%0 Journal Article %1 1194958 %A Charest, Pascal %A Lenczner, Michael %A Marceau, Guillaume %C Seattle, WA, USA %D 2007 %I Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. %J Linux J. %K imported %N 153 %P 3 %T The HAL project %V 2007 %X Discovering local artists through Zeroconf. Ah, the joys of hacking Linux on inexpensive commodity hardware. We are the Montréal community wireless group Ile Sans Fil, which was covered in this magazine in October 2005. During the last three years, we have deployed embedded systems that run Linux in public spaces across our city in an effort to encourage local communities. Our all-volunteer group now has more than 100 hotspots located in cafés, libraries and parks around the city, and more than 26,000 users. To accomplish this, we used the Linksys WRT54G, a favorite of hackers, and developed the captive portal suite WifiDog. Our latest project is HAL, the Local Artist Hub (the acronym works in French). HAL boxes are small NSLU network storage devices that we install locally at certain of our Wi-Fi hotspots and then remotely fill with music and movies by local creators. Because the box is directly on the local area network, the content can be streamed at HDTV resolution without stalls or buffering and without bandwidth charges. Plus, because we use Zeroconf, the user's media player discovers the content automatically. Besides promoting serendipitous discovery, the user gets to interact with the content using a familiar interface that is specifically designed for rich media. We hope to make HAL servers a cultural meeting spot -- an easy way for passers-by to engage with works by artists from that community. The technologies we have plugged together also can be used in many ways, either as single installations or deployed in networks across multiple sites. In this article, we describe our setup so that you can get started on your own projects.

@article{1194958, abstract = {Discovering local artists through Zeroconf. Ah, the joys of hacking Linux on inexpensive commodity hardware. We are the Montréal community wireless group Ile Sans Fil, which was covered in this magazine in October 2005. During the last three years, we have deployed embedded systems that run Linux in public spaces across our city in an effort to encourage local communities. Our all-volunteer group now has more than 100 hotspots located in cafés, libraries and parks around the city, and more than 26,000 users. To accomplish this, we used the Linksys WRT54G, a favorite of hackers, and developed the captive portal suite WifiDog. Our latest project is HAL, the Local Artist Hub (the acronym works in French). HAL boxes are small NSLU network storage devices that we install locally at certain of our Wi-Fi hotspots and then remotely fill with music and movies by local creators. Because the box is directly on the local area network, the content can be streamed at HDTV resolution without stalls or buffering and without bandwidth charges. Plus, because we use Zeroconf, the user's media player discovers the content automatically. Besides promoting serendipitous discovery, the user gets to interact with the content using a familiar interface that is specifically designed for rich media. We hope to make HAL servers a cultural meeting spot -- an easy way for passers-by to engage with works by artists from that community. The technologies we have plugged together also can be used in many ways, either as single installations or deployed in networks across multiple sites. In this article, we describe our setup so that you can get started on your own projects. }, added-at = {2008-01-14T09:29:03.000+0100}, address = {Seattle, WA, USA}, author = {Charest, Pascal and Lenczner, Michael and Marceau, Guillaume}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2bf7becf2c4587602f07ea0ff38d5e2bc/gresch}, interhash = {3333df1f7f3188c413277be8baeb6149}, intrahash = {bf7becf2c4587602f07ea0ff38d5e2bc}, issn = {1075-3583}, journal = {Linux J.}, keywords = {imported}, number = 153, pages = 3, publisher = {Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.}, timestamp = {2008-01-14T09:29:03.000+0100}, title = {The HAL project}, volume = 2007, year = 2007 }