Aerodrome is shutting down

With the completion of PSM, this blog site has accomplished its purpose.This will be the last post on this blog.

Thanks for all the support from everyone during the development of the system, we shall meet again if we are destined to. I hereby bid farwewell to everybody.

About PSM2 - final log report

Essentially, as of now most of the system was done, but the RFID part still gave me headaches. I had Tan to have a look on it but it still gave me garbage readout instead of what it should be. In any case I'm still working on it and will not exclude possibilities that another language would be used.

ETA for reports and manuals is expected to be today on 2 November 2010 if no further complications arise.

Post-Demo 1 report - what have been done and what will be done

The first demo was done on 23rd August 2010, per the schedule. Here is the list of what has been done so far:

-login system
-user class 1 to 5, with 5 being admin
-database functions with manifest/user/flight (insert, update, delete)
-retrieve manifest/flight/user from database
-search the system

What will hopefully be done by Demo 2:
-live tracking map
-include flight status (delayed, new gate, cancelled etc)
-filter flight lists - only those w SSR pax
-add arrival and staff assignment
-add option to search those w SSR only
-look into ways to retrieve RFID tag information from reader and pass it to DB

PSM 2 important dates

Per the schedule received:

Demo 1 (Phase 1) + Log Book:
Week 7 (23/08/2010 – 27/08/2010):15 marks or 5%

Demo 2 (Phase 2) + Log Book:
Week 11 (04/10/2010 – 09/10/2010): 15 marks or 5%

PSM 2 Supervisor Draft Report Correction:
Week 13 (18/10/2010 – 22/10/2010)

PSM2 progress so far

Acquired the necessary RFID equipments (Tags and readers), except there's a problem - they don't seem to be detected by the O/S.

It won't work on Win 7 64 bit, so I have to use virtual PC to set it up. That being said, I still have not a bit of idea to make them work. I could use some guidance...

PSM2 progress

So far the system's database is already in progress, but the database is only good for data access only; the RFID tracking system is the most critical part. So far there is one at here that gives me a good insight on how it should be: http://www.ns-tech.co.uk/blog/2010/02/active-rfid-tracking-system/

The problem with the sample is the back side is written with Python, unless I can take a crash course to learn Python in the short timeframe then I may need to think of translating the Python to Java somehow. Front side is written with PHP so it should be good.

More updates to come in later time.

School laptops spied on students, took pics covertly

An article on Wired says a school district in Philadelphia was caught spying students by using LANrev, a MAC-based asset management software on MacBooks for high school students, which was preinstalled on each of the computer and was supposedly used to track the device and recover the equipment in the event of theft.

The laptop usage policy explicitly stated the users could not modify the loaded software in any way, nor could they use another laptop while in school or leave it at home. So even if the students found out the presence of the software, they coul not remove it anyway. 

Needless to say, a public outrage burst out, the IT staff were blamed for the whole scandal, and the lawsuit is seeking a class action against the school district.

Moral lesson? Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window. (Ironically the quote is attributed to Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple...)