Tony is a Geek

I just (re)discovered that I made these gauges for the hot-rod two years ago: I'm glad I stashed the Arduino C code on a git repository, as I am now in a position with the hot-rod to be able to connect the sensors up to the code and get accurate readings now.  I've also got to figure out how to house the gauges and the Teensy v3 behind the dashboard.  Minor details, I'm sure... Checkout progress of the hot-rod at TheAlbatrossHotRod website.

Whilst having an end of year tidy up in the 'man cave', I found a couple of boxes with some " old " PC based computers contained within.  I had a couple of Gateway2000 Handbook 486 devices and a Fujitsu B-2154 touchscreen laptop.  I can recall, why I got them in the first place.  They are all small laptop/netbook sized, don't weigh very much and could be re-purposed for other things.  Well, that's probably what I thought when I first got them....did some stuff with them and then put them on a box for " coming back to them later on ". Well, " later on " just happened to be during the week between xmas and new year......

After getting an ear-bashing from my missus for having our personal music collection exposed to the world, I decided to finally get around to setting up an OpenVPN server onto a Raspberry Pi. Read all about it here: http://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/p/installing-and-setting-up-openvpn-on.html I now have hearing back in one ear and a secure mechanism for listening to my music collection from external places, like the shed, garage, hotels... all those places where the missus is out of earshot :-D

A new FireFox OS phone.... " Firefox OS unlocks the power of the Web as the platform and enables more devices and experiences to be connected to each other. We’re excited to work with partners like KDDI to create the Web of Things (WoT), which connects all types of devices using Web technology and enables many new innovative and custom experiences to be created across these connected devices, and this is just the first step. " It's "naked" and I imagine will be rather expensive too, but you never know, the OS might start making traction in 2015.

If you were "lucky" enough to have your Nexus 7 device auto-upgrade itself to Lollipop (v5.0) and are now pulling your hair out at just how slow and buggy it is, then fear not.... All you have to do is go to this link and download the previous version (v4.4.4) and flash that to your tablet...    https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images I say, "all you have to do is".  It's not quite as scary as it sounds, but I am assuming that it is the same as a factory reset, so you'll have to re-install all those apps you forgot you had installed.  I'd also connect to some online cloud backup service (or my Raspberry Pi :-) ) and backup all those files, pdfs, ebooks, music files and photos that you've also forgotten about, as they'll probably get fried by the reinstall. Fortunately for me, my 2 Nexus tablets and MotoG phone haven't had the option to upgrade yet, but, my wife (who has one of the first 2012 devices and hasn't let it...

Just incase you've been living in a cave for the past year, I'll let you read about Bluemix HERE. So, now that you've not bothered to follow that link, I'll give you a cut&paste snippet here: What is IBM Bluemix? IBM's Open Cloud Architecture implementation based on the Cloud Foundry project IBM Bluemix™ is the newest cloud offering from IBM. Bluemix is a platform as a service (PaaS) offering based on the Cloud Foundry open source project that promises to deliver enterprise-level features and services that are easy to integrate into cloud applications. CLICK HERE to read an intro article on how to get up and running with Bluemix & Cloudant....

Previously, I have focused on using the Worklight Studio within Eclipse, building the Mobile App and deploying the app to the embedded Websphere Liberty Profile Server that is contained within the boundary of the Eclipse environment. This is perfectly acceptable for development purposes and has worked well for me to get to grips with build the client-side mobile application and connecting from the mobile (android/iPad) device to my local laptop across my home network. (As I have known fixed IP addresses and everything is in my conrol). To now go beyond being a developer, I wished to setup a Worklight Server to be able to deploy the Mobile apps so that they are available from the App Center, but also to be able to host the server-side of the Mobile app adapters. Click HERE for a breakdown of setting this up and getting it running..... (and of course, I'll be looking at ways to getting it running on a Raspberry Pi and possible even my Open Pandora - just for kicks!)

Whilst cleaning up an old USB HDD, I found these thumbnail photo's from days gone by (2000/2001). I seem to recall that I had a couple of these on A3 size poster prints too: either in the attic or lost in house moves.  Here's some retro-Sync'n'Go images from AvantGo   I worked for AvantGo from Sept 10th 2001 until they were purchased by Sybase where I then continued working for iAnywhere until May 2007 - the whole time working (re-compiling at times) and using the great MBusiness Anywhere Server product and then the SUP tooling that is still in use by SAP. Nowdays?  Well, I now work for IBM and use the Worklight product , as Dion Ridley would say, " the more things change, the more they stay the same ".  Although the technology today is much more advanced and the scope of what you can interact with has increased, I believe it's an exciting place to be once again.