Digital Finds

Touching base with phones on bikes

There's plenty going on in the world of Openmoko, too much for me to comment on fully without spending a lot of time on the matter, but I'm not sure if that's the best way for me to spend my days. I'll just link to things that I think have been important:

• Kevin Dean really knows his stuff; good rant

• Openmoko 2008.8 released and shortly followed by emails like these. Early days yet, however. I skinned my installation up. Looks so good, works rubbish ;-)

• Debian! and an official port. Awesome!

• gvSIG mobile on Openmoko & Jalimo continues forwards.

• Paul-Valentin Borza released the excellent looking Gestures; a product of his Google Summer of Code project. We've got a lot of ideas for this sort of thing.

• Raffa translated this article from the original Spanish; really interesting to see Openmoko, and more importantly Open Source Software, in a Spanish tabloid.

• Full schematics for the two Openmoko phones can now be freely downloaded. Great stuff! How much more open could they be? The CAD files for the cases have been available for some time.
  

Let's touch base a bit more with mention of one of my favourite things, bicycles. My first post concerning fixing a Neo 1973 to my bike was a while back, long before I was ever syndicated onto planet.openmoko.org, but there's been rumblings since. First I FreeRunner'ed my bike:

(note: using a touch-screen phone whilst slipstreaming a bus, front wheel a foot away from its vertical rear end, at 30+ mph is very frightening)

Chris Ball did something similar, as did André Gaul. A nice thread sprang up too. Notice, however, that both Chris and André employed fancy handlebar mounts! I don't know whether I'm the closest to my bike roots, or simply the most keen to risk breaking my telephone. Oh, wait, that mention should go to Brad Midgley ;-)

Everyone, of course, seems to be using TangoGPS for their bike mapping, although some seem to be putting it to more exciting uses than I. Why isn't this killer piece of software included in every distribution? Maybe we'll get an idea from reading this one to the end; not good stuff. On a side note, this is one of the reasons why I'm really keen for Openmoko to provide some decent drivers for their hardware and let big groups of people like the Debian team go off and start coding stuff up. I remember the fun I used to have with my old WRT54g and OpenWRT; we need more independent communities springing up to do software for this phone.

oBiCo looks like it could be one to keep an eye on, although I'm more interested in the potential of the Openmoko; things like mobile Internet access and TangoGPS' friends feature seem perfect for cyclists.

I think that's the end... In short, there's a lot of stuff going on; much of it good, some less so. I remain optimistic.

Posted at 12:45AM Aug 14, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[0]

Numpty Physics: A great use of the Hela keyboard

The terminal is fun and everything, but sometimes you might think that it's not the most fun you could get out of your rubber keyboard. For that you need Numpty Physics.

Michael Kluge compiled it for Openmoko:

.ipk file
Source

You'll need to opkg install libsdl-1.2-0 & libsdl-image-1.2-0 before it will work, but Michael's promised to include all of these in the installer package if the annoying "pointer location in landscape mode" bug is ever fixed. With the keyboard you're able to make the most of all the key commands given in the instructions on the project's home page.

Thanks Michael, this is awesome.

Posted at 04:36PM Jul 30, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[6]

Onsite data entry: FreeRunner + USB keyboard

This keyboard is great; it's a roll-up rubber affair that can be used underwater and was designed for hazardous environments. We had a batch specially made for us by Hela with a USB mini-b connector for use on the FreeRunner without any adapters. I've just updated the instructions on the wiki, it's all much simpler than we were previously led to believe. We shall be releasing a "push button" application that switches between modes from the application menu.

The keyboard works much better than I was expecting, both mechanically and within the Openmoko environment. I've successfully used it draped over a rubbish covered desk and expect that it will work very well in the field. As far as software goes, it does a lot. Not only do all the keys do what you'd expect, but you can do simple, yet wonderful, things, such as use the up and down arrows to navigate through the installed software tab. Nothing, however, beats using the terminal with a real keyboard.

This keyboard will undergo site trials soon and will likely be made available as part of OA produced digital solutions based upon the Openmoko platform.

Posted at 03:49PM Jul 16, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[8]

FreeRunner retail unboxing

The first unboxing pictures of a retail FreeRunner? I was told I wasn't a real geek unless I did this:

Beautiful

Posted at 01:47PM Jul 10, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[5]

FreeRunner mapping & GIS; some screenshots

All the "news" provided in this post is available elsewhere. I am, however, keen to help disseminate it as far and as wide as possible, not least because I am particularly excited about the potentials of such work; more than anything, these screen shots show the potential of the FreeRunner to Archaeology and related disciplines.

TangoGPS

TangoGPS now displays more background imagery in addition to the OpenStreetMap.org data it displays by default; free aerial photographs from OpenAerialMap.org and relief data from Maps-For-Free.com. Looks great:



GvSIG Mobile

GvSIG Mobile will now display shape files and OpenStreetMap data on the FreeRunner:





Check out the project pages for both; development is rapid and exciting.

Posted at 05:01PM Jul 08, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[3]

GvSIG Mobile: Read this

I'm currently in Cambridge; just a quick one then. Read this:

http://gvsigmobileonopenmoko.wordpress.com/

Posted at 06:46PM Jul 01, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[0]

GvSIG Mobile

GvSIG is GIS application that is finding a lot of favour in OA offices (for those that want it, here's a Wikipedia guide to what GIS is), we plan to provide it to every member of field staff pre-installed on their FreeRunners.

Currently too much of our GIS output and data is at the mercy of ESRI; GIS can only be done on computers, not in the field; and the system really doesn't fit with my ideas concerning synchronous data movement from the data centre to the field and back.

There's a GvSIG mobile version that currently comes pre-packaged for Windows Mobile devices, but I was unable to get the java source working on the Openmoko platform (I know almost nothing about Java). Luckily for me the power of Open Source wins again and the people behind GvSIG recognised the potential of the software running on the FreeRunner.

Juan from Prodevelop has given me a lot of help testing various implementations of the existing java code, but it's still not quite ready yet. I am sending him one of the OA FreeRunners today so that development can continue more easily.

I'm expecting the results to be fantastic; this taster video shows what we may expect from an early release (ignore the Windows XP, just imagine that the window is a FreeRunner's screen):

Thanks again Juan!

Posted at 11:06AM Jun 25, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[1]

Vote! Zimbra Mobile on the Openmoko

Here at OA we use the excellent Zimbra collaboration suite for email, calenders and the like. We moved to Zimbra from a Microsoft Exchange system; Zimbra performs better, costs less and can be provided to all members of staff. Email used to be the preserve of the office based worker, but by running Zimbra on the FreeRunners provided to every member of staff, we'll be able to communicate effectively with the field.

Zimbra Mobile is java based and works very nicely on my SE W950i. Jalimo works very nicely on my FreeRunner. Now I want Zimbra on my FreeRunner! This is something you can vote for; get enough votes and Zimbra will release a client for the Openmoko platform. The current state of the poll is depressing; Openmoko has received 5% of the votes cast. Why is Windows Mobile doing so well? They should be on Exchange. Those devices all have such small screen resolutions too; the FreeRunner, with its glorious screen, is the perfect platform for mobile Zimbra.

Please help make the FreeRunner even more awesome on release day by voting for this! This is a potential BlackBerry killer in the making.

[UPDATE:] We're the clear leaders in the poll, ticket opened: 29422

Please vote!

Posted at 05:07PM Jun 23, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[5]

Improved GPS: Resources and Notes

Theory:

We'll start with chapter six of the "Essentials of Satellite Navigation", describing improving GPS performance:

http://www.u-blox.com/customersupport/docs/GPS_Compendium(GPS-X-02007).pdf

We'll want A-GPS and DGPS; A-GPS greatly reduces the Time To First Fix (TTFF) and DGPS improves accuracy. With these we will enable field staff to take their phone out of their pocket, bring it out of suspend mode, and quickly enable accurate GPS recording.

Both A-GPS and DGPS rely upon assistance servers that communicate to the phones over TCP over WiFi/bluetooth/GPRS. We can establish servers either in fixed locations (office roofs) or semi-fixed locations (site specific).

Technical details:

• Michael Shiloh provides details of the u-blox chip found in the FreeRunner:

  http://gettingstartedopenmoko.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/openmoko-u-blox-usage/

• U-blox provided documentation (including how to get an A-GPS account):

  http://blogs.thehumanjourney.net/finds/resource/AssistNow-Online-Docu.zip

• Implementing A-GPS server and client (also found in the above zip):

  http://people.openmoko.org/matt_hsu/ImplementationAssistNowServerAndClient(GPS.G4-SW-05017-C).pdf

• C code for A-GPS:

  http://svn.openmoko.org/developers/matt_hsu/agps-online/

• Script to run the above application:

  http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-June/018682.html

• GPRS will be needed:

  http://blogs.thehumanjourney.net/finds/entry/5

• There may be an issue using an external antenna?:

  http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/hardware/2008-May/000119.html

• The GTA01 had the GPS antenna orientated out of the top of the case - the FreeRunner is the same. Also raises the possibility of fixing another antenna connector (N Male, for example) to the FreeRunner via a Hirose U.FL pigtail:

  http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Image:Gta01b_v3_case_top_open_pcb_lifted.jpg
  

Other:

• Not exactly improving GPS performance, but I tied a GTA01 to my mountain bike:

  http://blogs.thehumanjourney.net/finds/entry/20080306

• Measuring continental drift with GPS:

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/2956026.stm

  (Included because I love the way it says that the GPS hardware is worth about £20,000; surely it should say that it costs about £20,000)

• "Unscientific GPS note" (thanks Esben):

  http://unadventure.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/unscientific-gps-note/

• Finally, I might be having a paper published on the topic of GPS measurement of peoples engagement with a city. Need to do some work on that though...
  

Posted at 12:24PM Jun 17, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[3]

Photographic Metadata Management for the Openmoko Platform

Luca Bianconi recently left the Oxford office of OA after three months here working on some really cool things for us. One of his projects was to produce an application based upon the ExifTool library that could be used by our archives department to tag and manage digital photos as we move away from analogue methods. Luca writes about the software here.

We talked about how cool it might be to use this application on the FreeRunner in a similar vein to the Total Open Station application that Luca originally helped to write and then helped to get running mobile'ly; again, by taking advantage of the USB host mode provided by the FreeRunner, we would allow archaeologists to manipulate digital data in the field. By utilising the GPS included within the FreeRunner we can geotag all the photos taken by site staff; send these back to the office and employ some webmapping / GeoRSS magic and you've got a very exciting tool.

The code is available from the project's Launchpad entry: https://launchpad.net/mpm and is part of the Open Archaeology initiative: http://openarchaeology.net.

Posted at 11:46PM Jun 14, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[0]

GPRS on the FreeRunner

Setting up mobile internet on these phones is much harder than it should be, and I know it presents people with troubles. Unfortunately the instructions on the wiki aren't very helpful and served only to confuse me. Of course, for a (currently) developer / very early adopter targeted phone running Linux, difficulty is to be expected, but as we move quickly towards consumer readiness, this sort of thing will need to work. This would preferably be out of the box and for any network, but for now we can provide a pre-configured service to Vodafone UK users at least.

Marcus Bauer produces TangoGPS, he also helps me a lot on a range of Openmoko subjects including getting GPRS to work. Below then are the details required for Vodafone UK (monthly contract only, Pay As You Go users have different details). These files can be edited for use with other providers.

Note: Marcus contributed all the technical details here and should take any credit that's going. Any mistakes reproduced below were entered by myself whilst creating a Vodafone specific implementation.

Note 2: Whilst GPRS is enabled, voice calls will be disabled. I'm told that a gsm mixer is in development that will allow gsmd to continue to run whilst GPRS in in use.

Create the files below and run p from the command prompt.

/usr/bin/p (don't forget to chmod 700)
----------
#!/bin/sh
killall -9 gsmd #don't shut down, just kill
sleep 1
pppd debug nodetach call vodafone

/etc/ppp/chap-secrets
---------------------
web * web

/etc/ppp/chat-vodafone
--------------------
'' ATZ OK
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
OK "ATD*99***1#"
CONNECT ''

/etc/ppp/peers/vodafone
---------------------
/dev/ttySAC0
115200
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -s -f /etc/ppp/chat-vodafone'
remotename web
noauth
noipdefault
usepeerdns
show-password
defaultroute
replacedefaultroute
user web
ipcp-accept-local
ipcp-accept-remote
local
nodeflate
nodetach
debug

You'll know it's worked if it produces an output such as:

root@om-gta02:~# p
send (ATZ^M)
expect (OK)
^M
OK
-- got it


send (AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"^M)
expect (OK)
^M
^M
OK
-- got it


send (ATD*99***1#^M)
expect (CONNECT)
^M
^M
CONNECT
-- got it


send (^M)
Serial connection established.
using channel 1
Using interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttySAC0
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
rcvd [LCP ConfRej id=0x1 ]
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x2 ]
rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x2 ]
rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
sent [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 ]
rcvd [CHAP Challenge id=0x1 , name = ""]
sent [CHAP Response id=0x1 , name = "web"]
rcvd [CHAP Success id=0x1 ""]
CHAP authentication succeeded
sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1]
sent [IPCP ConfNak id=0x1 ]
rcvd [IPCP ConfRej id=0x1 ]
sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 ]
rcvd [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2]
sent [IPCP ConfAck id=0x2]
rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x2 ]
sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x3 ]
rcvd [IPCP ConfAck id=0x3 ]
Could not determine remote IP address: defaulting to 10.64.64.64
replacing old default route to usb0 [192.168.0.200]
local IP address 10.57.222.187
remote IP address 10.64.64.64
primary DNS address 10.205.65.68
secondary DNS address 10.205.65.68
Script /etc/ppp/ip-up started (pid 1506)
Script /etc/ppp/ip-up finished (pid 1506), status = 0x0


You can then do exciting stuff, such as read my blog, or much more interesting things such as the TangoGPS friends service.

Posted at 03:33PM Jun 09, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[2]

Compile an application for the FreeRunner like an archaeologist:

In a recent email conversation with Michael Shiloh (much of which ended up here) I commented that the mobile hackers currently working on the FreeRunner wouldn't be too impressed with my compiling achievements. Michael pointed out the other users of the device and made me realise a couple of things; the first was that if I can follow the instructions, anyone could, and the second was that there could well be people out there that would benefit from being walked through an example and shown how easy it sometimes is.

This then, is how an archaeologist compiled an app for the FreeRunner. Flames in the comments please. I'm using Ubuntu 7.10 throughout this process because 8.04 suffers a show stopper of a bug.

Note: I am not a computer programmer; the hacks described herein could lead to the same mistakes that happened last time somebody fiddled with something.

First things first; what to compile? I thought about applications I was using at work and which ones were neither included with the FreeRunner and were simple enough for me to get running. In the end I decided upon MTR; I'd been using it a small amount lately and thought that on a device with such great connectivity options it could be a useful debugging tool.

To start then, you need to grab the most recent source code, save it to your home directory and think about how to get it working on the FreeRunner. The documentation for such things is great; I simply read the toolchain page from top to bottom.

If you're using Ubuntu 8.04, use the provided command to install everything you need. I'm not, so I'll just install what it tells me to and cross my fingers:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ sudo apt-get install gcc g++ autoconf automake binutils libtool libglib2.0-dev ccache libxrender-dev intltool libgconf2-dev mtools

I've already done some compiling on this machine, so there's some stuff there already, there's also some errors about unauthenticated packages; let's hope I don't get a rootkit! I'm an archaeologist though, so I'll ignore best practice procedures, fudge my way through, install any missing things when I get moaned at and simply hope that it all works.

So far so good, we're on to the next step. I'm using a 32 bit machine, so I do the following:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ mkdir ~/sources
joseph@joseph-work:~$ cd ~/sources
joseph@joseph-work:~/sources$ wget http://downloads.openmoko.org/toolchains/openmoko-i686-arm-linux-gnueabi-toolchain.tar.bz2
--15:27:16-- http://downloads.openmoko.org/toolchains/openmoko-i686-arm-linux-gnueabi-toolchain.tar.bz2
=> `openmoko-i686-arm-linux-gnueabi-toolchain.tar.bz2'
Resolving downloads.openmoko.org... 88.198.93.219
Connecting to downloads.openmoko.org|88.198.93.219|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 47,964,117 (46M) [application/x-tar]

100%[====================================>] 47,964,117 426.40K/s ETA 00:00

15:29:02 (444.41 KB/s) - `openmoko-i686-arm-linux-gnueabi-toolchain.tar.bz2' saved [47964117/47964117]

joseph@joseph-work:~/sources$

Now, we're told that this has to go where it wants to go, so we move to / and extract it. It's going to go into some dangerous and scary places, so we do it as sudo (let's hope it don't break nothing). Of course, if you run the command provided in the wiki, it won't work:

tar -xjvf ~/sources/openmoko-XYZ-arm-linux-gnueabi-toolchain.tar.bz2

So just copy in:

tar -xjvf ~/sources/openmoko-

And hit tab; it'll auto-complete the file name for you. On my system, we end up with:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ cd /
joseph@joseph-work:/$ sudo tar -xjvf /home/joseph/sources/openmoko-i686-arm-linux-gnueabi-toolchain.tar.bz2

And a lot of satisfying text scrolls past and we're almost there. We're told that we need to set up our environment properly every time we want to use the tool chain by running:

. /usr/local/openmoko/arm/setup-env

But we're not ready for that yet; we first need to get the mtr source code extracted. I saved it to my home folder, so I just opened it up in Dolphin, right clicked on the mtr file and selected "extract here". I go back to my Konsole, it's still pointed at / and I want to go home, so I:

joseph@joseph-work:/$ cd ~
joseph@joseph-work:~$

Ok, let's see if we can get this to work!

Following the instructions we set our environment:

joseph@joseph-work:~$mtr-0.73$ . /usr/local/openmoko/arm/setup-env
joseph@joseph@joseph-work:~$

We cross our fingers and run the Openmoko conf tool:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ om-conf mtr-0.73
Source directory: /home/joseph/mtr-0.73
Extra configure arguments:
automake (GNU automake) 1.10
Written by Tom Tromey
and Alexandre Duret-Lutz .

Copyright 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
AUTOV is 1
NOTE: Executing autoreconf --verbose --install --force -I/usr/local/openmoko/arm /arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/share/aclocal/aclocal-1 -I /usr/local/openmoko/arm/a rm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/share/aclocal/aclocal
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.in: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force
configure.in:58: warning: macro `AM_PATH_GTK_2_0' not found in library
configure.in:64: warning: macro `AM_PATH_GTK' not found in library
autoreconf: configure.in: tracing
autoreconf: configure.in: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --include=/usr/local/openmoko/arm/arm-ang strom-linux-gnueabi/share/aclocal/aclocal-1 --include=/usr/local/openmoko/arm/ar m-angstrom-linux-gnueabi/share/aclocal/aclocal --force --warnings=cross
configure.in:58: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PATH_GTK_2_0
If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
See the Autoconf documentation.
configure.in:64: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PATH_GTK
autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1
FATAL: autoreconf execution failed.
joseph@joseph-work:~$


It failed! It doesn't seem to like AM_PATH_GTK as found in configure.in. Let's open up that file in kate and control-F for AM_PATH_GTK:

if test "x$WANTS_GTK" = "xyes"; then
if test "x$WANTS_GTK2" = "xyes"; then
AM_PATH_GTK_2_0(2.0.0, CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $GTK_CFLAGS"
LIBS="$LIBS $GTK_LIBS -lm",
AC_MSG_WARN(Building without GTK2 display support)
AC_DEFINE(NO_GTK)
GTK_OBJ="")
else
AM_PATH_GTK(1.0.0, CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $GTK_CFLAGS"
LIBS="$LIBS $GTK_LIBS",
AC_MSG_WARN(Building without GTK+ display support)
AC_DEFINE(NO_GTK)
GTK_OBJ="")
fi
else
AC_DEFINE(NO_GTK)
GTK_OBJ=""

I wonder what would happen if we commented out everything there except for the AC_DEFINE(NO_GTK) bit? Do that by adding a # to the start of every line you want rid of. Save the file, go back to Konsole, push the up arrow key and hit enter. It does much better, but dies with a:

/home/joseph/mtr-0.73/configure: line 6453: syntax error near unexpected token `fi'
/home/joseph/mtr-0.73/configure: line 6453: `fi'
FATAL: oe_runconf failed

Now, that fi is visible just below the section we commented out. Let's get rid of it and try again...

It completes without error! We're really making progress through this wiki page now! We're told that we just need to change to the directory and run make:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ cd mtr-0.73/
joseph@joseph-work:~/mtr-0.73$ make


And it again finishes without error; all this computer hacking is making me thirsty!

There's a load of text in the wiki now... We're not here to read, however, we're here to kludge this thing together! Let's get it packaged into the portable .ipk format:


joseph@joseph-work:~/mtr-0.73$ cd ~
joseph@joseph-work:~$ om-make-ipkg mtr-0.73
make: Entering directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
Making install in img
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73/img'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73/img'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-data-am'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73/img'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73/img'
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
test -z "/usr/sbin" || /bin/mkdir -p "/tmp/mtr-0.73-ipkg-tmp/usr/sbin"
/usr/bin/install -c 'mtr' '/tmp/mtr-0.73-ipkg-tmp/usr/sbin/mtr'
make install-exec-hook
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
chmod u+s /tmp/mtr-0.73-ipkg-tmp/usr/sbin/mtr
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
test -z "/usr/share/man/man8" || /bin/mkdir -p "/tmp/mtr-0.73-ipkg-tmp/usr/share/man/man8"
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 './mtr.8' '/tmp/mtr-0.73-ipkg-tmp/usr/share/man/man8/mtr.8'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
make: Leaving directory `/home/joseph/mtr-0.73'
Packaged contents of /tmp/mtr-0.73-ipkg-tmp into /home/joseph/mtr-0.73_0.1_armv4t.ipk
joseph@joseph-work:~$

Now it tells me that its created the ipk file. Let's see if it really works by copying the file to the phone. First I have to get my USB networking working as the phone was just sat on my desk:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ sudo ifconfig usb0 192.168.0.200
[sudo] password for joseph:
joseph@joseph-work:~$ scp mtr-0.73_0.1_armv4t.ipk root@192.168.0.202:~
root@192.168.0.202's password:
mtr-0.73_0.1_armv4t.ipk 100% 37KB 36.7KB/s 00:00
joseph@joseph-work:~$


We just need to ssh in and get it installed:

joseph@joseph-work:~$ ssh root@192.168.0.202
root@192.168.0.202's password:
root@om-gta02:~# opkg install mtr-0.73_0.1_armv4t.ipk
Installing mtr-0.73 (0.1) to root...
Configuring mtr-0.73
root@om-gta02:~#

Scary stuff; it doesn't seem to have failed so far... What does opkg tell us about it:

root@om-gta02:~# opkg info mtr-0.73
Package: mtr-0.73
Version: 0.1
Status: install user installed
Architecture: armv4t
Installed-Time: 1211303925

root@om-gta02:~#

Not much meta data there! Perhaps that was in the bit we skipped through earlier? Never mind that though, lets run it:

root@om-gta02:~# mtr thehumanjourney.net

I won't show the output, because you don't need to be viewing the internals of our network, but it seems to work! It's too cramped to run on the included terminal, but it's working at least.

And if I can get that far anyone can.

Posted at 05:29PM May 23, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[0]

Total Open Station on the FreeRunner

Total Open Station is software designed to allow Total Station users to download data from their machines without any proprietary software. Written in Perl it's cross platform and portable. The command line application ran straight out of the box on the FreeRunner and with the help of one of the the authors, Luca Bianconi, I've got the helper GUI running on the FreeRunner too.

It's perfect for the less computers, more computing approach I want to take. The idea's simple:

The FreeRunner has a USB host port; you simply plug your phone into the Total Station, download the data and send it over the mobile network to our survey database in the office. No computers, no messing about, just data from the field to the office ASAP. We don't have to worry about laptops and the like; everyone will have the tools necessary to get the job done.

It's just one example of the empowerment provided by ubiquitous digital tools.

Posted at 06:17PM May 20, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[2]

An archaeologist's initial thoughts on the Openmoko ASU

The Openmoko April Software Update (ASU) is a a big move for Openmoko and an early alpha release has been released to give an idea of what the future brings. The two big changes are the replacement of the matchbox window manager with Enlightenment (E17) and the move of the main applications from GTK based Openmoko and OpenHand software to a version of QTopia running on X11.

Kevin Dean explains why the applications have been moved to QTopia: http://gettingstartedopenmoko.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/openmoko-software-update/

Ian Darwin has provided his initial impressions: http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-May/017504.html

And it's all available for download here: http://downloads.openmoko.org/asu/

Now this software is

… to give people a sense of the direction, a glimpse of the future and not meant (at this stage) for specific feedback or bug reports.

So I shan't be giving detailed reports of everything that doesn't work. Of course, I'm also not a software developer, so my opinions on the move to Qtopia are going to be based on look and feel rather than the relative merits of coding for either. I do know, however, that GTK applications will still be fully supported and that the two applications that we're currently working on here are Perl and Python based, so outside of such concerns. This initial look at the ASU then will come from myself, an archaeologist thinking about future solutions based upon the FreeRunner.

I had previously used some Qtopia builds on the the NEO1973, so I had an idea of what to expect. To be honest, I'd lately grown very fond of the current Openmoko provided matchbox based windown manager and was rapidly forming ideas about how Oxford Archaeology's software would fit within it and how me may create a specific archaeological distribution as part of our intended role as Value Added Reseller. As far as I was concerned, the Openmoko software was rapidly reaching a level of maturity required for distribution to all Oxford members of staff. Was it consumer ready? I'm not sure, but I do know that I'd shown it to many non-tech folks who seemed to deal with it fine.

My first impression of the ASU then? Well, I prefer the old matchbox release; I was very excited to see Enlightenment running on the FreeRunner, but at the moment it's just not doing it for me. I know, it's an exceptionally early release that I've been asked not to comment on, but it's hard not to. The current apps/options slide down menu is very nicely done, but it's not there yet. I find the whole theme/layout to be slightly claustrophobic and I'm not a big fan of the QTopia icons at all, nor the colour choices employed elsewhere. There are much more attractive themes out there. The ASU provides a glimpse at the level of polish that may be in future software releases - vital no doubt for the consumer market - but I prefer the current matchbox release in almost every respect.

I've not been using it long, but I seem to have found more errors than Ian Darwin reported in his initial look at the ASU. At the moment my FreeRunner has dropped out of X and is scrolling by an endless list of:

power_supply bat: driver failed to report 'capacity' properly
power_supply bat: driver failed to report 'time_to_full_now' properly

I've been suffering problems with almost every other piece of software. Again, I know that this is an exceptionally early release and I should expect to find problems everywhere, but I can't agree with Darwin's assertion that "it works".

I'm a big fan of the boot screen and I think it will find a lot of friends in the archaeological community. However, I think that the matchbox fronted software could be rolled out as the basis of an archaeological tool tomorrow, something that could never be said for the ASU. I can see the potentials of the ASU, but I'm not sure it's going to speed up the FreeRunner release schedule; of course I would be more than happy if somebody explained to me.

Posted at 03:55PM May 20, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[2]

Why Openmoko instead of a small laptop?

Last week we had a visit from a group of Southampton Uni MSc students and during our little talk/Q&A session it became apparent that I should write this post. There were two deciding moments; first Leif asked us why were looking at the Openmoko platform rather than the OLPC XO unit, and then Jo commented that at OA "we also do Archaeology too". This post then aims to answer Leif's question and hopefully demonstrates that everything we do in the IT department is archaeological.

Work on the One Laptop Per Archaeologist begun by familiarising myself inside and out with the OLPC XO units. The idea was simple; these small, child and weather proof, computers would be used by Archaeologists in the field to record context sheets and other pens-and-paper data in a digital format. Field staff would no longer have clipboards, they'd have computers; we'd move the office out into the elements and provide the folks out there with some of the resources we take for granted in here.

The most important thing learnt from the XO unit is that the OLPC project is not centred upon the production of a techological item, but on a learning environment for kids. This is crucial; if we follow the example set by the OLPC foundation then we can say that we don't want a computer nor a flashy piece of equipment, we want a tool for archaeologists. Specifically we want a pervasive digital archaeological environment that is core to the recording process rather than an adjunct to it.

The second thing learnt from the OLPC model is that you support your pervasive structure not by providing applications, but by providing activities. Say, for example, you want someone to write something, you don't give them a copy of OpenOffice or some proprietary nonsense, instead you give them a writing activity. You base the activities not around the applications that are required to run them, but the learning outcome you want to achieve. Similarly then, we won't be providing field staff with the applications required to edit database entries, but with the context sheet activity.

The OLPC XO unit therefore shows us that we don't necessarily want a laptop at all, all we want is something that runs activities for us and can work outside. There's plenty of things that do this already; mobile phones, GPS receivers, iPods and gameboys to name but a few. This opens up a wealth of new possibilities; why not include the functionality of a GPS, or a mobile phone? How can we improve the usability of the tool by adopting a form factor that isn't a laptop? How can we deal with the mental and emotional responses to this new tool by making it look, feel and operate not like a laptop?

The OLPC teaches us that not only do we not want a laptop, but also that the activities we do require will be best supported by different hardware; we produce a more pervasive computing environment by thinking as little as possible about computers.

Cheap and ultra portable computers are coming into fashion, Linux is getting everywhere and Microsoft is extending XP's life to try and keep up. It's often suggested that we buy something like the Asus EeePC for every member of staff, but this misses the point completely; little laptops produce a computing experience different from the always-on, always-communicating archaeological tool we're aiming for. What we want is a FreeRunner.

Posted at 05:45PM May 13, 2008 by Joseph Reeves in OLPA  |  Comments[2]