Far McKon

Creating Software, Hardware, and Community

New Gig!

Sep 1

Posted by FarMcKon in Personal, Professional, Uncategorized

I spent the last few months of my life dipping into my own saving, and trying to work with a friend to create a scientific device via our own small engineering company around. Unfortunately, my pockets are not as deep as I had hoped, and the problem more complex that I planned for.

My first plan was to try contracting work for a while. However while digging around, I stumbled upon an opening for a Linux Embedded developer position that seemed pretty nifty. So, I applied for the position, and got the position. So after clearing my calendar of current obligations, I’m starting work at MEI shortly.

The job looks pretty keen, and from what I’ve meet of the engineering/software team, it’s a good crew of people to work with. The only non-trivial downside is the reverse commute (which is longer than I like for). So, it’s back to working-stiff hood for me! Writing Linux drivers and apps isn’t going to be very stiff-ly though.

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August OWASP

Aug 17

Posted by FarMcKon in Code, Design, Professional

I got got back from a great meeting of Philly OWASP. It’s the first time I’ve been out to one of their events, partially because I’m not so much a web developer, but as the topic this month was mobile security, I decided to get out, and see what there is to know. Raj Umadas and Mike Zusman came down from NY/Jersey to show off some good tools for testing mobile security.

I was hoping for some static analysis, or some cool hardware tools, or even something based on the new Open Source GSM stack. Instead they brought out MiTM overEthernet when using a mobile device over wifi.

I know, I know. My first reaction was *yawn* as well. But stick around. After the obligatory ‘Port Forwarding and iptables tricks, they brought out a new toy called Mallory to play with. The Punny Name (”Mallory”, get it?) aside, it looks like a nice MiTM tool for linux, and they showed a good demo of it running, an intercepting traffic. It allows a quick setup for running a linux box (with wireless) as a base station, and then running MiTM intercepts over it, using their, or your own, plugins.

Lesson of the day: Most of your Mobile Device traffic is going over the internet, either right out of the device, or further down the traffic chain. Which means public internet level security is a MUST in mobile/embedded/apps. That, and many Firmware Engineers are being tasked with writing apps that now interface the web, and they are going to need to learn a whole new bag of security tricks.

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We Are Typists First

Jul 10

Posted by FarMcKon in Personal

kbrd-with-cressAs Coding Horror so clearly stated a couple of years ago programmers are typists. I’d like to think we are more than just typists, but even if we are something more, that is base class for us. So it’s with a bit of shame that I am admitting I took a typing test this weekend, and clocked in as a slower typist than I’ve been before. I’m slower by about 10 WPM. I’m not sure if it’s age, or bad habits creeping into my typing, but either way, it’s a bummer to see.

I’ve always loved the idea of Mastery of skills but I’ve never been a master at mastering things. Every since I was a kid, I can remember getting board with the tedious ‘making license plates’ of practice. Even as a small kid, and before it was a general complaint from pundits, I had a ‘need constant stimulation’ mindset and habits that have become a hallmark of my generation, and those that follow. There is an entire other post on the upside of that mindset and allowing synthesis and flexibility, but I’ll leave that for now.

Because of my mindset by nature and nuture, practice quickly becomes an exercise in willpower. How long can I do the boring thing, without losing focus? How well can I concentrate on something that isn’t engaging me? Naturally, that will power has been well exercised and pretty strong over the years.

I’ve generally been a great (but never excellent) typist. Typing excellence was up in that category of ‘Things I’d Master If I Had Extra Time More Patience’. And in my ripe old age I finally realized that ‘Extra Time’ is just an excuse. It’s a dodge for not mastering a skill, for being more interested in immediate engagement than long-time maintenance, and a bad self-justification for being good, but not the best. Taking that typing test the other day simply highlighted that on another slice of my life.

So, it’s with a pretty decent amount of willpower and a bit of frustration that I’ve scheduled 45 minutes into everyday for typing training. My goal is a consistent 70 WMP, with 99% accuracy in 3-4 months, just for the sake of being a fast type. Considering my stubby fingers, I’m thinking that is doable, but a good challenge. Being a master of a skill is excellent, but maintaining that mastery is sometimes easy to overlook.

(image by Dirk Gently, Creative Commons License)

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FOSSCON 2010

Jun 30

Posted by FarMcKon in Professional

FOSSCON CrowdFriday of two weeks ago, I headed to Rochester NY (where I use to live) to catch the inaugural FOSSCON conference. I didn’t make the unofficial FOSSCON Friday dinner, but from what I heard the next day, most people missed it due to travel delays.

FOSSCON was held at RIT, and Saturday morning I biked down to the Conference from downtown. I got there in time to hang out a bit before the first session. While in the lobby I saw only about 50 – 70 people show up and register that morning, which was a lot less than I expected. I don’t know the turn out they were expecting, but based on the discussion I had heard I expected a lot larger crowd.

After looking around a bit I ended up going to “Multimedia and Linux” with Klaatu, “Teaching with FOSS” with Stephen Jacobs, and then spent some time in the POSSE Panel (which was a giant meet and great setup), and then ended up in the Vendor/Table area for the rest of the day. The “Multimedia and Linux” was not at all what I expected. It was a good talk but it was a more general overview and much more A/V user directed talk than I was hoping for. The “Teaching with FOSS” ended up with couple of us getting a hands on interactive demo with the speaker since the session was so small, which was a blast.

FOSSCON was pretty clearly a inaugural convention, and a decent one at that. The presentations and talks were a bit less than I was expecting, but the crowd was great, and there were some excellent conversations and discussion that came out of being there. The best part of the conference were a couple of the Lightning Talks, which were not even on the schedule. The conference was OK, but the attendees and presenters were great. I look forward to going back next year, seeing how the convention has grown, and hopefully even presenting myself.
(Photo from ahotw)

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Declined (now with free advice!)

Jun 23

Posted by FarMcKon in Design, Professional

google-street-view-carI recently had the unfortunate pleasure of declining a consulting job with a short “I think your technical plan is invalid” email. Well, it wasn’t that short. I spent 2 hours and 3-4 pages explaining what was problematic, and why the other consultants were unlikely to meet their goals or deadlines (even if they coded every line perfect from the start). The startup idea is/was a good one, and the business plan was decent. But their technical plan was flawed from the git go.

Reading their technical plan make me sputter and say it’s just a bad idea. That reaction is usually caused when my accumulated experiences are informing my opinion, and not rational planning or education. So it was interesting to me to sit down, and try to really understand my gut instinct. So the first thing I did after breathing into a brown paper bag was try to dissect why I have such a strong reaction and what the sane and logical reasons for it.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Nonprofits and Motives

May 30

Posted by FarMcKon in Hackerspace, Personal

I’ve thought a lot about community, profits, and making a difference while making a living. This is a hot topic now, and I think it’s great to see America shifting it’s conscience (albeit profit-minded conscience) recently. Green-washing and Community-faking at least means that my fellow americans are realizing the importance of verdant and social behavior, even if they are suckers for ‘now with Social!’ stickers to slap on products.

In my talks about hackishness, and my work on projects I’ve always had a hard time baking up my reasoning for removing money as a factor. Whether it was giving cash discounts to officers at Hive76, or giving gardeners cheaper food at Ant Hill, I’ve felt an inherent frustration with money as a incentive for creativity and community. I don’t feel that way about money as a general incentive, so it’s also been something I’ve not been able to defend or explain well.

It was with great relief and interested that I grabbed Drive by Daniel Pink. I’m still just starting on it, but it seems to be a great set of background on exactly the gut feeling I have about using money as an incentive. The one sentence overview is that Money is only an incentive up to a point, and for some kinds of tasks. For creative and deep though tasks, a bigger drive is accomplishment self-direction, and sense of purpose.

I think that is enough of a cool new idea for right now. I think there is a strong tie to profit vs non-profit enterprises, but I need to think on that idea and flesh it out a bit before I post it.

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Allentown is gearing up for next generation industry

May 20

Posted by FarMcKon in Hackerspace, Professional

Allentown BridgeI just got back from a great day and a great panel discussion at Bridgeworks in Allentown, PA. Bridgeworks is an incubator in Allentown that is a part of the Allentown Economic Development Corp. As manufacturing has shifted away from the us, AEDC is responding by working to create the next generation of fabrication and manufacturing industry.

As part of that, they invited a great crew to stop in, have lunch, and have a panel discussion on hackerspaces, innovation and the next generation of industry. The panel today was myself, Matthew Sommerfield, Richard C. Warner, and Paul Pierpoint, all from the Allentown area. Together the combination made a great mix of informal skills, education, group building, and knowledge of Lehigh Valley and it’s skills and challenges. For about two hours we bantered around ideas, fielded questions, and tried to think on our feet.

The audience had some great questions, and the panel has some great ideas, and some great answers. One thing I heard several times, and that has come up in other contexts, is that a hackerpace is part of a ecosystem. Having universities, Fab Labs, and innovative companies are all necessary. But they need to interact, and be able to draw from and give to the community as a whole. Hacker and makerspaces are one of the ways (the best way in my opinion) to create a common ground, where everyone can mix on their own terms.

It was an inspiring panel to be on. AEDC has some great ideas, and it’s clear Matthew Turk and R. Scott Unger clearly have a great vision. Not just of regional innovation culture, but also of the concrete steps they can take to get there. I look forward to watching what grows in that region, and maybe even helping them out where my skills allow.

P.S. If you live in the area, let me know. I’d love to meet some local hackers, makers, and geeks next time I’m in that part of PA.

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Speaking Gigs

May 17

Posted by FarMcKon in Personal

For the past 3-4 years, I feel that I’ve had two jobs. My regular 9-5 job, and my unpaid passion ‘job’ . That second job centered on helping make Philadelphia a world class Tech/Geek city, and advocating for the US rebuild our education and DIY culture into an integrated system if lifelong learning, play, and experimentation. This has involved traveling, talking, starting organizations, helping make Ignite Philly happen, and more.

So it’s a bit of a surprise to me that I’ve started getting some speaking requests over the last couple of months. In an odd bit of synchronicity, a few friends have mentioned the topic over the last few months, in different ways. I’ve started to get a trickle of speaking opportunities showing up. None of them are paid yet, but they are covering travel costs, and a place to stay on the road.

I often have to check my own engineer attitude at the door when I start to think about the community/ organizational/ educational skills I have. When I think about those skills, my initial reaction is a very engineer-y “that’s not a skill at all” knee-jerk reaction. It’s odd for me to have that reaction. That exact attitude is something I push a lot of geek friends to re-examine. But somehow haven’t managed to completely rid myself of.

I’m wondering if these speaking opportunities are a one time fluke, or if they are going to become a part of the things I do in life. I hope this does become part of my regular life. I really enjoy traveling and talking about Getting Things Done, Hackerspace and Hacker Culture, and Open Source community. Doing those things for pay would be wizard.

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Personal Board of Directors

May 10

Posted by FarMcKon in Personal

I recently joined a group of folks that meet each Friday in South Philadelphia to talk about Life, The Universe, and Everything. It’s basiclly a lifehacker and Get Things Done club, and it has a nice blend of East Coast Type-A suggestions, and West Cost laid back ‘what is your breathing technique’ ideas.

One of the ideas that came up with the concept of a personal Board of Directors. Much like the commercial equivalent, it’s a group of people to review what is going on, and suggest a better or new course. It’s a nice idea, and it makes several things happen as you go towards getting a board. For one it forces one to identify a core group of people you respect and care for, to model or ask for opinions of. Second, it makes sure the board seeker makes some kind of document or set of information available to those people, in on the way collects some information about the past, and what they want in the future.

Finally, it makes a space and social agreement for positive, interactive feedback. This way asking for hard advice, or for deeper thought on some issues isn’t a surprise, or an accident you happened into. It’s a social activity in a space and time designated for that use, which makes everyone involved a bit easier with the idea of giving or getting advice.

I sent out my own email for a board today, and I’m looking forward to hearing back from folks. If you didn’t get an email and you are interested in giving me advice you still can. Check out my call for Board Members, fill out the related information, and mail it to me. I don’t think a ‘blog post will turn up anyone, but who knows?!

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arm-elf-gcc of doom

Apr 26

Posted by FarMcKon in Uncategorized

I am stick in the position of reinstalling arm-elf-gcc again, for the 3rd time. The second time I simply copied the arm-elf directories from my old system to my new, so maybe this only counts as the second. My new install is x64 (running on a MacBook Pro 5,1) and it had problems trying to run the old version.

I had two approaches in mind when I started working on this. One being
simply to follow the generic Making Things instructions, the second to download and build the toolchain based on nutaksas.

I tried grabbing from nutaksas first. The script ran OK, and downloaded and built everything I needed. However, when I tried my o
ld make files, I ran into a problem with duplicate symbols. (Unfortunately, I can’t recreate it, as I already fixed/replaced the problem). Since the colission was in libc.a, the next thing I tried was rebuilding with –with-newlib disabled. It was a longshot (and didn’t work), instead of problems linking, I got compile errors for “printf(”.

After which I fell back on ye olde download the prebuild libs trick. Instead of adding /usr/local/bin/gnuarm-3.4.3/ to the path, I made softlinks using “sudo ln -s /usr/local/gnuarm-3.4.3/bin/arm-elf-* /usr/bin.”

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