Technology

Server Status with Keyboard LEDs

Here’s a neat article on how to use keyboard LEDs to monitor the status of a linux server. MartyBug.net writes “I have a number of linux servers at home, and typically want to be able to monitor the status of them remotely. The servers are all located in a walk-in-cupboard in my office, and being able to see the status of some key parameters is very handy. In particular, I want to be able to see the status of my internet firewall, a Smoothwall box, ie, if my internet connection is up, and if traffic is being received and/or transmitted“. Link.

Continue Reading May 11th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Update on the Pez MP3 Project

More intrigue, suspense and a roller-coaster ride on the PEZ MP3 project it seems. The PEZ MP3 is project started by a stay at home day with the dream of bringing a PEZ MP3 player to market- the latest: PEZ won’t let go for “Candy for your Ears” and PEZ won’t allow the player to use the same heads as the normal candy filled ones. This might all sound like bad news, but Pat has some new ideas and some solutions.Link.

Continue Reading May 11th, 2005September 30th, 2015 Phillip Torrone

Solarbotics

Zunk writes “While traditional approaches essentially start with a “brain,” and attempt to build robots “downward” from that, BEAM robotics starts from simple reflexes, in a “bottoms-up” approach. The majority of BEAM robots are non-computerized (although simple CPUs can be used to drive them, in a “horse and rider” sort of way). Unlike many traditional processor-based robots, BEAM robots are cheap, simple, and can be built by a hobbyist with basic skills in a matter of hours. Because of this, BEAM is an excellent way of getting started in robotics, and of learning about electronics”. Link.

Continue Reading May 10th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Apple Granted Patent for Tablet Mac

Wow, a Tablet Mac might be hitting the scene soon! Awhile back there were stories (2004) about a tablet Mac and today Mac Observer reports “Apple Computer was granted a patent for an enigmatically titled “Electronic device” Tuesday, May 10th, 2005. Illustrations for the device clearly indicate it to be a tablet-style Macintosh, and patent filings specifically compare it to the “HP Compaq Tablet PC” and several other tablet machines“. Of course if you’re jonesing for one now, you can always make your own.

Continue Reading May 10th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

How to Geotag

Here’s a great step-by-step on using Firefox, Greasemonkey and Flickr to GeoTag your photos to use with GeoBloggers.com. Once you get the script installed, you browse to your Flickr image, add a new “geotag” and enter in a zip code. You’ll then use Google maps to locate a position and it saves the location data to the photo. Once that’s complete you can submit the image to Geobloggers. Link.

Continue Reading May 10th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

Electrist – Palm Software for EE

Electrist, from Red Binary Development (aka Patrick Griffin), is a $20 PalmOS app that helps anyone who’s building or modifying electronics. It plugs values into all the commonly-used formulas, as well as many obscure ones, and even shows resistor color codes. See a glowing review on page seven of the May issue of ESSN (Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter). Link.

Continue Reading May 9th, 2005 Paul Spinrad

Tales of Rescuing Old Hardware

On the BSD DevCenter Mikhail Zakharov has an article about installing NetBSD on an old Toshiba T2130CS- Intel 486DX4 75MHz notebook. The challenge was, with a lot of old hardware many of us have, is to install without the benefit of using a CD-ROM drive. With only the floppy drive and the LPT/COM ports, it’s usually tough to get anything on old machines. Link.