Short and Sweet

Baby Giggles

2010-04-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

If you're having a bad day, there are few things more helpful than a good laugh. Our new Android app, Baby Giggles, is designed to brighten your mood by doing just that. The recordings of infections baby giggles are guaranteed to make you smile and laugh.

Download it for free from the Android market by searching for "Baby Giggles". The package name is com.radsoftwaresys.babygiggles.

We hope you like it, and stay tuned for more interesting and fun apps.

Tips for Getting Android Apps Fixed

2010-03-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

If you're an Android user, you've no doubt encountered the famous "force close" screen. For those that aren't familiar with this, it's caused by an unhandled exception in an Android program, causing it to "crash". This pops up a dialog with one option: Force Close.

Unfortunately, "Force Close"'s on the Android platform are inevitable.

From a developer's perspective, there's nothing more annoying than a 1-start rating, with the comment "Force close". It tells us nothing about what happened, and only serves to lower our credibility as developers rather than helping us build better apps.

So, to help us out, here are a few tips for getting your app fixed.

1) Send us an email

Make sure to include the following information: Phone Model (ie:Motorola Droid), Version Number (if applicable), and a brief description of what happened when the program force closed. This can go a long way in helping us figure out what happened.

2) Use the Log Collector app to send us a copy of the stack trace

The "Log Collector" is an open source program available through the Android market, and running this after a crash is probably the most helpful thing you can do. By sending us a copy of the stack trace, you're sending us a snapshot of the events that lead up to the crash, as well as detailed data about the crash itself.

To use the Log Collector effectively, make sure you run our app first, then run the log collector immediately after the "force close". This ensures that we get the data for our app, and not someone else's. Then, just fill in our email address, and that's it.

3) Download and run the Advanced Task Manager (ATM) application

The ability to run multiple processes at once is both a blessing and a curse in Android. To make sure that the problem really is with our app and not another backgrounded one, download and run the Advanced Task Manager (ATM)

ATM is available through the Android market for free, and allows you to close multiple tasks. I recommend killing only the tasks that you personally opened, just to make sure you don't kill off anything important. Kill all unnecessary apps except for the one you want to debug. Then, run the app again to make sure it still force closes. If it does, see number 2.

Thanks to everyone for all of your support. We look forward to improving our own apps, and hope that by promoting these steps we can improve the entire Android market experience.

Andi Wear

2010-03-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you all to Andi. Andi is officially the logo for the Android platform, but more importantly, is our little buddy. Andi is our name for the character, and we're trying to get it to catch on.

We like it because it appeals to all in a gender-neutral way. While an Android is specifically a male robot, Andi is androgynous. You'll hear us refer to him/her with either sex, totally randomly.

Check out the cafepress store (http://www.cafepress.com/AndiWear) to support Andi's cause.

4 Reasons We Develop for Android

2010-03-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

So, for the past 2 months, Jeff and I have shifted gears a little. We've transitioned away from doing only Gumstix development, and moved toward Android Application development.

I'm happy to report that our first product, the Shopping List, is becoming a success. The free version just jumped to over 5,000 downloads (within the first month), and the paid version is over 100.

So, why did we decide to move to Android?

First, according to many sources, Android is poised to take control of the Smart Phone market. Noticing the many benefits to handset manufacturers in switching to Open Source Android, and noticing the few pitfalls, we're inclined to believe it.

Second, Android apps are super simple to develop. We hashed out the first version of the ShoppingList in less than 10 hours, and that included learning the SDK. It uses Eclipse and a built-in virtual machine that makes testing a snap. As a bonus, you can connect your phone to your computer and automatically run your software in the phone.

Third, the Android platform runs on Gumstix (see www.gizmoforyou.com). Since many of the Android handsets use similar processors to those used on the Gumstix (in particular, the Nexus One uses the TI OMAP3430), support will be provided by the manufacturers and built into the kernel. Major bonus.

Finally, being on Android means we can make the software we want and release it to a wide audience, without worrying about spending time and effort on a program that may never get approved. Android apps can be downloaded from anywhere, and the market is available as a convenience rather than a burden. This creates a true freedom not found in other similar platforms.

What do you think? Are you hip with Android?

Compiling from Source Using APT

2010-01-17T14:57:00.000-08:00

Most of us Ubuntu fans are pretty proficient with apt-get for installing binary packages. However, not that many of us use apt to download the source code for our favorite programs and compile them ourselves.

Using apt to download source code is pretty easy, and makes the problem of missing-dependencies all but disappear.

You can use the following to download the source code for any package (note: the source flag to apt will download the source code to your current working directory):


mkdir packagename
cd packagename
apt-get source packagename

While this downloads the source code for the package, it does not automatically download the libraries required to compile the source. To do that, use the following command:

apt-get build-dep packagename

Finally, you can do the standard configure/make/make install procedure inside of the packagename directory.


./configure
make
make install

Creating SD Card Images

2009-12-20T20:51:00.000-08:00

This short tutorial shows you how to dump an SD card image (this one, in particular, is for the overobuntu SD cards). This tutorial assumes you are using some form of *nix (Unix, Linux, etc) and have access to the dd command line tool.

First, in order to use the dd tool properly, we need to set the block size and number of bytes that you want to copy. For this tutorial, we're going to make blocks 512 bytes.

If you want to copy 1GB, using 512 byte blocks, then we need 1073741824 / 512 = 2097152 blocks. NOTE: When you're figuring out how many bytes you need, make sure you calculate in bytes (ie: 1GB is not 1 billion bytes, but 2^30 = 1073741724 bytes).

The command to do this copy from your SD card (assuming your SD card is mounted at /dev/mmcblk0) is the following:

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=card.image bs=512 blocks=2097152

if = the input source device
of = the image where the data is going to be dumped
bs = the block size (512 is a sensible default)
blocks = the number of blocks you wish to copy (number of bytes / block size).

New Updates, and Exciting Happenings

2009-11-29T18:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since my last real post, and my sincere apologies for this! With the new baby, a tight work schedule, and dealing with shady characters making fraudulent copyright claims, I've had very little time to post to my blog.

I return today with some exciting news, and a roadmap for the near future.

First, I'm in the process of formalizing a new company called RAD Software Systems. The company leverages my personal expertise and experience in agile software development, along with that of my network of software developer and engineer friends, to provide high-quality software development services at a low cost. You can check us out at http://www.radsoftwaresys.com.

Secondly, I'm working on a new series of blog postings that will show you to add an accelerometer, Lithium-Polymer Battery power, and eventually a Large-format LVDS LCD screen (Laptop screens) to your Gumstix projects. I will provide detailed tutorials on how to accomplish these, and will be selling some of the hardware on the RAD Software Systems products page (http://www.radsoftwaresys.com/content/products)

Finally, I'll be updating the Gumstix Overo Ubuntu distribution, Overobuntu, to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). RAD Software Systems will be formally supporting Overobuntu, which means more active development, bug reporting and ticket handling, and more rapid updating to new distributions. We'll be releasing Overobuntu 9.10 by the middle of next week, and from now on will keep Overobuntu updated with the latest versions of Ubuntu.

Keep your eyes out in the near future for more updates! I'll be moving this week into a new house, with a new office and new workshop, so expect the updates to start sometime next week. Thanks for your patience, and all of your support!

Happy holidays to everyone, and I hope this last month of 2009 marks the start of an excellent 2010.

Overobuntu now hosted on Gitorious

2009-09-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

I've been using git lately for local version control because my programming style doesn't seem to fit too well with subversion's folder structure. I tend to prefer a bit more free-flow.

So, seeing as how I've been using git for versioning anyhow, I've moved overobuntu over to gitorious. You can get your copy of overobuntu by issuing the following command in your terminal:

git clone git://gitorious.org/overobuntu/overobuntu_builder.git

This contains the latest version of Overobuntu, 0.91.1, which has some neat new features including:
* proper Partition backup
* Automatic card formatting
* Several bug fixes.

How to crash your netgear router

2009-07-30T17:47:00.000-07:00

Why you should never question Netgear's authority:

Palm just scored some mega cool nerd points with me

2009-07-29T23:06:00.001-07:00

Check out the code to enter developers mode on a Palm Pre. Awesome.

Grab your Overobuntu SD card.

2009-06-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Now, you can get Ubuntu running on your Gumstix Overo quickly and easily. Grab your Overobuntu SD Card, and get back to business.

The card is formatted properly and should boot on any of the Gumstix Overo COM devices, with the proper kernel modules. Ubuntu with the LXDE packages are pre-installed.

UPDATE: You can now purchase the cards through my online store at https://sites.google.com/a/catalyzingconcepts.com/catalyzing-concepts/portfolio/overobuntu. Thanks!

Gumstix Development Resources

2009-06-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the Okapi Generic Computing Device, and have found some cool documentation that is hard to find.

1: The datasheet for the AVX connectors that go on your custom board can be found on the kyocera website.

2: A robotics website that has some interesting specs on the gumstix overo, including some extra datasheets.

These websites are especially useful for those of you designing your own custom expansion boards for the gumstix overo.

Using MySQL with Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)

2009-06-04T15:14:00.001-07:00

To use the Elastic Block Store to make the Mysql data persistent, change the location of the MySQL datadir to be the place where the persistent volume is mounted.

To do this, change the datadir section of your /etc/mysql/my.cnf file to point to your Elastic Block Store mount (and folder on the mount).

eg:


datadir = /home/persistent/mysql

Assuming /home/persistent is where you mounted your EBS volume.

Automatic Volume Snapshots using Amazon EC2 and EBS

2009-06-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

The server that I've been using to host my other site, oc-technology.com, has been hosted on an Amazon Web Services EC2 server since October of 2008. This tutorial / software assumes you have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account, and are running a debian-like EC2 server, mounting an Elastic Block Store (EBS). If any of this sounds like martian to you, check out http://aws.amazon.com for an overview.

I've wrote a small script (two files, volsnapshot.ksh and volsnapshot.pl) that automatically takes snapshots of my Elastic Block Store (EBS). This script runs as a cron job and does makes nightly snapshots of my Elastic Block Store. I did this so that, in the event of a catastrophic problem, I could restore my EBS to a previous state.

This script also keeps any number of previous backups, deleting "expired" snapshots (ones that are too old). This allows one to automate backups without having to worry about massive Amazon S3 usage.

This backup requires 2 files: vol-snapshot.ksh and vol-snapshot.pl.

Finally, you'll need to create a cron job at the end.


#!/bin/bash
#
# File: vol-snapshot.ksh
# Author: John O'Connor
# Copyright (C) 2009, John O'Connor
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARARANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTIBILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.

export EC2_HOME='<path_to_amazon_API_tools>'  # Make sure you use the API tools, not the AMI tools

export EC2_BIN=$EC2_HOME/bin
export EC2_PRIVATE_KEY=<path_to_key_directory>/pk-<privateKey>.pem
export EC2_CERT=<path_to_certificate_directory>/cert-<certificate>.pem
export PATH=$PATH:$EC2_BIN
#
# To find the current location of JAVA_HOME, try env | grep JAVA_HOME
# It's necessary to put this environment variable in here because
# cron will not have access to your standard environment variables.
export JAVA_HOME=<path_to_your_java_runtime>

./vol-snapshot.pl > logs/snapshot_`date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S`.log
# You can also do the following if you don't wish to keep the logs
# ./vol-snapshot.pl

And for the perl file, make sure you keep it in the same directory as the shell script, or otherwise change the paths above to point to the correct location.


#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# File: vol-snapshot.pl
# Author: John O'Connor
# Copyright (C) 2009, John O'Connor
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARARANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTIBILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

##############################
# Global Variables
##############################
EC2_HOME='<path_to_amazon_API_tools>'  # Make sure you use the API tools, not the AMI tools

my $EC2_HOME = '<path_to_amazon_API_tools>';
my $EC2_BIN = "$EC2_HOME/bin";
my $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY = '<path_to_key_directory>/pk-<privateKey>.pem';
my $EC2_CERT = '<path_to_certificate_directory>/cert-<certificate>.pem';
my @volumes = ();
my @snapshots = ();
my $SNAPSIZE_MAX = 2; # This is the number of snapshots to save.
my $DEBUG = 1; # Set this to 0 to get less output.  I recommend leaving this alone.

##############################
# Subroutine Prototypes
##############################
sub getVolumes();
sub getSnapshots();

##############################
# Main
##############################
if (@ARGV)
  {
    @volumes = @ARGV;
  }
else
  {
    @volumes = getVolumes();
  }
my $volsize = @volumes;
foreach (@volumes)
  {
    print "$_\n" if $DEBUG;
    `$EC2_BIN/ec2-create-snapshot $_`;
  }

$volsize == 0 ? print "No volumes found.\n" : $volsize == 1 ? print "$volsize volume found.\n" : print "$volsize volumes found.\n";

@snapshots = getSnapshots();
my $snapsize = @snapshots;
print "$snapsize number of snapshots\n" if $DEBUG;
if ($snapsize > $SNAPSIZE_MAX)
  {
    print "$snapsize, $SNAPSIZE_MAX\n" if $DEBUG;
    for (my $i = 0; $i < $SNAPSIZE_MAX; $i++)
      {
    my $snapshot = $snapshots[$i];
    print "$_\n" if $DEBUG;
    print "$snapsize snapshots left\n" if $DEBUG;
    `$EC2_BIN/ec2-delete-snapshot $snapshot`;
      }
  }


##############################
# Subroutines
##############################
sub getVolumes()
{
    my $volstring = `$EC2_BIN/ec2-describe-volumes`;
    my @volumes = split(/\n/, $volstring);
    my @vol = ();
    my $volcount = 0;
    foreach my $volume (@volumes)
    {
      if ($volume =~ /VOLUME\s+(vol-(?:\S+))/)
    {
      ($vol[$volcount]) = $volume =~ /VOLUME\s+(vol-(?:\S+))/;
      $volcount++;
    }
    }
    return @vol;
}

sub getSnapshots()
  {
    my $snapstring = `$EC2_BIN/ec2-describe-snapshots`;
    my @snapshots = split(/\n/, $snapstring);
    my @snap = ();
    my $snapcount = 0;
    foreach my $snapshot (@snapshots)
      {
    if ($snapshot =~ /SNAPSHOT\s+(snap-(?:\S+))/)
      {
        ($snap[$snapcount]) = $snapshot =~ /SNAPSHOT\s+(snap-(?:\S+))/;
        $snapcount++;
      }
      }
    return @snap
  }

Ok -- I know what you're thinking: You put the paths in both files. Why don't you just snag the environment variables you just set in the .ksh file?

I don't remember -- it didn't work last time I tried it, and I'm too lazy to figure out why. If someone else out there tries it and gets it to work, please do post it here! I'll change it in the code.

Finally, you need to create a cron job that runs the Vol-snapshot.ksh file.

In your terminal, type:


crontab -e

Then, add the following line:


30 0 * * * <your_scripts_dir>/vol-snapshot.ksh

This runs the cron job at 12:30am every day. For more information on how to use crontab, (including how to change when the cron job is run), check out http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm

It's not perfect, but it's worked fine for me so far, and has definitely saved me more than a few headaches.

Good luck, and let me know how this works out for you.

Never lose a terminal with Screen

2009-04-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

SSH is a fantastic tool for working on computers remotely. However, I've often run into the following problem: I'll be doing something in the terminal, like downloading a new release of Ubuntu, and been forced to shut down due to battery depletion on my laptop.

Fortunately, there's a utility that allows you to run a terminal as a separate process. You can detach from that terminal, disconnect from your remote machine, and re-connect when you feel like it.

Screen is a GNU/Linux program that allows you to run a terminal without the headache of staying logged in via SSH. I've used it to begin a download at school, detach from the session, drive home, and then reattach to see the progress. It's very handy for situations that require multiple tty's.

To use it, just type the following command into the terminal of the remote machine:

screen

This will bring you to a new, separate tty. Begin your process, then hit Ctrl-A+D (that is, hit Ctrl-A, then D for detach). This will take you out of the screen tty, leaving it running as a separate process. You can reattach to a screen later by typing screen -r.

The Next Big Thing: Part 1: Ubiquitous Internet

2009-04-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been marveling at the technology of the last 20 years. 20 years ago, the Internet didn't exist in the form we know it today. I've gotten so used to paying my bills online, it's hard to fathom a day when it couldn't be done like that.

This inevitably gets me thinking about what the world will look like in the future. Being an engineer, and getting a chance to work on cutting-edge technology, I have the privilege of getting paid to wonder what the next decade bring. What new technologies will shape our world?

This begins a series of what I'm calling "The next big thing". I'll do weekly posts about technology that I think will become popular in the next 10 years. If anything, it'll give me a chance to look back 10-years from now and laugh at my own optimism.

Ubiquitous Internet

Tech:
The word Ubiquitous has become a buzzword in computer science communities -- it generally means that everpresent existence of something. Computers are ubiquitous in our modern society -- most people don't go a whole day without interacting with some sort of computer, whether it be the micro-controller in your microwave or the real-time embedded computers in your car.

The next step in the evolution of the Internet is ubiquity. Eventually these many computers will interconnect and communicate without our awareness of it. The ubiquitous internet will allow our refrigerators to send our grocery lists to our cellular phones (or wearable computers) automatically. Our cars will communicate with their manufacturers, providing real-life data for future engineering efforts.

Evidence:
The Internet is already available on most cellular phones in the United States. Already, this technology is producing internet phenomena such as Twitter. While the cellular network is improving constantly, the bandwidth for ubiquitous Internet is not there . . . yet.

The major enabling technology for the ubiquitous internet could be the reallocation of the 800MHz spectrum from analog television to the Internet. In the very near future, the internet will be available anywhere that a television signal could be received.

As these muni systems become more common, devices that take advantage of the availability of the Internet become more feasible.

Conclusion:

I hope you've enjoyed this first installment of The Next Big Thing. Check back again next week for more dreaming and musings on what the future holds.

Installing Ubuntu on the Gumstix Overo

2009-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Installing Ubuntu on the Gumstix Overo

To get your own Overobuntu card pre-installed, without the headache or hassle of making your own, buy one from my website: www.radsoftwaresys.com/content/products. You'll be getting a well-tested card, and the proceeds will be used to develop awesome new products for the Gumstix Overo. Thanks! Please note: this card will NOT work with the Chestnut43 board.

This tutorial will walk you through the steps of installing Ubuntu on a Bootable SD card, and booting to Ubuntu on the Gumstix Overo. These instructions assume that you are running from Ubuntu Linux, although any similar Linux distro will suffice.

This tutorial references the following websites. Portion of this tutorial have been assembled from them, sometimes paraphrased and sometimes copied verbatim. Please visit the respective sites for more information:
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu
http://www.gumstix.net/Software/view/Software-Overo/Creating-a-bootable-microSD-card/111.html

Required Materials:

The following materials are required to complete this tutorial:

Gumstix Overo
Summit Board
Power Supply
USB Mini-B to Standard-A (computer host to overo device) cable
2GB (or larger) microSD Card (and standard card adapter to plug it into your development PC).

Ensure you have the correct packages installed:

sudo apt-get install ckermit qemu
...installs software...
wget http://ports.ubuntu.com/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_1.0.12_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i debootstrap_1.0.12_all.deb
wget http://people.ubuntu.com/~ogra/arm/build-arm-rootfs
sudo chmod u+x build-arm-rootfs



Building the root file system

Next, we'll need to build the Ubuntu arm root file system. This command will place the compressed image in your current working directory, so make sure you cd to the directory in which you want your image.

You can use any one of the following commands to build a root file system, depending on your desired seed (NOTE: I highly recommend you use the LXDE image. The standard Ubuntu GNOME desktop is unbearably slow on the Overo):

General: sudo ./build-arm-rootfs --fqdn --login --password --imagesize --seed

lxde Desktop: sudo ./build-arm-rootfs --fqdn overo --login ubuntu --password temppwd --imagesize 2G --seed lxde,gdm

Xubuntu Desktop sudo ./build-arm-rootfs --fqdn overo --login ubuntu --password temppwd --imagesize 2G --seed xubuntu-desktop

Ubuntu Desktop sudo ./build-arm-rootfs --fqdn overo --login ubuntu --password temppwd --imagesize 3G --seed ubuntu-desktop

Set the computer aside, as it will take a long time to build the entire root filesystem.

Once it's done, you'll see two files: build-arm-rootfs-YYYYMMDDhhmm.log and armel-rootfs-YYYYMMDDhhmm.tgz.

The first file contains the build log (if you have have any errors, this is the best place to start). The second contains your compressed root file system.

Formatting and Creating a Bootable SD Card

These instructions were copied from the following documentation on the gumstix.net website with some minor modifications.

Reference: http://www.gumstix.net/Software/view/Software-Overo/Creating-a-bootable-microSD-card/111.html

The Overo will boot directly from a properly prepared microSD card. This section will outline how to partition and format a bootable microSD card.

In order to create a bootable microSD compatible with the OMAP3 boot ROM you must set a special geometry using the fdisk "Expert mode".

This example will show the steps for setting up a brand new 2Gb microSD card.

First insert your card into your development machine's flash card slot. You may need to use a microSD to SD card adaptor to fit your slot.

On my Ubuntu 8.10 machine, the newly inserted card shows up as /dev/mmcblk0 and that is the device name that will be used through this example. You should substitute the proper device name for your machine. You can use 'mount' or 'df' to see where the card mounts on your machine.

Let's unmount the device's existing file system before we get started with fdisk:

$ sudo umount /dev/mmcblk0

Partitioning the card

Now launch fdisk and create an empty partition table. Note that the argument for fdisk is the entire device (/dev/mmcblk0) not just a single partition (i.e. /dev/mmcblk0p1):

# sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0



Command (m for help): o

Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,

until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous

content won't be recoverable.



Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Let's first look at the current card information. Note: Your information may be slightly different:

Command (m for help): p



Disk /dev/sde: 2032 MB, 2032664576 bytes

64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 984 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00aa8e5c



  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Note the card size in bytes. We will needed it later in the process.

Now go into "Expert" mode:

Command (m for help): x

Next we will set the geometry to 255 heads, 63 sectors and a calculated value for the number of cylinders required for the particular microSD card.

To calculate the number of cylinders, we take the 2032664576 bytes reported above by fdisk (use the number you saw from above) divided by 255 heads, 63 sectors and 512 bytes per sector:

2032664576 / 255 / 63 / 512 = 247.12 which we round down to 247 cylinders.

Expert command (m for help): h

Number of heads (1-256, default 4): 255



Expert command (m for help): s

Number of sectors (1-63, default 62): 63

Warning: setting sector offset for DOS compatiblity



Expert command (m for help): c

Number of cylinders (1-1048576, default 984): 247

Return to fdisk's main mode and create a new partition 32 MB FAT partition:

Expert command (m for help): r



Command (m for help): n

Command action

  e   extended

  p   primary partition (1-4)

p

Partition number (1-4): 1

First cylinder (1-247, default 1): 1

Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-247, default 15): +32M

Change the partition type to FAT32:

Command (m for help): t

Selected partition 1

Hex code (type L to list codes): c

Changed system type of partition 1 to c (W95 FAT32 (LBA))

And mark it bootable:

Command (m for help): a

Partition number (1-4): 1

Next we create an ext3 partition for the rootfs:

Command (m for help): n

Command action

  e   extended

  p   primary partition (1-4)

p

Partition number (1-4): 2

First cylinder (6-247, default 6): 6

Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (6-247, default 247): 247

To verify our work, lets print the partition info:

Command (m for help): p



Disk /dev/sde: 2032 MB, 2032664576 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 247 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x00aa8e5c



  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/mmcblk0p1   *           1           5       40131    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

/dev/mmcblk0p2               6         247     1943865   83  Linux

Up to this point no changes have been made to the card itself, so our final step is to write the new partition table to the card and then exit:

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered!



Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.



WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x

partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional

information.

Syncing disks.

Formatting the new partitions

We format the first partition as a FAT file system (the -n parameter gives it a label of FAT, you can change or omit this if you like):

#  sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/mmcblk0p1 -n FAT

mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)

We format the second partition as an ext3 file system:

$ sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p2

mke2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)

Filesystem label=

OS type: Linux

Block size=4096 (log=2)

Fragment size=4096 (log=2)

121920 inodes, 485966 blocks

24298 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user

First data block=0

Maximum filesystem blocks=499122176

15 block groups

32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group

8128 inodes per group

Superblock backups stored on blocks:

 32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912



Writing inode tables: done                           

Creating journal (8192 blocks): done

Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: ^[done



This filesystem will be automatically checked every 36 mounts or

180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

Installing the boot files

There are three files required on the first (FAT) partition to boot your Overo:

MLO: the boot-loader loader - this small program is loaded into the OMAP3 processor's static RAM. It does some minimal configuration of system memory and io pins and then loads the second file.
u-boot.bin: the boot loader
uImage: the linux kernel

You can build these yourself or download pre-built images. It is important that these three files have precisely these names on the card.

For build instructions, check out http://www.gumstix.net/Software/cat/Software-Overo/111.html, particularly the section on Setting up a build environment. You can download pre-built images from the following places:

Once you have completed building or downloading these files, mount the FAT partition of your microSD card. This example will assume that you have mounted it at /media/card:

sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/card

Due to constraints of the mask boot ROM in the OMAP processor, MLO should be written first:

$ sudo cp MLO-overo-v0.91 /media/card/MLO

Then copy u-boot and the linux kernel to the card:

$ sudo cp u-boot-overo-v0.91.bin /media/card/u-boot.bin

$ sudo cp uImage-overo-v0.91.bin /media/card/uImage

You can now unmount the FAT partition:

$ sudo umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

At this point you have a bootable FAT partition.

The final step is to untar your desired rootfs onto the ext3 partition that you created above.

Note that this step can be dangerous. You do not want to untar your Overo rootfs onto your development machine - be careful!

This example will assume that you have mounted it at /media/card:

$ sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /media/card

Now untar your desired rootfs (note: The first step is important!):

$ cd /media/card

$ sudo tar -zxvf armel-rootfs-YYYYMMDDhhmm.tgz

You can now unmount the ext3 partition:

$ sudo umount /dev/mmcblk0p2

Finishing Up



The last step is to remove your bootable SD card, and insert it into the MMC slot on the Overo.  Before you insert the card, make sure the Overo is off.



Once you've inserted the card, boot the Overo.  It should boot into your new Ubuntu environment.

UPDATE Nov. 27, 2009:

HOW TO INSTALL MODULES:
This section will detail how to install the kernel modules from the Angstrom distribution into
the Overobuntu image. Also, please note the lack of tutorial style. I will be updating this section to be more of a tutorial shortly, but I figured it is useful enough to put this version up now.

First, bitbake the U-boot, x-load, and kernel. See http://www.gumstix.net/Software/view/Software-Overo/Setting-up-a-build-environment/111.html if you're unsure what this means, or don't have your build environment set up.


bitbake u-boot x-load linux-omap3

In gumstix/gumstix-oe/tmp/deploy/glibc/images, you will find
files like:
MLO-*
u-boot-*
uImage-*
modules-*-.tar.gz

The first three are used in building the bootable SD card. See
http://www.gumstix.net/Software/view/Software-Overo/Creating-a-bootable-microSD-card/111.html

Once you have the FAT partition set up with MLO, u-boot.bin and uImage,
untar the ubuntu arm-rootfs to the ext3 partition.

Next, untar the modules-*-.tar.gz from the build to the ext3 boot partition.
This will "install" the modules and firmware.

One last step, boot from the SD card. There will be some errors regarding
a missing modules.dep file. NOTE the path in the error. Sign in as the
user specified when you built the ubuntu arm-rootfs. CD to the location
noted in the error and type the following command:
sudo depmod
and enter the password.

Finally, reboot:
sudo shutdown -r now

Hopefully, this will get Ubuntu running for you with the required drivers.

UPDATE: November 28, 2009 -- from "http://www.gumstix.net/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_Ubuntu_9.04_on_Gumstix_Overo"

If you're interfacing with your Overo with the USB serial terminal, keep in mind that you won't see the 'login:' prompt after booting Ubuntu unless you configure getty to listen on /dev/ttyS2. You'll need to do this while your MicroSD card is still mounted on another host.

# cd /path/to/rootfs
# cat > etc/event.d/ttyS2 <start on runlevel 2
start on runlevel 3
start on runlevel 4
start on runlevel 5

stop on runlevel 0

respawn
exec /sbin/getty 115200 ttyS2
EOF

You will also need to add ttyS2 to /etc/securetty to allow root logins there:

# echo "ttyS2" >> etc/securetty

"

Cards purchased from me will now have this capability.

Ubuntu 9.04 on a Gumstick

2009-04-06T22:58:00.001-07:00

This week, Jeff and I finally brought Ubuntu to the Gumstix Overo.

To get your own Overobuntu card pre-installed, without the headache or hassle of making your own, buy one from my website: www.radsoftwaresys.com/content/products. You'll be getting a well-tested card, and the proceeds will be used to develop awesome new products for the Gumstix Overo. Thanks!

The timing couldn't be any better, as gumstix just announced last week the addition of the Overo Wind, Fire, and Water to their Computer-on-module (COM) lineup. These use the OMAP3530 processor, which supports openGL-ES, which means as soon as we can get our hands on one, we'll be toying with Compiz and Gumstix!!

For those that are still in the dark about the gumstix, check out my previous post about the Overo Earth.

We've written a step-by-step tutorial on how to get this working, and if there's interest I'll post it on blog.myokapi.net.

Of course, since it didn't happen without pix . . .

The Gumstix Linux bootsplash - I like the gumstix on his tummy.

It doesn't have a USplash screen (yet), but the Jaunty login window loads up pretty quickly.

We used the LXDE desktop since it takes up less system resources than GNOME. If there's interest, I can post screenshots of GNOME as well.

The Terminal window shows the output of /proc/cpuinfo. It's the overo, alright.

The Jaunty login screen on Jeff's TV.

Jeff got errors at first, but I think he has them solved now . . .

5 Sci-fi Weapons That Are Closer Than You Think

2009-03-21T18:11:00.001-07:00

The announcement this week of a weapons grade LASER being successfully tested adds yet another sci-fi weapon to the sci-fact side of the board. Here are 5 sci-fi weapons that are being developed as we speak.

1) Giant Death LASERs
Sci-Fi writers love writing about death lasers -- powerful beams of light that instantaneously zap their victims with pinpoint accuracy. Ever since the invention of the LASER, it has been a favorite theme of Sci-Fi writers.

This week the first ever test firing of a weapons grade LASER was carried out successfully. Eventually, this LASER will be small enough to fit on a tank or a plane, although the prototype unit is a little big for that. However, it may not be too long before they're mounted on the front of aircraft in place of machine guns, or turned into LASER pistols a'la Star Wars (then there's the Death Star, since we're on the topic of Star Wars).

2) Sonic Bullets and Sound Guns
Acoustic weapons use the power of sound to bring ones enemies to their knees. Weapons like these have graced the likes of many sci-fi tales, including Star Wars. Could sound be used to create "Mars Attacks!" style head implosion?

It turns out -- maybe. For now, these weapons are relegated to the "irritant, Non-lethal" category, often relying on parabolic dish reflectors and high-powered amplifiers to force the victim to their knees in pain (like walking under those listening dishes at Fry's and hearing a Yoko Ono CD).

However, the potential for these weapons is pretty enormous. Acoustic weapons of the future can attack enemies through walls, kill them under water, or even dissolve their tissue. These are all current applications of ultrasonic technology, whether intentional or inadvertant.

3) Weapons that leave no trace
It's the perfect murder weapon -- a bullet that leaves no trace of itself. Believe it or not, something very similar already exists today! In fact, Isreal has been accused of using it in the recent Gaza strip fighting.

The weapon used today is called DIME - Dense Inert Metal Explosive. The official reason for using DIME weapons is that they have a very short kill radius due to the fast burning metals used. It is this limited but devastating kill radius that can be effective in limiting collateral damage. While the use of the weapon can be determined by the types of injuries it inflicts, it is almost entirely untraceable except for the tiny shrapnel-sized burns in its victims.

It's being touted as the ultimate urban warfare grenade, as enemies in densely populated areas to be targed with minimal risk to bystanders. Since the metal burns out so quickly, people that are just outside of the kill zone you can remain uninjured.

This technology may also be used in small arms for close-range combat to prevent friendly fire incidents by limiting the range of a bullet. Bullets could be created that have a very specific range, allowing soldiers to shoot without worrying about what's behind their target.

4) Missiles that can shoot down other missiles
This is like trying to stop a bullet by shooting it with another bullet. While it may work in the "curve the bullet" world of Wanted, in reality it's a much more difficult task. Yet today we're very much on our way to having it -- the program is called the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI).

The KEI program aims to prevent missiles from hitting their intended targets by stopping them in mid-air with other missiles. The technology required to do this is state-of-the-art -- they can geolocate and track missiles from anywhere in the world, creating an intercept path, and launching at the appropriate time for intercept. Weapons systems like this could eventually diffuse inbound weapons in the sky, before they ever have a chance to do damage to their targets.

5) Active Camouflage
The predator had it. The Master Chief has it. Pretty soon, we may have it as well. Active camouflage is any number of techniques that allow one to appear as logically invisible. Many of these technologies involve taking a video of one side of something, and projecting that image on the other side.

However, some recent research has turned up a new material that has a negative index of refraction -- basically, rather than reflecting light at a certain angle and refracting it at others, this material effectively refracts at all angles, "bending" the light around itself. For now, this only seems to work with Microwave radiation. However, there is research being undertaken to change this, and someday soon we could be coating our tanks with a paint that makes them invisible.

AIG Bonuses taxed at 90%

2009-03-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is probably the best story I've read so far regaring the bailout. Today, the house passed HR-1586, which taxes bonuses paid to executives at AIG at 90%. Hopefully this will deincentivize this sort of activity in other government-supported entities (are you listenting Fannie and Freddie?) Personally, I think it should've been 95% -- but then again, there may have been a better solution.

The U.S. government is now 80% owner of AIG. It could very easily put it's foot down, as owner, and demand that the bonuses not be paid. Every time I've heard this argument made, it's been shot down with a "you'd need to talk to a contract lawyer about that", being that the bonuses were in the contracts of these individuals. However, the recent case in which the UAW (United Auto Workers) had to give up major terms of their contracts or face massive layoffs has raised doubts for me as to the "sanctity of the contract".

My first reaction, as I'm sure was yours as well, when I heard about the issuance of bonuses was that the higher-ups in AIG were "raiding the couffers". I'm glad to see the government is representing the outrage of the people and not taking this lying down. There's no reason that we should be paying taxes to support bonuses for these corrupt individuals, while simultaneosly suffering the ill effects from their bad decisions.

"Lasers on a Plane"

2009-03-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

With the announcement yesterday of Northrop Grumman's weapons-grade laser firing, weaponized lasers have crossed the silent line between science fiction and fact. So, what exactly do you do with a super cool laser weapon? You put it in the nose of a Boeing 747 and blow up missles, of course.

Northrop Grumman, along with Boeing Company, have been working together to create the Airborne Laser (ABL) program. The goal of this program is to put lasers on planes with the purpose of blowing up missles during the launch phase. With the test firing of a >100Kw laser, they've brought this sci-fi weapon of the future one step closer to reality.

The implications of this new technology are enormous. A terrorist could be instantaneously zapped from high in the sky. Dogfights could start to resemble a scene from Star Wars. What if you're firing the weapon and miss your target?

While there are many questions regarding the use of these laser weapons, there's undoubtedly a cool factor to their development. One can't help but wonder what are the contents of the pandoras box before us.

Image Editing in your Web Browser

2009-03-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Avi Muchnick, creator of Worth1000.com, has announced today the release of Aviary, a suite of web-based image editing tools.

Aviary is a suite of 4 web-based image editing tools: Raven for Vector Editing, Phoenix for Image Editing, Peacock for creating programmatic visual effects, and Toucan for creating color schemes and swatches. These tools work in your web browser, without requiring download or installation.

These tools are designed offer in-browser alternatives to desktop applications commonly used for image editing, such as the Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

Worth1000.com is a graphic design and image editing competition website. If you've never heard of them before, you've at least seen the results of their "photoshop" contests. They've been circulated in countless emails as amazing natural phenomena, or as unbelieveable situations.

More Images:

Linux Desktop Will Be the Netbook's "Killer App"

2009-03-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Netbooks are looking for their "killer app". Netbooks are set to explode on the scene within the next few years, and many major companies such as Arcos, Asus, and even HP are focusing their efforts on this new class of computer. With their large-enough-to-watch-Hi-Def screens, and their small-enough-to-go-anywhere sizes, netbooks are poised to take a large chunk of the gadgets market -- and Linux is ready to make it happen.

Linux is already being installed exclusively in the super small computers which will be used in the netbooks of the near future. From the Asus eeePC and eeeBox, to the Beagle Board, Linux is popping up on small devices all over the place. In the past, Linux was relegated to the Server or Embedded devices market (think routers and switches) because of it's light footprint, customizability, and user unfriendliness. Now, with Linux finally reaching maturity as a desktop operating system, it seems to be the ideal candidate for the next generation of user-friendly embedded devices.

Why will netbooks choose Linux over other offerings (such as the much anticipated release of Windows 7)? Simply put, there's nothing that compares with Linux in size and customizability. Linux can be pared down to less than 10MB, it can run on resource-limited platforms, and provides a large number of out-of-the-box capabilities through large repositories of free software.

Check out the latest in bleeding edge technology, and prepare yourself for the netbook future by installing Linux on your computer today.

Changing the Default Program in Ubuntu

2009-03-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

When I first attached my iPod to my Linux laptop, I was greeted with a friendly message asking me in which program I wanted to open my iPod. I asked it to use Banshee, and clicked the check box that indicated to use that program in the future.

However, after a short while I found that I preferred RhythmBox (nothing wrong with Banshee, I just preferred RBox for personal reasons). I decided that I wanted to open the iPod in Rhythmbox instead of Banshee.

This, unfortunately, was much harder to figure out than I had anticipated. I reproduce these simple but unintuitive instructions the help out those that may have a similar problem. NOTE: I have reported this as a bug to Ubuntu, and it has been accepted -- hopefully the future will yield a more intuitive interface.

1) From your desktop, open a nautilus window. You can do this by opening a folder, such as your "home" folder.
2) From the "Edit" menu, click on "Preferences".
3) Choose the tab that says "Media".
4) From here, you can set the options for automatically opening media. Click on the tab for music player, and you're on your way.

This applies to those looking to change the default action / program for the following:

Playing and Audio CD

Playing a DVD (Movie)

Attaching a Music Player

Viewing photos

Auto-running software

Defining default actions for other types of media, such as the following:
- Audio DVD's
- Blank CD / DVD / HD-DVD
- Blu-ray DVD
- HD-DVD
- Picture CD
- Video CD
- Super Video CD

Is Ubuntu good for Linux?

2009-03-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu is the face of GNU/Linux for many non-techies.

While there is no question that Ubuntu has brought some high-powered marketing to the table for GNU/Linux, I've heard many discussions recently about Ubuntu actually hurting Linux and the Linux community.

I ask the question, "Is Ubuntu good for Linux?" Of course, this depends largely on your definition of what being "good" for Linux means.

I'll define "good" as having a list of benefits that are larger than the list of detriments. This is not meant to be an exhaustive study of this subject, but merely my observations of the current relationship of Ubuntu to Linux. In particular, there are five main areas in which we can compare the pros and cons of Ubuntu.

Marketing

Pro

Conclusion

Hopefully this provides some insight into the issues surrounding Ubuntu and it's relationship to the Linux community. I personally use Ubuntu exclusively, and have enjoyed the perks and suffered through the failures. I enjoy using the distribution, and will continue to advocate its use in converting the masses to Linux.

Linux on a Gumstick -- A Tour of the Gumstix Overo

2009-03-12T22:25:00.001-07:00

NOTE: To get your own Overobuntu card pre-installed, without the headache or hassle of making your own, buy one from my website: www.radsoftwaresys.com/content/products. You'll be getting a well-tested card, and the proceeds will be used to develop awesome new products for the Gumstix Overo. Thanks! </NOTE>

When I first came across Gumstix, my jaw dropped. Gumstix are fully functional computer motherboards, the size of a gumstick or smaller, that run Linux. The latest in the Gumstix line, the Overo Earth, pushes the boundaries of ultra small computers -- and kicks some serious butt doing it.

The Overo is based on the Texas Instruments OMAP3503 ARM-based processor, similar to that used in the beagle board. It runs at an impressive 600MHz, and while this version does not yet have 3D acceleration, it's on the product roadmap for first Quarter of 2009.

When Jeff (one of my co-workers) and I began working the latest project, he picked one up for our prototype. I knew it was small, but I was amazed at how minuscule (and amazing) this device really is.

Grab a stick of gum, and you get an idea of the real size of this thing. The left side is the Overo Earth Motherboard, the right side is the Summit expansion board.

To keep the Overo small, it doesn't have many ways to connect to it. The standard way is by purchasing the Summit board, an add-on that includes audio, power, USB, and, of all things, an HDMI (DVI-D) connector for High Definition Video!!!

The Overo runs a custom Linux distribution, and comes with the Elightenment Window Manager installed on the default image. Since it uses USB On-the-go, it doesn't have much power -- we added a USB hub to it in this picture so we could connect a keyboard and mouse.

The Overo and Summit board, connected via HDMI to my television, and to a powered USB hub (left).

Booting into Linux on an HDTV

The Overo USplash screen.

The Overo comes with the Enlightenment Window Manager. Attach a mouse, and you now have a Linux box for your TV.

Thanks to Jeff Potter for letting me borrow the Overo this week, and giving me a chance to play around with it.

UPDATED

The overo booting in real-time (~1 min.)

Downloading Ubuntu 9.04 in about a minute

2009-03-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

David decided to do some gloating a few months ago, being that I don't have Internet access at work, and send me a screenshot of his computer downloading from sourceforge at 4.5MB/s. Mohan sent us this 1-up from school. Damn. Just...damn.

Long Beach and Lakewood Community Forum

2009-03-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

I started up an online discussion board, much like I used to work on in the high desert. The URL for this new community forum is www.lakewoodlongbeach.com.

The Lakewood / Long Beach forum is an online community gathering place for residents (both past, present, and future?) of these cities and the surrounding areas, to discuss issues such as local news, politics, pets, the economy, and many other topics. The forum is open to anyone -- Membership is not limited to residents of these areas, but the forum is targeted at this audience.

Membership is completely free. Help make Lakewood and Long Beach just a little smaller, and join in the discussion today.

Apple is Bad for Open Source

2009-02-14T23:07:00.000-08:00

I recently had a conversation with an avid Mac enthusiast that swore up-and-down to me that Apple was a knight in shining armor for the Open Source movement.

While his arguments were very weak, it got me thinking: What is the impact of Apple and the Mac OSX on the adoption of Open Source software? More specifically, is Apple a supporter of open source, a staunch opponent, or somewhere in-between?

It turns out, the answer was much simpler than I thought it would be. Apple is decidedly an opponent of open source.

Before the flame wars begin, please allow me to walk you through my logic. I will present to you all of the evidence that I found -- decide afterward if you agree with me. Also, I'm not an anti-mac guy -- I think they've created a fantastic operating system with a well-thought-out marketing campaign. I just wanted to set the record straight for those that think Apple is beneficial to Open Source operating systems.

Point 1: Apple does not make ITunes available to open source operating systems.
Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. However, the use of some of Apple's other products, namely the IPod, require the use of the of ITunes. I ran into this problem when my wife bought me an engraved IPod Nano for Christmas. The iPod requires ITunes to sync music, photos, and videos to the device, but when I went to find ITunes on Linux, there was nothing to be had. Apple is, in effect, forcing me to use a commercial operating system if I want to use the device I purchased from them.

Why doesn't Apple provide a version of ITunes for free operating systems? The argument from Apple is that there is not a demand for the Apple IPod among Linux users, however a recent online petition requesting that Apple port ITunes to Linux has gotten over 17,000 signatures at the time of this writing (http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?itmslin).

Others (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/wake-up-call-apple-wont-port-itunes-to-linux-2/) have made the argument that there would be no benefit to Apple porting ITunes to Linux in any respect. The main argument is that most Linux users are moving away from IPods anyway, since they are so limited in functionality (no radio, microphone, etc).

However, from a personal standpoint, the limitation in features is precisely the reason I chose the IPod to begin with. I work in a restricted area where devices with radio or recording capabilities are illegal, and the IPod fits the bill nicely. Additionally, the argument that Linux users are switching to other devices because of the lack of support (really, the lack of ITunes) emphasizes the need for an ITunes port.

Point 2: Apple IPhone development requires you to use a MAC
The IPhone SDK is only available on the MAC platform. Many people use IPhones, including open source enthusiasts and developers. Apple is removing people's operating system choices by forcing its developers to purchase a MAC if they want to do any development for the IPhone.

I can understand that Open Source operating systems compete with Apple's MAC OSX, and I can understand not wanting to make their software available to the open source community. However, limiting development of applications for the IPhone to only those that can afford (or want to use) to use MAC OSX (which requires them to purchase a new computer entirely) stifles the open source development of IPhone applications.

Closing Statement

I argue that these practices are in place with the explicit purpose of alienating the Free Software community, not supporting it. Supporters of Apple can sometimes reach cult status, often defending their beloved operating system beyond logic.

Can any of my readers think of an instance in which Apple has been beneficial to Open Source software, or the development of it?

Technology Retarded

2009-01-19T21:08:00.000-08:00

Technology is a beautiful thing -- our cellular phones have capabilities that surpass our desktop computers from just 10 years ago. It is both a source of wonder for me, and eternal frustration -- but not how you think.

This rant focuses on two specific companies who, for the sake of litigation, will remain anonymous.

These companies have taken great strides to advance technology, and many more to retard it. These companies purposely remove functionality in their products for the sole purpose of improving sales of other products.

One device, a cellular phone, has at its core the ability to play music, either from a memory card or downloaded. The device's bluetooth functionality is purposely disabled whenever an external memory card is present, as it allows the owner of the phone to transfer music directly from their computer to the device. The company has a download service for music, and the ability to transfer information from the computer to the phone would directly compete with this service.

The other device is a Digital Video Recorder. The company that makes this device has gone to great lengths to "secure" the data on the drive, creating their own device instead of using more common and less buggy commercial offerings. This leaves the consumer with an inadequate amount of hard drive space to store their videos, and no method for retrieving or expanding their recording capability. This was done at the behest of movie and television studios, to prevent people from backing up their recorded programs to DVD or some other form (and to keep charging them for seeing the same content).

As we approach the year 2010, the technology we have is, in some ways, almost science-fiction. And yet, the politics that has plagued our societies since its inception has made its way into our sci-fi society. I wonder if this is what Arthur C. Clarke had in mind.

Impact

2008-12-07T23:51:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been pondering my purpose here. I just turned 25, and was thinking back to when I was younger. I used to fantasize about being this age, wondering what great things I would have accomplished by now.

Of course, when your young, 25 seems like a dinosaur, closer to 80 than to you at age 10. I was a driven young man, and spent a lot of my time teaching myself the finer points of geekery. I didn't have the internet, so I did what I could -- learning QBasic through the help section, etc.

Looking back, I feel somewhat accomplished -- but not in the way I thought I would be. I was convinced that, by this time, I'd be a multi-billionaire like Bill Gates, making the world safer for democracy, etc...

All kidding aside, I've decided that, at least once in my lifetime, I would like to make a real impact -- not something trivial, but something enormous. I would like to, dare I say it, Change the world (credit to Bill Nye). This new charge will take a great deal of effort, and more time than I think I have. But then, everything worth doing is hard.

When I was first introduced to Open Source software, it seemed like a new world had opened to me. The true power and utility of modern computers can only be realized by the powerful and diverse software available to the community. One of the main features of this software is its ability to run so well on older hardware. It was this realization that generated an "a ha" moment for me.

Computers are a toxic waste -- they contain mercury, lead, and many other harmful metals. And, with the rapid advancement of technology, this waste is building up exponentially. The majority of the time, these are computers that still function, and are merely being thrown away because they are no longer needed.

What if, instead of throwing this computers away, we were to recycle them -- to give them new life, through open source software?! Most of these computers can handle a relatively modern Linux distro. We could donate them to community centers, underprivileged families, schools, and anyone else that can benefit from it. Eventually, we could even begin bringing this technology to children that have never seen it before, in 3rd world countries and impoverished nations.

Some interesting links I found were the National Christina Foundation and the dell computer recycling site. However, neither of these offer O.S. installation. The new organization would take the time to install an open source Linux operating system on these machines, before sending them back for donation.

Any thoughts?

The ATM Easter Egg

2008-04-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

On display -- A perfectly innocent-looking ATM.

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Or is it? On closer inspection, we find that this particular ATM is hiding something.

Don't see it yet? Try clicking on the picture. I'll wait...
Ok -- still can't see it? How about if we zoom in just a little bit more. . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Apparently the designer of this machine thought that "John Q. Sample" was a boring generic name. He decided Dick Cheese would be funnier. I agree.

Location: The Santos Manuel Student Union -- California State University, San Bernardino.
Photographer: John O'Connor
&lt;br>

5 sins of Linux Marketing

2008-04-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

I've read many articles Online recently advocating the use of Linux for the non-technical non-geek audience. Reading these articles, and the many responses they get on various social news sites, it has become clear that most, if not all, of these articles are ineffective.

It occurred to me that one of the major barriers to the acceptance of Linux as an alternative operating system is bad marketing. As evidenced by these many articles, there is no lack of enthusiasm in the Linux world. However, it seems that the geek crowd have trouble translating the desire to spread their enthusiasm into effective marketing.

With this in mind, I've created a list of 5 "sins" of Linux marketing, along with some suggestions about what to do instead of the "sin".

1) The sin of Evangelizing.

What does this mean?
There is no need to tell people that Linux is great, or that it's the best operating system ever, or that there is no other choice except Linux. This is the biggest "don't" that gets broken by those attempting to write articles about the use of Linux.

Why is this a sin?
Because when you evangelize, you're giving people your opinion, and unless you're a celebrity or someone influential, your opinion really doesn't matter -- at least not in the marketing sense.

What should I do instead?
Stick to the facts! There are plenty of good reasons to use Linux, so make sure you mention them! When in doubt, do your best to appeal to the logical or practical side of people, rather than the emotional.

2) The use of useless adjectives.

What does that mean?
It means, don't describe Linux with adjectives that are not completely factual. Linux may be "beautiful" or "remarkable" to you, but these are very subjective words.

Why is this a sin?
Because useless adjectives reek of opinion, and end up being very unconvincing. Once again, it doesn't matter to people what Linux is to you. What really matters is what Linux can do for them.

What should I do instead?
Focus on what Linux can do for people. Think up specific cases where Linux can make life easier. People want to know what benefit they can get from Linux, and how it will affect them.

3) The bashing of other operating systems

What does that mean?!
Just that -- don't bash other operating systems. It's OK to compare the specific features of one operating system to another. However, many Linux enthusiasts name-calling and "straw-man" attacks to get their point across.

Why is this a sin?
There are many reasons this is a sin. First, it is not convincing to people. Most people notice insults when they see them, and they usually tend to respond by defending the operating system being attacked. It makes the Linux community seem like a big bully.

Second, it insults the users of the operating system being bashed especially if the insults make it seem like a foolish choice to use that operating system.

Unfortunately, this does twice the damage because, not only is it unconvincing, but it actually causes people to defend their operating system, even if it may be inferior in some way. Not to mention it makes the Linux community seem like an unfriendly group of antisocial geeks.

What should I do instead?
Emphasize the good features of Linux. There are plenty of them. If you feel that you must, you can compare the features of linux to the offerings of other operating systems. A table is a good tool for expressing the differences in a compact and easy form.

4) Telling people they "must" use, or "need to" use Linux.

What does this mean?
Exactly what it says: it's when a Linux marketer tells the reader what operating system to use. They use the word "must" or "need" to make it sound urgent.

Why is this a sin?
Because people don't like being told what to do. People should be in control of their own operating system. Not to mention, the entire idea behind Linux is having the freedom to choose. Telling someone they "must" use Linux undermines the basic principles of the FSF and GNU, which is the cornerstone of the Open Source movement and most Linux advocates.

What should I do instead?
Emphasize that Linux is an ALTERNATIVE and that people have the right to choose. Give them good information about why and how GNU/Linux can be useful to them, and then introduce them to the culture by emphasizing that it's there if they want it. This is the cornerstone of the free software culture, and is one of the reasons that RMS (That's Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation) is such a revered figure. Keep that spirit alive and keep true to the culture by emphasizing the freedom to choose.

5) The sin of the geek (getting too technical).

What does this mean?
Remember your audience! Don't get too technical or delve into the mundane aspects of an Operating System's history if you're attempting to appeal to the general public.

Why is this a sin?
Because it's the best way to "lose" your non-technical audience. Most people don't care that Linux was created by Linus Torvalds, or that it is based on Unix. What they care about is what features it has, and why they should change. Remember: people don't like change, so you're already fighting an uphill battle.

What should I do instead?
Focus on what is important to your audience. Put yourself in their shoes, and try to imagine what would be convincing to you. What features would you want if you used your computer only for the internet or writing the occasional email or document? One of the keys to good writing in general is to always keep your audience in mind.

I hope this has offered some insight into some of the pitfalls of linux marketing. Now go out there and do your stuff!!!

Been a while, and it's all good news!

2007-09-19T14:54:00.001-07:00

It's been a few months since my last post. And a LOT has changed.

First and foremost, I landed an interview with Google -- The giant that everyone would love to work for. I will be describing my experience in the next post. However, I did not get that job. I also had a job interview with defense giant Northrop Grumman. That job I DID get, and I'll be moving close to work (and really close to the beach)!

I'm starting my final quarter at CSUSB and taking mostly easy classes! I'm feeling great, and the world seems bright.

I've also decided to join the VVC Master Arts Chorale for a final time before I move from the High Desert (a place I've called home for the past 12 years). I enjoy singing with Dr. Miller, and am hoping to get my baby sister (who's now 19 -- damn time flies!) into the group as well.

Finally, I'm singing and acting in a dinner murder-mystery theater show. I get to play a "French Playboy" who has luck with the ladies until. . . well, you'll have to check it out.

Anyway, many changes and fun stuff! Looking forward to the next few posts where I'll be discussing the interview process for the different companies for which I've worked.