Monday, June 30 2008
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.
Friday, June 27 2008
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.
Saturday, June 14 2008
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.
Sunday, June 08 2008
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.
Thursday, June 05 2008
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 :-)
Wednesday, June 04 2008
Monday, June 02 2008
on my way home from ph-neutral I had the chance to take a brief look at the
Touch-and-Travel NFC tags. Using my BtNfcAdapter on my Nokia 6131 NFC I took a copy of the tag data
home with me, you can get it here (you need bahn.py to read it).
It turns out that the tag actually doesn't contain any data besides showing a custom type record. TNF: 4 and Type: db.de:tandt. It only took me a couple of seconds :-) to realize that the custom type is only used to launch the touch-and-travel application on the phone.
The touch-and-travel tags are NOT just simple Mifare Classic tags but some
other ISO14443 card so I guess there is more data stored on the card and you just need to know how to read it :-)
I'm really looking forward to the day this system is being opened to the public.
Until then this is as good as it gets.
Touch-and-Travel
Touch blog about Touch-and-Travel