DD-WRT VPN client with MacOS X and iOS

With build build 14896, the VPN client doesn't seem to work by default with MacOX X 10.7 or iOS 4.3.  To get it working, go to Administrations->Commands, and add the following to what runs on Startup (Save Startup) and then restart the router:

echo 'noaccomp' >> /tmp/pptpd/options.pptpd

Note:  if you make any changes in DD-WRT's web interface that may a cause the options.pptpd file to be rewritten, you might have to restart the router.

Blocking WD MyBook Live incoming connections

The MyBook Live allows remote access the the hard drive via the WD 2go iOS app.  One thing I don't like about it is that it pokes a whole via UPnP on my firewall for ports 80 and 443.  And unfortunately on dd-wrt, UPnP port forwarding takes precedence over any other rules on the FORWARD chain.

So, I manually added a rule via Administration->Commands (Save Firewall) in dd-wrt:

iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p tcp -i `get_wanface` -m multiport --dport 80,443 -j DROP

"iptables -L" doesn't show prerouting rules.  Instead, do: "iptables -L -t nat".

Since the MyBook Live runs Linux internally, there might be a way to change the ports through some manual unsupported mechanism, but haven't had a chance to check.  Hopefully Western Digital creates a firmware update that allows the port to be changed via a supported mechanism in the web UI.

Dripping shower

My upstairs shower was occasionally dripping a little.  A while back, I had fixed a similar problem with my downstairs shower by replacing the Price Pfister valve assembly and cartridge/pressure balance with a combo unit (part number 974-042).  This was evidently the wrong part.  Although it worked alright, it caused the handle and wall flange to stick out a bit.  I think this was due to the fact that the shower is a pre-1997 unit (either model 08, 808, 0X8 or R89).  According to this FAQ, the correct part numbers are actually 971-250 for the valve assembly and 974-291 for the cartridge/pressure balance.

So, I ordered the parts and replaced them.  The shower appears to be working ok.

Compressing network camera images on a WD My Book Live

I have two Panasonic Network Cameras that are setup to ftp images via timed and motion sensor triggers to a Western Digital My Book Live NAS.  This device runs Linux. Information to gain ssh access can be found here.  The device has perl and a stripped down version of ffmpeg pre-installed.

Below is a quick and dirty perl script that will take the images uploaded from the network cameras and generate QuickTime files from them.  Unfortunately the ffmpeg binary that is pre-installed has limited codec support, so the QuickTime file is just using the mjpeg codec.

UPDATE (9/5/2011 1:00pm): Modified framerate of QuickTime file and changed the threshold for including motion image files.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Time::Local;
use POSIX;
use File::Copy;

# crontab:
# 5 0 * * * cd /DataVolume/shares/Netcam; perl -w compress_to_mp4.pl >>compress_to_mp4.log 2>&1

my $root = '/DataVolume/shares/Netcam';
my @dirs = ("$root/pancam1/motion",
            "$root/pancam1/timer",
            "$root/pancam2/motion",
            "$root/pancam2/timer");

foreach my $dir (@dirs) {
  my $stoptime;
  $stoptime = time();
  $stoptime = timelocal(0, 0, 0, (localtime($stoptime))[3], (localtime($stoptime))[4], (localtime($stoptime))[5]);
  my $threshold = 60*60*24;
  my ($type) = ($dir =~ m!/([^/]+)$!o);
  if ($type eq 'motion') {
    $threshold = 60*10;
    $stoptime = 0;
  }
  if (opendir (DIR, $dir)) {
    my @filenames;
    while (my $filename = readdir(DIR)) {
      push @filenames, $filename if $filename =~ /\.jpg$/o;
    }
    closedir (DIR);
    @filenames = sort @filenames;
    my %batches;
    my $laststart = 0;
    my $lastts = 0;
    foreach my $filename (@filenames) {
      my ($year,$mon,$mday,$hour,$min,$sec,$msec) = ($filename =~ /(\d{4})(\d{2})(\d{2})s(\d{2})(\d{2})(\d{2})(\d+)\.jpg/o);
      my $ts = timelocal($sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon-1, $year);
      next if $stoptime && $ts>$stoptime;
      if ($ts - $lastts > $threshold) {
        $laststart = $ts;
      }
      $lastts = $ts;
      push @{$batches{$laststart}}, $filename;
    }
    foreach my $ts (sort keys %batches) {
      if (! -d "$dir/tmp") {
        mkdir("$dir/tmp");
      }
      my $count = 1;
      my @tmpfiles;
      foreach my $filename (@{$batches{$ts}}) {
        my $tfilename = sprintf("tmp%08d.jpg", $count);
        my $tpath = "$dir/tmp/$tfilename";
        push @tmpfiles, $tpath;
        copy("$dir/$filename",$tpath) or die "copy failed $!";
        $count++;
      }
      next unless scalar(@tmpfiles) > 1;
      my $outdir = "$dir/../$type" . "_video";
      if (! -d $outdir) {
        mkdir($outdir);
      }
      $outdir .= strftime("/%Y%m%d", localtime($ts));
      if (! -d $outdir) {
        mkdir($outdir);
      }
      my $ofilename = strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.mov", localtime($ts));
      my $out = `ffmpeg -y -r 3 -vcodec copy -i $dir/tmp/tmp%08d.jpg $outdir/$ofilename 2>&1`;
      if ($out =~ /error/om) {
        print "$out\n";
        die;
      }
      foreach my $filename (@tmpfiles) {
        unlink($filename);
      }
      foreach my $filename (@{$batches{$ts}}) {
        unlink("$dir/$filename");
      }
    }
  }
}

Dynamic widths for blog template

Add the following CSS to the template for dynamic widths:


html body .content-outer {
max-width: 90%;
}