HT People

After having fun time with the Treasure Hunting now it's time to make things more seriously.

I'm planning some net-games specifically designed for 770/N800 devices, but I need help from someone who are keen about net-games.

With the term "net-games" I mean games which are playble through Internet and include a challange among players sometimes with prizes too. Examples are: treasure hunts, hacking challanges, adventure games, spy games, etc.

All the games should be playble only through a client 770/N800 connected to a web server. I can develop the server side part, but I need help for other tasks. So I'm looking for:

- A graphic designer
- A maemo developer (C/C++ or python)
- Translators for other languages different from english and italian.

If you are interested please leave a comment here or contact me.

Hey HT People now it's time to have some feedback from you!!! ;-)

I've prepared a HT test for you, please give it a look if you want to know how hach-tech you are. There are 10 questions, you should reply according to your preferences. After that look at your test result. If you have gained at least 70 points than you can be proud to be a hack-tech person, less then 40 means that you are an irreducible PocketPC person!!! ;-)

The results will be published here.

Ok it's only a joke, but it's for free... :-)

Take the Test!

Well, this could be the first real hack-tech post since the blog was born because who wants to try this must know something about IRC, linux and python. I think (IMHO) that every HT People should have an IRC chatting experience in their life! :-) So...our great Internet Tablet can be used to join IRC channels also thanks to the XChat application but...what about an IRC Bot? For the ones who don't know, an IRC bot is a software that automates some IRC commands to help channel operators in their administration activities. They can also be useed to extend IRC channels with games, news, searching features, networking and other useful stuff.

Surfing the web I've found a great python IRC bot, it's called Supybot. Why python? Because it's platform indipendent so I can use it with my PC and my Nokia N800, also it is the simplest way to install an IRC bot on the N800.

So dear HT People, you should try this if you want to be a cool hack-tech user!!! ;-)

Yes but...how to do it? With only 3 simple steps:

• 1. Register a new cool channel on IRC
• 2. Install supybot on your Internet Tablet
• 3. Configure supybot to be a cool Bot for your channel

REGISTER A NEW COOL CHANNEL ON IRC

You can use XChat to perform this task. Choose a nickname and connect to a server (my preferred is irc.azzurra.org). If you haven't done yet, register your nick with the command:

/msg NickServ REGISTER <password> <email>

They will send you by e-mail an activation code as confirmation. Follow the instructions to activate your registered nickname. From now on you will get a unique nickname on that server...cool, isn't it? Every time you enter the server with that nick you have 60 seconds to identify yourself with the command:

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY <password>

Now you can register your channel. To do it join the channel you want to create and if it is free you will become automatically an operator for that channel. Now that you are in, type the following command:

/msg ChanServ REGISTER <channel name> <channel password> <short description of the channel>

Done? Congratulations!!! Now you are the founder of that channel and every chatter who will join it will call you "The Boss"!!! ;-)

There are lots of things you can do now but you can have fun to explore by yourself.

INSTALL SUPYBOT ON YOUR INTERNET TABLET

This is the simplest step. Download supybot and extract it where you prefer on your Internet Tablet (i.e. /media/mmc1/Supybot). If you haven't done yet, install python 2.5 from Maemo repository. You must also install the developer packages to run supybot, so open XTerm and type the following:

apt-get install python2.5-dev

Done? Ok...now change the directory to /media/mmc1/Supybot or where you have installed supybot and type the following command:

python setup.py install

And that's all!! You have now supybot installed on your wanderful Internet Tablet!!! :-)

CONFIGURE AND RUN SUPYBOT

Oh well...and this is the funniest step!!! :-)

If you have correctly installed supybot, you will find two files under /usr/bin/: supybot and supybot-wizard. First you need to configure supybot. Make a new directory which will contain the config and the log files and run supybot-wizard from there, for example:

cd /home/user
mkdir Supybot
cd Supybot
python /usr/bin/supybot-wizard

And now it's very simple...just follow the instructions and reply to the questions, and you will have your <channel name>.conf file under /home/user/Supybot. Don't bore with the plugins for now...you will play with them later, when you'll become cool in using supybot... ;-)

Done? Congratulations!!! :-) Now you can run it with the following command:

python /usr/bin/supybot /home/user/Supybot/<channel name>.conf

And that's all!!! Enter your channel and have fun with your cool BOT!!! You can do lots of things now and should configure as well as possible your BOT and install plugins...have fun!!! If you need help, please contact me or leave a comment here.

Hey guys let me know if you create your own IRC Bot...I will give it a look...

If you want to see my BOT in action, come to my channel on irc.azzurra.org: #meetupbari. Often you can find me there!!!

Have Fun!

Yes, it's possible!!! And you don't need an IRDA adapter nor a Bluetooth receiver...you just need a satellite receiver like the dreambox! :-)

How it works? Very simple...dreambox is a Linux machine and you can install a flash image which supports a web interface. After that you only need to power on your wireless LAN and use your great N800 (or 770), whith its wonderful display resolution, to control the receiver. Obviously, the receiver must be connected to your LAN through a cable or a wireless bridge.
I've installed a Colosseum flash image on the dreambox and from its web interface I can do a lot of things such as:

• Make Zapping
• Send OSD text messages
• Take a screenshot of the actual selected channel
• Whatch streaming video (not yet with the N800)
• Reboot the dreambox
• Edit config files
• ...And much more!!! :-)

Yes, I can do the same things from my PC too but the N800 is more fun because it gives me the control of the dreambox from everywhere. So I can make zapping in front of the TV or change the radio channel from another room. I can also make some jokes to my mother-in-law when whatching her favourite TV series :-)

This is the zapping control of the web interface...cool, isn't it?

Another cool and useful thing is that I can send any OSD text messages to the dreambox...and I can do it from everywhere!!! So imagine I'm in the bus and I want to say my wife that I'm at 5 minutes far from home...oh well I could call her or just send a sms but it's more hack-tech sending her an OSD message. :-P I know that she's watching TV while cooking so I can send her an OSD message "Butta la Pasta!"!!! :-)

Well...maybe it's not so hack-tech, but it's fun...enjoy!!!

Well...here it is my first unusual experience with the Nokia N800 and I'd like to share it with you.

My dm500s is a great satellite receiver, so much little but so powerful, and I need to extend its flash image with a multiboot behaviour, so that I can choose the image to load from an OSD menu on start. Yes, I can do it through my PC but it's so boring to power on the PC every time I want to play with my dreambox, so why not the N800 instead? It should be an idea since my N800 is always on and always connected to the WiFi LAN.

Yes I want to try!!! Anyone want too?

Uhm...let's see what I need...

• Linux N800 with NFS support...yes I can Flash the new OS2007 kernel with NFS support!!!
• A cool programmer that can write a little bootloader to install into the dm500s flash memory...uhm OK, this is the hard task...I will try with Flash Wizard Pro for the moment :-)

OK...I'll try and let you know if it works or maybe I break the device!!!

Hey guys, anyone with good skills in C and linux programming are invited to partecipate to the hard test and please, feel free to send any suggestions and post your ideas here.

Here it is my HackTech Lab for the experiment: