Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of my first date with Isabelle. It will be a great day.

My Robotic Apartment

I recently purchased a Synology DS409 (more on that another time). This has prompted me to restart work on something I have wanted to do since I moved into my apartment three years ago: build an infrastructure to house my e-mail, web, various media, and other content all in one place, all under my direct control. I also want these technologies to allow me to access everything as if I were home. This is not a difficult goal to accomplish– given the right equipment– but does require a number of moving parts that all need to work together. For example, the DS409 will now contain the web root for my web server which will run on a separate box. This not only unifies everything but also allows for RAID protection and backup of a single entity instead of worrying about monitoring several scripts on several boxes.

The following are the products/projects I am looking to employ:

  • Synology (DS409): For a while I was looking at Openfiler but the Synology OS offers more functionally for roughly the same price plus free, fast tech support if needed.
  • Linux (Ubuntu): This will be the platform most services will on. It is efficient with its resources and has a huge, active community.
  • OpenVPN: This is provide direct access to everything while I am away as if I were not.
  • TrueCrypt: For data at rest that that requires absolute secrecy.
  • Apache 2.2 + PHP 5: Between the various Apache web servers and PHP I have gotten so much work done these are now staples in my environment.
  • MySQL and SQLite: My tried and true database software for nearly as long as I have been working with SQL.
  • Orb: An oddity in the Microsoft world, this server will stream my media to nearly any device while dynamically adjusting its bandwidth usage.

Most of these are open-source and free.

Robot Traverses Maze

At the Singapore Robotic Games where “automation is a key factor towards advancement… to a technologically sophisticated country” some people have built a maze for robots to run through.

This is very similar to something I had done in high school except my maze and robots were virtual. With the introduction of the LEGO Mindstorms things that were the domain of nerds in academic labs before are now accessible to a wider audience. This audience includes people of a younger age than was commonly seen before. I often wonder what technology that I drooled over a year ago will soon be inexpensive enough for me to buy and screw around with.


2009 Singapore Robotic Games MicroMouse Robot Competition

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This post represents a paradigm shift.

What was once a repository for the everyday crap floating around in my brain is no more. This blog is now a repository for B- everyday crap floating around in my head.

Most posts before this point– minus one or two decent posts– are to be ignored.

No, that subject is not a mistake. I was being clever, doink.

R.I.P. Jonathan Kaufman

Jonathan Kaufman died on 2009.02.23 of cancer.

The world is worse off for it.