First Look: Google's Chromium OS

Thanks to @hexxeh who built a bootable USB image of Chromium, Google's operating system.  @hexxeh provides an image of Chromium and instructions at chromeos.hexxeh.net.  The instructions under the wiki are a little more detailed so you might want to use them instead of the instructions on the main page.  There are also directions for creating a VirtualBox virtual machine vdi if you want to forego booting to a USB memory stick.

I booted Chromium on the Dell Mini 9, which required resetting my boot order and enabling USB Legacy Mode on in order for it to boot to the USB stick. Without further ado, here are (literal) screen shots of Chromium:

Running on the Dell Mini 9

Chromium Build

Chromium's configuration is simple, only four configuration screens.

Not much in the way of hardware configuration, just WiFi and ethernet.

The Google Wave client, built on GWT, is one of the more taxing browser applications.  Navigation seemed a little bit faster and the gadgets in the wave ran as expected.  Also note that the screenshot was taken from a 23 inch LCD.  This Chromium build mirrors external displays using the same resolution as the netbooks native screen resolution.  There are no options to change the resolution of the external monitor.

Finally Chrome is an HTML 5 compliant browser, so to exercise it a bit I ran several HTML5 demos.  Here's a video of one of them running in Chromium:




WiFi and ethernet is a bit wonky on the Dell Mini 9 and bluetooth did not work, but overall Chromium seem reasonably stable.  Chromium is in its early stages and there are bugs to work out, but it does suggest Google's future direction.

Are you REALLY a GIS Professional?

Slack time over the holidays leads to weird serendipity, idle hands and all of that.  I was reading about a trademark troll in the game industry when I saw a tweet about GISP Certification.  Curious about the current state of GIS Certification, I started reading through the site. Reading the GISCI Certification FAQ, I found this:

The "GIS Professional" and "GISP" designations are protected as federal registered trademarks owned by the GIS Certification Institute, which reserves all rights.  The Institute takes the duty of protecting the GISP credential very seriously.  If you have not been personally certified as a GISP by the Institute, then you cannot legally use the GISP designation, either as part of your signature or on your resume.  Any person found to have used the GISP designation without having been previously granted use of that credential by the GIS Certification Institute will be subject to legal action under federal copyright and trademark code.  In addition, such violation shall subject the person to disciplinary action under the GISCI Code of Ethics for misrepresentation of qualifications and/or any other applicable grounds.

I've seen plenty of resumes with "GIS Professional" ; apropos of my extracurricular reading, I wondered if they were infringing on GISCI's trademark.  Searching the the US Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) for "GIS Professional" yields two results not related to the GISCI but to another certification program that claims "GIS Professional Certificate in Geographic Information Systems" as its trademark.

GISCI does hold the GISP trademark (yes, certification is essentially a brand), but not "GIS Professional" as a trademark. All the GIS Professionals can now breathe a sigh of relief and GISCI should correct its website accordingly.

A musical interlude

And now for something completely different: Concerto Grosso in G Minor (the Christmas Concerto) by Arcangelo Corelli:

• 1st and 2nd Movements: Vivace; Grave; Allegro
• 3rd Movement: Adagio; Allegro; Adagio
• 4th, 5th, and 6th Movements. Vivace; Allegro; Pastorale (Largo)

Many thanks to the Musical Archeologist for making this 1938 recording by the London Symphony Orchestra available.

Postgres/PostGIS installing and uninstalling prebuilt binaries on OSX

I install and uninstall different versions of Postgres/PostGIS as needed.  EnterpriseDB provides pre-built binary installers that save you from the headache of installing all the bits and pieces needed for PostGIS. A small annoyance is that the uninstall-postgresql app is hidden in /Library/PostgresSQL/(version) directory. Dragging the PostgreSQL folder into the trash does not completely uninstall it as with other OSX applications.


I had problems installing PostGIS using the EnterpriseDB StackBuilder after an uninstall. It would go through the process but it would not create the postgis template.  The components were installed in /Library/PostgresSQL/(version) but I had to create the postgis template manually. In addition, PGAdmin III would list the postgres instances that I had previously uninstalled.


After a bit of hunting around with ls and grep, I found /private/etc/postgres-reg.ini  which contains definitions of the installed and uninstalled databases.  Why there is an ini file in an OSX installation is beyond me, but deleting this file ensures a clean install of the EnterpiseDB binary installers.   

AR DevCamp NYC: Recap and Going Forward

AR DevCamp NYC was great. We had demos of PyGoWave and Goblin XNA; as well as, numerous discussions on AR, markers, GPS, and AR games.  We had a number of people join us via Skype including the author of the Spads and Fokkers.  Tish Shute put together a comprehensive report of AR DevCamp NYC (within 12 hours of the event). I went through twitter and pulled the links to media that attendees posted.

• @mattlabs recorded Ohan Oda's presentation of Goblin XNA.
• @wonderchook also recorded a vide of a Goblin XNA marble game
• @comogard live blogged AR DevCamp which includes a video by Sean White
• Noah Zerkin brought a Nomad Unit for show and tell
• A video of the PyGoWave demonstration by Patrick Schneider.

Thank You
The event would not have been possible without @TOPPLabs providing their penthouse and Ashley DeVries' assistance with the event planning.  My co-conspirators Tish Shute and Ori Inbar assisted with planning and getting the word out. Kate Chapman created the logo. AR DevCamp was the brainchild of Mike Liebhold and  Anselm Hook provided encouragement (and the wiki) to organizers of the other DevCamps.  Finally,  thanks to all the attendees who brought their energy, enthusiasm and ideas.


Moving Forward
AR DevCamp NYC is just the beginning.  Two projects presented at DevCamp, ARWave and The Big ARNY, are building on the inertia of the event.  ARWave is a project to provide and open, distributed, and universally accessible platform for augmented reality built on the Google Wave Federation Protocol.  The Big ARNY is an Augmented Reality game for New York, a follow up meeting is scheduled for January 15, 2010.  In addition, Ori Inbar has started an AR New York Meetup.  Augmented Reality is starting off with a bang in 2010.

Augmented Reality Resources for Software and Hardware

One aspect of AR DevCamp is building and hacking stuff.  Augmented Reality has been around for quite some time and there are many software projects and some hardware projects.  I'll  cover what I found after a couple of days of searching.  This isn't intended as a comprehensive list, rather its a sampler of what's available right now.


Marker based Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality has been around for some time; but until the relatively recent advent of smart phones with compasses and GPS, the major focus of open source AR software has been around markers that register images superimposed on the a camera view.  The canonical implementation is ARToolKit from Washington University which has spawned implementations in multiple programming languages. In addition to ARToolKit derivatives, other marker based AR software are Goblin and Goblin XNA which was developed using C# and .NET, Simplified Spatial Target Tracker (SSTT) Visualizer developed by Hartmut Seichter in C++, and Studierstube Tracker which is conceptually similar to ARToolKit but is a different code base designed for mobile phones. Here is the sampler list for Augmented Reality marker software.


Flash/Shockwave: 

• FLARToolKit: http://www.libspark.org/wiki/saqoosha/FLARToolKit/en
• FLART example: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/augmented_reality.html
• EZFlar: http://www.ezflar.com/home/show_home (create FLAR app on line), code available: http://github.com/tcha-tcho/EZFLAR
• DART: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/dart/index.htm

C family:

• ARToolKit: http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/download/
• Studierstube Tracker: http://studierstube.icg.tu-graz.ac.at/handheld_ar/stbtracker.php
• Goblin: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~eaddy/goblin/
• Goblin XNA: http://www.codeplex.com/goblinxna
• SSTT Visualizer: http://technotecture.com/ssttviz-download

Java:

• InstAR (ARToolKit based) http://code.google.com/p/instar/
• jARToolKit (Java binding to ARToolKit): http://sourceforge.net/projects/jartoolkit/
• NyARToolkit for Java/c#/AndroidL  http://nyatla.jp/nyartoolkit/wiki/index.php?NyARToolkit%20for%20Java.en

Processing: 

• Bryan Chung: http://www.bryanchung.net/?p=227

Mobile Augmented Reality

Mobile Augmented Reality places information, markers, and 3d objects in the camera view of a mobile device based upon location derived from GPS or positioning information and direction, typically from compass and accelerometer.  Markers are typically not used in mobile augmented reality platforms such as the iPhone or Android based phones.

Android and iPhone:

• Layar: http://layar.com/api/
• Wikitude:  http://www.wikitude.org/category/developer

iPhone:

• iphonearkit: http://code.google.com/p/iphonearkit/  and http://github.com/zac/iphonearkit/
• locative (Anselm Hook): A bare bones locative media server and client for sharing  favorite places http://github.com/anselm/locative
• Anselm Hook: augmentia: start of an iPhone AR app leveraging sio2  and http://github.com/anselm/augmentia

Android:

• OpenGamaray: http://sourceforge.net/projects/opengamaray/

Hardware
Augmented Reality hardware projects abound ranging from hacking heads-up displays (HUD) to wearable computing.  Pranav Mistry recently announced that the sixthsense project will be open sourced, probably so we won't have to resort to this:

There are also a lot of cool human computer interaction (HCI) projects coming from assistive technology that can be used to expand the AR experience.  Alternative modes interaction include using eye tracking for input and sound to provide additional cues that improve the user experience.  Also listed are a couple just plain cool projects

User Input:

• eyewriter: http://www.eyewriter.org/
• MICOLE: http://micole.cs.uta.fi/software/ haptics

Sound:

• soundmaps: http://makingmaps.net/2008/03/25/making-maps-with-sound/
• isonic: http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/audiomap/
• auditory icons: http://www.billbuxton.com/AudioUI06icons.pdf

Cool Stuff:

• Spads and Fokkers: http://spadsandfokkers.sourceforge.net/
• Johnny Lee: http://johnnylee.net/projects/   from wii remote hacks, to low cost eeg for brain control, kinetic typography
• EEG as HCI interface? : http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/index.html

This just scratches the surface of AR apps. Mashups between other software and public Augmented Reality APIs, such as Wikitude, are just starting.

AR DevCamp NYC

Augmented Reality Dev Camp (the unconference formerly known as GeoAR Camp) is scheduled for December 5th in Mountain View, CA.   AR DevCamp 1.0 is a full day of technical sessions and hacking opportunities in an open format, unconference style.


While a weekend jaunt to Mountain View from the east coast is well within the realm of possibility, the idea of yet another red-eye after a full day of unconference sessions and post event socializing sounded exhausting.  Tish Shute of  Ugo Trade and I were commiserating about not attending AR DevCamp, so we decided host a simultaneous AR DevCamp in New York for people on the east coast that couldn't make it to Mountain View.


New York has quite an active AR community, so there should a be diverse crowd that approaches AR from many different perspectives.  So far, some of the suggested topics are the Outernet Guidelines Initiative, using PyGoWave to implement the Google Wave Protocol for AR , the Internet of Things, and many more.  Like Mountain View, this an open format unconference. We plan to make use of teleconferencing and Skype to share sessions and include people who can not attend physically.  


The details are below and I hope to see geo-folks in attendance. 

New York City Event

ARDev Camp NYC is an open format unconference for Augmented Reality technical discussions and hacking opportunities. It will overlap with ARDev Camp in Mountain View, CA and provide an opportunity to collaborate with Mountain View.

Who Should Attend:
Anyone interested in mobile Augmented Reality, 3D graphics, the geospatial web, Outernet Guidelines, applications of AR in advertising and film industry (adult or otherwise), AR+Semweb, Google Wave Protocol for AR, locational privacy


Date/Time: 
December 5th, 2009. 10:00AM-9:00PM


Venue: 
The Open Planning Project office (TOPP) Penthouse in Manhattan


Directions: 
ARDev Camp NYC will take place at TOPP/OpenGeo's offices at 148 Lafayette Street, one block east of Broadway and one block north of Canal in downtown Manhattan. The nearest subway lines are the 6, N, Q, R, W, J, M, and Z.

Community Info:

Twitter: @ardevcampnyc, #arnyc

Skype: ardevcampnyc

Ning: http://ardevcampnyc.ning.com/

Sponsorship:

We are looking for sponsors for meals,snacks, and drinks; if interested please contact ardevcampnyc@gmail.com


If you're interested in attending or leading a session, sign up at ARDev Camp NYC on the ARDev Camp Wiki

Dell Mini 9 OSX: Blue screen after an update

I received an update notice from Apple for Java, Quicktime, and of course 10.5.8. Unchecking the 10.5.8 option, I accepted the update; but I forgot about it and didn't reboot for a couple of weeks.  I shut down the Dell Mini the night before a trip and when I got to the airport (free wifi at SAT), I booted up and it hung with a blue screen.  I was able to start the machine in Safe Mode during the DellEFI1.2a5 boot sequence by typing -x.  I fiddled with the DellEFI1.2a5 options, but none of that fixed the problem.


I had some time to think about it during my flight; something had gone wrong with the update and I decided to update the system to 10.5.8 as soon as I had internet access.  I chose to use the combo update because I like hit things with the biggest hammer I can find. The 10.5.8 combo update is huge, ~780 mb, and I think that safe mode also limits the download speed of the wifi card because the download rarely went above 125 kbps.  Another interesting side effect of Safe Mode is that the ethernet jack was working but could not recognize that the cable was plugged in.  After waiting a couple of hours to download the update, I ran it, which took another hour.  I did the DellEFI1.2a5 dance of removing the dsdt.aml file, rebooting to Safe Mode, running DellEFI1.2a5 to create a new dsdt.aml and reload the extensions, the rebooted with anticipation. After all of that, I still had a blue screen.


I tried a bunch of things such as checking the disk, removing programs from start up, but none of it worked.  Out of desperation, I decided to try the OSX Startup keystrokes, starting with booting to Safe Mode by holding the Shift key down during the the OSX boot sequence (Darwin is loaded and the Apple boot screen is displayed), and not using the DeLLEFI1.2a5 method.  It worked (but not as intended)!  The machine booted normally instead of going into Safe Mode; the first boot took a little longer than normal but subsequent reboots took the usual less than 20 seconds.


My initial hunch was correct, but rerunning updates did not work, so I did a little more research on why it worked. It turns out that holding the Shift key during boot does the following on OSX 10.5.6 and higher:

A Safe Boot deletes the dynamic loader shared cache at (/var/db/dyld/). A cache with issues may cause a blue screen on startup, particularly after a Software Update. Restarting normally recreates this cache.

While holding Shift during boot did not send the Dell Mini into safe mode as it would a regular Mac, it did delete the dynamic shared loader cache.  Of course, you can delete the cache manually while in Safe Mode.  Hope some one finds this arcane piece of knowledge useful.

Building a Prakticello: Build of Materials and making the body

It's been over a year since I "started" this project, but I finally took some time off to build the Prakticello.  For those who are curious about the plans, here is what you get:

The plans specify spruce for the body of the cello. Spruce tone wood is easy to find for guitar bodies, but its difficult to find the right dimensions because the sides of the cello body are 29". Tone wood can also be quite spendy.  With a bit of searching, I found that airplane builders also use spruce and you can order precut pieces.  I ordered slightly larger pieces so I could cut them to right dimensions.  I ordered the spruce from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty Company for $36 including shipping.  


Additional wood is needed for the saddle, bridge, knee, and chest supports.  I picked up several pieces of popular from my local home improvement store for about $15.  Mr. Nussbaum encouraged me to carve the neck and pegs, but I opted to buy a pre carved neck, finger board, nut and pegs from Metropolitan Music for $166.50 including shipping.  I picked up a tail piece on ebay for $8.00, but its wood and heavy so I'm thinking about getting a Wittner aluminum tail piece.  The remaining items that I still need are strings (Jargar  recommended), a bridge, and an endpin.  Here are the assembled materials:

Although the neck is pre carved, the size of the neck block gives me pause and I'm wondering who I know has a jigsaw or bandsaw I could borrow for a couple of hours.  I built the body of the Prakticello, here it is glued and clamped together.  For scale, the square on the cello is 16".

Nifty database login widget in GeoTools 2.6

Writing yet another login dialog for Postgres/PostGIS in Swing is tedious and mine always look crappy.  So I was happy to find that GeoTools 2.6 has a database login widget called JDataStoreWizard.  Updating the table with new features is also simple as adding your feature collection to the feature store.

Here's an example to call JDataStoreWizard and update a table in PostGIS

JDataStoreWizard wizard = new JDataStoreWizard(new PostgisDataStoreFactory());
int result = wizard.showModalDialog();
if (result != JWizard.FINISH) {
     System.exit(0);
} 

Map connectionParameters = wizard.getConnectionParameters(); 

PostgisDataStore dataStore = (PostgisDataStore)
     DataStoreFinder.getDataStore(connectionParameters); 

FeatureStore myFeatureTable = (FeatureStore) pgDs.getFeatureSource("myFeature");
myFeatureTable.addFeatures(myFeatureCollection);