Google Summer of Code 2010 Talk in UTM

The talk was scheduled on the 27th of March at University Technology Malaysia (Skudai, Johor). The crowd turnout was a great as they were enthusiastic about the topic at hand. Looking forward to a growing number of local students participating in GSoC 2010. Pictures of the talk are attached below.


                  Introduction about the program by the students


                              Setting up for the presentation


                              The crowd - 1


                              The crowd - 2


Faculty lecturer sharing her thoughts on working throughout students schedules


                              Group photo


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Google SoC Mentor Summit 2009

Blog post on Google SoC Mentor Summit 2009

Bluetooth Sniffer project for GSoC 2009

The results are officially out. I would like to thank all of you who applied and worked hard on your proposals. I would like to congratulate Shu Yang Quek from Singapore(NUS) on being selected. For those of you who did not get selected, I would strongly urge you to participate as a volunteer which has its own perks. The nationality composition of this years applicants for the project are listed below.

4 - Portugal
1 - Brazil
1 - India
1 - Malaysia
1 - Singapore

Total = 8

Bluetooth Sniffer proposals for Google SoC 2009

It is with great honor to announce that I have been officially selected to participate in this years Google Summer of Code program as a mentor under the Umit Project. Students interested with the Bluetooth Sniffer idea can begin submitting their applications to Google directly from 19:00 UTC on March 23 2009 or 03:00 GMT+8 on March 24. A standard template for the application is available here. Do stay tuned on the program website for details. Do kindly contact me if there are any questions pertaining your proposal

Google Summer of Code 2009 talk in MMU Cyberjaya

I would like to thank the Open Source Alliance(OSA) of MMU Cyberjaya for organizing the event and everyone who attended. The presentation slides for Umit have been uploaded on the ASEAN Google SoC group. This group serves a medium for interested students within the ASEAN region to exchange thoughts about the program.


               A snapshot of the talk

PyGTK on Mac OSX

With Python installed, the Jhbuild script enables a myriad of software packages such as GTK+ and GNOME to be built. The script can be download from here. Do run the script once downloaded. After that, run the bootstrap process which should be done once.

# jhbuild bootstrap
# jhbuild build meta-gtk-osx-bootstrap

Build the software:

# jhbuild build
# jhbuild shell
# jhbuild build meta-gtk-osx-python

                          Umit Bluetooth running on Mac OSX 10.5.6

source: http://live.gnome.org/GTK%2B/OSX/BuildInstructions

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Umit Project Talk

Open Source Alliance Cyberjaya in collaboration with IT Society, MMU Cyberjaya is organizing a talk on Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2009 and Umit Project. Details as follows:

Date : 12th March 2009 (Thursday)
Time : 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Venue : FIT XR 0001 (FIT Theatre Hall), Multimedia University, Cyberjaya

Bluetooth Sniffer idea for Google Summer of Code 2009

As for the impending Google Summer of Code program this year, UmitBT is pushing towards a new bold direction with the Bluetooth Sniffer idea. We intend to extend UmitBT's functionality by integrating Bluetooth protocol sniffing capabilities. Bluetooth protocol sniffing would allow users to monitor Bluetooth traffic to understand their Bluetooth spectrum in an indepth manner. Currently, Bluetooth protocol sniffing is available through costly hardware and software packages. This idea would allow users to sniff Bluetooth packets and display it in an intuitive manner similiar to Wireshark. Considerations for this idea are:

* Integrated into UmitBT
* Sniffing capability should be multi-platform.
Implementation may vary.
* Understanding of PyBluez and LightBlue.
* May require intermediate knowledge on Bluetooth firmwares


The impact of this idea is vastly significant to the community as this would be the first open source implementation of Bluetooth protocol sniffing. Students would be apart of making history with us besides a cool USD$4,500 for 4 months of implementation work, a t-shirt, an invaluable certificate from Google and a mystery book. Hope to hear from you soon and good luck.


References:



[1] http://umitbt.umitproject.org

[2] http://www.umitproject.org/?active=gsoc&mode=ideas

[3] http://www.umitproject.org/?active=contacts

[4] http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2009/faqs.html

[5] http://blog.umitproject.org

MetroFon

With the new pad falling under the supported service area, I was finally able to install OCE's MetroFon. Connection's solid, higher bandwidth and great service all for RM60 a month. If only these guys can go nationwide, TM's Streamyx would get a run for their money.

The Star TechCentral GSoC press coverage

Date: 5th January 2009
The Star : TechCentral
For the love of code

More GSoC 2008 press coverage

Date: 29th December 2008
The New Straits Times : Tech & U
Local coders graduate from Google stint

Date: 8th December 2008
Oriental Daily : Education(Page 4-5)


                                                                Page 4



                                                                Page 5


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Buffalo Linkstation

I've had a home media centre setup with the PS3 and TwonkyVision before. The problem is that there is a discrete bug with the ipw2200 wireless driver which caused my Belkin N1 to heat up a lil. Imagine after a hard days work banging the keyboard away just the get Twonky setup right on a Gentoo machine to watch that one episode of The Office US. With that, I sought after a Network-attached Storage or an NAS. Thanks to Zaid's recommendation, I went out to purchase a 1TB Buffalo Linkstation.

I was concerned about the built-in torrent client and Pvconnect Media Server. The torrent client's web interface is pretty fluid but since im with TM's Streamyx, Protocol Encryption is essential. So i've started borking away the NAS by firstly getting SSH in there. With ACP Commander, I was able to Telnet into this 400MHz ARM-9 based to enabled the sshd daemon. Surprisingly the apt-get binary file was "hidden" but regardless, it doesn't work. Tried compiling rtorrent but there was an ncurses library error. There are alternatives such as OpenLink and FreeLink but I didn't wanna go too far with it. With FreeLink, its possible to get either rtorrent or Transmission on it which supports PE. Do drop me an email/comment if there are any suggestions to this stumbling block.

With that hanging in limbo, I started looking into Pvconnect. I had purchased TwonkyVision before and am happy with it. A quick port scan revealed that port 9050 led me to configuration page of TwonkyVision. Hell yea!!! Screenshots as follows.


                                       Buffalo Linkstation Live 1TB


                                    SSHD


                                      TwonkyVision Configuration Page

2009

2009 is shaping up to be an awesome year. Got a few weeks off before heading back to Shell, in the midst of securing a sweet pad with the hookups, a Macbook Aluminum, 1TB Buffalo Linkstation along with other miscellaneous tech stuff.

Got the 2.4GHz model and upgraded it to 4GB of RAM since i'll be running VM's and the AppleCare Protection Plan. It made sense since I would be using it for a while. Been fiddling around with it and got Xcode installed to get it ready for some UmitBT work. In essence, its a sleek machine with a badass Unix core to get my work done.


                                  Macbook Aluminum

Google SoC media event

      The Hoffman Agency organized a media event on the 18th last month for the Malaysian Google Summer of Code students. Apart from me, there's Raj who worked for MySQL and Phua for freeCAD. It was great to have finally met them in person. The media event was held at Telawi Street Bistro, Bangsar. The members of press from Sin Chew, The Star and The New Straits Times were among the few who were there. The setup was awesome and the event went on swimmingly. Congrats to Raj and Phua on successfully completing their projects. Thanks to Jana and Rene for organizing a classy event.


                                 The interview


                                 Photo shoot 1


                                     Photo shoot 2


                    The Star Youth2 newspaper article
                    The complete press release from The Star Youth2


                      Sin Chew newspaper article

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The economic state

With the global economic fiasco, it made me wonder what it would be like if this thin fabric of financial stability collapses. The Cuban's have suffered an artificial Peak Oil which resulted in a total economic collapse. That made them shift towards a resource based economy which is inspiring. They worked closely with the environment and managed to be a self sustaining nation.

Taking two schools of thought with Milton Friedmans's view on economic freedom, I am appalled with how the existing monetary systems backbone which is the US Federal Reserve grew into a general malaise. This isn't what Adam Smith advocated in The Wealth of Nations.

The Venus Project seems like a viable option but it does present various challenges to be accepted with society today. With its emphasis of a quantum technological leap, it also scrapes the notion of religion. Society has been interwoven with religion for centuries which has shaped mankind today.

I am optimistic as even with the economic decay brought by the perverse notion of scarcity which is apparent with the impending Peak Oil, society would shift into a different light as the current fallacies become obvious.

The GNU community is a great example of how a resource based economy would transpire. The Cathedrial and the Bazaar is a great read on how the GNU community functions and pushes forward which is analogues to a bazaar.

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Iphone

Been looking out for a SingTel set for over a month now. Got another unit for Yvonne. Her sole reason to get an Iphone as well is because of jiggling icons(I kid you not).
Worked my way to jailbreak the updated 2.1 firmware with Cydia. It was really sweet to get Nmap and Metasploit running on the Iphone. Had to resort to GMDL to pre-download Google Maps to be viewed offline since data plans here are stupid. A-GPS is alright. The MAME emulator is great. The Lightsaber App was such a blast. The accelerometer had a big part in that. With MS Exchange support, I got Accenture's email account configured on the Iphone. This will increase my mobility at work which is awesome.


                                       The boxes


                                       Terminal


                                       Nmap


                                       Metasploit


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UmitBT 0.7 released

ChangeLog snapshot

Changes since 0.7RC2
  -Distinction made between Sony Ericsson,
   Sony Entertainment & Sony Corp
   (ex:the PS3 is distinguished and mapped accordingly)
  -New manufacturers added to the detection scheme
   *Blaupunkt
   *Cisco
   *Apple
   *Microsoft
   *Intel
   *DoCoMo
   *Samsung
   *Google

For more information, check out the UmitBT project page

Note: The Windows installer will be updated to 0.7 shortly.
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UmitBT 0.7RC2 released

                The video above shows UmitBT0.7RC2 in action.

    UmitBT is a unique Bluetooth device scanner. With UmitBT, not only are you able to probe for Bluetooth enabled devices and perform Service Discovery scans but also map them out graphically based on their manufacturer.

For more information, check out the UmitBT project page

UmitBT 0.7RC1

                The video above shows UmitBT0.7RC1 in action.

    UmitBT is a GUI based Bluetooth device scanner which does manufacturer detection. With UmitBT, not only are you able to probe for Bluetooth enabled devices, but also perform Service Discovery scans and identify the device based on the manufacturer of the device. The devices are then mapped out graphically based on the devices manufacturer.UmitBT is a branch of Umit and a product of GSoC 2008.

To obtain the svn branch of UmitBT(currently at 0.7RC1):
svn co http://svn.umitproject.org/svnroot/umit/branch/UmitBT/ UmitBT

UmitBT0.7RC1 for Windows
UmitBT0.7RC1 bzip2 source distribution

Google SoC perks

         A few days back right after Google Summer of Code 2008 officially kicked off, I received my corporate charge card from Google and a "mystery" book. All i can say about the book is that it blew me away. Gave me a whole new perspective on code design. It was breeze to get the charge card activated (thanks Leslie, it sure beats last years payout scheme). Referred to the private mailing list and there were a number of methods used to get the cash out but unfortunately this varies depending on your geographic location. The idea of associating the charge card with PayPal is used by many but unfortunately the only bank in Malaysia which allows cash withdrawal from a PayPal account is Al-Rajhi bank which gives a really crappy exchange rate and a hefty service charge.I found out that contrary to popular belief, using your credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM isn't such a bad idea since MasterCard uses current market exchange rates. There is a service charge of about 2.5% when you charge it directly to the card but only a 1% charge of the amount withdrawn if done at an ATM(CIMB ATMs accept MasterCard). It works out to be cheaper with the latter because I would end up paying only RM90(15 x 6 withdrawals) of service charge as compared to charging it directly and paying RM217 service charge for a new Macbook Pro(MB134ZP/A @ RM8,699).


                       The Google corporate charge card