Saturday, September 19, 2009

Time Machine Restore - A Pleasant Experience


I recently had a disk go bad in my iMac. The disk would often boot if the computer was cold but then would start having errors as it warmed up and ... corrupting files.

I have never had to test any of my Time Machine backups for a real purpose. I was concerned that I would find that not all the files I needed would be restored or I would find I only really had partial backups. I have had many bad experiences over the years with untested backups, including backups done by sys admins. So I doubted that Apple's magic backup would be complete.

So I stuck a blank hard disk in the machine and booted the 10.5 install CD. At this point you have two options, install a fresh copy of Mac OS X and restore your files and settings, or just restore everything from Time Machine. I chose to restore everything from Time Machine, started it and went to bed.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a complete restore. I had to resync my dot mac data and a couple little things. The worst one was the ~/Library/Caches directory was not created with permissions for me to write to it. But overall, I was very happy.


Thursday, August 20, 2009

Simple OpenGL Texture Example

Here is a simple example of code to use an OpenGL Texture.





// Apple gcc program0.c -framework opengl -framework glut
// A simple OpenGL and glut program
#include <GLUT/glut.h> /* Header File For The GLut Library*/
#include <stdint.h>

//
// You need to generate the texture data that you are going to
// use. GIMP will convert a bitmap, jpg, etc. to a "C" structure
// that you can use almost directly.
//


// GIMP RGBA C-Source image dump (f35_schem_02_edit_4.c)

static const struct {
uint32_t width;
uint32_t height;
uint32_t bytes_per_pixel; /* 3:RGB, 4:RGBA */
uint8_t pixel_data[128 * 128 * 4 + 1];
} planform = {
128, 128, 4,
"\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0"
"\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0"
"\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0"
"\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377"
// ... much of the texture deleted
"\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0"
"\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377\0\0\0\377",
};


// The routine to draw the screen
void display() {
// A value to hold our texture handle
static uint32_t texture = 0;
static int32_t firstTimeDone = 0;

// Clear the display
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
// Set the color to white
glColor3f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0);
// Setup the coordinates to what I am used to
glOrtho(-1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0);

// Get a texture number if we dont have one
if (!firstTimeDone)
{
// Get a texture number
glGenTextures(1, &texture);

// Tell OpenGL that we want to use that texture
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture);

// You have to tell OpenGL how to take the raw bitmap data
// in the structure above to put it into a texture. We
// do this with a glTexImage2D() call. We will describe the
// structure above and how we want it stored internally in
// OpenGl.
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, planform.width, planform.height,
0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, planform.pixel_data);

// OpenGl lets you describe how you want to scale the
// texture data when the destination is bigger or smaller
// than the original texture data. In this case, we want
// simple linear scaling.
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);

// First Time is done
firstTimeDone = 1;
}
else
{
// Tell OpenGL that we want to use that texture
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture);
}

// We are going to put the texture on a 2D surface, much
// like we would apply a decal.
glTexEnvi(GL_TEXTURE_ENV, GL_TEXTURE_ENV_MODE, GL_DECAL);

// Normally you leave GL_TEXTURE_2D turned off unless
// you are applying a decal to a surface. Since we are
// doing that, we turn it on here.
glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);

// Draw the square
glBegin(GL_POLYGON);

// Here we want to associate a point in the texture with the
// vertex we are drawing on the screen. So these are paired up.
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex2f(-0.5, -0.5);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex2f(-0.5, 0.5);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex2f(0.5, 0.5);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex2f(0.5, -0.5);

// End of the list of verticies
glEnd();
// Turn texture drawing back off, normally we leave if off.
glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);

// Flush the data. In many drivers, this causes the
// actual draw to the Frame Buffer.
glFlush();
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
// A minimal GLUT setup to get GLUT up and going.
// If you use EGL or some other windowing system
// other than GLUT, you need to replace this.
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitWindowSize(512,512);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT_RGB);
glutCreateWindow("The glut hello world program");
glutDisplayFunc(display);
glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
glutMainLoop(); // Infinite event loop
return 0;
}

</stdint.h>







Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Parsing a binary file in Perl

This is an example of how to parse a binary file in perl. This reads an mpeg-2 file and chops the first 8 Mbyte chunk out of the file, closing at the next clean sequence header boundary.

#! perl
use Getopt::Std;

use strict;

sub chopMpegFile
{
my ($fileName) = @_;

open FILE, "$fileName" or die "Could not open file: $!\n";
open OUT, ">out.mpg" or die "Could not open file: $!\n";

binmode(FILE);
binmode(OUT);

my $buffer = '';
my $count = 0;
my $done = 0;

while ((! $done) && ( sysread(FILE, $buffer, 4) ))
{
my $value = unpack 'N', $buffer;
if (($count++ > 2 * 1024 * 1024) && ($value == 0x000001b3))
{
print "Closing file.\n";
$done = 1;
}
else
{
syswrite(OUT, $buffer, 4);
}
if (($count % (1024*100)) == 0)
{
print "Count $count\n";
}
}
close(FILE);
close(OUT);
}

my @args = splice(@ARGV, 0);
foreach my $arg (@args)
{
print "$arg\n";
&chopMpegFile($arg);
}


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Logging Serial Data with CKermit

To log binary serial data from an RS-232 stream using CKermit, these are the settings I use:

  • set port /dev/ttyS0
  • set baud 115200
  • set terminal bytesize 8
  • set command bytesize 8
  • set parity none
  • set session-log binary
  • set flow-control none

Then when you are ready:

  • log session
  • connect


Thursday, August 13, 2009

Network Cheat Sheets

A very good list of networking cheat sheets:

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/



Monday, July 06, 2009

To see where RPMs are installed.

Note to self.

To check where packages are installed:

$rpm -ql package

To see where RPM files will install or have been installed.

$rpm -qlp package.rpm


Sunday, July 05, 2009

Tools I miss from Windows

I like my Mac computers, but there are a few development tools I really miss from windows:


Saturday, June 27, 2009

Mac OS X tethering crashes.

It appears with the recent Mac OS X updates, that if my Sprint phone disconnects the tethering, Mac OS X crashes hard.

It puts up the the message that says you need to hard power off (in multiple languages).

No fun.


Sunday, May 17, 2009

Simple Mac OS X OpenGL Program


// Apple gcc program0.c -framework opengl -framework glut

// A simple OpenGL and glut program
#include <GLUT/glut.h> /* Header File For The GLut Library*/

void display() {
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glColor3f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0);
glOrtho(-1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0);
glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
glVertex2f(-0.5, -0.5);
glVertex2f(-0.5, 0.5);
glVertex2f(0.5, 0.5);
glVertex2f(0.5, -0.5);
glEnd();
glFlush();

glFlush();
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitWindowSize(512,512);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_SINGLE | GLUT_RGB);
glutCreateWindow("The glut hello world program");
glutDisplayFunc(display);
glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
glutMainLoop(); // Infinite event loop
return 0;
}


Sunday, March 29, 2009

Cousin Patrick's Early Spring Ride

Cousin Patrick is back in the water with his JetSki.


Friday, February 20, 2009

Cleaning up more space on Windows

As part of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, Microsoft has the MSIZap utility:

Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

Msizap.exe (Windows)

The command "msizap g!" will clean up orphaned installer files that often add up to a large amount of space.


Thursday, January 01, 2009

Excellent

It seemed to work correctly.


Test using Blogo

This is a test of using the Blogo software on the mac to see if it is easy to use.


Thursday, March 29, 2007

Ford Shelby GT500KR

Thursday, March 08, 2007

vw van jump

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Battlestar Galactica: A New Crew In Town

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Star Wars in 5 seconds

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

New PC & Mac Ad : Security

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Ford GT Superbowl Commercial

Another previous year Superbowl Ad from Autoblog.
1970 GTO Humbler with VOE

A superbowl ad for the GTO from 1970 posted on Autoblog.