ejs

a snaphot of time

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OpenOffice.org, x64 and .NET interface

Jan 23

Posted by ejs in MatLAB, programming | 2 Comments

Here,’s the story short:

I need to create a series of graph for highly scientific data sets. The data is calculated in MatLAB, but the export of figures in MatLAB is a pain for me.

On the other hand OpenOffice.org seems to be the right tool for the job. The latest MatLAB has the function, called ‘xlswrite’. Happy with the fact, hoping it should write the XLS file I fire it up and…

Ouch. One must have Excell installed, as the data export goes through the ActiveX. If no Excell is found, the data is exported into CSV file, overwriting the file every time. Not the Right Thing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Running VirtualBox guests from physical drive

Nov 1

Posted by ejs in *NIX, Hobbies, My job | Comments off

Dual boot is perfect solution in most cases.

On the other hand, if you need to peep into the other system’s files, you need to re-boot. Or use sometimes not so stable filesystem utilities.
Running fully virtualized OS, using eg Xen as supervisor, creates additional load an hardware, maybe not too big when running multiple OS’es on the pretty new server, but significant, if it is a laptop. And yes, you NEED to keep data in-sync between virtual and real OS. Read the rest of this entry »

Migration hell: moving printers in Windows

Oct 20

Posted by ejs in My job, programming, Software | No Comments

Our campus, Faculty of Architecture, VGTU is moving to the totally new subnet. As we use DHCP for IP distribution, no real problems except `sed` are going to appear.
The pleasing moment is we are getting a fresh IP range.
The headache is TCP/IP printers.

WPKG has good printer addition/ installation guide in http://wpkg.org/Printer_configuration , but it does not cover changing IP port numbers.
As a CEO on all computer infrastructure, I need to find any solution to make the movement smoothly.

I was unable to find a ready-made solution, and in-house tool appeared after several hours in the Net.
I need to apologize for bugs and errors, as it is the first (and hopefully the last) VB script. It uses WMI. Testing box was W7, x64.
Maybe someone will find it useful.

Call the file chprinterport.vbs Read the rest of this entry »

A single song

Jun 16

Posted by ejs in Hobbies | No Comments

I’ve been working for maybe the third day when i’ve heard it on some Internet radio station. The song was performed by Mary Hopkin. It’s tracing back to 1920-ies, was banned up to 1950-ies. Anyway Wikipedia knows more about it.

Dude, i’m feeling to old for rock-n-roll ;)

“Дорогой длинною”, Сергей Зыков (Youtube post by tombene77):

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dolomites

Jul 11

Posted by ejs in Trips | No Comments

Here is the (unfinished) map of passes in Dolomites, created in Google Maps.
You can also search for photos of the passes.

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Weekend project – USBasp

Sep 21

Posted by ejs in Hobbies, programming | 1 Comment

I had some ideas to go out before, but as i got terrible cold last Friday, I had to postpone all of them.

I feel a bit better today, so decided to build USBasp – an USB port ISP programmer for Atmel product family. I used STK 200/300 dongle before, but it works from parallel port only.
USBasp: fresh PCB
Lets start: the schematics is from http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/ . You can find some schematics and pre-routed PCB’s there.

What I need is USB B type or MiniUSB connector, SMD parts, small footprint, single – sided PCB. The one I liked is by Thomas Pfeifer, http://thomaspfeifer.net/atmel_usb_programmer.htm. The problem is I found no files for Eagle there and had to re-create the PCB.

Additional features are:

  • RC filters on MOSI, MISO and SCK lines to suppress ringing, as suggested in AVR Freaks forum;
  • Signal from oscillator (XTAL1) is routed to the pin 3 on IDC connector via jumper – a handy feature to debrick the MCU if you accidentally fused external oscillator;
  • Inductor on the power line.

The PDF files with the layout are here, an A6 – size mirrored image for direct printing on OHP is here.

Added on 2008-10-01:
USBasp top side, populated
USBasp bottom side, populated
First, it works. Both connected directly or via USB hub.
Second: don’t create anything while you are ill. Actually, pin number 5 on miniUSB connector MUST be grounded, while pin number 4 can be grounded or left floating. I’ve used i jumper wire to solve the issue.

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Hacking the FlexLM keygens

Aug 21

Posted by ejs in Hobbies, Software | Comments off

Ok, it’s ugly and illegal, i know. The information here is for educational purposes only.

Sometimes i’m asked to “cure” one or another product, protected by registration or network license manager, like FlexLM. And you know, a lot of keygens for these product found in the Internet, do not work. The usual error is “Internal Error #{1..6} – Please be sure the app is running and on the license screen!”. What’s wrong, why the keygens from the glorious crack groups do not work any more?

Search on the Internet revealed almost nothing: from “the kyegen does not work” to “it works perfectly”, some says one must use genuine windows the keygen to work (wow…).

Let’s start a little investigation. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s go get lost

Feb 25

Posted by ejs in Hobbies | 1 Comment

Full trip (amost)Actually, up to Munich i had no GPS signal when the Asus was charging in the car cradle – a stupid problem.
When surfing web in Munich I’ve found a patch to solve the problem in WM5 from the same Asus. After this everything went fine and you can see the whole journey here.
Asus had solved this problem in later firmware releases for WM5 as well as for WM6. So, let’s start exploring Italy: Full trip (amost)
Read the rest of this entry »

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Creating eye-candy from dead i-GO tracks

Feb 24

Posted by ejs in Hobbies | Comments off

sample track

As, I’ve mentioned earlier, we had a pleasant trip through Italy the last summer. I have recorded the whole trip to my GPS unit using i-GO navigation program. Seems like 10 second recording intervals are fine and the track is quite precise and smooth.
Unfortunately, during upgrade from WM5 to WM6 I had to reinstall i-Go and all tracks just dissapeared from track list in i-GO. Stupid me, i HAD to save ‘igo.db’ file somewhere.
I found no way to put them back, so let the fun begin.
A short glimpse into one of the files and.. 

...
$GPGSA,A,3,04,20,13,23,31,11,,,,,,,2.0,1.2,1.6*33
$GPRMC,061120.287,A,5414.2734,N,02337.5314,E,54.08,261.55,290707,,,A*50
$GPGGA,061121.000,5414.2726,N,02337.5281,E,1,06,1.2,152.2,M,31.0,M,,0000*54
...

Hey, do You think the same way? Yes, it’s NMEA data in plain text.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Screen change for Asus MyPal 639

Feb 22

Posted by ejs in Hobbies | 2 Comments

little hand

The unit served as almost perfect GPS navigator for our summer trip though the Italy. One regular February evening i took my Asus PDA and…
Yep, a small problem. And a serious one.

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