Anatiferous blog | Move every zig.

Howdy! This is my (William Reading's) webpage. At the moment, I only have this blog script and my gallery up, but I hope to get more stuff on this page at some point, or so I thought when I created this site years ago. Updates and shiny new copy to eventually go here. If you'd like to contact me to point out that I've done something to break XHTML/CSS standards or heaven forbid--look at my Vita--drop me a line at my e-mail address bill +spam @ [ELEPHANT] aggienerds.org. Simply remove "+spam", the spaces and the pachyderm along with its brackets and that address will reach me. I'm also available on Jabber/GChat/AIM/MSN with the same address above.

While the network was out the other day, I decided that it would be a good time to cook up a little summary of what’s going on in the packet shaper configuration file here.

A while back, I picked up a copy of Microsoft Streets and Trips with a GPS because that’s the easiest way to get a GPS locally since a store carrying it (Best Buy) is within walking distance of campus. As luck would have it, this GPS is a remarked Pharos GPS-360, which uses a Prolific pl2303 usb to serial converter. This means that the GPS is compatible with the v1.08 driver for Mac OS X. If you happen to have one of these things, just google for a copy of that driver and use this Info.plist in the driver’s extensions folder. Also delete the kextcache file before rebooting.

Update: Someone wrote in asking where to find the driver. It’s available on the prolific web site and a http://tech.prolific.com.tw/visitor/fcabdl.asp?fid=33667101 as long as it stays up. By the way, if you have the money available, I wholeheartedly recommend the GPS-360 bluetooth adapter. It doesn’t require any additional drivers to work with Mac OS X and you can position it anywhere in the vehicle.

Update 2: New link here: http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31

I’ll be attending the acm regional intercollegiate programming contest next weekend and one of the things we have traditionally done on the way up there is to find geeky ways to pass the time in the van. In the past year, I convinced my parents to let me subscribe to the unlimited T-Mobile GPRS plan. This has obvious practical applications, including the ability to have network connectivity even when in a moving vehicle.

One of the past limitations of this was that the cable I purchased occupied the entire slot on the base of the phone due to the fact that the phone needs a resistor across the first and second pins in order to tell that a cable was plugged into it.
But thanks to Tristan’s excellent soldering job, I now have a cable that allow my phone to be plugged in to a car charger and connected to GPRS simultaneously.

A few weeks ago, I picked up an Xbox and installed Xebian/Xbox GNU/Linux onto it. It occured to me that this would be the perfect platform to serve up the network access and perform some additional tasks, such as uploading the coordinates from a GPS unit to a web server tracking our progress. (Alternatives include plugging the device into mine or the other passenger’s laptops the whole time)

So how does one go about setting this up? For starters, I need to be able to have the Xbox establish a GPRS connection on its own. This requires that the Xbox load the usbserial module on boot:

# /etc/modules.xbox: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line. Comments begin with
# a “#", and everything on the line after them are ignored.

loop
input
keybdev
mousedev
joydev
sunrpc
lockd
nfs
scsi_mod
sd_mod
lirc_dev
lirc_xir
usbserial

The next step is to set up pppd for the T-Mobile GPRS service. I have the “VPN” service, but most users with unlimited access will have the regular one. The main difference is that the “VPN” service gets you a public IP address and must be specifically requested. In places where internet3.voicestream.com is used, internet2.voicestream.com should be replaced if this is the case. While I was writing it, I used Brad Midgley’s T-Mobile GPRS page and the Eridani Linux pages as references.

The /etc/ppp/peers/tmobile file:

# File: /etc/ppp/peers/tmobile
#
connect “/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/tmobile”
/dev/usb/acm/0 # Motorola Phone Cable
115200 # speed
nodetach # don’t fork
debug # show debugging info
defaultroute # set the default route
replacedefaultroute # yes, override the default route
usepeerdns # get the dns servers from the tunnel
crtscts # do flow control
noauth # no authentication required
deflate 0 # don’t compress
asyncmap 0
mtu 1500
mru 1500
noipdefault
idle 600


The /etc/ppp/chatscripts/tmobile file:

ABORT ERROR
‘’ AT&F
OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet3.voicestream.com”
OK ATDT*99#
CONNECT ‘’

The /etc/ppp/pap-secrets file:

(none) * password
‘’ tmobile


With that configured, pon tmobile activates the GPRS connection and poff tmobile deactivates it.

All in all, it wasn’t too bad, at least compared to getting the broken install of Rhapsody to install on x86. A couple of things to note though: It doesn’t appear to work when just Mac OS 9 is installed–I had to install Jaguar first to get it to work properly. I found that bit out through trial and error by installing OS 9 first, then Puma, then Jaguar. Second, there is an issue with the video card where it just goes off–I’m not sure if it’s just the small bit of memory or what, but I should be getting some new cards for it next week.

That said, it’s pretty cool that it still works on such an old system with such little work. Here are some screenshots of different bits of it:

While I was in California, I visited the Tech museum and did their “genetic engineering” activity where you put proteins from jellyfish that have a luminescent property under UV light and then make modified E. Coli into producers of it. They track who visits it throughout the day with an RFID tag and then let you log into a museum page with the number on the tag. Here’s Mine:

So now I’m registered at WWDC 2004 and waiting for breakfast before the tutorials. Yesterday wasn’t too bad, though it did take a fair amount of time to get into hostel, and the accomodations aren’t too bad–I ended up with 5 Irishmen, one of which was afraid that he’d fall out of the open window while he was sleeping next to it. Apparently today they’re supposed to have some sort of group activities and we’re going to learn a bunch of Cocoa stuff. Keynote’s tomorrow, so I’ll have to work a little bit to get up front if that’s possible. Thankfully I can get up quite early here (accidentally got up at 6am localtime because I forgot to set back its clock a couple of hours), so I’ll probably be able to get here early, if not as one of the first.