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Linux Toys
Things changed in 21st century, so what's a geek to do? As for the household products, you can probably always get stuff cheaper at Wal-Mart than build it yourself. Radio-related projects just don't seem that much fun anymore, since there's little sense of discovery.
Linux Toys is just the book that fills that void.
What's covered Chris Negus (author of the Red Hat Linux Bible) and Chuck Wolber (from Tacoma LUG) came up with 13 different projects that one can do at home. All of them require a PC running Linux (the authors use and recommend Red Hat Linux 9, since that's the environment where the projects have been tested) and a variety of hardware (including none besides the PC), depending on which project you decide to go with. What are the projects? The entire listing is at the book's Web site, but here's a list of all thirteen with short descriptions of what's accomplished in the end (not necessarily in the same order as the chapters):
- Digital Picture Frame: excellent endeavor if you have an old useless laptop with nice LCD screen lying around. The book has detailed step-by-step guide with pictures on how to turn an old laptop into a fancy picture frame playing a slideshow of digital images stored on the hard drive locally or uploaded from network (in case the old laptop has a network card and you decide to keep it when assembling the picture frame). By the way, these things do cost a lot commercially, while P200 and lower laptops are virtually free.
- Arcade Game Player: how to turn an old computer with a good monitor into the arcade game player running XMame. Your house guests can then use joystick to play Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Asteroids at your next Blast from the Past party.
- Digital Answering Machine: using the Red Hat Linux box as an answering machine that listens for incoming telephone calls (via vgetty), converts the voice messages into digitally compressed sound files and notifies the receiver about new voice message via e-mail.
- Home Music System: have an old PC with fairly large hard drive and some good home entertainment speakers? This project allows the reader to build a jukebox used to play Ogg Vorbis files. The authors use ltJukebox and freedb for music management and information retrieval. The ltJukebox software (which comes with the book's CD) automatically rips the music CDs into .ogg files, though digitizing your collection (if you haven't done it yet) might take a while. After that, however, a standalone computer nicely tucked somewhere in the room behind the speaker system can provide for hours of music. And if you plug it into the network, you'll have the ability to change settings and playlists via telnet.
- Home Video Archive: ever wanted to digitize your VHS collection? This chapter uses ffmpeg and nvrec for capturing and xawtv for adjusting television input. The authors then use Hauppauge WinTV Go and WinTV Theater TV capture card and then record the videos off the TV input into an AVI file. The resulting file is then burned to a CD/DVD (still using Linux tools) as well as into the VCD format that's recognized by most DVD players.
- Personal Video Recorder: ever dreamed of cutting TiVo's market share with your own devices? Well, perhaps, maybe within just one market -- your house. The authors use the same nvrec utility to record the TV input, XmlTV and WebVCPlus for downloading the data on television shows and using Web interface to choose the ones you would like to record. Unlike TiVo though, this home-built digital PVR can only play the recorded shows on a Linux PC in AVI format, but if you followed the previous project, you can burn the resulting file into VCD format.
- Providing dial-up access: this basic project is perhaps familiar to all those who bear the title Network Administrator or used to work for an ISP, but for beginners in the field (and especially for beginners with Linux) it provides a detailed step-by-step plan on how to setup your own dial-up server and become a small ISP. A computer permanently connected to the Internet with a static IP is required for this project.
- Web hosting business: assuming that a computer with static IP address from the previous project and a domain name are available, this project takes the reader through the details of becoming a Linux hoster. This project is especially interesting, since it's applicable to those who have pretty good knowledge of the OS. Numerous online how-to's and manuals take you through separate processes, like adding user accounts, configuring Apache, setting up disk quotas, but few are "turnkey" solutions, where after closing up the book on the last page you can start the hosting business right away.
- Home network with a Linux box: rather detailed description of properly configuring iptables, NAT, as well as DHCP and Samba servers to run the home network with a Red Hat Linux 9 box as a server with the firewall and various Linux/Windows clients connecting to it.
- Video streaming server: set up a camcorder, Web cam or security camera to broadcast the video to the Internet. The authors use a camcorder and ffserver software to stream the video.
- Temperature Monitor: here a temperature sensor kit from DigiTemp needs to be purchased and connected to the telephone cable, which, in turn, will connect to the parallel port. Apparently the ordering page is down as of writing this review, but DigiTemp developer uses Dallas Semiconductors temperature sensors. Then the software provided with the book (ltweather) allows you to look at the current temperature, log it consistently and display it on a Web page if needed.
- Linux and some games on a single floppy: re-using that 3.5'' drive for something practical is the purpose of this project. Although the result - single-floppy with some essential Linux and character-based games on it, can be hardly practical in the modern world, perhaps it's worth playing with just to see how little you need to get the whole OS going from scratch.
- Controlling RC cars from Linux: if you have a large collection of RC cars (and according to the spam messages I am getting, they're the hottest trend this Christmas), there's a variety of things you can do when suddenly instead of using the remote control you engage a Linux PC. Unattended races, testing your AI algorithms for entering DARPA autonomous vehicle challenge, writing some complex artificial life, where species of all sorts can see how well they can survive in a crowded world. The authors use a LynX-PORT board, a fairly expensive, but according to the authors, quite useful I/O board that could be re-used for all sorts of projects.
The Book With 274 pages of useful information (excluding the cover pages), the book creates a very favorable impression. The writing is clear and succinct; each chapter follows the same structure with an overview of the project first, the list of things needed for the project second, a step-by-step guide third, some additional information for those willing to go further fourth, and summary of the project fifth. Each step that requires interaction with a Linux box has the exact command-line instructions spelled out, no matter how basic. (On page 44, for example, the authors provide the mount /mnt/cdrom command, even though knowledge of this step is expected of a Linux user at the command line). Where interaction with the GUI is required, a screenshot is provided. The Troubleshooting section explains what might go wrong with a Red Hat Linux 9 box and how to react to it.
Furthermore, there is no dependence on previous chapters, making each project independent. You will not be told to "start up the video capturing as you have learned in the previous chapter" or refer to "previously described procedures". Theoretically, you could rip out the pages for a single project and give them to someone with no previous knowledge of the project and expect them to complete it.
Pictures are indispensable. Granted, they wouldn't be very useful for the Linux on a Floppy project, but for something like a digital picture frame, where you're required to disassemble an old laptop and play with the parts, it's essential. The pictures are all black-and-white, and by "pictures" I mean real photographs, not diagrams explaining how things should be done in theory.
The authors' sense of humor permeates the book, which makes it an enjoyable read. For example, on page 255, when completing the Linux RC toy car project, the photo of the race has a caption about every Linux car crossing the "Finnish" line. (Tip: Linus didn't always live in California). The layout of the book also makes it convenient to read and follow. A bar across the top of the page always tells you which project you're on. When enumerating the things required for the project, the authors use bulleted lists with clear explanations.
Another thing worth mentioning is the book's integration with the Web. The book's Web forums allow you to post questions and impressions from each specific project. The authors are also accepting submissions for new Linux Toys from the readers. The Web site in this sense is remarkable, as with too many technical books the so called "companion Web site" is not truly a companion, but a marketing pitch followed by a bookstore link.
Overall, I think Chris Negus and Chuck Wolber have done a very nice job. If I had more time, I would explore more of the projects personally (so far I am started on rebuilding my home network, but I do want to try out the digital picture frame, being a proud owner of Compaq LTE P100 laptop). The book would be a good read for anyone looking for some cool hobby projects, and perhaps would be a good gift for technically inclined kids, who are interested in technology.
Speaking from a different perspective, Linux Toys is the book needed by the open source community. While the usual arguments of being able to look at the OS's source code and concepts of Free software only vaguely interest most individuals, a book like this would spark interest in Linux OS as providing the opportunities to create a variety of cool toys and have fun doing it.
Read more of Alex's reviews of technical and tech business books. You can purchase Linux Toys: 13 Cool Projects for Home, Office and Entertainment from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit a review for consideration, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
As far as buying the supplies surplus it seems that the people that have them readily available think they are gold and want around $100 to $500 for the apparant junk. It would be cool if you could collect the stuff on its way to the landfill however and use it. Thats where I got a lot of my computer pieces before I had money.
"You can now flame me, I am full of love,"
So wait, it costs more then an off the shelf network MP3 player and you have to put it together? Where's the fun in that?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
My last name is spelled *WOLBER*, not *WOBLER*...
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
I actually have a small collection of books from that era. There were some fairly dangerous projects that were published in those pre-lawsuit-happy days. Spot welders, arc welders, melting down zinc and hot galvanizing your own stuff, making an air gun, making boomerangs, reloading shotgun shells...etc.
Thanks Alex for the nice review. I'm glad you liked the book and that you find it useful. I'm also happy that you received the book in the hacker spirit that it was written.
:)
We spent a lot of time working on the projects to get them just right for nearly every situation, so the instructions are very accurate. If you find a variation that doesn't work, be sure to submit it to us over at the website.
If you don't mind, I have two corrections to your review:
1) My last name is spelled WOLBER (as noted in a previous post).
2) (SHAMELESS PLUG) I spend the majority of my time at my business rather than the LUG
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
I've seen old copies of commercial linux X servers out there for stupidly cheap prices, that have better support for the laptop video cards found in old laptops. example: metro-x for three bucks.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
Just a suggestion, and so far it has worked out pretty good for me...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Check out The Speech Recognition HOWTO. It covers a variety of speech recognition systems that may be able to do what you want.
If you can swing $99 then this might be something to check out. I use one very sucessfully with the asterisk open source PBX and it does quite well. To do what you want to do the configuration is quite trivial also. You would have to supply the audio source in either mp3 or gsm audio and could even create a simple menu that would allow them to select a story to hear.
Those are toys, not real routers. Fine for many SOHO uses, but not useful for real routing needs, while on the other hand using some nics, fast serial cards, and a linux box with IPTABLES can be (not always, but can be) a solution for quite a bit less than a Cisco 7005 or 12000. Using a package such as Zebra is a more effective solution if you require RIP, BGP and other things.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Check out Lindsay Publications for a fine collection of reprints.
Look at The Boy Mechanic Series volume 1: (1913) "700 Things for Boys to Do. How to construct wireless outfits, boats, camp equipment, aerial gliders, kites, self-propelled vehicles, engines, motors, electrical apparatus, cameras and hundreds of other things which delight every boy."
You get wall-to-wall projects that in most cases are not too detailed, but are more than enough to whet the appetite and make you want to get started. Build a Wright-brothers style glider! A Wimshurst machine! An arc light! An electric stove! A toy steam engine! A telegraph key! A water rheostat! An alarm clock chicken feeder! A flat bottomed boat! An induction coil! A library table! A machine to put paraffin on wire! A pipe fitting steam engine! An electric postcard projector! An ammeter! A paper hot air balloon! A workbench!
It's a combination of practical projects, not-so-practical projects, crazy ideas, and plain ol' fun nostalgia. 1913 edition. It's a classic book well worth your consideration. Order a copy today! 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 softcover 469 pages
Every book and reprint I got from these guys was a keeper. I have some of the project books and most of the Gingery foundry/casting books. I use the charcoal foundry to recycle old hard drive aluminum platters & shells into shop tools.
Have Fun, read the safety precautions, and don't burn down your garage!
Why didn't you just use Asterisk ?
/.
/. mangles the irc link)
Asterisk is an AWSOME PBX system that doesn't get mentioned enough on
It's supported features are equivalent to a PBX costing several thousand bucks. Including support for VOIP and T-1(E-1)'s
Some of the other features include Voicemail, Conference calling, Caller ID, an Auto Attendant (press 1 for sales, 2 for support,), Call Queuing (for call centers), Call Detail Records, more
The documentation is a little sparse but they are currently working on the
Asterisk Handbook Project (warning PDF).
I also found the Getting Started With Asterisk Guide by Andy Powell very useful.
And there's a IRC channel #Asterisk on FreeNode (try irc.debian.org) (argh
There's some more links to support pages including a Wiki at the bottom of this page
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