WiFi Blackberry

A while ago I came into possession of a WiFi enabled Blackberry 8820. I can't and won't be commenting on how this affects voice calling. Blackberries with WiFi only support UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), as far as I know none of the mobile phone providers in Canada currently support UMA. I know for sure that mine doesn't. From what I've learned about UMA I'm not holding my breath. UMA allows your mobile provider provide voice service using Voice Over IP (VoIP) and unlicensed wireless (specifically Bluetooth and WiFi) technologies. Initially there are a number of conclusions that are easily leapt to:

• There is WiFi access at home, the cottage, work or my favorite coffee shop;
• If my call is going via WiFi and the Internet, I'm not using cell tower airtime;
• So UMA calls made from home, work or an open access point should be free!

Alas no. If you look at the system diagram at the link above you will see that the Unlicensed network (WiFi) only replaces the cell tower part of your provider's infrastructure. Your call is still handled by the core mobile network.

So what good is UMA. Well it allows mobile providers to provide service by setting up a WiFi or Bluetooth access point instead of a full on cell tower. Obviously this would be a lot cheaper. It could allow them to handle more traffic in busy areas, or places where traditional signals don't penetrate easily. They could, but aren't required to, allow me to connect using my WiFi router at home or the cottage where licensed coverage is poor or non-existent. So UMA is good for providers. That isn't necessarily bad for us consumers, but don't expect free unlimited voice calls using UMA over your own WiFi router.

Ok, so is getting a Blackberry with WiFi worth the cost, wait, effort? I think very definitely it is. If you are using a Blackberry and are worried about voice calls you are probably on the wrong platform. The Blackberry is first and foremost a data communications device. Blackberries do voice fairly well, and it is convenient not to have to carry around a phone as well as a PDA, unless you do a lot of voice calling. Data communications with WiFi is everything that voice communications with UMA is not. Even though my provider does not support UMA, I can connect to the internet using WiFi where ever I can get access. I can store my favorite networks and automatically to connect whenever I'm in range. EMail, PINs, web browsing all prefer WiFi over GSM/EDGE when available. One of the nicest features is an additional browser configuration for WiFi. I have my internet (GSM/EDGE) and WAP browsers configured to not download images, the WiFi browser is configured to download all images. I can even set bookmarks to use the WiFi browser to only fetch bookmarks if I have WiFi service, Internet or WAP browsers if I'm willing to use GSM/EDGE bandwidth to fetch them.

The actual implementation of this data magic is not a lot different from the way UMA handles voice. When accessing the internet over GSM/EDGE the Blackberry uses the mobile data provider's network to connect with the Research in Motion operations center. From there the connection may be relayed to the appropriate Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), or to the Blackberry Internet Server (BIS) which satisfy the request, push email, etc. When the unit switches over to WiFi, it opens up a connection that looks like Secure Hypter-Text Transport Protocol (HTTPS) to RIM which (presumably) does the data transport work in lieu of the mobile network. In theory this means that RIM could keep track of the bandwidth consumed and relay that information to the mobile service provider for billing. I'm hoping they don't because this really makes the Blackberry much more useful. I can carefully sip at essential data, and keep in touch when I'm on the move. I can participate in the full multi-media internet experience (to the extent a Blackberry is able), chat up a storm, or play on Facebook when I'm near a hot spot without dragging out the laptop, sitting at the desktop or worrying about huge data charges. Or so I hope, I'll let you know when the bill comes in.

Sublime to Rediculous

Forbes is reporting Apple and Microsoft threatened with possible digital copyright lawsuit by Media Rights Technology and BlueBeat.com. Apparently creating your own digital rights protection code is in contravenes the DMCA, when your can pay someone else for the code. This is just my opinion, but I thing IT companies need to fire a bunch of lawyers, hire programmers instead.

20 7b 45 51 f2 db 2a 70 73 26 d6 74 47 de 2b 8f

It has been a crazy few weeks on the copyright/DMCA front with the AACS trying to suppress the release of a processing key for high definition media, also reported int the New York Times. I don't condone piracy, but neither do I support stupidity.

My favourite, if somewhat whimsical treatment is Cali Lewis's music video of Geoff Smith's song commemorating the digital dust up.

If 128 bit integers can be controlled, then shouldn't anyone be able to own one? Freedom to Tinker think so. Now you can own an integer too -- get yours here. 20 7B 45 51 F2 DB 2A 70 73 26 D6 74 47 DE 2B 8F is mine.

In a related development it seems the Great White North will have to do without previews of Warner Brothers (see if you can find Canada in the choose your country menu) movies. You know, where in exchange for a free ticket and a body cavity search you get to see some horrible movie before anyone else. It seems no amount of security can prevent us intrepid Canucks from spiriting away with a pirated copy. I guess that is why US Army contractors live in fear of our loose change. Or is this just another bad Hollywood plot? I wonder if we don't smarten up if they will stop releasing movies in Canada all together. And the DVD, followed by the director's cut with the collectible chachkas.

This would just be sad if the rampant paranoia, and greed (on both sides of the issue) weren't going to cost the innocent bystander so much. If you have bought a PC with Windows Vista, are thinking about such a purchase, or know some one who has or is; you really need to read Peter Gutmann's white paper digital rights management in Vista. Or at least listen to the series of Security Now pod casts on the subject, starting with episode 73.

LITE-ON IT EZ-Dub USB DVD-RW

I purchased a Lite-On IT EZ-Dub external USB DVD re-writer when I started working on the UX300CN because I needed a DVD burner that I could hook up to save bundled software on. I wasn't at all interested in the EZ-Dub features, and since Microsoft Vista recognized the burner right away I had not even opened the set of CD that came with the drive until today. I needed to copy some files off an XP-Pro system that was old enough that it didn't have a DVD burner installed. No problem, I've got this external unit hanging around. I hooked it up, installed the drivers, which was a very simple process, and completely out of character, read the quick start guide.

If you've looked at the EZ-Dub link above, you know that they claim it is as simple as pushing the File button on the drive dragging/dropping files to write data to either CD, DVD or dual layer DVD. So I tried it, and guess what, it really is that simple! So if you are a Luddite, or know one you can do worse than looking at this unit. It is fairly large. It would have been nice if they used a laptop form factor drive to make the package more compact. There is also a block power supply, but at least it isn't a wall wart so it isn't necessary to re-wire the whole desk to find an outlet.

I haven't tried the Dub button yet but I expect it works equally well.

Flight Patterns

A very interesting way to render flight data.

Data from the U.S. Federal aviation administration is used to create animations of flight traffic patterns and density.

More images are available at Aaron Koblin's web site. He also has one of the most interesting home pages I've seen in some time.

Linux on the Sony VAIO UX300CN

A new toy, Sony Vaio UX300CN, came into my possession. It comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows Vista Buisiness Edition which is only to be expected but, out of the box, runs a bit slowish on this 1.33GHz Intel Core Solo CPU. It has 1GB of RAM, and 37GB hard disk space (about 7GB are dedicated to a recovery partition and 20GB are gobbled up by Vista). As you can see from my tag line, I'm not really a proprietary systems guy so my first question was 'can it run Linux?' The answer is yes and so far it is relatively straight forward.

Googling UX300 and Linux did not result in any help, but I did find Linux on the Sony VAIO UX180P which was encouraging. The first step is to make sure you create the recovery media. With a USB DVD R/RW drive this is also easily done by following the Vaio documentation.

The next step is to shrink the Vista partition to make room for linux. On other Windows pre-installed systems I would have used Power Quests Partition Magic, now available from Symantec as Norton Partition Magic. However this is not compatable with Vista, fortunately Vista disk management tools include the ability to resize partitions. I was able to pry a whopping 7.6GB loose, plenty for a Linux install.

I used Fedora Core 6 because that is what we use in the shop, but other distributions should work as well. To boot the installation media some minor changes to the BIOS configuration are needed. Shut down the Vaio. Slide the screen up to access the keyboard. Locate the Fn and F2 keys. Turn the unit on and when you see the Vaio logo press and hold the Fn key while pressing the F2 key. It should switch immediately into BIOS configuration.

Paging over to the BIOS Boot menu will show six items that should boot before the internal hard drive. So why can't we boot from a USB DVD by just plug-and-go? Look closely at the very tiny screen to see that all six items are marked with an asterisk. On the right side is a note which says: External drives are available when the External Drive Boot is set to Enabled. Page back to the Advanced menu to find External Drive Boot, set it to Enabled, save the settings and away we go. While there the Keyboard Backlight can be Disabled if desired.

Install linux to your taste. To be able to dual boot linux and Vista you will can install the grub boot loader on the hard drive boot sector and follow the instructions here: Dual boot Linux Vista. Actuall Fedora Core 6 does this quite well for you.

What works: Sound, wired networking, Bluetooth, USB, touch screen (some calibration issues), dual head display (at least on intitial install). Apparently wireless networking works, but I'm still looking for a site that has all the RPMs in sync to do it without compiling the driver.

What doesn't work (yet): Motion Eye, finger print scanner. zoom buttons.

I'm not finished yet so more later.

UCAP Fodder: Love the Loran You're With

UCAP Fodder: Love the Loran You're With

This is really good news to me. My venerable old airplane came with a not so old, but still venerable IImorrow Apollo 800 Loran-C navigator. Believe it or not Garmin-AT still provides database updates for these units, though the price is quite high for more than occasional refreshing. Each time I get ready to lay down some coin for a new database, some one south of the boarder wonders aloud if we still need Loran-C. Apparently in the last round 93% said yes. I hope this will be the end, either they ignore the demand and close the system down, or announce on going support. That way I can either replace the unit, or update the database with confidence.

I like this unit. It isn't as accurate as even the most modest GPS, it can be a bit quirky, and speaks its own obscure navigator dialect, but it is hooked in to a dedicated Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) located just below the VOR/ILS CDI. This makes it a handy back up and support instrument to the VOR and my portable GPS.

One unfortunate property is the red and yellow lights that can flash at the most inopportune moments, such as just I'm about to taxi onto the runway. These lights are the unit's way of telling the pilot that it has some quirky messages waiting about the status and accuracy of navigation information, and are otherwise not related to safe operation of the plane. My passenger briefing now includes words to that effect. It is interesting how quickly a flashing red light on the panel will attract the attention of the most jaded passenger.

GRC SecurAble: Determine Processor Security Features

GRC SecurAble: Determine Processor Security Features

For MS Windows users.

As reported on the Security Now podcast focusing on hardware data execution prevention (DEP), GRC has released a tool to determine if an Intel or AMD processor supports DEP, 64 bit instruction or visualization. The GRC site does a very good job explaining why these may be important to your machine. Suffice to say that if you are able to enable DEP on your machine it will protect your machine from the exploit that most malware uses to gain control over your computer.

In order to be in effect DEP must be enabled on the hardware and in the operating system. SecurAble will tell you if DEP is available on your machine. Then next steps are to make sure the BIOS does not disable it on boot, and the OS uses the capability. I will caution you that unless you really understand this material you should not just enable DEP. If any of your hardware drivers or critical software do not meet DEP constraints Windows may fail to boot. What is needed is a tool that will assist the average user to configure DEP in a way that will allow them to detect and work around any such issues. Happily, GRC is working on that tool now. More on this when it is released.

unGPS

For Christmas I received a Garmin Street Pilot C330. This is a GPS based automotive navigation system featuring a 3.5 inch colour LCD touch screen, a road and address database for all of North America (or Europe), a suction cup mount and the ubiquitous cigarette lighter adapter. It will provide turn by turn guidance with on screen cues and voice directions in a number of languages with a pleasant female voice. I like the British English voice. It sounds a bit like Claudia Black paying Aeryn Sun on Farscape. The ubergageteers out there will be thinking this is old hat, but I still have enough Luddite in me to want to know what the technology is doing before I rely on it and I want to be technology's master, not its servant or peer. I've use a Belkin Bluetooth GPS and navigation software with my iPaq. It is a more open solution in that the GPS can be used with other software on the iPaq, or a Bluetooth enabled laptop. The road navigation software had some fatal flaws, I may post something on it latter. For now back to the street pilot.

As a pilot, armature radio operator and general techno geek I was immediately struck by how unGPSish the unit is. It won't, for example, give you a position by latitude/longitude or any of the other standard coordinate systems, nor will it give you the number of satellites it can receive or any information about the visible constellation. You can poke your finger at the streets on the map and it will give you a street number for that location if one exists. It does have a cellphone like cluster of 5 vertical bars of increasing size that tell you in a very general way how likely it is to know where you are. Given the intended market I understand these design choices, I'm just wondering how I will be able to get along with it.

One problem with all navigation systems is that the guidance is only as good as the available data. In the aviation world the required data are maintained by government authority and distributed on a 56 day update cycle by commercial companies, like Jeppesen. I'm not sure where Garmin gets the road database from, but if it contains errors, the GPS will provide bad directions.

The unit can be configured to avoid some of the less salubrious driving experiences: U-turns, highways, unpaved roads, toll roads and carpool lanes. A look at the on-line manual tells me that it will only avoid these things if doing so won't take me too far out of my way. I stumbled upon a way to add what the unit calls 'via points'. It will guide me to the via point then to my final destination, thus forcing the unit to guide me further out of the way than it normally would to avoid roads I don't want to drive. But that requires a knowledge of the route that eliminates the need for a navigation system.

The user interface for entering in text for city and street names is ABCDE format not QWERTY format. The back light is adjustable but even set to 0% intensity it is still brighter than I would like for night driving and not off which one might think. 100% intensity isn't bright enough for driving into the sun wearing shades if the unit is mounted to the windscreen. It will switch automatically between day and night mode, and remember the last brightness setting. Unfortunately it switches at sunset and sunrise, so the last remembered brightness will likely be too bright or too dim.

Things I like about it so far:

• It has a huge database. With the Belkin/iPaq solution I had to plan where I was going to go that I may need navigation help, then try to make the required maps fit on the SD memory card, go buy a bigger SD memory card, etc. With this unit I could be abducted by aliens and use it to find my way home, as long as they're North American aliens.
• The voice directions are loud, and clear and have a convenient volume knob (no piling into the car in front of you while surfing the menus just trying to get the thing to shut up).
• It is very fast calculating routes, taking only a few seconds to find its way halfway across the country.
• It turns on when given power from the cigarette lighter, and will turn off 30 seconds after power is removed unless battery operation is selected.
• It has a safe mode which warns you about playing with it while the car is moving. This mode can be turned of so a passenger can update the route.
• If no destination is programmed in it will display the next cross street eliminating the annoying search for the hidden street sign.
  

I recently had an opportunity to use the unit on a trip to a distant large city. The hotel we were going to was not located exactly where the database thought it was so we missed the entrance the first time, but the unit guided us neatly around the missed approach for another try. Over three days the unit took us shopping and eating and back to the hotel much more easily than we could have done with hard copy maps. On one excursion the digital sign over the expressway warned of 30-35 minute delays ahead. With two button pushes I was given new directions before I passed the next exit. Since I was supposed to meet someone in less that 30 minutes that trick alone is probably worth the price of the unit.

Finally the biggest advantage is that navigation errors can be blamed on the Garmin. This goes a long way to reduce the chances of an argument with the SO when stuck in traffic or lost. That is definitely worth the price of the unit.