Category Archives: /dev/random

Just random idle chatter

/dev/random

Gate Opening Triggered Door Bell

Background dad’s bike which has happy sat out the frount of our house for the past 6 years was stolen a couple nights ago. managed to take the bike not wake up the dog or anything.

So I starting thinking how can I set of a alarm when people open the front gate or any gate which leads to our stuff.

So pretty simple hard hack

Requirements

  • Door bell
  • Magnetic Reed Switch NO (normally open)

Method

  1. Pull apart door bell switch, the part with the button on it.
  2. locate the button
  3. solder the Magnetic Reed Switch across the button so that if the switch is ON it shorts out the button.
  4. put back together.

Pictures will follow.

For those who don’t know magnetic reed switches are things you see on doors and windows where they actually installed a real security system

Install the door bell / switch tomorrow see how it goes.

Notes:

  • With the HPM door bell it only rings once and doesn’t ring again until you’ve closed the gate and reopened it.
  • Yes I know it would be much easier to secure the bike eg. not full view of the street or not locked up.
  • Need to look at adding a override device so when you come home at 3 am in the morning you don’t wake the whole house.
Pulled apart door bell
Magentic Reed Switch (NO config)
Solder points on switch
Complete Unit
/dev/random, Mathematics

New Job

2 Comments

This afternoon after an interview before Easter. I was offered the job of Access Grid Support Officer working for 17000 at the University of Newcastle.

It looks like it’s going to be a great part time job while I’m at Uni.

Basics of the Job is that I’ll be running and tech support for the Universities Teleconference suite. (or Access grid)  The University has 2 of these rooms both located at the top of the maths building. (one equipped with smart boards a the other a touch screen TV)

At the moment the only group using the room is the Maths department for topological groups and other distance education courses. But there are plans to open the rooms up to other departments as well as offering a commercial service to the public sector.

I’ve been told the software running the room is open source, which should be another plus.

/dev/random, Linux, Mathematics

Uni, new degree and blog fame.

Firstly I’ve had a hard time getting to the rhythm of uni life again. For those who care I’ve changed degrees. I decided to after spending a lot of time last year in the engineering building, it holds my interest more than maths I changed degrees this year from my B. Mathematics degree to a B. Engineering (computer) / B. Mathematics Combined. Of course this makes everything feel weird as I go from ELEC1700 first year subject to a 3rd year subject in programmable logic then number theory.

A lot of people had a good laugh at my last blog post actually it has been my most popular to date. I didn’t really mind people laughing since if I did I wouldn’t of blogged. I did get a couple strange comments though, a lot of if its a server config use a server.. someone said to use a Mac ?! and this guy from windows watch, miss labeled Mandriva as a live cd which it isn’t (sorta technically you can argue) and then segwayed into why having no screen or keyboard is good.

I don’t really see my computer as a serious server, yes it’s on 24/7, it is my personal SVN server but why spend a tonne of money I don’t have just so I can easier sync my uni work between my laptops and desktop, and have some revision control on the programs and latex files I write.

Just a note for me while I slowly re-build my computer. Some documentation that comes in handy.

I’ve also applied for a Job with 17000 to be the techincal help with the access grid room. It would be a nice job since it looks to require you to sit in the room during the access grid lectures, and work the equipment and according to my mates in the maths deparment the lectures can be pretty interesting. Haven’t heard back yet, and I’m not sure I will get it since I did direct them to this blog as a refrence and the last couple of posts don’t make me look smart…

/dev/random, Linux

linux too f*@King easy to install

9 Comments

Ok I have a computer it generally stays on 24/7. it does important work like download files during off-peak download periods. It also is my svn server. samba etc…

It is also used by my family to surf the web since it’s always on and they don’t need to wait for computers to boot.

Ok so the short of the story is my computer got reformatted.

Distributing the blame

  • Me – should of know better than to leave a mandriva install disk in the drive, (virtualbox install is why it was there) and when I finished my linux install I SHOULD of changed the BIOS setting to disable boot from CD.
  • Dad – shouldn’t of turned off the computer he knows is always on.
  • Mum – shouldn’t of continued to click yes through the mandrivia install, by the time i found the computer it was asking for a username and password for the new mandriva install. so it already had FORMATED and INSTALLED mandriva.

Coming soon !! more blog entries on the success or failure of data recovery tools in linux. If you have any pointers please tell me.

Aside welcome planet.linux.org.au readers !

/dev/random, Linux

Random Ubuntu Support Calls

Ok it’s been an odd morning.

This morning i got a phone call on my home line from some old man wanting help with his ubuntu install, well more to the point is that he wanted to format ubuntu and start again.  After asking a couple of questions about what he wanted,  I told to format the drive and do a fix MBR in windows is probably abit more complex than he wants, and since he was dual booting that he should just continue to launch windows instead.

His orginal problem was he couldn’t get on the internet at the time, It didn’t click at the time when he said he was with optus that the reason he couldn’t get on the net is the weird way that optus modems are setup.

After talking to him for a while i finally got around to asking how he got my number because it was becoming more clear i didn’t know the guy.

Apparently he found my ubuntu wiki page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Gabz and assume I could help him looked up my phone number in the address book since my last name isn’t very common my home (parents house) is the only listed number.

So this was the first time i’ve been rung by a 85 year old man wanting to know how to fix ubuntu. It was an odd experiance.

If how it all ended, was well I got over the slightly weird feeling told him to keep ubuntu there, since he mentioned he lived in Toronto (NSW) we exchanged email address and I sent him the link to Westlakes Linux Learners

Anyone else recieved random phone calls asking for linux help ???

/dev/random, Kymoie, linux.conf.au

LCA updates.

3 Comments

Lots of mini-news so time for dot points

  • I Checked my site visit statistics and noticed that I’m now on the Linux.conf.au planet, I don’t normally put my blog up for planets but it was part of the registration and was easy. so hello my extra blog readers from http://planet.linux.org.au/lca2009/
  • Linux.conf.au, I have tickets to for the conf. Tiger airways are now on my list of banned airlines, In 1 year they’ve gone from alright to horrible. Basically they canceled our flights from Melbourne to Hobart. and put us on other ones but then we can’t get the Jetstar flights we have to connect us to the Newcastle to Melbourne Part. So more money had to be spent Tiger gave a less than expected refund.
    • Related on the 18th January we fly into Melbourne from Newcastle at 7:40 am our next flight to Hobart doesn’t leave until 17:55 so we have 8 hours in Melbourne to kill, please leave suggestions in comments if you have some ideas of what to do.
  • Kym and Linux.conf.au. Not so good she is trialling her talk out at work the week before, but the robot isn’t ready yet… it was meant to be ready for her last year but the processor still isn’t inside the bear yet. As for the talk well the OO.o sliders aren’t finished yet either.
  • Still looking for a new OS for my Acer Aspire looked at Kuki.me but it’s still not near production stage yet.

Anyway welcome to the new Planet readers 😀

/dev/random

Maitland Riots 1960.

Last weekend I heard a talk by a missionary priest Father John who had to stop his work in Africa due to a heart condition and is how living a very relaxed life with the nuns out in Bolwarra.

During his talk he mentions intolerances towards other religions, and I suppose he thought as he was talking to a group of people from Maitland he’ll give us some Maitland History, and proceeded to tell us about a riot in the 1960 due to a Presbyterian minister giving a series of sermons said to be anti-catholic which upset the Irish Catholics at the time. I spent some time googling these riots and apparently it’s not just my neighbours who had no idea of Maitland past but the Internet as well. With the only reference I could find being from this website.

In 1860 he advertised a lecture on ‘The Heathenism of Popery, Proved and Illustrated’, which upset Irish Catholics and led to the famous Maitland riots, said to have involved over 1000 people. McIntyre was injured and seventeen prosecutions followed. [ http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050190b.htm ]

It was an interesting story hard to believe in this day and age first being that there is 1000 pissed off catholic still in Maitland. Though I’m sure there are still some Anti-Catholic sermons out there still. but all church’s these days seem to at least refrain from publicly criticising each other.

If anyone else finds something else be sure to leave a comment.