The app "The Ropes" for Dartmouth displays the swipes remaining and DBA on your account if given your ManageMyID information. I was curious as to how easily that could be replicated in Python, and then in my own app.
I was researching some aspects of RFID technology, when I wondered how the Dartmouth ID cards worked. They clearly have some sort of RFID tech in them, because they open up the doors to the buildings just by holding it near the reader. However, they also have a magnetic strip that's used for DA$H (meal swipes) and DBA. So I googled, and found ONE article from "The Dartmouth" in 2005 that shed some light, an article written during the resistance to putting RFID chips into US passports.
Finally got around to buying some ethernet cables from The Computer Store. Now everything's wired up! The XBox, my computer, and the Raspberry Pi that hasn't been doing anything productive for the last month. The wireless network is still up though, which made it really easy to set up a floormates' printer. i don't see any reason to take it down, so for the mean time it'll remain up.
Got the network set up. The router is jacked into the ethernet port, and then rebroadcasts the network as "Butterfield Secure". This is WPA2 secure, which XBox happily handles. Despite the slight drop from ethernet, this is fine in terms of speed. However, a couple of the games I have for the XBox necessitate random ports to be open. Luckily, after around five minutes of poking around on the internet, I found the necessary ports and opened them. Everything's finally set up!
The first thing I realized when connecting to the secure internet network "Dartmouth Secure" was that it used WPA-Enterprise authentication, meaning that it needed a username and password combination (your school ID and the password you set up to access Banner Student). This isn't a problem for laptops and iPhones. However, it IS a problem for other devices, specifically any XBox one that wants to enjoy a connection speed faster than that of a snail. There's only one available ethernet cable in the room, and while I brought a router, I only have one ethernet cable. Looks like I'll have to set up my own wireless network. Fun!