So, I really like this...I noticed, since I had to recently rebuild my Linux desktop (failed HDD) that the 'new' Adobe Air release doesn't work with Pandora One desktop client any more.  I saw a reference that said you might be able to get an old version and make it work, but after a minimal attempt, I couldn't get it working.  However, today I found Pianobar, which connects to and plays Pandora radio via the Linux command line.

I dug around the Intertubes and found this link where there's a great example of a semi-complex html form, with javascript support, that sets up a multiple-control payment form.  Unfortunately, the formatting on that page is horrible, making the javascript useless.  Here is my modified version of it, formatted a little better for posterity sake: 

After years of dealing with all sorts of spam comments on this site, trying a few different spam collection modules (i.e. Captcha, Mollom), I give up.  Comments are turned off, on all old content and any new stuff.  The spammers are a disgusting and frustrating lot.  

Last week, I found, and borrowed, a Python class that makes it easy to update a Cosm (Pachube) feed. I'm using it to upload current temperature data for the two (upstairs and basement) Filtrete 3M-50 Wifi thermostats in our house. I'm also grabbing outside weather data (temperature and barometric pressure) from Yahoo and adding that too. It's working great.

It seems like about twice a month that I receive an email from a friend or client with nothing but a link to a .cz, .ru or other questionable site.  So far, every one of these has been a mass email from their account (sent to all their contacts) after their account password has been compromised.  My guess is that some malware takes hold in the machine, captures their password the next time they log in to (usually Yahoo) email, and uses an API after that to send out spam with the newly-acquired credentials.

It's time to sell my bike, so rather than keep posting this same information all over the place, I'll list it all here, one time, and link back to it.  For Sale is a 2007 Suzuki SV650 (naked, not the 'S' model), with about 14,700 miles on it.  I'm asking $3,900.  It's a GREAT learner bike; very quick, light weight, and agile.  Small enough to learn on, but large enough to be fun (and useful) for a more experienced rider.  Fuel injection is a very nice plus.

I've finally committed some small piece of time and mental bandwidth to "solving" the problem of making my (and our clients') web sites more mobile-friendly.  For a couple clients, this is a huge issue and we need a solution.  Here's a great article on Responsive Web Design, which is my current favorite solution: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/

Another sports season is complete.  The 6th grade team for Roscommon had some fun, won a few games here and there, and learned a lot along the way.  I'm really impressed with some of the player growth I see from the season opener to now.  Nice work, Bucks!

For less than $10, I bought a USB bluetooth dongle for my laptop.  Ubuntu recognized it right away as a bluetooth radio and started using it.  For a test, I paired my laptop with my Android phone, which was also easy and flawless.  What I didn't expect was that immediately after the pairing, a dialog popped up on the laptop telling me about a new network that had been detected.  The system automatically uses the Android Internet connection (cell data) without any effort on my part.  Sweet!  Bottom line.

My home server, which happily houses 8 years of kids' photos, all our 'shared' files, music, etc...had a hard drive failure over the past few weeks.  I finally got around to replacing the drive, which required me to dive into the use of mdadm deeper than I had before.  In the end, it was all good.

‎"Every community has problems. If you live in a great one, it's because your neighbors volunteer their time, beyond their regular responsibilities, to make it great. If you don't volunteer yourself, you're one of the problems."

One of our Droid X phone's had a problem yesterday, where it wouldn't respond to anything.  On shutdown/reboot, it got stuck at the red Motorola logo and wouldn't move past it...even after being on the charger for 10 hours.  I started looking closely at the phone, and noticed that the buttons along the bottom didn't feel like they were 'clicking' when pressed...they gave no response at all, like they were part of the case instead.  I started 'flicking' at the edge of the buttons with my fingernail, and got them to pop back into place.

I can't believe these guys are still successful, even rarely.   

Dear customer!

Transaction: Mastercard 67793_7hODl

I'd been using this script to tether Android to Linux via Azilink, but that has stopped working for some reason, so I found another solution, boiled down and re-documented here for posterity:

• Install Connectbot on your phone, connect (via ssh) to your server, and login

For whatever combination of reasons, I haven't had any good luck in cloning Windows XP installations to a new, larger drive.  It just has never worked for me until today (sort of).  I want to document my success in copying a Win XP Pro installation from a 10gb VirtualBox VDI to a 30gb VirtualBox VDI.  It's not the same as moving Windows to a 'real' disk, but it's better than anything else I've been able to do so far.  

1. Create the new, bigger hdd (vdi file) in VirtualBox.  I did this as part of creating a whole new Virtual Machine.