The Magic of Greyhound Adoption

The 17 Standard CSS Color Names

The 17 standard colors are: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, grey, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.

Color Name	HEX	Color
Aqua	#00FFFF
Black	#000000
Blue	#0000FF
Fuchsia	#FF00FF
Gray	#808080
Grey	#808080
Green	#008000
Lime	#00FF00
Maroon	#800000
Navy	#000080
Olive	#808000
Purple	#800080
Red	#FF0000
Silver	#C0C0C0
Teal	#008080
White	#FFFFFF
Yellow	#FFFF00

A Gnome 3 Script to Change Your Desktop's Wallpaper Every 5 Minutes

This is a Gnome 3 script to change your desktop's wallpaper every 5 minutes.

Copy this script to your ${HOME}/bin directory. Remember to make this script eXecutable.

Create a wallpaper directory in your Pictures directory and add your pictures.

Add the line "*/5 * * * * ${HOME}/bin/wallpaper.sh" to your crontab. It is set to run every 5 minutes. Enjoy!

---

#! /bin/bash

# crontab: run every 5 minutes
# MIN HR DOM MON DOW CMD
# */5   *  *   *   *   ${HOME}/bin/wallpaper.sh

DIR=${HOME}/Pictures/wallpaper

file_list=(${DIR}/*)
X=$[ $RANDOM % ${#file_list[@]} ]

DISPLAY=:0 gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file://${file_list[${X}]}

---

The script is free, but explanations will cost extra.

The New Android Smartphone

I Don't Have Bad Handwriting

USB Serial Port Converter for Wine

I installed a Windows program on my Debian laptop that interfaced with a radio receiver. The purpose of this program was to allow for the reading & writing of the radio's memories. The connection to the radio was through a USB to Serial converter.

First, I installed Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator"), from the Debian Repository. Then, I could install the Windows program from its CD. When the program is first run, it asks for the COM port number. Because there are no COM ports, this is where the challenge began.

I did some searching with Google and found that the first step was to add a link in the Wine subdirectories for the USB to Serial Port device. There were several suggestions on how to locate & identify the device. The simplest method was in a Terminal window and issue the dmesg command right after plugging the device into a USB port.

jerry> dmesg | tail
[  108.678576] usb 2-1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[  108.679609] usbcore: registered new interface driver ftdi_sio
[  108.678613] ftdi_sio: v1.6.0:USB FTDI USB Serial Converters Driver

Note the line that indicates the USB device is "ttyUSB0".

With this device name, I added a link in the Wine subdirectory identifying this device as "COM1"

jerry> ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1

When I attempted to run the program, it was not able to connect to COM1.

I did some more searching and the answers were of two opinions. Either "it worked for me" or "it doesn't work" with only one person actually noticing what was wrong. The permissions for ttyUSB0 were wrong and the solution involved writing a short script to run which would set ttyUSB0 permissions to allow access.

When I examined ttyUSB0, this is what I saw:

jerry> ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0
crw-rw---T  1 root dialout   4,   6 Nov 18 20:34 ttyUSB0

The device is accessible to only root, the owner and to the "dialout" group, but has no world access. This explained why the one solution required a script to grant access to the device.

However, I realized there was a simpler solution that did not involve running a script every time I wanted to run my program. All I had to do was add my username to the dialout group.

Using a text editor, like vi, you will have to edit the group file, but since it is owned by the root user you will need superuser permission.

jerry> su
Password:
root> vi /etc/group

Locate the line that begins with "dialout":

dialout:x:20:

Add your username to the dialout group:

dialout:x:20:jerry

Save the group file and exit your text editor.

Now, when I run the Windows program and select COM1: I could finally say "this works for me".

Counting in Binary

The Difference Between a Cat and a Dog

A Cause of Seizures With My Greyhounds

Two of my greyhounds, Cole and Rowdy, suffer from seizures.

From the beginning I have been tracking all seizures, medicines, dosages and blood tests in journals for each dog.

I also have been charting the seizures since I noticed that Cole was having seizures when I took him on I-75. You can read about it here.

Rowdy has had so many seizures this year that I began to notice something unusual in his chart.

First, to describe this chart. The vertical axis represents the number of seizures and the horizontal axis is counting down the number of hours until the next administration of his medicine that he get every 12 hours.

You can see that most of Rowdy's seizures happen either right before or right after the time of his next dose because there may not be enough medicine in his system to control the seizures. The previous dose is running out and the new dose has not been absorbed by his system.

Now for the interesting discovery. You will notice that there is also a "blip" in the graph at the point that is 4 hours until the next dosage.

I realized that this "blip' was one to two hours after I fed Rowdy his daily meal.

Cole also has this "blip" in his chart, but Cole has seizures less frequently than Rowdy so it was not as noticeable.

Now I have to determine if there is something in the food that is triggering seizures or if the act of digesting food changes something in theirs blood chemistry that reduces the amount of medicine available to control seizures.

Friends of Greyhounds' Collar Chain

This is a video from Friends of Greyhounds celebration of the 1,000th dog adopted which took place on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10, 10*10*10=1,000).

By the time Friends of Greyhounds was evicted from the kennels that were being provided by the dog tracks of South Florida, over 1,900 ex-racer greyhounds had been adopted out.

Since then Friends of Greyhounds has had to down-size because of the lack of kennel space, but their rescue and adoption of these wonderful dogs continues.

When a greyhound is adopted, its kennel collar is added to the chain, in chronological order. On special occasions the chains are hung for all to admire.

This chain of 1,000 collars represents the 1,000 dogs that had been adopted out up to October 10, 2010.

Some of the original collars were lost or dogs came in with no collar at all and we use a wooden bone with the dog's name on it. 

Most of the collars hang open but a few are buckled closed.  Those are the dogs who have passed away and are waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge.

 

Words That My Dogs Know

• out - Let's go out to the yard.
• potty - Time to relieve yourself.
• water - Drink some water.
• yummy - Eat some food.
• cookie - A dog biscuit.
• chewie - A rawhide chew stick.
• bed - It's 3 AM! Return to your bed.
• walk - Would you like to go for a walk?
• car - Would you like to go for a ride in the car? (and this time I'll drive)
• let's go - Opposite of stay.
• this way - Change your direction to the way that I am indicating.
• stay - Don't move.
• come - Come to me.
• hug - Come here and get a hug. (This was Roger's favorite word.)
• run - Run.
• up - Jump up.
• off - Jump down.
• ramp - Walk up or down on the ramp (Roger could not jump).
• move - Get out of my way.
• no - Cease and desist.
• leave it - Cease and desist.
• done - Cease and desist.
• all done - Cease and desist.
• no more - Cease and desist.
• more - Do that again.
• two-fee - Time to brush your teeth.
• brushy - Time to be groomed.
• pill - Let me give you your pill.
• home - Let's go home (turn up the driveway).
• PetCo - Let's go shopping.
• garage door - I convinced some of the kids in the neighborhood that all of the dogs have swallowed garage door remotes and they can open the garage door whenever they want to. (The remote is in my pocket, but don't tell the kids.)

How to Train a Dog

Here are some steps on training a dog.

When the dog does something you like then reward the dog with praise. Just like with people you are telling your dog to keep up the good work. If you add a word while the dog is doing the action then dog will soon learn that the word is a command to do the action.

Try to ignore any bad behavior. Dogs love attention. If bad behavior gets them noticed they will continue with that action, too. Of course it there is the chance that someone or something will be hurt by all means speak up, but use a harsh voice, not a gentle comforting voice. Dogs may not know what the words are but they do learn what the tone of your voice means.

How to Walk Your Dog Five Miles Everyday

DNA Testing for Dog Breeds is a Waste of Money For Greyhounds

My friends at Friends of Greyhounds recently rescued a dog that was only part greyhound. With a well meaning desire to determine its breeding to help get it adopted, they submitted its DNA to a company that for a fee of $80 will tell you what breed or breeds your dog contains. In addition to this unknown part-greyhound the DNA for an ex-racing greyhound was submitted as a control to verify the accuracy of the DNA analysis. This greyhound is named Yahtzee and his racing name was Cry Yahtzee.

You can see in the Direct Sire Line table that Yahtzee has greyhound ancestry going back for over 30 generations. When Yahtzee's DNA analysis results were received we were surprised. According to Yahtzee's DNA report, he and all of his ancestors are pure bred whippets!

Feel free to make you own conclusion. The title is what I think.