From: Aaron Patterson <aaron_patterson@...>
Date: 2006-09-29T14:54:39+09:00
Subject: Ruby LED Sign Service

I just released a new version of my BetaBrite sign library, and I
decided it would be neat if I had a service so that people could try out
the library.

I've created a DRb service that lets you write to my BetaBrite LED sign
and take a photo of it.  The service has 3 methods, "write_simple" which
just takes a string and writes it to the sign, "write" which takes a
BetaBrite::String and writes it, and "take_photo" that returns a photo
of the sign.  Both methods that write to the sign will also return a
photo of the sign.

Here's a simple example:

  require 'drb'
  require 'rubygems'
  require 'betabrite'
  
  DRb.start_service()
  obj = DRbObject.new(nil, 'druby://eviladmins.org:9000')
  
  File.open("out.jpg", 'wb') { |a|
    a.write obj.write_simple("Seattle.rb")
  }

There are, of course, a few caveats...  First, if the message you create
is too long, it will scroll.  I have a crappy webcam, so scrolling
messages won't look very good.  I haven't done much error checking in
the server, so please be nice.  I could shut this thing down at any
time, I don't guarantee that my server is up, and as always YMMV, etc.

For a slightly more complicated example and a sample photo, check out my blog
entry:
  http://tenderlovemaking.com/2006/09/28/new-ruby-betabrite-002/

Hope everyone likes it!

-- 
Aaron Patterson
http://tenderlovemaking.com/