finch.am

Most of the things I'm working on these days end up directly in my source code repositories (and their GitHub mirrors). This page indexes some of my older projects.

Electronics

Probably the cheapest way to add SMS to an Arduino (2010) - Add GSM capability to an Arduino or other microcontroller for about $25 USD delivered. A very simple module to interface.
MSP430 LaunchPad (2010) - Tools and some loose notes about using the LaunchPad board from TI with GNU/Linux (Debian, mostly).
Sonim XP 3.20-e Quest - To perform a proper "factory reset" on this phone (or probably any Philips Xenium 9@9q based phone) enter #20070101# in the dialer and press the green dial button. I am telling you this only because this information is otherwise impossible to find online.

Computering

sudo on different Debian versions (2015) - Clarification of what various "get me a root shell" type commands do on different Debian and Ubuntu versions.

netfilter SYNPROXY with LVS NAT (2014) - Protect your Linux Virtual Server NAT setup against SYN floods.

xscreensaver-placate plugin for Totem (2011) - Do you run Totem and XScreenSaver? Do you want one to talk to the other just like they used to? Install this simple Python plugin to Totem.
Tracking down "unauthorised content" errors on SSL pages (2011) - A tip for a simple and comprehensive way to work out what content in a web page isn't using https URIs when the page itself is served over https. Help avoid scary warnings for your users.
QuickPage patch (2011) - A quick and dirty patch to the QuickPage daemon to allow it to bind to specific addresses at startup. Bonus Debian init script.
Arpitrary (2010) - Automated arbitrary ARP spoofing daemon. A stand-in for "arpcatch" if you need one in a pinch.

Keyboards

Enabling Razer BlackWidow Macro / FN keys under Linux (2012) - A port of someone else's Haskell code to Python + plans for a more complete utility.

Aerospace

Team 9.99 - N-Prize competition attempt.
Canterbury Aerospace (2009) - We worked on high altitude balloons.