The Internet of Things

At work,I have being toying around with a way to have in-browser notifications in real time about the application the user is currently using.
I came across the XMPP protocol while designing my proof of concept, and further reading and research on the protocol made me realise what people have used to protocol to achieve.

The "Internet of Things" is something of a self-aware global or a private network of devices or objects that talk to each other over central nodes,these nodes being XMPP servers(loosely speaking).

The beauty of the protocol is its extensibility, and presence management that comes with it out of the box.

OpenSpime is an example of such a library that has extended the XMPP protocol, and currently has a Python library to get started.

This information came to me when I was browsing through hackaday,and has come as a pleasant surprise.

Here is also another informative link, what can you do with xmpp.

Sounds fun!

I am looking at publishing my implementation of the proof of concept,and it will require me to get approvals, given it has become intellectual property of the company I work for.
Looking forward to it...

I need of a new project!

I am so damn in a desperate need to start my own project..build a robot,do something without any reason of doing it..
Life is so drab and dull with nothing more than managing deploy schedules,listening to endless meetings,and its not the same here as it was in India.I could just hop off to lamington on a saturday morning and get my robot ready by Sunday end of day,probably dismantle it the next morning without keeping notes or pictures of my creation..

US would most probably be the place where I can get the latest micro boards and nice motors and stuff for my bot, but probably I would need to shell out a fortune to procure those as compared to India.There is no machining shop around,my house has a carpet so cant have heavy tools like a drill to make a robot chassis..the list is on and on and on..I hate buying readymade kits, and people who know this facet of me know how a "get my hands dirty" guy I am ..

I have loads of time at hand..to spend doing what I do best..build robots...

updates!

Life has become the superbly boring 9-5 thing..with almost all the fun jam packed on the weekends when Poonam is around..

The fun thing that happened was that I went in for a skydive from 10000 feet from the shoreline of Cape Cod.It was the most exhilarating activity I would have ever done..with a 40 seconds freefall and 3.5 minutes with a parachute thereafter.

I am currently working on a pet project that I think probably has the potential to make it big..or atleast provide me a good standing as a web developer outside of my line of work..which probably would shoot the page rank of this blog many times it is now..(only If I can publish it here..)

I can now cook as good as my mom does..which in fact was something I have learnt by myself..A pat on the back there...

I am dying to take another trip down memory lane,meet some old friends in the US,remember good old days..

My first few Weeks in Milford

Not pretty exciting!Well looking forward to it..
I have just rented a 2BHK apartment here, planning to buy a car(Milford is really horrible when it comes to public transport..Boston is way better)..
Work normally extends 8-8, and I do cook food sometimes!
Nothing exciting happening here...just the regular work-cook-sleep kinda life..
I am dying to jump start another small project or something..something that I may look forward when I come back home...The way it was in India...
The best thing here is the weather..it is pleasant..sometimes cold..and changes erratically...Spring is arriving...and the trees are starting to bloom..so that is the good part of this place..
The first place that I visited was Rhode Island..but the rains ruined the fun..had to stay back at the hotel for about 6-7 hours..will post snaps soon..
I have never been out of house like this..never in my entire life..so it all seems overwhelming...I have to make decisions that I have never thought of taking...and at times I tend to go nuts deciding between things..

My Experiments

Last night,I was trying to install Debian on my Ubuntu sytem under Virtualbox.It was a painstaking 3-day download from the Debian Http servers, and then I understand that Virtualbox currently does not support a 64-bit guest OS yet.So it more 3-painstaking days to download the 32-bit Debian iso.

Apart from this I have ordered a new device from China,it has come pre-installed with WinCE and GPS logging in-built, and I need to run EmDebian on it.I really want to write down one large blog post that will show actually how to do this..effortlessly.

Things have slowly moved away from Orkut and Facebook, and more into Twitter.The system is so good that it allows posting information from a varied set of sources, and that's what make my mind tick.

I cannot believe this, that since the last 8 weekends, I have done nothing but built apps one after the other for Twitter..although they are in pretty nascent stage to date..And I love it!

Nothing more than this.

I Ran and Ran and Ran...To the finish....

It was a great experience to participate in the SCMM 2009.I enrolled in the 21.097 Km race that started at the Azad Maidan and then finished there.

I was able to finish the race in just a shade over three and a half hours.

Check the snaps here.

DIY GorillaPod

I had been trying since a few days to find something interesting to make,when i really get bored out of my programming and web surfing..The best place to be in such times is instructables.com.

I am in awe of what people are creating out of their imagination and really cool stuff is out there to be discovered.

I happened to read about the GorillaPod,which is a simple tripod for a point and shoot,and its happens to be something created out of sheer genius...the tripod can actually wrap around things,and stay stiff,so you can get those oddly positioned shots out of your camera.

Here is what my DIY version looked like...

To be honest,I have made this in 2 days flat!And it has not cost me more than $15.

Here are some more snaps of it,where the tripod seems to assumes the role of a photogenic model.

Here is how it can shoot in the macro mode....

The Pod clinging to a thin Door of my cupboard(Please neglect the mess within the cupboard,actually its a black hole,whatever has gone in,really I have never been able to find that thing back....)

Last but not the least,how the tripod clings to the window grill in my house...

I would be keen to sell this to someone who would be really interested.Drop me an email at rupin[dot]chheda[at]gmail.com....