Tryouts: XulRunner Data Grab

So, I've got this hunk of data little over 1GB that I'm pretty sure is going to be essential to my business. It's not the 1GB size, or even the particular data that I'm working with, but the fact that I need access to it, at whatever machine I'm using today.

We've got two users on the same machine collaborating on that data using Unison File Sync. How's it going? One user wants to use Subversion, the other wants to use Git. Integration is a pain that we don't want to tackle now. So, we're giving each user their own copy of the data, with their own exclusive write permissions on that copy, and they can share that data with anyone. They're going to share passwords, or they're going to share a third-party data store on another machine, and it's going to handle the access control rights between these two folks.

Unison supports most popular file transfer mechanisms. Our hunk is exported via FTP to Kingdon's own location on the house machine, /export/ftp/home/kingdon, which is encapsulated in a chroot jail so FTP users can't get out without connecting by another protocol. The firewall is responsible for making sure that only appropriate users will access the machine by any protocol, either FTP, SSH, IMAP, so there are actually plenty of different ways in, but this port's VSFTPD process is restricted to data inside of /export/ftp because it was executed inside of a chroot jail.

The firewall isn't doing its job reliably. The first firewall gets its IP address from the cable modem, doles out a static IP on a private subnet to the second firewall, which assigns a static IP to the house machine on a second private subnet, exposes the whole internal network to anyone with an 802.11 wireless client device that knows how to read, and forwards port 21:FTP past both firewalls to the house machine, so users on the outside with a username and password can access FTP and that big storage area with about 120GB of space on /export/ftp

kpb1363@hilly:~/spring2006$ ftp house.tuesdaystudios.com
ftp: connect: Connection timed out

Bummer. Try again tomorrow? I'll look at the firewall and figure out what's up when I get home.

Ruby on Rails: http://getontracks.org/downloads/index

Tracks has a new version out! I'm going to deploy it on my ArchLinux host, currently represented by irie-arch.tuesdaystudios.com, and I wanted to put up a page there that describes the services exposed, including pricing info, in case someone asks for their own copy from me. Maybe I'll use Instiki for this.

Meet our customer and his ad-hoc server farm (two machines in one) that live in Rochester on a University network, with a nearby home-based backup server for super cheap.

Personal Todo

"I spent all day Friday trying to get my environment working! I wasted an entire day. How do they expect us to get any development working if we can't get a stable development environment?" -- overheard from the other side of a cubicle wall at a nameless company.

So I spent $100 a little while back on a toy for myself. I mean it's not so much a toy, as an investment. OK so it's a toy, but a well-designed useful toy that is very helpful for expressing the frustration you might experience as a developer.

It's one of those neat little Sidekick things. It doesn't do anything worthwhile, besides taking pictures on a MicroSD card at 1280x1024 pixels. It has a simple notepad, a task organizer and a calendar, which lose all of their data as soon as the battery runs out. Without a service plan, it's really not much of an organizer at all.

So then why do I call it an investment? Because it doesn't charge me $70 every month for the privilege of using it. My Verizon phone reliably sends me a bill every month, and still, the most frequent caller is this fellow Sultan from Saudi Arabia, whose calls get forwarded from my Skype account. These days you don't need a mobile phone any more than you need OnStar.

We hold these truths to be self evident: you can talk to your friends face to face. Except when you can't, then you can use the Internet.

Apparently they are holding on tight to the Sidekick developer keys these days, because it turns out that if you have one you can actually circumvent all of the copyright protections on the device and run any subscription-based programs (that you or your friend probably bought and paid for at least once) without paying a recurring subscription fee.

Are there any other developers out there like myself that think this sounds like a good thing? Subscription software is the road to a never-ending pyramid game. I don't want to go down that road, I just want to pay the bills so I can live indoors and eat food! And, you know, maybe take a couple of days for traveling every once in a while.

Anyway, I want something to do with my free time, and I'd like to believe it might make some money one day. The Danger team says I have to provide some evidence that I am a developer to receive a developer key. They've provided lots of well-organized documentation and a simulator that I can run on my own computer.

To hook all of my devices together and make them do my bidding, they are asking that I demonstrate some competency in that skill. All they want in return for building the device is a slightly new idea and an implementation, and they have promised to respond in kind with a developer key and further support regarding sales and marketing. Now I've got a pretty good idea for them, and I might even have time and expertise to implement it myself.

The project: integrate a set from the toys listed below, and come up with a cool name to call the resulting program by... here's the list: bluetooth, tomboy/wiki, sidekick/hiptop, java, groceries/recipes, collaborative team sharing, web desktop. Come again? I want a [java] program simulating the popular Tomboy application for Linux (it's a personal wiki).

I want it to run on my Danger Hip-top and synchronize with my desktop computer across a Blue-Tooth link. I want to keep my grocery list on it, I'd love it to integrate with Quickbooks for expense reporting, and it should also have a sharing component to make selected pages available to a team of people with (or without) danger Hip-tops. There should be a desktop component with a similar interface, or at least a web interface that authenticates by e-mail address.

Read about D-Bus, I think these concepts are important.

And sorry folks, the UI testing work and Blackjack simulator that I promised have been delayed again. Turns out the most useful tool, FolderShare, is in fact blocked by name from the corporate firewalls. Good thing I spent so many months working with Subversion, but it's still not end-user easy. I wonder if I'll have any more luck with iFolder when I get that up and running.

Hopefully we'll have more news before next weekend... I want to start a group discussion on Saturday or Sunday on one or the other project.