ZenLinux Blog

I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client and really dig the Lightning calendar extension. However, when I upgraded to Ubuntu Hardy Heron, I was unable to use the calendar extension (Lightning v0.8). I could go to the calendar screens, but none of my appointments were showing up.

It turns out that the Lightning extension requires the libstdc++5 package to be installed. Not only that, but this package must be installed before the Lightning extension is installed. So to resolve this, I removed the Lightning extension, installed libstdc++5, and then reinstalled Lightning. Now everything works nicely.

Weird dependencies and procedures like this are unfortunately too common in software.

As a cyclist and bike commuter, I’m thrilled to see that the NH “Bike Bill”, HB 1203, has passed in both the NH House and Senate and is on its way to the Governor’s desk for a signature. This bill establishes, among other things, that motorists passing a cyclist on the road must give at least three feet of clearance while passing, or potentially face a $100 fine. It also states that road construction projects must give consideration to use of the road by cyclists and avoid creating hazards (such as ill-placed rumble strips and drain grates) to cyclists.

This legislation was modeled after similar laws that now exist in 20 other states. I really hope it will help to improve riding conditions for responsible cyclists in NH.

Just a reminder that tonight is the NH Ruby and Rails User Group meeting in Portsmouth, NH. Details here. I’ll be giving a demo of NetBeans 6.1 and cool things you can do with it, and Nick will be talking about Rack. Update: I’m sorry I was unable to make it to the meeting this evening. I managed to injure my back during the day and was in rough shape all afternoon and evening.

The Garmin Edge 305 is a really cool bike computer which includes GPS features to map rides in addition to the typical speed and mileage information. I recently picked one up and am looking into getting it working under Linux.

Before I explore my Linux options, I wanted to see what the Garmin Training Center Software was like under Windows. I run Windows XP within a VirtualBox virtual machine which is running on top of my Ubuntu Gutsy OS. Getting USB devices to work with virtual machine guests is not simple, so I thought I’d share the resources I used to get it working.

First, to set up the USB system requirements that VirtualBox needs on Ubuntu Gutsy, you need to follow this guide. It will walk you through creating a separate group for USB access and enabling the usbfs support which is disabled by default in Gutsy.

Once you’ve done that, follow the remaining steps in that guide to configure your VirtualBox XP guest to access the Garmin’s USB device ID. By this point you will then almost be able to access the device fully within the WinXP guest by right-clicking on the VirtualBox USB icon and checking the Garmin USB device. Unfortunately this isn’t enough to trigger the Garmin gStart daemon.

To resolve this final problem, open up the Windows XP device manager (right-click My Computer->Properties and select the Hardware tab). Within the device manager you need to disable and then re-enable the Garmin USB GPS device, and gStart will properly detect the connection event and allow you to access the device from the Training Center software.

That’s the magic incantation you need to get this device working properly using a VirtualBox VM.

Update 2009-07-25: There is a better way you can automate the restarting of the Garmin device. Check out these instructions for details – they worked great for me. And thanks riaan for the tip!

I successfully completed the 75 mile Tour de Cure charity bike ride yesterday, but it was quite an ordeal, mostly due to the weather. The forecast called for rain and temps in the 40s, and boy did it deliver.

The ride started shortly after 7am from the Portsmouth Middle School, and the rain was very light. I thought to myself, “this isn’t so bad” and was helped along with a nice tailwind heading south on the NH seacoast. However, the rain picked up quickly, and by the 20 mile mark I was pretty soaked over most of my body. From then on it was staying warm that was critical, and that was a struggle.

Miles 30-40 were the worst in terms of rain, as it came down heavily and my glasses became perpetually fogged, so I had to put them away. This made it very difficult to take advantage of the descents, because I couldn’t see well with the rain pelting me at higher speeds.

For a while I rode and chatted with a woman who was also doing the 75 mile ride, but was getting chilled. She confessed that she was miserable and considering switching to the 50 mile route instead. A number of riders ended up doing this, and the thought crossed my mind on numerous occasions when the rain picked up. But I told myself that as long as I stayed reasonably warm I was going to stick with the 75 miler.

When she broke off the route, I found myself riding alone for nearly the remainder of the ride. I managed to get lost a couple of times and padded on a few extra miles to my trip, but the good news is after about 50 miles the rain scaled back quite a bit and even offered a reprieve here and there. There were some moderate climbs in the 50-60 mile range that seemed more difficult than they should have been. In retrospect, I think my soaked clothing weighed me down more than I had anticipated.

Eventually I found myself heading back up the seacoast. Remember the “nice tailwind” I mentioned above? Well now it became a headwind. I struggled to maintain 10 MPH on perfectly flat road. I was getting tired and this was definitely the most demoralizing part of the ride. After what seemed like forever, I finally turned inland and realized how bad that headwind was.

When I reached the finish I assumed I was one of the last riders to complete the course. But in fact many of the people who did the 75 or 100 mile routes turned around well before completing them and there were many others still to complete their rides.

Due to getting lost a couple of times I ended the ride having done 82.9 miles in 6 hours, 32 minutes on the bike. To give you some perspective, I completed my first century ride (100 miles) last September in 6:35! The weather really made it difficult, but I am glad i stuck through it and finished the full route I had set out to do. Here is a photo from just before I started the ride.

A special thanks to everyone who helped to sponsor my ride and donated to the American Diabetes Association. Your support was a major factor in keeping me motivated not to give up!

I feel reasonably prepared for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride next weekend, where I will be riding my bike 75 miles to help raise funds for the ADA. I’ve been ramping up my mileage over the past month, and completed two 50 mile rides during the past two weekends. It’s really remarkable how the human body can adapt when it’s put under physical stress – for that first 50-miler I was just about in agony for the last 10 miles, but for yesterday’s ride I felt great at the end. Here are a couple of photos from yesterday’s ride, where the weather was absolutely perfect.

There’s plenty of rain in the forecast for this week, so I’ll probably be doing some easy work on the indoor trainer. I sure hope the weather is dry for the ride itself – I’ll still be riding if it’s raining, but it makes things much more difficult.

If you’ve been thinking about making a donation to sponsor my ride and haven’t yet, I can still accept donations online this week.

I have a symbiotic relationship with hills on my bike. They get the satisfaction of me suffering to climb them, but doing so makes it easier for the next time.

So Zappos sells shoes online. They have a very interesting marketing strategy – they exceed expectations so much they inspire word of mouth advertising. I placed my first order for a pair of shoes yesterday, and chose the free shipping option (4-5 business days for delivery). A short time later I received an email informing me that they’re going to upgrade my shipping for free. Today I discovered that they upgraded it to FedEx overnight delivery. I’m wearing my new shoes now, just 24 hours later.

Their marketing strategy works. I’m blogging about buying a pair of shoes from an online retailer.