Greetings List Lurkers,
It cold here in Barre this AM. I find myself huddled up to a pellet
stove which is operating at max and consuming pellets like they were
popcorn at the movies. Speaking of movies, got a chance to see Rogue 1
while sporting around the big city (Montreal) this weekend. A bit long,
but it does fill in a lot of gaps in George Lucas' saga.
KINDLE LIBERATION FRONT
This meeting we are gonna put no less than Dave-the-Geek to work following
the master Kindlenista, Joe Hart, to see if we can get some distro booting
on the Kindle. As mentioned previously, The new batch of kindles (at
$33.00 each) came in, and one has been shipped to the Kindlenista himself
to see what magic he can work, and he has:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/kindle#LatestDispatchFromKLF
Joe has worked the magic and he is now officially ahead of me. I have not
had the time to test out this incredible hack, and it needs to be tested,
so I am enlisting DTG to help.
I think that Joe is going to do some testing using this method, which
needs to be translated to a more clearly defined wiki...
Speaking of the Hart, he was right that cheap Kindles are back!
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-7-Inch-Tablet-8GB/dp/B00TSUGXKE
They are even available in color. The price went up three bucks to
$39.00 but anyway, get one now!
I really want a version of the Universal Insight Virtual Realty Glasses for the
Kindle. 3d Teleconferencing way cool! Anybody see such a thing?
TRANTOR
This project is still operating in development at the library and we have
had good success in figuring out how to open it to the world. Once this
is accomplished we will switch to the excellent hardware platform that
Marius delivered. This production case contains both USB2.0/3.0 and and a
DVDRW. This will be the production device. The first and second passes
for Trantor are done. The second pass, is in the Aldrich Public library
for evaluation. We are indeed using one of the original Gates Foundation
grant based Dell machines. Sarah the librarian wanted the actual pictures
to be hot, they are now. So it is time to develop a development cycle...
The vision is:
- Take the existing code
- edit it with enki, a restful editor almost built for the job.
(a most difficult to install but rewarding bit of software)
- if necessary propagate the change using a shell script
(thank god for sed and awk)
- run "ctrantor.sh mkitso" which builds new web site from files
- check out the result...
- lather rinse repeat...
The hard part of this turns out to be getting:
1. enki running with the preview mode working
(invaluable once running)
2. getting sphinx running or maybe more accurately
3. making the system "sane" - a menu choice.
It was only this morning that I gained a partial victory in the enki
department. The ticket at this time appears to be to run under Linux Mint 18
as opposed to Ubuntu Trusty...
Connectivity:
As mentioned above we have had good success in figuring out how to open it
to the world. It turns out that Kimball Library in Randolph currently
maintains a Koha server for its open source library management system.
Supertech librarian Jessamyn West has guided us on how to proceed
vis-a-vis the SoV DII. Aparently a properly delivered email is all you
need.
So we get this working and deliver the trantor v 1.3
machine to the Aldrich, swap it with the existing 0.015 system,
set up static IP, avahi bonjour and things may actually be accessable
via DNS for the world. Well a fellow can dream...
Configuration Management:
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
As discussed I continue to hack 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. My birthday in Montreal is a current excuse.
The trantor project benefits itself as you can cut DVDs and USBs with great
ease and facility.
http://docbox.flint.com/~flint/trantor/ ("Rick Roll version")
Restful Web Site: Thanks to sphinx, we actually now have a complete set of
disks starting from LXFDVD154, we sent Neil at Linux Format, an email in
an attempt to expanding trantor to include all the Linux Format DVDs since
they started publication. So far no response from London. Now that it is
installed at the Aldrich, next trick is to get trantor on the public web.
So the test of trantor up and running. If you want to see a preview try:
All that said sphinx now rocks my world. BTW the trick to sphinx is enki,
which is turning out to be a pain to install. 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 The real question here is
should I simply rebuild bosivt.org based upon sphinx? We could do it all in...
TECHNORUBBLE One sort of interesting angle here is to deploy TechnoRubble
at Libraries. J West is interested in working this angle and I would very
much like to set up at Kimball and see if this would work. This meeting
we are gonna untangle and back TechnoRubble out of the big haul of stuff
the picking at CVSWD got.
- The Website http://technorubble.org,http://technorubble.com
The new donation letter has been updated.
Again, we need more TechnoRubble. The TechnoRubble untangling and packing is
part of that effort. Part of this effort was the donation letter. The idea is
to get people to mail their TechnoRubble to us in a USPS Flat Rate Box. I am
going to complete the donation process page as soon as I can and post it.
VISUAL BASH:
The name of this game is we really need to clean up. Now that we have
the "include" function that is similar to the one in python (C and a lota other
languages :^) we need to git this.
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/visual.bash#ImportingFunctionBlocks
The "SanityScript" is still born by now, but the next piece is a menu generator
"menubot.sh" that will allow you to test stub your "shi" files with a crude but
working "sh". Who knows where we go from there?
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...
I am ulikely to get any of this done during the meeting. Visualbash is really
fun to work on...
TADA
Is there someone who can help with this project? If so why can we move it
towards the goal line? The Adult Swim video network, soon to be the "TADA Show"
was 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
3DPRINT
Without a doubt the greatest waste of Flint time on the planet! That said, we
had great luck with openscad, brother Kevin's design software. We got this damn
thing to the point that I can produce the design of bezels I need for the
PiTchBox. Sadly I cannot print them because the printer is screwed up. 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 ten
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
I am gonna learn this product or perish n the process. I need Bezels for
the...
PITCHBOX
The PiTchBox is after 3Dprint because I really need a plastic bezel for
the front of the box, and I want a 3Dprinter to print it.
You may have heard that the PiTchBox is an enclosure built out of the
shipping case the Raspberry Pi Touch Display comes in. The PiTchLunchBox
uses a classic lunch box to hold all the pieces. 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 and received a basement enclosure for growing plants in.
The real barrier here is fear, I have never grown stuff before. 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 enclosure in the mail 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 gotta go and finish off Jim Archer's POS
Windows 7 machine, as I have already installed Mint on it.
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
