Greetings List Lurkers,
Ok, spring begins to poke her gorgeous head above the dawn sky, and I
realize that spring cleaning of the newsletter is inevitable.
Thus what I have done is to move vast amounts of the detail stuff on each
project to the respective project page.
While the rest of the world benefits from "Blue Sky" research...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_skies_research
Here in Vermont we prefer "GunMetal Grey Sky" research and development.
A precious example of some really good research is from #1 Son who will be
reporting for duty here May:
https://vimeo.com/210203857
Note the pride this father has in this vimeo...
My ardent hope that that BOSI represents in the area of GMGS R&D. The
interminable list of projects, some complete and some not so complete should
signify our commitment to continuous research and development...
PYRS
It is growing...
last years less-than-successful (pathetic?) attempt to make a python
library to fill out IRS (and maybe state) forms has come back to life!
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/pyrs
We actually have a working prototype. It can using python fill in the
first page of the 1040!
I suppose the lesson here is that some projects are seasonal...
Anyone who wants to help should email me or the list. More to come.
We met with Nick Floersch and found out The Burlington (BTV) brigade of
Code for America is being reorganized and incorporated into Code for
America - Vermont. If they need a new brigade BOSI would be happy to
support the Barre City Chapter of Code for America - Vermont. Just let us
know Nick! If nothing else we can contribute the python IRS code:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/pyrs
God knows that there are still taxes...
TECHNORUBBLE
As mentioned last week, Doug Webster has been organizing a Maker Faire
Vermont to be launched as a new Maker Faire, the Barre Maker Faire, held
in conjunction with the Barre Barbecue Festival Saturday May 13 from 11:00
am to 4:00 pm at the Barre Granite Museum.
Additionally Doug has set up a Waterbury Maker Faire to be held July 15 and
Rutland July 29. And, the original and great Champlain Maker Faire which is
September 23 & 24.
We have a whole lot of plastic bags, and thanks to Dr. Mark, lotsa
shiny new TechnoRubble to untangle and bag. So this meeting will
involve bagging up more TechnoRubble, with an eye towards being ready
for these events.
The topic of the Central Vermont Solid Waste District (CVSWD) has gone
from a bureaucratic to a personal nightmare. Apparently BOSI has
supporters within the structure of the CVSWD who have been diligently
working discretely on our behalf. I trust these parties a great deal, and
they were very upset that I did not understand that they were moving
quietly forward. So my recent pronouncements that the TechnoRubble
project did not want to become involved with CVSWD is premature and is
hereby retracted.
We want to follow up on the interesting angle to deploy TechnoRubble at
Libraries. At the meeting in February, J West came up with this angle and
I would very much like to set up at Kimball and the Aldrich Libraries and
see if this would work. I may also try to get some traction at the Kellogg
Hubbard. The famous Jessamyn West showed up at our meeting last week and
checked out the whole TechnoRubble Project. Hope she remains interested!
- The Website http://technorubble.org,http://technorubble.com
- The new donation letter has been updated, and is being used!
Again, we need more TechnoRubble. The TechnoRubble untangling and packing
is part of that effort. An additional part of this effort could involve
the Code for America Vermont brigade. The idea is to make TechnoRubble
much more network centric (after all what created most of the
technorubble?) get people to mail their TechnoRubble to us in a USPS Flat
Rate Box. Get TechnoRubbble available on Amazon!
Lets start with the hard part: A TechnoRubble Taxonomy
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/technorubble#%5B%5BTechnoRubble%20Taxonomy%5D%5D
VISUAL BASH
As mentioned, BOSI will be giving a talk on VisualBash at the The next VM
Workshop which is coming to Ohio State University! Taking place June 22nd
- June 24th, 2017.
http://visualbash.org/
KINDLE LIBERATION FRONT
What we learned last week is that there are two versions of Android
Development Bridge available. These are 1.0.32 and 1.0.33. Here it is:
- 1.0.32 seems to work and...
- 1.0.33 seems to not work.
This week we shall continue to research this very important issue.
The current version appears to be 1.0.36...
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/kindle
I would really like to know what I did with the two microSD cards he was
using. This would vastly simplify the business of loading a new OS on one
of my beasts. Brett wrote up a brief working SOP that needs review, and an
operating system image that is blessed by no less than the Kindle-Meister
himself. This type of beatitude would no doubt benefit, in no particular
order
* DTG
* Effin
* Flint and of course
* Brett who will achieve fame and fortune.
So if you can, you are welcome to follow the chaos here:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/kindle
At tonight's meeting, I remain convinced that there could be a commercial
opportunity in customizing kindles. If the information nonstandard issue
tablets is available to the manufacturer without the consent of the owner,
it could be a serious information security vulnerability...
Is there anybody out there aware of a version of the Universal Insight Virtual
Realty Glasses or the like for the Kindle? 3d Teleconferencing and system
management could be way cool! Anybody see such a thing? I am thinking about
trying to fabricate one based upon the original cardboard, particularly
when we get back into 3d printing this summer.
TRANTOR
It has been a quiet few weeks for the trantor, and I am gonna shorten up this
topic for now.
Summary:
Brother Tom Krasner stopped by the the final DVDs that he has. I will be
duplicating these, checking all the copies and getting this back to him as soon
as possible. This project is still operating in development at the library and
it appears that the powers that be in State Library Land are the delay factor
in our opening Trantor to the world, Hopefully this is not political struggle
but rather a period of waiting to get free software online in Vermont. Sara
Costa said they could get back to us in April, which is now.
Sarah the librarian still wants a press release. I hope that the concept of
Library Based Local Destinations has not been completely wiped out. The
entrenched powers would so much prefer that to raise revenue by concentrating
everything in the very expensive DII Data Center at National Life, likely for a
hefty monthly fee! I may still do a press release, and after talking to her
will no doubt have a draft for her to review on the Trantor web site shortly.
Other Digital Collections?
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? Or, we could do it all in reStructuredText...
The hard part of this turns out to be getting:
1. Getting a State bureaucracy to recognize
Free Open Source Software (what's in it for them?)
2. getting the visual bash complete, with appropriate features.
3. making the system "sane" - a menu choice. Design questions include:
- Do individual functions call for particular software packages?
- Should the sanity program try to md5 sum the components.
- Should sanity also include operating and support system sanity?
- When does sanity become Configuration Management?
Hopefully these will be discussed on:
https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/flint.com/tada
Teleconferencing from Adult Swim starts again at 6 PM EST today. I would
dearly love to know how to do more than one party, we like Joseph Hart but
is there more we can do?
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. Here it is:
http://docbox.flint.com:8081/bb
who has good ideas about a Barre Maker Space. Why not do digital stone?
- Move BOSI towards reStructuredText. I am seriously considering a
tiddly2rest converter. This would allow us to become more git
centric... avoid the need to change to gittlywiki...
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? The secret
may be empty pellet bags. Is TechnoRubble organized DREK?
These five points are quickly becoming more than our policy, and more like a
prayer...
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,
and figure out where our good chairs went. 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:
While http://bosivt.org/classes, does not work,
http://64.5.53.104:8080/bosivt.org/classes does.
Any idea why?
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 get trained as a Justice of the
Peace, and maybe catch the flue from the City Clerk.
I will continue to refactor this newsletter, and at some point in the
future (do not hold your breath :^), it shall become readable!
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
