TechAgility

DISCLAIMER: If you decide to flash ANY device with something other than the Vendors correct firmware then you are on your own!!!

Moving on from a previous post the other day regarding "Supercharge Your Wireless Router With Open Firmware - Wired How-To Wiki" I was chatting to my brother and it turns out that he has recently been having troubles with his Billion device and as a consequence of it being out of warranty he decided to buy an ASUS WL-500G

And now I can see why, not only is it a Wireless Access Point with ADSL but it also has 2 x USB 2.0 ports as well so that this can effectively act as a mini NAS unit as well by hosting additional storage <see table below>

But the real neat part is that with his help I was also able to discover that there is a complete OpenSource effort at OpenWrt

About OpenWrt

OpenWrt is an extensible Linux distribution that runs on Linksys WRT54G/GS routers, as well as some related hardware. Unlike many other distributions for these routers, OpenWrt is built from the ground up to be a full-featured, easily modifiable operating system for your router. In practice, this means that you can have all the features you need with none of the bloat, powered by a Linux kernel that’s more recent than most other distributions.

This is where I obtained the information in the table above (link - TableofHardware) - at the very least if you are considering purchasing some form of Wireless Access Point then you should really glance through this table and satisfy yourself that have made the right choice on Hardware?

So back to OpenWrt, is it for you? well it is based on Linux so it is somewhat command line driven etc. and it’s more than likely that as much as this might provide a benefit to some, they will be put off by the install method and the possibility of bricking their device?

So if that is the case then simply move on to: X-Wrt, "OpenWrt for end users"

About Us:

X-Wrt was started because there was a need for end user extensions to OpenWrt, such as an enhanced web management console (webif). For a long time now it has been established that OpenWrt is the best firmware in its class. It far exceeds other firmwares in performance, stability, extensibility, robustness, and design. We at X-Wrt decided it was long past time for end users to get access to this superior firmware.

We are a separate project from OpenWrt due to the difference in focus and development ideals. We are considerably more pragmatic than OpenWrt and have the goal of providing solutions today, while OpenWrt has a more idealistic development philosophy and intends to perfect the firmware core, no matter how many rewrites and how much time it takes. This difference in development attitude creates a complimentary atmosphere that benefits everyone.

So how easy is this to install? Follow the screen shots from here at Installation

written by dcaddick

As it often happens when browsing the web, you start out looking for one thing, and invariably you find something else entirely that you have been looking for a few weeks or months ago?

I have been looking for a decent Media Streamer device that can act as the intermediary between the PC/Server and the TV and I have been looking with these ideas (courtesy of "She who must be obeyed" ) in mind:

• Must be white or silver
• Must be quite small (Desktop PC won’t cut it, needs to be more like a DVD player or smaller)
• Must make no noise (or very quiet - this rules out the Xbox360, etc.)
• Ideally HDMI output
• Would very much like it to be able to record TV (Digital Video Recording) in HD
• It must simply work, not bleeding edge device!

So I did have another scout around the web and find things like TViX that really come very close with their M6500a based on what appears to be the latest Sigma 8635 chipset and this is a very neat unit that can also include the optional T430 HD Tuner to add HD recording to the mix - awesome, check out this thread for peoples opinions at The official DVICO TViX M6500A Discussion the only downside for me is that I can’t get one in Silver or White <see above> although I have considered buying one and painting it

The other thought I did have is to "borrow" a HP T5730 (with WiFi) from work and see if I can’t get a 16Gb USB drive formatted to run XP SP2 with Media Centre (or Media Portal) straight from the USB drive just to see what the performance might be like as it does have a 1Gb of RAM and AMD Semperon +2100 CPU, but the best bit is that the DVI output will support wide screen to something like almost 2056 x 1600 so this might just work?
(Although the sound output with this will not be brilliant, but I could always add the PCI expansion slot and add something else to it?)

And then yesterday I came across this little beauty and I’m starting to wonder if it might be a bit too early to see if it’s possible to pick one up while I’m in Houston in a few weeks time?

Anyway, I’m hoping to have a play with the idea of modding the T5730 next week and then see what happens? 

gPC Mini and Mac Mini Battle for the Bookshelf

By Rob Beschizza February 26, 2008 | 3:45:21 PMCategories: Apple

Apple’s Mac Mini hasn’t had much competition in the last few years. Shuttle and Aopen both make vaguely similar machines, but neither is as small (or as inexpensive) as the six-inch wonder. Enter the forthcoming Everex gPC Mini, a linux-powered lilliputian with similar specifications and displacement.

Lining up the stats makes for an interesting choice: the Mac Mini is still a little bit smaller (84.5 inches cubed to 99.4) and is more powerful, but has less storage. GOS Linux is no OSX, but with the gPC mini, you’re not paying for it either.

Think Mini [Everex]

gPC Mini and Mac Mini Battle for the Bookshelf | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

written by dcaddick

Talk about the cat among the pigeons? I was certainly aware that MS’s 2008 was to have Hyper-V included at a minimal cost of USD$28 but that is not due for another 5 months or so, and it was always expected that the pricepoint would come down to meet MS but this is quite early I would have thought?

As Alessandro points out - this will cause some serious pain in the Sales Channel, this is where Citrix had a big jump on VMware and as far as I am aware VMware was getting very serious about trying to ramp this up ASAP - but it would now appear that one of those benefits or sales models that was being offered to the partners will now be disappearing?

So I wonder what this will do to Citrix’s Xen pricing, I can only imagine that they are going to join VMware and MS and will want to be in there competing on price as well?

So the best guess at the moment is that most of Ron Oglesby’s crystal ball gazing of a couple of years back is now coming to fruition and the Hypervisor is already a commodity - so let’s move on to management of the Virtual World?

Dell to give VMware ESX Server 3i for free?

Saturday, March 15, 2008   |   4 Comments

Not only Dell is going to sell virtualization-ready solutions (hardware + VMware ESX Server 3i) in one click, but it seems that the OEM vendor is going to give ESX Server 3i for free.

As last article of the week The Inquirer reports the words of Martin Niemer, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VMware, which says that Dell will not charge anything for the hypervisor.

If confirmed this decision will have a serious impact on the sales channel.

On one side other OEMs that have a distribution agreement with VMware (HP, IBM, Fujitsu and other) will be almost obliged to do the same to not give Dell any competitive advantage.

On the other side the VMware distributors and resellers will see their chances to sell ESX Server in the SMB market fall down near to zero.

virtualization.info: Dell to give VMware ESX Server 3i for free?

written by dcaddick

Now I have always been a fan of making the PC as small as possible, but this is verging on the ridiculous surely? I’m wondering how useful this device might actually be?

picotux - the smallest Linux Computer in the World

The picotux 100 is the world’s smallest Linux computer, only slightly larger (35mm×19mm×19mm) than an RJ45 connector. More information can be found here.

picotux - smallest Linux computer in the World

written by dcaddick

So it would appear that Kyle at iFixit is something of a closet Mac Service guy? Really this is very nice to see exactly what is under the hood of this well hyped Laptop, this way you really get to see what’s under the hood and know what you are actually paying for.

It is nice to see that it is not that hard to get in to possibly replace the battery if needed?

 

• Look! We found the battery.
• Unfortunately, it’s no longer considered a user-installable part by Apple and is attached to the case by 9 screws:
• Four 3mm #00 Phillips.
• Four 3.8mm #00 Phillips.
• One 7.3mm #00 Phillips.

 

• The RF module, in all its blue glory.
• The Broadcom 802.11 chip had the markings BCM4321KFBG.
• Two other chips were enclosed in metal housings.
• And the backside had another chip marked with BCM94321COEX2.

 

• We found Intel’s new Core 2 Duo chip right beneath the heat sink (no surprises there). A temperature sensor sits on an external board glued between the CPU and graphics chips. A high-resolution image (632K) is available here.
• There are 16 RAM chips (eight one-gigabit chips on each side of the logic board) for a total of 2 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
• The large microchip in the center of the picture is a low power Intel North Bridge GS965 integrated graphics chip with the markings LE82GS965.
• Three chips adjacent to the North Bridge/graphics controller have a semi-transparent blue epoxy covering them, as part of the HDCP hardware requirement for digital video signals.

 

• The reverse side of the logic board. Many of these chips are for power management. A high-resolution image (708K) is available here.
• You can see the second half of the Micron RAM chips.
• We identified the Silicon Image SIL1392CNU HDMI video chip and Texas Instruments TPS51120 dual current mode synchronous step-down controller (power management).

iFixit — MacBook Air

written by dcaddick

So not only has Asus finally managed to roll out the Eee PC, but it seems like there will be a slightly larger model, and they are releasing news about an up and coming UMPC that does look like it might have legs?

Engadget: Asus confirms the 8GB 10-inch Eee PC

Posted Nov 14th 2007 11:06AM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Laptops

Asus has been coyly hinting at a spec-bumped Eee PC for a while now, but it looks like the wink-and-nudge days are over — German Asus spokesman Holger Schmidt said that an 8GB Eee PC with a 10-inch screen would ship in 2008, as well as that equally-rumored but far less sexy desktop Eee. See, sometimes dreams do come true.
[Read link is in German]

Asus confirms the 8GB 10-inch Eee PC - Engadget

ASUS’ R50A set to "redefine mobile"

Posted Nov 14th 2007 7:56AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Laptops, Tablet PCs

All we have is this picture for now and the promise of more around CES in January, but that’s Asus’ R50A right there. It’s listed as a UMPC and said to "redefine mobile" with full PC and GPS functionality. Funny, we thought that’s what those gen one UMPCs were supposed to do 1.5 years ago. Anyway, this looks to be the R3 we’ve already peeped sporting a 4.8-inch display with abiggie1024 x 600 resolution.

ASUS’ R50A set to "redefine mobile"

written by dcaddick

So it’s an interesting way of Google to release their mobile offering in an Emulator/SDK download to stimulate interest before the actual hardware - and it certainly won’t hurt that they’ve put $10m up for grabs for potential developers?

Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project

Getting Started

1. Learn about Android
2. Download the SDK
3. Join the community. Participate in our discussion group through email or the web.

The Android Developer Challenge will award $10 million to developers who build great apps for Android. Learn more!

Featured Videos

Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz discuss the availability of the SDK, that it will be open source in the future, and demo some applications.

Three part overview of the Android architecture and APIs

First look at building an Android Application

more videos

The Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, is developing Android: the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. To help developers get started developing new applications, we’re offering an early look at the Android Software Development Kit.

Android

written by dcaddick

Well this is going to be interesting - a windows version is around the corner? well to be honest I kind of like the Linux GUI anyway, but what will be crucial to this device is that it doesn’t sacrifice speed or battery life for a fancy Vista like GUI.

I have always been a fan of Laptops and Notebooks being mobile devices, as opposed to Desktop replacements, so my personal bias has always been for a maximum screen size of 12" - besides have you ever been sitting by someone in an aircraft when they try to use their Laptop in economy?

More and more these days the connectivity side of things with 3G etc is becoming more mainstream and as a process making it more attractive to use devices more in the manner of Thin Clients and simply *connect* to your resources like Exchange via OWA, Google Apps, Zoho Office etc.

It will be interesting to see how this device fares in the Market?  

Asus has begun shipping its two-pound mini laptop, and says the system will be available with "Windows" by the end of the year. The Asus Eee PC uses flash storage and is based on a 900 MHz Celeron M processor.
(Click here for a larger view of the Asus Eee PC)
Originally tipped to cost $199, the device is now priced at $400, initially in a Linux configuration with 4 GB of storage. (You can access more information on this, along with reviews of the device, on our sister site LinuxDevices, here.)

             
The Eee PC is a tiny, SSD-based laptop

Acer said in a statement that the Eee PC will be available with preinstalled Windows XP "by the end of the year," though no information was provided about which version of the OS will be offered. Potentially, Windows XP could require more memory and storage, demanding a somewhat higher price.
In principle, Windows XP Embedded (XPe) could alleviate this. However, Microsoft is thought to restrict XPe licensing to special-function, pre-programmed devices, such as for the embedded software infrastructure in thin client terminals or set-top boxes. If so, this would prevent its use in devices such as mini-laptops or UMPCs (ultra-mobile PCs). Still, Microsoft has become more aggressive in competing with Linux lately.
Without tipping Microsoft’s hand on this matter, Scott Di Valerio, corporate VP of Microsoft’s OEM division, stated, "we are excited to work with Asus to enable a Windows-based software and services solution for this new category of mobile PCs." With Windows on board, the Eee PC will better accommodate corporate requirements, Asus said in a statement.
Staging a series of press events worldwide, including one at the upscale Stanford Shopping Center in Silicon Valley, Asus said initial sales have been at the rate of one Eee PC every six seconds. In the U.S., the unit is available at online retailer Newegg.com and reportedly will also be sold at Best Buy stores.
Features and specifications cited by Asus for the Eee PC include the following:

• Processor — Intel Celeron M clocked at 900 MHz
• Memory — 512 MB of RAM, upgradeable to 1 MB by replacing the standard SODIMM
• Storage — 4 GB "solid-state drive"
• Display — 7-inch color TFT with 800 x 400 resolution
• Camera — webcam mounted above the screen
• Audio — dual speakers for stereo sound
• Networking:
  • 10/100 Ethernet
  • 802.11b/g wireless LAN
• Other I/O:
  • 3 x USB
  • VGA port for external monitor
• Expansion:
  • SD card reader
  • Memory stick reader
  • mini PCI-express slot (accessible internally)
• Battery life — 3-4 hours
• Weight — 2 pounds (.9 kg)

As noted above, the Eee PC is available now. More information can be found at the company’s Web site, here.

Asus ships mini-laptop, confirms Windows version

written by dcaddick

In one of those typical Internet moments when "it wasn’t what I was looking for - but it looked like some very useful information that I would like the time to implement"?

I have been thinking of getting this working correctly at home based on some virtual machines, but as it’s not something that has a burning need to get done it probably won’t get done anytime soon - but I’m sure this will come up somewhere so thought it useful to point out that there is this comprehensive guide from Novell as well as the one at the Ubuntu Wiki site: ActiveDirectoryHowto 

HOWTO: Configure Ubuntu for Active Directory Authentication

Introduction

There are two important concepts for users: authentication, and accounts. With Active Directory authentication uses the Kerberos 5 protocol, and account information uses LDAP. Therefore we need to configure Kerberos 5 and LDAP on Ubuntu in order to manage users in an Active Directory.

Throughout this article the following IP addresses are going to be used, adjust appropriately for your network.

IP address Description 10.30.2.1 Router and DNS server or proxy 10.30.2.2 DHCP and TFTP server 10.30.2.10 NFS server 10.30.2.20 LTSP server 10.30.2.100-200 LTSP clients

It is assumed Active Directory is configured with an AD realm of EXAMPLE.COM and we will create one user:

account name: wendy UID: 1002 GID: 1002 home directory: /home/wendy shell: /bin/bash

[edit]

Accounts

For LDAP accounts the software package libnss-ldap is required, in Ubuntu Dapper CD this is not in the main repository it is part of the universe repository, however if you are using an internet repository it is part of the main repository and you can skip to the next stage. In order to access to the universe repository edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list and uncomment the universe lines.

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'universe' ## repository. ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in ## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security ## team. deb http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe main restricted multiverse deb-src http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe main restricted

Then update the package list and install.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install libnss-ldap

Enter the address of the Active Directory server.

The Active Directory is accessed with the LDAP protocol

Specify the LDAP search basedn

The LDAP search base DN is where to search for user account information

more at source… HOWTO: Configure Ubuntu for Active Directory Authentication - DeveloperNet

written by dcaddick

So from Alessandro comes news of a review of the Virtualization platforms and it’s going to come as no surprise that VMware tops the bill? But what is surprising is the kudos they give XenSource? Easy to use, feature rich offering is quickly catching up to its main rival - that would have to be good news to Citrix? especially seeing as XenSource was listed as being the easier of the two to deploy?

To be honest I think there is a lot to be said about familiarity with a product, if you are familiar with it and can be up to speed quickly in any organization then this will clearly be a benefit? So the fact that VMware has so market share will work in it’s favor - for now at least?

I wonder how this review might have turned out if Viridian was also listed? Probably not too well at this early stage, but it would be interesting to know how far it has to catch up?

Review: CRN compares most popular virtualization platforms

Monday, October 08, 2007   |   0 Comments

CRN published a basic review of most popular virtualization platforms on the market today, assigning a rating to each one:

• 1st - VMware Infrastructure 3
• 2nd - XenSource XenEnterprise 4
• 3rd - SWsoft Virtuozzo 3.5.1
• 4th - Virtual Iron 4.0

Reviewer provided following conclusion:

While all four virtualization solutions accommodate the needs of IT development, VMware stood above the others for providing the best end-to-end virtualized environment specifically designed for development.

The biggest challenge for IT is to build communications between a large team working on the same development project. VMware’s ESX server is built for that, including the most features by far. XenSource’s XenServer is the simplest product to use and has new features that enable it to compete on a more level playing field with VMware and SWsoft. XenEnterprise is price-competitive and also scales higher than VMware’s enterprise solution.

SWsoft offers an interface that’s easy to understand, but its capabilities don’t rise to the level many development teams would require. Virtual Iron’s interface just wasn’t friendly enough for engineers to build simple workflows.

Simply put, systems integrators and application providers can certainly use all four products to develop and test systems but on more complex distributed infrastructures, they will be hard-pressed to meet deadlines without VMware’s Lab Manager to monitor workflow, integration schedules and code assets.

Read the whole comparison at the source.

virtualization.info: Review: CRN compares most popular virtualization platforms

written by dcaddick