

What didn’t work

At this point I go into basic trouble resolution mode and decided to start by reinstalling and upgrading the VMWare tools. Not going to get into a step by step here how to do that but the short of it is after reinstalling the VMWare tools and rebooting I was stuck in the same situation and needed to use the on-screen keyboard to log in. Next obvious step, apply all patches to the Ubuntu desktop, did this, rebooted, still no go.

What did work

Clearly, you are not reading this article to learn how not to fix it. Trust me after doing enough searches there are plenty discussion threads out there with “This doesn’t work for me either, anyone fix this yet?” to keep you reading for hours. I found a couple good links that I will post at the end of this article that got things resolved. The short answer is I logged into the machine, fired up and console window, type in the command

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

For keyboard I selected “Apple” and then just selected the defaults for everything else. Once I exited the configuration wizard, I restarted the machine and all was right with the Ubuntu world again. Did a couple reboots to make sure and everything seems to be working fine now.

One more side note

This issue occurred on a clean install of the current Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release. I had been previously running the beta version of the 10.04 release which worked fine and never had a problem with the keyboard input. However, after patching that box today, same issue occurred.

The Links

Two links basically lead me to my resolution

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1466482 – A great thread discussion on the issue in general. There were a couple of “fixes” in there including the one I implemented. A couple of post go off track but for the most paart a good thread.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/548891 – The bug report on the issue which also includes the work around.

[Nagios] Error: Could not stat() command file ‘/var/lib/nagios3/rw/nagios.cmd’!

Shocm — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 07:55:03 +0000

System: Ubuntu 9.10 | Nagios 3.x

This is another post that is more of a note to myself than anything else. Been doing a lot of Nagios configuring and decided to implement the ability to push commands from the web interface. I followed the basic instructions to configure “External Commands” but after doing and going to the web interface to test it, I got the following error message;

Error: Could not stat() command file ‘/var/lib/nagios3/rw/nagios.cmd’!

The external command file may be missing, Nagios may not be running, and/or Nagios may not be checking external commands. An error occurred while attempting to commit your command for processing.

The file was there so I did what any good geek should do, I did a quick google search. The closet thing I could find was some commands to fix the issue on Debian systems. Since I was running Ubuntu, which is for all intensive purposes Debian, I figured I would try it. So I ran the following set of command;

sudo /etc/init.d/nagios3 stop
sudo dpkg-statoverride –update –add nagios www-data 2710 /var/lib/nagios3/rw
sudo dpkg-statoverride –update –add nagios nagios 751 /var/lib/nagios3
sudo /etc/init.d/nagios3 start

This worked like a charm and the web interface began accepting commands.

Sony Electronics Creates Open Source Development Community

Shocm — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:41:17 +0000

Last week Sony open the doors to a new web site, as well as a new approach for the organization, called Sony Developer . Sony Developer is meant to become a hub for Open Source development efforts for Sony Electronic products.

Currently, Sony has enabled the community for “SNAP” which is an application framework for consumer electronic devices. From the SNAP site;

“SNAP stands for Sony’s Networked Application Platform and is part of an emerging new ecosystem for making downloadable applications available to networked devices like TV’s, Blu-ray Disk players and other Consumer Electronic products. SNAP is in the very early stages of development and has a lot of room to grow”

This will open an avenue that will allow developers to get their applications onto SNAP enabled devices such as televisions. SNAP is based on the GNUstep community, whose origin dates back to the OpenStep standard developed by NeXT Computer Inc (now Apple Computer Inc.) which also implements the extensions added by Apple in the form of Cocoa. The main language on GNUstep for SNAP is ObjectiveC and the SNAP development web site points a lot of great resources on ObjectC from beginners guide to optimization.

Sony offers a guides and a SDK for download to start with your development efforts. It’s mentioned on the SNAP web site that some good examples of applications would be “Games, Widgets (weather, news, traffic, etc), remote controls, social apps, media sharing apps, media players, home automation”. Also according to the web site Sony will be hosting contest in the future for SNAP developers with prizes ranging from Sony televisions to Sony Walkman.

Another section of the Sony Developer Web site will be the dash section, which is currently unavailable but from what I’ve heard should be opened in the coming weeks. dash is the Sony new Personal Internet Viewer. Developed with Flex, Sony is hoping to encourage and foster application developed on the dash product.

Open Source, Open World

Shocm — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:25:14 +0000

Came across this great graph outlining some interesting facts around Open Source. Original article was called "Should Open Source Be An Enemy Of The State?" and is itself a good article discussing some of the paradox around recent suggestion made is US policies and Open Source.

Posted via email from shocm

My First Linux Servers at Work – 2002

Shocm — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:04:03 +0000

via flickr.com

Buddy of mine posted a video he had of me when I first worked for Sony as a consultant. Took this video right before I was leaving the gig, sometime in 2004 2002, and we were walking through one of our data centers. Of course the one proud points of achievement I wanted to point out was the fact that I had finally implemented Linux in the environment. Now of course, I am back at Sony and 90% of the environment I am is responsible for is Linux based.

Posted via web from shocm’s posterous

Sony Pictures Imageworks Releases Open Source Shading Language (OSL) to Development Community

Shocm — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:54:22 +0000

CULVER CITY, Calif., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Pictures Imageworks, the award-winning visual effects and digital character animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, released the Alpha version of its source code for OSL, its Open Shading Language, it was announced today by Rob Bredow, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Pictures Imageworks.OSL is a fundamentally different approach to shader languages for visual effects and computer animation rendering. OSL was designed to enable and support the latest developments in rendering technology. Unlike previous shader languages, OSL assumes a rendering system that can perform ray tracing, and provides for natural global illumination and a demand for physical accuracy. All of which is significantly different from the assumptions made years ago when most of the current shader languages were first developed.

Sony Pictures Imageworks initially developed OSL for use with its in-house renderer in the production of animated feature films and visual effects. The language specification released today was developed with input by other visual effects and animation studios, including Rhythm & Hues, who also wish to use it. The code is now available through Imageworks’ Open Source website at http://opensource.imageworks.com/

Imageworks announced its Open Source program last August and has spent the past several months preparing OSL for use on its upcoming films.

This early release of code follows the model of the most successful open source programs in which development from this point forward will be done “in the open” for others to watch, use and contribute to as desired. OSL is licensed under a “production friendly” open source license. Imageworks is optimistic that OSL will be adopted broadly by those needing a modern shading language for production needs.

“We’re excited to be sharing OSL with the world,” said Rob Bredow. “Our goal is to follow the model of the most successful open source software by making our development public. This provides the very best opportunities for collaboration and adoption. Even though it’s in its early stages, there is a lot of sophisticated groundwork already laid in OSL. We look forward to the response from the computer graphics community”

OSL TAKES A DIFFERENT APPROACH

According to Imageworks’ OSL lead developer Larry Gritz, one of the industry’s foremost experts in shading and rendering, shaders in other languages compute the color of an object as viewed from a particular direction. In this way, the shader is a black box to the renderer — all the renderer can do is execute the shader, for a particular direction, and get the result.

What distinguishes OSL from prior languages is that the material properties of surfaces, explicit descriptions of how light is scattered by them, are treated as a first-class concept that the shaders compute and that the renderer can then manipulate and reason about. The renderer can evaluate these properties, i.e., figure out the outgoing radiance in any particular direction. This is just one of many things OSL can do. It also “importance samples” these surfaces, which is helpful for efficient global illumination because it lets the renderer send the rays in the places that count the most, instead of just groping around in the hopes of finding important light paths. Because sampling and evaluation are de-coupled from the shader execution, OSL allows a renderer to reorder computations in really interesting ways that could greatly improve speed and/or image quality.

Also, OSL is very consistent with physical units throughout, which not only improves the ability to accurately simulate materials and lights, but it also solves some longstanding problems in production, such as matching results between area light sources, emissive geometry visible to GI, and HDRI environment maps. These matches are now possible with OSL.

About OSL (Open Shading Language)

Open Shading Language (OSL) is a small but rich language for programmable shading in advanced renderers and other applications. OSL is similar to C, as well as other shading languages; however, it is specifically designed for advanced rendering algorithms with features such as radiance closures, BRDFs, and deferred ray tracing as first-class concepts.

The OSL project includes a complete language specification, a compiler from OSL to an intermediate assembly-like byte code, an interpreter that executes OSL shaders on collections of points in a SIMD manner, and extensive standard shader function library. These all exist as libraries with straightforward C++ APIs, and so may be easily integrated into existing renderers, compositing packages, image processing tools, or other applications. Additionally, the source code can be easily customized to allow for renderer-specific extensions or alterations, or custom back-ends to translate to GPUs or other special hardware.

For more information and access to OSL, visit http://opensource.imageworks.com

ABOUT SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS

Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is the Academy Award® winning, state-of-the-art visual effects and animation unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions. The Imageworks production environment supports live-action visual effects and character animation, all-CG animation, Imageworks 3D stereoscopic, and Imageworks Interactive, a full service creative group that produces websites and supports digital marketing for the studio and outside clients.

Imageworks’ achievements have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars® for its work on SPIDER-MAN™ 2 and the CG animated short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS!. In 2008, SURF’S UP was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In 2007, two of Imageworks’ projects, SUPERMAN RETURNS and the all-CG animated feature MONSTER HOUSE, were nominated for Academy Awards in the Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects and Best Animated Feature respectively. With those two nominations, Imageworks became the first studio to be recognized in the same year in these distinct areas, an indication of the diversity and quality of the company’s capabilities. Other Oscar® nominated projects include THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, SPIDER-MAN™, HOLLOW MAN, STUART LITTLE and STARSHIP TROOPERS, for a total of ten nominations.

Imageworks’ most recently completed projects include 2012, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, G-FORCE, WATCHMEN, VALKYRIE, BODY OF LIES, EAGLE EYE, HANCOCK, SPEED RACER, BEOWULF, and I AM LEGEND. Upcoming projects include ALICE IN WONDERLAND and CATS AND DOGS 2.

Imageworks maintains operations in Culver City, CA; Novato, CA; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Chennai, India.

Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Production Inc.

For more information, please visit www.imageworks.com.

SOURCE Sony Pictures Imageworks

RELATED LINKS
http://www.imageworks.com

via prnewswire.com

Always have to call out where my Sony world and my Open Source world overlap.

Posted via web from shocm’s posterous

iPhone Set Up (with power) on my Motorcycle

Shocm — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:54:41 +0000

I knew when I bought my Yamaha V-Star motorcycle, I wanted to figure out a way to tie my iPhone into it in such a manner where it was functional. It seemed like a perfect device for motorcycle riding. Before I go much further let me just say, “Always ride Safe”. I honestly believe that nothing I did here jeopardizes my safety on the motorcycle and this system was implemented with safety in mind.

I was surprised to see very few systems out there that allowed you to incorporate your iPhone onto your motorcycle. I came across several people who kind of winged it and threw something together but nothing I wanted to do. My criteria was simple, it had to be clean, functional, and safe.

My first purchase was the most expensive one. I purchased two ChatterBox XBi systems at around $200 for each unit. The ChatterBox system ties into your iPhone’s bluetooth system and allows you to listen to music and even take phone calls (again please use your head and be safe). I purchased two systems because I wanted to leverage the intercom system but this was not needed for the iPhone integration so you can save some money here.

The ChatterBox addressed around 90% of my needs. I could start some music up, throw my iPhone in my pocket and life was good. But I was really looking for more, I wanted my iPhone accessible while I was riding. My next purchase was a RAM handlebar mount (RAM-B-149ZU) and a RAM iPhone cradle (RAM-HOL-AP6U) that ran me about another $40 from Ram Mounts Web site. This combination made a wonderful product. Extremely simple to install and very sturdy. The iPhone latches in there pretty snug and I have never had any problems or concerns about it coming loose. Just a great product. This got the iPhone out of my pocket and it was now accessible and visible. Now I could listen to my music and if someone called I was able to tell who it was and if I need to take the call. I could also start to use other application such as the TomTom navigation app.

I still had one problem, long bike rides listening to music, using the navigation, and taking pictures really drained the battery. I didn’t want to end up in a situation where it was late at night, broken down, and the iPhone with no charge because I was listening to music. I needed power. Took me awhile, but I found Pashnit Moto who offered a couple of solutions of which I settled on the Apple 3G, 3Gs and iTouch Battery Harness PPC-026-DB which ended up running me around $43.

That was all it took and it completely changed my riding experience. I now have music and navigation all in one small device. There are a few drawbacks. For example, the way you have to manually connect the ChatterBox and the iPhone is kind of a pain, seems like they could do a better job with that. Also, when its all said and done, your iPhone is still exposed to the elements. I happen to have a windshield but if you didn’t then it would be exposed to all the elements at 80MPH which is probably risky and generally not good for the device. Also certain situations, like navigation, where it would be nice to turn the iPhone to landscape, the RAM mount does allow for this, it isn’t as simple as just twisting it back and forth, there is a lot of tightening and loosing that needs to happen.Also, the RAM mount is so snug on the iPhone that there is no room to accommodate and additional case that you might have on the iPhone. But all and all I am very happy with what I have.

Besides the built in applications such as music, mail and camera, here are a couple of other applications I have found beneficial while riding;

TomTom Navigation – I debated a long time on this because of the hefty $100 price tag but it is nice having navigation when you are not 100% where you are going.
Pandora / iheartradio – I have a pretty good collection of music but these apps allow me to listen to other things when I want.
Trapster – Just so I know.
OSMTrack – Good for capturing routes taken.
TrafficInfo – For when I am heading into town
Brightkite – The social networking guy in me. I like to pictures and location of where I am.
AutoStitch / Flickr – If I am going to take picture of the wonderful landscapes might as well make them panoramic and upload them to Flickr
AAA Roadside – Just in case.

Problems getting Pidgin to connect to Yahoo Messenger

Shocm — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:06:26 +0000

Update: @nanderoo on Twitter informed me the latest release of Pidgin addressed the Yahoo issue and in fact if you go to the Pidgin site there is a message “Yahoo issues are fixed in 2.5.8.” I’ll keep my post up for future reference but it doesn’t look like its needed anymore.

Have had a couple friends come to me and tell me they’ve been having a problem getting Pidgin to connect to the Yahoo service. I don’t typically use Pidgin but fired up my Pidgin and confirmed there was a problem connecting to Yahoo. I was outside any corporate firewalls which help narrow down what the problem could be. Didn’t have a problem logging into my Yahoo service using other IM clients like Adium so the problem wasn’t the account.

Did a little digging and found an old post talking about how you needed to configure the “Yahoo Pager Server” in Pidgin using an IP address instead on the URL of scs.msg.yahoo.com. The Pager Service can be found on the Accounts Screen->Yahoo Instance ->Edit Account->Advance Tab.

I ran the command host scs.msg.yahoo.com and got all the IP addresses associated with that URL and did a check on the IP address I had configured and it was no longer in the list. I played around and replaced the IP address I had with a new one from the current list. Pidgin seems to like the new IP and stopped giving me the message that it was unable to connect to service but still didn’t display my buddy list. As good measure I shut down Pidgin and restarted it and everything seems good now. Connect to Yahoo service again and able to access my Buddy List. Hope this works for you too.

Here is the last output I got when I the command;
$ host scs.msg.yahoo.com scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.33 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.34 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.35 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.36 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.37 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.6 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.7 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.8 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.9 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.10 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.11 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.12 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.13 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 68.180.217.14 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.29 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.30 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.31 scs.msg.yahoo.com has address 76.13.15.32 scs.msg.yahoo.com mail is handled by 0 .

Government, Open Source, and Saving the World

Shocm — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:40:38 +0000

Imagine if the Declaration of Independence was written in “Word 1776.” What are the odds that we’d be able to open that original document today?

Great quote by David Egts, Principal Solutions Architect at Red Hat, Inc., in a interview on the WashingtonPost.com web site Viewpoint. He was highlighting the importance of not only Open Source but Open Standards in everything from business to government. There is a lot of talk of companies that are struggling through these rough economical times and the Open Source road maps that can help them through. Those exact “road maps” are also being explored for government implementation which I personally think is long over due.

The discussion with David Egts was a great forum that allowed the public at large to ask direct questions. David Egts covers a wide range of topics. It’s a good read. Suggest you go over to the web site and check it out.

http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/05/dlt.htm