zedstar dot org http://zedstar.org/blog open telecommunication Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:52:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en Packedobjects for Guile http://zedstar.org/blog/2009/01/02/packedobjects-for-guile/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2009/01/02/packedobjects-for-guile/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:52:09 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=111 I have created a sourceforge project for the new Guile version of packedobjects:

http://packedobjects.sourceforge.net/

This is an early version without documentation. The API has changed from the Chicken version so I will document this soon. Eventually I will push back the improvements to the Chicken version.

So far it builds as a Guile module. I also need to look at how to embed this version into a C application.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2009/01/02/packedobjects-for-guile/feed/ Groking Guile’s FFI http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/11/09/groking-guile/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/11/09/groking-guile/#comments Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:38:49 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=83 I have lately been very busy with work, life and the universe and subsequently have done little hacking. I have recently been examining Guile. Guile has been part of OpenEmbedded for a while so should be easy to get running on numerous embedded devices. Chicken was very recently added to OpenEmbedded, however, lacks support for building eggs in this environment. One thing I really love about Chicken is its very easy to use foreign function interface (FFI). After spending the odd hour over various weekends I have finally begun to grok Guile’s FFI. I plan to build packedobjects for Guile and possibility extend its features.

I really like the idea of extension languages ever since I did some work with Tcl a number of years ago. A great example application was Eggdrop the IRC bot. Lots of kids at the time would program their eggdrop bots using the simple Tcl interface. I think a lot can be said about this approach in terms of learning/teaching programming. I hope to explore this further with my education hat on.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/11/09/groking-guile/feed/ Paying the price for not updating wordpress http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/10/03/paying-the-price-for-not-updating-wordpress/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/10/03/paying-the-price-for-not-updating-wordpress/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:42:55 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/?p=81 I had negeleted to update wordpress for some time. The result was some iframe expoilts injected into a couple of posts. This resulted in Google reporting me to stopbadware.org. Recent versions of Firefox use data from stopbadware to warn you when you are accessing a site that may contain malware. Also, any search on my site in Google listed me with a warning and prevented linking to my site. Having fixed the issues I then had to contact Google to get myself removed from the bad list. Anyway, normal service resumed!

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/10/03/paying-the-price-for-not-updating-wordpress/feed/ Bluetooth logging hardware http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/27/bluetooth-logging-hardware/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/27/bluetooth-logging-hardware/#comments Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:15:11 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/27/bluetooth-logging-hardware/ Here is a picture of the hardware I will use for logging Bluetooth data.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/27/bluetooth-logging-hardware/feed/ Bluedog http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/bluedog/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/bluedog/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:52:31 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/bluedog/ Bluedog is the name I am going to give to my Bluetooth traffic/stats project I aim to start soon. I have the hardware and software setup with my beagleboard. Ideally I want to setup a few of these at the University where I work and start logging some data in similar nature to http://www.bluetoothtracking.org/

I will post some pics of my hardware setup soon.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/bluedog/feed/ btlogger for the beagleboard http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/btlogger-for-the-beagleboard/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/btlogger-for-the-beagleboard/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:42:16 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/btlogger-for-the-beagleboard/ I have built btlogger for the beagleboard. The ipk is available:

http://zedstar.org/beagle/btlogger_0.2.2-r0_armv7a.ipk

It requires the sqlite db some where on the device. Download:

http://projects.openmoko.org/frs/download.php/313/btlog.db

run btlogger -v to see what it does and reference the db file with -d /location/of/file

TODO:

  • I am going to modify the program to log more stats.
  • I should also add the database to the ipk so it installs automatically
]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/17/btlogger-for-the-beagleboard/feed/ Booting Angstrom on my Beagleboard http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/14/booting-angstrom-on-my-beagleboard/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/14/booting-angstrom-on-my-beagleboard/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:45:49 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/14/booting-angstrom-on-my-beagleboard/ I installed Angstrom on my Beagleboard and was able to ssh in do all the usual things. Obligatory screenshot.

I am going to install my btlogger on it and hook up a Bluetooth dongle.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/14/booting-angstrom-on-my-beagleboard/feed/ fakesat http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/07/fakesat/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/07/fakesat/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:50:41 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/07/fakesat/ Continuing my theme of projects that suffer from issues of critical mass I have began work on fakesat. I was looking for something to do with my beagleboard so decided that using it for this project would be fun. I have ordered a 100 meter Bluetooth dongle so will see how well that really works. I am interested in low cost community driven alternatives to GPS especially ones that work well in urban environments.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/09/07/fakesat/feed/ Remora Project http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/08/30/remora-project/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/08/30/remora-project/#comments Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:19:28 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/08/30/remora-project/ I have now tested the search engine on an iPod Touch. The code and software is available here.

In summary there are 2 search engines. One does a Yahoo! search and allows you to add PDFs to the local search engine. The basic idea is you can easily add documents to your device and find and read them later using a search engine.  Even if the iPhone had a way to download and browse documents it still does not solve the problem that some people give very random names to their PDF files. With the search engine you don’t need to wory what the filename is as you just search on its contents.

If you have a delicious account you can configure the live search to use it. It will then highlight any results in your search that match sites from your delicious account.

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/08/30/remora-project/feed/ iPhone local search video http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/06/25/iphone-local-search-video/ http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/06/25/iphone-local-search-video/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:31:20 +0000 john http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/06/25/iphone-local-search-video/ I made a video of searching my iPhone loaded with over 2000 PDFs from MIT’s OpenCourseWare. The search engine, Hyper Estraier,  is the same one used on gnu.org but running locally on the iPhone together with a local lighttpd web server. It performs very well and provides a nice way of accessing or iPhone when on your daily commute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKlkcZ6vYo

]]> http://zedstar.org/blog/2008/06/25/iphone-local-search-video/feed/