Greetings List Lurkers,
The car troubles which should have ended with the trip to DC persist, but
hopefully will be mitigated by the time the Shelburne Mini Maker fair
comes around, September 24 & 25, 2016
Had a visit from Dr. Mark Enhglehart yesterday, and he left us some really
cool stuff including a Mac Lampshade that allegedly boots Linux. This
will be shown at the Swim tonight.
Anyway on to the status of other Projects!:
The damn maker stuff and general domestic tranquility has been eating my time.
The good news is the projects seem to be lurching forward...
VINYL CUTTER
I could not even properly spell vinyl when I began, but the good news is
that the US Cutter vinyl cutter is in place, assembled, operational and
tested. Dr. Mark used the cutter to continue a stencil project for him and
show me some smoke about vinyl cutting, kind of a maker thing. The
prototype and disorganized site for this is:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/maker
Dr. Mark is largely responsible for getting the plotter running. At this
point I am considering adding the plotter to octoprint. Basically this
would involve setting up a point where a cron job would take any file in
the que, run it through pstoedit with the appropriate switches and sending
it to /dev/lpr/usb0. The real question is how long can the USB cable get?
3DPRINT
The good news is that the pre-ordered extrusion heads which arrived before
I began my travels to Washington DC arrived, and we suddenly had a 3Dprint
capability.
I very likely need to include a picture of the 3Decology I have
constructed around the HICTOP Prusa I3 3D Desktop Printer, seems to help a
lot, at least there is a place to store the tools this thing needs. The
take away here is that 3D infrastructure is important to facilitate
printing. I fully intend to upolad a picture of the 3Decology here:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/3D_print
I continue to make angle brackets and cat statues...
Now I need to learn a tool to help me actually make something, and what I
need are Bezels. Any ideas?
TRANTOR
The latest project coming sideways at us is Marius's server, which I have
tentatively named "Trantor" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trantor). We
hope to have the entire Linux Format DVD series available there. God help me
if I have not started a visual.bash project for this, and the project now has a
website:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/trantor
The huge accomplishment was beyond starting the software, actually backing up
all 250 giga bytes we already have online.
What was accomplished last week and will continue after I finish
writing the newsletter is that we have now recovered all of the
scanned in CD covers and backs. This was accomplished with the use of
gimp, a script-fu and something called deskew. The next step involves
getting a prototype of trantor online. I am getting interest from some
parties in contributing more stuff to trantor. Do not be bashful. let me
know if you want something faithfully curated and systematically
reproduced as nice clickable html...
VMulater:
This is a working demo if you are interested in the wonderful world of zVM, I
have a ziddlewiki supporting this demo available at:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/vm
Again, the bottom line is that Docker and tmux work fine together...
I may try to get a presentation of this together. Watch this space.
Anyone out there willing to go off the reservation with VM5.3?
Could you turn the Raspberry Pi into an IBM VM emulator? As discovered last
week, it appears yes...
http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/blog/my-raspberry-pi-thinks-it-s-a-mainframe
...and it appears here on a PI B. What will it do on a PI3? Still
holding, but getting warmer...
THE TECHNORUBBLE REPORT TECHNORUBBLE -
The Website http://technorubble.org,http://technorubble.com
Dan did not post, but I shall call him and get him over for the meeting
tonight. We did check out the Waterbury Flea, which looks right but costs
$25.00 per booth. Again, I am hopeful that Dan will be is joining Brett
today at the meeting and we can discuss in this project. In any event we
will be setting up at the Shelburne Mini Maker Fair September 24 & 25,
2016. While last week we got sorting and packaging done. We need more
TechnoRubble. We are working out the details for this as we speak. The
idea is to get people to mail is their TechnoRubble.
PITCHBOX
You may have heard that the PiTch-Box is an enclosure built out of the shipping
case the Raspberry Pi Touch Display comes in. The power supply design is
actually coming along. The latest incarnation of the PiTchBox is the
PiTchBox LunchBox which should be up on the site later today.
The good news is that it appears that a most viable PiTchBox power supply is an
old PC supply. I have received half a dozen 12VDC to 5V at 3A converters,
successors to the venerable 7805. One is going on the 3 D printer, the others
are getting added to the Pitch mix. The PiTchBox now has it's own web
site:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/PiTchBox
...and I hope to get some pictures of the PiTchBox LunchBox up there asap.
The wonderful thing about our current society is that there is a great
deal of activity in the area of basement agriculture. In the spirit of
this and due to the fact fall is on the way here in the Frozen North, I
have ordered a basement enclosure for growing plants in. The goal here
will be to experiment with the enhanced phosphor Grow Lights attached to
the PiTchBox. This would Flint Indoor Phosphor Enhanced Indoor Greenhouse
to keep me sane this winter. More on this project as it unfolds.
I hope to show Bit Ed one of the DC-DC converters, they are nifty.
Anyway, we need to continue to develop the software and hardware PiTchBox
library such as...
JARVIS ON JENKINS
You may recall that brother Kevin Cole has ported Jarvis, a voice recognition
product to run on a Raspberry PI3. This is exciting and we are attempting to
reproduce this here in the Casa Flint Lab... His current comments is that
other projects are using Google or Amazon voice recognition. His is hard
core local.
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/raspberry#JarvisOnJenkins
In continuing travels and travails this project is on a hiatus, but is not out
of active development... This week will hopefully bring some developments...
PYRS
PYRS is in deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, background, I remain
fascinated with the idea of writing a python tax library... PYRS - A
python interface to the IRS! (http://docbox.flint.com:8081/pyrs) Maybe the
conference can dissuade me. This is at the hold point...
KINDLE LIBERATION FRONT
The biggest issue with the Kindles is that they are so damn useful...
As mentioned a few weeks back, Due to the bandwidth issue, and my own traveling
adventures the entire Kindle Liberation Front is lagging, we hope that a
rumored appearance of no less than Joe Hart himself will bring about progress
in the area detailed below.
Again, the bad news is that all the new units are coming in with 5.1.3. Also, I
think I killed one of these 5.1.1. units with water. Good news is that I took
it apart and am drying it out. It may end up as parts. Hopefully in the coming
week.
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/kindle
The good news is that getting the google play store on these puppies still
works.
To summarize, the meeting today is again at 40 Washington Street, Barre, VT
05641.
Topics for discussion as usual remain:
- Open Source Educational Human Development
I am working on an idea... I am changing the priority of our
eternal needs, and placing education first.
- Maker Movement A Maker Space in Barre? Why not? Could it be that the
commercial power centers do not yet appreciate the value? I need to
revise my paper on this subject and get it out to Lucas Jensen
who has good ideas about a Barre Maker Space.
- Move BOSI to become more git centric... develop gittlywiki... working!
check out tiddlywiki5 here: https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5
We still need to convert... Yea buddy...
- Blue Sky R&D, but in Vermont it will be Gun-metal Grey Sky(c) R&D.
- I fought the DREK and the DREK continues to win. Remember, What
really is holds us back is DREK!!! DREK is what happens to your
workspace (both hardware and software) when you fail to put stuff
away, or you let your friends or relatives use it. This is a cosmic
law. I am still fighting the DREK. How to get over it? Maybe slave
labor and more shelves...
These five points are becomming almost like policy!
Anyway, we have the technology and we will have Pizza tonight 5-7 at Hedding
UMC.
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, and there are
folks who are gonna try, the swim stars at 6:00 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.
Once again, the goal of the meeting shall be as usual, to get organized and try
to get the various projects moving forward, despite DREK. We continue to wonder
about how to build the BOSI curriculum to this webpage:
http://bosivt.org/classes, Take a look if you dare...
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,
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...
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/gitlywiki - is tiddlywiki5 the answer?
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 Format", 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 about a years worth of DVD's which is quite a task. You
may want to watch this space for developments.
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.
Somehow we need to make progress not more projects!!!
If you wish to be included on the "Linux_adult_swim" mailing list, send a
response to this note.
This is Flint signing off...
I will be refactoring our newsletter at some point in the future (do not hold
your breath :^)...
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
