Tag Archive for 'nclug'

The Seagate Dockstar: A Very Cool Linux Device

Published on July 19, 2010 in linux. 0 Comments

What if I told you there was a computer out there, a small one, with gigabit ethernet, 4 USB 2.0 ports, runs on 5 watts, and serves as a great NAS (network attached storage) for your home.  It can share files, serve media, be a router, make backups for you, host a lamp stack, be a mail server, etc. It can do whatever you can think up.

How much would you pay for such a neat little device? $100? $120? What if I told you that this device is ~$35. What a deal. Lose your P4 electricity guzzler and stick this on your shelf with some harddrives plugged into it.

Now the next question, what Linux distro should we use, and how does one go about installing it? After all, there is no keyboard ports, no display, no cdrom drive. No problem.

To hack this thing, all you need to do is connect to its internal serial port. Here are some instructions to hook up a serial port to the Seagate Dockstar.

Now, there are lots of distros, not too many that support the ARM processor. The stock OS is indeed Ubuntu 9.04, however my OS of choice for this hardware is OpenWRT. Openwrt is a very light, simple, linux distro, designed for embedded systems and routers.  If you wish to follow my steps, here are some instructions on installing Openwrt on a Dockstar. I plan to buy a bunch of these and build some sort of super cheap SAN. I’ll let you know where it goes. The possibilities are only bounded by your imagination. (And I guess maybe the hardware)

Setting Up Your Very Own PXE Server!

Published on July 16, 2010 in linux. 0 Comments

Ever fumbled around your house looking for a Linux CD, but you can’t find it? Ever suspected that your ram was going bad, but you didn’t have a way to test it? Ever needed to backup files on a computer that had a dead and broken operating system? A solution to all these problems is a super cool tool called PXE booting. PXE booting allows you to load alternative operating systems over the network, without the need for cds, cdroms, etc!

Things you can do with a PXE server

Things you can do with a PXE server

Sound like something that you could benefit from? Setting up your own PXE boot environment is easy and Fun! Check out my presentation and then later my wiki page for notes, commands, and configuration snippets to get your own setup going.

ISPs Should Capitalize on their Reverse DNS!

Published on May 18, 2010 in Personal and linux. 0 Comments

Actually… no they shouldn’t. Here is what it would look like:

                                           My traceroute  [v0.75]
kyle (0.0.0.0)                                                              Tue May 18 15:14:52 2010
Keys:  Help   Display mode   Restart statistics   Order of fields   quit

 Host                                                           Loss%    Snt  Last  Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. 192.168.0.1                                                 0.0%     10   12.0  15.6  11.3  33.6   6.7
 2  UPGRADE-YOUR-CONNECTION-1800-COMCAST.res.comcast.net        0.0%     10   13.1  15.8  11.5  31.1   5.9
 3. TURBOBOOST-UP-TO-50MBS.car1.Den.core.comcast.net            44.4%    10   15.3  17.7  11.8  23.1   4.5
 4. LIKE-WHAT-YOU-SEE?-GET-WITH-LEVEL3!.Level3.net              0.0%     10   27.5  22.5  12.5  43.5   9.0
 5. v----LEVEL3-EATS-SAVVISs-PACKETS.Level3.net                 0.0%     10   43.6  35.9  29.7  43.6   5.7
 6. ^----SUCK-IT-L3.das3-v3037.ch3.savvis.net                   50.0%    10   31.2  32.1  30.8  34.5   1.5
 7. FOR-A-GOOD-PING-TIME-CALL-888-638-6771.dallas3.savvis.net   0.0%     9    28.8  31.8  28.8  43.5   4.8
 8. We-heart-savvis.dllstx0.us.bb.gin.ntt.net                   0.0%     9    30.1  33.1  29.4  51.5   7.0
 9. 4.2.2.2......jk..25.209.2.4                                 0.0%     9    70.3  83.1  68.1 186.6  38.9
10. 0.0.0.zero                                                  0.0%     9    51.6  58.0  51.6  72.9   8.0
11. nothing.here.move.along.                                    0.0%     9    55.4  55.1  51.7  62.1   3.5
12. THIS-SPACE-FOR-RENT!!!                                      0.0%     9    86.3  87.4  83.7  91.3   2.7
13. the-real-site.net                                           0.0%     9    103.9 105.9  84.0 128.2  12.0

Stream of Conciousness Youtube Videos on Linux

Published on May 16, 2010 in Personal and linux. 0 Comments

While sitting watching TV I yearned for a more stream-of-consciousness experience. Youtube was the answer.

However, Youtube requires too much interaction. I wanted to vege out and let it just feed me the stream of random images and sound. Selecting purely random youtube videos sounded like a bad idea though…

I decided to do a twitter search for anything with a youtube link, and then let a script just enqueue them into totem, ad-infinitum. Here is my abomination:

#!/bin/bash
while [ 1 ];
do
 for EACHVIDEO in `wget -O - -q "http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=youtube.com" | grep http://www.youtube.com | grep "<content" | sed 's/quot;/\n/g' | grep "http://www.youtube.com" | cut -f 1 -d "&" `
 do
 totem --enqueue `youtube-dl -g -b "$EACHVIDEO" ` &
 sleep  2s
 done
 sleep 30s
done

You need a recent version of the youtube-dl script, located here. Put it in your path as appropriate. Press N for next! Next! Next!



							
 

		
 

	
		
		

			

				
Sparkfun’s Autonomous Vehicle Competition


				

					
						Published   on April 17, 2010					

					
						in UAV.					

					0 Comments
					
									
 
			
 

			

				
The Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition (AVC) was a smash! You can watch some footage of the event at Sparkfun’s Ustream page.


Here is what the starting / finishing line looked like:




And some judges on the roof watching to make sure the Flying robots do not cut corners.




I was very impressed by the UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Most of them were able to complete the course in record time. Some were even able to land autonomosouly!


Robota-Landing DougWiebel-landing Robota-Launch


Sorry for the 3gp format, it is native to the Droid. I wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of a transcode from ffmpeg or gstreamer. If someone wants to transcode for me, I would be happy to re-upload.


I was unimpressed with the ground vehicles. Only a few were able to complete the course. (Just four turns around the Sparkfun building) Most couldn’t make it past the first turn. Did they simply not test them? Was it the new environment? I wasn’t able to tell.


For sparkfun, having a three-piece band to play during the heats was a big win! They certainly kept the audience entertained, and by the time the 3rd heat came around, every team had their very own made-up-silly-them-song. I suppose it would be the equivalent of the organ player at a baseball game, but on steroids.


I hope to enter and win the next years competition!