Distributed Computing - The power of the masses!

Distributed Computing is not a new idea. It's just new to me, since I just started! The basic idea is that the processing power of many consumer-level computers can rival that of supercomputers. And because it is quite common to leave home or work systems powered up 24/7, why not use some of those CPU cycles for distributed computing?



I decided to join the Rosetta@home project at the University of Washington. Their project deals with attempting to better understand the complex physical nature of proteins, and by doing so, gain a better understanding of disease mechanisms. Setup was quite easy, and supported many platforms. Within a few minutes, my system was assigned a task, and was crunching through the data. It was a little alarming at first to see my CPU usage pegged at 100%, but I got used to it. And I also found that my system was still quite responsive. The BOINC client gracefully stepped aside if I wanted to do any other activity. Advanced settings also allow scheduling and partial CPU usage.

The fascinating part for me, is that distributed computing folks are also nuts about statistics. There were numerous sites devoted to tracking my progress, especially in relation to the hundreds of thousands of other participants. Check out the graphic on my sidebar.

Laptop users may want to be a little extra careful, since a CPU running at 100% full time may cause fan noise, overheating, etc. Otherwise, if you have a desktop system like mine that is never turned off, a distributed computing project might be of interest to you.

XV6700 + Bluetooth GPS = I know where I am!

I've been on Spring Break so I haven't had much time for a post, but part of the trip preparations involved getting a GPS running for the road trip.

The all-in-one mobile GPS solutions were all out of my price range, but realizing that my XV6700 was a full PocketPC, I knew I was halfway to having a mobile GPS solution.

I searched eBay for a "Holux 236", a model that fit my requirements. Found one pretty easily for about $50. A pet peeve of mine -- why do all of the sellers charge $20 shipping and handling, especially for a such a small device? Another case of seller price padding, obviously.

When it arrived, I loaded the PocketPC utility that came on a CD, and started to configure the bluetooth connection. This turned out to be the biggest challenge, as the Holux 236 must be setup as an outgoing serial port, not incoming as I would have thought. Once that was done, the GPS utility showed my XV6700 was receiving data.

The last step involved loading GPS software. The package I chose was iGuidance 3.0. I loaded 3 states to my memory card, and the program showed my location on startup, as it immediately used the GPS data that was coming from the Holux 236 GPS receiver. After getting familiar with using the navigation functions, I was set.

Even though the route I travelled for this road trip was one I've done countless times, there was still something very Space Odyssey 2001 when hearing the GPS voice assist with navigation. It actually became somewhat of a game to take a route different from the recommended, just to see what iGuidance would do. It's pretty obvious that someday very soon, mobile GPS will be a standard feature on every new vehicle. For now, there are lots of options available, some of them, like the Holux 236 and iGuidance, quite inexpensive.

Pumping up my wii parade

Since my previous post about increasing my wii parade, my wii parade has been progressing nicely, and now has over 50 miis, much to the delight of my daughter. Still nowhere near the numbers of those with over 1000, but I'll get there!

DualScreenRadio was finding me a new wii friend to connect with about once every week, which was okay. MapWii ended up being somewhat of a disappointment. Although mapping out your world location was a neat idea, the actual number of other wiis with which I was able to connect in proportion to the number of requests I sent out was very small. The so-called return on investment was a bust. To top it off, I found out that wiis are unable to "connect" with wiis manufactured with a different region code. So what was the point of a world map??

Fortunately, in my searching I found another site called ShareWiis, and thought I'd give it a try. Sign-up was easy, and soon found myself sending out some requests to exchange wii numbers. I checked the next day, and found that a large number of my requests has been answered. Since that day I initially sent requests, I have added one or two new numbers to my address book every day, and haven't had to send out any new requests! The webmaster writes, "I just wanted an easy-to-use website without ads so that I can find some people to trade Miis". He definitely succeeded!



There is much more to the site, such as message forums, and a mii gallery. But the primary purpose is to share and exchange with other wii owners, and so far, I have not found a site that does this any better.

How to Rotate Video in Windows for "free"

Staci loves taking pictures and videos with our Canon Powershot IS S2. In fact, since we have started using that camera, my Sharp VL-AX1U mini-DV has pretty much been retired. The Canon's 640x480 @ 30 fps mode with stereo sound is more than adequate for our video needs.

On occasion, we will take a mini-movie and will turn the camera 90 degrees, a common practice for photographers while shooting stills. Rotating digital stills are child's play, in fact many new camera models will do this for you automatically. Rotating video, however, is a completely different animal.

I quickly found out that Pinnacle Studio 10 did not have a rotate video function. Googling "rotate video" brought up a number of commercial programs and filter plugins that would do the trick, but it seemed like overkill. I did find a free program called VirtualDub, but then found another link that told me that the answer was installed on my computer all along.

Windows Movie Maker is part of the "free" software that comes bundled with XP. It has been criticized as being lightweight, probably because it can't author DVDs natively. I instructed Staci to start up the program. She loaded the .AVI file from the Canon and added it to the timeline. Then she located the Rotate filters located in the Collections\Video Effects screen. After applying the desired Rotate filter (90, 180, or 270 degrees), she exported the video and it was ready for YouTube. You can view the result here.

"Serious" camcorder manufacturers probably never expected videographers to rotate their camcorders while taking video. Maybe that is why some "serious" video editing packages omitted the option to rotate the video back. However, as quality and popularity of video from digital still cameras increases, so does the need to rotate video, since still photographers like to rotate their cameras. I can see the option to rotate video being hastily added to succeeding versions of video editing software, if it isn't there already. I'm still planning to test drive VirtualDub in the future, but in the meantime, Windows Movie Maker is an option that is most likely available to you already.

Don't rain on my Wii parade

One of my daughter's favorite Wii activities is the Mii Plaza and Mii Parade. But she has been wondering for weeks why our parade numbers haven't gone above 10. I guess she was getting tired of seeing all the same miis marching by.

I had already traded Wii numbers with all the Wii owners I personally knew, so it was time to take the next step. I googled "trade wii numbers" and found a number of links to message forums where users had posted their numbers. I wasn't too excited about the prospect of having to join a message forum just to post my number and hope that somebody responds. There had to be something easier.

Fortunately, one of the posted messages mentioned a site called Dual Screen Radio. I checked it out, and after registering as a user, I found a simple system to notify and exchange numbers with other members. Within a couple of days, I had doubled the number of entries in my address book. The members have been very responsive and friendly.

I then tried googling "find mii friends" and found a very interesting site called MapWii. After registering, your location shows up on a world map. From there, you can find more wii friends based on geographical location. It also has a built-in email notification system to let other members know you have added them. And the icing on the cake is that it is formatted to actually run on the Wii internet browser. It's only been a few hours since I've sent out my friend requests, so I haven't had any confirmations yet, but I'll report back later on the progress.

Just from the added entries from Dual Screen Radio, my parade numbers have already jumped to 16 in a couple of days, including a hilarious-looking mii named "Belushi". My daughter has been quite happy with all this progress, and there's also a little excitement every time the Wii starts glowing blue at the arrival of new wii-mail.

Taming PocketPC Applications - Magic Button

I've been using my XV6700 smartphone for just over a year now, and the one thing that always annoyed me about Windows PocketPC was the fact that applications didn't close when I tapped what I thought was the Close button (X in the upper right-hand corner). Apparently, it is more of a minimize button, and the application continues to run in the background, taking up CPU cycles and memory. I never bothered to find a better solution, even though I knew one probably existed, and had just resigned myself to going to the memory settings once in awhile, and stopping the running programs.

One night, I was up doing some late night web surfing in bed, and was reading the mobile version of PocketPC Magazine. It looks great on a PDA screen. Jim Karpen's web guide mentioned a task manager called Magic Button. I can't remember all the details, but I think I was able to download the .CAB file directly to my XV6700 and run the installation, and in a matter of minutes, I had full control over my applications. I could actually close apps, as well as easily switch between apps, if I wanted to keep several running. And to top it off, Magic Button was FREE!

There are probably other PocketPC task managers out there, and some would probably like to take your money. Do yourself a favor -- use Magic Button, save yourself some dough, and tame those PocketPC apps once and for all.

Troubleshooting a wireless network

Unlike my previous post about "fixing" my wireless network by going wired, I actually had to do some wireless network troubleshooting over the weekend, so I thought I would share the experience.

Pam was having trouble with wireless dropouts and poor coverage. When I initially setup her wireless network, she didn't have any of those problems. Wireless routers, are typically all-or-nothing, i.e. they either work or they don't, so the fact that her wifi worked some of the time indicated that something else was interfering with her wireless network, rather than the wireless router going bad.

Wifi interference can be caused by any number of other electronic devices that use the same frequency in the 2.4 Ghz range. Fortunately, wireless hardware manufacturers included a user-selectable channel setting specifically designed to combat interference. Googling wifi interference returns a multitude of search results.

Pam's router, a Netgear FM114P, was still using the default channel setting of "6". I had heard of fancy wireless scanning gear that will scan a location, and identify frequencies already in use, but not having such gear my disposal, I knew it would be an exercise in trial and error. I dropped the channel setting to "4", allowed the router to reboot, and watched in amazement as the entire wireless router completely disappeared. My laptop didn't even pick up the SSID! I had probably stumbled upon the sweet spot of the interference, where it peaked the most. So, I decided to try the other direction. I selected channel 11, from a computer with a wired connection since wireless was effectively neutralized, and rebooted the router. This time, the results were vastly different, in a good way. My laptop automatically picked up the defined SSID, and before I could even get to the keyboard, it had negotiated an IP address. I walked over to Pam's laptop in the next room, and it had done the same. I carried my laptop to the far end of their house, and had Pam do the same. No dropouts, and a good strong 90+ signal.

Adjusting the wireless router channel also allowed them to finally get their Nintendo Wii online. I suppose I could have used NetStumbler and tried EVERY channel to see which provided the best signal, but I'll save that for a later date. Knowing that the wifi "bubble" lives in an ever-changing world, all it will take is one neighbor to buy a new cordless phone or baby monitor, and I'll be back to re-tweak the settings.