Txtzyme Accepted for Open Source Bridge

The nice thing about blogging is that you can remember what you've done. I'm doing exactly that for my other friends at Portland's own open-source conference.

I'll be dragging some hardware to the conference for live demos. That got me thinking, what else could I throw together? So ...

I hooking together some Txtzyme controlled gizmos on my long-ignored robot platform. (Thanks go to Jim Larson for putting together an H-Bridge motor controller for it and reviving my old laptop to run it.)

For interface I browse a bunch of cgi scripts hosted by the robot's webserver and run them from my phone.

A list of CGI scripts doesn't sound like a particularly sophisticated interface, does it? I'm pleased to report that it works pretty well. For thirty five years I been thinking about what I'd do with my robot when I finally finish it. In none of those years could I think up things as fast as when I'm actually programming it.

This is why I keep going on about Txtzyme. Its fast and friendly, just like the shell. CGI scripts, you must realize, are only one stepped remove from shell commands, an important point in my open-source talk.

But wait, there is more. The source.cgi script shows you the source for each script you are about to execute. The blink.cgi script is instructive. It blinks the awesome semi-tractor-trailer amber running light I just installed on my bot to attract attention at tomorrow's Dorkbot meeting.

Bring your smart phone. You're welcome to blink my lights yourself from the safety of your own cell-phone browser. (My robot's zeroconf url is http://vn.local/~ward/robot .)

I've still got Sunday to cook up some more fun things to do so expect some surprises. Watch for 'em.