Edward Andrew Robinson

Well there is another meme on planet ubuntu and this one is about the name of your computers. I typically name my computers after different ways of saying NULL in different programing languages. I currently have:

• MinusOne – This is my main computer. -1 is a way sometimes used to mark an int as NULL.
• NaN – This is my laptop, a dell inspiron 1300 … also my battery is dead if anyone knows where I can get a cheap one in Canada that would be great. NaN stands for not a number in matlab.
• Void – This is my current test box. I’m not really sure if void is used in any programing languages but it seemed to me like a synonym to NULL.

In the past I have also had:

• NULL – This was my first linux computer and the mother board died.
• Zero – A laptop that no longer works. Zero is also used as a NULL value.

I also have three devices that currently do not follow this naming convention:

• xo – This is my OLPC XO this computer came whith that name and I have not changed any of the default settings on it.
• Neo – This is my work computer, named after Neo from the matrix. When I have more than one work computer I use other matrix character this helps me keep my work machines seperated from my personal computers since some of them travel with me and spend a lot of time on my home network.
• DD-WRT – This is my router and yes it is using the DD-WRT firmware. The DD-WRT firmware is a great way to get all the power out of your router. I only just started using this and would love to get some neat tips and tricks or other recomendations that people find better and why.

Lastly I have one virtual computer:

• earobinson-PC – This is my vista box, this is the name vista gave it, and I hardly use it so it can stay like that. (Well the last time I used it was to check out google chrome)

So what do you name your computers? Also I do intend to recycle the no longer used names but if anyone has any ideas for more ways of saying NULL I would love to hear them so far the only unused one I have is None from python.

So now that I have my XO OLPC computer I wanted to find something to do with it. As I said before its the web cam that really impressed me and so I decided to start playing with that. After jumping onto the #OLPC freenode irc room and asking them a few questions I was quickly able to write this python program.

• imagecapture.py
• imagefilter.py

Set it up as a cron job and upload pictures from outside my apartment window every hour. I’m not sure how long ill be keeping it running and if I play with the laptop and dont turn off the script I guess it will upload pictures of me.

Well for anyone interested the important code to take a picture is: [sourcecode language="python"]os.system(‘gst-launch-0.10 v4l2src ! ffmpegcolorspace ! pngenc ! filesink location=’ + filename)[/sourcecode] and I would love to hear what you have been doing with your XO.

Friday I got my OLPC XO laptop yes it took a lot longer for them to ship to Canada than the USA but I finally have it and will bring it to school all next week. Since all you lucky Americans got your XO’s a lot faster than us I’m not going to post about the specs or the software because everyone that got it before me has done that, but the computer works great so far, and the most impressive thing for me is the web cam, I have never had a web cam before so now I do.

I doubt after the novelty wears off that I will use the computer much but I still think it was a good purchase for the following reasons:

• I donated to a good cause and providing children in the third world with computers to access knowledge is a great thing.
• Its a bit of geek history, I think that the XO really kicked off the micro computer market and is responsible for other computers like the eeePC.
• Its really good fun watching people try to open it (I saw a great video of this and will add it in later if I can find it) and makes a great conversation peace.

I know I haven’t posted much lately and I do have something else I’m working on I promise to try and post soon.