How about serial readers and a LAN connected Data capture computer. I'm assuming that you've got a work-type location with CAT-5 strung all over the place. With DB25/DB9 to RJ-45 connectors you can run serial communications on the CAT-5. I use these myself to get out-of-band access to computers on my LAN and to remotely locate a serial printer.
The pieces are:
A set of Serial mag strip readers,
DB9/DB25 to RJ-45 converters,
A Linux or FreeBSD box, the data capture computer,
The data capture computer lives in your wiring closet where it's connected to the LAN. It has a multiport serial card. The serial communication is carried on CAT-5 and is cross connected to the data capture computer via your patch panel. This connection uses the appropriate physical media converter for your multiport serial card.
I would write a small C daemon which understood the protocol of the data collection devices. The daemon would be able to connect directly to a remotely located database over ethernet. When the data came in the daemon would read it compose the appropriate SQL query and hit the remote database. There would be one daemon per data collection device.
The advantages to this are:
Cost: The serial mag stripe readers are cheaper because they don't need a lot of intelligent electronics to talk TCP/IP over ethernet.
Reliablity: The magstripe readers don't need alot of bandwidth. You should have no trouble pumping bits at 9.6 ~ 19.2 kbaud.
Lower network traffic depending on how you implement the database update daemon.
If you can write a little C you could probably build a proof-of-concept prototype in a couple of days.
Chris
Re:This "feet from the office" thing seems hokey.
on
DSL Woes
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· Score: 1
T1s either have equipment attached to the line for conditioning and repeating signals or are virtual circuits carried on the ILEC's frame or ATM cloud. A T1 circuit is not a bare pair of 26 gauge copper wires strung from the CO to your location like an xDSL line.
Chris
I would think that you would want to start with the encryption on the cards themselves. The Lucent Gold cards do 128bit or something close like 112 bit encryption on the card.
On the last couple of flights I've been on I've had a pair of WaveLAN cards. I've been tempted to
try them out except I was worried that an active radio in the 2.4GHz band might really screw with the Avionics. I guess it's safe.
Chris
You have a few options. The quickest and dirtiest would be to use Perl or Python to generate your reports and hard code the Meta-Page Description Language right into the report. Then you end up with something like:
$ myreport.py | groff | lpr -Ppsprinter
This is the easiest for you to do and stay opensource but it's the hardest to maintain because you have to know SQL, Perl/Python, and groff/latex.
The next dirtiest and probably the quickest for you would be to get the MyODBC module for Windows and use Access to generate your reports. You basically have to set up an ODBC data source for your MySQL database and then create an Access DB where all the tables that you have in Access are Linked to the MySQL tables. You do have to watch out here that you don't run afoul of the limitations of Access, MyODBC, and MySQL. This hasn't been a problem for me but I don't know What you are trying to do. There are notes on the MySQL site. Other than that I'd have to say that the MyODBC module works really well. I was able to access the ip inventory database where we work using the ODBC connection and get some data import/export chores done.
Running Crystal Reports against the MyODBC database isn't a bad option either but the limitations above.
Being the kind of person who would prefer option 1, remain OpenSource, I'd like to know that people would want in this report generation software.
The big question is: how will this be done? Is it going to be a standard 802.11b wireless access point in Starbucks with an uplink to the net or the standard with a little Microsoft incompatiblity sauce applied. Personally I'm interested. It would be nice to be able to grab my e-mail while I'm getting a morning cup of joe.
Ecks
I'll qualify this from the start by saying that I haven't used Clearcase. I have used PVCS, MS-VSS, RCS and CVS and I have to say that in the propietary format for the repository's storage turns PVCS and MS-VSS into big the losers for the projects that I have run. Furthermore, setup of a MS-VSS repository on a project over this summer ate 2 weeks of my time which was critical since the project was on a 3 month long timeline. These two experiences really have me liking CVS since the organization of the repository is not proprietery and it's easy to setup and administer. I would remain openminded about clearcase but I would really see if there is a necessity to store all 10G of your project. From what other posters have said 10G is going to be a problem with cvs' pserver program.
Ecks
Q: What is the nature of the query. Is it a simple SELECT with a few joins or is it a LOCK TABLE, INSERT/UPDATE, UNLOCK TABLES type of thing. I've seen the "Lost Connections" problem with the second type of query and the problem was caused by a number of processes timing out before they got the lock. mysql_pconnect made this worse until I realized what the problem was and surrounded the offending code with a SELECT GET_LOCK(...)/SELECT RELEASE_LOCK() mutex lock. MySQL seems to handle waiting for these types of lock a whole lot better. Having said that I would run "mysqladmin processlist" to see the processes that you have running and what state they are in. If you have a lot of things that are waiting for tables to be unlocked turn off pconnect. If this solves your problem, albeit by making things a little/lot slower use the mutex lock.
I read my local newspaper because there are things in it that wouldn't be covered in the national news papers. For everything I use the net. This took on new meaning for me since I had to turn to the hindustan times to find out information about the floods in India which were completely ignored by the media here.
I'd add that you can also go with a simple Netgear XM128. It configures just like a modem with 'AT' commands and you can have all the functionality that you get from the RH348 DHCP NAT IP Masq etc on the Linux box. I used FreeBSD, the XM128 and pppd 2.3.10 to put this together and it worked great. The biggest advantage was that I had a lot less work to do when the Cable company came and offered me a Cable Modem. With an RH348 I would have to configure up another router.
Agreed, not all Geeks live in the valley which is a great place to visit...
I wax nostalgic about the BMW 2002's that I owned when I was in college so when someone local put a 1988 BMW M5 for sale in need of some TLC I hmmm, this would look nice next to my Saab 9K Turbo...
Slashdot Mirror
How about serial readers and a LAN connected Data capture computer. I'm assuming that you've got a work-type location with CAT-5 strung all over the place. With DB25/DB9 to RJ-45 connectors you can run serial communications on the CAT-5. I use these myself to get out-of-band access to computers on my LAN and to remotely locate a serial printer.
The pieces are:
- A set of Serial mag strip readers,
- DB9/DB25 to RJ-45 converters,
- A Linux or FreeBSD box, the data capture computer,
The data capture computer lives in your wiring closet where it's connected to the LAN. It has a multiport serial card. The serial communication is carried on CAT-5 and is cross connected to the data capture computer via your patch panel. This connection uses the appropriate physical media converter for your multiport serial card.I would write a small C daemon which understood the protocol of the data collection devices. The daemon would be able to connect directly to a remotely located database over ethernet. When the data came in the daemon would read it compose the appropriate SQL query and hit the remote database. There would be one daemon per data collection device.
The advantages to this are:
If you can write a little C you could probably build a proof-of-concept prototype in a couple of days.
Chris
T1s either have equipment attached to the line for conditioning and repeating signals or are virtual circuits carried on the ILEC's frame or ATM cloud. A T1 circuit is not a bare pair of 26 gauge copper wires strung from the CO to your location like an xDSL line. Chris
I would think that you would want to start with the encryption on the cards themselves. The Lucent Gold cards do 128bit or something close like 112 bit encryption on the card.
I use the Lucent WaveLAN Silvers. They're pretty good and support for them is in FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux.
On the last couple of flights I've been on I've had a pair of WaveLAN cards. I've been tempted to try them out except I was worried that an active radio in the 2.4GHz band might really screw with the Avionics. I guess it's safe. Chris
You have a few options. The quickest and dirtiest would be to use Perl or Python to generate your reports and hard code the Meta-Page Description Language right into the report. Then you end up with something like:
This is the easiest for you to do and stay opensource but it's the hardest to maintain because you have to know SQL, Perl/Python, and groff/latex.
The next dirtiest and probably the quickest for you would be to get the MyODBC module for Windows and use Access to generate your reports. You basically have to set up an ODBC data source for your MySQL database and then create an Access DB where all the tables that you have in Access are Linked to the MySQL tables. You do have to watch out here that you don't run afoul of the limitations of Access, MyODBC, and MySQL. This hasn't been a problem for me but I don't know What you are trying to do. There are notes on the MySQL site. Other than that I'd have to say that the MyODBC module works really well. I was able to access the ip inventory database where we work using the ODBC connection and get some data import/export chores done.
Running Crystal Reports against the MyODBC database isn't a bad option either but the limitations above.
Being the kind of person who would prefer option 1, remain OpenSource, I'd like to know that people would want in this report generation software.
ChrisThe big question is: how will this be done? Is it going to be a standard 802.11b wireless access point in Starbucks with an uplink to the net or the standard with a little Microsoft incompatiblity sauce applied. Personally I'm interested. It would be nice to be able to grab my e-mail while I'm getting a morning cup of joe. Ecks
I'll qualify this from the start by saying that I haven't used Clearcase. I have used PVCS, MS-VSS, RCS and CVS and I have to say that in the propietary format for the repository's storage turns PVCS and MS-VSS into big the losers for the projects that I have run. Furthermore, setup of a MS-VSS repository on a project over this summer ate 2 weeks of my time which was critical since the project was on a 3 month long timeline. These two experiences really have me liking CVS since the organization of the repository is not proprietery and it's easy to setup and administer. I would remain openminded about clearcase but I would really see if there is a necessity to store all 10G of your project. From what other posters have said 10G is going to be a problem with cvs' pserver program. Ecks
Q: What is the nature of the query. Is it a simple SELECT with a few joins or is it a LOCK TABLE, INSERT/UPDATE, UNLOCK TABLES type of thing. I've seen the "Lost Connections" problem with the second type of query and the problem was caused by a number of processes timing out before they got the lock. mysql_pconnect made this worse until I realized what the problem was and surrounded the offending code with a SELECT GET_LOCK(...)/SELECT RELEASE_LOCK() mutex lock. MySQL seems to handle waiting for these types of lock a whole lot better. Having said that I would run "mysqladmin processlist" to see the processes that you have running and what state they are in. If you have a lot of things that are waiting for tables to be unlocked turn off pconnect. If this solves your problem, albeit by making things a little/lot slower use the mutex lock.
Hope this helps
Chris
I read my local newspaper because there are things in it that wouldn't be covered in the national news papers. For everything I use the net. This took on new meaning for me since I had to turn to the hindustan times to find out information about the floods in India which were completely ignored by the media here.
I'd add that you can also go with a simple Netgear XM128. It configures just like a modem with 'AT' commands and you can have all the functionality that you get from the RH348 DHCP NAT IP Masq etc on the Linux box. I used FreeBSD, the XM128 and pppd 2.3.10 to put this together and it worked great. The biggest advantage was that I had a lot less work to do when the Cable company came and offered me a Cable Modem. With an RH348 I would have to configure up another router.
Agreed, not all Geeks live in the valley which is a great place to visit...
I wax nostalgic about the BMW 2002's that I owned when I was in college so when someone local put a 1988 BMW M5 for sale in need of some TLC I hmmm, this would look nice next to my Saab 9K Turbo...