[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes, 3/23/04
- From: Tom Brown <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FreeGeek Michiana <frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 15:28:09 -0500
Lab Notes, 3/23/04
------------------------------
Present: Olin Zuercher, Tom Brown, Terry Click, Carl Madzelan, Mike Cook,
Yunchung Yu; 6:00 - 10:00 PM
:: Create Workbench
Olin received my email too late to get directions to the Barn. He will
contact Jay for directions and bring the doors next week. I bought two 38"
tall trash containers and a half-dozen tote tubs. There is concern that 38"
will be too high for most women. Ed didn't make the lab so we didn't get
cinder blocks. Someone still needs to think about what we will use for
cleats to keep the tables centered in the trash containers. I suppose the
cleats are up to Olin and Mike.
:: FreeBoxes for 3/27 Class
Two of the FreeBoxes failed at the class last Saturday -- the mice didn't
work. Turns out the mice were deader than doornails. Since laptops
generally hot swap USB mice easily, Olin brought his laptop in and tested
the problem mice and all the USB mice in our box of rodents. Now we have
tested mice.
Everyone helped schlep monitors from the Loser Cruiser into the church.
Terry, Yunchung and I cleaned the monitors. Olin tested them on his laptop,
and we matched the monitors to FreeBoxes. Only one monitor failed to meet
our standards. We had trouble with some of the boxes though. Terry
resurrected one box by cannibalizing a CMOS battery from another failing
box. In the end we have six complete systems for the class next Saturday. I
already have a full class lined up.
:: Final Draft NetVista Howto
I examined the photos which Mike shot and Jay reduced. Didn't have time to
add the circles, arrows and textual clues. I hope to finish the task Wednesday.
:: Orient New Volunteers
Well, the women didn't show up for demanufacturing training. But Terry
Click drove up from Bremen. Terry works for the U.S. Weather Service and
manages data quality, weather radio and other stuff at the Syracuse office.
Terry tells us that the weather models, weather radio and other critical
applications are running on Linux these days. A few applications are
running on Unix. Windows is just for word processing and other desktop
tasks while Linux does the heavy lifting. Terry programs and wants to learn
more about Linux. He is also a member of MLUG.
btw, Yunchung is a 4th GL database admin and programmer in the financial
industry, also a member of MLUG.
:: Lab Notes
We were so busy preparing systems to distribute that I didn't write the lab
notes for last Tues...again. Last week I left for a major portion of the
lab to speak to graduates of the WorkOne/Goodwill job training program. The
event was fun, and I passed out flyers for the FreeBox class on the 27th.
Staff and clients copied the flyers which are making the rounds and have
resulted in five applications for the next FreeBox class.
Mike, Jay and I reviewed edits Mike made to the NetVista howto. Other than
discussing Olin's inspiration to use trash containers as pedestals for our
workbenches, I think last week's lab was basically a social event.
:: Compile Module for Intel Controller-less Modem (536EP chipset)
Carl was on the Intel modem module like a pit bull on a poodle. Actually a
poodle kicks pit bull butt -- but that's another story. Carl downloaded the
sources from Intel. He compiled. Didn't work. He tracked the problem to a
compiler mismatch. The sources were designed to compile on a newer version
of gcc than comes with VL 3.2. The version of gcc in VL 3.2 won't
initialize variables on the fly. So Carl opened the source and moved the
offending variable init out of a procedure and declared it globally. Bingo!
Clean compile.
Carl says we're 99% there.
While preparing a quick demonstration for us Carl issued a remove module
(rmmod) command. Subsequent to that the modem module wouldn't compile
without symbol errors. Something is hinky. Could be a problem with kernel
2.4.20. If we compile with 2.4.18, will it work?
More next week when Carl coaxs the Module Monster into showing him some love.
:: United Way Grant Application
Captain Nick Montgomery and I met with Rhonda Brown of United Way (St.
Joseph Co.) last week to obtain guidance on submitting an application for
U.W. funding. Nick and Jody invited me to write a grant request to submit
along with other programs at the church, and I only had two weeks to do it.
Nick and I didn't know whether to make the application under the Salvation
Army banner or independently under FGM's banner. We though we might have to
pass on this year's deadline. Rhonda quickly cleared our questions. FGM
should submit under the S.A. banner and act as a contractor to S.A. The
upside is FGM will begin building a relationship with U.W. and possibly
obtain seed money and other assistance.
I wrote as much as I could and passed the application to Nick last
Thursday. He made final edits and submitted our request last Friday, along
with the other programs operating in the S.A. facility. Nick and Jody said
the FGM grant was terrific and couldn't believe I wrote it so quickly. The
next step is a face to face U.W. review panel. If the panel likes our
programs and what we've accomplished, we could see seed money in 2005.
Tom
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