Geek Meet vs HackerSpace: Great companions
So tonight a few of us went to the Exeter Geek Meet. I won't be shy, recruiting for E-Space was on our to do list there and we weren't disappointed, about half of the attendees who weren't already aware of us joined, the other people - well, it's not everybody's thing yaknow? I'm sure I bored the pants off at least three people - but that's not exactly a new experience for me.
So what is the Geek Meet? Well let's compare it with the hackerspace. E-Space is a group of individuals who meet in a pub and talk about building a physical space where we can hack, make, build and code, etc. Socialising would also be on the agenda, as well as lightning talks, workshops, all sorts of fun stuff! Geek Meet starts the same way - but they just want the socialising - they have a far broader range of members with a wide array of interests, and aim to stay socialising in the bar.
It's certainly a different, and possibly more well rounded approach to Geek Meetings. I'm still much more excited by E-Space and the incredible ambition I've seen in the projects that it's members have come up with - but I can also see the potential for having a second group with separate interests, it'll give E-Space members a great way to socialise and talk tech in the more traditionally relaxed setting of a pub.
I certainly plan to go again, and without the focus on E-Space next time! I've said my piece, and if the network spreads this way then great - but the initial contact has been made and I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunity for shared stuff later - a hackerspace would be a great way to do a pecha kucha night for example!
In any case, thanks to everyone who made us welcome tonight, and those of you who were interested - I look forward to seeing you at the hackerspace.
Better Distributed Downloading Through Hollywood Movies.
So, you're like me, a content producer. Maybe you're a hacker releasing a software product. Maybe you're an artist with creative commons music, movies or images. In order to get recognition for your work (And those oh-so-helpful donations) you need to distribute the content somehow. One way that's been very popular of late is BitTorrent.
You might have heard of the concept movie 'Steal This Film.' If you keep an eye on this technology already, you may also have heard of 'Pioneer One' a new drama series based on a lost cold-war space mission returning to earth. These programmes are distributed via BitTorrent. Free software vendors have been doing it for years too. It's a great way to reduce the amount of bandwidth required to serve your content, without having to rely on commercial hosting such as Flickr or youtube; who may have commercial interests that are not appropriate for your content.
Having downloaded Pioneer One and a good few free software packages from the global torrent network (GTN) recently, I've come to see a really big limitation in the service - one relating to bandwidth waste. If this interests you, you might want to check below, behind the cut.
Migration: FreeBSD
I don't like the GPL. I've talked about this before, and had several great arguments at E-Space about it. I like to give people as much freedom as I can to do what they will with their code. This is why GeekChique.org is CC-By 3.0 (At the time of writing at least) as is my Flickr feed, and why I licence my code under MIT (X11) for all that it's worth.
To be honest, I don't much like the various lives of GNU/Linux either. It suffers from duplication of code, both in the kernel and in the various tools and libraries that run on top of it. I don't mind there being multiple approaches to doing things - however I object to multiple takes on the same idea in the same OS. All platforms suffer from this, but your average GNU/Linux distribution is particularly bad. There's two problems here: One ideological, I like a system to be streamlined and well designed rather than stuffed together - even though the latter method does seem to work. Secondly there's a technological issue. Most of the equipment I use is ancient - I hate to waste good equipment, and I'd rather see a machine reused than have a lot of energy poured into recycling it unnecessarily. For this reason, none of my servers is newer than 2003. The more libraries forced to run, the more hard disk space used, the more CPU runtime used, and the more of my miniscule amount of RAM that is taken up by libraries than by data being processed. It's simply inefficient.
And clearly, GNU/Linux is GPL licensed. There is a lot of good work in the platform, but I have conflicting views with the majority of it's developers - this results in regular arguments with other Open Source advocates. Finally, the majority of distributions focus more on new hardware than old - making it more difficult to keep my chosen hardware going. No version of Ubuntu since 8.04.3 has correctly functioned on my Proliant DL360's. Today, I migrated to FreeBSD 8.0. It is much more closely related to Solaris. This I like, as I first learned UNIX on an Ultra 1, and my Wave and Database server is a Sun Fire 280R running Solaris 10. Now that Oracle has ruined Solaris' future, I suspect I'll use more and more FreeBSD.
It's by no means a perfect system; like Solaris FreeBSD is difficult to use for a novice. I learned VI today just so I could edit my configuration files in the absence of nano. It's compile-on-install ports system is wonderfully elegant and results in optimised code for your individual system and needs however it means that installing OpenJDK 6 takes about four times as long as on Ubuntu. I've also spotted a couple of bugs in the Lighttpd install scripts and the Python header files (While compiling mercurial). The former required creating the log files before Lighttpd would start, the latter required creating two symlinks:
ln -s /usr/local/include/pth/pth.h /usr/local/include/python2.6/
ln -s /usr/local/include/pth/pthread.h /usr/local/include/python2.6/
Over all though, my refreshed system is fast. It contains very little unnecessary software. The on-demand compilation is slow, but as I said before - results in an optimised server. This may be the end of my love affair with GNU/Linux - but I feel like I've come home.
Vocera for iPhone
Ok, I don't often review stuff and I'm not generally hugely critical in my posts (Except concerning politics.) But the Vocera for iPhone app really does vie for position as one of the most useless applications.
Given that Vocera have their own VoIP protocol as well as SIP support in their server software, I was expecting a VoIP solution similar to the Vocera Smartphone functionality when a Vocera tech mentioned the app to me in a phone call a few weeks back. What's actually arrived though, is a dialler. You program it with an external genie phone number that is hooked into your Vocera server. When you start the app, the app quits and the phone calls that number... that's it. That's the whole system. Clever side options include a page of text telling a Vocera user the commands they will either already know - or will forget as soon as the app quits itself; and the ability to store three or four different numbers. It's a really rubbish phonebook, basically.
Work Update: Pulaski, Periflex, CMS, E-Space, GeekChique Wave.
We all know how I feel about Google Wave, so I'm kicking off this post'o'updates with FedOne. Apparently, in the nearly three months since I left Burnthouse Lane for Teignmouth, there have been massive improvements in the codebases of both WaveSandbox and FedOne so that they now... work. Unfortunately, it also means that they don't compile under Hardy any more. Thankfully, we now have a new LTS in the Ubuntu stable.
Over the last week, I've repatched the Tardis (My Server Rack) to regenerate the Doctor, my slave server for when the Master (my primary server) goes on the fritz. As part of this, I've moved it to 10.04 Lucid and hopefully (and unlike the last three revisions) it will... work. Package installation is largely together, and over the next couple of weeks I'll be looking into setting up the system for a proper redundant system. As part of this, and as a protest against Oracle - my new #1 enemy: I'm scrapping MySQL. As it stands, I'm probably going to move to HSQLDb - it's the database engine I'm using in Pulaski, it's Java and it's all around, quite a neat little system. The disadvantages are a lack of inbuilt clustering support and the fact that I've never used it outside of a pure Java environment. More news on that as I go - likely on Twitter more than anything else.
Okaaaay, next one: The Periflex project. . . .
. . .
E-Space 6.1 and Eight-Space have been and gone. Another will be coming up soon, but only when Julius finally makes it back from Luxembourg! Keep an eye on the E-Space twitter feed for more info. The two of us have been thinking about doing an OpenSource Club-Mate replacement, which I have for now named "SpacE-Mate" because I like things to have silly names.
And finally, Pulaski, my greatest work itself. At the moment I'm working on back-end stuff, and largely ignoring the Vocera badge interface. I've been looking into setting up the database and putting a structure to it, I've been writing more of the CommandEngine and SpeechEngine systems although they're still incomplete skeletons. I've decided to abstract the database engine to another service module currently called "CoreBase" which will handle database requests with hopefully a little more smarts than the raw database. It also, as you can guess - allows me to neatly implement a multinode system - if you happen to have say... a Windows 2003 server hooked into a couple of RAID arrays that you're stuck with, you can run the CoreBase engine over it with potentially encrypted traffic and keep the rest of your system on your nicer Solaris, Linux and BSD servers.
As soon as ParcelForce stop messing about and let me go and collect my package, I'll have a good chunk more development hardware (In total, 1 B2000, 1 B1000A and 16 B1000 Vocera Badges.) on which to play protocol-fuzzing, so expect to see more on the Protocol Analysis over the next couple of months. As a side note to all those interested, a three second eBay global search just revealed two badges, two batteries and three eight-bay chargers for sale - and there's usually something up there. Please, grab a badge, get involved - and don't be shy with Vocera. The more people show a consumer and hacker interest in their products, the more likely we'll see the Vocera home appliance, cheaper licensing options or a public SDK. And if not, hey - just hack it!
Subject: The Digital Economy Bill and Freedom in the UK
From: Graham Simpson
Date: 7 May 2010 06:41:00 GMT+01:00
To: annemarie@annemariemorris.co.uk
Hello,
Congratulations on winning the seat!
I am well aware of the 'dodgy deal' between the Conservative leadership and Labour to rush through Bradshaw and Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill. I also know it damages people's freedom and undermines the idea of the internet as a platform for freedom and the future.
Not only that, but it supports the artificial monopolies of Copy'right' and patent which seem to be held more important in the world now than the lives of people. (As an example, people die because drugs that could save their lives are charged for at ridiculous prices, because a patent gives the inventor a monopoly over them.)
Would you have voted for it under the Conservative lead, or would you have stood up for 'innocent until proven guilty'? In addition, will you contest it and fight to have it repealed now that you are in a position to do so?
Many thanks,
Gray Simpson
TQ14.
Extra Development Hardware
How many badges would you need to develop an open source communications server? The shortest answer: one. If I had a running Vocera Server installation, I could sniff traffic between one badge and the server, and get the information I needed that way. A longer answer: one of each model. This allows me to check differences between the badge models, helping to identify protocol segments and support the hardware better. The answer of an eBay vendor: 26. It's a long story, but I've accidentally ended up with 26 Vocera badges... That's 24 extra, at a few pennies per badge. Oh well! Ever the optimist, I have decided that they'll at least come in handy at conferences such as CCC next year, should I be attending and have a working Pulaski prototype.
Less amusing, more useful. The reason my website has suddenly started working again, is because it's back home. http://Luigi.Geekchique.org was a great attempt at keeping the site alive, but access limitations meant that everything was doomed to failure! Be Unlimited have now connected me up, at much less cost than Cerberus Networks - and what a fun bunch they are! There's going to be a new version of the site code coming into place soon, cleaning up the page so that I can modify all core variables in a single script from now! I'm also going to look at setting up a mail server on the system - although I haven't finished deciding how. Anything else for now? Right, of course: E-Space is coming round again on the 7th, 7PM at the Farmer's Union - Exeter. Unless I suddenly discover more about the protocol, or Vocera decide to support me with an NFR 6 user/4 badge licence for the Vocera System Software - I won't be showing anything this time round.
All Ensconced!
Pie Cottage. The great house move. These are the rantings of Graham Simpson, his six month tenancy placing him in Teignmouth, small town on the seaside. To boldly code, what no one did code before.
It's been a busy couple of months. Massive house move led to a complete lack of internet access. Thankfully, Teignmouth has great 3G signal so I have tethered my mobile phone to get basic connectivity back. In the meantime, you can't see this post. In fact: this entire server is inaccessible to the outside world! Still, all this should be revealed in a few weeks when I'm back online. I now have a landline number, although that's going to be a little more private than my mobile, which e0v7e8r0y9o2n0e8 2i1n0 the world knows by now! I obviously haven't been shopping a lot, with massive debts from the last few months slowly clearing. Thanks again to my only reader, Mum: You saved my ass! There is ONE thing I got hold of in the downtime though!
Pulaski is my project to hack together a basic MIT licensed server for the Vocera Badge. Over a year ago I managed to source a B2000, the second-gen and linux based model. Somewhat later I found the earlier c55 based B1000A model - and finally last month I scored a charger!
What do you think? It's a pretty neat bit of kit, not only will it charge up to eight B1000's, B1000A's, B2000's, spare batteries or even Vocera Smartphones; the devices will run at the same time! This makes my life a lot easier because instead of charging, running a brute-force cycle till it dies, charging again; I can continually cycle the badge without even taking it off the mains supply! Thanks to this, development has begun again on the Pulaski core modules and the Vocera protocol reverse engineering. So far, I've got part of the SpeechEngine code written. The SpeechEngine is a unified speech server that provides both Text-to-Speech and Speech-To-Text services to Pulaski, based on CMUSphinx and FreeTTS. It's fully java, including the supporting libraries - making it wonderfully cross-platform in the best traditions of GeekChique: Extreme Heterogeneity.
The server I'm planning to use to run my own instances of the Pulaski services is the Sun Fire 280R that I bought, broke - and then repaired. It's currently (when it has a connection) acting as the server that runs wave.geekchique.org. FedOne, the reference wave implementation is what gave me the idea to use java in the first place: FedOne is a java binary, as is it's XMPP transport host, OpenFire. Installing it on Solaris 10/SPARC64 rather than Ubuntu 8.04/ia32 was simply a case of copying the files over, changing the DNS names and creating the certificates.
The last thing about Pulaski for now is the Vocera protocol. Pulaski is designed to support multiple simultaneous client devices and programs, making it a wonderful way to link together an assortment of hardware. Obviously being designed at heart for the Vocera Communications Badge, these devices need to be supported. The normal way to reverse engineer a protocol is to capture a vast amount of it's traffic where it is being used normally; then work out what it's doing. Since a copy of the Vocera Server Software generally costs around 20,000 - It's unlikely (Come on eBay!!) that I will ever be in a position to do that. As a result, I'm left to attempt to brute force the initial responses until something interesting happens. This is being done using a python script running on my test servers, and using Wireshark to Big-Brother the messages that are going in each direction. Helping this is that after about half a dozen attempts, the badge automatically resets and starts from scratch. This means that I can start the badge and the server, leave them both on mains power and come back in a week to see if anything interesting has happened. More details on how this works will turn up on their own project page before long! Till later, Gray.
Bad News Everyone!
Hi all. My landlady needs her house back for her soon-to-be-homeless youngest, so my time here is at an end. The upshot of this is that I'll be leaving Burnthouse Lane. The downside is that I have to move my ENTIRE LIFE. In a few days, GeekChique.org is going to go dark. This will last until myself, the ferrets and the servers are in a new home. At this point, all the IP's will be redirected to a completely new connection with BT/Be Unlimited. Fun stuff, no? If anyone in the area can spare a few cardboard boxes or knows of any nice (clean and well behaved) ferret friends flats in the St Leonards, Wonford or Heavitree areas - please let me know. I'll keep the site up as long as I can, but I expect it to be down by the 10th. Wish us luck, and I'll see you in the new world!
So... Today was not a good day.
Today has been a bad day. I woke up still sick, and I'm off to bed soon still sick - and with a sore rear where I fell over on the ice. That last part at least is fairly normal in my life. But the worst bit of today came a little after lunchtime, when I went in to town to grab some paracetamol and some food other that LIDL's frozen veg. It's a sad story, and it's behind the cut - so if you don't want to read it, stop here - please.
