...stuff I do and things I like...

I just came back from Aldi (Darmstadt) without a new netbook and I even got there before 8am. They only had about 10 pieces of hardware and almost everybody in line before me got a black version. When it was my turn there was only one sliver version left. So I left. I probably just buy a real MSI Wind. Just 3-4 weeks of waiting.

This is so funny, I never had the Aldi computer/laptop buying experience before. I especially enjoyed the upset people behind me in line.

so heute war es endlich so weit, ich wurde beim Fahren mit dem RMV Handy Ticket kontrolliert. Das lustige daran war aber eher die Tatsache das das Ticket nicht kontrolliert wurde. Der Kontrolleur sagte nur er sehe das Handy Ticket heute zum ersten Mal und es waehre schon OK. Er wollte nicht mal sehen was das Display anzeigt, ich hab es ihm dann trotzdem unter die Nase gehalten. Ich warte ja seit zwei Monaten drauf mal kontrolliert zu werden und jetzt das. Joe wurde wohl in Frankfurt schon oefter kontrolliert mit dem Handy Ticket. Von ihm weiss ich das es wohl eine optisches Lesegeraet gibt mit dem der Kontrolleur den 2D-Barcode von dem Handy Display ablesen kann und so das Ticket zu verifizieren. Laut Joe hat das bis jetzt noch nie geklappt. Das hat ihm der Kontrolleur wohl jedesmal auch gesagt das das mit dem ablesen nicht klappt. Aber meistens haben die Kontrolleure wohl kein Lesegeraet dabei.

Echt ne super Sache dieses RMV Handy Ticket.

Over the last weekend I finally managed to setup my RaidSonic NAS-4220B. Now it runs OpenWRT ported by this guy. I only added a few kernel options (cryptoloop, md, and raid1) and added the mdadm utility (raid config utility). You probably ask why I use cryptoloop and not dm_crypt. The box has hardware acceleration for AES but this is only implemented for IPSEC and LOOPAES. So now I run LOOPAES on top of RAID1. The performance is not very good but this is due to my tests using scp to copy files to and from the NAS. I only get 1.1MB/s. CPU is maxed out on the NAS while the copy process is running. Since the box will be doing automated backups over a DSL line this is fast enough (faster than the downstream of the DSL line).

Some notes: I have two 500GB disks in the box, when I tryed to create a ext2 file system on the disk I got an out of memory error from mke2fs. This is due to the fact that the NAS-4220 really runs low on memory (10M free). The easiest fix was to hook up a USB disk and use that for swap space just until the file system is created :-)

I'm not completely done yet with the setup lets see what other surprises there are for me.

I was kind of excited when the OpenMoko was originally announced so I thought I would of course buy one but somehow the OpenMoko can't compete with current phones. Especially the fact that it only has GPRS is really sad/stupid. I would pay up to 50 Euro more for UMTS and maybe even 100 Euro more for HSDPA. This is because the phone (voice) functionality for me is secondary only. I want data connectivity like I have with my Nokia N810 but just with one device. I'm carrying multiple devices now to have good connectivity and there is no reason to switch out the phone part. I know having a completely open source mobile phone is really cool but people are not willing to make sacrifices the FreeRunner is big and bulky and has bad phone connectivity.

Actually I'm really thinking about moving to Apple hardware maybe even an iPhone 3G.

OpenMoko FreeRunner shop.

I finally finished the case for my Infopanel, well actually my father did most of the wood work. I only designed the case and he build it with a little help from me. Judith did the paint job. Thanks to both of them!

I made a bunch of fotos of the finished device hanging on the wall. Once the panel is completed I'll post even more with better quality. The part that is missing now is the webcam and the microphone. The little hole above the screen is for the webcam. I know it almost looks like an iMac :-)

Now I need to finish the infopanel software I've started in December last year.

I'm looking for a new notebook to replace my IBM Thinkpad T42p. I don't need a new notebook right now but it will need to be replaced this year. My new notebook will be a ultra portable, that weights 1.5Kg or less. The screen should be 12" or 13" inch with a resolution of at least 1200x800. I further need some dual core CPU, 2GBs of memory, and at least 120GB hard disk.

Yesterday I finally had some hands one time with a MacBook Air and an Lenvo Thinkpad X300 both devices haven been on my radar for some time now. Both devices have their problems. The Air doesn't have an ethernet port and too few USB ports. The X300 only comes with an SDD that is way too small and further makes the device very expensive. Btw. I don't care for a CD/DVD drive or PCMCIA/ExpressCard. Both devices really are super thin and light - it really makes a difference to actually hold one in your hand. Now having seen both devices making a decision is even harder.

I'm also considering something like an MSI Wind together with a big LCD monitor for my home office. I'll never buy anything from Sony so I haven't even looked at any of the Vaios.

I just received an email with a free sample of Smart Insights (some smart card news letter) with a story on my attacks on nfc phones. The funny part is a small box (only in the PDF version) next to the article stating Attacks are proof of success for NFC technology. This is hilarious! Please send me more stuff like this :-)