I’ve created my CES 2020 wiki page to collect information from CES of interest to me. Here is the page that I created last year.
The world is huge. To keep our sanity we have to simplify it, and to do that we have to ignore differences. The stories we tell ourselves little connection to reality.
Good point!
Happy anniversary, iPhone!
Configuring A Raspberry Pi as a WiFi Hotspot and WiFi client
In episode 308 of the MobileViews podcast Jon Westfall talked about a blog post describing how to configure a Raspberry Pi 4 as a USB-C accessory for the iPad Pro. The instructions configure the Pi so that you connect an iPad to the Pi using a USB-C cable. A video is also available that provides step-by-step instructions, and you can also watch another video in which the author answers questions that were left in the comments of the original video.
While I found the concept intriguing there is no way I could implement it because it only works if you have the latest iPad Pro that has a USB-C port, which I do not have.
Later I found another video done by the author of the original one showing how to install an application called RaspAP and configure it to be a WiFi hotspot AND a WiFi client at the same time. With this configuration you can connect any iPad, or any other device that has WiFi and then you can SSH in to the Pi from the iPad to have access to a Linux command prompt, from which you could run a number of different applications, programming environments, and utilities.
It’s actually not too difficult to configure a Raspberry Pi as a WiFi hotspot (access point) and I actually had done so to a small Raspberry Pi Zero W that I have been using as a portable backup for a wiki I maintain of home information. The problem with how I have been using the Pi Zero is that it can only be either a WiFi access point OR a WiFi client, so when configured as an access point the Pi Zero can’t connect to my home network or the Internet.
What makes RaspAP better is that it configures a Raspberry Pi so that it can be an access point AND WiFi client at the same time using the same wlan port! I am not sure how this is done because as you may know a “normal” WiFi access point must have a second wired Ethernet connection to connect to a cable modem and provide Internet access, in such instances the access point routes (or bridges) network traffic between two networks (different IP addressing), one being the WiFi network and the other being the wired network, each requiring one port.
The installation of RaspAP does require connecting the Raspberry Pi to a wired network connection because there is a step that requires resetting the wlan0 interface that will hang if the port is in use. However, after installation, the Pi will connect to your home network and act as an access point for another network at the same time.
Along the way I also found out that I can power the Raspberry Pi 3b+ using the Ravpower (Model RP-PB043) portable battery that I own, which means that I have a portable, wireless network between an iPad and and a Linux computer that will work anywhere.
How might I use this set up?
Let’s say I am working on a Nodejs program. I can have Nodejs installed on the Raspberry Pi and I can have all my code also on that Pi, perhaps cloned from a git repo. Let’s say I plan to be on a long flight and I want to carry a minimal amount of gear. I can pack my iPad Pro, Raspberry Pi, and the Ravpower in my carry on and when I am able, power up the Pi, leave it in the carry on, and connect to it via WiFi from the iPad. At this point I can then SSH into the Pi and use a text editor (emacs, nano, etc..) to work on my code and test it using nodejs. Of course, you can do this for any other programming environments or compilers that install on the Raspberry Pi and run via the command prompt. (Actually.. one should also be able to VNC into the graphical Raspbarian environment if you need to.)
While I could do the above via the airplane WiFi, doing so costs money and service can be spotty, this network connectivity once configured is available nearly the same way all the time. The “remote programmer” scenario is just one idea off the top of my head, I am sure there are other uses cases for a configuration such as this. The developer of RaspAP is working to include OpenVPN to make the Pi a VPN endpoint that will provide all secured network communication for all devices that connect to it. You can find more examples for using RaspAP in this Github repo.
Scheduling routines in Google Assistant makes a lot of sense, and I look forward to the feature being available.
Linksys' Wellness Pods sound like a good idea and if my grandmother were still alive, I would seriously consider using them, but I wonder how and how well they work?
Suunto 7 promises a Wear OS sports smartwatch with 12-hour battery life - SlashGear
Nice to see an old Microsoft SPOT watch vendor still in the game.
NASA: How We’re Going (Back) to the Moon
If all goes as planned humans could be walking again on the moon in four years! I hope to see it.
This article on the The New Republic is ignorant suggesting that RSS was confined to Google Reader. I was using my River of News then and still do many years after Reader’s demise, and there are other alternatives, all it takes is a little effort to find.
Iran conflict confirms Trump is who Dems think he is (opinion) - CNN
“If the President has been willing to withhold foreign military assistance to secure campaign help, how could Americans trust him when he launched a military strike against another country? Was Solemani’s killing done in the national interest or in Trump’s self-interest? Did the President create serious instability for his own needs, possibly even in an effort to divert public attention from the impeachment.”
President Trump lies and this is not even disputed by most of his supporters, they just claim he is no different than Obama or any other past president. So, given that we all accept that he lies, how can we trust anything he or his administration says? If we are to go back in to war again, should we not be sure it’s for legitimate reasons? If you are a patriot and support our military who puts their life on the line then you should demand the risk of their sacrifice is in support of the interests of the United States and not just the President of the United States.
The Middle East has been a real world Game Of Thrones for more than a century and the players have been England, France, Russia, and the United States.
Imminent Attack by Iran sounds like the same justification as the Weapons Of Mass Destruction claim the George W. Bush administration (aka Dick Cheney) made as justification for Iraq War 2. Journalism back then was not critical of that claim, did journalists learn the lesson or will corporate profit interests win out again? Oh, and isn’t it a bit ironic that Trump, who was critical of the war in Iraq would be caught up in the same game plan that the neocons executed then?
Remember, corporate owned U.S. journalism makes money from war. It wasn’t critical of the run up to the war in Iraq, will this time be different?
Odds of the Senate Impeachment trial being delayed due to middle east crisis? (Attention redirection is the oldest play in the politician play book.)
Even as the U.S. economy hums along at a favorable pace, there is a vast segment of workers today earning wages low enough to leave their livelihood and families extremely vulnerable. That’s one of the main takeaways from our new analysis, in which we found that 53 million Americans between the ages of 18 to 64—accounting for 44% of all workers—qualify as “low-wage.”
The current economy is not about employment and it’s certainly not about the stock market, it’s about wages. Employers do not want to increase wages or provide full time employment.
Candidates for POTUS need to properly identify the problem, talk about whether the current course we are on, which seems targeted at tariffs, is really going to solve the problem, and if not propose solutions.
Note that getting “the 1%” to pay their share of taxes is NOT going to solve the problem of low income jobs.
The conceptual design of MercuryOS reminds me a bit of Newton OS.
Today is my first work day of the year. Looking back at the To Do list I created for the holiday break, it contained 12 items and I completed 3. Not bad. I had fun doing other things.
My wish for 2020, a year that ought to be one of re-visioning (see with new/clear eyes), is that citizens of the United States learned the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution established a new government designed to contain power rather than provide power. To be truly patriotic is to be vigilant against re-interpretation of the Constitution as power establishing. Tyranny will not come to the United States via tanks, machine guns or bullets, it will emerge after patiently waiting for people to forget what tyranny really means.
Welcome to 2020
What a nice way to end the year
