Greetings List Lurkers,
My excellent vacation is winding down and coming to an end. This
week is the last Adult Swim that I will miss due to our vacation.
Thus, truth, I merely beseeched you to to go to the directions web site
should you need them at:
http://bosivt.org/directions
Meet at the adult swim and be happy. FN, represents that all will
be well, he has the capability and the pizza to pull this off, I hope that
he is motivated and that circumstances conspire in favor of the gathering.
First off, I will see you again next meeting!
We are currently about half way back across the country just outside of
the fabled Quad Cities that bless the banks of the Mighty Mississippi.
Now we push east...ever east...
The best part of this Vacation has been the opportunity to meditate on
future projects and activities. Here is my summary of areas to
concentrate on in the future.
- LED Lighting #1 Son still needs this, and inspiration has struck.
- Maker Movement A Maker Space in Barre? Why not?
- Move BOSI to become more git centric.
- Blue Sky R&D, but in Vermont it will be Gun-metal Grey Sky R&D.
- Open Source Educational Human Development (nothing new here:^)
For an example of the later, the worker owned cooperative, Vermont
Computing Cooperative (VCC) of Randolph Vermont continues to surprise and
amaze me. As part of this last activity, I wonder if it would be possible
to approach Ian, Matt, Bob, Dan, Chris et al. at the Worker-owned
cooperative to change the economic game from a Fee-For-Service (FFS) model
to an Insurance (Assurance) model.
As I relaxed driving across country and back, I have been meditating on
the FFS vs Assurance model and wonder if it would fit the Windows vs Linux
dichotomy. If the proposition is that Micro$oft based computers are more
profitable due to the amount of service required, you need to bet the
other side of this proposition, that being that FOSS (Linux, BSD) are more
reliable.
Could you do this is by establishing a monthly service fee that favors
FOSS systems? The particulars of the numbers involved with this fee are
something that one would have to figure out based upon the data gathered
on the actual service costs of the respective architectures, by
maintaining this data is where VCC or other service sector provider might
have a considerable advantage.
Note that economic incentives are established as the best ways of
communicating with any businesses, but is really behooves someone to do the
back-office analysis in order to get the monthly costs associated right or
the whole exercise might be profit-less. This might be an opportunity for
an interesting analysis for BOSI to pursue.
In any event VCC remains the candidate for the coolest thing of the year. I
really think that these folks are onto something, again let me say that anyone
with assignments, service opportunities or interested in Monthly Assurance
should contact Mr. Ian Stewart of VCC, Randolph. 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, as I stocked
up!
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 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...
One of the disturbing things I have discovered while staying in Motels and
Hotels across America is how many services block http service on odd
ports, as first reported by Bit Ed using and ISP in Plainfield. Thus one
of our immediate projects shall be to reflect all of the current project
pages to git hub.
Wish us luck on this project.
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.
This is Flint signing off... Expect me back next week.
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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