Greetings List Lurkers,
If this were the end of May, I would out of respect for those in the armed
services, consider a holiday. Two things keep me sending this invitation:
1. Freedom - particularly free software should be celebrated. It does not
come cheap, and seems to perpetually involve struggle.
2. I always figured that the holiday is the end of May, and Sunday, May
31st I will be down with my surviving WWII Navy Vetran, my father-in-law,
treating him right..
It is amazing how involved I have become with my family and free
technology. For instance I remain fascinated with my number one son's
bright idea, high powered Light Emitting Diode array illumination.
As we mentioned last week, this Bright Idea now has a name, LEDroid, and
oddly enough, a web site:
http://ledroid.org/
I have been working on this stuff and truly find it fascinating. Again,
anyone out there who has ideas about Very Bright illumination, drop me a
line, as it has been a very illuminating experience for yours truly.
This project will no doubt by next week find a place in the project list
below.
The damn LED arrays want about 40 VDC; then you need cooling fans...Arduino and
who knows what else. I have substituted a 555 Pulse Width Modulator
for the Arduino PWM to allow us to get the hardware working without
resorting to software.
In addition, we have come up with is what I am affectionately referring to
as the "Berserker-mod" for a standard PC power supply. So what else comes
out of the PC supply is 170 VDC. While this actually works, I am still
banging out the engineering necessary to get 40 VDC from this, or how to
put 4 high power LEDs in series. Check out the LEDroid site for more
information. Anyone with a good idea how to step on the 170 VDC and yield
40 would be most welcome to get back via email!
All this activity continues put a crimp in new shower at casa open source.
I took time to talk to the good folks at Vermont Computing Cooperative of
Randolph Vermont which we had the pleasure of visiting last month. We should
all attend as Ian, Matt, Bob, Dan et al. have taken Open Source by the horns
and formed a Worker owned computer cooperative. This remains the candidate for
the coolest thing of the month. I really think that these folks are onto
something, anyone with assignments or service opportunities should contact
Mr. Ian Stewart of VCC, Randoph. These are good folks and this is a
shameless plug. Keep the faith VCC!
Anyway, we have the technology and we will have the pizza...
This is the official notice of the Barre Open Systems Institute (BOSI) Adult
Swim. For those coming in via the Google Plus and the Internet, The swim stars
at 5:00 PM EST, our continuing vanity being to include a goggle hangout, which
we will get going this time at https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1
until 6:00 PM EST. Note that we really want to support TOX based video
conferencing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_%28software%29).
Does anyone know how to set up a G+ session from a command line? Still
interested...
For some reason many of our projects are turning into hardware. Anyone want to
computer control a gas powered model race car? There will be a web site
coming soon!
Our ongoing major objective is to continue to try to figure out how to invest
the time and resources to turn the Barre Open Systems Institute into more than
just the Adult Swim technical clinic and more into a real learning facility.
One direction we have been working on is to begin thinking about classes. The
curriculum that I am most interested in is teaching documentation.
We continue to wonder about how to build the BOSI curriculum to this webpage:
http://bosivt.org/classes Take a look if you dare...
As I cannot say too damn often, the meeting today is at 40 Washington Street,
Barre, VT 05641 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM!
Remember, the BOSI Adult Swim is essentially about helping out fellow
users of open source products in a clinic environment. Despite my very
best of intentions, the Adult Swim is really almost a perpetual Linux
install-fest, and only secondarily a learning environment,
Once again, the goal of the meeting shall be as usual, to get organized
and try to get the various projects moving forward.
The ever growing list of projects (now on our web site :^) includes:
- http://ledroid.org - Ok, this is a real project eh?
- http://bzinga.net - What happens when you combine Bash and Zenity?
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/nodejs - ok, it is on the list.
- 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 versions
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/strembot.org - maybe a very cool project.
- 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!
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/bb - A big noble idea.
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/grantbot - A less noble idea to feed the
big idea...
Otherwise, Barre indeed remains a great venue for a Linux and Open Source
Software discussion and general system rejuvenation. Expect to be remotely
preached at on the various topics of Open Source and how I am confident it
shall cure all the evils and ills of this wicked world. In a perfect meeting,
people would come in, sit down, see the stuff we have been doing and hopefully
help us get the DIY stuff we are doing done, or maybe just fix a laptop.
So, do not forget that the Barre library stocks "Linux World", and the latest
issue is on the shelf, and it is good. The DVD's are available to checkout and
copy, we shall to continue provide copies and isos of each and every one. I am
continuing to duplicate abot a years worth of DVD's which is quite a task.
Anyway, come and do open source stuff. For more information about the BOSI
Adult Swim meeting time and location try this:
http://bosivt.org/directions
Show up at Hedding UMC if you have questions or are interested in Linux or the
concept of free and open systems. Again, we are in the basement of the Hedding
UMC facility which 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.
After I finish the new group shower, we fully intend to get organized. I mean
it this time.
Kindest Regards,
Paul Flint
(802) 479-2360
(802) 595-9365 Cell
/************************************
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://family.flint.com/flint
skype: flintinfotech
Work: (202) 537-0480
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