Codes

Peet's Coffee, Santa Cruz - Bathroom code: 9966; 6901* (as of 8/17)* 8845* (as of 9/20)...from this, it seems staff change it frequently

Verve Coffee, Santa Cruz - Wifi code: streetlevel

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers

Dawn and I noticed this manga, at the Santa Cruz library. Matriarchal.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i on Debian Jessie (Stable) GNU/Linux

I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i and wanted to use it, on Debian GNU/Linux Jessie (stable).

This documents my own experience with getting it to work, on a Lenovo ThinkPad X201 laptop.

TL;DR
Debian Jessie (Stable) ships with an older version of SANE. To support the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i, download, compile, and install SANE from source.

OVERVIEW
Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE) represents a commonly used GNU/Linux package API, which provides "standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware." (via)

Debian Jessie packages SANE into frontend and backend components:

1. sane - frontend packages, for the user-interface (for example, xscanimage, scanadf, xcam)
2. libsane - backend packages, for individual scanner support (for example, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i)

Debian Jessie (stable) seems to ship with the following SANE packages installed:

$ dpkg -l | grep sane
ii  libsane:amd64         1.0.24-8    amd64 API library for scanners
ii  libsane-common        1.0.24-8    all   API library for scanners -- documentation and support files
ii  libsane-dev           1.0.24-8    amd64 API development library for scanners [development files]
ii  libsane-extras:amd64  1.0.22.3    amd64 API library for scanners -- extra backends
ii  libsane-extras-common 1.0.22.3    amd64 API library for scanners -- documentation and support files
ii  libsane-extras-dev    1.0.22.3    amd64 API development library for scanners [development files]
ii  libsane-hpaio         3.14.6-1+b2 amd64 HP SANE backend for multi-function peripherals
ii  libsane-perl          0.05-2+b2   amd64 Perl bindings for the SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) Project
ii  sane                  1.0.14-9    amd64 scanner graphical frontends
ii  sane-utils            1.0.24-8    amd64 API library for scanners -- utilities

Unfortunately, the shipped version of libsane 1.0.24-8 does not seem to properly handle the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i.

FIRST ATTEMPTS
Following the advice of Gavin Carr, from September 2014 (note: Gavin used Centos 6), I first attempted the following steps.

$ sudo sane-find-scanner
found USB scanner (vendor=0x04c5 [FUJITSU], product=0x128d [ScanSnap S1300i]) at libusb:001:009 

$ sudo scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Integrated Camera virtual device

Note: The results of running scanimage mean Debian did not find the device.

INITIAL WORKAROUNDS

The shipped version of libsane does not seem to currently include support for the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i. That is, Debian does not include the required firmware and configuration lines for it.

Happily, these two steps seem pretty straightforward.

Install firmware file
Copy firmware file 1300i_0D12.nal (hat tip, to Gavin Carr, for providing it along with his instruction steps) to folder /usr/share/sane/epjitsu :

$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/
$ sudo cp 1300i_0D12.nal /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/1300i_0D12.nal

Update configuration file
Update configuration file /etc/sane.d/epjitsu.conf , adding these three lines:

# Fujitsu S1300i
firmware /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/1300i_0D12.nal
usb 0x04c5 0x128d

Retest with scanimage
After doing these two steps, scanimage finds the scanner!

$ sudo scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Integrated Camera virtual device
device `epjitsu:libusb:001:009' is a FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i scanner

SECOND ATTEMPTS
gscan2pdf
Install and run frontend scanner GUI gscan2pdf :

$ sudo apt-get install gscan2pdf
$ sudo gscan2pdf

However, after selecting the scanner, attempts to scan meet with error "Error during device I/O". x_x

scanimage
Additionally, I experienced similar errors, when running scanimage:

$ sudo scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Integrated Camera virtual device
device `epjitsu:libusb:001:008' is a FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i scanner
$ sudo scanimage --test -d 'epjitsu:libusb:001:008'
scanimage: sane_start: Error during device I/O

Note: At this point, I had set environment variables:

$ env | grep SANE
SANE_DEBUG_SANEI_USB=128 (note: "a value of 128 requests all debug output to be printed.")
SANE_DEBUG_FUJITSU=35 (note: "enables debugging output to stderr...useless noise")

FURTHER WORKAROUND ATTEMPTS

It seems, the shipped version of libsane, 1.0.24-8, has a few bugs. Per SANE developer discussions, it appears developers subsequently have resolved the bugs.

I first tried, unsuccessfully, to add developer Rolf's repository. However, when I attempted to pull in updates, "apt-get update" provided an error, which makes sense, given he provides Ubuntu support, not Debian:

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common (note: this provides "add-apt-repository")
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rolfbensch/sane-git
You are about to add the following PPA to your system:
 Ubuntu SANE packages from SANE daily git snapshots (http://www.sane-project.org/snapshots/) or cloned from git (http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=sane/sane-backends.git;a=summary) if SANE daily git snapshot isn't available on the website.
Unchanged SANE daily git snapshots are ignored!
Please send scanner related questions to the SANE mailing list <email address hidden>.
 More info: https://launchpad.net/~rolfbensch/+archive/ubuntu/sane-git
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmp069_7hv9/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmp069_7hv9/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: requesting key B7CC8701 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /tmp/tmp069_7hv9/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key B7CC8701: public key "Launchpad PPA for Rolf Bensch" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)
OK
$ sudo apt-get update
... *snip* ...
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net jessie/main amd64 Packages  404  Not FoundIgn http://ppa.launchpad.net jessie/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net jessie/main Translation-en
Fetched 127 kB in 3s (38.4 kB/s)
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu/dists/jessie/main/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not FoundE: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Some reading seems to imply this represents an error with attempting to pull Ubuntu updates to a Debian system, which the list post, above, did not immediately make clear. Note: "add-apt-repository" seems to represent an Ubuntu utility.

So, this fails because attempting to lookup Debian system packages on an Ubuntu repository represents a semi-sketchy thing to do. It has risks.

As a test, I did the following:

$ sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rolfbensch-sane-git-jessie.list 

from: 

# deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu jessie main 

to the following, replacing "jessie" with "trusty":

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rolfbensch/sane-git/ubuntu trusty main

 Running apt-get update now works:

... *snip* ...
Get:14 http://ppa.launchpad.net trusty/main Translation-en [1,220 B]                                      
... *snip* ...

However, apt-get upgrade fails:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree    
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:  libsane libsane-common libsane-dev
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libsvn1 sane-utils subversion
3 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,187 kB of archives.
After this operation, 131 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

I next attempted to install just libsane, however, I received an error, and aborted:

$ sudo apt-get install libsane
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree    
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies: libsane : Depends: libjpeg8 (>= 8c) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

No thanks! Note: I received the same errors with "precise" and "vivid". Some reading suggested running "dist-upgrade" but I am, at the very least, smart enough to not go nuclear to resolve this, yet.

So, backed out the change and removed the repository. Will have to fine something a bit less sketchy.

$ rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rolfbensch-sane-git-jessie.list*
$ sudo apt-key list
$ sudo apt-key del B7CC8701

Backports? It seems Debian Jessie currently does not have any backports, for libsane:

$ sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
Add "deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main"
$ sudo apt-get -t jessie-backports install libsane
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libsane is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 38 not upgraded.

So. dmesg reports the following:

$ dmesg
[18601.324625] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci-pci
[18601.419949] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=04c5, idProduct=128d
[18601.419955] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[18601.419959] usb 1-1.2: Product: ScanSnap S1300i
[18601.419961] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: FUJITSU

Note: some developers have suggested EHCI versus xHCI (that is, USB 3.0) might represent the source of the problem. This shows I am using EHCI.

COMPILING SANE FROM SOURCE
Uninstall SANE:
http://installion.co.uk/ubuntu/vivid/universe/s/sane/uninstall/index.html

Compile SANE from source:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompileSaneFromSource

The Debian build logs showed this configure command:

./configure --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --build=x86_64-linux-gnu \
--prefix=/usr \
--libdir=\${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--localstatedir=/var \
--datadir=\${prefix}/share \
--mandir=\${prefix}/share/man \
--with-docdir=\${prefix}/share/doc/libsane \
--with-snmp=no \
--disable-locking \
--enable-static \
--enable-pthread \
--with-gphoto2 \
--enable-translations \
--enable-avahi \
--enable-libusb_1_0 \
--enable-pnm-backend \
--without-v4l

make
sudo make install

SUCCESS!
gscan2pdf now successfully scans the document.

LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanner_Access_Now_Easy

http://www.openfusion.net/linux/scansnap_1300i

http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/sane-devel/2015-February/033079.html

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/45879/how-to-add-repository-from-shell-in-debian

https://launchpad.net/~rolfbensch/+archive/ubuntu/sane-git
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libsane
http://www.sane-project.org/
http://www.webupd8.org/2014/10/how-to-add-launchpad-ppas-in-debian-via.html
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=sane-backends&repeatmerged=yes
https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=debian%40jff-webhosting.net
http://installion.co.uk/ubuntu/vivid/universe/s/sane/uninstall/index.html
https://buildd.debian.org/status/logs.php?pkg=sane-backends&arch=amd64

Coffee shops opening early, Santa Cruz

Looking for early morning (~6:00 a.m.) weekend coffee shop destinations, in Santa Cruz, with reasonably good wifi:

1. Starbucks, Mission: 5:30 a.m., daily
2. Peet's Coffee, downtown: 6:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 5:00 a.m., M-F
3. Coffeetopia, Mission: 6:00 a.m., daily
5. Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.: 6:00 a.m., daily
6. Westside Coffee, Mission: 6:30 a.m., Sat/Sun; 5:45 a.m., M-F
7. Emily's Good Things To Eat: 6:30 a.m., Sat/Sun; 5:30 a.m., M-F
8. Verve Coffee, downtown: 6:30 a.m., daily
9. Lulu Carpenters, downtown: 7:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 6:00 a.m., M-F
10. Firefly Coffee, downtown: 7:00 a.m., daily
11. Kelly's French Bakery: 7:00 a.m., daily
12. Caffe Pergolesi: 7:00 a.m., daily
13. Companion Bakery, Mission: 8:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 7:00 a.m., T-F; Closed: M
14. Cafe Iveta, Deleware: 8:00 a.m., Sat/Sun; 7:00 a.m., M-F
15. Cafe Brasil: 8:00 a.m., daily

Elgin Broom Bear Street Sweeper

The city of Sacramento seems to have one or more Elgin "Broom Bear" Street Sweepers, which I noticed cleaning the streets. I like the alliteration and imagery of the name "Broom Bear".

Early morning coffee shop

Really enjoying the early morning coffee shop window experience, this morning. I have a light rail train above me, which represents a comforting sight and sound. Community of people coming and going, so not lonely. The smell and taste of fresh, hot, bitter coffee, to wake me up. Fast internet, too!

One Wheel Electric Scooter

Occasionally, I see someone going to work on a one wheel electric scooter. 

Maybe an AirWheel?

Karl Gerhardt - Sculpture of Ulysses S. Grant

http://www.twainquotes.com/Gerhardt/grantbustdetails.html

Listening to Mark Twain's autobiography. They discuss this work. Gerhardt's sculpture represents the last artwork made of U.S. Grant, during his lifetime, and, per the autobiography, represents the best likeness, in the opinion of family and close acquaintances.

Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron

Peter Pan Pop Band & Singers ‎– Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron

My family owned this on vinyl and we listened to it. Apparently it came in two configurations...I believe we had the one with Puff the Magic Dragon.

A1 Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
A2 Do Re Mi
A3 Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport
A4 Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor
A5 That's What We Learn In School
B1 Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
B2 On Top Of Spaghetti
B3 The Return Of The Red Baron
B4   Puff the Magic DragonB5 How Much Is That Doggie In The Window

I always wished more songs existed about the battles between Snoopy and The Red Baron.

The song "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" seems a lot darker than I remember...lines like this went over my head, I think: "Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred / Tan me hide when I'm dead / So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde / And that's it hangin' on the shed!! / Altogether now!"

Good stuff. ; o )

Electric range burner covers

Looking for something to cover the coils on the top of our electric range, to stop debris from getting into the drip pans.

Reviews online seemed consistently disappointed with thin metal covers, as they dent easily and discolor.

Needs:

• Sturdy
• Will not discolor easily...for example, when setting a hot pizza pan on top
• White, if preferable, to match our range

Then, I realized we probably had two problems. I wanted something on which to set a pizza pan, for cutting. Our pizza pan has holes, which means the slicing process makes a mess. So we really needed something to set that on, which did not make a mess over the oven.

I actually like these insights, even if it means more problems to solve...each problem gets a simpler solution. A trivet or silicone baking mat would work, for the pizza pan slicing. A burner cover would work, for general protection from getting dirty. Perfect.

Our countertop needs a 2'x2' mat. We ended up getting Clever Chef Professional Grade Silicone Nonstick Baking Mat - Full Sheet Pan (23.58W x 15.75L).

Steam Folder Migration: USB 3.0 external storage drive, to internal SSD

We recently complete updating storage on Dawn's laptop, adding additional capacity and modifying partition sizes.

Today, we moved the Steam folder, from a Samsung T1 Portable 250GB USB 3.0 External SSD, to her newly expanded laptop internal SSD, loosely following the instructions on the Steam web site:

• Exit the Steam client application
• Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move (D:\Steam, for us)
• Copy the folder to the new location; for example: C:\Program Files\Steam
• Delete all of the files and folders, in C:\Program Files\Steam, except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe
• Rename D:\Steam to D:\SteamBackup
• For the first time only, launch Steam via "Run as Administrator", then log into your account
• Running as non-Administrator, Steam produced an error which said (paraphrasing): "Could not connect; please connect to a network and try again
• Running as Administrator did not produce the error
• Verify integrity of game cache(s):
• From the Library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu
• Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button
• Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes
• Once the process is completed, the Check Window will automatically exit
• Manually update the Start Menu shortcut, for Steam: right-click on the icon, select Properties, then change the location the shortcut points to, so it points to the new folder (for us, we changed it from D:\Steam\Steam.exe, to C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe)

Done. 

NOTES

• After you have some confidence that Steam works as expected, you can either keep D:\Steam as a backup, or delete it
• OK to start Steam as non-administrator, for all future uses...that first time, above, Steam needs administrator rights to repair itself

Previously, previously, previously.

Car tires

Was:
Goodyear Assurance P185/65R15 86T
Came with car

Now:
Bridgestone - Ecopia EP422 PLUS 185/65R15 88H, Manufacture #006138
$257.96 for four, with $70 multi-tire discount, plus install and fees, so ~$325 out the door.

Bob Zimway, Photographer

Subject's photographs appear at Westside Coffee Company's Almar Ave, Santa Cruz location.

Eggy bagel! : o )

Wool socks

On wool socks:

"That said, the suit-wearing man should usually be donning wool socks year-round. Wool socks do a better job of keeping feet warm in cold weather, and cool in hot weather. This is because wool socks are much superior at wicking water, keeping feet dry and regulating their temperature. All else being equal when it is warm cotton-encased feet will get hotter and sweatier, and when it is cold, they will get colder."

Via

Interested in the Dore Dore 100% Wool Over-The-Calf sock, but ... so expensive! Even on sale at $28/pair.

Smog Checks for California Hybrid Vehicles

The smogpocalypse! ; o )

http://www.bar.ca.gov/Industry/Industry_Resources/Q&As_Hybrid_Vehicles_in_the_Smog_Check_Program.html

Diploma frames

http://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-Frames-Certificate-Document-Mahogany/dp/B00G7KGU60/

http://www.target.com/p/room-essentials-back-bevel-document-frame-black-8-5x11/-/A-10353622

UCSC McHenry Library Digital Newspaper Displays

Collecting info on the newspaper displays in the lobby of the McHenry Library, which rotate frontpages from around the world.

Lee Jaffe's installation photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ldjaffe/albums/72157626824825533

• Modeled after installation at UC Berkeley International House
• "These photos document work on a 6-screen installation that will feature front pages from newspapers worldwide. The architects left us with pretty much nothing we could use and in fact added some extra surprises. I'm working with Doug Russo, a carpenter, to design and build this installation that we hope will compensate for the deficiencies of the space in an attractive and secure manner."
• "...the electrical raceway [was] added for a different project just before we started our installation. Nobody thinks this was done well -- there is conduit all throughout the wall and it could have been routed differently -- but there is no money to fix it at this point. We were able to reposition our installation a bit to cover some of the raceway but we cannot hide it completely." (photo)
• Installation occurred during summer 2011

Gifts funding the creation: "UC Santa Cruz receives $350,000 to create global café and reading garden at University Library"
http://news.ucsc.edu/2007/01/1028.html

• "Stephen Silberstein--cofounder and former president of Innovative Interfaces, a library software company in Emeryville, California-has donated $250,000 to create a global cyber café in the campus's newly expanded and renovated McHenry Library."
• "Plans for the UC Santa Cruz café include a rotating digital newspaper display that spotlights up-to-date front pages of approximately 140 newspapers from around the world. Representing the varied geographic areas of Asia, Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States, the newspaper exhibit is designed to contrast different global perspectives of current events."

UPDATE, 8/3/2015: A UCSC staff member writes:

"The person who was most directly involved with the implementation of this system has retired. I will try to answer your questions as best I can. 

The current newspaper display was installed in 2011 based on an earlier pilot installation in 2009. It uses Mac Mini computers and 30" Dell monitors. The image swapping is managed by the MacOS screen saver application. The newspaper images are .jpegs managed by newseum.org and those images are updated on that site daily. The library contracted with a programmer to do some customized scripting to automate the daily download of new newspaper images. Unfortunately, I do not have any contact information for that developer."

So, it sounds like a script downloads the fixed image URLs, from Newseum, which updates the image URLs, daily. For example, the Centre, Alabama, USA newspaper, "The Post". The script may copy the images to a folder on the computer driving each display (or perhaps a server folder). The computer then displays the images, in the configured folder, via native screensaver utility.

Seems pretty straightforward! I had wondered if Newseum represented the source; nice to see it confirmed. The script just iterates over a configured list of newspaper images, probably calling something like wget.

Note: Lee Jaffe may represent the retired staff member referred to, above. The 2009 installation seems to represents the install seen in several photos from Lee's Flickr account, prior to the McHenry Library remodel.

UPDATE: 04/08/2023 - 

Newseum as an organization dissolved in 2019. 

We stopped by the iHouse at UC Berkeley today and it looks like they removed their newspaper displays.

Here's how the UC Berkeley iHouse cafe displays looked as of September 17, 2019:

Photo courtesy IHouse UC Berkeley

 

"Computer Programming: What is the difference between developer, engineer, programmer, coder, architect, and consultant?"

• A programmer knows how to program computers.
• A developer is a programmer who sits in a cubicle and gets paid for it.
• A coder is a programmer who sits on a beanbag listening to techno in a black T-shirt and gets paid for it.
• An architect is a programmer who thinks up something really big for the other programmers to program, and gets paid for it
• A consultant was a programmer, but now wears a suit and tells developers, coders, and architects how they ought to develop, code and architect, and gets paid a lot for it.

Jon Peterson, via

Traceroute

oh?

"The default starting port in UNIX traceroute is 33434. This comes from 32768 (2 This comes from 32768 (2 15 ^ or the max value of a , or the max value of a signed 16-bit integer) + 666 (the mark of Satan)."

Via 

XOR Magic

Pretty cool!

Swap variables, without a temp variable : o )