Jonathan Oxer
[Blog]
>> Arduino Morse code
Wed, Sep 17th 4:03pm 2008 >> Tech Toys
OK, so maybe it was a bit ambitious suggesting people could send me messages by Morse code by flashing the Arduino LED! Since the post hit planet.linux.org.au a couple of hours ago the LED has been flashing like crazy with only a few breaks, so we may have a *slight* problem with people "talking" over the top of each other.
I was just trying to follow it and the message came out something like this:
sittanttsdntstaaeif
Unless an alien with a gag across their mouth is trying to communicate with me I think we've proven that it's not a reliable comms medium!
OK, so maybe it was a bit ambitious suggesting people could send me messages by Morse code by flashing the Arduino LED! Since the post hit planet.linux.org.au a couple of hours ago the LED has been flashing like crazy with only a few breaks, so we may have a *slight* problem with people "talking" over the top of each other.
I was just trying to follow it and the message came out something like this:
sittanttsdntstaaeif
Unless an alien with a gag across their mouth is trying to communicate with me I think we've proven that it's not a reliable comms medium!
>> Internet-connected Arduino
Wed, Sep 17th 10:44am 2008 >> Tech Toys
Arduino boards are awesome, but something I've wanted to do for ages is connect them directly to a LAN rather than use an intermediate computer to bridge from ethernet to USB. Much easier to distribute them around the house when all I have to do is run cat-5 to them!
Hugh Blemings has also been seeking cheap embedded ethernet, and he was even kind enough to send me a couple of wizNET modules to try out - but I've been slack, and haven't done it. But a couple of weeks ago I came across Nu Electronics in the UK, who sell an ethernet shield for the Arduino fully assembled for only £12.99 plus shipping, so of course I ordered one. Their online shopping cart couldn't figure out the shipping cost to Australia so it listed it as £2, which is the local shipping price to UK customers: and they shipped it to me for that price anyway!
Very, very happy.
They also supply an Arduino library which implements some basic TCP/IP functionality. It's not even close to a full stack (which would be pretty much impossible in the few bytes of memory available) but it's enough to do cool things like implement a basic web server so now I have this sitting on my monitor at work:
And yes, you can even access it and send me messages by morse code by flashing the LED:
http://203.206.138.33/
Just in case anyone else tries to get something like this going on Linux, be warned that there is a trivial typo in the supplied library that prevents it working. The basic problem seems to be that they've developed the library on a non-case-sensitive OS, and they've used "etherShield" and "EtherShield" interchangeably for filenames and references to those filenames. I had to edit etherShield.cpp (and possibly something else: I can't remember) to get it to load the headers properly.
Arduino boards are awesome, but something I've wanted to do for ages is connect them directly to a LAN rather than use an intermediate computer to bridge from ethernet to USB. Much easier to distribute them around the house when all I have to do is run cat-5 to them!
Hugh Blemings has also been seeking cheap embedded ethernet, and he was even kind enough to send me a couple of wizNET modules to try out - but I've been slack, and haven't done it. But a couple of weeks ago I came across Nu Electronics in the UK, who sell an ethernet shield for the Arduino fully assembled for only £12.99 plus shipping, so of course I ordered one. Their online shopping cart couldn't figure out the shipping cost to Australia so it listed it as £2, which is the local shipping price to UK customers: and they shipped it to me for that price anyway!
Very, very happy.
They also supply an Arduino library which implements some basic TCP/IP functionality. It's not even close to a full stack (which would be pretty much impossible in the few bytes of memory available) but it's enough to do cool things like implement a basic web server so now I have this sitting on my monitor at work:
And yes, you can even access it and send me messages by morse code by flashing the LED:
http://203.206.138.33/
Just in case anyone else tries to get something like this going on Linux, be warned that there is a trivial typo in the supplied library that prevents it working. The basic problem seems to be that they've developed the library on a non-case-sensitive OS, and they've used "etherShield" and "EtherShield" interchangeably for filenames and references to those filenames. I had to edit etherShield.cpp (and possibly something else: I can't remember) to get it to load the headers properly.
>> Miranda Skerman to co-host SuperHouse
Fri, Sep 5th 9:04am 2008 >> SuperHouse
People use all sorts of strange images as their online profile picture, like on Facebook and MySpace, and in IM clients. Most people put a picture of their own face but others put in pictures of their pets, or their kids, or some celebrity or model that they like. It's pretty normal to be on a site like Facebook and see Brad Pitt or Linda Evangelista staring at you from the profile of a person who you *know* looks nothing like them.
So it was quite mentally jarring recently to see a profile picture for Miranda Skerman and have the first reaction as "oh yeah, another substitute-a-model-for-me profile", then do a mental double-take, and think hang on, that really *is* what she looks like, not just what she wishes she looked like.
Which is a roundabout way of coming to the point that Miranda has agreed to co-host the new TV show I'm putting together, SuperHouse. Woot!
People use all sorts of strange images as their online profile picture, like on Facebook and MySpace, and in IM clients. Most people put a picture of their own face but others put in pictures of their pets, or their kids, or some celebrity or model that they like. It's pretty normal to be on a site like Facebook and see Brad Pitt or Linda Evangelista staring at you from the profile of a person who you *know* looks nothing like them.
So it was quite mentally jarring recently to see a profile picture for Miranda Skerman and have the first reaction as "oh yeah, another substitute-a-model-for-me profile", then do a mental double-take, and think hang on, that really *is* what she looks like, not just what she wishes she looked like.
Which is a roundabout way of coming to the point that Miranda has agreed to co-host the new TV show I'm putting together, SuperHouse. Woot!
>> Disconnected from the intertubes
Fri, Sep 5th 8:49am 2008 >> Misc
For the first time in a long time my house is offline, and it's weird. I'd almost prefer to have the water disconnected, or the gas. Having webtone available 24x7 has become so natural to me it's like breathing, and having it taken away is totally disconcerting. A couple of weeks ago I was in Sydney working with Beyond Productions putting together a new TV show, and I had a similar experience: they gave me a bunch of Mac laptops to configure for the show, and I took them back to my hotel room one evening to set up but I kept coming across things that needed net access, like software packages that I didn't have locally, and the hotel I was at didn't have net access for guests - at all, for any price! Unbelievable. I'm so used to thinking of the internet as being part of my local storage that I often don't even bother having files on machines I work on. When every file I need anywhere in the world is a click or two away, why bother having it on your local disk?
Frustration.
Anyway, the actual reason for the discon-net-ion is that we're switching from a combination of Telstra for phone and iiNet for ADSL2+ to just a naked ADSL2+ connection with VoIP and Annex-M to improve upload speeds, and to make that happen we have to lose all services for about 2 weeks.
Suckage.
End result is a backlog of things I should have blogged about, but haven't been able to from home.
For the first time in a long time my house is offline, and it's weird. I'd almost prefer to have the water disconnected, or the gas. Having webtone available 24x7 has become so natural to me it's like breathing, and having it taken away is totally disconcerting. A couple of weeks ago I was in Sydney working with Beyond Productions putting together a new TV show, and I had a similar experience: they gave me a bunch of Mac laptops to configure for the show, and I took them back to my hotel room one evening to set up but I kept coming across things that needed net access, like software packages that I didn't have locally, and the hotel I was at didn't have net access for guests - at all, for any price! Unbelievable. I'm so used to thinking of the internet as being part of my local storage that I often don't even bother having files on machines I work on. When every file I need anywhere in the world is a click or two away, why bother having it on your local disk?
Frustration.
Anyway, the actual reason for the discon-net-ion is that we're switching from a combination of Telstra for phone and iiNet for ADSL2+ to just a naked ADSL2+ connection with VoIP and Annex-M to improve upload speeds, and to make that happen we have to lose all services for about 2 weeks.
Suckage.
End result is a backlog of things I should have blogged about, but haven't been able to from home.
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