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Author: Nicholas Ingrassellino

Netbook to Microsoft Surface Pro?

Netbook to Microsoft Surface Pro?

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I have been in the market for a tablet-like netbook replacement for about one year now. I love my netbook but it has limited memory and I want to play with developing for a multi-point touch screen. So off I go looking for a tablet or tablet-like device with a keyboard and mouse/touchpad running industry standard software (currently Linux Mint). It needs to be portable and have all the things that come with that (small, battery life, usable while on my lap, ect). So… I was just looking at the specs of the Microsoft Surface Pro again which is due out in ~two weeks.

Microsoft thinks…

  1. … I am going to give them $899 to $999? Plus tax? No.
  2. … I will pay extra for a cover/keyboard? No, that should be included. I do not care if Apple did not do it, either. If I cared what Apple did I would be an Apple user, not a PC fanboy.
  3. … four to five hours of battery life coming in at much less than my netbook at nearly a third of the price is alright? No. Battery life is something I will often sacrifice for other things but this? These are the advertised numbers, not the real-world numbers.
  4. … locked down hardware I own but can not use is appealing to me? No. Unless I get the blessing of the most out-of-touch company I know of in the entire industry do I really “own” it (yes, this is why I am not an Apple fanboy)? I know they want to support their other business– namely Windows– but they just choose to make $0 instead of more than $0 by spitting on the power users. Hell, I am not sure I even know anyone but myself who does not dual-boot if they run another OS on PC.

I was seriously considering the switch until they announced the awful, awful details. Seriously, for all my distrust and bad experiences with their products I was very, very much looking forward to (even excited over) a great-looking, Slate-like device. I thought, “this can be what the Slate never was for me.” Nope, not at that price point. Not ever for those specs.

Perhaps I will pick one up cheap on eBay when Microsoft backs out without a lot of thought like they have done so many times recent memory. I feel like I am watching Lost all over again. I feel like, at the start, I am thinking “these guys are masters of suspense” and “I can not wait to see where they take this given the little tidbits I know now.” Then I realize two or three seasons in that no one has any idea what they are doing, where they want the show to go, nor how to build something sustainable. It is all shock and awe, but the glitter washes away and all you are left with is the Surface Pro.

Are… are they… who… IS MICROSOFT FUCKING BATSHIT INSANE?!?!?!? I do not normally curse on this blog but who saw all this, said “I like it, roll it out” (or even “we spent too much money, we have to go forward, our reputation can take the hit”) and gave it the green light?!?

You want to put your boot on the back of my neck you better expect me to come out swinging. You can only mismanage so many things so many times before you have no credibility left to spend. You used to be the big dog?

Used to be.

Update 2012.02.22
Sssooo… I bought a Surface Pro 128GB. Not sure why I did but I regret every moment since and want my money and the five minutes I spent at checkout back.

Thus far I am having great difficulty getting it to boot reliably from external media (even the Microsoft support staff at the brick and mortar stores are baffled). The WiFi just drops out, even with Microsoft’s released fix. The keyboard is designed to shut itself off while folded back so you do not accidentally hit keys but some times it does not turn itself back on (even if you unplug and reattach it). The fix is to reboot… you know, like you have to do with Windows every 15 minutes. It gets very hot even if you have not logged in. The Microsoft-documented on-boot key combination to select a boot device does not work (it brings up the UEFI boot configuration settings which is useless all but once). The screen is not adjustable while the stand is out. If you want a tablet replacement, fine. If you want a netbook replacement while in front of a flat surface, fine. If you want a netbook replacement on the go (the whole point of something so small, mind you), you are screwed.

The hardware looks solid on paper. Is plenty light. The Type keyboard feels nice. It even performs well… if you are happy with Windows 8. Except when you lose WiFi. Also except when it gets too hot to hold… while it is not even doing anything.

Unknown Armies Online?

Unknown Armies Online?

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With all the (hopefully) useful information on this blog do you know what the most viewed article is? My Unknown Armies Online post. By far. I am talking by over 100% the views of my second place post. For years now.

It was just a thought. Just half a thought, really. Nothing was ever supposed to come of it unless I found the time. Perhaps there is a demand for it?

Convert an OpenCV 2 Image to an Allegro 5 Image In C/C++

Convert an OpenCV 2 Image to an Allegro 5 Image In C/C++

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Just a quick sample for converting an OpenCV 2 image (Mat) to an Allegro 5 image (ALLEGRO_BITMAP).

First we need to setup some things and have places to store some stuff:

#include <allegro5/allegro.h>
#include <allegro5/allegro_image.h>
#include <cv.h>
#include <highgui.h>

cv::VideoCapture video([device number/filename]);
cv::Mat frame;
ALLEGRO_BITMAP *image = al_create_bitmap([width], [height]);

Next the guts:

video >> frame;
if ( !frame.empty() ) {
	al_set_target_bitmap(image);
	al_lock_bitmap(image, ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY, ALLEGRO_LOCK_WRITEONLY);
	for ( int y = 0; y < [height]; y++ ) {
		for ( int x = 0; x < [width]; x++ ) {
			cv::Vec3b &pixel = frame.at(y, x);
			al_put_pixel(x, y, al_map_rgb(pixel[2], pixel[1], pixel[0]));
		}
	}
	al_unlock_bitmap(image);
}

A few notes:

  • OpenCV 2 does not often work in RGB unless you make it. It is typically the reverse, BGR. Unless you have a specific need I see no reason not to do the conversion on-the-fly as above.
  • This sample assumes everything is the same width, height, color depth, ect, so watch out for that. Allegro, in particular, may slow to a crawl if you do not watch your conversions.
  • I am very not happy with the performance of this so it does need some work in that respect. It does, however, work very well otherwise. My goal is to get my Atom-based netbook running this smoothly. The Raspberry Pi may be a pipe dream but I am going to try.
  • This was tested in Linux with hardware I know what to expect out of. If there is any chance your webcam/video/whatever may return something other than a 24-bit (uint8, uint8, uint8) BGR color space you will need to account for that. Both OpenCV and Allegro have a number of functions/macros for that kind of thing.

This is mostly for my own notes but I figured someone else might also be interested. None of this is meant to be complete but, if you are struggling like I was, this should be all you need to pass that hurdle. Give a man a fish… alright, back to my cold, week-old “chinese” food and root beer.

Update 2012.11.28
After some more experimentation (and a nudge in the right direction from Peter Wang) I have tweaked the guts and it now runs much, much faster:

video >> frame;
if ( !frame.empty() ) {
	ALLEGRO_LOCKED_REGION *region = al_lock_bitmap(image, ALLEGRO_PIXEL_FORMAT_ANY, ALLEGRO_LOCK_WRITEONLY);
	for ( int y = 0; y < [height]; y++ ) {
		for ( int x = 0; x < [width]; x++ ) {
			uint32_t *ptr32 = (uint32_t *)region->data + x + y * (region->pitch / 4);
			*ptr32 = (frame.data[y * webcam_width * 3 + x * 3 + 0] << 16) | (frame.data[y * webcam_width * 3 + x * 3 + 1] << 8) | (frame.data[y * webcam_width * 3 + x * 3 + 2] << 0);
		}
	}
	al_unlock_bitmap(image);
}

Encrypted Linux Mint 13 and Linux Mint 14 Install

Encrypted Linux Mint 13 and Linux Mint 14 Install

Comments 15 comments

As an updated version of my previous article, here are the steps I took to get an encrypted Linux Mint 14 install. This article should also be used for Linux Mint 13 as I discovered some very minor issues with the old method (seriously, they were so minor I would not bother reinstalling if you were not already planning to).

So, zzzoooooommm:

  • Boot into any Linux Mint 13 or Linux Mint 14 installation disc.
  • Setup our storage:
    • In a terminal install and load the required tools: sudo apt-get install -y cryptsetup lvm2 && sudo modprobe dm-crypt
    • In a terminal partition sda: ( echo "o" ; echo "n" ; echo "p" ; echo "1" ; echo "" ; echo "+256M" ; echo "n" ; echo "p" ; echo "2" ; echo ""; echo ""; echo "w" ) | sudo fdisk /dev/sda
      • Some might call a 256MB /boot partition a bit excessive. Storage is cheap so it does not bother me too much but you could go down to ~64MB or so. Resizing an encrypted partition is not as easy as resizing an unencrypted one so if you are unsure ~128MB might be a better minimum.
      • This will wipe all of sda.
    • [Optional] In a terminal, if you are very paranoid, fill your encrypted partition with random garbage using one of these:
      • Much faster: sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda2 bs=1M
      • More secure: sudo shred /dev/sda2
    • In a terminal create an encrypted LUKS device: sudo cryptsetup luksFormat --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --verify-passphrase /dev/sda2
    • In a terminal open the encrypted device: sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 system
      If you would like to do multiple installations you can replace system with virtually any name you like so long as you replace it with the same name throughout this article. I suggest you use the inteded hostname either way.
    • In a terminal create your encrypted logical volumes: sudo vgcreate system /dev/mapper/system && sudo lvcreate -n root -l 100%FREE system
    • In a terminal format the partitions: sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1 ; sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/system-root
      • I always like to specify -m 0 for both filesystems (turns off the reserved blocks percentage). If everything explodes, for some reason, and I can not boot I can always get in with a LiveCD.
  • Install Linux Mint 14:
    • Open the Install Linux Mint shortcut on the desktop.
    • When asked about the the automatic partitioning select Something else.
    • Select /dev/sda1 and click the Change… button.
      • Under Use as select Ext2 file system.
      • Under Mount point select /boot.
    • Select /dev/mapper/system-root and click the Change… button.
      • Under Use as select Ext4 journaling file system.
      • Under Mount point select /.
    • Make sure /dev/sda is selected for Device for boot loader installation.
    • Click Install Now.
      • When it complains about the swap space just continue as we will do this later.
      • When it complains about the the existing partitions not being formatted just continue. We formatted them in a previous step but if you like you can do it again here to get the installer filesystem defaults.
    • [Optional] When you get to the Who are you screen check Log in automatically. Since you will need to enter a passphrase to unencrypt the disk there is no threat if the machine falls into the wrong hands (there are a lot of ninjas in my apartment). I recommend setting the user password to match the encrypted passphrase for simplicities sake.
    • When the installation is completed and you are prompted to restart select Continue Testing.
  • Ready new Linux Mint 14 installation:
    • In a terminal mount new installation: sudo mount /dev/mapper/system-root /mnt && sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot && sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev && sudo mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys && sudo mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
    • In a terminal change into new installation: sudo chroot /mnt
    • In a terminal setup network resolution: echo -e "nameserver 8.8.8.8\nnameserver 8.8.4.4" >> /etc/resolv.conf
    • In a terminal install and load the required tools: apt-get install -y cryptsetup lvm2
    • In a terminal setup our configuration for booting: echo "system UUID=$(ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid | grep sda2 | cut -d ' ' -f 9) none luks" > /etc/crypttab && update-initramfs -u -k all
    • [Optional] In a terminal add swap: dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=1M count=$((`free -m | grep -e "^Mem:" | sed -e 's/^Mem: *//' -e 's/  *.*//'` * 2)) ; chown root:root /swap ; chmod 600 /swap ; mkswap /swap ; echo "/swap none swap sw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
    • In a terminal change back to LiveCD: exit
    • In a terminal unmount new installation: sudo umount /mnt/proc ; sudo umount /mnt/sys ; sudo umount /mnt/dev ; sudo umount /mnt/boot && sudo umount /mnt
  • Reboot into your new, encrypted installation.

A few notes:

  • If you already have an installation you want to encrypt without a fresh install the steps should be very similar. You will need to setup GRUB 2 yourself as, per this article, the Linux Mint 14 installer does it for you. I have not experimented with it but it should not be too hard to figure out.
  • These instructions may very well work with other distros, too, but I have not tested that.
  • This can all probably be stuck into a script. Maybe I will some time down the road (hell, I do enough of these a month).
Compile Allegro 5.0.x on Linux Mint and Ubuntu

Compile Allegro 5.0.x on Linux Mint and Ubuntu

Comments 4 comments

As a sister article to my Cross Compile Allegro 5 Programs in Linux for Windows post, here are the steps I took to get Allegro 5 installed on Linux Mint 13, Linux Mint 14, and Ubuntu 12.10:

  1. Download and extract the latest .tar.gz-compressed source.
  2. Install the required packages: sudo apt-get install -y cmake g++ freeglut3-dev libxcursor-dev libpng12-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype6-dev libgtk2.0-dev libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libopenal-dev libflac-dev libdumb1-dev libvorbis-dev libphysfs-dev
    • [Note] Would be a good idea to do a sudo apt-get update first.
  3. Create a workspace: mkdir "build" && cd "build/"
  4. Create make files: cmake "../"
    • [Note] By default cmake will want to configure make for a release shared build. If you want a debug build you will need -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug or -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Profile for a profiling build.
  5. Compile: make
    • [Optional] By default make will not eat up all the processing power it can. Add -j# to change this behavior, where # is the number of job you would like to have running in parallel. If you machine is more or less idle the number of processors available should not hurt anything. If you are using your machine you might want to some half that number instead.
  6. Install to respective paths: sudo make install && sudo ldconfig
    • [Optional] Recommended if you are unsure as to why this step is optional.

If you want to compile an Allegro 5 C++ application– assuming you completed all the steps above and have g++ installed– you can run g++ [source file(s)] -o [output] `pkg-config --libs allegro-5.0`. There are, of course, many more Allegro 5 add-ons (check out pkg-config --list-all | grep allegro) but I will leave using those up to you to discover on your own.

As of this writing Allegro 5 v5.0.8 was the latest version.

Update 2012.11.28
Seems I already had some things installed from some other projects so I did not notice some missing dependencies. Thanks to weapon_S and sorry about that.

Shutting Down Windows 7 Without Installing Updates

Shutting Down Windows 7 Without Installing Updates

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With the exception my gaming machine I have abandoned Windows. Still, however, I do some times deal with it.

One of the more common annoyances is trying to shutdown when Windows has downloaded, but not installed, updates. In this case Windows may take forever and a day to finally cut the power. If you need to go somewhere in a rush, this blows. If you are on a laptop and the battery is about to die you are better off with hibernation (which has to be enabled, takes up a decent amount of disk space, and has its own problems), putting the machine to sleep (which has its own problems), or just letting it die at the desktop. If you interrupt the update process– say, because it has been nearly 30 minutes– you risk explodeorizing your install.

There is an option built into Windows 7 that will allow you to add an ‘Install Updates And Shut Down’ in Shut Down Windows dialog box option. For some reason it is not enabled by default, but that is pretty easy to take care of:

  • Start, Run, enter gpedit.msc.
  • Surf over to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update.
  • Edit Do not adjust default option to ‘Install Updates And Shut Down’ in Shut Down Windows dialog box to be Enabled. Make sure Do not display ‘Install Updates and Shut Down’ Option in Shut Down Windows dialog box is not set to Enabled.

The option will only appear when there are updates that need installing. You could also change your Windows Update settings but if you got here you probably are not interested in doing that.

I have not tested this with other versions of Windows. I assume this applies to Vista/Server 2008 and up but do not hold me to that.

Encrypted Linux Mint 13 Install

Encrypted Linux Mint 13 Install

Comments 4 comments

Check out my other article instead of this one.

Unity is a nice interface which is becoming increasingly polished. As a matter of fact I have switched a number of family members over and they are loving it. It, however, is seriously flawed for “power users” like myself. For example, I often have many text editors open at once and Unity slows me way down (yes, I lived in it for at least one month to give it a fair chance, no this is not an article about why I dislike Unity for my own use).

I have since moved over to Linux Mint 13 with Mate. Since I hate the idea of having any of my data unencrypted, and Linux Mint 13 does not support it in the installer, I needed a solution. I even held off installing it on all my machines until I could ensure my useless collection of funny pictures were protected from… some… scary, funny picture-related threat.

Any way, we should get started before I start looking at those pictures for the rest of the day. I am going to assume sda here but if you want to use another disk simply substitute for that.

Here we go:

  • Boot into any Linux Mint 13 installation disc.
  • Setup our storage:
    • In a terminal install and load the required tools: sudo apt-get install -y cryptsetup lvm2 && sudo modprobe dm-crypt
    • In a terminal partition sda: ( echo "o" ; echo "n" ; echo "p" ; echo "1" ; echo "" ; echo "+256M" ; echo "n" ; echo "p" ; echo "2" ; echo ""; echo ""; echo "w" ) | sudo fdisk /dev/sda
      • Some might call a 256MB /boot partition a bit excessive. Storage is cheap so it does not bother me too much but you could down down to ~64MB or so. Resizing an encrypted partition is not as easy as resizing an unencrypted one so if you are unsure ~128MB might be a better minimum.
      • This will wipe all of sda.
    • [Optional] In a terminal, if you are very paranoid, fill your encrypted partition with random garbage using one of these:
      • Much faster: sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda2 bs=1M
      • More secure: sudo shred /dev/sda2
    • In a terminal create an encrypted LUKS device: sudo cryptsetup luksFormat --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --verify-passphrase /dev/sda2
    • In a terminal open the encrypted device: sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 system
      If you would like to do multiple installations you can replace system with virtually any name you like so long as you replace it with the same name throughout this article.
    • In a terminal format the partitions: sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1 ; sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/system
      • I always like to specify -m 0 for both filesystems (turns off the reserved blocks percentage). If everything explodes, for some reason, and I can not boot I can always get in with a LiveCD.
  • Install Linux Mint 13:
    • Open the Install Linux Mint shortcut on the desktop.
    • When asked about the the automatic partitioning select Something else.
    • Select /dev/sda1 and click the Change… button.
      • Under Use as select Ext2 file system.
      • Under Mount point select /boot.
    • Select /dev/mapper/system and click the Change… button.
      • Under Use as select Ext4 journaling file system.
      • Under Mount point select /.
    • Make sure /dev/sda is selected for Device for boot loader installation.
    • Click Install Now.
      • When it complains about the swap space just continue as we will do this later.
      • When it complains about the the existing partitions not being formatted just continue. We formatted them in a previous step but if you like you can do it again here to get the Linux Mint 13 filesystem defaults.
    • [Optional] When you get to the Who are you screen check Log in automatically. Since you will need to enter a passphrase to unencrypt the disk there is no threat if the machine falls into the wrong hands (there are a lot of ninjas in my apartment). I recommend setting the user password to match the encrypted passphrase for simplicities sake.
    • When the installation is completed and you are prompted to restart select Continue Testing.
  • Ready new Linux Mint 13 installation:
    • In a terminal mount new installation: sudo mount /dev/mapper/system /mnt && sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot && sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev ; sudo mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc ; sudo mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
    • In a terminal change into new installation: sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash
    • [Optional] In a terminal update out-dated pakcages: apt-get update && apt-get -y dist-upgrade && apt-get -y autoremove && apt-get clean
    • In a terminal install and load the required tools: apt-get install -y cryptsetup lvm2 && echo "system UUID=$(ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid | grep $(basename /dev/sda2) | cut -d ' ' -f 10) none luks" >> /etc/crypttab && update-initramfs -u -k all
    • [Optional] In a terminal add swap: apt-get install zram-config ; dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=1M count=$((`free -m | grep -e "^Mem:" | sed -e 's/^Mem: *//' -e 's/  *.*//'` * 2)) ; chown root:root /swap ; chmod 600 /swap ; mkswap /swap ; echo "/swap none swap sw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
      • I often only run with zRam but it is rarely a bad idea to also have a disk-backed swap.
    • In a terminal change back to LiveCD: exit
    • In a terminal unmount new installation: sudo umount /mnt/sys ; sudo umount /mnt/proc ; sudo umount /mnt/dev ; sudo umount /mnt/boot && sudo umount /mnt && sudo cryptsetup luksClose system
  • Reboot into your new, encrypted Linux Mint 13 installation.

A few notes:

  • If you already have an installation you want to encrypt without a fresh install the steps should be very similar. You will need to setup GRUB 2 yourself as, per this article, the Linux Mint 13 installer does it for you. I have not experimented with it but it should not be too hard to figure out.
  • These instructions may very well work with other distros, too, but I have not tested that.
  • This can all probably be stuck into a script. Maybe I will some time down the road (hell, I do enough of these a month).

Update 2012.09.25
I should proof read more gooder. Sorry about that.

Raspberry Pi Uses?

Raspberry Pi Uses?

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When the Raspberry Pi was announced I went and bought a pile of them. Now they sit in my apartment, unused. A long while back I got the hard floats working but now you can get that standard. I got it running videos pretty good but now there is an XMBC installation.

What to do, what to do? There is a pretty decent looking 3D-printed case with “LEGO feet” I really like the look of. Plus, the latest LEGO Mindstorm bricks are mostly unlocked– with USB and Bluetooth support– so those are potential resources for a project…

A while back I did make an automated paintball turret. It used a pretty dinky netbook as its brain so I am not too worried about the Raspberry Pi and its 700MHz ARM CPU. I am more familiar with the x86 mobobs so optimization may be a (fun) hassle. Also, since it generates so little heat, it will be a lot easier to build a case to protect it from enemy fire. Hell, if raw processing power does become an issue I can always throw in a tiny network switch and combine a few of the little guys (I was thinking USB-to-USB but, after thinking about it, USB 2.0 only does client/server so efficient polling may be an issue… I do not know).

Well, I have to decide. Perhaps it would be a good project to do with The Womantm…

P.S.
LEGO feet!

Update 2012.09.12
A team of people (including a 6-year-old) have clustered 64 of these bad boys. They were cool enough to include a really nice how-to so maybe I will take a crack at it over a weekend.

Update 2012.09.25
The Pi can now be clocked up to 1GHz plus it is officially supported. You can go higher but, according to the organization, you risk your hardware.

Update 2012.11.12
Been playing with some robotic and media center software a lot as of late which gave me a few ideas:

  1. The Raspbery Pi as a robotics platform/controller. Nothing new there but if I combine it with motion/depth detection (see OpenCV with stereo web cams) I could make an automated paintball sentry… or worse!
  2. A portable media center powered by the ‘Pi. With a decent battery (say, this happy ‘lil fellow), USB-powered HDMI projector, and some cheap speakers (if the projector does not provide them) I think you could have a decent setup. Well, decent enough for what it is to make me happy, any way.
  3. Control the LEGO Mindstorm from the thing. All the Mindstorms come with excellent hardware for their intended audiences/purposes. With that said, CPU and memory are limited. There are many ways to control your Mindstorm Brick via Bluetooth and/or USB. Since the ‘Pi is so light I see no issue with just sticking it on top of the whole assembly, with a battery, and using that to control the Brick, which controls everything else. Blam-O, instant my-first-programming and robotics project!
  4. Minority Report-style interface. Holographic technology– and price– are not there just yet but with a different display (say, projector with a large screen) this is very doable. There are even a lot of tutorial for similar projects out there already using OpenCV or the Microsoft Kinect.
Slow Wi-Fi Speed with Linux While on Battery Power

Slow Wi-Fi Speed with Linux While on Battery Power

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I recently installed a new distro on my netbook. After using it for a few seconds I knew something was wrong with the wireless connection as it was hell’a slow. Could not figure it out at first but then I saw what I was missing: It was only slow while running on battery.

Turns out it was the power management. Whenever I went over to battery it kicked in and my ~3MB/s speeds went to ~32KB/s. Big, big drop so something must be done, right? Right.

Just create /etc/pm/power.d/wireless with:

#!/bin/sh

iwconfig wlan0 power off

Then make it executable with chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/wireless.

This will disable wireless power management whenever the machine goes to battery power. Problem solved.

Byzantium – Automatic, Secure Wireless, Mesh Networking

Byzantium – Automatic, Secure Wireless, Mesh Networking

Comments 2 comments

Just a quick post to bring everyones attention to a why-did-I-not-think-of-that project by the name of Byzantium. From the site:

The goal of Project Byzantium is to develop a communication system by which users can connect to each other and share information in the absence of convenient access to the Internet. This is done by setting up an ad-hoc wireless mesh network that offers services which replace popular websites often used for this purpose, such as Twitter and IRC.

These services and web apps were selected because they are the ones most often used by activists around the world to find one another, exchange information, post media, and organize. They were also selected because they stand the best chance of being easy to use by our intended userbase, which are people using mobile devices like smartphones, MP3 players, and tablet PCs.

Unlike most mesh implementations, a Byzantium Mesh requires no specialized equipment that may not be easy to get during an emergency, just an x86 computer with at least one 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless interface.

I am a strong, strong believer that– in most cases– commodity electronics are now more than cheap and powerful enough to replace dedicated, specialized hardware. What we used to do in hardware can now be done in software with at least as much safety and security. In some cases it can be done better since the software often has knowledge of the underlying systems (think ZFS as opposed to dedicated RAID controllers).

Any way, I had a love-at-first-site (get it?!) reaction to this project so I just figured I would help spread the word.