Daniel E. Markle's Blog

RC Helicopters

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:56:32 -0500

My first RC helicopter; a Syma 108g From RC Flight

At the Greensburg Train show in York last weekend a vendor was flying these RC Helicopters around his booth. Impressed by his precision and the low price, I purchased this one. About the length of my hand, it's designed for indoor use only.

I have been interested in RC aircraft for a while and was considering getting into the hobby this year. Although I was thinking airplanes, flying these around the house is surprisingly fun and not tied to good weather conditions. Helicopters I have looked at in the past were either ridiculously expensive, hard to fly, or both, but modern gyro technology now common in cell phones has made these quite reasonable in price and very stable to fly.

Now to land one of these on a train flatcar . . .

Thanksgiving Ride to Ohio

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:47:00 -0500

From Motorcycle Adventures

On Thanksgiving Day this year I rode over 300 miles to Cleveland on my VStar motorcycle to visit my sister. The picture at the left was taken upon my arrival at Crocker Park in the evening.

Heading out at 10:30 in the morning it was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, a beautiful day for a ride. I decided not to put the windshield on the bike as it reduces my ability to control airflow with layers of clothing and is too hot with my winter gear on at those temperatures.
Continue reading "Thanksgiving Ride to Ohio"

Last Day at the PA Capitol Preservation Committee

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:46:18 -0500

Today was my last day of full time employment at the PA Capitol Preservation Committee. Thanks to everyone who made me feel welcome over the years. To commemorate my many commutes, enjoy this motorcycle video including part of a favorite route to work on my 2008 Honda Rebel.

First Motorcycle Commute in Fall Fog

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:28:00 -0400

My Rebel Parked at Work on a Considerably Warmer Day, From Motorcycle Adventures

Headed to work today, it was 32.7 degrees F with fog. I was convinced, seeing the sun starting to poke out, all would be fine once I got to the top of the mountain and out of our valley of perpetual fog.

I started up the Rebel and after warming up a while, I lurched out the lane (still wasn't warm yet, had to increase choke and putter along; pretty common below 50F). Even though visibility was less than ideal, the roads were clean and dry. After puttering along across the valley, half opening my visor as needed to clear it and at times so I could see at all, I made it to the top of the mountain, but alas, the fog continued in the next valley.

Continue reading "First Motorcycle Commute in Fall Fog"

Liferay 6.0.6 CE Editing Toolbar Bug

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:39:05 -0400

In Liferay 6.0 GA4 Community Edition there is an error in the CKEditor configuration; different configuration files are used to define the editing toolbar for the web content and other areas depending on the browsing path. This results in an issue where the toolbar changes seemingly at random. This is fixed in the Enterprise Edition and for future versions, but for those of us using the current Community Edition, the following workaround is useful.

The most problematic disappearing item for my use case is the spell checker; the same method can be used to restore other buttons as necessary. Back up, then apply this ckconfig.jsp patch to the Liferay root web app. For the tomcat download this is located in the liferay-portal-6.0.6/tomcat-6.0.29/webapps/ROOT/html/js/editor/ckeditor/ directory. Shut down Liferay, remove the tomcat work directory to clear the cache, then restart Liferay.

Lemon Blueberry Cake

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:06:56 -0400

From Cooking

Items we had on hand at the time and Karen's suggestion of using instant pudding as icing resulted in this delicious combination.

Continue reading "Lemon Blueberry Cake"

Google Maps Clark's Ferry Bug

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:53:00 -0400

View Larger Map

For a few weeks now Google Maps has a bug where 22/322 at Clark's Ferry is impassible via through route directions. This is not the first time I have found bugs in Google Maps, but it is the first one I have seen involving a major highway.
Continue reading "Google Maps Clark's Ferry Bug"

2011 Loyalsock Valley Antique Machinery Association Show

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:03:47 -0400

Loyalsock Valley Antique Machinery Association Show

Although rain from the previous day resulted in the cancellation of the tractor parade and poor attendance, there were still many tractors on display at the 2011 Loyalsock Valley Antique Machinery Association Show. One advantage to going on Sunday is hearing and seeing them pull out, which was a reasonable substitute for the parade.

An operating steam-powered sawmill was at the event, along with a selection of other operating pre-gasoline tractor motors.

Other features of the event include food vendors and a flea market with a wide variety of interesting items from wooden tool handles to fine china.

Carlisle Bike Fest 2011

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:21:50 -0400

From Motorcycle Adventures

Attended Carlisle Bike Fest 2011 this year. Enjoyed looking at the rides people came in on; much of the show is the bikes people bring which they park in the middle of the show in wide enough aisles to easily wander up and down.

Other enjoyable attractions included the demo rides (which I didn't qualify for this year due to only having a permit, but watching and listening to new bikes was still cool), Biker Billy's cooking show (watch out if you're in the audience at one of these, he actively seeks victims to roast), and the Disc Connected K9's.

I drove in via a cage this year, scared off by the threat of rain which never materialized. By next year I hope to be more adventuresome.

Airprint to an Office Workgroup Printer

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:55:26 -0400

Although Apple uses standard protocols for Airprint, the service is very picky about the exact broadcast settings before the printer will show up on iOS devices. The easiest way I've found to Airprint to an office workgroup printer:

Configure the printer to be printable via a Linux / CUPS server. On Debian install the cups and cups-pdf packages then log in via port 631 and configure the workgroup printer, making sure a test page prints.

Add ServerAlias * in /etc/cups.conf; this prevents "Request from x using invalid Host: field" errors.

Install avahi, on Debian use the avahi-daemon package.

Run this handy airprint-generate script. Copy the resulting file to /etc/avahi/services/ and restart avahi and cups.

Airprint should now be working for your iOS devices on the local network.

Snake in the Shop

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 10:45:15 -0400

From Miscellaneous

This Eastern Garter Snake was waiting for me on my shop workbench this morning. As soon as I saw him I ran to get my camera, fortunately he was still there for a portrait.

Motorcycle Videos

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:22:49 -0400

At the motorcycle store this week a kiosk for the GoPro HD video camera caught my attention. I had been looking to pick up a helmet mounted camera for on-motorcycle recording and this one fits the bill nicely.

This first video is a short one headed out the lane.

Then this longer video shows the helmet mounted camera in use on a longer ride.

Next time I will likely try to point downward more as the front of the motorcycle is not visible and I like that effect on other YouTube videos, but I am not disappointed with this 'flying through the air' look either focusing more on the scenery.

I Don't Want a Pickle . . .

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:01:00 -0400

From Motorcycle Adventures

After Michael let me ride his Honda Shadow and thoroughly enjoying riding every second I was upright, it was clear to me it was time to take the plunge and buy one.

Needing a smaller cycle I could handle more easily starting out, I found this used 2008 Honda Rebel 250 on Craig's List.

Oh, and I owe Michael a left rear tail light.

Steele Synchronized Shooting

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:38:44 -0400

Out on the shooting range with my sister and brother in law, I recorded this fun video of them alternating shots:

As my sister says it best in the video, "that's awesome!"

Spring @RequestMapping Only on Classes Fails

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:17:24 -0400

When using Spring annotation based controllers, @RequestMapping must be applied to a method as well as the class or it will not work. For example:



@Controller

@RequestMapping("/blah.html")

public MyController {

 @ModelAttribute("session")

 public InventorySession getSession() {

  return session;

 }

}

Will result in No mapping found for HTTP request with URI [/[contextpath]/blah.html] errors. Request methods (or sub-pages) must be mapped to controller methods, i.e.:



. . .

 @RequestMapping(method={RequestMethod.GET})

 public String getForm() {

  return "formView.jsp";

 }

. . .

This mistake is particularly easy to make when migrating older code to the newer annotation based model, where mappings on legacy code may make it (erroneously) appear such linking is done in the xml file already.

Spring Session Bind to JSP

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:59:25 -0500

Spring, my favorite Java application framework, doesn't provide an easy way to bind Spring-managed session beans to JSP pages. I have had success doing this by binding the bean to the request at creation time. When doing it this way, be sure to call the session bean somewhere in your dispatch servlet configuration or it will never be initialized when individual requests are created.

Note that for most applications, session beans are better left as plain objects managed independently of Spring for less overhead and to keep them as simple as possible. Each of these is going to take up space for each user. However, I have found some cases where accessing Spring objects from within a session bean is desirable; if you have as well or curiosity prevails, details are below.
Continue reading "Spring Session Bind to JSP"

SNMP MIB lookup removed from Debian squeeze

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:02:51 -0500

After upgrading to Debian squeeze, snmp output will change; the descriptions are missing.

Before squeeze (i.e. in lenny):

$ snmpget -v1 -On -c public printer.example.com 1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.5.1.1.1

.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.5.1.1.1 = INTEGER: idle(3)

After squeeze upgrade:

$ snmpget -v1 -On -c public printer.example.com 1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.5.1.1.1

.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.5.1.1.1 = INTEGER: 3

This is because the MIB files were stripped from squeeze due to licensing reasons. Install the snmp-mibs-downloader package and comment out the line in /etc/snmp/snmp.conf as described in that config file. Non-free will need to be enabled in apt sources if you are not finding the package. See the Debian wiki section on snmp for added information.

Debian Release Imminent

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:09:00 -0500

Debian 6 Squeeze release is imminent. This will be the first release where I'm the maintainer for a Debian package.

HO Slot Car Track

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:34:00 -0500

After trying out some HO slot cars in the store at English's Model Railroad Supply, I decided to try out a set. I set up an AFX 24 Hour Champions set I acquired at Kranzels Hobbies in the basement.

Finding this to be a nice diversion from my usual digital pursuits and a complement to my model train hobby, I acquired a few more cars. After racing for a while, I found the floor was too dirty and was gumming up my cars, so I returned to English's and picked up a Life-Like Stock Car Thunder set as I remembered it having a reasonable sized footprint for a table top. This set is the one shown in my current slot car gallery photos along with some cars I've acquired along the way.

With Thunderjets, XTraction, Mega-G, Tracker T, and other types available all having varying magnets, tire, frame, chassis, and guide pin designs, racing them for best lap times is more complicated than it appears with the deceptive 'all you have is a trigger' technology. They're also surprisingly inexpensive (especially when compared to my computer and train hobbies). A friend had told me a few months ago that I should get into cars; this may not be what he meant but I'm certainly finding it fits the bill for me.

Reading with the nook color

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:41:41 -0500

I've been looking at the various e-reader/tablet options for a while without finding anything compellingly more interesting than my netbook. Android tablets until now have been too slow to be fun to use and are riddled with technical problems, the iPad is too large for easy portability, is nearly as heavy as a netbook, and has a low ppi screen I find insufficient for reading, and the various e-readers didn't have color screens and/or had poor support for DRM-free formats.

Enter the Barnes and Noble nook color; this device has the better portability I am looking for, something I can slip into my coat pocket when I head to the coffee shop, a reasonably high ppi screen I find comfortable to read, and supports DRM-free ePub, PDF, and plain text formats. As shown on the screen, it's great for reading comic books in PDF form like Marvel's Complete Iron Man Collection. Gutenberg project ePub books work great on the device, as do other DRM-free ePub books available online directly from publishers. There are also various magazines online in PDF form including Model Railroad Hobbyist.

It has a shop as well, but until such shops are DRM-free I strongly recommend avoiding buying anything from them. Read EFF's The Right to Read before being tempted to purchase DRM materials of any kind, especially with so many other freedom preserving options available online.

Zimbra 6.0.9 Upgrade Logrotate Issue

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:27:36 -0500

If receiving e-mails like this from Zimbra after upgrading to 6.0.9:



/etc/cron.daily/logrotate:

error: zimbra:5 unknown user 'USER'

run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1

See this forum post on a 6.0.9 logrotate issue. In a nutshell, edit /etc/logrotate.d/zimbra and replace USER GROUP with zimbra zimbra.

Avatar Movie Summarized

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:35:47 -0500

“weirdly sexy giant mutant Smurfs battle futuristic human intruders on an ethereal planet, covered with giant trees and huge, snarling creatures”
Luke Holland at Den of Geek

A wonderfully succinct summary of Avatar.

MCMRRC at 2010 Reedsville Christmas Craft Show

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 08:31:36 -0500

Mifflin County Model Railroad Club set up the new O gauge layout at the Reedsville Christmas Craft Show this year:

Also included in the video is an in-progress N gauge layout, a tabletop Z gauge, and the O gauge layout being raffled off this year as a fundraiser.

I also took these Photos of MCMRRC at the 2010 Reedsville Christmas Craft Show.

Perl Custom Date Parsing

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:37:22 -0400

I was recently asked how to do custom date parsing in Perl, specifically for a date in the format mmddyyyy. I work with dates frequently in Java, so I am familiar with using SimpleDateFormat objects to parse dates in this manner. The Perl equivalent is Date::Manip::Date.
Continue reading "Perl Custom Date Parsing"

Debconf 10

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:20:57 -0400

In August I attended Debconf 10. My primary goals were to learn more about the current status of the Debian community, particularly in the face of Ubuntu's rise to popularity, and to fix the package xtrkcad for Debian, which used an outdated library.
Continue reading "Debconf 10"

Blue and White Fiesta Ware

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:44:58 -0400

We've been replacing our worn dishes with made in the USA Fiestaware dishes; Joyce brought these colors home today.

I can't imagine what inspired her to select these colors . . .

Rockhill Trolley Museum First Visit

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:05:35 -0400

On the 15th of August Joyce and I traveled to the Rockhill Trolley Museum. We had been planning on visiting for a long time after much positive raving about it from Ed. It certainly lived up to expectations, this video provides a taste:

No video can convey the actual experience of riding one of these, for that you will need to visit the museum.

MCMRRC 2010 Raffle Layout Initial Track Test

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:37:49 -0400

Working on a layout for the 2010 Mifflin County Model Railroad Club to be given away as a prize. As it's in O gauge this year the challenge is coming up with an interesting layout in a small enough space to transport and at a low cost. I believe I've found a layout I'm happy with, adding a working street and a small yard for operational interest.

These aren't the vehicles being given away, just some I had handy for testing. Quite a bit of landscaping to do as well.

Apache SSL and Combined Certificates

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:52:37 -0400

Current versions of Apache HTTP Server support SSL certificates and keys all in one file; it is no longer required to separate them. Point SSLCertificateFile at the combined file (commonly .pem) and comment out or omit SSLCertificateKeyFile.

This may not be desirable if you wish to have the certificate publicly available somewhere like /etc/ssl/certs/, available on the web for verification, or use the certificate for other applications for that domain (it's important to keep the key, and thus the combined file, private). In many common cases certificates are only used for an SSL secured web server, however.

Zimbra 32bit to 64bit Certificate Issue

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:48:14 -0400

When upgrading from 32 to 64 bit Zimbra, I could not get the zimbra mailbox (mailboxd) to start. It turned out to be a set of borked certificates. Do yourself a favor if you have this problem and just do this:



mv /opt/zimbra/mailboxd/etc/keystore /opt/zimbra/mailboxd/etc/keystore.borked

sudo /opt/zimbra/bin/zmcertmgr deploycrt self

Then re-deploy your certificates using the gui admin interface after restarting Zimbra.
Continue reading "Zimbra 32bit to 64bit Certificate Issue"

7up Tank Car

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:18:00 -0400

Picked up this O gauge 7up tanker car at the Great Scale Model Train Show this month.

Interesting that the number 1 (Coca Cola Co.) and number 3 (Dr. Pepper Snapple Group) beverage companies have many train cars available, but number 2 (Pepsi Co.) has none in recent production I am aware of.

East Coast Large Scale Train Show, Spring 2010

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:33:45 -0400

Made this video in the layout room at the East Coast Large Scale Train Show this spring.

Also, took some pictures of the train show. The CN car in the diorama was my favorite static display. This Interstate locomotive led my favorite running train; as shown in the video the selection of cars reminded me of various trains I've enjoyed. These distinctive passenger cars in the live stream display intrigued me, if anyone knows what country they are modeled from, please let me know.

Video and photos were taken with my G1 phone, which did not turn out as nicely as I hoped. The halls were not as well lit as expected, which my phone is very sensitive to. Unfortunately I didn't have better equipment handy.

Perhaps the biggest plus of this show; I didn't buy anything. It was refreshing to just wander around a show enjoying the sights without being tempted to buy (although if I'm into G gauge by next year it may never happen again).