Found a great site that clearly explains how to Upload Files Using CGI and Perl. It actually is not very difficult. Used the concepts from this site to develop a accounting tool at my place of work. Our accounting folks have been reconciling receipts manually. They receive an excel spreadsheet which detail transactions and compare it against transaction records stored in one of our databases. I simply provide web page where they can upload the excel file and code that performs the necessary checks. As a result I display to our accounting folks an exception report of any discrepancies. Next I need to give them a means to update our system as discrepancies are resolved.

Intend to use this experience to add to my-list.com the ability to upload dvd and cd jacket graphics.

Have made no progress on www.my-list.com or my Cocoa application to read Note Soups. This last week has just been too busy. In addition to my regular job, perl programmer for CWIE, have completed the first draft of a web site for a start-up company called nQueue. Its mission in life is to provide a low cost, cost recovery system for the legal market. Have additionally been fighting with a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 Server Appliance. Its a pretty box…..blue, with neat green lite. However, system documentation leaves much to be desired. Managed to break its web server, which is really bad since its the only way to get into the system. It has no video card…only web access. Did manage a telnet connection and figure out how to su into the system. Its operating system in red hat Linux. However, the file structure is not like any version of red hat I’ve used before. The system came pre-configured with perl, mySQL, and PHP. Installed phpMyAdmin-2.4.0 for mySQL administration. Encountered only one problem. That is the default configuration of a “tcp” connection to mySQL would not work. Had to use a “socket”. Fortionitaly the installation documentation provided help. Specifically it tells you to change the php config file setting $cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘socket’] = ‘ ‘; to $cfg[‘Server’][$i][‘socket’] = ‘/tmp/mysql/sock’;. A great source of info is the Cobalt Forums.

nBlog now works. Discovered that if you check the option Always Publish in nBlog preferences the Post option becomes Post & Publish . When this option is tapped, The note will post and publish on a Movabletype blog. However, should you attempt to use the Publish option an error is returned. The error is:

” Error: Client
Failed to locate (publish) in class (blogger) at /usr/local/bin/perl5/site_perl 5.6.1/SOAP/Lite.pm line 2195.”

It seems that nBlog attempts to call apublish method that does not exist. Movabletype does have a publishPost method. Adding a new method of publish that was identical to publishPost failed. There was a problem getting the correct entity ID.

So…. to use nBlog with Movabletype, check the Always Publish preference to publish. Uncheck this preference to only post.

This is a test post from my trusty Newton.

Have solved the problem with the nBlog inactive action icons and nHTML error.

I purchased a second Newton. It was half the price of my first unit and had both covers. However, it has a very rough screen. Clearly this system has seen lots of use. Even though it is old and scruffy, it became my principle unit. As the principle unit it was the first to get an nBlog installation. This unit is different then my first. When it starts up its default screen is “Extras.” It also had the previous owners specialty software installed. Was never quite sure what all the pieces of this software were. It got me thinking that perhaps something was interfering with the functionality on nBlog. So I installed nBlog on my backup unit. Success…these two problems did not exist. Next, I did a hard reset on my scruffy Newton and reinstalled all packages. Since I have a 8Meg memory card, package reinstallation was simply a matter of a backup of unit 1 and restore on unit 2. Problem solved. nBlog action icons were now active and hHTML displayed.

A Hard Reset is:
“Caution: A hard reset erases all data, third-party applications, and information in the MessgePad internal memory.
To do a ” hard reset,” follow these steps:
1. Remove any PC cards or application cards inserted in the
2. MessgePad.
3. Press and hold the Power key while momentarily pressing the Reset button on the bottom of the MessgePad.
4. Continue holding down the Power key until a message appears asking if you want to erase your data completely.
5. Tap Yes.
6. When another message appears telling you that all data will be erased, tap OK. “

With this success, the next step was to publish. With great enthusiasm I composed a my greatest blog post and tapped the Publish icon. Data was sent, and a reply received ??

“Error: Client
Failed to locate method (publish) in class (blogger) at
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/SOAP/Lite.pm line 2195.”

I quickly ran mt-check.cgi to verify proper installation of SOAP::Lite. It reported back that everything was OK. I posted the problem on the nBlog Forum. Perhaps this problem has been seen before.

Now that Wireless connection is a routine event, its time to get nBog working.

Installed nBlog 1.0a8, which includes three packages nBlog, nHTML, and XML-RPC. Then set the preferences. This was the first problem area for me. The instructions at nBog state:

“Before you can use nBlog you must first set up nBlog’s preferences. Tap on the Prefs button and enter your information for host, path, port, username, and password. Tap Save and tap the Refresh Blog List button to retrieve your list of blogs from the internet.”

The instructions included a great screen shot:

As straight forward as these instructions are, my wee little brain didn’t get it.

My humble site is a Movabletype blog that is installed in a subdomain of www.my-list.com. After many trial and error attempts to correctly set nBlog preferences, success was achieved. The key to success was the realization that the Host: preference setting must be the URL where the Movabletype cgi script is installed and not necessarily the blog URL. Also the Path: setting is the path and file name for the cgi script that provides for a remote post. The specific setting which appear to work a some level are:

Host: http://www.my-list.com
Path: /cgi-bin/mt-xmlrpc.cgi
Port: 80
Weblog API: Blogger 1.0
Username: <my username>
Password: <my password>
Title start tag: <b>
Title close tag: </b><br/>
Aways Publish checked

I have two persistent problems. The first is all nBlog action icons with the exception of “User Info” are grayed out and inactive. When the User Info action item is tapped the Newton connects and return the correct user information. The second is when I tap the nHTML package a slip pops up with the message: Sorry, a problem has occurred. (-48809) I have downloaded and reinstalled this package twice. However, the error still occurs.

It works. Have successfully sync data between the Newton and G4 using NewtSync 0.3k. In addition, installed NewtsCape and successfully connected to the internet. To make this happen, WEP was disabled on the Apple Airport, and the TCP/IP address was manually set in the preferences for Hiroshi’s WanLan driver.

My network architecture is detailed above. To achieve wireless connection with the Newton:

1. Installed Lucent (ORiNOCO) WaveLAN Turbo Gold 802.11b wireless
2. DHCP provided by Linksys router
3. Installed Hiroshi’s WanLan driver.
4. Set WEP off on Apple Airport
5. WanLan driver preferences:
    a. Mode – Infrastructure
    b. Channel – 1
    c. SSID –
    d. WEP Key –
    e. Use WEP – Not Checked
6. Internet Setup:
    a. Configuration – Manual
    b. Card – Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE
    c. Local IP Address –
    d. Gateway/Router Address –
    e. Primary DNS/Name Server Address –
    f. Domain Name – None

My collection of movies is legendary within our family. Well legendary may be stretching the point. It’s more likely that I have just accumulated a lot of movies that kids find appealing. Invariably, when family members visit they question what are the new additions. Followed by, lets watch something good. Now that I have put everything into www.my-list.com selecting something good to watch is quite easy. Even Ryan & Ashlyn, two of my grandchildren use www.my-list.com. Both really like it. Ashlyn has checked out a movie through my-list. Ryan uses it to pick something interesting to watch. Particularly useful to him is the ability to view a list of PG movies only. Ryan did identify a problem. He can easily pick a movie, but has a difficult time finding it. So………. the list of videos has been revised to include a unique ID number. Ryan is affixing a color coded label to the edge of each video and marking it with the unique ID. He will then sort the videos by this number. When done finding a movie will be as easy as its selection

The Lucent (ORiNOCO) WaveLAN Turbo Gold 802.11b wireless card purchased on eBay arrived Friday. Spent Friday night and the wee hours of Saturday attempting to get this card to connect. Could not make it happen. Did manage to make a connection with a 3Com eithernet card, so I suspect the problem is with the wireless setup. My home network consists of a high speed connection from sprint wireless broadband to a Linksys router. The router provides DHCP services. Connected to the router is one Apple Airport and a G4 system. One iMac and iBook are connected through the Airport device. The Newton wireless connection attempted was to the G4 system using NewtSync.

Currently have successful connected using a serial cable with Keyspan adapter, and a 3Com eithernet card. In both cases, was able to successfully sync data using NewtSync 0.3k. This is great software.

Have installed Hiroshi’s WanLan driver and tried multiple setup combinations but could not connect. I just get a message that it can’t find my G4. When I replace the wireless card with the 3Com eithernet card the connection is made. At this point I don’t have a clue of what is causing the problem. For now I have just walked away from the problem. Will wait and tackle it again with a more rested brain.

Test again