March 2008

The file sites/all/modules/cumulus/cumulus.js is missing. Please download it from http://pratul.in/files/cumulus.js, and add it to the Cumulus module folder!

From "happy hacking" to "screw you" - the story of Meraki

Mar 22

I've been following the development of mesh wifi technology for several years now. From the moment I first grokked what was going on with it, it struck me as a great disruptive technology. One of the most successful early projects, and one that I followed with a great deal of interest was MIT's Roofnet project - an implementation of commodity hardware and open source software, built on Linux, which provides wifi coverage for MIT's campus.

Useful video transcoding commands

Mar 16

One of the handiest tools in my Linux toolchest is FFMPEG, the universal media transcoder. I'm pretty sure this fantastically useful piece of software runs in the background of every service that converts audio or video from one format to another (Google video, YouTube, Archive.org, etc). Over the years I've amassed a small collection of commands that will allow me to take media from one source and convert it for use in another - for example ripping video from a DVD or the web and then editing it and burning it back to DVD.

W2 Community Media Arts Centre

Mar 11

I met with Jon Husband this morning to begin to figure out the technical requirements for the W2 Community Media Arts Centre project. In many ways this centre exemplifies the type of project that I'm most comfortable with - a coalition of community groups working together to provide social space with a strong technology component. Politically it's an interesting space to be in, given my support for and involvement with the Woodsquat and what that site is now turning into.

The Mystic Heart

Mar 10

I've started watching The Mystic Heart - a dialogue on mysticism and the spiritual path between Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber. IntegralNaked has posted some of their stuff to YouTube and although it's poorly transcoded it's nice to see them opening up and sharing some of their stuff like this.

Here's episode one:

YouTube also has parts two to five.

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The Years of Rice and Salt

Mar 09

I just finished reading The Years of Rice and Salt by one of my favourite authors, Kim Stanley Robinson. Unlike the other stuff by him that I've read (eg. the Mars Trilogy) this is set in the past - a re-telling of history since about the year 1,000 that posits Christianity being largely wiped out by the plague with a subsequent history dominated by clashes between Buddhist and Islamic empires.

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