CCC - day two
Well, today was a day to actually try and have some holiday… although I ended up hardly following lectures and trying to get some work done(...)
Anyway, I thought this was pretty cool. Bre Pattis, from Make: decided to take a pic of my tricked out iPod when I showed it to him in Camp Anaconda where he’s staying.
picture by bre pattis
click to go to the post on make:blog
I saw the pic appear on his flickr stream a while later and only a little while after that I saw referrers coming from the Make: blog. I also spotted a little error in a link and instead of mailing him or such I thought “I’ll just walk over and ask to get it fixed” and so I did and so Bre did. I thought that was pretty neat. ^_^
bre fixing the blogpost on make:blog
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
I also spotted an article on Engadget through my RSS-reader about Tarkan’s 5G iPod CF adapter, about which I blogged a couple of days ago. I read on my RSS-reader that I was mentioned also, which is very nice of course. But get this, Engadget can’t be read from here… I guess they blocked the complete range of IP-addresses coming from the CCC...
my ‘famous’ rocket pic as used by wired and boingboing
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
Oh, something else, I guess my rocket-pic (even if there should be hundreds around of that) is doing all right. After it was being used by Wired it today also got used by BoingBoing. ^_^
So I just went back to the rocket, well actually to see if I could get a connection there, in one of the ‘hangmats’ hammocks (what do you call those in english? ah thanks rutger, hammock!)
me in a hammock trying to find a connection…
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
...maybe I should go back to such a hammock tomorrow and actually have some holiday *^_^*
(not that I’m complaining! oh man, I’m having the best time out here!)
...to be continued…
earlier on this site:
on my way to the CCC!
...and I arrived!
CCC – day one
related:
CCC flickr set
CCC - day one
the entrance ticket
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
russian warplanes and tents… this is CCC07 alright
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
Today the Chaos Communication Camp officially kicked off. The atmosphere is simply great. These are hard to describe events, but they’re (imho) out of this world. Even when taking place in between some Russian airplanes, it seems to fit the atmosphere great. The opening took place in a packed bunker/hangar and in more such hangars do all the other lectures take place also, of which I followed a few today.
a packed bunker at 11am and a packed bunker at 11pm (can you notice the difference?)
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
I’m not sure how long my camera will hold though, I packed the wrong battery with me. The night before I thought “oh yeah, let’s also pack an old battery, as a backup” and I charged it in the camera, but… when packing my bag, I totally forgot to pack the right battery too, so now I’m here with some old and b0rked Sony-battery which, at best, will only hold a few minutes of juice. Anyway, especially with that taken into account, it’s very nice to see that Wired decided to use the pic I posted yesterday (the one with the rocket). ^_^
the organizers, during the opening. Their pic made my powerbook crash, them mighty hackers! ^_~
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
Well, I think I’m gonna enjoy myself a little more… you know, this is also supposed to be my holiday.
^_^
earlier on this site:
on my way to the CCC!
...and I arrived!
related:
CCC flickr set
...and I arrived!
After a day of travelling, I arrived around six on the campgrounds of this years CCC.
Oh my, what a surroundings these are!
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
The campground is on the terrain of a museum of old airplanes. So people walk around here in between MiG airplanes and such. The terrain itself is next to an airfield, make that an airfield *which is still in active use*
There are not a lot of airplanes landing, but get this, the sleeping tent of the BSD Village, where I’m staying, is next to this airstrip! (and yes, already a couple of planes have landed there since I was here)
on the left, my bed. On the right, the sign you can just see? It says ‘flugplatz’...
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
Well, it’s gonna be a great couple of days, I’m pretty sure about that.
sleeping tents in between fighter jets, all possible on CCC 2007
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
....but for now, I’m totally exhausted and need some sleep. It was godsend that this year in the OpenBSD tent there’s actually real food from a real cook, everyday! What happened to the tostis?
to the left, the real food which was there when I arrived. As a comparison, a pic of the food I lived on during the whole of WhatTheHack
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
Well, officially the camp starts tomorrow morning, so I’ll guess this series of blogposts will be continued later! ^_^
earlier on this site:
on my way to the CCC!
on my way to the CCC!
At this moment, I’m busy packing my bags and I’m leaving tomorrow morning early, for the Chaos Communication Camp! ^_^
that’s geek technique’s Mac SE travelling system™ once again ^_^
click to enlarge
I’ll be staying at the BSD Village, just like two years ago at WhatTheHack. So if you happen to be there also, you know where you can find me. ^_^
I’m gonna use this week also to stress test my adapter, so if you happen to be there and see me running around, throwing with an iPod, you know what I’m actually doing… ^_^
more updates soon!
more adapters...
I guess, after I posted my iPod compact flash project online, already several months ago by now, I brought some ideas to a whole lot of people. *^_^*
Anyway, well worth recognizing is this, Tarkan Akdam from the UK is (as far as I can see) the first person to succesfully hack a Compact Flash card inside an iPod Video. Not only that, his project does look very sweet and professional too. I was really (almost) blown away by it. ^_^
click either pic to go to Tarkan’s website
click to enlarge
Credit where credit’s due, Tarkan’s done it and done it in a marvelous way too I think.
And then, since last week it seems you can buy a compact flash adapter on eBay. Well, I did buy one and here is what it looks like. To the left is my hand made (but now ridiculous looking, because of some harsh testing and *ahem* an accident with some hot glue…) prototype and to the right you can see what you can order from Hong Kong right now… (I’m not saying anything… ^_^)
click to enlarge
In the mean time I’m still continuing my development on my own adapter and here’s where we are right now. On the left, you can see my current adapter (it’s the latest prototype), mounted without protection, but more on that later. On the right you can see the Hong Kong adapter, mounted like it should, there is no protection (and the connector isn’t a nice fit either). I guess you could get it to work, but well, even though I’m not entirely objective in this(...), I don’t see how you can nicely mount it inside an iPod, without taking something like duct tape.
click to enlarge
And here’s my adapter mounted *with* protection. I found a way to reuse the harddrive protection and that way you’ll make sure your adapter fits (imho) nice and tight inside your iPod.
to the left, mounted with protection, to the right, the adapter in the flesh
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
So… where does this leave me and my adapter? Well, I’m going to continue the development and testing on my 1-4G-adapter. I’m almost there. This coming week (but more on that in the following blogpost ^_^) I’m going to put it on a monster test and then it should be ready for production (finally!).
And then, the reason I was almost blown away with Tarkan’s project is because I’ve got a 5G-adapter coming up too. I already told in my video that an adapter for an iPod Video was possible too, but that it would take ‘just’ another adapter. And that’s exactly what I’ve been planning alongside this 1-4G-adapter. So I’ve got two adapters coming up! It should’ve been a surprise, but well… *^_^*
Even though a couple of months have passed since I posted my original project, nothing’s really changed actually. If you want me to update you as soon as I’ve got my adapter *available* (and you can make that two now, one for 1-4G and one for 5/5.5G), fill in this form and I will send you only one mail! (It’s because of that promise I haven’t actually spammed anybody with updates and such… ^_^)
the contact form
geek technique’s iPod Compact Flash adapter
(if you haven’t got any additional info, just fill in a – or such
Well, what can I say, wish me luck?
the ecstacy continues!
Well, this has become a trilogy without ever being meant that way ^_^
Anyway, this morning I got a call from the audio shop to tell me they were able to find a pair of new (or unused, it’s how you look at it) pair of electrostatic units for my headphones earspeakers! Well, to be honest, I didn’t expect them to find anything at all. When I was over there to discuss the whole issue, we both somehow agreed that it was pretty hopeless to find parts for this… (if you think I’m exaggerating, go have a look on eBay and you can hardly find these headphones as a total, let alone the parts…) In the mean time I’ve been busy with a lot of things, so I didn’t really have time to feel sorry for the loss or whatever, but boy am I glad that this is now fixed! They did ask/expect me to pay for a part of the cost they’ve been making to fix this and I think that’s fair. It’s been my mistake to start soldering on the unit without even letting them know it was malfunctioning. They could’ve told me I was on my own and that would be fair too I guess. But, none of that!
yeah yeah! they’re back! ^_^
click to enlarge
I’m still quite thrilled that they’ve been able to locate a matching and unused pair of electrostatic units for my earspeakers. They told me somehow, somewhere, in some stock of some old STAX-importer, they were able to locate a pair (and there was only one pair too!) I now also have to burn them in, just like new ones. Although I won’t do much burning I guess, the whole situation did make me a little more cautious (only a little ^_^), so I will gently use and enjoy them ^_^
on the left and in front, the old units. on the right, a couple of CDs I bought to celebrate
click to enlarge
Well, I never would’ve imagined I would go into this amount of detail on a pair of headphones, not in general and not on my site, but well, that’s how it went. Next to that I never would’ve imagined I would spend this amount of money (I’m gonna skip my own birthday present now I guess) on something like this, but this is the best possible ending after all that happened and long after the price is forgotten I now truly hope to be still enjoying these marvelous earspeakers.
soooooo…..
*^_^*
earlier on this site:
short-lived ecstasy
ecstatic about electrostatic earspeakers
controlling Vista Media Center with a WiiMote
click to enlarge
I’ve been using Vista for a while now, as my Media Center and well… thoughts have been there also for a while to see if I could hook up a WiiMote as my remote. ^_^ (FYI, I don’t own a Wii, only a WiiMote)
Luckily there are lots of creative minds with similar ideas and who post their projects online. Lately I’ve been experimenting with Darwiin Remote on my PowerBook (more on that can be read (for Dutch readers) in Bright, issue number 17), but that has been the reason I already made a DIY Wii sensorbar.
my DIY Wii sensorbar
click to enlarge
There can be lots and lots of DIY sensorbars found online. I made one using USB as a power source and two leds on each side. There are also resistors on each side and I’ve been experimenting with those (120, 100 and 82 ohm) to see if it makes any change… Anyway, if there’s some interest, I could post a how-to on how to make this specific one, but like I said, there’s already lots of this to be found online.
A couple of days ago I saw a post on the Make:Blog, WiinRemote: Wiimote as a Windows input device, and then I knew I should be possible to use it (at least somehow) in Windows Media Center… So, I took my already made USB-powered sensorbar, a bluetooth dongle and here’s how it went: (2 min 39 sec)
direct link to video (2 min 39 sec)
About getting a bluetooth dongle to work in Vista. I already had such a dongle for a long time and it worked quite flawless on my old iBook (my PowerBook has built-in bluetooth) and it also worked fine on Windows XP SP2, but… not on Vista… Soooo, I’ve been following all the instructions from here and it works, somehow, cause it’s not stable at all, as you can see in the video.
So, verdict for now? This is fun stuff to play with and I’ll keep track on future updates of WiinRemote. I’m not sure how I can fix the bluetooth behaviour in Vista, but maybe this will become a stable setup sometime (wishful thinking ^_^), in the mean time I use my old and trusted Media Center remote.
click to enlarge
links:
MAKE: Blog: WiinRemote: Wiimote as a Windows input device
onakasuita.org – WiinRemote – english site
WiiLi.org Wii Linux – excellent source for information
Getting a bluetooth dongle to work on Vista
on stage of the Tuschinski Theater
Boris mailed me a link to a nice little video (2 min 49 sec)... (imho of course! ^_^)
This was during The Next Web conference on June the 1st in the Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam.
Ah well, maybe some of you like to see me uhm-ing and aah-ing myself through a presentation, I don’t know *^_^*
Oh and you now all know my schedule for this summer, finishing the Slurpr, but first of all and foremost of course, finishing the adapter!
related:
Slurpr – the mother of all wardrive boxes
put flash memory into (almost) ANY iPod!
project: encrypted NAS on OpenBSD
Last monday I had a power outage in my home. Because of that, my fileserver started to act up. It would hang at recalculating the parity for the RAID array I’ve got in there…
Anyway, because I wanted to solve that, I was forced into refamiliarizing myself again with everything concerning my fileserver and while I was at it, I thought I’d write it all up (oh, and I did solve it without any data loss)
my personal encrypted fileserver
click to go to the projectpage
So, for everyone who’d like a fully encrypted NAS (with RAID) in his home network and isn’t too afraid of the UNIX command line interface, this project is for you!
in short:
It’s a server running on OpenBSD with a filesystem on software RAID, so we can handle a disk which decides to stop working all together (and this machine emails you when a drive fails). On top of that we’ll have a fully encrypted filesystem which will take care of on-the-fly encryption and decryption of your files, the data you copy to the server gets encrypted and the data you read from it gets decrypted, all on-the-fly… ^_^ This data than can be presented to your network by Samba, NFS, FTP, you name it.
If you like to have encrypted data accessible, for instance, like this:
click to enlarge
I’d say, read on! ^_^
How to build a fully encrypted NAS on OpenBSD
or, straight to the how-to:
DIY trackback:
slashdot
openbsd.org – press ^_^
net-security
G.C.U. (french)
astalavista
BSD news
del.icio.us (at a certain point it was very hot!)
riding the Google Images wave! ???
How about this… last weekend I started to see loads of visitors coming here…
click to see some stats
through links like this one:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://geektechnique.org…
But all the ‘googles’ were different, you know, images.google.[country] and also the queries were all different… like ‘cracked screen’, ‘cracked lcd screen’ and ‘cracked lcd wallpaper’ etcetera…
click to see the ‘cracked screen’ query on Google Images yourself
They all came for this old blogpost of mine, where I posted some wallpapers of a cracked LCD screen in different resolutions. (I, on my turn got them from fontblog.de, I credited them back then and I’m crediting them now. I only linked to them (and mirrored the wallpapers), that’s all!)
It was quite obvious the visitors weren’t clicking some link, otherwise everyone would’ve come here exactly the same way. So, what was going on here? Did someone say something in a podcast or such? And what kind of podcast is that? I mean, if I already see visitors in the thousands… that must’ve been one extremely popular podcast…
In the end (thank you, a lahr) it seemed that in a certain video it was mentioned that you could get this wallpaper by typing ‘cracked screen’ into Google Images.
click to go to the video on break.com
And boy, did the viewers do that! The video does extremely well I guess, it shows 400,000 viewers in, what, 2 days? In the meantime I’ve been getting 30,000 visitors on the Cracked LCD blogpost alone…
That’s quite a conversion rate! But then again, conversion rates are for marketeers and I don’t do ads, so what do I care? ^_^
Anyway, prank away!
