Mickblog

So while I’ve been looking for work I’ve also been dabbling in all sorts of things. Let’s see:

- I modded my x-box, which you already know about

- I have bought a PS2 and plan to mod it as well :) I sure hope this is a moddable version - I haven’t found a web site yet that identifies its version from its model number.

- Been having a play with gEDA and a, um, *cough* evaluation version of Altium DXP (the new name for the Protel electronics design suite, that costs a house). geda is pretty complete in the sense that it’s got the functionality for designing very complex boards, but its interface is awful at the moment. But I’ve only so far tried the version that is in dapper’s universe, which is a year old now. I’m thinking of either helping out with it, or starting a similar project (not on my own of course)

- I’ve bought 2 big fat text books, one on engineering mathematics and one on linear circuit analysis. These two books, along with The Art of Electronics , I plan to go through slowly and thoroughly. We’ll see if I persevere.

- For a while there I thought I could get a contract doing some embedded development. I narrowly missed a job doing some kernel coding which I would have loved, so I kept looking for a similar kind of job. Looks like that was as lucky as I’ll get. Anyway in the meantime I spent a bit reading up on kernel programming.

- Been playing with povray again. I finally found the scene files for the povray scene that got me into raytracing so long ago. It’s improved a lot since then. It’s got media, radiosity,photons (what they’re for I don’t know) and isosurfaces, which can essentially render almost any aribtrarily complex mathematical function, with a bit of guidance. Turns out the rendering algorithm isn’t impossible to understand. Regardless, it’s cool. If you can figure out how to play with the math you can make all sorts of interesting shapes

- Been collecting a list of places where I can get cheap surface mount components, so when I am ready I can
start making prototypes with them. I reckon using SMD will making the process less painful, since it will at least mean I don’t have to drill at least 2 holes for every component on the board.

- Searching for an FPGA development board. FPGAs are essentially huge reprogrammable logic circuits - you can turn one into a CPU, and more. I’m hanging out to design my own processor :) I learned the basics of processor design in a subject about it at uni many years ago. Never had the chance to apply it.

this is a simple ebay sniper, designed to be run from an always-on linux box inside screen(1).

It’s different in that I tried to make it resistant to changes in eBay’s site layout. It did break when I tried it a few days ago for the first time in a year or so but it was able to be fixed without too much trouble.

Hell, I’ll take a shot at it.

I’m looking for someone that needs a linux driver for their device. For the right job, I can do the work for payment of a flat amount, agreed upon beforehand and paid upon completion, or at least almost entirely upon completion. I can agree to a timeframe for completion, and support the work for 12 months or so after completion.

If thiis sounds interesting to you, give me a yell. (I can be contacted by phone on 0418 438374). Or feel free to refer me to someone who you think might be interested

I’m taking this approach because I would like to get into this kind of work, and the only way to do it as a job is to work for peanuts. A device driver is a well “contained” project (little room for scope creep etc) and the effort involved can be estimated pretty accurately.

Mick.

Okay, so I’ve decided I’m not famous enough and I’m going to show off a bit to attempt to get more famous. So sue me.

I am going to start putting some of my small but not insignificant work on my web site for public use and amusement. Some of it will even be useful.

But not this.

It’s a raytracer I wrote to see if I could do it. It does absolutely nothing that povray can’t do, but I think it’s cool.

And yes, I know, I really have to make my web site look more, uh, mature.

I have successfully modded an X-Box :)

In hardware.

Not a girly 1.0 xbox mind you, I’m talking about a 1.6 version, for which modding involves soldering wires to microscopic pads littered around the board.

And I didn’t use a kit either. I etched a PCB for the mod and a PCB (double-sided!) for the chip programmer. I didn’t go as far as designing those myself but hey.

I must say it was awesome to see the modified startup screen, the one that signifies “your X-Box is officially pimped”, after all that work.

Now to turn it into a linux box and media player. Unf unf unf.