taking this blog in a different direction

I am going to start using this blog for the sole purpose of documenting my home automation stuff and more specifically detailing little tidbits that may prove to be useful for others who are designing wireless apps, analog circuitry, microchip apps, robotics, LAMP programming, c programming and anything else they can gleam from this. I know that when I started out, I had a lot of questions about little stuff. Such as, why in the microchip documentation is there a bar over the top of the MCLR pin? Well, this is because this pin is active low. Anytime you see a bar, this means that this pin is active low (or inversed). Contrary to what you would intutively think a pin should be. I ordered an rfpic kit to begin detailing out how to use/program these delightful devices. I just wish microchip made a transceiver instead of transmitter and receive separately. But they are cheap so its not too bad. Also, I do know how to make the chips talk to each other via parallel/serial/i2c whatever, so no matter. Now I must figure out how get a head end transceiver to chat with lots of different devices. I may need multiple headends. I also need to learn to use spice to work out some of the analog signal problems.

working out some of the analog questions

We have been having a lot of summer monsoons around here lately and this has been playing havoc with my power line monitor. It seems the analog AC/DC filter that I have been putting a lot of faith has sort of been letting me down. Not sure why. Anyway, I am going to call it good and try to work around it. I also moved my internet firewall to the same box hosting all my AV stuff. Mythtv and such. This was good because it removed one computer from the house, less juice. But it also decentralized my operation here by putting my main computer in the "great room". So I think I will just have to run some more wires or maybe just make everything wireless. This would force me to learn about rfPIC. Yes, cause I really do need to know this product as well. Anyway, those are my thoughts as of late. School is coming up soon and this semester will be a bear. CSE 330,340,355,360 and linear algrebra. Peace out.

trying to lose some of the weight

Today, I decided to loose some of the weight. I am now 180.5 lbs (that's 82 kilos) and I'd like to get down to 162 lbs at some point. Hope I can do it. I am going to cut my daily caloric intake to below 1800. Also, I have been thinking about my home automation projects. I am thinking the all the I/O modules such as serial port communicators, USB communicators, etc. should be built directly into server software (which will almostly certainly be platform specific) and be written in C. I will write versions for linux (first) and then windows and then Mac OS X. I will let others port either the linux or Mac version to *BSD and Unix flavors.

I quit my job

In order to fail physics without the ability to use the excuse, "I couldn't work 40 hours a week AND go to school!", I have quit working for Netscaler (via Vinciti, Inc.). I am happy that chapter of my life is over, I hate working on the phone. I can say I helped this very site (Google's blogger) get going on a Netscaler. See how fast it is, I helped do that. Nice. Netscaler is a fairly good company, kind of small and not very up on how large companies should operate, but decent. They have some great people. I heard some of their engineers have physics PhD's or something. You have to mental to spend that much of your life thinking about little particles moving in magnetic fields or whatever. But alas, that is over. Time to do my own thing. I should maybe pass this course, but we will see.
I have been pondering about my business and what language all this home automation software should be written in. Java is the best I can come up with. Python may be a bit harder to implement via a true client server model. But I need this java implementation to be fast,fast,fast even on a low end processor. I am not sure I can really get this done. Can I? I am not sure. I need this software to be world class as well and not some thrown together hodgepodge that seg faults when a cat steps on the keyboard. Anyway I am still pondering it.

More design choices

OK, I settled down on using a LAMP scheme. This makes me happy because this is so easy to implement and document. Also, it fun. For those of you who may not know LAMP is Linux, Apache, Mysql, and PHP. The page is looking nice and I am plugging some useful stuff into it such as a smart ass fortune and a calendar. Hopefully Allison will start using the calendar to remind me of stuff we are going to be doing. The voice mail gateway is done at it looks pretty good, I am quite proud of myself. The rest will need to be written as well. Kick it.

What is this white trash thing anyway

Mike D. once said to me that he envisioned me, in years to come, in a trailer park wearing a wife beater tee and slapping some offspring with one hand and clutching a miller genuine draft can in the other. I was immediately hurt by this narrative, but quickly zipped through the various phases of emotions that shocking events can spur. I found that there should be some reason behind this image he had in his head. What was it? Just like every rumor, there was a nugget a truth there I supposed. I mean, I didn't particularly like Miller and I do not have a liking for kids (my wife and I decided not to breed). Plus a have a little scar on by chest so a white beater would show this and I would not want this, but it's the spirit of the image that counts and not the details, right? Well, I am whitetrash and I really don't care. I kind of feels good to belong to something even if it's a not-so-glamourous thing. I was mad at Mike D. for this, but now I am thankful he said something. So thanks Mike D. So this really leads to a question about what this term "whitetrash" means and who would make up its constituency. I suppose you could put a lot of people from all parts of America into this category. You shouldn't need to live in a trailer or otherwise semi-permanent domcile, a single family home should do. An apartment should also suffice. You should be from meager roots as rule. Rich people, old money folk, and the bourgeois are definitely out. You must have at least once uttered the phrase without a mocking tone, "My 'Vee-Hick-CUL' done broke". There might some other stuff that I just can't recall at the moment. The short and skinny of this is that I am quite happy, Te nosce (know thyself). With this I feel armed to be a contributing member of society.

My home automation

So I have been writing this home automation suite for my own house and it is coming along swimmingly. I am using C for the "servers" on the backend and a php-based frontend to interface with the user. I will also develop a controls API, so modules can be put in place later for stuff like telephony control, bluetooth control and monitoring, WiFi stuff (although this should be done via the php frontend), and even an IrDA frontend for remote controls and such. Maybe I should use a CMS like php nuke for this? Anyway, I don't know. I am just spit balling at this point anyway. Kleetus

Ok, this blogger thing is a good idea

I am glad goog's bought this up. Anyway, I will just express what it is I am thinking in this and let people stumble onto this and laugh at me. I wish I could speak another language. Maybe something like German. I hear it's nice there with some smart peeps. Who knows. My wife and I went to Italy and we had a great time in Rome, although I think I had fun and she was just bushed all the time because we walked everywhere. We did finally figure out the bus system after the first 5 days, but by then we were tuckered. Anyway, I had a friend in Ireland once. She was quite smart. Doesn't this thing sound like a 5 year old wrote it? Huh. Anyway, if you do read this, please drop me a line and let me know how dumb this posting was and how you wish you could hit me in the head with a sock full of loose change.

This is my inaugural entry

Hey everyone, this is Kleetus, your friendly whitetrash programmer. I write software, but I do it very haphazardly. If software were a physical thing, I would have it up on blocks in my front yard. My interests are creating sentences with dangling prepositions (You know where I am at?) and mispelling the word 'alot'. I hate most people and like most cats and dogs. I often think about how children might be the death of us and I like to run with scissors. Gracias.