For the second time in the last few weeks, I went to a theater to see a movie. This isn't something that I do very often. Generally speaking, I prefer to wait for a DVD release, or even to be carried on one of the premium movie channels as I get them all for free as part of my employment with my cable provider.
I can't really say why I've been spending money on theatergoing as of late, but I learned something... or more remembered something that I think I lost sight of some time ago. Just because people don't seem to want to spend time with me doesn't mean I'm not worth spending time with.
Sure, I have a few people locally that on some level or another I think of as a friend, and I see them occasionally, but all in all, I spend most of my time in the company of me.
I saw Terminator Salvation tonight, I made a brief mostly non-spoiler-ish comment about it on Facebook in response to an old friend from high school that said I would be disappointed. I might reiterate and expand on it here later, but that's for another time. Leaving the theater I went to the Cold Stone Creamery which is in the same complex, then sat outside in front of the fountain to enjoy the spoils of the war with the line there. As I made quick work of my waxed paper cup of plain sweet cream I realized that everyone else sitting around me on the other benches was with someone else. Usually, that would have made me feel lonely, but this time something was different, something clicked. I wasn't any less happy than they were, I wasn't any less likable, or any less attractive. I wasn't in any way less at all.
It's been well over a year since I was part of a couple. In all that time I thought of myself as alone when the truth of it is I'm still half of what made the nearly 10-year relationship that she and I had together worth having. Sure I miss her, as she was and still is my friend, but I'm still me more or less, and while I may not have 'the other half' of who 'we' were I still have all of who I am.
If that's not good enough for someone to want to spend time with me, then I'm not the one missing out.
A day like any other
So a few months ago I got a two year season pass for Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I've gone a few times since, and I've come to realize that spending three years as a cable tech and climbing ladders has somewhat desensitized me to heights. Sure my ladder was only 28', but still, I think being strapped to a steel cable over a busy street has made me not so impressed by roller coasters. Still fun... though I'm fast realizing that being at the back of the train is much more fun than being at the front.
Anyway, I got there about 4pm, as it seems I just can't get out of the house before noon on Fridays. Good thing I don't work Friday, eh? Decided to hit Alpengeist first, as the park wasn't very busy and I've never ridden the first car on that ride (refer to the first paragraph) and all I can say is WEAK! I'll be sticking to the last car on that one from now on.
Made my way around the park a bit, and to The Big Bad Wolf, which is 25 years old this year. I rode it the first year it was open, and it's still my favorite coaster at the park. Sure it's one of the slower ones, and by today's standards it's pretty tame, but it's still fun.
Sat first car, because the trip through the village is just more fun that way. Usually, I sit alone, as it is a two per row car. Would have this time too, except just as they were about the release the train, the girl that was standing behind me asked them to open the gate so she could get on. Kinda weird, but whatever. Funny, very pretty, seemed to be in her mid 20's, and despite riding on a roller coaster, had a nice little conversation.
Had fun, it's really a nice park.
Wish I'd gotten her phone number.
Hell, wish I'd gotten her name.
Probably wouldn't have made any difference, but even if she'd given me the phone number to a pizza place, it would be nice to at least once be able to say I did that.
Anyway, I got there about 4pm, as it seems I just can't get out of the house before noon on Fridays. Good thing I don't work Friday, eh? Decided to hit Alpengeist first, as the park wasn't very busy and I've never ridden the first car on that ride (refer to the first paragraph) and all I can say is WEAK! I'll be sticking to the last car on that one from now on.
Made my way around the park a bit, and to The Big Bad Wolf, which is 25 years old this year. I rode it the first year it was open, and it's still my favorite coaster at the park. Sure it's one of the slower ones, and by today's standards it's pretty tame, but it's still fun.
Sat first car, because the trip through the village is just more fun that way. Usually, I sit alone, as it is a two per row car. Would have this time too, except just as they were about the release the train, the girl that was standing behind me asked them to open the gate so she could get on. Kinda weird, but whatever. Funny, very pretty, seemed to be in her mid 20's, and despite riding on a roller coaster, had a nice little conversation.
Had fun, it's really a nice park.
Wish I'd gotten her phone number.
Hell, wish I'd gotten her name.
Probably wouldn't have made any difference, but even if she'd given me the phone number to a pizza place, it would be nice to at least once be able to say I did that.
It's like a pinch on the neck, bitches!
So I saw the new Star Trek movie Sunday night. It wasn't bad, really. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but at the same time, it had a little of the feel of the first two movies from way back in the day (I was there, I can say that, yo).
There seems to be some rumbling about a scene at the beginning where little Jimmy Kirk plays the song Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. The issue is about another song of theirs called Intergalactic. For those not intimately familiar with the song, and don't have the lyrics handy, there's a line at the end which says "Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock".
The argument follows that as the song Sabotage is played in scene, that the Beastie Boys existed in the Star Trek universe; it further states that assuming all else is equal that the rest of their catalog would have been the same... which would then include Intergalactic. How could the Beastie Boys know about Spock, Vulcans, or that snazzy little number that's defused so many situations on the bridge of the Enterprise and across the galaxy?
Sure it's possible that in the Star Trek universe they just didn't write that song, or that one line didn't appear in it, but assuming it did it would leave one trying to explain how they knew about our Vulcan friend.
Spock, along with most of the Enterprise's bridge crew was in California in 1986, and our pointy-eared friend dropped a guy on a city bus with a pinch. People talk and getting the people that overheard his name, and the people that saw the bus situation to talk to each other wouldn't have been hard. So it's a very small stretch to think that the story would have made it to these fine young rappers, and eventually into a song about things from out of this world.
That is all I have to say on the issue.
It's all about time travel bitches... and remember that's old school warp factor 10 with a slingshot around a star, anything else is slack.
There seems to be some rumbling about a scene at the beginning where little Jimmy Kirk plays the song Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. The issue is about another song of theirs called Intergalactic. For those not intimately familiar with the song, and don't have the lyrics handy, there's a line at the end which says "Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock".
The argument follows that as the song Sabotage is played in scene, that the Beastie Boys existed in the Star Trek universe; it further states that assuming all else is equal that the rest of their catalog would have been the same... which would then include Intergalactic. How could the Beastie Boys know about Spock, Vulcans, or that snazzy little number that's defused so many situations on the bridge of the Enterprise and across the galaxy?
Sure it's possible that in the Star Trek universe they just didn't write that song, or that one line didn't appear in it, but assuming it did it would leave one trying to explain how they knew about our Vulcan friend.
Spock, along with most of the Enterprise's bridge crew was in California in 1986, and our pointy-eared friend dropped a guy on a city bus with a pinch. People talk and getting the people that overheard his name, and the people that saw the bus situation to talk to each other wouldn't have been hard. So it's a very small stretch to think that the story would have made it to these fine young rappers, and eventually into a song about things from out of this world.
That is all I have to say on the issue.
It's all about time travel bitches... and remember that's old school warp factor 10 with a slingshot around a star, anything else is slack.
I didn't want Apple flashing me anyway!
For those that don't know, let me set the stage:
The new uni-body MacBooks do not have DVI-I ports on them as MacBooks of past. Instead, they come with a Mini DisplayPort. The upshot of this is two-fold; one is a much smaller port allowing for a thinner body and more ports along a side, the other is a lower cost with a higher potential resolution. The downside is you now need even more adapters to use external displays on a new MacBook.
When I got my 13" MacBook in October of 2008 I picked up a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter for $30. I thought it was a little costly, but I honestly don't know what's inside the little box so who am I to know? I got it mostly so I can use my 32" Sony Bravia XBR4 as a second display. I used it for that during the Presidential election to have a real-time polling map. Of course, because of an issue that Apple didn't seem to want to publicly acknowledge, every five to fifteen minutes the picture would go black for a few seconds.
I was not the only one... a little searching will show a large number of people who were having the same problem. A lot of speculation was afoot about the cause, but it was my feeling that the issue was with the video driver (turns out I wasn't too far off); Apple, in normal Apple fashion, wasn't talking. At home, it wasn't too much of an issue. I could deal with the brief blank screen as it always came back very quickly, at least at home. I did, though, have one occasion where it was a problem. In the episode of Hak5 in which I covered using PHP to batch change the IP settings of a Windows computer, you can see a very brief moment of black just as Paul switched to my MacBook's display because it chose that moment to blank out. Sure it was a minor problem, but still, for something I had to pay extra for to do something I can do with even some of the cheapest of netbooks, even a minor problem is too big.
So just over six months after the adapter came out, there is a firmware update to the adapter which fixes this issue. No idea why it was released with this flaw, no idea why Apple didn't just come out and say "Yes, we know it's broke, but we're working on it.", no idea why it took over six months after release to fix, but the update is out, and I've been running it for over an hour now with no problems at all.
Thanks, Apple, for finally fixing something that there was no excuse for ever having been broken to start with.
The new uni-body MacBooks do not have DVI-I ports on them as MacBooks of past. Instead, they come with a Mini DisplayPort. The upshot of this is two-fold; one is a much smaller port allowing for a thinner body and more ports along a side, the other is a lower cost with a higher potential resolution. The downside is you now need even more adapters to use external displays on a new MacBook.
When I got my 13" MacBook in October of 2008 I picked up a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter for $30. I thought it was a little costly, but I honestly don't know what's inside the little box so who am I to know? I got it mostly so I can use my 32" Sony Bravia XBR4 as a second display. I used it for that during the Presidential election to have a real-time polling map. Of course, because of an issue that Apple didn't seem to want to publicly acknowledge, every five to fifteen minutes the picture would go black for a few seconds.
I was not the only one... a little searching will show a large number of people who were having the same problem. A lot of speculation was afoot about the cause, but it was my feeling that the issue was with the video driver (turns out I wasn't too far off); Apple, in normal Apple fashion, wasn't talking. At home, it wasn't too much of an issue. I could deal with the brief blank screen as it always came back very quickly, at least at home. I did, though, have one occasion where it was a problem. In the episode of Hak5 in which I covered using PHP to batch change the IP settings of a Windows computer, you can see a very brief moment of black just as Paul switched to my MacBook's display because it chose that moment to blank out. Sure it was a minor problem, but still, for something I had to pay extra for to do something I can do with even some of the cheapest of netbooks, even a minor problem is too big.
So just over six months after the adapter came out, there is a firmware update to the adapter which fixes this issue. No idea why it was released with this flaw, no idea why Apple didn't just come out and say "Yes, we know it's broke, but we're working on it.", no idea why it took over six months after release to fix, but the update is out, and I've been running it for over an hour now with no problems at all.
Thanks, Apple, for finally fixing something that there was no excuse for ever having been broken to start with.
Making GeekTool Menubar friendly
I wouldn't call this part 2 of my GeekTool post, but it is the follow up I mentioned in the last post. GeekTool needs a little tweak to make it play nice on newer systems. Do you need to do this? No... but you'll lose out on some of the features if you don't.
Who needs to do this? Well, I needed to when I installed it on my unibody 13" MacBook, which means Intel Leopard. It worked just fine on my PPC G4 iMac running Leopard without the change. So does that mean it's Intel Leopard or just Intel systems? I don't know... but if the happy little 'pizza' doesn't show up in your menu bar when you check on 'Show Menu' in the PrefPane, then this will fix you right up. In that case, read on.
So you've installed GeekTool, and you're left without pizza, so you can't access the Groups options, forced refresh, or disable/enable commands from your menu bar? The first thing you need to do is download the most recent version of MenuCracker from sourceforge.net. As of this post that would be version 1.4. Also as of this version, the .dmg seems to not actually have anything in it, so you'll want to get the file named UpgradeToUniversalMenuCracker1.4.zip.
Step 1: Download and open the file. That will give you an installer package. Don't actually run the installer.
Step 2: Right-click (control-click or two-finger tap... this is getting out of hand, Apple) the installer package and chose 'Show Package Contents'. You'll get a new Finder window with just a folder named Contents.
Step 3: Open that folder and double click on Archive.pax.gz which will give you another folder named Archive.
Step 4: Now open this folder and copy the file MenuCracker.menu into your work area of choice. The desktop works if you like. Now you can get rid of the installer package if you want, though I like to archive things like this as you never know when they'll vanish off the face of the net.
Now you need to put that file inside of the GeekTool PrefPane; which is a lot easier than it sounds. I will take this time to say that while if you do exactly what I tell you NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN™ if you go poking around in other files, and make other changes I will not take responsibility for loss of data, system failure, or all the Canadians bent on world domination (I know that was redundant) coming together and actually succeeding (I for one welcome our new Canadian Overlords) as a result of you not following my instructions to the letter. Come to think of it even if you do exactly what I say you're still on your own if Oh Canada becomes the world anthem.
Step 1: Locate the actual PrefPane file for GeekTool. If you installed it for all users then it will be in /Library/PreferencePanes/ from the root of your boot drive. If you installed it for just one user then it'll be in ~/Library/PreferencePanes/ (which means the Library directory in your home directory) The file is called GeekTool.prefPane and its icon will look just like it does inside of the PrefPane.
Step 2: Open the contents of the file just like you did the installer package, and open the Contents folder.
Step 3: Now open the Resources folder and locate GeekToolMenu.menu and do another Show Package Contents. (these are just directories which carry a special flag that makes them look different to the system and in Finder)
Step 4: Once again we're opening the Contents folder and then the Resources folder.
Step 5: Replace the MenuCracker.menu file with the one you copied out of the installer package. Now you should be able to just disable then enable GeekTool from within the PrefPane, but if that doesn't work a logout and login will take care of it.
You'll now have the pizza in your menu bar, and have access to some of the options without having to open the System Preferences; you'll also have faster access to the PrefPane for GeekTool.
Step 1: Download and open the file. That will give you an installer package. Don't actually run the installer.
Step 2: Right-click (control-click or two-finger tap... this is getting out of hand, Apple) the installer package and chose 'Show Package Contents'. You'll get a new Finder window with just a folder named Contents.
Step 3: Open that folder and double click on Archive.pax.gz which will give you another folder named Archive.
Step 4: Now open this folder and copy the file MenuCracker.menu into your work area of choice. The desktop works if you like. Now you can get rid of the installer package if you want, though I like to archive things like this as you never know when they'll vanish off the face of the net.
Now you need to put that file inside of the GeekTool PrefPane; which is a lot easier than it sounds. I will take this time to say that while if you do exactly what I tell you NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN™ if you go poking around in other files, and make other changes I will not take responsibility for loss of data, system failure, or all the Canadians bent on world domination (I know that was redundant) coming together and actually succeeding (I for one welcome our new Canadian Overlords) as a result of you not following my instructions to the letter. Come to think of it even if you do exactly what I say you're still on your own if Oh Canada becomes the world anthem.
Step 1: Locate the actual PrefPane file for GeekTool. If you installed it for all users then it will be in /Library/PreferencePanes/ from the root of your boot drive. If you installed it for just one user then it'll be in ~/Library/PreferencePanes/ (which means the Library directory in your home directory) The file is called GeekTool.prefPane and its icon will look just like it does inside of the PrefPane.
Step 2: Open the contents of the file just like you did the installer package, and open the Contents folder.
Step 3: Now open the Resources folder and locate GeekToolMenu.menu and do another Show Package Contents. (these are just directories which carry a special flag that makes them look different to the system and in Finder)
Step 4: Once again we're opening the Contents folder and then the Resources folder.
Step 5: Replace the MenuCracker.menu file with the one you copied out of the installer package. Now you should be able to just disable then enable GeekTool from within the PrefPane, but if that doesn't work a logout and login will take care of it.
You'll now have the pizza in your menu bar, and have access to some of the options without having to open the System Preferences; you'll also have faster access to the PrefPane for GeekTool.
Multi-Tools aren't the only GeekTool
Desktop customizing is about more than style; often times it's about workflow, and just being on top of what's happening on your network. Sometimes you just need to know, at a glance, what's running, how much traffic there is, or just that everything is as it should be. The best solution is usually the one that is out of the way, but ready at a moments notice... and if it can look good doing it, all the better.
I know I may have my Apple Cult Card revoked for admitting this in public, but Steve Jobs and his crew are not the best UI designers in the world. Is the Mac OS interface pretty, certainly, but is it awesome? Does it do what you want, when, and how? That's for each user to decide, and that's where customizing comes in.
Sure you can change the desktop image, move the Dock around, and in Leopard even make the menu bar translucent; when it comes to really tricking things out the best the fine folks in Cupertino did was make it very easy to change the file/folder/drive icons.
When it comes to displaying continuously updating text and images on the desktop Windows users have so many options it's hard to pick one. BSD/Linux users also have a fair amount of options for getting status information on their desktops. OS X just isn't feeling the love. Sure there are a lot of Dashboard Widgets, and there are ways to make those stay in the foreground. There are some menu bar status monitors, and even some apps to show basic info in the Dock by way of dynamic icons. That's not going to get server logs or the graphs output by tools like MRTG or RRD on your desktop.
That's where the deceptively versatile PrefPane GeekTool comes in. It's been around for a while, but it surprises me still how many long-time Mac users have never heard of it. The most current version is 2.1.2 and is meant to run on Panther and Tiger as a Universal Binary. I had no problem getting it to run on my PPC Leopard machine and only took one simple modification to make it run perfectly on my Intel Leopard laptop (I'll cover that next post), though it will run without the change.
So just what does it do? At its core GeekTool just embeds images, text files, or the output of scripts into the desktop at a defined refresh rate... but that's where its power comes from. With even the most basic of shell commands you can output a simple calendar, show how long your system has been running, or display the name of the currently logged in user. Toss in sed, awk, or grep, and now you can display CPU load, memory usage, and process information formatted in any way you like.
Ready to go beyond one or two line shell commands, point GeekTool at a shebang (or hashbang if you prefer) coded file, and run PHP, Python, or Perl (what's with all the P's anyway?) scripts too.
It works just as well with existing files as it does running commands, so showing the content of a log file, or keeping an RRD graph refreshed is just as simple.
The displayed text and background can be any color, or font. Images can be local files or via HTTP. Both can be done borderless or with a choice of border types and drop shadows, as well as any level of transparency. Always on top can also be chosen if you want something important visible at all times.
While there is no obvious multi-display support, making use of more than one display is trivial. Items are positioned on screen by clicking and dragging them into position or by entering X, Y, Height, and Width values; X and Y can be negative numbers. So entering numbers that extend beyond the boundaries of your main display will push the item onto the display that is positioned there in your Display PrefPane.
GeekTool also allows items to be enabled and disabled in groups. So when your MacBook isn't connected to the second monitor just switch groups to one that doesn't include that monitor so those processes don't run.
So just what am I doing with it? I'm pretty boring in that way; I've got the usual CPU, memory, uptime stuff. A calendar that marks the current day. A tail of my system log and firewall log. As well as my current internal IPv4, and external IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. I think about prettying it up from time to time, but in the end, I just like seeing what's going on. I usually have far too many windows open to see my desktop anyway, so the glitz doesn't matter. I just do a quick four finger up swipe, see my desktop and all the status info, then another down swipe, and back to work. Now I do have my memory, CPU, and uptime/load averages right along the bottom edge of the screen so I can usually see them no matter what. I toy with putting disk space down there too but haven't committed to the idea just yet.
Some good references for settings and scripts to get you started down your own GeekTool powered information nirvana (and where I got most of my ideas):
Ultimate GeekTool Setup by Nick Young
GeekTool and Bash One-Liners by Rupa Deadwyler
Monitor Your Mac and More with GeekTool by Gina Trapani
Before I wrap this up, I want to impress upon you just how important the DIY nature of GeekTool is to its power. Though you can't really tell from a still image, that LED is showing me my CPU load by color. The LED was actually a reddish yellow (because I haven't worked out the exact values for yellow just yet) because I was testing and had the threshold set to trigger all colors easily.
Since I don't plan on leaving this rig setup (because I don't have a stash of Teensy's laying around) it's running with its own entry in GeekTool, and it's own shell script, but it wouldn't be hard to make it part of the primary CPU status script with a condition check to make sure the /dev entry for the Teensy was there.
For reference, though, and so you can't say I never gave you anything. Here is the shell script and Arduino sketch to get that last bit of fun working.
Both are Copyright Jody K Delauney 2009. Released under BSD two clause license. Full text of the license and commented sources are available for geektool_cpu_teensy.sh and rgb_led.pde.
I know I may have my Apple Cult Card revoked for admitting this in public, but Steve Jobs and his crew are not the best UI designers in the world. Is the Mac OS interface pretty, certainly, but is it awesome? Does it do what you want, when, and how? That's for each user to decide, and that's where customizing comes in.
Sure you can change the desktop image, move the Dock around, and in Leopard even make the menu bar translucent; when it comes to really tricking things out the best the fine folks in Cupertino did was make it very easy to change the file/folder/drive icons.
When it comes to displaying continuously updating text and images on the desktop Windows users have so many options it's hard to pick one. BSD/Linux users also have a fair amount of options for getting status information on their desktops. OS X just isn't feeling the love. Sure there are a lot of Dashboard Widgets, and there are ways to make those stay in the foreground. There are some menu bar status monitors, and even some apps to show basic info in the Dock by way of dynamic icons. That's not going to get server logs or the graphs output by tools like MRTG or RRD on your desktop.
So just what does it do? At its core GeekTool just embeds images, text files, or the output of scripts into the desktop at a defined refresh rate... but that's where its power comes from. With even the most basic of shell commands you can output a simple calendar, show how long your system has been running, or display the name of the currently logged in user. Toss in sed, awk, or grep, and now you can display CPU load, memory usage, and process information formatted in any way you like.
Ready to go beyond one or two line shell commands, point GeekTool at a shebang (or hashbang if you prefer) coded file, and run PHP, Python, or Perl (what's with all the P's anyway?) scripts too.
It works just as well with existing files as it does running commands, so showing the content of a log file, or keeping an RRD graph refreshed is just as simple.
The displayed text and background can be any color, or font. Images can be local files or via HTTP. Both can be done borderless or with a choice of border types and drop shadows, as well as any level of transparency. Always on top can also be chosen if you want something important visible at all times.
GeekTool also allows items to be enabled and disabled in groups. So when your MacBook isn't connected to the second monitor just switch groups to one that doesn't include that monitor so those processes don't run.
Some good references for settings and scripts to get you started down your own GeekTool powered information nirvana (and where I got most of my ideas):
Ultimate GeekTool Setup by Nick Young
GeekTool and Bash One-Liners by Rupa Deadwyler
Monitor Your Mac and More with GeekTool by Gina Trapani
Since I don't plan on leaving this rig setup (because I don't have a stash of Teensy's laying around) it's running with its own entry in GeekTool, and it's own shell script, but it wouldn't be hard to make it part of the primary CPU status script with a condition check to make sure the /dev entry for the Teensy was there.
For reference, though, and so you can't say I never gave you anything. Here is the shell script and Arduino sketch to get that last bit of fun working.
#!/bin/sh
# geektool_cpu_teensy.sh
# Trigger LED colour change based on
# CPU ldle status as read from top
# This code requires catty be installed
# http://sourceforge.net/projects/catty
idleCPU=$(top -l 2 | awk '/CPU usage/ && NR > 5 {print $12}'
| awk -F '.' '{print $1}')
if [ $idleCPU -gt 80 ]
then
catty -d /dev/cu.usbmodem12341 -b 9600 -w 'Gr'
elif [ $idleCPU -gt 65 ]
then
catty -d /dev/cu.usbmodem12341 -b 9600 -w 'Y'
else
catty -d /dev/cu.usbmodem12341 -b 9600 -w 'Rg'
fi
// rgb_led.pde
// Switch LED colours based on serial input
int incomingByte = 0;
byte r_pin = PIN_B7;
byte g_pin = PIN_C5;
byte b_pin = PIN_C6;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(PIN_D6, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(PIN_D6, LOW);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(PIN_D6, HIGH);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(PIN_D6, LOW);
pinMode(r_pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(g_pin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(b_pin, OUTPUT);
Serial.flush();
digitalWrite(PIN_D6, HIGH);
}
void loop() {
incomingByte = Serial.read();
if (incomingByte >= 0) {
if (char(incomingByte) == 'Y') {
analogWrite(r_pin, 255);
analogWrite(g_pin, 125);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'y') {
analogWrite(r_pin, 0);
analogWrite(g_pin, 0);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'u') {
analogWrite(r_pin, 125);
analogWrite(g_pin, 125);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'r') {
analogWrite(r_pin, 0);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'R') {
analogWrite(r_pin, 255);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 't') {
analogWrite(r_pin, 125);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'g') {
analogWrite(g_pin, 0);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'G') {
analogWrite(g_pin, 255);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'h') {
analogWrite(g_pin, 125);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'b') {
analogWrite(b_pin, 0);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'B') {
analogWrite(b_pin, 255);
}
else if (char(incomingByte) == 'n') {
analogWrite(b_pin, 125);
}
}
}Both are Copyright Jody K Delauney 2009. Released under BSD two clause license. Full text of the license and commented sources are available for geektool_cpu_teensy.sh and rgb_led.pde.
Teensy = Arduino* (for small quantities of Arduino)
A fair amount of my free time lately has been consumed by getting back into electronics, specifically microcontrollers. I took two years of electronics in high school and dabbled with it a little after. Life kind of got in the way, and it fell so far to the back burner than it wasn't even warm anymore.
I recently became aware of the Arduino development platform, and about the same time, another little device called the Teensy. Since then my 'entertainment budget' has been funneled into the bank account of SparkFun for various transistors, switches, regulators, and the all-important LEDs; and of course to PJRC for a Teensy... but just what is a Teensy?
The result of a project by Paul Stoffregen, the Teensy is a microcontroller development board based on the Atmel AT90USB162 AVR. The Arduino, also based on Atmel AVRs, differs from the Teensy in a few important ways:
The Arduino is 100% open source. While almost everything about the Teensy is open, the bootloader is not.
Most Arduino form factors are MUCH larger than the Teensy. This is good for instant development, as most of them come with header blocks attached so you can just start plugging things in, but it can be limiting when it comes time to put your project into a case.
Despite most Arduinos having USB ports, it does not actually do USB communications. A USB/Serial converter is used, which limits the speed at which it can be communicated with.
The Teensy, using native on-chip USB can, with only a few simple commands, be made to show up as either a USB/Serial device, a mouse, a keyboard, and with a little more work a mass storage device. These can be done with the Arduino, but it's a fair bit more involved.
And while the Teensy's older brother Teensy++ also has analog inputs, the original Teensy lacks the Arduino's analog input options. It does have PWM output, though, just as the Arduino and one can always wire a DAC circuit in if needed.
So why Teensy; why didn't I go with the more popular Arduino? There are a lot of reasons I could state, but what it comes down to are two very important ones.
Cost... the Teensy is a little cheaper, and having more flash for code storage at less cost, it just made sense to my wallet.
Possibly more important... community.
"What? The Arduino has a huge community!" Yes, yes it does... and when I bought my Teensy I didn't know ANY OF THEM. I did, though, know someone that had a Teensy. A community of two is much more useful than one of thousands when you know each other personally, and can just show up on the other's doorstep at any time. I'm a visual learner; five minutes of watching someone else do something is worth weeks of reading about it for me, so having someone in my own little part of the world I could compare notes with if needed played a huge part in my decision.
The best part is I am not separated from the very large and very active Arduino community. Paul is actively developing what he calls Teensyduino, a plugin for the Arduino IDE that lets most Arduino sketches (the source code for controlling an Arduino, so named because it's based off the Processing programming language whose IDE is called a sketchbook) run with only a little modification. So I get the small form factor, faster communications if I needed it, a local fellow developer, and most of the resources of the Arduino development community for $22 ($19 if you get it without header pins). That's a cost of entry I can deal with.
Of course, it hasn't been all happiness and sunshine. Teensyduino is still in early beta, so some sketches aren't as easy to make work as I'd like just yet. I recently ran into a small issue with serial communications. Specifically the Serial.available() function. Per the Arduino website, it should return the number of characters waiting in the buffer to be read. As I don't have an actual Arduino to test the code on I can't be sure, but the example code agrees with the description. On the Teensy (at least as of Teensyduino v0.4) it returns something else, though I'm not sure just what the number means. So I had to come up with a far less elegant solution... the conversation went something like this:
Me:
Teensy:
Me: That shouldn't be happening, -1 means there's no data to read if there is no data Serial.available() should be 0, and you shouldn't be reading.
Teensy: Whatever...
Me: Don't give me any lip, I'll reflash you, and do something else.
Teensy: As if, you're my beotch, and you'll do what I say now.
Me:
Teensy: I don't have anything to show you... you need to send me something.
Me: HA!
Teensy: Curses, foiled again!
Yes, that's pretty much how it went... or at least that's how it went in my head. I blame Wil Wheaton... and his iTunes.
So that's what I've been up to. That work has even fallen over into my still not released write up on GeekTool, which will be out by the end of this week. I just keep finding other things to put in it, so it's never actually done. I guess it's time for a 'feature freeze'.
I recently became aware of the Arduino development platform, and about the same time, another little device called the Teensy. Since then my 'entertainment budget' has been funneled into the bank account of SparkFun for various transistors, switches, regulators, and the all-important LEDs; and of course to PJRC for a Teensy... but just what is a Teensy?
The result of a project by Paul Stoffregen, the Teensy is a microcontroller development board based on the Atmel AT90USB162 AVR. The Arduino, also based on Atmel AVRs, differs from the Teensy in a few important ways:
So why Teensy; why didn't I go with the more popular Arduino? There are a lot of reasons I could state, but what it comes down to are two very important ones.
"What? The Arduino has a huge community!" Yes, yes it does... and when I bought my Teensy I didn't know ANY OF THEM. I did, though, know someone that had a Teensy. A community of two is much more useful than one of thousands when you know each other personally, and can just show up on the other's doorstep at any time. I'm a visual learner; five minutes of watching someone else do something is worth weeks of reading about it for me, so having someone in my own little part of the world I could compare notes with if needed played a huge part in my decision.
The best part is I am not separated from the very large and very active Arduino community. Paul is actively developing what he calls Teensyduino, a plugin for the Arduino IDE that lets most Arduino sketches (the source code for controlling an Arduino, so named because it's based off the Processing programming language whose IDE is called a sketchbook) run with only a little modification. So I get the small form factor, faster communications if I needed it, a local fellow developer, and most of the resources of the Arduino development community for $22 ($19 if you get it without header pins). That's a cost of entry I can deal with.
Of course, it hasn't been all happiness and sunshine. Teensyduino is still in early beta, so some sketches aren't as easy to make work as I'd like just yet. I recently ran into a small issue with serial communications. Specifically the Serial.available() function. Per the Arduino website, it should return the number of characters waiting in the buffer to be read. As I don't have an actual Arduino to test the code on I can't be sure, but the example code agrees with the description. On the Teensy (at least as of Teensyduino v0.4) it returns something else, though I'm not sure just what the number means. So I had to come up with a far less elegant solution... the conversation went something like this:
Me:
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
if (Serial.available() > 0) {
Serial.println(Serial.read(), DEC);
}
}Teensy:
-1Me: That shouldn't be happening, -1 means there's no data to read if there is no data Serial.available() should be 0, and you shouldn't be reading.
Teensy: Whatever...
Me: Don't give me any lip, I'll reflash you, and do something else.
Teensy: As if, you're my beotch, and you'll do what I say now.
Me:
int receivedByte = 0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
receivedByte = Serial.read();
if (receivedByte >= 0) {
Serial.println(char(receivedByte));
}
}Teensy: I don't have anything to show you... you need to send me something.
Me: HA!
Teensy: Curses, foiled again!
Yes, that's pretty much how it went... or at least that's how it went in my head. I blame Wil Wheaton... and his iTunes.
So that's what I've been up to. That work has even fallen over into my still not released write up on GeekTool, which will be out by the end of this week. I just keep finding other things to put in it, so it's never actually done. I guess it's time for a 'feature freeze'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)