Commotion Wireless: The journey continues

In my effort to set up a commotion MESH here at the lab, I have learned much. I was easily able to get a node set up on my newer laptop (64bit) running Ubuntu 14.04 by downloading and installing all the .deb packages located here:

http://downloads.commotionwireless.net/linux/

Make a folder in your home folder called Commotion and download the packages there, then from the command line:

$ cd ~/Commotion
$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

(this fails on dependencies, so..)

$ sudo apt-get install -f

( this will download and install all needed dependencies, when it's done... )

$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Once this is done, logout and back in or reboot and you should have a commotion wireless applet next to your networking applet. use this to connect/start the default commotionwireless.net network. I only have one node, but it seems to be working, I can veiw the local apps page in my browser (localhost:8080). There is a connection status applet I can open, however as there are no other nodes just yet, I don't see anything.

Now I am working on building deb packages from source via github for my 32 bit laptop and Raspberry Pi. Running wheezy I had to add the testing branch for the latest version of libc6-devel and wpa_supplicant. Hopefully I will have some deb packages for i386 and RPi (armf) available soon. Fingers crossed!

Commotion Pi: Preliminary Investiagion

My obsession for living an "off-grid" lifestyle has brought my thoughts to my reliance on the internet. Knowledge being the key to a convergent vision, a web without infrastructure is pertinent. Why pay for a service we can create ourselves? Buy the physical hardware and the rest is free, as in beer.

Off grid power is fairly simple, especially with the constantly improving solar and battery technologies. Almost everyone owns a wireless communication devices, yet we rely on an outside service to provide the communication platform. A service that is costly, unreliable and restricted. Could we make our own internet?

Have you ever noticed the Ad-Hoc setting when configuring a wireless device? In this case we will use definition #2:

"fashioned from whatever is immediately available"

 

There are definitely a number of wireless devices "immediately available" on my desk here alone.   

 

Enter Commotion Wireless ( http://www.commotionwireless.net )...

 

I have been searching to see if anyone has used a raspberry pi to create a Commotion node. All I have found is this blog post so far:

 

https://jumoke021.wordpress.com/category/commotion-on-raspberry-pi/

 

NOT a whole lot of information, BUT enough to get me started. I already have a RPi Rev. A with raspbian on it. I am going with the Rev. A as I shouldn't need an enormous amount rescources to accomplish my task (single usb port for wifi card) and the RPi A uses less power making it more suited to something solar/battery powered. First step is upgrade to Raspbian Jesse per this post:

 

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=47944

 

I will blog as I go, and if all works out will finish with a how-to. 

The end of the internet as we know it.

It started with a conversation with a fellow hardware hacker a couple weeks back. We are both looking into moving our lives off grid and generally getting released from the hold the infrastructure of convenience has on us.

I am working on getting some property, where I will be building an off grid steel structure using shipping containers. Pallets, culled lumber, recycled and upcycled materials will be my primary supplies. Of course I will need things like batteries, solar panels, water tanks and other things that will need to be purchased new, but I will keep it to a minimum. I am planning to have a well that is pumped into a water tower via a windmill and to also collect rainwater. Reclaimed grey-water and composting toilet for the "black".

Ok, so far so good. I think I have touched my bases and should be able to live with a fair amount of modern convenience. What is left? Communication. This is our bottleneck, as this convenience is the one most sought after, most controlled and most reliant on infrastructure.

More Pi Please

I have uploaded the ultra alpha version of my pi-graphing script:

https://code.google.com/p/pi-graph/

Here are some shots of the output of xgraph:

Patterns of PI

I am fascinated with Pi. I wanted to make a fractal type graph of pi, so I wrote a script that generated x,y coordinates based on each digit:

start with the x,y coords as 0,0

now, take every digit of Pi, and convert it into an operator. even
numbers operate the X axis, odd numbers Y as follows

0 : x-2
1 : y-2
2 : x-1
3 : y-1

( 4 and 5 are midpoints and do nothing )

6 : x+1
7 : y+1
8 : x+2
9 : y+2

for example:
the first digit is 3 so, subtract 1 from y and now the x,y coords are 0,-1
the next digit is 1 so, subtract 2 from y and now the x,y coords are 0,-3
and so on through each digit of pi

I then graphed the output via xgraph... and here you go, I got up to 400,000 digits of pi

http://artofconfusion.org/pi/

if you want to see raw output of xy coordinates, look here

http://artofconfusion.org/pi/pi.php?size=1000

I am most familiar with php, so I made the initial script in php and it could only handle parsing up to 400,000 digits. Once I figure out how to do this with a shell script I hope to graph a million or more points.

It's only a fleeting glimpse...

I have been reminded many times in this last year that life is anything but infallible, permanent or otherwise granted. Tangled in the web of perceived entitlement, instilled from a life of Americanized images, blasted through ears and eyes to wash the mind and create an ignorance we called bliss. A dream within a dream. A poem about a painting of a photograph, crying with dry eyes. 

So much less is my perspective, inaudible whispers my only chance at reflection, redemption and/or introspection. My mothers soon to be late husband lays in wait for my arrival. Likely suffering, wanting only to say his last goodbyes. Mom was crying when I called her today. Two more flights and I will be home. Almost 2000 miles to go. I feel the overpriced airport beer lulling me closer to slumber. Begging to escape, just one last time before I must watch a loved one die. 

He will be three, this is not something I am used to. Fanciful and carefree, so much so simple, but now what? I can't find an answer. I can't find an outlet. Everything is collapsing everywhere I go. There is no way to contain anything anymore. The cup is too small, its seams far too weak. I fancy myself blind though I see clearer all the time. Where do I go from here? I can't say. Though I never could, until now it never really mattered. 

Don't worry mama, I will be home soon.

Equatorial Aspirations

My heart is still beating. A miracle, considering the current collection of escapades that have conspired to form my reality. I am far from family yet close to home. Facebook disabled and forests await. I survived the onslaught of fear mongering that is TSA, avoided the "worst flu season" in years, all the while skirting the nurse that is trying to convince me that vaccines are a good idea.

The veil of verisimilitude that is the American Dream has lost all semblance of opacity. It no longer casts so much as the slightest shade upon the playing field of my reality. Cleanse, purge, redirect. Capitalism, consumerism and patriarchy are the childish things which I have put away. Elemental building blocks, once a construction of cages, have collapsed upon themselves under the pressure of their own gravity. Through the sludge of their licentiousness, they gurgle and try to scream that its mine.

Today I write, waiting for the sun to come and burn away the morning haze. Orosi is its own alarm clock, five AM and time to rise. Out my window lies the forest slope, a deep green mountain calling me away from even this small town. I have a motorcycle now, my personal escape pod, my chariot, waiting to carry me to the mountainside. Registration, headlight and a new back tire and she'll be as good as new.

It's another beautiful day in Costa Rica.