Internet, UNIX, Video, Leisure…
Sending SMS from Nagios
17/12/09

Sometimes you need to be able to send SMS from a computer. This is obvious when you’re talking of monitoring your servers. Email alerts are good, but what if you’re sleeping ?
I used to set up a SMS modem, with it’s own SIM card and subscription. This is really easy, using smsd daemon, to send SMS. Just put a formated file in a directory and bam!, you SMS is fired.
But what when you can’t set a SMS Modem in a datacenter ?
Then you have to use an online SMS provider.
you just have to call an API to send a SMS
it’s not free (you pay per SMS when the modem can have an unlimited SMS sending subscription
it is network dependant ; if you have a network failure, you will never be informed
Nikon D700 with Auto-ISO mode, still feat. Mouchette
11/12/09
I tried Auto-ISO with the Aperture First mode.
As I’m using Prime (fixed) lenses, I can play the aperture on the lense (defined as a « no CPU lense, so the D700 knows exactly which aperture I’m in) and have the D700 manage the shutter speed and, if needed, the ISO level, with a max at 3200 ISO.
I also think I’ll have to adjust the dioptrie on the viewfinder…
This is full RAW converted to PNG 150dpi (original is 240dpi).

Nikon D700 first test (feat. Mouchette)
9/12/09

First tests with the Nikon D700 and manual lenses.
With really low light and no knowledge of the camera, see how beautiful Mouchette can be
Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED on EX1+SGBlade
6/12/09
A few weeks ago I met a french guy, living close to where I live in the 11th district of Paris. He is supposed to be a photographer, but had great interrest in the EX1 ans the Shoot35 SG BLade 35mm adapter.
I proposed him to come over at my place for a demo.
He came, at my request, with some of his Nikon lenses : 80-200mm f2.8 zoom and a 105mm f2.8 macro.
We tried both lenses on the blade : SUBLIME !!
Euphonix MC Transport config files
1/11/09
Check my articles about Euphonix’s MC Transport controler here and there.
If you install the software for every user on the computer (maybe you don’t have the choice, can’t remember), every defined application will have a corresponding preference file.
On my computer they are in « /Library/Application Support/Euphonix/UserSets/MC2User/MC_USER_SET__Root »
total 744
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 174271 1 nov 18:01 Final Cut Pro.xml
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 74407 25 oct 02:23 Safari.xml
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 50407 1 nov 20:09 VLC.xml
-r–r–r– 1 prune admin 21894 21 avr 2009 default.xml
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 45115 25 oct 02:40 iTunes.xml
Euphonix MC Transport usage [EDIT]
31/10/09
Second part of the test.
First thing to do is register your controler. Go the the Euphonix support’s website.

This is where you’ll find the software download, the email support link and the docs.
When everything is working, as explained in previous post, you should have the green « € » in the top right of the menu, and the controler should display the name of the software you are actualy using (safari ? firefox ?)
I had some controler « freeze » at some point. Then, the controler keeps displaying the same application name, whichever application is in focus. For the moment, the only solution I found is to power-off the controler, go in the EuControl settings (the only way to get acces to the menu) and quit.
Then, restart the EuControl application, wait until the menu icon stop rolling, then power-on the controler.
As I said, I emailed the support about that without any real answer. I openned a new case today… we’ll see…
If you are using a supported application the controler comes pre-configured. This is not the case for most basic applications like Safari, Firefox, iTunes or even the finder.
While the MC Transport is not made for that specificaly, configuring these applications will help us understand how the controler work.
Basic notions :

you have two ways to do that : clic on the green icon in the menu and go to the settings -> « soft keys » tab or, simply, clic on the « eye » key on the controler, at the lower left of the keypad.
Before beeing able to use the jog or shuttle you have to enable it. Most of the time the activation key is the first soft key for the jog and the second for the shuttle. When switching into an application, every key should be off (no light). clic again to activate

You can change the color of the transport keys (the one arount the shuttle). The 2 first and 2 last keys can be yellow or red. The 3 keys in the middle can be yellow or green. For the moment, I haven’t found a way to light a key or change its color depending on the action. I openned a case to the support to have more informations. For example, keeping the key green while pressed, or changing the color at every clic… Another request, which may be linked, is having two actions for the same key. This way, you can have a yellow key. When first clic, send the « play » shortcut of the application and turn to red. When pressed again, send the « stop » or « pause » keystroke and turn back to yellow… I hope the support will give a clue on how to do that, or add support in the next software release
The pdf manual will lead you through the configuration process, which is really easy for the basic stuffs. Let’s write down a walkthrough…
All this is done in the configuration software, not the controler.
- select the button to assign
- give a name in the « soft key label » box AND press enter to validate
- change the font or color if needed
- clic on « command… » or double-clic on the button
- clic on the « add » menu and select what to do. Most of the time it will be « key », and if you want to make the button an activation button for the jog or shuttle, use « wheel »
- enter a keystroke or a list of them. Doing this enable you to do scripts
- you can add more option, again, to script the button
If you’re programming the button to activate the wheel, select wheel and a custom function.
If you’re programming the wheel, you have to :
- clic on the « + » sign and give a name to the « command »
- as you do when programming a key, add a keystroke or another function. This will be used when turning the wheel right (clockwise) by default
- clic on the « turn jog right » menu and change to « turn jog left »
- add the keystroke used when turn anti-clockwise
If you’re programming the shuttle, this is a little bit different. You can add action for each of the 15s step of the wheel (-7 -> 0 -> +7) and for each transition (0 ->1, 1->2 …) and the other way around (2->1, 1->0…)
These are the basics. I’ll try to give examples in the next post
[EDIT]
Now that I have my disk array working, I had another try.
Once again, the MC Transport stayed locked on the « Mail » application. This is not the first time, and for the moment, the only answer from the support was « disable firewall in your mac » and « start the audio mixer of FCP ». These answers were done after 10 days, or more. Seriously, Euphonix, what are you doing here ?
If this happen to you, follow these steps :
- power off the MC Transport
- go in the green « € » icon -> « EU Control Settings »
- go to the menu and quit
- poweron the MC Transport and wait until the « Euphonix » logo appear
- start the EU Control application. The menu icon should turn to green.
For the moment, while the hardware is perfectly built, I can’t say the software is working fine… If you haven’t bought yet, WAIT !
Euphonix team, if you read this, I’m willing to spend some time debugging for you. Just provide me a beta software, or one with extra debug. But please, stop giving stupid answers.
12Tb RAID for cheap with Hitachi 2Tb drives
31/10/09
It’s been some time now that i’m fighting with Seagate for they damn 1.5To drives not working as they should.
Hitachi finaly released 2Tb drives with good throughoutput and price.
While trying not to be screwed a second time, I started buying only 2 drives. Grosbill, a french reseller, have them for 164€. These two were labelled from August 2009, with firmware 10D.
As everything was working fine, with slightly better results than the 1.5Tb Seagate drives (without RAID, of course), I bought 6 more from Macway. They used to be specialised in Apple hardware but now have standard hardware with really good price : 157€. These drives were labeled September 2009 with firmware 20N. Hopefully, they also work as expected : they did not break the compatibility in firmware upgrade
For the moment I havn’t seen any manual firmware upgrade tool to have every drives in the same version. Actualy, this is even better : if you can, always choose drives with different firmware and series for RAID arrays : you will not have all your drives failing in case of a bug related to the production.
Hitachi 2To 3.5″ (HDS722020ALA330)
24/10/09
Remember few months ago, in april, I changed my old G5 Powermac for the new Nehalem 2009, with an external hard drive enclosure of 10Tb.
At that moment, the Seagate 1.5Tb drive was the biggest one availlable, and with far better throughoutput than the 1Tb drives availlable.
The problem is that this Seagate drive (ST31500341AS) does not work with hardware RAID, and as reported on Seagate forums, with a lot or S-ATA controlers. See how people are complaining there. Solution : NEVER BUY SEAGATE DRIVES AGAIN !!!!
Today I went to the store and grab two of the new Hitachi 2Tb drives :
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computer stuffs…
19/10/09
The main purpose of this blog is to act as a reminder, a todo. Here are things i’ve just found and needs a second look at, or more, a testing.
This is a shell (sh) script that should made things easier when having a look or doing a « tail -f » at Glassfish error logs.
This is a blog, lately talking about Glassfish V3 REST api implementation. As far as I know this is (still) not working with GF v2, which already have JMX and, if you’re a registered Sun user, SNMP. But worth having a look.
It seems to me that most of developpers are using Spring framework nowadays. This tool should enable them (or force them ?) to have a deeper look of what the framework is actualy doing. Seriously, comments welcome. May be the weapon of choice for sysadmins like me, dealing with developpers who hide behing their framework (like if the framework was an excuse… huhuhu).
Another monitoring software… well… to be tested.
An interesting thing you can do with Google’s API… It should with any database, but hey, a free software working with Oracle is worth beeing mentioned
This is a PDF file dealing with TimesTen Database. This is a product newly (2 or 3 years) bought by Oracle, and well integrated. Embed the database close to the application, in the application server. Data are replicated at startup. You can choose which database, which table, which data using a filter, or even do transformations to the data. You select the synchronization frequency and there you go. I had a session OOW 2009 about that and how it was used to break a CDN application in two parts : one for slow data change (read/write to the DB) and one for massive fast queries on the delivery side. Ok, this use a lot of RAM… but RAM is cheap isn’t it ?
Now we have some cool things to read and test, don’t we ?
Euphonix MC Transport is here (one month late) [Edited]
18/10/09
The MC Transport I ordered back in August, to be shipped the 9 of September was finaly shipped on the 5th of October… And it’s finaly here !
For your personal reminder :
Let’s first take a look at the packaging.
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