Android Apps I Use Often

I decided it was time to reset my Motorola Driod to factory defaults because it has become increasingly slow. So I made a list of my favorite applications to make it easier to remember which Apps to load. Here is the list of my most frequently used applications:

• Amazon Kindle - E-Reader
• androidVNC - The Open Source (GPL) remote desktop program for Android devices. Connects to most VNC servers: incl TightVNC, RealVNC on Win and Linux, x11vnc, and Apple Remote Desktop on OS/X.
• App 2 SD - Helps identify applications that can be moved to the SD card to keep your phone's internal memory from becoming any more cluttered than necessary.
• Barnacle Wifi Tether - Turn your phone into a Wireless Ad-hoc HotSpot (requires root)
• Battery Defender - Battery Saver
• Camp and RV - I have found this app to be well worth the $4.99 purchase price because we often find ourselves unsure where we will want to stop and camp for the night. This app seems to be the best for locating nearby camping facilities.
• ConnectBot - A powerful open-source Secure Shell (SSH) client. It can manage simultaneous SSH sessions, create secure tunnels, and copy/paste between other applications.
• eBuddy Messenger - Chat on MSN (Windows Live Messenger or WLM), Facebook, Yahoo!, MySpace, Gtalk (Orkut), ICQ, AIM (AOL) and Hyves.
• GasBuddy - Find Cheap Gas
• Pulse - News reader
• Remote Web Desktop - (Requires Root) Remote manage, control and use Android phone through a web browser.
• Satellite AR - Point your phone's camera to the sky, and small icons track the locations of various satellites.
• Screen Filter - Dims your screen for super low light viewing.
• SiriusXM Internet Radio - A great way to make use of your SiriusXM subscription when you aren't in your car. Requires an upgrade when you subscribe.
• Skyfire Web Browser - Optimizes video so you use as much as 75% less bandwidth.

Enable UNIX-based Applications in Windows

I recently discovered a nifty new feature in Windows 2008 and Vista called Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA).

SUA includes an OpenSSH server among other UNIXish features.

To enable SUA, click on the following:

• Start
• Control Panel
• Programs
• Programs and Features
• Turn Features on or off
• Features
• Add Features
• Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications

Then reboot your PC,

Change Network Settings In VMWare Fusion

If you want to change the Subnets used by VMWare Fusion, there seems to be no way in the GUI. So you have to do it form the command-line. Here's how I changed the subnet used by my VMWare Fusion on my MacBook.

1. Open Terminal, or X11 to access the Mac OS command-line and enter the following commands:

   cd /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/ sudo ./vmnet-cli --stop Stopped DHCP service on vmnet1 Disabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet1 Stopped DHCP service on vmnet8 Stopped NAT service on vmnet8 Disabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet8 Stopped all configured services on all networks sudo cp -p locations locations.old

2. Edit the locations file with your favorite editor:
   

   sudo vi locations

3. Change the subnet highlighted in yellow to whatever subnet you need to use.
   

   remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK

   answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.246.1

   answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0 remove_answer VNET_8_NAT answer VNET_8_NAT yes remove_answer VNET_8_DHCP answer VNET_8_DHCP yes

4. Save the locations file with your updates.
5. Use vmnet-cli to re-configure and re-start the network.
   

   sudo ./vmnet-cli --configure Stopped all configured services on all networks Restored network settings sudo ./vmnet-cli --start Started DHCP service on vmnet1 Enabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet1 Started DHCP service on vmnet8 Started NAT service on vmnet8 Enabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet8 Started all configured services on all networks

6. And your subnet should be updated!

Use vmrun Command-Line for VMWare Fusion on Mac OS X

I discovered the vmrun command today and thought I would share what I learned.

1. Open a Terminal, X-Window or your favorite command shell program on your Mac. Paste the following into your Terminal, including the quotes:
   

   "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmrun"

2. The vmrun command will display usage instructions. Here are the commands I use most:
   

   Usage: vmrun [AUTHENTICATION-FLAGS] COMMAND [PARAMETERS] GENERAL COMMANDS PARAMETERS DESCRIPTION ---------------- ---------- ----------- list List all running VMs POWER COMMANDS PARAMETERS DESCRIPTION -------------- ---------- ----------- start Path to vmx file Start a VM or Team [gui|nogui] stop Path to vmx file Stop a VM or Team [hard|soft] reset Path to vmx file Reset a VM or Team [hard|soft] suspend Path to vmx file Suspend a VM or Team [hard|soft] pause Path to vmx file Pause a VM unpause Path to vmx file Unpause a VM

3. Here is how I start my NetApp Data ONTAP 8.0.1 7-Mode Simulator
   

   vmrun start "/Users/lab/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/7M/DataONTAP.vmx"

Data ONTAP 8.0.1 7-Mode Simulator

NetApp provides a simulator for their Data ONTAP operating system that provides most of the same functionality as Data ONTAP on a NetApp storage system. This article includes some basic tips to get you started with the ONTAP 8 7-Mode Simulator.

1. First, if you haven't already, you will need to register for a NetApp support account.
2. Download Data ONTAP 8 7-Mode Simulator from http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/simulator/ontap/8.0/.
3. Unzip the vsim-DOT801-7m.zip file and edit the file in the 7M folder called "DataONTAP.vmx". You can change the name of the Virtual Machine by changing this line:
   

   displayName = "YOUR PREFERRED NAME HERE"

4. From VMWare Fusion or Workstation, use File->Open to open the file in the 7M folder called "DataONTAP.vmx".
5. The Data ONTAP Simulator VM should start as soon as you click open.
   Press a key besides enter when you see the following prompt:

   Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.

   This should bring you to the loader prompt where you can set a unique serial number and system id.
   

   SIMLOADER> set bootarg.nvram.sysid=1111111101 SIMLOADER> set SYS_SERIAL_NUM=1111111101 SIMLOADER> set MOBO_SERIAL_NUM=1111111101 SIMLOADER> boot

6. Press Control-C when you see the following prompt:
   

   ******************************* * Press Ctrl-C for Boot Menu. * *******************************

7. You should see "Boot Menu will be available".
8. Choose option 4 from the boot menu:
   

   Please choose one of the following: (1) Normal Boot. (2) Boot without /etc/rc. (3) Change password. (4) Clean configuration and initialize all disks. (5) Maintenance mode boot. (6) Update flash from backup config. (7) Install new software first. (8) Reboot node. Selection (1-8)? 4

9. Answer "y" to both of the following questions:
   

   Zero disks, reset config and install a new file system?: y This will erase all the data on the disks, are you sure?: y

10. The simulator will reboot, and initialize all disks.
    
11. After disk initialization completes, you will be prompted for simulator configuration information. Here is an example of how I setup my Simulator:
    

    Please enter the new hostname []: simulator

12. I suggest answering yes when you are prompted about interface groups and configure a virtual interface called "vif0" as follows:
    

    Do you want to configure interface groups? [n]: y Number of interface groups to configure? [1] 1 Name of interface group #1 []: vif0 Is vif0 a single [s], multi [m] or a lacp [l] interface group? [s] s Number of links for vif0? [] 2 Name of link #1 for vif0 []: e0a Name of link #2 for vif0 []: e0c Please enter the IP address for Network Interface vif0 []: 192.168.1.10 Please enter the netmask for Network Interface vif0 [255.255.255.0]: Please enter media type for vif0 {100tx-fd, tp-fd, 100tx, tp, auto (10/100/1000)} [auto]: Please enter the IP address for Network Interface e0b []: Please enter the IP address for Network Interface e0d []: Would you like to continue setup through the web interface? [n]: Please enter the name or IP address of the default gateway [192.168.1.254]: The administration host is given root access to the filer's /etc files for system administration. To allow /etc root access to all NFS clients, enter 'all' below. Please enter the name or IP address of the administration host []: Please enter timezone [GMT]: US/Central Where is the filer located? []: Do you want to run DNS resolver? [n]: Do you want to run NIS client? [n]: Do you want to configure the Shelf Alternate Control Path Management interface for SAS shelves [n]: Now type 'reboot' for changes to take effect.

13. As the prompt suggests, type reboot for the changes to take effect.
14. Now you have an ONTAP simulator running in a virtual machine.
15. Log back into your simulator and assign all of the virtual disks to your simulator.
    

    simulator> disk assign all

How To Unlock And Use The Diagnostics Shell in ONTAP 8

Data ONTAP 8 provides a user mode system shell for rare diagnostic tasks. While most of the CPU cycles are spent in various Data ONTAP kernel modules, a user space exists and is used to run some processes and for diagnostics. Below is a quick example of how to unlock the diagnostic user account and gain access to the system shell.

1. First, we need to unlock the diag user and assign it a password:
   

   priv set advanced useradmin diaguser unlock useradmin diaguser password Please enter a new password: Please enter it again:

2. Now log in to the system shell using the diag user account:
   

   systemshell login: diag password:

This diagnostics shell gives you access to the BSD OS that hosts ONTAP. The Data ONTAP simulator has a collection of virtual disks, virtual tapes and other virtual devices. These device files are stored in the BSD filesystem. You can use typical UNIX commands like "cd", "ls", and "sudo".

Add Disks to a 7-Mode Simulator

The ONTAP 8 simulator takes advantage of the user space to implement simulated disks. These disks are kept as files in a special directory. The default simulator comes with 28 simulated disks of 1GB each. It is possible to increase the simulated disk count to 56 simulated disks. Any disk files above the first 56 are ignored. The following procedures will provide step-by-step instructions for doubling the disk count to 56 disks and making the disks available for use.

The procedure to add more disks can be found at http://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-9579 and a summary of this procedure is included below.

1. First you need to add the directory with the simulator disk tools to the path.
   

   setenv PATH "${PATH}:/sim/bin" echo $PATH

2. Then, you need to fix a glitch in how one of the utility programs was compiled. The following set of commands create a symbolic link to a shared library that's needed by the utility.:
   

   cd /lib sudo mount -u -o rw / sudo ln -s libc.so.6 libc.so.7 sudo mount -u -o ro /

3. Go to the simulated devices directory and add two more sets of 14 disks to the currently unused adapters 2 and 3:
   

   cd /sim/dev makedisks.main -h sudo makedisks.main -n 14 -t 23 -a 2 sudo makedisks.main -n 14 -t 23 -a 3 ls ,disks

4. Now we're done with the system shell, so we can exit and reboot to add the new disks.
   

   exit reboot

5. After the reboot complete, log back in and take ownership of all the new disks:
   

   disk assign all sysconfig -r

You should now see 56 disks of 1GB each listed in the simulator. The new disks should be listed as already zeroed and ready to use inside an aggregate.

Urine Controlled Video Games

I stumbled across a story about a urine controlled video game this morning that made me laugh, and the google led me to two similar projects. So, I thought I would share them with everybody.

WARNING: This video includes some adult language.


A similar game called "You're In Control" was featured on the Hacked Gadgets blog back in 2006.


You can also find more pictures and details at the Urine Control home page.

Isn't technology fun?