Author Archives: benfranske - Page 13

Blog software upgraded

Posted by on July 14, 2006 Comments Off on Blog software upgraded

Tonight I upgraded from an outdated CVS version of b2evolution to the latest 1.8 beta. I also had to remove a lot of old spam comments that got away from me and, in the interests of time, dumped all comments made on the site since April. If you posted a (non-spam) comment and it was lost in the purge I apologize. The antispam features are much improved in version 1.8 so we’ll see how it holds up in this high traffic environment. If you have any problems or complaints please let me know.

I know that site updates have been few and far between but my life has been quite crazy for, well, a long time now; but especially this summer. I think I can promise a special series of articles in August so stay tuned for those. I also hope to get back to the semi-frequent updates, commentary and news postings you’re familiar with.

In other realms I am still working on a complete redesign of the http://ben.franske.com web site, now over two years in the works (some backlog, eh?) I think that the redesign will go live towards the end of August or beginning of September. Of course if you’re one of the many people or groups who are waiting for a custom software project it means one less thing in front of you in line. Of course there is that book to write which I’ve starting plotting out and could consume quite a bit of time…

Simple DMX Signal Locator

Posted by on June 19, 2006 Comments Off on Simple DMX Signal Locator

If you spend much time involved with lighting in a production environment you can understand how useful it can be simply to know if DMX signaling is present at any given location. Luckily, on the internet you can find instructions for building your very own simple DMX tester. As desribed this “keychain DMX tester” will test for the existance of DMX signal voltage and signal polarity. While not especially complex, this simple pocket tool is bound to come in handy if you spend much time troubleshooting DMX lighting control.

Controlled Lighting

Posted by on June 19, 2006 Comments Off on Controlled Lighting

Last year I made a post about some of the options for inexpensive DMX control. For those not familiar, DMX is a serial control protocol used in most modern professional lighting systems for theaters, concert halls, rock tours, etc. I continue to receive feedback on my original posting, some of which I still plan to respond to. In the meantime I would like to pose a few more ideas for you to think about and resources to investigate.

One of the interesting aspects of professional sound and lighting work is that, over time, it has become more and more integrated with computers and more recently, computer networks. Modern sound consoles can use “digital snake” technology and digital control technology which allows for much more flexible installations. In the lighting arena it is incresingly popular to run DMX over (relatively inexpensive) ethernet networks instead of dedicated serial cabling.

As with much of the technology found in production environments DMX over ethernet has been way overpriced. Be it the small demand for the technology compared with “consumer” technology or just the long track record of paying a premium for production technology DMX over ethernet has been out of a reasonable price range for most schools and non-profit theaters.

While poking around on the internet one day updating myself on current production technology I stumbled across the work of Simon Newton. Simon has created an open source driver for ArtNet (one of the popular and standardized protocols for DMX over ethernet). His project, called libartnet is specific to POSIX based systems, including both Linux and Mac OS X.

But what can you do with it, you might ask. Right now if you wanted to control some lights with a PC (using Martin’s LightJockey for instance) you would run a program which would output DMX on some kind of hardware interface (either proprietary or open source) which you would run into an ArtNet converter box and convert to ethernet. That seems kind of silly to me. After all, most PCs already have an ethernet port so why buy two more pieces of hardware? (Remember what I said about production technology being too expensive…) Anyway, with libartnet (assuming your control software recognized it) you could output DMX straight from your ethernet interface. But what software has libartnet support? Well, DMX4Linux does for sure and that means almost any lighting control software that runs on Linux will. Specifically, the GUI based Q Light Controller will. See how useful having a driver abstraction layer such as DMX4Linux is, but I digress. Another benefit of coming directly out of an ethernet port is the support for wireless.

Wireless ethernet is increasingly prevalent and compared with exisiting wireless DMX products it is downright cheap. Now we have solved the problem of wanting wireless control, after all with technology like this you could focus lights using your PDA with it’s built in 802.11x capability. But what about the other applications for wireless DMX? Simply routing the DMX signal between trusses or pipes in a large theater can present a problem. As I mentioned traditional wireless DMX is incredibly expensive and not all that great a technology. It turns out I have a solution for this as well. A few weeks ago I suggested to a hardware engineer I work with that he look into the possibility of using a pre-certified 802.11x transmitter (such as those from Digi International) to create an inexpensive wireless DMX product. After looking around on the internet a couple of weeks later I discovered that wireless ArtNet tranceivers already exist, but as can be expected with production technology, are wildly overpriced.

One of the most interesting solutions I found came from the same Simon Newton who developed libartnet. Simon was able to replace the OS on a Netgear router with a version of Linux and libartnet. Then, using the USB port on the router he was able to connect up some USB-DMX adapters and create an extremely inexpensive wireless ArtNet node. See this page for more information and specifics. The solution isn’t esxpecially elegant but it does show how inexpensively this could be done and gives some hope for future inexpensive ethernet to DMX adapters based on embedded system technology.

Who’s afraid of the big bad record companies?

Posted by on June 19, 2006 Comments Off on Who’s afraid of the big bad record companies?

If you’re an artist you should be! In a time not so long ago pretty much all local bands wanted to get “signed” by one of the big record companies. They seemed to feal these “deals” would get them notoriety and/or make them wealthy performers. All to many of those that did get “deals” ended up poor and unknown while the record executives wallpapered their offices with money.

Thanks to the internet independant artists can have a fighting chance on their own. The possibility of making it big without one of the record companies, if you have talent anyway, is not all that remote. Today one of the best things that could happen to a local band that is good, at least in my opinion, is to be turned down for a record contract and have to go it alone. I’m just waiting for the first wildly successful “viral” marketed band to sweep the nation. I feel we are now on the verge of this great accomplishment. The first few bands to make it big this way are likely to be picked up by one of the big companies which is too bad for them. Eventually someone will be smart enough not to let this happen and know that they have enough marketing capital to go it alone and in the process become much more wealthy. I wait paitently for that day and will not morn the passing of the record companies into the annals of history.

For more on the atrocities committed by the recording industry see “Courtney Love Does The Math” by Cournet Love and “The Problem With Music” by Steve Albini. These two provocative essays written by music industry insiders will give you a deeper understanding of how the present music industry works and a new appreciation for the hardships faced by artists once they make a deal with a record company.

Domain Resources

Posted by on May 22, 2006 Comments Off on Domain Resources

If you’re responsible for running a server on the internet or just curious about your IP address you can find out all sorts of useful information at robtex.com. For example if you run a mailserver you can check your mailserver against a number of popular blacklists all at once. You can also check reverse DNS information for your IP address, whois information on a domain, routing and AS numbers. This makes robtex.com quite the multipurpose IP tool and one I’m bound to use again.

Is that a VPN in your pocket?

Posted by on May 19, 2006 Comments Off on Is that a VPN in your pocket?

I’ve been doing some VPN work again these days. Some time ago I considered updating my home VPN from PPTP to OpenVPN which is an open source SSL VPN package. I eventually decided to hold off for a few reasons. First, there is a built-in PPTP client in Windows which means I can login from just about any computer without having to download anything. Second, my PPTP solution allowed for a simple Ethernet bridge between the remote system and my home network. Finally, I could log in to the PPTP VPN from my PocketPC device.

As I mentioned I recently setup a VPN system for a client and chose to go with OpenVPN because it was going to be used from only a few specific clients, it was going on a Linux router anyway and did not need to support PocketPC clients. In this case I’m using the OpenVPN GUI for Windows client. It’s not as simple as the built-in PPTP client, but it’s still at least as easy to use as other third party VPN clients I’ve worked with in the past from vendors such as Checkpoint, Watchguard and Cisco. Interestingly enough, as I researched this installation I ran across an alpha port of OpenVPN to PocketPC just recently completed by David G. Lemley, III. At least one of my issues with OpenVPN has been resolved so it may be time to again re-evaluate my use of the aging PPTP protocol for my home VPN.

For those wondering why I made no mention of IPSEC…In my experience IPSEC is both problematic and overkill for a “road-warrior” style system where single clients are going to use LAN resources.

Evolved Gaming

Posted by on May 10, 2006 Comments Off on Evolved Gaming

There have only been a few so-called “first person shooter” games which I have played extensively. Heretic, Doom and Quake II are certainly my favorites. Although I don’t play many games at all these days when I do I almost inevitably play one of these classics which I prefer to their more modern counterparts. Of course I was thrilled to learn that Quake II Evolved has continued the development of Quake II in an open source framework. QIIe has some sweet looking graphics that can take advantage of the leaps in video hardware made since Quake II first came out.

Simulating Transportation

Posted by on May 10, 2006 Comments Off on Simulating Transportation

If you enjoy playing simulation games as mush as I do (yes, once upon a time I spent hours and hours playing SimCity 2000, SimFarm, SimIsle and more) you might enjoy OpenTTD. Once upon a time Microprose (of Civilization) fame published a game entitled Transport Tycoon and later came out with a Deluxe version. Apparently the game has rabid fans and that popularity led to an unofficial patch (TTDPatch) which fixed some of the bugs left by Microprose when the game was abandoned. Since that time much of the game has been reworked as OpenTTD. OpenTTD includes numerous feature and usability enhancements. Running OpenTTD requires the original graphics files from Transport Tycoon Deluxe, but they shouldn’t be too hard for you to locate on the internet if you are unable to obtain a copy of the original game. Being open source means that OpenTTD can and has been ported to almost any operating system so you should have no problem finding a machine to run it on.

Vintage Apple Networking

Posted by on May 10, 2006 1 comment

If you’re looking for somewhat obscure information about networking old Apple computers I suggest looking at the Vintage Networking site. This is a virtual treasure trove of information. Everything from networking the IIe to booting the IIgs from an appleshare server or sharing your internet connection with an older mac.

The Thomas Crown Affair

Posted by on May 6, 2006 Comments Off on The Thomas Crown Affair

This is fantastic. Last week about 80 people showed up to pull a massive prank at BestBuy in New York City. If you’ve ever accidentally ended up in a store dressed in a shirt color similar to the employees and been asked a question by another customer you’ll appreciate this. The story is quite fun to read. In fact, after reading that story I read about many other projects by the same ‘Improv Everywhere‘ group all of which were highly amusing. You can easily spend several hours perusing their archives all the while sporting quite a grin. Check it out.