Clete's Blog

I’ve recently purchased the new Arduino Ethernet shield. This new shield has been revised to have a micro SD card slot that I hear can read/write cards sized up to 2GB. This can be useful for serving up files or even making torrent clients (albeit slow).

Picture from adafruit.com

The first project that I have completed is a small program that will upload the temperature of my room every 10 seconds to an online service called Pachube, which is a service for uploading sensor data.

I used some code found at Pachube, modified it a bit, and combined it with some code from one of Adafruit’s tutorials. You can see my Pachube feed here.

In the future, I plan on adding some more sensors and also combining it with a web server run from the Arduino.

Thanks to the new jailbreak out there, my iPhone 4 has been successfully jailbroken. Just like a typical nerd, I have been playing around with all of the cool new possibilities that are now open to me.

One of my “coolest” things that I’ve done so far is install a full-fledged bulletin board system onto my iPhone. I’m running lighttpd and using SQLite as my database of choice.

For those who are curious, all I did was type `sqlite phpbb.db` and then `.quit` in the console to create the database. From there, all I had to do was point the phpBB installer in the right direction.

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to St. Louis, Missouri with some folks from Mansfield. Check out the pictures here.

We went to the Gateway Arch, the St. Louis Zoo, and City Museum. I didn’t get any pictures from City Museum because I didn’t take my phone in. If you’ve ever been there, you would know why. You’re crawling sideways and nearly upside-down at times, so my phone would have fallen out. City Museum was certainly the highlight of the day.

We went into the casino in the last picture just to see what it was like. I truly believe that it is one of the largest scams in the USA. Again, I didn’t take pictures inside, because I am sure that they wouldn’t like that too much.

iSSH (App Store link) is a Secured SHell client for iPhone that works over any data network, cellular or WiFi. It is easily one of my favorite apps for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is obvious: I can remotely manage my server(s) from literally anywhere. Other reasons include a very intuitive user interface and the ability to use pretty much any meta key you would ever need.

Here is me watching someone’s NetHack game in iSSH:

The first thing you will notice about iSSH is that the keyboard is transparent so that you can see more lines of terminal and still be able to type.

Here is a similar screen of a server running htop:

Another great feature of iSSH is multitasking. iSSH can stay logged in for up to ten minutes after you leave the application (10 minutes is Apple’s limit). This is great for quickly switching between other applications that you’re using. iSSH will send you a message alerting you that your connections will be closed if you don’t reopen the application within a few minutes of the ten minute limit.

SSH isn’t the only thing that iSSH can do. It can handle VNC connections for viewing servers and desktops (of any OS) remotely. The new version of iSSH can even set up tunnels through SSH so that you can take ports from the connected host and forward them to your iPhone locally.

For instance, I have forwarded port 80 from my server to my iPhone on port 8080. Note that it looks like I’m running that server locally:

iSSH is undoubtedly one of the most feature-filled SSH/VNC/Telnet client for iPhone. It is definitely one of my favorite apps. I highly recommend it. It is updated on what seems to be a bi-weekly basis with new features and bug fixes. iSSH is easily the most frequently updated iPhone app that I own.

The only drawback is the price: $9.99 USD. If you ask me, iSSH is worth $50.

The full feature list:

• Multitasking support – can hold connections open for up to 10 minutes
• Arbitrary port tunneling through SSH
• Tunneled VNC client (or unencrypted using a “raw” connection)
• Tunneled X server
• Support for any non-standard ssh or vnc port
• Multiple simultaneous connections
• iPhone 3.0 cut and paste (double tap in console)
• Nearly every encoding supported
• Reachability notification
• Features a VGA BBS ANSI compatible font
• Portrait and landscape mode
• 53×24 or 80×24 (user configurable on iPad) with scroll-back buffer
• Arrow keys (by pop-up or by toolbar). Ctrl, alt, esc, tab, shift, Fn keys (1-10), ` key, all in combination.
• Keys are highlighted to confirm combination.
• Store any number of connections and configurations
• Command execution on connection
• Transparent keyboard
• Four (six on iPad) selectable monospaced fonts
• Via EDGE, WiFi or 3G
• RSA and DSA key generation and exchange via email, password-connected SSH or pasteboard
• Can support “uninterrupted” connections via GNU Screen and the command option.
• Transfers public keys automatically, without needing to email first.
• Pinch zooming in VNC/X11
• As good or better bluetooth/dock keyboard support than other VNC/RDP and console apps in the App Store! (Please follow iTunes support link for details.)

I am very excited for HTML 5. As a flash hater, I cannot wait for mainstream adaptation of HTML 5.

The biggest benefit of HTML 5, for me at least, is the ability to embed H.264 video into webpages. In my experience, flash is horribly inefficient. Flash was never built to be a platform for video, no matter what they may say. Flash video is horribly inefficient and it uses far too much processor power, even when it is GPU accellerated. H.264 video is perfect, because it can be decoded easily by processors and it is often much higher quality than flash video.

If you want to see some of the things that HTML 5 is compatible, check out Chrome Experiments. Although the name may be Chrome Experiments, these work in all HTML 5 compatible browsers.

I hope that HTML 5 will replace flash entirely in ALL uses and applications in web browsers. Please, flash, go away!

Two years ago, I purchased my first Apple product. After the iPhone had dropped in price from $599 to $299, I was able to afford one. I purchased the white iPhone 3G 16GB model. I was amazed at the speed and ease of use. The iPhone was and is definitely a revolutionary device. Before the iPhone, most smartphones were very primitive. The iPhone was the first phone to implement multitouch and the first phone to implement a touch screen in an easy-to-use and user-friendly way.

I am very impressed with the iPhone. I upgraded to the white iPhone 3GS 32GB when it was released last summer. The speed of the 3GS was amazing and the battery life was decent.

In November, my Dell laptop died and I had many bouts with Dell over receiving a suitable laptop for my needs that was comparable to the one that I originally had. After Dell was unable to offer all that I needed, I decided to buy a MacBook Pro and sell the one that Dell gave me. I had had it with Dell and Windows in general. I wanted to move to a sleek, simple interface that offered the robustness of UNIX. Mac OSX is perfect for that.

Three days ago, my MacBook Pro arrived. It is absolutely amazing. It is fast and simple to use. Everything about it is polished beyond belief. I have no major or minor complaints so far. I have been adjusting some to the new UI and the new way of finding things.

Installing applications is just as easy as downloading a single file and dragging it into the applications folder. *.dmg files are really just CD/DVD images, so burning a program to a CD/DVD is extremely simple. The OS takes care of all of it for you. Additionally, the $70 Magic Mouse is definitely worth the purchase. I like it because I can use it left-handed easily. I also like the multitouch functionality of it. I’m blown away by Apple’s OS.

It is no marvel that Apple yesterday reported their best non-holiday quarter ever.

The only thing that I must shun Apple on is their unwillingness to open source their products. That is it.

Here is a screenshot of my workspace. I currently have my MacBook Pro connected to my TV VIA Mini DisplayPort -> HDMI.

As usual, I am extremely excited for the Masters. I attend every year, but it never gets old. The Masters is generally the highlight of my year.

And this year is no different. All speculation was confirmed last week when Tiger Woods announced that he would make his return to golf with the Masters. Tiger made a good choice. There is no better tournament to return to than the Masters.

The Masters is the most controlled and respected golf tournament in the world. People at the Masters do not leave (much) trash behind, they do not run (generally), and they are the quietest crowds you will experience. There is a level of respect at the Masters, for the course and for the golfers, that is not present at any other major or tournament.

Some people misinterpret this respect to be fear. Fear of having your tickets revoked for life. Fear of being removed from the course. I recently read an article in the local newspaper that said that Tiger would be safe due to the fear of the spectators. It isn’t fear that will keep Tiger safe. It’s respect.

Tiger will be very safe at the Masters. The media is controlled extensively and the atmosphere is such that any disrespectful patrons will quickly be hushed or escorted off of the grounds immediately. It is the best place for Tiger to return to.

On another note, I’m generally excited to attend the Masters again this year. I look forward to seeing Augusta again, as it is one of my favorite places to visit. Aside from the tournament, it is a wonderful and conservative town. The town has a large sense of community and a huge focus on the game of golf. I can’t wait to return.

I’ll be rooting for Phil!

I apologize for not posting in a (very) long time. I have been busy. Additionally, I haven’t had many topics to talk about.

Currently, I’m in limbo waiting for the new MacBook Pro laptops to be released. It is rumored that a refresh might happen at Apple’s January tablet event. I’m purchasing a MacBook Pro due to the endless volley of issues being thrown at me directly by Dell’s abomination of a service department.

School has started back. I will be listing my schedule below:

MWF Fundamentals of Calculus 8:30-9:20

MWF Operations Research 2:30-3:20

TTH Personal Finance 8:30-9:45

TTH Database Systems 1:00-2:15

TTH English Composition II 2:30-3:45

TTH Astronomy 5:00-6:15

Monday Committee Meetings at 6:30-7:30

Work:

Monday 1:00-2:30

3:30-4:30

Tuesday 12:00-1:00

Wednesday 1:00-2:30

3:30-4:30

Desk hours: 9:30-12:30

Duty on some Sundays and every other Thursday night.

A few weeks ago, a worm that targeted jailbroken iPhones was released. This worm worked by exploiting a very simple security vulnerability. When installing SSH on a jailbroken phone, a default password is assigned and the user is not forced to change  it. That’s the only problem. This worm scanned for open SSH ports in IP ranges reserved by telecoms. When it found an open SSH port, it tried to login as root with the default password. If that succeeded, it would change the wallpaper to this:

It was only a matter of time until someone exploited the vulnerability — for real. Now, there is a worm out using the same exploit that allows the hacker full control over the phone and also spoofs a bank login page to steal bank credentials.

Really, this is equivalent to installing a web server, turning the firewall off, allowing SSH access, and setting your root password to ‘root.’ The problem here is that the average person who jailbreaks knows little to nothing about security.

Whoops!

Recently, I found this graphic on the internet. It annoys me to no end that most people do not understand the difference between “I could care less” and “I couldn’t care less.”