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Back in September, 2014 I backed the Matchstick Kickstarter. The original promise of the creators was to have a completely open source hardware and software HDMI streaming dongle. If you are at all familiar with the Google Chromecast, the Matchstick was to have a comparable feature set. In addition to the default streaming capabilities, the Matchstick was supposed to have the capability to have ad-hoc streaming.
The fundraising campaign was a huge success. Over $470k was raised for a goal of $100k. Everything seemed to be going well. Unfortunately, things started going downhill when the actual rewards were supposed to be delivered. I was one of the lucky few; I received one of the few developer units. Others were not so lucky. As of August, the creators decided to refund the backer's funds. Since then it appears all further development has halted.
Up to this point I hadn't done much with the Matchstick other than to load the latest firmware. This weekend I decided to see what I could do to get the device up and running. Unfortunately, it appears that the domain http://matchstick.tv is no longer in existence so all the documentation on the developer's website is only available through the web archive. I'm going to try and document everything I find and the process necessary to get the Matchstick up and running here.
The following is a list of websites that pertain to the Matchstick.
Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matchstick/matchstick-the-streaming-stick-built-on-firefox-os/description
Project Website http://matchstick.tv Appears to no longer exist. Now only available through the Internet Archive Project: https://web.archive.org/web/20150214140650/http://www.matchstick.tv/
Github Repo: https://github.com/flingone/B2G-FlingOne/wiki
Third Party Sender App: https://github.com/openflint/openflint.github.io/wiki/Web%20Sender%20App%20Development
Flashing Instructions: https://github.com/openflint/openflint.github.io/wiki/Flashing%20Instructions%20for%20Matchstick
Another Rockchip 3066 based product: http://www.timingpower.com/rk3066-support
Marsboard (Also Rockchip 3066 based): http://hotmcu.com/wiki/MarsBoard_RK3066
Rockchip Flashing Tool: http://www.arctablet.com/blog/featured/flashing-arnova-g2-rockchip-2918-rockchip-flashing-tool/
Mozilla Page featuring the Matchstick: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/09/matchstick-brings-firefox-os-to-your-hdtv-be-the-first-to-get-a-developer-stick/
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I have seen or heard a plethora of amusing quotes recently and I thought I would share them.
Nothing ruins a Friday like discovering it's actually Tuesday.
Raising the US debt ceiling to solve the debt crisis is like raising the legal Blood Alchohol limit to eliminate drunk drivers.
I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm trying to get rid of it. I have no intention of ever finding it again.
(Brand of bottled water) is a good choice because it hydrates, contains zero calories, and no sodium.
'Til Later.
Apple
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Well, let me try this again. I promised an update after I caught up with everything. Hah! That's a joke. I did everything I had to do, now I have more to do. First a quick overview of the last couple of months.
The day before Thanksgiving, my car broke down. It had been such a faithful car. Since I purchased it in 2006, it had never had anything major break. This time, it was the transmission. For some reason, the final drive gears on the transmission shredded. :-( So, for a couple of weeks, I was riding my motorcycle every day. Fortunately it didn't snow or ice during that time. I ended up buying a 2000 VW Passat GLX with a manual 5-speed transmission in it from some friends of mine in Rolla. It's a very nice car and I like just about everything about it. Other than one thing I found when the weather turned cold. The thermostat is stuck open, so the car has trouble heating up. Right now I have cardboard in the radiator to help alleviate that problem, but I need to change the thermostat soon. Probably as soon as I can find someone with a garage I can borrow. Unfortunately it is going to be a rather involved job because of the position of the thermostat. It is located on top of the water pump which is behind the timing belt. This means that I have to pull the timing belt in order to get at the thermostat/water pump. But, this will just force me to change the timing belt soon. It needs to be changed anyway.
Sometime around the third week of December, my brothers (and sister-in-law) and I descended upon my parents house like the Mongolian hordes for Christmas where we did our very best to eat them out of house and home. I will leave it up to you to guess what happened next. After Christmas day, my brothers, Dad, and I moved my Mother's office downstairs and the piano upstairs. This is the third or fourth time the office has moved. Hopefully she won't want to move it again in the near future. :-P
New Years eve party at the Nisbett's home. Lots of fun! No further explanation necessary. :-)
The week after the party, I spent at my parents house helping/doing random projects. One was converting my Mother's old office into a home theatre with an old CRT projector. Try watching movies on an 8' screen. It's pretty amazing. The projector still needs some work. One of the LC's is melted/crazed in one corner, and the screen isn't quite flat. But it works well for how much money went into it. (Zero)
On the last day at home my Dad and I leveled the garden shed which turned out pretty darn nice. Unfortunately I didn't think to get any pictures. :-P
At the end of the week I repacked my car for the trip up to Cedar Rapids, IA. Where I am currently working for Rockwell Collins. When I was unpacking some clothing that I hadn't unpacked since the end of the school year, I found this shirt.
I haven't the faintest idea on where it came from. I'm not even a baseball fan. (No other sports either. :-D)
Currently I am going to church with some good friends of mine from LeTU. I like the church so far. It is quite a lot bigger than I am used to, but they seem to have found the answer to a big church not being as friendly/close/accountable. The way it is set up is that there are three main services between 8 and 12, but they also have what they call adult bible fellowships. Basically it is a small group of people. (15-30) Who meet and study scripture together during one of the service times. I am also going to a mid-week bible study that is "run" by the same people who run the ABF of which I am a part. Right now we are going through Colossians.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine (the same people I go to church with) got me started drinking a protein shake. Now I have to say, I'm not the kind of guy who would usually just go and drink healthy stuff just to be healthy. However, I do have to admit that it has had a much bigger effect than I thought it would. I am not nearly as tired as I used to be. I used to need 8+ hours of sleep every night to be alert the next day. Now, I can get by with 5-6. I'm pretty happy. I probably wouldn't have started drinking this shake except that after the first order, if I can get three people to sign up through me, I can get my shakes for free. (Shameless plug here) jjhobbs.myvi.com (End plug)
Last weekend I got a OBD2 PC interface through SparkFun and began the work of connecting my computer to my car. I was able to get some basic data such as air flow, rpm, engine load, and temperature, however I know that my car has a ton more data that this program I have now isn't reading. I am going to either try and modify it for my purposes. (I love open source.) Or, I am going to have to write my own. I did find that one gentleman has already written a library to interface with OBD2. Although, I don't know what functionality he put in it.
There. Happy now? Your all up to date.
Good Night All
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You would think with all the time I have for other things that I would have time to keep this updated. But, nooo! I can't seem to ever find the time. Or I find some excuse. Such as my favorite: My life is boring for other people to read about. So what! If you don't want to read about my "boring" life. Don't!
Anyway, a quick overview of the last month: school, tests, career fair, and job applications. That about covers it. Last weekend I went to my parents house for the weekend, but of course I got sick and spent most of the weekend lazing around and sleeping. :-P This weekend I was going to go home again, but I have been coughing a lot, and it isn't very enjoyable to ride a motorcycle for two hours when you are coughing and sneezing. (Another excuse) I have discovered recently that I make a lot of excuses to myself.
Today was the start of fire safety week. We kicked it off with a safety day put on by the local K-Mart. For some reason...(a monster truck rally), very few people showed up to it. Next weekend is our open house. We usually have a pretty good public attendance.
A few calls this weekend with the fire department: two brush fires, one unfounded, three EMS calls, and a vehicle roll over. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the vehicle roll over.
Other than that nothing much is going on.
~Appled
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