My mail filter announces incoming mail as it comes in — for spam, it just plays a short wav, one of the sound effects from SOCOM: US Navy Seals. For ham, though, it feeds a brief summary through the speech synthesizer: the sender address, and the subject line (or “No subject”).
When the laptop is up, it acts as my primary MX. When it’s off (e.g., overheated), Google acts as my backup MX, and when my laptop comes back up, it runs fetchmail from cron.
The problem with this is that the speech synth tends to step on itself. I’ll get two or three speech processes, all trying to announce different messages at the same time.
The obvious solution: queue them all up and let a seperate process serialize them via Unix sockets. I could just have each process acquire a lock on the synthesizer, but in case of massive email floods, say, when I’ve been away for a week or two, it’d just cause timeouts and deferrals.
The server I use is here, and the client that feeds it is here. I may or may not update them on the site as I improve the code.
So, after a conversation on EFNet’s #iPhone:
13:47 < etnom_bar> But i think i will go to the sister bar.
13:47 < @cuervo> heh
13:47 < @cuervo> warbarring.
13:48 < @cuervo> warbarhopping? someone help me out here.
13:48 < @khuong> haa
13:48 < @khuong> sounds like manbearpig butchering.
13:48 < etnom_bar> Omallys and omallys 2
13:48 < @khuong> war bar hopping would be intense though..
13:48 < @cuervo> I still have no idea who or what manbearpig is. as far as I can
figure, it's some fat dude on the radio in LA or something.
13:49 < @cuervo> shit yeah. you could make a drinking game out of it.
13:49 < @khuong> how to crap wep/wpa drunk..
13:49 < @khuong> yeah it'd be fun.
13:49 < @khuong> crack*
13:49 < @khuong> crap lol
13:49 < etnom_bar> Have done it. Hit every bar in town. Made a big circle.
13:49 < @cuervo> you have to take a shot or down a beer for every open network
someone finds. two if they crack the encryption.
13:50 < @cuervo> if they airpwn it and inject goatse everywhere, you have to
pick a fight with the bouncer(s).
13:50 < @khuong> LMAO
13:50 < @cuervo> +10 if it's the bar's AP.
13:50 < DoW-Targe> that actually sounds like fun !
13:51 < @cuervo> I'm going to have to draft some rules.
13:51 < @khuong> cuervo: you tube this.
13:51 < @cuervo> brb.
So, here are my first-draft rules for Warbarhopping.
- For each unencrypted and uncloaked wireless network encountered, all players must down a shot.
- Any player who breaks the encryption on a discovered network may order another shot for any player.
- Any “damage” done to the network — e.g., redirecting all images to pictures of Bush flipping you off — must be undone within a reasonable period of time. It is not recommended to actually redirect all images to Goatse as the wireless network may be owned by a little old lady who had her grandson set it up for her. Unless you’re an asshole.
- Wireless network detectors — watches, keyfobs, etcetera — may be used in lieu of laptops.
- If the bar itself has a wireless network, it is not in play, but may be used to download code, tools, porn, and directions to the next bar. Of course, if you’re even considering playing this, odds are you know how to get at least the directions (and porn) on your phone.
After Wordpress bitching at me for a while, I’ve finally upgraded to 2.7. I dig the new interface, and the upgrade went pretty smooth.
I’ve also decided to finally make the email processor that makes the cam page work (i.e., extracts images from the emails my phone sends) public — soon. A couple quick once-overs of the code for security and cleanliness, and I’ll post it as a tarball, along with the PHP.
On a personal note: FUCK YOU, 2008! Not that 2009 is going to go any smoother.
