Sam the Techie Blog

Thom Yorke at UBS xmas party

2011-12-06T21:42:00.001Z

Win

Crowdsourcing versus containment: a Sukey development workshop

2011-12-05T15:01:00.002Z

Crowdsourcing versus containment: a Sukey development workshop

Monday, 5 December 2011 from 18:30 to 21:00 (GMT)

London, United Kingdom

Free Event: Crowdsourcing versus containment: a #Sukey development workshop 6:30pm #Goldsmiths Register:http://bit.ly/stt_lecture #occupy #ftw

Under the guise of giving a workshop the university is actually just paying for an extended training session for me to get loads more students who are techies involved in the occupy movement *evil laugh*

How to prevent your WLAN being 'low hanging fruit' for the script kiddie next door

2011-08-22T00:33:00.003+01:00

Stop using memorable WPA-PSK passphrases! For god sake the computer even saves them for you. There are really large rainbow tables out there that have precomputed hashes for most common passphrases. If you don't heed this warning then watch this and carry on with your life somewhere far away from any wireless network that I have to use.

The minimum number of characters for a WPA-PSK passphrase is 8. The maximum is 63. Very few users actually use more than about 20 characters. As well, they also choose known words and phrases, likely to be in a dictionary. This means that rainbow tables are likely to be effective in cracking the network relatively quickly.

To get decent protection from WPA-PSK, you should use a very long, very random, alphanumeric string longer than 20 characters. To protect yourself further, particularly against the WPA-PSK hashtables, you should use a SSID not on the top 1000 list (another very long, very random, alphanumeric string would be ideal). Failing that an original 32 character passive aggressive message to your neighbours works nicely e.g. "NiceBudgieSmugglersDouchefag" This will force the attacker to compute their own list, rather than use one of the tables.

Ideally, one should be using WPA2 with a radius server to get more reliable protection.

source (adapted from): http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?showtopic=12708

Ubuntu desktop colour switching behind a transparent wallpaper.

2011-01-30T20:33:00.005Z

A fun little idea I had when I saw a transparent background on deviant art: Why not auto-rotate colours behind a transparent background? I am certain the idea is not original but I wanted to work out how to do it. Here it is:

gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/primary_color orange;

So far most common colours work: {red, blue, white, orange, grey, green, yellow, purple}

Enable a transparent wallpaper.

Here is the result:

LHS Workshop Upgrade :D

2010-11-11T17:48:00.005Z

So as a Tuesday social turned into late-night hackery at 2am on Wednesday... a few of us spontaneously decided to upgrade the workshop, we hope you like it. :D

I suppose the only way of summing up what we were aiming for was, "a place for everything and everything in it's place". By Wednesday evening we accomplished the following:

installed a tool board from an old metal-framed bed (see picture).
installed shelving for power tools.
reorganised the wood store.
printed some PLA coat hooks on the makerbot and made a rack for labcoats.
generally tidied the workshop.

We are really hoping that you guys like what we did and invite anyone that is good at woodwork to make and install new mounting plates and boards for the remaining tools that have not been mounted yet and are homeless! You can find them in a clear plastic box below the new tool rack.

Special thanks to Billy, Matthew Gaffen, Kaloyan Palatov.

Thanks to others that leant a hand moving stuff, taking photos and keeping morale high with choice banter.

LHS ftw

Saturday Night in East Berlin (Kreuzberg)

2010-09-18T21:06:00.006+01:00

I have been walking around Kreuzberg late this evening to take in the atmosphere and see what's going on. I found a theatre group doing some kind of outdoor tour with headphones at Mehringplatz, 10969 Berlin. I kept walking around until I stumbled across checkpoint charlie and then I started prowling for a coffee shop. I headed to a place called Jazz-Cafe Junctionbar. The atmosphere in here is really nice so I am just chilling here having a couple of coffees. It is open until late (it opens at 17:00 and closes at 02:00). I could really do with finding somewhere like this in London.

Also I had a chat with some guys from C-Base (a hackspace in Berlin) on IRC and I arranged a meeting for Monday at noon. I am looking forward to going over and having a look around to see what they get up to.

Just going to enjoy my second coffee and then maybe head back home for an early start tomorrow. More exploring to do!

Just been doing some research about the area, it seems that Kreuzberg has one of the youngest populations of all European city boroughs. Statistically, its population has been swapped completely twice in the last two decades. It really shows and it has a really young, fresh, arty vibe about it. I wanted to find out why. Wikipedia tells me that after World War II, Kreuzberg's housing rents were regulated by law which made investments unattractive. As a result, housing was of low quality, but cheap, which made the borough a prime target for immigrants coming to Germany (and Berlin). So in the late 1960s, increasing numbers of students, artists, and immigrants began moving to Kreuzberg. From the cafe in which I am sitting at the moment it really shows. The cafe is alive with conversation and people laughing and drinking and I have scarcely seen a person over 30 in the last few hours.

SSH peeping through the little cracks in the Great Firewall

2010-08-03T17:12:00.002+01:00

One of the HPAMakers has gone to China for a couple of months. We don't tolerate internet filtering. In fact we hate it- they even block facebook :'(

So we decided to help him peep through the cracks of the great firewall. We tried Tor onion router. No go. We tried PHP proxies. No go. etc...

I lost patience at this point and gave him a locked down SSH account on our server and we just tunneled the web and IM traffic through it so he could enjoy tasty unfiltered internet just like they make it back home.

Server: Ubuntu Lucid OpenSSH

Client: Windows XP, putty + firefox portable

Here is a guide that should show you how get the same system working: howto

1. The basic idea was to setup a local SOCKSv5 proxy from putty(tunnels menu), settings: port 7071, dynamic, auto

Since we chose port 7071 so the proxy will run on the client as: 127.0.0.1:7071.

When the SSH connection is made serverip:port, the tunnels are created dynamically and hey presto we have unfiltered internet. Speedtest from lhopki01's end indicates he is getting about

2. Then tell firefox et al. to use proxy server 127.0.0.1 and port 7071.

Then you think: hey great I am done. This all makes sense I can get blocked pages up woohoo. Then you realise that the Chinese govenment have been poisoning and changing DNS records. So you shout: what the f^&"*"£ hell are they playing at!?!

Then you take the final step to make sure the DNS lookups happen back home too: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20100121_how_to_access_twitter_and_facebo

ok_in_china.htm

3. In Firefox, enter "about:config" into the address bar (Yes, it is a strange URL, just in the location where you typically would enter http://....) After click "I'll be careful. I promise" button, you will see a long list of configuration options started with Filter input box.
Enter "network.proxy.socks_remote_dns" (without quotation marks) into the Filter input box, and you will see a line with network.proxy.socks_remote_dns as Preference Name appears. Double click it so the Value field changes from False to True (and you will also notice the line becomes bold).

Molin A0 Architects Drawing Board

2010-06-15T02:21:00.007+01:00

Just found a beautiful A0 architects drawing board. I cannot wait to get my first large schemaitc prinout up there for inspection.

Specs as follows.

Molin A0 Architects Drawing Board

Width:1270mm

Height: 920mm

Parallel Motion Ruler

Adjustable Height

Adjustable Tilt

Foldable

Durham University Solar Car

2010-06-08T13:58:00.002+01:00

Well done guys!

26-pop-up-hackerspace

2010-05-27T18:31:00.005+01:00

Could this be our future? Discuss.

Check out HPAMAKERS\#26-pop-up-hackerspace for 3d models and other files.

*Cover*

Gazebo (provide shade, bit of rain protection)

*Instrumentation*

USB Oscilloscope

USB Microscope

Multimeter

*Computing*

Laptops (Ebooks, CAD, ECAD, Programming, Excel, Music etc)

*Networking*

Low power router: Internet Dongle/Wireless Tether (g1?)

*Electronics*

Parts Drawer

Soldering Iron

*Power*

Several Large Battery Packs (vis. Kal's)

21-IET-mindstorms-competition

2010-05-27T18:26:00.003+01:00

Post up photos, code, prize info, ideas etc...

Why Repeal sections 11-18 of the Digital Economy Act?

2010-05-22T16:09:00.005+01:00

Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to my local MP. You should do the same!

Ask your MP to repeal the act!

Dear Mr Dowd,

please find enclosed web links to the results of independent security research that I have conducted into some of the issues I raise in this communication. Also please ensure you are up-to-speed with the technical aspects of the issues raised and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me for clarification or explanation.

My intention is to inform and ensure that you are fully aware of the ramifications of this bill to our constituency and the importance with which I personally regard this issue.

You are probably aware that the Digital Economy Bill was rushed through the last Parliament on 8 April during the so-called "washing up" phase without giving MPs the chance to scrutinize this complex and controversial piece of legislation. We live in the information age and the issues raised by this legislation go right to the heart of our development as a digital society in this new age and, in so doing, demand appropriate consideration.

I believe that the Act has very serious flaws, one of which is the provision to disconnect citizens from the internet which I believe to be a fundamental breach of human rights. Our society relies and will increasingly rely on the internet as a gateway to services, both public and private, goods, information and education. It can be argued that the internet has now become of critical importance, especially those members of our community that are vulnerable, frail, disabled or otherwise disadvantaged for activities ranging from working from home, keeping in touch with loved ones, managing bills or just doing the weekly shopping.

The Act allows the implementation of the 'three strikes' provision that could see families being disconnected from the internet for a minor civil offence, infringement of copyright. Furthermore, the Act holds the account holder liable, not the infringer. As a result people could have their work or education disrupted through no fault of their own. What about the case where the infringer, without the consent of the account holder, gains access and makes use of the account holder's internet connection through an unencrypted wireless network? I believe that around 12% of your constituents are currently exposed to this scenario based on data that I have collected (a passive wireless site survey of 317 networks). Should the account holder be disconnected because of their failure to fulfil their role to enforce the correct security scheme on their wireless router or enforce their own wireless network security policies? In what setting or on what occasion has the government helped or attempted to educate the wider public about this issue? Why should the general ignorance of the public on this matter be punished in this way.

I have conducted my own wireless site survey of my local area which took me about an hour, the results of which can be downloaded in google earth KML data form here: http://samthetechie.org/files/se23_wireless_survey.kml

Screenshot:

Please open this 'KML file' with google earth software to allow you to see the distribution of the wireless networks which are at risk: http://earth.google.co.uk/

The wireless networks in red are unencrypted and those in green are encrypted. You can see how widespread the problem is by the ratio of red to green dots (please zoom in and pan around to ensure that you see the full dataset). 317 wireless networks were surveyed of which 38 were found to be entirely unencrypted and no doubt many of the remaining 279 encrypted networks will be 'cryptographically weak' because they employ the WEP scheme; which is ‘easily crackable’. I am a fully trained electronic engineer (recently graduated from Durham University) and an independent network security consultant so please take it from me, if an individual really wants to get into your wireless network then not a lot can stop them, no matter what security scheme you use.

By unnecessarily criminalising and penalising the use of the internet in this way we will see a rise in the incidence of home network security cracking and invasion by people that have been disconnected or people attempting to evade their own disconnection.

The tools for wireless hacking are widely available and well known about, please go have a look:

http://sectools.org/wireless.html

http://www.aircrack-ng.org/

Please do not be mistaken about why these tools exist. These tools have been developed and popularised by technical enthusiasts, white-hat hackers, academics, computer experts and programmers from all walks of life in the hope that industry will address the underlying failure of the available wireless encryption schemes (WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc...)to provide adequate protection to all of our home networks. Also please do not be mistaken and the effectiveness of the governments proposed solution to the problem. They are only raising the technical barrier by a very small amount so the resulting fallout will be that families are disconnected rather than tackling illegal downloading. Computer experts have already innovated around the detection schemes which will be at the governments disposal. The technical community knows how to avoid detection and how to achieve plausible deniablity. So in the same way that all other technical arms-races have panned out (just think about 'viruses and spyware' against the 'security industry') the establishment or 'the authority' of the day has already lost.

This is a VITAL issue for me as my civil rights are threatened by this law!

I would greatly appreciate a meeting with you or a personal email or written response to this letter.

Yours Sincerely, Samuel Carlisle BEng (Hons) Dunelm MRI

25-hpamakers-reprap

2010-05-17T21:54:00.012+01:00

Calling HPAMAKERS,

we have ordered the electronics. Things are moving!

We are compiling information to make our reprap:

Wiki: http://hpamakers.co.uk/index.php?title=25-hpamakers-reprap

Links: http://delicious.com/samthetechie/%2325

Document: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtPlyIZQV2PIdHRjY3VCejhXNThyMHdSa1R4N2owN1E&hl=en_GB

If you do not have access but would like to get involved then get in touch.

samthetechie
-- Can't stop the signal.

Oh what a cracking weekend lies ahead!

2010-04-23T14:59:00.005+01:00

#BBC #digin

It is a lovely sunny friday and I am working from home. No rushing around or commuting, tea and toast in the garden and generally chillaxing. La vie est belle. What better day could my seed pack from BBC dig in have arrived? I have just finished watering the garden and having a poke around trying to figure out where I am going to put all the vegetables once they are ready to go outside.

Summary of reasons to be happy:

-Friend staying the weekend.

-Seeds have arrived.

-New G1 Phone =)

-Beautiful weather.

-Fun webdesign project nearly finished.

-New IT support contract.

-New Intranet and collaboration development project.

-New website maintenance and development contract.

So for now I have a friend coming to stay from Sheffield and some fun webdesign work to do. Have a nice day wherever you are!

Sam the Techie FTW.

Google Wave Brainstorm Tips

2010-04-23T02:46:00.002+01:00

Some rules of brainstorming
Defer judgement: Don’t dismiss any ideas. Nothing can kill the spirit of a brainstorm quicker. You can even delete negative feedback.
Encourage wild ideas: The whole point of brainstorming is to come up with new and creative ideas
Combine and improve ideas: No “buts”, only “ands.”
Go for quantity: Aim for as many new ideas as possible. Defer judgement: Don’t dismiss any ideas. Nothing can kill the spirit of a brainstorm quicker. You can even delete negative feedback.Encourage wild ideas: The whole point of brainstorming is to come up with new and creative ideasCombine and improve ideas: No “buts”, only “ands.”Go for quantity: Aim for as many new ideas as possible. "

Epic Win for Ipod Hackers

2010-04-22T15:43:00.000+01:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7085

[Linux] Do you Ubuntu? LiveCD Howto

2010-04-20T02:40:00.002+01:00

Ubuntu has grown from strength to strength over the years and linux is fast becoming, if not already, a viable alternative to windows or mac for the average user.

How do you spend most of your time on the computer?
89% Facebook/Social Media, 7% Email/Chat, 3.7% Browsing and 0.3% Excel/Word/Powerpoint... Linux can do that.

Tinkerers should not be Linux haters.
Hack away! Just don't fail. That having been said, if you like to hack and tinker then your Linux system is going to need some extra love when you have borked it. Hackers and tinkerers you have been warned- no names *cough* Ro, Kal, Phil.

Linux?
If you are interested in Linux but have not yet given it a go then now might be a good time to head on over to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and have a look.

Live CD
The live cd feature boots Ubuntu on your laptop or desktop without having to install over your current OS.

1. Following steps 1&2 on this page to download and burn linux to disc:http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
2. Ensure BIOS is set to boot from CD as the first entry otherwise the CD will not be checked before your OS is booted.
3. Insert the disc and on the ubuntu boot menu, select "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".
4. Enjoy.
Note: Although a LiveCD session is a good way to demo Ubuntu without making changes to a machine, a LiveCD will always be slower than a proper installion that runs directly from a hard-drive (because a CD will always be physically slower than a hard drive). LiveCD sessions are good for:
-a quick 'demo' on a machine before installing/upgrading Ubuntu
-checking if the hardware works as expected
-seeing if you like the look & feel of the distro

More info on LiveCD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Summary

Pro's
------
Linux is far more secure than windows.
Linux is free: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download/

Con's
------
It needs a little bit of love to get going properly but then so do all computers.

Any questions or comments? Give me a shout.
Sam

22-simple-raised-bed

2010-04-02T14:14:00.008+01:00

Take some old Pallets + unused space + soil + seeds = raised bed!

Materials Needed:
Soil, Volume (m^3) = Area of raised bed (m^2) x Depth of bed (m)
Wooden Planks
Wooden Pegs

The most practical design I know is:
1. Put a plank of wood (ripped off the old pallet) long side along the ground like standing on its edge.
2. then you put pegs either side to hold it upright
3. then fill with soil.

looks good, works great
takes like 2 hours tops

Old Pallets: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/Mr8m5VJ_5-aaJSAzQwsnXQ?feat=directlink
Proposed Site: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/AZd9OLyNTSu1dwrLYpD8PA?feat=directlink

CFLs are fine in my hallway after all!

2010-03-01T12:42:00.002Z

You may also have heard that CFLs use a lot of energy when turning on and off. While there is a brief surge in energy use when a CFL is turned on, with today's starting technology, that surge usually lasts about a tenth of a second and consumes about as much energy as five seconds of normal operation. So, even when turned on and off frequently, a CFL uses less energy than its incandescent equivalent. But because turning a CFL on and off more frequently can shorten its life and CFLs are more expensive than incandescents, we recommend consumers use CFLs in applications where they are on for at least fifteen minutes.

Source: http://energystar.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energystar.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2569

How to Reuse Toilet Paper Rolls to Start Seeds | eHow.com

2010-03-01T12:35:00.001Z

Just made 6 or so of these from old toilet roll. Now...what to plant?
How to Reuse Toilet Paper Rolls to Start Seeds | eHow.com

Sachsenhausen Day Trip

2010-01-26T16:15:00.003Z

Two friends and I took a day trip to Sachsenhausen on our recent holiday to Berlin. It was, to say the least, a chilling and sobering experience.
It was also quite a random day. My friend found a digital camera on the floor, we ended up in an over 25's Lonely hearts night at a club (in a large old church) and I saw this on the way to the camp:

When dealing with evil random computer logic...do something equally random and evil

2010-01-26T14:52:00.005Z

Here are a few of pearls of wisdom derived from many years experience in repairing computers. When a laptop, hard drive or AC adaptor is being a pain in the a** here are a few seemingly random options to keep up your sleeve:

"The freezer routine"
-For HDDs: Pre-freeze your hard drive to recover data (when you get that clicking noise).
-For Laptops and Chargers: Reset any 'Temperature Cut Off' (TCO) device or Thermal Fuse this should allow the device to function normally.

and

"Clearing the internal static charge"
-For Laptops: Take out the battery and unplug the AC power supply. Then hold the power on switch for 60 seconds. Then put the battery back in and/or connect the power supply. All better?

Some old college emails

2010-01-25T23:40:00.005Z

A couple of excerpts from old college emails:

1.

Could the Colleges circulate to students requesting the
return of the dummy Heron removed from the pond on the Science site. We have some excellent CCTV footage of this and would rather have it returned to it's location than take the matter further.

While we all accept that lighthearted pranks and banter are expected at the start of term, things are beginning to get out of control. Serious incidents have occurred at both Chads and Castle this weekend which put at risk the right of all our members to visit these bars.In addition, the abuse of Hatfield students including singing anti-Hatfield songs in the wee small hours of the morning has got out of control as has general noise along the Bailey on the way into town.There have also been complaints about noise very late at night in Brooks. You are reminded that "trophying" is not condoned by the Society and if it does happen, it is tradition that if the trophied item has any monetary or significant sentimental value it should be returned to the college concerned, via the Society President if preferred. To start with, the tiger from Castle's Bar must be returned before Wednesday to avoid futher action.

Collaboratively-Edited mindmap

2009-12-15T15:55:00.002Z

This mindmap was for getting our collaborative workspace up and running! http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=7baad7e7-f745-44d4-8ff3-fcedd6288b83

Programming @ 1am

2009-11-27T00:49:00.003Z

Programming at 1am with a tasty beverage.

Feedback from Facebook, SMS and Email

2009-11-23T23:45:00.002Z

FEEDBACK: Jesper
Hi Sam
Extreme well utilization of space! Basing my feedback on the pictures, I have not seen the room :)
Now you just need more flexibility.

Fixed tables - Reserve fixed setup tables in one corner for stationary computers.

Flexible tables - Eliminate fixed long table plate - replace with movable tables.

Increased flexibility, - for presentations/meetings.

Tall table - Consider 1 x tall table, for working standing/speaking/new seating position, possibly w bar stoles.

Floor - agree w laminate, better for office chairs, light wood.

Wall-mounting - wall-mount as much as possible, gives more space.

Paint and wall paint - high-gloss white, reflects light, gives feeling of more space.

Paint stairs white.

Pipes etc - paint them colorfully to integrate them in the design of the room. (saw this done at a basment office).

Lighting - mix of fluorescent lights (artificial white) and desk lamps (pleasant light) at work stations.

Talk to you soon!
Cheers,Jesper

FEEDBACK: Jonathan
I havnt looked yet,
but we need maps, lots of maps! Cnt have an evil basement lair withovt maps!

FEEDBACK: Kaloyan.
Ok a few preliminary points.
Don't we want the largest table in the middle?
Like a kind of conference table? I like that better than it being a small table in the middle.
Secondly I think that 1meter is a bit deep for a pc work station desk. Though at least one wall with a desk could be good for bigger projects. Oh and you forgot the reprap in there :p otherwise I am amazed! You Rock.

FEEDBACK: Natasha
Hiya, I think you're gonna feel very crampt in there.
I would keep the table in the middle as looking at each other while gaming is more funny than sitting side by side and lose some desks on the wall. I don't think it's necessary to have all that along the walls.
I think shelving would be more beneficial to keep a group dvd/game collection in and hide away any spare btis and bobs. Storage is always useful.
I think you've got ample desk space with just 2 walls being deskededdeddd. Tx

20-very-low-powered-messaging-service

2009-11-04T17:51:00.006Z

UPDATE: upon reflection, I could actually just hack an Classic 4 prototype from work to do all of the storage (it has some flash memory) and message writing (using keypads) and sending (would be done over serial link to the arduino / radio transceiver rig)! Note: there is also a wifi link for internal communications.
Another idea about shorter range personal messaging over the 805.14 link.

This is a slightly edited re-post of a comment I left on Kal's Blog: http://www.invaderzone.com/

What do we understand by the term: 'off grid'? I reckon it means:
-no power grid
-no mobile phone service/signal
-no telephone service
-no internet

I think we should have a backbone of communication that does not rely on Internet i.e. a radio based network so we could, say, send data over radio links. I suppose this would be very useful if the internet or mobile phone networks went down or just generally for fun!

#20-very-low-powered-messaging-service

It would send things like SMS messages over standard radio links using minimal power. So the first thing to say is that means we probably wont use a desktop/laptop because they are power guzzling beasts.

I reckon the minimum hardware needed to do the job is as follows.

Core Specification:
1 x arduino
1 x storage card e.g. SD
1 x radio transceiver
1 x hacked ps2 keyboard
1 x small LCD screen
1 x solar panel
1 x battery bank

this would give the basic hardware platform to send and receive and store messages completely 'off grid'.

optional specification:
1 x ethernet shield for arduino

this could allow a full webserver to be run on the system. Now that would be interesting!
e.g.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boolean/3399075841/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boolean/3399886646/in/photostream/

There are several conflicting goals when sending data over a radio link like this: reliability, processing, modulation techniques, security and efficiency etc.

The ideal outcome would be twofish / blowfish / some equally insane encryption on a 100% reliable link which consumes the least amount of power possible. Well this is just not going to happen- firstly, it is virtually impossible and would take an absolute genius if not a team of geniuses to pull off. So I think we should have a more modest initial goal:

Get the link working (unsecured, not optimised for low power)

Later development would consider the following issues:

Issue 1:
The system is powered on all the time?

Solution 1:
Scheduled communication.

Issue 2:
Time synchronisation between transceivers.

Solution 2:
Send SYNC packets between the transceivers.
Most watch crystals drift at 20us/second so we could use that as a starting point to work out the optimal sync period.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T17:08:00.001Z

Happy Halloween

Internet on Netbook via Bluetooth PAN + O2 Unlimited Web bolt-on

2009-10-30T21:33:00.009Z

This actually runs quite well. A very nice way to use the internet bolt-on provided with my O2 monthly contract.

19-hpa-makers

2009-10-28T10:17:00.006Z

This is my first post on HPA Makers,
please have a look at this new webpage:

http://www.samthetechie.com/index.php?id=HPA_Makers

Twitter + Delicious project tag:

#hpamakers

--
Can't Stop the Signal

18-wifi-pineapple

2009-10-13T12:47:00.007+01:00

I am now certain I need to get a free weekend for some router hacking.

FTDI Bitbang

2009-10-11T14:56:00.001+01:00

Have a look at this great article from Hackaday:

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/22/introduction-to-ftdi-bitbang-mode/

This is certainly going to be a mandatory purchase for the lab.

Oh crap

2009-10-05T22:27:00.002+01:00

Dammit Kal!

Party time!

2009-10-04T15:05:00.001+01:00

Yay it worked.

Blogger test

2009-10-04T15:02:00.001+01:00

Testing the private email from my mobile to Blogger.

Test123

2009-10-04T14:46:00.002+01:00

Testing phone 'Blog this' feature on Sony K610i. It uses MMS.

Redesign

2009-09-23T02:24:00.001+01:00

Time for a redesign of samthetechie.com

Watch this space...

Google Business Centre Message

2009-09-22T20:54:00.001+01:00

This is quite an amusing reflection on the difference between engineers and 'communication people' from a recent status message on the google business centre.

The Google Local Business Center is unavailable for the next hour
We appreciate your patience as we perform some routine system maintenance.

More specifically, we're updating 'the backend' (to employ that catchy, catchall moniker coined and lent to us by engineering folks who work on all of the technical fiddly bits behind the scenes but know we communications folks can't very well say 'We're updating all of the technical fiddly bits behind the scenes' and expect you, an enlightened Google user, to take us seriously or at least not wonder aloud ' Wait, what sort of bits were those again?').

So please check back in sixty minutes. Maybe less, considering the time you've invested in deciphering this message.

17-wiimote-smartboard

2009-06-19T14:12:00.008+01:00

I think that the following project by Johnny Lee from Carnegie Mellon University is fantastic and is really making waves in education, with makers, hackers, and general techies.
Latest: made a couple of infrared LED pens for my friend Jesper in Sonderborg (Denmark). It was fun to borrow some labspace at the university for an afternoon.

16-google-wave-brainstorm

2009-06-08T00:02:00.007+01:00

I have just finished watching: Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009
I would like to see more use of google wave as a tool to create 'infospaces' in real-time. So I am going to attempt to tweak the platform to optimise the initial layout of a wave to help structure the contributions a bit and add some intelligent behaviour to facilitate the dynamic presentation of resources (such as links, talking and research points/focuses/ideas) during the session.
For example, I would love to see a dynamic delicious tag cloud as links are added during the session. This would be a fantastically productive way of holding a meeting? I will need some people to test this out with so please get in touch! It is my hope that this project will be the key to all of the others. I think that once you truly 'crack' real-time collaboration and combine it with brainstorming and discussion, you have a powerful design and research technique/process. I think this could help make rapid progress on all of the projects.

My original inspiration for this capability was a New Scientist article I read a few years back. This is the bit that really caught my attention:

We have our wireless computers augmented by video cameras, projectors, and conferencing to remote participants as necessary.

Whenever a topic emerges in the course of conversation, the students instantly google it and introduce any interesting results into the discussion. As we accumulate data, references, web links, ideas, sketches, computer-aided design models, and other relevant material, we record it in a blog-like website that represents our small community's evolving, intellectual capital. The blog is accessible to any of us, at any time, from anywhere in the world.

This sort of creative practice may not seem very disciplined. It may even horrify those who think of teaching as the structured, authoritative dispensation of knowledge. But it is thrillingly intense and it enables us to make astonishingly rapid progress. It works, and I bet that this style of collaborative teaching will catch on.

source: Higher learning, the Wi-Fi way

I am so tempted to call it: 'brainwave'? Is that really lame?

LED Lighting for the home

2009-06-07T13:04:00.003+01:00

I have recently been taking an interest in LED lighting. I am going to order some GU10 LED spotlights and evaluate them over the coming week. This is the kind of performance that can be expected:

In 2008, SSL technology advanced to the point that Sntry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wis. was able to light its new factory almost entirely with LEDs, both interior and exterior. Although the initial cost was three times more than a traditional mixture of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, the extra cost will be repaid within two years from electricity savings, and the bulbs should not need replacement for 20 years.[1]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_lamp

If it goes well I will look into getting LED lighting for the whole house!

15-collaborative-gardening

2009-06-07T01:56:00.007+01:00

Aim: A platform to allow gardeners to share data and knowledge about cropping times, local conditions etc in an attempt to monitor and optimise food cultivation processes and techniques.

What?
Composting (green and brown waste)
Water Butt (n.b. modify design to allow draining --> prevent stagnation)
Veggie plot plant info packs per vegetable.
Freecycle element: i.e. give away free cuttings, clippings, excess cropped veg or fruit (Wanted, Offered etc.)
Surveying (trundle wheel, camera)
Google Sketchup

Here is an awesome email from Tasha which will really help kick started the garden project.

Ok so here it is!

This is pretty much as far as I can go with your garden. Below is a list of "beds" these "beds" are comprised of plants which get on well together. It is up to you where you place the beds in your garden. As general rules I would advise no straight lines/borders just create soft curved lines that allow the plants to be placed together and also so you can reach the middle of the bed at any given point. During the winter the only preparation I would do is clear that right hand corner a bit so you can use that raised bed and then cover all the areas you plan on using with mulch and cardboard to keep it warm and help kill off any weeds you don't want over winter. Then when you come to plant you just cut holes in the mulch/cardboard and work straight in. I've read that people are finding they get greater yields leaving the soil in tact for many reasons yet to be fully understood by modern science.

Beds:
1. Nasturtium and Courgette; the nastrutium creeps and traps aphids, attracts predatory insects and helps curcurbits. (I think this would be good in the raised bed so the nasturtium dosn't get completely out of control (also you can eat all of the nasturtium plant)
2. Peppermint and Broccolli; the smell of peppermint repels cabbage fliesand slugs
3. Carrot, onion, lettuce and coriander; onion will deter carrot fly and repel slugs and corianders smell will help repel carrot fly
4. Potato, tomato, basil, parsley, oregano, mint; oregano provides ground cover, basil is said to make tomatoes taste better and mint repels slugs
5. Pea and Garlic; garlic deters rabbits, slugs, aphids, carrot fly and cabbage worms (sounds good)
6. Rosemary, sage, thyme and tarrago; sage deters cabbage fly, aromatic herbs deter slugs, spiky textures do as well (these could be put near the house for cooking convience or put at random in amongst the beds I guess)
7. Pakchoi, spinach, watercress and borage; borage is a magick bullet in companion planting it's said to improve any plant yield
Yarrow increases the essential oil production of some herbs and can be used as a compost enricher (plant all around the garden)
Marigold produces natural pesticidal in its roots and lasts for years in the soil even once the plant has died (again plant everywhere)

I would try to grow everything from seed in compost pots then put the pots straight in the ground when they are big ennough. Tell me what you think for some direction and we can go from there. We need to sort out how you will get mulch, composting, water supply. Also there are tonns of things we could do in the garden to help make the house more efficient. Oh, in terms of design I thought it would be nice if you made the arch trail with something and put a seat in it. I do have a very rough sketch of a plan but I don't have a scanner, so not much use sorry.

Tasha x

p.s. watercress likes water, thought of having a small water feature? If not you can always dig a small trough for it to be planted in so the water collects there.

14-home-automation-modules

2009-06-07T01:50:00.003+01:00

Aim: achieve a basic level of home automation by having a low-power sub-system being able to switch more energy intensive systems on and off.

Development Milestones

1st: digitally controlled relay
2nd: serial port control
3rd: wireless control
4th: web interface

13-318-house-web

2009-06-07T00:14:00.007+01:00

Aim: This project aims to pull together the requisite information, hardware and software to make a web-based intranet and information point for my home.

What?

Weather: int / ext temperature, forecast, photovoltaic gain, wind speed, humidity int/ext
Time / Date
Calendar: public holidays, house calendar
News --> RSS
Events --> RSS
Power consumption monitoring: Reverse engineer an OWL system.
Local info: Shop opening hours/location, bus/train routes/times, taxi numbers

How?
Good question...

In terms of the data and control structure, I currently see a subsumption layer architecture being appropriate.
There will be sensor inputs, a sequencing layer, a behaviour layer, actuator outputs- see digram "subsumption"

#13-318-house-web

12-online-collaboration-platforms

2009-05-04T20:39:00.004+01:00

Further to "Feed my delicious mind"...

A workshop I ran a while back entitled: 'An Introduction to Online Collaboration Platforms'.

To my knowledge, this is the first and only computer workshop hosted by the Durham University Engineering Society (note: I would love to run a workshop on ardunio after exams...if you want to get involved then get in touch): http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dg4dhwgp_12fpkcbv4j

It is a quick presentation with some links to youtube commoncraft videos and some urls with examples of the platforms in use. Click, watch, install delicious and then please share bookmarks with me! username: samthetechie

11-lego-mindstorms-environment-mapping

2009-04-27T14:23:00.005+01:00

Aim: Design, Test and Build a fully autonomous mapping robot from lego mindstorms.
Day-1
Pretty awesome project brief.
This project is just before exams and runs for two weeks so we should really be looking to be working to deadlines and just get on with it. With that in mind...
We are using a software module from a project from a German University to interface Mindstorms with Matlab, details to follow via delicious and by updating this post. This also allows us to control the robot through Matlab, using a serial link over bluetooth.
We are also using Mindstorms NXT for running the introductory demo/example programs.

#11-lego-mindstorms-environment-mapping

Twitter Roll

2009-04-26T17:16:00.012+01:00

I have added my twitter updates to my website with the following code:


<div id="tweet"><ul id="twitter_update_list"></ul></div>

and then at the bottom of the page:


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/samthetechie.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=1">
</script>

10-Classic4OmniBot

2009-04-26T14:18:00.001+01:00

Aim: Create a robot controlled by the Classic 4 using omni wheels and dc motors.
This robot would be known as the Classic 4 Omnibot. This would be a hack of the 'Classic 4' theraputic device I collaborate on at work to control some actuators to make a cool robot. So...I think it would be awesome to recreate: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pprk/
with the Classic 4 as the brain.
Here are some pics:

#10-Classic4OmniBot

9-Jennic-Wireless_Sensorboard

2009-04-26T14:15:00.002+01:00

Aim: get to grips with the Jennic Wireless Sensorboard which I am currently borrowing from work.

8-Custom-MSP430-JTAG

2009-04-26T14:14:00.002+01:00

Aim: Create a custom JTAG connector for the MSP430.

because the proprietary ones simply cost way too much!

7-solar-charging-circuit

2009-04-26T14:12:00.006+01:00

Aim: create a charging circuit to usefully harness power generated by solar panels.

This might allow charging AA, AAA batteries or portable devices like Ipods and mobile phones.

An interesting blog post by google: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/should-you-spring-clean-your-solar.html

6-mini-wind-turbine-and-generator

2009-04-26T14:12:00.005+01:00

Aim: generate some electricity from wind

5-physical-email-notifier

2009-04-26T14:05:00.003+01:00

Aim: Use data from gmail to trigger an actuator in my lab.

This may take the form of a coloured LED or something similar.

4-plant-monitoring-modules

2009-04-26T14:03:00.005+01:00

Aim: Monitor physical parameters relevant to plant growth and put the information online.

This will compliment future projects.

3-stepper-motors-for-robotics

2009-04-26T13:55:00.003+01:00

Aim: Create some stepper motor driver circuits which will later allow the design of a robot.

2-web-interfaces-for-stepper-motors

2009-04-26T13:41:00.005+01:00

Aim: Allow stepper motors to be controlled over the Internet.
This will be a nice compliment to other projects which will allow integration with various sites like Twitter and Gmail. On ToDo list to write this one up.

1-web-interfaces-for-rc-vehicles

2009-04-26T12:20:00.006+01:00

UPDATE: Check out Kal's Blog for the latest.

Aim: make a web interface for controlling cheap remote control vehicles.
The first stage is complete, the rc car can be controlled from a serial terminal.

Will post a proper write-up with photos, schematics and details later on this evening when Kal comes over to interface it with his wiimote/bluetooth setup.

Well, I clearly failed to write this up in time.. I cannot do this now as I am back at uni studying for my finals. To cut a long story short I used 4 MOSFETS instead of relays to allow the arduino to switch current through the contacts of a remote control unit for an r/c car. This is due to the low switching current is this case...However, the wiring and programming is relatively simple so perhaps I can quickly explain it?
Arduino outputs (13,12,11,10) are set to digital out. These are set high or low. This applies a voltage, or not, to the gate (middle pin) of each of 4 MOSFETs. The MOSFETs are wired to source their current from the high voltage rail (each of 4 switch contacts) on the remote control unit (with silk screen labels: SW4, SW3, SW2, SW1 respectively). The MOSFETs sink the current to battery GND. The GND on the remote control unit (is also the metal prongs) must also be connected to the transistor ground. You will have to work out the rest until I can do a full writeup with diagrams and photos.

I will upload a really bad video of the initial testing just for kicks...

Here are the photos:

#1-WebInterfaceForRemoteControlledVehicles

Blog

2009-04-26T12:10:00.003+01:00

I think I am gonna work towards a custom solution for my blog. I dont like having the template different from that of my main website. Will have a crack when I get some time after exams.

#0-PMR-446-Gateway

2009-04-26T12:00:00.002+01:00

Aim: Free chat over the PMR 446 unlicensed band tunneled through the internet.
This is the PMR 446 gateway that Kal and I setup. On ToDo list to write this one up.

Need some web or IT help?

2009-04-17T22:24:00.000+01:00

Samuel Carlisle

Need some web or IT help? If it is to do with online content for the Durham Law School then you're in the right place!

Otherwise please contact the ITS service desk.

w: http://www.dur.ac.uk/its/servicedesk/
e: itservicedesk@durham.ac.uk

Still think you're in the right place? Great!

If our self-service support options like the wiki and status page can't help solve your problem, then I certainly can- just send me an email!

e: law.web@durham.ac.uk

If you require face-to-face web or IT support then please do not hesitate to come and find me during my 'in department' working hours (as shown below):

Projects Logic

2009-04-15T18:23:00.001+01:00

New projects logic. Hmmmm how to do it, how to do it...

MySQL

PHP

Naming conventions

Google Docs

The Nature of Observation

2009-04-07T11:02:00.007+01:00

I just watched this http://vimeo.com/2910103.

I began thinking about the subtlety and detail of everyday visual observation that is missed by the persistance of vision, the limit of the human vision system. So here are some random thoughts on the nature of scientific observation- in no particular order.

1) If we have 5 senses with which to experience the world then how should they best be used for the purpose of scientific observation?

2) What improvement in understanding can be afforded by the contribution of each sense in interpreting data? i.e. In which circumstances would it be better to hear voltages rather than see them on an oscilloscope?

3) What are the charateristics of each sense which would suit them to interpreting phenomina? Presumeably the nature of each facet of the human sensory system will naturally match up with interpreting the observations of real physical phenomina due to mathematical similarities of the oberseved and observing systems.

4) Are current sensing technologies well optimised to interface with our sensory systems?

5) What is the effectiveness of enhancing sensory accuracy compared to enhancing the means with which to comprehend by relating to the observations? Or are observations just numbers and constants in equations?

6) Does vision merely represent the highest information to data ratio with which humans can observe the world in most cases? Surely the brain is already optimised to reject 'useless' information for survival. What are the characteristics of this optimisation?

Surely for the best possible observation, the optimisation should be a according to the nature of the properties of the phenomia being observed and not a function of evolutionary specificity of the sensory system of the observer?

7) Is the efficiency for obtaining information about an event:

the useful information that can be obtained from the data about an event over total data obtained

rather than

the data which we have evolved to percieve to be useful over the total data obtained

i.e. are there any evolotionary limiting factors which prevent us from making full use of observations? How can these be overcome?

8) What additional insights could be made if our senses were enhanced or exploited to their fullest potential by appropriate presentation / encapsulation of data to make best use of each sense?

9) Is mathematical analysis the only way to make sense of data?

10) Can observation be improved to facillitate the earlier stages to prevent unecessary analysis?

Snow Day!

2009-02-12T12:07:00.003Z

I have taken advice from the random eco quote generator on my website.

It told me to work from home, I have complied.

samuel-iPod

2009-02-02T02:15:00.008Z

Dear Reader,
I have run into some everyday issues with my ipod. Having found the solutions posted online, I thought I would mirror them here.

Howto: Listen to the iPod and charge from the USB at the same time.

Right click on the icon representing the iPod in my computer and you will be able to "eject" the iPod's fat32 partition which has been automatically mounted and assigned a drive letter.

N.B: Do NOT use the 'safely remove hardware feature'. It's not the same thing as ejecting a disk. Using the 'safely remove hardeware' option turns OFF the power to that device so it can be safely removed. "Ejecting the disk" leaves the power on to the drive.

Kind Regards,
Sam

Feed my 'Delicious mind'

2009-01-22T16:53:00.008Z

This is a re-write of a blog post that I read on the UK parliaments Lab website. I thought that it embodied the spirit of collaborative bookmarking on delicious so I have rewritten it to invite anyone to share their delicious bookmarks with me.
I found the blog post at: http://parliamentlabs.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/feed-our-delicious-mind/
I use Delicious to bookmark interesting sites/articles/ideas that I come across in the course of our work and my free time.
If you also use Delicious and want to let me know about an interesting article or just some information related to technology, physics, engineering, webdesign, electronics, hacking (the things I like) or things that you find interesting that you think I might like then take the following steps:
1) Add samthetechie to your Delicious network
2) When you’re saving a bookmark, add the tag ‘for:samthetechie’
3) That’s it.
I look forward to seeing what you’re reading…

Experiment Update (10)

2008-12-05T05:30:00.009Z

The phone setup is as follows:
Phone Mode: Flight Mode
Data Connection: Bluetooth Serial Port Emulation- COM9
Battery Status: Discharging

Experiment Update (9)

2008-12-05T04:40:00.002Z

Promising!! Now for the third round of testing!

Experiment Update (8)

2008-12-05T03:13:00.006Z

Temperature still falling slowly. I get the feeling that somehow the GSM is still enabled (due to the signal quality indicator) but that it is not attempting to 'lock on' to a network by sending out request packets / signals.

Experiment Update (7)

2008-12-05T02:58:00.004Z

The phone setup in the prior experimental updates was:

Phone Mode: Normal

Data Connection: Bluetooth Serial Port Emulation- COM9

Battery Status: Discharging

I have just finished setting up the USB connection and the phone is now back outside.

The phone setup is now:

Phone Mode: Flight Mode (GSM Disabled)

Data Connection: USB Serial Port Emulation- COM3

Battery Status: Charging

Several questions come to mind:

1) Does charging the battery generate any heat? (Likely answer is yes).

2) Which services/peripherals are really disabled when the phone is put into flight-mode?

3) Will the steady state temperature of the two temperature sensors be lower than before? (Unsure as more than two of the test conditions have been changed i.e. not a strict manipulated/responding relationship between switching the phone from 'normal mode' to 'flight mode' and observing the effect on steady-state temperature).

Suggestion:

I propose third round of experimentation (which suits my need to procrastinate more than anything else) in which I enable Bluetooth whilst in flight mode (removing the USB connection) so as to isolate the effect of disabling the GSM from the incidental heating which may result from the fact that phone is transmitting it's data via USB rather than bluetooth.

Experiment Update (6)

2008-12-05T02:15:00.006Z

I just saw the phone temerature drop to 1*c whilst the battery temperature remains at 4*c. So whilst the battery temperature sensor was more quick to react to the environmental temerature (presumeably because it is on the periphery of the device unlike the internal phone sensor), the phone temperature sensor is giving a reading which is consistent with the area forecast for this area.

Thoughts:

The elevated temperature of the battery could be explained in one of two ways:

1) The temperature sensor is out of range because 1*c is below the recommended operating temperature for the phone.

2) The power dissiapted across the battery is sufficient to maintain a steady-state temperature of 4*c.

I will bring the phone inside, turn off the GSM by putting it into flight mode in order to reduce the power consumption (and, hopefully, the power dissipation over the battery) and then sling it back out again . If this allows the steady state temperature of the battery to stabilise to a lower level then I am prepared to favour hypothesis 2 over hypothesis 1.

Experiment Update (5)

2008-12-05T01:50:00.005Z

I think the experimentation is done for tonight. Not only because the temperature seems to have stabilised but also because it is currently my main phone... Ironically, despite just having written the above and uploading the screenshot, the phone temperature has just dropped to 2*c whilest the battery temperature remains at 4*c. Maybe I will leave it to dangle a while longer...

Experiment Update (4)

2008-12-05T01:14:00.008Z

I did not think to put in my postcode first time round (which is odd for me).

It turns out that searching 'XXXXXX forecast' (where XXXXXX is my postcode) returned a much different result than searching 'Durham forecast'. I must reserve my judgement on which is the more accurate temperature data... One must also bear-in-mind that the temperautre of the phone is likely to be a funcation of: the ambient temperature, the thermal mass of the house, local heating/wind/shielding effects, dissipation of heat across components.

Further experiment may include: Test with GSM disabled. Test with Bluetooth disabled.

Also, I think it would also be interesting to compare these results to a high-precision Mecury thermometer.

Experiment Update (3)

2008-12-05T01:06:00.004Z

No sooner had I posted and the temperature had fallen to that of the forecast! When I get a new phone (possibly at christmas). I can think about what use I might put my dear old K610. I think that sealing it in a water proof bag with silica gel bags and a long usb extension (rather than bluetooth) would make it a very good outdoor temperature probe. If I combine that with the time-lapse webcam data then I might have a reasonable, independant, indication of local weather conditions. Now all I need is my final year project to be finished and I can really get into sensor netwokring on a grander scale. Oh it will be sweet. For now, I am having evil thoughts about stripping back some of the form factor to see if that allows the temperature sensors to react more quickly.

Experiment Update (2)

2008-12-05T01:02:00.004Z

Nearly there!

Experiment Update (1)

2008-12-05T00:53:00.005Z

The charger started whining so I unplugged it. As you can see the temperature is continuing to fall. I am interested to see if I can plot some graphs from this data. I would also love to know if the phone can log this data locally and if it would be possible to sync at the end of each day?

Phone. Dangle. Bluetooth. Sensor. Cold.

2008-12-05T00:31:00.011Z

So I was messing around with MyPhoneExplorer- I established a Bluetooth link and am currently charging the phone (the chord of which also conveniently serves as a tether by which to dangle the phone out of the window). I don't like my phone that much anyway. But in the interest of science, seeing if the temperature readings can actually be reflective of the environment the phone is in, it is a small price to pay to have my phone dangle out of a window. After all, it is kind of in a protective casing. The idea for the test occurred when I was thinking of ways to put off doing my C coding assignment due in tomorrow. I was playing with Bluetooth in anticipation of receiving my wiimote (to make my own multi-point interactive display inspired by this work: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/) and I came across the 'Monitor' function under the 'Others' group in the MyPhoneExplorer software. I googled the current forecast for temperature tonight and have been occasionally looking in at the temperature. Let's see if the phone temperature reading tends towards the forecast.

Currently, batt temp: 13*c and phone temp: 17*c. Looking good!

35 HD DUAL NAS

2008-11-15T16:30:00.004Z

I take it back. There is support. There is firmware. I stripped the NAS down to the main external casing and the main circuit board. What I found was the following:

STORLINK SL 3316

Jackpot. A bit of googling and 2 minutes later...

http://www.mrt-communication.com/Networking-dual.htm

Specifically:

http://www.mrt-communication.com/35HD-DUAL-NAS.htm

So now I know the name of the device.

Then more googling:

http://mrt.nas-central.org/index.php/Category:35HD-DUAL-NAS

So now I know the specs of the device.

Then, on the same site, I found the GPL:

and also a link to a new firmware release from the company.
http://mrt.nas-central.org/index.php/Firmware

Hello NAS, Nmap -O

2008-11-15T15:56:00.005Z

I have been trying to figure out how I can interact with my new NAS.
It was a bargain at ~£30 from Aria's bargain basement.
http://delicious.com/samthetechie/nas
Whilst it does what is says on the tin it also has some bad points:
1) It is unbranded w/ No obvious support or documentation.
2) The firmware looks like it was made in the 60's. (However I know this to not be true...)

I would love to move away from using the ancient webpanel and start interacting with it from the CLI. This the is output from nmap -O

:~$ sudo nmap -O 192.168.0.7
[sudo] password for samuel:

Starting Nmap 4.53 ( http://insecure.org ) at 2008-11-15 15:56 GMT
Interesting ports on 192.168.0.7:
Not shown: 1706 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp open ftp
80/tcp open http
111/tcp open rpcbind
139/tcp open netbios-ssn
445/tcp open microsoft-ds
515/tcp open printer
668/tcp open unknown
3689/tcp open rendezvous
MAC Address: 7A:B4:F5:00:0A:D3 (Unknown)
Device type: general purpose
Running: Linux 2.6.X
OS details: Linux 2.6.11 - 2.6.22
Uptime: 0.035 days (since Sat Nov 15 15:05:15 2008)
Network Distance: 1 hop

OS detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at http://insecure.org/nmap/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 3.938 seconds

Final Year Project- Wireless Sensor Networks

2008-10-20T13:40:00.006+01:00

Hey,

just getting my teeth into my final year project.
The original title was: Very Small Short Range Radio Transceiver.
Although the project has now been given an application so the focus is more on wireless sensor networks (WSN).
I have been reading two books on the subject:
Networking wireless sensors / Bhaskar Krishnamachari

Wireless sensor networks : architectures and protocols / Edgar H. Callaway

So far they have both been useful in gaining an insight into the main limiting factors of wireless sensor network technology. Chief among which is network lifetime. This can be viewed in one of two ways.
1) The ability of the batteries to store enough energy to keep the network online.
2) The ability of the device to save power or minimise consumption to the point where energy is only being expended when strictly necessary to maintain network operation.

The first problem is not one which I will be able to tackle within the scope of this project although the choice of battery technology and the way in which the power is drawn from the batteries does require some careful consideration. For example, although many batteries might have a certain mAH rating, when they are loaded this rating, effectively, tends to fall as the load increases (due to heating effects and, presumably, some other effect of which I am not yet aware). Thus, if the instantaneous current being demanded at any given time can be reduced, I believe that more power can be drawn from the battery because the system is operating in a higher-efficiency region. I.e. thinking to when the radio transceiver becomes active and the power consumption rockets by upwards of ~36mA above the base current required to power the circuitry. If I can charge, perhaps, a capacitor or use some kind of low current drawing circuitry, then maybe it will be possible to reduce or minimise the effect on the battery life due to these inefficient regions of energy consumption. Before I get too ahead of myself I may just go and ask my project supervisor if this effect is likely to be significant. Heaven forbid, I might actually take the initiative and do the sums/look into it myself!
Thoughts of the day:
What do mobile phones do to combat this peak in current demand when on an active call?
What other power-saving strategies do they employ?

MIT OCW and Wikinomics

2008-09-26T00:38:00.011+01:00

I am still awake, and now blogging, because of a bit of bed time reading of "Wikinomics" by Don Tapscott (Author) and Anthony Williams (Author)- On page 23 I was reminded of MIT's Open Course Ware (MIT OCW). I was quite excited to look for engineering related resources and I was not disappointed. After visiting the site, I remembered an email that a friend had sent to me.
It turns out that I was originally introduced to this resource by a friend as this excerpt from an email shows:

Subject: Have a look at this
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:43:20 +0100

Look at this

Audio, Video lectures from engineering to literature, plus lecture notes.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/index.htm

A general site
http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/Online_Education_Free_201_2006.php

For example

Video lectures on circuits and electronics:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-002Circuits-and-ElectronicsFall2000/VideoLectures/index.htm

Mp3 files on Advanced Digital Integrated Circuits:
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978280

May just border the scope of your second year material, tell what you think.

I can only say thank you. I seemed to not go for it on first bite but I am just glad that another path has brought me back to the same information but this time with fresh eyes (well...not so fresh at 1am...). I just watched lecture 16 on 'Sinusoidal steady state' (additional videos, accompanying notes etc. can be found on this page). The lecturer's style and delivery was refreshing to say the least. I really enjoyed it. One thing I noticed about his style was the abundance of mental anchors to allow the teaching points to embed themselves into the memory.
It seems funny to me that while this precious resource was presented to me back in Nov 2007 it has taken me until now to come across it again on my own terms and realise it's full value.

But back in Nov 2007 while I was interested in open source, I was obviously not fully aware of it's significance in (my) education. Nearly a year on I am glad to say that, for example, I use delicious as my principle research and indexing tool and evernote as my notebook for just about everything. These have both added enormously to my education allowing me to build huge and complex webs of tagged and indexed notes, references and links. Suffice it to say that I am glad to think differently now.

The good old days

2008-09-22T12:36:00.006+01:00

A picture from the good old days! I hope to be reusing some of these computers to create some dedicated onion routers, file servers, ssh tunnels, webservers etc. Don't worry, I will put Linux on them. I would not trust XP to run as a server. Ubuntu all the way for those that can, and those that can't will take xubuntu or equiv low-spec OS. TBH it might be a case of: the processing power is not worth the electrical power the PC is consuming. So maybe I should content myself to have lots of large metal doorstops instead?
I also need a serial interface electrical switch / relay / control unit so I can bring my 32 port netgear router or a smaller 5 port one online when I need it (or for that matter anything else that plugs into the mains). I wonder if there is already a standard interface for doing such things. If I am not satisfied with what I find, I will make one from scratch as a project.
Back to the servers, I hope to be able to employ WOL magic packets to use the 'Wake on Lan' capabilities of the NICs (Lan Cards) to bring the computers online as and when I need them (to save some more power).

Hello Blogsphere!

2008-09-22T11:03:00.003+01:00

This is my first blog post. I will start by introducing myself:
My name is Sam and, on the date of publishing 22/09/08, I am soon to be a third year electronic engineering student.
I applied to Durham to read General Engineering and now that I am a third year I have to option of 'streaming' to focus on electronics.
One of the main benefits of the General Engineering course is that I have been able to give each major discipline a fair shot at capturing my imagination. Well, it seems that electronics has won.

I am probably going to be one of about eight electronic engineering students (it seems to be a less popular choice). I am staggered that this is the case given the current trends towards complete global connectivity and the increase in computing power in the home. I fear that so many people will fail to engage with the technological innovations of the 21st century and simply be left in the dust. But I know by now that technology is not everyone's cup of tea. Oh well, sucks to be them. It is mine.

I am looking forward to returning in October for several reasons, chief among which is finding a master's course for my fourth year. I will also spend countless hours on my final year project working with low powered wireless modules (like the Jennic JN5139, http://www.jennic.com/jennic_support/datasheets/jn5139_module_datasheet). Till next Blog.