Category: technology

At long last a wifi scanner for the ipaq

WiFiFoFum eye logo

I'm at long last happy, for the best part of a year I've been waiting and waiting for Ministumbler to release a version which is compatable with the new PocketPC 2003 devices which have built in wireless cards. Now I totally understand the author had a terriable time over the last year. So its serioulsy not a beef at him. But I was enlighted today by the fact someone else has took the job forward and created another wifi scanner for the latest ipaqs. This one is http://www.wififofum.org/ and seems a little more daring than ministumbler. The to do list is impressive… It includes a list of the clients connected to a access point, packet sniffer, screen off mode and bluetooth scanner! The last one of course will be awesome for all those london toothers. And honestly a virbration while reading my ebook to let me know theres an open access point isnt a bad idea. Oh by the way ministumbler 4.0 still doesnt work for me. Seems to think theres no access points in my house… While my pocket kensington wifi finder and wififofum see wirelessgarden instantly.

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NotCon 04 this Sunday

Notcon04 is coming up this Sunday. Looks to be almost the same place as the Lawrence Lessig lecture last Thursday. Anyway it looks like I will be going on my tod because Miles is away on holiday and dave is very busy. Anyone else interested?

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Technology attracts other technology?

a women with an ipaq on trapped tube train opposite mea women with an ipaq on trapped tube train opposite me

I'm sitting almost opposite a woman of about 30 with a ipaq 39xx series. I can tell by the huge navigation button on the front. Pretty nice flip open leather case. Shame about the brown bit on the top hinge. Were now stuck in a tunnel on the jubilee line between london bridge and bermondsey. I would take a picture but I would look so suspect – ha did it when the couple (teenagers, black guy and mixed race girl) were not watching.

Ah were on the move. Anyway the interesting thing for this blog was she was sitting down the other side of the carriage and actually bizarrely moved up to another seat almost opposite me when she saw I had an ipaq too. Now I don’t at all think its an attraction thing, rather a tech comfort thing. In the same way I feel better about pulling out my ipaq when I see someone else with one. It seems quite human in a way, same as people who look the same kind of attracted to each other?

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What is it with Blackberries?

single business man sitting on train checking email on a blackberryNice photo of two people using a blackberry at the same time side by side

Just recently I've noticed alot of the business types sporting a Blackberry. Dont get me wrong I like them but I have a nice ipaq and smartphone setup thank you very much. What I find odd is the fact alot of people with the blackberries also have a mobile phone? The guy on the right even had a medium range ipaq. Bizzare… Dont duplicate is my motto.

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LInux force upgrade

Miles ask me why am I reinstalling WIndows? Is there anything I couldnt do in Linux which I can in Windows? I mentioned a few things like Outlook to talk to my pocketpc and smartphone using Activesync. Lack of ATI all in wonder multimedia drivers as I use my workstation as a PVR. Miles did a Google search string: ati+all+in+wonder+linux+driver and found Gatos. So I really didnt have a leg to stand on.

So Saturday daytime I installed Knoppix on a spare partition using the knx2hd method. But quickly realised that I needed to change the boot process otherwise I wont beable to load linux. Kind of like how I had BeOS a while ago, sitting on a hard drive with no way to boot into it. I browsed around and saw people suggesting a boot floppy but that wasnt good enough. I dont have a floppy drive no longer! So I finally reinstalled knoppix again and this time over writ the master boot record with lilo rather than using windows own booter. And once I uncommented a few lines had a boot option for Windows XP. So these complex guides are overkill.

I'm quite happy with my dual booting GNU/Linux and Windows XP system. Specially when I fixed (with miles help) the network connectivity myself. Just need to install all the usb devices like the pocketpc and card reader then sort out the drivers for the ATI card. And i'm away and laughing… Less Windows usage just around the corner hopefully.

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Toothing becoming popular

Sarahs American friend Birch keeps me updated on the toothing craze going on in London. Bizarre because I obviously live in London but avoid turning my bluetooth devices onto discoverable due to the blue snaffing flaw. Anyway I'm usually stuck in a ebook with my headphones on most of the time to be thinking about replying to any text messages.

The interesting thing about the last article Birch sent was the commercial aspect of toothing.

Dario Betti, of the British-based consultancy Ovum, said bluejacking had really taken off, helped by the fact the service was free. The element of the unknown, that you are connecting to someone around you that you might not know, it's a novelty factor that is helping it to start, he told Reuters.

I'm already starting to imagine toothing in bars and clubs. Not quite sure how money can be made of toothing quite yet. But maybe there might be something to be made about getting people together. Ah got an idea… What about meetup to get people together of a simular interest but in places like trains and tubes. Then the toothing can take place. For example meetup on the Bromley south to Victoria via Beckenham. Toothers can then move from carrage to carrage looking for others with bluetooth discovery till victoria where the public toilets or bars await. Those who couldnt wait will end up else where…

I'm also thinking about flashmobbing with toothing for slow but emerging crowd flocking. Sure smartmob's Howard Rheingold must have thought about it before.

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Installing Knoppix on box

At long last I've installed Debian complete with GUI by cheating. I ran Knoppix 3.4 and installed it to the hard drive of my spare machine today. This guide is great for anyone whos in the same position. All the other guides I saw were aimed at Knoppix 3.3 and 3.2, which I could have done but this is nicer. Next step for me will be installing Synergy so I can have one decent mouse and keyboard. Oh and I need to setup user accounts and all that.
Knoppix found almost everything including the firewire, soundblaster and usb's. Dont know if it picked up the multiple video capture cards though.

Ok so after the last few hours messing around the debian box, I'm glad to say I havent broken it yet. I'm learning the pain and joy of apt-get and sudo with the source.list.
I couldnt get the synergy client working at all. some fatal error = Cserver.cpp.102: unknown screen name 'Knoppix'. Anyway I've moved on to installing mythtv, freevo and VLC.

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Windows media player 10

Got myself a copy of Windows media player 10. Lots more information here. And I will write a longer account once I get around to installing it. Lots of interesting information from a interview with Bill gates and Microsoft was available in digital home this month. But microsoft-watch has the highlights.
There are some screen shots of Windows media player 10 here

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Controlling two different os machines from one input

I've been downloading the screensavers episodes from bit torrent recently, then watching them on my ipaq into work. Anyway I was watching this episode and came across Sarah's Download of the day – Synergy.

I think this animation explains it all.

I cant wait to see it working on my Windows XP Pro workstation and GNU/Linux Debian test box. Will have to take a photo because my monitors are on different sides of the desk.

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