Andrey Mikhalchuk’s Blog

Routerbot v2 is coming. Here is the screenshot. Unfortunately I was way too busy the last week to complete the version, but hopefully next weekend something will be ready for rolling out.

It appeared that some DNS servers keep old information about my domain and redirecting some users to the old server. So some comments go to the new server and some go to the old one. I plan to merge them later this week. If you don’t see your comments posted please don’t worry they will reappear soon.

If you decided to mod your wrt54gl router and turn it into one of the most capable routers for soho network, probably the first mod you should start with is adding serial interface to it. Why? Because when you do the other mods (like adding SD reader, turning into robot, adding leds etc) you definitely send the router into the brick state. And the best way to unbrick it is to look at the router’s console output. The entire operation is very easy and should not take longer then 1 hour. Here is how to do this:

I’m currently moving the site, so the content (images, in particular) might not be available for for another 24 hours. Sorry about inconvenience.

Pleo is a wonderful dinosaur, way more charming then roboraptor and other sapiences. It is the most advanced toy robot currently available on the market in the <$700 price range (Pleo price is around $330 shipped). It has a huge potential which is limited by the fact it is completely standalone. I tried to fix this by adding bluetooth interface to it. This mod allows issuing commands to Pleo from virtually any bluetooth-enabled device, including many cell phones, communicators and generic computers. It also allows retrieving information from Pleo on-the-fly, like sounds it hears, pictures it sees etc.

Before you continue reading this post please acknowledge that this mod is not approved by Ugobe and most probably will void the warranty. Also there is always a chance that something will go wrong and you might damage your robopet. If you’re going to implement this mod you are the only one responsible for damaging this very expensive toy. I’m providing the information below only as a personal experience for educational purposes.

And here is how to make it:

I experience serious problems with the webserver load. After a few posts about the routerbot (which is 7+months old!) on a few popular websites the server start suffering from low RAM/CPU power. Last time I remember something like this only during pizza.com times.

I beg my apology for this situation. The server will get upgraded later this week.

I’ve uploaded the new video about getting your very own wireless dinosaur. It shows how you can control Pleo from almost any bluetooth-enabled device, including cellphones, smartphones, communicators, PCs etc. All you need is bluetooth and a terminal program.
I’m going to publish more details about how to make Pleo wireless later next week. Nothing complicated

At the moment Canon Vixia HF100 is the best consumer HD flash camera. It’s not perfect, I found plenty of glitches and inconveniences like

1. Sometimes it takes up to 15 seconds to switch the mode (Play/Record)
2. The navigation is not very intuitive
3. The official video backup process via Pixela Mixer (i.e. you need to install a piece of commercial software before you will be able to get your video from camera to computer)

Despite all those and many other issues it is still the best. The video quality is just outstanding, it’s like having whole Hollywood in your pocket. While I can do nothing (so far) with #1 and #2 annoyances #3 is easily solvable. You don’t need to install this special piece of software called PixelaMixer. In fact I didn’t even try it after reading couple reviews saying it’s no good at all. You can just connect the camera to the PC or insert the SD card into the card reader and copy .mts files from <drive>\private\avchd\bdmv\stream to your backup device. Then you can process the files with whatever software you prefer.
If you also want to backup the images then get them at <drive>\DCIM, as usually.

I actually think this method will work for Visual Basic and other similar languages too. Here is the code for a sample frame called TfrKnob:

You’ve probably heard about Pleo - the greenest and coolest dinosaur available on today’s market. My daughter got one for her birthday recently from her loving parents. She enjoyed it for a few days and then just got bored because it was the same moo, mrrr and urf and not much walking at all. Well, two more days of interest were raised with additional downloadable personalities, but that was it.
I tweaked the dino into something more interesting and made it wireless, so you can issue commands to it remotely (via bluetooth). Ok, one more day of fun. Then I wrote something a bit more usable then Dinomite and other tools available from Ugobe website. The development was going well until one day Pleo didn’t wake up …

“Setup cannot continue because some system files are out of date on your system. Click OK if you would like setup to update these files for you now. You will need to restart Windows before you can run setup again. Click cancel to exit setup without updating system files.”

First time I was struggling with the problem when I tried to install Dino-MITE - an excellent program for monitoring ancd controlling home dinosaurs manufactured by Ugobe. Later it appeared that the problem is more common and frequently occures with during the installation of various products written in Visual Basic.

I don’t know exactly what causes the problem, but I’m unable to download anything from HP (Hewlett-Packard) website. I tried downloading using multiple FTP clients from different platforms and it appeared that Safari under MacOS can download the files, while Firefox under both Windows and MacOS can’t. Right now I tried to get the same file from two XP computers using FireFox and one was able to download the file, while the other one wasn’t. It’s not about firewall settings and not about passive/active mode. If someone knows the reason and how to fix the problem I’d appreciate a comment on this post.

If anyone else is experiencing the same problems use the following solution: copy the URL of the link you’re trying to download the file from (in FireFox right-click on the link and choose “Copy Link location”), paste the link into the browser’s address line, replace “ftp://” with “http://” and hit enter. This will download the file using HTTP protocol.

I recently tried to install voyage linux on an ALIX computer and found that versions 5.0 don’t run on it hanging with “NET: Registered protocol family 16″ message during the boot. After quick research I found that “MFGPT workaround” option should be disabled in the bios settings in order to fix the problem.

Unfortunately BIOS versions prior to 0.98d do not have that option, so I had to upgrade the BIOS. The instructions for the upgrade are available at http://pcengines.ch/freedos.htm. For some reason only “LBA Copy” method worked for me, though others report that “File Copy” is the most reliable method. By default LBA is turned off on ALIX, so make sure that you change the bios settings from CHS to LBA. To do so when you see the memory check during the boot press “S” then “L”, “Q”, “Y”. If you don’t do that you’ll be getting something like “.Error!.” or the system will just freeze after “FreeDOS” message, depending on the method you’re using for the FreeDOS installation.

Now format the flash card (For some reason the method didn’t work for me until I reformat the card), write the image, copy the new BIOS files, properly eject the card from the card reader (use the “Safely Remove Hardware” tray icon for that), insert the card into ALIX and boot from it.

I copied the new bios files into directory BIOS, so after boot I need to issue the following commands:

C:\>cd BIOS
C:\BIOS>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label
 Volume Serial Number is 4752-912D

 Directory of C:\BIOS

.                    <DIR>  09-10-08  2:11p
..                   <DIR>  09-10-08  2:11p
ALIX1    BIN       524,288  12-10-07  2:00p
ALIX2    BIN       524,288  12-10-07  2:00p
ALIXBIOS TXT         5,052  12-10-07  2:01p
SB       COM         1,648  08-30-07  2:36a
         4 file(s)      1,055,276 bytes
         2 dir(s)      14,086,144 bytes free
C:\BIOS>sb.com
ALIX flash update (C)2007 PC Engines GmbH
Flash ID = 1 FFFF GPI = FF
Flash ID = 0 9D37 GPI = 01
Reading 512KB flash image alix1.bin................
Compare Erase Program Verify - update OK.
C:\BIOS>

Now power ALIX off and replace the FreeDOS card with Voyage card and enjoy the problem gone.

Domain Name Wire revealed all details about pizza.com domain sale. Here is the source: “National A-1 Buys Pizza.com”. So the real domain owner was Chris Clark and the domain buyer is National A-1 Advertising. Hopefully this answers all questions.

So far the changes on pizza.com website are hardly visible. From what I’ve noticed they removed my name, link to my website and the topmost banner. That’s it. No content updates, no new functionality. Hopefully there is some work in the background and A-1 is cooking something special for pizza lovers. Otherwise that would be really sad story - I had so many plans about new functionality for the website…

BTW, one more funny link: He’s All Over the News, and he e-mailed me. Anyway, I’m very grateful to “itstimetoeatpizza” for his offer, I believe he would be a great moderator, unfortunately I’m no longer related to the website.

I’m moving to another place. Right the next day I submitted the notice to the leasing office my kids, being under great impression of “Blue’s Clues” TV program, started playing clues. Soon they invented that the best clues can be made with marker on walls. I spent about 1 hour trying different substances on the walls, but the wall-marker combination was much stronger then Soap, Magic Eraser, OxiClean, rubbing alcohol and other pretty powerful substances. Only in a few weeks I recalled what I was studying on chemistry at school and solved the problem in seconds.

After a hard day of development and testing I’m proud to announce Web interface for routerbot It greately facilitates roubot teleoperating. With this interface you have to use telnet and ssh no more. Instead, you just click on colorful arrows on a webpage and see the robot doing exactly what you clicked. Another interesting feature is that the web interface simplified programming.

Many people are dreaming about consolidating all media files (video, music, pictures etc) in a single place. For some it is a huge full of DVDs, CDs and photos. Others buy hardware media servers and store all files in them. I chose a solution based on Archos 605 WiFi and a Linux Server running UPnP Media Server. Here’s how it works …

Couple days ago I became happy owner of Archos 605. Here is a short review of this wonderful/horrible device and explanation why most people won’t like it.

I’ve got new Archos DVR Station recently. The nice thing about it is a cool remote with tons of different buttons that provide full keyboard+mouse functionality for Archos 605 PMP. Unfortunately the remote appeared to be dead. I was almost ready to pack it and send back to the store when recalled a situation happened a few years ago. Some device I was 100% sure is ok didn’t work with brand new batteries. The problem was too short “+” tip on the battery. Some devices (like this Archos DVR Station) have weird profile of battery holder that prevents the “+” tip from touching the contact spring. The solution is quite simple - use some sharp tool to pop the contact spring out the plastic “niche”. Alternatively you can just buy a different type of battery with longer tip.
BTW, the batteries that have this problem were “batteries.com” brand, but I saw couple other brands with the same problem.

Thanks to N2H Global Translator now you can conveniently translate this blog to couple other languages using free online translation services. Just click the appropriate flag in the top-right corner of the header and get the page in the “language” of your preference.

Unfortunately the quality of translation for many languages is still poor, but at least you can get an idea of what this blog is about. I checked the quality in English->Russian translation, laughed for a few minutes but decided leave it as is. I’m just thinking if the translations are always funny or they can be offensive sometime? Please let me know in comments if this happens, I would really appreciate that.