As I mentioned in the last post, I picked up a Microsoft Remote Keyboard at the Rochester Hamfest. It’s a neat little device — it was designed by Microsoft for their Media Center computers, so it has all of the buttons for a regular remote control, as well as a keyboard and a pointing device similar to a Trackpoint. Essentially, it replaces a keyboard, a mouse, and a remote with a single unit.

Since I already have a Microsoft remote control on my MythTV box, and the Remote Keyboard uses the same infrared receiver, I assumed that adding the keyboard would just be a matter of aiming it at the receiver. Oh, boy, was I wrong.

After Googling around for a while, though, I finally managed to find some useful information on Ubuntu Forums. Specifically, this walkthrough by North_Pole. I’m reproducing the information here, in case the forum post gets deleted at some point. The only additional information that I will provide is that it also works with Ubuntu 8.10 (which is what I am using), as well as 9.04.

—begin clip—

$ sudo apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source module-assistant

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source

$ sudo gedit /etc/lirc/hardware.conf

REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_mod_mce"

LOAD_MODULES="true"

$ sudo m-a update,prepare

$ sudo m-a clean lirc

$ sudo m-a a-i -f lirc    (if this one fails, choose "skip and continue with the next operation")

$ sudo depmod -a

input_dev->cdev.dev = &dev->dev;

to

input_dev->dev.parent = &dev->dev;

$ sudo make

sudo depmod -a

modprobe lirc_mod_mce

$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

blacklist lirc_mceusb2

—end clipping—

Gee, I can’t believe that people think Linux isn’t ready for typical users. This all seems so simple, right?

I spent yesterday morning at the Rochester Hamfest. Despite the name, it is not a display of porcine delicacies — rather, it’s Ham as in “Ham Radio”, the brotherhood of cloistered electronics nerds and survivalists who talk to strangers on the shortwave. This was actually the 75th anniversary of the Hamfest, so people have been getting together annually in Rochester since before WWII.

It originally started as a gathering of radio enthusiasts, but over time it has become more of a general electronics event. And, most importantly for me, it’s spawned a giant flea market. Picture something like the Walden Ave Super Flea, but all electronics gear — everything from automobile light bars to pay phones to oscilloscopes to old computer equipment and racks. It’s like heaven for geeks. Nerdvana, if you will.

I’ve been going almost every year for the last fifteen years or so — which I just realized, with great shame, is half my life — and once again I met up with Chris and Phil to hunt for new toys. I got a couple of goodies this year, like a Microsoft Remote Keyboard for the MythTV box ($5) and a few HP keyboards with smartcard readers built into them (3/$10). Chris had the find of the day — a 100Mb Dell managed switch, with Gb uplinks, for five dollars. Sweet.

Unfortunately, eBay and the Internet in general have really taken a bite out of the flea market. There just aren’t as many vendors, and honestly, it’s tough to get as excited now that I can buy obscure, random electronics online any time I want, rather than tramping around a parking lot once a year. But it’s still exciting to find a gem in a pile of obsolete junk.

High ranking members of the Royal Air Force are in a bit of trouble.

Apparently, many of them submitted to recorded interviews as a part of their security clearance process. These interviews covered a variety of salacious topics — extra-marital affairs, visits to prostitutes, drug abuse, that sort of thing. Then the RAF lost the drives containing the interview audio.

Fantastic.

It’s good to see that a major government, with all the resources it wants, can’t manage to safeguard something this simple and this sensitive. Potential blackmailers have got to be licking their chops.

Finally, a phone for the Buddhist on the go. A dedicated button on this model, the Odin 99, causes a customizable, animated altar to appear so that you can meditate wherever you are.

I wonder how long it’ll be before someone comes up with a votive candle rack for the Catholic customer?