While it was not planned, most of the completed circuits did not work the first time around.  This presented a perfect opportunity for some impromptu troubleshooting practice.  A couple of days after the workshop I breadboarded the circuit at home and made a couple of observations.  If the voltage is applied in the correct polarity, the LED must be installed in the correct polarity for it to work.  If the voltage is applied in reverse polarity, the LED will be very dim when installed correctly, and normal brightness when it is installed in reverse.  I also discovered the small green LEDs handed out for the practice circuit seem to be fairly dim in comparison to the other LEDs available.  I was also able to run 15 LEDs off of a single AA battery if I didn’t use those smaller LEDs, but only a few if I did.  I was going to try more but it was way past my bedtime and my desire for a horizontal position overrode my desire to push the circuit any further.  I want to work with Gillian to use a multimeter to determine the output voltage of the circuit, and show her how the current increases as more LEDs are added to the circuit.  I’m also curious to look up the specs of the transistor and see how many LEDs it should be able to safely drive before exceeding its safe operating current, is 15 pushing it?

Gillian’s lamp she made currently only has 5 LEDs installed, but if we replace those smaller green LEDs out with the larger green, and some more orange/red LEDs, we should be able to run at least 10 LEDs since her battery compartment holds 3 AA batteries in parallel.  We did notice the transistor tends to warm up a bit even with the 5 current LEDs, so we may be limited more by the tolerance of the transistor rather than the capacity of the power supply.

All in all we had a great time and Gillian learned quite a bit.  While she hasn’t grasped the full concept of electronics work yet, she does now know how to do basic soldering, and understands that different parts do different things, and that combining those individual components makes larger components.  We’re currently working on a basic walker robot built out of cardboard, so she’s learning how the electronic world (Arduino) can interact with the physical world.

The last 2 years I’ve volunteered to be a speaker.  Both years I’ve given an instruction on the importance of and a crash-course on revision control.  While I feel it is a subject all programmers should be more than familiar with, I wanted to do something a little different this year.

I like to stick to beginner level subjects.  While I could get into serial port and socket programming in Delphi and Java, I feel Code Camp already has a good selection of subjects for the intermediate to advanced programmers.  Since Code Camp targets all audiences, I want to give people a chance to pick up something completely new to them without falling asleep because the material is far above their experience levels.  At the same time I like to choose something I will learn from while I prepare my demonstration.   As an example, the first time I taught revision control I did it along side Jim Munn.  I knew some of the Subversion basics but branching and merging were something I hadn’t done yet.  Jim showed the attendees (including me) that part and I focused on the integration with Trac.  The following year I explored it a little more in depth and taught the whole kit and caboodle.

Here are some of the subjects I considered  for my presentation:

• Test Driven Development in Java
• Beginner’s Home Automation using Misterhouse
• AGI programming for Asterisk
• WordPress widget/plugin development
• Dojo web programming

All of those subjects are topics I’ve dabbled in on some level.  I’ve started with some basic Dojo application development for example, but I’ve worked extensively with Asterisk.  I could even combine some of the above topics, such as using a Dojo interface to a Java based Asterisk AGI program in order to interface with a home automation system that makes a WordPress blog entry when it is complete!  The fun never ends.

In the end I decided to give a beginner level presentation on developing for the Xbox 360 console.  I’m already familiar with the language required due to some projects at work, so this will make for a fun project.  It will also be something a little different and I’m hoping will help attract some of the younger audience to Code Camp that may not have attended otherwise thinking it would be all about business programming topics.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Back under the limit this week.

• Double Shot at Love (0 hrs) -This did not air this week.  I checked the DVR schedule and it shows the final 3 going to Vegas next week, so apparently they took a week off.
• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Yes, Deanna Russo is still very watchable.  Friday’s episode had quite the twist to it that I wasn’t expecting.  I won’t say any more as I don’t want to give a spoiler at this point.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) Now that  Stargate Atlantis is over, this is now on.  I was looking forward to dropping a show off the list, but I can’t resist watching the final season of this show too.  The story has come too far to miss out on how it ends.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – Still watching this for inspiration.  It amazes me how the Silver Team just doesn’t get it.  Joelle  complains at every opportunity and was giddy about the opportunity to go home, even though it was due to their over-eating (WAY over eating) at a temptation.  Her partner Carla has some serious control issues and needs a good slap in the face.  I was disappointed to see they got to stay in the game even though they were up for elimination.  I think everyone else decided that they probably won’t make it eventually, so keeping them in longer and eliminating tougher opponents is to their advantage at this point in the game.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – I learned how they plug old mine shafts in California using polyurethane foam on last week’s episode.  Interesting stuff.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – I think they may finally be bringing Izzy’s fling with her dead husband’s ghost to an end.  That has been a particularly annoying plot line more suited for some daytime soap.
• ER (1 hr) – Almost done then I get to mark this one off my list.
• 24 (1 hr) – Back to one hour now that its kicked off.  I still haven’t watched the 4 hours from last week, but the way this show works it is almost better to save up a few episodes and watch several of them all at once.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I actually haven’t watched anything extra this week.

At least 2 books per month – On track.

• Otherland: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams – 2 chapters left.  There are two more books in this series, but the wife is bugging me to read the Twilight series.  She’s on the 3rd book and it is driving her nuts not being able to talk to me about it yet.  I’m always up for a good vampire book.
• The Real America by Glenn Beck – About half way through it, but I should be done with it this weekend.  Next up is a Suze Orman book.  I figured after my post talking about how she seems to be a hypocrite on her TV show, I would also be one as well if I don’t read her books to make a more informed decision.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Met.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Only down 0.2 poulds direct weight this week, 0.1 pounds down on the averaged trend.  Even though my loss this week is lackluster, I’m still on target for my 100 pound goal.  If you plot a line from my starting weight on the 1st of the year to my goal weight on Dec 31 I am under that line.  THe body will plateau, and several factors can change a weight by several pounds, including sodium intake, the types of food eaten the prior day, and even mood over the past few days.  I’m going with the sodium and food theory since I’ve been in a great mood over the last couple of weeks.

Budget – We’re doing great this week.  We were under budget on our food, and we budgeted some spending money for each of us.  We had a small windfall too which helped fund our savings, as well as a little extra spending money.  This helped take the edge off immensely and allowed us to get a few things we’ve been wanting.  These small purchases every now and then seem to help remove the motonony of living as tight as we have been.

The book is self-destructive.  It actively encourages the reader to destroy it over time.  The purpose is to destroy the stigma of violating a book by writing it the margins, dog-ear marking favorite pages, etc.  I’ve started going through it by flipping to a page that seems to meet my mood and doing whatever it says to do.  After I get a few more of them done I’ll start to select some of my favorites and post photos of them.

Some of the activities include numbering the pages, breaking the spine, taking a shower with the book, and even tearing a page out, putting it through the washer, and putting it back in place.  Some of the activities, such as taking a shower with the book, seem to be more destructive than others and I’ll probably save them for last.  I think that one in particular could make it difficult to complete a lot of other tasks in the book.

I love writing, but one of my biggest problems is picking up a new notebook and getting the first few lines of text out.  I believe it has something to do with a combination of not wanting to start out wrong,  and having to correct it.  Holding that brand new notebook just has a sense of perfection and I want to keep that perfection as I use it.  I am hopeful that this journal will help me overcome that form of writer’s block and make it easier to write down some of the stories I want to write.

The premise behind this product is that during a seizure, you may be able to catch a PC already booted, in which case the encryption key is already loaded and the data is available.  How do you get it back to the lab without shutting down the system? Enter HotPlug.  To make it simple, you attach the HotPlug device to the computer’s power cables (several methods available, from simple plug-in down to wire stripping and piercing) and this device seamlessly transfers power from the wall socket to your UPS.  You can then take it in a powered up state back to the lab for forensic analysis.  They also have a mouse jiggler device to prevent the screen saver from locking as well, assuming they executed the seizure while the target person was present and using the computer.

Thinking along these lines got me contemplating how to protect oneself against such a device.  While I do not condone working to defeat a lawful seizure by warrant-producing members of law enforcement, I feel these attacks will become more and more common by more shady people, such as private investigators, corporate spys, and identity thiefs.  Stealing a running PC with personal info such as bank account numbers, personal contacts, and online logins could become very much more valuable than the PC itself.  The days of coming home and finding a missing PC with nothing else touched is getting near.  With that in mind, I came up with some interesting ways to defeat the HotPlug:

1. Have your system require a password within say 2 minutes of installing an unknown USB device.  This would prevent the mouse jiggler from doing its job.  It should not prompt for the password, but you would specifically have to go run the utility and enter the key.  That way the attacker would not know he needed the password until it was too late.  If the password is not entered in time, lock it down.  By locking it down I mean wiping the key from memory (to prevent freezing the ram and reading the key) then powering the system off.
2. Use some sort of hardware disconnect to trigger a lock down.  If the LAN cable, USB hub, joystick, or any hardware device the system can detect is disconnected, lock it down.  This would be especially useful if there is no way to move the system without unplugging something.  As an example, don’t use a short cable to attach your machine directly to your network switch/router, otherwise they could leave the router on the HotPlug device too and defeat that security measure.  Leave your router in another room or closet and use in-wall wiring to connect them.  Having multiple hardware devices that must stay connected also takes the job from a one-person in-and-out job to a several person job to move all of the devices without disconnecting them.  Think along the lines of PC, monitor, flat bed scanner, laser printer, external drive, and joystick.  How easy would it be to move that computer with all of those devices remaining powered on and connected?
3. Use a network based device to trigger a lockdown.  For example, have your security software watch to make sure a specific IP or MAC address is available.  This could be inside your network, or for even more security an outside source.  If you have control of the outside source, make sure it only accepts requests from your IP.  If the system is moved and re-attached to a different network (such as a cell phone network) in order to circumvent your security the system would still lock down.  A drawback to this is in the event of a network outtage your system could lock down when you don’t want it to.
4. Use a bluetooth device hidden somewhere else in range of your PC, such as an old cell phone.  Plug it into its own power source separate from your PC (again, preferably a different room) and do not have a battery installed.  This way even if they find and take the device with them, it will still power down and lose connection.  When your PC loses contact with the device, lock it down.
5. GPS presents several protection methods.  Several laptops now-a-days have internal GPS devices.  Program your security system to watch the location and if it moves more than say 1000 yards (to take GPS drift into account) lock it down.  This could be paired with several of the methods above too.  Bluetooth, disconnect or (if they find the GPS device) location change will lock it down.  A USB GPS receiver attached via a long-distance USB cable that can not be moved without disconnecting it would also provide double-protection (if they manage to find a way to move the device while maintaining its connection to the PC, the location change would still lock it down later.

I can think of several varients of the above using different technology, such as cellular data cards (if it detects a tower outside of the normally available towers) WiFi network detection (if the available AP list changes more than X percent over X amount of time) and so on.  In a way these methods of protection are modifications to the old dead man switch idea made popular in several movie plots, only these ideas may be a bit more convenient for the user to have in place.  What ideas can you come up with to protect yourself in the event that your computer is stolen?