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

Dirty hack to boost cell phone reception

Took a look at my aging Motorola V3i and realized that there is a rubber lid on the back of the phone which i found odd. After checking it out on Google, I found out that most phones have it and when removed, it is a point for an external antenna. I embarked on creating a makeshift external cell antenna for next to nothing. It would come in handy when needed.

Items needed:
1) Insulated wire
2) Wire Cutters
3) Ruler
4) Skewer


                 1. Cut out 20cm of wire


                      2. Measure out 5cm of wire and bend it to a 90                                        degree angle


                      3. From the bending point, wrap 5 times on the skewer


                      4. Pull the wire out


                      5. Measure and bend 2cm from the end


                      6. Remove the insulation


                      7. Your makeshift cell antenna is ready


                      8. Remove the rubber lid


                      9. Insert the end of the makeshift antenna to the antenna                        jack


                      10. Antenna mounted


                      11. Signal before mounting the antenna


                      12. Signal boost after mounting the antenna