Scott Hanselman

The optical disc drive is giving out on my GoldStar 3DO machine. It's nearly 30 years old. I want to make sure that the kids and I can still play our 3DO discs. I ordered this fantastic USB mod for the 3DO from a fellow out of Belarus. It came and it's great. It includes a game/file selector app that you boot off of if you put it in the root of a FAT32 formatted USB drive.

However, when I cloned my collection of CD-ROMS I ended up with a bunch of IMG files, and this mod wants ISO files. I thought my cloner was going to give me ISOs. I did the obvious thing and googled for "how to convert an img file to an iso."

This plunged me into the hellscape that is CNET and Major Geeks download wrappers. Every useful application or utility out there is hidden on a page filled with Download Now buttons that aren't the button you want OR if you get the app you want, it's actually a Chrome Search hijacker. I just want to convert a damn IMG to an ISO. If you want to do this on Windows you're going to be installing a bunch of virus-laden trial ISO cracking crap.

Fortunately, Windows 10 can run Linux very nicely, thank you very much. Go install Ubuntu from the Windows Store and get set up ASAP.

I just installed ccd2iso inside Ubuntu on my Windows 10 machine.

scott@IRONHEART:~$ sudo apt install ccd2iso
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ccd2iso
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 27 not upgraded.
Need to get 7406 B of archives.
After this operation, 26.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 ccd2iso amd64 0.3-7 [7406 B]
Fetched 7406 B in 0s (21.0 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package ccd2iso.
(Reading database ... 61432 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ccd2iso_0.3-7_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ccd2iso (0.3-7) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up ccd2iso (0.3-7) ...
scott@IRONHEART:~$ cd /mnt/c/Users/scott/Desktop/3do/

Then I cd (change directory) into my file system where my IMG backups are. Note that my C:\ drive on Windows is at /mnt/c so you can see me in a folder on my Desktop here. Then just run ccd2iso.

scott@IRONHEART:/mnt/c/Users/scott/Desktop/3do$ ccd2iso AloneInTheDark.img AloneInTheDark.iso
179500 sector written
Done.

Boom. Super fast and does the job and now I'm up and running! Regardless of why you got to this blog post and needed to convert an IMG to an ISO, I hope this helps and saves you some time!

Sponsor: The next generation of Jira has arrived, with new roadmaps, more flexible boards, overhauled configuration, and dozens of new integrations. Whatever new awaits you, begin it here. In a new Jira. 

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

About   Newsletter

Hosting By

I've long blogged about the intersection of diabetes and technology. From the sad state of diabetes tech in 2012 to its recent promising resurgence, it's clear that we are not waiting.

If you're a Type 1 Diabetic using a CGM - a continuous glucose meter - you'll want to set up Nightscout so you can have a REST API for your sugar. The CGM checks my blood sugar every 5 minutes, it hops via BLE over to my phone and then to the cloud. You'll want your sugars stored in cloud storage that YOU control. CGM vendors have their own cloud, but we can easily bridge over to a MongoDB database.

I run Nightscout in Azure and my body has a REST API. I can do an HTTP GET like this:

/api/v1/entries.json?count=3

and get this

[
{
_id: "5c6066d477b2a69a0a7810e5",
sgv: 143,
date: 1549821626000,
dateString: "2019-02-10T18:00:26.000Z",
trend: 4,
direction: "Flat",
device: "share2",
type: "sgv"
},
{
_id: "5c6065a877b2a69a0a7801ce",
sgv: 134,
date: 1549821326000,
dateString: "2019-02-10T17:55:26.000Z",
trend: 4,
direction: "Flat",
device: "share2",
type: "sgv"
},
{
_id: "5c60647b77b2a69a0a77f381",
sgv: 130,
date: 1549821026000,
dateString: "2019-02-10T17:50:26.000Z",
trend: 4,
direction: "Flat",
device: "share2",
type: "sgv"
}
]

I can change the URL from a .json to a .txt and get this

2019-02-10T18:00:26.000Z    1549821626000    143    Flat    
2019-02-10T17:55:26.000Z    1549821326000    134    Flat    
2019-02-10T17:50:26.000Z    1549821026000    130    Flat    

The "flat" value at the end is part of an enum that can give me a generalized trend value. Diabetics need to manage our sugars at the least hour by hour and sometimes minute by minute. As such it's super important that we have "glanceable displays." That means anything at all that gives me a sense (a sixth sense, if you will) of how I'm doing.

That might be:

• Alexa, what's my blood sugar?
• Adding sugar numbers and trends to your Git/PATH prompt in your shell
• An Arduino with an LCD
  
• A wall-mounted dakBoard Family Calendar in a shared space that also shows my blood sugar

I got a Das Keyboard 5Q recently - I first blogged about Das Keyboard in 2006! and noted that it's got it's own local REST API. I'm working on using their Das Keyboard Q software's Applet API to light up just the top row of keys in response to my blood sugar changing. It'll use their Node packages and JavaScript and run in the context of their software.

However, since the keyboard has a localhost REST API and so does my blood sugar, I busted out this silly little shell script. Add a cron job and my keyboard can turn from orange (low), to green, yellow, red (high) as my sugar changes. That provides a nice ambient notifier of how my sugars are doing. Someone on Twitter said "who looks at their keyboard?" I mean, OK, that's just silly. If my entire keyboard turns red I will notice it. Again, ambient. I could certainly add an alert and make a klaxon go off if you'd like.

#!/bin/sh
# This script colorize all LEDs of a 5Q keyboard
# by sending JSON signals to the Q desktop public API.
# based on Blood Sugar values from Nightscout
set -e # quit on first error.
PORT=27301

# Colorize the 5Q keyboard
PID="DK5QPID" # product ID

# Zone are LED groups. There are less than 166 zones on a 5Q.
# This should cover the whole device.
MAX_ZONE_ID=166

# Get blood sugar from Nightscout as TEXT
red=#f00
green=#0f0
yellow=#ff0
#deep orange is LOW sugar
COLOR=#f50 
bgvalue=$(curl -s  https://MYSITE/api/v1/entries.txt?count=1 | grep -Eo '000\s([0-9]{1,3})+\s' | cut -f 2)
if [ $bgvalue -gt 80 ]
then 
    COLOR=$green
    if [ $bgvalue -gt 140 ]
    then
        COLOR=$yellow
        if [ $bgvalue -gt 200 ]
        then
            COLOR=$red
        fi
    fi
fi

echo "Sugar is $bgvalue and color is $COLOR!"

for i in `seq $MAX_ZONE_ID`
do
    #echo "Sending signal to zoneId: $i"
    # important NOTE: if field "name" and "message" are empty then the signal is
    # only displayed on the devices LEDs, not in the signal center
    curl -s -S --output /dev/null -X POST --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --header 'Accept: application/json' -d '{
        "name": "Nightscout",
        "id": "'$i'",
        "message": "Blood sugar is '$bgvalue'",
        "pid": "'$PID'",
        "zoneId": "'"$i"'",
        "color": "'$COLOR'",
        "effect": "SET_COLOR"
       
    }' "http://localhost:$PORT/api/1.0/signals"

done
echo "\nDone.\n\"

This local keyboard API is meant to send a signal to a single zone or key, so it's hacky of me (and them, really) to make 100+ REST calls to color the whole keyboard. But, it's a localhost call and it's not that spendy. This will go away when I move to their new API. Here's a video of it working.

You can also hit the volume button on the keyboard an any "signaled" (lit up) key and get a popup with the actual blood sugar value (that's 'message' in the second curl command above). Again, this is a hack but I'm going to make it a formal applet you can just install from the store. If you want to help (I'm slow) head to the code here https://github.com/shanselman/DasKeyboard-Q-NightScout

What are some other good ideas for ambient sugar alerts? An LCD strip around the monitor (bias lighting)? A Phillips Hue smart light?

Consider also that you could use the glanceable display idea for pulse, anxiety, blood pressure - anything in your body you could hook up to in real- or near-realtime.

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider with Code Vision, Rename Project refactoring, and the Assembly Explorer. Improved support for C#, VB.NET, F#, TypeScript, and Angular is all included.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

About   Newsletter

Hosting By

Back in the day, making a Minecraft mod was...challenging. It was a series of JAR files and Java hacks and deep folder structures. It was possible, but it wasn't fun and it surely wasn't easy. I wanted to revisit things now that Minecraft is easily installed from the Windows Store.

Today, it couldn't be easier to make a Minecraft Mod, so I know what my kids and I are doing tonight!

I headed over to https://minecraft.makecode.com/setup/minecraft-windows10 and followed the instructions. I already have Minecraft installed, so I just had to install the Minecraft Code Connection app. The architecture here is very clean and clever. Basically you turn on cheats in Minecraft and use a local websockets connection between the Code Connection app and Minecraft - you're automating Minecraft from an external application!

Here I'm turning on cheats in a new Miencraft world:

Then from the Code Connection app, I get a URL for the automation server, then go back to Minecraft, hit "t" and paste it in the URL. Now the two apps are talking to each other.

I can automate with MakeCode, Scratch, or other editors. I'll do MakeCode.

Then an editor opens. This is the same base open source Make Code editor I used when I was coding for an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express earlier this year.

Now, I'll setup a chat command in Make Code that makes it rain chickens when I type the chat command "chicken." It runs a loop and spawns 100 chickens 10 blocks above my character's head.

I was really surprised how easy this was. It was maybe 10 mins end to end, which is WAY easier than the Java add-ins I learned about just a few years ago.

There are a ton of tutorials here, including Chicken Rain. https://minecraft.makecode.com/tutorials

The one I'm most excited to show my kids is the Agent. Your connection to the remote Code Connection app includes an avatar or "agent." Just like Logo (remember that, robot turtles?) you can control your agent and make him build stuff. No more tedious house building for us! Let's for-loop our way to glory and teach dude how to make us a castle!

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider with Code Vision, Rename Project refactoring, and the Assembly Explorer. Improved support for C#, VB.NET, F#, TypeScript, and Angular is all included.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

About   Newsletter

Hosting By

I've been using ILMerge and various hacks to merge/squish executables together for well over 12 years. The .NET community has long toyed with the idea of a single self-contained EXE that would "just work." No need to copy a folder, no need to install anything. Just a single EXE.

While work and thought continues on a CoreCLR Single File EXE solution, there's a nice Rust tool called Warp that creates self-contained single executables. Warp is cross-platform, works on any tech, and is very clever

The Warp Packer app has a slightly complex command line, like this:

.\warp-packer --arch windows-x64 --input_dir bin/Release/netcoreapp2.1/win10-x64/publish --exec myapp.exe --output myapp.exe

Fortunately Hubert Rybak has created a very nice "dotnet-warp" global tool that wraps this all up into a single command, dotnet-warp.

All you have to do is this:

C:\supertestweb> dotnet tool install -g dotnet-warp
C:\supertestweb> dotnet-warp
O Running Publish...
O Running Pack...

In this example, I just took a Razor web app with "dotnet new razor" and then packed it up with this tool using Warp packer. Now I've got a 40 meg self-contained app. I don't need to install anything, it just works.

C:\supertestweb> dir
    Directory: C:\supertestweb

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----         2/6/2019   9:14 AM                bin
d-----         2/6/2019   9:14 AM                obj
d-----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM                Pages
d-----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM                Properties
d-----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM                wwwroot
-a----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM            146 appsettings.Development.json
-a----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM            157 appsettings.json
-a----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM            767 Program.cs
-a----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM           2115 Startup.cs
-a----         2/6/2019   9:13 AM            294 supertestweb.csproj
-a----         2/6/2019   9:15 AM       40982879 supertestweb.exe

Now here's what it gets interesting. Let's say I have a console app. Hello World, packed with Warp, ends up being about 35 megs. But if I use the "dotnet-warp -l aggressive" the tool will add the Mono ILLinker (tree shaker/trimmer) and shake off all the methods that aren't needed. The resulting single executable? Just 9 megs compressed (20 uncompressed).

C:\squishedapp> dotnet-warp -l aggressive
O Running AddLinkerPackage...
O Running Publish...
O Running Pack...
O Running RemoveLinkerPackage...
C:\squishedapp> dir
Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----         2/6/2019   9:32 AM                bin
d-----         2/6/2019   9:32 AM                obj
-a----         2/6/2019   9:31 AM             47 global.json
-a----         2/6/2019   9:31 AM            193 Program.cs
-a----         2/6/2019   9:32 AM            178 squishedapp.csproj
-a----         2/6/2019   9:32 AM        9116643 squishedapp.exe

Here is where you come in!

NOTE: The .NET team has planned to have a "single EXE" supported packing solution built into .NET 3.0. There's a lot of ways to do this. Do you zip it all up with a header/unzipper? Well, that would hit the disk a lot and be messy. Do you "unzip" into memory? Do you merge into a single assembly? Or do you try to AoT (Ahead of Time) compile and do as much work as possible before you merge things? Is a small size more important than speed?

What do you think? How should a built-in feature like this work and what would YOU focus on?

Sponsor: Check out Seq 5 for real-time diagnostics from ASP.NET Core and Serilog, now with faster queries, support for Docker on Linux, and beautiful new dark and light themes.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

About   Newsletter

Hosting By

"The National Museum of Computing is a museum in the United Kingdom dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is based in rented premises at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and opened in 2007" and I was able to visit it today with my buddies Damian and David. It was absolutely brilliant.

I'd encourage you to have a listen to my 2015 podcast with Dr. Sue Black who used social media to raise awareness of the state of Bletchley Park and help return the site to solvency.

The National Museum of Computing is a must-see if you are ever in the UK. It was a short 30ish minute train ride up from London. We spent the whole afternoon there.

There is a rebuild of the Colossus, the the world's first electronic computer. It had a single purpose: to help decipher the Lorenz-encrypted (Tunny) messages between Hitler and his generals during World War II. The Colossus Gallery housing the rebuild of Colossus tells that remarkable story.

We saw the Turing-Welchman Bombe machine, an electro-mechanical device used to break Enigma-enciphered messages about enemy military operations during the Second World War. They offer guided tours (recommended as the volunteers have encyclopedic knowledge) and we were able to encrypt a message with the German Enigma (there's a 90 second video I made, here) and decrypt it with the Bombe, which is effectively 12 Enigmas working in parallel, backwards.

It's worth noting - this from their website - that the first Bombe, named Victory, started code-breaking on Bletchley Park on 14 March 1940 and by the end of the war almost 1676 female WRNS and 263 male RAF personnel were involved in the deployment of 211 Bombe machines. The museum has a working reconstructed Bombe.

I wanted to understand the computing power these systems had then, and now. Check out the website where you can learn about the OctaPi - a Raspberry Pi array of eight Pis working together to brute-force Enigma. You can make your own here!

I hope you enjoy these pics and videos and I hope you one day get to enjoy the history and technology in and around Bletchley Park.

Sponsor: Check out Seq 5 for real-time diagnostics from ASP.NET Core and Serilog, now with faster queries, support for Docker on Linux, and beautiful new dark and light themes.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

About   Newsletter

Hosting By