Back to the library

09 December 2014

The LibraryBox, that is. It fell victim to yak-shaving this weekend: I should flash the new unit. Well, first I should work on the new web pages for them. But I should write a utility that builds a database so I know the source of each document on it so I can set up a non-wifi mirror without having to host that much data. And so on.

Part of that has involved trying to decide whether I can use it as an email hub, and whether that would be useful at all. I'm probably putting the cart before the horse there: I don't yet know how many potential users have some Internet access versus ones who have hand-me-down unlocked phones. If everyone walking around with a Tracfone has a GMail account that they access via wifi even if they no longer have cell service on their phone, I don't need to get into serving email accounts. On the other hand, if they don't have cell service, asking them to text somewhere to get an account won't work. I'm so far assuming that users will have some cell service, and that they're just going to be stingy with using it.

But in trying to figure out exactly what I could install on the Boxen if need arose, I ran across DebWrt, a full(ish) Debian install for routers. Nifty. Neither of the models I have are on their list of devices that have had DebWrt installed on them, and I'm not sure yet if I want to risk bricking mine experimenting. Probably I should wait until I run into an actual barrier with OpenWrt.

In the meantime, I'm updating my résumé, and I've set up a Java project in Eclipse for Pumpkin Spice (currently it runs, with the grand accomplishment of printing "Hello world"... hey, I've been busy).

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