Ripping Play.FM Streams with Firefox and FlashGot

I’ve recently stumbled across Play.FM, a flash-based music streaming service similar to Pandora but exclusively featuring Electronic and Dance Music. Friendly site with sensational tunes, but many of the songs, particularly those uploaded by independent DJs or artists, are not available for sale or download, making it difficult to listen on portable devices or offline. I tried the usual methods of download/capture for Flash-based music, but nothing was saved to my cache directory, and FreeMusicZilla detected no active streams… I gave the popular FlashGot Firefox plug-in a try and found it to work great. There was one catch: you have to hit play within the Flash player to capture the stream URL, then hit pause for the download to start. I assume Play.FM limits the number of active simultaneous connections from one computer/IP, so you’ll need to toggle the player so FlashGot detects the MP3 URL, then download the file. Here’s the quick breakdown on pulling a Play.FM stream:

1. Fire up your Firefox web browser and navigate to the Play.FM player streaming the music you’d like to save.
2. Start playing the stream until you see the FlashGot icon show up in Firefox status bar (see image below).
3. Right-click the icon and select the Flash stream you’d like to download. There is likely only one entry to select.
4. FlashGot will automatically add this stream download to your “Downloads,” window/queue. However, it won’t start downloading until you pause the stream or close the window.

Getting Married Soon…

I’ve recently sent out invites for our [local] wedding ceremony/reception . Along with custom-designed invites (and RSVP cards), we’ve created an informational website for attendees:

http://wedding.liveaverage.com

It mostly hosts info related to directions, accommodations, registries, etc., but we were pleased with the outcome of the site and invites. In case anyone asks, the invites were printed by Rush Flyers (a great printing outfit from Florida).

Accessing VMare Disks — without VMware Server or Workstation

I spent more time than necessary looking for a VMware disk mount utility to use on a Linux-based distribution. For windows, there’s the VMWare Workstation Disk Mount Utility (5.5) that can installed with the VMWare DiskMount GUI, but I couldn’t find the simple vmware-mount.pl program for Linux distros. Instead, I had to dig it out of a compatible VMWare Server package [for Linux], copy it to /usr/bin/ and create the necessary symlinks for operation. Here’s a quick breakdown of the steps:

1. If you don’t already have it, grab a release of the VMWare Server for Linux — make sure you download the correct version for your distribution (32-bit or 64-bit). You do not need to install the package, simply download it and extract the contents. Alternatively, you could download the package to a Windows workstation and transfer the vmware-mount utility to your Linux workstation/server via SFTP, SCP, FTP, etc..
2. After downloading the VMWare Server package, extract the vmware-mount utility from the following directory in the archive:

   \vmware-server-distrib\bin\vmware-mount

3. Copy vmware-mount to /usr/bin

   cp ~/vmware-mount /usr/bin/

4. The disk mount utility requires a couple of dependencies to run. You can try and run vmware-mount to determine what it needs. In my case, on Ubuntu 8.04LTS 64-bit, it required libcrypto.so.0.9.8 and libssl.so.0.9.8. The utility was looking for these files in a non-existent directory structure:

   /usr/bin/libdir/lib/lib*

   Go ahead and create this directory structure (beats installing the VMWare server package), then provide symlinks to the actual lib files required by vmware-mount:

   sudo mkdir -p /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8; sudo mkdir -p /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8</pre>
   
   sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8/libcrypto.so.0.9.8
   sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8/libssl.so.0.9.8

5. That’s it! Now you should be able to run ./vmware-mount to determine proper command usage.

Lenovo RS110 Review

I recently had the [unfortunate] opportunity of rolling-out (2) Lenovo RS110 servers targeted for SMBs. We seemed to fit the market for this relatively new Lenovo offering, but the product failed to meet the needs and expectations of my environment. The intention was to launch one of these two units with an Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux distribution to host our Zimbra mail server (currently residing virtual Ubuntu 6.06 LTS machine, with a host OS of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64-bit). Here’s some brief hardware highlights:

I won’t lie — I did complete successful installs on Ubuntu 8.04 and Ubuntu 9.04; however, when attempting to copy large files to a Samba share (or via SCP, didn’t matter what protocol), the RS110 would crash… hard… with perpetual disk i/o errors until a hard reset was completed. Debian 5.03 was the only distribution that installed successfully and operated normally under a commonplace workload. Unfortunately, Zimbra offers no support for Debian 5.03 at this time. The RS110 claims support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Suse, but I’m not in the mood to start mixing too many Linux distros in my environment (I’m already running Debian, Ubuntu, and flavors of OpenBSD), nor do I feel up for paying a yearly RHEL subscription/support fee. So, I executed my last option for utilizing an RS110 as my physical mail server: throw in a supported RAID card. I installed a 3Ware (AMCC) 9650SE-2LP card in the available PCI-E riser-card slot. Note that the hot-swap back-plane does NOT use generic SATA/SAS data or power connections, which means I had use a molex to SATA Y-connector for power and two separate, standard SATA data cables. This meant the back-plane was not being used at all…

Apparently this “configuration,” is what Lenovo Support staff called an “unsupported,” hardware configuration. A generic PCI-E RAID controller in a PCI-E slot on the RS110 is unsupported. The 3Ware RAID bios never did post, regardless of several Lenovo BIOS setting changes and physically removing the LSI card from the RS110. Following this last bit of frustration, I contacted the vendor I purchased from and indicated my dissatisfaction with the Lenovo RS110. I’ve decided to keep one as a Windows 2003 R2 VMWare host, but I’ve already packaged the other 110 for return.

Bottom-line: If you’re running a low-load Windows 2003 server, this product might be ideal for your environment. If you intend to run anything else on the hardware, stay away. Support was unclear about the “unsupported,” configuration, so I wouldn’t plan on even using the one available PCI-E slot. The forced purchase of Lenovo hard-disks versus just the disk carriers feels like extortion…

Add ‘Submitted Tickets’ Listing Page for Joomla! RSTickets

If you haven’t heard, RSTickets! is an advanced Joomla! Help Desk ticketing system that allows you (or a team of yous) to manage and keep track of your clients’ issues. It’s actually one of the few effective, useful Help Desk systems available for the Joomla! 1.5+ framework that I would personally recommend. Unfortunately, it’s still under development and lacks certain features that one may desire, such as a read-only listing page that displays tickets already submitted to you or your department.

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New fun with old toys: Adtran Atlas 550 + Free 411

As a result of my frugality, I got my hands on an Adtran Atlas 550 to be used for partitioning a single PRI into two PRIs at my workplace. In addition to the partitioning, this system provides the added bonus of dynamic number substitution. What’s this mean for me? Substituting costly 411 directory service for free Goog-411 service (which I prefer over traditional 411). I’m also able to create a number rejection list to block those NSFW 900* calls [or variation thereof], but the number substitution templates seem much more interesting…

How to do it:

• Telnet to yohost.yodomain and log-in
• Dial Plan > Network Term > Interface # (1 in my case) > Enter
• Select Substitution Template
• Enter the Original DNIS number (the phone number originally dialed)
• Enter the Substitution DNIS number (the phone number you’d like to dial)
• Go back to the main menu and log-out

Remember, this change is transparent (and instant — no need to write/commit the config to startup), so the next time callers decide to hit up the 411 directory service, their call should be automagically routed to 1-800-goog411 (1-800-4664411). Since we’re a fairly small office I don’t think this number substituion presents a problem with Googles Terms of Service, but if you’re considering this change on a massive scale  I’d consider reading over Google’s TOS agreement (particularly section 5.3).

Altermime, Postfix/Zimbra, and Headaches

I had the pleasure of applying mandatory disclaimers to all [outbound] emails at my workplace today… ~Joy~ … I had the assumption it’d be rather easy, but Altermime and Postfix were a bit finicky to work with. After editing the master.cf I ended up customizing my own ‘disclaimer’ shell script.

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How-to: GSX650F Chop-shop Job (Cutting down the fender)

Per another owner’s request, here are some up-close shots of the chop-job for the 2008 GSX650F … Notice the black bolts (attached to the protruding box shapes beneath the fender) in the second image. These are holding the bracket to the bike ‘trunk.’ There’s a lock washer and nut on the inside of the trunk securing the bracket to the bike.

I did not remove the tail before cutting. I used only a razor knife (with new, clean blades) following a hand-drawn [penciled] line. I did have to change the blade out about half-way through, and I did slice the crap out of a finger, but it was still worth the end-result.

My plate is not actually at an angle, but if you purchased the same tail light w/ the integrated signals and plate light, you don’t need it at an angle. It’s clearly visible at night without bending or angled mounting. Also, you may need some additional hardware (2 X bolts, 2 X nuts, 2 X lock-washers) to re-mount the OEM plate bracket to what’s left of the tail after the chop. Depending on how small your hands are, you might have to remove the tail piece (not the rear fender, just the painted tail) to attach lock-washers and nuts on the inside of the ‘trunk’.
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HID Ballast Mounting for 2008 Suzuki GSX650F

Figured I’d post a few helpful pictures for any other GSXF enthusiasts looking to install HID lighting on their 2008 Suzuki GSX650F. I chose to use a pre-existing, pre-drilled location for mounting the HID ballasts. To make certain vibration and movement of the ballasts is kept to minimum I secured the mounting brackets directly to frame using heavy-duty zipties (two ties for each ballast bracket). You will need to drill holes in both plastic caps. However, I ended up cutting and later butt-splicing the HID power connector for the low-beam because the hole size required was too large for the small size of the weather proof fixture cover. Make certain your weather seals (if included with the kit) fit snuggly in the hole(s) you drilled: 

Notice the top [black] screw between the two electrical connections. That’s simply used to secure a portion of the front-fairing to the bike frame. It fit the bracket slot perfectly (no modification required). Make sure to get the zip ties nice and tight to avoid ballast vibration. Also make sure you have a solid ground connection for both HID lights or you may notice flickering (while stationary or moving).

For a point of reference, I used the cheap HID conversion kits (for automobiles, actually) from VVME.com. It was about $60US with shipping. And yes, for a few ($5US) extra bucks they mixed-matched the bulb types so you don’t have to purchase two separate HID conversion kits. Check the original eBay link for more information.

Modded GSX650F (Fender Chop)

I posted a quick how-to on installing the LED tail light, which will soon be followed up on a fender chop ‘how-to.’ Here’s some final pics of my bike (post mods). I also added a HID kit for better night-time driving.