Marwalk's Blog

Courthouse Village 091108 Second Cinder Block Structure

marwalk — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:52:56 +0000

The late afternoon sun casts a warm glow on the once-open-field where deer used to roam (and still do nearby).

There are some notable changes this time; use the RACSB view as a point of reference to orient the scenes in the other views. Since two weeks ago, another cinder block structure has gone up. The first structure, which was in the previous pictures, is at the very far right of the RACSB view. The cinder block structure close by it to the left with the three door-sized openings is new as of last week. During the past two weeks this second cinder block structure was encased in scaffolding as it went up.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The cinder block structure visible through the tree foliage is the first of the two. The second one, not visible from here is behind it.
SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The visible cinder block structure is the first of the two. In this view, three door-sized openings are visible on the side facing the school (and the camera).
RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The first cinder block structure, which was in the previous pictures, is at the very far right of this view. The cinder block structure close by it to the left with the three door-sized openings is new as of last week. During the past two weeks this second cinder block structure was encased in scaffolding as it went up.
BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The second cinder block structure is the one visible in-between and behind the pavilion and the building.
PTCHE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The second cinder block structure is the one visible; observe the two sets of three door-sized openings on this side, which is opposite the side visible in the RACSB view. The tree that is visible behind the far left corner of the structure is the one through which the first structure is visible in the SYE and SYW views; the first structure is behind the second and is not visible in this view.
PTCHW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The second cinder block structure is the one visible. There is only one MegaMix machine there now, as there had been two in recent weeks.

mcw

Posted in Courthouse Village Chronology

Courthouse Village 091011 New County Office Building Grows plus Fountain Picture

marwalk — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:26:29 +0000

MegaMix is back. The building under construction is for additional County offices. There was too much rain in the days following these pictures for significant further work to be done.

Added a look at the fountain that is too low and obscured to be seen from RACSB or PTCHW:

091011FNT-1.jpg

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:

See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

This perspective provides a view of the next building’s foundation.
RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
PTCHE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
PTCHW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

This perspective also provides a view of the next building’s foundation, from an almost opposite camera orientation from SYW.

mcw

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Posted in Courthouse Village Chronology

FredPod Program 091014 Show Notes

marwalk — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:00:29 +0000

This program was produced on October 14, 2009, and today’s topics will include:

Selections from “yum info recent” on the Fedora linux project.
In Today’s feature we visit Frederick, a community in the neighboring state of Maryland where there is an active small animals rescue group. Although the area’s name, Frederick, is similar to Fredericksburg, it is likely not of the same origin. But as with Fredericksburg, the Frederick, Maryland area has several shelters and foster homes for animals. One of those is Small Angels Rescue, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. On Saturday, October 10^th, Small Angels Rescue held their annual gathering entitled Blues in the Barn. We’ll talk with Kristy Tevelow, Angela Moxley, and Michelle Cloe, who tell first hand about their work with critters small and furry.
And we’ll close with a special recording of the group The Hard Swimmin’ Fish performing live at the Blues in the Barn event.

Here are some Selections of updates from “yum info recent,” as in Recently Added Packages in the Fedora Project:

Name : chronojump

Summary : A measurement, management and statistics sport testing tool

Description: ChronoJump is an open hardware, free software, multiplatform

: complete system for measurement, management and statistics of sport

: short-time tests.

: Chronojump uses a contact platform and/or photocells,

: and also a chrono’meter printed circuit, designed ad-hoc in

: order to obtain precise and trustworthy measurements.

: Chronojump is used by trainers, teachers and students.

Name : f-a-p-g

Summary : Fast Audio Playlist Generator

Description: FAPG means Fast Audio Playlist Generator.

: It is a tool to generate list of audio files (Wav, MP3, Ogg, etc)

: in various formats (the M3U or PLS playlist files, or also HTML).

: It is very useful if you have a large amount of audio files

: and you want to quickly and frequently build a playlist.

: It is coded in C to be as fast as possible, and does not use

: any specific audio library (like ID3-Lib, which is used to store meta-data in an audio file).

: This allow you to deploy it faster and easier, and to have

: better performance since less information is loaded.

: In the other hand, this tool is not (yet) compatible with

: all the known formats.

Name : openldap

Description: OpenLDAP is an open source suite of LDAP (Lightweight Directory

: Access Protocol) applications and development tools. LDAP is a set

: of protocols for accessing directory services (usually phone book

: style information, but other information is possible) over the

: Internet, similar to the way DNS (Domain Name System) information

: is propagated over the Internet. The openldap package contains

: configuration files, libraries, and documentation for OpenLDAP.

Name : publican-fedora

Summary : Publican documentation template files for fedora

Description: This package provides common files and templates needed to build

: documentation for fedora with publican.

The Fredericksburg Linux Users Group, meets on the first Thursday and last Saturday of each month. The meetings take place at the main Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Caroline Street in Meeting Room 2:

You can find the FredLUG calendar by going to Google Groups and searching on F-r-e-d-L-U-G. Near the top of the page is a link to the Google calendar containing the meeting schedule.
Besides the FredLUG Google Group, you’re also welcome on the IRC channel Hash FredLUG on irc dot freenode dot net.

Today’s feature is a talk with Kristy Tevelow, Angela Moxley, and Michelle Cloe, who tell first hand about their non-profit organization Small Angels Rescue.

Today’s podcast will close with a recording, made with special permission, of the group The Hard Swimmin’ Fish performing live at the Blues in the Barn event.

Here’s their song “Ain’t It Hard” And if you like what you hear, there’s more at hardswimminfish.com (no “g” in swimmin)

Jump in, and Enjoy.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Posted in Podcast

Courthouse Village 090927 Newly Paved Streets

marwalk — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:02:22 +0000

This week the new streets on the school yard side of the village are paved. Also some underground utility work appears evident.

Readjusted some view perspectives to provide better coverage of the area where the new streets have been built.

The new perspectives introduced in this edition are:

PTCHE = View from pavilion away from Courthouse area, east side
PTCHW = View from pavilion toward Courthouse area, west side

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

Brought back this perspective to cover the work not included in SYW.
SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

Moved back out from BRE2 to provide more view coverage behind the pavilion, and also as a wider view than provided by the PAV view from last week.
PTCHE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The water tower in the background will be in the right side of the PTCHE view.
PTCHW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

The water tower in the background will be in the left side of the PTCHW view.

mcw

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are “characters” from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.

Posted in Courthouse Village Chronology

FredPod 090920 Show Notes

marwalk — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:09:11 +0000

FredPod Program 090920

Welcome to FredPod, a podcast about creativity and technology from the Fredericksburg, Virginia area

This podcast is available in MP3 format via iTunes and at marwalk.podomatic.com. You also can get this podcast in the open source Ogg Vorbis format via the podcatcher RSS feed at marwalk.net/rss/fredpod dot ogg dash vorbis dot xml

FredPod is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This is your host, Mark Walker.

Show notes for this podcast are available at marwalk.wordpress.com, under the category Podcasts.

This program was produced on September 20, 2009, and today’s topics will include:

Selections from Recent file releases on SourceForge dot net.
And Selections from “yum info recent” on the Fedora project.
In Today’s feature, you have an audio taste of Software Freedom Day as experienced in Fredericksburg, Virginia on September 19th. We had visitors of all ages seeking FOSS alternatives (FOSS as in Free and Open Source Software). Many visitors had great questions, and we were glad to provide great answers! We also gave away lots of Linux installation DVDs and CDs and other open source resources.
And we’ll close with a Creative Commons work from (short e)
Etherine, entitled Modulation.

Among the Recent file releases on SourceForge are:

OpenDisc is a high quality selection of Open Source programs for Microsoft Windows users; to educate them about OSS and Linux and provide free alternatives to costly proprietary software.
Find more information at theopendisc.com
A Linux, Windows & OS-X vector graphics editor (SVG format) featuring transparency, gradients, node editing, pattern fills, PNG export, and more. Aiming for capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc.
Find more information at inkscape.org
xml2hostconf is a utility for central configuration and automatic installation of networks of Linux computers. Fedora, CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu are supported. It makes use of rpm, yum, kickstart, dpkg, apt-get, preseed, dhcpd, tftpd, httpd and pxelinux.
Find more information at xml2hostconf.sourceforge.net

Here are some Selections of updates from “yum info recent” :

Name : ath_info

Summary : Tool to get detailed information from Atheros WLAN cards

Description: ath_info prints some version information of Atheros WLAN modules.

: It furthermore allows to change regulatory domain and PCI ID fields

: in the EEPROM. Since the output of lspci and dmesg is not always

: sufficient to correctly identify chipset versions, it is useful to

: attach ath_info output to bug reports for the ath5k driver.

Name : devio

Summary : Read and write utility for block devices

Description: devio is a command line utility intended to read and write on block

: devices. The primary difference between devio and other command

: line utilities, such as dd and cat, is that it is not stream based

: – it writes directly into the object rather than reading and

: writing a stream of data.

Name : drupal

Summary : An open-source content-management platform

Description: Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal is a Content

: Management System written in PHP that can support a variety of

: websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven

: websites. Drupal is highly configurable, skinnable, and secure.

Name : dvisvgm

Summary : A DVI to SVG converter

Description: dvisvgm is a command line utility that converts DVI files, as

: created by TeX/LaTeX, to the XML-based scalable vector graphics

: format SVG. Besides the basic DVI command set, dvisvgm also

: supports various special sets, like color, PostScript and TPIC.

: Fonts that are only available as Metafont source are automatically

: vectorized so that the generated SVG is freely scalable without

: loss of quality.

Name : gnome-bluetooth

Summary : Bluetooth graphical utilities

Description: The gnome-bluetooth package contains graphical utilities to setup,

: monitor and use Bluetooth devices.

Name : hosts3d

Summary : 3D real-time network visualiser

Description: Hosts3D is a 3D real-time network visualizer, displaying

: hosts and packet traffic. Features include support for

: multiple sensors, analysis of packets to gather hostnames

: and services, configurable layout of subnetworks,

: recording/replaying of packet traffic, and the ability

: to filter packets by host, protocol or port.

: hsen (as in Hosts3D Sensor) is a packet capture daemon which

: reads and sends packet header information to Hosts3D,

: locally or remotely. hsen also equates hostname to IP

: by reading DNS packets (UDP type A class IN standard

: query response). The relationship between hsen to Hosts3D

: can be one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one or many-to-many

: (many Hosts3Ds would be on multiple computers on the

: same subnet, receiving packet header information

: from hsen via broadcast).

Name : kdenetwork

Summary : K Desktop Environment – Network Applications

Description: Networking applications, including:

: * kget: downloader manager

: * kopete: chat client

: * kppp: dialer and front end for pppd

: * krdc: a client for Desktop Sharing and other VNC servers

: * krfb: Desktop Sharing server, allow others to access your desktop

: via VNC

Name : listen

Summary : A music manager and player for GNOME

Description: Listen is an intuitive music player for GNOME written in Python.

: Thanks to it, you can easily organize your music collection.

: It supports many features such as podcats, daap sharing,

: crossfades, access to lyrics and wikipedia, sync with media

: players, Jamendo etc… Listen can be extended with plugins.

Name : me-tv

Summary : GNOME desktop application for watching digital television

Description: Me TV is a GNOME desktop application for watching digital

: television services that use the DVB standard, as in Digital Video Broadcasting. Me TV works with

: DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S and ATSC cards that have kernel driver support.

: Me TV reads the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data that is

: transmitted over the air to populate a built-in program guide which

: can be used for scheduling recordings.

Name : mono-nat

Summary : .NET library for automatic port forwarding

Description: Mono.Nat is a .NET library used for automatic port forwarding,

: using either uPnP or nat-pmp, as in NAT Port Mapping Protocol.

Name : purple-facebookchat

Summary : Libpurple plug-in supporting facebook IM

Description: This is a Facebook chat plugin for Pidgin and libpurple

: messengers. It connects to the new Facebook Chat IM service

: without the need for an API key.

: Currently the plugin can log into the Facebook servers, grab the

: buddy list, send/receive messages, add/remove friends, receive

: notifications, search for Facebook friends and set your Facebook

: status.

Name : rfkill

Summary : A tool for enabling and disabling wireless devices

Description: rfkill is a simple tool for accessing the Linux rfkill device

: interface, which is used to enable and disable wireless networking

: devices, typically WLAN, Bluetooth and mobile broadband.

Name : synergy-plus

Summary : Mouse and keyboard sharing utility

Description: Synergy+ (synergy-plus) lets you easily share a single mouse and

: keyboard between multiple computers with different operating

: systems, without special hardware. All you need is a LAN

: connection. It’s intended for users with multiple computers, where

: each system uses its own display. It’s a little like having a 2nd

: or a 3rd desktop. Synergy+ is a maintenance fork for implementing

: bug fixes to the original Synergy, which hasn’t received any source

: updates or new releases since 2006.

Name : tzdata

Summary : Timezone data

Description: This package contains data files with rules for various timezones

: around the world.

Name : vidalia

Summary : GUI controller for the Tor Onion Routing Network

Description: Vidalia is a cross-platform controller GUI for Tor, built using the

: Qt framework. Vidalia allows you to start and stop Tor, view the

: status of Tor at a glance, and monitor Tor’s bandwidth usage.

: Vidalia also makes it easy to contribute to the Tor network by

: helping you setup a Tor server, if you wish.

Name : virt-v2v

Summary : Convert a virtual machine to run on KVM

Description: virt-v2v is a tool for converting virtual machines to use the KVM

: hypervisor. It modifies both the virtual machine image and its

: associated libvirt metadata. virt-v2v will also configure a guest

: to use VirtIO drivers if possible.

: virt-v2v also includes the virt-snapshot tool, which will modify a

: guest to use snapshot storage, and later commit the snapshot back

: to the original storage if desired.

Name : vmpsd

Summary : A GPL implementation of Cisco Systems’ VMPS

Description: VMPS (VLAN Management Policy Server) is a way of assigning switch

: ports to specific VLANs based on MAC address of connecting device.

: OpenVMPS is a GPL implementation of VMPS.

You can find the FredLUG calendar by going to Google Groups and searching on F-r-e-d-L-U-G. Near the top of the page is a link to the Google calendar containing the meeting schedule.
Besides the FredLUG Google Group, you’re also welcome on the IRC channel Hash FredLUG on irc dot freenode dot net.

Posted in Podcast

FredPod Program 090809 – show notes

marwalk — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:44:05 +0000

This program was produced on August 9, 2009, and today’s topics will include:
Selections from Recent file releases on SourceForge dot net.
And Selections from “yum info recent” on the Fedora project.
Today’s feature is an overview of cobbler, which together with other open source tools provides enterprise scale server installation and management capabilities.
And we’ll close with two Creative Commons works:
The first is by Robin Stein entitled Don’t I Know
The second is by Mantic, entitled Glitch Mod

As a bit of trivia, this is the first FredPod produced on a Fedora 11 machine.

https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/
https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/KickstartTemplating#StanzaSupport
https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/PresentationStorage
https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/attachment/wiki/PresentationStorage/cobbler_summit_2008.odp?format=raw
https://fedorahosted.org/func/wiki/InstallAndSetupGuide
https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler/wiki/KickstartTemplating
http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4175.html
http://www.cheetahtemplate.org/

Posted in Podcast

Courthouse Village Showtime—090627

marwalk — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:10:32 +0000

This is the day before the “Spotsylvania Stars & Stripes Spectacular” for June 28th.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

One of the portable lighting units pre-placed for Sunday’s festivities. The lettering on the first building reads: “The Pear Tree” and “Village Sales & Marketing.”
RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

Perspective includes the wood chip roof of the corner structure and the lettering on the first building.
SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

Notice that the Jersey barriers are gone. You now can drive on Old Battlefield Boulevard, although the manhole covers in the street still mound up some and there are a few other rough spots in the pavement.
BRE2 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

No Jersey barrier here either.

mcw

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

Posted in Courthouse Village Chronology

Courthouse Village Corner Structure Gets Its Roof On—090621

marwalk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:07:03 +0000

The small structure where Old Battlefield Blvd. joins Brock Road gets its roof on—next for the roofing.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:

See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
…
RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
…
SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
…
BRE2 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
…
BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
…
OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
…

mcw

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

Posted in Courthouse Village Chronology

Courthouse Village Starting to Look Like the Sign – 090607

marwalk — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:46:30 +0000

Brick and stone work practically completed on the Brock Road side of the second building; five separate facades visible, with a change in type of brick from one to the next. Compare this to the sign posted on the site:

Sign showing concept of how the completed village should appear:

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
BRE2 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

Here’s the best view of the contrasting facades on the second building. Look closely to see the stonework on the first story. The street from BRE3, which runs out from the second building, and adjacent parking lot have been paved since start of construction on the 2nd building.

BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…
OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

…

mcw

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

Posted in Courthouse Village Chronology

FredPod 090530 Podcast in Ogg Vorbis – Topic: Virtualization

marwalk — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:09:10 +0000

Download FredPod-Program-090530.ogg

This program was produced on May 31, 2009, and today’s topics will include:

Selections from Recent file releases on SourceForge.net.

And Selections from “yum info recent” on the Fedora project.

In Today’s feature, you are a virtual attendee at the May 30th FredLug meeting; in which we discuss virtualization in the real world. In other words, it’s time to get real about things virtual.

As an administrative note, we have beautiful weather today on the east coast of the US. So I have the window open, and you might hear some of the birds outside. We have cardinals, blue jays, and mocking birds here, to name a few.

And we’ll close with a Creative Commons work from Jag, entitled House Party Rag.

FredPod by Mark Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Posted in Podcast