Petes Trash

Air-Car Ready for Mass Production

2007-05-31T14:34:00.000-07:00

Air-Car Ready for Mass Production

Written by Bob Ewing

Saturday, 26 May 2007

The world's first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle is rolling towards the production line. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, will be built by India's largest automaker, Tata Motors.

The Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons. It is anticipated that approximately 6000 Air Cars will be cruising the streets of India by 2008. If the manufacturers have no surprises up their exhaust pipes the car will be practical and reasonably priced. The CityCat model will clock out at 68 mph with a driving range of 125 miles.

Refueling is simple and will only take a few minutes. That is, if you live nearby a gas station with custom air compressor units. The cost of a fill up is approximately $2.00. If a driver doesn't have access to a compressor station, they will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car's built-in compressor to refill the tank in about 4 hours.

The compressed air technology is basically just a way of storing electrical energy without the need for costly, heavy, and occasionally toxic batteries. So, in a sense, this is an electric car. It just doesn't have an electric motor.

But don't let anyone tell you this is an "emissions free" vehicle. Sure, the only thing coming out of the tailpipe is air. But, chances are, fossil fuels were burned to create the electricity. In India, that mostly means coal. But the carbon emissions per mile of these things still far outdoes any gasoline car on the market.

Unfortunately, the streets of North America may never see the Air Car, though; it's light-weight, glued-together fiberglass construction might not do so well in our crash tests. However, that does not mean the Air car is confined to the sub-continent. Nègre has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.

And this isn't the last we'll hear of the technology. The folks making the Air Car are already working on a hybrid version that would use an on-board, gasoline-powered compressor to refill the air tanks when they run low. Negre says that technology could easily squeeze a cross country trip out of one tank of gasoline.

A variety of videos (of varying quality) on this technology can be found on YouTube, or after the jump.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Hidden Door Bookshelf

2007-05-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hidden Door Bookshelf

by brokenon May 6, 2007in home

rating25

intro

introHidden Door Bookshelf

Wall to wall bookshelves that conceal a hidden door. Made without casters.

My home office was messy. After I am done it will still be messy but now it is finished AND it has the secret feature. Well it was secret, till I wrote this.

In one wall of my home office is a 5 feet tall 2 feet wide door to access the storage area and crawl space under the garage. This is where we put holiday decorations, old stuff, and junk.
This wall was the perfect spot for floor to ceiling bookshelves , which I have done lots of , but it had this door in the middle of the wall. The perfect answer was a bookshelf that opened.

One day my father in law visited and we started drawing pictures of how book shelf hidden door could work , how to hinge, where to hinge, how to hide opening, etc. Following are the highlights from the journey that followed.

comments ()

step 1calculate dimensions

First thing I did was figure out how big and where a bookshelf would need to pivot in order to clear walls and neighboring shelves with minimum gaps. I positioned the hinge point 7"in from the right and 2" in from the front of the cabinet. For sanity I made a scale drawing of shelves and cut out the rotating shelf shape.

With a pin I tried different pivot ideas, validating my measurements. The goal was to have the vertical gap between moving shelf box and fixed shelves be covered with a single 4.5" trim piece.

comments ()

step 2Door Frame - moving steel frame

The next key insight, thanks Jim, was to build a steel frame rather than trying to hinge the wood shelves directly. This would allow the door to swing easily and support 500-1000lbs without a problem ( full bookshelf). I calculated the size for the frame allowing minimum clearance from the floor for trim and base board (2" ) and enough clearance from the ceiling for the metal frame barely below crown. ( 5") and the width was set to just cover the access door and be centered ( 42") . The steel 2x2 box was $90 cut to length with miters. I bought a couple of 3/4" bolts to act as the pivot pins. These were welded 7" in at center of bolt, from ends of the frame , and cut off to fit into 2x2 box anchors. My welding is not super, so I do a lot of welds.

The steel frame would pivot on a upper and lower anchor point, mounted to ceiling and floor respectively.

comments ()

step 3installing frame

The ceiling anchor was sized to span 3 floor joist and had a short arm out to avoid rocking (scrap steel). The pivot point on both ends was a 3/4 inch brass flange bearing inserted into a 1 inch hole in the 2x2 box. The floor anchor was much smaller as bolting to the concrete floor made it pretty damn solid. Good luck to the person that has to remove this someday.

This let me position and place the top anchor, base anchor, and frame. I attached top anchor loosely letting it rock, slipped in frame and bottom anchor on pin(with 2 washers on pin above bearing), then slid the whole set into place. A plum bob hanging along the edge of the frame made it quick to tell if it was vertical in both directions. When true, I secured bolts on both ends. I tested the swing of the door frame with ~500 lbs of people standing in it. Dead smooth action.

comments ()

step 4add the wood

Into the installed frame I built the first shelf box for the swinging shelf and verified clearance. In my design I made the swinging shelf 2 inch shallower than the other shelves to allow clearance behind it for the arc when it swung. ( If I did this again I would bring all the shelves out from the wall, making all full depth. Then I built the two side shelves and installed trim all around. I used a credit card for gaps between trim and crown to allow clearance.

The 4.5 inch trim left and right of the shelf-door , the right side is fixed to the fixed shelf, the left side moves with the door. I had to bevel notches in the trim on the right because the horizontal trim dives under it as the door opens. I also had to slightly round the horizontal pieces to slip underneath smoothly.

I am not the best woodworker, and the materials ( mdf and particle board ) are less than optimum, and the walls are crooked, but the results were great. Nobody would ever see the finished wall and think "Hey I wonder if that is a door?"

all in all i have about $350 in the project.

comments ()

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viewing all of 18

comments sort by: active | newest | oldest

May 8, 2007. 2:46 PMquincy85wrestlersays:

I've always wanted one of these!

but i'm pretty sure i don't have the construction skills to build it properly.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 3:01 AMtrialexsays:

Awesome work. You NEED to have a book act as the trigger to open the door automatically Batman-style!

In all seriousness if I ever get around to building my own fantasy home, it will have a room hidden behind a bookcase.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 9:46 PMCementTrucksays:

Tsk-tsk. Batman's trigger was a red knob in the neck of a statue.

It would have been funny if he built a non-venting gas fireplace in that space with a fake brick, or a fake rock facade. That would really be hard to detect.

Great idea/instructable. I need to build one in place of the door to my "Fortress of Solitude" .... (OK, my garage). Maybe it might keep me from my Honey do lists for a while. ;)

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 3:56 PMgfixlersays:

How random, and synchronous that this just popped up on the front page of the Make blog today. I just made one of these last night, albeit quite a bit simpler :) My photos are a bit dark, as I just moved into this place, and don't have lighting set up yet, but here are the pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyfixler/sets/72157600186409028/

And here are 2 movies of me opening it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oq9ov7hZEU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3rjVpHqVeI

I've always wanted a secret door bookshelf, ever since watching Scooby Doo as a kid, and scary movies later, and having just moved into the new place, with a bedroom door right off the living room, and a bookcase that fit nicely over it, I felt compelled to finally do it.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 3:56 PMgfixlersays:

Oh, and I forgot to say: great job! It looks awesome.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 3:14 PMsi24601says:

So where's the cool latch? http://pervivere.blogspot.com/2005/09/holly-shelf-unit-batman.html

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 9:11 AMexposesays:

Whatever you hide behind that door, now we all know of it! HarrHarrHarr
:-)

very nice idea.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 7:29 AMkwetiawsays:

it reminds me of my parent room. open a door...bam there goes the bathroom.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 5:21 AMpachankasays:

verry cool!

Put that room in the ultimate tree house and you have every mans dream house.

REPLY

May 7, 2007. 3:22 AMstranostersays:

If you want to buy a door which is a shelf etc. http://www.hiddendoors.com/home.asp has them. Awesome instructable

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 9:17 PMWeissensteinburgsays:

Now you just need to turn the hidden storage room into a safe room in case someone brakes in the house...your family can all hide in there.

That is really amazing.

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 9:53 PMMyselfsays:

If there's a crawlspace under the garage, it's probably a good place to hide from severe weather, too. The old tornado kit (water, first aid, flashlights, food, copies of important papers) would do well down there. Just remember to rotate stock -- food and medicines don't keep forever!

This is well executed, well documented, and innovative. Thumbs-up!

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 11:35 PMbrokensays:

During construction my neighbor kept joking about my "panic room"... I have had all sorts of ideas for clever james bond esqe locks and releases. Maybe my next post will be the secret lock mechanism... ( My current favorite is a web site where you have to type a combination or answer a trick question, which then releases the door )

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 11:25 PMhalldirectorsays:

I love it. How would it work for a door that you use daily?

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 11:32 PMbrokensays:

Daily, fine since i am still cleaning and organizing the kids or I open it about 10 times a day. Think of it like a garage door, opening and shutting a few times a day is fine, but you wouldn't want to use it constantly. It is big and heavy and i don't want to jerk it open or slam it shut as the shelves are full now of books and stuff. I figure the brass bearings will last about forever at this rate of use.

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 9:23 PMAntiBNIsays:

This is what i always wanted to do,but in the whole house like secret rooms and stuff xD.

About the braking into the house comment,i have so many knifes,shurikens and stuff in my house that if some 1 dares to brake in he leaves chopped inside a trash bag =P

but this is really cool dude, nice work.

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 9:19 PMRobotrixsays:

sooooooooooooooooooo amazing!

REPLY

May 6, 2007. 8:42 PMxboxteen01says:

thats is really cool. i would love to build one for my room

REPLY

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Emailing: best-video-tutorial-websites-watch-and.html

2007-05-06T09:19:00.001-07:00

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CNN IBN Interview

April 23, 2007

The Best Video Tutorial Websites - Watch and Learn Almost Anything

Ever wondered how to use chopsticks ? Or how to change your car battery ? Or apply mascara ? Or how to seduce your boss ?

You can find video answers to almost anything you can think of in the following websites:

VideoJug.com [Life Explained on Film] - The largest online collection of "How-To" video tips and demonstrations on topics as varied as cooking Indian food, home improvement tips, folding t-shirts, impressing your boss or how to kiss someone passionately.

You can download VideoJug video guides to your iPod, embed them in webpages or if you're on a slow connection, just read the text transcripts. You will be a more practical person after spending some time on VideoJug - 100% useful stuff.

SuTree.com [Watch and Learn] - Sutree is an online aggregator of video tutorials, how-to's and lessons neatly arranged in various categories.

SuTree has over 5000 instructional video clips in their database and growing on topics like parenting, software tutorials, electronics, school courses, pet grooming, etc. It's a good starting place to discover the best video tutorials available on different websites at one point.

5min.com [Life Videopedia] - 5min is like a mix of Youtube and VideoJug. Video topics range from Fitness tips to Spiritual stuff to Sports including wave surfing or skiing in the snow.

There are video tutorial for computer newbies on topics like how to search Google or how to update the iPod. A promising site that may offer some good competition to Videojug if they can manage to have more professionally created instructional videos.

About.com - This New York Times property has an extensive collection of how-to videos on Computing, Parenting, Health and Automobiles produced by the About.com guides.

About.com has probably more technology and software oriented video tutorials in the form of screencasts than any other site above though their site design could have been much better. Transcripts included.

Bonus Tip - You can find some great video tutorial and screencasts on websites like Youtube, Google Video or Metacafe - just search for tags like screencasts, diy, how-to, tutorials, tips and guides.

Related: Instructables.com, Most useful websites

Download SketchUp Video Tutorials

Reader Comments:

Written by Blogger Whale at 22/4/07 12:42 AM: Great job.
Written by santosh at 22/4/07 10:59 AM: nice work amit and i am also provide(colleting) video tutorials on web designing in my blog.
Written by raj at 23/4/07 12:07 AM: Hey Amit, nice list, but you forgot Tubetorial.com :) Chris Pearson and Brian Clark built it up into a great site, which is now owned by SplashPress (Performancing) and which I am now editing.
Written by raj at 23/4/07 12:09 AM: Amit, I take my comment back. Tubetorial is too focused to be part of this list. Sorry.

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2007-05-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

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Emailing: blogger-templates-45-million-blogspot.html

2007-01-22T03:16:00.002-08:00

about this site

Author: Amit Agarwal

Contact:

» Site Tour for New Visitors
» Site Statistics for 2006

recent hits

• Watch our Interview on CNN IBN

• How much money do we make from Adsense ?

• Dealing With Website Plagiarism: When Someone Copies Your Blog Content ?

• Interesting Things to do with Youtube Videos

• Google Alerts Tutorial (Advanced Usage)

• Is the boss or a colleague reading my email ?

• How to record Skype Calls & Skypecasts ?

• NTSC vs PAL Camcorders - Video Camera Buying Guide

• Should I buy a Windows XP PC or wait until Vista arrives

• Download Professional style Blogger Templates

firefox tweaks

• Capture Webpages in Firefox with free add-ons

• Firefox Spell Checker Hacks or Merge with Microsoft Office dictionary

• Firefox Search Bar Hacks

• Add new RSS Readers to Firefox 2 or change the default

• Prevent Firefox Browser from Stealing Focus

• Create Firefox Search Plugin in two minutes

• Add Google Search to Firefox 2.0 Address Bar

tips, tricks & hacks

• Capture DVD Movies as Still Images in Windows Media Player

• Find and repair dead pixels on your LCD Screen

• How to Clean a DVD or CD Disc ?

• The best approach for cleaning LCD Screens

• How to Leech Pictures from Flickr or Google Images

• Use Google as Currency Converter

• How to hide Technorati Tags in Blogs

• What if I spill a drink on my keyboard..

• Convert Emails to PDF for free without Adobe Acrobat

• Download files from Rapidshare or Megaupload

• Tricks for Windows Live Writer Users

• Download Windows Vista Wallpapers

• Sweet Dreams: 13 Tips for a Great Night Sleep

• WriteRoom for Windows: Write without the distractions

• Add Live Stock Quotes to your Blog pages with Yahoo! Finance Badges

• Download Mosquitotone

• Download Google Screensaver with installing Google Pack

adsense tips

• Use Section Targeting to Increase Adsense CTR

• How Adwords Publishers use Adsense Arbitrage

• Adsense Case Study for Improving Adsense Earnings

• The right way to test Adsense Layouts

• Google AdSense for search fees

• Google Adsense Demos and Online Webinars

• Recommended Adsense unit placements for maximum CTR

microsoft office tips

• Office 2007 File Formats

• Read and Write Office 2007 Documents in Office 2003

• Download Microsoft Office 2007 Professional 60 Day Trial

• Office 2007 File Attachment Previewers

• Download Office Save as PDF plugin

• Acrobat 8 PDFMaker won't work with Office 2007

• Office box packaging screenshots

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June 27, 2006

Blogger Templates: 4.5 Million Blogspot Users are Lazy

Millions of Bloggers on Blogspot.com are either too lazy or don't understand the basic HTML tags.

When you create a new blog on Blogger.com, Google provides a default blogspot template that has three links in the side bar - one link points to Google News while the other two links (Edit-Me) are just placeholders for the blogger to insert his own hyperlinks (see screenshot)

But bloggers are too busy creating content and don't bother changing these "under construction" areas. There are 4.5 million pages hosted on blogspot.com that still have the Google News and Edit Me links [site:blogspot.com "Google News" "Edit-Me"]

<h2  class="sidebar-title">Links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a  href="http://news.google.com/">Google  News</a></li>
<li><a  href="http://EDITME">Edit-Me</a></li>
<li><a  href="http://EDITME">Edit-Me</a></li>
</ul>

If your blog also falls in this category, my suggestion would be that you first read the W3 Schools tutorial on HTML and CSS. Once you have a certain comfort level with your blogger template code, throw the default blogspot template in the recycle bin and switch to a more professional design.

Fortunately, there are lot of good folks who have developed some beautiful blogger templates and they are providing them for free. Just download the blogspot template, paste it over your default blogger template and click the republish button. [more details]

Here are some links and resource for free Blogspot Template Designs:

» Free Blogspot Templates - Isnaini, an Indonesia based blogger template designer, has a good collection of 3 column template designs.

» Blogger Templates by Aman - A Singapore based student has some creative blogspot template designs based on popular themese like Desperate Housewives, Tour De France, Harry Potter and Yoga.

» Blogger Templates - Excellent collection of two column blogspot templates. Recommended.

» Blogspot Templates - Contains both text only and graphical version of Blog templates. There are also instructions on how to use Blogger templates.

» Blogger Templates @ Gecko & Fly This site has collected popular blogspot template designs from other designers and put them in one central location.

» Blog Skins - A huge repository of user contributed template designs and blog skins for blogger, Movable Type, Xanga and Wordpress Blogs. Users can rate and comment on template designs.

Want to design your own blogspot template ? Jennifer Apple has some tips on creating your own blog template from scratch using Photoshop.

Related: Guide to Remove the Blogger Navbar

Reader Comments:

Posted 28/6/06 12:14 AM by Russet Shadows: Actually, this news gladdens my heart. Why's that? People are so busy creating content that they've forgotten about appearance. Wow. You mean that we're getting to the point where what we say is more important than its appearance? You mean that the content of the character matters more than the color of the web page? Do you see where I'm going with this? That is in a single word, awesome.
Posted 28/6/06 4:09 AM by Spiderman: Thank you for the nice compilation of blogger templates sites. I bookmarked most of them. I am also wondering how to add a description meta tag to my blog entries. I noticed that you have this on your blog. Did you write an entry to explain how to do this? If so, can you please post the link to this blog entry?

Keep up the good work, I read your blog on a regular basis.
Posted 28/6/06 3:20 PM by Anonymous: russet shadows - that's exactly what i was thinking as i read the article. who cares that the things look the same? it is the content that is the most important thing. otherwise why would anyone bother reading or returning?
Posted 29/6/06 3:44 PM by Raju Bathija: Thanks Amit for blogging about it. I think most users do not change the template because they are not familiar with html. I had changed my template few weeks ago, but thanks to you I got an excllent template at Blogger Templates, which I am using now.
Posted 8/9/06 11:13 PM by quicklode: Hi Amit, they might be lazy or could just be having problems finding the right template! Considering there are so many Blogger users I am amazed at how few good sites there are to help easily view and download templates; especially given that to change a Blogger template is so EASY!

Your list covers most of the best template sites I think; here is another one:
http://blogger-templates-directory.blogspot.com

Warmest
quicklode
Posted 13/12/06 11:36 AM by sharedbook: Thanks for your post.
I have a new blog and need to change the templates...

Well, googling for that will show tons of blog skin sites...
and I'm too lazy to pick the best site of them :)
Posted 14/12/06 10:10 AM by blogsblog: Hello,
first of all thanks for this type of good post on your blog because after reading i changed my blogs template.. and you are doing good....

Thanks,
http://www.zoomlab.blogspot.com/
Posted 9/1/07 5:54 PM by Venom Lord: Hey nice post .I was searchin for some new tempelates..Thanx
Posted 18/1/07 9:15 AM by Rajesh J Advani: With the new Blogger, unfortunately all the old templates are now obsolete. And there just aren't enough new designs, which has led to people ending up with really horrible looking blogs.

The worst thing is that with the new Blogger, designing a template for public consumption is now a lot harder.
Posted 21/1/07 1:26 AM by tarun: hi
i am a very simple blogger with very limited haves as just a PC. i have my own FLV files which i want to play on my blog without hosting them on you tube or such sites. but i cant even host them on my hard disk as i cant have my PC ON all the time to host it. so can i upload them on my blog and let blog spot host them and still use these standalone players to play it for my visitors. i am also not much versed with HTML but ready to learn it. please help me and my site. kindly do the needful and just drop a reply......
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Emailing: diyirrepeater.blogspot.com.html

2007-01-22T03:16:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

What It Does

This system is used to distribute IR commands around your house. This is useful if you have A/V equipment in one room that you want control from several other rooms.

Features

6 inputs -- allows you to control your equipment from six different places
2 outputs -- allows you control equipment in two different places
2 inputs/outputs -- allows equipment in these two places to send or receive IR commands
Status LEDs that tell you the state of each input
4 IR LED "blaster" outputs
Rogue input detection -- causes an input line to be ignored if it keeps asserting its line for no reason

Hardware / Firmware / Software

This project uses one Microchip PIC 16F877 to do all the work. The firmware is written in mostly C. It is compiled with Hi-Tech's free PIC C compiler, available here. The schematics were drawn with CadSoft's Eagle schematic drawing program, which is also free, and available here.

The source code for this project can be found here. Get the latest version.

Schematics

Here is the main schematic. Click on it for a larger picture. It can be built one of two ways: simple input mode, or deluxe input mode. With deluxe input mode, the circuit can detect which inputs have something connected and will inform you via the status LEDs. If an LED is off, there's nothing connected. If an LED is on, there is something connected. With simple mode, the circuit can't tell you whether there's something connected or not, but it does use less parts.

To select whether you want to simple or deluxe mode, you will have to change the BETTER_IR_EYE_MODE definition in the code and re-build. The code has been built in deluxe mode by default.

Main Circuit Schematic

Inputs

Port B is used for the eight inputs. Each input is connected to one of two things: a piece of equipment that has some sort of remote control jack (like a Pioneer SR jack), or an IR receiver module, or "eyeball". Either way, the signal must be +5V when idle and have 0V pulses when active. If you hook this to some equipment that has an output jack, it is expected that the equipment outputs a baseband (ie, demodulated) version of the modulated IR pulses from your remote controls.

The inputs can be set up in simple mode or deluxe mode. In simple mode, no extra components are needed for the inputs. The internal port B pullup resistors are used. If an input is high, either nothing is connected, or it is idle. An input will pulse low when active. If an input gets stuck low, then there's a problem with the device connected to that input.

In deluxe mode, the system can determine if there is something connected or not. This is done by disabling the internal pullup resistors and supplying your own pull up/down resistor connected to port E bit 2. This bit is continuously toggled between high and low to cause the resistors to toggle between pullup and pulldown. If nothing is connected to an input, its state will follow that of the port E bit. If something is connected, the input will be high all the time. An input will pulse low if active. If an input gets stuck low, then there's a problem with the device connected to that input. Of course, without the status LEDs (discussed later), there's no reason to use deluxe mode instead of simple mode.

Outputs

Port A bits 4 and 5 are outputs. Like the inputs, they are +5V when inactive and pulse 0V when active. They are expected to be hooked up to equipment that can accept this sort of signal (again, like a Pioneer SR jack).

Inputs/Outputs

Port B bits 0 and 1 are special because they are both inputs and outputs. They are normally set up as inputs when the system is idle, but they get changed to outputs if another input triggers the system. These are useful for rooms which contain equipment that you want to control, but you also want to be in this room and control equipment in other rooms.

Modulated IR "Blaster" Outputs

Port A bits 0 through 3 output a 40kHz modulated signal when the system is active. The outputs are 0V when idle but pulse +5V when active. It is expected that these are hooked up to IR LEDs. Port A IR output bits 0 and 1 are special, and they correspond to Port B input/output bits 0 and 1. When and input is received on input 0, all modulated IR outputs will be active except for output 0. This is in case you have the IR LED pointed at the IR receiver in that room. You will get some nasty feedback if you start outputting IR pulses in the same room that's receiving IR pulses from your remote.

Status LEDs

Eight LEDs are connected to port D and report the status of each input. The states are:

Simple Mode

LED off -- nothing connected, or input idle
LED pulse -- input active
LED repeatedly flashing -- input has a problem and is pulling low all the time

Deluxe Mode

LED off -- nothing connected
LED on -- something is connected, and it is idle
LED pulse -- input active
LED repeatedly flashing -- input has a problem and is pulling the line low

Interfacing To Your A/V Components

IR eyeballs usually have a stereo 3.5mm plug with the tip being the +5V supply, the ring being the output signal, and the shield being ground. They are wired up to the circuit like this:

IR Eyeball Jack

IR blaster LEDs usually have a mono 3.5mm plug with the tip accepting a positive voltage and the shield being ground. They are wired up to the circuit like this:

IR Blaster Jack

Some equipment may have jacks that send and receive remote control signals directly so that you can plug a wire into the back of the unit instead of pointing an IR blaster at the front of the unit. Some of the Pioneer equipment has SR jacks that do just that. They are usually in the form of a mono 3.5mm jack. Both inputs and outputs are wired up to the circuit like this:

Wired Remote Control Jack

The All Electronics Mystery Infrared Device

This thing is great. For $2, you get an IR receiver with voltage regulator, plus a four-LED IR blaster with some extra transistors to drive them. There are notes on the item's page that indicate what the wires are used for. I bought several of them to play with and found that they were compatible with my system with no modifications. I have one of these in my AV cabinet, and it has enough IR power to flood the room and control every device in it.

All Electronics Mystery Infrared Device

Circuit Board

I built my circuit on a Rapid40i PIC prototype board made by DH MicroSystems, Inc. For under $20, you get the board and all the parts necessary to get your PIC powered up and running. You just supply the PIC and any extra parts you need for your project. I looked at a few different prototyping boards, and this one had the best layout for a good price.

Rapid40i PIC Prototyping Board from dhmicro.com

# posted by John Sevinsky @ 12:30 PM 0 comments

2007-01-22T03:06:00.000-08:00

I would like to find some copies of the CZ TV show called "Nedělní Receptář"

Emailing: how-to-configure-80-fileserver-in-45.html

2007-01-22T02:58:00.001-08:00

Saturday, November 18, 2006

How to Configure an $80 File Server in 45 Minutes

I use a modded Xbox and Xbox Media Center for playing media files across the network on my television and sound system. I also download large files, such as Linux ISOs, via BitTorrent. However, leaving my primary computer on all the time seemed like a waste of energy. I wanted a cheap, small headless machine that I could use as a Samba server and BitTorrent client so I could leave my workstation off when I wasn't using it.

I was in luck; HCDI Trading had a great "Fall Extravaganza" deal - a Dell OptiPlex GX150 Desktop for $47.91 (around $30 s/h). The specs:

Desktop Form Factor (it fits on a shelf in a media center)
Intel Celeron 700 MHz
128MB RAM
10GB HD
CD-Rom

Not cutting edge, but perfect for what I needed and priced very reasonably. Instead of using X11 and remote clients, I felt that web interfaces would be optimal out of simplicity. If I configured the server as a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), then I could use web GUIs for configuration, administration, and file transfers.

Out of the popular Linux distributions, I'm most familiar with Gentoo and Ubuntu. Gentoo didn't seem appropriate; it would take hours and hours to get everything set up, configured and updated (even from a Stage 3 install), and any performance gain from the optimization would be negligible. Ubuntu has a history of reliability and ease of set up, so I used the Edgy Eft release as the basis my server.

The Applications

Remote Console - OpenSSH
- The free version of the SSH connectivity tools. Use it for secure access to the console.
Web Server - Apache
- It's free, fast, well supported and documented
Network Fileshare - Samba
- Creates file shares that can be easily accessed from Windows. Notoriously obnoxious to configure by hand, the Samba Web Administration Tool (SWAT) simplifies the process immensely.
Database - MySQL
- The popular free database server. While I can use a command line to administrate MySQL, I prefer using phpMyAdmin.
P2P Client - BitTorrent
- TorrentFlux is a decent web interface for BitTornado. Useful for downloading Linux ISOs or media from places like LegalTorrents.com.

Directions

Download and burn the Ubuntu Server 6.10 i386 install CD.
Install Ubuntu Server
1. When asked about Software Installation, choose LAMP.
2. When the installation is finished, take out the CD (I flip it over and leave it in the drive for the next time I need it) and reboot.
Logon as the regular user that you created during setup.
Give root a password.
```
sudo passwd root
```
We're going to modify the file sources list to allow us access to all the required files. Uncomment the edgy universe, edgy-security main restricted, edgy-security universe, edgy multiverse, edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse, and edgy-commercial main. In addition, Ubuntu leaves the install CD as one of the file sources after installation, so you'll need to remove the CD from the source list. Comment out the CD from the list and save.
```
sudo nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list
```
Update apt-get to use the new sources.
```
sudo apt-get update
```
Install OpenSSH server
```
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
```
Turn off the computer.
```
sudo shutdown -h now
```
Disconnect the monitor, keyboard, and set the computer wherever it's going to lurk for the next couple years.
Turn on the computer and wait about a minute for it to boot.
Using your preferred SSH client, connect to the machine. I prefer PuTTY for Windows.

Install Samba and SWAT.

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs swat xinetd

Create a Samba user.
```
sudo smbpasswd -a username
```

Add SWAT to the xinet configuration and save.

sudo nano -w /etc/xinetd.d/swat

# description: SAMBA SWAT
service swat
{
 disable = no
 socket_type = stream
 protocol = tcp
 #should use a more limited user here
 user = root
 wait = no
 server = /usr/sbin/swat
}

Reload Xinetd with the new configuration.
```
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xinetd
```
Verify that SWAT is up and running. If you don't get any response, start Googling.
```
sudo netstat -tap | grep swat
```

Make the shared directory for TorrentFlux.

sudo mkdir /share
sudo mkdir /share/incoming
sudo chmod 777 /share/incoming/

Create the Samba share. Using a web browser, go to http://hostname:901/shares
1. path /share/incoming
2. valid users - username
3. read only - no
4. Commit Changes
Install phpMyAdmin
```
sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
```
Connect to phpMyadmin using a web browser - http://hostname/phpmyadmin
1. Secure MySQL / phpMyAdmin
Install TorrentFlux
```
sudo apt-get install torrentflux
```
1. Ignore the libphp-adodb message.
2. Configure database for torrentflux with dbconfig-common? - yes
3. Password - blank (generates random)
4. Restart Apache? - Yes
Configure TorrentFlux using a web browser - http://hostname/torrentflux/
1. Username / Password - root / root
2. Configuration
  1. Path - /share/incoming/
  2. Save
3. Click My Profile
  1. Update your password
4. Create a user account
  1. Admin - New User
Remove the Apache default documents from web root.
```
sudo rm -Rf /var/www/apache2-default/
```

Create a basic web launchpad for easy access your services.

sudo nano -w /var/www/index.php

<?php $hostname = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']; ?>
<ul>
 <li><a href="http://<?php echo $hostname; ?>/torrentflux">Torrent Flux</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://<?php echo $hostname; ?>/phpmyadmin">phpMyAdmin</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://<?php echo $hostname; ?>:901/">SWAT</a></li>
</ul>

Post Mortem

Overall, the installation and configuration took me about 45 minutes to go from zero to a fully functional system. The Xbox can see the share, and I've got a new playground for web development. I would suggest cleaning up and securing that home page a bit; research .htaccess files to lock it down.

I put my file server in my media center underneath my router, and it takes up about the same space as a VCR. For $80, I feel that I've made an excellent investment.

Update - 11.19.2006 - I've been Dugg! Thank you all for your comments, compliments, corrections, criticisms, and suggestions!

76 comments:

Justin said...: www.freenas.org

less than 10 min to set up and have running.

:-); November 19, 2006 12:32:00 PM EST
Rex said...: Very nice article, very complete. I sent it over to my bud who is having the fight of his life with XP crap the past few days. :)

Rex; November 19, 2006 12:52:00 PM EST
chunkymo said...: very well written document...; November 19, 2006 12:52:00 PM EST
Munjal said...: Justin, I too use freenas, but it is only basic as a Samba and FTP share, it does not provide a complete webserver interface, you really should check out torrent flux. I infact have two servers, both a torrent flux and a freenas seperately, but was never able to get samba running on the torrentflux box until now thanks to this great guide!
However, I have a few questions, in your guide since the torrent flux directory is a samba share, any user can delete files?I would assume yes. Also, I was wondering, In my case my torrent flux server is only 15 gigs, and my NAS being 500, and I often download several large ISO's in one night and would like to be able to mount my NAS share on the unbuntu system so that torrentflux could use it as the default download directory. I do have the SMB share mounted under ubuntu, I just don't know what to put in the torrentflux directory specification box //freenas/dump? or what?I am quite confused
Thanks in advance =); November 19, 2006 12:55:00 PM EST
cjc0621 said...: I don't think this is the appropriate forum to ask a technical question.

Chris; November 19, 2006 1:24:00 PM EST
Matt said...: Munjal - use the command smbmount:

#man smbmount

that will tell you how to mount a samba share so it looks like a directory so you don't have to mess with the \\computer/asdf stuff; November 19, 2006 1:29:00 PM EST
jP said...: munjal - You can set certain Samba users to read only, or set read only as the default for all users. Under Shares - http://hostname:901/shares in the specific share configuration, there's the "read" and "write" list that you can specify users in. Utilize the man pages for additional information.; November 19, 2006 1:29:00 PM EST
Munjal said...: Thanks a lot everyone, great guide! Will show everyone at my LUG; November 19, 2006 1:36:00 PM EST
Michael Flessas said...: Beautiful job in explaining the process. Really. Well done.; November 19, 2006 2:50:00 PM EST
Unique said...: One quick question... any idea how to enter interactive mode during boot? I need to disable cpuspeed for my hardware.; November 19, 2006 4:18:00 PM EST
Philip said...: ClarkConnect- GNU/Linux/Open Sourced based, free for home use.

"ClarkConnect is a powerful yet easy-to-use software solution that transforms off-the-shelf PC hardware into a dedicated Internet gateway and server. The software is a secure, reliable and cost effective solution.

Features

Our software offers a feature-rich server solution:

Internet Gateway
Firewall
VPN
E-mail
Bandwidth and P2P Manager
Multiwan
Intrusion Prevention
Web and FTP Servers
Antispam/Antivirus
Content Filtering
File and Print Services
Data backup
Groupware

Management and Monitoring

After deployment, our unique Gateway Services solution simplifies the management and maintenance of your system:

Mail Backup
Content Filter Updates
Remote System Monitoring
Security Audits and Updates
Automatic Software Updates
DNS and Domain Services"

Openfiler- GNU/Linux/Open Sourced based.

"Openfiler is a Storage Management Operating System. It is powered by the Linux 2.6 kernel and Open Source applications such as Apache, Samba, LVM2, ext3, Linux NFS and iSCSI Enterprise Target. Openfiler combines these ubiquitous technologies into a small, easy to manage solution fronted by a powerful web-based management interface. Openfiler allows you to build a Network Attached Storage (NAS) and/or Storage Area Network (SAN) appliance, using industry-standard hardware, in less than 10 minutes of installation time."

"Because life as a systems administrator is difficult enough as it is. Openfiler allows you to ease some of the pain by bringing together almost all storage networking protocols (CIFS, NFS, HTTP/DAV, FTP, iSCSI) into a single framework. So if your current pressure points arise from grappling with the task of providing secure and resilient storage to users, groups and computing resources in a multi-platform heterogeneous environment, Openfiler is the tool for you."; November 19, 2006 5:35:00 PM EST
Chris said...: Hi, the command for SWAT should be as follows, yes?

sudo nano -w /etc/xinetd.d/swat; November 19, 2006 7:07:00 PM EST
Greg said...: I had a problem using xinetd so i just used netkit-inet which seemed to work for me.; November 19, 2006 7:34:00 PM EST
supermike said...: Although I'm an Ubuntu advocate, is this where I complain that Ubuntu Server STILL doesn't have any console, menu-based system administration tool (think like 'yast')? And oh, by the way, webmin sucks.

People with Ubuntu Server (and no GUI) would like to not have to type all these commands with switches to add and modify users and groups -- it gets tedious, especially if LDAP is involved. And admins would also like a tool where they can customize a standard Ubuntu desktop profile + Ubuntu Linux OS and deploy it all at once to hundreds of PCs currently running Windows, rebooting hopefully in 5 hours into Ubuntu desktop and having a standard, locked down profile customized by the admin.; November 19, 2006 8:01:00 PM EST
supermike said...: Oh, and don't forget:

http://ebox-platform.com/

...it's Debian-based, designed in Spain, for an international audience, and has a super cool web admin interface. It's really well done, but is slightly beta here or there. Try it -- I think you'll be impressed. I would hope that Canonical would buy them out and merge this project in with Ubuntu Server.; November 19, 2006 8:05:00 PM EST
jP said...: chris - Good catch, thanks. I fixed it.; November 19, 2006 9:06:00 PM EST
AmyStephen said...: Not bad, Jon! Blogged it. Thanks for sharing. Tremendous!; November 19, 2006 9:07:00 PM EST
oscabat said...: I'm pretty linux dumb. What do I put for the hostname? I have tried the IP and username, as well as the name that I get when I type "hostname". What am I missing?; November 19, 2006 9:43:00 PM EST
Mike said...: Hostname should be the local address to the computer. If you're using a router, then get a static ip (google "Static ip, ubuntu) and your hostname will be whatever you made your static ip to be.

What is the best (easiest) way to access files on the server from windows?; November 19, 2006 10:57:00 PM EST
Jean-Francois said...: I made a mistake while configuring TorrentFlux with dbconfig-common , is there a way to restart the dbconfig-common from the beginning? I tried to apt-get remove torrentflux and then reinstall it but it doesn't let me restart the dbconfig-common. Thanks; November 20, 2006 1:30:00 AM EST
Ryan said...: Mike,
While I dont have this exact setup, I do have Ubuntu running a Samba server and I access from windows as a network drive. I'm pretty sure I got my instructions on configuring windows from howtoforge.com

Hope this helps.
Ryan; November 20, 2006 9:32:00 AM EST
jP said...: Mike - Samba creates network shares; from Windows, you can go to \\hostname to see what's shared, or specifically go to the incoming directory as created in this tutorial, \\hostname\incoming; November 20, 2006 10:01:00 AM EST
hadaone said...: in the Using a web browser part is that used though windows?
if so i cant seem to connect to my server; November 20, 2006 12:40:00 PM EST
Hasan said...: I am such a Noob...Followed your guide step for step, but I am unable to launch phpmyadmin or torrentflux. And the only way I got SWAT to work is using netkit-inetd. Any suggestions?; November 20, 2006 1:31:00 PM EST
hadaone said...: under the web launchpad it look like some of the text on the end got cut off what is the missing text?; November 20, 2006 3:18:00 PM EST
wesley said...: nice easy guide...but a quick question -

any reason to give root a password, if you are continuing to use sudo for the rest of the process?

thanks....

w; November 21, 2006 11:57:00 PM EST
Justin said...: Munjal, True. =) and I have used Torrent Flux in the past. Great stuff.; November 22, 2006 3:52:00 PM EST
jP said...: wesley - It's needed for SWAT.; November 22, 2006 8:15:00 PM EST
Andrew said...: One small pedantic comment...

Why do people use "sudo su"? I see people doing it where I work all the time and I've never understood it.

Don't people know of "sudo -s"?; November 22, 2006 8:39:00 PM EST
tsuke said...: I tried to setup Ubuntu on a Pentium III 500MHz and 256 meg Ram - it took 8 mins to boot, and the mouse cursor refreshes its position at about 1 frame per second. Is there a way to strip Ubuntu down to bare essentials or speed it up?; November 22, 2006 10:08:00 PM EST
jP said...: tsuke - use ubuntu server, not desktop; November 22, 2006 10:38:00 PM EST
Luke said...: Isn't 10GB a little low for a file server?; November 23, 2006 12:23:00 AM EST
Ethan said...: Why not just get the linksys router with the usb port in it? I did that, upgraded the firmware, then plugged in a 500 gig drive. Took about 15 minutes.; November 23, 2006 11:43:00 AM EST
simonmar said...: Nobody mentioned getting a Linksys NSLU-2: with a USB disk, might work out slightly more expensive than the Dell, but lower power (4.5W), smaller, and completely silent. I use one of these to feed my XBox Media Centre, works like a charm.

Oh, don't forget to install Unslung on it first (http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Unslung/HomePage) so you have a fully-fledged Linux installation.; November 23, 2006 3:06:00 PM EST
Nicholas said...: After I install PHPMyAdmin, I can't get to it.; November 24, 2006 9:11:00 PM EST
Nick Todor said...: nm, found what I did wrong.; November 24, 2006 10:26:00 PM EST
apecat said...: as far as torrent clients are concerned, rtorrent is a nice, if not very intuitive (read the man page) alternative that can be run in screen to be controlled from anywhere with ssh access.

http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/

Fairly recent versions are available in Ubuntu's own repositories.; November 25, 2006 8:58:00 AM EST
Kenneth said...: Cheers for the article!
Would be a great tutorial for the new tutorial site.
http://tutorialicio.us/; November 25, 2006 12:01:00 PM EST
Riker said...: For those folks having problems getting swat to run:

In my case, the issue was that in step 14, the second line is shown as service swat {. The { should be on the next line by itself. Otherwise when you reconfigure xinetd it throws an error on the second line and swat service never starts. Fix this and you should be good to go with swat in a matter of moments.

On another note, the initial instruction to give the root user a password should be accomplished as sudo passwd root. This will ensure you assign a root password. The instruction as given didn't work in my case. You'll need the root password set properly in order to log into swat!

Great post, very handy! Thanks for sharing.

Riker; November 25, 2006 7:52:00 PM EST
Mike_H said...: Great post! Thanks for sharing it.

Riker: You're a beaut! I spent a few hours trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with swat. Thanks for sharing that fix.; November 28, 2006 7:31:00 PM EST
jP said...: Riker - Thanks for the tweaks; I've updated accordingly.; November 28, 2006 10:43:00 PM EST
H M said...: I have just set up a server as directed. Everything works fine except that when I run SWAT I don't seem to get (or can't find) the option to create a share as suggested.; December 11, 2006 3:50:00 PM EST
markjd said...: I am stuck at step 20, unable to access phpmyadmin in both firefox and ie. Any suggestions?; December 13, 2006 7:17:00 AM EST
David said...: I'm with markjd and can't get past step 20.

After some googling I'm left wondering if apache was installed at all? Yes I chose the lamp installation option.

From various howtos it looks as if apache can be restarted like this:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In my /etc/init.d/ no apache2 (or apache) can be found.

I'd love to know what I did wrong as everything was working so nicely up until this point.

Thanks in advance.; December 13, 2006 1:46:00 PM EST
Brad said...: I'm with the people who mention that they can't access phpmyadmin on the server.

Oddly, I followed the instructions on this tutorial last Tuesday (12/5) and everything worked fine. I ended up screwing things up and starting over, and now phpmyadmin won't work the way it did the first time...; December 13, 2006 2:37:00 PM EST
Curtis said...: i'm sorry, this is my first linux experience. i do not know how to 'uncomment' something. apologies, but a little help?; December 13, 2006 9:18:00 PM EST
Brad said...: Curtis: You probably don't want to make your first Linux experience a Server Edition. I'd say install Ubuntu Desktop and monkey around with that a bit before trying this tutorial. Spend some time with this PDF book to get used to Unix/Linux command-line operation.

But to answer your specific question, the "commented" lines in the text file are those that begin with the '#' character. These lines are ignored when the file is accessed by APT. If you add a pound sign before the CD-referencing line at the top and remove the symbol from the other "deb" references in the file, the APT package manager will use all available Internet repositiories while ignoring the local CD drive.

This is called "commenting out" because the '#' lines are usually used to add comments to programming code, so that people reading it later can be told what the various segments of a program actually do. This feature has also been used to toggle whether certain aspects of a program or configuration file are active or not by switching between "in use" and "commented out."; December 13, 2006 11:26:00 PM EST
Brad said...: Aha! I figured out what the problem was with phpmyadmin not working. It's in the installation... when you have the option of choosing DNS/LAMP packages, it's not enough to merely move the cursor to the LAMP box and hit "Enter." You have to hit the space bar while the cursor is on LAMP, so that the option actually gets selected for installation.; December 14, 2006 1:40:00 AM EST
markjd said...: Thanks, Brad. That fixed the problem :)

Oh, and thanks to JP of course :D; December 14, 2006 7:27:00 AM EST
richrmg said...: i and a total noob when it comes to this stuff but i got it mostly working except for the samba server
it is running but i can figure out how to make confg it properly and make it avail on "my network places"
samba is installed and and seems to work and i got swat installed and works but step 18 has me confused. i must be missing something .
can anyone elaborate on that step

thankyou; December 14, 2006 1:25:00 PM EST
Curtis said...: thanks a lot.i've been trying to break into linux for a few weeks or so. the problem is that every tutorial i've found makes assumptions about knowledge. this is the clearest one i've found so far. i've got the desktop edition, but i'm gonna try to sweat this out.

thanks so. sorry to be a nuisance, i've noticed that some linux guru's hate noob questions. i'll post back when i've figured it out.; December 14, 2006 3:49:00 PM EST
Brad said...: richrmg: in step #18, you have to log in as "root." If you try with the normal user, there is no option to create a new share.

Also, after logging in to SWAT as root, I went to the Wizard button at the top and chose "enable home folders" and then hit "commit." This allows you to access the home folder via Samba, so you'll have another place to store files than just the torrentflux download directory.; December 14, 2006 7:50:00 PM EST
David said...: Thank you Brad (and everyone else), I too, needed to hit that spacebar. I still can't believe I missed that.

I'm up and running and it's great.

Thanks Jon this was a great howto.; December 15, 2006 5:12:00 PM EST
Curtis said...: thanks bro, you walked a noob thru it! i got that tutorial too, great stuff. thanks a whole lot!; December 15, 2006 5:25:00 PM EST
Curtis said...: any idea what E: Couldn't find package torrentflux ' means? i make it to this step. thought maybe i'd chewed something up in the install so i did it again. i've updated, upgraded, etc. so i'm back begging for assistance.; December 16, 2006 11:10:00 AM EST
Brad said...: After modifying the sources.list text file by changing the commenting status of the various lines, you need to run 'sudo apt-get update' so that your local copy of the package databases is synchronized with the list of software actually available on the servers.

'sudo apt-get upgrade' is a good idea, too: it makes sure everything you've got installed is up to the latest version. You should run this every so often to keep up with patches and bugfixes.; December 16, 2006 1:46:00 PM EST
Curtis said...: great! sorry to be so high maintenance. i've pointed a bunch of my friend who are interested in linux to this page... great tutorial.; December 16, 2006 3:26:00 PM EST
tim said...: Ok, I'm a complete noob; I admit this.

I thought I did everything right but I can't set up the samba share... There is an option to choose one but no option to create a share.

Did I do something wrong? Dumb question...

What did I do wrong and can it be fixed? Or do I need to start all over again? Better Questions...

Thanks! Tim; December 19, 2006 5:27:00 PM EST
tim said...: Doh! I'm a noob. Yeah, I was logged in as me, not as root.

Thanks for the great guide. If I can get this going so quickly, that's proof that it rocks!

Tim; December 19, 2006 5:50:00 PM EST
TooTired2Care said...: JP, since you also said you use xbmc with your Linux server ... I'm going to ask a question about setting up xbmc to access my Linux server :)

I can successfully stream from my Windows based machines to xbmc, but I can't even connect to my new Linux server with xbmc :(

Here is part of the entry I tried using in my XboxMediaCenter.xml file for username markjd, password 2InSane?, ip address 192.168.1.100, smb name share:

smb://markjd;2InSane?@192.168.1.100/share/

Trying to connect to this share, xbmc prompts me for username and password each time, and does not accept when I type them in again :(

Any ideas?; December 20, 2006 12:31:00 AM EST
Brad said...: TT2C:

I haven't used XBMC with this setup (I'm not a console-gaming sort of guy), but I may have a solution for you.

First of all, there should be a colon between the username and password, not a semicolon:

smb://WORKGROUP;USERNAME:PASSWORD@SERVER/SHARE

If there's a semicolon, it marks a division between a workgroup name and a username. (The share should auto-mount just fine even if you skip the workgroup altogether.)

Also, try an alphanumeric password (i.e. without the question mark). That may help, if reformatting the URL doesn't fix the issue.; December 20, 2006 9:50:00 AM EST
jP said...: TT2C - Don't use a semicolon. XBMC Manual - Bookmarks - smb://username:password@server.com/share/; December 20, 2006 2:05:00 PM EST
TooTired2Care said...: Thanks, guys. I must have just been lucky with using semi colon in the past with my Windows based shares. Also changed to the password to remove the ?. Now works fine :D; December 20, 2006 2:23:00 PM EST
Daniel said...: I've a question about where to create a shared file-folder.
Do you create a folder "share" in root? Or would you create it in /home?
Under Windows, I would dedicate a partition with several folders (mp3, movies, pictures,...), but now with Linux I'm wondering what's the best way to organize my files and folders.
Do you create a folder (e.g."shared") in root, in /home?
What's your way of doing, and why?; December 21, 2006 7:11:00 AM EST
Jim said...: all seemed to go smoothly (despite the fact that i'm largely clueless in this project), but now the same things that worked 30 minutes ago don't work. e.g. i could get into SWAT by
http://hostname:901/shares during the setup and do all the other things. the launchpad thing worked too. i don't think i changed anything, but now when i try
http://hostname:901/shares
i get an error saying
401 Authorization Required
You must be authenticated to use this service
i don't get any chance to supply authorization.
i can't get into phpMyAdmin or TorrentFlux either.
i'd appreciate any pointers.
thanks.; December 21, 2006 7:51:00 PM EST
richrmg said...: well its been a couple of weeks since my last post and while i like the concept. i cant get it to work and give up and going back to my windows xp azarus setup which i have on a different drive. problems i had
never able to get samba to work
(also tried to get ftp server on it and that didn't work either)
and the torrentflux the instructions installed where a older version 2.1beta and that had bugs and didn't & and may still not work well with multi gig files; December 28, 2006 2:14:00 PM EST
richrmg said...: This post has been removed by the author.; December 28, 2006 2:16:00 PM EST
Michael said...: I'm stuck at step 20 I reinstalled everyting right with LAMB version... i can restart apache2 but when I try to openen the phpmyadmin side my browser wants me to download a file istead of opening a webpage; December 29, 2006 2:31:00 PM EST
Brad said...: Michael:

see this comment. I had the exact same problem, and that is what fixed it.; December 29, 2006 7:30:00 PM EST
Chan said...: i am trying to get this working under my ubuntu-desktop version so i cannot exactly follow this tutorial.

so what i did was i use apt-get to install mysql5/php5/apache2

i have problem with logining into torrentflux.

when i type http://192.168.2.5/torrentflux/
in my browser

i get the following line
"Database error: Access denied for user 'torrentflux'@'localhost' to database 'torrentflux'

Always check your database variables in the config.php file."

i do not have the option of inputing my login username/password

Can someone tell me what am i doing wrong?

thanks a lot!!; December 31, 2006 5:30:00 AM EST
Chan said...: blah~~

i restarted my ubuntu,

and now when i open
http://192.168.2.5/phpmyadmin

it askes me to open a .phtml file....

i thought this is the reason of my not starting mysql

but i have tried running "/etc/init.d/mysql start"

and this did not fix the problem:(; December 31, 2006 6:46:00 AM EST
TooTired2Care said...: I have been using my Linux headless server for a few weeks now. Everything is going well, apart from when I run too many torrents at once.

When I am being especially greedy by running too many torrents at the same time, the python scripts used by bit tornado really chew up the memory and slow the system down :(; January 1, 2007 8:59:00 PM EST
Sean McDonnell said...: Although there was some trouble along the way, this article inspired me to set up a headless ubuntu server of my own, which is now hiding under a desk and serving packets on demand. Thank you, Mr. Peck!; January 3, 2007 9:59:00 PM EST
immaage said...: First off thanks for the awesome guide. Thanks so much for putting the time into it.

After a couple installations, bit torrent and stuff works, but just not the shares. After setting it up however, I can see the share perfectly in Windows and Mac OSX, but when I select the share, it gives the following errors:

Windows:
"\\192.168.1.250\GeneralShare is not accessible. You might not have access to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have permission access.

The network path was not found."

Mac:
"The operation cannot be completed because one or more required items cannot be found. (Error code ~43)"

I'm not sure as to whether this is a permission problem, a port problem, or what?! I've checked many posts and it doesn't seem like any of their solutions have helped me.

Here is some other info

The folder:
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4096 2007-01-14 00:40 incoming

smb.conf file:

[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
netbios name = fileserver
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
obey pam restrictions = Yes
passdb backend = tdbsam
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
syslog = 0
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
dns proxy = No
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
invalid users = root

[General Share]
comment = General Share Directory
path = /incoming/share
valid users = immaage, aznfury684
admin users = immaage
read list = immaage, aznfury684
write list = immaage, aznfury684
browseable = yes
writable = yes
read only = No; January 15, 2007 3:39:00 PM EST
Stephen said...: Thank you Jon Peck for the writeup. As a newb i appreciate the help of setting up downloading box.

Because i'm a virgin to linux i too got stuck at step 20. Thank you Brad for pointing out the spacebar thing on the LAMP option. Maybe that should be noted in the guide *shifty eyes*

Anyway, and due to my un-linux skills, i couldn't figure out how to use the web interface on stop 18 in "Create the Samba share"....couldn't find any configure buttons/options.

So in case others are like me, here is the guide i used for step 18
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Share_files_using_Samba; January 19, 2007 12:35:00 AM EST
Daniel said...: Hi, at step 18, when connecting to swat (//...:901/shares), I was prompted to enter a user/passwd there. When using my ubuntu user, I can't create or modify any shares, but with root it worked, I didn't try with the samba user.
I found it easier to add a share by modifying (with sudo) the /etc/samba/smb.conf and add the following:
[share]
comment = shared folder
path = /share/
public = yes
writable = yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
force user = nobody
force group = nogroup

and restart the samba server
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

Dan; January 19, 2007 9:46:00 AM EST

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Backup Files to DV Camera

Tape backup was once the norm for archiving files from home PCs. Consumer grade tape drives tended to be flaky and slow, but were the only alternative to using dozens of floppy disks. With DVD burners priced as low as $50 for dual-layer burning, it almost seems unnecessary to think about tape backup solutions. Tape storage still has advantages, particularly if you want to make a more permanent archive to store in a lockbox in case of fire. Instead of investing in a tape drive and expensive tape media, your Digital Video camera and affordable MiniDV tapes provide a resource for 10-15GB backups compatible with millions of drive units available in homes all over the country.

Dual-layer DVD+/-R blanks currently cost $5-7 each, storing a maximum of 8.5GB of data. Single-layer DVD blanks remain a cheaper option, but don't work well for backing up large video project files. The average price for MiniDV tape in consumer quantities is about $4 or as low as $2.60 in 100 unit lots. MiniDV tape stores 8-12GB in SP mode or 12-18GB in LP mode, depending on how much compression is used during the backup process. The new 80min MiniDV tapes hold as much as 22GB in LP mode.

The one catch in using MiniDV tape as a backup solution is compatibility. Computers are designed to recognize DV cameras as a video source, not as tape drives. You need software to make the connection. Firestreamer is the one reliable solution I've found for consistently backing up data to MiniDV tape and restoring from MiniDV tape. Firestreamer acts as a bridge between your DV camera and the Windows XP Backup software.

When backing up to MiniDV tape, make sure your DV camera is plugged into a power source (so the batteries don't die mid-backup). Connect the camera using the FireWire (IEEE-1394 or iLINK) connection. Insert a blank tape. Open Firestreamer and click Launch Backup Utility. If you backup to a DV tape previously used to record video, Firestreamer warns that it will prepare the media and erase anything on the tape.

Once Firestreamer configures your DV camera, you walk through the Backup wizard. When you get to the option to select backup type, choose 6mm Digital Video and accept the default 'New' tape. If the files you choose to backup are larger than the storage available on one MiniDV tape, Firestreamer, in combination with the backup software. From this point on, the Backup software manages the process just like you would if backing up to DVD, CD or any other media type.

Mac OS X requires the DV Backup app from Tim Hewett's Coolatoola.com. Unlike the Windows Firestreamer solution, DV Backup is a self-contained backup solution for Mac OS X. DV Backup handles the tape management as well as configuring and executing the actual backup process. DV Backup sells for $50, with an LE version priced at $20. The LE version lacks tape spanning and selectable file recovery options and does not support scheduled backups. DV Backup supports maxium storage sizes of 11.5GB in SP mode or 17.5GB in LP mode.

Linux users can achieve similar results with the command line dvbackup tool available at Source Forge. In theory, an industrious Windows programmer could write a GUI and recompile the code for this app to create an open source alternative to Firestreamer.

How Fast is Backing up to MiniDV?

According to the DV Backup help files, expect to transfer approximately 187MB per minute with no protection or about 94MB per minute using the full duplication mode. My own experience using Firestreamer is about one hour to fill an SP mode MiniDV tape with no compression. Your mileage may vary.

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