Years back I created my own windows drivers and macro control system. Basicly the same macro software that every brand of input controller has for it's products. The only difference was that mine was quasi universal. Universal as far as I could use any input device, quasi in the sense that I had to specifically generate an INF file so that the device would use my drivers. The really neat thing about my drivers is that they combined multiple input devices into virtual devices and all controllers used the same macro software.
I never got beyond the third working prototype stage. And I never released my macro system to the public although I do recall releasing some elementary composite drivers of some form. I determined for myself early on that software wasn't the way to go. For every operating system you'd need to create drivers. I was designing my system primarily for playing games. After getting some working XP drivers I wanted to design a similar system for Windows 9x for legacy games and then I wanted to add DOS games. Way too much work. So I copied a page from the old flight sim boys of the DOS days and decided to put the logic in hardware but not bound to any specific device.
The result of this brainstorming is a USB hub like device with a somewhat powerful microcontroller that I only need to write software for once and it will work forever with any and every operating system that exists or will exist. Only problem is that I burned myself out a bit creating the original drivers and life happened and I've yet to find the time and motivation to finish the project. Although I understand electronics at a basic sense designing embedded computer boards is actually quite a big leap. You have to find appropriate chips, create a possibly multi layer printed circuit board and program the thing to work. Then you have to mount it in some sort of box and solder connector sockets and power supply sockets and then cut holes in a metal box or figure out how to do custom injection molding at home. A lot of different disciplines to learn.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Laptops
It's ironic that I'm so into computers and yet I've never purchased a laptop. They were just never powerful enough for me. But I've seen the specs on the Toshiba Qosmio G45 and I want one. It will undoubtedly come with a price tag of around $3000. It's not so much a laptop as it is a portable computer. The thing weights around 12 pounds and the battery life is at most 1.5 hours. I REALLY REALLY want one but it comes out later this summer.
But it has me thinking that I should get another cheap $1000 laptop with long battery life to complement it. A relatively small screen and very compact. Just something to use to browse the web and take to coffee shops.
But it has me thinking that I should get another cheap $1000 laptop with long battery life to complement it. A relatively small screen and very compact. Just something to use to browse the web and take to coffee shops.
Plans for new firewall gateway
A Travla C159. It's a mini-ITX rackmount chassis. It comes with a DC-DC power adaptor and an external ac power converter. It supports a slimline optical drive but a compact flash slot can be used instead. A front mounted DB9 serial port for a quick tty login terminal session from a laptop computer. It has an internal bay for a 3.5 inch HD. And it's make of aluminum!
I'm leaning toward a Jetway J7F4 min-ITX motherboard. The 1.2mhz passively cooled version. It's comes default with duel giga-Ethernet. While I could get the J7F2 and get the daughtercard which would have 3 10/100/1000 ports plus the onbord 10/100, I just don't have the confidence that it could maintain that much bandwidth. All I really need is 2 ports for the firewall and it comes with a PCI slot so I can still add WIFI or another ethernet card to the router later when I need it.
The motherboard lists for around $200 with memory and the case for about $150. It will probably be another $200 for the flash drive and memory cards. I still consider it cheap. It will serve it's purpose for a long time. The only bad thing about it is that it doesn't support ECC memory. But the microprocessor has a hardware random number generator for encryption and supports the AMD no execute flag to suppress future stack overflow exploits which is particularly important for your gateway device.
It will run Freebsd of course. PF firewall. Local caching DNS server. DHCP. Maybe a slimmed down web server other than apache for simple remote access and administration. A Kerberos server. And when Samba gets it's act together an Active Directory server.
I will then be able to shut down the file/database server and workstation. But I'll be able to turn them on and off remotely through the gateway when I'm away from home. The gateway box should consume a total of about 10 watts max.
I'm leaning toward a Jetway J7F4 min-ITX motherboard. The 1.2mhz passively cooled version. It's comes default with duel giga-Ethernet. While I could get the J7F2 and get the daughtercard which would have 3 10/100/1000 ports plus the onbord 10/100, I just don't have the confidence that it could maintain that much bandwidth. All I really need is 2 ports for the firewall and it comes with a PCI slot so I can still add WIFI or another ethernet card to the router later when I need it.
The motherboard lists for around $200 with memory and the case for about $150. It will probably be another $200 for the flash drive and memory cards. I still consider it cheap. It will serve it's purpose for a long time. The only bad thing about it is that it doesn't support ECC memory. But the microprocessor has a hardware random number generator for encryption and supports the AMD no execute flag to suppress future stack overflow exploits which is particularly important for your gateway device.
It will run Freebsd of course. PF firewall. Local caching DNS server. DHCP. Maybe a slimmed down web server other than apache for simple remote access and administration. A Kerberos server. And when Samba gets it's act together an Active Directory server.
I will then be able to shut down the file/database server and workstation. But I'll be able to turn them on and off remotely through the gateway when I'm away from home. The gateway box should consume a total of about 10 watts max.
Start
Well I had the impulse to set up this other blog as a journal and segregate all my computer and technology thoughts. In other words the stuff normal people aren't interested in.
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