 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Being a sysadmin, I have to take my laptop with me when I'm on call. Being a Linux user, I don't want to resort to Mac OS or Windows on a laptop to connect to my networks and do what needs doing.
Until recently, I had a Verizon "aircard" a 1xEVDO PC Card modem that worked really really well. NetworkManager saw it when it was plugged in, and it was almost DSL-fast when coverage was good. Sadly, with the current recession (Yeah, I said it), my employer has been trying to cut costs, and $60 a month for an aircard is a cost they wanted trimmed.
They didn't leave me out in the cold though. We have a USB modem that gets shuffled around to the guy who gets to hen-sit Nagios and be available 24x7. I haven't gotten that working yet, but there is another method, the company did add a data-plan to all our phones. This unlocked Dial-up Networking (DUN) which means our laptops can communicate through our phones to get on the Internet.
I had already gotten that part working with my Nokia N810 (It was trivially easy, actually), but the keyboard on the n810 drives me. It's okay for typing a few things (Better than pecking them out on a Crackberry if only a little bit) but if it's going to take more than a few minutes, I want a real keyboard (At least a laptop-sized one). I've been searching for a way to get the "tether" working from my laptop to the phone.
Today I did.
I followed primarily these two HOWTOs:
http://naraku.net/2008/08/15/how-to-teather-blackberry-and-linux-via-bluetooth/
http://pegelinux.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/blackberry-curve-8310-as-bluetooth-modem-on-ubuntu-hardy/
Both are pretty good and covered the basics to get me connected to the Internet. It's no replacement for a real networking connection. Even 802.11b is faster and has better latency, but it's good in a pinch and sometimes that's all I need. Tags: bluetooth, linux, n810, networking, tether
Current Mood:  accomplished
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Those who know me know that my favorite video game genre is RTS and my favorite RTS is Total Annihilation. Released circa 1995, TA freed players from tedious and mind-numbing micro-management. Units could be as far apart as you wanted (Previously they had to touch or be within a certain distance). Construction yards had unlimited build queues. And the sheer number of units surpassed anything available. Oh, and the game was nearly completely 3D. The units were 3D, the terrain was 3D, but the maps were just static renders, and the camera couldn't rotate and always looked nearly straight down. So here we are, 13 years later, and I've finally got The Spring Project (Formerly TA Spring) working under Linux. Spring is a game engine, originally built to be a fully 3D clone of TA. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is capable of running a lot of different mods, up to and including entirely new games. I've been playing it the last week or so and I'm really impressed. It's still a bit rough around the edges (Some maps don't load; some maps make the engine bail as soon as the game starts; the AAI is suicidal after a while, and I haven't found any good water/metal maps yet).
So here's some information I've found on it that I want to save in one place for future reference. Link Dump
Setup Guide for Linux
Other Linux distros not listed on the above page
Linux installer
Available Spring Mods (Games)
Complete Annihilation
XTA
Balanced Annihilation Spring FilesSpring PortalDarkStars Spring FilesTags: game, linux, rts, spring, ta, total annihilation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In my last entry, I laid out a bit of a teaser: the digital convergence that has been promised for the last fifteen years or so is coming true, but not because any large company is championing it; they’re too busy fighting each other, looking after their own profitability, and navigating the legal mine field of copyrights, patents, and other “IP” to deliver on such a grand vision.
For the rest of this series, I will try to avoid the legal entanglements (And my own rants) and outline the technical information I have for how to accomplish what I am ... proposing, for a lack of a better term.
In my mind, a convergent system should include the following:
- “smart” home
- “smart” car
- “smart” phone
You know what? Let’s drop the "smart". This is all "smart." That will go without saying from now on.
- Digital Recording Device(s)
- Server to coordinate everything
The Intention
You're a busy person (Who isn't?) and you want to leverage technology to make things easier on yourself. It doesn't hurt if you've got some money (Some of this stuff isn't cheap), time, and don't mind living a geek lifestyle (Some of us consider that a plus). You want to watch and listen to what you want, when and where you want; go where you want when you want; and keep track of it all for your own information. You meet people occasionally and somehow information is exchanged, you want to keep track of that too. Plus, being the busy person you are, you have lots of appointments and to-do items you have to keep track of.
The House
The house is probably the most vital part. It’s the heart, the nexus of the entire system. The house will be the one place where we’re not constrained on space, or speed. It will hold all the communications mechanisms and data that the rest of the system uses.
A king needs a castle, but that doesn’t mean he wants to keep track of everything involved in running it. I don't have the money to hire people to do all the work for me, so I turn to technology. Like a wizard’s home, the house should be able to do for itself (To the limits of current technology), leaving the wizard more time to devote to his projects. That means automation: sensors, zoning, alarm system, entertainment, and so on.
The Car
The car should be able to handle most tactical tasks, by that I mean it should be able to store and retrieve information that I may need at any given time, but it wouldn’t be doing big data crunching jobs, like transcoding audio and video. It would also be limited on space (100GB doesn't seem like much of a limit, but once you get into video files, you'd be surprised). It would be able to play audio and video, sure, and display information that I may need, like maps, routes, traffic, weather, alerts, reminders, etc. It should coordinate with the home system for its information, and it should keep itself updated.
The Phone
The "phone" would be more like a PDA than a phone. In fact, I've been vacillating between a smartphone like the HTC Wizard and a bluetooth phone and PDA like the Sharp Zaurus. The Wizard has the advantage of being a single item to carry and having integrated systems, but the PDA has the advantage of not running down the phone battery when using the PDA, and better compatibility at the present time (Zaurus comes with Linux pre-installed, while hackers are still trying to get Linux into a stable state on the Wizard).
Digital Recording Device(s)
Technically, the DRDs fall under the house category, because they are integrated with the house systems, but they're important enough to warrant their own section. These are digital devices such as Radio Shark, TiVO, SlingBox, dedicated MythTV boxes, and so on. These will be how media gets into the system (TV, Radio, satellite, DVD, CD, etc).
Server Coordination
This will be the hardest part: Tying together a PDA/smartphone, car computer, DRDs, home security and automation, and keeping everything in sync and updated. What I'm envisioning is an amalgam of rsync (For files to be copied automatically between devices), and PalmSync/iSync/ActiveSync for merging PIM data (Because there will be a lot of that flying around) with a little bit of remote notification thrown in ("Power went off." "So-and-so is calling." "Someone is at the door." "Don't forget ...").
I'll get into these more in future entries. I've got a bunch of stuff to do, still.
Tags: geek stuff, linux, mental masturbation, networking
Current Mood:  geeky
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
annoyed
