Merry Christmas from Santa and Rose (part 14)

(from the How Are There 14 Of These Since Rose Is Only 13? department)

Hi everyone,

Wow - what a year!  Even though we're still in lockdown, we did manage to visit with Santa this year.  However - it was a little different....

Yes - we're smiling happily!!  Can't you tell??

It's been a heck of year, putting it mildly.  There was something comforting about seeing Santa - this year more than ever.  

Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings from the Pietromonaco family (Dana, Rose & I).

Cheers,

Paul

Xquartz, XDMCP & Xfce tips (aka restoring my sanity)

 (from the X11 is fun!! department)

Hi everyone,

This is a quick posting.  For various reasons too long to go into here, I've been trying to connect to a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux box via XDMCP from a MacBook Pro using XQuartz (MacOS Catalina) or from a Microsoft Surface Pro using VcXsrv (Windows 10).

The key points for all operating systems - you must set up your Ubuntu Linux box to run XDMCP.  All of these commands need to be done from a terminal window on the Linux box you're connecting to:

• You have to install and select Xfce - it won't work with any of the other modern desktops, since Remote X11 is 2D only.  Try this to install it:

sudo apt-get install xfce4

• You have to use Lightdm - this doesn't seem to work right with GDM.  To install:

sudo apt-get install lightdm

• Make sure it's selected with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

• You have to turn on XDMCP in Lightdm by adding the following to /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:

[XDMCPServer]
enabled=true

• You have to install an additional Greeter with Lightdm.  I used lightdm-gtk-greeter which I installed with:

sudo apt install lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings

• Check firewalls, etc.

Okay, most likely, your Windows box will work at this point.  Set up a VcXsrv profile using XDMCP and point it at your Ubuntu Linux box.  The Mac - using XQuartz - needs additional steps:

• You have to manually start the session via command line - replacing the 192.168.0.71 with your Ubuntu XDMCP IP address:

X -query 192.168.0.71 -terminate

• It turns out the Mac doesn't define the "Super" key, so Xfce reacts unpredictably.  For me, it was a broken spacebar.  There was no way to enter a space - the cursor would just blink at you frustratingly. 
• To fix this, in Xfce, go to Applications --> Settings --> iBus Preferences and remove the "<super>Space" mapping from the Next input method field on the General tab.  Since I don't need iBus, I just deleted the mapping entirely.
• Additionally, starting Chrome would prevent any text from being entered.  This turned out to be a old Chrome App I had loaded by default.
• To fix this temporarily, I went into Chrome extensions (chrome://extensions/) and unchecked "Google Play Music".  You don't have to uninstall it - just disable it.

Good luck!!

Cheers,

Paul

National Pancake Day - February 25th, 2020

(from the Everything is better with Pancakes department)

Well - it's been a while since we went to IHOP's National Pancake Day celebration and got a stack of free pancakes.

And - unfortunately - it's going to be a while longer.  We got there after 7:00 PM, so no free platter of golden discs for us.

Still - Rose and I decided to go for it!  We placed our orders and started thinking about pancakes...

Are you taking photos Dad?

Mmmm - pancakes...

Rose makes a good point!

Rose ordered French Toast -

with Strawberries and Bananas

I ordered a Burger and Fries -

and a stack of Pancakes for the table!

We ate our meals first - then went for some Pancakes!!

We had a terrific meal - and even donated a little bit to their charity - Children's Miracle Network - as well!

You can read more about it here: IHOP National Pancake Day

Cheers,
Paul

Merry Christmas from Santa and Rose (part 13)

(from the Omg - Rose Is So Big Now!!! department)

Hi everyone,

Well once again - completely at the last minute - we have our Annual Santa Photo!®

I guess Rose really is too big to sit on Santa's lap anymore - but she sure looks happy!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone - from the Pietromonaco family!!!

Cheers,
Paul

P.S.  Yes - same red shirt - I only wear it once a year, basically :)

Haiku Writing - Moon Viewing 2019

(from the Splish! department)

Hi everyone,

Dana, Rose & I attended the Seattle Japanese Garden Moon Viewing on Friday, Sept. 13th, 2019 at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle.

If you aren't familiar, it's a nice evening event where you can stroll around the Japanese Garden, see traditional Japanese music and dance being performed live, enjoy a Bento Box dinner, and see the moon in all of its glory.

(More info here: https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/events-calendar/2019/9/13/moon-viewing-2019 )

We were really looking forward to this, since a full moon was expected!  Unfortunately - Washington weather conspired against us - the night of the moon viewing, the moon was completely obscured by clouds.

Still - we did have a good time - and even participated in the Haiku writing contest.  You could submit a maximum of two.

Here's the haiku we wrote that evening:

Paul:

Friday the thirteenth

Full moon hidden by clouds - splish

Now I swim with koi

Grey skies -

The promise of the Moon

Waiting to be uncovered

Dana: 

Moonbeams remind me

Of sharing summer secrets 

Whispered by sisters

Moon milk 

Cool the leaves' fire -

Warms my path

Rose:

Dear moon my friend

I shall see you again

When the flowers open and day ends 

Note - modern English haiku do not necessarily have to follow the 5 - 7 - 5 syllable rule, according to the rules of the contest.

As it turns out - Rose and I did pretty well this year!  We each got one of our haikus read out loud as an honorable mention!  Rose in the youth haiku category - and my "Grey skies" haiku as an adult!  

Sadly - my "Friday the thirteenth" did not make the humor category. 

Cheers,

Paul

I Found An New (Old) Track!

(from the Was I Really This Young? department)

Hi everyone!

I was going through some very old backups tonight - and I found a file from 2003 called "Personal Demos.wav".  

Hmm - that sounds intriguing...

Playing back the file, it appears that it contained some early attempts at doing twin-track recording in my apartment - possibly on my computer or on my DAT machine - or some combination of both.

There are about 4 song fragments in there - so I zeroed in on one that was mostly complete:  a cover of Mannequin by Wire.

Two basic parts:  acoustic guitar left channel - vocal right channel.  Talk about early Beatles! Super Wide Stereo!!

Although it was very raw - it was also recorded very cleanly.  It might take a little work - but there was definitely something there I could work with.

I started by importing the stereo file into Audacity and snipping out the song from the rest of the fragments.  

Next - I split the stereo file into two mono tracks so that I could work on the vocal and guitar parts separately.

First the vocal.  I decided not to compress it or tamper too much with it - I liked the live feel.  Instead - I just boosted the gain by 3 dB using Audacity's Amplify to balance it against the guitar volume.

Now - we need to make to sound like I'm actually in a room somewhere - instead of singing directly into the microphone.  I used Audacity's GVerb to add some ambiance - but kept the room small.

Roomsize: 10m

Reverb Time: 4s

Damping: 0.9

Input bandwidth: 0.75

Dry signal level: 0 db

Early Reflection Level: -22 dB

Tail level: -28 dB

(Adapted from The Quick Fix settings here: https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/GVerb#Instant_GVerb_settings)

That did the trick - vocals sound great.

Next guitar.  After adding the identical GVerb to it, and doing a quick mix panning the vocals slightly right and the guitar slightly left - I realized the guitar needed more work.

Reading thru the GVerb documentation - they mentioned that it was a "mono" reverb.  They also mentioned that by inverting the original signal and summing it with the GVerbed signal - you could isolate just the reverb.  

Viola!!!

So - here's what I did:

• I duplicated the guitar track 4 times, giving me 5 identical guitar tracks.  
• I added the 10m GVerb setting listed above to track 1.  
• I added the same GVerb setting - but with the room set to 20m - to track 2.  
• I inverted tracks 3 & 4.  
• I mixed track 1 (10m GVerb) and track 3 (inverted) and panned it 100% left.
• I mixed track 2 (20m GVerb) and track 4 (inverted) and panned it 100% right.
• I panned the original guitar track - track 5 (dry) - 50% left.

This left me with 4 tracks:

• 10m room reverb (guitar only) - 100% left, 
• guitar (dry) - 50% left
• voice (amplified 3dB) + 10m room reverb (vocal only) - center
• 20m room reverb (guitar only) - 100% right.

All that was left to do was mix it to stereo and make an MP4 out of it!  Here it is!

Pretty neat!  

Cheers,

Paul

Fixed: x2vnc not working with Mac OS X

(from the Wow - this was obscure department)

Hi everyone,

If you're trying to control your Mac OS X screen from your Linux box using x2vnc and the built-in Mac OS Screen Sharing server, and it's not working - or has stopped working - I finally figured out why.

It's because the Mac now adds a small security screen during an unencrypted VNC login.

To get around this, you need to bypass this screen so that VNC goes to the currently logged-in user.

This is done via this command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement VNCAlwaysStartOnConsole -bool true

Be aware that this bypasses some added security, so use this carefully.  

Cheers,

Paul