Josh Kuo's Blog

Ubuntu Server auto USB mounting

2010-12-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to setting up the nT330i box that I purchased like 3 months ago. I wasted so much time because I thought the built-in SD card slot hooks up to a USB interface, but turns out it's hooked up to more like the SATA/IDE interface, so the SD card will only be detected if I rebooted the system, but not a hot plug. I finally figured it out by using an external USB-SD adapter, and viola, the SD card showed right up in dmesg when I plugged it in.

Anyway, here are the notes for myself so I don't ever forget how I set up the udev rules to automatically mount them using udev rules:

1. Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/10-persistent-usb-storage.rules, and put in it the following content as one long line:

KERNEL=="sd?1", SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", RUN+="/bin/mount /dev/%k /media/usb"

2. Reload udev by running "/etc/init.d/udev reload"

Of course, after I got all of this working, then I figured out that for my purpose, I could have just installed 'usbmount', and it will automatically do all the work for me (even unmounting). So... apt-get install usbmount took care of it. The only down side is that I need to physically remove the entire USB adapter (not just the SD card), but that I can live with.

Ian's New Room

2009-10-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

7 month after Ian is born, we finally got the baby room in shape. Next step is to move the crib in here. Ian seems to really like the new room with the open play area.

Latest Ian pictures update

2009-09-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

We started feeding Ian some solid foods and attempt to get him used to the potty.

這幾天開始喂雅硯吃東西，也開始練習坐馬桶。

Ian's new hat and first time on high chair

2009-08-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Been taking videos with my new iPhone and uploading directly from the phone. Makes it a whole lot easier to share!

新手機可以錄影然後直接上傳，很方便！

Last minute Ian picture uploads

2009-08-16T18:23:00.001-07:00

Only home for 1 more hour before heading out again, just uploaded a bunch new pictures.

From Ian Pictures

新手機

2009-08-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

終於下決心買了iPhone，有手寫中文的功能，現在就從機場寫。這個禮拜會很忙。

Ian's passport photo 雅硯的護照照片

2009-08-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Took Ian to get passport last month, and had his photo taken there. He was crying pretty much the whole time.

上個月帶雅硯去辦護照，沒帶照片，在那邊臨時照，雅硯哭的很厲害，邊拍照邊哭。

From Ian Pictures

New videos

2009-08-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Holiday Inn to the rescue!

2009-07-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, I knew this trip was gonna suck being Salt Lake City and all, but I didn't think it'd be this bad... Customer requested that I book all travel through their travel agency and go by their rules, so I ended up with Southwest Airline, Enterprise rental car, and Comfort Inn, instead of my usual United, Hertz, and Holiday Inn Express. I am fine with Southwest, it's actually my second preferred airline, and a rental car is a rental car...

So it started with the flight delayed for 30 minutes, then sit through a full flight with a sweaty guy next to me, walking seemingly endlessly to my rental car, and spending the next 45 minutes looking for my hotel. That was Google's fault, by the way. Somehow it thinks the Comfort Inn is waaaay south of where it actually is, so I found it the old fashioned way: ask.

Just when I thought the night is over, I checked into the hotel at 11:20PM, carried luggage up to my room (no elevator, room at the farthest corner, of course)... and the room was NASTY. It had a weird smell that reminded me of the worst hotel room I've ever been to in Long Beach, it's almost like someone smoked in there and they tried to cover it up with chemicals, mixed with body odor.

That was the last straw, so I picked up the phone and called Holiday Inn's reservation line and checked myself into the nearest Holiday Inn Express. Much nicer.

I have enough points saved up so I was able to use them to get free nights, since I know the customer will probably not be happy with my picking my own $130/night hotel rather than the $60/night hotel they picked for me... but that's what these points are for, to get me out of yucky dirt holes like Comfort Inn.

Let's hope tomorrow (really, today) will be a better day.

Ian videos update

2009-07-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Free upgrade!

2009-07-20T22:50:00.001-07:00

My most recent business trip to Los Angeles spanned over a weekend. After a long week in training, a delayed flight, hungry, and given a car location that is at the farthest corner of the lot, I was not in a good mood until I saw the car they gave me: a convertible Mustang! All those days of suffering in a Kia or a Ford Focus has finally paid off!

I was fortunate enough to have some time over the weekend to enjoy a ride around town, it must have looked weird to other people to see a slightly overweight geeky guy NOT wearing sun glasses driving in this thing...

From Misc Photos

Sears Portraits

2009-07-07T20:17:00.001-07:00

We received a gift certificate for Sears portraits studio (thanks John & Karen!), and since we've got family in town, decided to get everyone there to get some pictures taken.

Funny pictures and videos

2009-07-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

Some more funny pictures of Ian.

Visit from Ahenzi

2009-06-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

From Ian Pictures

Ian learning to sit

2009-06-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

The big thing in the last few days if that we are trying to let Ian learn to sit on his own. It's really for our amusement, we don't actually expect a 3 months old to sit on his own just yet. I have some fun photos of Ian:

From Ian Pictures

I am such a cruel father, I snapped a few pictures while he's frowning (ready to burst into loud cries in seconds):

From Ian Pictures

... and my current favorite, this is snapped a few weeks ago when Ian just discovered his feet and were fascinated by his right foot for about 30 minutes while we were out taking a walk. The photo was snapped with the crappy camera on my cell phone.

From Ian Pictures

Ian turns 3 months old

2009-06-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

And more pictures of Ian. I am in the process of uploading more pictures, but currently coming down with a cold from my trip to Chicago (lovely city by the way), so it may take a little while for me to get them all uploaded and posted.

In the mean time, here are some more videos:

New videos

2009-05-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

As usual, you can get all videos by going to my youtube page: www.youtube.com/user/joshkuo

Ribs, ribs ribs!

2009-05-24T09:13:00.001-07:00

We saw an ad in the mail for ribs on sale at Von's, $10 per box. We checked it out, and the box was actually the original packaging imported from Ireland... We had seen these boxes of pork ribs a few weeks ago when Swine Flu was scaring everyone, and thought maybe that had something to do with it (that people are afraid to eat domestic pork?) Anyway, we bought a case just because it is so cheap. I opened it up, and it contains 6 racks of spare ribs! Awesome deal! I am thinking of going back and purchase more, if I can manage to make some room in our freezer to store these...

At long last, some food pictures

2009-05-04T17:46:00.001-07:00

Haven't been able to post much food pictures since Ian was born. Here's something I cooked up Sunday night. My new favorite simple spice rub is a combination of chili powder and brown sugar (and whatever other spices I like, such as cumin powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper), mix that with some apple cider vinegar and water and a little salt, that's my basic marinade. I soaked the chicken for only 30 minutes (didn't really have time to plan this out), and baked it in the oven in my trusty 12" cast iron pan at 425 for 45 minutes. It formed a nice sugary glaze in the pan, to which I added corn and blanched collard green (my new favorite green vegetable).

From Food

Photos from Ian's first month

2009-04-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Really from week 3 to week 6:

Ian's first month photos

Ian is 1 month old today

2009-04-12T23:16:00.000-07:00

... and we are still behind on the birth announcement cards. Oh well, being parents didn't really fix the procrastination parts in us. I am also waaaay behind in uploading pictures.

Ian's Chinese name has finally been decided: 郭雅硯

Granpa keeps trying to wake Ian up for photo

2009-04-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Granpa keeps trying to wake Ian up for photo

人家剛洗完澡想睡覺，阿公一直吵我！

Endless fun with baby

2009-03-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

Grandma is holding Ian, who dozed off for a while, and had the look of "who the hell are you and why are you holding me" look when he wakes up in the second half of the video.

可愛又好笑的影片，死盯著外婆！

My YouTube link

2009-03-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

Since now I figured out how to encode HD videos correctly to upload to YouTube, I am going to start uploading all of the videos one by one, and instead of posting every single one here at the blog, I will only select a few to post here. If you want to see all of the videos, go to the YouTube link below:

http://www.youtube.com/user/joshkuo

Adorable and funny sleeping video

2009-03-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

真會睡！

First doctor's visit

2009-03-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

Took Ian to the pediatrician for first check up, this is also his first time out of the house.

第一次看小兒科醫生（檢查），也是第一次出門。

HD video, yay!

2009-03-17T05:34:00.001-07:00

Finally figured out how to transcode MTS format to something that YouTube will take. One of the big problems I had before was the audio-out-of-sync issue, and it has been solved after getting the latest development version of ffmpeg (from reading this post http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=529871&page=2). I compiled with the --enable-pthread option and installed it in /usr/local, and created a quick bash script called 'my-encode' as follows:

#!/bin/bash
INPUT=$1
SIZE=hd720
OUTPUT=`echo $INPUT | perl -pe 's/\.MTS/\.avi/'`
/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i $INPUT \
-s $SIZE \
-acodec libmp3lame \
-ab 256k \
-ac 2 \
-vcodec libxvid \
-sameq \
-aspect 16:9 \
-b 3000k \
$OUTPUT

Then, it's as easy as running a one-liner to start transcoding all MTS files:

$ for i in *.MTS ; do echo "--Working on $i--" && my-encode $i ; done

Here is one of the many HD720 videos that I an uploading to YouTube:

Today's baby pictures

2009-03-16T23:56:00.001-07:00

Ian is sleeping much better today, now that we figured out to feed him more.

今天睡得好多了。

From Ian 2009-03-16

My own baby pictures for some comparison

2009-03-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

My parents sent me some of my own baby pictures to do some comparison with Ian.

我自己小時候的照片跟兒子做個比較。

From Baby Josh

From Baby Ian

Home

2009-03-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

We were released from the hospital yesterday afternoon, and spent our first night at home with Ian. Thanks to everyone for your blessings, it will probably take me a little while longer to post all the pictures and videos.

If someone can give me some easy instructions on converting MTS (or really M2TS) format from the Canon VIXIA HF100 HD camcorder to either mp4 or avi, that would help me speed things up... I have been using ffmpeg in Linux to do a quick batch processing of all the videos with minimum parameters (something like ffmpeg -i INPUT.MTS -sameq -s hd720 OUTPUT.mp4), but audio is out of sync, and the video is slightly choppy. I want to produce 2 types of outputs: a HD-ish output that I can make available digitally online, and a DVD-quality output for obvious DVD burning and snail mailing them out like AOL coffee coasters.

Ian is great when he's not crying.

Update on new mommy

2009-03-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked, Cynthia is doing fine. Her delivery was a little rougher and longer than expected, and the doctor is keeping us here a couple more days to be on the safe side, but she is recovering very well. Thanks to everyone for your caring thoughts.

Ian's First Breakfast

2009-03-13T15:50:00.001-07:00

He ate for the first time this morning.

I took all of the footage with my spiffy new HD camcorder (Canon VIXIA HF100), and I am still trying to figure out how to upload HD videos up to YouTube... BTW, Google Videos will soon discontinue the upload feature.

Now if I can just get better connectivity here at hospital...

Baby Ian

2009-03-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Baby Ian Keoni Kuo finally came out after nearly 20 hours.

From Baby Ian

More snowy pictures from Vegas

2008-12-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

We drove out to Red Rock, this is the first time we've seen the entire desert landscape covered with about 4 inches of snow.

Pictures on Facebook

Snow in Las Vegas!

2008-12-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

It snowed this past week in Las Vegas, a rare thing indeed here in the desert.

這個禮拜賭城下了一整天的雪，聽說是三十年來最多的。沙漠裡下雪．．．

From Snow in Las Vegas

North Carolina BBQ

2008-10-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to this business trip, for the sole reason that I will get to taste the famed North Carolina BBQ for the first time. I have to say, I was rather disappointed. The clients took me to the local BBQ place that is supposed to be the best in town (Wilson, NC). It was buffet style, and they actually had a whole cooked pig out on the table for you to pick off the parts you want. The sight injected authenticity into my mind and boosted hopes, and perhaps that's my problem. The pork was rather dry, and actually reminded me more of the Hawaiian Kalua Pork (but much dryer). The meat did not really have any flavor to speak of, so I placed all of my hope on the BBQ sauce and the North Caroline specialty, vinegar. Well, the BBQ sauce was okay, nothing that knocked my socks off, but I did like the vinegar. From what I could tell, it was a mixture of vinegar and crushed chili pepper, perhaps with some salt in it.

Strangely enough, I think everyone else was eating fried chicken... Oh well, I may get another chance to hunt down another place in Raleigh tomorrow before boarding my flight... I had some fried green tomatoes and grits for dinner, those were not bad.

Got cold fast!

2008-10-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

When I returned from Taiwan on September 26th, we had turned off the air conditioning completely (not a smart move), that the house was at 93 degrees a little past midnight when we got home. It got so hot, that my home server overheated and turned itself off. My guess for temperature during the day would be about 115 degrees. This kind of heat persisted until right before I left for my trip to Dallas on October 6th. Just a little less than a week after that, the temperature dropped to a nice breeze, and we had an entire day of just cool breeze in the house with open windows. But that didn't last long... this past weekend the temperature dropped suddenly and quickly to 55 degrees in the morning, and roughly 65 during the day. That's a pretty big change from our triple-digit days last week. It usually doesn't cool down this fast until Halloween...

從臺灣回到拉斯唯加斯是九月二十六日清晨將近一點，房子內部室溫高達華氏九十三度（約攝氏三十四度），熱到我的電腦主機自動關機。白天恐怕高達華氏一百一十五度（約攝氏四十六度）。前兩年熱到主機板燒壞，這次又傻傻的把空調關掉，還好沒怎樣．．．我十月六日去德州達拉斯的時候，天氣還是熱到不行。沒想到回來之後，氣溫馬上降到五十五度（約攝氏十三度），三天之內從開冷氣到開窗戶到幾忽要開暖氣的地步．．．雖然沙漠氣侯變化快，但通常氣溫下降應是在十一月初（萬聖節後），今年早了快三個禮拜。

It's a boy (for sure)

2008-10-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Another ultrasound today, we've confirmed this time it's gonna be a boy.

今天確定是男生

Baby Ultrasound 2008/10/06

Dad's surgery in Taiwan 老爸的手術

2008-10-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

We went back for my dad's surgery, some quick videos.

Eating Lunch at Hospital before Surgery 在醫院吃三阿姨作的好料

Josh playing with dad's wheelchair 好玩的孟謙

Waiting outside of the Surgery Room 在手術房外面等待，好像只有我們這群人還有心情拍照

Mom taking picture of the monitor 媽媽很興奮地要拍下爸爸在顯視器上的名字

YouTube channels

2008-10-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me, I have been living without a television for more than 5 years. Online videos have pretty much replaced television for me. And more recently, with the YouTube reaching a more mature state, I am getting even more content, for free. One of then newer features that I like about YouTube is the channels, this really brings it much closer to a TV-like experience, rather than just a bunch of random home videos.

Some of my favorite shows on television such as Myth Busters and Dirty Jobs are available here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/discoverynetworks

Since Google bought YouTube, it's only logical that there's a Google Channel. Some surprisingly useful information include where to vote, and all the cool Google Talk videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Google

Finally, the Johnson's baby channel should come in handy for me real soon, it even has a video on how to properly install a baby car seat (Maria, don't you wish you had watched that? ;-) ):
http://www.youtube.com/user/baby

New Baby Ultrasound 超音波掃描

2008-09-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

Our second ultrasound, we didn't know you could get the pictures on a CD, so we got that this time, and as a bonus, we also got a short video clip on the CD :-)

Won't know the gender for sure until next month.

去做了第二次超音波掃描，這次影像比較好，下個月才會知道生男生女。

New Baby Ultrasound 2008/09/05

A bunch of videos

2008-09-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Aubrey and Felicity visiting Las Vegas videos (May):

Aubry, Felicity, and Josh @ Red Rock Canyon 賭城附近的「紅石公園」

Driving in Red Rock 在「紅石公園」裡面繞

Dog Park in Vegas 1 賭城狗公園之一

Dog Park in Vegas 2 賭城狗公園之二

Driving to California City 去荻荷家途中

Eating at Mad Greek 中途停下來吃希臘餐(瘋狂希臘館)

Outside of Mad Greek 希臘餐廳外面

Central Park in California City 荻荷家附近的中央公園

Outside of Aubrey and Effie's Home in California City 荻荷家外面

Scott Joplin

2008-08-01T21:46:00.001-07:00

So nice to finally have a piano at home. I immediately printed out all my old favorites, from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, Chopin's etudes (fingers hurt!) and nocturnes, Debussy's Clair de Lune, to Rachmaninoff's intense preludes... then I peeked into the territory that my piano teacher forbit me to enter: Jazz. To be more specific, Ragtime music by Scott Joplin. For some reason, I had a copy of The Entertainer lying around, so I started to play it when taking a break from Chopin's finger-bleeding etudes (oh Op. 10 No. 4, why do you hurt so much?). Then out of curiosity, I looked up what other music Joplin has composed, then I found the Maple Leaf Rag and Fig Leaf Rag. Both are just wonderfully cheerful and easy to play. Now I am hooked! The music is so bouncy and addictive, that even when on my businss trip this past week, I can't help but move my fingers and hum the tune of Joplin's music.

Now I know why my teacher didn't want me to touch any of these before. They are easy to pick up and very addictive :-)

The Dark Knight Rocks!

2008-07-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for this movie for a long time. I got distracted by "Wanted", which based on most reviews, turned out to be a disappointment. I patiently waited for "The Dark Knight", and while raging reviews are pouring in from all places (including my favorite movie reviewers at Spill), I was a little afraid that it won't live up to my expectation. I have read more Batman comic book than any other comic books. I never bought any, but I read quite a few Batman comic books while waiting for the bus transfer at Kahala Mall's bookstore.

To my relief, the movies does not disappoint.

People tend to overuse the term "emotional roller coaster ride". This movie does that phrase justice. Everyone who went to the movie with me felt exhausted at the end of the 150 minutes, because the movie was just that intense, from beginning to end.

What bothered me a little was seeing some parents taking their young children to this film... this is by no means a kids movie. The Joker in this movie is the perhaps the darkest portrayal of the character yet, and falls more in line with the darker comic book story lines, some of which can be very disturbing even to adults.

Overall, I was very very pleased with this movie, it had great story line (been a while since we get one of those!), great action, and great acting (been a while since we seen these too!). The only thing that I wish I had done differently was showing up to the movies earlier so I didn't have to sit on the very first row pushing my neck back during the entire movie.

Minnehaha Fall

2008-06-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Visited Twin Cities again on a business trip, this time made it out to Minnehaha Fall and Mall of America.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27295&id=626979824

Taro desserts

2008-06-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Cynthia is attempting haupia pie at home, and it called for some sweet potatoes (purple). We cooked them, mashed them up, and had some left over. So I just added some coconut (one can to be exact), mix it up, and put it in the freezer and forgot about it until this morning.

Took it out, and it was pretty good! A little on the bland side (I should have added a little salt), but with some crushed walnuts, this is a nice little dessert that feels almost like ice cream.

Aubrey @ Bellagio Garden

2008-06-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Aubrey came to visit Las Vegas last week (2008-05-26 to 2008-05-31), and we visited the Bellagio garden.

Test

2006-09-01T03:40:00.001-07:00

Test

Josh Kuo's Blog

Ubuntu Server auto USB mounting

Ian's New Room

Latest Ian pictures update

Ian's new hat and first time on high chair

Last minute Ian picture uploads

新手機

Ian's passport photo 雅硯的護照照片

New videos

Holiday Inn to the rescue!

Ian videos update

Free upgrade!

Sears Portraits

Funny pictures and videos

Visit from Ahenzi

Ian learning to sit

Ian turns 3 months old

New videos

Ribs, ribs ribs!

More Ian videos

At long last, some food pictures

More adorable Ian pictures and videos

Photos from Ian's first month

Ian is 1 month old today

Granpa keeps trying to wake Ian up for photo

Endless fun with baby

My YouTube link

Adorable and funny sleeping video

First doctor's visit

HD video, yay!

Today's baby pictures

My own baby pictures for some comparison

More first videos

Home

Update on new mommy

Ian's First Breakfast

Baby Ian

More snowy pictures from Vegas

Snow in Las Vegas!

North Carolina BBQ

Got cold fast!

More videos from Taiwan (2008 September)

It's a boy (for sure)

Dad's surgery in Taiwan 老爸的手術

YouTube channels

New Baby Ultrasound 超音波掃描

A bunch of videos

Scott Joplin

The Dark Knight Rocks!

Minnehaha Fall

Taro desserts

Aubrey @ Bellagio Garden

Test