Kiteboarding: Planning to plane

Finally was able to hydroplane this weekend. The wind was SSE ~15-25Knotts. On Saturday not much at all was achieved, but we got a few good ideas for Sunday.
Starting off hip deep water is best
Once moving the board first acts as a displacement hull
As a displacement hull need ~15cm of water, otherwise I got stuck in the sand
When hydroplaning 5cm of water is plenty (fin deep)
Need to be able to fly the kite in one hand
Get into the board with the kite directly overhead.
Drive the kite down to gain speed & lift from water, then across to pick a direction and slow down.
When crashing keep the board infront of you and send the kite to the edge of the wind envelope, bringing it up after.
Once the kite is in position you don’t need to move it.

Mostly we could only do a beam reach (broad reach was too scary and got shallow quickly) on a port tack. The starboard tack was all back to front and because it was going back to shore we had less&less water. On Sunday we mostly verified the new ideas and I for one started to get a hang of controlling the speed while planning plus starting to compensate for the waves. I’m also pleased that mostly when I fell off I didn’t also crash the kite.

Next challenge will be to get going on a starboard tack, then turning. After that then it will be back to practicing technique. Be a while yet before I try any jumps I think. Also I finally have a collection of photographic proof that I’m not making all this up.

Launching the stuntkite while setting up the big one.

Alice playing with the stunt kite.

Prepared: 3 changes of clothes/ Snorkelling for 2 people/ Kiteboarding/ swag.

 Tony struggelling to position the kite.

Tony on the very first time he stood up sucessfully.

 Photographic proof of Ben with a kiteboard.

 Getting ready for another go.

Pity you have to be so far away with the camera to see both the rider and the kite that I can hardly tell who is kiteboarding.

Time to trial Linux

So I’ve got a new PC, repaired my old one and cant be bothered installing WinXP and all its service packs again. Although I know I could run Win7 I don’t want to fork out the cash for it.

Time to trial Linux.

I’ve mostly sorted this out now but decided to write myself some instructions for next time.

Currently I want this new system to:
Watch anime; will have a second HDD, intranet and VLC.
Surf the net; firefox with the sync thing enabled.
Play games; unlikely but the golden grail, apparently steam will now work. No wine, defiantly no winetricks. I have been down that path before.
Sounds like a HTPC; may have to look into XBMC.

Fist I need to decide on a distro:
Lubuntu; works well on my 2003 laptop, uses few resources, doesn’t have LTS versions.
Ubuntu; is fairly mainstream and I think of it as the next windows, has lots of flashy UI features and is easy for anybody to use.
Mint; apparently more mainstream then Ubuntu, never used myself.
Puppy; May try this later as a setup that solely runs emulators (SNES/GBA/Atari)

I’ve settled on Lubuntu because Ubuntu was slow in tests and then it’s the same as my old laptop. It made my old laptop feel new again. Looking around I think it is the best one for games if they ever get ported to linux. Also the XBMCbuntu OS is built on it.

Secondly
Download an ISO, error check; Burn to CD, error check; boot CD in PC, error check.
Its worth it, the install may be flawed and painful otherwise.
Run the OS from CD, check the feel, surf the net.
Keep the CD around as it will be a good diagnostic tool and can be used to salvage your old OS, whatever it may be.

Thirdly
Use the live CD to partition the drive in preparation for the install.
I’ve always had to check the boot sequence, sometimes more than once.
RAM is cheap at the moment so install a lot of it on the motherboard. 4GB on a 32bit system or 8GB on 64, more if you like as it makes everything faster. On a 32bit system any program cannot use more than 3GB, but with some terminal code the OS can use up to 64GB (apparently)
If you are using a thumb drive like I’ve done make a small (512MiB) Fat32 partition. Thus windows can see that a disk drive is plugged in and wont ask to format it. Everybody can read files in Fat32. Also Win can only see the first logical partition on a SSD.
If you intend to make use of Hibernation or are installing to an internal HDD then make a swap partition at the end of the drive the same size as your RAM. If 1GB ram then 1024MiB of swap.
I haven’t ever bothered with a /home partition as I don’t share my PC.
All the rest gets formatted to ext4 (or8 when it comes out) and this will be for the OS.

Fourthly
Begin the installation process. Other people will give more up to date guides with pictures. My only additions are.
Install GRUB onto the same disk as the OS
Always install all the extras. If you miss an NVIDIA/ATI driver then you will never see any graphics. The only reliable fix is to reinstall the OS again.

Fifthly
After restarting try to play a song. If this works then everything else on the motherboard should be OK. If it doesn’t try to increase the volume/install another audio thing. Failing that check the forums.
Adjust the screen resolution.
Then try a movie. Then try YouTube, if you tube doesn’t work it should tell you why.
Change the “Software Sources” so that it prefers the internode mirror to save the internet before installing anything.
Install Java and Flash through the software center.
Turn the PC off
Unplug everything and but it back in in different sockets if possible. This will eventually happen and its better to find problems today.
Assuming all that works smoothly open the “Software Center” or equivalent and start installing your favorite programs.
Java
Flash
Acrobat reader
CutePDF
Steam
Firefox
VLC

Sixthly
Run the software updater, hopefully by now you have found all the issues and fixed them and will not be wasting your time with this download. Once done restart the PC and run the updater again to confirm everything went smoothly.

Seventhly
And on the seventh I rested, go to the beach or something, use your other computer for a few hours, anything but linux.

Eighthly
I didn’t know that was a real word, anyway the system should be ready to use but I seem to spend as much time playing with Linux as I do playing on Linux. Surfing the web works fine from the CD but none of your preferences or bookmarks get saved.




Afterwards there are always more tweaks to make, after all linux systems are permenantly stuck in beta:

• HDMI to TV doesn’t work

Open terminal, type “alsamixer”, go to the section “s/PDIF” and press “M” to toggle the mute.
Esc to exit.

• Application Launch Bar

The icons here can be changed by right clicking on one of them.

• VLC doesn’t play midi files

Apparently the Linux version of VLC just can’t handle them. According to Benjamin Hodgetts (robotbutler.org/article/49) you need to install Timidity++. And then replace the default soundfont with one Shan made.

• Gamepad/controller

Apparently both an Xbox and PS3 controller can work. Or I could get another Logitech generic device. This place helped to installed the afterglow wired controller on Win7. Strangely enough it had to be done manually. Sourceforge appears to have an equivalent linix artical here. There is also a userspace thingy here, for a belts and bracers approach.

• Logitech Bluetooth unity compatibility

To use as a HTPC wirelessness is preferable and this preserves USB connections. Can connect two things onto the same dongle in windows and then they remain paired for everything else. I'm currently looking at this wireless controller + keyboard.

• Creating shortcuts to network locations

Right click “Create New” -> “Shortcut” seems to only work for executable files.
Using the terminal typing “ln –s /home/Raskalnickoff ~/Desktop/” I was able to create a symbolic link on my desktop. Leaving out the ~ places it in my personal folder.
Alternatively holding Ctrl+Shift and the left click dragging a file to the desktop also seems to work, sometimes.

• Creating shortcuts to secondary HDD

Apparently the program PySDM will automatically mount all drives that are connected. I intend to try this with ell. If it can dynamically add the internal drives of whatever PC I connect ell to that would be great (ell is Lubuntu installed on a 16GB USB).
Alternatively this document may be required AutomaticallyMountPartitions and I could hardcode individually each drive I may come across once I find its UUID.
The symbollic link thing worked for this once the HDD stayed mounted. When the HDD is not connected I get an error before the login screen that needs to be "S"kipped. I think I can change this to after loging as well.

• Remembering the login for my Win7PC

Apparently I can also creat a mount point to do this, but it sounds like I need to manually edit files. I will have a look at the guide "Mount password protected network folders" later, after I have an easy to use keyboard.

BYO my new xbox?

I like lubuntu
it's been easy enough to use, considering its a free unix system.
ubuntu is fairly mainstream
it runs fine on the laptop I bought in 2004, as does XP (with no service packs or virus protection)
it hardly uses any system resources, leaving more for games
steam for linux beta is out, thus far it runs smooth as silk, (only tested Solar2 atm)
Connected to my TV it runs anime (via VLC) better than the TV, as good as Win7.
Getting the OS running is a simmilar hassle to setting up windows (no flash/Java/Firefox for example)
I installed a copy on a 16GB USB, it runs fine and now I can exclude the OS from any PC issues I have in the future.
doesnt nag me about openning files. occasionally asks for a password but no nearly as annoying as windows.
It's not mainstream, just like my trackball mouse.
Using it sort of reminds me of playing Space Rangers 2, one of the best UI's I have seen in a game and it also had ~3 fully integrated minigames.
ubuntu had an app market before there was such a thing and its still really easy to find and install programs with it.

For me the OS should have as small a footprint as possible leaving me plenty of power to get <100 ping and 60FPS in LOL and GW2 (for example). Thus I think Lubuntu is better for gaming that Win7, the only think holding me back is compatibility with games being built nearly exclusively for windows.

Thus;
Seems to me my broken/slow/old PC BYO will now be my new media center. Plugged into the TV for watching anime/YouTube and running the occasionall game over Steam. Pretty keen to trial Psyconaughts in BigScreen mode with a controller and pretending I am a console gamer. I suppose I need a new wireless keyboard+trackball mouse for all other games though and to press "V", "B" & " " in VLC.

Camino: The Way of St James

Note: I don’t want to be somebody who talks about stuff and is full of dreams. I want to be a person who lives. I thought about kitesurfing for three years before committing and this is a similar thing. It was a possibility to do the walk of St James for my gold DofE but I went to Nepal instead. Over the years this trip has become more appealing and I now have some people I personally know in Europe who I could visit. Knowing a local makes holidays a lot more relaxing.

Min 100k for certificate

Average 5kph

Say 8h a day walking, therefore 40km per day

3 days easy to complete

Or from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France 769km

That would be ~20 days at 40km per day

+10 days for site seeing along the way. Since Caroline took 30 days to complete the trip.

Maybe 3 days to recover from jetlag?

3 days in Norway to see Scott Bowes

3 Days to see Aurore

3 Days to see Kristina

Possibly also Stephan and Eduard?

I suppose most people would be working, but I could catch up in the evenings and maybe somebody could walk with me?

40days in Europe would be a nice number, making the most of the price of airfares too.

$2000 or so for airfares each way?

About the same for spending cash

Need a week or so to see Levi get ordained in December 2013

Possibly a Jan-Feb-March holiday?

I’m frightened to plan this for 2013, it seems too soon and will be harsh on my back account.

But the longer I leave it the worse I will feel about failing to act.

Unless I save it up for a later in life thing like a honeymoon? But that would require a wife and I’m still single, so I dont know how much later "later" would be.

Kk so holidays for 2013 will be:

1 week in Jan with Dad sailing for his BDay in Hervy Bay

1 week kitesurfing somewhere somehow

1 week kitesurfing somewhere somehow

1 Week to see Levi graduate as a Pastor on or about the 8^th of december

Then 2014

Easter is April 18-21

Somewhere march-April-May could be my Eurotrip?

All my holidays at once

God willing it will be so, if not then …um, well I’m prepared to be unprepared.

Lubuntu: another attempt to replace windows

Once again I'm goingto have a go at using linux instead of windows. This time the primary cause is that my PC at work had corrupted the system files.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/InstallingLubuntu

for general install

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1872303

for installing to USB, so I can use at work and home.

I used an old Lubuntu 10.10 install CD and attempted to partition my USB to 8GB ext4 “\”, 4GB ext4 “\home” and 4GB swap. But every partition had ~4 bytes added or taken from it so they none of them were nice round numbers.

After installing the OS I restarted the PC and ran the performance test, then restarted a few more times. Seems best to consistently keep the USB in the same slot otherwise it resets the boot order and occasionally boots Windows. Also I can only use the GRUB to start XP on the computer I used to install Lubuntu, all the others say serial number not found.

After sorting that out. On my broken PC, load times from GRUB to login screen were

3:29 Lubuntu

1:31 XP Pro

Where as on my new work laptop both systems took 20 seconds to load.

Next I’ll need to update the OS to current; 12.10

Apparently steam will have a linux beta this week open to the public.

Run full Ubuntu on BYO? Seems a slow but it shouldn’t be. Win7 ran fine and a clean install of XP should also work well.

Want Lubuntu for USB and laptop and if that works well I’ll put it onto BYO as well.

I should reformat the \home directory to FAT32 so that I can access some of the usb when it is in a windows pc. Otherwise it keeps suggesting I reformat my drive.

After that replace chrome with FF and add VLC for my anime.

Then to use it at work I probably need Java + Open Office, With that I can hopefully install NCSTools and Citect.

New Oil

Why a SSD?
Well it seemed cheap.
I never install things on the C:\\ on purpose, so the size didn’t matter
This vid was impressive
I was thinking of an <80GB HDD but didn’t see one to buy.
Whirlpool recommended it
I should replace my PC in ~7 years so I probably wont hit the read/write limit, and with only the OS on it I wont care (much) if it gets wiped.

Why 8GB of RAM?
Win7 recommended 8GB
Whirlpool recommended 8GB
Ubuntu can use all of it
More is probably better?
My old XP box couldn’t use all the 4GB it had installed, so I planned to swap 2GB it to the new PC, to total ten. But I cant because it isn’t DDR3 memory.
I suppose maybe Pov-Ray will make use of it?

I also took particular care with the case, as I wanted an on button that would work. I nearly bought a miniATX case for the tiny novelty of it. I knew I didn’t want a big box, If I go that way I intend to make it out of wood, so I settled on a squarish one with a simple flat design.
The rest was fairly straight forward to decide, I may put in a wireless card later (could have used it on the first day) I pretty much followed the whirlpool guide and what was available on Umart. In the end this is the package I came up with


I bought BYO with my first paycheck from Bundy Sugar, making it ~5yo. For the last 2 years I have been putting off upgrading it because I don’t like windows. And I haven’t reformatted it because I only have the XP CD without service packs and it takes a whole weekend to reinstall everything I use.
Small things have been annoying me for a while and after a couple of conversations at work I decided to get something new. Possibly I could have upgraded the motherboard to fix my sound card issues and replaced the box so that it would reliably turn on. But I’m the only person left in Technomancers Sojourn with an XP OS and I have the slowest PC and those upgrades would only make it more reliable, not more competitive. With this PC I shouldn’t have to wait for loading screens in GW2 anymore.

For the time being I’ll keep BYO as a spare/server, but when I know I have everything I’ll probably install Ubuntu and thus make it like new. I haven’t even installed any games yet and I’ve already checked out WineDB to see if LOL and GW2 are linux compatible yet. Win7 annoys me when it asks “are you sure you want to do this?” and when I tried to rotate the screen it took me three goes, you would think it could tell if a resolution was compatible or not without my help. I also did the thing again where instead of making a hidden folder visible I accidentally hid the directory that that folder was in.




> ITEMs to Order :
> Intel Core i5 3470 LGA1155 CPU 3.2Ghz 6Mb Cache Ivy Bridge
> ASRock B75-PRO3-M B75 4xDDR3 3xSATA3 PCIex16 GBL 4xUSB3.0 HDMI D-Sub
> DVI-D mATX
> Kingston 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 HyperX
> Seagate SATA3 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda 64mb Cache
> Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series - SATA III 6Gbs, 2xnm Toggle DDR NAND,
> 3-Core ARMv9 MCX Controller
> Sapphire HD7870 OC 2G 256Bit GDDR5 PCIE3.0 DVI HDMI 2*MiniDSP
> SilverStone Temjin series TJ08E Black mATX Cas USB3
> Antec VP-550P 550W Strictly PSU
> Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM(Microsoft OEM
> Terms&condition apply)
>
> TOTAL : $$1128


[Update 23/01/2015]
Doubling the RAM is still the only upgrade I've done.

So my graphics card is the first part to play up, occasionally it would not show any display when booting my PC. Apparently this was a common error in Germany and the fix was to flash the GPU BIOS once you can get the card to initialise properly. But I didn’t get it flash properly. Contacted support and they recommended I buy a new card because it was old. While ATI cards are usually more effective use of funds I’ve found the NVIDIA support to be much more helpful. I don’t think I’ve had a game actually make this graphics card work hard either, so I suppose its time to downgrade.Umart wouldn’t let me login and their menu system is very hard to navigate now. What a wanted was a “NVIDIA” “not overclocked” “2GB RAM” for “$100-$200” Since two years has passed I thought the 7870 equivalents would be in this price range, but it seems we are waiting on new games still to push the cards.While it is still overclocked unfortunately, I settled on the “$190 MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB” but it has a three year warranty and so I suppose it is more stable than the Radeon Sapphire that it is replacing. I will miss the miniDP connections, but it seems I can still run three monitors over 2xDVI, HDMI.

Back in the good old days…

People think the golden age of youth was the best time of their life. That’s just to excuse themselves from making the world a better place now. Don’t point out what’s wrong with the world today unless you are prepared to attempt to fix it.

I also think people should change what they cannot accept and accept what they cannot change and thus I have no right to complain about anything. ~~I felt the need for a short post.