Democratization of Data:
Massachusetts Shares Transit Information in a Publicly Accessible Database
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/67891.html?wlc=1250687478

Here is an excerpt:
Massachusetts is inviting developers to integrate public transportation information into applications for mobile devices by sharing its code and background data on the state’s official Web site. The move will be an efficient way for the state to provide citizens with easier ways to access directions, bus and train schedules, and transportation routes.

Creative Commons License. Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/denmar/118562264/

It makes me think of the site:
http://myttc.ca
…which is not an official site. It is better than anything the TTC has in terms of helping somebody navigate the system for the first time.

A rider being confident about how to get where he or she is going before departing will enable the TTC to lure new riders who were previously sitting on the fence. If the routes are presented via GPS coordinates in an open database, then overlays could be made for almost any navigation software or GPS device.

With a tool similar to Google Latitude, a simple cellular/GPS device could be installed into each bus and streetcar (a cost of less than $300 for the device and probably under $50/month for data — and maybe it could be even less expensive if the company providing the service were granted some kind of sponsorship deal). This could provide real-time information about where each vehicle is and when the next one will arrive. That data could be provided as coordinate data in an open-database.

These ideas are by no means new; but they happen to be more affordable and realistic than ever.

xkcd.com - Purity

A year ago, sitting on the commuter train from the suburbs to go to work downtown in the city, I used to listen to some Stars songs from the album “Set Yourself on Fire”. One of the lyrics, “20 years of sleep, before we sleep forever…” inspired me to apply some math and logic to some very obvious parts of my life (and also, more recently, the TV show Numb3rs).

One idea I had was to try to list all of the traits of a romantic partner and then determine how many eligible women live in Toronto… to figure out my odds of encountering someone with whom I could carry on a long-term, monogamous relationship (something I seek; but cannot find). For example, I seek someone who is: female,  single, age appropriate, carrying no STIs and otherwise physically well, post-secondary education and/or employed, ideally a Taurus, Virgo, or Aquarian (I didn’t think I was superstitious; but I am a Virgo… and I accidentally discovered a predisposition in my patterns of attraction that seems to reinforce astrological voodoo mumbo-jumbo), wants to get bizzay to the same degree of freakiness and frequency as I want to, and so on. I am still going to have to take a peek at StatsCan to get some numbers to start with. For now, I will leave you with the following:

xkcd.com - fermirotica

How much time do I have to really live?

If I estimate 75 years old to be the limit of my ‘capable’ time on earth… then…

There are 657450 hours in 75 years, based on 356.25 days per year. If I slept for 7 hours a day, I’d sleep for 191756.25 of those hours. That leaves 465693.75 hours. I am already 28 years old, leaving 291834.75 hours to be alive and awake.

Of those remaining hours, I will probably work at least another 32 years until I am 60 at an average of 2000 hours per year for 64000 hours. I am down to 227834.75 hours before I have gotten into my chores, meals, and daily routine.

Let’s estimate 1 hour per day for showering, brushing teeth, flossing, fussing, other bathroom functions, getting dressed, and getting undressed and undoing all of that stuff at night before bed. That will account for 17166.75 of my remaining hours, leaving 210668 hours free.

How about 2 hours a week of laundry and another 2 hours a week of shopping? That’s 4888 hours in my remaining 47 years. Now 205780 hours are left.

Commuting! It is currently a 20 minute walk each way, which I think is a lot less than the average. That makes for 5333 hours in my 32 remaining working years. The tally is at 200446.66 hours to live life.

Making food, eating food, and cleaning up after cooking must surely count for an average 2 hours per day or 34333.5 hours in 47 years, at least.

166113.16 hours are all that I have left… that is 6921 days.. 989 weeks… or just under 19 years to find somebody great, build a relationship, have a family, play with my kids, snap some photographs, have sex, sleep-in, read, watch TV, surf the net, try to have riveting conversations and debates, relax in an armchair with three fingers of Johnny Blue and a fresh Monte Cristo No. 2.

I do not eat a lot of chocolate; but lately I have been noticing the presence of chocolate bars with chili flavourings in some of the local stores. As far as I know, the combination of cacao and chili flavourings is a recipe originating from indiginous South Americans. The Aztecs and Mayans used to combine the flavours in hot drinks.

Back in the spring of 2004, I had gelato in Firenze, Italia that was chocolate/chili flavoured and delicious. The bittersweet flavours of dark cacao came first, and as each spoonful melted it delivered a delayed and lingering hint of spiciness. Not too hot; but just enough bite to notice. Since that time, I have been tortured by the wonderful memory of a flavour seemingly unavailable in my home in Toronto, Canada… perhaps until now…

A couple of weeks ago, after lunch some of my coworkers went to a convenience store near our office and I followed as they checked their lottery tickets I browsed the aisles and found a single, solitaire Lindt Excellence Chili bar. The image to the left shows the packaging spelling as “Chilli” but in Canada it has only a single “L”.

At the time I found this, I was getting over a cold, so I purchased it and vowed to eat it in a week.

Before that time came, I was setting up a WD TV 1080p media player for a friend at his house and we went to the grocery store afterwards to pick up food for dinner. I noticed a different Lindt Chili bar and bought it to try that night after dinner.  

This one contained both chili and cherry flavours. It was called “Lindt Creation 70% Cherry and Chili”

After a dinner of chicken penne pesto, I tore into the bar in anticipation of reliving that first chocolate/chili experience.  Opening the package and breaking the bar into squares, we were greeted with the familiar and  pleasant aromas of dark chocolate. 

When biting into my first square, I noticed that the cherry flavour was given through a filling inside of each square. This filling was reminiscent of  the jam found in those cookies that are made of chocolate covered marshmallows. It added a bit more sweetness to the dark chocolate. After the chocolate melted and I had swallowed everything, there was little to no after-taste and no spice. The presence of chili was not detectable to me.

The quality of the chocolate and the addition of cherry jam filling was great, I’m sure; but what I have been seeking was the additional bite of chili spice. This bar did not satisfy the expectations I had in terms of flavours, from seeing the packaging.

A couple of days later, on May 2nd,  I was apartment hunting with my potential roommate and we went to see an apartment above a chocolate store near the Yonge/Eglinton neighbourhood of Toronto. The store is called Chocolatease, and it is located on the east side of Yonge, at Castlefield Avenue. The apartment did not suit our needs; but when I returned downstairs, I asked the girl running the shop if they had any truffles that incorporated the flavour of chili peppers, and indeed they did!

I purchased 4 truffles (2 chili, 1 espresso, 1 hazelnut) and I have not yet had the time to enjoy them.

Since that time I did get around to the Lindt Excellence Chili bar on May 5th… for some reason after meeting some friends for Mexican food on Cinco di Mayo, i discovered that I still had this bar in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing the day I bought it.

After dinner, we stepped outside and as people were saying goodbyes and getting ready to part their separate ways, I opened the chocolate bar and distributed some of the squares to people before trying one for myself. Again there was the pleasant aroma of good quality, fresh dark chocolate when the package was opened. The beginning taste was bittersweet… and as the chocolate melted, it did leave behind a faint tingling heat which set in only after some time had passed. Not too much bite; but just enough to notice the presence of chili extract. The chocolate was smooth, there were not bits of chili in it… indicating that an extract must hae been used. 

While on a grocery run, downtown at my current apartment, I discovered yet another chili/chocolate bar. Sarotti No. 1 Mexiko Chili. It claims 66% cacao dark chocolate and the photo on the front indicates flecks of chili pepper in the chocolate.

I opened it and tried some today with coworkers. Most of their remarks and reactions were positive.  When I tried it, I noticed that the chili was less pronounced than the Lindt Excellence; but stronger than the cherry bar. The flecks of chili pepper in the chocolate were barely noticeable, only on occassion did any part of my mouth taste or feel them. The chocolate was fresh and of high quality; but I am seeking something with a little bit more spice.

In the future, I am considering making my own combinations. I will require a double-boiler in order to temper chocolate and maintain a stable temperature and this is too large of an undertaking for how busy I am with moving and work.

In the meantime, I will try to devise a standardized grading system and benchmarks for chocolate/food reviewing, get to work on tasting the truffles from Chocolatease, and try to seek out other chocolatiers and gelaterias in Toronto.

Over and out.

I have been researching video playback devices for quite some time, looking for one that can stream files over a network as well as play videos at 1080p resolutions. Other important criteria were that it have wireless control, be quiet or fanless, and as inexpensive as possible.

I began evaluating the PlayStation 3; but it lacks the ability to playback h.264 encoded Matroska MKV files. In fact, most media players will be compatible with DivX, XviD, and MPEG-2 videos; but hardly any of them were capable of playing back MKV files or h.264 encoded HD content.

Then came the Popcorn Hour and other Networked Media Tank-based players (HDX1080). They met all the technical criteria; but with $300+ price tags.

Enter the Western Digital WD TV player. For $120+tax CAD, out of the box, it can play 1080p video including MKV files. It has 2 USB ports to connect external hard disks to; but it has no stock network streaming capability. There are HDMI, optical audio, and composite audio/video outputs (so you can connect to an old non-HD set). It is tiny – not much larger than an external hard drive. It is quiet because there are no moving parts, and it has very low power consumption – somewhere well under 40w max, when playing back video.

With this hack from B-RAD, it can use a USB ethernet adapter. I suggest the following WIRED ethernet adapters (there is no working wireless solution that is fast enough at this time):

Get the TrendNet TU2-ET100 (should be ~$28).

Or have FutureShop or BestBuy price match $28.99 for the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter (regularly $49.95)

**Update May 13, 2009: I have tried and tested the wdlxtv hack and it works as advertised. Please note that I have the Apple USB2.0 Ethernet Adapter and I can stream a video file that is a movie (roughly 90min) sized 4.5GB or less. I have tried a movie that was over 6GB in size and the player stuttered in streaming it over CIFS. I suspect you would require an NFS share or that you are better off copying it to a USB drive to obtain a higher transfer bitrate in those cases.

I received this message today, from the Campaign for Democratic Media:

STAND UP FOR AN OPEN INTERNET

In an exciting move, the CRTC is seeking to engage the public in an online consultation regarding what Canadians want from their Internet. Your input will help shape the upcoming hearings on Internet traffic management practices.

http://ISPpractices.Econsultation.ca/

More than 11,000 of you submitted your comments by the February deadline. Now the federal telecommunications regulator is putting forth a series of questions that it would like Canadians to answer.

This is a great chance for all of us to let the CRTC know that we need an open Internet that isn’t controlled by big telecoms. We only have a few days left before the consultation is closed. Get in on the conversation:

http://ISPpractices.Econsultation.ca/

Need to know more? Find some background information here: SaveOurNet.ca

Also be sure to check out the raging online discussions happening on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. And stay tuned for a series of open Internet “town hall events” in several cities across Canada.

Want to do more? Lately we’ve had many inquiries as to how people can get involved in the Save Our Net campaign. Please fill out a short online form telling us what area is of most interest to you.

STAND UP FOR THE CBC

As a result of a $171-million budget shortfall this year, CBC/Radio-Canada has decided to cut 800 jobs. Rallies, petitions and other initiatives are taking place across the country to protest these cuts and to call for more taxpayer dollars for our public broadcaster.

CBC and Radio-Canada provide vital local, national and international information, as well as decent jobs that Canadians need, especially in these tough economic times. Private media outlets are shrinking and Canadians need to know what’s going on.

Take Action! Send a message to the leaders of all of the parties in Parliament!

The CBC is too important to leave to chance, so we also suggest you join the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting in asking your MP to support the CBC.

And be sure to add your name to the petition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that more than 125,000 Canadians have already signed.

Firstly, everybody in Canada should be informed that there are competitors to Rogers, Bell, and Telus in the market of Internet Service Provision. These competitors sublease bandwidth from Bell to provide DSL service. In most cases, they provide this connectivity for prices $10 – 30 less per month, than the big 3 ISPs.

I personally use Acanac, and have at least 5 friends who have been using Acanac for years. They have a promotional rate of $18.95/month for DSL if you prepay for your first year. That comes to under $230/year for 5mbps DSL service.

Teksavvy and Micro-Works are other DSL providers with lower prices than Bell and Rogers.

Read the CBC news Articles linked here:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/04/14/bell-unlimited-download.html

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/04/15/bell-no-unlimited.html

When network infrastructure is in place to handle certain amounts of bandwidth, it does not cost the network operator more money to transmit or receive more signals. Additionally, the information itself does not carry a financial burden to the network operator dependent on the volume copied. They have no rights to claim in terms of charging the consumer for any content consumed – that is an issue for copyright holders, not ISPs.

We as consumers are already charged for bandwidth – the rate/speed of throughput possible on the network. This is a reasonable charge because network throughput is limited by network infrastructure. In turn, throughput multiplied by time gives a ‘natural cap’.

For example: 5 mbps x 86,400 seconds in a day = 432,000 megabits maximum transfer (or about 52.7 Gigabytes per day) To additionally impose a total transfer cap of 60 Gigabytes means that if a subscriber has purchased a 5 mbps connection from the ISP, they are effectively getting a little less than 1.154 days worth of use.

In other words, Bell is trying to sell you a 5 mbps connection for $40/month; but you can only actually transfer 1/30th of the data the network is supposed to be capable of delivering. If you buy a 5 mbps connection from Bell, it is actually a 0.1667 mbps connection with a 5mbps burst rate. Their network must be built to only accommodate 1/30th of the network traffic that they have oversold.

Triple-dipping…

There is already a designated transmission speed for the connection a consumer pays to use.

The Bell / Rogers monopoly wishes to impose the following arbitrary, artificial scarcity limitations on internet service provisions:

Throttling of specific services (packet inspection)

A toll for traffic volume (UBB)

FYI – the US has outlawed throttling (search for Comcast news articles)

The US is in the process of debating UBB and some legal professionals find it in violation of free-speech and open markets. It favours the voices of those who can afford to be heard, and silences the poor.

The internet is supposed to be a democratizing force and a driver of innovation. It is supposed to bring the costs of worldwide communication and collaboration down.

If we allow packet inspection and throttling in Canada, that is to say that the importance of the voices of big business are more important than the voices of individual citizens.

I am failing to see how allowing this to happen will benefit Canadians in terms of innovation, progress, consumer rights, competition, economy, productivity. This move will hurt consumers. Allowing this change will hurt contractors.

Allowing this will stifle the use of VoIP and online collaboration tools like Skype and video conferencing. It is an anti-competitive move being made by a company that has interests in prohibiting easy access to alternatives to ExpressVu and Bell phone services.

Some people work from home on a regular basis with the available telecommuting technologies and wider implementations of SSL, Citrix, and VPN. A monthly cap or UBB would penalize those who seek to earn an income from an information-based career by remote connectivity.

I have had a job doing data entry from home before. This required me to login to an encrypted site, view documents, and classify them in a database. Because the documents were digitized image data and encrypted, the data transfers were not compressible and generated sporadic bursts of data traffic. I would say this is not generally as disruptive to others on the network as streaming or large file downloads; but it did generate a large overall monthly transfer.

As time goes on, the data residing on home-based personal computers is growing in importance to society. People do their taxes, people rely on internet communications to conduct social and commercial transactions from home or home offices. They may want to use online backup services such as Mozy to protect their data. Well, with a cap/UBB… that would cost an arm and a leg.

I am a hobbyist photographer. I derive no income from my photos.
I upload all of my shots to private space on a Picasa of Flickr account. This serves as a backup for my images since the sites will accept the full sized file (up to 20 MB per image is what Flickr accepts, and sometimes I make panoramic stitches that come close to that size.

Hobbyist programmers working on open-source projects (that produce useful products which help to increase productivity in our workplaces), students, young artists and musicians, the unemployed who need online resources to search for work and send resumes and portfolio information, VoIP and teleconferecing users… will all be hurt by a cap

I know a single mom who runs an buy/sell business from home. The profits from it are just enough to sustain her and her baby boy.

For acquisitions, she has to research products, research demand, call suppliers on her VoIP, send and receive high resolution product photos and videos.

Then after she decides on some items to purchase and has them shipped to her, she has to produce a product profile and upload images of the product to a site like Craigslist, Kijiji, or Ebay.

Prospective buyers have questions by email; but more likely want to video conference or make a voice call.

I am an advocate of choosy consumers… which is why I criticize Bell Canada’s monopolistic practices and consumer extortion. However, if her customers become choosier and need more information on products with flat or decreasing sales… she will not stay afloat.

This is just one micro-economic example of how a UBB can amplify the economic cycle effect on the working poor who depend on internet services for their livelihoods.

Way to step on the throat of the consuming public

Originally uploaded by a virtual unknown

• A SAN fabric is the analogous equivalent to a LAN and is made up of one or more SAN Switches
• A zone is analogous to a VLAN – every Host to SAN Disk Array connection is placed in its own individual zone, on each SAN fabric – therefore even though a switch is employed, storage ports cannot observe other storage ports and host ports cannot observe other host ports – all connections are logically point-to-point
• An HBA (Host Bust Adapter) is the SAN’s analogous equivalent to a network interface card for a LAN – in fact SANs and HBAs can support TCP/IP traffic; but storage communications use different protocols
• All storage addressing on a SAN is done by Port WWN which is the analogous equivalent to a MAC address
• Two (2) separate SAN fabrics exist to provide redundancy for all connections
• Each SAN Disk Array has at least one (1) connection to each SAN fabric
• Each LUN/virtualized disk is presented out by SAN Disk Array through both fabrics
• A host must have two (2) or more HBA ports per SAN Disk Array that it accesses storage from – if a host accesses storage from two (2) different arrays, then four (4) HBA ports must be available on the host
• At least one (1) host HBA connection to each of two (2) separate SAN fabrics is made from the host to the switch, for each SAN Disk Array that a host accesses storage from
• Multi-path storage drivers must be installed on the host (on some platforms, this is a function built-in to the OS) to provide failover or load-balance capabilities for LUN access through multiple paths – it is this MPIO driver that recognizes redundant paths and presents them to the OS as just a single disk/LUN

So I was invited to write on this blog-space and of course I first had to create an account.  Not a big deal but I did notice a couple of interesting things while signing up.

First of all I have two alias’ I usually use on the Internet.  When trying to register my account I was told that the login name was already taken, like most sites I had the option of resetting the account.  Now I’m pretty sure I’ve never registered an account on WordPress before but for fun I decided to see if my e-mail address was already in the system (I don’t know why it would be but I digress).  On the password reset page I noticed I could reset my password by supplying either my username or e-mail address.  I slapped in the old e-mail address and was told that it wasn’t in the system.  Alright that’s good I hadn’t gotten drunk, registered a WP account and blogged while loaded, what a relief.  Now, since my account name is pretty unique I decided to try to submit the username and see if a reset e-mail was sent to one of my older e-mail accounts.  Throwing in the username and bam!  This username is not registered!  Hmm interesting does this mean there’s already an account or not?  This must be investigated later as I really would like the original account name.

Moving on, I registered using the second alias I use and the registration process was pretty straight forward until I had to confirm my account creation through the e-mail address I provided.  Imagine to my surprise when I clicked on the link to activate the account and my username and password were presented to me in plaintext on an unencrypted webpage.  cringe, thankfully I don’t use generic passwords.

I’m sure this has been noticed before but I’m not a fan of this system.  It means that WordPress is storing my password in cleartext on their backend system.  What’s wrong with MD5′ing the password and storing the hash???? This would at least make it a bit more difficult to guess passwords if the system ws compromised, and how many people use the same username and password for every account the set up.  double cringe.

I am an off-again/on-again gamer and it has been since before 2003 that I had my latest video-gaming stint.

A friend recently introduced me to Left 4 Dead on the Xbox360 a couple of weeks ago, and it was a great time blasting zombies away in two-player cooperative split-screen mode.  There was only one problem: I don’t have a gaming console, I have computers.

So I first searched for gaming controllers for the PC. I had heard that the Xbox360 controllers can be used with a PC (and Left 4 Dead for the PC comes pre-configured to work with such a controller); but I came across the Logitech Cordless RumblePad2 for a much lower price (by making FutureShop match the lowest price on my search of ShopBot.ca)  and bought 2 of them.

If you are having different problems with Left 4 Dead, and need help – check out the Left 4 Dead forums here.

The Logitech controller comes with Wingman Profiler software that allows you to customize and remap joystick axes and buttons to any keyboard, mouse, or game controller command. The ability to program an analog joystick to control the mouse makes it possible to use a RumblePad2 for any first-person perspective shooter (fps) game. Good enough to prevent me from needing to get a console like an Xbox, PS3, or Wii for my very light gaming needs.

To my dismay, when I got myself a copy of Left 4 Dead for the PC, I learned that it does not officially support two-player split-screen out of the box (read on to find out how to enabled this feature) … but after some searching, I discovered forum threads where people had success in enabling split-screen play on PC, with Xbox controllers.

PC Split Screen Homepage

Left 4 Dead: Split Screen Instructions for PC (w Xbox controllers)

Those button and joystick axis mappings did not work with my Logitech controllers, so I had to spend a long time hand-editing the config file to get all my controls working. Here are the configuration settings that I am using to make my Logitech controllers work.

1. In Wingman Profiler, add a Left 4 Dead game profile and select the executable for the game to launch it from the profiler
2. In the Left 4 Dead profile in the Wingman Profiler, swap the left and right analog sticks (left-stick x-axis controls right-stick x-axis, and vice versa)
3. Go to the installed Left 4 Dead directory and look for the “cfg” folder.
4. I would make a backup copy of the config.cfg file before trying this. Then create a new config.cfg file and paste the config.cfg file (see below) into it.
5. Create a new file in the config folder called 2player.cfg and paste the 2player.cfg file (below) into it.
6. Launch the game through the Wingman Profiler
7. From the main menu, open the console with the tilde(`) key (top left corner of most keyboards, under the ESC key)
8. In the console, type ‘exec’ and press the spacebar, you should see ‘exec 2player’ as an available drop down selection – select it and press ‘Enter’
9. Start a single player game, and it should now be split screen with both controllers working properly (right analog stick will look, and left stick will walk/strafe).

You need only repeat steps 6 to 9 in the future to get the game going in split-screen with the controllers working.

config.cfg should be as follows:

unbindall
bind “x” “+mouse_menu QA”
bind “`” “toggleconsole”
bind “ESCAPE” “cancelselect”
bind “F1″ “Vote Yes”
bind “F2″ “Vote No”
bind “JOY1″ “+use”
bind “JOY3″ “+reload”
bind “JOY4″ “lastinv”
bind “JOY5″ “+attack2″
bind “JOY6″ “+attack”
bind “JOY7″ “+speed”
bind “JOY8″ “+zoom”
bind “JOY9″ “slot4″
bind “JOY10″ “slot5″
bind “JOY11″ “+jump”
bind “JOY12″ “+duck”
bind “POV_UP” “impulse 100″
bind “POV_RIGHT” “slot3″
bind “POV_DOWN” “+mouse_menu Orders”
bind “POV_LEFT” “invprev”
cmd2 bind “JOY1″ “+use”
cmd2 bind “JOY3″ “+reload”
cmd2 bind “JOY4″ “lastinv”
cmd2 bind “JOY5″ “+attack2″
cmd2 bind “JOY6″ “+attack”
cmd2 bind “JOY7″ “+speed”
cmd2 bind “JOY8″ “+zoom”
cmd2 bind “JOY9″ “slot4″
cmd2 bind “JOY10″ “slot5″
cmd2 bind “JOY11″ “+jump”
cmd2 bind “JOY12″ “+duck”
cmd2 bind “POV_UP” “impulse 100″
cmd2 bind “POV_RIGHT” “slot3″
cmd2 bind “POV_DOWN” “+mouse_menu Orders”
cmd2 bind “POV_LEFT” “invprev”
adsp_debug “0″
budget_averages_window “30″
budget_background_alpha “128″
budget_bargraph_background_alpha “128″
budget_bargraph_range_ms “16.6666666667″
budget_history_numsamplesvisible “100″
budget_history_range_ms “66.666666667″
budget_panel_bottom_of_history_fraction “.25″
budget_panel_height “384″
budget_panel_width “512″
budget_panel_x “0″
budget_panel_y “50″
budget_peaks_window “30″
budget_show_averages “0″
budget_show_history “1″
budget_show_peaks “1″
bugreporter_uploadasync “0″
bugreporter_username “”
c_maxdistance “200″
c_maxpitch “90″
c_maxyaw “135″
c_mindistance “30″
c_minpitch “0″
c_minyaw “-135″
c_orthoheight “100″
c_orthowidth “100″
c_thirdpersonshoulder “false”
c_thirdpersonshoulderaimdist “120.0″
c_thirdpersonshoulderdist “40.0″
c_thirdpersonshoulderheight “5.0″
c_thirdpersonshoulderoffset “20.0″
cam_collision “1″
cam_idealdelta “4.0″
cam_idealdist “150″
cam_ideallag “4.0″
cam_idealpitch “0″
cam_idealyaw “0″
cam_snapto “0″
cc_lang “”
cc_linger_time “1.0″
cc_predisplay_time “0.25″
cc_subtitles “0″
chet_debug_idle “0″
cl_allowdownload “1″
cl_allowupload “1″
cl_autohelp “1″
cl_buy_favorite_nowarn “0″
cl_buy_favorite_quiet “0″
cl_chatfilters “31″
cl_cmdrate “30″
cl_colorblind “0″
cl_crosshair_alpha “255″
cl_crosshair_blue “220″
cl_crosshair_dynamic “1″
cl_crosshair_green “182″
cl_crosshair_red “138″
cl_crosshair_thickness “2″
cl_detail_avoid_force “0.4″
cl_detail_avoid_radius “64″
cl_detail_avoid_recover_speed “0.25″
cl_detail_max_sway “5″
cl_downloadfilter “all”
cl_forcepreload “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnclass_boomer “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnclass_boomer2 “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnclass_hunter “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnclass_hunter2 “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnclass_smoker “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnclass_smoker2 “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnmode “0″
cl_hidemenu_spawnmode2 “0″
cl_idealpitchscale “0.8″
cl_logofile “materials/vgui/logos/spray_stencil_bill.vtf”
cl_menuduration “10″
cl_mouselook “1″
cl_mouselook2 “1″
cl_observercrosshair “1″
cl_perf_wizard_enable “1″
cl_playerspraydisable “0″
cl_ragdoll_limit “20″
cl_show_path “1″
cl_showhelp “1″
cl_showpluginmessages “1″
cl_soundfile “”
cl_timeout “30″
cl_updaterate “20″
closecaption “0″
commentary_firstrun “0″
con_enable “1″
crosshair “1″
dsp_enhance_stereo “0″
dsp_slow_cpu “0″
dsp_volume “0.8″
func_break_max_pieces “15″
g15_update_msec “250″
gameinstructor_enable “1″
hud_classautokill “1″
hud_takesshots “0″
joy_accelmax “4.0″
joy_accelscale “3.0″
joy_advanced “1″
joy_advaxisr “1″
joy_advaxisu “0″
joy_advaxisv “0″
joy_advaxisx “4″
joy_advaxisy “2″
joy_advaxisz “3″
joy_autoaimdampen “0.3″
joy_autoaimdampenrange “0.85″
joy_axisbutton_threshold “0.3″
joy_circle_correct “1″
joy_diagonalpov “0″
joy_display_input “0″
joy_forwardsensitivity “-1.0″
joy_forwardthreshold “0.1″
joy_inverty “0″
joy_inverty2 “0″
joy_lowend “0.65″
joy_lowmap “0.15″
joy_movement_stick “0″
joy_movement_stick2 “0″
joy_name “L4D Xbox360 Joystick Configuration”
joy_pitchsensitivity “1.0″
joy_pitchsensitivity2 “1″
joy_pitchthreshold “0.1″
joy_response_look “1″
joy_response_move “5″
joy_sensitive_step0 “0.1″
joy_sensitive_step1 “0.4″
joy_sensitive_step2 “0.90″
joy_sidesensitivity “1.0″
joy_sidethreshold “0.1″
joy_wingmanwarrior_centerhack “0″
joy_wingmanwarrior_turnhack “0″
joy_yawsensitivity “-1.5″
joy_yawsensitivity2 “-1″
joy_yawthreshold “0.0″
joystick “1″
lookspring “0″
lookstrafe “0″
m_customaccel “0″
m_customaccel_exponent “1″
m_customaccel_max “0″
m_customaccel_scale “0.04″
m_filter “0″
m_filter2 “0″
m_forward “1″
m_mouseaccel1 “0″
m_mouseaccel2 “0″
m_mousespeed “1″
m_pitch “0.022000″
m_pitch2 “0.022″
m_side “0.8″
m_yaw “0.022″
mat_grain_scale_override “1″
mat_monitorgamma_tv_enabled “0″
mat_spewalloc “0″
motd_intros “1″
muzzleflash_light “1″
name “Pancho”
name2 “unnamed”
net_graph “0″
net_graphheight “64″
net_graphmsecs “400″
net_graphpos “1″
net_graphproportionalfont “1″
net_graphshowinterp “1″
net_graphshowlatency “1″
net_graphsolid “1″
net_graphtext “1″
net_maxroutable “1200″
net_scale “5″
net_steamcnx_allowrelay “1″
next_weapon_timer “1.25″
npc_height_adjust “1″
overview_alpha “1.0″
overview_health “1″
overview_locked “1″
overview_names “1″
overview_tracks “1″
password “”
r_drawmodelstatsoverlaymax “1.5″
r_drawmodelstatsoverlaymin “0.1″
r_eyemove “1″
r_eyeshift_x “0″
r_eyeshift_y “0″
r_eyeshift_z “0″
r_eyesize “0″
rr_thenany_score_slop “0.0″
scene_showlook “0″
scene_showmoveto “0″
scene_showunlock “0″
sensitivity “4.800000″
sk_autoaim_mode “2″
skill “1″
snd_duckerattacktime “0.5″
snd_duckerreleasetime “2.5″
snd_duckerthreshold “0.15″
snd_ducktovolume “0.55″
snd_legacy_surround “0″
snd_mixahead “0.1″
snd_musicvolume “0.784000″
snd_pitchquality “0″
spec_allowroaming “0″
spec_centerchasecam “0″
spec_chasedistancestep “10″
spec_cinematic “0″
spec_scoreboard “0″
ss_splitmode “2″
suitvolume “0.25″
sv_forcepreload “0″
sv_log_onefile “0″
sv_logbans “0″
sv_logecho “1″
sv_logfile “1″
sv_logflush “0″
sv_logsdir “logs”
sv_noclipaccelerate “5″
sv_noclipspeed “5″
sv_pvsskipanimation “1″
sv_skyname “test_moon_hdr”
sv_specaccelerate “5″
sv_specnoclip “1″
sv_specspeed “3″
sv_unlockedchapters “1″
sv_voiceenable “1″
texture_budget_background_alpha “128″
texture_budget_panel_bottom_of_history_fraction “.25″
texture_budget_panel_height “284″
texture_budget_panel_width “512″
texture_budget_panel_x “0″
texture_budget_panel_y “450″
tv_nochat “0″
vgui_message_dialog_modal “1″
voice_enable “1″
voice_forcemicrecord “1″
voice_modenable “1″
voice_scale “0.7″
voice_threshold “2000″
voice_vox “0″
volume “1.0″
vprof_graphheight “256″
vprof_graphwidth “512″
vprof_unaccounted_limit “0.3″
vprof_verbose “1″
vprof_warningmsec “10″
windows_speaker_config “4″
xbox_autothrottle “1″
xbox_throttlebias “100″
xbox_throttlespoof “200″
z_nightvision_b “128″
z_nightvision_g “192″
z_nightvision_r “255″
cmd1 +jlook
cmd2 +jlook

2player.cfg should be as follows (if you want a horizontal split, change the first line to ’ss_splitmode 1′:

ss_splitmode 2
ss_enable 1
unbindall                // Prevent mouse/keyboard control when gamepad is in use (to prevent autoaim exploit)

joystick 1
joy_advanced “1″            // use advanced joystick options (allows for multiple axes)

joy_name “L4D Xbox360 Joystick Configuration”

joy_advaxisr “1″
joy_advaxisu “0″
joy_advaxisv “0″
joy_advaxisx “4″
joy_advaxisy “2″
joy_advaxisz “3″

joy_forwardsensitivity -1.0    // movement sensitivity
joy_sidesensitivity 1.0
joy_forwardthreshold 0.1    // movement dead zone settings
joy_sidethreshold 0.1
joy_pitchsensitivity 1.0    // look sensitivity
joy_yawsensitivity -1.5
joy_pitchthreshold 0.1        // look dead zone settings
joy_yawthreshold 0.0

joy_variable_frametime 1
joy_autoaimdampenrange 0.85
joy_autoaimdampen 0.5
joy_lowend 0.65
joy_lowmap 0.15
joy_accelscale 3.0
joy_accelmax 4.0
joy_response_move 5
joy_response_look 1
joy_autoaimdampen 0.3
joy_autoaimdampenrange 0.85
joyadvancedupdate            // advanced joystick update allows for analog control of move and look

// Alternate control 1
+jlook                    // enable joystick look
bind “JOY1″ “+use”
bind “JOY3″ “+reload”
bind “JOY4″ “lastinv”
bind “JOY5″ “+attack2″
bind “JOY6″ “+attack”
bind “JOY7″ “+speed”
bind “JOY8″ “+zoom”
bind “JOY9″ “slot4″
bind “JOY10″ “slot5″
bind “JOY11″ “+jump”
bind “JOY12″ “+duck”
bind “POV_UP” “impulse 100″
bind “POV_RIGHT” “slot3″
bind “POV_DOWN” “+mouse_menu Orders”
bind “POV_LEFT” “invprev”
// bind “Z AXIS POS” “+moveright”
// bind “Z AXIS NEG” “+moveleft”
// bind “R AXIS POS” “+back”
// bind “R AXIS NEG” “+forward”

// controller2 bindings
cmd2 +jlook                    // enable joystick look
cmd2 bind “JOY1″ “+use”
cmd2 bind “JOY3″ “+reload”
cmd2 bind “JOY4″ “lastinv”
cmd2 bind “JOY5″ “+attack2″
cmd2 bind “JOY6″ “+attack”
cmd2 bind “JOY7″ “+speed”
cmd2 bind “JOY8″ “+zoom”
cmd2 bind “JOY9″ “slot4″
cmd2 bind “JOY10″ “slot5″
cmd2 bind “JOY11″ “+jump”
cmd2 bind “JOY12″ “+duck”
cmd2 bind “POV_UP” “impulse 100″
cmd2 bind “POV_RIGHT” “slot3″
cmd2 bind “POV_DOWN” “+mouse_menu Orders”
cmd2 bind “POV_LEFT” “invprev”
// cmd2 bind “Z AXIS POS” “+moverigh”
// cmd2 bind “Z AXIS NEG” “+moveleft”
// cmd2 bind “R AXIS POS” “+back”
// cmd2 bind “R AXIS NEG” “+forward”

sk_autoaim_mode 2

Originally uploaded by a virtual unknown

It’s been a while since I’ve written on this dealio, and I thought that my trip to Las Vegas to the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show would be a good way to get back into the swing of things.

The show was really quite huge; but I am not really into trade shows, so I’ll be brief.

Samsung had the most impressive exhibit and incredible technology for ultra-high definition televisions, there was a 60″ TV displaying 4x the resolution of 1080p (roughly 4000×2200). Also LG and Samsung both had 1080p models at 47″ that were the thickness of my thumb. These were displayed on rotating swivel stands.

One of my favourite booths at the show was for a product that is not all that high-tech. Flatwire is a technology that I thought should have been thought of a long time ago; but it is just coming out now. they are laminated wires that are paper thin; but very wide to provide low resistance. They come as speaker, AC, DC, HDMI and more. After installing, they can be painted over to become nearly invisible. http://www.flatwire.com

Microsoft had a preview of Windows 7.0 that was so crowded that I opted not to watch for long. I am trying to steer clear of commercial software as much as possible, preferring Ubuntu Linux on my home machine.

Intel had an interesting booth full of Atom processor displays with Netbooks and comparing the size of an Atom core to the size of a desktop PC’s CPU core.

I didn’t really do any of the real Vegas stuff. I only gambled $3 total, had one drink a day, didn’t take in any shows; but it was still a good trip and a good value because it is free for IT workers to register to CES and CES paid for two of my four hotel nights.

I did some panoramic shots (stitched with Hugin) of the Hoover Dam, and the mountains around Charleston Peak. They are posted to my Flickr pool:
http;//www.flickr.com/photos/avirtualunknown