PDA Memories

It sounds impossible to do Linux networking on a PDA, doesn’t it? But it’s not any different from doing Linux networking with desktop machines.

My setup added some complications to the problem. I lived in an apartment off-campus, so I didn’t have the free campus wireless access that everyone had. Instead, I had a desktop computer connected 24 hours a day to the internet via cable modem, and I had to connect the iPAQ to the internet via USB networking and IP masquerading.

The desktop computer was running Debian Linux. To complicate matters further, I had a laptop computer also connected to the internet through the desktop computer, using IP masquerading.

The hardest part of the problem was changing the config files so that both the PDA and the laptop computer could be connected to the internet at the same time, through the desktop computer.

I spent over 40 hours getting the setup to work. During this time I promised myself that I would learn everything there ever was to know about Linux networking, in order to understand what I was doing while minimizing the amout of trial and error. It is funny to think about that now, since I have hardly needed to touch Linux during the past few months and feel like I have forgotten everything about Linux networking.

Anyhow, in the end I figured it out somehow. It was amazing just to be able to ping web.mit.edu and google.com from the iPAQ via USB. Wow. Later, I was able to help others with their iPAQ networking issues, but I don’t think anyone realized just how long I had struggled before finding a way to resolve all the networking troubles.

The adventure began when I signed up for a class at MIT called Pervasive Computing. I would later drop the class due to exhaustion, because I was struggling to complete all of my coursework, but I held on for three amazing months.

The class explored all sorts of technologies. Our assignments involved programming using all the technologies in rapid-fire succession. It was like a roller coaster ride. We explored various mobile devices, user interfaces, natural language processing, speech, handwriting, sensing technologies, etc.

And we did it all in Linux, which made it all the more difficult. But it was the best way to do it, because if we had done our programming experiments in Windows, my skills would be entirely useless today. Right now I can’t afford to buy what I would need to accomplish the same things under Windows, but I can afford to play all I want with the same technologies in Linux.

Or, I should say, I would be able to afford to play with the same technologies if I could afford to buy myself a PDA.

Last year I spent three long but beautiful months experimenting with a PDA. Sure, it was for a class I took while I was an undergraduate at MIT, but that doesn’t really matter. I picked up a lot of knowledge and had a good time.

I enjoyed it so much that I want to record the bits and pieces that I still remember. It was so much fun.

There’s not much information about iPAQ Linux out there, and although I can’t remember too many of the technical details anymore, I can at least share my more general reactions and memories.

This site probably won’t be too helpful if you’re looking for technical information. I probably won’t be too helpful either, since I only had my iPAQ for three months and that was at the end of 2004, so it’s probably not worth emailing me for technical help. But I can at least offer perspectives, ideas, and general thoughts about the iPAQ, about iPAQ Linux, and about PDAs in general.