Garage Storage – Part 1

Posted by stevet on June 14, 2011
Posted in: Home Improvement.

I have ended up with some free time, so I thought I could be constructive with my time (bad pun intended).

Recently I was watching Ask This Old House and they had a really nice garage storage unit that included adjustable shelves and peg board for door inserts. I found the episode listed on their website but they did not include any plans or sketches. Only one small picture and my inaccurate memory.

I wanted to do something very similar with some alterations. I wanted the cabinet to be 14″ deep total which will fit nicely above my work bench. I wanted to use shelf pins which I have a fantastic router jig for. Lastly, they did not use dados for the fixed shelves, and I thought that might be a better design. I liked the peg board panel based doors so I decided to do that as well.

My design is pretty simple. A 3/4″ plywood box with a fixed vertical support in the middle. The dimensions will be about 48″ wide x 32″ high x 14″ deep. That depth does not include the doors.

After I completed the basic design, I went off the home center to pick up what I would need. Here is the shopping list and what I paid for the pieces:

  • 3/4″ x 4′ x 8′ Plywood AC grade – $24 (a fantastic price)
  • 1/2″ x 4′ x 4′ Plywood BC grade – $18
  • 3 – 8ft x 1″x4″ Select Pine – $19.50 ($6.50ea)
  • 4′ x 8′ White Peg Board – $17 (they did not have 4’x4′ and the two 2’x4′ would have been $16)
  • Box of 2″ Screws – $6.50
  • 2 – Door Pulls/Handles – $6 ($3ea)
  • 2 – 30″ Piano Hinges – $15 ($7.50ea)
  • Shelf Pins – $2
  • 2 – Magnetic door catches – $1.50 ($0.75ea)

Now it was time to cut up some plywood!

I used the bed of my pickup as my plywood cutting station. It is just at 100 here in Austin, so I think my next project will be to build a plywood cutting center.

In plans I marked some of the plywood pieces as being 14″(s) meaning they should be short of 14″ to take in account the 1/2″ plywood. As you know 1/2″ plywood does not measure 1/2″. In this case it measures 7/16″. So all of my 14″(s) pieces are actually 13 9/16″.

This is all of the pieces cut to width. The left and right panels are also cut to length but the rest will need to be trimmed to fit.

The final step for the day was to setup my dado jig. I have a set of plywood router bits where the 3/4″ bit is actually 22/32″. I wanted the dado to be just about 1/4″ deep so I set my plunge router to that and fit the straight edge guide. I intentionally made the first dado deep in on a scrap piece do I could do multiple passes if needed. Turns out the depth is great and the fit is excellent.

I then set the guide to be much closer to the end of my sample board – just about the width of a metal ruler I have on hand and ran a 2nd dado pass. This will be where the dados are on the project.

That ends Day 1.

Tomorrow I will cut the dados on the side pieces. and fit the top and bottom panels. I will then size the top and bottom if needed to make the adjustable shelves fit. I will then size and fit the vertical support. If that goes well, I will also setup and drill all the shelf pin holes. After that I will need to size the back board (which is 1/2″ plywood). When everything is fit together I will glue and screw everything to become a completed cabinet. Then onto the doors…

Samsung Captivate

Posted by stevet on July 23, 2010
Posted in: Geek Out.

So, I lied in my last post. My newest toy is a Samsung Captivate smart phone. It is powered by Android.

I do like it, but all it does take some getting used to the touch screen.

My biggest annoyance is the bloatware, shovelware, crapware, whatever you want to call it. AT&T installs a ton of stuff. Time to get rid of it!

First you need to gain super-user privileges. Here is how to do that:

  1. Download and install the Android SDK (download and install guide)
  2. Install the Samsung Drivers (download location)
  3. Set your phone to connect in Mass Storage mode (Settings->Applications->USB Settings->Mass storage)
  4. Connect the phone via USB. Mount the drive (select Mount from the USB drop down notification).
  5. Download the Root Update Zip and rename it update.zip
  6. Copy the update.zip to your internal SD card on the phone
  7. Disconnect your phone’s USB
  8. Turn on USB Debugging Mode (Settings->Applications->Development->USB Debugging)
  9. Connect the phone via USB again
  10. Use a command prompt to cd to the SDK’s tools directory. Mine is c:androidtools.
  11. Run the recovery mode reboot command: adb reboot recovery
  12. The phone will reboot into recovery mode. Select Reinstall Packages on the phone’s menu using the Volume Up/Down buttons and select using the Power button. The phone will install the update and reboot.
  13. You should now see a Superuser Permission application in the Applications panels.

Now it is time to remove some crap!

  1. Make sure your phone is connected via USB and the USB Debugging mode is still turned on.
  2. From a command prompt, cd to the SDK’s tools directory.
  3. Run the SDK shell: adb shell
  4. Become root: su
  5. To remove apps, we will just rename them. For example this removes the AT&T Nav app: mv /system/app/ATTNav-Samsung-Vega-1488.apk /system/app/ATTNav-Samsung-Vega-1488.tmp
  6. Here is a list of applications and their actual application file names:
    • AT&T Nav — /system/app/ATTNav-Samsung-Vega-1488.apk
    • AT&T Radio — /system/app/ATT_Radio_2.1.07.apk
    • MobiTV — /system/app/MobiTV_800x480_320_20100610_1.0.0.15-118829.apk
    • MobileBanking — mv /system/app/MobileBanking.apk
    • AT&T Maps — /system/app/attmaps20-1094.apk
    • Where — /system/app/WHERE_Samsung_GT-I900_Vegas_EN_1.9.3_GM_06112010.apk
    • AT&T Hotspots — /system/app/WISPr_v41.apk /system/app/WISPr_v41.tmp
    • AT&T FamilyMap — mv /system/app/androidlauncher2.1-61x612010_06_11t15_49.apk
    • AT&T Music mv /system/app/ATT-P11_PROD.apk
    • Instant Messaging — /system/app/IM-Signed.apk
    • AllShare — /system/app/Dlna.apk
  7. Disconnect your USB, turn off USB Debugging and see how your apps are missing!

Here are the list of sources I used to get this going:

I think this will be my next toy…

Posted by stevet on July 14, 2010
Posted in: Random Rants.

I am thinking about getting a Henry Repeating Arms H001T lever action rifle.

Here is the beauty.

Bud’s wants $320 (plus fees) for it. Not a bad price.

Yeah, it is a 22LR. Yeah, it is just a plinker. But my 30-06 cost a buck a shell to fire and that is a bit steep for lots of practice.

I still need to get to the range and get some time in with existing toys, so I will probably wait until fall.

Renaming JIRA Users

Posted by stevet on July 2, 2010
Posted in: Geek Out.

So you use JIRA do you? Nice, so do I.

Ever have someone get married? divorced? a typo in their user name? Every try and change it? Yeah, not so easy.

Atlassian has not set a release where there will be a fix, so we humble JIRA administrators have to make due with what we can. At this current job we are using version 4.0 (with plans to upgrade this summer). We also used email addresses as the user name rather than the AD based user name. If you want to use AD integration, it is best to match user names. So we had a pressing need to rename everyone. What is the right way? Atlassian tells us to export, search and replace, then import. Yep. Kludgey. Plus my import was not working for some reason. What else can we do? Database Updates! Yeah!

I found my first SQL example in the 7 year old rename user bug. It was published by Jeff Turner. It mostly works on the 4.0 scheme. Some updates are needed.

Here is the updated SQL for a 4.0 schema:

update jiraissue set reporter='newuser' where reporter='[email protected]';
update jiraissue set assignee='newuser' where assignee='[email protected]';
update jiraaction set AUTHOR='newuser' where AUTHOR='[email protected]';
update changegroup set AUTHOR='newuser' where AUTHOR='[email protected]';
update changeitem set OLDVALUE='newuser' where OLDVALUE='[email protected]' and FIELD='assignee';
update changeitem set NEWVALUE='newuser' where NEWVALUE='[email protected]' and FIELD='assignee';
update searchrequest set authorname='newuser' where authorname='[email protected]';
update searchrequest set username='newuser' where username='[email protected]';
update schemepermissions set perm_parameter='newuser' where perm_parameter='[email protected]' and perm_type="user";
update schemepermissions set perm_parameter='newuser' where perm_parameter='[email protected]' and perm_type="user";
update searchrequest set authorname='newuser' where authorname='[email protected]';
update membershipbase set USER_NAME='newuser' where USER_NAME='[email protected]';
update OS_CURRENTSTEP set owner='newuser' where owner='[email protected]';
update OS_CURRENTSTEP set caller='newuser' where caller='[email protected]';
update OS_HISTORYSTEP set owner='newuser' where owner='[email protected]';
update OS_HISTORYSTEP set caller='newuser' where caller='[email protected]';
update fileattachment set author='newuser' where author='[email protected]';
update filtersubscription set username='newuser' where username='[email protected]';
update project set lead='newuser' where lead='[email protected]';
update userbase set username='newuser' where username='[email protected]';
update customfieldvalue set stringvalue='newuser' where stringvalue='[email protected]';
update columnlayout set username='newuser' where username='[email protected]';
update portalpage set username='newuser' where username='[email protected]';
update userhistoryitem set USERNAME='newuser' where USERNAME='[email protected]';
update worklog set AUTHOR='newuser' where AUTHOR='[email protected]';
update worklog set UPDATEAUTHOR='newuser' where UPDATEAUTHOR='[email protected]';
update notification set notif_parameter='newuser' where notif_parameter='[email protected]';
update component set lead='newuser' where lead='[email protected]';
update columnlayout set username='newuser' where username='[email protected]';

Once you update your DB with all of those update statements you need to refresh your JIRA indexes. This is done via the JIRA Administrator->Indexes page.

I have done this for a couple of users today and everything looks OK so far. I will be doing it for bunches of users in the next couple of days and will update this post if needed.

Wednesday Funny

Posted by stevet on May 26, 2010
Posted in: Random Rants.

An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried..
Love,
Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie

Ubuntu eSATA Configuration

Posted by stevet on May 24, 2010
Posted in: Geek Out. Tagged: .

We use a couple of external hard drive enclosures for offline backups at work. The best connectivity is via eSATA (USB being a bit flakier and much slower).

It works great on my Ubuntu 10.04 install on my Dell laptop, but that is my personal box. I was able to provision a Dell desktop and a PCI SATA card with two eSATA ports. It is a Rosewill RC-209-EX with the SIL3114 chipset.

After plugging it all in, my drives were just not recognized. No matter the boot order or what I did- no go. So, I buckled and read the directions. 🙂 As it turns out, this card can only do four total SATA ports and the four internal are on by default and the two external are off. I reset the jumpers to turn on both external and two internal.

Now it detects the drives. Well, actually it detects one drive. There are two in the enclosure.

So far I have had no luck getting the other drive in the enclosure detected. This is quite frustrating.

If anyone happens to read this and know what I can do to solve this, please leave a comment. If I fix it, I will add and update to this post.

UPDATE: I have emailed Rosewill (no response yet). I also set the jumpers on the WD drives to force them to be 150 MB/s. This had no effect either. I am still without a solution and am pretty frustrated.

UPDATE 2: I heard back from Rosewill. No assistance at all, I responded- but no word back yet. I have now also tried a SIL-3512 eSATA card (the only eSATA card Fry’s had) and it does not work either. This is very frustrating.

UPDATE 3: I returned the SIL-3512 to Fry’s (no problems there) and hit up NewEgg for a SNT SNT-PCIX Card Silicon Image 3132 SATA II PCI Express 2 x eSATA Port Multiplier RAID Controller Card. It is PCI-E but I have a slot (it appears anyway) and it works with a drive array with multiple drives. About the same price as the other two as well. Why is this so hard? I should get it next week. I also ordered an additional eSATA cable so I have two. This looks really cool as well if you just need eSATA ports and you have spare SATA ones eSATA bracket.

UPDATE 4: The card I ordered from NewEgg works. Well mostly. Sometimes I do not get both drives showing up. I re-seat the cables, and power the enclosure back on and all is well. This was pretty darn annoying if I say so myself.

MySQL Flush Privileges Error

Posted by stevet on May 6, 2010
Posted in: Geek Out. Tagged: , .

I spent a little time recently creating a new blog to act as a business landing page.

To make it simple, I am going to use WordPress. Actually installing WordPress is very simple; just unzip it in the right place and follow the wizard to create a wp-config.php file.

The trick I had was creating the database and user. I ran these commands:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE newdatabase;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON newusername.* TO “newdatabase”@”localhost”
-> IDENTIFIED BY “somepassword”;
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

The FLUSH PRIVILEGES command had an error:
ERROR 1146 (42S02): Table ‘mysql.servers’ doesn’t exist

A bit of google-fu revealed some SQL to run. My supposition is that during a recent upgrade of mysql server, this table became a requirement but was not created as part of the upgrade.

Here is the SQL to create an empty table in the mysql database.
CREATE TABLE `servers` (
`Server_name` char(64) NOT NULL,
`Host` char(64) NOT NULL,
`Db` char(64) NOT NULL,
`Username` char(64) NOT NULL,
`Password` char(64) NOT NULL,
`Port` int(4) DEFAULT NULL,
`Socket` char(64) DEFAULT NULL,
`Wrapper` char(64) NOT NULL,
`Owner` char(64) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`Server_name`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
COMMENT='MySQL Foreign Servers table';

Once I created that table, the FLUSH PRIVILEGES command worked without error and WordPress did all the DB work needed without complaint.

An Apology

Posted by stevet on August 20, 2009
Posted in: Random Rants.

I recently received an email about a rant I made several years ago after the shootings at Virginia Tech. You can read it here.

The individual who wrote the email was connected to the wedding party that I made a passing reference too. I should probably have been clearer with my words because I referred to them as a “drunk wedding party”. I will readily admit I was not there and I do not know how drunk they were. I am very clear on the fact that the Scales brothers were the ones with guns and were the ones who did the shooting. The wedding party will forever have to deal with the tragedy of that night and I apologize for my characterization of the party as a whole.