Google Talk finally enabled XMPP Federation. This means I can finally talk to all my ICQ/MSN/Yahoo/etc buddies in iChat, and stop opening yet another IM client. Hurray for Jabber! Steps to do so:

1. Download and install Psi
2. Add your google talk account to Psi, using instructions provided by google
3. Once signed in, open up service discovery
4. While google doesn’t have any transport protocols registered, them enabling XMPP federation means you can use the transports protocols defined on any other federated server. So, pick out a Reputable looking server, type it in, and hit browse.
5. Register all the transport protocols you would like to use on that server
6. Close Psi
7. Open ichat, log in to google talk
8. Begin the slow and arduous task of adding nicknames/vcards for everyone now added to your buddy list, as ichat/jabber/whatever isn’t smart enough to pull them automatically.

Voila! No more Adium, no more Psi, just the clean look of iChat filling your desktop.

Well, I’ve spent a few months running 64bit slackware and WinXP 64, and I have to say that neither OS is production ready. The basic functions of each OS work, mostly, but backward compatibility and third party software support are both less than stellar.

Windows

• Services for Unix (SFU) has not been, and will not be, ported to XP64.
• x86-64 programs are put in C:\Program Files, and 32bit programs are put in C:\Program Files (x86). Many old windows programs (including the steam installer) can’t handle parenthesis in a path.
• NVidia’s windows x86-64 driver installer doesn’t support my gf4 ti4600, although modifying the .inf file allows it to install and run fine.
• Useful things like Daemon Tools don’t work because of driver format changes.
• A bunch of little things I don’t remember right now

Linux

• /usr/lib and /usr/lib64 confuse some programs<
• Some poorly written software (like mplayer) assume 32bit pointers
• Shell script game installers blow up very, very badly. So badly, in fact, that I’ve been unable to run any of my native games (Q3, UT, UT2k3, etc)

Since all the things I really care to use Spaceheater for don’t work or work poorly, I think I’m going to go back to real Slackware, and 32bit Win2k or XP. Thankfully AMD did a great job with their x86-64 design and implementation, so I shouldn’t notice any type of a performance hit, and I don’t have 4GB of memory to worry about using anyway.

Unless you’ve got a need for 4GB+ of RAM and can’t use a better architecture, then stick to 32bit OSes and give the 64bit stuff a few more years to gel. That recommendation doesn’t apply to hardware of course. AMD’s 90nm Venice core can run in 32bit mode just fine, has SSE3 support, and runs at room temp with a slow, quiet fan. Plus you’ll be ready for when the software finally IS ready to run in 64bit mode.

Maybe it’s time I step away from the computer? Either that or the test is fairly lame.

The audio system in the Neon is 10x better than the Dakota. It even makes 93.3 sound decent.

Acceleration is much better than in the truck. Of course, I expected as much from something that weighs so much less.

I’m not as pleased with it’s range of speed though. In the truck, doing 80mph in 5th gear the tac would be at 2 1/4k rpm. In the neon doing the same speed in 5th, it’s running at 3k rpm. Maybe small car engines are supposed to run higher, but I’m not comfortable pushing it much past that.

Today is my last with my truck. It’s been a good truck, never gave me any problems, always there when I need it, and takes miles like a champ. Unfortunately, I just can’t justify keeping it. I don’t use it for hauling anything other than myself often enough to justify the $70-$100/week it eats in gas. And room it takes up the garage. And space on the road. Did I mention gas? So, I’ve decided to trade my loyal truck in for a 2004 Dodge Neon SXT. It’s a bit of an econobox, but it’s still a Dodge. The low-end acceleration is a lot better than my truck, and the gas mileage is supposed to be over twice what I’m getting out of my Dakota.

Pros

• Money. Payments will be cut by nearly $100/mo, insurance is going down $60/6months, gasoline bill is going down $200-$300/mo.
• Slightly more refined. The Neon has power doors/locks/windows and cruise control, all of which my Dakota lacks. It also has dark tinted windows and a spoiler.
• Same color. There are very few colors I think a Neon looks good with, and the Metallic Gray is one of them.
• People space. It’s a four door car, so when we go places with friends I can drive more than Beth and I if needed.
• Stuff space. The trunk is pretty large, and the back seat folds down for even more room.
• Smaller. Easier to park, maneuver.
• Dodge. I guess I’ve just got a bit of brand loyalty since their vehicles haven’t ever given me major problems and are tough as tanks in an accident.

Cons

• Not my truck.
• Not new. I don’t know how it’s been treated for the first 14,324 miles of it’s existence, whereas with the truck I put every mile from 3-32,568 on it.
• Stuff space. No matter how much trunk room it’s got, I still can’t move furniture, appliances, yard waste, etc. in it.
• Smaller. I lose my command seating, and excellent view of the road. My only complaint about my old ‘93 Shadow was that it was hard to see what’s going on in front of me, and now I’m going back to that same situation.
• Small car engine. When you get it up into the higher RPMs, you can tell it has a 2.0L I4 in it. Even the Shadow had a 3.0L V6. The higher pitched whine of the engine is going to take some getting used to.

Maybe someday when I finish my master’s degree, get a decent raise, drive less, move into another house that needs real construction, and have 200,000 miles on the Neon, I’ll buy a new Dakota once again. Until then, so long, old friend. You’ve done well.

Check out the source, date published, and then the content. Almost all true. Scary.

There are certain companies I don’t do business with because of repeated bad experiences that either I or people I know have had with said companies. Everyone once in a while though, I either forget why I’m boycotting them, or I’m forced to do business with them because of a third party. Now, I remember well why I don’t use Fedex, our local delivery driver lets shit sit on his truck for several days without attempting to deliver before actually stopping by our house. Unfortunately, I was forced to use fedex because that’s the only shipping company this online retailer uses.

Yesterday the fedex driver finally decided to actually stop by the house and leave a note. The package was shipped with a “signature in person” required. Beth and I both work all day. With UPS, this is no problem. I bring up the tracking page online, and either have the package redirected to my mom who works less than a mile down the road, or I have it held at Earth City where I can pick it up on my way to work the next morning. Fedex, however, has no such option, at least none that I can find. All he left is a little piece of paper that said his next delivery attempt will be Friday (doesn’t have a time range listed), and the sign to leave package on the doorstop section scratched out with his pen. It would cost me (or more accurately my company) over $200 in lost productivity if I were to take today off just to sit and wait for a package. That’s not going to happen. Fedex is still completely useless, and because of this forced association, this online retail will NOT be getting an repeat business from me either.

Some of you asked why I bought a Dodge Truck, when small foreign cars are cheaper/faster/more fuel efficient, etc. This is one of the reasons why.

My sister had my ‘93 Shadow for 3 years before I got it. In that time, she got in 5 accidents, totaled two other cars in said accidents, and even took out a concrete post next to a gas pump. Total damage: The front bumper was a little torn up from the concrete post, the rear bumper had to be replaced once.

Driving to work this morning in usual 370 traffic (busy, but moving quick). A blue car in the middle lane decided to pull left in front of me. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but there was already a small silver car in front of me. The small silver car bounced off the wall trying to avoid the blue one, bounced back out into traffic sideways, and managed to straighten out and slam on her brakes, all still right in front of me. I hit my brakes and tried to swerve right, but I was still moving to fast to stop in time. I crushed the back end of the small silver car and pushed it into the wall again (I think, at this point I don’t remember). Realizing what he’d done, the blue car took off.

Traffic stopped, we both got out and accessed the damage. We’re both okay, she (the driver of the silver car) was a little shaken up. The silver car will probably be totaled. It had to be towed off on a flat-bed truck. What about my truck you ask? Well, it looks like it pushed in the plastic bumper a little. There’s no visible damage to the frame or the engine compartment. I drove it the rest of the way in to work and it rides fine.

As long as Dodge keeps building Tanks disguised as on-road vehicles, I’ll keep buying them.

My MythTV box is finally up and running, so I thought I’d do a quick write-up for anyone who runs across this site via google or whatever.

Hardware

• MSI K7T Turbo Pro-R motherboard ($12, ebay)
• 1.6Ghz AMD Duron ($30, random internet store)
• Soundblaster Live! (free, box of parts)
• Intel 10/100 Fast Ethernet controller (free, box of parts)
• Voodoo3 3000AGP (free, box of parts)
• Packard Bell Remote and serial IR reciever ($10, random internet store)
• 300W Power Supply (free, box of parts)
• Generic HP lookalike case (free, buried in closet)
• 16x DVD-ROM Drive (free, box of parts)
• ATI TV Wonder VE (free, pull from my desktop)
• 200GB Matrox HDD (free, pull from server)

Software

KnoppMyth Release 5A15.1

Process

After fighting with the hardware and make sure everything worked in the spare bedroom, I brought it all up into the living room and plugged it in behind the TV.

Since I already had the svideo from my voodoo3 plugged into the TV, I typed “tv” at the knoppmyth boot prompt. This tells the software to use 640x480 so it doesn’t push the television to a resolution it can’t handle. The knoppmyth startup auto detected all the hardware correct, and almost set up XF86Config-4 file correctly. I chose to wipe the blank hdd and let it auto- install the system for me. Specific things I had to add to the monitor section of the XF86Config-4 file were:

        HorizSync    30.0 - 50.0
        VertRefresh  60.0
        ModeLine “640x480NTSC” 28.195793 640 656 658 784 480 520 525 600
        ModeLine “800x600NTSC” 38.769241 800 812 814 880 600 646 649 735
        ModeLine “720x480NTSC” 27.5 720 744 800 872 480 483 485 525

and

                Modes “640x480NTSC”

to the correct depth.

This page details what to do kernel wise to get X11 and tv-out working properly on a voodoo3. I chose to install a 2.6.11 based kernel, so i had to apply a couple patches to get support for the bt869 chip.

Next up on my todo list was getting the sound to stop echoing. Even after following the directions listed in the mythtv install guide , I still had an echo on my sound blaster live. After digging around a dozen obscure wikis and blogs (like this one) I found out I needed to set the AC97 volume in alsamixer to zero.

My final problem which took several days to solve was the remote. I bought the packard bell remote and receiver based on the advice of someone in #mythtv-users on irc.oftc.net. The hardware works fine, but it took me a while to figure that out. All my problems ended up being debian’isms. After I deleted the debian package for lirc and installed from source it works great. If anyone is interested, I’ve uploaded my lircd.conf and .lircrc files to this webserver.

I really don’t know what else to say. Everything works great, I can watch stuff on my server downstairs via samba, and the picture quality is decent for the age of the display hardware I’m using. I should have finished this up a lot sooner.

I set up the MythTV box to record any episodes of Good Eats it could find. Yesterday I was looking through the stuff it has recorded so far, and I found one of my favorite “I could do that” episodes, Steak your Claim.

So today Beth and I drove to the grocery store and bought some kosher salt (it really is better than regular salt) and a 1.67lb steak. The butcher cut the steak in half for us and wrapped it up. We got home, started cooking the potatoes, bread, and carrots to go along as side dishes. When everything else was about 10 minutes from finished, we started the steaks. We left mine in the oven a bit longer because I’m a wuss and don’t want my cow mooing on my plate.

They both turned out really well, and I’m stuffed. Unfortunately the recent restriction in food has shrunk my stomach, and I left almost half my meat on the plate. Maybe I’ll finish it later or take it for lunch tomorrow. I would have taken a picture to go along with my horrible description of awesome food, but I couldn’t find my camera. Oh well, maybe next time. And yes, there will be a next time, cause it was really frickin’ good.

Oh, and at the end when he says let it rest for 2-3 minutes, really let it rest at least that long. One of our steaks didn’t rest and the juices flowed out when I cut it. It was a little tougher than I would have liked, but still really good. Lesson learned for next time.