Running Ventrilo under Wine in Ubuntu Linux

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Wine will install and run the ventrilo VOIP client very well. To get this working, follow these steps:

apt-get install wine wine-dev msttcorefonts

download ventrilo-3.0.5-Windows-i386.exe

run “wincfg” to prepare things

run “wine ventrilo-3.0.5-Windows-i386.exe”
(go through the install, using all the defaults)

Now, everything works with one quirk.
Push to talk works only when the ventrilo window “has focus”
This is somewhat understandable, but annoying, in that you have
to focus the ventrilo window before you can talk.
The other option is to use voice-detection, but that takes up a bit more cpu-time, and you may accidentally broadcast something you don’t want to.

A program that listens for keypreses and directs them to the ventrilo window fixes this problem:

http://np1.pp.fi/ventriloctrl/
http://np1.pp.fi/ventriloctrl/ventriloctrl-0.3.tar.gz

To compile it, you’ll need xorg headers:
sudo apt-get install xorg-dev

Aiptek HyperPen T-6000U tablet with Ubuntu 9.04

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Getting the Aiptek T-6000U tablet working with Ubuntu 9.04 was relatively easy, following the directions here.

Summary:
Install the xserver-xorg-input-aiptek package.
Add a file called 10-aiptek.fdi to the /etc/hal/fdi/policy directory containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.product" contains="Aiptek">

      <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">aiptek</merge>
      <merge key="input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents" type="string">true </merge>
      <merge key="input.x11_options.USB" type="string">On</merge>
      <merge key="input.x11_options.Type" type="string">stylus</merge>

      <merge key="input.x11_options.Mode" type="string">absolute</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

A Puzzle

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Hear my word down to the very letter,
and you shall know our characters better.
Our first and last are two of one,
Found leading nowhere and leading none.
Also the twins sit together, a pair
following everyone and leading everywhere.
Some more of us stay grouped together as ten,
But going the wrong way,
they end where they begin.
Only one remains, and I stand tall.
Can you give the number of us all?

Laser Etched Thinkpad Laptop

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Laser Cut Laptop, edge view
I used a laser cutter to decorate my “home” laptop. Using an Epilog Mini 45 watt laser cutter / engraver, I was able to cut out a good 0.5mm from the rubberized plastic coating on my Thinkpad X31’s cover. To get the cut this deep, I used 100% power and 5% laser speed at 300dpi, which took over 70 minutes, but the results are well worth the wait! Compare this to my laptop paint job on the “work” laptop.

Moving NTFS paritions using Ubuntu (Vista, XP)

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This guide gives a good step by step procedure for moving a windows partition from one drive to another:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7742172

If you get an “autochk.exe not found” error message just after windows XP boots, it probably means that you have the partition type set incorrectly. Using fdisk under linux just use the “T” option to change the partition type to NTFS (hex 0x07 or number 7 in fdisk).

E-bike solar charging rack

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Solar EbikeAn electric powered bike makes it easier to go up hills, and can turn a ride to the train station from a workout into a commute. Typically however, the batteries need to be plugged in to charge after your trip. Although electricity is cheap, this does require that you have removable batteries (or wheel your bike into the house or bring a charger outside). I decided to use the sun to recharge my bike, seeing as how I would be parking my bike outside at a train station all day. This way, it can be fully charged and ready for the ride home when I return. Continue reading →

Bike Lighting: $15

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Front Headlight In case I need to commute home after dark on my electric bike, I added a front headlight (5 watt MR11 halogen) and a rear tail light (Red LED tail light for “off-road” use). The front headlight enclosure was designed to be used on a bike, and included a nice mounting bracket and enough cord that I could harvest some to run to the rear tail light. Black zip-ties hold the wires to the frame. The rear tail light had no enclosure, so I soldered the wire directly to it and epoxied it into the back of my rear rack. Both lights run off of only one of the 12v batteries through a 5A blade fuse and an automotive switch mounted under the battery pack. Continue reading →

The $175 Electric Bike

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Electric Bike
Electric bikes are expensive. Even if you buy the cheapest electric bike you can find on deep discount at walmart, it costs $300. (Formerly $400 before they deeply discounted it.) I decided to build my own out of surplus parts and things I could buy at the local Ace Hardware for less than $300. (Mostly, for the fun of the build.)

So, I bought a surplus motor controller, handlebar mounted throttle, and a 250 watt electric motor. I bolted the motor to the front of my used $20 bike, built a battery holder out of PVC pipes, and made a vacuum formed cover.
Continue reading →

Vacuuform Battery Cover

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battery_holder_cardboard_toolAfter building a PVC pipe battery holder for my electric bike, I used a vacuum form machine to make a polystyrene battery cover. I built up a cheap tool form using cardboard (which turned out to be too week, but it was quick).

Vacuum form complete

Vacuum form complete


As the vacuum was forming the polystyrene around the cardboard the box started to deform so I had to release the vacuum before the styrene had fully formed itself to the PVC pipes, but it got close enough to be screw mounted. Continue reading →