Porting wpa_supplicant

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 05:51

Tags: Network, Programming, Wireless

If you've ever tried porting wpa_supplicant to a different operating system, you probably have come across this link on the wpa_supplicant documentation page: Porting to different target boards and operating systems. While it gives a good heads up, the end section describes the C files needed to build an initial compiling version from where to start building the operating support.

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San Antonio Storm

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 05:43

Tags: Lightning, San Antonio

We had a pretty decent storm here in San Antonio a couple of days ago. There was even a tornado warning for a while, and while it touched down 25 miles southwest of San Antonio on Monday evening, it did not hit the city itself. Some 50 homes were damaged in the surrounding area of Medina, Texas, and several people got injured.

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An Introduction to Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 10:51

Tags: Cryptography, ECC, Elliptic Curves, Mathematics

Some of my research is focused on the implementation issues of Elliptic Curve Cryptography on embedded systems. Since I often have to explain what Elliptic Curve Cryptography exactly is, I decided to write this little introduction on the matter. Maybe this will get the attention of some of my students, and can perhaps get them more interested in the mathematical branch of finite fields in Algebra.

Crypto logo

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Transparent Caching Proxy with Squid and Just One Ethernet Port

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 09:07

Tags: ARM, Efika, Linux, Network, proxy, Squid

Some time ago we had a project which needed a simple transparent caching proxy for use in classrooms in Latin America. The classroom desktops consisted of ten of our Efika's, and we thought why not use an extra one of those to act as the proxy. This is not the kind of high bandwidth environment of a typical installation, so the performance limitations were not really an obstacle. The goal was rather to use the limited internet connection available as efficiently as possible. The configuration of the system using Squid is detailed below.

Efika NetTop

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Qt and Web Content

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Fri, 02/03/2012 - 01:27

Tags: Programming, Qt

Qt is a really nice framework to develop applications that need to be cross platform, and where you have the raw power of C++ (or even optimised C/Assembly libraries) at your fingertips. However, more and more we see web applications and web languages taking over from the traditional desktop applications. Often though, what you really need is a mix between the two: the raw power and responsiveness that a desktop application provides, while interacting with web API's and displaying web content as part of the desktop application. Good thing then that Qt allows just that... 

Qt Logo

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A Ray Tracer - Part 2

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Wed, 12/28/2011 - 01:17

Tags: C, Graphics, Mathematics, Programming, Ray Tracing

Last time we build up the basics of the raytracer: some essential math and the corresponding function implementations and structures in the C programming language. We will expand the ray tracer this time to generate actual graphics and to generate these images with multiple spheres, light sources, and reflections.

Painter

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A Ray Tracer - Part 1

Submitted by PurpleAlien on Sun, 11/13/2011 - 15:28

Tags: C, Graphics, Mathematics, Programming, Ray Tracing

I've always been fascinated with computer graphics. One of the first things I learned to code when I was a kid was a ray tracer. It was a simple and straight-forward assembly implementation on an early home computer, but it taught me a lot about how computers deal with graphics and just programming in general and its connection to mathematics.

Raytrace Scene

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