My long-term love/hate relationship is over

Today I dropped my much despised Motorolla Razr.  I've hated this phone for close to four years and today I can look its cracked screen and know that soon a new phone will be mine and this one will hit the electronics recycling pile.

But now what to do?  Transfer my number to a new 3G iPhone?  The company will pay for my cell phone plan but not a data plan.  This makes billing with the iPhone difficult but not unworkable.  With a bonus around the corner an iPhone might be the solution.  

Trouble is AT&T coverage at my house is crap.  I'll need to invest in a G3 repeater.  This adds another $350 or so to the overall package price but if the wife and I are both going to be proud iPhone owners it makes sense, I think.

First and foremost: look into 3G repeaters.

IPv6 on OpenWRT

Huzzah! It's working! I followed the recommended steps and got IPv6 working correctly with a couple minor adjustments to the documentation.

First departure from the norm: adjust /etc/ipkg.conf

Change "src packages http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/packages/mipsel" to "src packages http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/7.09/packages/mipsel" (add that '7.09' in there)

Second departure from the norm: adjust /etc/init.d/tun6to4

Change this line:
ipv4=`ip -4 addr | awk '/^[0-9]+[:] vlan1[:]/ {l=NR+1} /inet (([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3})\// {if (NR == l) split($2,a,"/")} END {print a[1]}'`

to
ipv4=`ifconfig eth0.1 | grep "inet addr" | tr ':' ' ' | awk '{ print $3 }'`

That's it.
ping6 2001:4860:b002::68
PING 2001:4860:b002::68 (2001:4860:b002::68): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 2001:4860:b002::68: icmp6_seq=0 ttl=57 time=205.7 ms
64 bytes from 2001:4860:b002::68: icmp6_seq=1 ttl=57 time=206.6 ms

(2001:4860:b002::68 is http://ipv6.google.com)

I'll test client connectivity tonight when I get to the Outer Banks but it should work.

cheap thoughts: VMware

Instead of using virtual RFC1918 IPv4 addresses for the 'vmnet#' interfaces VMware should use valid IPv6 addresses and thus not have the potential for RFC1918 address conflicts in corporate environments.

A cool new Linux device

Co-worker Heath Roberts alerted me to this new Linux machine that looks something like an Apple Airport Express (that wasn't designed in Cupertino). There is no dedicated audio out but it does have a USB 2.0 connector that could be used to play audio over a set of USB speakers.

If you can stomach the annoying-as-hell "float-over ads" check it out, it's kind of cool.

I have to admit, this could be a very cool use for Linux/Motion and a USB camera. Very cool indeed.

Build Your Own IPv6 Tunnel Broker Service

Like me I'm sure you stay up late at night thinking about IPv6. Lately I've been wondering about the software and hardware that runs IPv6 Tunnel Brokering services. I've never used a tunnel broker before as I've always opted for IPv6 6to4.

Turns out the software for a tunnel broker is OpenVPN. In fact a fellow from Denmark named Christian Strauf wrote detailed instructions and placed them on the web for all to see. Thanks, Christian!

I'd consider becoming a tunnel broker from my oodles of bandwidth IPv6 network down in Wilson but with 6to4 being so easy to set up and use I'm not sure I see the point.

How my Macbook Pro dims the screen

I love my Macbook Pro. Speed, backlit keyboard, glorious screen, four gigs of ram, etc. It's just a fantastic machine. The screen dims and brightens depending on lighting conditions and I've often wondered how it did this, i.e. where was the ligth sensor? On my wife's pervious generation MBP the location of her light sensor remains unknown but on mine the built-in camera is the light sensor.

I figured this out while cleaning the screen with the microfiber cleaner that was packaged with the laptop. While the camera was covered the screen dimmed. Ta-da.

Sorry, that was kind a wordy post for such a minor revelation and needn't have been.

IPv6 Rogue's Gallery

Chicken of the VNC: IPv6 not supported (fully tested, version ?.??)
Squidman: IPv6 still a mystery. Testing continues.
Apache: Oh hell yeal. Full pass.
OpenSSH: Oh hell yeah. Full pass.
Firefox: Oh big time. Love it. Use it.
Safari: YES! Passed. Flying colors.
Google Chrome: Not yet tested. Maybe this weekend.
Apple TV: Full bomb. IPv6 stateless autoconfiguration not seemingly supported.
Time Capsule: Big fail here! And so disappointing. No IPv6 support in Bridge Mode. Boo.
iPod Touch/iPhone: Still a disappointment. Fail.
Linux: So far so good!
BSD: So far so good!
OS X: still digging but look great. I think I'll be able to send print jobs via IPv6 and maybe via IPv6/IPsec (more testing needed)
M0n0wall: Two thumbs way up on the beta code. Great job you guys and gals!

I'm getting tired. Sleep needed.