Wednesday, April 20, 2011

VirtualBox as a Windows Service

Running VirtualBox as a service allows a guest virtual machine be automatically started when the host is started.

Just a few links for reference:

Friday, April 15, 2011

CiscoWorks LMS 3.2 NetConfig Notes

I want to curse whomever at Cisco who wrote this message:
Warning:

If you have selected Enable Password in Common Parameters pane and Enable Secret in IOS Parameters pane as Disable then Enable Secret password is updated in the Credentials database.

If you have selected Enable Password as No Change in the Common Parameters pane and selected Disable for Enable Secret in the IOS Parameters pane, then Enable Secret Password is updated in the Device and Credentials database.

If you have selected Enable Password as Disable in the Common Parameters pane, and selected No Change for Enable Secret in the IOS Parameters pane, then Enable Password is updated in the Device and Credentials database.
Cisco's software always leaves a lot to be desired, maybe more than others'. But this is beyond the pale.

Monday, April 4, 2011

How to Build an FRC Team Website

I have volunteered to evaluate websites for the FIRST Robotics competition, since one of my daughters is in Team 3322. From reading the websites of a number of FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team websites, I see many of them are missing out on some very basic points. So I thought I would write down some thoughts.

Here is a website received the highest scores among the 11 sites I evaluated: http://www.team2834.com/. Take a look and you will see the points I am going to make below.

  1. Promote FIRST RoboticsIt makes sense, doesn't it? Your team is part of the FIRST community made up by thousands of teams, and the FIRST community needs your team just like others to grow bigger and stronger. So promote the concept behind the FIRST competition to every one of the visitors to your site: Put the FIRST logo where your visitors see when they first come on to the site; Tell them about the game(s) of competition this year; Tell them more about the different programs FIRST has; What is FLL, FTC and FRC, etc. Materials are there on the FIRST website. You are not to copy and paste, but it is not hard to tell the story of FIRST once you learn what the community and programs have to offer.
  2. Team BuildingYour team may be a rookie or a veteran. But your team and team members have their own stories. Tell them on the site. Tell your visitors who you are: Name and number of the team, who are the current members and alumni. Use words, images, videos to tell the stories of your past competitions, current activities, challenges and triumphant moments. Tell stories of people who support the team: mentors, parents and teachers.
  3. Help OthersCoopetition is a word you hear a lot in FIRST events. Basically it means that the kids are competing with each other, while at the same time, they are helping -- cooperate with -- each other. What people do in that sense is to provide helpful information, links, pointers and some times tool kits, to other teams.
  4. Meet Technical ChallengesThere are many technical challenges in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Specifically in building a website, one must make sure that the site passes a few marks:
    1. It needs to render correctly in all the major browser software: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari. Multiple versions of Internet Explorers (6, 7, 8, 9) are in use, but it is probably OK just to target version 7.
    2. It is a plus if the site is made reasonably readable on a mobile device, such as an Android phone or an Apple iPod Touch.
    3. HTML validation: Make sure that there are no errors in the HTML code.
    4. CSS validation: The same here -- make sure there are no errors.
    5. Accessible to handicapped people: It may not come natural to everyone that people challenged physically are also online. It is not difficult to allow them to access a web site. But the tools they use do appreciate a little assistance. For example, giving a photograph an appropriate title, allows a blind person to hear what the photo is about.
  5. Utilize Online Resources
    There are many resources available online for one to build a web site. For example, there are open source content management systems, such as Drupal, Joomla and WordPress that would make the website administration an easier job. There are also online tools to help with the technical challenges mentioned above. For example, the W3C has tools for HTML and CSS validation. There are also tools for accessibility test.
  6. Have Fun!
    I am not good at that. But I trust that the kids will always find ways to have fun while doing things.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Rooting Gone Bad + Road to Recovery (I Hope)

Received on 3/31 my ViewSonic gTablet from the Woot sale. Immediately started researching rooting it and modifying it. To tell the truth, being able to run things on a tablet the way I want it is half the whole reason I want Android.

So I found the XDA Developers forum, registered and started my research. Perhaps being a Linux user, or perhaps the fact that rooting and installing the ClockworkMod Recovery was easy and smooth, made me feel a bit too brave than I should have. Anyway, I ended up following this simple set of instructions rather than dig deeper on the forum. I installed VEGAn-7-03082011-Experimental, rather than VEGAn 6 stable version, since many have reported that the VEGAn 7 experimental releases are stable enough for daily use.

Well, the gtablet ended up in a state where it powers up, displays the ViewSonic 3-bird image, and stops there. That was last night.

But all is not lost. Far from it, since I can hold volume up and start the gTablet in to the ClockworkMod Recovery mode.

At this point, I think I still have an option to repartition the tablet's inner storage (also an SD card?) before nvflash it.

References
[Edit] -- Problem solved! The install guide listed first in the references above really made it easy. I guess the problem I had was caused either by missing a step (although I am pretty sure I followed the instructions to the letter) somewhere, or by the fact that the VEGAn 7 build is not for my particular gTablet.

Anyway, I redid the mod using the stable release of VEGAn v5.1 beta release. My tablet is back. Now I need to get Android Market working so I can get my apps.

[Resolved]