Sybreon Ones Nought

This is one of those ideas that made me go: golly, why didn’t I think of that? It solves a very fundamental problem in this world, is dirt cheap and is extremely easy to develop and deploy.

MyID is an OpenID provider. I have written about OpenID in the past. It is a platform for on-line identity authentication. It is used by a large number of people, including Google and Yahoo (Microsoft is looking into it).

Most importantly, the implementation is extremely simple and there are already numerous pieces of software written for it. So, developing an OpenID provider is something that should just take minutes to do.

However, MyID.is put a twist on it by tying the on-line identities to real-world identities. So, you need to prove whom you pretend to be on-line. It does this by tying everything down to a credit card, ala Paypal.

When you register, you need to provide it with your name, a credit card number and a real-world address. They then charge you a random nominal fee of between €2 to €5 and they mail you a secret key via snail mail. To verify your identity, you need to enter the secret key and the amount they charged you on your card.

In one fell swoop, they have just tied your on-line identity to your credit card. This means that you can prove who you say you are and if necessary, criminals can be tracked down.

Obviously, there are privacy issues involved but users are not giving out more information than we normally do whenever we go shopping online. Since they use OpenID, the on-line identity can be immediately used on numerous sites.

Of course, there is no reason why their business model cannot be replicated. Barrier to entry is virtually non-existent. All that you’ll need is a cheap server, the free OpenID software, a credit-card processor and a printer (for printing the secret keys). Nothing could be simpler plus it can all be automated.

Anyone interested in starting one up themselves?

PS: My head has already churned out a number of value-added services that can be tacked onto this. Golly!

This is how it finally turned out – my server rack within a shoe rack. It is not much to look at, nor does it claim to be the greatest server rack in the world, but it is the nicest server rack that I have at home.

The rack itself is made from a re-purposed shoe rack from Carrefour/Tesco (I forget which). The shoes were all removed and a hole was cut into the back to let wires through. A single power cable goes from the external socket to an internal 5-way extension. Everything is powered from this.

The middle rack holds the networking equipment – an ADSL modem provides the Internet connection, a wifi access-point that provides an older 802.11b network, a wireless router that provides a 802.11g network and runs DD-WRT. In the future, this whole rack can be consolidated into a single device that acts as a modem and dual 802.11b/g router.

The top rack holds the servers – a proxy server running Debian (lenny) and the file server running FreeNAS. The proxy server runs a local web proxy using squid and a repository proxy for Debian and Ubuntu using apt-cacher-ng. It runs a bunch of other less interesting services too. Basically, it serves as a multi-purpose server.

However, the computing power available is fairly limited. They are both VIA Eden 533MHz machines. It maybe worthwhile to replace these servers with a single dual-core Atom 1.6GHz based system in the future. I could feasibly run a virtualised instance of FreeNAS within the Atom system, which would get around the pesky problem of FreeNAS not recognising the ethernet chip on the Atom boards.

Thermally speaking, everything is passively cooled. Therefore, it gets a little warm inside during the day. According to the sensors, it reaches 50C during the day but drops to 40C at night. When a 12cm desktop fan is placed inside, it can bring down the temperature by a further 8C but it is rather noisy. I like things quiet.

I plan to put the printer/scanner on top of the shoe rack. This would make the shoe rack my central computing hub in the house. The rest of the computers in the house are connected to the central hub via WiFi. I particularly like the idea of having my local debian/ubuntu repository, which would save a ton of bandwidth when I install/upgrade the computers at home.

It was a spur of the moment decision but I ended up installing and setting up a home NAS server using FreeNAS and one of the low-power VIA Eden systems that I had at my place. There was a hack involved in getting it to work but nothing major was broken.

The VIA Eden system has a small form factor and is not big enough to fit a desktop drive in it. Therefore, I had to fashion a frame for the hard disk from an older computer’s floppy disk holder. Then, I removed the rear cover of the VIA computer to pass through the PATA cable from the computer to the hard disk.

I removed a 125W ATX power supply from another old computer and hacked it so that it would power the hard disk externally. However, the VIA system does have a on-board power supply for hard disks. However, due to its location, I’m going to have to hack it a little. I might try it later.

The latest FreeNAS software was then installed onto a compact flash card and inserted into the VIA system. The VIA system has a built-in CF card slot, which is directly connected to the second PATA channel. Once everything was connected and wired up, I turned it on and voila – everything worked.

Okay, I fib. It wasn’t so simple and I had to fix a few problems:

1. The compact flash card that I had initially used turned out to be a little flaky. So, I had to replace it with another compact flash card. Good thing that I have about half a dozen of these lying around.
2. The ATX power supply had to be hacked so that it would turn on without having a power switch on it. So, it now functions like any other regular power supply and turns on when the mains power is applied.
3. FreeNAS had to be reconfigured to obtain its network settings from my DD-WRT router. This involved plugging in a monitor and keyboard into the machine for some initial configuration.
4. The shoe rack that I am using to house everything ran out of space. So, I had to fashion a hack for the system. I’m still not quite happy with it and I may redo everything over the weekend.
5. Turned out that I was only using about 80Gb of space on my 250Gb backup hard disk. So, I moved that data into a smaller hard disk and used the 250Gb hard disk as my NAS hard disk instead. It should take me at least a year to fill it up.

In the end, it turned out to be a fairly simple NAS to set up. I have already tested it out by mounting an NFS share and it works. I could create directories, move files and what not. So, it is working!

However, I won’t be bench-marking this system as it is seriously under powered. It runs on a 533MHz VIA processor with only 256Mb of memory. So, I don’t expect it to have a stellar performance. Nonetheless, it is a working NAS system and perfectly suitable for low-power home use.

Oh, I fib again. It would be interesting to see how under-powered it really is. So, I will probably benchmark it at some point to see if it performs well enough for video streaming to my future HTPC.

PS: I love that they labeled the latest version of FreeNAS as the Kwisatz Haderach – “the one who can be many places at once”!

Recently, I have ‘dug’ up a lot of old computers. Then, this evening, I was describing my home network to another geek friend of mine and he asked me, how many computers do I have in my house at this very moment. While trying to list down the machines that I have, I came to realise that I have a lot of them. So, I thought that I’d list them down just for fun, in functional order:

Server

• One Dell server that I bought a long time ago to run some Windows server software. I keep it around because it is the only Windows machine that I have. It is a dual-processor P3 class machine with SCSI disks. I once lent it to a friend for some 3DS rendering work.
• Two VIA based machines that were also bought ages ago. Both have C3 1GHz processors but are now dead. They’ve got working 125W ATX power supplies though.

Desktop

• One Celeron 1.8GHz machine that my dad uses as his main desktop computer. It currently runs Debian Lenny with XFCE and OpenOffice.
• Seven VIA based machines ranging from Eden 533MHz to C3 1.0GHz machines. These are physically small machines that are re-purposed for different functions. I used one as my HTPC prototype and am currently using another one as a development server. I like them because they draw very little power.

Laptop

• One old Gateway laptop around the class of a P3 600MHz. Retired due to age. I might just turn it back on again at some point.
• One Fujitsu laptop around the class of a AthlonXP 1.5GHz. Has thermal problems but works fine when under-clocked to 500MHz. I am using it as a electronic testing platform.
• One HP laptop that I am presently using as my main work machine. It is a Athlon X2 2.0GHz class machine.

Non-Functional

• One 386 class machine that was my first computer. My dad bought it for my sister. It now lives as a board in a box.
• One 486 class machine that I bought off auction. It now lives also as a board in a box.
• One Cyrix 586 class machine that was my second desktop when I was a kid. It was the first computer that I bought myself.
• Two Pentium class machines that are no longer working either.
• One Duron 1.3GHz machine that served as my trusty desktop at university. It was still working when I left for my PhD but it refuses to start now. I wonder what happened to my Athlon 500MHz machine?

Microprocessors

• One Motorola 68K processor that was part of an abandoned SBC project.
• Dozens of PIC processors that have found life and death in various random hobby projects.

Man, that is a lot of computers. Taking away the broken ones and the microprocessor parts, that’s still 12 working machines in total. The thing is, I plan to buy a couple more in the near future – my NAS and HTPC projects, remember? LOL! 😀

To network them all up, I have a 11b access point and 11g router running at home. I also have eight 11b USB dongles that I use to connect the machines to the home network. In addition, I have many metres of Cat5e cables and half a dozen ethernet cards at home too. The only thing that I’m short of at home is power points.

Maybe I can one day build my own mini-computer museum at home. Maybe I should do it today! I managed to clear out one display-case during my spring cleaning. I could possibly fashion some labels and display boxes out of the other junk that I’ve uncovered. At the very least, I should preserve the microprocessors since that is my field of interest.

Like I said before, I’ve been busy ‘spring cleaning’ my house these last couple of week – tossing out 30 years of junk is not an easy undertaking. As a result, I have come across a lot of old memories and treasures from the past. Surprisingly, I found a copy of my undergraduate scholarship offer letter in my pile of junk last week. That brought back a lot of memories.

Those were trying times – an emotional roller-coaster. I can still remember receiving the phone call during my SPM examinations, to double check my choice of course and destination country. It was on the day of my Biology II paper. That got me all excited for days, about the prospect of going overseas for my degree. Shortly after that, came the letter that brought me crashing back down to earth.

It was 1997 and our currency had just been devalued by half in the short span of weeks. Funds were running dry and budgets were cut. Due to this, our government had decided to cut the number of scholars flying off. Thousands of students from all sorts of agencies were affected. I received a letter right after my SPM examinations. It was short and terse. In it, it said that in-line with government policy, the scholarship programme was being cut, and I, with it.

Now, that sucked. To a 17 year-old, it seemed like the end of my hopes and dreams.

After that, I received a scholarship offer to pursue my degree at a local private university instead. So, things didn’t look so bad after all. I would still be able to get a degree and I was quite excited by the prospect of joining a new university. I’ve always liked being a pioneer and I looked forward to all kinds of new experiences at this young university. In the end, I got to do a lot of cool stuff, more than I would have had the opportunity to at any old foreign university!

Then, the SPM results were announced. I could still remember the look that I got from teachers as I walked into the school to get my results. They already knew what I was about to find out. I did not do as well as all of them had hoped. It was not just me. Turned out that my entire batch did not do as well as the school had hoped. There was only one person with an A1 in BM that year, which was an anomaly, and it wasn’t me.

For me, while it was a sad occasion to have let down the entire school, I did not think too much about it. It was soon time to pack and get ready anyway. I already had a spot offered to me at a university, where I joined hundreds of other stranded government scholars. Orientation week there was thoroughly depressing like an AA meeting. We would all introduce ourselves in the following pattern:

“Hi, my name is [name]. I am supposed to be in [country] doing [course]. Instead, I am here now.”

Life likes to throw a wrench in the works sometimes. We went on to have some of the best years of our lives. I think that having the shared experience of being hapless victims of the financial crisis really helped us to bond. For me at least, I found the entire 5 years spent, a meaningful journey. It taught me a lot about how to take what life throws at me and not to ask too many questions about it.

Although there has been several more wrenches thrown into several more works since then, I think that my life has generally been a smooth one, so far. I’ve had to fight a few battles, but nothing yet that I could not handle. I’m looking forward to living my life to its fullest.

“I’m just tired of people. Human. Cylon. Whatever.” — Galen Tyrol

There is a lot to be said about the finale of Battlestar Galactica. If you google for it, you’ll find all kinds of debates on it as a series finale. Personally, I felt that there was probably enough material to stretch on for another half season, which is why everything felt a little rushed and convenient at the end.

It started off just like every other BSG episode – very well. We had the last battle of the Galactica, which was a ‘volunteer only’ suicide mission. It was good to see my favourite character come through at the end. The battle sequence is probably the best CGI you will ever see in a TV production for a long time to come. The series has always had its own distinct special effects.

Unfortunately, since I am a hardcore engineer and an atheist, I found the final ending a little too ‘preachy’ with regards to religion and technology. I would have preferred either a really dark ending, or one that left things unanswered. A dark ending would have fitted perfectly with the rest of the dark series.

That being said, I still found the series finale a good wrap up to the series, emotionally. I cried when Sam did his final duty. Then, I cried so hard when Lee bid his final farewell to his father. Then, I cried again when Laura’s life ended. Then, I cried again when they panned over her gazelle grave with Adama sitting next to it, going into the sunset. It was also good to see true love finally develop between Baltar and Caprica 6.

Overall, it was a fitting end to the series.

“See you on the other side” — Samuel Anders

I have always loved IKEA. In the past, I used to just visit IKEA to browse through their displays and let my imagination run wild. It is like a candy store for adults. I’ve discovered that I still feel the same way about IKEA today.

I went to IKEA a few days ago and bought some stuff including a decent office chair and a lap top laptop table. While shopping for the chair, I’ve noticed something about expensive ergonomic chairs. I hate them.

When we moved into the new lab building at Cambridge several years ago, each of us was given a new table and expensive ergonomic chair. However, I have always found these ergonomic chairs very uncomfortable.

They are typically expensive because they are fully adjustable. The theory is that they would fit almost every possible body frame and table height. However, they were uncomfortable because I tended to feel like I was falling off them all the time.

While I was at IKEA, I tested a few ergonomic chairs that cost more than RM1,500 each and found them to be of the same variety. They were fully adjustable and were obviously very well built but I felt like I was falling off them all the time.

So, I ended up getting one of their new mid-range standard office chairs with a high back rest. I’ve brought it home, assembled it and have been using it for the last few hours. It feels very comfortable so far – more so than my previous office chair.

The reason that I’m talking about this is because I like IKEA. I like the type of creative ideas that go into each and every piece of furniture. Their furniture is of good build quality and at an affordable price. With some personal creativity, there is so much potential in a piece of IKEA furniture.