I chose to do this for two reasons: a) I still like the idea of keeping my blog around for those times when I feel like I want to write something and b) allow those to keep up with me who are interested in doing so without having to visit more than one site at a time. I hate it when you visit a site and there's all kinds of things going on that make you visit other sites.

So, enjoy the updated layout and hopefully I'll find more time in the future to blog again.

~out..

So I started to research what kind of file system would be necessary to be able to share data between these two operating systems. I figured it wouldn't be terribly complicated, as Mac OS X and Linux are both based off UNIX. Come to find out that this wasn't necessarily true.

It seems that Mac OS X only uses HFS and HFS+ for it's file systems. While it can support FAT and FAT32, these file systems wouldn't fit my needs as they have a 4GB limitation. The other file system supported by Mac OS X is ufs, which isn't supported well in Linux. So, it seems that my best option was to use HFS+.

I formatted the HD using HFS+, using the non-journalled version of the file system to ensure compatability. After the drive was formatted and I verified that it was mounting and read/writing properly on the Mac, I unmounted the drive and plugged it into my Linux laptop. I received an error that the system couldn't automatically mount the file system properly. I could mount the file system with no problems manually using mount -t hfsplus /dev/sdb3 /mnt ... but I wanted the ability to have the system automatically see the drive and mount it to my desktop for ease of use.

I discovered after doing some research on the Web that it is possible to get Ubuntu to do this. It requires the installation of the following applications:

- usbmount
- pmount

After installing these two apps, I unplugged the drive, waited a second and plugged it back in. Sure enough, Ubuntu was able to successfully detect the HD and it showed up on my desktop as I was expecting. I tested the drive to ensure that it was read/write, which it was.

I ejected the HD from Linux and plugged it back into my Mac OS X laptop and verified that I could read/write to the files written to the HD by my Linux machine. I confirmed that everything worked as expected.

Now I just need to update the rest of my desktops here at the house and I will be good to go for backing up all of my data.

EXTRA NOTE: For good measure, I made sure that Linux auto loaded the HFS and HFS+ file systems on boot by edited the /etc/modules file and adding a line for hfs and hfsplus, respectively.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: You can also use FAT32 to share the data as well. Both Linux and Mac OS X have built in support for formatting large hard drives (120+ GB) with FAT32. Windows 2K, XP, etc limits the size to 32GB, so attempting to use Windows for formatting the external HD really isn't an option.

~out...

Playing about 30 minutes to an hour every weekend, it took me roughly 4 months to complete the game. I got the bad ending. I'm going to have to play through it again and see the good ending. That'll probably be in another 4 months.

I stay too busy these days. I still have several games that I need to dig my claws into, but I guess they'll have to wait until I can get some time off.

~out...

To make sure that this wasn't a hacking attempt, I will be upgrading my Web infrastructure in the next few days. I've been running this version of MT for quite some time now, and I think it may be time to make the move to fix any bugs or security holes that have been discovered since I last upgraded.

I'm a big fan of HandBrake. It's a nifty little application that converts DVD files into video so that you can put them on your iPod and other portable devices. It has a really nice GUI interface for Mac OS X, but if you're a Linux user like me, you're stuck with the command line interface (aka CLI).

There are people that have been working on a GUI for Linux, or trying to use the Windows GUI using Mono. Either way, these projects just aren't ready for prime time at this point. So, I wrote a script several months back that allowed me to automate the HandBrakeCLI application. The script asks for specific input and processes the HandBrakeCLI with the given variables instead of having to remember all of the switches and information that goes along with the CLI. Yesterday, I decided to release it under the GPL v2 and make it available for anyone to use.

So, this is the official announcement of the availability of the hbencoder script, version 1.1 (see below for the older version). It has been tested and used on Ubuntu 7.04. It should work on other Linux distributions as well. If I get feedback on it or requests, I may take some time to add features and/or make adjustments. However, please keep in mind that I do work full time and like most other people who do these kinds of things, I work on it in my spare time.

Click the image for a larger version.

You can download the hbencoder script from this Web site. You can leave questions, comments, feedback, etc in the comments section of this post.

Update - 10/11/2007: Version 1.1 of the hbencoder script is now released. You can download the file from the link above. The older and very broken version 1.0 of the script can still be found here. The hbencoder script is now available via SourceForge.net. The links above will take you to the project page on SF for the hbencoder script. Enjoy!

Update - 10/07/2007: After releasing the script, I noticed several problems. I have been working on an update all weekend, re-writing most of the script to be more functional. I will be releasing this update this week.

SOFTWARE

Rhythmbox - http://www.gnome.org/projects/rhythmbox/
- Supports DAAP music sharing
- Supports AAC encoded files
- Supports iPods
Notes: I use this program extensively at home, as it is very robust and has great features/plug-ins like DAAP.

Songbird - http://www.songbirdnest.com/
- Features gallore - http://www.songbirdnest.com/features
- Supports iPods (with plug-in enabled)
Notes: A new player on the block, but looks promising. Built off the same framework as Firefox.

Floola - http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/
- Transfer your music, video, picture etc library from any machine to any iPod and vice versa.
- Doesn't require your iPod to be registered with a specific machine in order to transfer files.

INSTALLATION

To install Rhythmbox:
- Should already be installed. You can find it under Applications > Sound & Video.
- If it's not installed, open Synaptic (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager). Do a search for Rhythmbox and install.

To install Songbird and all audio/video codecs:
- Download Automatix2 from this URL: http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/dists/feisty/main/binary-i386/automatix2_1.1-4.11-7.04feisty_i386.deb
- Double click on the file to open a package manager. There will be an "Install" button. Click on the button to do the deed.
- Open Automatix from Applications > System Tools > Automatix.
- Click on "YES" when asked if you agree.
- Under CODECS AND PLUGINS, check the following: AUD-DVD, FLASH PLAYER, MPLAYER AND FF PLUGIN, MULTIMEDIA CODECS, SUN JAVA 1.6
- Under MEDIA PLAYERS AND EDITORS, check the following: SONGBIRD.
- Click on the green START button to begin the installations.
- You may have to answer "YES" or "NO" questions to finish the installation.
- Once the installation has been completed, you will be able to find the new players under Applications > Sound & Video.

To install Floola:
- Download Floola for Linux (GTK) from this URL: http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=download
- This should save the file, Floola-linux.tar.gz, on your desktop. Right click on the file and select "EXTRACT HERE".
- This will place a folder on your desktop called "FLOOLA-LINUX".
- Open the folder and double click on the Floola icon. This will start the program.
- If you have your iPod connected to the computer, click on the "iPod Not Connected" message at the bottom of the page and it will connect.

Note: If you want to make it so that other people can use this program, do the following...
- Open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).
- Type in the following exactly as shown below (copy and paste if need be):
sudo mv Desktop/Floola-linux /usr/local/
ln -s /usr/local/Floola-linux/Floola /usr/bin/floola
- The first line will move the Floola-linux folder from your desktop into another folder called /usr/local.
- The second line will create a symbolic link (aka Shortcut) to the Floola binary into the /usr/bin directory, so it can be shared with others who may be using this machine.

From this point, you can create a customer launcher to start the Floola program from your machine:
- Right click on the desktop
- Select "Create Launcher..." from the menu that appears.
- Enter the following options exactly as shown below:
Type: Application
Name: Floola
Command: floola
Comment: Floola iPod Utility
Click on the "NO ICON" button to select an icon for the program.
Click on the OK button to finish the custom launcher.
- This will put a launcher on your desktop so you can start Floola easily. You can also start Floola by typing ALT+F2, which will bring up a "RUN APPLICATION" dialog box. Type in "floola" (without quotes and all lowercase) and click on the RUN button to launch the application.

Hopefully this information will be useful to others out there who're looking for a good iTunes alternative in Ubuntu Linux.

~out...

It's amazing how one's opinion of rain can change when you own a home.

Amanda and I have been at the house 5 months now. In this period of time, it hasn't rained much at all. As a matter of fact, I would say that I could count the total number of days with any kind of significant rain on one hand. I definitely haven't seen a day where it did nothing but rain all day, much less where it rained several days in a row. As a direct result of all this non-rain, my yard has been suffering greatly.

Initially, I attempted to water my yard twice a week to help offset the lack of moisture in the ground. I would water both the front and back 4 hours each on both Saturday and Sunday. I soon realized that this was a futile attempt to keep the ground saturated, as it would take a significant amount of water to do so in the hot spring and summer days. Therefore, I made the decision to water the lawn enough to keep the grass from completely drying out and dying.

And now that's gotten to be a bit of a challenge as well. It's been so damn dry and humid over the past two months that I would literally need to water my yard on almost a daily basis in order to keep any kind of moisture in the ground. The grass has turned yellow in quite a few areas and the only parts of the yard that are actually staying any kind of green are the shaded parts next to the house.

I pray for rain these days.

My neighbor, Scotty, said it best to me when I first met him: "Rain is free water". And boy, was he ever correct. After seeing my water bill come in from the attempts to keep my lawn hydrated, I see myself wanting it to rain more and more these days. Any time that it does rain, it puts a smile on my face. I'm in a better mood when I see rain clouds forming and when I actually see it raining, I'm half tempted to go out and just stand in it just so I can appreciate it better.

We're half way through the summer months now, so I feel like we're at the peak of the misery. I'm hoping at this point in time that we may begin to see an increase in precipitation and that my poor yard will once again begin to show some green. I'm hoping that before Winter hits that I will be able to enjoy my back yard a few more times ... having a bar-be-que with my friends and neighbors and such.

Here's to hoping.

~out...

These days, having the spare time to do something simple like posting a comment on my Web site seems more like a luxury. I've been spending a significant amount of time at work, especially in the past month, trying to play catch-up because I've been so darn swamped. I've spent this time attempting to re-structure my department, as we've had a few people leave within a matter of weeks from each other. So, I've promoted some people from within my department (I'm all about being able to bring people up) and am now actively looking for replacement technicians.

By the time I get home, I'm beat. There have been quite a few times in the past two months where I've passed out on the couch almost immediately after walking in the door. I'll wake up right before bedtime, head up the stairs to the bedroom and go right back to sleep again. On days where I can actually do something productive after I get home, I've been working to improve the house on the inside. I've tried my luck at electrical wiring with a startling degree of success (i.e. the house has yet to burn down) by installing two wireless ceiling fans and a single hanging light.

The work on the yard has been an effort in frustration and futility. It hasn't really rained since early spring, and the grass stays dried out and mostly dead. I attempted to keep the yard watered twice a week, but realized rather quickly that any attempt to keep moisture in the ground was pointless. The heat and humidity seem to suck it out of the soil almost as quickly as it penetrates past the top of the earth. I haven't canceled my lawn treatments as of yet ... it's my last ditch effort to keep some kind of green in my lawn. I water the sucker for about 4 hours after the treatment to get the nutrients into the soil and then leave it be. Maybe come fall, I'll have a jungle in my back yard.

In other news, Amanda graduated from college in May. I've never been so proud of her. We've been through a lot together in the past 8 years that we've been together, and this is one of the last major hurdles that she has to go through. When we met, she was in college down at Murray State. She left college to come back home ... partially because she wasn't happy there and partially because she wanted to be with me. I told her that I would get her back into college, even if it meant that I would have to pay for it myself. Well, I kept my promise and we finally saw the end of the road about a month ago. Now that she's out of school, she's looking diligently to find a full time job that pays somewhat decent.

Here's to hoping that we find a good place for her. No one seems to appreciate her hard work...

Amanda and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary last month on the 17th. Hard to believe that it's been a year since that crazy day. We've all heard the expression that time flies as you get older. As each year passes, I tend to believe that statement more and more. I honestly don't know where the past year has gone. It doesn't seem like that much time has honestly passed. But then, I sit down and think about what has been accomplished in that year, I can honestly see that the time has passed. And has I think about time passing by, it makes me think of my upcoming 30th birthday, and that I will be 40 years old in just 10 more years.

I feel like I've just started my life ... how can I be so far along in age?

On a different topic, I got to meet some very nice people from California recently. At work, we're in the process of rolling out a brand new, proprietary printing system that will be used for production. Two of the people that are responsible for this system came here to Kentucky to help get the ball rolling. I knew that they had (and have) a significant task ahead of them, so I did everything in my power to make sure that their stay here was as enjoyable as I could possibly make it. Along the way, I believe that Amanda and I made two new friends from Ania and Jordan. They were a joy to have here and I hope that I will see them come back in the near future ... or maybe I will see them on their home turf when I finally get to make my way out to Cali.

Well, I think I've said enough for one post. Maybe things will start to calm down here in the next few weeks and I will be able to get back to a semi-regular posting schedule.

Until then!

~out...

I've heard from many different people before we purchased the house that there is always something to work on and/or fix. How true this has turned out to be. I still need to finish painting the downstairs area, as I haven't had much time since my vacation to work on it. In addition to the living room, there are still boxes yet to be touched that REALLY need to be unpacked. And on top of it all, the yard looks like crap.

So I'm hitting different areas to keep it all interesting.

Last week, I began working on the yard. There are weeds EVERYWHERE. Crabgrass, clovers and a whole other assortment of junk litters both the front and back yards. I purchased a spreader and some lawn feed/weed killer to begin the work of getting my yard in some kind of condition. I spent last weekend spraying weeds with a bottle of weed killer.

While I was doing this, I had an opportunity to meet my new next door neighbor. He's a great guy ... offering me a beer and an opportunity to talk in his back yard. We talked about all kinds of things, but the most interesting thing that I heard from him was about how he has gotten his yard to look so good. I got a few pointers from him regarding watering the lawn and mowing, and I took them to heart. He also said that when he first started working on his yard, he brought in a company to get it started. I told him I was thinking about doing the same, and he highly recommended doing it.

So early last week, I called a lawn company to see what kind of prices that they were going for. I got a call back around Wednesday ... and to my surprise, they were only $38.00 per treatment with absolutely no contract required at all. Considering that I had spent $15.00 on the lawn feed and another $15.00 on the bottle of weed killer ... this really seemed like a good deal. After you add up the time I spent getting the feed spread and the weeds sprayed, I was already well over $38 dollars. Not to mention that this is a professional company that knows what they're doing, it just seemed to make sense to have them come out a few times a year and get my lawn into some kind of decent shape. I've scheduled for them to make their first trip out in the beginning of April, as I had already feed the lawn once already.

This weekend, since it's cold as hell (in Spring, mind you), I'm spending my time working on the boxes that have yet to be unpacked. The office hadn't really been touched since we moved in, so I made it my priority. I spent the day unpacking all the boxes, organizing desks and the closets and the plastic storage shelves. I realized today that the storage shelves took a considerable beating during the move and that they're probably going to need replacing. Amanda and I may go tomorrow to look at new storage units to see if there is anything out there that may be a little more sturdy than the units we currently are using.

Otherwise, for the most part, the office has been completed. There are some pictures and things to hang on the walls. I'm not planning to paint this room, as it is pretty small. I'm concerned that putting anything other than white in here will make it look way too small. I figure if we get enough large pictures on the wall that will take care of the "too much white" factor that we currently have.

Finally, Amanda and I are planning on getting the spare bedroom in order ... possibly even tomorrow. She wants to go and look for a bed to put in the room. When we moved, we gave away the futon that we used to use for a spare bed, so we haven't had any extra place for people to sleep when they come over. Amanda's dad, Dewey, stays over quite often these days when he's in town repo'ing vehicles, so it's a pretty big priority to get something in there soon. We'll probably go out tomorrow to see if we can find a mattress, box spring and bed frame for some decent price. I'm hoping to keep it around $200-$300 max if at all possible.

He's to hoping...

~out...

And, without further delay, the YouTube video of the House Changes:

Slowly but surely, everything is coming together. I'm hoping to have the rest of the interior of the house done within a few more weeks. It would be nice if I had two weeks vacation, but that just isn't going to happen. Instead, I'm going to have to do more work on the weekends to get everything else completed. I still have to paint the dining room, kitchen, bathrooms and the upstairs hallway.

I'm not even considering the bedrooms at this point.

Also, now that it's getting nicer outside, we're going to start doing some yard work. I have quite a battle ahead of me, as the yard is full of clovers and junk. The flower bed out front is in complete disarray ... either by the people that lived here before us or people taking advantage of an empty house. Either way, it all has to be taken care of.

Now, I just need to get a shed, a mower, a weed eater and a few other items so I can begin my work outside.

~out...

So, why has it been so long since my last vacation? Well, as most people are aware, it's been quite a few years since I worked at the TV station. My last vacation was taken during my tenure there. The other jobs that I've had in between now and then haven't lasted long enough to allow me to save up any time to actually take off. Not to mention that one of the places I worked drove me extremely hard, having put in a significant amount of time during my stay there. Even if I had stayed, I doubt I would've ever have gotten a real vacation at any point in time.

The ties that bind, I guess...

So, back to my current vacation. This week, I've been painting and doing some organization to the house. Thus far, I have gotten the living room painted, in addition to the main dividing wall between the living room and dining room. I still have the dining room and kitchen to go, but I don't know if I'm going to have it all done before my vacation is up.

I'm going to try to take some time to myself at some point during this week.

Well, that's all I have for now.

~out...

As of Wednesday, February 28th 2007, Amanda and I became home owners. We closed around 10AM that morning, with the process taking roughly 2 hours to complete. After the closing was complete, we went to have a celebratory lunch and headed to the house to clean and change out the locks.

The new Engelking homestead.

We moved on Saturday, March 3rd. It was a cold and dismal day ... which is no surprise because for some reason any day I choose to move there is some kind of weather event. It was snowing very heavily, however there was no accumulation to speak of. The move began at 10AM and lasted for roughly 2 hours. We had gotten rid of a large majority of furniture and other belongings we didn't need or no longer wanted, so it made the move go that much faster.

After it was all said and done, we went out to Jerry's J-Boy on Dixie Highway to celebrate our move in. The food was good, as was the company we kept. Overall, it was a good day.

~out...

Jeff recently made his way out here to KY a few weeks ago, and stayed in town for two days. During his trip here, we had a chance to sit and talk for a bit. He mentioned to me that I should make a trip out to California to see the corporate office and meet everyone that works there.

This is something that Denis and I have talked about on and off again over the past year. I knew that I would end up going sometime in the future, but we always had too many fires to put out here at PFS. There is always some big project coming down the pipe ... something that needs my total attention at all times.

I have several of these kinds of projects coming up.

So, about two weeks ago, Denis sent me an instant message asking me when would be a good time for me to come out to California. He wanted to make it within a certain period of time ... a matter of weeks ... rather than the typical "you should come out here sometime" that we normally discuss.

Well, this month is a busy one for me, so I didn't know how to answer right off the bat. I knew that I had to discuss the situation with Amanda first and foremost. We're also in the middle of closing on a house and I'm still waiting to get my car back from repair. Not to mention the fact that we need to pack up the apartment and get ready to move. On top of this, my birthday is next week.

So, after discussing the trip with Amanda and getting some house paperwork out of the way, I gave the A-OK to Denis to get me a ticket. I received the flight information today. I'm heading out in a few weeks and will be gone for just a few days.

This won't be my first trip out West. A little over a year ago, I was in Phoenix, Arizona. I loved my trip out there, but I was gone for a really long time. It's one thing to take a trip and be gone for a few days, but in this particular instance, I was out in a strange city by myself for almost two weeks. This time, I will be going to a strange city and state that I've never been to before, but this time I will be going to see people I already know and/or have talked to many many times before.

I'm excited about the trip. I knew that it was inevitable that I would make a trip to the corporate office one day, but now that the plane ticket has been bought and a date has been set, it's becoming more real. I'll finally get to meet my counterpart in CA, Darren Joe, who I regularly taunt via Jabber whenever I get the chance. Oh ... and trust me ... he gets me back too.

I'm also excited to see the new data center that has been recently setup. I've heard Denis talk about it many many times over, so I'm eager to see what they've done to get it up and running. I'm also interested to see how the IT department is setup in CA and to see how different or alike they are compared to my group of guys. Either way, it'll be nice to finally put a face with a name ... and I have quite a few of those to put together.

Well, that's all I have for now. Probably the next time I blog, I will be doing it from CA. Hopefully it'll be warmer than where I am right now. It's supposed to snow tonight, with the possibility of some real accumulation.

~out...

First, a status update on the house situation. Last time I posted about our house hunt, we were still waiting on financing and I mentioned that we had found a house that really liked. Well, shoot to a month later and we're basically in the same situation ... we're still looking for a house. However, our financing did go through. We did make an offer on the other house that we were looking at, however the counter offer that came back didn't sit well with either of us so we decided to pass.

So, we went looking again recently and found a really nice house in a really nice (and new) neighborhood. Amanda took dad to look it over this afternoon and he gave it the thumbs up. We decided to make an offer, so Skip (our realtor) came over this evening and we signed all the paperwork ... again.

Seriously ... how many documents do you have to sign when you're actually buying the darn thing? Just making an offer takes an hour to fill out the paperwork.

We also heard back on the car situation. Basically, the timing chain broke and the valves WERE warped ... so we had to decide if we wanted to rebuild the top of the engine or replace the motor all-together. We managed to find a motor that has 12,000 miles on it with all the goodies (AC, power steering, etc) for roughly $1000.00. I know a good deal when I hear it, so we jumped on it. So, now my new car will be significantly newer when it's all said and done.

Hopefully I'll get the thing back sooner rather than later.

Finally, I've been staying pretty busy these days. Between work and more work, I find it hard to get in any good "relax time" for myself. Then I need to make sure that I get to spend some time with Amanda so we can enjoy one another's company and before you know it, the night is over and it's time for bed. No time for games, no time for posting on the blog ... etc etc etc.

Work has been going pretty good. I've gotten some good reviews from my superiors as of late, which is always a good thing. It's nice to know that the hard work that you put in on a daily basis is seen and appreciated. What's even more interesting is that I'm getting ready to cross over a major milestone ... my first year anniversary with the company. And what a year it has been too. We've gone from having absolutely nothing to a full working plant in a year. My IT department has grown leaps and bounds, and we're continuing to grow on a regular basis. I'm expecting to have around 20 employees under my wing within the next few months.

Thank goodness for my right hand man, Dave. Without his help, I don't know where I'd be right now.

Lets see ... what else?

The German studies have been going pretty slow. It all falls back to the time issue that I mentioned before. I have all kinds of great study material, but I really haven't had any kind of time to put towards it. Learning a language isn't one of those things that you can just put a little bit of time in here and there and expect to learn everything quickly. It takes time and dedication. I have the desire and dedication, just not the time. Hopefully that'll change in the near future.

So, I guess that's all I have for the time being.

Auf Wiedersehen!

... heraus~