March 2013 Archives

March 31, 2013 @ 21:31 EDT

203/365: A good evening


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 31, 2013 @ 21:22 EDT

202/365: Brewing Trouble

My tablemates liked some tea in their sugar.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 27, 2013 @ 20:17 EDT

201/365: Caged


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 26, 2013 @ 22:15 EDT

200/365: Rich Vein


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 25, 2013 @ 21:44 EDT

199/365: Twin Peaks

This isn't the shot I wanted, but it was what I had to settle for after the whole um, mountain range ended up all over the kitchen floor, two pairs of glasses, six limbs, three shirts, two pairs of pants, and, unfortunately, two heads of hair.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 24, 2013 @ 21:03 EDT

198/365: Freedom isn't free


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 23, 2013 @ 20:16 EDT

197/365: It's seen better days..


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 22, 2013 @ 21:28 EDT

196/365: Nipple-y


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 21, 2013 @ 21:05 EDT

195/365: Amen.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 20, 2013 @ 20:10 EDT

194/365: Iznik


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 20, 2013 @ 20:00 EDT

193/365: Sweater Bunnies

Sorry about the near-repeat, but this was too good to pass up, and I didn't get a chance to do anything else yesterday.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 20, 2013 @ 19:43 EDT

192/365: Bunnies Planet, Zones of Adorable


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 20, 2013 @ 19:38 EDT

191/365: By hook or by crook


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 19, 2013 @ 20:19 EDT

190/365: Manly Cologne

Mmmmm.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 19, 2013 @ 20:12 EDT

189/365: Coronary

This is why the laptop was out of commission.

That and a very clogged heatsink.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 19, 2013 @ 20:07 EDT

188/365: Dramurai

Time to catch up; my laptop was out of commission for nearly a week due to a failed cooling fan.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 13, 2013 @ 20:50 EDT

187/365: Baron von Blubba


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 13, 2013 @ 20:46 EDT

186/365: Splayed


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 11, 2013 @ 21:24 EDT

185/365: Spotted Glass

This little bugger, hiding behind the the GLARING SPOT in the glass, is as of yet unnamed.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 10, 2013 @ 17:59 EDT

184/365: Nesting

Lately, Leyla's taking to sleeping in my skeepskin rug.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 10, 2013 @ 17:48 EDT

Fatherhood

Friday afternoon I watched a man holding his months-old daughter up to a tree, running her tiny fingers along its waxy leaves and rough bark. I watched her fingers part leaves of grass, graze the sand and broken mulch of a playground. I watched the cool, salty sea breeze and the dying rays of the sun play against her rosy cheeks he cradled her in his arms, softly describing the world she was experiencing.

It was ... beautiful to watch, to share that moment, even as a mere observer.

I wonder this is something I will ever experience for myself?


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Life and other BS

March 10, 2013 @ 08:59 EDT

183/365: Om nom nom

The tide was coming in, and this bird-brain kept trying to eat the bubbles of air escaping from the tunnels under the sand.

Yeah, I've been to the beach two days in a row. MAybe I'll make it three..


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 09, 2013 @ 17:43 EST

182/365: Still Life

This lil' guy was missing his other leg.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 07, 2013 @ 20:09 EST

181/365: Screwed


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 07, 2013 @ 19:47 EST

Anyone looking for a kernel hacker?

For reasons I won't bother getting into here (other than to throw some token insults at Congress -- but they only hastened it along), I've been notified that, as of tomorrow and until further notice, I've been cut back to four day work weeks.

So it's time I kick myself into active job hunting. Anyone looking for an experienced software engineer that's highly proficient in C and is quite comfortable slicing and dicing low-level kernel (Linux, RTOSes) and device driver (Wireless Network, Sound, Printer, etc) code?

I've done high-level systems design, low-level board bringups, database backends, Web UIs, data mining, test engineering, you name it. Python, Perl, C, Shell, and Java. Javascript, C++, and even C# in a pinch. What I don't know, I pick up as needed.

My current resume is available, naturally.

I'm based out of Melbourne, Florida, but for some time I've been wanting an excuse to move on.

It can't hurt to try, eh?


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Free Software, Life and other BS

March 06, 2013 @ 19:00 EST

180/365: Gatekeepers


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 06, 2013 @ 18:50 EST

179/365: Not Rubber Duckie, I'm Awfully Fond of You...


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 06, 2013 @ 18:42 EST

178/365: The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

We've had a chilly couple of nights.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 03, 2013 @ 20:40 EST

Vehicular Disassembly

This weekend, I knocked out most of my vehicular to-do list.

The tin can got a new antenna grommit, finally silencing the thock-thock-thock rattling from the rear-end that's been going on for at least a year now. But more importantly, I also swapped out the driver's seat belt buckle -- About two weeks ago, it started acting up, requiring a lot of jigglig to latch properly, and even when buckled the car complained thinking I wasn't wearing a seat belt. But these two things were a minor sideshow for the main attraction.

The truck's had air conditioning issues ever since I bought it. Not only does the compressor have a bad (ie very noisy) bearing, but the fan never put out that much volume (and tended to slow down to barely functioning after being on for a little while, if it even started at all. Last June I purchased a new blower motor and blower resistor, and it's taken me this long to do the work simply because it required taking apart the whole damn dashboard to get to the bits in question.

Yeah, despite the fact that the blower motor is partially exposed in the cab, it's mounting bolts are tucked behind sharp-edged steel crossmembers that hold the dashboard together. The blower resistor was similarly afflicted, theoretically accessible behind the glove box unless you had the gall to actually want to remove it.

So, after getting everything taken apart yesterday afternoon, I discovered the new blower resistor I purchased turned out to be the wrong one, and the correct one had to be shipped in. No biggie; I managed to swap out the motor and got things semi-reassembled before calling it quits mid-afternoon.

This morning, I picked up the correct resistor pack, installed it, and proceeded to reassemble the dashboard. After getting it put together enough to reconnect the battery and start testing things out, I discovered that the new motor doesn't work. At all.

After much gnashing of teeth, I reconnected the original motor to the wiring and found it worked, albeit hesitantly and noisily, pointing the finger at the new motor rather than something else I may have done. So, I took apart the dashboard (again), pulled out the new motor, hooked it up manually, and... it worked. It turns out that I hadn't done a good job of mounting the grounding lug to the new fan body.

Back in it went, and a quick test later, It worked! I started re-attaching everything.. until there were eight screws remaining, when I discovered that two of those eight were supposed to be securing the ECU to the body -- behind the dashboard. Cure another round of teeth gnashing, disassembly, and reassembly. I finally finished up around noon or so.

So, the A/C compressor is still noisy and there's still something wrong with one of the vent actuators (one of the defrost vents is always engaged) but otherwise I'm getting a considerable amount more air out of the vents. I'd consider that a success.

All it cost me was most of my weekend, a very sore back and shoulders (steering columns are heavy!) and scraped-to-hell-and-back hands.

I still need to remove the steering wheel to replace the turn signal cancelling cam (when turning left, theturn signal won't disengage automatically), but that's another project for another day.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Life and other BS

March 03, 2013 @ 20:00 EST

177/365: 100 Yards

I should have probably sighted a little more to the left, owing to the gusting winds and the relatively horrid ballistic profile of .22LR ammunition. Still, any of these little holes would made a living (or possibly undead) target quite unhappy; even the furthest hole was under six inches from the center.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 02, 2013 @ 19:56 EST

176/365: ...Sadness

The focus was a little off, alas. Chalk another one up to needing a small tripod for close-up work. But I still like how this turned out.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

March 02, 2013 @ 08:15 EST

Linux wifi driver hackery, yay

Since it's still a little too chilly outside for me to take apart my car to replace a defective seatbelt buckle, it's time for a writeup on what I've been up to with my wifi driver hacking.

First, the ST-E CW1200 driver. For some reason, I keep being surprised at the amount of major surgery between the releases. Since my last posting to linux-wireless, there's been a lot of work:

  • Completely rewrote BSS join logic -- IBSS now works!
  • Respect TKIP/CCMP group key rx sequence counter
  • Improved 802.11g (ERP) coexistence
  • Eliminated callback function pointer structures
  • Detect CW1160/CW1260 chips (fw load is different though)
  • Greatly simpified BSS loss detection
  • Fixed deadlocks and/or OOPSen when hot-unplugging non-idle devices
  • Pulled support for Sagrad SDIO modules into a separate module that provides the appropriate platform data
  • Simplified Beacon filter configuration
  • Many, many, many checkpatch-suggested cleanups

I'll probably prepare another upstream submission this weekend, seeing that the driver is now handling everything I'm throwing at it. Finishing CW1260 support needs to wait until I have hardware to test aginst.

Next, I've also spent time on the rt2800usb driver, adding the ability to write changes back to the eeprom and embedded eFuses. This lets folks update the production data baked into the module at manufacture time, which is occasionally necessary when your module vendor sends you seven hundred modules with a single bit flipped that breaks a legacy product's driver. As an aside, Ralink's official drivers are... painful, to say the least. But kudos to Ralink for maintaining them!

Finally, I started adding support for my employer's STLC4560-based modules to the p54 driver. They come in both SPI and SDIO variants, and have an onboard EEPROM for storing the Production Data. The existing p54spi driver is hardwired to have the PDA loaded from userspace, and there's no support for SDIO devices at all. This is a lower-priority project, but it is nice to be working with the venerable NWN/Intersil/GSV/Conexant/ST 'ARM MAC' again.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Free Software

March 01, 2013 @ 22:16 EST

175/365: Lost in a Circus


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365