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I watched the made for TV movie version of Going Postal. I loved this movie! For years I have enjoyed the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett and I own every one of the books. The acting is very good and no part of it looks cheesy. There are many little Discworldian things hidden about the movie. It was a joy to see all the mannerisms I imagined from the characters in the book come alive on the screen. The movie comes in two parts and runs about 3 hours in total. I strongly recommend this movie to all!

I've been working on a complete home climate control system using Arduino's and basic electronics. It's a great hobby! I've always found it a bit cumbersome to compile Arduino code on the computer, upload it to the chip, and do my tests there. Well I've discovered an Arduino emulator and it works!

The emulator is called emulino and you can find the main page here and the GitHub repository here.

Here are a few helpful tips on how to get going with the current state of things (January 19, 2011):

1. Download the source from GitHub. Just click on the Downloads button and download the source archive.
2. Get SCons. SCons is a make-replacement.
3. Edit the SConstruct file to point to the correct Python path.
4. Running scons will make the command line version of emulino. This is an important step because it also calls mkinst.py which builds the avr.inc file.
5. Add an include to stdio.h in the emulino-gui.cpp file.
6. In emulino-gui.cpp find the main() function. Near the bottom of it find the load_file() call that points to a hard-coded directory. Change the line to:
   u32 progsize = load_file(a.arguments().at(1).toLocal8Bit(), prog, sizeof(prog));
   That will let you pass a hex file on the command line.

You can use arscons to compile your Arduino file from the command line. Edit the SConstruct file and change:

1. The ARDUINO_HOME_DEFAULT path to your Arduino path.
2. The ARDUINO_VER version number to your Arduino version.
3. To make the script pick up more than just the .pde file uncomment the following lines:
   # Add raw sources which live in sketch dir.
sources += gatherSources('.')

It's a bit rough around the edges but it does work! And since emulino-gui is built using Qt I can actually hack around with it. I hope to add some features that I need to it soon.

I have my opinions about technology companies, that's for sure, but there is one really good reason why I would never buy an iPhone. To sum it all up it's about control.

App is the new buzzword for good ole software and everyone and their dog is making one these days. Heck, there's even a Big Bang Theory episode all about making an app. Now what if you or I want to create an app? Well we can, and even for free if you register on the Apple site. So far so good! So you sign up and download XCode and the iOS dev kit and get started. Now you've perfected you're little app and wish to distribute it to the world. Do you craft up a nice little website and offer it for free or for sale from there? Nope. You HAVE to go through the iTunes store.

OK, fine, but can just anyone put their app up on iTunes? Nope! And herein lies the problem. Your app must pass through Apple's secret police task force and be approved or denied at whim. In fact, if it was just whim it would be better, but if you decide to craft an app that happens to compete with one of Apple's apps you will get the proverbial boot to the rear.

"That's unconstitutional!", you might cry, but actually Apple is in their full right to do this. It is their iTunes store after all.

But that doesn't mean I need to support this totalitarian corporate control. And I won't. If you love Apple and want them to decide how you live your life go ahead and support them, but I prefer freedom. Not the greasy American Freedom that comes with a side-order of fries but just the pure legal right to use my devices that I purchase any way I wish.

This is an ideal, sure, (an important ideal, IMHO) but with very practical considerations to it. When I buy my Android phone (or even with my crappy Windows Mobile phone right now) I can download software from any developer in the world and install it on my phone, with no questions asked.

Apple has created an amazing marketing phenomenon, there is no arguing about that, but I do hope that before you jump on a bandwagon, find out who's driving it.

Sidebar: Is it legal for them to stop you from modifying your iPhone that you purchased? Well most people would logically respond with "No. Of course not. It's mine, I bought it", but in the USA and according to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) it actually is illegal. And that is an outrage!

I was digging around on the internets and and found that Rogers has a coverage map for the new HSPA+ network. I guess this includes MTS service as well since they are partnering with Rogers on this.

Now all I have to do is wait for my dream phone, the HTC Desire Z, to come to either Rogers or MTS. Why does Manitoba only have junky phones available? C'mon!

This is so true! There really is no way to achieve good code and have a working product. =)

click to to see larger version

At work we've been designing our first website for a client. We're using Drupal for the backend and I have access to some amazing designers for the theme. Of course I didn't want to waste time investing in a Drupal 6 site when Drupal 7 was so close to being released so I went ahead and started the production site on Drupal 7. Of course most of the modules I was looking into using are in the alpha or development stage and bugs do abound.

I was using the webform module and was running into a few issues so I cracked open the shell, got CVS fired up and downloaded the source from the drupal repository. The latest code worked great except for one small issue which I fixed easily. But that only benefits me right? So I went to the webform issues page, saw that no one else had reported this issue and created a new issue including the fix for it. Now instead of waiting days, weeks, or even months for the next release I can get my code up and running fast, give back to the community, get the fix peer-reviewed and included in the next release. There is no way this would happen in a close-sourced world. Three cheers to open source!

Update: My patch has been committed to the source repo! Yay! I'm so glad I could help out like this.

I would like to welcome Xander Gabriel Kornelson, our newest addition to our family.
Our son was born at 4:56pm on November 6. He was 10 lbs 5 ounces and 21.5" long.

I will be leaving all of you to your snowy and cold winter while I relax on the beach near Peurto Vallarta. Yes, once again we venture out to Mexico, this time with our 10 month old daughter. It should prove interesting. :-) And since our plane leaves so early in the morning we'll be kick starting our vacation off at a hotel near the Winnipeg airport. Yay to free shuttle service! Basically I just hope it will be absolutely frigid here, well, at least until we come back. I'll bring my HTC Touch with me and hopefully I'll be able to find a free WiFi spot to upload some pics. Have fun and see you in just under two weeks!

Can you play and RPG and save money at the same time? Yes. Now you can with BankQuest: A Tale of Savings!

From the blog article:
In August, toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing this ultimate piggy bank for gamer geeks. It's called BankQuest: A Tale of Savings, and it's a dungeon-shaped vault with a LCD screen that turns your penny-saving experience into the ultimate role-playing game. Every time you feed it a coin, the screen will update you on how much you've saved and tell you what weapons you can buy with that money. The more you save, the bigger weapons you can buy, and the closer you get to successfully beating the Money Monster.
The RPG piggy bank will retail at about $40.

Wow. If you're like me and never purge your inbox or sent mail folders perusing through them is a trip down memory lane. Go ahead, sort by date and start at the earliest one. It's amazing remembering all these things. My sent items go back to 2004 and my inbox goes back to 2003. Heh.

Peace, Love, and Happiness,
Mike