Hello,
Migs asked about what we've been up to in UPLB: Over the past five years, we've been involved with installing Linux servers for various government agencies - generally smaller departments like PIDS-NEDA, BTRCP-DTI, BAS under the DA, and so on. The trick is to find department/bureau heads open-minded enough (and have budgets too small for NT) to try something new. A colleague also had a project to develop a strategic/tactical training simulator for the PAF, but I think that's still in works - something like the old Harpoon games, but using current AFP equipment). These are usually Linux\PostgreSQL\MySQL installations, which they use to disseminate databases over the web to their remote offices in the provinces. On the clustering side, we used to have an 8-machine cluster going (Pentium-166s, 16 Mb memory each), although we had to dismantle it last year so that we could equip the labs. (with Dr. Carino, our HPC specialist, off in the US, I'm not sure we can get enough equipment to get another cluster going, until he gets back). Before, we used PVM on Solaris for our parallel computing classes. (High-performance computing isn't really my field - although I helped Dr. Carino out some, because I was using some of the Beowulf ethernet code for a load-balancing project I was trying out). We've wanted to get a robotics lab up and running for years now, but as always, there's no funding, so we'd had to limit ourselves to software-only solutions (I remember Prof. Coronado's robotic arm built from motors ripped from a printer head and a floppy drive - worked for a year or so before it destroyed itself...). I've been working with a friend with interfacing his linux boxes to various chemical laboratory equipment (spectrophotometers, etc) - mostly Perl and C. Unfortunately, it's too crufty to be neatly packaged up and distributed... On the bright side, we did get new computers last month, hopefully so we can start doing Linux installs in CMSC 137 (networking) lab again (we missed that last year, due to the lack of computers). We're also hoping to finish wiring our entire campus (100 Mbps Ethernet over fiber, with DHCP and ipchains masquerading) sometime in the next three months. The main problems with Philippine technology (and Philippine agriculture in particular) that can be solved with IT is in info dissemination - getting info out to the provincial agricultural stations in a timely manner, and getting reports (on pest outbreaks, diseases, etc) back from the field. We've got a variety of proposals along these lines (of course, proposals pa lang) with promised funding from the government - hopefully up and running before 2004 (because we all know what happens with government projects after elections. :) - Elfredy Cadapan - Institute of Computer Science, Univ. of the Philippines at Los Banos PS: Been off PLUG (and most of the net) for the past year or so - still too busy to post much to any mailing lists... :) _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
