DigiSpark is one of the cutest Arduino-related widgets around. It’s about the size of a postage stamp, plugs straight into your USB port and will probably cover most of your microcontroller project needs. The problem is that it doesn’t seem to play nice, out-of-the-box with 64-bit Ubuntu Linux. Continue reading “DigiSpark With 64-bit Ubuntu”
Category: Linux
Hacking Cheap eBay IP Camera
I bought a €40 “Anbere” brand IP camera from eBay to find that it can only be used to feed the supplied Microsoft Windows application. I need it to perform the simple task of serving a JPG through its web interface. This left me with two options: bin it or reverse engineer this shonky POS. I chose option 2. Continue reading “Hacking Cheap eBay IP Camera”
Django On Ubuntu 14.04 With Python 3
Django is fast becoming one of the top choices for web application frameworks. It’s based on a much better language than PHP, a much less-weird language than Ruby and a lighter-weight environment than Java. Unfortunately Python suffers from a horrendous 2.x to 3.x incompatibility in the language and environment. I took the philosophical decision to not bother learning Python 2.x and do everything in Python 3.x. In theory Django has been Python 3 compatible since Django 1.5. This dogma isn’t without its problems when developing using the Django framework. Continue reading “Django On Ubuntu 14.04 With Python 3”
De-Minify JavaScript On the Command Line
The most authoritative definition of how some software works is to examine the source. Minifying JavaScript makes for faster downloads and has an extra added benefit of obfuscating your source code. Fear not, you can un-minify. Continue reading “De-Minify JavaScript On the Command Line”
PostgreSQL 9 High Availability Cookbook
Packt Publishing asked me to review Shaun Thomas’ PostgreSQL 9 High Availability Cookbook, so, here it is.
Executive summary: I like it. Continue reading “PostgreSQL 9 High Availability Cookbook”
Saleae Logic Analyser Clone with Ubuntu Linux
The Saleae Logic is an 8 channel 24MHz logic analyser. Soon after its launch people in China opened them up to find that they are pretty simple inside and, as sure as night follows day, little workshops in Shenzen started producing clones impossibly cheaply and to be sold through eBay, AliExpress, etc. Continue reading “Saleae Logic Analyser Clone with Ubuntu Linux”
Serial Protocol Debugging With Ubuntu & Bus Pirate v4
Back in the day, developing serial protocols was a cat-and-mouse game of write some code for host processor, tweak your serial peripheral and repeat, adding some logic analyser sauce as necessary. These days logic analysers and even DSOs will decode a wide variety of serial protocols for one- or more-wire hardware architectures. Still, fast logic analysers and fancy protocol-savvy scopes are pricey.
Enter the Bus Pirate. Continue reading “Serial Protocol Debugging With Ubuntu & Bus Pirate v4”
Install Ubuntu 12.04, 13.10 or 14.04 on 3TB Disk
Like me, you may have become complacent in installing Ubuntu Linux. It always ‘just works’. Right? Well, I had an unpleasant surprise when I wanted to install 13.10 on my shiny new Lenovo ThinkCentre tower with an equally shiny, new Western Digital Red 3TB drive. I wanted to use one of these drives to boot from because a) it’s huge and I have lots of data b) it’s got some good reliability reports c) it only uses 4W and I will have it switched on 24×7 and d) on a price per GB basis they’re extremely cheap. Continue reading “Install Ubuntu 12.04, 13.10 or 14.04 on 3TB Disk”
Software Defined Radio on Ubuntu USB HDD
I’d like to use Linux with my cheap USB RTL2832U DVB receiver and my Noelec Ham It Up upconverter to browse HF bands. The de facto SDR application that’s easy to use is SDR# (SDR Sharp). It’s a Microsoft Windows app. We don’t do Microsoft Windows here, so we need the nearest thing which is gqrx made by OZ9AEC. gqrx needs GNURadio (or, at least, very large parts of it). Continue reading “Software Defined Radio on Ubuntu USB HDD”
Phantom Missed Calls on Skype for Linux?
Something has been driving me mad for about 6 months – every time I start Skype on my Ubuntu Linux workstation, the same missed call comes up. I don’t expect that Microsoft will be rushing to fix this any time soon, where’s the money in that? Continue reading “Phantom Missed Calls on Skype for Linux?”