'Whats On Your Network?' is a good question that should have been asked of the resnet techs at my university. Getting on the school network is automated for all computers with a browser, but other hardware-based network equipment must have its MAC registered manually. Needless to say, resnet doesnt actually enjoy it. One time, some moron plugged the ethernet cable from the wall into a LAN jack rather than the WAN. Kids' computers were sending DHCP requests out, receiving two responses, and dragging the entire network down. The complaint calls rained down upon tech support, and network techs had to go through dorm after dorm, checking every single room. And you thought DHCP made everything easier.
I have one of these little darlings, and in addition to helping on the devel front I have done quite a bit of truly productive work actually using. The linux devices article was, quite frankly, the best starting resource to date for anyone wishing to obtain and play with a Zipit. Prior to it, there were no concise collections of relevant links. Do stop by the wiki, as it is currently under construction and showing some good progress.
For the curious, a brief overview of impressions and capabilities:
The device comes (stock) with:
ARM720T processor @ 90mhz
16 mb RAM
2 mb ROM for kernel and userspace programs
320x240 grayscale LCD
Agere 802.11b/g wifi
Wolfson Micro stereo DAC audio
ships with linux kernel 2.4.21 with the rmk arm patch, as well as an aeronix-specific extension to this patch, plus wireless extensions
the standard pcmcia-cs wifi driver with two relevant patches
Busybox 1.00 pre1
uClibc 0.9.15
glibc-2.2.5
Wireless Tools 26
Also included are non-GPL'd bootloader, audiodriver, and the zipit messaging application.
As-is when purchased, the device is indeed running linux natively. The appropriate drivers and programs are brought about with a few init scripts, all transparent to the user. The zipit messaging program is a rather large 1.6ish megabyte arm binary which includes framebuffer, embedded audio, some decent graphics, and generally stable performance. NOTE: The zipit messaging binary is statically linked to glibc, therefore containing GPL'd code, yet Aeronix has thus far refused to release the code for this program!! If this bothers you (as it should), do something about it. At time of writing, the current firmware does not support the playing of streaming audio, though it is promised in a future upgrade.
On the devel front involved in hacking the zipit, thanks go to Aibopet and Ken McGuire primarily for their work in deciphering the process by which the firmware operates and updates. The yahoo community by which much of this work has been accomplished, has also produced an OpenZipit linux "distro" of sorts. It is superior in several ways to the stock Aeronix linux distro; indeed, McGuire from the abovementioned yahoo group has rewritten the audio driver to perform much better than the supplied driver. Streaming audio via madplay and freebase is indeed possible, and having played with it myself, does truly function well. While a bit underpowered for some uses, the processor has quite enough power to decode mp3/ogg audio (if you want to whine about processor speed, go get a laptop; the zipit is not for you). Others in the group were instrumental in tracing gpios and adding a serial port for troubleshooting. OpenZipit includes, among others, madplay, freebase, dropbear ssh, and the busybox versions of (b)ash, vi, ftp, telnet, etc. Please see the yahoo message board and the wiki for more information involving OpenZipit and its specifications.
From a user standpoint, the zipit is quite useful. One of my specialties is in wireless networking and wireless security; the zipit is quite good for a handheld auditing tool. (a port of kismet is in the works, for those of you that are interested). The range and robust nature of the wifi chip has never failed to surprise me: it has better range and sensitivity (perhaps not on paper, but indeed in use) than many of the most popular wifi cards available (orinoco, senao). Additionally, with the dropbear ssh client, any open (legal) wifi signal is a free ticket to your box of choice for console based applications. Battery life is an astounding 6+ hours. The 2mb ROM is too tiny for much in the way of userspace apps, but as the device is built for wireless connectivity, ssh serves as a gateway to most applications you mig
Statistical evidence of fusion at this level is indeed impressive; however, while fusion experiments such as this others remain below the break-even point, they shall yet be little more than a labtable source of neutrons. We await developments from the latest in the field.
..doesn't this suggest a major need for an orbiting cargo facility of sorts? If this and technology like it were to be become more prevalent (whether for placing satellites in lunar orbit, at the lagrange points, or simply in higher orbit) then surely it would make sense to have an orbiting queue to hold a satellite while waiting in line for the next slow tug to come back on duty. (earth-->LEO+docking@cargo-->L1,etc).
Low earth orbit and beyond are a crowded place these days, and the placement of satellites in roomier real estate seems both beneficial from an orbital stability standpoint and for staying out of the way of everything else.
As a guy who's been out and about in most parts of the country, this will certainly prove to be an excellent resource! One might always poke around with kismet or netstumbler for an unfortunate, vulnerable network, but as we now know that's no longer very safe. Major kudos for the sort of cooperation that makes such a goldmine of information easily accessible.
I can certainly hear the death knell ringing in the distance, but as with all legacy equipment, the floppy will never quite die. In repairing computers for the past ten or so years, I have been required to use a floppy with, paradoxically, increasing frequency. Boot cds are wonderful, but many times older equipment (the stuff that fails that I'm being asked to troubleshoot) just cannot handle them; some require a floppy to due to the nonexistent bios booting option; others are of great use simply because old software, well written, will never pass away. Surely those of you who do data recovery and forensics have loads of such tools at your disposal?
Floppies have served us well, and at least some of us will be using them for some time to come.
End of an era? Perhaps. May we forever in fondness remember our Tandy 8 inch floppies, containing a MASSIVE 500 kilobytes (!!).... for they freed us from bondage, relegating tape-based storage to the depths of time.
Like rest of you, I've been staring at screens for twenty years and have an undeniable, ravenous appetite for all things innovative and technological. However, I lead a double life - biomedical engineer and english major. That other ever-present side of me has never gone away, no matter how much newly digitized information you throw at it. I devour books, textbook and entirely fictional alike - few paperbacks survive my multiple readings. It pains me to witness the downfall of literacy in our midst. The internet and computer have served as tools of limitless value; the merits of each cannot be enumerated. However, I pray that each child may at least once discover the profound nature of the written word upon its intended medium.
All of this tangental discussion about the UN and the USA overlooks a particularly salient point. The UN is a representative body; the US is a representative government. As with most such institutions, the official position of the body is a view with a particular bias behind it. Far more often than being truly representative, such a position more usually a view distilled and refined many times over. Rather than being the view of the body's constituents, it is instead the combined view of those few people in the rarefied heights at the top of the pyramid. The little guys at the bottom of the pile (who, granted, hold a highly diverse field of opinion) will often feel entirely differently, if they are indeed even aware of the subject at hand. I am an American myself, and do not at all share the views of the current powers that be. Therefore, fellow slashdotters, in just spirit: please if you would, take care to criticise the body and not the entirety of those that the body represents.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds about right..Statistically, one third of all statistics are innaccurate.
...it would be a MUCH more interesting contest if the teams did better than the last time around. (the best team only got 7 miles out of 175 total.)
I wish the best of luck to all of those competing.'Whats On Your Network?' is a good question that should have been asked of the resnet techs at my university. Getting on the school network is automated for all computers with a browser, but other hardware-based network equipment must have its MAC registered manually. Needless to say, resnet doesnt actually enjoy it. One time, some moron plugged the ethernet cable from the wall into a LAN jack rather than the WAN. Kids' computers were sending DHCP requests out, receiving two responses, and dragging the entire network down. The complaint calls rained down upon tech support, and network techs had to go through dorm after dorm, checking every single room. And you thought DHCP made everything easier.
I have one of these little darlings, and in addition to helping on the devel front I have done quite a bit of truly productive work actually using. The linux devices article was, quite frankly, the best starting resource to date for anyone wishing to obtain and play with a Zipit. Prior to it, there were no concise collections of relevant links. Do stop by the wiki, as it is currently under construction and showing some good progress.
For the curious, a brief overview of impressions and capabilities:
Also included are non-GPL'd bootloader, audiodriver, and the zipit messaging application.
As-is when purchased, the device is indeed running linux natively. The appropriate drivers and programs are brought about with a few init scripts, all transparent to the user. The zipit messaging program is a rather large 1.6ish megabyte arm binary which includes framebuffer, embedded audio, some decent graphics, and generally stable performance. NOTE: The zipit messaging binary is statically linked to glibc, therefore containing GPL'd code, yet Aeronix has thus far refused to release the code for this program!! If this bothers you (as it should), do something about it. At time of writing, the current firmware does not support the playing of streaming audio, though it is promised in a future upgrade.
On the devel front involved in hacking the zipit, thanks go to Aibopet and Ken McGuire primarily for their work in deciphering the process by which the firmware operates and updates. The yahoo community by which much of this work has been accomplished, has also produced an OpenZipit linux "distro" of sorts. It is superior in several ways to the stock Aeronix linux distro; indeed, McGuire from the abovementioned yahoo group has rewritten the audio driver to perform much better than the supplied driver. Streaming audio via madplay and freebase is indeed possible, and having played with it myself, does truly function well. While a bit underpowered for some uses, the processor has quite enough power to decode mp3/ogg audio (if you want to whine about processor speed, go get a laptop; the zipit is not for you). Others in the group were instrumental in tracing gpios and adding a serial port for troubleshooting. OpenZipit includes, among others, madplay, freebase, dropbear ssh, and the busybox versions of (b)ash, vi, ftp, telnet, etc. Please see the yahoo message board and the wiki for more information involving OpenZipit and its specifications.
From a user standpoint, the zipit is quite useful. One of my specialties is in wireless networking and wireless security; the zipit is quite good for a handheld auditing tool. (a port of kismet is in the works, for those of you that are interested). The range and robust nature of the wifi chip has never failed to surprise me: it has better range and sensitivity (perhaps not on paper, but indeed in use) than many of the most popular wifi cards available (orinoco, senao). Additionally, with the dropbear ssh client, any open (legal) wifi signal is a free ticket to your box of choice for console based applications. Battery life is an astounding 6+ hours. The 2mb ROM is too tiny for much in the way of userspace apps, but as the device is built for wireless connectivity, ssh serves as a gateway to most applications you mig
Statistical evidence of fusion at this level is indeed impressive; however, while fusion experiments such as this others remain below the break-even point, they shall yet be little more than a labtable source of neutrons. We await developments from the latest in the field.
..doesn't this suggest a major need for an orbiting cargo facility of sorts? If this and technology like it were to be become more prevalent (whether for placing satellites in lunar orbit, at the lagrange points, or simply in higher orbit) then surely it would make sense to have an orbiting queue to hold a satellite while waiting in line for the next slow tug to come back on duty. (earth-->LEO+docking@cargo-->L1,etc).
Low earth orbit and beyond are a crowded place these days, and the placement of satellites in roomier real estate seems both beneficial from an orbital stability standpoint and for staying out of the way of everything else.
Son, perhaps you should inflate her?
...but damn was downloading at 28.8kbps a pain. Ouch.
hey i was serious!
As a guy who's been out and about in most parts of the country, this will certainly prove to be an excellent resource! One might always poke around with kismet or netstumbler for an unfortunate, vulnerable network, but as we now know that's no longer very safe. Major kudos for the sort of cooperation that makes such a goldmine of information easily accessible.
I can certainly hear the death knell ringing in the distance, but as with all legacy equipment, the floppy will never quite die. In repairing computers for the past ten or so years, I have been required to use a floppy with, paradoxically, increasing frequency. Boot cds are wonderful, but many times older equipment (the stuff that fails that I'm being asked to troubleshoot) just cannot handle them; some require a floppy to due to the nonexistent bios booting option; others are of great use simply because old software, well written, will never pass away. Surely those of you who do data recovery and forensics have loads of such tools at your disposal?
Floppies have served us well, and at least some of us will be using them for some time to come.
End of an era? Perhaps. May we forever in fondness remember our Tandy 8 inch floppies, containing a MASSIVE 500 kilobytes (!!) .... for they freed us from bondage, relegating tape-based storage to the depths of time.
..Me-oh-my times have changed.
Like rest of you, I've been staring at screens for twenty years and have an undeniable, ravenous appetite for all things innovative and technological. However, I lead a double life - biomedical engineer and english major. That other ever-present side of me has never gone away, no matter how much newly digitized information you throw at it. I devour books, textbook and entirely fictional alike - few paperbacks survive my multiple readings. It pains me to witness the downfall of literacy in our midst. The internet and computer have served as tools of limitless value; the merits of each cannot be enumerated. However, I pray that each child may at least once discover the profound nature of the written word upon its intended medium.
All of this tangental discussion about the UN and the USA overlooks a particularly salient point. The UN is a representative body; the US is a representative government. As with most such institutions, the official position of the body is a view with a particular bias behind it. Far more often than being truly representative, such a position more usually a view distilled and refined many times over. Rather than being the view of the body's constituents, it is instead the combined view of those few people in the rarefied heights at the top of the pyramid. The little guys at the bottom of the pile (who, granted, hold a highly diverse field of opinion) will often feel entirely differently, if they are indeed even aware of the subject at hand. I am an American myself, and do not at all share the views of the current powers that be. Therefore, fellow slashdotters, in just spirit: please if you would, take care to criticise the body and not the entirety of those that the body represents.