As I’ve mentioned before, our view environment was licensed for a proof of concept test and has since expired. I was unable to test this release for full functionality but have been informed by our tester (thanks Gary) that it has worked fine for their few tests. They used a view 3.0 environment and will be testing again after updating view in the near future.

Once again, I provide no warranty and am not liable for its use or any potential problems resulting from its use.

VMWare View Open Client 3.1.2-188088

From the project site, the “VMware View Open Client lets you connect from a Linux desktop to remote Windows desktops managed by VMware View”

We work with a bunch of Mac clients that also need the same ability. I was able to get it compiled and working on OSX (Intel based) with a few minor issues. I’ve had a number of requests for the compiled package and have finally been able to post it (sorry for the delay).

This is the README that I’ve included with the package:

VMware-view-open-client_3.1.0-169073

This is the VMWare View Open Client installer package. The .pkg file is the Mac installer. The application was compiled on an Intel MacBook Pro running OSX 10.5. It may work on other OS versions, your mileage may vary.

The vmware-client.toc is the table of contents of all the files that are installed onto the machine when the package is run. The .app is a very simple AppleScript that just calls /usr/local/bin/vmware-view.sh. The rdesktop switches can be modified within this shell script. You’ll want to modify the switch that specifies the broker for your site.

The rdesktop binary is installed with this application for ease of use
though you may want to strip it out.

Current known issues:

Sound: I’ve not been able to get sound to pass through from the virtual machine back to the Mac.

Alt Key: The alt key mapping seems to work however a combination such as ALT-F4 to close a window within the VM does not work.

I provide no warranty and am not liable for its use or any potential problems resulting from its use.

vmware_view_open_client_3.1.0-169073

The first few pictures are of the whole column as removed from the car. It was in decent shape to start with, but since the paint on the car is so nice, I wanted to make sure everything else was just as nice.

Remove the center nut that holds the crush can in place.

This is the steering wheel puller I used to pull the crush can. It should be available at your local parts house. It was about $10. It looked like it wouldn’t fit in the can, but it just took some maneuvering.

I found that the easiest way to put the puller in place was to stand the column vertical on the floor so the center shaft was easy to hold while threading in the side bolts. The side bolts were just put in finger tight and then the center shaft was snugged up so it would hold together after laying it back down horizontally.

Once the puller is in place, tighten the center shaft to pull the crush can off.  ALWAYS use a puller.  Don’t ever use anything to pry off the can from the outside.

I had to hold the column in place in the vice so it wouldn’t turn while tightening the puller.  It wasn’t extremely tight to remove the can.

Once I started getting it to move, it came off quite easily.

The view from the inside after the crush can is off.

Remove the three screws to detach the plate that holds the turn signal switch in place.

Remove the plate.

Remove the blade screw that holds the turn signal arm in place. This one was a bit tight to get turning.

You can see that the screw is sort of long.

Now the signal switch can be removed from the shaft and set aside out of the way.  It will be fully removed later.

Here you can see the night light installed. It is next to be removed.

Two screws and it’s out.  It needs to be set aside like the signal switch.

Now remove the three screws that hold the next section in place.

Once those screws are out, there is a snap ring that holds the center bearing in place.

Remove it.  You can see that the signal switch is still sort of in the way.

Now remove the column mount which is also the outer wire covering.

Next is the inner wire covering.

Both of these are easily removed.

Once the covers are removed, the wiring harnesses can be pulled through the end of the column.

You can see here that they are sliding through the housing.

And out comes the signal switch.

The column light comes out at the same time in the same way.

I don’t show it here, but to get this section off (that has the bearing in it), I held the section and bumped the shaft with a brass hammer head.  I didn’t hit it hard, just a few bumps and it came right off and the bearing came out.

Here’s the section with the bearing.

The bearing is held in a rubber housing that easily comes off.  The bearing here will be replaced.

This is the view of the next section that holds the steering lock mechanism.

First the keeper washer needs to be removed.

Next is a collar that covers and holds the roll pin in place.  A fine blade screwdriver will get it loose enough to remove.

Remove the collar.

I used a drift to remove the roll pin from the locking wheel.  It came out pretty easy but in retrospect, I should have put a solid support under the shaft instead of what you see in this picture.

Out comes the pin and the locking wheel.

The center shaft can now be removed.

Here it is in its corroded glory.

Now on to the two screws that hold the buzzer switch in place.

Once the screws are out, set the switch aside.  You can’t remove this harness yet.

Now remove the two screws that hold the steering lock pin mechanism in place.

Next, there are three screws that hold the ignition switch in place that should be removed.

With those screws removed, the ignition and buzzer switches can be removed through the housing.

You’ll notice that the ignition harness has been removed but there still remains a single orange wire. This is for the backlight on the gear selector dial.  This wire isn’t removed yet.

Next remove the steering lock mechanism.

Now you can remove the ignition lock assembly.  In this picture, I’m using a nail to push the release on the lock to allow it to slide out from the housing.  WARNING: Be sure to remove the key from the lock (if it is in).  I didn’t remove my key and the lock wouldn’t come out without some “help”.  The “help” broke the pin that engages the key buzzer switch we removed earlier.

Here’s another picture with the nail pointing at the release hole.

Now remove the screw for the back-light on the gear selector dial.  This is the orange wire that hasn’t been removed yet.

Here it is once removed.

As you can see, the wire is connected in the main ignition connector.  This wire goes through a small wire-sized hole in the housing to be removed so it has to come out of the connector.

I used an awl to force it out of the connector.

Once it was out of the large connector, it came right out.

Now the selector dial can be removed.

Before the dial can be removed, both the front two screws (previous picture) and this selector screw have to be removed together.  Don’t pull without removing this screw or you might bend the selector needle.

It all comes out at once and is easy to take apart after that.

The next section comes off with for small bolts.  I think they were 5/16″.

This piece comes off easily.

Note that there is one other piece to be removed from this part of the housing.

Two screws and it’s off.

Now to remove the shifter arm. Another roll pin to be removed.

This one came out pretty easily too.

Once the arm is out, you can see the spring still in the housing. Don’t lose this.

This last part of the housing is attached to the column inner tube with an allen screw.

Screw being removed here.

It’s not easy to tell here, but the right most ’shiny’ spot is where the allen screw held the housing in place.  The screw was in pretty tight.

Remove the lower tube bearing clip.

The center tube can now be removed.  Notice all the rust and the dust shield that is pretty much worthless.

Inner and outer tubes now separated.

Time to remove the firewall mounts.

This shows the rubber o-ring that is between the two pieces.

This and the next few shots show the final piece to be removed. There is a custom keeper in the upper end of the outer tube.  It is held in place by a spring washer.

The custom washer/keeper in place.

Here the custom keeper and the spring washer can be seen.  The spring washer came out easily enough with a screwdriver. I had to use a dent puller with a hook to get the custom keeper out.  It didn’t take much force, but just a bump from the back side to pull it out.

Here they are together. The custom one goes in only one-way.

Here’s the bench with all the pieces.

You’ll notice I didn’t put all the screws back in their places after removing pieces.  While taking everything apart, I just put them in bags and labeled appropriately for later assembly.

Finally on to the steering coupler. I used my awl again to pry the keepers open.

Once they were open a bit, a blade screwdriver helped the rest of the way.

Now the keeper and rubber seal can be pulled back.  The unit is full of REALLY old grungy grease.

It almost will come off, but there is a pin that holds things together.

I used a screwdriver and a brass hammer head to poke the pin out.  I didn’t remove the pin from the housing, just out enough to be flush on the inside.

With the pin out of the way, the housing will come right off.

Now all the inner pieces can come out easily.

Once they were all removed, they can be cleaned.

Since most of the parts are now going to see the sand blasting cabinet for some cleanup, I wanted to protect the smooth surfaces.

This part also needs to be protected.  This is the copper horn connector in the crush can.

This is the first installment.  Now I’ll get the parts cleaned up and ready for paint and then final assembly.  More to come!

I immediately brought the box in and quickly opened it. As expected, it was a box of 20 copies of my new book Expert Shell Scripting. It is a recipe type of book focusing on useful and unique shell scripting tips and techniques.

This is my first book and I’ve learned a lot about the writing process and I’m very excited about it actually coming out. It has been a long road of multiple years and I’ve resisted getting too excited until I actually see the physical book. As they say, the product isn’t sold until the money is in your hand. I’ve got my copy and it is real.

Though integrity is an excellent subject to start with, I thought that with the Christmas season of giving, the topic of gift giving would be appropriate. My intent here is simply to cover the thoughts that we discussed and hopefully have something useful to others.

Now gift giving at its most basic is to give something that you’ve bought or made to another for their enjoyment or celebration. This is neither new nor insightful. The gift would ideally be something that the receiver would actually want and enjoy. The trick here is how to do that and what to do. I think there are a number of techniques that aren’t very difficult to implement that can dramatically help with this task.

As we all know, it is better to give than to receive. This is a premise that you hear over the course of your life and I think it takes some time to actually believe. First off, with giving you are thinking of others first rather than yourself. Also, after some practice, it becomes more exciting to see the reaction of the other person more than receiving gifts for yourself. This is one of those principles that takes some faith to believe in. In a sense, you’re going out on a limb with whatever you get and gambling that the other person will like it. You’re investing not just your time and money, but part of you in what you have chosen. The more practice you get, the more fun this is.

First, don’t think of it as a task. Getting into the situation of “oh yeah, I have to get a gift for so and so”. You need a little more time for planning and not simply wandering the aisles of the local mall or department store.

Put yourself into their shoes. Stop and think about the person for a bit. What are their tastes, likes, hobbies, interests, personality. It doesn’t usually take much time to think at some detail about a person who is close enough to you to be getting a gift, to figure out what they would like. This does take some practice.

Give what you’d like to get. This technique can be easily implemented incorrectly. Just because you would want something, doesn’t mean the other person would want that same something. It must be thought of in conjunction with the thought process above. The idea here is that if I put myself in the others shoes and combine that with how I decide on things I want, you should be able to come up with something good. Here’s an example. I like tools, not just any tools, but good quality tools. I want them to be a joy to use not a hassle. When I apply this logic to buying things for my wife (who likes to bake and knit), I look for high quality tools to be used with those activities. Good quality kitchen tools/appliances or knitting implements.

Listen to what they’d want. This is probably one of the most important especially for someone who is close to you. During times of non-gift purchasing, listen and watch closely to things they say. Phrases like, “you know, I’d sort of like to have such and such” or “sometime I’d like to get a whoseywatchit”. These are common things that most people say off the cuff and aren’t really taken seriously. If you start listening closely for words like these AND take note of them by actually writing them down somewhere for later use, this is a really easy way of creating a list when you actually need it.

Watch for opportunities to fill a need. This is a bit less obvious since you have to recognize that someone is having a struggle with something or that you see a way for them to ease one of the hassles in their life. Now this can be put into practice in the wrong way such as giving your wife a new broom. Yes, this may help her in her chores, but probably doesn’t convey the message that you love and care for her. Alleviating hassle for someone when they’re doing something they enjoy or have a passion for is more what you’d be looking for.

Following lists. For Christmas, my family always asks for a list of things I want. There is nothing inherently wrong with this if you really do want those things. I’ve always had a hard time giving lists to others for this purpose not because I couldn’t come up with anything but more that I’d rather get something they think I’d like as well as the fact that I like to be surprised. Being surprised about which particular thing on my list I get really doesn’t cut it.

Gift cards and cash are a cop-out. This isn’t totally true, but mostly. My boys have been wanting cash because they were saving up for large items that no one in our family could afford on their own. Another good reason for gift cards would be small denominations for things like stocking stuffers. Generally though, I feel that these types of primary gifts say either that I don’t know you well enough to think of anything you’d like or I wasn’t willing or didn’t have time to come up with something on my own. This is sort of harsh, but it really doesn’t take that much effort to put some thought into your loved ones to think about what they like.

Tonight, instead of talking about some character attribute, we spent 15-20 minutes playing with Flarp (noise putty). You have to be balanced. Now what I really should be working on is my book proposal.

I bought my Challenger in about 1991. I was attending community college and was looking for a new (to me) car. I ended up finding it on the trade-in lot of a local Hyundai dealership and in retrospect, probably paid a little too much at the time ($2500). However, I’m extremely fortunate to have the car now because I wouldn’t be able to afford it if I didn’t.

This car was my daily driver throughout the rest of community college, two years of university, the courtship of my eventual wife and about two years of our marriage. At that point, I was driving about 50 miles a day round trip and decided that I’d either need to put a bunch of money into it to be road worth and sound, or park it for an indeterminent amount of time until I could get back to it for a restore.

Fast forward about four years. We’re now in our second home and have our first son who is almost 2yrs old. We figured that we could start on a restoration and I needed to have the car painted.  I took the car totally apart except for the suspension and off to the shop. Last month, the car was painted and I finally brought it home.  My first son was almost 12.  Okay, it took a bit longer than anticipated.

In any case, now it’s here and because of the recent publication of my book, I’ve been able to buy a few parts for it.  Mostly the parts aren’t the fun pieces like carpet or door panels or other large items. I’ve ordered a lot of detail items like weather stripping, sound deadener and insulation. Even though they might not be the most glamorous, the fine detail is where it’s at to implement a fine job.

Over the last couple of weeks, the UPS driver has been here many time. The vendors ship what they can based on inventory. It’s been a great few weeks and now I have a LOT of work to do in restoring the parts that aren’t to go with the new ones as well as putting on the parts that are. Unfortunately, I have too many things on my todo list as well as the weather being too cold and wet for now.  I think I might start on the steering column.

Here’s what it looks like now. Yes, my garage is too small and I’m praying for no earthquakes.

I’ve never really liked the term ‘blog’, it reminds me of the term ‘bling’. Both terms have that pop culture, more image than substance feel sort of like a Honda Accord with gull-wing doors or an Escalade with spinner wheels and a plasma screen in back.  In any case, here I am with my own blog putting together a journal of topics that the majority of the world couldn’t care less about.  Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon who is finally letting time pass him by.

There are a few categories that I’ll likely be discussing consistently and maybe a few that just stand on their own. I’ve been working on some writing projects in the last few years and am continuing on this path for now. I’m learning a lot about this process. I have a number of other ideas that I’d like to try. I also have two sons that are becoming young men (sort of very young) and am trying to help them become good men and I have a few ideas here too. Probably the most entertaining topic will likely be my automotive passion. In the last month, my car (1970 Dodge Challenger) has come home from being painted and now the big process of restoration and putting it back together begins. My interest in cars is very diverse and this could go anywhere.

The current and most exciting news is that I’ve been working for a number of years on a shell scripting book that has been picked up by Apress and will be available at the beginning of the year. This has been a long time coming and really my first entry into being an author.  Even after I had the content all put together, I never really thought of myself as an author. In my mind, an author was someone who wrote literature and I just put together a programming book. I guess now that my book has been published, I will likely relent in that sentiment.