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That old Koh-i-noor Magic
Care for a mildly radioactive grape, vicar?
∞ Noise
(Quick reminder, before it becomes obvious from the text — I have more interest in hardware random number generation than I have understanding …)
Just got Bill “WaywardGeek” Cox’s Infinite Noise USB Random Number Generator. It uses very few components, and doesn’t even have a microcontroller on board. It relies on the controlled amplification of thermal noise as its entropy source.
As it’s so very simple, it uses a driver to read from the device, and then hashes the data to reduce the data stream to very close to pure noise.
Normal operation would look like this:
sudo ./infnoise | entropy_consuming_program …
as in
sudo ./infnoise | rngtest -t 10
which I left running for a work day to get
… rngtest: bits received from input: 10327720032 rngtest: FIPS 140-2 successes: 515955 rngtest: FIPS 140-2 failures: 431 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Monobit: 63 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Poker: 61 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Runs: 162 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Long run: 151 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Continuous run: 0 rngtest: input channel speed: (min=29.022; avg=178.828; max=19531250.000)Kibits/s rngtest: FIPS tests speed: (min=17.403; avg=30.153; max=85.917)Mibits/s rngtest: Program run time: 56727702860 microseconds
So from its success to failure rate, it produces pretty decent (for my casual use) results. These bytes chug out at around 22¾ Kbytes/second; not screamingly fast, but decent, considering the very simple hardware.
You can run the hardware without hashing/whitening, and the results (from a much shorter run) are less solid:
sudo ./infnoise --raw | rngtest -t 10 … rngtest: bits received from input: 15499264 rngtest: FIPS 140-2 successes: 0 rngtest: FIPS 140-2 failures: 774 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Monobit: 0 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Poker: 774 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Runs: 774 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Long run: 0 rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Continuous run: 0 rngtest: input channel speed: (min=27.201; avg=355.760; max=9765625.000)Kibits/s rngtest: FIPS tests speed: (min=24.868; avg=30.488; max=41.554)Mibits/s rngtest: Program run time: 49831593 microseconds
Another naïve test is seeing how images made from the data stream look:
Each of these 128 pixel squares should be no less than 49152 (= 128 × 128 × 3) bytes — plus the size of any PNG header/metadata — in size. The fact that the raw output is smaller shows that PNG’s compressor found some patterns it could work with.
It’s a fun little device, and Bill is adding new code and features to the driver at waywardgeek/infnoise regularly.
Home-brew Jetstream Plotter Pens
After a relative lack of success in making cheap plotter pens, I managed to score a trove of old pens on eBay. Some of these were dry, and I tried to resuscitate them. A few came back to life, but I ended up with a handful of very dead pen shells.
I think the pens were made or sold by Alvin, as there were several empty Alvin trays in the batch I got on eBay. In taking one apart, I thought that a pen refill might just slide inside. Lo and behold, but didn’t the pen nerd’s fave gel pen du jour refill just slide in with enough of an interference fit that it wouldn’t easily slide back out.
Taking the dry pens apart isn’t too easy:
- Pull the black tip straight out with pliers; it has a long fibre plug which goes into the ink reservoir. Discard the tip.
- While it’s really hard to see, the other end of the pen body has a push-on plug. Gently working around it with a sharp knife can open it up a bit.
- Once you’re inside the pen, pull the dry fibre ink reservoir out with tweezers and discard it.
Converting the pen body to use a Jetstream refill needs some tools:
- Drill a hole in the plug at the end of the pen body just large enough to allow the end of the refill to pass through. It helps if this is mostly centred to keep the pen point centred; this is important for accurate plots.
- Cut a piece of tubing just wide enough to slip over the pen refill, but not quite narrow enough to fit through the hole you just drilled. I used some unshrunk heatshrink tubing for this. It needs to be just long enough to push against the plug when the pen tip is at the right length. This should help stop the refill getting hammered back into the body by your plotter.
- Before you assemble the pen, I find it useful to cut a couple of flats in the sides of the plug so you can more easily change the refill. You don’t have to do this, though.
- Assemble the pen:
- Push the Jetstream refill into the pen body, and adjust it so it sticks out about 6 mm clear of the plastic collar near the nib.
- Put the tubing over the other end of the refill, and push the plug over the top, clicking it into place.
To get best results, you’ll have to slow your plot speed down quite a bit. At standard speeds, you get a ¼ mm interrupted line which looks like this:
Close up, the lines are really faint
A hint that I should run them slower was at the start of each line, where the line would start very thick, then taper off as the ink supply ran low:
Run at 120 mm/s, the results where a bit darker, but still blobby at the start of lines:
Slowing down to 60 mm/s produced slightly better results:
But sharpest of all was at the crawling speed 30 mm/s:
Some pronounced blobs at the starts of lines still. Here’s the full page at 600 dpi, squished into a very lossy PDF: jetstream_plotter-slow
The blobs could be due to this, though:
It seems that a mix of paper fibres and coagulated ink builds up on the tip. Occasional cleaning seems to be a good idea. It also seems to help to draw a quick scratch line before anything important so the ink will be flowing properly.
Just to sign off, here’s one of the pens in action:
all I wanted to do was rip a CD on my Raspberry Pi …
So, the DVD drive on my laptop’s on the fritz. It reads data fine, but ripping CDs with CDDA checks makes it go over the transport error rainbow bridge. So, partly through necessity and partly for lulz, I wondered how well a Raspberry Pi B+ would do on ripping CDs. I’ve got an old IDE DVD-R drive in an external 5¼” USB enclosure (huge!). I set about installing abcde, which is about the leanest way of ripping CDs in a terminal that I know. The standard sudo apt-get install abcde didn’t quite come up with all of the options I’d want to use, so I made the mistake of trying this:
sudo apt-get install --install-suggests abcde
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! This horror suggested I install the following:
abcde acl akonadi-backend-mysql akonadi-backend-postgresql akonadi-backend-sqlite akonadi-server alien antiword apache2 apache2-doc apache2-mpm-worker apache2-suexec apache2-utils apache2.2-bin apache2.2-common apmd aptdaemon aptdaemon-data at atomicparsley auctex autoconf autoconf-archive autoconf-doc autoconf2.13 automake automake1.4 autopoint autotools-dev autotrace avahi-autoipd avahi-daemon bc bind9-host binfmt-support binutils-multiarch bsd-mailx bsh bsh-doc bsh-gcj ca-certificates-java catdvi cd-discid cdparanoia cdtool chktex chromium chromium-browser chromium-inspector chromium-l10n cjet cl-asdf cl-swank clisp clisp-dev clisp-doc cm-super cm-super-minimal colord comerr-dev common-lisp-controller cpufrequtils cup cups cups-filters cups-pdf cups-pk-helper cups-ppdc darcs db5.1-util dbtoepub dc debhelper debiandoc-sgml debiandoc-sgml-doc default-jdk default-jdk-doc default-jre default-jre-headless devhelp devhelp-common dh-make dhelp diffstat distmp3 djtools djview-plugin djview4 djvulibre-bin djvulibre-desktop doc-base docbook docbook-defguide docbook-dsssl docbook-dsssl-doc docbook-mathml docbook-xml docbook-xsl docbook-xsl-doc-html docbook-xsl-saxon dot2tex dvidvi dvipng eject elfutils enscript ethtool exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light exim4-doc-html eximon4 exiv2 eyed3 fam fancontrol feynmf ffmpeg finger firebird-dev firebird2.5-common firebird2.5-common-doc firebird2.5-examples firebird2.5-server-common flac fontforge fontforge-doc fontforge-extras fonts-arphic-bkai00mp fonts-arphic-bsmi00lp fonts-arphic-gbsn00lp fonts-arphic-gkai00mp fonts-beng fonts-beng-extra fonts-comfortaa fonts-deva fonts-deva-extra fonts-dustin fonts-freefont-otf fonts-gfs-artemisia fonts-gfs-baskerville fonts-gfs-complutum fonts-gfs-didot fonts-gfs-neohellenic fonts-gfs-olga fonts-gfs-porson fonts-gfs-solomos fonts-gubbi fonts-gujr fonts-gujr-extra fonts-guru fonts-guru-extra fonts-hosny-amiri fonts-inconsolata fonts-indic fonts-ipaexfont-gothic fonts-ipaexfont-mincho fonts-ipafont-gothic fonts-ipafont-mincho fonts-junicode fonts-knda fonts-knda-extra fonts-liberation fonts-linuxlibertine fonts-lohit-beng-assamese fonts-lohit-beng-bengali fonts-lohit-deva fonts-lohit-gujr fonts-lohit-guru fonts-lohit-knda fonts-lohit-mlym fonts-lohit-orya fonts-lohit-taml fonts-lohit-telu fonts-mlym fonts-nakula fonts-navilu fonts-oflb-asana-math fonts-orya fonts-orya-extra fonts-pagul fonts-sahadeva fonts-samyak-gujr fonts-samyak-taml fonts-sil-gentium fonts-sil-gentium-basic fonts-smc fonts-stix fonts-taml fonts-telu fonts-telu-extra foomatic-db-compressed-ppds foomatic-db-engine foomatic-db-gutenprint foomatic-filters fop fop-doc fragmaster freeglut3 freetds-common frei0r-plugins gawk gawk-doc gcc-4.6-doc gcc-doc-base gcj-4.7-base gcj-4.7-jre-lib gcr gdal-bin geoip-bin geoip-database geotiff-bin gettext gettext-doc gfortran gfortran-4.6 gfortran-4.6-doc ghostscript-cups ghostscript-x gimp gimp-data gimp-data-extras gimp-gutenprint gimp-help-common gimp-help-en gimp-ufraw gir1.2-atk-1.0 gir1.2-freedesktop gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0 gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-0.10 gir1.2-gstreamer-0.10 gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-pango-1.0 gir1.2-vte-2.90 gnome-keyring gnome-mime-data gnu-standards gnuplot gnuplot-doc gnuplot-nox gnutls26-doc gocr grads graphicsmagick graphicsmagick-dbg graphviz graphviz-doc groff gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-doc gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gconf gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-x gutenprint-doc gutenprint-locales gv hardening-includes hdf4-tools hdparm heirloom-mailx hp2xx hpijs hpijs-ppds hplip hplip-cups hplip-data hplip-doc hplip-gui hspell html2ps html2text hylafax-client i2c-tools iamerican icedtea-6-jre-cacao icedtea-6-jre-jamvm icedtea-6-plugin icedtea-netx icedtea-netx-common icedtea-plugin icoutils id3 id3v2 ienglish-common ijsgutenprint imagemagick imagemagick-common 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libart-2.0-2 libasm1 libasound2-plugins libatk-wrapper-java libatk-wrapper-java-jni libatk1.0-doc libatkmm-1.6-1 libattica0 libaudio-scrobbler-perl libauthen-ntlm-perl libauthen-sasl-perl libautotrace3 libav-tools libavahi-core7 libavalon-framework-java libavalon-framework-java-doc libavdevice53 libavfilter2 libavfilter3 libavformat53 libavresample1 libbabl-0.1-0 libbackport-util-concurrent-java libbackport-util-concurrent-java-doc libbatik-java libbcel-java libbcel-java-doc libbind9-80 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-bin libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libboost-program-options1.49.0 libbsf-java libc6-dbg libcairomm-1.0-1 libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk0 libcanberra-gtk3-0 libcanberra-gtk3-module libcanberra-pulse libcanberra0 libcap-dev libcap-ng0 libcap2-bin libcdaudio1 libcddb2 libcdt4 libcf0 libcgraph5 libclass-accessor-chained-perl libclass-accessor-perl libclass-load-perl libclass-singleton-perl libclone-perl libclucene0ldbl libcommandline-ruby1.8 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libgnumail-java-doc libgnutls-dev libgnutls-openssl27 libgnutlsxx27 libgpg-error-dev libgraph4 libgraphics-magick-perl libgraphicsmagick++3 libgraphicsmagick3 libgraphite3 libgrib2c0d libgssapi-perl libgssrpc4 libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgtk-3-doc libgtk2.0-doc libgtkimageview0 libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a libgtkmm-3.0-1 libgusb2 libgutenprint2 libgutenprintui2-1 libgvc5 libgvpr1 libhdf4-0 libhdf4-0-alt libhdf4-alt-dev libhdf4-doc libhdf5-7 libhpmud0 libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl libhtml-lint-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-template-perl libhtml-tree-perl libhttp-cookies-perl libhttp-daemon-perl libhttp-date-perl libhttp-message-perl libhttp-negotiate-perl libi2c-dev libib-util libical0 libice-dev libice-doc libid3-3.8.3c2a libid3-tools libidl0 libidn11-dev libieee1284-3 libio-pty-perl libio-socket-inet6-perl libio-socket-ip-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libio-string-perl libio-stringy-perl libiodbc2 libipc-run-perl libipc-sharedcache-perl libipc-sharelite-perl libisc84 libisccc80 libisccfg82 libiso9660-8 libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0 libjaxen-java libjaxme-java libjaxme-java-doc libjaxp1.3-java libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libjboss-jmx-java libjdom1-java libjdom1-java-doc libjline-java libjline-java-doc libjpeg-progs libjpeg62 libjpeg8-dev libjs-jquery libjs-underscore libkabc4 libkadm5clnt-mit8 libkadm5srv-mit8 libkatepartinterfaces4 libkcal4 libkcalcore4 libkcalutils4 libkcmutils4 libkdb5-6 libkde3support4 libkdeclarative5 libkdecore5 libkdesu5 libkdeui5 libkdewebkit5 libkdnssd4 libkemoticons4 libkfile4 libkhtml5 libkidletime4 libkimap4 libkio5 libkjsapi4 libkjsembed4 libkldap4 libkmediaplayer4 libkmime4 libkml0 libknewstuff2-4 libknewstuff3-4 libknotifyconfig4 libkntlm4 libkparts4 libkpathsea6 libkpimutils4 libkprintutils4 libkpty4 libkrb5-dev libkresources4 libkrosscore4 libktexteditor4 libldap2-dev liblensfun-data liblensfun0 liblircclient0 liblist-moreutils-perl liblog4j1.2-java liblog4j1.2-java-doc liblqr-1-0 libltdl-dev liblua5.1-0 liblwp-mediatypes-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl liblwres80 liblzo2-2 libmagickcore5 libmagickcore5-extra libmagickwand5 libmail-box-perl libmail-dkim-perl libmail-imapclient-perl libmail-sendmail-perl libmail-spf-perl libmailtools-perl libmailtransport4 libmath-round-perl libmatroska5 libmhash2 libmicroblog4 libmime-tools-perl libmime-types-perl libmodule-implementation-perl libmodule-runtime-perl libmpcdec6 libmpeg2-4 libmtp-common libmtp-runtime libmtp9 libmusicbrainz-discid-perl libmyodbc libmysqlclient-dev libmysqlclient16 libmysqlclient18 libneon27-gnutls libnepomuk4 libnepomukquery4a libnepomukutils4 libnet-dns-perl libnet-domain-tld-perl libnet-http-perl libnet-ident-perl libnet-ip-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libnetaddr-ip-perl libnetcdf-dev libnetcdfc++4 libnetcdfc7 libnetcdff5 libnetpbm10 libnl-route-3-200 libnspr4-0d libnss-mdns libnss3-1d libntrack-qt4-1 libntrack0 libobject-realize-later-perl libodbc1 libodbcinstq4-1 libogdi3.2 libopencv-core2.3 libopencv-imgproc2.3 libopenraw1 liborbit2 libosp5 libostyle1c2 libp11-kit-dev libpackage-deprecationmanager-perl libpackage-stash-perl libpackage-stash-xs-perl libpam-cap libpam-gnome-keyring libpango1.0-doc libpangomm-1.4-1 libparams-classify-perl libparams-util-perl libparams-validate-perl libparse-debianchangelog-perl libparse-recdescent-perl libpathplan4 libpcre3-dev libpcrecpp0 libperl5.14 libperlio-gzip-perl libphonon4 libplasma3 libplot2c2 libpod-plainer-perl libpolkit-qt-1-1 libpoppler-glib8 libpostproc52 libpotrace0 libpq-dev libpq5 libproj0 libpstoedit0c2a libptexenc1 libpthread-stubs0 libpthread-stubs0-dev libpulse-mainloop-glib0 libpython2.6 libqca2 libqca2-plugin-cyrus-sasl libqca2-plugin-gnupg libqca2-plugin-ossl libqt3-mt libqt3-mt-mysql libqt3-mt-odbc libqt3-mt-psql libqt4-declarative libqt4-declarative-folderlistmodel libqt4-declarative-gestures libqt4-declarative-particles libqt4-declarative-shaders libqt4-designer libqt4-dev libqt4-dev-bin libqt4-help libqt4-opengl libqt4-opengl-dev libqt4-qt3support libqt4-script libqt4-scripttools libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-sql-psql libqt4-sql-sqlite libqt4-test libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtassistantclient4 libqtwebkit-dev libraptor2-0 librarian0 librasqal3 librdf-storage-mysql librdf-storage-postgresql librdf-storage-sqlite librdf0 librecode0 libregexp-java libresid-builder0c2a librhino-java librhino-java-doc libroman-perl librpm3 librpmbuild3 librpmio3 librpmsign1 librrd4 librrds-perl librtmp-dev libruby1.8 libsane libsane-common libsane-extras libsane-extras-common libsane-hpaio libsaxon-java libsaxon-java-doc libsaxonb-java libsaxonb-java-doc libscalar-number-perl libsensors4 libserf1 libservlet2.5-java libsgmls-perl libshp1 libsidplay1 libsidplay2 libsigsegv2 libslp1 libslv2-9 libsm-dev libsm-doc libsnmp-base libsnmp15 libsocket-perl libsocket6-perl libsolid4 libsoprano4 libsp1c2 libspatialite3 libspeexdsp1 libspiro0 libsqlite0 libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libssh-4 libssh2-1-dev libssl-dev libssl-doc libstreamanalyzer0 libstreams0 libsub-install-perl libsub-name-perl libsvn-perl libsvn-ruby1.8 libsvn1 libsys-hostname-long-perl libsystemd-daemon0 libtar0 libtasn1-3-dev libtemplate-perl libtemplate-perl-doc libtemplate-plugin-gd-perl libtemplate-plugin-xml-perl libterm-readkey-perl libterm-readline-gnu-perl libtext-format-perl libtext-template-perl libthreadweaver4 libtiff-opengl libtiff-tools libtiff5 libtntnet-dev libtntnet10 libtool libtool-doc libtry-tiny-perl libtwolame0 libudunits2-0 libumfpack5.4.0 libuninameslist0 libunistring0 libupnp6 libupower-glib1 liburi-perl liburiparser1 libuser-identity-perl libutempter0 libuuid-perl libva-x11-1 libvcdinfo0 libvirtodbc0 libvlc5 libvlccore5 libvte-2.90-9 libvte-2.90-common libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 libwebkitgtk-1.0-common libwebrtc-audio-processing-0 libwebservice-musicbrainz-perl libwmf-bin libwmf0.2-7 libwww-perl libwww-robotrules-perl libx11-dev libx11-doc libxalan110 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-doc libxau-dev libxcb-composite0 libxcb-doc libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-randr0 libxcb-xv0 libxcb1-dev libxdmcp-dev libxdot4 libxerces-c28 libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-doc libxerces2-java-gcj libxext-dev libxext-doc libxml-commons-external-java libxml-commons-resolver1.1-java libxml-commons-resolver1.1-java-doc libxml-dom-perl libxml-libxml-perl libxml-namespacesupport-perl libxml-parser-perl libxml-perl libxml-regexp-perl libxml-rss-perl libxml-sax-base-perl libxml-sax-expat-perl libxml-sax-perl libxml-simple-perl libxml2-dev libxml2-doc libxml2-utils libxmlgraphics-commons-java libxom-java libxom-java-doc libxpp2-java libxpp3-java libxsltc-java libxslthl-java libxt-dev libxt-doc libxvmc1 libyajl2 libyaml-tiny-perl libzvbi-common libzvbi0 lintian linuxdoc-tools linuxdoc-tools-info linuxdoc-tools-latex linuxdoc-tools-text lirc lirc-x lm-sensors lmodern locales-all lsb lsb-core lsb-cxx lsb-desktop lsb-graphics lsb-languages lsb-multimedia lsb-printing lsb-release lsb-security luatex m4 magicfilter man2html man2html-base media-player-info mesa-common-dev mgetty-viewfax mkcue mp3gain mpg321 mplayer mplayer-doc mscompress mysql-client mysql-client-5.5 mysql-common mysql-server-core-5.5 netcdf-bin netcdf-doc netpbm netselect netselect-apt normalize-audio ntrack-module-libnl-0 odbc-postgresql odbcinst odbcinst1debian2 ogdi-bin oidentd openjade openjdk-6-demo openjdk-6-doc openjdk-6-jdk openjdk-6-jre openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jre-lib openjdk-6-source openprinting-ppds openslp-doc opensp openssl-blacklist otf-freefont oxygen-icon-theme paman paprefs patchutils pavucontrol pavumeter pax pdf2djvu perl-doc perl-tk perlmagick pfb2t1c2pfb pgf phonon phonon-backend-gstreamer phonon-backend-vlc plasma-scriptengine-javascript pm-utils po-debconf postgresql postgresql-9.1 postgresql-client postgresql-client-9.1 postgresql-client-common postgresql-common postgresql-doc-9.1 potrace powermgmt-base preview-latex-style printer-driver-all printer-driver-c2050 printer-driver-c2esp printer-driver-cjet printer-driver-escpr printer-driver-foo2zjs printer-driver-gutenprint printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-hpijs printer-driver-m2300w printer-driver-min12xxw printer-driver-pnm2ppa printer-driver-postscript-hp printer-driver-ptouch printer-driver-pxljr printer-driver-sag-gdi printer-driver-splix proj-bin proj-data proj-ps-doc prosper ps2eps psgml pstoedit pstotext psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-module-zeroconf pulseaudio-utils purifyeps python-apt python-apt-common python-apt-dbg python-apt-doc python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-aptdaemon.gtk3widgets python-aptdaemon.gtkwidgets python-cairo python-chardet python-cups python-cupshelpers python-dbg python-debian python-defer python-dev python-distribute-doc python-doc python-egenix-mx-base-dbg python-egenix-mx-base-dev python-egenix-mxbeebase python-egenix-mxbeebase-doc python-egenix-mxdatetime python-egenix-mxdatetime-doc python-egenix-mxproxy python-egenix-mxproxy-doc python-egenix-mxqueue python-egenix-mxqueue-doc python-egenix-mxstack python-egenix-mxstack-doc python-egenix-mxtexttools python-egenix-mxtexttools-doc python-egenix-mxtools python-egenix-mxtools-doc python-egenix-mxuid python-egenix-mxuid-doc python-egenix-mxurl python-egenix-mxurl-doc python-examples python-eyed3 python-fontforge python-gconf python-gdal python-gdbm python-gdbm-dbg python-gi-dbg python-gi-dev python-glade2 python-gnome2 python-gnome2-doc python-gnomekeyring python-gnupginterface python-gobject python-gobject-2 python-gobject-2-dbg python-gobject-2-dev python-gobject-dbg python-gobject-dev python-gst0.10 python-gst0.10-dbg python-gst0.10-dev python-gtk2 python-gtk2-doc python-imaging python-imaging-dbg python-imaging-doc python-imaging-doc-html python-imaging-doc-pdf python-imaging-tk python-imaging-tk-dbg python-kde4 python-libxml2 python-notify python-pexpect python-pkg-resources python-pycurl python-pycurl-dbg python-pyorbit python-pyparsing python-qt4 python-qt4-dbg python-qt4-dbus python-renderpm python-renderpm-dbg python-reportlab python-reportlab-accel python-reportlab-doc python-setuptools python-sip python-sip-dbg python-smbc python-smbus python-software-properties python-subversion python-vte python2.6 python2.6-doc python2.6-minimal python2.7-dbg python2.7-dev python2.7-doc python2.7-examples python3-gi pyzor qt-assistant-compat qt4-designer qt4-dev-tools qt4-doc qt4-doc-html qt4-linguist-tools qt4-qmake qt4-qmlviewer radeontool radiance radiance-doc radiance-materials raptor2-utils rarian-compat rasqal-utils razor re2c read-edid realpath recode redland-utils rhino ri ri1.8 ri1.9.1 rpm rpm-common rpm-i18n rpm2cpio rrdtool rtkit ruby ruby-bdb ruby-commandline ruby-dev ruby-gettext ruby-locale ruby-open4 ruby-svn ruby-switch ruby-text-format ruby1.8 ruby1.8-examples ruby1.9.1-dev sane-utils sensord sessioninstaller setcd setserial sgml-data sgmls-doc sgmlspl shared-desktop-ontologies sidplay-base slime slpd slv2-jack smistrip snmp-mibs-downloader soprano-daemon sp spamassassin spamc spell spf-tools-perl sqlite sqlite-doc sqlite3 sqlite3-doc ssl-cert subversion subversion-tools svn2cl swaks swath swish++ system-config-printer system-config-printer-kde system-config-printer-udev t1utils tcl-tclreadline tcl8.4 tcsh tdsodbc tex-common tex-gyre texinfo texinfo-doc-nonfree texlive texlive-base texlive-binaries texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-doc-en texlive-doc-zh texlive-extra-utils texlive-font-utils texlive-fonts-extra texlive-fonts-extra-doc texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-fonts-recommended-doc texlive-generic-recommended texlive-lang-african texlive-lang-all texlive-lang-arabic texlive-lang-armenian texlive-lang-cjk texlive-lang-croatian texlive-lang-cyrillic texlive-lang-czechslovak texlive-lang-danish texlive-lang-dutch texlive-lang-english texlive-lang-finnish texlive-lang-french texlive-lang-german texlive-lang-greek texlive-lang-hebrew texlive-lang-hungarian texlive-lang-indic texlive-lang-italian texlive-lang-latin texlive-lang-latvian texlive-lang-lithuanian texlive-lang-mongolian texlive-lang-norwegian texlive-lang-other texlive-lang-polish texlive-lang-portuguese texlive-lang-spanish texlive-lang-swedish texlive-lang-tibetan texlive-lang-vietnamese texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-extra-doc texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-recommended-doc texlive-luatex texlive-metapost texlive-metapost-doc texlive-pictures texlive-pictures-doc texlive-pstricks texlive-pstricks-doc texlive-xetex thailatex time tipa tix tk8.4 tntnet tntnet-demos tntnet-doc tntnet-runtime transfig ttf-dejavu ttf-dejavu-extra ttf-dustin ttf-indic-fonts ttf-liberation ttf-marvosym ttf-wqy-microhei tzdata-java ufraw ufraw-batch unattended-upgrades unixodbc unixodbc-bin unixodbc-dev unpaper upower videolan-doc virtuoso-minimal virtuoso-opensource-6.1-bin virtuoso-opensource-6.1-common vlc vlc-data vlc-nox vlc-plugin-notify vlc-plugin-pulse vorbis-tools vorbisgain w3-dtd-mathml w3-recs w3c-dtd-xhtml wamerican weblint-perl wwwconfig-common x11proto-core-dev x11proto-input-dev x11proto-kb-dev x11proto-xext-dev xalan xapm xaw3dg xfig xfig-doc xfig-libs xfonts-75dpi xhtml2ps xindy xindy-rules xorg-sgml-doctools xsane xsane-common xsidplay xsltproc xtrans-dev zip
Eep! That looks like the full TeXLive system, most of QT4, almost every TrueType font ever (plus a font editor), printer drivers, the full Apache webserver setup, MySQL, a couple of web browsers, scanner drivers and OCR programs, a mail server … 2.4 GB of downloads, or over 6 GB installed. And all this for a command line script for ripping CDs.
Eventually, I got by by installing just this:
sudo apt-get install abcde lame eject id3 id3v2 eyed3 normalize-audio vorbisgain mkcue mp3gain libdata-dump-perl flac
Much better. Installed in a couple of minutes. Worked quite well, if not fast — ripped and encoded a 45 minute CD in just under 26 minutes (using lame -V2, which is good enough for me). For setup hints for abcde, abcde: Command Line Music CD Ripping for Linux is a good resource. On a Raspberry Pi, with its single core processor, you probably want to set MAXPROCS=1 in the abcde.conf file, or the encoders will fight for resources and get really slow.
this happened, unfortunately
all of the tartans
I saved an archive of Robert Bradford’s mktartan program on github: scruss/holestone-tartan (local cache: holestone-tartan-master) to stop it falling apart completely from bitrot.
Oi, you jus’ called me WHAT…?!
All of the hammers! (for Robert)
Om nom
Oopsie
First working prototype: Uni Jetstream plotter pen for Roland plotters
Good to be back …
Road Trip Playlist – for the way home, 2015
- In The Bleak Midwinter — Kith & Kin
- Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground) — Jason Lytle
- The Ballad of Mr. Steak — Kishi Bashi
- Baby, We’d Be Rich (Cuss Version) — Old Man Luedecke
- Arms I Know So Well — Emma Ruth Rundle
- One Nation Under A Brolly — Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike
- Guantanamera — Holly Near, Arlo Guthrie, Ronnie Gilbert, Pete Seeger
- Takeshi and Elijah — The Music Tapes
- Gone Beyond — Akron/Family
- Green, Green Rocky Road — Dave Van Ronk
- Same Old Man — Holy Modal Rounders
- One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21 (Album Version) — The Flaming Lips
- Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) — Sufjan Stevens
- Thumbtacks and Glue — Woodpigeon
- Long John — Holy Modal Rounders
- The First Day of Winter — Ivy Mairi
- Baby Bluejay — Poopy Lungstuffing
- A Pickle and Two Pearl Onions — The Golden Motors
- Delicate Cycle — The Uncluded
- Tongues — Ty Segall & White Fence
- Plastic Jesus — The Flaming Lips
- Highwire — Tall Tall Trees
- Roo-Buh-Doo-Buh-Doo — The Statesmen
- Nitrous Gas — Frightened Rabbit
- John Hardy — Silver Apples
- Water Fountain — Tune-Yards
- The Ghost in You — Robyn Hitchcock
- Since Yesterday — Strawberry Switchblade
- When the Levee Breaks — Memphis Minnie
- Un — Y Niwl
- I Wear Black — Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin
- Never Let Me Go — Basia Bulat
- Stop Error — John K. Samson
- Desiree — The Left Banke
- friend — bo en
- Forked Deer — Sheesham and Lotus
- Send Them Kids to War — The Burns Unit
- Shanzhai (For Shanzhai Biennial) [feat. Helen Feng] — Fatima Al Qadiri
- 8 bit Blues (Chicago to LA to NY) — Kid Koala
- Biscuit Roller — Peter Laughner
- Walking on the Moon — The Police
- aisatsana — Aphex Twin
when you stare into the googly Void …
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Photo taken at: Hampton Inn & Suites Clayton/St. Louis Galleria Area
