rexVM – A virtualBox Appliance for Developing for The REX 6000
As most of you readers probably know, I have been terribly remiss in my postings of late. That isn't to say that I haven't been hacking. Oh no. Bootstrapping a startup requires hacking all over the place. During the past week alone I've
- Gotten to know my franchise tax agent on a first name basis
- Authored contracts, which in my opinion should be written in python
- Authored a research paper on novel methods for efficient bulk virtual machine storage and retrieval (stay tuned for that one!)
- Reminded myself daily why I use git, while writing features integrating svn, cvs, etc
- Created what, I am fairly sure, is the world's largest openWRT/BCM5354 firmware image/executable set
- Created at least 10 new project virtual machines
Which actually brings me out of my /startup header and back into :/publish . One of the terrific things about founding a startup (ducks!) is the flexibility you get while setting up your workflow. Long a proponent of integrating virtual machines into business processes, I have been enjoying the real freedom a robust virtualized system can provide. I'll get into the detailed workflow later in the post. For those 'first page only' readers I'll get to the golden ticket, I recently picked up a REX 6000 credit card PDA for 6$ at the local thrift.
Read on for (much) more and download links!
Hackaway 2010 Winners Announced!
Thanks again everyone for participating this go round. Using my trusty d-10's, I rolled 6 dice per prize and took the resulting number modulo the number of contest entries. As you can only win 1 prize, I felt it would be unfair to do them in numeric order of hacks, so I randomized the mapping of dice rolls to hacks. I hope this provides some fairness to the distribution of prizes. The winners will be receiving an email request for their addresses officially very shortly.... but they are ....
after the jump!
*Update - Packages are shipping out now!
Hackaway 2010 is Over! A Massive Success!
The polls have closed! Hackaway 2010 is officially over, and no entries that come in after now will be counted. The winners have already entered! I had entries from Thailand, Singapore, UK, Germany, Brazil, France, all over USA, Canada, Mexico and Jamaica. Perhaps many more as well! I'll be rolling dice and boxing up the prizes tomorrow. The winners will be randomly chosen based on dice roll! I also want to thank all the people who sent in their personal stories of successful or fun hacks. It's really reaffirming to know how many great folks are all around. A tremendous success!
Hackaway 2010 Announced!
It's been a tremendous 2010 so far, and it's time for another Hackaway! Hackaway 2010 is about to begin. This one will be even bigger and better than Hackaway 2009, and there are some really awesome hacks coming your way. Rules and prizes and a ton of images after the jump!
New Ubuntu Z2 Userland from Mozzwald
A pingback from Geordy Rostad alerted me to a new Z2 Ubuntu userland from mozzwald. Looks like a very solid first release, and gcc compilation support is back in (apparently its not been working since my or aliosa27's bitbaked userlands??). Head over to mozzwald.com for the download and instructions and be sure to leave him some positive feedback. Those familiar with the previous Debian based userlands should feel right at home. Happy hacking! 
90′s Tech to The Rescue (network monitor)
Like many of you, I am throttled by the uplink speed of my network. Unfortunately, my upstream router (which also supplies my HDTV channels) is supplied by my ISP, and I do not have root access. The cable company also doesn't release metrics for line usage, data transfer for television shows, etc. Fortunately, it uses standard ip networking over Ethernet. I ended up using a 90's era netgear router and an old Palm V to display link statistics, throughput, etc. The connection was made using paper-clips.... more info after the break!
Roll your own Google Cloud Print, Today, Using Your Zipit Z2 (or anything that can run python), in 5 Minutes
When I read about Google's new strategy for cloud printing, I thought "hey that's great!, wish I could use it before 2011!". Thankfully, I run linux on damn near everything. As I don't have an android (which would be a pretty ideal running platform for this...), I've used the Z2 as my "drop in" cloud print server. Doesn't seem like it'll take the manufacturing companies long to integrate this into new product lines, as it's pretty simple. Instructions and source code links below!
The littlest famicom
Ok not really. But it's pretty sad anyway. Tired of playing games on virtual console, I set out to construct my own nes (and make use of the carts strewn about my closet).
Finished building my first guitar
Mark brought over his copy of Make, and it turns out this last Makezine had a great article on building cigar box guitars. It sounded like a really interesting project, so we went off to the hardware store to purchase some oak timber. Many days/hours/blood stains later, the fruits of our labor emerged, tuned and ready to play. 
. Lots of hack potential, and an easy fix if I break something. Bonus, tablature looks fine in links browser on the Z2, though you will have to scroll quite a lot. I'll see about getting gnome guitar working, should be interesting (mono bleh). Yet again another use case for the Z2 I wouldn't have imagined.
Great Pen Testing Zipit Distribution from Adrian Crenshaw (irongeek.com)
I've been meaning to split this off into a new post for a while now. Adrian Crenshaw (irongeek.com) built a great z2 linux distro, specifically with the intent of pen-testing. You can grab it here.
It's not only a very cool distribution, (based on a modified rootnexus zipit distro), it's a very cool reminder of the great things we accomplish building off each other's work and sharing information. My only suggestion for his next release is to counter his assumption that metasploit won't be running at a useful speed on the z2. 