software

ZoneMinder

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Last summer, my mini-tech project was installing some wireless internet cameras inside and outside the house so I could keep tabs on things while I was away. For the past year I’d just been using the built-in features of each of the cameras (motion detection, e-mail alerts, etc.) which was hit-or-miss since each manufacturer offered different features, some better implemented than others, and none of them perfect.

This setup was fine, but I wanted to be able to better manage the system and maybe even store more history of events (or “live” video) without having it be all e-mail messages with static image attachments. That’s what prompted me to search for open source camera management software, and I that’s how I found ZoneMinder.

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Notes on the Natty Narwhal

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April is almost over, which means it’s time for another Ubuntu release! Today Canonical released Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. As I am wont to do (with Maverick, Lucid, Karmic, Intrepid, etc.) I upgraded my server right away. The entire process took about 7 hours start to finish, but most of that was waiting for the 722mb to download (the download servers were understandably overloaded).

Like my previous server upgrades, the process itself was easy and straightforward. After the ‘do-release-upgrade‘ was complete, I re-applied my customizations to various configuration files, rebooted, and I was back in business on the new version. Also like my previous upgrades, I ran into a few snags:

  • NUT 2.6.0 wouldn’t connect to my CyberPower UPS anymore: I found others reporting this issue and was able to compile 2.6.0 from source with a patch to get it working again.
  • something “broke” in postfix with the upgrade from 2.7.1 to 2.8.2: the system couldn’t send e-mail until I added the port number (:25) to the end of the relayhost parameter. I couldn’t get it to work either running in the chroot jail or not, so it wouldn’t seem to be a permissions thing but I haven’t figured out the root cause yet.
  • calibre wouldn’t run: python would throw a “magic number” error. I found a similar report in Launchpad but was able to fix this by simply removing calibre and then installing it again.
  • I had to ‘apt-get install’ lsscsi to remove a minor error in phpSysInfo

So now I’m set until October, when Oneiric Ocelot will be released!

Another Galleon (local radar) weather fix

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It’s been almost three years since I last fixed the local radar image in Galleon’s Weather application. Earlier this week TCF user ajayabb pointed out that just like last time, the image was showing N/A again.

I tracked down the bug to a change in weather.com’s HTML page and was able to make a simple change to fix it.

“Official” Galleon releases are few and far between (2.5.5 was released two years ago) so rather than wait for that you can download my revised weather.jar file here. Just replace the existing one in the ‘apps’ sub-directory and restart the Galleon server.

Palm is dead, long live … hp?

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Yesterday, hp announced a slew of new devices running WebOS (which they acquired last year). One thing was missing from their press event though … Palm. hp’s new devices are branded the hp TouchPad, the hp Pre 3, and the hp Veer

Yes, sadly, the Palm brand is now dead, almost two years after the death of PalmOS.

It’s been over a year since I put down my last Palm device and switched to the iPhone, so at this point I’m pretty much over PalmOS, but I’ll still remember it fondly.

Palm is dead …long live Palm!

TiVo launches iPad app for Premiere

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Last week TiVo finally released its iPad app that it had announced back in November.

The TiVo® App for iPad is a fun and FREE new companion for your TiVo Premiere box that lets you search, browse, discover and share without ever interrupting what you’re watching.

Now you can quickly surface new content, view guides, schedule and manage recordings, get recommendations, or investigate a particular actor’s entire resume—all using intuitive, gesture-based iPad interaction. It even enables you to post comments about a specific show or movie on your Twitter or Facebook page. It’s an innovative new way of interacting with your TiVo while you’re kicking back on the couch, or on the road.

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A year of using Mint

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After using Microsoft Money for almost 14 years, last January I started using mint.com to keep track of our personal finances. I wasn’t looking to move my money management into the cloud but was forced to when Microsoft decided to discontinue the online banking portion of Money in February 2010. That pretty much forced me to look for alternatives and after trying out a few, I settled on Mint. It’s been a year … how has it been?

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Help save Xmarks!

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Earlier this week Xmarks, the cross-browser synchronization service, announced it would be shutting down in 90 days.

I’ve been using Xmarks for years, ever since it was known as Foxmarks, to keep my bookmarks in sync across multiple PCs and browsers (IE, Firefox, and more recently Chrome). It was usually one of the first add-ons I would install, so I was disappointed to hear that they would be shutting the service down in January. Apparently the “give it away free and figure out how to make money later” approach just wasn’t working (according to a recent blog post it costs $2M a year to run!).

Well now, due to the outpouring of sentiment like my own after the announcement, Xmarks is reconsidering turning into a pay service.

… we’re revisiting the idea of Xmarks as a premium service. We’ve set up a Pledgebank page where you can sign up if you’re willing to pay at least $10 a year for Xmarks. No credit card is required, but please only pledge if you are genuinely willing and able to pay:

www.pledgebank.com/XmarksPremium

This is not a scientific experiment to predict what % of our base will pay, but it’s a data point that will definitely help.

Would you be willing to pay $10-$20 a year (~$1.50/month) for the convenience of having your bookmarks synchronized everywhere? I would! Please try to save Xmarks by making a pledge with the link above. They’ve set a deadline of October 15 to get 100,000 pledges and as I write this they still need 95,820.

Are there free Xmarks alternatives? Sorta. There are browser-specific tools like Firefox Sync for Firefox, but nothing that does the cross-browser synchronization I’ve come to rely on with Xmarks. I’ve considered trying to use LastPass, which I use to securely store my website logins (check out episode #256 of Security Now for more details), but it’s meant for logins and not normal browser favorites. Have any other ideas for how I can replace Xmarks if it does go away? Leave ’em in the comments!

Syncing podcasts without iTunes

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Last month I purchased Podcaster for my iPhone (thanks to this thread over on the TiVo Community Forum) and have now been using it for a few weeks.

Podcaster was originally rejected by Apple back in 2008 so the developer put the app on Cydia instead for jailbroken phones. Then in 2009, a slightly stripped down version called RSS Player accepted into the App Store. Finally, this past June, Podcaster for iOS4 devices was approved by Apple (RSS Player is still available for older iOS3 devices).

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Foscam FI8904W outdoor internet camera

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I’ve been pleased so far with my in-house internet cameras and decided I’d like to be able to keep tabs on the outside of the house as well. TRENDnet sells weatherproof enclosures for their cameras but they won’t work with the night-vision models because the IR just reflects off of the glass. I started looking at other models of outdoor cameras and chose the Foscam FI8904W.

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