If you found this post on google, you, probably, are about to give up. I was too. But I found a solution that worked for me. So, if you, like me, have seen zillions of webpages discussing the problem but none of solutions worked for you, keep reading (and please comment if this post helps you to solve your problem).

So the problem was that CD or DVD driver has no DMA enabled and hdparm would report an error:

 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

when trying to enable DMA.

I have Intel-based HP desktop with SATA HDD and IDE DVD combo drive. No problem with HDD, but DVD got stuck in PIO mode and hdparm is no help anymore. I have modules ata_piix and libata loaded.

After scanning though many discussions and FAQs, I finally found the most accurate description of the problem that offered a way to fix it. So I did exactly what they told:

# echo options libata atapi_enabled=1>/etc/modprobe.d/atapienable
# update-initramfs -u

and added

combined_mode=libata

option to kernel line in grub’s menu.lst

After reboot DVD drive was finally in UDMA mode!

This week I was hoping to put some finishing touches on it. The last missing piece arrived – so-called “Vista Rock Remote”.

According to MythBunty HOWTO, this MCE-compatible remote should work out of box, despite some reviews saying it would only work with Vista. Don’t know if it works with Vista though, but it worked in MythBunty just fine. I only had to enable it in Mythbuntu control center. And restart MythTV frontend, of course.

Funnily enough, I noticed the big problem straight away. Every time I put recorded TV show on and tried to use volume up/down buttons on remote, the picture was getting sluggish and jumpy for noticeable time. Actually, it felt so weird I even thought that I might be only one who had that problem. I was not right – there were plenty of similar reports on Internet. And there was a workaround proposed also.

The root cause of the problem is that MythTV pokes X screensaver every time button on remote is pressed. It does not have to do so when you use keyboard, but must do it when you use remote as screensaver has no idea about it. MythTV kicks the screensaver by invoking “gnome-screensaver-command” with parameter –poke, and there are reports it does it twice every time you press the button. It isn’t itself a problem, the problem is that when this command is called often (and it exactly what happens when you try to put volume up or down) XOrg CPU usage jumps to 100%, which causes that unwanted “special effect” in your video.

This bug, however, has already been reported (here and here)  and the fix will probably be included in next MythTV release. For now, the only workaround was to disable screensaver and create a symbolic link to /bin/true with name gnome-screensaver-command somwehre in one of PATH’s directories that comes in front of where the original program resides. Say, if your PATH looks like

/usr/sbin;/usr/bin;/usr/local/bin

and gnome-screensaver-command is in /usr/local/bin, you can stop it from being called by creating link to /bin/true in either/usr/sbin or /usr/bin:

ln -s /bin/true /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command

But it would only work if you decide to disable the screensaver. You can try not to, but once display goes to sleep, you won’t be able to wake it up by using remote. So I decided to invent something more sophisticated.

Of course, I could  download sources, fix the bug and build MythTV myself, but I decided to leave it to mythbuntu team. Instead, I written small program that simply does not allow screensaver to be poked more often than once in a minute, which fixed the problem.

The good news: you can download it from this site: Mythtv screensaver proxy

The bad news: you must build it yourself. So, installing build-essentials first would be a good idea.

Download cpp file above somewhere in your home directory and then follow simple steps described in file header:

/*
 * Usage:
 *      1. execute "which gnome-screensaver-comand"
 *      If output is different from what you find below in
 *      DEF_PROGRAM, modify this macro accordingly.
 *
 *      2. build the program:
 *      g++ myth-screensaver-proxy.cpp -o gnome-screensaver-command
 *
 *      3. Find what directory original gnome-screensaver-command is in
 *              (/usr/bin/ by default).
 *
 *      4. Look at your PATH settings (printenv | grep PATH).
 *
 *      5. copy binary buld on step 2 to any of the directories that
 *      come in PATH before original gnome-screensaver-command directory.
 *
 */

I bet this computer will not leave any chances to competitiors in Russia. Its name “VieBook” sounds somewhat between “I will rock you book” and funny statement of intentions of sexual character.

Another example why global market can be a pain in the ass for marketologists.

In “Transport” chapter a few paragraphs were focused on that by 2000′ a second airport should be built in Sydney. No doubts it should have already happened. But it did not. I remember how amused I was when I learnt that the largest and busyiest air hub in southern hemisphere is closing for any flights every night. Well, to be honest, I could hardly imagine a modern city with the airport nearly in its center before!

Anyway, that book pointed a few options where second airport could have had been built. Of course, we already heard of options like “somewhere on West” or “in Richmond” but there was another interesting option – they were also talking about Wyong shire and even considered it as one of the prefferred options. Never happened though. Yet (?).

Well, this is all about a front cover of today’s “Central Coast Sun Weekly” – it says that the government is once again revisiting plans to build a new airport for Sydney and there  are “many feasible reasons” why it should be build in Somersby. Not far away from Wyong, but nothing new – they already shortlisted in in 1969 and there was a 500-people demonstration against it back in 1971 (see aph.gov.au).

I am not quite sure how feasible is it really – from my impression landscape here on Central Coast is anything but suitable for airports. I am not airport architect and I don’t know all the details – may be Somersby plateau is large enough for long runways required for A380, but that besides the point. Even the fact that some businesses have already backed the proposal (which is understandable) so as that it is not know yet how would it change the face of Central coast and affect the enfironment are not important yet. I rather curious about whether they decide or not finally? This discussion already seems to last for over 50 years.

This is easy to understand – while there is nothing wrong in static variable, even in global static variable, we must ensure that it is initialized before it is used first, which is especially important if the object has to be created dynamically. And this is the problem Singleton pattern solves.

Take the example

// SomeSourceFile.h
#include "CoffeePlantation.h"
static CoffeePlantation g_Plantation;

// SomeSourceFile.cpp
#include "SomeSourceFile.h"
// Initialize the instance
g_Plantation = CoffeePlantation();

Note – coffee plantation object is created on a stack. Plantation’s constructor will be called before main() and, presumably, any other code that uses g_Plantation. But in order to use this single plantation, you’ll must include this “SomeSourceFile.h” into every file when it is or may be referred from. Moreover, once you added more global statics, you may get lost is you sources as you’ll need to keep in mind which header declares what variable. Having single common header file may help a little, though, but not always.

From the other hand, there are still heaps of cases when you’d rather use global static variable for certain need. For instance, pattern “State” (see “Design patterns” by GoF) assumes that all object represent states have to implement singleton pattern. But at the closer look you may realize that it makes code unnecessary complex and bulky – state machine of that kind assumes that all transitions and states are already known, they don’t change in runtime and can be created once-and-for-all, in other words, they must be static.

Right, how we handle this situation then?

Well, it’s about the time when “template” word, so many developers are still afraid of, should be addressed. C++ template is a great way to ask compiler to generate as many synthetic data types as we want exactly when we need them. For instance, vector<char> and vector<unsigned char> are two different data types. Which meaning does it have for our task?

Check this out:

// file name: StaticInstance.htemplate <class T>
class  tStaticInstance
{
public:
        static T* GetInstance();
private:
        static T m_Instance;
}

template <class T>
T tStaticInstance<T>::m_Instance = T();

That’s it. That’s really all we need to hide ugly global static behind nice looking fence. Now, instead of declaring static variable in designated header and then pushing it *.h around the project, just do this:

#include "StaticInstance.h"/// somewhere somewhentStaticInstance<MyConcreteType>::GetInstance()->SomeMethod();

tStaticInstance<OtherType>::GetInstance()->SomeMethod();

This code may look a bit scary, but it solves the whole bunch of problems:

• There is no need to modify either of MyConcreteType or OtherType to implement singleton functionality they may not need generally.
• Global static variable can be “created” from any place in your program without the need of declaring it anywhere else
• Does not have singleton’s weaknesses
• This expression clearly explains that in this particular place we wanted to deal with single global instance of the class. There are quite a few cases when it may be useful
• Code is very simple
• Static objects are created automatically and only if they are used. Unlike the case with implicit static declaration, it is now impossible to declare an object that is never used.

Of course, there is a price to pay:

• The uniqueness of the instance is only guaranteed within single binary and we fully rely on modern compiler and linker
• Object gets created once a construction with tStaticInstance::GetInstance() appears in the code, even if that code is never going to be used (which is quite bad by itself) or gets called once in a blue moon.

It is also not idiot-proof:

MyType pInstance* = tStaticInstance<MyConcreteType>::GetInstance();

delete pInstance;     // Something bad happens here

That delete will lead to crash, but it will be trivial to track down and fix. You write unit test for you code, aren’t you?

I have been using this pattern in several projects and it works just fine, assuming that it is intended for occasions where your code is allowed to know that is deals with static instance of the class.

Having said that, this is how I would deal with my coffee plantation:

// CoffeeHarvester.h
#include "CoffeePlantation.h"
#include "StaticInstance.h"
// ...
tStaticInstance<CoffeePlantation>::GetInstance()->CheckIfCoffeeRipeEnough();

But there is quite an unexpected workaround:

ping -n 2 127.0.0.1 > nul

will stop batch execution for 2 seconds. (Replace 2 with your number for longer pause.)

Very simple and neat. Or is it?

I mean mostly those incompetent professors of blah-blah-blah science who back internet censorship project. As an IT professional I do not need any explanations why it will not work (and it won’t indeed!), I rather more interested in real reasons what is their interest in it.

At a first glance, this comedy seems to be heated by those alternatively gifted persons who, should they get into WWW, see only porn there. That say, you get what you want. But guys, try to see the doctor, they say such sexual disorders are no longer lethal.

I use internet all the time, I’d say I do it for living, but I haven’t seen any porn for years. Probably, because I am not interested. Okay, what then I am worried about if porn (and, I assume, many of other things those politicians hide behind the word “illegal content”) isn’t in my area of interests?

Well, there are quite a few reasons. At first, the more you have, the more you want. Today they lock “illegal” contents, tomorrow they’ll want to read your email, day after they’ll want you to jump on one leg if they ask to. At second, I am also sure that some sites which were perfectly legal and did not promote any euthanasia or other stuff they want to block today will suddenly fall into filter black list and become unacessible.

But there is more and I suspect that may be the main reason: they may want to control people’s downloads. That’s right – they want to be sure nobody downloads “newest coolest song of Britney Spears” or “another one blockbuster” from famous Hollywood shit-writers and shit-producers for free. I would not worry about that as I can (and do) live without that crap, but if I am right, this would only mean that those greedy Hollywood’s shit-makers want to keep their hairy hands deep in our pockets and they try to lobby the means that will bring a lot of pain to us, legitimate internet users! Event more, if that plan is applied, we may lose P2P networks in an instant. Needless to say that today’s P2P networks aren’t synonyms of “piracy”, a lot of Open Source products use them as transport – compared to huge file servers, they cost almost nothing to run, are reliable, and very, very fast. Last time I downloaded Ubuntu install disk, I had it on my hard disk 15 minutes after download has been started.

Sad thing is they are comitted to spend more than 100 millions on this. Our millions. Instead of fixing public transport, building new hospitals or provide better education they want to screw the network that was created by community and works perfectly. Of course, there are many different things that can harm in internet. But there are many potentially deadly things in every kitchen – so let’s ban all knives and frame thier owners!

P.S. Here is the transcript of questionary where Senator Conroy failed to answer any reasonable questions regarding internet cersorship and especially ignored the question why he lied about countries like as Sweden, UK, Canada and NZ already having mandatory internet filtering in place. Nice, isn’t it?

Ok, that does not seem a joke anymore. Even news.com.au finally popped a little note about it – Australian government is really pushing forward its plan to implement compulsory content filtering in internet.

In press releases available they mention that there will be two levels of content filtering – the one that filters “adult” material (remember previous government testing it and apparently failed?), which could be opt-out and the second compulsory filter which is supposed to block “illegal” material.

There is very interesting detail – they are ready to spend (or should I say “waste”) more than $40 mil on this. Waste because they don’t know what really are they going to block and don’t give a shit how an whether it is going to work at all! Two weeks ago they claimed it would be only child pornography that will be blocked, one week ago they added mysterious “illegal materials” to the list, today they say “euthanasia and anorexia” will be banned. Personally I don’t give a shit if they block this indeed, but I think the idea of leaving to some unknown person to decide what is illegal and what is not is ill. And those who come up with such idea are mentally sick and should be banned from society before they implement any of their crazy plans.

Another interesting detail – it won’t work. They’ll waste these money for what is not going to work at all. Providing that they are not going to build an iron curtain around the country. Let me not to go deep into technical details, just believe me – it will just reduce internet speed to the bottom, will not filter half of so-called “illegal” sites and have a high rate of false positives.

So why the government is so insane about getting that done? They want to protect our fragile minds from horrible contents of anorexia sites or what? Or, which is more likely, they want to build a base to outlaw P2P file sharing? Or, which is ever more likely, someone really wants to get 44 mil of our money for free? In one very corrupted country this is called “to saw the budget”

From my point of view, there are way more things in the country that urgently need those 44 mils. Public transport, hospitals, education, any other infrastructure, at the end. But this government does something weird – they gave 35 millions of taxpayers money to Toyota, then went forward with controversial desalination plant, then want to “protect us” by giving 44 millions to mysterious “internet filter” inventors, and it seems there are more to come.

So dear Kevin, aren’t you afraid of that by trying to keep rabbits away, you may really get there?

Links:

• No Clean Feed
• EFA website
• Internet filtering is just a wast of money

Sorry, no postcard views – there are already plenty of them in internet. Moreover, most of these pictures were taken on mobile phone.

This is the typical suburb up there. Thanks to dry weather, these trees will keep their colorful appearance for some time, until snow starts.

Opposite that, historical center has a little bit more urban outlook. It does not look abandoned and depressing at all – it is simply one of those streets with little to none traffic where there is nothing interesting for bargain hunters.

This is the same street, but a little bit further. Apart from 17 century buildings, nothing interesting.

That’s just awesome. Birch trees waiting for winter to come. Quiet and calm. And wet and sometimes cold. But still incredibly beautiful. Wallpapers with pictures like this were very popular once.

It looks like there is another “little crack” in the road. And it looks like the crack has been known since April this year but still nothing has been done. And it looks like the crack is just as little as 50 meters long and it continues to grow. And, surprisingly, it looks like the crack is caused by rainwater escaping damaged underground pipe, which happened to be situated right under that section of the road. I have a feeling that I already heard about some road been washed away by rainwater…

Anyway, according to todays “Express advocate“, the issue was addressed with “High priority”. Which apparently means nothing has been done. Yet?

Something is definitely wrong with roads on Central Coast. Have you heard that two weeks ago we were just centimeters away from another road collapse on Kariong Hill? That’s why they doing those urgent roadworks on Saturdays’ nights.

Let’s just hope this is simply a surface crack, which could easily be caused by numerous reasons but don’t usually lead to road closures; at least as far as I can judge from newspaper’s photo, it is about as serious as that. I want to go there during daytime to see it by myself. Not sure If I can scrap a moment this weekend, but may be it is the time to sell the car as driving around Coast will soon become impossible?