A Random Pattern

This is a simple example, but it’s really cool once you figure out what’s going on. I hope to see more of these!

I’m away from home currently, so haven’t been able to play with Remote Desktop into Ubuntu. i’m going to list out things I’ve done so far, and what I still want to setup, for reference later.

1. Changed the IP address from Dynamic (DHCP) to static (typed in a specific address, i.e. 192.168.1.200). This actually was extremely easy, and I didn’t have to restart anything. I have a linksys router, and when I changed the ip address it went live.

1. I set up VNC by installing VNC4Server using Synaptics. This was probably unnecessary, though I haven’t fully verified that.

2. I used this (with TightVNC viewer on the Win XP laptop) to view an Ubuntu X-session across my home network, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. It gave me a grey window with a terminal section. I was able to launch a few games, but of course performance was terrible.

3. I found “Remote Desktop” already available under Ubuntu’s [System | Preference] menu. There’s only a few options, and they’re not hard to get right. Make sure to require a password, but you probably don’t want to require acceptance at the computer you are setting up for remote use – unless this is to help a friend or family member without having to go over to their computer :).

4. Run TightVNC again, but this time remember that you need to give the ip address AND display (i.e. 192.168.1.200:0 is default).

Things left to do:

1. Get Remote Desktop (Sharing?) working on KDE – or verify that it won’t work?

2. Figure out sessions, how to change session numbers (why does my alternate KDE session start at 20? How can I make it easier to choose whether to log in to Gnome or KDE?).

3. Try to get Remote Desktop working not just on intranet, but when I’m not at home. Probably a pre-cursor to this is getting a domain name (or two).

4. enough Remote Desktop, move on to “Backing up”. :)  Oh, and I need to write a post on partitions.
Any advice, links, et cetera is quite welcome.  I will be sure to post what I learn.

First, how this guide will work. I’ve hidden all except the most gentle of hints, so anything you can read right now is safe and won’t spoil your “success” feeling. Then, I provide a few hints for every puzzle, finally practically giving you the answer. Give it a day if you’re stuck, then come back to it. This isn’t the best made puzzle ever, so there will be some guessing necessary, but nothing’s very far out there. The answer is always (somewhat) obvious, so no arcane puzzling knowledge or torturous logic paths are necessary.

Start with 1: Move your mouse over the 1.

On 2? Stuck? You can actually manually type in a web address, did you know that? Or you can change the current one just a bit, and see if there’s a page with that name?
More for 2: Go back to page 1, and look at the address. Now go forward to page 2. Look at the address. What would the address for 3 look like?

3: what did you do to get here? Do the same thing, only look at the information on the page first.

more for 3: How does the symbol in the middle of the page correspond to 3? What would be 4 then?

Still need more? Look up “Roman number”.

4: Really, just repeat the last sets of instructions. What comes after four?

5: Ok, this is where the puzzle starts to vary a little bit from the formula of the last several. Give it a try.

5 again: Count the o’s. Now how do you get to 6?

6: This is your first stretch. How does that number equal 6? Being a computer would help you understand this….

6 not-so-subtle hint: We’re not in the decimal system anymore, Toto.

6, one more hint: Try wikipedia. try google. Put in the number you know and the number you don’t. Find out how they are related.

7: Tricky one – if you’re from U.S., it’s not what you first think. Do a google search.

7 more detailed hint: Ok, search for both the clue and the number (7 and sept).

7 TMI: try learning a different language. At least until you can count to eight…

8: Hopefully you’re getting the hang of it. Here’s another new one, but nothing too difficult.

8 actual hint: How does the clue equal eight?

8: ok, get a mirror. Or pretend you’re from a country that reads right-to-left. Unless you are, in which case you probably didn’t need this hint.

9: Oh, fun! Where’d your clue go? If you are reading this, you already know how to solve 9.

9: C’mon, you can find it! Did you look for it? Use your mouse..

10: 2 ways to tackle this one. Try selecting your missing clue, or look at source code. Source code’s really the better way, because you’ll need it later on anyways. Go to “View” “Source Code” in the menu.

More to follow…..

Clues for 11-20 will be posted later this week, followed by clues all the way through 30. Hang in there!

Here’s a short slideshow video of our kitchen remodel. It’s meant only to whet your appetite, and give a quick overview. A more extensive video is in the works. Oh, and if you don’t have much bandwidth (if you’re using dial-up), you may not want to follow the link. Wait until I get a smaller version or collection of pictures up.

Edit: 10/31/06 1444, fixed links.

Everyone else is doing it, I figured I’ll throw my hat in the ring too. Of course, I don’t have much to add other than what I think is obvious. If you want the low-down on rumors, sites like TUAW writeup will fill you up.

So here’s the skinny: This is a developer conference. Yes, Apple may role out some new hardware. Everyone wants them to, but no one’s got any real idea whether they will or won’t. What we do know is that the main focus here is on Developers, and on the next version of OS X.

Here’s my predictions – they fall in line with one of my favorite bloggers, John Gruber from Daring Fireball:
-Leopard out soon, probably before Window’s Vista.
-Improved Spotlight and Metadata features (thanks Ars for making me dream!)
-New eye candy, major graphics cleanup.
-Next step for resolution independence?
-New Mac Pro. Yes, I think they’ll probably introduce it. No, I don’t have any good reason for thinking so, other than aggregate opinion (which is a really bad indicator, historically).

Thanks to someone’s quick camera, we know Apple’s expecting to wow us with the next version of OS X. And that, my friends, can only be good for computer users everywhere.

My wife’s grandma regularly enters all kinds of contests and sweepstakes. Recently she won a brand-spankin-new 60 GB iPod. It’s a generation newer than mine (about 1 year), so it’s half the size and plays video.

I helped Sara’s dad rip his CD collection onto our Mac, since they’re still running an old HP with Win 98 (gah!). Once his iPod was set up, we gave it a test run in my Hi-Fi.

Sweeeeet!

 

Don’t worry, I’m aiming for a Nano sometime soon so I can run with it. Grandma won’t be joining me.

arc90 labs released this cool bit of javascript. You may have noticed me trying it out – I’m still trying to get it right, but seeing how often I segue into little sidenotes I could probably use something like this.

I got Kubuntu installed. I first made the mistake of just installing KDE-desktop and some other important-looking KDE packages. Then, once I figured out how to log into a KDE session (log off, go to “Options” in the lower left corner, select “Session” then “KDE”) I got into IRC chat and learned that the easy way would have been to install Kubuntu-desktop. I did that, and KDE looked much better, had things in the right place, etc.

However, I still couldn’t get Remote Desktop working. For one thing, it was called “Sharing” instead of “Remote Desktop” (as it is under Gnome). For another, as I eventually discovered, I had left the firewall (Firestarter) running. Even though it hadn’t blocked my other PC the night previously, once I disconnected it started blocking that incoming connection (makes sense since I hadn’t made it an exception). For a third, I finally discovered my KDE session was 20, so trying “ipaddress:0″ or “:1″ or without colon obviously wasn’t going to work.

I still don’t have desktop sharing / remote desktop working for KDE, but I can remote into Gnome anytime I please. I think the VNC viewer and/or server might not allow sharing up to 20, maybe it only allows the first 5 or something. I haven’t looked into it yet, so if you know please tell me. I also don’t know why KDE starts at 20, instead of something much lower (the Gnome session is 0). One thing left to try is making KDE default – so far I’ve kept Gnome as default and just temporarily logged into KDE. This whole ‘session’ concept is still a little foggy for me. There are workspaces, displays, screens, sessions….I know there are differences, I just haven’t figured them all quite out yet. I’ll probably blog more on this.

One other item that was frustrating me until someone on the Kubuntu IRC channel pointed out the obvious: My display was just a few pixels wider than my actual monitor’s screen, and it was bugging me. I was looking for a software adjustment, when someone suggested I use the buttons on my monitor. Duh! The guys on #Ubuntu and on #Kubuntu have helped me out a few times, and I appreciate the community support. Sometimes the only solution is to figure it out yourself, but at least they’ll give you moral support.

Quick link to pictures:  Granite counter top web album

Well, I made that harder than it had to be. Instead of installing VNC stuff, I could have just looked in the System Menu, for the “Remote Desktop” option under “Preferences”. (By the way, I’m using it now to verify the wording of everything.)

Then I just use a VNC Viewer, and there we go, I’m seeing and using my Ubuntu desktop from my Win XP laptop. Of course, quality’s a little low, but I think that’s b/c my wireless signal is weak this far from my router. I need to get the ethernet run and set back up, and this will give me the motivation to do that. I’ll report on how it looks after that.

Also, I found “ALE”, the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts. Lucky me, there are other geeks around!