Greetings List Lurkers,
The theme for today's epistle to the unixians is:
What are the five most hated words in the computer industry?
1. Did
2. You
3. Back
4. It
5. Up?
The next six most hated words are:
0. Where
1. Did
2. You
3. Back
4. It
5. Up?
Anyway, I somehow managed to misplace the BOSI web site (bosivt.org). I
am looking around for it, and this may take a bit of doing. The real
question is should I really maybe just start over? Anyway Effin was
involved so you need to expect a little sand in the old foundation.
Speaking of the foundation...
TRANTOR
As we said before the first pass for Trantor is done. The second pass, is
to be delivered to the Aldrich Public library for evaluation tomorrow.
The cool thing here is that we are getting to use one of the original
Gates Foundation grant based Dell machines. This is good because we will
be dealing with SoV DII and the fact there is a MAC address they may
already know is a good thing. This version of trantor is where we have
integrated everything into one package that runs in a non GUI based linux
session. The neat thing here is that the workstation can continue to act
as a workstation. Why not? This shotgun marriage between a workstation
and a server, is what we are working on. The good news is that this shell
script called "ctrantor.sh" seems to work fine using the
http://visualbash.org framework with the new "include extensions".
As mentioned above the trantor project now uses the new visualbash include
function to load up various scripts full-o-functional goodness.
We are maintaining the Trantor project on Github:
https://github.com/flintiii/trantor
I need to get this into some type of organized format to put up on git hub, as
this is something that will please both Chris Yarger and Kevin Cole.
The $89.00 2 Terrabyte drive for the Trantor project slid into the the
implementation platform, the old dell workstation (Updike) from the
library, perfectly, so the new "trantor" now sports 2T SATA and a copy of
Mint 18. Loading 230Gbytes of LXFDVDs is done. The trantor project
benefits itself as you can cut DVDs and USBs with great ease and facility.
This week I stand ready to bring this machine back to the Aldrich, plug it
in, set me some DNS A record, and rock.
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/trantor
Thanks to sphinx, we actually now have a complete set of disks starting
from LXFDVD154, thanks to Neil at Linux Format, and we may try expanding
trantor to include all the Linux Format DVDs since they started
publication. Once installed at the Aldrich, next trick is to get trantor
on the public web. One of the critical steps here is a seamless
demonstration hookkup at the Aldrich Public Library. So the test of
trantor up and running. If you want to see a preview try:
http://docbox.flint.com/~flint/trantor/test/
As you can see it contains all the scanned in CD covers and backs. CD
cover acquisition was accomplished with the use of gimp, a script-fu and
something called deskew. All the links rick-roll till I get the actual
server online.
All that said sphinx now rocks my world. I am getting interest from some
parties in contributing more stuff to trantor. Do not be bashful (pun?). let
me know if you want something faithfully curated and systematically reproduced
as nice clickable html. Bringing it back around the real question here is
should I simply rebuild bosivt.org based upon sphinx? We could do it all
in...
VISUAL BASH:
As I said last week, I always liked the "include" function in python (C and a
lota other languages :^). The trantor code (see below) was getting kinda
bulky, and I realized I needed an include function, so starting with bash
"source", I cobbled together a very serviceable include function under the
visualbash.org framework:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/visual.bash#ImportingFunctionBlocks
In all humility, this is very good for the visual bash that I am writing, and I
think that this has legs and could go somewhere very cool (and I do not mean
Windows 10 :^). That said I am afraid it is not over yet. The next piece is a
menu generator that will allow you to test stub your "shi" files with a crude
but working "sh". Who knows where we go from there?
The "SanityScript" is still being born, and as I said above I am seriously
considering a "Menu Generator"
I will likely be needing to reorganize all of the visual bash functions into
functional includes... Possible include files are:
- ianda.shi - Identification and Authorization
- dvdusb.shi - DVD/USB utilities
- sanity.shi - System sanity tests
- maint.shi - Maintenance includes
- ops.shi - Operational includes
- dev.shi - Development includes
- sphinx.shi - Sphinx generator includes
- tiddle.shi - Tiddle includes...
Visualbash is really fun to work on...
Otherwise it has been a very quiet week here in Barre Vermont. Drove down
to DC and saw my parents and partied with the Trumpsters. Damn are we in
for it.
My latest personal project, after spending 28 hours for the round trip do
DC in the car is to upgrade the entertainment center. This is a project
in itself. The more formal projects are listed below:
Some interesting stuff happening in these projects:
BAKEDAPPLES
Kevin cole never ceases to amaze me. Besides finding really cool 3D
design software, he has found a fellow traveler who is doing some UEFI
based magic on apples. Hopefully we can contact him and get him to rub
antenna with Dr. Mark.
These sites are mapped to the current wiki:
http://bakedapples.org/
http://bakedapples.net/
The Project that shows some sign of reserection I summarize below.
KINDLE LIBERATION FRONT
The stop the presses news is here in this tiddler:
https://www.thanassis.space/android.html
...a serial port on ring and ground when you apply 3.3 volts to tip?
WOW!!!!
Still, why they don't build a version of the Universal Insight Virtual Realty
Glasses for the Kindle is beyond me. Dude... 3d Teleconferencing way cool!
TADA
Is this a new project?
The Adult Swim video network, soon to be the "TADA Show" and clearly Effin's
project. Is there a recursive acronym in here somewhere?
Hopefully this will be discussed on:
https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/flint.com/tada
JARVIS ON JENKINS
A very quiet week for Jarvis on Jenkins....
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/raspberry#JarvisOnJenkins
I wonder if Jarvis on Jenkins can be integrated into the PitchBox Garden?
Gardners talk to their plants don't they?
TECHNORUBBLE
- The Website http://technorubble.org,http://technorubble.com
The new donation letter needs to be updated. The good news is that I can maybe
get that done today so that Dave can have a donation letter.
Again, we need more TechnoRubble. We are working out the details for getting
this. Part of it is the donation letter. The idea is to get people to mail
their TechnoRubble to us in a USPS Flat Rate Box. I am frantically trying to
complete the donation letter page:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/donations
Ok, so it is DTML... Who cares?
VINYL CUTTER
A completed project. We have more vinyl and blades coming. Cannot wait to try
cardboard. That said where does the time go?
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/maker
I need to get
1. Dr. Mark a new logo in red and black.
2. Mike Destructo a logo he wants...
3DPRINT
With brother Kevin's design software we are gonna get this damn thing to
the point that it can produce the bezels I need for the PiTchBox.
Otherwise, no change here... Thinking about inviting Toby from Filabot
over and asking for some help. This machine has only seen maybe 5 hours
of actual operation is that this lasted about two days. Why is this so
damn hard?
The 3Decology constructed around the HICTOP Prusa I3 3D Desktop Printer, has
helped 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. But more important is the ability to render designs from the head
into products.
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/3D_print
Again, the thing is that there is a new guy in this part of town called
Antimony, but I am giving up on this and going with whatever Kevin is
using;
http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony/3/
This is the spot to watch. I am gonna learn this product or perish n the
process. I need Bezels for the...
PITCHBOX
Ordered a new lunchbox. Got it. It is a smiley face.. yuck.
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.
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/PiTchBox
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.
I got the tent in the mail two weeks ago... And I found the moisture sensors
this week (Yay!). More on this project as it unfolds (forgive the pun :^).
I hope to show Bit Ed one of the DC-DC converters, they are nifty, I will try
desperately to bring one today if I can find one.
The latest is that there is a git hub for this project which we are jointly
developing with the Arlington FOSS mob. Anyway, we need to continue to develop
the software and hardware PiTchBox library such as...
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. Why not do digital stone?
- 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... Shut up Effin.
- 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:
*** Note this is broke as of this newsletter ****
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://docbox.flint.com:8081/vm - A Docker copy of VM370
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/kindle - The Kindle Liberation Front
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/pyrs - A pythonic interface to Income Tax?
- 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:
*** Note this is broke as of this newsletter ****
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 continue to refactor this 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
