Jonathan Oxer\'s Brain(cell)Jonathan Oxer\'s Brain(cell)2012-01-28 11:Jan:th2012-01-28 11:Jan:thhttp://jon.oxer.com.aujon@oxer.com.auCopyright 2012 Jonathan OxerSat, 28 Jan 2012 11:39:47 +1000Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:39:47 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/385Walktime Blog #19: No dominant Open Source home automation projects?
<p>If you're just getting into home automation and go searching for Open Source HA projects, you'll discover there aren't any obviously dominant players - more a mix of partly-developed personal projects that aren't very portable. Why is that?</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ywulcl_PCUM" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>View or comment directly on YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywulcl_PCUM">www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywulcl_PCUM</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:<br />
* Allison Randal: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/allisonrandal">www.twitter.com/allisonrandal</a><br />
* Desktop Home Hacks: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8asl5SsGy4">www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8asl5SsGy4</a><br />
* Mister House: <a href="http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net">misterhouse.sourceforge.net</a><br />
* Open Remote: <a href="http://www.openremote.org">www.openremote.org</a><br />
* SuperHouseTV: <a href="http://www.superhouse.tv">www.superhouse.tv</a></p>
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:52:33 +1000Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:52:33 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/384Walktime Blog #18: Interview with Marco Ostini at LCA2012
<p>Despite Australia's strong involvement in the early history of space exploration, we're now lagging way behind many far smaller nations in our commitment to the industry. At linux.conf.au 2009 in Hobart, Marco Ostini gathered together a group of like-minded people to create Lunar Numbat: a project to develop Open Source space technology as part of the White Label Space team competing for the Google Lunar X-Prize. At linux.conf.au 2012 in Ballarat I managed to pin him down long enough to film this interview.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6PQ6mIEmKfc" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>View or comment directly on YouTube: <a href="http://youtu.be/6PQ6mIEmKfc">youtu.be/6PQ6mIEmKfc</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:<br />
* Marco Ostini: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/marcoostini">www.twitter.com/marcoostini</a><br />
* Lunar Numbat: <a href="http://www.lunarnumbat.org">www.lunarnumbat.org</a><br />
* White Label Space: <a href="http://www.whitelabelspace.com">www.whitelabelspace.com</a><br />
* Google Lunar X-Prize: <a href="http://www.googlelunarxprize.com">www.googlelunarxprize.com</a></p>
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:32:46 +1000Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:32:46 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/383Walktime Blog #17: Interview with Matt Evans at LCA2012
<p>At <a href="http://www.linux.conf.au">linux.conf.au 2012</a> I had the good fortune of meeting up with old friends and also making new ones, including the amazingly talented Matt Evans. Matt did a great talk called "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY9SBPo1Oy8">Hack Everything: Re-Purposing Everyday Devices</a>", so I caught up with him briefly afterwards to talk to him about it.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BIQl0u-YZ5s" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>View or comment directly on YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIQl0u-YZ5s">www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIQl0u-YZ5s</a></p>
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:50:24 +1000Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:50:24 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/382Walktime Blog #16: Arduino Miniconf 2012
<p>A quick walk-around of the hardware assembly tutorial at the 3rd Arduino Miniconf, which took place on January 16, 2012 as part of linux.conf.au.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xic4w5DL-tw" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>View or comment directly on YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xic4w5DL-tw">www.youtube.com/watch?v=xic4w5DL-tw</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.arduinominiconf.org">www.arduinominiconf.org</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.linux.conf.au">www.linux.conf.au</a></li>
</ul> Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:29:50 +1000Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:29:50 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/381Walktime Blog #15: Arduino light switches
<p>As part of my <a href="http://www.superhouse.tv">@SuperHouseTV</a> home reno the entire house has been rewired, including replacing all the light switches with <a href="http://www.freetronics.com">Freetronics</a> Arduino-compatible control surfaces running on the LAN using <a href="http://www.freetronics.com/pages/power-over-ethernet-for-arduino">Power-over-Ethernet</a>. To save time assembling all the switches I designed a custom PCB for the control surface.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MW3Vs2mHies" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>View or comment directly on YouTube: <a href="http://youtu.be/MW3Vs2mHies">http://youtu.be/MW3Vs2mHies</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.superhouse.tv">SuperHouseTV DIY home automation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.freetronics.com/etherten">Freetronics EtherTen</a></li>
</ul> Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:18:19 +1000Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:18:19 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/380Walktime Blog #14: Maker Faire Melbourne, Arduino Miniconf
<p>Maker Faire is coming to Melbourne! Followed 2 days later by the Arduino Miniconf at linux.conf.au 2012 in Ballarat, it'll be a great time to be in Victoria if you're into Open Hardware.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aiZCufdgc9c" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>Comment or view directly on YouTube: <a href="http://youtu.be/aiZCufdgc9c">http://youtu.be/aiZCufdgc9c</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li>Mini Maker Faire Melbourne: <a href="http://www.makerfairemelbourne.org">www.makerfairemelbourne.org</a></li>
<li>Arduino Miniconf: <a href="http://www.arduinominiconf.org">www.arduinominiconf.org</a></li>
</ul>
Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:42:19 +1000Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:42:19 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/379Walktime Blog #13: Cool tools - SSH
<p>Another cool tool that can help break you free of any particular computer is SSH. It's for more than just getting a shell on a remote machine though: it can also do X session forwarding, and local and remote port forwarding.</p>
<p>Note: Before anyone accuses me of doing anything nasty to Google's corporate network, I didn't do anything I shouldn't and I expect that Google's network is as tight as tight can be. My comments about networks with crispy shells and soft centers weren't meant to imply that's what Google's are like, but after listening to the video it sounded like it may have come across that way. Sorry!</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MzwevAJ0rwA" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p>Comment or view directly on YouTube: <a href="http://youtu.be/MzwevAJ0rwA">http://youtu.be/MzwevAJ0rwA</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell">SSH</a></li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSSH">OpenSSH</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.secondlife.com">Second Life</a></li>
</ul>
Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:18:10 +1000Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:18:10 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/378Walktime Blog #12: Cool tools - Git, Dropbox, Google Docs
<p>I hate the idea that everything I work on is trapped inside a specific computer, and that if I don't have that computer with me I can't do anything - or worse still, if it's stolen or explodes I'm in big trouble. I've (mostly) managed to make myself non-computer-specific using a combination of Git, Dropbox, and Google Docs.</p>
<p><object height="315" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Y-iKRiVizQ?version=3&hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7Y-iKRiVizQ?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420"></embed></object></p>
<p>Comment or watch directly on YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y-iKRiVizQ">www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y-iKRiVizQ</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://subversion.apache.org">Subversion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.git-scm.com">Git</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.github.com">GitHub</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTI4NjkzNTA5">Dropbox</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com/apps">Google Docs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.practicalarduino.com">Practical Arduino</a></li>
</ul> Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:48:19 +1000Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:48:19 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/377Walktime Blog #11: A look inside my switchboard
<p>Have a look inside one of the switchboards in my house, where I'm linking Arduino-based home automation devices into the switchboard for software control of just about everything.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/reS_KLx9WwM" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reS_KLx9WwM">View or comment directly on YouTube</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.freetronics.com/etherten">Freetronics EtherTen</a></li>
</ul>
Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:51:15 +1000Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:51:15 +1000http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/376Walktime Blog #10: Print your own weapons
<p>There's an interesting debate going on at the moment on the Thingiverse website about whether it's OK to post design files for weapons components. Is this taking freedom of speech too far?</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A-bTI2tnyvg" width="420"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-bTI2tnyvg">View or comment directly on YouTube</a></p>
<p>Links for this ep:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.osdc.com.au">Open Source Developers Conference</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.thingiverse.com">Thingiverse</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.makerbot.com">Makerbot</a></li>
</ul>