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| The Laboratory |
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Over the years, we've pursued a number of ideas. Some of them are still in flight. Others are waiting for
a reason to exist. In some cases, we were working on something that was going to be big news! But for someone
else... For example, we wrote a URL filter for the Saudi government in 1995. "Who would ever want to
filter the Internet?," we asked ourselves.
This collection represents the tip of the iceberg. If you see something you like, we could (possibly)
blow the dust off it.
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Xargalax stackable LBS (location based services)
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This is code that worked pretty well.
However, we built it and nobody came.
The idea is that all location-based data can be abstracted to longitude, latitude and altitude.
Once it's in that form, it can be cascaded up to intermediate and central repositories.
It can be embellished on the way.
Or it can be filtered.
The code we wrote read from Aruba wireless network controllers, particularly.
One gave the longitude and latitude of the corner of a building(s).
The code would pick through the RSSIs of the devices inside and determine a long/lat for every wireless-connected device.
It would then pass the data up to whoever asked for it (via XML).
The data retrieved were MAC address, long, lat and altitude.
Our stackable LBS intermediary had a database.
It would associate the MAC address with a user or a function, and then stick a pin on a map (shown here).
If any other LBS component asked it for data, it would dump all the wireless-connected devices it knew
(subject to permissions)—long, lat, altitude, MAC, plus any information added by the MAC-to-user database
lookup. Each layer could do whatever it wanted with the data. |
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Xargalax is built on a mixture of SQL, PHP and C code.
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On a visit to the Connecticut Old State House, we found a need for wireless networking that 1) couldn't be
obtrusive and 2) couldn't be distributed with wired drops.
We'd seen these requirements before, too, in some parts of the state capitol.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to offer mesh networking access points hidden inside potted plants, picture frames
and clocks?
The code was based on OpenWRT and Linksys WRT54G routers.
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Brainhat
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By God, this will be the most important project ever,
so help me, me!
We, as computer users, haven't even
started to think about computing with knowledge.
Imagine a million little meshed computers, each absolutely convinced that they are
living, sentient conscious beings.
How different would they be from us?
Well, hopefully they will fetch a beer on demand...
Listen to Brainhat speak.
This project has been going on for 14 years, on and off.
It is the coolest thing, but it is a challenge and it requires time.
Visit the site dedicated to Brainhat.
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