To make it work, I recommend launching a RedHat instance. Note that RedHat instance costs money, so if you want to do it for free, then you’re better off using Ubuntu t1.micro and you’ll have to translate the steps below (apt-get instead of yum). Ssh into your instance.

yum remove qt-x11
yum clean all
yum update


Based on these instructions https://gist.github.com/1238005 I did:

# Add the repos for qt packages
vim /etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms.repo

# Build PhantomJS
wget http://phantomjs.googlecode.com/files/phantomjs-1.4.0-source.tar.gz
tar zxvf phantomjs-1.4.0-source.tar.gz
cd phantomjs-1.4.0
qmake-qt47 && make


Since we are running in Linux and PhantomJS still requires X, we need to do a bit more work.

yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb xorg-x11-server-Xorg xorg-x11-fonts*
vim /etc/init.d/Xvfb

chmod +x /etc/init.d/Xvfb
chkconfig --add Xvfb
/etc/init.d/Xvfb start &


Now try rendering the screenshot using one of the examples:
DISPLAY=:0 ./bin/phantomjs examples/technews.js

Now you have a rendering of the technews page. Another good example is rasterize.js. All that’s left is starting a web server!

After sometime the widget goes to sleep and you’ll have to tap it to wake it up. This is a nice feature since this widget uses the Internet and GPS radios when active.

Here is what you do:

1. Download and install WineBottler
2. Run it, select  ”Predefined Prefixes” and install Microsoft Internet Explorer 7
3. Run the little app that was created to launch IE7
4. Download the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
5. When you run it, choose to run it as part of the ie7 app that is currently running
6. Go back to ie7, select menu View > Explorer Bar > IE Developer Toolbar

My topic for this year will focus on developing web applications using HTML5 while being productive. I want to share what I learnt about the frameworks, environment and development process while making bleeding edge mobile web applications. It is possible to have a sizeable team contributing to the same Javascript code base. Come and learn how.

Check out FITC // Screen 2011. Link to my presentation.

The trick here is to make the finishing wood go on a bit higher than the frame, so the aquarium can fit tightly inside of it. I aimed for 2-3 mm all the way around. Next, I took a flat piece of wood that I had laying around and cut out 4 corners. This fit in perfectly as a shelf. The reason I wanted a shelf is because this stand is 75 cm (2.5 feet) and I want to make sure my external pump’s hoses are long enough and the pump does not need to do the extra work of lifting the water higher.

The front needed an extra addition to a frame in order to make a door. I used 2×2 for the support frame and 2×1 for the rectangle door frame. My design was to have the 2×2 support frame be partially covered by the fixed finish and partially by a lip from the door. This way the seam is not all the way through to the inside of the stand. I used two small hinges to attach the doors.

I do not plan to have a knob for the door, because I wanted the door to be hidden. This means that I have to use magnetic latch to keep it closed (push to close, push to open). The reason I chose to stain is because this pine came with parts that are blue. It also has darker imperfections. The walnut stain is fairly dark so it hides the imperfections and makes everything cosmetically fit together. My routine was: 1 coat of wood treatment, 15 min. break, 1 coat stain applied with a sponge, 8 hour break, 3 coats of clear applied with sponge brush with 8 hour breaks and sanding with 220 coarse sand paper in between.

Cost breakdown:
$5 wood for framing (2×4, 2×2, 2×1)
$15 tongue and groove pine finish (2 packages)
$3 door hinges
$1 sandpaper
$1 sponge
$5 wood treatment, stain and clear (polyurethane)

In reality, you will have to buy a lot of wood treatment, stain and clear, because they don’t sell very small quantities. In my case, I re-used it from an old project. You end up using a really small amount. Overall, a total of $30, a day of construction and two days for staining due to long breaks in between.

My tv is a 27″ widescreen, so I figure I need a lot of LEDs. I started with 24 and quickly tripled that. I had to drill a little hole for each LED to put in place. I protected all the contacts with heat shrink wrap and hot glue, which I also used for fixing the LEDs to the tv. Each light takes about 3.5V DC, so I strung six in serial to power it with 24V DC. These batches were put in parallel. The first attempt produced bright lines on the screen, because the LEDs are spot lights (very narrow light beam).

Next logical step was to put little pieces of reflective tape on each LED. At this point you really have to learn to be patient! Unfortunately, I did not like the result. Considering how the tv is constructed, it has 3 films that the light has to go through before hitting the actual screen (pixel matrix glass plate). This clearly wasn’t enough for the LEDs to become diffused. Here is a picture:

My second idea involved a flashlight type of approach. I wanted to use a regular light bulb and to create a cone shape in order to spread the light onto the screen. Initially I wanted to use wood for the prototype, but then I decided to make it even easier by using styrofoam. Styrofoam did not offer the rigidity, but it definitely left the tv very light! The idea is simple: make the cone shape out of styrofoam and then cover the inside with tinfoal to make it reflective.

I had to go through a number of bulbs to get the right tint too. Finally, I found a good energy saving (13 watt) light bulb that produced a good tone of white. Regular bulbs at 60 watts+ get way too hot for this model. To finish things up I used a 5VDC relay, so the bulb would work only when the tv works. Here are few shots:

For more pictures visit my Picasa Page.