First up, John you were most welcome. I always enjoy coke and pizza!
John Carter wrote:
So I did that last night, ventured forth into Darkest MeatSpace and met
the guy in his own habitat.
That's not true... you got to see my wifes side of the flat...
I really live up stairs in the ceiling, that's where the real
action, and magic, happens. You didn't see the test machines
buzzing, the stacks of wires, work lights and hard hat
(so I don't bang my head when I'm lurking in the low ceiling :)
But thanks for visiting...
Now in response to some points...
Answer.
Relax folks, this guy is doing Good, he is having fun, he is
increasing the fun to be had around him.
Spammers and Scammers of the world have made us hyper sensitive to
anyone who asks for money. So one of the "off scents" I think some
detected about Don's web sites was, Schlock, Horror, he asks for Money!
He has, Gasp, Google Ads!?
Hummm... That's the first thing that needs a bit of changing...
I like to think of it as welcoming money.
In the past I haven't been very welcoming of any support because I
didn't want to take from others when I could provide for my self...
hell, I was a good AP and earning ~$70-80kpa.
I ran a project in AU for a number of years until I had to give it away
due to illness.
People complained to me that I didn't give people anyway to support the
project if they only had money to offer.
If they were time poor but money rich, they couldn't play.
If they were money poor and skill short then they were also out.
That's not very community like.
Not making that mistake twice...
NOW, if you want to support the fun, all you have to do is browser a bit.
Last week we raked in a huge sum from Google!!! *15 cents*.
However, if you don't like the google ads but still want to read, and
don't want to block them, then step up and write some mambo code to turn
them off when you log on. Mambo has features to turn stuff on for
registered users... I'm sure you won't find it to hard to reverse the
concept in the OS world of Mambo.
I also set up an Amway account so people could "join my business", hence
generating "passive" income for the project while doing nothing more
than a bit of shopping - you can buy Milo from Amway! (Thou I don't
recommend the musili, it wasn't very nice) I did heaps of research, and
the reason I liked this idea is because you order using the internet...
hummm.... I'm building faster internet.... you're paying for it by using
it.... hummm... call me stupid, but that sort of makes sense... doesn't it?
Well I think the difference is Don is doing stuff with real chunks of
Hardware. That, unlike Open Source Software, has a bad habit of forcing
you to give largish chunks of Real Money to Dick Smith and the like..
Thanks for Nothing JOHN!
I didn't read this right the first time and I forwarded it to my wife
because she wanted to read it after I commented about it over breakfast...
Problem is that she's been on my case about the mounting DSE bills... 3
new wifi USB cards last week so that I can do the next round of testing...
See: dist.ro/community-network/ - results of the last tests....
actually can that, don't go to that site please...
See: http://www.tcn.bowenvale.co.nz/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,34/
It's at least got google ads on it so I can afford to give Tusker some
money for the years of free hosting he's stumped up on his Singapore
servers to support my projects.
Back on topic... if someone sees Dale about can they please ask him to
come pick up the wifi gear I promised him to test out his BSD ideas...
I have a usb dongle with his name on it and a PCI card.
While we're on the subject of *giving*, we should have some more plugs...
1. Bruce Burdekin - QCo/SAV. He paid for the two antenna I've been
using for testing on the PCI cards. Two PCI cards, his roof space. He
also feeds be every time my wife gets sick of the site of my Linux boxes
and throws me out for a bit of peice and quiet...
2. Rik Tindal - for the smaller 14" monitor that saves me lugging the
last 17" monitor I have in and out of the ceiling (mentioned above),
thou he emailed me this morning say he wants it back, I suspect he's
with-drawing his support, he said he was going to if I didn't change
FLOSS for FOSS... I'm thinking FOSS for FUSS :) So if you have a light
weight 14" monitor doing nothing... :)
3. Neil Stockbridge - Hummm.... 4 UBS head ends, numourse USB cables,
one of the USB dongles, heat srink, few connectors... quite a bit of
cheese (ask him) and the odd lunch.
4. Jason - Bunch of hard drives, some mouse, USB card, some old memory,
a keyboard, odd graphic card.
5. Rob? - The old dunnger...
There are others, and I'm sorry if I forgot you...
And no, I don't think,
Ok...
and he doesn't think, he is going to rich out of
this game.
Right.
Time to give you all the rant on this one...
1. No one gets rich.
2. Lots loose money.
3. I'm not going to be responsible!!!
I started my research in to this space in 1998/9.
I have watched while Telstra's share price went from $10 to $4 and took
with it billions of dollars of Australian Mum and Dad investors money.
I have watched while MCI/WorldCom took $7 billion dollars of investor
money and people went to Jail.
I have watched while Telcom shares rose to $10 and are now hovering at $4.
I could go on for hours...
If any of you think I'm going to get rich out of this space by building
a community network that people in the community own and every one has
access to put data in and out of, then you're an idiot!
If you think our community is going to become more wealthy by building a
community wide network then you're smart.
WHAT I DON'T WANT... and neither does Frank March...
CityLink - In Wellington a number of years back Richard Naylor and Jim
Higgins go 17 guys with $5,000 each together and started to build a
fibre network. Today that network is 96% owned by Ron Woodrow. I went
to school with his son, and I worked for Ron right out of school. I
have any amount of respect for Ron and what he's done for New Zealand...
However....
I do not want to see another City Link built. A network that is almost
100% owned by one person.
In summary...
I want to give you/everyone the ability to support a project.
It's for fun folks. It for cocking a snoot at the Telco's
and saying to them, "You _can_ do better"
Only a very small side issue...
It's for delivering something really useful to our community.
Telephone companies are there to make money!!! They pay their CEO's
based on that performance and make it quite clear in their annual reports.
It's for sitting back and
looking at something and saying, "Wow! That actually works!
Cool!"
Damb stright about that one!
But still only a small issue...
It's for delivering something really useful to our community.
Our Global Community
The other "off scent" some have reacted to is, "If he is asking for
money, why isn't his site super-slick, spell checked to the Nth degree?
How can anybody take him seriously? Just compare his site with xtra.co.nz?"
As I understand it, that job has already been taken by a company here in
Christchurch, at leasts that's what I keep being told on boards every
time they ask for another million.
Well the answer is no. He is not setting up as a commercial entity to
compete with XTRA. He is having Fun, and his idea of having Fun (a
_very_ Good idea of having fun mind you) is to make things that work and
perhaps have some benefit to the community.
Now if you'll just explain that to my wife the next time the visa bill
comes in!
Do I think he'll change the world?
I already did that.
He is worth investing in?
Ouch, but no, invest in your selves guys. Build and own your own networks!
He's the next Richard Branson?
Nah!
Oh crap... I want my own adventure TV show when I'm done with bits of
water pipe and wifi cards!!!
But it will be fun. It may have some really Good spin offs. It's worth
giving him a helping hand every now and again. Give good answers do any
dumb questions. Be nice to the guy, be patient, he is human so give him
room to screw up on a technical and personal level occasionally.
Thanks John.
The worst that can happen is...
* Don wastes a largish chunk of his own time and money.
Not possible.
1. I don't have large chunks of money...
2. Everything I do grows my knowledge in a world of joy and learning.
* Don wastes a smallish chunk of someone elses time and money.
True... Sorry :)
* Don pisses a few people off.
Also true... Sorry... :) but hey.... I don't rant every time one of
them pisses me off!
He also may end up making some Telco feel a little silly, but I'm sure
they will roll around in their piles of dough for awhile and the feeling
will soon pass...
Been there, done that, tick :)
I see the following possible really Good outcomes from this...
* Don and Company having some Good Clean Fun and learning lots.
You clearly need to visit my loft! -- nothing clean up there. :)
Yes, I'll take you up on the offer of getting under my flat to put the
next bits of network cable in.... errr, you didn't offer, please? :)
* A recipe emerging for isolated and disregarded (by telcos)
communities to "roll their own" broadband.
Now wouldn't that be fantastic!
* Don perhaps works out a Good business model and creates a small
enterprise doing this or, more likely, some spin off from this. Free
Software is about Freedom, not price labels. So all strength and luck
to him on that front.
Oh, that will happen... it's becoming clear that it has to happen. My
LES students (future SysAdmins) want Pizza and Coke for lunch! 15 cents
from Google ads isn't going to cover that!!!
* A Telco feels Don is taking money from their mouths, and creates their
own competing offering for the niche of underserviced communities.
Oh I hope so! Why do you think I published my current workings
(complete with spelling mistakes) in so many public places?
It took an army 3 weeks to put the power and telephone back on in South
Canterbury.... you think I'm going to be able to build a com's network
myself?!
...or getting wilder... (and this is where I'm really interested)
* Creating new forms of network, with possibilities and values that
didn't exist before. (I have this little algorithm on the back burner
for routing in a completely random and decentralized unreliable P2P mesh
of communicating devices.)
Now we're talking!
So give the guy a break, give him a hand or see if you can do better!
Thanks John, just stepping up and 'doing' would be a good start for
everyone.
Cheers Don
--
Don Gould
www.thinkdesignprint.co.nz - www.tcn.bowenvale.co.nz -
www.bowenvale.co.nz - www.hearingbooks.co.nz - SkypeMe: ThinkDesignPrint
