zo relaxen und watschen das blinkensphere

My latest weekend project was to find a use for an Arduino that (due to some recent electromechanical fail on my part) could only be powered over USB.

After a few false starts, and with a lot of ideas left to implement, the first prototype is ready:

Das BlinkenSphere

It's a little sphere-like object that now sits quietly on my desk and emits a soothing color-of-choice.

By default, it's blue, because, you know, everything must be blue these days.

But of course, just having some colored light isn't any fun, or any use, so it's controlled by my computer; It has a direct client to set it to any (rgb) color, but the most direct use is the 'bs_run' command; any command prepended with 'bs_run' will make it orange for the duration of the command, and either red or green when the command finishes (respectively when it succeeds or fails).

So now I can let those long compilations or test runs do their thing, and no longer have to regularly check if they are done; the light will inform me.

Cast your light upon us, for the code is dark and full of errors

I also built in support for light sequences and transitions, but still need to write client control code for that (and find any use for it).

Now I need to find something to compile.

The joysticks I got for my arcade cabinet (http://www.arcadewinkel.nl/joysticks/balltop-arcadefighter-stick-rood) were fine, but I wasn't entirely happy with the restrictor plates that came with it. They worked fine in 4-way mode, but the 8-way mode was simply a square and that doesn't work nicely in most circumstances.

So I was looking around for replacement plates (preferably ones with octagons or maybe even smarter restriction holes), but couldn't really find any. And then I realized I have an f'in 3d-printer.

So I took out one of the existing plates, measured it, and fired up openscad to create new ones.

If you want to build it or see more pictures, you can get it at thingiverse

I'm starting to worry, I may run out of things to tweak on my cabinet soonish. Then what will I do with it.

The vinyl for my custom marquee arrived! Thanks to drsticker for helping me choose vinyl type, and of course for the printing service :)

So the final cabinet looks a little something like this:

Over the past few years, the idea had already surfaced a few times, but I never actually got myself to start this little project. But a few days into January, the bug suddenly hit me hard, and I couldn't resist anymore: I wanted to build my own arcade cabinet.

Every nontrivial endeavour starts out with a little bit of research, and luckily the idea wasn't exactly original; there are a lot of tips and howtos, as well as some very strong opinions on How It Must Be Done to be found online.

Now one of the tips given most often is not to start from scratch, but to get an existing cabinet an repurpose it to your needs. It is less work, and much cheaper than going at it yourself.

But hey. Where's the fun in that?

Despite not having any significant woodworking skills (and, now that I'm done, to be honest, apart from some common sense needed to keep your fingers attached, you don't really need to be that advanced at it for a project like this), I wanted to build my own; partly because it is fun (or at least, that was what I hoped, and I was right), and partly because strangely enough, I don't really like most cabinet designs. IMO they are often too big and too flashy, especially if they are intended to be placed in a home instead of an actual arcade.

So after some basic research (there are lots of good tips on ArcadeCab, and a couple of initial designs, I went out to the local hardware store, got a bit of wood and some tools I did not have already. And I was off!

I shall not bore you with a step-by-step guide, there are enough of those on the Internet already, but here are a few pictures:

The whole process took a couple of saturdays (sorry for the noise, neighbours!), and a lot of obsessing over How To Do It, but I'm quite happy with the results:

Some observations and lessons learned:

• Building Stuff Is Fun.
• I'd do lots of things completely different if I were to do it again.
• Routers (of the woodworking, not the packet switching kind) are awesome!
• Covering a room with plastic to paint big pieces of wood feels pretty awkward if you have just watched two seasons of Dexter.
• The people at arcadewinkel.nl are great.

Again, I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Now I only need to find a place to put it.

CV of Jelte Jansen

Personal Information

• Name: Jelte Jansen
• Date of Birth: February 7th, 1979
• Sex: Male
• Nationality: Dutch

Profiles

• LinkedIn: Jelte Jansen
• Twitter: @twitjeb
• GitHub: tjeb
• Website: tjeb.nl

Experience

• Programming languages

  • C, C++, Go, Python, Perl, Ruby, Java, Javascript, Lua

• Hands-on experience in protocol implementation

  • DNS, DNSSEC, TCP/IP, HTTP(s), AS2, AS4, PEPPOL, SMTP, S/MIME, PKCS#11

• Operating Systems developed for

  • Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, OS X

Employment History

• 2018-present: Ionite

  • Description: Consultancy, technology development, and services regarding electronic invoicing
  • Function: Freelance
  • Tasks: Consultancy, protocol development, services development
  • Specifics:
    • Advice and technical support for Simplerinvoicing, regarding AS2, PEPPOL, EN-16931, NLCIUS, SMP, SML
    • Advice and technical support for the NPa, regarding AS4, PEPPOL, EN-16931, NLCIUS, SMP, SML
    • Developed the NLCIUS Schematron validation files
    • Developed and maintains the NPa Peppol Test Tool
    • Developed and maintains the NPa Senders Directory

• 2013-present: Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland

  • Description: Foundation that administrates the .nl country-code top-level domain
  • Function: Research Engineer
  • Tasks: Technical Advisor, Internet protocol research and development
  • Specifics:
    • Technical project lead of SPIN
    • Technical project lead of SIDN Valibox
    • Involved in protocol design and standardization (IETF, RIPE)
    • Technical Lead SimplerInvoicing (SI-UBL and PEPPOL transport) (2017-2018)
    • Prototype Development for new protocols and services, this ranges from brand new services, such as the Domain name Surveillance system (www.sidn.nl/a/internet-security), to extensions of the PEPPOL Transport network (www.peppol.eu)
    • Member of the Privacy Board at SIDN, as a technical expert
    • Editor for Privacy & Informatie (www.uitgeverijparis.nl) (2016-2018)
    • Program Committee Member for RIPE Meetings (meetings.ripe.net) (2015-2017, 2018-2021)
    • Member of the Board of Advisors for SIDN Fund (https://www.sidnfonds.nl/excerpt/)

• 2009-2013: Internet Systems Consortium www.isc.org

  • Description: Non-profit public benefit organization that produces and distributes quality Open Source software, and provides professional services based on that software.
  • Function: Software Engineer
  • Tasks: Software design, Software development, Protocol engineering, Scrum Master, member of Best Practices board
  • Specifics:
    • Design and development of the http://www.isc.org/bind10 software.
    • Involved in standards work at the Internet Engineering Task Force http://www.ietf.org
    • Scrum master. Since ISC is a very distributed company, with small teams consisting of people working all over the world, this involved applying the Scrum methodology as befits our team, which posed a unique set of challenges.
    • Represented my engineering team at a best practices board, where common practices from different teams were combined and formed into a set of company-wide best practices for software engineering.

• 2004-2009: NLnet Labs NLnetLabs.nl

  • Description: Foundation to develop, implement, evaluate, and promote new protocols and applications for the Internet.
  • Function: Developer
  • Tasks: Research, development, protocol engineering, application testing, systems maintenance
  • Specifics:
    • One of the two original developers of the ldns DNS library, a C library to simplify DNS programming. It supports RFCs like the DNSSEC documents (RFC4033-4035). Apart from being a general library, this contains several specific tools, amongst which:
      • Simple Resolver and debugging tool (drill)
      • DNSSEC signer (ldns-signzone)
      • DNSSEC validator (drill)
      • DNS traffic analyzer (ldns-dpa)
      • DNSSEC zone walker (ldns-walk)
    • With ldns, created an example and interoperability testing implementation for the DNSSEC extension NSEC3 (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5155.txt)
    • Involved in the creation and validation of several RFCs, most notably RFC4033-4035, RFC4648 and RFC5155.
    • Developer and maintainer of a second iteration of NLnet Labs' and RIPE NCC's DISTEL Testlab, a test setup for performance and regression testing of DNS authoritative servers. Created a way to do basic classifications of differences between server implementations. Reimplemented the control and configuration tools of the testlab in Python.
    • Provided assistance with the design and code reviews of NSD 3, an authoritative name server.
    • Provided assistance with the design and code reviews of Unbound, a validating recursive name server
    • Involved in the first iteration of the OpenDNSSEC software suite. Mainly responsible for the initial signing engine, and transparent abstraction from HSM devices.

• 2000-2004: First8 B.V. www.first8.nl (part-time)

  • Description: ICT Company specialized in creating inter- and intra-net applications
  • Function: Software Engineer
  • Tasks: Design and development of Java-based Internet applications

• 1998-2000: InterNLnet B.V. www.internlnet.nl (part-time)

  • Description: Internet Provider
  • Function: Helpdesk for an Internet provider.
  • Tasks: Provide technical help to customers with their network and Internet connections

Other Functions

• 2019-present: RIPE Programme Committee
  • Description: Planning and presentation selection for RIPE meetings
  • Function: Member
• 2017-present: __SIDN Fonds Advisory Board
  • Description: Review project proposals and funding requests, general advice for SIDN Fonds
  • Function: Member
• 2016-2018: Editor for Privacy & Informatie (www.uitgeverijparis.nl)
  • Description: Review submitted articles on Privacy in the information sector, write news and opinion articles
  • Function: Editor

Publications

• Protecting Home Networks From Insecure IoT Devices
• Whois-data; domeinnamen, persoonsgegevens en de openbaarheid daarvan
• Resilience of the Domain Name System: a case study of the .nl domain
• SPIN: A user-centric Security Extension for In-home Networks
• Ervaringen met privacybeheer voor DNS-‘big data’-toepassingen
• Experiences with privacy management for DNS 'big data' applications (Translation of original article)
• A privacy framework for ‘ DNS big data ’ applications (translation of original paper)
• Een privacyraamwerk voor ‘DNS big data’-toepassingen
• RFC 5702
• DNSSEC Key maintenance
• An Introduction to the use of HSM
• Measuring the effects of DNSSEC deployment on query load

Education

• High school: Gymnasium Beekvliet
• University: University of Nijmegen (now known as Radboud University)
  • Master's degree in Computing Science
  • Graduated on Security and Development
  • Aia Master award for master thesis Slicing Midlets

Other

• Several personal projects can be found on http://tjeb.nl/Projects and http://www.tjeb.nl/blog
  • One notable personal project is Mailbox Alert (AMO link), an addon for Thunderbird with over 16.000 daily users.
• 1999 - 2001: Chair of Thalia, the student association for Computing Science at the University of Nijmegen
• 2000 - 2001: Treasurer of 'Stichting Beet', a student association encompassing the technology studies at the University of Nijmegen
• 2001 - 2002: Chair of 'Stichting Beet'