Peter's Blog

As you can see, I got the blog running. The technology behind it is:

• Entries entered into Natara DayNotez on palm or PC. Right now I'm lying in bed entering this into the palm.

• After a hotsync DayNotez stores the entries in an Access format database

• A python script reads the database, converts them into html and stores them in files

• Netobjects creates the web site. A tiny amount of Asp is used to format the entrys inside the fancy frames. It is surprising to me that html does not include a #include feature.

• Wise ftp copies the files to the server

I was using rxStructuredText to convert the entries to html but I abandoned that because I wanted to suppress warnings it put into the html but I could not figure out how. The source is like the Zope source, hugely complex object model, uncommented and undocumented (ironically).

Todo:

• python ftp copies files to server

• figure out how to persuade Netobjects to create Default.html instead of index.html

• add prev and next to archive

• add more background info

• add google site search

Fixed a few things on the site:

• set main file to default.html using advanced settings under publish

• added next and prev buttons. Not too complex

• added 'about me?' and a faq

The 'history' page keeps appearing in the buttons on the left. It is a wrapper for the archive entries and does not work as a button. There is a dialog in NetObjects tc control this but I can't find it.

Woo Hoo my NIC/Motherboard combo support wakeup on lan. I can turn it on from the laptop from anywhere in the house.

I had to:

• plug in the WOL cable that came with the DFE538TX

• enable WOL in the BIOS

• install dlink drivers

• set advanced options to use APM

• stop windows controlling NIC power

Using AMD magic packet software to turn it on.

Created a dyndns account on DynDns.org to allow me to wake pc up over the internet, despite having a dynamic IP. Dyndns is free and allows domain names to be mapped to dynamic ips. The DI624 router is supposed to be able to tell dyndns whenever the IP address changes but the router seems to reboot whenever I try to set it. I suspect a firmware problem. 3 possible workarounds

• wait for firmware upgrade

• get pc to turn on and run a pc based dyndns update

• figure a way to get old Orico router to handle it.

Orico would have to sit between the cable modem and the dlink. Could be temporary till dlink start SVTing their firmware.

Discovery of the day: using mozilla I thought I was in Vim and typed /blah to find something. Well, it worked, it found something. Handy.

Had a quick try of the character recognition on an HP Jordana. Much better than palm, banged out the alphabet in no time with no mistakes. Just to prove my point I just tried it on the palm and... no mistakes. Still, the Jordana was nice, if only it didn't run windows.

Last night I had a WOL failure so I had to go upstairs to turn the pc on. Bummer. Today I will try doing it remotely from work if the IT dept will give me a port through the firewall. I'm not sure what the firewall is doing so it will be tricky to debug. I put a python script on the home pc when it boots so I should get some sign of life. I forgot to open up a VNC port through the router at home.

Last night fhe lap top went at least 2 hours doing continuous wireless networking and the battery was not exhausted (but I was). Battery is good for an evening of couch-surfing. Mouse battery still on original charge. Really pleased with that mouse.

ToDo: set home pc to hibernate automatically after an hour of inactivity.

Oh, and it turns out that you can put a pc into hibernate in XP without pressing the power button (eg through VNC). Hold a shift key down in the logout dialog and the suspend button turns into hibernate. Not sure why it was hidden like that.

For the record, the lunchtime WOL attempt failed This was using a python script which sent the packet to the DNS port as that is a UDP port. I used python to get control over the port that was used. There are many reasons it could have failed:

• Flaky motherboard/nic/bios/os

• Error in python script (it didn't work last night but neither did magic packet).

• Port blocked in firewall here

• Port blocked by NTL

• Port not forwarded correctly by router at home

I should test at home from network, then attempt to test using an old dialup isp account.

WOL at home failed when targeted at specific IP but worked for a broadcast IP. I don't really know a lot about this but could it be that the arp table was not up to date? I mean the laptop did not know hw to convert the ip into a mac address to send the data to? If the router is on all the time then will it remember where the pc is? I have to try it from outside somehow.

From work I may have been targeting the wrong port number.