Fri, 06 Aug 2004

Stop! before you steal that laptop...
I have been consulted on more than one occasion to track down laptop computers...in particular stolen laptops. Sound like a daunting task? Well, not anymore.

I am very excited over a growing trend among laptop manufacturers: Built-in WiFi. These typically consist of internal MiniPCI WiFi adapters and antennas built into laptop screens. That means I can use the PCMCIA slot for something else, in my case, a nifty CDMA data card. But I have also noticed that as a side effect, there is no quick way to remove WiFi functionality. After all, who in their right mind would want to disable such a wonderful technology on their computer? If you didn't think wireless was cool, you probably wouldn't be reading this article.

Most people are completely unaware of how WiFi works -- even if you are not connected to a network. And thanks more to a WiFi card's premicious nature, constantly hunting for an Access Point, even if you only have "LINKSYS" or "MYCOMANYAP" assigned.

Thats right, depending on the WiFi client, your laptop may search for a signal several times a minute. My WiFi card on Windows XP seems to send out almost 30 requests a minute. And on each transmission WiFi makes, a unique fingerprint is encoded into the packet, more commonly known as a MAC address. MAC addresses are unique, and no two MACs are alike. Format the machine? Re-install windows? Unless the MAC is purposely changed, it will never go away. Using trivial software (ie: passive 802.11 frame sniffer), we can look for scanning messages (more technically, probe management frames) and hunt for a specific MAC address.

So what happens if a dishonest neighbor or employee lifts a laptop? They better disable that WiFi card, because in combination with available evidence and usual cirumstances, it is the final nail in the coffin. That laptop will be shouting out, in the dark, with a bright flashlight saying "Im here! Im here!" for about 500-1000 feet, depending on equipment.

This technique may sound far-fetched, but its amazing how effective it is.

[/wifi] permanent link

Tue, 27 Jul 2004

Matt has a great
write-up about Sveasoft. My thoughts exactly.

[/wifi] permanent link

Fri, 09 Jul 2004

New "9/11" Policy
9/11 sure brought a lot of fun changes, and my attempt to bring some whale back home from Barrow was full of fun.

Since I can't exactly take a bunch of frozen meat product on a 2-lag 1900 flight, I needed to ship it frozen airfreight.

And in no way at fault of the airline, I could not airfreight this product due to federal 9/11 policy. After 9/11, you can only ship airfreight if you are a known shipper. Being a known shipper requires you to have airfreighted more than 24 pieces of parcel before 9/11. How one gains this status after 9/11 is anyone's guess.

But here's the kicker: If I just write "Keep Frozen" on the box, they will check it and put it in the freezer--this ends up being the same exact freezer the airfreight uses on the airplane. So what is the point?

One may argue that because of the fact I am flying with my own cargo, I would be less likely to commit a terrorist act. But what is more interesting is that under the particular status I was flying under, they would not pull my checked bags if I did not show up or was bumped from the flight. They would simply be sent to the destination--without me.

Its funny how such a double standard protocol ends up screwing me over, but also violates their own policies; basically making the flight no safer than it was without the regulation in the first place.

But at least they kept my meat product frozen.

[/thoughts] permanent link

Tue, 29 Jun 2004

Vacation Time
My wife has family up in Alaska, and we usually come up during the summer. I slotted two weeks near the end of June and we went up. Baby and my dad also came up with me so he could enjoy the sights and also meet some of my wife's family.

The first stop was Fairbanks, AK. This is located in the middle of the state, and is subject to some of the most extreme temperature ranges on the planet: -60F in the winter, 99F in the summer. Since it was summer, and the sun was up nearly the entire day, we saw temperatures of about 100F on the deck.

The most notable incident in the world of wireless and communications was a nasty ACS fibercut that severed communications abroad. My Sprint roaming provider, Sparks/Digitel, went hard down (not even a signal) for about 4 days. I was roaming on ACS's network at the time, and even though Sprint claims to have a roaming agreement with these guys, my phone did not function. So much for Free & Clear "America".

After meeting with family and doing touristy things in the area, our next stop was Barrow. This is located at the top of the state, on the Arctic Ocean coast. It is also the most northern city/point/anything in North America at 71 degrees latitude. We also took my mother-in-law.

We were up here to show off the baby, meet family, and check out town. We also came up here for Nalukataq, or more commonly known as the Eskimo Blanket Toss.

It was my first time to the North Slope, and it looks like I couldn't pick a better time to be up there. The weather was great. We were treated to blue skies and temperatures im used to back at home (40-50F). Not to mention the fact that the sun never set -- it just circled near the top of the sky.

Barrow is several miles long, very similar to a typical 1-2 story urban area, and then thats it. It is very flat -- you can see to the horizon in all directions. There are no trees, only grass on the tundra. In the summer, the town is surrounded by breathtaking views of the Arctic coast, bird formations, grass and oval lakes.

One of the most notible aspects of Barrow was the people. They were very friendly and community oriented. People were not in a hurry, selfish or materalistic. This was not certainly not Seattle. While English is spoken in Barrow, Inupiat make considerable usage of their native tounge: Inupiaq.

Just like anywhere else in the United States, electrical, water, medical, telephone, cable TV, and internet are all available. Communications served via satellite. There is a neat satellite array outside of town with a series of dishes pointing downward. Some of the equator satellite paths are fragle, and all it takes is a passing vehicle or a stupid flock of birds to kill the link margin and cause breakup on the local cable system.

Construction is a little tricky, as the land is a little marshy in the summer and permafrost underneath the dirt. Pre-manufactured housing on stilt frames are very commonplace, as shipping building materials is cost prohbitive for most people. And no, there are no igloos in Barrow.

The only pavement was the airport runway. All I can say is that I loved driving there...nobody wears seatbelts, and dirt and gravel roads are fun to slide on. There are a lot of automobiles, but just as many fourwheelers running around....its too bad we did not end up borrowing one..

Since there are no roads into Barrow, shipping of goods is an expensive issue. Everything is sent airfreight, now even more difficult due to 9/11 policy, and this comes out to be about a $1/lb. This inflates local prices to comical amounts when compared to the inexpensive goods of the lower 48. A yearly barge service is available for perhaps $0.25/lb to ship items that are either too large or cost prohibitive to send via aircraft. Barrow is served twice a day, yearround by passenger aircraft, some of which have half the space allocated for cargo (737-300C). Cargo aircraft also routinely service Barrow.

There is really only one store in Barrow (Stuqpak) owned by UIC. This is more of a general store with produce, grocieries, food court, clothing, etc. They had espresso, and that's all I cared about. We also bought the baby a very cute outfit to wear.

The radio station, KBRW, is a great example of how community radio is supposed to work. This station features localized content and fosters community involvement. Its amazing how simple it is to do this, and how many radio dials lack its content. The local cable system features several local content channels.

After a few days of being shown around town, playing on the beach, and resting, it was time for Nalukataq on Monday, June 21st. Everyone spent days getting ready for the occasion. Cakes, eskimo ice cream, eskimo doughnuts, stew, and whale was prepared.

Nalukataq took place in the center of town. This is a feast and consists of food distribution, dance, and play. It drizzled a few times, no different than back at home. My wife put the baby in her parka (Amaaq). People still do this and its a great way to keep babies warm (..and as an added benefit, they go to sleep instantly!)

It was Maggie's first time Amaaq-ing and one time we didn't quite tighten the belt enough. I was walking behind and suddenly saw two legs standing up, the rest of the body was up the parka. She fell all the way down!! I wish I would have taken a picture.

As you already know, the Eskimos eat whale, raw almost like sushi. It is extremely fresh and tasty. They use every last bit of it to: skin, blubber, meat, blood, organs, baleen, even the gums. But maktak is a delicacy. This is a half and half cut of blubber and skin. Its a little chewy and tastes almost like walnuts to me. It goes good with salt.

And while the Eskimos still hunt whale for sustenance, the government limits them to a certain amount. With these limitations, they cannot entirely live off it alone....they can at least suppliment part of it.

After food distribution and cake, we went home for a little while, and came back for the blanket toss. And people get a little crazy on this blanket. Its amazing how much height you can get! It was lots of fun watching people fly into the air until there was an accident. Two people collided (forehead to jaw) and one landed on his head on the ground. He was quickly hauled out by an ambulance. There was concern he broke his back, but I was told later he ended up ok.

After a couple days, we headed out and left for Seattle. We pretty much flew all day, with a significant layover in Fairbanks.

[/home] permanent link

Sun, 06 Jun 2004

Fun With Modems
I have been trying to find a device to connect my modem to my cell phone, to use while in AMPS mode. I have a handsfree jack, which may or may not provide enough audio pass for data. As far as I have found, no such device exists.

Why would I want to mess with AMPS or a modem? Well, I sometimes go into roaming areas, and my 1xRTT data will not work. I need another solution, and AMPS is the only solution which will transport my data. Circuit switched data on roaming providers is not possible, and modems do not work over vocoders on the likes of digital networks (ie, CDMA, GSM). Since I have unlimited off-peak and unlimited roaming, data should be quite inexpensive.

Since the modem is 2 wire, and the handsfree is 4 wire, I would need a hybrid transformer. This splits/combines transmit and receive pairs. I would also need to make sure it was matched, as well as provide voltage on the modem side so it can be happy.

But screw all that, I figured out something a little simpler. I can always find a phone jack. But then long distance becomes an issue...or does it?

Nearly all roaming providers let me 3-way call. So, in CDMA, I 3-wayed the modem land line and a free dialup provider (nocharge.com), which was long distance. I typed in ATD on the modem, hit mute on the cell, and waited for a connect. The handshake went crazy, and failed. It was almost as if both modem sessions were going through a vocoder---but i thought three way calls were at toll rate (64k) on the network? I guess Sprint is doing some tricky stuff.

So I threw the phone into AMPS, made a 3 way call, used my ATD trick, and put the phone into mute. This time i worked. Apparently, putting the phone into mute wasn't the only thing i needed to do while in AMPS. The phone needed to be in a good coverage spot in the house (no static noises) because apparently mute is a phone/handset feature, not a network feature.

[/cellular] permanent link

Fri, 04 Jun 2004

IBSS "Infections"
I have noticed something really interesting about our expanding WiFi environment. A lot of work laptops have built-in WiFi and Windows XP. Windows XP, by default, looks for any available WiFi AP and associates to it.

But what happens if that is an IBSS association? Well, it looks like it just stays in it indefinitely, until further user action is made (ie: force new association, profile change, etc).

By walking around with an IBSS radio, you can make a whole bunch of IBSS nodes with the same SSID. They never bother to change their names.

Its a bit annoying because it made a peer-to-peer session act erratically when one third party associated to my IBSS at random with one particular default -- requiring a WEP key. My second peer did not want to associate without WEP (obviously because the third party wanted WEP), and it destroyed my IBSS.

[/wifi] permanent link

Tue, 01 Jun 2004

Voom Network Invents Lame HD Content
Voom, a "high definition" satellite network that claims to offer the most HD content, has some pretty amazing offerings as of late.

If you just can't get enough of 24/7 of tenis in HIGH DEFINITION, you'll love the AuctionHD channel. Thats right! 24 hours a day of auctions -- in 1920x1080! Wow...how stunning. And if that isn't enough, i'm sure you'll get kicks out of GalleryHD -- a cycling of paintings in high resolution.

What a bunch of crap ... why would I want to pay $80/mo for this garbage? It seems that HD content is extremely hard to come by, and these offerings make this very apparent.

However, if you couldn't get enough of the hard core porn between showings of Shriek on HBO, you'll love Playboy Hot HD..another new offering....ugh.

[/home] permanent link

Wed, 26 May 2004

Now this is Wireless Fidelity
I have modified my old mobile webcam page and incorporated a link to some of my occasional mobile (cellular) broadcasts. I have been doing a lot of long term streaming tests (4+ hours), and things look good. And while the music may or may not be particularly interesting -- just remember it is coming down a cellular data link at 60mph, in stereo :)

The Link: Casey's Mobile Broadcast Station.

Im sure a few special events are in order -- I just need to find myself a camera man.

On a personal note, I am traveling to a function in eastern washington this weekend (Tri Cities). I'm bringing my gear with me and I should have the entire cell site to myself.

[/cellular] permanent link

Fri, 21 May 2004

Streaming Commute to Hack Night
As a cute proof-of-concept, I originated a "56k" stream from my car as I drove from Bellevue to Seattle on my way to hack night. Apparently it worked rather well. When I drove up in the car, I figured i'd just keep walking with the camera. Its pretty crazy when you walk in on a group of viewers with the live camera they were watching....I can see this is going to have some pretty sweet applications...

Which brings me to my point....I've always wanted to stream audio/video wirelessly from anywhere, but what the hell does one do with it? Maybe I need my own reality TV show?

[/hacknight] permanent link

Mon, 17 May 2004

Fun with CDMA2000
I bought a SprintPCS Vision Connection Card last week. This device uses CDMA 2000, 1xRTT specifically. As documented earlier, I can squeeze quite a bit out of this network.

First Impressions

The Merlin C201, in PCMCIA form-factor, looks almost like an Orinoco Gold. And like most WiFi cards, it is cross-polarized with the system it connects to. Other Sprint cards make use of vertical antennas, I am not entirely sure why Novatel went with this lame design. It was the cheapest of the 4 cards featured -- a mere $199 dollars, usually brought down in price by carrier subsudy. I paid $150 with my business discount and 1 year of service contract.

As expected, throughput is quite nice. I average about 100kbps up and down, without the aid of compression. It works just as well at 80mph as it does at 0mph...with a few exceptions. Moving from good coverage to bad coverage is one of them....

More Streaming Fun

With the help of Matt Wilson, I decided to put 1xRTT to the test: Stream live video FROM the mobile device; at 60mph; during rush hour.

Results of Dual ISDN (Actual: 90Kbps)

While in motion, the stream would go maybe a minute or two before chopping. After a little chopping, it started right up again. After a little tweaking with the connection medium (TCP or UDP), I determined that if the coverage dropped bellow 3 bars, sending 90Kbps of payload just was not going to happen. We don't have much head room for error if the coverage heads south. I suspect this will only work well in fixed operations, or with a good antenna to ensure signal strength is optimum.

Results of Single ISDN (Actual: ??Kbps)

"Single ISDN" would likely be a 64Kbps circuit. While this gave us more head room than Dual ISDN, we'd occasionally have a bit of break up in poor coverage areas.

Results of 28k to 56k (Actual: 20-34Kbps)

We were able to keep a stream going for a considerably long time (>10 minutes), even with 2 bars of signal. It seems that no matter what happened, it still pounded through.

Final Thoughts

While more testing will likely ensue, 1xRTT definately has a very nice upload that does not compare to anything else available. It will stay that way until UMTS (WCDMA GSM) or CDMA2000 Ev-Dv makes its way into the world. Note that while Ev-Do brings us over 2Mbps of download, it does not help our upload much. So Verizon's impact will be minimal this summer.

It also is very fun to note that 1xRTT has been available in every CDMA coverage area since Vision launch in the summer of 2002...which is just about everywhere.

[/cellular] permanent link

Wed, 05 May 2004

Hype Definition
Thinking about "Hi Def"? Think again... but at least the "monitors" sold today are not the issue.

Resolutions and Aspect Ratios

Since NTSC is analog, various TVs will display different screen resolutions. NTSC overscan is actually 736x482, but your TV will likely crop the outer edges of this, depending on model year, technology, and quality. The aspect ratio is 4x3 or 1.33:1. This makes almost a square box, slightly rectangle. In broadcast NTSC, audio is typically FM stereo, with the option of lower quality, secondary audio carriers.

Film is usually sported in two major formats, 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. Film does not have a particular resolution in pixels, but film grain generally limits this from being infinite.

Current digital televisions (DTV's) use the aspect ratio of 16x9 or 1.78:1. The digital transmission actually has tons of different video modes, and is called ATSC. ATSC can contain mutiple video "streams", data payload, TV schedule information, and several different audio modes encoded in AC3. These audio modes can provide either surround sound (5.1-like experience), stereo, or mono.

ATSC uses VSB for transmission. Originally, OFDM was to be used, but this was changed for some reason. OFDM would have given HDTV resistance to multipath, and actually make reception in most areas possible. The Europeans will be using OFDM. Instead, VSB cuts our broadcast tower range (compared to analog services) in half or perhaps by 2/3's, depending on the antenna technology employed.

VSB comes in two flavors, "terrestrial rate" and "high rate". "terrestrial rate" is 19.36Mbps and uses 8 level VSB (8VSB). "high rate" transmits at 38.57Mbps using 16 levels (16VSB). Currently, no broadcast transmissions use the higher 16VSB rate.

ATSC Resolutions
Resolution in Pixels		Frame Rate						Aspect
Vertical	Horizontal	23.976	24	29.97	30	59.94	60	4:3	16:9
480i	640			X	X			X
480p	640	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
480i	704			X	X			X	X
480p	704	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
720p	1280	X	X	X	X	X	X		X
1080i	1920			X	X				X
1080p	1920	X	X	X	X				X

While these resolutions and aspect ratios are quite impressive, our cool new digital televisions will still letterbox some movies shot in 2.35:1. But a lot of movies are shot in 1.85:1 -- thats close enough to 1.78:1 to where it is expanded to fill the entire screen (!)

Digital Television vs. High Definition

While Digital Television brings us a lot of different modes, some are considered "high definition" and others are just considered "digital television". 720p and 1080i are considered true, high definition. 480p and 480i are considered "digital television".

720p vs 1080i and your television

While the mode 1920x1080i is my favorite mode, some claim (the inferior) mode 1280x720p is better. Either way, before you decide what side you are on, keep in mind that a vast majority of broadcasters have adopted 1080i. Make sure your TV supports at least 1080i. Your TV will still be able to view "720p", even if it has to scale it up to fit your television's 1080i native resolution. Some will do 720p and 1080i. Some televisions just display 720p. I would stay away from the 720p-only televisions, even at their discounted price. You are only robbing yourself of higher modes.

Also be careful of some displays, including some plasmas and LCD's. Keep on eye on their native resolutions -- some will not display anywhere near the 720p and 1080i sizes and downscale.

HDTV Content Delivery

Content delivery is still a sticky issue, as service providers scramble for bandwidth. Even with better compression systems available (mpeg4) HDTV channels require the bandwidth of 5-10 regular television channels.

Over the Air

A lot of stations have brought digital 8VSB stations on the air already. Some operate at high power, others do not. Most of it is a digital version of the 640x480 interlaced content we see on TV today...with the exception of some prime time TV shows and movies. Sick of those black bars on your analog TV -- wait until you see most of your content with black pilars on the side! Some channels are providing "HDTV" content in 703x480, in "widescreen" or 16x9 ratio. To receive over the air broadcasts, you must purchase a special HD decoder box. Most HDTVs are monitors -- meaning they have no HDTV tuners and require a video input.

Satellite

Satellite providers provide 4-5 network-like programming. HDNet, DiscoveryHD, ESPNHD, HDNetMovies, HBOHD, and ShowtimeHD are only available. Some satellite providers offer 1-2 pay per view channels in HD, and some provide CBS HD for rural areas without CBS (most markets have a black out on this feed). No local channels provided. The rest of the channels are 480p or 480i. You must also have a special HD receiver and HD subscription in order to receive content.

One thing to note is the satellite provider "Voom". They have several (obscure, completely no name) networks that are unique to their system. If these channels interest you, it is worth taking a look. Currently, they provide the most channelage available on any TV distribution system. Keep in mind that most of it is no-name content on no-name channels (aka, filler content). So if you really want 24 hours of clay animation in 1080i on the claymation channel, or are interested in their 24 hour tennis HD channel, go right ahead.

Cable

Cable offerings are similar to satellite, but usually offer something called InHD, which is similar to HDNet. Some cable companies are either offering a couple local HD channels (not all). The rest of the channels are 480p or 480i. You must have an HD receiver and HD subscription in order to receive content.

DVD

This is a content delivery system too, even though it is not broadcast. Although some widescreen DVDs will look nice on your new TV, keep in mind it is all 703x480 content. Make sure you purchase discs with 1.85:1 ratios so it fills your screen, 2.35:1 will still be letterboxed slightly. You may also want to invest in a progressive scan player (they output 480p to 530p progressive signals). While a lot of movies are captured in progressive these days, some are not and will be interlaced on a progressive screen! High definition DVD does not yet exist.

Video Game Consoles

The only video game system that provides high definition output is the XBox. The rest are either 480p or 480i. Most XBox titles do not support 720p or 1080i unless specifically stated. The HDTV box checked usually means the title is available in widescreen, 480p.

DVR's

There are a couple of DVR products out there that support HD recording. Dish network offers the PVR921.

HDTV Content

Delivery systems aside, there is simply a lack of actual content. A lot is upconverted garbage and is the television equivlent of going into photoshop, taking 640x480 image from a 1/2 megapixel camera, scaling it to 1920x1080, and calling it a "2.0 megapixel image".

The major networks (ABC, NBC, etc) and the HDTV cable/sat channels mentioned above are the only content providers of HDTV programming. While the specialized cable/sat channels broadcast HDTV (1080i) all day, Networks typically only kick in on HD during the evenings. As demand grows, more and more shows will be shot in HD -- or film transfered to HD.

While HD shows sometimes display in letterbox (black bars) on an analog TV, we get something worse: most of our content has two black pillars on each side! A lot of advertisements and shows that are in "wide screen" actually are letterboxed and black barred. Perhaps pretend HDTV/widescreen content helps brand image?

Broadcast TV Networks and Modes
Network	Mode	Notes
ABC	720p	Primetime Only, Primetime Movies
NBC	1080i	Primetime Only
CBS	1080i	Primetime Only
FOX	480p	480p widescreen, 720p "someday"
WB	1080i	Very little content
UPN	1080i	Very little content
PBS	1080i, 480i	Healthy amount of content, multiple streams
TBN	480	Unknown Status
PAX	480	Unknown Status

Hype Definition Offenders

Not to pick on anyone in particular, but here are some upscaling offenders:

ESPNHD

This is typically 703x480i 4:3 interlaced video upscaled to 1920x1080i and squashed to 16:9. It ends up being a bunch of blury fat people running around -- not even in the right aspect ratio. This channel is outright embarrassing...but ESPN is gearing up for HD and may provide some better content in the next year.

FOX

FOX claims to be in high definition. Its actually 480p in widescreen.

CBS

CBS has done a pretty good job at keeping us entertained with 1080i TV shows. During prime time, CBS plays special sequences during advertisements on their HD channel. "You are watching CBS in HDTV" is repeated over and over. The one in particular that is funny is the "CBS HD Sports", where all the sequences featured are actually 4:3 video upscaled (and squashed) to 16:9. I am sure CBS plans to offer sporting content soon, but this is pathetic.

Video shot in HD but shown on channels that do not have any HD distribution

A lot of channels (typically cable or satellite) that do not have any means to distribute high definition are airing wide-screen, letterboxed content. What is the point of this? The HD viewer has two choices at this point: Zoom in to the 640x480i video to fill the screen with blury video or enjoy the show/advertisement in black picture frame mode (or black horizontal and vertical bars).

Local News Casts in HD

We have one station in particular (KING 5, Seattle) that brags about its HDTV news broadcast. They forget to inform their viewers that they couldn't actually afford more than one HDTV camera in the newsroom (out of 3-4), so be prepared to switch resolutions a million times during the news broadcast.

Local TV Shows in HD

While Evening Magazine (King 5 local "HD" content) does occasionally air some sequences in 1080i, a majority of their episodes are upscaled 480i. What is worse is that conventional, analog TV users are forced to watch this show in black bar widescreen format.

HDTV sounds awful, should I even bother?

Consumers should realize that there is only little content available in HDTV. Buying that $5000 plasma screen will not improve the clarity and resolution of all your cable and satellite channels. Some people may choose to wait, but if you are in the market for a new TV, I would definately give the lower end models (<$2000 or <$1500) a very close look. It will still be a very long time before one can purchase an HDTV set for the price range of traditional televisions, so it may not be for everyone.

HDTV is a double edged sword.....while a good 1920x1080 television program will take your breath away, you will puke once you are forced to watch something in 640x480 afterwards.

[/home] permanent link

XBox in HD
In the mix of hype, the XBox is the only game console that actually has "High Definition" output. Amazingly, the adapter (which features component output and optical 5.1 out), is a mere $19.95. I am used to being ripped off because I happened to buy recent technology.

Available Games

The labeling on XBox games are becoming a little more standardized, but they are little help. Some say "HDTV", but you have to be careful with this one. Most that don't display a specific mode like 720p or 1080i are just merely a 480p (480 lines, progressive scan) in "wide screen".

I bought Enter The Matrix, since it did advertise a mode of 1080i. It turns out, yes, it is in 1080i, but the textures were drawn for standard resolution.

GTA 3 and Vice City are in "HDTV", but in reality, its just 640x480p in 16:9 (widescreen) mode. This keeps my TV from burning in, but does not really provide me with any display enhancement.

[/home] permanent link

Tue, 04 May 2004

A good listen
This is not exactly music, but this is a live stream of a computer's synthetic voice reading real-time LiveJournal feeds. The most random crap pops up, it reminds me of high school. click here for the stream.

[/music] permanent link

Mon, 03 May 2004

The Hype of "Mesh Networks"
Even before those crazy non-standard 900MHz "Wireless LAN" devices popped on the scene, visions of a "wireless" "mesh network" enchanted engineers, idealists, and end users.

I have to admit, the concept is pretty cool. I throw 30 "devices" in random Seattle locations, each discovering one another; creating relationships of some sort; and being able to transmit information (seamlessly, of course) from one end of the cloud to the other. If a few die, it would route round them. If there was a building in the way, it would find another path to send my information. And, last but very not least, this mesh network would provide such high QoS, I could send voice and video over it.

And then we fall back to the real world -- none of this idealistic crap exists. Ouch, that hurt. Sure, there have been many attempts.....but no one has come to the table with a true, innovative, open solution. And no, configuring a bunch of radios to random IP addresses (just hoping we avoid guessing the same number) doesn't count.

With the state of technology today, we may be asking for too much. First, we are burdened with half duplex radio technology, ie: 802.11. Strike 1. In order to have a true, dynamic mesh, we need omni directional antennas. Strike 2. Efficient distributed trust systems, resource allocation, QoS, and lack of spectrum to provide this. Strike 3. You're out! Its the omni-mesh paradox, and until we can somehow configure multiple full duplex pairs while talking to multiple hosts on the fly, I dont see our issues going away.

MIT RoofNet (and a few other solutions popping up on the scene) might mitigate some of these hurdles. But if there was a widely available mesh routing solution, trust me, we'd be running it.

I do have to say that some routing protocols, like AODV, are some nice attempts at mesh routing -- even though they have little to do with wireless in particular. I am not a big fan of stateful on-demand routing, but its a great concept, and has its place in the world.

[/thoughts] permanent link

Wed, 28 Apr 2004

Stupid Wind Storm
That stupid wind storm caused some problems back at home. I called the house around 4pm, and noticed that the answering machine was not picking up.

After a brief stop at hack night, i noticed that I couldn't ping my house either. Ok, so no electrical power right? Thats fine, i'll just go home, and plug my home network into my car. Maybe the APC finally died, with all the stuff I have plugged in, it probably wouldn't last more than 2 hours.

I got home around 7 pm, noting the lack of power, and plugged various items (DSL modem, AP, etc.) into my car. After everything powered up, my DSL light kept flashing -- yea, phone lines are down too.

Running my home network off my car would be pretty cool to talk about the next day, but with no internet, what's the point?

I finally plugged into my CDMA 1xRTT modem..er..telephone (Don't tell Sprint!) and was able to get on the Internet. Then I realized how cold and dark it was getting, so eventually we left the house and went some place that had power.

So, the power was out all evening and all night, and it sucked. If I would have bought that generator for Field Day last year, I wouldn't have had any issues.

[/home] permanent link

Mon, 26 Apr 2004

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Music
I did some AI music about two years ago, using an old Amiga program written back in the day. I put them up on mp3.com but I lost hosting when the company folded.

They are back now on my music website.

Here is a quick list of some of the songs I recovered:

Another Poetic Joe

Another Joyful Star

Meet the Intelligent Wife

Joshez decided to do this weird crap to my "Another Poetic Joe" song, but this remix never made it past conceptual stage. I kinda like what he did between 0:54-1:15, but the rest is just ass. I think he told me he was joking around when he did it.

And my unbonus track: A mediocre track called "Pretty, Pink, and Intelligent". I figured i'd put up to give an example of the subpar output of this music engine.

[/music] permanent link

Tue, 20 Apr 2004

RST
No thanks to Cisco, and some googling, I have found the issue.

This is not a new exploit, but something as of late has pushed Cisco and other vendors to secure critical infrastructure (BGP Routing). Its about time too, since these initial warnings date back several years.

The push to do it now was either caused by some existing code in the wild, or increasing concerns from the goverment.

By using MD5 digests within TCP Header Options, this keeps BGP peers from being vunerable to stuff like spoofed TCP resets. This MD5 system provides connectionless security, not just in the payload, like SSL for example.

This RST exploit in particular involves 3 hosts, 2 of which have an active TCP connection, and 1 rouge host. The rouge host transmits a series of TCP RST packets, scanning a sequence number range and a guessed source port range. Most of these resets are discarded by the receiver's stack. Once the reset packet is what the receiver's stack expects as the next packet, it immediately disconnects the session.

Another interesting thing to note about the sequence number is that it is not an exact value, but a variable sized range, dependant on the window size. We are talking a greater possibility than just 2^32. This makes long term, large window TCP connections the most vunerable. A window size of 32768 reduces the probability to about 1 in 100,000. This is especially dangerous because it does not take a long time to send this amount of information.

Its not too difficult to guess the initial sequence number (ISN) of a TCP connection on IOS, check this out. You could then try to inject routes, but it would be very difficult.

BGP does not particularly like its sockets being repeatively broken, and if done on a wide scale, it could cause instability of the internet.

[/news] permanent link

Fri, 16 Apr 2004

Heh, looks like a lot of providers are BCC'ing entire internet exchange
participants and saying "we don't currently use authentication, we would like to define an MD5 key". But saying nothing more .. how cute.

[/news] permanent link

Cisco BGP Exploit?
Apparently everyone is scrambling to convert their BGP peers to md5 auth, and cisco is pushing out a fix to tier 1 providers "as we speak". Cisco is gagging customers not to speak a word about it, and it affects "more than cisco"

Md5 authentication? BGP config changes? Sounds like random hosts can pretend they are bgp peers and inject random routes or cause some sort of mayhem.

If i actually knew what it was, i'd talk about it, but I am discovering how high our company is on Cisco and our ISP's priority list.

[/news] permanent link

Thu, 15 Apr 2004

Gumstix and I2C
The Gumstix has no I/O. This topic has been ran into the ground a million times. Last tuesday at hacknight, i was let down when I found out that the cool 8 line header on the waysmall daughter board was not a collection of I/O's (GPIO), but actually an I2C bus, NSSP bus, and a battery indicator. But I2C does still give us some functionality, even if its not very fast. There are some pretty cool chips available which would be cool to interface to buttons, servo controllers, etc. without the use of a PIC.

One in particular is the $2 PCF8574 in DIP package (the big one we can use $0.50 radio shack chip sockets with), which gives us 8 I/O lines addressable from I2C, and an interrupt line on state change. If you want 16 bits, check out the PCF8575.

An alernative, the OnSemi JLC1562, will give you 8 bits and a 6 bit DAC, in replacement of the cool interrupt line. The chip also features an analog comparator tied to 5 of the lines, so it could also become a 5 line ADC as well.

A latching relay driver is also available.

Unfortunately, I2C on the gumstix is a pain right now. There is no serial device that i am aware of (ie: /dev/i2c) and I haven't found any neat programs yet that would let me do something like: I2CCmd read [address] [value] or I2CCmd write [address] [value]. Linux does have support for I2C, as most PCs use this to monitor fans, temperature, etc. So perhaps someone could write this some day. I'm heart set at writing some embedded code in perl or python....I really hate C/C++ for this type of thing.

I guess it didn't hurt to look .. apparently 'lm_sensors' supports the 8 and 16 bit versions of the freaking PCF8575! And better yet, its controlable under /proc/sys/dev/sensors/pcf8574-<0>-<1>/ ... this contains more information. I wonder if lm_sensors was compiled with the gumstix kernel?

Cool, but still, where is my i2ccmd read/write program?!?!?

[/pic] permanent link

Thu, 08 Apr 2004

ELF Band
Ever wondered what was on the radio dial between 0Hz and 45Hz right now? Wonder no longer, thanks to this wonderful Online ELF Spectrum Analyzer.

You can see the Earth's frequency at 7.8Hz, as well as peaks on 14, 20, 26, 33, 39, and 45Hz.

Here is a picture of the sensor:

This site also has a cool writeup and spectrum plot of the band:

as well as a cool writeup and spectrum plot of the even weirder Less than 2Hz "Pc 1-2 IPDP band":

[/wifi] permanent link

Mon, 05 Apr 2004

RFID: Privacy?
I don't see RFID as a big privacy issue. The concept is no different than a barcode, except this barcode is easily scanned compared to traditional UPC codes.

Like barcodes, RFID does not contain specific information. It is simply a static number. And unlike UPC, there is no common shared database containing what these numbers mean.

RFID is not a globally visible beacon. It only works within proximity of a scanner. Most scanners only work a couple feet, at best.

RFID sniffing cannot yield useful data without data sharing. A hypothetical road-side or store scanner has no idea the difference between my cat, my parking garage access card, and the Walmart shaver I just purchased.

Currently, my access card saves me time at the parking gate, my shaver package's RFID chip keeps prices low, my poor lost cat can be identified at the animal shelter (instead of put to sleep with the other strays), and my work security access card keeps people who shouldn't be on my secured floor from entering. At a price of privacy? Absolutely not. If I don't want my building to have my cat's RFID number, i'll keep him away from the scanner.

[/thoughts] permanent link

Drunk Engineer's Party Foul Turns Into Engineering Breakthrough
Soaking wood in sake apparently makes wood flexible enough to form a wooden speaker cone, without losing strength.

[/news] permanent link

Gmail is Evil? Right...
I thought this article on The Register was really silly. It is titled "Google mail is evil - privacy advocates".

I guess this kind of thing is expected, especially with Google's vague April 1st press release boosting email storages of 1 gigabyte -- completely free. Very little information has yet to be released on the gmail page about this service....so little that people are even reading the privacy policy in effort to uncover details.

The contents of your Gmail account also are stored and maintained on Google servers in order to provide the service. Indeed, residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account.

No...Really? You mean after my file system indexes are removed, they aren't going to do bit scrambles across the massive, distributed petabyte monster we know as GFS? How dare they! Maybe people should read more about how files are actually deleted in most file systems.

Google's cookie is an index for all your searches until 2038, and sits alongside an Orkut cookie that tells Google - or friendly law enforcement officials or marketeers - exactly who you are. Google's Gmail will complete the picture, indexing private electronic discourse under the main Google search cookie.

If you are going to do something illegal, and leave an orgy of evidence scattered around on webmail services, search engines, and your personal machine, you probably deserve to be caught.

[/thoughts] permanent link

Fri, 02 Apr 2004

Location-Aware Games Part 2 - Mogi
I saw this on slashdot, apparently this is the same exact concept I did usability testing on. I wonder who held the patents first, assuming this particular company even had them.

[/hacknight] permanent link

Thu, 01 Apr 2004

La La La
Its too nice to be at work today....

I feel stupid blogging AIM conversations, but I thought this was too funny to pass up:

pdEo2X5o3bq: yesterday i sang a poem at open mic
pdEo2X5o3bq: called "one million"
pdEo2X5o3bq: this is how it goes
pdEo2X5o3bq: 1 2 3 4..
pdEo2X5o3bq: 5 6 7....
pdEo2X5o3bq: 8 9 10
pdEo2X5o3bq: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
pdEo2X5o3bq: 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
pdEo2X5o3bq: etc
pdEo2X5o3bq: my friends placed bet on how far I could go
pdEo2X5o3bq: they kicked me off stage at 300

I'm probably going out to the coast this weekend for hikinh/camping. The weather report looks pretty good.

[/home] permanent link

Wed, 31 Mar 2004

Cool Travel Map
I saw this on Ken's blog, thought it was pretty cool :)

create your own personalized map of the USA

[/home] permanent link

Tue, 23 Mar 2004

Interesting Hacknight

Hacknight was interesting tonight because I enter the room and was asked to sign this NDA. It sounded kinda fun so I read it over, didn't find anything completely unreasonable, and signed it. Now I have completely given up my freedom of writing in my blog and talking about the experience in detail...

The "game" was basically a GPS (Lets call it location aware) supplimental reality game. In the demo, we chased (and captured) virtual ghosts across a park using PDAs. We were ghost busters! :) The entire concept is going to lead to some really great things I think, what we experienced is only the start. The magic card / RPG geeks are going to go crazy over this crap when it is finished.

Also, Peter and Michael brought a Soekris for Tacoma node. Sounds like we are going to startup the snownet project again, and we should have TacomaNode finished in about two weeks. It will feature a soekris with an orinoco card (and some 'hacks' to correct our timing and retransmit issues), as well as a colo'ed machine with about 30 gigs, and some bandwidth to use (!). I expect we'll be on the roof next weekend if all goes well.

Baldi needs a lot of work if we can't connect up to it, I have heard that things aren't fairing well :D

[/hacknight] permanent link

Sun, 21 Mar 2004

R/C Plane Software
I'm writing some software for a dinky R/C plane. Things are coming along pretty good...



Above: Waypoint Plot Software View

Flying from 47.324634 -122.421151 Alt 500 to 47.324505 -122.408051 Alt 500

From 47.324634 -122.421151 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 3243   heading: 90.8
From 47.324660 -122.420873 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 3175   heading: 91.0
From 47.324793 -122.420554 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 3097   heading: 91.9
From 47.325033 -122.420022 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2970   heading: 93.7
From 47.325238 -122.419623 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2877   heading: 95.3
From 47.325083 -122.419095 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2742   heading: 94.4
From 47.324856 -122.418687 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2636   heading: 92.8
From 47.324638 -122.418319 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2542   heading: 91.1
From 47.324402 -122.417978 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2458   heading: 89.1
From 47.324274 -122.417569 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2358   heading: 87.9
From 47.324434 -122.417143 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2251   heading: 89.3
From 47.324657 -122.416731 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2150   heading: 91.5
From 47.324439 -122.416296 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 2041   heading: 89.3
From 47.324140 -122.415982 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 1968   heading: 86.1
From 47.324020 -122.415481 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 1848   heading: 84.5
From 47.323981 -122.414740 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 1667   heading: 83.4
From 47.324171 -122.413269 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 1298   heading: 84.6
From 47.324423 -122.411532 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 862   heading: 88.0
From 47.324842 -122.410668 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 659   heading: 100.8
From 47.325369 -122.409974 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 571   heading: 123.5
From 47.325815 -122.409161 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 552   heading: 150.1
From 47.326125 -122.408245 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 594   heading: 175.3
From 47.326247 -122.407489 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 651   heading: 192.3
From 47.325812 -122.406859 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 561   heading: 211.7
From 47.325138 -122.407091 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 332   heading: 225.8
From 47.324817 -122.407584 to 47.324505 -122.408051 : feet: 162   heading: 225.4

Being able to actually apply trig to something really makes me happy...I might even work in some calculus by the end of development.

[/home] permanent link

Fresnel Lens
I bought a cool fresnel lens for $1.49 at Bargin World. Its only about 6 inches by 8 inches, but that is still enough to cause lots of trouble.

I brought it outside around noon on my deck during a sunny day. I didn't even have it focused and it was smoking the hell out of my deck. I went over to one of my tiki torches and lit it within a second. Its the magnifing glass from hell!

Fresnel lens can be used for other things besides burning and starting fires. It can also easily project images. I projected my cell phone screen on the side of a wall in one instance, and focused my TV screen to a very small point in another instance.

Its amazing how much heat one can generate with sunlight... this guy melted several coins.

This other guy mentions a supplier that has big lenses for about $15.

[/crazyideas] permanent link

Streaming Audio and Video Data Over Today's Cellular Networks

CDMA2000 / 1xRTT Summary

With all the fun streaming stuff going on at hack night, I brought my USB cable today for my phone. I have a SprintPCS CDMA2000 phone, which features a (data) mode called 1xRTT. Its basically a supplimental "channel" system, and gives you 16 x 9600bps (153kbps) upload and download. Whether you get that full amount depends on capacity, everyone has 2.4mbps to eat from for both voice and data services.

After subtracting a full duplex 9600bps control channel, and taking in account framing/packet overhead, I should have quite a bit of bandwidth left over.....perhaps IDSL or Dual IDSN in your pocket.

Past Testing

I've streamed high qualiy audio over my handset before, even while driving on the freeway, and had great success. At the time, it was a 80-90kbps Windows Media stream, and it did not break up during my 30 minute commute. Very impressive. It was buffered, and the bursty nature of 1xRTT may have kept the stream up during times of contention and lack of throughput. I really didn't look at the statistics or even cared at the time. Who knows for sure.

On The Upload...

But a bulk of that traffic was in the forward (downlink)..kinda cool...big deal. You couldn't possibly upload at those rates with a dinky cell phone with 3 bars, right? Originating streaming content is a whole different story too, because if you lag behind with low throughput, all of your viewers/listeners will suffer. Well, I wanted to find out for sure.

1xRTT To The Limit....Everyone Fhqwgads

I started a RealMedia stream, turned on video (quickcam) and audio (laptop mic). I started out a little low, using the "28k Modem" codec. Got video, got audio....no lost frames...hmmm..this was getting a little spooky. I was streaming video from my cell phone!

Bumped it up to 56k...looked better, no lost frames. Went to Single IDSN (64kbps circuit), still quite good. Went to Dual ISDN (128kbps) circuit and we still looked golden.

At this point, I was in awe. This means, for the last two years, one could have originated some pretty high qualiy video and audio streams from almost anywhere, during 1xRTT data services.

Lets Try Some Audio

Since my victim computer left with someone, I started playing with just audio. Could someone originate a near-CD quality audio stream from an 1xRTT network?

Yes. Pretty much, and with no interruption. The RealAudio codec wouldnt go above 60kbps, so I couldnt push it near the throughput limits I expected on the upload, but it worked great in both mono and stereo. Given the other remote options (phone line and analog cellular phone @ 3KHz bandpass sounds like AM radio), this would be perfect for studio remotes. Thats is in ideal conditions -- and just what you need is network congestion or cellular subscriber contention at the time you need your data throughput the most!

GPRS is cool too!

I dropped down the audio codec to "28k modem" and streaming live audio to a friend's GPRS modem. No breakups, it worked perfectly. We were all very impressed. Now, his GPRS modem likely would not originate 28k audio streams (he only gets a slot of about 1kB/sec for upload on GPRS, while the download is considerably fatter), but this was pretty damn cool I thought. Damn, I thought it was cool when i could pull a 8kbps stream via CDPD.

Conclusion

1xRTT is pretty cool....but I cant wait until CDMA2000 EV-DV :p, a little over a meg and half of upload!

[/hacknight] permanent link

Tue, 10 Feb 2004

Redline Networks Install

I'm going to be replacing our 100mbps boxes with gigabit boxes this evening.

So far, im quite happy with them. They make everybody happy....and when everybody is happy, my company makes money.

Growth has been a steep diagonal line these last 6 months, so a bigger pipe is just what we need.

The best thing of all is that these boxes have cool red lights on them. People walk by my office and stare at the red lighting and powercoated casing. Redline could probably sell these boxes on the case alone....actually...i bet they are!

[/work] permanent link

Thu, 05 Feb 2004

"Will CDMA2000 Kill WiFi?"

I saw something on the PTP regarding some sort of IEEE seminar about this topic. While the question is like being concerned Oranges will drive Apples out of my local supermarket, it is a very good question.

WiFi, or any future wireless LAN technology, will always have its place. A WAN will never replace the LAN. But hotspot carriers beware, EV-DO and EV-DV are very fast, and my $80 EV-DV plan with Sprint in two years will be like high speed DSL in my pocket. Why would I pay starbucks $40 for 5 coffee shops in seattle?

[/wifi] permanent link

Wed, 04 Feb 2004

Fun With Propagation Maps
After documenting signal strength every couple feet in my floor, I came up with this very interesting coverage map. It was hand interpolated from a massive array of signal levels.

[/work] permanent link

Sun, 01 Feb 2004

Superbowl Party
I decided on Friday to have some sort of last minute superbowl party. No one could really come, except for some of our family. That was ok, because they haven't really had a chance to meet.

Sadly, CBS had an exclusive licensed to this entire "Super Bowl" deal. That would mean that I could not get an HD version off satellite, and had to purchase an Over-The-Air antenna. I figured the Silver Sensor would be the best bet, which is basically this sexy yagi antenna that works indoors. Its not bad, but not great either. Just 6dBi in the UHF band. Currently, the rabbit ears were just too flaky....and i had maybe an 80% uptime during a show..

Just trying to find this antenna during the superbowl was nuts. Apparently, everyone else bought an Over The Air UHF HD antenna at the last minute and they were all sold out. After a few stores, I came up with a plan -- drive to a place were HD reception couldn't possibly work indoors, and buy the antenna there. HD reception sucks in Puyallup, so thats were we drove. I had my brother call ahead of time, and they had 2 remaining.

We bought the last one in Puyallup and drove back to the house....

The antenna was really touchy, and i lost signal a couple of times during the game, but that was only when someone moved into the safety bubble of the damn antenna. Just one little reflection from a human body threw the entire thing out of wack. Ironically, it was just CBS that was this touchy -- the other stations came in just fine.

I'm going to take back this Silver Sensor and probably steal the VHF/UHF on my parent's roof. It has a rotator, and its not currently in use.

The joys of digital TV :/

[/home] permanent link

Fri, 30 Jan 2004

Fun with WiFi in the office
Well, i finally have a little bit of time to start playing with the Cisco 1200's that came in. My new WiFi roaming laptop showed up, and i had Observer (has a lot of 802.11 MAC capturing/decoding abilities as well as other packet capture facilities) and a Linksys A/B/G card installed. Its a pretty sweet setup, and I walked around the office in search of rouge access points yesterday. None were found, i guess people didnt like Casey the WiFi Policeman bitching people out :(

The second i turned on a Cisco 1200 to configure it, two people from down the office called me, giving me signal reports. Its like people are watching their laptops, waiting eagerly for this mystical corp wifi network to power up.

Im going to put three APs around the area, and do a more thorough survey. I need to make sure the spots I picked will cover this office seemlessly or not.

Observer doesnt seem to be reporting dBm, just some lousy percentage, so I think im going ot have to install netstumbler to supliment this $10k software package...rofl.

[/work] permanent link

Tue, 27 Jan 2004

Fun stuff with the 1200
I got a bunch of 1200s with the 802.11g module in at work, and cisco bothered to ship me the dipoles today. So i have been messing with these lately in the office.

Signal propagation is a little better than i remember in the office, im suspecting its the 100mW radio vs. the 30mW orinoco i used earlier.

I am getting a bit of signal leakage outside on the ground, somewhere around -85 to -95dBm, which means that someone with a laptop near the building (or a high gain antenna at a distance) can access our network. We are throwing this network on a leg off our border (public addresses, outgoing connections only, no access to corporate network). In order for people to access corp resources, they would simply VPN in to our VPN server located on our public segment. Anyone could jump on the WLAN if they wanted to, but with all the bandwidth available at our office, no one is particularly concerned. I'm going to need to remember to block outgoing 25 on the ACLs, just to prevent drive by spamming. I am going to put a BS WEP key on the APs, just to prevent accidental associations and people looking for drive-by easy-access. They could just go down to the next high rise and jump on NEC's network anyway...

[/work] permanent link

Wed, 21 Jan 2004

Crazy Idea: Electronicless Internet

I propose an interesting question, try not to lose your lunch, but: Could the concept of the Internet be created in pre-electronic days?

I define the "concept of the internet" being any system, automated, which allows the communication of multiple end terminals to a centralized network of servers. The system would not be limited or expected to be any particular size. It could function only in the confines of a building or room, or stretch for miles.

Two applications would need to be deployed for basic productivity: