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LinuxSA May 2008 - the Village Telco/Mesh Potato
Hi all,
Time for the May meeting announcement (it's this Tuesday)...
The usual details:
When: 6:30pm-8:30pm on Tuesday, 19th May, 2009
Where: Room G05/G06 Gerard Innovation Centre
Prince Alfred College
Capper Street, Kent Town SA
Cost: FREE
Who: Anyone and everyone.
No pre-registration necessary.
Presentation:
David Rowe will be talking about the Village Telco/Mesh Potato:
The Village Telco is an easy-to-use, scalable, standards-based,
wireless, local, do-it-yourself, telephone company toolkit.
The Mesh Potato is a 802.11bg mesh router with a single FXS port.
It is designed to provide telephony via VOIP while simultaneously
facilitating a mesh cloud. It is an open hardware and open
software design. It will run off a nominal 12VDC, from either a
mains supply or solar PV system, and be priced in the range of
currently available Wifi routers (sub US$100).
David Rowe has 20 years experience in the development of DSP-based
telephony and sat-com hardware/software. David has a wide mix of
skills including software, hardware, and project management
including a PhD in DSP theory. He has held executive level positions
in the sat-com industry (www.dspace.com.au) and has built and
successfully exited a small business (www.voicetronix.com). However
he has decided he is better at debugging machines than people so
currently chooses to hack telephony hardware and software full time.
Getting to the Venue:
Prince Alfred College faces Dequetteville Terrace, but access to
Room G05/G06 is only available from Capper Street; there is no
access to these rooms from any other entrances in the College. On
Capper Street, Room G05/G06 is closer to The Parade West than to
Dequetteville Terrace.
Parking is available on-street or maybe off-street (adjacent to the
Sports Centre). Look for the two storey stone fronted building with
the sign "Gerard Innovation Centre". Enter through the double doors,
first room on the right hand side of corridor (ground floor). The
external door automatically locks at night. Should it not be propped
open please be ready to knock loudly.
There are buses that go along Dequetteville Terrace, with a stop
adjacent to Capper Street. The 143, 145, and 146 buses leave from
North Terrace, and the 141 and 142 buses leave from Currie Street
and Grenfell street.
If you are in the city, you could also catch the 99C bus to East
Terrace, then take a 10-15 minute walk to the College.
Pizza:
After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Giorgios (cnr.
Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).
For more information:
Email: organisers@linuxsa.org.au
Web Page: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
LinuxSA April 2008 - Awesome Things You've Missed in Perl
Hi all,
Time for the April meeting announcement (it's this Tuesday)...
The usual details:
When: 6:30pm-8:30pm on Tuesday, 21st April, 2009
Where: Room G05/G06 Gerard Innovation Centre
Prince Alfred College
Capper Street, Kent Town SA
Cost: FREE
Who: Anyone and everyone.
No pre-registration necessary.
Presentation:
Paul Fenwick will be presenting "Awesome Things You've Missed in
Perl":
Awesome things have been happening in Perl recently; so many that
even if you've been paying close attention, you may have missed a
few. In this talk we'll examine some of the coolest recent
technologies for Perl programmers, including:
- Overhauling Perl's Object Oriented framework with Moose.
- Making everything a first-class object with autobox.
- Slashing your error handling code with autodie.
- Building fast, readable and reusable regular expressions with
Perl 5.10.
- Bundling and building stand-alone applications using PAR, the
Perl Archiver.
- Astonishingly good profiling with Devel::NYTProf.
- Playing MineSweeper automatically with App::SweeperBot.
Knowledge of Perl is nice, but not essential to appreciate the
contents of this talk.
Paul Fenwick is the managing director of Perl Training Australia,
internationally acclaimed speaker, and long time contributor to
Perl. He's an author for The Perl Journal and The Perl Review,
technical editor of Perl Best Practices, and co-managers the very
popular Perl Tips newsletter.
In his spare time, Paul's interests include security, mycology,
cycling, coffee, scuba diving, and lexically scoped user pragmata.
Getting to the Venue:
Prince Alfred College faces Dequetteville Terrace, but access to
Room G05/G06 is only available from Capper Street; there is no
access to these rooms from any other entrances in the College. On
Capper Street, Room G05/G06 is closer to The Parade West than to
Dequetteville Terrace.
Parking is available on-street or maybe off-street (adjacent to the
Sports Centre). Look for the two storey stone fronted building with
the sign "Gerard Innovation Centre". Enter through the double doors,
first room on the right hand side of corridor (ground floor). The
external door automatically locks at night. Should it not be propped
open please be ready to knock loudly.
There are buses that go along Dequetteville Terrace, with a stop
adjacent to Capper Street. The 143, 145, and 146 buses leave from
North Terrace, and the 141 and 142 buses leave from Currie Street
and Grenfell street.
If you are in the city, you could also catch the 99C bus to East
Terrace, then take a 10-15 minute walk to the College.
Pizza:
After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Giorgios (cnr.
Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).
For more information:
Email: organisers@linuxsa.org.au
Web Page: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...What can be done with an Apple iPhone and a telescope on a clear night?
Billion Modems and Gigaset C470IP compatibilitySeems like there is an issue with Billion ADSL modems (such as the Billion 7404VGO) and independent VOIP telephony devices (such as the Siemens Gigaset C470IP) where the Billion, even though it's not configured for VOIP, grabs traffic on the SIP/RTP ports and doesn't let it through to the VOIP handset. The solution? Move the SIP port to 15060 and RTP to 15004-15020. And how's the Gigaset C470IP working out? Fantastic! Easy to use, configures easily, looks good, passes the WAF test, and the audio quality is very nice. Update: The easier solution is to turn off the Billion 7404VGO's 'SIG ALG' setting, which is found on Configuration->Firewall->General Settings. Thanks Peter for the tip...
iTiVoJust discovered iTiVo - extract recorded TV from your TiVo. Works very nicely indeed.
Having a goA dangerous video for a software developer to watch: Damian Katz on CouchDB and Me. The story behind doing something great. Living the dream, making a go of it, stepping up to the plate, having faith in your own abilities. Being successful by taking risk. I think that inside some developers[0] is an urge to do this. One differentiation between those who succeed and those who don't is that only some try. Talent and opportunity are other important differentiators, but without the 'try' it can't happen. Note to self: Must keep trying. More info on CouchDB and Damian Katz. [0] Is developing software a job, or is it something you'd do even if you weren't paid?
97 Things Every Software Architect Should KnowSoon to be released book: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know. An open collaborative wiki, these are the 97 things that will make the printed edition. The whole site, especially the selected 97 axioms, is a fantastic resource. So many people claim the title, but so few walk the walk or even talk the talk. Technical leadership is so important, but so badly done in practice. Best item: Communication Is King.
The Magic Minutes"Magic Minutes": The number of minutes after passing the 40 minute mark when running. They are the only minutes that count. They are only minutes that affect weight-loss and gains in cardiovascular fitness. You cannot skip straight to them, you need to go through the "useless" 40 minutes of running that has little impact first. This definition is neither scientifically proven, nor dependable in all circumstances for all people. Your unique situation may affect your results. Please talk your doctor before embarking on any exercise program :)
Stock Market: Why shorting is wrongHere is an article about how to short the stock-market. Shorting is selling stock you don't own, hoping the price will go down, and buying the stock at the lower price to cover your previous sells, hence making money. While within the law, it's just plain wrong. Shorting allows day traders and the like to continue to make money while the market drops, but by doing so they are encouraging the market downwards hurting 'long' investors - aka your super fund. Shorting should be banned permanently. The ongoing greed in the market is disgusting - step up the plate governments of the world! It's time for some regulation.
What tripod do I have?So when planning a photo trip overseas I keep on forgetting what tripod I'm currently using. It's embarrassing. So once and for all - the tripod I use is a SLIK U9000. At least now it's on my blog so I can find it without having to go back into my Amazon account and looking up past orders from 5 years ago. Oh, and by the way, I'm soon off to Wellington, NZ.
LinuxSA February 2008 - Chumby
Hi all,
Time for the February meeting announcement...
The usual details:
When: 6:30pm-8:30pm on Tuesday, 17th February, 2009
Where: Room G05/G06 Gerard Innovation Centre
Prince Alfred College
Capper Street, Kent Town SA
Cost: FREE
Who: Anyone and everyone.
No pre-registration necessary.
Presentation:
Chris Iona will be presenting a talk on Hacking the Chumby. This
will be an introduction to its OS, hardware, and how to program it.
See http://chumby.on.net/ for some general information about the
Chumby. Chris is a senior member of Internode's Content Services
Group, with a strong web focus.
Getting to the Venue:
Prince Alfred College faces Dequetteville Terrace, but access to
Room G05/G06 is only available from Capper Street; there is no
access to these rooms from any other entrances in the College. On
Capper Street, Room G05/G06 is closer to The Parade West than to
Dequetteville Terrace.
Parking is available on-street or maybe off-street (adjacent to the
Sports Centre). Look for the two storey stone fronted building with
the sign "Gerard Innovation Centre". Enter through the double doors,
first room on the right hand side of corridor (ground floor). The
external door automatically locks at night. Should it not be propped
open please be ready to knock loudly.
There are buses that go along Dequetteville Terrace, with a stop
adjacent to Capper Street. The 143, 145, and 146 buses leave from
North Terrace, and the 141 and 142 buses leave from Currie Street
and Grenfell street.
If you are in the city, you could also catch the 99C bus to East
Terrace, then take a 10-15 minute walk to the College.
Pizza:
After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Giorgios (cnr.
Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).
For more information:
Email: organisers@linuxsa.org.au
Web Page: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
ack and pvThe latest additions to my shell toolbox are ack and pv. Very cool indeed!
Resuming normal activitiesSo it appears the back has been broken on our heatwave - we "only" had a 39C day yesterday meaning that we only equaled and did not break the record for longest run of > than 40C days. The good news is that the nightly temperatures have dropped below 30C too, meaning that I could get back running in the early morning. Today was only a brief 6.5km, but boy did it feel good to get back on the road! Next step, do that 4 days a week; then get that back up to 12km and the marathon dream might get back on track.
linux.conf.au 2009 Day Minus ThreeSo the story of linux.conf.au 2009 starts like this... On Sunday I caught the only Virgin Blue direct flight from ADL to HBA along with most of the South Australian contingent (the red-eye earier in the day was cancelled no doubt frustrating those who got to the airport before dawn). It seems that VirginBlue has cemented itself as the carrier of choice nowadays, despite having to pay for both checked luggage and food - says a lot about Qantas and JetStar. Caught a cab with a couple of guys to the accommodation, quite amusing was the fact that we ended up looking up a map and using Google Maps over GPRS to find the university accommodation as the taxi driver had no idea. Getting to the accommodation gave us the first wonderful surprise - modern, spacious (and cheap!) rooms with wonderful views over Hobart. The best LCA accommodation yet in my opinion. Met the other guys in the 6 bedroom complex, all from SA but I only previously knew one of them. Network access just worked - congratulations to Steve Walsh and his team. Wandered down to the registration area via The Steep Hill just prior to the 5pm close and found a well-organised team and area ready to serve the open-source commnuity. Re-established some relationships from Ghosts and found a group of old friends "checking email" which we all had to do. Good to catch-up. Then from there it was a nice stroll to a restaurant to eat with some other ghosts. A very nice time again talking substantionally with some good friends, finally took the offer of a lift back to the uni after comtemplation of the The Steep Hill. Got some sleep, knowing that I'd need it for the week ahead.
planet.linux.conf.au 2009planet.linux.conf.au 2009 is now up and running! That also includes Atom and RSS 2.0 feeds. Any issues can be sent mailed through to planet at linux dot org dot au. See you all at linux.conf.au 2009 in 6 days time...
linux.conf.au 2009 coming real soon nowlinux.conf.au 2009 in Hobart, Tasmania is only 13 days away. Have you registered yet? Flights blooked? Bags packed? Mine are ;) Why come? One awesome week of technical, brain-numbing input during the day and party time, catching-up with the free software community in the evenings. And they'll be ducks with lasers! Don't miss it - register before you'll regret it.
iPhone Cellular Data: Just Say NoSo I got a 3G iPhone for Christmas, a closed proprietary platform, but a fun one :-) We just need to get a python runtime on there :-) A frustrating thing with this device is the lack of control over its network interfaces. You can explicitly control 3G data and wireless, but not 2G data - this was a retrograde step moving up to the 2.0 firmware. What this means is that if your wireless connections drops, you skip back to cellular data - and even if you have 3G off, you're still unexpectingly racking up 2G data bills. Urrghh. There is a very easy solution though - which strangely doesn't seem to get mentioned out there on the web that I've discoverd in my brief searches so far. To turn all cellular data connections off, but leave wifi on, just turn on "Airplane Mode", then after that turn "Wi-Fi" on. That gives the desired result.
Real-world use for MD5 CollisionsPractical implications of weak cryptography - Creating a rogue CA certificate. What does this mean? If this approach is generalised, you can't trust secure websites at all -> every single secure website may not be who you think they are, even if your browser happily presents the "little green tick". So who uses secure websites? ecommerce (Amazon, eBay, your bank), the tax office, many government departments, social networking portals, software update sites, software download sites. Scary, yes, but highlights the need to build seemlessly upgradable cryptographic software solutions - and we need to do this now before public confidence in our virtual world is eroded.
LinuxSA December 2008 - Christmas Dinner
Hi all,
As is the tradition, for the December meeting of LinuxSA we go
somewhere for dinner (no meeting topic, no speaker). Please register
(see below) so we can let the restaurant know how many are coming.
The important info:
When: 6:30pm on Tuesday, 16th December, 2008
Where: Seacliff Beach Hotel
http://www.seacliffbeachhotel.com.au/
221 The Esplanade, Seacliff
Who: Any Linux-minded people who want to eat with us!
RSVP: ASAP (it'd be good to get numbers for the booking in the
next couple of days)
http://www.linuxsa.org.au/meetings/
For more information:
Email: organisers@linuxsa.org.au
Web Page: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
Apache blocking based on IPsWhen will people start securing their Windows boxen? I've had to start blocking http connects based on IP address due to for a few servers around the place getting hit with buffer overruns aimed at Microsoft IIS. Sheesh. Quick and easy guide to doing this here: Blocking Apache Attacks.
Python 3.0 released!Python 3.0 is released into the wild. Download now...
Meme #42Following on from the lead of others,
Result: “Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert.” from Latin for all occasions (Beard). (Interpretation is left as an exercise for the reader :-P)
LinuxSA November 2008 - Wesnoth: A Free Software Strategy Game
Hi all,
Time for the November meeting announcement (note that it's one week
later than normal this month).
The usual details:
When: 6:30pm-8:30pm on Tuesday, 25th November, 2008
Where: Room G05/G06 Gerard Innovation Centre
Prince Alfred College
Capper Street, Kent Town SA
Cost: FREE
Who: Anyone and everyone.
No pre-registration necessary.
Presentation:
Rusty will be presenting on Wesnoth: A Free Software Strategy Game:
Wesnoth is a fun strategy game for Linux, Windows and MacOS. Rusty
joined the development just after the 1.0 release; he'll demo the
game, then talk about how he got started, a bit about the community
and cover some of the improvements he made.
Getting to the Venue:
Prince Alfred College faces Dequetteville Terrace, but you need to
enter from Capper Street, closer to The Parade West than to
Dequetteville Terrace. Parking is available on-street or maybe
off-street (adjacent to the Sports Centre). Look for the two storey
stone fronted building with sign "Gerard Innovation Centre". Enter
through the double doors, first room on the right hand side of
corridor (ground floor). The external door automatically locks at
night. Should it not be propped open please be ready to knock
loudly.
There are buses that go along Dequetteville Terrace, with a stop
adjacent to Capper Street. The 143, 145, and 146 buses leave from
North Terrace, and the 141 and 142 buses leave from Currie Street
and Grenfell street.
If you are in the city, you could also catch the 99C bus to East
Terrace, then take a 10-15 minute walk to the College.
Pizza:
After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Georgios (cnr.
Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).
For more information:
Email: organisers@linuxsa.org.au
Web Page: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
Mind RotCharles Petzold on Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind?. For some reason I hadn't seen this before (Thanks Kevin for pointing it out). It raises some very important questions about code automation, programming productivity, maintainability, data driven software and the importance of naming things right. It's very interesting as an opinion piece circa-2005 for comparison against where we now are at 3 years later.
What unit tests aren'tAndrew Bennetts comments on what a good unit test is not in this post and this followup. Thanks for that.
LCA2009 RegistartionHave you registered for linux.conf.au 2009 yet? Get in now while the huge early bird discounts are active! LCA - conference nirvana.
LinuxSA October 2008 - Building an Electric Car
Hi all,
Time for the October meeting announcement.
The usual details:
When: 6:30pm-8:30pm on Tuesday, 21st October, 2008
Where: Room G05/G06 Gerard Innovation Centre
Prince Alfred College
Capper Street, Kent Town SA
Cost: FREE
Who: Anyone and everyone.
No pre-registration necessary.
Presentation:
David Rowe will be presenting on Building an Electric Car:
Until recently I had never worked with anything over 5V and 1A or
welded or held a spanner in anger. Building an Electric Vehicle
(EV) has changed all that! Over the past 12 months I have taken a
Daihatsu Charade and converted it to run purely on electricity.
My Electric Charade is faster than the petrol version, has zero
greenhouse emissions and costs a few cents a day to commute all
over Adelaide. Best of all my fuel is made right here in South
Australia. No more 80 million year old fossilised plant liquid
from the Middle East for me!
This presentation will talk about how I turned from geek to
mechanic, how electric cars work, how much it costs, what it is
like to drive, and even some business ideas based around EV
conversions.
David Rowe has 20 years experience in the development of DSP-based
telephony and sat-com hardware/software. David has a wide mix of
skills including software, hardware, and project management
including a PhD in DSP theory. He has held executive level
positions in the sat-com industry (www.dspace.com.au) and has built
and successfully exited a small business (www.voicetronix.com).
However he has decided he is better at debugging machines than
people so currently chooses to hack telephony hardware and software
full time.
Getting to the Venue:
Prince Alfred College faces Dequetteville Terrace, but you need to
enter from Capper Street. Parking is available on-street or maybe
off-street (adjacent to the Sports Centre). Look for the two storey
stone fronted building with sign "Gerard Innovation Centre". Enter
through the double doors, first room on the right hand side of
corridor (ground floor). The external door automatically locks at
night. Should it not be propped open please be ready to knock
loudly.
There are buses that go along Dequetteville Terrace, with a stop
adjacent to Capper Street. The 143, 145, and 146 buses leave from
North Terrace, and the 141 and 142 buses leave from Currie Street
and Grenfell street.
If you are in the city, you could also catch the 99C bus to East
Terrace, then take a 10-15 minute walk to the College.
Pizza:
After the meeting, please join us for pizza at San Georgios (cnr.
Frome Street and Rundle Street in the city).
For more information:
Email: organisers@linuxsa.org.au
Web Page: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/
Mailing List: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
IRC: #linuxsa on irc.freenode.net
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