Greetings List Lurkers,
So, this is the official notice of the Barre Open Systems Institute (BOSI)
Adult Swim. The swim stars at 5:00 PM EST, our continued vanity being to
include a goggle hangout https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1 until
7:00 PM EST.
Sadly next Monday I will be traveling so I am going to declare next Monday
an Adult Swim holiday.
Today has been completely absorbed in the dreaded politics of life. The
great news is that we have received an excellent donation of computer
books from a local benefactor, so part of the Adult Swim shall today
shall involve the re-distribution of the excellent collection of
O'Reilly class books into the arms of the awaiting young geeks as they
arrive. This is what we live for, the other thing is getting the
politics lined up.
The really good news is that EnGenius directional 801.11 G distance WAN
radio link has found a good home, and is now helping humanity in a strange
and wonderful way. So, after this most recent success with the radio
links I can honestly say, these radio link things are very cool. The radio
links for 802.11 can go about 2 miles, we are looking for other test sites
as well. Want 300 Mb/s for about 2 miles? Respond and we can set you up.
Our latest idea involves setting up a PXE boot distribution loader at the
Barre library which would allow folks to enter the library, and load onto
their equipment the distribution of their choice. While this would be a
free service and would not defray the cost of the LinuxWorld subscription
it would tend to center Open Source activity and extend outreach in Barre,
which might be a model for other state library institutions.
It remains a beautiful thing watching Yarger and DTG tart up the snobot.
All it really took was troubleshooting the controller. The latest Very
Interesting Thing (VIT) that has happened is the discovery of the Robot
Operating System (ROS) tar ball. This is open source's answer to the
Robot Software Wall, here is where we discovered that the "Hawking
Class" wheelchair to robot mod is called a differential motor system and
can be made to talk to Turtle Graphics... very cool.
Again, we have posted a partial working pin-out of the output board on
the snobot web site, look for Control Module for Ranger II MWD -
current diagram. At risk of repetition, the real payoff was to realize
that a 24V APC without batteries is an excellent power center and can
charge the 24V general batteries on the bot, as well as supply 110VAC
for all sorts of nefarious purposes. At the end of the day this
breakthrough is the use of the capability of adapting the APC UPS so
that we can charge the snobot traction pack and use the extra space
where the old battery went to install the motor system control. Pictures
are on G+, Yarger has a video commentary up and additional still and
motion pictures shall be forthcoming. Now that the right controller and
power system are complete for the snobot, the damn thing will be
visiting Adult Swim again today, and we can begin the real Robot issue,
software...
The FM project http://docbox.flint.com:8081/raspberry/pifm/index_html
Turning the rPi into an FM transmitter is a solution looking for a
problem. There are numerous applications for this technology, stay tuned.
We hope to expand use of "Andro-Mouse", which is a series of apps for an
Android controller and a Java control element. That said, ListNote, which we
are using as part of the great garage gestation remains fairly cool...
The "tsp" site has stabilized (http://docbox.flint.com:8081/tsp) there are now
live shots and consolidated shots of the working beasts (look at the first
three links off this site). One goal is to get the pictures better organized,
and we expect to have pictures of the spiffy new enclosure. You will find on
the site the actual programs that exploit the python miniterm class to gather
data from the Arduino based temperature sensors via the USB. The software
interface between the Arduino and mrtg is solid and have what we need in that
department. This baby is done for the first phase, now for the rewrite, after
we get organized (the triple t's again)...
We are continuing our attack on the the furmon project. At least Flint
will, Yarger and DTG are still playing with the Snobot. Bit Ed and Eric
the sculptor are so far into music software that we will need a new
citation for their stuff. See the bottom of the url list below for more
As mentioned again last week about the furmon, the Xbee radio link work
from the pellet furnace is now on the pbug development system. This is
a milestone since we now have live data to play with. For more
information see the furmon site as detailed below. Regarding the furmon,
with mrtg you can trend the sample data, I want to also exploit pylab,
an include that makes time-series data plotting and analysis a snap.
Maybe this coming week, with snobot keeping everyone else out of my
hair, we will get to complete the furmon at least to a release point.
Kevin has taken package management to the level where we may able to
release the code using the "quickly" product to package code as ".deb"s.
Once I have completed this I will cite this in yet another wiki. Watch
this space... The need to package software makes me reconsider my
release dates, say two weeks from now.
I am really looking foreword to going to the Barry Library and reading
the latest issue of Linux World.
The ever growing list of projects includes:
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/snobot - jesum they love this robot
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/furmon - monitor that pellet furnace
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/arduino - moving in the arduino groove
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/javajive - to get better at Javascript
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/tsp - Temperature Sensors Project
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/robotsrules - The quest for Roberts Rules - - -
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/visual.bash - Yea, I am not kidding...
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/mrtg - remedial raw mrtg for the slow...
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/raspberry - all rPi'ness
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/organized - oh please let me be organized!
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/music - this may be the least organized
site ever!
Otherwise, Barre indeed remains a great venue for a Linux and Open Source
Software meeting and general system rejuvenation. That said, we expect to
assemble more of the Dallas Semi "1-wire" temperature probes, and we have two
Arduinos, with lots of fixin's as well as several Raspberry Pi's a boat
load of radio modules, and an embarrassment of riches in terms of books.
Needless to say the Arduino remains the coolest thing for 2012, the
Raspberry Pi the coolest thing so far for 2013, and Ras-BMC the coolest
thing for the month of April, xBMC for May, and PiFm the coolest thing
for June... What, pray tell will July bring?
Do not forget that the Barre library stocks "Linux World", and the
latest issue is on the shelf. The DVD's are available to checkout and
copy, we intend to continue provide copies and isos of each and every
one.
Anyway, come and do open source stuff. For more information about the BOSI
Adult Swim meeting time and location try this:
http://family.flint.com/adult_swim_location/index_html
Show up at the the Hedding United Methodist Church Basement if you have
questions or are interested in Linux or the concept of free and open systems,
The basement of the Hedding UMC facility is actually working out pretty well.
If you wish to be included on the "Linux_adult_swim" mailing list, send a
response to this note. Note that the mailing list system is a bit peevish
right now. Let me know if you have any difficulties.
Kindest Regards,
Paul Flint
/************************************
Based upon email reliability concerns,
please send an acknowledgment in response to this note.
Paul Flint
Barre Open Systems Institute
17 Averill Street
Barre, VT
05641
http://www.bosivt.org
http://www.flint.com/home
skype: flintinfotech
(802) 479-2360 Home
(802) 595-9365 Cell
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