Need your help.

Hey folks I am promoting a friends band. They're called Baker Kane and they're very talented. If you could do them a favour. It only requires a couple of steps, one if you're already a member of digg.

1. Register at www.digg.com.
2. Second "digg" this article

If they get enough diggs the link will show up on the front page of www.digg.com, and a lot more people will discover this amazing group. They're in process of compiling material for an album, but if you like check out their myspace page.

Thanks for your help
Ciao For Now

Dano

Can't send email and have a router here's a tip

I had a friend call me up today with computer trouble. It is a common problem that people experience with routers. I figured I would post the reasons this occurs and a fix for it so that others might benefit from it.

The problem was that he was able to receive emails but not send them. This usually occurs when one has a router because the information leaving the router is getting scrambled. In order to explain this I'll have to explain how TCP/IP the language of the internet works (very simplified version)



I'm tempted on talking about the tubes now but I'll refrain ;-)




TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol. It is what is used to send and receive information over the internet. It is made of different layers the:

1. Link Layer
2. Internet Layer
3. Transport Layer
4. Application Layer.

For the purposes of our discussion we are only going to concern ourselves with the transport layer. The Transport Control Protocol allows information to be broken up into smaller pieces called packets. So lets say we were sending an email that has an attachment. We'll say this attachment is 10 KB or 10 Kilobytes. Some people prefer to refer to this as 10 KiB or 10 KilobInary Bytes as it actually refers to 10240 bytes or 1024 x 10 bytes. I will refer to the shorter version from here on in, simply by virtue of being stuck in my ways. ;-)

The default MTU or Maximum Transmission Unit is 1492 this determines what size chunks the information is broken up into when sending. So in the case of IPv4 the first 20 bytes are header which leaves 1472 bytes for data and checksum. Inside the TCP datagram we have 20 bytes for the tcp header. Which leaves 1452 Bytes for data. So a file of size 10240 would be broken up into 8 packets (10240 divided by 1452 is 7 and a bit so rounding up we get 8 packets).
Now here's where the problem arises, if there is an error in the packet the packet has to be resent, what happens with a larger packet size is there is more likelihood to have an error the more bits there are in a packet. So the mail agent keeps trying to send a packet that ends up getting mangled. Once the size or MTU is lowered the packet sends because there is less likelihood of an error, and the email can be sent.

So for example on a linksys router:



You would change the MTU drop down tab to Manual, and then change the size by reducing the default 1492 to 1452 to see if that decreases the error rate.



Next try to send an email with an attachment, if the send error disappears you are set, if not reduce the MTU value by 10.

There is a more in depth way of doing this so that you can optimize this setting, but this is the easiest way for the average user who doesn't want to get too complicated and start checking for packet fragmentation/mangling.

Hope this helps...until next time

Nerdtek signing off.

Scratch the Scottish Oak

After speaking with my uncle Paul who knows a ton about guitar making. It would seem oak is the absolute worse wood to choose. So I'm going with good ole' swamp ash.

Anyways enough of the guitar stuff. Seeing as though I'm calling this blog Nerdtek I should post something appropriate. Tech stuff for nerds!

I don't personally have a cell phone. At the moment I don't really have a need for it, but I have been kind of geeking out over Motorola's KRZR. A friend of mine picked one up and I liked what I saw. He picked up an unlocked phone, and hacked his bios. Has quite a few games on it, among other interesting utilities. He also hacked his lights to suit his needs. I'll provide more of write up after I interview him.

I was a little disappointed by Palm's Foleo. The Treo was where it's at a phone and mobile computing device in one, but they missed the boat a little with it as they didn't integrate the phone features of the Treo into the Foleo. Keep your eyes peeled though as I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Palm listens to what people are saying and offer it.

As some of you know from my other blog, I'm not a Microsoft guy. I use their stuff when I'm forced to but if I can get away with it, I'm M$ free. So I've been really interested in the One Laptop Per Child project. Recently Nicholas Negroponte has brought Intel on board. After a long period of adversity between the two groups it looks like they've decided to play nice.

Scottish Oak

I found a supplier that has Scottish Oak. This guy takes great care with the wood, hand selects the logs, and dries the wood himself. I might just have to take a road trip down to PA some weekend and take a look at his selection.

I think since I want this guitar to reflect my Scottish roots Scottish hard wood is definitely the way to go. Also oak seems to have historical significance.

I also think I'm going to take the knotwork on the back of the MacMillan cross in Kilmory kirkyard as the design pattern that I'm going to etch into the backside of the pickguard.

I've included a close up of the detail. What makes this significant for me is my family comes from the Isle of Arran, where and my ancestor who came from Scotland to Canada's father was married in Kilmory. In the very Kirk where this cross is.

Linux Guitar!

I just stumbled upon a totally cool project. The Linux Guitar, an electric guitar with embedded linux. It will be able to record, playback, and of course have on board effects. Totally awesome! I was already thinking of making my own guitar with a celtic look to it, adding this aspect to it, is a great idea.

I've been researching the appropriate hardware to use. I found this it's called a System On Module, and it uses the Freescale MX31 processor which uses the ARM1136J-fS core, which includes a DSP. This will be perfect for the effects side of things.

What's awesome as well it's only 2.33" by 3" in size, that's very small footprint, and it should fit in a guitar body no problem at all.