1. Gotten to know my franchise tax agent on a first name basis
2. Authored contracts, which in my opinion should be written in python
3. Authored a research paper on novel methods for efficient bulk virtual machine storage and retrieval (stay tuned for that one!)
4. Reminded myself daily why I use git, while writing features integrating svn, cvs, etc
5. Created what, I am fairly sure, is the world's largest openWRT/BCM5354 firmware image/executable set
6. 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!

In 10 years this 4mhz z80 compatible PDA has remained unrivaled in terms of portability and size. Though I've started (in the few non work-related hours I get each month) prototyping work on an e-ink version of the REX 6000, it still has a long way to go before it's usable. In the meantime, I've been enjoying my REX 6k immensely. There were quite a few user programs written for the device in the years after Intel bought and squashed the project, and the history of the device is as fascinating a look at a hacker subculture as you'll ever find.

Anyway, if you want to develop for the device, there's a useful SDK that's been updated to work with new compilers and versions of linux available here. As I am using the REX 6000 for prototyping (something I often do at work), I figured I would apply my professional workflow to this my personal project. This means a tight, low overhead virtual machine in .ovf format using all open source software which you can import from a vmRepo and be up to speed in seconds (cloud friendly!).

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
If you work or are visiting Discursive Labs, you can download rexVM from the VMrepo here. For everyone else, you can download it directly from hunterdavis.com here.
971,810,614 Bytes, will be available 6am Pacific Time August 24th 2010 ...

One forum post which has saved me immense amounts of time in this process has been this one at ubuntuforums. I could have (and many many times have) built debian based VM's from scratch/stock/server Ubuntu distros and it is just not the same as when you build from a minimal system that's got just what you want in it. Here's how I setup rexVM. I use a set of scripts at DL but for personal projects I don't mind starting from a fresh interactive command line. Assuming Ubuntu, and wanting to use Puppy (for smallest size... installing make and svn could be easier ...). We're going to do this a bit backwards. Puppy likes running in live cd mode, especially when you want to have the devx (compiler) package running. We're going to install puppy in hard drive mode, then copy the contents of the devx package into our compiler.

1. Download puppy linux 5.1, this is a great tight base image to start building from
2. Fire up VirtualBox, and create a new VM named rexVM. For tightly bound development I like to have a 10gb expanding size disk and a small amount of ram ~256mb -i.e. lots of room for libraries and enough ram to compile
3. Add the puppy-510.iso to your virtual media manager
4. On the rexVM details page, add the puppy-510.iso as the ide secondary master (cd-drive)
5. Boot up the VM, and in puppy select 'system->puppy universal installer'
6. Open gParted, device->create partition table, then partition your virtual HDD to 9.5gb ext3/.5gb swap
7. Set the boot flag to on for the partition you just created
8. Close gParted and the installer will commence-do a full install and install grub to sda1
9. Shutdown the VM and de-attach the pupper live iso from the system
10. Once it boots up, open system->quickpet and install the xorg_high driver
11. Reboot or restart the x-server to activated
12. Open the puppy package configuration utility and add extra repositories
13. Close the package utility and download the devx package from here
14. Click on the devx_510.sfs in a ROX-Filer window to mount it.
15. Open a terminal in the mounted directory. (/mnt/+lupu_devx_510.sfs)
16. cp -a --remove-destination ./* /mnt/home/
17. Reboot the VM
18. At this point we should be ready for the compiler, so make yourself a project directory
19. mkdir /projects/rexVM
20. Enter that directory, and checkout the rxSDK
21. svn co https://mondragon.tek.bth.se/svn/main/world/ska/rex/trunk/rxsdk/
22. (you'll need to accept his security cert..which may be expired bleh)
23. cd into the rexSDK directory, and edit the Makefile
24. Change the sdcc: svn root target to be https://sdcc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/sdcc/trunk/sdcc sdcc
25. (Make sure you've got the extra /sdcc/trunk/sdcc on the end of that link!! )
26. Now copy over the sdcc-sparse link directory with cp -rp ./sdcc-sparse/link/ ./sdcc/
27. Now, in that same directory, make the project with a standard make
28. This may take a while, grab a snack, or cheat a little and up the ram/cpus on your VM during this compile
29. Once sdcc has finished compiling, execute a make install_sdcc
30. Once sdcc has finished installing, softlink the z80 assemler command ln -s /usr/local/bin/sdasz80 /usr/local/bin/as-z80
31. Execute the next make step with make build_rxsdk
32. Once rxsdk has finished compiling, execute a make install_rxsdk
33. If install_rxsdk barfs on librex, manually finish the tool compile install with cd rxsdk/tools/rxbuild && make install
34. At this point, you have a nice build environment for your REX 6000 (and really most z80 based chipsets)
35. If you're like me, you'll want to export the virtual appliance as a .ovf and add it to your vmRepo

And that's that. Time for me to setup - hours. Time for each developer after me to setup a REX 6000 development environment? The time taken to download a ~970mb zip file. About 20 seconds over my local wifi network -- not bad! You can more generically use these instructions to create any number of custom compile environments. Like the 300mb Z2 image I posted so long ago, I'll post the 1gb rexVM for as long as it doesn't start to eat up my bandwidth. Considering there's probably 50 REX users left out there, (only one of whom I'm sure reads this blog) I'm not too worried. Happy Hacking!!

Sneaky blog tricks! Hailing from around the globe, the winners are:

1. Tom Mcleod - Didj Hacking Bundle
2. Nonya Biz - EEE 701 2g surf (bottom half)
3. Aaron Cronk - Famicom Bundle
4. Kea Oliver - Fan Bundle
5. Mike Metzger- Genesis on a chip
6. Geordy Rostad - Infrared Bundle
7. Bob Crichton - Java Bundle
8. Kraig Hoekstra - Laptop Parts Bundle
9. Torin Macbeth - Minidisk Bundle
10. Paul Curtis - netgear zyxel
11. Kevin Thompson -Palm GPS Bundle
12. Yohanes Nugroho - Peek Messaging Device
13. Thomas, der - USB Wireless bundle
14. Bear Naff - Sound Bundle
15. Jon Hawkins - Wifi Bundle
16. Force Multiplier - X10 Home Automation Bundle

Thanks again everyone for making Hackaway 2010 a Tremendous Success!

Here are the rules.

1. Send an email to hunter at hunterdavis.com with the subject line "Hackaway 2010"
2. Include in the message the numbers of the hackaway items you would be interested in receiving
3. That's it. I will randomly select the winners after 7 days or 5,000 entries, whichever is sooner. There are no restrictions on who may enter. Any person from any country could win. Just like last time.
4. If you like, let me know what country and state you are from. Last time we had entries from dozens of countries, and it's always fun to see where they come in from.
5. After the winners are selected, I email them for their addresses, and send out their prizes. There are no fees or restrictions to entry, and I pay all duties, customs, and shipping

And here are the prizes

1. Didj Hacking Bundle - Didj+Claude's custom board with SD adapter, custom loader, source code, etc. Everything you need to start porting software.
   
2. EEE 701 2g surf (bottom half). Was used for the blu-ray player hack.
   
3. Famicom Bundle - Famicom chipset + famicom and nes games, chips, and controllers
   
4. Fan Bundle - Fans and fan controllers
   
5. Genesis on a chip with infrared controllers
   
6. Infrared Bundle - Infrared controller game plus many infrared to ps2 remotes with pass-through ports.
   
7. Java Bundle - Four Spongebob branded Npower java consoles. Follow my previous instructions and links on how to write programs for these. Perhaps enough for a small end-user study!
   
8. Laptop Parts Bundle - Laptop screen, keyboards, batteries, etc
   
9. Minidisk Bundle - A folder full of 74m Sony MiniDisks (all full of data)
   
10. Late 90's era Netgear router with serial console (zxyel os)
    
11. Palm GPS Bundle - Palm V and Tungston with GPS and chargers and serial adapters.
    
12. Peek Messaging Device - Join the peeklinux project and start porting!
    
13. USB Wireless bundle - Rip Roar USB wireless messenger (IM-ME clone) along with UBFunkeys reader and many keys (rfid-like keys based on usb passthrough).
    
14. Sound Bundle - Street Fighter 4 Japanese practice keychain, audio repeater device, and crammer ogg vorbis/wm3 device.
    
15. Wifi Bundle - Netgear N router pre-flashed with openWRT, and linksys wireless-b access point
    
16. X10 Home Automation Bundle - Two X10 PC receivers, wireless receiver, heavy duty appliace module, two light modules, start automating your lab!
    

And that's that! Send me an email! Tell your friends! Good luck! Can't wait to see what hacks you come up with this year!

The netgear 314 I had in my closet is actually a re-branded ZyXEL Prestige 314. This is nice as it comes with a serial terminal interface already set up. By inserting this router into your network between your router and the upstream port you can easily set up a syslog rebroadcaster to a linux box on your network. That's the easy way.....

As I also had an old Palm V sitting around, I figured it'd be more fun to do it the hard way. There's an old serial terminal program for palm called ptelnet that I recommend. It has macro functionality, so also I recommend setting your macros to be your favorite system info commands for the Zyxel interface (net show tables, ip address, etc).

If you've got a null modem cable around (f-f adapter) you can plug straight in. Otherwise you'll have to roll your own. Lucky for us the serial protocol only needs 3 lines (power, rx, tx (pins 2,3,5)). The netgear expects hardware flow control to be on, so you'll also need to bridge those lines as well (pins 7,8). I used paper clips (dangerous!!!!), but I would recommend using shielded wires.

Once you've got all your pins connected (or swapped depending on your cabling..), fire up your terminal emulator and power on your router. You're all set to get all sorts of nice statistics your ISP may not want you knowing about.

So here's the plan. We're going to configure our Z2 to periodically check an email address for emails with attachments. When it finds an email with an attachment, it prints the attachment and archives the email. As you can see from the photo, I place a little notecard on the Z2 which states "Email __EMAILREDACTED___ to print to this printer". If you want to print to this device "from the cloud", just email to it. Pretty simple , and the arm in the Z2 takes up a fairly low wattage overhead as a cloud monitor/print server.

1. First, we'll want to connect the Zipit to an existing printer. As I've got a network printer at work (fairly common situation), I'll use that as the example case. Using one of the linux (I'm going the debian (easy) route) Z2 distros that's popular, boot your Z2 up and get it connected to the net/up to a state where it can update via apt get. Then apt-get install cups for printing., and apt-get install gmail-notify to install all the relevant pre-reqs for python. That's one thing that's great about python on embedded, if you know another popular python program uses all your libraries, just install that first and you've got your prerequisites covered...or at least all the ones I can remember You can set up cups to handle various filetypes for printing, but it should come with postscript by default and that's enough for me
2. Next, we'll configure the Z2 to print to a network printer. This will be your "drop target". You can either use one of the gui printing configuration tools (select IP Printer from the drop-down list), or the cups command line or web tools. From the debian wiki, cups runs a web daemon locally than can be used to configure new printers. After installing cups, you can elinks http://localhost:631/ to get to an administration website. From here it's pretty trivial to print, as your apt-get should have pre-configured a lot of cups for you i.e. samba, workgroups info, etc (interactively in my case).
3. As this'll be an open source solution, there's no need to re-invent the wheel. Suresh Kumar wrote an imap attachment handler in python that's fairly compact, we can use that as an excellent base to write our script. It's PSF licensed, so you know it jives with our GPL sensibilities.
4. Now in this script it stores all attachments into their own hierarchical directory structure. You can remove this if you like, but I kind of like having a print backup, at least for a few weeks. This is the write_file() function. Wherever this is called you can add your own os.system call to print the file. For the lazy, if your printer is named "JACKBAUER" at the end of this function just add sysCommand = "lpr –P JACKBAUER –#1" + filename . This fills a string buffer named sysCommand with our command to print using the lpr function (cups standard printing function). Follow this line with os.system(sysCommand)
5. Now that your python script is finished, create a script to execute the attdownload.py with the proper variables (username, server, etc perhaps make it a background process with nohup etc). Make the script executable, and you're good to go. Either add it to your rc.local so it runs on startup or add it to your bash.rc so it loads on login. Congrats! You live in a world with email capable printers

As I head out to my usual electronics warehouse (the venice women's council thrift store), I had envisioned building the nes from the necessary parts pulled from old consoles, pda's etc. I ended up finding a children's keyboard to tv adapter which came with a plug-in mouse and controller. For 10$, it seemed like a good candidate for chips. Ripping it open, before my eyes appeared a cartridge connector. My NES carts did not fit. They were the wrong size.. by about 12 pins.. Sounds about like. a famicom! Yep. Some company decided to save a $ and implemented a learning device based on the now insanely cheap to produce 1mhz famicom. I slapped it back together with a little hot glue, and that's that! Abolut the size of 3 famicom carts stacked, it's been fun playing the few famicom games I can understand. The hackaway pile for this year is getting bigger all the time!.