Puppet and modules

I've been working with puppet and the good impression of the product balances with the few really good modules around.
There are lots of modules, some are good, but most are build to statisfy the specific needs of the author and not a generic management of the software also there is little integration or common approach: one uses wget another curl, one manage different ps, one require dependecy to a module from the same author and not to more official ones ( comprehensible but can be problematic when the dependancy is with things like apache or Java ).
Obviously this is the normal characteristic of oss project but I think that this calls for more control from project' developers.
The project is a good one and with version 3 has lots of good features: we need a bunch of basic modules designed with the state of the art so that there can be a common solution over which people can develop new more complex or dedicated mods.
This could help the grown of the contributing community.

Puppet and exported resources

I've recently started using puppet for the european project Open-DAI I'm working on and I can say that after a steep learning period the tool is really nice.

I expecially like the exported resources that allow for "piloting" the creation of resources on a remote node from a first node.

The use case is installing stuff like a DB on a remote DB host for the application we are installing.
My example case is Zabbix.
I want to install zabbix in a distributed configuration using an existing MySQL server I have on the cloud and placing the application on a new cloud host.

Usually all the example and modules I find around imply to have all the stuff on the same host.

The idea id to declare on the application node the fact that you need a DB and to transform this declaration to a command execution on the Db to provision the required DB.

I'm using puppet 3.0.rc4 and opting to use puppet-mysql from puppetlabs (I must say that there is a bit of jungle on the puppet modules around and prefer to stick and possibly contribute to the puppetlabs collection)

The solution I found is to use exported resources on the application node and collecting them on the DB node in this way


In the zabbix host

...
@@mysql::db { zabbix1:
user => 'zabbix1',
password => 'mypass',
host => $::fqdn,
grant => ['all'],
tag => 'new_db_nodeDBname'
}
...

On the MySQL node

...
class { 'mysql::server':
config_hash => {root_password => 'changeme',}
}
Mysql::Db <<| tag == 'new_db_nodeDBname' |>>
...

Now I'll have to solve the orchestration and piloting of the whole process that is after created the DB I'll have to issue a sql creation and to do so I'll need to be sure to have the DB installed so this will require to:
force a puppet agent execution on the MySQL node (possibly using mcollective)
a second run of the puppect agent on the zabbix node to check the availability of the DB and proceed with the installation.

In any case a nice start.

Mobile app with phonegap

I've managed to implement my first application using phonegap.
I'm very happy with the results.
Operative in no time with no problems.
Made a simple dumb application in half an hour.
Next step is to add a bit of business logic behind to test all the steps that will be needed for the EU project I'm following.

Layar vs. Junaio

I'm trying Augmented Reality services and I really think that these are good stuff tools.
This is the new approach to web and content usage.
Two that I'm looking at are Layar and Junaio.
They almost do the same things, with some peculiar differences around.

Both have 3D object placement, but Layar offers better tools to do the job, with the java application offered you can place the object precisely on the map.
Junaio helps more on getting a precise GPS reading using LLA markers a feature much needed indoor.
Junaio also has a image tracker functionality that is incredible: you can process an image and using it as a placeholder to anchor to it content (video, audio, 3D) this goes well beyond simple GPS and opens up to many more use cases.
Unfortunately the amount of images usable is restricted to 7 (more if you are part of the certified developer program) mainly because (I believe) the tracking stuff can be a bit taxying on the device.
I believe that with the smart phone and tablet market rise these sort of applications will be the most used.

I think that both are good options: I think I'll use Layar for outdoor and Junaio for indoor.

Junaio Tutorial - description

I'm working on Augmented Reality in these days and I'm trying a new channel using Junaio.

The goal is to create a couple of channels to help people inside my company to understand AR potential and demo it within the company walls.

Since Junaio has two way of working I used the second option:

1. using GPS points and locations
2. using image detection

I made few explorations and I think that a good way is to create the channel without the online tool: at least for the first time I prefer to control everithing, there are really good examples in the tutorials in Junaio site so ...

Goal: creating some "painting" to distribute around the company with content tied on: some 3D, a video, a changing image graph, audio.
My choice was to create a GLUE Channel, setting it to refresh 30 seconds (but it doesn't still work the way I like) and than linking to it some color images to create the "paintings" that will become the anchor for content.
In following post I'll describe how I've done.

Lecture made at Politecnico of Turin

Here is the speech I made at Politecnico of Turin the 17/6.
The topic was open source in the Public Administration.
I believe that new engineers have a moral duty to propose open source solutions to their customers especially when they are public administrations.
This does not mean that proprietary solutions are to be excluded, but open source should be given proper attention.
Here is the presentation

OpenPA on Prezi

Sankorè

I've had the chance to use Sankorè for whiteboard.
It's really a great product and it support the W3C Widget standards so it's possible to import Chrome Widgets.
Will post some more info

Much open source in these past days

I've been working a lot in these past months and had little time to blog.
Lots of stuff around and as usual good open source on the table.
I've looking on Drupal, Elgg, OpenMeetings, Limesurvey, Liferay and some other stuff.
Hope to manage to post a bit of information and some how-to in the next few days.