Kurt Stephens

Nerd Up!

The only way to implement the future is to avoid having to predict it. -- Piumarta
Fighting entropy one day at a time...

No Empathy 20th Anniversary Reunion Show!

Kurt on Sun, 2008-12-28 20:50.

Yes, it’s really happening!

No Empathy recorded its second album in 1989 with the “modern” line-up of Marc Ruvolo, Martin Garrety, Chuck Uchida, Steve Gallup and myself.

We are reuniting for one show April 4th, 2009 at the Abbey Pub in Chicago, with old-school label mates Not Rebecca.

Tickets are limited and on-sale now.

  • Sat. April 4th, 2009
  • The Johann’s Face 20th Anniversary Party
  • Reunion performances by:
  • No Empathy
  • Not Rebecca
  • w/ Sass Dragons and Bread and Bottle
  • Age 18+/9PM
  • $10 in advance, $12 at the door

Chumby PhotoFrame 2

Kurt on Sun, 2008-12-28 03:11.

I’ve hacked up the Chumby PhotoFrame source from http://www.discarded-ideas.org/chumby/photoframe by Wansti.

http://github.com/kstephens/chumby_photoframe/tree/master

Fixed a few bugs and created a USB image to enable http://localhost/image/ browsing on the Chumby.

I’m working on an CGI to allow uploading of images directly to the Chumby.

Please give me feedback.

Chumby - A Hacker's Microcosm

Kurt on Fri, 2008-12-26 22:10.

I got a Chumby as a holiday gift; it’s really cool and really hackable.

The good:

  • Hardware and software is open-source.
  • Runs Linux.
  • Very easy to hack: SSH, BusyBox, lighttpd, Ruby, etc.
  • Two USB ports.
  • Audio out (internal speakers sound amazingly good for their size).
  • Built-in microphone (haven’t figured out how to use it).
  • Can play FLAC files from USB drive.

The bad:

  • It’s very difficult to get it to show pictures off a USB drive. The only way apparently is to install a local HTTP server and use a widget: http://www.discarded-ideas.org/chumby/photoframeusb
  • Flash widgets/apps only — Flash is not open-source.
  • Switching between widgets and channels is fiddly.
  • One button is not enough considering widgets take up the whole screen modally.
  • It needs more RAM. 64MB is just barely enough.

Luxeed LED Keyboard Driver for Linux

Kurt on Wed, 2008-12-10 07:34.

Hardware Review

This is a really cool keyboard, except that the ESC and function keys do not light up and are strangely located and difficult to press. I also don’t understand why the spacebar does not light up; seems like it’s the most important key. The construction is not very good and the feel is a bit mushy. However, this keyboard is fun for hacking and could be really great for user training.

Device Driver and Source Code

After much troubleshooting, I have created a simple C driver library for the Luxeed deTA 100/200 keyboard using libusb. This driver allows the LEDs under each key to be set from C from most Unix-like operating systems. This is my first attempt at reverse-engineering the protocol of a USB device.

Ruby: Performance of Symbol Construction

Kurt on Sun, 2008-11-23 03:54.

Measurements of Symbol Constructor Expressions.

n=10_000_000

ruby 1.8.6 (2008-08-08 patchlevel 286) [i686-linux]:

> /cnu/bin/ruby symbol_benchmark.rb
                               user     system      total        real
Null Test                  0.740000   0.000000   0.740000 (  0.742914)
'foo_bar'                  1.670000   0.000000   1.670000 (  1.661374)
"foo_bar"                  1.620000   0.000000   1.620000 (  1.625221)
:foo_bar                   0.890000   0.000000   0.890000 (  0.886903)
:'foo_bar'                 0.880000   0.000000   0.880000 (  0.878555)
<br class="clear" />

How to duplicate DataMapper objects

Kurt on Sun, 2008-11-16 21:04.

How to create a deep clone of a DataMapper::Resource object so it can be stored in a different repository.

This does not work:

obj = Foo.first
obj = obj.dup
repository(:other) { obj.save }

<br class="clear" />

Where we are 8/10: Party at the Lake

Kurt on Sun, 2008-08-10 11:20.

You missed it!


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