March 11, 2010
Creative X-Fi Xtreme PCIE audio challenge
A few years ago, I bought a crappy little Dell Poweredge T105. I use it as my primary workstation. It was cheap (about $200), has a dual-core Opteron processor that supports virtualization, and came with 8 gigs of ram. It's a great little development box.
I bought a sound card for it immediately (and also a cheap video card, an ATI Radeon X1650). Since the computer only has 1x and 8x PCIE slots, I had to get the cheapest PCIE sound card that I could find. That was a Creative X-Fi Xtreme PCIE. I guess this card has a CA0110 chipset. ALSA for linux does not yet support this chip correctly (or rather, it must not support the PCIE to PCI bridge set on the card? I know very little about this PCIE stuff, being an embedded guy).
Today I throw down the gauntlet. If anyone can produce a patch for alsa to support this card, I will send them $100US. I figure a decent sound card will cost me at least that much. I have a USB sound card in this computer, but it does suck...it can barely play CDs without sputtering and popping. Produce a patch, email it to me (my email address can be found on my resumé, located at this domain name slash resume.pdf) and I'll work with you to make sure that it works. I'll mail you my sound card if you haven't got one (so long as you promise to mail it back when finished). Oh and send it to the ALSA people please. K thx.
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Further back...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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Stealing the Network
I first bumped into the Stealing the Network series when reading the exploits of Joe Grand, one of the book's many hacker authors.
The 'Stealing the ...' series of books follows a rather disparate group of computer hackers as they help a former NSA spook (many of them unwittingly) gather the money he needs to retire.
The stories themselves are not fantastic fiction. The writing is uneven and choppy, the characters are stereotypical and not very well thought-out. What is fascinating about this book series is the technical accuracy of the exploits (at some points *too* accurate, with screen shots and step-by-step instructions).
It's a great series to read if you're a system administrator, or just getting into the wonderful field of computer security.
Rated 
by reid
on March 06, 2011
by reid
on March 06, 2011
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman is one of those authors that somehow avoided my radar. Until now...
Close to the Machine is less a book than a collection of loosely related personal anecdotes from Ellen's time as a very rare thing -- a successful female bisexual independent computer programming consultant.
In the course of her work and relationship life, she learns hard lessons about programming, running a business, being lonely, and loving the wrong people. I found it particularly poignant being a crypto-nerd with difficult times in relationships and a more-or-less NDA'd, secret work life.
This book is a must-read for anyone into running their own business, programming, or anyone dating a person that is a business-a-holic or programmer.
Rated 
by reid
on November 23, 2009
by reid
on November 23, 2009
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The Long Trip Home
I had the joy of dining with the author in Florida. We went to a little Brazilian BBQ where he spoke with our waitstaff in (what I can only assume was) flawless Portugese.
Brian Wyllie spent 1969-1971 living in Brazil working for the Peace Corps. His recent book outlines his trip back to the United States via Bolivia, Peru, and the Carribean chain, by way of bus, train, and sailboat. The format comes spattered with observations from the modern day, and makes me think, "this must be what John McPhee's journal looks like."
The trip sounded like a fantastic one, but I was left wanting more detail...where did the gun (being snuck through customs in a variety of places, no doubt) come from? And how did Geneve's hair smell? Alas, we'll have to wait for another book to find the answers.
Rated by reid
on April 16, 2009
by reid
on April 16, 2009