Exploration Space – Page 4 – A Space to Explore Interesting things

Installing Eclipse Mosquitto in a Container

August 3, 2020April 5, 2021 apead

Eclipse Mosquitto is an open source (EPL/EDL licensed) message broker that implements the MQTT protocol versions 5.0, 3.1.1 and 3.1. Mosquitto is lightweight and is suitable for use on all devices from low power single board computers to full servers.

The MQTT protocol provides a lightweight method of carrying out messaging using a publish/subscribe model. This makes it suitable for Internet of Things messaging such as with low power sensors or mobile devices such as phones, embedded computers or microcontrollers.

Running Mosquitto is easiest in a Docker container. This is really easy to set up.

docker pull eclipse-mosquitto

Pull the container from the Docker Repository

sudo docker run -d -p 1883:1883 -p 9001:9001 -v mosquitto.conf:/home/ubuntu/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf -v /mosquitto/data -v /mosquitto/log eclipse-mosquitto

Start Mosquitto.

The default port for Mosquitto is 1883. Also ensure that the volumes are mapped to a local folder on the host to preserve the configuration.

Installing Node-RED in a Container

August 3, 2020April 5, 2021 apead

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

Running Node-RED is easiest in a Docker container. This is really easy to set up.

docker pull nodered/node-red

Pull the container from the Docker Repository

sudo docker run -d -p 1880:1880 -v /home/ubuntu/docker-nodered/data:/data --name mynodered nodered/node-red

Start Mosquitto.

The default port for Node-RED is 1880. Also ensure that the volumes are mapped to a local folder on the host to preserve the configuration.

ScaleConf

March 10, 2019April 1, 2019 apead

ScaleConf was an awesome 2 day conference.
https://scaleconf.org/ In is held annually at Kirstenbosch, which is an amazing venue. There were some really interesting talks too!

I was lucky enough to this year be helping out at the Microsoft booth. I’m always in my element to be able to chat to the community about anything developer related.

The plan was an agenda of various Microsoft Demos presented by the booth team:
https://cptscaleconfmsdemos.z6.web.core.windows.net/

It didn’t quite end up like that, and we ended up talking about what was requested, which was great. In my case, not only did I get to chat about Bots and ML .NET, but also got to speak about Xamarin and IoT too, which for me is always just plain awesome!!!

Twitter Verse

Attending @scaleconf w/ @adpead and @MicrosoftSA . Come chat to us during lunch (@ Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens – @kirstenboschnbg in Cape Town, Western Cape) https://t.co/9ZlP2Sk3of
— Jody Roberts (@Jody_WP) March 7, 2019

Microsoft Ignite the Tour Johannesburg 2019

January 30, 2019February 20, 2021 apead

I had an incredible, but exhausting time at Microsoft Ignite the Tour Johannesburg. It was an amazing experience. I got to speak about Xamarin, AI and IoT, it doesn’t get much better than that. 🙂

The content for the Xamarin and Beyond session can be found here:
https://github.com/apead/Xamarin-Blazor-EnvironmentMonitor

There is demo code for taking Cross Platform reach to the extreme. For one code base you can target, iOS, Android, Android Things, Tizen, Blazor (Web Assembly), GTK (Linux, Windows, MacOS).

What was really cool. The @JHBMSDUG user group was showcased at the event. Lou van der Bijl, Matthew Leibowitz and Dustyn Lightfoot did amazing jobs!

The Demo booths were amazing. 2 Sessions each of speaking 4 hours about Xamarin, AI and IoT. Happiness. 🙂

The twitter verse

Talking @xamarinhq and @jhbmsdug at #MSIgniteTheTour We got new fans! pic.twitter.com/YFXGnDa9Um
— Matthew Leibowitz (@mattleibow) January 28, 2019

Do you have #iot questions? Come talk to @adpead tomorrow at #MSIgniteTheTour Johannesburg! https://t.co/5c4usrQ6lp
— Anna Chu (@_achu) January 29, 2019

@adpead at #MSIgniteTheTour showing off how dotnet can run in any browser… awesome!! pic.twitter.com/UuxdnSMYlw
— Dustyn Lightfoot (@dustynlightfoot) January 29, 2019

Get an intro to @Azure #IoTEdge with @adpead and learn what it can do for you at #MSIgniteTheTour Johannesburg #MVPBuzz pic.twitter.com/UWGqUC6NnV
— Anna Chu (@_achu) January 29, 2019

And we're off! To leave about the things, with the internets. @adpead at #MSIgniteTheTour pic.twitter.com/1arGsmjioP
— Lou van der Bijl (@SynStalker) January 29, 2019

Learn how to build apps with #Xamarin, what's New in Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms and how to add AI to your apps with Microsoft #CognitiveServices with @adpead at #MSIgniteTheTour Johannesburg #MVPBuzz pic.twitter.com/08lPLJOjbT
— Anna Chu (@_achu) January 28, 2019

It was really, really helpful having the #lattepandaalpha as an additional development device while adding final touches for #msignitethetour in the hotel room @LattePandaCN pic.twitter.com/vl7kzuZeol
— Allan Pead 🇿🇦 #mvpbuzz (@adpead) February 3, 2019

.@SynStalker @dustynlightfoot @mattleibow with their session at #MSIgniteTheTour #MVPBuzz @jhbmsdug Full House for their session! pic.twitter.com/1t8R1RlfIS
— Freek Berson (@fberson) January 28, 2019

Join us at "How to Build Great Applications @ Microsoft Ignite | The Tour" with @dustynlightfoot @mattleibow @SynStalker on Monday 28 January (Sandton Convention Centre) https://t.co/OwzVlHtuzk #MSIgniteTheTour @MicrosoftSA @XamarinEvents pic.twitter.com/WSsL2FSfzJ
— Johannesburg MS Developer User Group (@jhbmsdug) January 26, 2019

AI Hack for Good

December 22, 2018April 1, 2019 apead

It was a real privilege being a small part of this event. The “AI Hack For Good” event was all about using AI to do something positive for social good.

It was also great fun being a mentor and helping to enable teams to complete their solutions using whichever technology they chose. (.NET, Java, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Swift, Kotlin)

Twitter Verse

It was truly inspiring being a small part of the "AI for Good Hack" last week in Johannesburg. Working with all these amazing teams, out to do good in the world with #ai was an incredible experience. Hope to see you at the next hack! #azure #python #dotnet #java #swift #kotlin pic.twitter.com/KCu7bSE4xT
— Allan Pead (@adpead) December 20, 2018

Congrats to team #AzureGremlins for winning the @MicrosoftSA AI hackathon. They worked on a #FakeNews detecting solutions. They win R40 000 #MSAIHack #AIForGood #Azure pic.twitter.com/Zd4jFhN1DO
— Geekulcha 🇿🇦 💻 (@Geekulcha) December 13, 2018

The winners trophy of the #MSAIHACK at @MicrosoftSA went to Azure Gremlins. Innovative use of multiple features of @Azure to identify Fake News. Streaming services, sentiment analysis, @AzureML, @AzureCosmosDB, Bing Search API. Very impressive delivery in a short space of time!! pic.twitter.com/YibHDt0jzj
— TangentDave (@TangentDave) December 13, 2018

Just landed at Microsoft for the AI Hackathon @elonmusk @TiyaniTee @Geekulcha
— Sifiso: 15 years old Developer (@_NextElonMusk) December 13, 2018

. Net developers at the #MSAIHack in Johannesburg @MicrosoftSA Loving all the stickers. 😍😍 @dotnetfdn pic.twitter.com/evrFGm0kgD
— Allan Pead (@adpead) December 13, 2018

It was truly inspiring being a small part of the "AI for Good Hack" last week in Johannesburg. Working with all these amazing teams, out to do good in the world with #ai was an incredible experience. Hope to see you at the next hack! #azure #python #dotnet #java #swift #kotlin pic.twitter.com/KCu7bSE4xT
— Allan Pead (@adpead) December 20, 2018

All the teams. Great ideas and innovation shown on @Azure! #msaihack @MicrosoftSA pic.twitter.com/Ve83tyQJXp
— TangentDave (@TangentDave) December 13, 2018

Great vibe at the #microsoft office today with the #ai hack for social good. Being a mentor to the teams building using #azure. #msaihack #aiforgood #innovation #technology #learning #teambuilding #mentoring #msftadvocate https://t.co/QryK4ovuRb
— chetan (@chetangordhan) December 12, 2018

Team #SIGNificant take home R20 000 for their second place position. They worked on a solutions that uses AI to help translate and understand sign language #MSAIHack pic.twitter.com/659u1jxQZP
— M I X O 📷💻😎 (@4otune) December 13, 2018

An Evening with Scott Hanselman

October 30, 2018March 29, 2019 apead

This was an amazing day! Scott Hanselman took time from his busy scheduled to spend it with the local South African developer community .

ZX Spectrum IoT Fun

May 30, 2018March 29, 2019 apead

I started programming when I was 5. The ZX Spectrum started it all, back in the 80s. I recently started collecting ZX Spectrums. I’m also busy with IoT projects on Azure. Anything can really use Azure IoT Hubs, so how better to illustrate this than combine my two passions. 🙂

Have you connected your #ZXSpectrum to @Azure yet? If not, why not? 😀 #iot #azureiothubs 😍 pic.twitter.com/pqPUDHhSD4
— Allan Pead @ #MVPSummit (@adpead) May 29, 2018

BrickPi and EV3 progress update

April 14, 2018March 29, 2019 apead

There has been some nice progress on the pure c# library for the EV3 Lego Mindstorm Brick from Lego and the BrickPi3 from Dexter Industries. The BrickPi is great as it adds loads of extra processing power and more importantly memory for the EV3 kit using a Raspberry Pi.

The library is for both Xamarin.IoT and Android Things. As soon as it’s ready I’ll post the source to GitHub. If there is interest, I can also spend some time and port the Android Things implementation to Java or Kotlin for Android Studio.

The ultimate plan is to use this in a Lego based robot as a play project, but the experimentation will form basis of an actual larger artificial intelligence project. It will also be hooked up to Azure IoT for the telemetry.