Skip to Content

sgrover's blog

Automatic OpenVPN Connections

Sun, 02/07/2010 - 15:21 — sgrover

I was first introduced to OpenVPN through IPCop OpenVPN has been a great tool for me. It allows quick and easy AND secure connections to remote networks. By using a VPN, I can use my laptop with confidence, even in an un-trusted or dangerous network. (disclaimer, DefCon is a special case - VPN helps, but is no guarantee...)

But I have two "beefs" with OpenVPN.

My flights have fancy have flown away.

Sun, 01/24/2010 - 23:08 — sgrover

My flights have fancy have flown away.
My imagination has withered and died.
My motivation has lost it's motivation.
My world has shrunk to encompass very little.
My faith died long ago.
My trust is shattered and in peices.
My ego is not overly proud of itself.

But.

My beliefs are still strong.
My hope is eternal.
My will lives on.
My daughter makes me smile.

I will last another day.

Arduino, IR Range Finders, and I2C

Sat, 01/23/2010 - 03:50 — sgrover

I've been getting started with electronics for the past while and felt it was time for me to finally blog about the adventures. In particular, tonight I'm blogging about my experience with I2C based Infra Red Range Finders. (devices that can tell how far away something is...)

Discovering PostgreSQL Windowed Functions

Fri, 01/08/2010 - 02:36 — sgrover

Every once in a while we come across a problem that requires a different way of thinking to solve it. I ran into this tonight with what should have been a simple database query. The solution took me in an unexpected direction, but seems to be aligning nicely with the rest of the application.

Javascript Formatting of Phone Numbers and Postal Codes

Wed, 12/30/2009 - 14:45 — sgrover

Search the web for JavaScript scripts to format phone numbers and postal codes, and you'll find lots out there. The problem with most of the ones you find is that they are much more complex than they need to be, and do not handle different entry formats well. For example, entering phone numbers as "5551234" or "(888) 555-1234" requires different approaches. Regular Expressions can make this complexity much simpler, and reduce the amount of code needed.

Ubuntu + VMWare Server 2.x = Unstable?

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 17:06 — sgrover

I've used VMWare Server many times in the past to set up virtual testing or development environments. But since they moved to version 2.0 I keep running into problems. I cannot keep a VMWare server environment running reliably on a Ubuntu system.

Getting VMWare Server running on a Ubuntu system requires a couple of extra steps. But that is supposed to only be for the installation.

K3B errors, failure, and resolution

Wed, 12/23/2009 - 04:47 — sgrover

About a month ago, I raged about how much joy I was having trying to replace my desktop installation. Part of that process was a flaky CD Drive that would not burn a bootable CD, and had general problems. So I picked up a replacement drive this past weekend and fell down the rabbit hole of troubleshooting bliss.

The Online Privacy Fallacy

Tue, 12/15/2009 - 08:06 — sgrover

This week has been an interesting one for me in terms of "privacy" concerns. I had one case where a friend's privacy concerns directly clashed with my desire to maintain memories. And in a different situation, a friend has put lie to a rumor for a particular issue with Facebook, but in doing so inadvertently came to a misguided conclusion. and somewhere in there Google "told it like it is" concerning privacy, and got slapped in the face by out of context quotations.

Case #1 - Your privacy versus MY privacy

Kate - The small things make all the difference

Fri, 12/04/2009 - 01:02 — sgrover

Every programmer has their own favourite tool for writing code. Some prefer command line text editing tools like Emacs, or Vi. Some like full Integrated Development Environments (aka IDEs) like Visual Studio, or Eclipse.

Elaborate / Discuss

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 06:24 — sgrover

Think about it

Syndicate content


Theme by Dr. Radut.