info board progress

Posted on May 2nd, 2005 in computers.

I got the 802.11b networking finally, thanks to double-checking the SSID (note: SSIDs are case sensitive!) and upgrading the kernel for good measure. Ended up scrapping SVGAlib and installing an X server and using links on XWindows with no window manager, just one full-screen browser window. Looks good! Now that I’m running XWindows though I could theoretically run Netscape 4… shudder. It probably has better JavaScript support though. Links handles some sites fine (like toronto.com, us.imdb.com), some a bit less than fine (Maptuit HTMLClient works to a degree), and some break horribly (anything using Maptuit ActiveMap). It is a fast little browser though.

There are still some hitches though. I installed mad perl packages on the machine because I’d like it to handle all of the scraping and parsing on its own. Also, I powered it off and then brought it back up this morning and it wouldn’t connect to the wireless network anymore. Crap…

It’s getting time to figure out how I’m gonna affix the panel to the back of the laptop again, and then where the unit is going to go and how it’s going to be interfaced… if I could rip the integrated keyboard and trackpoint out of the thing and mount it externally… I’m going to need to experiment on this.

 

2 replies

  1. Jonathan Wise says:

    Added on May 4th, 2005 at 9:08 pm

    This is a very interesting project. If it were me I’d have it subscribing to iCal events too… Hmmm, I still have that PowerBook somewhere…

  2. Victor Rehorst says:

    Added on May 9th, 2005 at 1:13 pm

    Certainly possible, Jon. If I used an iCalendar I would for sure. But we already have a paper flip-calendar on the fridge, and I have to say, I’ve never seen a digital calendar act quite as fast as paper 🙂