Generally speaking, people provide better maintenance for their cars than for their own bodies.

Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future

In addition to the Virtual Computing Lab, ECE distance students have access to a Linux and Solaris server farms. They can be accessed at the following locations:

• ECE Solaris Server Farm at compute.ece.ncsu.edu.
• ECE Linux Server Farm at grendel.ece.ncsu.edu.

These resources are presented in the Graduate Student Orientation.

The 2Wire 3800HGV-B Gateway web interface can be accessed through the following URLs:

• Use gateway.2wire.net to access the basic setup for the router.
• Use gateway.2wire.net/mdc to access the Management and Diagnostic Console (MDC). This is essentially the advanced configuration page.

The 2Wire Gateway does not include support for the popular DynDNS service. You’ll have to use one of the DynDNS Update Clients instead if you require this functionality.

AT&T technicians Tim and Leland came by the house today to install the newly unleashed U-Verse service, offering 10 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps up. As advertised, it does exactly what it’s supposed to, as demonstrated by these Speakeasy Speed Test (Atlanta, GA) results:

While we did have a few issues with the account activation process, a quick call to Tier-2 technical support resolved the issue. The technicians were aware of registration problems through the web site, and with my permission tried a USB installation system of some sort at one point — however, it appeared not to work under Windows Vista.

Like many others in technical circles, I am worried about AT&T’s decision to provide fiber to the node (FTTN), versus Verizon’s FiOS, which offers fiber to the home (FTTH) with up to 15 Mbps both downstream and upstream. When I examined the signal tester that the technicians were using, I did observe a channel capacity of approximately 55 Mbps, so perhaps AT&T is simply testing the waters or provisioning for their television service.

Still, if your options thus far have been limited to Comcast, or 6 Mbps DSL, AT&T’s U-Verse may be just the ticket.

I turned 25 today and got an Xbox 360, which I promptly modded through a software-only firmware hack so that it would play burned DVD+DL games. The firmware installation required nothing more than simple disassembly of the Xbox 360, and then connecting its DVD-ROM to a standard PC with a Rosewill RC-212 PCI SATA controller to perform the update.

• Xbox 360 Premium: NTSC, HDMI
• Manufacturing Date: 2007-12-10
• Lot: 0749
• Team: CSON
• DVD Drive: BenQ VAD6038
• 175W Falcon

Thanks, Microsoft — it’s payback time!

Note: Obviously, I only intend to use this to play backups of original games that I have legally purchased, and absolutely would not download games that could be acquired illegally through torrent sites like Pirate Bay.

I rise to urge the Congress to think twice before thrusting this nation into a war without merit — one fraught with the danger of escalating into something no American will be pleased with. 9/4/02.

I voted for Ron Paul.

The NCSU recommended approach to running remote X11 applications from a local Windows machine is through the use of StarNet X-Win32, for which a student license is freely available from EOS. The X-Win32 technique works well for most applications, but for low-bandwidth connections, VNC provides an alternative, lightweight connection option.

This article describes the procedure for instantiating a VNC server on a Linux Lab Machine (Realm RHEnterprise Linux 4) through the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL). It assumes that you are already familiar with the use of both PuTTY and UltraVNC, and simply need additional information on setup nuances particular to NC State.

One Time Initial Configuration

PuTTY is used to bypass the RHEnterprise firewall by using SSH and its port forwarding capabilities. Create and save a PuTTY profile with the following SSH tunnel:

SSH to the your VCL reservation with your NCSU login and password (eg, 152.1.21.221, login tbarik). Type ‘vncpassword’ at the command prompt and set your desired VNC password:

dan255-21-222% vncpasswd
Password:
Verify:

Next, edit the xstartup file found under the .vnc directory and uncomment the following lines so that they appear as follows:

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

This will allow the VNC server to load a proper window manager, for which GNOME is the default on NCSU.

New VCL Reservations

For every new VCL reservation, start the VNC Server, specifying your desired resolution. By default, this is 800×600, but can be easily changed with the geometry argument:

dan255-21-222% vncserver -geometry 1152x864

New 'dan255-21-222:1 (tbarik)' desktop is dan255-21-222:1

Starting applications specified in /ncsu/tbarik/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /ncsu/tbarik/.vnc/dan255-21-222:1.log

You can double-check the log file created above to confirm the port number of 5901:

Sat Feb  2 18:53:02 2008
vncext:      VNC extension running!
vncext:      Listening for VNC connections on port 5901
vncext:      Listening for HTTP connections on port 5801
vncext:      created VNC server for screen 0

Finally, open UltraVNC Viewer on your local system. For VNC Server address, enter:

 127.0.0.1:5901

If all goes well, you will be connected to your Realm RHEnterprise Linux session, as illustrated in this screenshot.

The course outline for Error-Control Coding is as follows:

An introduction to the theory and practice of codes for detecting and correcting errors in digital data communication and storage systems. Topics include linear block codes, cyclic codes, cyclic redundancy checksums, BCH and Reed-Solomon codes, convolutional codes, trellis-coded modulation, LDPC and turbo codes, Viterbi and sequential decoding, and encoder and decoder architecture. Applications include the design of computer memories, local-area networks, compact disc digital audio, NASA’s deepspace network, high-speed modems, communication satellites, and cellular telephony.

The course is being taught by Dr. Brian Hughes.

The course outline for Digital ASIC Design is as follows:

Modern digital design practices based on Hardware Description Languages (Verilog, VHDL) and CAD tools, particularly logic synthesis. Emphasis on design practice and the underlying algorithms. Introduction to deep submicron design issues, particularly interconnect and low power and to ASIC applications, and decision making.

The course is being taught by Dr. Paul Franzon.

I have dropped ECE 515: Digital Communications, and replaced it with ECE 767: Error-Control Coding, by using the EOL Class Schedule Revision Form. Thus, my schedule for the Spring 2008 semester is finalized as follows:

• ECE 520: Digital ASIC Design
• ECE 767: Error-Control Coding

With two heavy Engineering courses, this will be one of the most difficult semesters yet.