Weblog - Jan Wagemakers -

I switched over to wordpress for my weblog. I will post new item there.

Vrijdag 13/08/2010 - Vrijdag 20/08/2010 urlaub im Bütgenbach


Grotere kaart weergeven

Foto's vind je hier.

• Foto's Zaterdag 14/08
• Foto's Maandag 16/08 - 1
• Foto's Maandag 16/08 - 2
• Foto's Dinsdag 17/08
• Foto's Woensdag 18/08 - 1
• Foto's Woensdag 18/08 - 2
• Foto's Donderdag 19/08 - 1
• Foto's Donderdag 19/08 - 2
• Foto's Vrijdag 20/08

I have updated my send free sms script using googlecl, because sometimes, googlecl fails with a Moved Temporarily error.

This new script will try again and again for a while.

 pts/8  jan ~$ cat sms
#!/bin/sh
# ---------------------------------------------------------
# Send free (gratis) SMS using google Calendar.
#             - Jan Wagemakers -
#         Donated to the Public Domain
#
# More info at:
# http://www.janwagemakers.be/nanoblogger/
#      archives/2009/05/index.html#e2009-05-31T09_35_46.txt
#      archives/2010/07/index.html#e2010-07-31T10_35_58.txt
#      archives/2010/08/index.html#e2010-08-08T10_07_51.txt
# ---------------------------------------------------------
export LANG=C
counter=0

TEXT=$@

# Send SMS using date and googlecl
# -------------------------------- 
send() {
DATE=`date -d "5 min" +%H:%M%p`
echo "$DATE $TEXT"
google calendar add "$DATE $TEXT" --reminder=3m
}

# send SMS
# --------
send

# Errors? Yes -> Try again
# ------------------------
while [ $? -ne 0 ] 
do
        # count how many times we try again
        # ---------------------------------
        counter=$(($counter+1))
        # and stop when it keeps failing
        # ------------------------------
        if [ $counter -gt 50 ] ; then 
                break
        fi
        
        echo failed... try again : $counter
        sleep 20s
        send
done

And this is what the new script looks like when googlecl fails.

At http://www.janwagemakers.be/eng.html you can read about my experiments with Linux and x86-32-Assembly. On that page you can find a small Hello, World! program.

Today I have converted this Hello, World! program to x86-64 (amd64) assembly.

First, it is important to note that there are some differences in making syscall requests between x86-32 and x86-64 :

x86-32	x86-64
int $0x80	syscall
%eax	%rax
%ebx	%rdi
%ecx	%rsi
%edx	%rdx

Also the syscall numbers are not the same on x86-32 and x86-64, take a look at :

x86-32	x86-64
/usr/include/asm/unistd_32.h	/usr/include/asm/unistd_64.h

With this information, I have converted this x86-32 program

.text
message:
 .ascii "Hello, World!\12\0"
 .align 4
.globl _hw               
_hw:
 movl $4, %eax           
 movl $1, %ebx           
 movl $message, %ecx     
 movl $15, %edx          
 int $0x80               
 movl $1, %eax           
 movl $0, %ebx           
 int $0x80               

as hello.s -o hello.o
ld hello.o -e _hw -o hello
        (_hw = entry-point)

to a working x86-64 program

 pts/3  jan ~/assembler64$ cat hello.s
.text
message:
 .ascii "Hello, World!\12\0"
 .align 4
.globl _hw               
_hw:
 movq $1, %rax           
 movq $1, %rdi           
 movq $message, %rsi     
 movq $15, %rdx          
 syscall            
 movq $60, %rax           
 movq $0, %rdi     
 syscall             
 pts/3  jan ~/assembler64$ as hello.s -o hello.o
 pts/3  jan ~/assembler64$ ld hello.o -e _hw -o hello
 pts/3  jan ~/assembler64$ ./hello
Hello, World!
 pts/3  jan ~/assembler64$ 

Nice

In MAY 2009 I wrote here about Free SMS notifications with gcalcli and google calendar .

Well, this wasn't working anymore I can add events with gcalcli to the calendar, but no reminder (SMS) is send.

But I have found a solution

At code.google.com you can download googlecl. New in googlecl 0.9.9 is "Reminders for added calendar events".

So, I have written a new sms script to send free (as in beer, gratis) sms notifications to my mobile phone.

 pts/12  jan ~$ cat sms
export LANG=C
DATE=`date -d "5 min" +%H:%M%p`
echo "$DATE $@"
google calendar add "$DATE $@" --reminder=4m 
 pts/12  jan ~$ sms "Free as in beer"
10:17AM Free as in beer
 pts/12  jan ~$ 

I have recently bought a TerraTec Cinergy T USB XXS to receive TV by DVB-T.


This works without a problem on my Debian GNU/Linux PC.

More info about setting up this DVB-T USB device and linux is available at linuxtv.org

Like you can see, a remote control was also included in the TerraTec Cinergy T USB XXS package. I have followed the instructions at linuxtv.org (Remote control support), but no luck


When pressing some keys at the remote control, the only thing I noticed was

Jun  5 10:58:02 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 10 ef
Jun  5 10:58:05 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 02 fd
Jun  5 10:58:05 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 02 fd
Jun  5 10:58:06 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 05 fa
Jun  5 10:58:06 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 43 bc
Jun  5 10:58:06 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 43 bc
Jun  5 10:58:07 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 44 bb
Jun  5 10:58:07 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 44 bb
Jun  5 10:58:07 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 44 bb
Jun  5 10:58:08 amd64 kernel: dib0700: Unknown remote controller key: 0014 44 bb

in /var/log/syslog.

Taking a look at the linux source in /usr/src/linux-2.6.34/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/dib0700_devices.c, I found the following at line 515

        err("Unknown remote controller key: %2X %2X %2X %2X", (int) key[3-2],
                                 (int) key[3-3], (int) key[3-1], (int) key[3]);

and this at line 592

        /* Key codes for the Terratec Cinergy DT XS Diversity, similar to cinergyT2.c */
        { 0xeb01, KEY_POWER },
        { 0xeb02, KEY_1 },
        { 0xeb03, KEY_2 },
        { 0xeb04, KEY_3 },
        { 0xeb05, KEY_4 },
        { 0xeb06, KEY_5 },
        { 0xeb07, KEY_6 },
        { 0xeb08, KEY_7 },
        { 0xeb09, KEY_8 },
        { 0xeb0a, KEY_9 },
        { 0xeb0b, KEY_VIDEO },
        { 0xeb0c, KEY_0 },
        { 0xeb0d, KEY_REFRESH },
        { 0xeb0f, KEY_EPG },
        { 0xeb10, KEY_UP },
        { 0xeb11, KEY_LEFT },
        { 0xeb12, KEY_OK },
        { 0xeb13, KEY_RIGHT },
        { 0xeb14, KEY_DOWN },
        { 0xeb16, KEY_INFO },
        { 0xeb17, KEY_RED },
        { 0xeb18, KEY_GREEN },
        { 0xeb19, KEY_YELLOW },
        { 0xeb1a, KEY_BLUE },
        { 0xeb1b, KEY_CHANNELUP },
        { 0xeb1c, KEY_VOLUMEUP },
        { 0xeb1d, KEY_MUTE },
        { 0xeb1e, KEY_VOLUMEDOWN },
        { 0xeb1f, KEY_CHANNELDOWN },
        { 0xeb40, KEY_PAUSE },
        { 0xeb41, KEY_HOME },
        { 0xeb42, KEY_MENU }, /* DVD Menu */
        { 0xeb43, KEY_SUBTITLE },
        { 0xeb44, KEY_TEXT }, /* Teletext */
        { 0xeb45, KEY_DELETE },
        { 0xeb46, KEY_TV },
        { 0xeb47, KEY_DVD },
        { 0xeb48, KEY_STOP },
        { 0xeb49, KEY_VIDEO },
        { 0xeb4a, KEY_AUDIO }, /* Music */
        { 0xeb4b, KEY_SCREEN }, /* Pic */
        { 0xeb4c, KEY_PLAY },
        { 0xeb4d, KEY_BACK },
        { 0xeb4e, KEY_REWIND },
        { 0xeb4f, KEY_FASTFORWARD },
        { 0xeb54, KEY_PREVIOUS },
        { 0xeb58, KEY_RECORD },
        { 0xeb5c, KEY_NEXT },

According to this information, it seems that the eb in the keycodes are not correct (anymore?). So, I have changed them to 14 because of the err line found in syslog.

        /* Key codes for the Terratec Cinergy DT XS Diversity, similar to cinergyT2.c */
        { 0x1401, KEY_POWER },
        { 0x1402, KEY_1 },
        { 0x1403, KEY_2 },
        { 0x1404, KEY_3 },
        { 0x1405, KEY_4 },
        { 0x1406, KEY_5 },
        { 0x1407, KEY_6 },
        { 0x1408, KEY_7 },
        { 0x1409, KEY_8 },
        { 0x140a, KEY_9 },
        { 0x140b, KEY_VIDEO },
        { 0x140c, KEY_0 },
        { 0x140d, KEY_REFRESH },
        { 0x140f, KEY_EPG },
        { 0x1410, KEY_UP },
        { 0x1411, KEY_LEFT },
        { 0x1412, KEY_OK },
        { 0x1413, KEY_RIGHT },
        { 0x1414, KEY_DOWN },
        { 0x1416, KEY_INFO },
        { 0x1417, KEY_RED },
        { 0x1418, KEY_GREEN },
        { 0x1419, KEY_YELLOW },
        { 0x141a, KEY_BLUE },
        { 0x141b, KEY_CHANNELUP },
        { 0x141c, KEY_VOLUMEUP },
        { 0x141d, KEY_MUTE },
        { 0x141e, KEY_VOLUMEDOWN },
        { 0x141f, KEY_CHANNELDOWN },
        { 0x1440, KEY_PAUSE },
        { 0x1441, KEY_HOME },
        { 0x1442, KEY_MENU }, /* DVD Menu */
        { 0x1443, KEY_SUBTITLE },
        { 0x1444, KEY_TEXT }, /* Teletext */
        { 0x1445, KEY_DELETE },
        { 0x1446, KEY_TV },
        { 0x1447, KEY_DVD },
        { 0x1448, KEY_STOP },
        { 0x1449, KEY_VIDEO },
        { 0x144a, KEY_AUDIO }, /* Music */
        { 0x144b, KEY_SCREEN }, /* Pic */
        { 0x144c, KEY_PLAY },
        { 0x144d, KEY_BACK },
        { 0x144e, KEY_REWIND },
        { 0x144f, KEY_FASTFORWARD },
        { 0x1454, KEY_PREVIOUS },
        { 0x1458, KEY_RECORD },
        { 0x145c, KEY_NEXT },

After recompiling and rebooting the kernel, the remote control works without a problem

 pts/7  jan ~$ irw
0000000000010002 00 1 Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
000000000001000a 00 9 Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010160 00 ok Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
00000000000100cf 00 play Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010193 00 ch- Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010192 00 ch+ Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010072 00 vol- Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010073 00 vol+ Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010066 00 home Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
0000000000010074 00 onoff Cinergy_Hybrid_t_USB_XS
^C
 pts/7  jan ~$ 

Jaakko has released a new version 1.9.1 of picprog. Thanks Jaakko!

I have created a Debian (amd64) Package for it, which is available at http://www.janwagemakers.be/picprog/amd64/.

Hopefully this picprog Debian package will be uploaded to Debian/Unstable soon.

I have updated the software of my nixie clock. The previous version displays the time at a rate of 2 seconds per digit (inclusive pause). This version displays the time at a rate of 1 second per digit.

You can see the source here.


Click on the photo above to see the Nixie clock in action
or
click here to see it on youtube
(warning: low quality movie)

I have written a webpage about my Nixie Clock in the English and Dutch language.

I have updated the schematic (made with gEDA gschem) and software of my Nixie clock .