Vista File Sharing-Round 1

I finally got a wifi router that supports windows file sharing!!!

Now I can finally 'easily' share files between home machines.

Or so I thought...

It looks easy enough, make sure your set for a private network, turn on file sharing, turn off password protection (in my case) from the Network Properties.

Then find the folder you want to share, right-click, 'Share', follow the dialog and your done right?

Not for me.

When tried to browse my media pc (pc where sharing is configured) from my laptop I was initially happy to see the pc when I opened 'Network' from the file explorer. With my previous router I didn't even see it show up. Double clicking on the media pc opened a login dialog. Ok, I read looked up and read the microsoft help on this (see link below) and found that I should just enter 'guest'.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx#EDAA

No luck... I can 'see' the folder I set to share now, so I guess I'm successfully logged 'in' to the pc, but when I try to open the folder I get an access error.

Ok, so it does mention I may need to add 'guest' to the share permissions. So through the share permissions I found add user and added 'Guest', set the permissions and tried again... same thing.

Here's the secret, are you ready?

Then, on the folder properties, 'security' tab, I also added the 'Guest' user, and applied permissions.
This opened the gate for me! And I'm now able to share files through this folder vista-machine to vista-machine.

Round 2, configure our xp laptop to access the vista machine.
(I'm praying it won't be too painful, this took me about 2 hours...)

Djangoで動的にフォーム(Form)のフィールド(field)を作る

Djangoの遊びプロジェクットをやっています。

そこで、ユーザが入力する項目から、複数選択可能チェックボックスのFormが作りたくて困っていました。

下記のモデルを定義しました：

models.py

class SkillCategory(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50)


class Skill(models.Model):
    category = models.ForeignKey(SkillCategory)
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50)

Djangoの開発者らしいサイトから、So you want a dynamic formでの説明から、下記の答えがわかりました。

ここで、モデルで定義するSkillやSkillCategoryから、FormのFieldが動的に作成されます。
forms.py

from django import forms
from myapp.models import Skill
def get_categorized_skills():
　　　　skills = {}
　　　　for s in Skill.objects.values('pk', 'name', 'category__name').order_by('category__name'):
　　　　　　　　if s['category__name'] not in skills.keys():
　　　　　　　　skills[s['category__name']] = []
　　　　　　　　skills[s['category__name']].append((s['pk'], s['name']))
　　　　return skills
                
class SkillSelectionForm(forms.Form): 
　　　　def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
　　　　　　　　super(SkillSelectionForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
　　　　　　　　skills = get_categorized_skills()
　　　　　　　　for idx, cat in enumerate(skills.keys()):
                     # ascii以外（日本語）の名前が使えるようにfield_name・display_nameを作成します。
                     field_name = u'category-%d' % (idx)
                     display_name = cat
　　　　　　　　　　　　self.fields[field_name] = forms.MultipleChoiceField(choices=skills[cat],
                                                                                               label=display_name,
                                                                                               widget=forms.CheckboxSelectMultiple)

Fight with La Fonera

I use a "La Fonera" router at home, and have been tackling trying to get file-sharing working across it with a home server.

Configuration options are sparse on the thing and the only promising approach is "port forwarding".
However, poking around at it for awhile and doing some searches it looks like "windows file sharing" isn't supported.

I ran across FreeWLAN, which looks like it might allow windows file sharing, but since the english documentation is near nil and I'm not 100% sure it will do what I want, I didn't want to deal with flashing firmware.

At them moment I am able to FTP to the home server, but this method seems a little archaic for 2009.
May be it's time to buy a different wifi router, any suggestions?

Media files now served!

Had a bit of a problem there for awhile.

I was cleaning out my server space, and deleted a project, not realizing I had set it up to serve media for this site.

It took some poking around but I finally got the media back up!

Here's an overview:

1. Create symbolic ln through the webfactional control panel to where you want to store your media.

2. Create a Site in the webfactional control panel to define the sub-domain you want to serve media under. In my case media.monkut.webfactional.com. And link the site to the sym link you created in 1.

3. To serve admin files, previously I had an alias set in my httpd.conf to link to the django admin files. This time since I'm pointing the server to my directory via the control panel settings I just created a symbolic link to the django admin files in this directory.

4. Update all templates.

5. Update settings file appropriatly!

And back in business!

I initially struggled with the httpd.conf thinking that's what I needed to do, but it turned out editing that conf was unnecessary.

My new (Ion) HTPC

My life until recently has been silent. Not for lack of family interaction, or stuff to do at work, but musically. All our music was on my 'old' pc which kicked the bucket late last year.

It was connected to my panasonic SAPM37MD book-shelf stereo via USB, and also connected to our TV. And served as a media pc with all our music and several videos.

When it went out so did the music.

I finally had a free weekend to hit akihabara and quickly grab parts to throw together a new home-theater pc.

My HTPC requirements aren't that many:
- play music (using itunes -- much of my music is ripped to apple lossless)
- play divx/xvid
- Shared File storage
- output to 1080p (the TV) via DVI (or HDMI)
- at least as quiet as the dead pc (when it ran), silent is best.

That's it. Simple enough right?

In my early saturday morning search for a motherboard I found the ION platform.
This is a intel atom processor paired with a NVIDIA ION GPU, complete with a fan-less heatsink!
http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=331&Itemid=1

I was looking for the "IONITX-B-D?" (On-board DC Power just plug in a brick and you've got a silent pc), but couldn't find it anywhere. I finally found a "IONITX-B-E" which is the same board with a standard ATX power plug. (Might have the models reversed)

http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=483

The IONITX-A-# series was available, but I didn't need wifi, and I don't think I need the power (?).

This is my first SATA board, and I have several IDE drives I wanted to re-use. I decided to reuse one as the os so I found a SATA-IDE adapter for about $15. Since this is my 'storage' pc, I wanted to add an additional drive. I was happliy supprised to find that you can pick up 1TB SATA drive for under $100. I grabbed a 1TB HITACHI OEM drive for about $80. Plus a 2GB stick of ram for $30.

It's so nice to shop for pc parts after years of not looking, everything is so cheap now!!

After finding the board, picking up the fillers (HDD, RAM) is easy. The hard part about putting this together was the case. (Keep in mind I'm doing this all in one afternoon in akihabara, with the goal of putting it together that evening at home)

The case requirements:
- Powersupply included (mainly a price thing)
- Plenty of ventilation
- Space for 2 full sized Hard drives.
- Space for 1 optical drive
- not ugly!

I settled on something close to this:
http://www.faith-go.co.jp/parts/detail/?id=105508

This is the closest in size and color. My case is actually nicer. No cheap looking round power button, and nice glossy black front with spring-drive bay cover.

It came with a single case fan and a powersupply.

Putting it all together.

Everything went pretty painless, plugging everything together worked fine, everything booted on initial go. The one thing that bothered me was the case fan noise.

So thinking I went to canabalize my old pc for parts.
I've got a fan speed controller on my old pc, so I pulled that off to use it, only to find that the case fan on the new case uses a IDE power connector and the speed controller uses a standard case-fan power connector. Ok, so first I pulled off my old case fan. After installing and booting it up, I still wasn't happy with the fan noise. I was getting set to give up for now and go buy a 'quieter' fan some other time, until I realized that my old pc's CPU fan was the same size as the case fan, and probably quieter.

It was.

Now my music is back up and the box is not completely silent, but probably more quiet than the old pc was.

My next goals are:

- Get a remote, I'd like to try Windows Media Center or XBMC (http://xbmc.org/)
- Get file sharing working with the other pcs (laptops connecting via WIFI) in the house
- Setup a web-server on it for home applications