Geeks in Paradise | Brian Chee | TAG: Toys and tools

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TAG: Toys and tools

March 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)

The folks at PocketMac have created a niche made up of software shims to connect mobile devices like the iPhone to enterprise organizer systems. In this case I shanghaied a buddy of mine at the University of Hawaii Information and Technology Services (ITS) group to help me wring out their link between his shiny new iPhone and MeetingMaker. With a stable that includes links between Lotus Notes and Blackberry/iPhone/Windows Mobile 5&6, this PocketMac has been catering to the mobile user that has been feeling left out when on the road.

The key issue here is that no two mobile phones are completely identical and due to marketing sparkle, new features are driving extremely short mobile phone life cycles. The pain point here is just how to migrate to the new platform and just how far out over the bleeding edge you can go without giving up connectivity to the enterprise. These questions really are the basis of why we see two basic product ladders. Consumers are driving demand for the latest sparkly, but the enterprise wants some sort of consistency for connectivity and road warrior support. This model, though, went all to pieces when the iPhone exploded into the market ... and has left IT support scratching its head on just how to provide consistency for such a new platform. The answer has been with the folks at PocketMac in the form of a series of niche market "shims" that provide the data manipulation necessary to connect these disparate platforms. What these shims do under the hood is create a maze of code to mashup the database on the mobile device to match the expectations on the enterprise application (like MeetingMaker or Lotus Notes) and make a best guess as to what the user was attempting to do with field customization. In this case, the UH ITS group and Chris have made some changes that required a bit of tech support time to labels in the calendar. From reading the e-mail thread between Chris and the PocketMac folks, it seems like they're responsive and genuinely willing to jump through some hoops for the users. In fact this story got delayed a bit while Chris and I were put under NDA for a beta version that fixed Chris' need for an SSL connection to his MeetingMaker server. I'm glad to say that my NDA is now lifted and the SSL connector is now part of the normal code for this product.

Here are some testing notes from Chris Zane with a few clarifications added as we got answers back from PocketMac Tech Support:

MeetingMaker GoBetweenconsists to a two-part solution, the SyncManager and GoBetween. Chris Zane of the UH ITS group describes the installation as easy with no annoying reboot required. Once installed he found himself navigating to the "advanced" tab to tweak the connection to his MeetingMaker server.

Notice that he seems to have an option for several different mobile devices, in his case he chose specifically to sync only his calendar.

Chris mentions: For calendar, click on Appointments and then choose what categories to sync. This is where it got a bit confusing. We had a very difficult time syncing specific MeetingMaker calendars and iCal calendars together. Tech Support provided a method that sometimes worked. Perhaps it was our setup on MeetingMaker and the fact that some of our labels were already changed from the MeetingMaker defaults. In the end, we resorted to trial and error and finally got something working reliably.

Answer from PocketMac Tech Support:
1. MeetingMaker Label and iCal calendar syncing:
We're looking into a pop-up window to allow one to move the iCal calendars and MeetingMaker Labels to align them with one another. Right now we have it set, so, users need to review and configure three different areas (iCal,MeetingMaker Advanced Preferences and MeetingMaker Labels). This process can be confusing and steer beginner users away from configuring their synchronization preferences. This would be a version 2 update.

Chris Zane: Once we got past the calendar name/label syncing, it worked as advertised. New iCal events in specific calendars showed up on MeetingMaker with the appropriate label and viceversa. We could then sync these calendars to our iPhone correctly.

Chris Zane: When events are deleted, the GoBetween application pops up a window to ask what to do - either restore the event from the other system (i.e. you delete on iCal, it'll restore the event from the MeetingMaker system), or sync the deletion. This probably occurred since we were using two way sync - if we had selected overwrite iCal, changes on MeetingMaker would be automatically synced to iCal. There is also an option to overwrite MeetingMaker. For those who use both (i.e. an iPhone and MeetingMaker) an automatic sync, regardless of deletions, etc, would be ideal.

Chris Zane: All in all it works as advertised, there are a few rough edges on matching calendars. Credit goes to the PocketMac tech support who were more than willing to assist in getting things working.

Brian Chee: So while Chris had a few rough edges, I should point out that the PocketMac tech support was very responsive and were able to get almost everything in Chris' punch list either fixed or confirmed that it will be fixed in the next release.

So thank you very much to Chris Zane of the UH ITS group for letting us experiment on his shiny new iPhone. All in all this looks like a pretty good solution for those using MeetingMaker to provide services to their remote user PDA's/SmartPhones.

Chris Zane is an IT Specialist for the University of Hawaii Information Technology Services, Technology Infrastructure Group; and as such provides support to the Advanced Network Computing Laboratory at the Main University of Hawaii campus.

Posted by Brian Chee on March 25, 2008 03:56 AM

December 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Mobile Phone Barcode system

ScanLife is the technology behind the new Sprint ads that have started to appear in print media. I found one in my issue of Wired and while I'm a T-Mobile user, you can still download the application from the ScanLife site and be able to read the 2D barcode. The main issue behind using a camera phone as a barcode reader has always been the poor image quality and the tendency for images to become skewed due to user hand positioning. In the US you can ONLY read the EZCode, however in europe you can also read the DataMatrix and QR codes. Oh by the way, the Sprint AD takes you to a free ringtone download site for Windows Mobile once you read the EZCode in the ad. I was able to get there just fine with the version I downloaded for my HTC/T-Mobile DASH.

Supported 2D Barcodes (EZcode, DataMatrix and QR)

All of these emerging 2D barcodes have handles on them to allow software to de-skew the image and little targets embedded in the image so that the software has a better chance at knowing where the code boundaries are.

The Sprint ad, and the talk on the street is that the lowly barcode is seeing a revival due to consumer pressure to be able to get more information on demand, but they don't want to have to type in long URL's to get there. The answer is the 2D barcode with some codes achieving upwards of hundreds of characters worth of information in a postage stamp sized image.

However, the big three (EZcode, DataMatrix and QR) can't hold a candle to the achievements of Gavin Jancke of Microsoft Research and his new color 2D barcode system that can achieve thousands of characters worth of information in an image not quite bigger than a US Penny. Enough information that you can embed enough information that Microsoft is tossing out the concept of a tamper proof ID.

So why barcodes? My spin is that it's tied to the now ubiquitous nature of the camera phone. Since it's there, why not make better use of it? I for one would love to see an apps (open source please) that will allow me to use my camera phone to read my club card barcodes, and then reproduce them on the screen. This way I can just scroll around to the appropriate club card and then wave it across the scanner. Though as I mentioned above, image skew is a pretty big deal and so is the fact that under normal conditions the barcode is displayed on a media that has a huge contrast ratio (upwards of several thousands to one) which the standard phone LCD hasn't quite achieved yet. So I just have to imagine that reader errors are fairly frequent.

As a counter point the folks at Ecrio claim that they have a much better solution. Since traditional UPC barcodes suffer from a collection of maladies ranging from grubby phone screens, reflectance, low contrast, stray light, etc, etc...Ecrio has instead come up with MoBeam, a method to flash the IR or the phone backlight to satisfy the checkout scanner. So instead of having the scanner attempt to read the varying size bars of the UPC off the phone screen, they instead fool the scanner into seeing the long and short flashes that represent the bar code. So while I'm unsure of just how well this works (So far Ecrio hasn't returned any of my email) they claim nearly full proof scans and are bragging about how it's being used for ticketing and a wash list of supporters.

So I just had to do more digging and found Mobiqua who doesn't seem to have the issues that Ecrio warns us about. In fact they're got an agreement going with the IATF (International Air Transport Association) that has a pilot (sic!) project going in an attempt to eliminate the ubiquitous and un-recyclable airline boarding passes (due to the magnetic strip). When I asked the IATA folks if they're having problems with reflectance causing barcodes to become unreadable, here's their answer:

... Air Canada and Continental are testing bar codes on mobiles, I'm not aware of reflectance issues. Actually when it does not read, it could be the size of the bar code, the shape of the screen, or simply unclean screen. Or light reflectance. Japan carriers have been using 2D on mobiles for 2-3 years, reflectance was not reported as an issue to my knowledge. I think it is more an argument from scanner manufacturers, between mounted hand-held and flatbed.
From: LEOPOLD Eric
Sent: Thursday, 20 December, 2007 15:07
To: RILEY Lorne
Subject: RE: barcode checkin on mobile devices...story for InfoWorld magazine

Another partner of IATA is RealTime and they're got a bit of a spin on how mobile phone checkin's will save time, money and the environment.

For a longer term look at the IATA's efforts, download a PDF status report.

Posted by Brian Chee on December 28, 2007 11:06 AM

December 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server Compact 3.5

CRM can mean many things to many people and for those that put their workforce out in the field this latest release of Microsoft's SQL server could mean a large reduction in the time and effort needed to put a CRM app into the field.

Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server Compact 3.5 is designed to be crammed onto just about any of the Microsoft desktop environments, but it's the mobile platforms that make this worth reading further. With support for Windows Mobile 5/6 and the CE variants Microsoft has radically reduced the effort required to link, update and synchronize a mobile platform with the home office SQL server. So while it's a wild guess, I just have to imagine that the folks at UPS/FedEx/etc have got to be taking notice.

With Visual Studio.NET as Microsoft's tookkit of choice, SQL Compact edition can be scaled to fit various needs while giving a reasonable number of secure communications methods. Did I also mention that Microsoft isn't charging for this? Download it for free of their website.

In a multiple-server environment, to exchange data between SQL Server Compact Edition and SQL Server, you have to install replication components on the computer that is running IIS. The following table lists how to install the replication components on two different versions of SQL Server.
borrowed from: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/compact/sysreqs.mspx

Now while this is really targeted at SQL Server on the backend, I'm not sure this can't be leveraged for other platforms. I found some information on Microsoft's site that seems to indicate that this isn't quite as tightly linked as I first thought. The stuff I found on MSDN at first glance don't look MS-SQL specific, so it sounds like something to try when I get back from vacation. Can it be used with MySQL or others, maybe...I'll have to get back to you folks on that.

Posted by Brian Chee on December 16, 2007 05:42 PM

December 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft Windows Home Server

Microsoft is stepping away from the traditional home server like those being offered by Infrant/NetGear, IOMega, Buffalo, and others. The pack is attempting to offer the SOHO environment a smaller version of the enterprise servers we're used to having at the office, but never quite getting there. Heck, I've had conversations with other editors on how Microsoft should have put in kiddie/parental controls, email filtering, and a wash list of advanced features. What I'm suggesting is that you take a step back and look at this from a different point of view:

“With Windows Home Server, Microsoft and its partners are launching a new category

of consumer products that will make it much easier for people to connect to their

digital content and share experiences with friends and family, no matter where they are.”

-Bill Gates

Key to just how well this product will play is how the Home Server team ran a programming contest as the beta program drew to a close. A wide assortment of entrants leveraged the Home Server API set with the top dog producing a plug-in that will accept a .ZIP file of digital photos and once received will unpack, create thumbnails and automagically post to the user's home server web site. Here are a couple useful links to read about the other entrants, and what other users are doing with their Home Server.

•Windows Home Server Website

•Home Server Blog

•Home Server Forums

Hey folks, if you're looking for a home version of Windows Server 2008, take a deep breath and shake it off. This isn't Server2008 Home Edition, and if you even try to squint at it sideways to make it look like Server 2kxxx it's just going to make you mad. This is grandma's server to backup her and dad's workstations, post the latest pictures of the grandkids, and let granny get access to her scrapbooking stuff from Edna's place. Not to mention that the turnkey versions from HP and a herd of others all tend towards sipping at the power meter.

Another key feature is getting away from expensive pieces like RAID by having you click on important folders which are then duplicated on another disk. This way the hardware stays simpler, lowering cost of purchase and cost of repairs.

*NOTE: Pictures from Windows Home Server presentation by Todd Headrick and Joel Burt of Microsoft
My favorite feature is the backup and restore (bare metal no less):

*NOTE: Pictures from Windows Home Server presentation by Todd Headrick and Joel Burt of Microsoft
Notice that the system will monitor the health of key folders with a green orb... status at a glance through color changes.

*NOTE: Pictures from Windows Home Server presentation by Todd Headrick and Joel Burt of Microsoft
Again, this isn't Windows Server 2008!!! Notice things revolve around content. Heck, you don't even need drive letters anymore.

So get it from folks like HP or roll your own with the Enthusiasts version that will install on almost any modern desktop computer. You can even download a 120day evaluation version that will bootup and setup one of your old desktops. So while activation keys upgrades aren't available (aka you can't just drop in an activation key like in Vista or Win2kX), you can drop in a full licensed copy over the eval and tell it to leave the data drives alone. So not quite seamless, but not bad.

Posted by Brian Chee on December 12, 2007 07:40 PM

November 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Why not carry your entire reference collection?

Depending upon what circles you travel in, you may have noticed the currently flurry caused by the release of the Kindle from Amazon. Based upon the eInk technology developed by Joseph Jacobsen of the MIT Media Labs the Kindle is similar to offerings from Sony and iRex but has added the Amazon marketing engine behind it along with an EV-D0 connection they're calling Whispernet.

The Amazon Kindle

The Sony PRS-505 eBook

The iRex iLiad

Pictures of the Amazon Kindle, the Sony PRS-505 eBook, and the iRex iLiad (in order)

Key to this technology is that the display only uses power to change the display (i.e. page turns) and is nearly the same contrast ratio as black ink on white paper. The concept of being able to carry around a huge reference library on a single slate like device has been around for quite a while. Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame envisioned slates taking the place of paper onboard the starship Enterprise, while still giving users the portability and ease of use of their paper analog. Librarians been having discussions with publishers on the over all copyright, and loanability of an eBook. I've personally seen papers at library conferences, panel discussions and LOTS of listserv entries all talking about the pro's and con's of an eBook. Some of the discussions have been:

Pro's:
- Automatic expiration of a loan book through electronic means.
- Patrons can checkout LOTS of books on a self serve kiosk
- Even reference books can be checked out to a single user and have it expire in hours instead of days.
- Shelf space is VERY expensive and this doesn't take up much space at all
- Floor space costs to heat/cool/clean and this only needs environmental for the servers
- No more lost books

Con's:
- More IT support needed to handle kiosks, servers, etc
- Expansion of data center to handle servers, etc
- Hassles with publishers on electronic loan policies
- Patron tech support costs
- Patron complaints about the loss of the experience and feel of a good book
- Just how do you inventory an eBook?

It's very interesting just how varied the opinions of publishers are on the topic. Tim O'Reilly has been very public on his opinion and just what the industry will have to do in order for this technology to be adopted.

So while similarly interested, Bill Pollock (Founder of No Starch Press) has been taking a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) approach and has had PDF versions of many of their books available along with special deals for those that would like to own both a paper copy and an electronic copy.

I've also sent off email queries to the PR reps for a wide variety of publishing houses and O'Reilly and NoStarch were the only ones to respond. (Go figure...everyone else is old school brick and mortar)

There also happens to be a professor that is taking his entire office reference collection (most out of print anyway), slicing off the spine, dropping it into a high speed duplex scanner and then dumping those PDF's onto SD cards for his Sony eBook. To keep in the spirit of the copyright, he's then recycling the paper of the original book so that he still only owns a single copy of the book. His comments have been nothing short of glowing on being able to travel into remote locations with his entire reference collection.

So while we still have a LONG way to go, the world seems to be warming to the concept of an ebook and if we can finally get the major vendors to agree upon a standard for ebook DRM (Digital Rights Management) we might see more titles become available in coming years. I for one, really like the approach by Bill Pollock of NoStarch where they do a digital watermark with the owner's information on the PDF, but that's it. A breath of fresh air and NoStarch should give itself a pat on the back for this gutsy move. Truly FOSS dude...

So I'm sincerely hoping that publishers will get a hint that reference books are MUCH more valuable when you can easily carry them around with you and that perhaps the model at NoStarch is something to take a good hard look at. I'm sure the librarians of the world (My wife included) will be waiting in the wings for the dust to clear from this battle.

Oh yeah, as a personal frustration: Hey folks, if you go electronic, it no longer costs that much to "reprint" a book that's been out of print for years. Why should an ebook ever go out of "print", now publishers can afford to keep a book in their catalog just about forever (or at least until the copyright expires) with no printing costs to deliver the product. Translated, the gravy train can go on just about forever and you don't have to walk away from those small classroom print requests of less than 100 copies anymore. Electronic books can now be a "long tail" product that can keep making profits just about forever.

Posted by Brian Chee on November 26, 2007 02:54 PM

November 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Look ma, no batteries!

You know the story, you grab your handy dandy electric screwdriver off the tool bench to rack or un-rack a piece of gear only to find the batteries dead. You can't leave it in the charger since that would cause the batteries to develop a memory leaving you high and dry again. New battery packs cost as much as buying a whole new electric screwdriver and then there's the issue about finding someplace that will take the old packs for recycling. (or taking time out of your busy schedule to take it over to someone that will take it for recycling) Or just the guilty conscience knowing that you're using a device that is possibly putting more toxic heavy metals into the environment.

Now there is an answer that while it isn't fancy, sure I'd love a clutch and a few other things, but in all reality having the ability to fully charge this beast in 90seconds makes up for whatever features it's currently lacking. So let's dig into a little background on why this is so different.

A Battery (according to the History Channel's Modern Marvels program on batteries) contains energy through a chemical reaction. While a capacitor stores energy as a field between two charged plates. Quite a few scientists have gone the capacitor route for remote sensors, especially those in hostile environments. Anyone that's driven in the great white north knows that car batteries don't work very well when things get really cold, however, capacitors work just dandy. I've used a small 1 farad capacitor to store upwards of 10 hours of operational juice for some very small embedded computers (Basic Stamp) to monitor weather in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

So it was only a matter of time before someone actually applied capacitance energy storage to small electric screwdrivers. After all, most of the time you only have to drive a couple screws, and if you need to drive a lot more, just dump it in the charger and get a cuppa. 90 seconds later you have a fully charged unit ready to drive more screws.

Now my bitches: the unit is a bit flimsy and doesn't have a shaft lock for those times when the motor just doesn't have enough torque to turn that stuck screw. I'd also really like a clutch so that I lessen the chance of stripping the screw heads mounting that heavy server.

So while I first heard about this from the folks at Popular Mechanics I just had to bring this to the attention of the enterprise IT world. This is the perfect screwdriver to leave ready to go in your data center. It's a green technology, it's convenient, and darn if it doesn't work as advertised. Now if Coleman would only get moving and get them into the stores in time for the holiday season, it would be great. I got screwed for a massive amount of shipping on a fairly light unit. My receiving folks got VERY confused since it arrived from Kentucky from some tobacco company.

Here's a YouTube video on the technology….and yes, it really does get fully charged in just 90 seconds.

Posted by Brian Chee on November 15, 2007 10:48 AM

November 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SOTI Pocket Controller - Pro

As mobile devices creep into the enterprise, IT professionals are faced with a documentation and remote support gap due to the hassles of getting information off the mobile platform. Heck, mobile devices have been a pain for me whenever I've had to write stories on mobile devices for the exact same reason.

Soti.net out of Ontario, Canada offers their Pocket Controller software that lets you connect to your Windows Mobile device via locally connected Active Sync or via wired or wireless TCP/IP connection. I'm playing with the stand alone Pro version for screen shots, and video of mobile applications, but the Enterprise version goes way beyond a simple demo tool. With the ability to connect remotely over a WWAN or WLAN connection; the corporate help desk now has parity with desktops in remote control capabilities for guiding mobile users through complex setups or procedures.

I've been up on my soap box over the last couple years about how mobile devices are arriving in the enterprise. I've also harped on how this started with personal mobile devices sneaking in just like how PC's did in the 80's. What our readers keep reminding us about is that just because of device is used in an enterprise does NOT make it Enterprise Ready. Details like remote support of users in the field has been largely ignored by almost all the mobile carriers and handset manufacturers; so imagine my excitement when the Microsoft Unified Communications Group did a CoMo (Communicator Mobile 2007) demo at their Redmond, Washington campus using the SOTI product.

Not only is Pocket Controller a way to duplicate the Windows Mobile screen onto a PC for training and demos, but it also provides an easy way to get crystal clear screen shots (instead of a camera), video recordings of a procedure on the mobile device (instead of a camcorder), registry editing, printing, mass file upload/download, and remote control over the network.
*NOTE: in order to get Voice Command working with a bluetooth headset, you MUST do a registry edit for several types of mobile devices like my T-Mobile DASH.

Anyway, here's some screen shots taken off my DASH:

http://www.soti.net/
Customer Support:
support@soti.net
Sales and Marketing:
sales@soti.net
Enterprise\Volume Pricing:
sales@soti.net

Telephone:
+1 888 624 9828 (Toll Free from US & Canada Only)
+1 905 624 9828

Fax:
+1 905 624 3242

Address:
SOTI Inc.
29-5155 Spectrum Way,
Mississauga,
Ontario,
Canada, L4W 5A1

Posted by Brian Chee on November 15, 2007 09:52 AM

October 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)

FarStone's Drive Clone Pro

Well I've been ranting about how much I liked the Restore IT backup product, and some of you mumbled about an uncertain future of this product....well that's because Far Stone has decided to drop the Restore IT name in favor of Drive Clone Pro instead.

More to the point, Drive Clone Pro still gives me everything that I decided I liked in the old Restore IT product, but added some features that has me scratching my head wondering why I so rarely see these features in their competitor's products. Like: incremental file backups can now be by category (picture files, music, desktop folder, video, etc) and will ask you how many different versions of duplicate files you wish to keep....WOW...about freaking time!!!

Actually more to the point, why has it taken so long to see enterprise backup and restore features for individual workstations?

So I screen shot-ed you to death with Restore IT so I'll save your bandwidth and cover why you should dump the backup utility that came with your USB drive and buy a copy of Drive Clone Pro.

Incremental file backup that is application sensitive and you can specify how many versions to keep.
Mounting your backup image as a drive
Image backup verify
Partition or whole disk cloning
Support for every USB optical and external drive I could lay my hands on
30 day trial downloadable from farstone.com
Multi-user packs
FIREWIRE support for external drives
Bare metal restore capability
Non-Windows partition image backup (Linux EXT2/3 and others)

All in a package that actually works under Vista....

FarStone
6 Morgan, Suite 160
Irvine, CA 92618
Tel: 949-458-3666
Email: information@farstone.com
Web: www.farstone.com

Posted by Brian Chee on October 20, 2007 01:52 PM

August 22, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft LiveWriter64

First and foremost, many thanks to Joe Cheng of the Microsoft LiveWriter team for rushing through his burrito to help me out. LiveWriter for 64bit platforms (Windows XP 64, Vista Business, etc) installs a slightly different version of LiveWriter and while my 32bit versions were able to post successfully to Movable Type (our blog engine), the 64bit version would give me weird and wonderful errors.

New to the 64bit version is a richer selection of multimedia handlers (video, tags, etc) and more blog engine specific items (like the split post aka 'more') button that's oh so important in blog engines like WordPress to avoid clogging up your front page with long posts. Additional plugins are appearing rapidly.

So getting to the point, the solution is that the registry entries for LiveWriter64 are case sensitive (though registry entries normally are NOT case sensitive) due to some hashing algorithms. So fire up 'regedit' and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Windows Live Writer\Weblogs\some long alphanumeric value assigned to the particular blog\UserOptionOverrides

Then you need to change the subkey of:
UserOptionOverrides => subkey characterset => characterSet

You first MUST change characterset to something like 'foo' and THEN change it to characterSet otherwise it will give you a duplicate subkey error. The subkey MUST be blank/null so don't add anything.

Hope this helps out my fellow bloggers as they migrate from a 32bit Windows platform to one of the newer 64bit platforms.

Brian Chee

Technorati Tags: LiveWriter, blogger, movable type, wordpress, blog tool, blog errors, 64bit

Posted by Brian Chee on August 22, 2007 12:21 PM

July 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Openmoko.org Portal Site

With all the iPhone hype, I've just got to wonder just how open the iPhone platform is going to be? While I've been hearing about java sdk's for it, I've not seen a download link yet on the Apple site. Is this really a Mac OSx machine under the covers, and just how well will it support java app porting? (*NOTE: the Interop NOC team has been grabbing the iPhone up all over the world and so far all the Interop NOC team folks love it. I just can't justify that much coin on a phone when I have a mortgage to pay)

Openmoko.org Portal Site

The NEO1973 is the answer for those that want a cool looking communications platform, but either don't like Apple, don't like the iPhone, hate locked phones, etc, etc, etc...

So while the NEO1973 and the iPhone may look similar, the hardware under the hood isn't. Some key technologies on the iPhone are: Multitouch, and Sensors (accelerometer, etc) missing in the first development platform on the NEO.

So before we jump to conclusions and outright say the iPhone is superior, let me point out that the NEO is currently in a "reference design" that developers can use as a starting point. Like most embedded Linux systems, the NEO uses a toolchain to manage its applications and core functions, however because of its openness we should see a huge collection of legacy Linux apps ported to the platform if developers really do get on the bandwagon.

So anyway, Linux geek that I am, I'm in line for a demo unit available this coming sept/oct timeframe with a classroom full of wireless java geeks drooling at the opportunity to hack at a new platform. A friend at the UH Department of Information and Computer Sciences has been involved with the Japanese DoCoMo revolution, and has been packing her classroom with kids all wanting to write the next killer wireless app.

So I mentioned some key technologies in the iPhone. Multitouch is huge...instead of a single touch point, multitouch allows you to use multiple fingers to resize, reshape, etc. If you really want to see a demo of just how different multitouch can be...check out the YouTube video on Jeff Han at the TED conference in Monterey. His demo is nothing short of breath taking.

Next, the sensors in the iPhone include accelerometers, and to understand just how significant that is, just look at how much fun those games are on the WII! My nieces and nephews don't care that the graphics are primitive and plastic; that bowling game is outstanding, and tennis was a hoot. Though their favorite game is still pile on uncle Brian.

No the NEO isn't going to kill the iPhone, yet...but because it's open, and community developed, I wouldn't count it out anytime soon. I'm really looking forward to playing with it this fall, and have been lurking on the development site to see what kinds of cool things I can download for it or cobble together myself. Who knows, since the design is open, we may see multipoint touch screens and accelerometers for it yet.

/brian chee

Posted by Brian Chee on July 10, 2007 12:48 PM

July 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

How to fix cellular dead spots

I can currently see a couple ways to fixing the One to none bar syndrome in your home or business.

Bitch loudly and constantly at your cellular provider but stop short of them not answering your calls
Setup your own cellular repeater system
Go VoIP on a dual mode cellular+WiFi handset

Solution #1: First and foremost, when a mobile provider has to pay somewhere between $300-$1000/month just to bolt a set of antennas on top of a building, then add in the leased line costs, and the gear; and you get a formula for bitch triage. They just can't make everyone happy. Even with folks like Verizon, T-Mobile, etc all plunking huge amounts of money down for employees to drive around checking coverage; you always end up with pockets of dead that are out of their control. Like for instance, if you happen to be on the other side of a bank vault from the cell site, count yourself lucky if you get any signal at all.

Solution #2: Personal cell repeaters really are legal and they no longer cost a king's ransom. Folks like Cellantenna.com make several solutions of varying sizes. Keep in mind that you MUST get one antenna outside and the amplifier needs power.

The above diagram is "borrowed" from the folks at Cellantenna.com

Cellular Solutions is another result from my Google Search using "cellular repeaters home" as my search criteria. So with lots of solutions to choose from, you need to keep a few things in mind.

How far away can the exterior antenna be from the indoor amp? Extension cables are NOT a good idea since signal drops logarithmically by cable length.
If you can't get a good signal in the general location where you'd put the outdoor antenna, you may not want to use an omnidirectional antenna there. Instead go for a yagi (unidirectional) instead that will concentrate the RF energy in a single direction instead of trying to grab it from everywhere.

Just keep in mind that unidirectional antennas need to be aimed in two dimensions...it needs to point at the cell tower.
This isn't a magic bullet...there are limits to how much it can amplify. If the signal is too weak, all the amp will do is amplify both noise and signal and all you get is garbage.

Lastly, these units are typically sized by number of users. If a phone is turned on, it's going to suck up one of those channels on some units, while others only count the number of people actually calling through the system. Make sure you check which one you're buying.

Solution #3: Dual mode handsets are now pretty common and I've already talked about just how good the DiVitas Mobility Solution is in a video I did at the Interop HotStage. However that's only going to help if you've got an IT group that's into VoIP. There is however, another solution from the folks at T-Mobile and that's T-Mobile - HotSpot @Home where you literally setup a T-Mobile hotspot in your home or office. Basically as long as you have a WiFi system that your dual mode phone can connect to, AND a $20/month extra fee subscription, you can have your phone flip over from cellular to WiFi. The best part is that it also doesn't seem to count against your cell minutes, but the catch is that you MUST have an unlimited data plan attached to that dual mode phone. The other catch is that the list of phones supported is fairly short for now, but growing quickly.

Posted by Brian Chee on July 5, 2007 02:47 PM

June 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Kudos to T-Mobile for sticking their neck out a bit...

So I've already written about my upgrading my T-Mobile Dash (aka HTC S620) from Windows Mobile 5 to Windows Mobile 6, and how I'm not quite willing to concede that WM6 is better than my past BlackBerry 7100t. What I have noticed is that the press release on Windows Mobile 6 DOES NOT mention Voice Command as a key new feature. So I have to assume that T-Mobile has worked a deal with Microsoft to include Voice Command (normally a $39.95 extra cost according to the Handango site) into their Windows Mobile 6 packing as a value add. Perhaps to entice the enterprise folks into taking a harder look?

Microsoft seems to be keeping an up to date list of phones with WM6 here...

So while Microsoft's list of new and improved features goes on and on...the ones that I've used are:

Easier email account setup: on WM5 I had to type in a long wash list of config items to get my IMAP4 email configured. In this version, it autodetected the config values after I told it the server addresses and that I'm using SSL as a transport.
Better WiFi setup and MUCH better power management: I'm running 802.1x on a Trapeze WiFi system. The old config was more than a little clunky under WM5 but it was almost easy to setup under WM6.
Voice Command: It doesn't look like WM6 is going to include Voice Command, but after I found the registry change for the phone it has now worked really well on my Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset. I'm now using it to check for the time and location of my next appointment instead of pulling it out of the holster.
They say that the email client is easier to read and such, I've not really seen much of a change from WM5 but it did take a bit to get used to the new location of the delete message key. Not sure this was a bad thing, just different.
Microsoft's Live on the phone has gotten to be habit forming, and if you use the Windows Live them for the phone home screen it will place a live search bar right up front.

NOTE: Live Search is now GPS capable, but since my Dash isn't, I can only use this feature if I get myself a bluetooth GPS.
It also has a Traffic Coverage feature for select cities...too bad Honolulu isn't one of them.

Windows Update: You can now do automagic updates or manual, I'm doing manual since every update also means I have to re-edit the registry (reg editor runs from my laptop but edits through active sync) so that Voice Command will work through my Bluetooth headset.

T-Mobile: Thanks for Voice Command, but could you hurry up and finish testing it with bluetooth headsets so that I don't have to keep re-editing my phone registry!
NOTE: This edit is for the T-Mobile DASH ONLY!!! If you have a different phone, keep looking.

Office Mobile: I was more than a little disappointed when I couldn't get this for the Dash under WM5, but is now included with WM6.

Of all the changes from WM5 to WM6 the voice dialer was the one that tossed me for a loop. I had taken the time to add a whole heck of a lot of voice tags into my phone book which no longer seemed to work. To say that Voice Command is a bit different is a total understatement. Under the old voicetag system I used to have a tag of Sasquatch to dial Paul Venezia and olly for Oliver Rist. Now if I want to use those nicknames, I would have to add it to the name or company line in the phone book. For now I can say...call oliver rist at work and it will...though some Hawaiian surnames really get it confused. Saying what is my next appointment will do a lookup in my calendar for the next appointment. The list of new nouns and verbs is staggering, and I can definately see a long learning curve. The really nice part is that the list seems to be identical to that of Vista (natch) so off I go to the races.

Oh yeah...still no reboot necessary, and I've got more 3rd party software on this phone than ever before...so perhaps there is hope. Now if I can only get T-Mobile to unlock this phone so that I can use some Vodaphone pay as you go SIMS for when I go to europe next year...

My last wish is for more CPU...at this moment the Dash will busy out my phone if I'm downloading email. Not what I would call optimal, but at least if you know about it you can work around that issue by either going Exchange so that you can get email push, or set the other email to pull less frequently.

/brian chee

Posted by Brian Chee on June 1, 2007 12:44 PM

May 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Windows Mobile 6: Not going to kill the blackberry, yet...

So I've been on a journey that started with a Blackberry 7100t from T-Mobile, had a false start on their new Dash (actually the HTC S620) that originally came with Windows Mobile 5, and just a little while ago T-Mobile offered up a software update that bumped it to Windows Mobile 6.

The Microsoft folks tried very hard to convince me that I was going to love the Dash, and I have to admit it sure felt good in my hand...however, I ended up with a list of complaints and features missing in my migration from the Blackberry to the Dash.

No password vault! I ended up spending a few bucks on SplashID to replace the free version on the Blackberry
No text editor
No bare metal backup and restore
Incomplete support for SSH
Slow to switch applications
4-5 times daily crashing and forcing a battery'ektomy to get it to play nice again
I actually had to do a registry edit (not the XP machine, but the phone itself) in order to get it to start the voice command stuff correctly for my Plantronics 510 bluetooth headset. It also required a phone reboot to get everything to take effect. See Randy's Rants for documentation on how to get the Voice Command stuff working over your bluetooth headset.

In it's favor, WM5 did have support for One-Note (as long as you have a full copy on your desktop) which I found to be FAR superior to a simple text editor.

So while I'm still not sure I'd concede to eBay'ing my Blackberry yet, the update to Windows Mobile 6 is actually making me consider never going back. Here's a list of new features that are doing their insidious work at making me feel good about this move...

Voice commands, NOT just dialing...it actually does a pretty good job of reading my appointments and finding just about anything in my contact list. Though I should point out that if you mumble, your contacts may get waken up by misdialed numbers.
Voice dialing: not just contact list stuff, but you can also voice dial individual digits for numbers not in your contact list.
Office Mobile: MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint came with this upgrade. So now I have both one-note AND my most used MS Office applications.
Live Search: You REALLY want an unlimited data plan if you configure this, cause it's pretty habit forming to have a search bar on the phone desktop. (hmm...maybe it's a brainwashing attempt by T-Mobile to get everyone to move to an unlimited data plan)
Updated Windows Media Player 10 mobile: while it still doesn't support .ogg sound files natively (yeah, who cares except Oceanagraphers) it feels like a pretty hefty subset of the full desktop version. Though this version seems to have worked out some of the bugs in playing media streams from internet radio sites.
It feels like it has a better power manager. I sure get much better battery life when using the WiFi features, but nothing quantifiable this time.

Most importantly to me is that I've now gone 3 days without a crash. One of the other folks that I chatted with at Interop mentioned that he never had a crash, but then again he didn't have ANY 3rd party software on it. I should point out that T-Mobile does seem to have an allergy to 3rd party apps, but get real. If companies like T-Mobile/Cingular/Verizon want to get better penetration into the corporate world, they'd better get used to it.

One thing that still bugs me is that I still can't cut-paste simple things like LONG ENCRYPTION KEYS!!!! Guys, this typing in AES 256bit encryption keys is going to get VERY old VERY fast. Someone PLEASE put the cut-paste into the menus, though if you take the time to setup a certificate authority, you can do an enroll once you've logged into the cert server. In fact, if your corporate wireless supports LEAP, WM6 also has a LEAP configuration utility in the expanded wireless configuration menu.

My last bitch only really applies if you're like me and administer a collection of Unix/Linux machines. I'd love it if something like Putty actually worked with the native keyboard (the native keyboard won't come out of numeric keypad mode) but if you use the Elekson Fabric Keyboard you have a mini SSH terminal perfect for command line changes to your Linux machine.

So while I'm not willing to call it a win...I am willing to say that this has finally become a horse race and that I'm willing to stick it out on Windows Mobile 6 for a while to see how it evolves.

/brian chee

Posted by Brian Chee on May 29, 2007 11:19 PM

May 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Farstone's RestoreIT

In my long search for a backup/restore utility for my Windows machines, I've tried just about everything I could get my hands on. Norton's Ghost was pretty good, but only for a full backup and bare metal restore. The rub is that everything else would leave open files since it was running on top of the host operating system. (YEAH, I know, for Linux I use DD for full volume backups and Amanda or a simple tar for file backups...in this case I'm talking about Windows) Ghost worked well because you're booting your machine into a DOS based session where you can get exclusive use of the partition. No more open files since Windows is no longer running so no more open swap files, no more open temp files, no more stuff running in the background. What I had been wanting was a cross between the two, boot into a non-Windows system to do a full backup, but still be able to use that same backup to restore just the file I accidently dumped in a mad disk cleaning frenzy.

*NOTE: I will point out that RestoreIT is available in the Linspire Linux distribution, but not at this time for Mac OSx.

Farstone

Address
6 Morgan
Suite 160
Irvine, CA 92618

Phone
949 458-3666

Fax
949 458-3633

E-mail
information@farstone.com

Restore IT version 7
System Requirements
CPU: Intel Pentium 133 or higher
RAM: 64MB or more
Hard Drive: 150MB free space
Operating System: Windows 2000 and XP 32-bit operating systems (RAID Support)

Single user download cost: $29.99, Upgrades: $14.99 with Multiuser downloads also available.

Quick start initial menu once you've restarted into the DOS session and Windows is no longer running.

So why am I so excited about something as mundane as a backup/restore utility? The answer is simple, I travel a lot and have had a disk drive die out from under me. I want to be able to let a backup run over night and dump it to either optical or a USB hard disk. I don't want to have to make multiple passes on the restore, I don't want to have to dig around for my Windows License key, I don't want to be forced into a single vendor solution, and most importantly I'd like a restore utility that gives me back a machine ready to go without forcing me into repairing various applications.

I like this program...I should be able to roll back from incremental backups on my USB external drive, and I should be able to do a full restore. Heck, I should be able to boot from either an optical backup or if your machine supports it, boot from a USB external disk. According to the Far Stone FAQ, they hide an incremental backup partition on your machine if you choose that option.

So this is a case of having my cake and eating it to. Up until this point I'm flirting with the capabilities that have been available from Ghost forever. The difference is in being able to do file level backups and restores in addition to the entire partition/volume or the entire disk. All with very few hardware demands, so while not blazing fast on an old Celeron 550, it also wasn't painfully slow either.

So even if you're system can't boot from an external USB disk, you can boot from a restore CD/DVD and then get the rest off the USB disk. Heck, when I did a backup to the Optical Drive in white box clone Celeron machine, I didn't even have to format the CD-RW first. I just used it and went to town.

This is a sample screen that you get when trying to do a restore...interestingly enough, RestoreIT seems to have recognized just about every optical drive I had in the lab, and any of my USB external disks. Once I can wheedle a full compatible hardware list out of them, I'll post it as a comment.

So here and now, I'm making a strong buy recomendation. I'm really looking forward to the enterprise server version that claims to work nicelly with SQL and Exchange. Download the free demo and see for yourself. Heck, if you really like it they even have multi-user downloads available for purchase and download.

*Addendum from Far Stone Regarding questions posed by readers:

RestoreIT as a stand-alone software title is based on FarStone’s trademarked and patented RestoreIT ™ technology. The product features available in FarStone’s RestoreIT 7 Pro are now being offered in FarStone’s DriveClone 3 Pro. With this spring’s general market availability of the Vista Operating System and upon extensive customer surveys, FarStone decided to make their Vista-compatible product release available under the name DriveClone instead of RestoreIT. DriveClone is also an existing product title from FarStone and customer surveys indicated that DriveClone, as a software name, received a more universal appeal and more clearly describes what you can do with the product (i.e. disc imaging). Currently customers who have been using RestoreIT 7 or earlier version and wish to upgrade to a Vista-compatible version should evaluate/purchase DriveClone 3 Pro.

Posted by Brian Chee on May 18, 2007 06:35 PM

April 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Listen to whale song live from Davey Jone's Locker...

To say that I live a double life is an understatement. Part of the time I work with the editorial staff of InfoWorld to do big iron reviews of emerging enterprise gear. The rest of the time I work at the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOEST) as a researcher. One of the cooler projects has nearly a 20 year history of visiting the same spot in the ocean to sample the ecology. However, at roughly $15k/day to run a modern research vessel, this starts adding up. The long term answer was to reuse an old fiber optic cable that was pulled up from the ocean floor (recycling at it's best!) and to that end we now have the Aloha Observatory, cabled version.

The University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology has deployed an undersea cable to support an undersea science platform roughly 100kilometers north of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu at a depth of approximately 5000 meters.

The Station Aloha Cabled Observatory is the latest in experiments at this particular spot in the ocean. To get the whole story, check out the

Station Aloha web page.

What I've done is taken the raw audio feed coming off the undersea equipment whose cable lands at Makaha on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu and providing that live feed via an open source streaming audio server called Icecast.(Kudos to the folks at the UH SOEST Engineering Support Facility for modifying the older telephony repeater system for scientific purposes) So while this is live, we're purposely leaving it in its native format of Vorbis OGG to avoid adding any artifacts in the conversion process. This stream from a broadband hydrophone is being used for real science, but it's still pretty cool to be able to listen to whale song live from the middle of the pacific ocean, 5 kilometers down.

So to finally tie this back to the enterprise, the Icecast server is available on both the Linux and Windows platform and can provide both audio on demand and livecasting of events. It also has the ability to have rebroadcasting servers that could be setup for load balancing. You would actually use a minimally configured Icecast server to digitize through your PC sound card, and then stream that to a rebroadcast server configured to handle a larger load. Since you can digitize using different codecs (mp3, quicktime, etc) and at different sampling rates, it would conceivably be possible to stream over an EvD0 or EDGE cellular card on a laptop. (NOTE: doing such a thing at a live concert is NOT a good idea and is illegal...end disclaimer) The client end of this equation could be a free or commercial copy of Winamp or even the Windows Media Player. (NOTE: ogg requires a special .ogg codec from Vorbis OR you can just use Winamp's native ogg support.) Instructions for installing either a client or a codec is at the Station-Aloha server page.

So when you ask what your tax dollars are funding, this is an example of the collaborative science being done at the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii.

by Brian Chee of the Advanced Network Computing Laboratory and a Senior Contributing Editor for InfoWorld Magazine.

Posted by Brian Chee on April 25, 2007 07:41 PM

April 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)

BgInfo v4.10 from Microsoft

I totally agree with the article written by Bryce Cogswell Published: March 16, 2007 in the Microsoft TechNet. When you have a bunch of machines all configured similarly for either testing, or just a rack of similar machines doing different things. The desktops all start to look the same, especially if you're buring the midnight oil on deadline. It's just all to easy to make a modification to the wrong machine.

Our of self defense I started editing the wall paper with the machine names in my lab, but Microsoft has released a really cool tool that does such things automatically. As an added bonus, if you put it into the scheduler, it will refresh the image periodically with current information on critical items like the amount of free space left. The amount and type of information is configurable during setup.

Neal Allen of Fluke Networks brought this to my attention (thank you Neal) at Interop HotStage. His luggable had it running, and he's setup it up on the desktops of the virtual machines he's got running on the lunchbox luggable the Fluke folk use for testing. Wow, so simple, but yet oh so very useful.

Kudos to the Microsoft folks for a wall paper that totally makes sense.

*NOTE: much thanks to Microsoft for NOT locking down their images on the technet site.

/brian chee

Posted by Brian Chee on April 21, 2007 10:43 AM

March 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Tiny computers

Just when I am starting to wonder how much smaller are computers going to get, I find outrageously small machines like Jack PC (made by ChipPC) and Space Cube.

Jack PC (3.4" X 3.4" X 1.5"):

Space Cube (2" X 2" X 2.2"):

Of course the CPU/memory/storage is going to be pretty limited on these little guys, but nothing embedded Linux can't do! :-) Unfortunately, it looks like Jack PC only runs WindowsCE.

Josh Kuo
Co-Owner of q!Bang Solutions

Mar 27, 2007

Posted by Josh Kuo on March 27, 2007 01:25 PM

March 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Seagate's Full Disk Encryption (FDE) hard drive

I remember this announcement back in 2005, when Seagate first announced that they would release a hard drive with full disk encryption (FDE). Well, they now have the Momentus FDE line of notebook drives (5400RPM) with 192-bit Triple-DES encryption, and it will be part of ASI's $2,150 laptop. The 2.5" drive is aimed at corporate users and managers who need to deal with storing sensitive data on laptops. The product specs are here. Hardware encryption is definitely the way to go for FDE, since using software to encrypt every read/write operation would be way too slow even on a modern CPU. Seagate claims that with their on-board encryption, it only takes up 1~2% of the CPU resources. I wonder how well the VIA chips with AES built-in would handle the encryption. It would make an interesting benchmark...

One of my first questions is: "What happens when the user loses his/her password?". We all know that at some point, some person will lose his or her password. According to this article, there can be up to 4 master keys, and up to 4 user keys. So, if a sales rep quits unexpectedly, the sales manager can still use the master key to recover data on the laptop. Seagate also suggests it is possible to remotely manage the hard drive, to configure its user accounts and such. I hope administrators remember to NOT send their admin password for the hard drive in clear text over the Internet...

All in all, it looks like Seagate has brought to market a good product with the Momentus FDE line of drives. It has some good applications for corporations and government types as well.

Josh Kuo
Co-Owner of q!Bang Solutions

Mar 12, 2007

Posted by Josh Kuo on March 12, 2007 09:55 AM

February 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Beef Up Your Wireless Router

Sure you have one. Everyone nowadays has at least one wireless router at home, be it Linksys, NetGear, D-Link, or Buffalo. With new wireless products being released nearly every month, I am willing to bet that some of you even have a couple of the older wireless routers collecting dust in your closet. Well, it's time to take them out and put them to good use.

Check out the OpenWRT project. OpenWRT is a Linux distribution for embedded devices, and it brings a lot of exciting possibilities to your humble wireless router. Although still in its release candidate stage (currently at RC6), OpenWRT is very usable and feature-rich right out of the box. Be warned, you could void your manufacturer warranty by installing OpenWRT on your wireless routers.

So what can you do with an embedded Linux device running on limited RAM and very small storage? As it turns out, quite a lot actually. You can install asterisk, and have your personal, customizable PBX (private branch exchange). If you already have a SIP phone or some kind of VoIP phone interface (such as the Cisco ATA 186 adapter), you can have your very own VoIP system at home, all running out of your low power-consumption embedded hardware.

Put your router/firewall on steroids by installing packages like nmap (network security scanner), snort (intrusion detection), and tcpdump (packet sniffer). Together with iptables (which comes with the Linux kernel), you can turn your OpenWRT box into a powerful security tool. Install openvpn, and you have a very affordable VPN device. And if it strikes your fancy, you can install quagga and turn your dusty little Linksys into an OSPF and BGP-capable router.

Want to provide your own wireless hotspot? No problem. Install chillispot, and you are ready to go. You can even install FreeRADIUS on the OpenWRT for the authentication back-end, and WPA (wifi protected access) for the added security.

You can turn it into an all purpose office server by installing DHCP, cups (print server), lighthttpd (web server), NTP (time server) and OpenSSH or dropbear (secure remote administration). If your router has a USB port, you can also turn it into a file server by hooking it up with a USB hard drive and installing NFS.

And don't forget that this is a wireless router. It has a wireless card, so take advantage of it! Install kismet on it, and you have a wireless sniffer. This can prove to be invaluable if you ever need to analyze the airwaves at a remote location, but don't want to leave your expensive laptop on-site. Drop in place a $50 OpenWRT box loaded with kismet instead.

Here is one way to use your old wireless router: In the past, I had setup a few cheap Linksys WRT54g boxes with OpenWRT and vtun, and dropped one at each of our remote locations. This gave me the ability to have layer 2 tunnels to each of the remote sites. I kept one in my house, and if I ever needed to troubleshoot a remote network problem, I just setup the tunnel between the two OpenWRT boxes, connected my laptop or testing equipment to the OpenWRT sitting on my desk, and it was like being on the remote physical network! This saved me a number of times, being able to perform packet capturing on the remote network, observing the network traffic in real-time, requesting and obtaining DHCP addresses... essentially, I could experience exactly what the remote user was experiencing, all from the comfort of my own home.

This is just the beginning of what embedded Linux can do for you. To find out more what embedded Linux can do fo r your enterprise, check out Secure Linux Appliances in Your Enterprise. So dig up your old wireless router, check it against the hardware compatibility list, and see if your router is OpenWRT compatible, and open yourself up to a wrt of possibilities!

Josh Kuo
Co-Owner of q!Bang Solutions

Feb 1, 2007

Posted by Josh Kuo on February 1, 2007 03:34 PM

January 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Secure Linux Appliances in Your Enterprise

By now you've either seen them or read about them. Companies are selling all kinds of useful appliances based on embedded Linux. Some are for small tasks like wireless APs, mobile devices, or cell phones. Others are geared towards enterprise needs like load balancers, routers, and NAS (network attached storage) and SANs (storage attached network). They all run some version of Linux or BSD. You know you have a couple of Linux geeks working for you in the IT department. Why aren't they coming up with some of these cool Linux appliances for your own company to use? The excellent Debian Router project by Vadim Berkgaut is the help that your Linux admins need to develop their very own Linux appliances.

At my company, q!Bang Solutions, we provide all types of IT solutions, but our strong suit is our solutions built upon Open Source software. Our employees have used the Debian Router Project (which we refer to as "DebRouter") to build numerous solutions, including firewalls, OSPF and BGP routers, DNS servers, and even VoIP servers. DebRouter is a cornerstone of our technology solutions.

What's great about DebRouter is that you get a fully functional Debian Linux installation. So you can add whatever software packages you want to extend the functionality of the DebRouter. This is implemented through the usual Debian package management utilities, which means that you can change a DebRouter's functionality on the fly and in the field after it's been deployed.

Another important feature of DebRouter is that it boots from a flash device like a compact flash card (via an IDE adapter) or a USB flash drive. So if there are any problems with changes you've made, a reboot takes you back to the previous known-good version of your running system. Does this mean that you lose changes you've made when power to the DebRouter goes out? No. DebRouter implements a "write to flash" function much like a hardware router or manageable switch. So you can install and configure new packages, test them out, and write your changes to the flash-based boot media if everything went well in testing. If your tests revealed there was a problem, then just reboot without writing the changes to flash and you will roll back to the same state of the filesystem that you had before your changes. This makes it extremely easy to test potentially unstable software and configuration changes. If things don't work, just reboot, and voila! Your working system is back within seconds.

This also means that the machines are harder for crackers to abuse if they succeed in infiltrating the DebRouter. If you discover that your DebRouter has been compromised, you can reboot and be rid of the cracker. Then you check for security updates from Debian, install them, write your changes, and you're back up and running. I can tell you from experience that eradicating a cracker's presence from a normal machine with hard drives whose data persists across reboots is not this easy!

The boot process of the DebRouter provides another nice benefit. DebRouter boots from flash media, creates a RAM disk, copies the flash media's filesystem to the RAM disk and then unmounts the flash media filesystem and runs from the RAM disk. RAM is fast - lot faster than any hard drive. So now your filesystem I/O speed is absurdly fast. So if you install the Apache web server and put up some HTML and image files, you now have one of the fastest web servers available - without the hassle of a special configuration to load your pages into a ramdisk. It can also run web scripts (such as PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, etc.) as fast as your normal hard drive based servers do.

What can you build with a DebRouter? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Add the Quagga routing software package to make an OSPF/RIP/BGP router
Install the Apache web server with Perl/PHP/Python/etc scripting environments
Use the Asterisk software for a cheap VoIP server for a remote office
NAT/Firewall
Web content filtering via the Squid proxy package
Make a captive portal system for wireless networks in cafes or other public access areas
DNS server using the venerable and always popular BIND software
Create a network sniffer with the tcpdump utility which writes data to a remote NAS or other storage device
Combined with a NAS (Network Attached Storage) or an NFS server, a DebRouter can do most anything.

Since most enterprises will try to install all machines in racks, I checked a couple of online vendors to see how much it would cost to build a good 1RU DebRouter machine. I found that a 1RU machine far above the minimum specs can be had for $500, including shipping. This includes a 1RU case, motherboard with all essential functionality on board, a P4 2.8GHz CPU, 1GB ram, and a 512MB CF card and IDE-based CF reader.

So how about a $500 router that can do RIP/OSPF/BGP? Consider both the business and technology reasons that your company might want to use a DebRouter instead of a router from Cisco or one of the other routing big boys. The business side is easy. The hardware is cheap, even for a system with generous amounts of RAM and CPU. For the price of a typical router support contract, you can buy a couple of extra DebRouters to have sitting around as spares ready to jump into action if you have a hardware failure on your primary DebRouter. Subsequent years of support contracts you don't need to buy equal money that remains in your coffers helping to fatten up your Christmas bonus next year. Of course, let's not forget that most router vendors charge extra for the advanced software like OSPF or BGP routing, or encryption software so that you can use the more secure SSH instead of the gaping security hole called Telnet to remotely connect to your router. DebRouter has all that (and so much more) for free!

On the technology side, with the screaming fast processors available today, a DebRouter can pretty well hold its own against most of the major router vendors' offerings. And it's the versatility of the DebRouter that will likely interest your techies. Did I mention that Linux does 802.1q VLANs? How about an OSPF router that does double duty as a slave DNS server? Or perhaps an edge router that also acts as a VPN concentrator with strong encryption for hundreds of tunnels?

So walk on down to IT and find those two Linux guys tucked away in their cubicles and let them loose on a Debian Router project. They should be glad to have an interesting project to work on instead of trying to recover emails that Marge from Accounting accidentally deleted the other day, and you just might get some nifty devices from them that save you some cash on your bottom line. Your Linux admins are welcome to reach out to me if they need some help or just want to share their ideas on a new use for a Debian Router.

In the future, I'll touch on embedded Linux in extremely cheap devices that are excellent for smaller tasks.
[My q!Bang Solutions co-owner Josh Kuo beat me to the punch. Read his article "Beef Up Your Wireless Router", here on the Geeks in Pardise blog.]

High Mobley
Co-Owner of q!Bang Solutions
January 28, 2007

Posted by Josh Kuo on January 28, 2007 08:46 PM

January 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Plantronics Voyager 510 BlueTooth Headset

Voyager 510 BlueTooth Headset and optional desk phone adapter.

So I've been frustrated by wanting a headset that fullfilled the promise that I saw at some of the early BlueTooth(BT) conferences. I had in mind that I should be able to have a single headset that would work with both my laptop and my mobile phone. I first heard about such a device from Paul Humfries of Avaya and then made contact with Dan Race of Plantronics while at CES 2007. The Voyager 510 comes with a very lightweight utility (Windows only dang it) that will utilize the API for several softphones (Skype, Avaya, etc) and a large list of mobile phones. A nice touch is an interactive compatibility guide that compares your equipment with their ever growing list of tested devices.

I first tried to pair it with my Lenovo X41's internal bluetooth, but was convinced by Dan that I really ought to use the dongle so that I could get their "advanced" feature set. Thanks Dan, now I get a soft beep whenever I go in/out of range and when I first fired up my Skype client I got a prompt asking me if I wanted to give the Plantronics software access to t