Well, I am now finished going "back to school," so to speak. I have discovered a solution to the problem I mentioned below, about how my University wants to authenticate with MAC addresses and Javascript and how my Lantronix can't do that. Well, I found something called Firestarter, which allows me to use my "modern" laptop as a gateway for other devices. My wireless hooks up to the 'net and authenticates, and my Lantronix gets hooked to a router which is attached to the ethernet port on my laptop. It's a little like the "bridging" in Windows, but much more secure. All the devices behind my laptop get a full firewall and both MAC and IP "cloaking" in a way, since they are using the same MAC and IP as my laptop.
Retrocomputing Forever!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
aewan editor
I found something of interest to anyone who appreciates old computers and especially ASCII art:
http://aewan.sourceforge.net/
It's an editor designed specifically for ASCII art- but Notepad it certainly aint. It can do block copy and paste functions, has intelligent rotation/flip copying, multiple layers, animations, and transparency. The transparency is done with standard escape sequences, and you can export a file which can be displayed with the regular "cat" command on the terminal. It's really amazing stuff. Now if the author would integrate figlet fonts everything would be perfect.
http://aewan.sourceforge.net/
It's an editor designed specifically for ASCII art- but Notepad it certainly aint. It can do block copy and paste functions, has intelligent rotation/flip copying, multiple layers, animations, and transparency. The transparency is done with standard escape sequences, and you can export a file which can be displayed with the regular "cat" command on the terminal. It's really amazing stuff. Now if the author would integrate figlet fonts everything would be perfect.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Back to school technology
Well, it's that time of year again, the time when I and nearly every other male college student in the world realizes school is about to begin again and starts to panic since his stuff isn't ready to go! Well, kinda. Clothes, books, supplies, all of that stuff stayed pretty much packed in boxes since the beginning of summer, when I moved out of my dorm. So all that stuff is ready to go. But what of my technology toys, I mean tools? All of that stuff got used like crazy during summer, and now it's definitely NOT ready to pick up and move.
So what needs to move and what stays? That's the question, since bringing everything probably won't work. Note the probably- I'm not going to be living in a dorm, but an apartment with 3 other guys. I know the 3 other guys very well, so I'm not worried about stuff getting wrecked by them being careless. I'm more worried about where to store it all.
Thus far I have narrowed it down to a few key things and will bring more as needed. (or not needed, but rather wanted.) My modern HP zv6000 is actually not wanted as such, but needed for various reasons, one of which is the fact that with my current Linux OS I can change MAC address on my machine. This is crucial since my other internet-enabled devices (Lantronix + Apple II) have one fixed MAC address and also don't support anything like Javascript, which is needed to authenticate on the stupid university routers. So I authenticate with the Lantonix's MAC on my HP, then change MAC on my HP to it's own address again, and connect as usual. Of course, can you contact the Tech Dept. and just give them a MAC you need authenticated? No, they "don't have access to that info" and "can't change it directly," even though I know for a fact they regularily go through the list and bump off people the RIAA says are pirating things.
Of course the Tandy 102 comes. I actually need that one for school, but it helps that I actually enjoy using it for things too. And all the accessories come too, printer, cassette drive, etc. If I could find a disk drive that would come too. The Apple II and Lantronix are coming along as a pair to be my online workhorse machine and Linux terminal. And my pristine NES and game collection comes too, because it's in it's original box (makes moving easy!) and I really like having it around. The Atari 2600 and Colecovision are staying with my parents, because I don't use them much. (haven't touched the Atari in 4 years)
And I guess the only other thing I have to bring is my tech tools, but where to put them? I need a toolbox. Off to Harbor Freight today to get one, and into which will go my soldering gear, micro-screwdrivers, helping hand thing, multi-meter... now where am I going to stick my oscilloscope? *sigh* And as I think about it more, I realise that the school probably doesn't want me using any of these things in their buildings. Heck, I'd probably get a citation for using that old of a computer on their networks, even though it's more secure than the piles of garbage they got in the library over there.
So what needs to move and what stays? That's the question, since bringing everything probably won't work. Note the probably- I'm not going to be living in a dorm, but an apartment with 3 other guys. I know the 3 other guys very well, so I'm not worried about stuff getting wrecked by them being careless. I'm more worried about where to store it all.
Thus far I have narrowed it down to a few key things and will bring more as needed. (or not needed, but rather wanted.) My modern HP zv6000 is actually not wanted as such, but needed for various reasons, one of which is the fact that with my current Linux OS I can change MAC address on my machine. This is crucial since my other internet-enabled devices (Lantronix + Apple II) have one fixed MAC address and also don't support anything like Javascript, which is needed to authenticate on the stupid university routers. So I authenticate with the Lantonix's MAC on my HP, then change MAC on my HP to it's own address again, and connect as usual. Of course, can you contact the Tech Dept. and just give them a MAC you need authenticated? No, they "don't have access to that info" and "can't change it directly," even though I know for a fact they regularily go through the list and bump off people the RIAA says are pirating things.
Of course the Tandy 102 comes. I actually need that one for school, but it helps that I actually enjoy using it for things too. And all the accessories come too, printer, cassette drive, etc. If I could find a disk drive that would come too. The Apple II and Lantronix are coming along as a pair to be my online workhorse machine and Linux terminal. And my pristine NES and game collection comes too, because it's in it's original box (makes moving easy!) and I really like having it around. The Atari 2600 and Colecovision are staying with my parents, because I don't use them much. (haven't touched the Atari in 4 years)
And I guess the only other thing I have to bring is my tech tools, but where to put them? I need a toolbox. Off to Harbor Freight today to get one, and into which will go my soldering gear, micro-screwdrivers, helping hand thing, multi-meter... now where am I going to stick my oscilloscope? *sigh* And as I think about it more, I realise that the school probably doesn't want me using any of these things in their buildings. Heck, I'd probably get a citation for using that old of a computer on their networks, even though it's more secure than the piles of garbage they got in the library over there.
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