Kurt Stephens

I don’t know if I should be in awe or just laughing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/msig/sets/72157615633043693/

Good times…

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10163516-2.html?part=rss

I signed up with an account, but it clobbers Firefox 3 performance on Linux.

It’s so cool:

http://legocomputer.com/

In rails 2.2.2:

http://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994-ruby-on-rails/tickets/1837-...

http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/

WTF?

Yes, it’s really happening!

No Empathy recorded its second album in 1989 with the “modern” line-up of Marc Ruvolo, Martin Garrety, Chuck Uchida, Steve Gallup and myself.

We are reuniting for one show April 4th, 2009 at the Abbey Pub in Chicago, with old-school label mates Not Rebecca.

Tickets are limited and on-sale now.

• Sat. April 4th, 2009
• The Johann’s Face 20th Anniversary Party
• Reunion performances by:
• No Empathy
• Not Rebecca
• w/ Sass Dragons and Bread and Bottle
• Age 18+/9PM

• $10 in advance, $12 at the door

I’ve hacked up the Chumby PhotoFrame source from http://www.discarded-ideas.org/chumby/photoframe by Wansti.

http://github.com/kstephens/chumby_photoframe/tree/master

Fixed a few bugs and created a USB image to enable http://localhost/image/ browsing on the Chumby.

I’m working on an CGI to allow uploading of images directly to the Chumby.

Please give me feedback.

I got a Chumby as a holiday gift; it’s really cool and really hackable.

The good:

• Hardware and software is open-source.
• Runs Linux.
• Very easy to hack: SSH, BusyBox, lighttpd, Ruby, etc.
• Two USB ports.
• Audio out (internal speakers sound amazingly good for their size).
• Built-in microphone (haven’t figured out how to use it).

• Can play FLAC files from USB drive.

The bad:

• It’s very difficult to get it to show pictures off a USB drive. The only way apparently is to install a local HTTP server and use a widget: http://www.discarded-ideas.org/chumby/photoframeusb
• Flash widgets/apps only — Flash is not open-source.
• Switching between widgets and channels is fiddly.
• One button is not enough considering widgets take up the whole screen modally.

• It needs more RAM. 64MB is just barely enough.

Hardware Review

This is a really cool keyboard, except that the ESC and function keys do not light up and are strangely located and difficult to press. I also don’t understand why the spacebar does not light up; seems like it’s the most important key. The construction is not very good and the feel is a bit mushy. However, this keyboard is fun for hacking and could be really great for user training.

Device Driver and Source Code

After much troubleshooting, I have created a simple C driver library for the Luxeed deTA 100/200 keyboard using libusb. This driver allows the LEDs under each key to be set from C from most Unix-like operating systems. This is my first attempt at reverse-engineering the protocol of a USB device.