Mobile phones in car

trying to do a number of things here:
1. Charge two phones, samsung galaxy and iphone
2. pipe sound from either phone via car ICE

the usb+3.5mm stereo to iphone connectors are powered via a cigar socket to usb adaptor which has an additional usb A type socket soldered to it's board

freesat mythtv firmware hauppage problem

Although the card is seen on the system, and in Mythtv, the Hauppage DVB-S2 tuner needs some non-free firmware to make it work:
cat /var/log/kern.log
Apr 7 08:35:22 mythserver kernel: [ 711.136979] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Waiting for firmware upload (dvb-fe-cx24116.fw)...
Apr 7 08:35:22 mythserver kernel: [ 711.140459] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Waiting for firmware upload(2)...
Apr 7 08:35:22 mythserver kernel: [ 711.140466] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: No firmware uploaded (timeout or file not found?)
Apr 7 08:35:22 mythserver kernel: [ 711.140473] cx24116_cmd_execute(): Unable initialise the firmware

It won't tune until the firmware is installed, so:
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

Reboot, then :
markp@mythserver:~$ dmesg | grep cx24116
[ 37.916332] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Waiting for firmware upload (dvb-fe-cx24116.fw)...
[ 38.071137] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Waiting for firmware upload(2)...
[ 42.916930] cx24116_load_firmware: FW version 1.26.90.0
[ 42.916948] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Firmware upload complete
[ 45.166018] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Waiting for firmware upload (dvb-fe-cx24116.fw)...
[ 45.171222] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Waiting for firmware upload(2)...
[ 50.036655] cx24116_load_firmware: FW version 1.26.90.0
[ 50.036675] cx24116_firmware_ondemand: Firmware upload complete
mythtv tuning now works...

mdadm administration and maintenance

check status of a raid:
root@server:/home/markp# mdadm --query --detail /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
Version : 0.90
Creation Time : Wed Jun 16 11:12:17 2010
Raid Level : raid1
Array Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB)
Used Dev Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB)
Raid Devices : 2
Total Devices : 1
Preferred Minor : 0
Persistence : Superblock is persistent

Update Time : Mon Mar 26 08:37:54 2012
State : clean, degraded
Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 1
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 0

UUID : a796fd2c:740124f9:01f9e43d:ac30fbff (local to host server)
Events : 0.7867161

Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
0 8 17 0 active sync /dev/sdb1
1 0 0 1 removed

the two disks of my md0 are sdb1 and sdc1. Add back whichever is degraded:
root@server:/home/markp# mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdc1
mdadm: added /dev/sdc1
root@server:/home/markp# mdadm --query --detail /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
Version : 0.90
Creation Time : Wed Jun 16 11:12:17 2010
Raid Level : raid1
Array Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB)
Used Dev Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB)
Raid Devices : 2
Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
Persistence : Superblock is persistent

Update Time : Mon Mar 26 08:53:20 2012
State : clean, degraded, recovering
Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 2
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 1

Rebuild Status : 0% complete

UUID : a796fd2c:740124f9:01f9e43d:ac30fbff (local to host server)
Events : 0.7867463

Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
0 8 17 0 active sync /dev/sdb1
2 8 33 1 spare rebuilding /dev/sdc1

notes for Circuit Website

the images for staff team:

Used gimp to resize img to 300x400. (feathered edges and rounded corners nice, but showed up a white border against the blended 'fade background' of the content section background.) gimp crop settings saved as 'website portrait'.

On site: set image size as 200 width (height scales proportional)

headers using showtime for Circuit website

To specify which showtime banner show to use: edit the template (main is: Trinity: ShadowMenu Tab + 2 columns: showtime banner ) and insert the tag in the header section:
{* Start Header, with logo image that links to the default start page. Logo image is changed in the stylesheet "Trinity Layout: Top menu + 2 columns + showtime banner" *}

{Showtime show='3'}
{* this holds the name of the site on the right side *}

{sitename}

{* a link back to home page and the header left image/logo, text is hidden using CSS *}

{cms_selflink dir="start" text="$sitename"}

---

{* End Header *}

To edit the padding around the banner edit the parameters in the associated 'layout' stylesheet:
div#header {
/* adjust according your image size */
height: 60px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0.5em 0 0.2em 0;
/* you can set your own image here, will go behind h1 a image */
/* background: #f4f4f4 url([[root_url]]/uploads/ngrey/bg_banner.png) repeat-x left top; */
/* border just the bottom */
border-bottom: 1px solid #D9E2E6;
}

We're so frustrated about the DDOS effect - and apparently some of you are VERY ANGRY. We're really sorry; it's out of our hands. -- Raspberry_Pi (@Raspberry_Pi)

backup and updating of cmsms

go into control panel of webhost, use phpmyadmin and do simple db backup to an sql file.

Haven't found a better way of musing ftp than nautilus in ubuntu. don't think I have ssh access (sadly), so:

1. download a backup of the /html/urlname folder of the webserver
2. if doing a differential upgrade (for minor releases), download the package (the 'base' version = english only, fine), then copy the individually different files from local into the correspoding folders on webspace - tedious - is this the best way??)
3. because I'd deleted the install folder (as advised?) I had to also get a replacement copy of that folder from the 'full' version and copy that up to.
4. then access the update page: www.urlname/install/upgrade
5. follow instructions, which will include need to creat/make writable config.php