# Overview

By request, a quick how-to on setting up your own realtime monitor for ruter.no, Oslos public transit.

# As simple as possible

• Get an old laptop
• Set it to start a web browser at boot
• Make the browser start to i.e. http://mon.ruter.no/monitor/3010314/Adamstuen/2190090

Done!

# Background

Ruter has an API, so you can go crazy and implement your own client easily, like I’ve done with rutercli. But there’s a much simpler solution. They’ve got a website in the same style as their public monitors, mon.ruter.no. You can start with the link above, and find the numbers and names you need from a normal ruter.no search. You’ll also find NSB stuff there. See ruter.no/reiseplanlegger/sanntid/egen-sanntidsskjerm for more info.

# Overview

Read part one of Android with as little closed source as possible, Life without US cloud services and Androids privacy invasiveness if you’re wondering why I’m doing this.

This is an update on how to live with a free and open (Android based) phone.

Some time during 2014 I went all-in, and removed Google Play. My previous article (Android with as little closed source as possible) left a list of closed source apps I was still dependent on:

This is a follow-up of Nogapps - A replacement for gapps.

The NOGAPPS project has been renamed to µg, and the part that interessts me the most, off-line, libre, coarse localization is called µg Unified [Nlp (Network Location Provider)].

The forum is sparse on usage information, so this aims to be a how-to with screenshots.

# Prerequisites

• A rooted phone
• No Google services installed
• Android [4.4 (KitKat)] - [5.0 (Lollipop)]. If you’ve got and older version, see the projects github.

# Installation

• Install µg UnifiedNlp. Installing from f-droid is the easiest way.
• Now you need providers. Search for nlp in f-droid, and install i.e. GSMLocationNlpBackend. This will give access to two databases of GSM cell towers and their locations.

# The idea

Yr.no has a brilliant hour by hour view. A simple picture where you get all info you need for planning your next 48 hours.

They also give out all their weather data for free! Having a special fascination for the command line, I wondered if I could represent the same information in a basic, ASCII, 80x22 terminal.

# Development

Earlier I’d made my first telnet service for keeping an eye on the status of the office coffee pot (coffee.graph.no / telnet graph.no). After that, I pondered for a while on how to allow for choosing location via such a limited protocol. I did not want to make a service that had to be used by hand, like wunderground, which I discovered later, but one that could be used in an automated sense.

Even if you don’t use any Goolge services directly, Google will know a lot about you. For example when using the libre web browser Firefox from Mozilla. Let me quote from their site: “We’ve always designed Firefox to protect and respect your private information.”.

When using a location service, one get the message “Would you like to share your location with <website>?” when it should really say “Would you like to share your location with Google and <website>?”. This is stated if you “Learn more…”.