Category: Side Notes

This Blog Interrupted by Updated Development Software

Last night the developers at Pebble released beta 3 of their 2.0 software development kit (SDK). This release fixed a rather nasty bug that was preventing me from continuing development on WristCoin.

The bug was related to how the phone app communicated Bitcoin pricing information to the Pebble. When the watch app is first opened it asks the phone app to fetch Bitcoin prices from the various exchanges. This operation is done asynchronously on the phone and data is returned for each exchange as it comes it. The bug I ran into was that the first message form the phone app to the Pebble worked fine but all subsequent messages failed. That means that the pricing information for the first exchange would be communicated to the Pebble but none of the others. While I could have rewritten the app to wait for all exchanges to report in before sending the data to the Pebble I found that solution inelegant and chose to wait for an update to correct the bug. Since the latest release fixes that bug I have continued development on WristCoin instead of writing additional blog posts.

WristCoin

You’re going to notice a complete lack of new material here today. This is due to the fact that I spent last night putting the final touches on the initial design of an application I’m writing. A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Pebble wristwatch. If you haven’t heard of it it’s a wristwatch that connects to your smartphone via low powered Bluetooth and presents notifications in a manner that doesn’t involve digging your phone out. My interest in the device stems from the fact that it’s programmable.

For my first program on the watch I’ve decided to write a Bitcoin price checker. Since I’m horrible with names I’ve dubbed the application WristCoin. Obviously the application is still in the pre-alpha stage, which means it’s riddled with bugs and isn’t feature complete. But I’ve published the source code on GitHub if anybody is interested in following my progress.

WristCoin requires both the 2.0 beta Pebble firmware and the 2.0 beta Pebble smartphone application. In its current state WristCoin grabs prices off of Bitstamp and displays the last price on the Pebble. I will be adding more exchanges in the near future and the ability to bring up more detailed pricing information for each exchange. Progress on the application will heavily depend on my free time but it’s small and shouldn’t take a great deal of time.

The application, as you can guess based on my views regarding intellectual property, is public domain so you can do with it whatever you wish.

Posting Forecast isn’t Looking Good

I spent my entire Halloween evening helping a friend move from a shitty living situation to a far better one. That being the case I didn’t have time or energy to write anything. Maybe I’ll post some material later or maybe I won’t. In the mean time I do have a little good news. It appears that the National Security Agency (NSA) is going to Hell:

ROME — The National Security Agency spied on cardinals as they prepared to select the new pope — perhaps including even Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who emerged from last spring’s conclave as Pope Francis, a leading Italian news magazine reported in Wednesday’s (Oct. 30) editions.

Happy Halloween

It’s October 31st, which means it’s the one day out of the year where the powers of evil want temporarily and children are allowed to have fun again. Put on a costume and go out and enjoy yourself. While the children are knocking on doors and begging for candy us adults can slam down beers at the bar. But beware, once the sun sets the forces of evil begin to rise again and the badged demons may start hassling both children and adults.

Also, Helloween:

More to Come

I had a late night so I didn’t manage to get any new posts up. A lot has happened since I wrote my posts for yesterday though. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) claims to have Dread Pirate Roberts in custody:

The FBI arrested Ross William Ulbricht, known as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to court filings. Federal prosecutors charged Ulbricht with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing.

As of right now Silk Road remains offline so Mr. Ulbricht may very well be the actual Dread Pirate Roberts. Reading through the complaint [PDF] explains how the FBI was able to nab him. Tor wasn’t exploited as far as we know, Mr. Ulbricht simply fucked up by failing to separate his “legitimate” life and his secure life. I will write about this in more detail later. For now I urge you to read through the complaint because there are many things we, as online denizens, can learn from Dread Pirate Roberts’ mistakes.

Check Back Later

There’s not much here right now. My weekend was spent helping my girlfriend move and settle into her new place so, needless to say, I didn’t much time to write blog posts. If you check back here later tonight I’ll probably have something for you. Until then sit back and hope that the federal government will kind of shutdown for a day or two.

Seriously, this shutdown debate would be far more interesting if a government shutdown actually meant the entire government completely shutdown. Instead we get this wishy washy “emergency services only” malarkey.