Understanding the Scope

Before anything, we need to make an announcement concerning the Linux Against Poverty event on the first of August. May I add that looking at the list of those who volunteered, it reads like a who's who of Austin Tech Talent. That talent is asked to participate in a walk-through on Saturday, the 25th of August. We will meet at Union Park and brainstorm just how everything will be set up, and who will be doing what and where they will be doing it.

It shouldn't take but an hour of your time and it is necessary to the success of the event. We are only going to have a short time to set up on the first so knowing a bit about what will happen is important to the organization of this project. I want to personally thank each and every person who volunteered for this event. I also want to thank those who are coming from different ends of the country to be part of this. Please check http://www.linuxagainstpoverty.org for the details and times.

I've had a couple of conversations with some of the people who work for companies who may be donating to our project. The question they both asked:

"How many computers have you gotten already?"

The answer is about 60.

Both, either in a direct manner or indirectly stated that should be enough computers to keep you busy for a while...as in, we really don't need any more.

I don't think you understand the scope of what The HeliOS Project does.

This is no longer a guy puttering around in his workshop, casually piecing computers together for one or two kids a week. This has evolved into a full scale operation that takes 5-12 requests a day for computers. We have a staff of myself and 4 Directors coordinating this effort. It stopped being small a while ago.

We have School Teachers, Child Protective Services Counselors, City and School Bus Drivers, State Assistance Employees, Radio Station Managers, State and Government Union Members and private individuals from every walk of life, coming to us with the names of kids or families of kids who qualify for a HeliOS Project computer. 64 percent of those requested will be built and delivered.

Oh, and the 60 we've received?

Those all have names and places stuck on them. They are gone as soon as I regain my ability to lift a computer.

Spoken for - promised...

Out of here.

So don't quit on me now. If you work for a company and have decided that 60 computers is all we need...and you feel the need to report that back to your employer...

I'll ask you to answer our phone for the next month and explain to the folks that we just don't have a machine available for their kids.

Besides...Linux Against Poverty does not end in Austin...this is only the beginning. People on 4 continents are waiting for us to get this documented so they can hold their own event.

Do you think they want to go to this trouble and expense for 60 computers?

We're doing good work here...work that isn't ever easy...but it's work that I would be lost without. We can place 250 computers before this year comes to an end. Linux Against Poverty gives us the chance to do it. Please don't short change the effort.

All-Righty Then...

Another Linux Myth Killed In Broad Daylight

I really wish I could pop the old Lobby4Linux website up sometimes. It exists in a small square, wholly represented by the iconset I choose to decorate my desktop with. About 4 gigs in weight, it represents how this whole thing got started. The Joomla website Tracy Kuhlman built, the Wordpress blog that was my first... Maybe one day when we have a bit more money, I will find someone to host it just for poops and giggles.

Why bring that up?

Because in that blog...the Original Blog of helios....Remember this...?




I ranted on the shape of Linux wireless. It was mid 2006 and my daughter, then living in Germany, was having fits with a Broadcom chip. We struggled for 5 days to get that wireless to work. We failed.

Imagine that. The blog I mention purged the five days of frustration I felt at the time.

Well, something magical happened between the .26 and .27 kernel releases.

Wireless in Linux went from "wireless sucks" to "Wireless just works". That, along with the majority of webcams and voip software, there was an amazing leap in improvement during that period.

Well, that's not news...most everyone reading this knows it already....so why bring it up?

Oh...just to gloat a bit....

Just a bit.

Today I was putzing around the shop, getting some "almost ready for prime time" machines finished up for our kids. Since I am not going to be lifting much of anything except my beverage of choice for the next three weeks, I thought I would get them out of the way.

One of the nicer machines came with a fully-licensed and legal copy of XP on it. As I prepared to wipe it, I thought better...why not make it a dual boot machine.? There are times, especially when I give these machines to the disabled, that they need a Windows app or two along the way.

I got the jumper settings right for the second hard drive and then did the same for the second dvd burning rom I had installed. I fired it up and waited for everything to settle (oh memories of the bad old days) and then popped the control panel open to configure wireless.

My workshop is about 300 feet from the house and the wireless source so I have a system of cantennas and dongles I have Mcgiver'ed together to get signal. It works pretty good given the distance between me and the router. Using a Belkin USB dongle I rigged to extend outside the door, I installed the driver (almost forgot I had to do that) and tried to connect.

Nope...said there wasn't a network in sight.


I went over to both my production machine and my laptop and verified that they were connected and were able to draw data...

I was in 5X5.

I stepped outside, messed with the USB dongle to make sure it was seated in the cradle properly and went back in to check it. Nope...


Deader'n a stump.

I practiced the true definition of insanity several times before I decided to slide in a live CD and see if I couldn't diagnose the problem. Good ol' "iwconfig" will tell you volumes combined with some stratigic pinging.

While the Mepis CD loaded, I made sure the mid-line connections were good and that I had a solid connection at the USB port behind the machine. It couldn't have been any tighter if I seated it with a three pound hammer.

Now Mepis doesn't present Network Manager on first boot. Warren has devised a pretty cool Network connection utility in Mepis so I followed the bread crumbs to the menu link and opened it. I configured the settings with a couple clicks and then started Network Manager.

We were in like Flynn...pulling a fluctuating 61-73 percent signal strength for the next three hours.

I couldn't buy a wireless signal from the Windows machine.



So, while this isn't a newsworthy blog, it should act at least like a historical marker...a bloody sword laying on the road of time.

"Linux is too hard to learn"

"I can't play any games on Linux"

"I have to use the command line too much"

"Linux won't run on my hardware"

"Wireless doesn't work in Linux.

Oh, and just as an unwarranted dig? You have to use antivirus software, I don't...deal with it.

May they all rest in peace...and by the way...don't put away that dark suit you wear to funerals.

Several more Linux myths have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The TOYA Boys will grieve plenty in the following months.

All-Righty Then...

Knocking it back a notch

I'm not real happy with my body right now...

It isn't too happy with me for that matter.

Folks I have to deal with this injury and get it out of the way once and for all. I mean, it's my fault...if I had done what I was supposed to in the first place, I wouldn't have to be doing this.

What is "this"?

I need to go into a restorative therapy clinic for 15-20 days and get whole again. Seems that every time I get to feeling a little better and the pain subsides, I take that as a signal to kick the stick off the brake and rage on.

I've never been accused of being very smart.

So, for the next three weeks or so, I will be doing just about as much of nothing as humanly possible...we have Linux Against Poverty coming up and I need to be 100 percent for that event. Doing this now will insure that will happen.

I caught up on our last installs last night and this morning and we will not be taking on any new assignments until after the first of August. I'm not going anywhere...I just won't be doing much of anything. It will give me a chance to work on some scripts I've put off and some technical reading that I've fallen behind on.

My day's will be spent in clinic but evenings and weekends I will be here.

Email me as usual...the keyboard isn't my problem. We will also be needing volunteers for the East Austin Learning Center installation. That will take place the last week of August so if you are interested in helping us build the most comprehensive Linux-based learning center in Austin Texas, email me and we'll make plans to get 'er done.

All-Righty Then

As the TOYA Boy Turns...

A couple months back I coined an acronym for a specific type of person we are seeing more and more lately. Now we've talked about this before but for those that are recently joining this experience, let me rehash briefly.

TOYA Boy.

I, at all levels of logic, can understand Linux fanboy-ism. After all, we are not as much a Kernel, an operating system, and Free Software as we are a philosophy.

An important philosophy to my way of thinking.

So of course you are going to have those that take this philosophy to near, ahem...religious heights. Many of us actually have changed our life-course because we believe so strongly in this philosophy. There are millions of us across the globe that understand what computing freedom is...and we embrace it.

Zealot, Fanboy, NerdGeek...

Guilty as charged. More than willing to re-offend. Unrepentant Recidivist.

And I don't mind a bit evangelizing our philosophy...healthily demonstrated by the fruit of that philosophy...it's the core of what we believe...of what we know.

That's where the confusion starts to creep in.

The difference between a philosophy and a product. Let's break it down to what we are talking about at the core.

Linux (Gnu/Linux for my brethren who prefer) exists as much as a philosophy as it does a system.

Microsoft Windows is a product. Redmond cannot even spell philosophy.

Bought and sold with demanding stockholders eying its stability, big, with gleaming buildings and lots of people paid huge amounts of money to produce said product. I can understand liking a product...I like my HP 2710 printer, I like my poor old decrepit Isuzu Rodeo...

But I cannot understand defending it like they defend and protect Microsoft products, especially given the corporate entity that produces it and the Licensing agreement they must agree to before using it.

So if you like a product that's good...buy it, like it and use it. But when someone else, a free consumer in the market for Heaven's sake wants to try something else.....

Why are many of you prepared to do just about anything to keep him from doing it? Why are you prepared to mangle the truth or even lie in order to keep someone on your side of the fence? You will repeat complete falsehoods mouthed by others just as ignorant as you in order to sway a decision.

Why? And don't bother...it's rhetorical.

Well, I ran into another TOYA Boy this weekend.

Oh, and TOYA = Talking Out Your A$$. (when your mouth knows better.)

...and I do mean boy.

He was all of 16 years old.

A 16 year old with a smart mouth that stays in one piece by the blessing that he is only 16 years old...an adult with his mouth would have gained some hard-learned manners long before now.

I drove South to San Antonio and the surrounding area this weekend to do a spate of installs that I had reserved for a one-shot circuit. We've learned to schedule them at least 2 weeks from the time of request to insure that any other installs in that area can be done at the same time. It saves a ton on gas and wear and tear.

His name is Bryan and he too is 16, but much better behaved...well-behaved to the point where him calling me "sir" started to get on my nerves. Bryan has had it tough. He has bounced from foster home to foster home for the past 9 years and it has nothing to do with his behavior. The System simply sucks. The referrer was a CPS Counselor who calls me often with referrals and she told me his story. "Psychologically Brutal" is by no means an exaggeration of his previous circumstance. Through it all, Bryan has a 3.55 grade average going into his Senior year and has already been approached by two colleges. It seems that Bryan possesses some extreme music talent.

One of these Universities would surprise everyone...not many get that invite 3/4th's of the way through high school.

But Bryan is still a 16 year old boy...the voice of a man...just adjusting to the increasing testosterone levels and not at all comfortable with it. He's on that cusp that made all of us as young men extremely uncomfortable.

To take his mind from his problems, Bryan likes to play computer games...and write music scores. Original music scores.

Two of his friends had gathered in the family room with Bryan and his caregiver as I unpacked the computer and began to set it up. I had went out of my way to build Bryan a good computer. This kid captured my attention immediately upon his paperwork coming across my desk.

Bryan knelt down beside me and started putting the various cables and wires into the back while I bench-pressed the 21 inch CRT onto the desk. Have I ever mentioned in passing, my extreme dislike for 21 inch CRT's...? The wonderful woman that pledged to care for Bryan excused herself and told me that if we needed anything, to let her know.

When it came time to push the button, I nodded at Bryan.

"It's your computer son, you turn it on."

The Dell Bios bar crept slowly across the screen until the Super OS logo appeared in brilliant color. I glanced at Bryan and his friends to catch their expressions.

It wasn't any where near what I was expecting.

Bryan was not frowning but I could tell he wasn't exactly ready to do cartwheels either.

Bryan is a gamer and he was expecting Windows.

I sat down in the side chair and motioned Bryan to take the Captain's seat. I had him drop the menu and we started exploring his system. As he traveled through the various sub catagories, I explained how the menu system is set up and how to prioritize the applications to his particular needs. Bryan likes to manipulate music and by the time I showed him Rosegarden, LMMS, Audacity, and ZynAddSubFX, he had forgotten his initial disappointment. He was excited. He was absolutely enthralled with ZynAddSubFX.

I explained to Bryan that while Linux was not anywhere near on par with Windows in the gaming sense, it far surpassed Windows in about everything else. I was about to show him the Gimp when one of his friends chimed in from behind us. It was TOYA Boy.

"I've got a cracked copy of XP at the house Bry...we'll go get it later"

I turned in my chair and the kid smirked as I met his gaze.

"Why would you want to ruin a perfectly good computer by putting XP on it. It will be ate up with viruses in a month. Besides, Bryan doesn't have to steal anything...everything he wants is one mouse click away and absolutely free." I glanced over at the cased laptop on the end table. "Have you ever used Linux?"

The kid snorted in reply. "Dude, If he wanted a toy he would have went to the mall and bought one. Besides", he jerked his head toward the brand new Dell. "I haven't gotten a virus on my computer ever, so that's a bunch of crap. Power Users don't get viruses.

I eyed the other kid then TOYA Boy. "That is a sweet computer. Can I see it?"

He froze for just a moment and then went over and picked it up from the table and handed the case to me. I opened the case and pulled out the gleaming black beauty. 2000 bucks worth of upgraded Dell studio XPS laptop wasted on this rich boy snot.

I opened the lid and he smiled with pride as I turned it on and waited for it to boot.

"Do you have any games on it now?"

"Well yeah...that's what it's for. Check it out."

I opened the Experienced cracked menu and started looking through the games he had...all cracked...no CD needed...not a thing on it legitimate. Even Photoshop was stolen. This particular "release" of XP comes with the ability to install some impressive software...all cracked without any of the keygen or serial hassles. The only real protection he had on it was an expired copy of Norton and it had a big red X through it. I didn't pull it down from the menu but I would guess it was nefariously gained as well. Wireless dutifully found the open signal and connected.

Bad move.

I shifted in my seat and reached in my pocket for the right thumb drive, carefully holding the XPS as I did so. I pulled the cap with my teeth and slid it into the side slot. I waited for the device to register than opened the directory.

"Here's a game you don't have. Click that icon."

The kid glanced at the explorer box then took the laptop from me and took two steps back toward the love seat and sat down. He looked up at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Dude, that's a kid's game man...that's not a real game."

I just smiled.

"Oh trust me...it's as serious a game as you can get...try it and see if I'm not right".

He shrugged and tapped twice on the indicated icon. He fooled with it for about two minutes then laid the machine on the bed. Bryan was still deep into the menu of his new computer. He and his well-mannered friend had discovered Rosegarden and were excitedly exploring the options and features of the application. There was an almost gleeful dialog going on between the two friends.

"Dude, that's so lame my sister wouldn't play it." He pulled the 8 gig drive out of the slot and tossed it back to me.

I just shrugged and turned, put the drive in my pocket and focused my attention back to Bryan.

I took my time with him, explaining to him why Linux and Free Software were a better bet for him, not only now but for the rest of his computing life...barring The Cloud descending upon us all that is. I did accentuate that this was his computer and that indeed he did have a choice of what he put on it but that he should not buckle to peer pressure. Bryan should do what's best for Bryan. I noted with satisfaction the similarities between Bryan and a young man I encountered in Felton California. That was a good thing.


It would seem that helios is geographically-challenged...see if you can spot the boo-boo.


The other young man was listening just as attentively and that seemed to bother our Little Eddie Haskell.

"Dude, but what about our games. He can't play our games on that junk."

I patiently told him that "that junk" was a dual core 64 bit AMD Turion with a 250 gig hard drive and three gigs of memory. Because I knew ahead of time that Bryan would have some specific graphics needs, I installed the Quadro FX 5800, bypassing the onboard ATI setup. I also did a mini lecture on the abilities of Wine, Cedega, Crossover Office and some virtualization engines that would allow him to play at almost peak.

It didn't bother me at all to emphasize with authority that Bryan was being given this computer so he could better himself academically...not putz around at LAN parties and form associations with kids that prioritized gaming over building their futures. None the less, I directed Bryan to a text file in his home directory that listed all the games that played fine on Linux. Then I ended it with my regular finger-wagging .

"AND, it is all but impossible to get a Windows virus on Linux...it's almost impossible to get any virus."

Spawn of Satan snorted. "Big deal, that's not a problem for me either."

I looked him dead in the eye.

"Pull up your favorite game." He just looked at me like I had spoken to him in Swahili.

"Do it...I'm going to show you something."

I motioned Bryan to quickly vacate the seat he was sitting in and dug the red thumb drive out of my pocket and inserted it into the front of the computer. When the sdb1 drive opened, I clicked a folder and double engaged the Sub7 Server...who's client was softly nestled in the whack-a-mole game I allowed him to execute. While Bill Gates Jr. was yammering on about how he didn't need security protection and that Windows was as secure as Linux could ever be, the server connected and I clicked the control panel - screen text:

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME?

Bryan looked at me with his head cocked and without looking behind me I typed again:

Yeah, I'm talking to you, "Mr. I-Don't-Get-Viruses."

Plato responded in the way I figured he would.

"Hey, someone's typing on my computer."

Boy genius, ain't he?

Bryan smiled widely and I winked.

Again, appearing in a little yellow bordered box on his desktop: "How's that Windows system working out for you now sport?"

For good measure, I opened about 12 incidences of his desktop calculator and choked his 2 gigs of memory to a crawl.

By then, the kid had caught on. The sound of initiating applications was still dinging on his computer. He all but flung his laptop onto the love seat and came stomping over to the where we were seated.

"You put a virus on my computer?"

I just smiled at him.

"No pal...YOU put a virus on your computer. And it's a trojan, an OLD trojan. A Power User should know the difference. If you had any kind of protection at all, it would have warned you. You might want to think about re-enabling system messages while you are at it. It would have told you something was altering your Registry. You were dumb enough to click on a program given to you by a complete stranger so welcome to the world of social engineering Dilbert."

Bryan and his other friend almost fell out of their chairs laughing. The kid sputtered and spewed impotent threats about suing me and police reports...I think he even said he was going to tell his mommy.

That sent his friends even deeper into hysteria. Bryan's "Mom" stuck her head in the door to see what was going on. They were completely at the mercy of their own laughter. I smiled and waved. she surveyed the room, waved back then closed the door.

I unmounted the thumb drive and tossed it to the next candidate for the cover of Mad Magazine.

"Open the same folder, click on the "untitled" folder and double click the icon that has the red and white lifesaver. It says "rescue" under it. When it says to reboot, do it. It'll take the trojan completely off. Oh, and be patient closing all those calculators...Windows does not handle memory very efficiently."

The removal tool had him back to normal in 20 minutes.

I spent the next two hours with Bryan, Michael (the quiet kid) and David...a much subdued David. We used the time to explore OpenOffice, Ekiga, Pitivi and a host of sound manipulation applications. I also showed them how to use both synaptic and the shell to apt-get new applications. Even David was obviously impressed and sheepishly asked me how he could obtain the same Linux System Bryan had. I dutifully dug in my bag and gave him a disk and explained it was simple enough even for a Windows Power User.

As I prepared to leave, we gathered in the living room and I spoke to Bryan's caregiver, I made sure Bryan AND her had the username and password, our business card and instructions to call if there were any problems. I even told Bryan's "mom" about the incident with David and she laughed softly as she shot him a sideways look...something told me that she was pretty sick of his mouth as well.

I was at the front door with the four of them standing in the hallway, I turned and looked at David.

"So did you learn anything today Dave?"

Shuffling his feet, he repeated that he should never trust a stranger or his word when it came to putting stuff on his computer. He also mumbled something about not talking about things until he knew what he was talking about.

I nodded and smiled. "Yep, that's a good start." I began to open the door to leave, then stopped and turned back to him.

"So Dave... was I less of a stranger to you when I told you to click the second icon...?" I met his blank stare for the three seconds it took him to understand what I was saying.

I'm betting there is a good chance he finds a way to re-activate that anti virus program...or if he's smart, he'll follow Bryan's lead.

With that I pulled the heavy front door behind me closed and stepped into the blistering Texas afternoon. I had two more installs in Schertz and New Braunfels before the day was allowed to finish and it was already 1 PM. Eventually, I would return to my home at 12:10 AM on Sunday.

It was a good day.

All-Righty Then

For those who may be concerned, all parties mentioned in this article have read, approve of their participation in the article and bear no ill will toward the author. David's father thought it was a scream and donated $50.00 to The HeliOS Project - h

Winners Announced

At 3 PM CST, The HeliOS Project held it's semi-annual fund-raising drawing. We have individually emailed the winners but will post their names here for historical record. Should you not want your name to appear here, let us know and I will pull it down immediately, or as quick as I can get to a working terminal.

Again, I want to thank everyone who participated. I have to process the funds so I know who donates and I personally want to see everyone win. That's why I don't do the physical drawings myself. The actual hand in the hopper this drawing was Ami Shellberg from Austin. Ami is the mom of one of our HeliOS Project Kids and volunteered to do it. We wanted the local firehouse to do it but they were slammed with calls all day and it didn't work out.

Thank you folks. Thank you for caring enough about what we do to take part in it. Your particpation insures that it does keep putting along. Now, here are the winners:

Alienware Laptop - Paul Jimenez

Acer Laptop - Kenneth Lambert

AMD Personal Internet Device - Lane Beneke

AMD Personal Internet Device - Ed Matthews

Carla Schroeders Networking Book - Sam Briesmeister

Carla Schroeders Networking Book - Josh Slade

Again, we will be shipping on this Tuesday. Our Twitter announcement said Monday but Monday is a holiday and all postoffices are closed.

Thanks folks...thank you for being part of what we do.

Ken

Drawing Draws To An End

Ladies and Gentlemen, I on behalf of Larry Cafiero, Tom King, Bob Pianka, Darrel Raynor Mark Van Kingsley and the volunteers for The HeliOS Project, I want to thank you for participating in our semi-annual funding raffle.

Your generosity has been humbling and the majority of you that donated, dwell within the Linux Community. Few, if any from outside did, although they were invited. Yes, I said Community...for as often as I've decried it as a myth, it is obvious that the fires burn warmly within our township and those who want shelter or citizenship are always more than welcome.

We take the time to allow an independent audit of our raffle so that before the drawing, in the event anyone was missed, the problem is corrected immediately. There is also a post-drawing audit to make sure the numbers balance. Allow 24-48 hours after the drawing for your prizes to be shipped. We do this for everyone's benefit and ask you patience. The drawing is scheduled to take place at 3:00 pm CST on 3 July, 2009. I have several installs tomorrow so in the event I get back late and you do not see the first winner announced on the helios17 twitter, check back at 4pm cst and it will take place then...it simply means I ran a bit late.

We go forward into the last half of the year, refueled, refunded for the summer months and ready for all challenges that may face us. May your God bless and keep you.

And as always.

Thank you so much for being part of what we do.

Ken

Desktop Linux...building the future

Just a short note to let you know that our raffle ends at midnight on the 2nd of July. To date we have broken even, which means that we will have to pay shipping of the prizes out of pocket. If you want to, we'd love you to take a cheap shot at one of our laptop prizes or some of the other cool stuff. See the TEXT link on the left side of this page. We appreciate you being part of what we do. - h

If you fall into the camp that believes that Linux/Free Software is at war with proprietary software for the future, there's good news...or fairly good news if you are a cynic. Look at what's being done.

June 22 through June 27th...2009.

The HeliOS Project built transported and placed 16 Linux Computers in and around Austin.

Big deal...right?

Yeah, it is and I want to tell you why.

In the past 6 months we have either set up or mentored 31 successful efforts to build projects like ours.

31 organizations across The United States are doing what we are doing in Austin. Some set 2 machines a week, some kick our asses on a regular basis. Some, we helped fund when we had the money to do so. Not much with the grand total in mind...but enough to get the roots down.

Big deal...right?

Yeah, it is.

This is quietly growing the base we need to insure the future isn't presented to our kids as a shrink wrapped set of chains. I have argued and presented the case for an organized advertising effort for the concept of Linux and Free Software for almost 5 years. That didn't do so well...too many politics and egos blocked the way. But this...

This is working, and it's working better than I had ever imagined.

On September 1st of this year, the East Austin Learning Center will open it's doors. Within those doors will sit 25 full Linux computers. Computers we hand-built and installed. We will staff and instruct that project with our own people. Two nights a week, one of us will be at the East Austin Learning Center to show these kids how to use their future. And two more centers are planned for this year as well. One organization...a few people that got tired of holding the line.

And so it goes...

In Boise, Lincoln, Seattle, Houston, The Central California Coast, New Jersey, Miami, Tucson, Oklahoma City and Lawton, San Francisco, Missoula, Champaign, Chicago...

Kids are getting Linux computers and they are getting Linux Computers from people who decided that it was time to stop holding the line.

Sometimes you have to do more than defend.

The next time you read the obvious Astroturfing articles and comments, just smile...those are people in some cases being paid to put doubt into your mind. They are being paid by people that are afraid. They are afraid of who you are and what you represent.

They don't know how to stop you.

I no longer have doubt...I take the calls at 1 am, asking about video card compatibility, 1.5 grub error 17 messages, "how do I do this, how do I make this work...how many feet of Cat 5 cable will I need to finish this project?"

We take other calls, other emails as well. Sometimes, in the face of little or no funding, we've found a way to get done what needs to get done. Going here provided us the motivation to find a way.

So here in Austin we start each day with a simple reaffirmation statement:

"Today, we set a kid free."

And never, ever after making that statement, do we fail to do so.

And to my guess...Neither do 31 other organizations across the United States.

"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on the ability to pay for it." We live our project based on that one sentence.

Wanna be a part of this? It's time to take it to them. It's time to make our own future.

We are looking specifically at the number 32.

Let's talk. You know where to find me.....

All Righty Then...

Balancing the Scales

"If YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY ABOUT ANYONE.....COME SIT BY ME. ...
Joan Rivers

It wasn't too long ago, I told you the story of my experiences with Acer. Seems that articles I wrote about 3 years ago concerning Trusted Computing and the hardware/software nightmares implemented to enforce it came home to roost.

We couldn't get to the login prompt due to the Trusted Core sentry. These computers were in essence, doorstops.

On two computers donated to us by nFusion anyway. It wasn't nFusion's doing...they did everything but blowtorch the damned modules out of the computers. Fact is, only two of the 13 they donated had it activated.

Not only was the Trusted Computing Module a nightmare to get by, the endless loop of tech I and tech II support agents who insisted that I pay them 100 dollars plus shipping to get it fixed wasn't exactly a cure for insomnia. We went through days of fruitless phone-sitting before we invoked the nuclear option.

That's a shame.

It was only once we threatened to make a YouTube video of these computers being put through a wood chipper in super slow motion, did someone respond. See, having one of your products brutally destroyed in protest of the lack of customer service isn't exactly good news for the stockholders. That would have been compounded when the video went on to explain that these computers would have went to disadvantaged students if they had worked.

It really wouldn't have been good news for us either. These Acer TravelMate 5720's are great, great computers. One of you is going to find out just how great they are when you win one in our Alienware/Acer laptop raffle.

We honestly have not done nearly as good as we needed to in raising operating funds for the rest of the year. If you want a chance at one of these beauties or some of the other great stuff, come see us at the link provided above.

See, I rebuild a lot of laptops for our kids. Without a doubt, in my opinion the two best laptops
made are Acer and Asus. If Dell didn't produce a different adaptor for every friggin' new model or upgrade, I would include them as well but when it costs us 40 bucks to replace an adaptor for a donated computer, well, that sucks. I have boxes of adaptors that fit any Acer or Asus I might run across. Brilliant money-maker for Dell, but I think they suck for doing it.

Once I got past the 100.00 tech support sentries and got someone's attention that could help me, it was a great experience. As great as going in for a repair experience can be anyway. Their local repair facility is in Temple Texas which is less than an hour's drive from my house so I pounced in the Rodeo and made the trip north to get 'er done.

Not only did Acer fix them for free, they allowed me to sit and wait for the repairs to be made...which was cool because I got the chance to share some time with a gorgeous front desk specialist. I am horrible at names but I believe her name is Casey...maybe Kasey?

I don't know...she was so pretty I didn't bother to confirm. Aside from the positive athstetics, she was smart. I got the chance to introduce Linux to her and spend 45 minutes in great company.

So allow me to balance the scales here. Acer went way past the mark in chapping my nether-regions but in the end (sorry) they made it good and that's what really matters. They did it quickly, courteously and with professionalism. That is getting scarce these days.

Just an unsolicited piece of advice...?

Getting rid of the off-shore tech support might help Acer...I dealt with accents so thick that they would thud if they ever hit the floor. I hung up on three of them simply because I could not understand a thing they were saying. What I found amusing is that when they introduced their obvious India or Pakistan-residing selves, it was with names like "Mike", "Steve" and "Rudy".

But you have to do what you have to do to compete...I understand. I just don't personally like it, having been "outsourced" myself. Thanks for fixing something that needed fixing and doing it well.

All-righty then

Uh, Helios...ever heard of Twitter?

Pardon the silly blog post folks.

Pearl...Pearl from Elgin. call or email me as soon as you get a chance. Need to do a followup on our install. helios at fixedbylinux dot com

Ken

Working at the Edge of Reality

I'm sure 99 percent of the people reading the title of this blog expected some metaphorical tie-in.

Sorry to disappoint. No, really I am.

I want to take a few minutes and tell you about a local Austin gaming company that went way out of their way to help The HeliOS Project.

And let me break your heart early.

She's already seeing someone.

The Edge of Reality is an Austin firm that makes games for the console. Brittany Henry, a producer for Edge of Reality emailed me a while back and asked me if I would be interested in, oh...I dunno, somewhere around 70 monitors and 40 Pentium 4 computers? My reply was pretty simple if I recall.

"Ya think?"

I laid on the truck for that day but try as I could, I wasn't able to find anyone that had Friday off and was willing to help me load this cargo.

It was a lot of cargo.

Taking one final shot, I posted a simple blog, asking if anyone would consider helping me the next day. Fortunately, because had I needed to do this myself, I would still be there; a young man named Justin Carnahan chimed in and said he would be happy to.

I don't think he had any idea.......

It was a disaster from the moment we walked in the door.

The Edge of Reality occupies some of the most expensive glassy and chrome-ie office footage available in Austin. Yes, I have heard the console gaming industry is doing ok for itself. This pretty well proves it.

We had brought pallets and pallet jack, shrink wrap and other assorted implements of destruction to get the job done.

Note to self...21 inch CRT's do not stabilize well unboxed and on a pallet. Trying to put 8 monitors on a pallet and shrink wrapping them resulted in monitors trying desperately to escape the shrink wrap oh, I'd say in about 5 feet of transport.

Once we did succeed in getting a pallet of them down the elevator, we found that the 12 degree lip on the liftgate was much too steep to get the pallet jack onto it...not without bumping it with an 18 inch head start.

Which resulted in monitors wanting to impact upon the hot asphalt in the worst way.

Bad idea.

So, 4 at a time, we hauled the monitors down to the truck, lift-gated them up to the truck and carried them one-by-one to the back of the truck, stacking them as tightly together as possible.

By the way, miracles do happen. We transported these monitors about 30 miles in a bumpy truck ride without breaking one. We broke only one in the loading process. (see the part about 12 degree lips)

The computers themselves were not that bad as they play well together when in a group. Nice, neat stacks that didn't threaten to commit mass suicide at the least little bump. I like them. 21 inch CRT's not so much.

Justin Carnahan was a life-saver that day and I owe him much more than the Chili's steak dinner we bought for him.

Then came the real surprise.

We had left the truck loaded because I had yet to secure storage for the beasts. Upon arising for the morning, I did what I always do. I reached for my coffee cup to make some instant while my ancient Mr. Coffee chugged to make the real stuff.

I reached for it with my left hand. Gravity ensued. Grip was not as strong as gravity.

In fact, there was no grip at all. Subsequent trips to the Dr. revealed that I had repetitively stressed a tendon in my left arm. Further Dr. visits to a specialist discovered I had torn said tendon.

Two surgeries later, I believe it will be ok. It was really too far from my heart to kill me but you couldn't convince my cry baby self about that at the time. Besides, they were micro-surgeries...I even got to watch the monitor as the Doctor spot-welded it together. It left a bee-sting sized scar for me to show off at parties...oh the sacrifices made...

So...giving away computers to kids is easy...fun actually.

Gathering them in one place, can at times, rate a 10 on your "that-sucks-O-Meter."

But what do you expect...

It all happened at The Edge of Reality.

As so much of my life does it seems.

All-Righty Then

What Myth Do You Want To Kill Today?

For those that don't know yet, The HeliOS Project is raffling off two killer laptops plus some other cool stuff. Drawing is on the 3rd of July so get your entries into the hopper soon. You can click the TEXT link on the left side of the page or you can click here to enter. Details of the raffle can be found here.

A colleague and a friend of mine recently had to resort to moderating her blog comments based on the number of (kindness and light helios...kindness and light) uh,.... uninformed readers who insisted on trotting out the tired old line:

"Oh yeah...well Linux is only secure because no one uses it.  You just wait until the hackers think it's worth messing with, then you'll see, Mr. smarty pants Linux user.

Sigh...

I think I want to run knitting needles through my eyes and brush my gums with a potato peeler.

Look, we're going to knock this down right here, and for all time, unless of course it gets proven wrong.  I doubt that it ever will.  this is going to be Linux security 101 for people that you send here to get the real story on how it works.  It's going to be told via mildly condescending story-telling techniques and simple analogies.  It won't go into Guru depth but we'll drill far enough down and unpack it enough to make our point.  Is that elitist?  Sure it is, but we're already accused of that anyway.  

They haven't advanced the ball a bit by saying it.

Securing an environment of Windows platforms from abuse - external or internal - is akin to trying to install sprinklers in a fireworks factory where smoking on the job is permitted...Gene Spafford.

Here's how it works.

It was a different day, a different era when Microsoft Windows was born.  The whole idea behind Windows was to make everything backwards compatible with everything else.  Slight changes caused by a patch or upgrade would normally break currently installed software, so the engineers at Microsoft made it so that didn't happen.  The code was written so that the system adapted itself to the changing API's and system calls.  That way your favorite pinball game didn't stop working when a program using an almost identical dynamic link was called.

If you've rummaged around inside a Windows machine at all, you've seen that there are a number of seemingly identical dll's registered with the system.  I'll bet some of you, in order to save hard drive space, at one time or another have even deleted some of them.

Oops.

"Honey, why is there a blue screen on the computer...?   Honey...?"

They are not identical at all...they may have the same names but there are variations of code that make them unique to the programs they belong to.  Another brilliant move by Microsoft...identical file names for different files.

In the first place, you should have never been allowed to even touch that file, but we'll get to that in a bit.

The point is, once malicious, evil hackers discovered that most code had free reign in a Windows system, they went to work.  If legitimate code was allowed to cuddle with the system, why couldn't their's...kind of like the first digital STD's.  Actually, we can thank Microsoft for vastly strengthening our economy, from their efforts sprang multi-billion dollar companies like Symantec, McAffee, Kaspersky...the stockholders were ecstatic.

The way that Microsoft Windows was coded insured that you would have to indeed pay for or use other software in order to insure the software you already purchased will work.  There's some more of those dll's gumming up your works.  Microsoft, not being the financial slacker, saw an opportunity to turn crap into gold.  They actually "sold" space to these companies on their install disks so that they could give you "antivirus subscriptions".  They found a way to make money on the sub-standard system they wrote and sold you.

You lucky dog you.  And quite the wise consumer.

So with all this code running around loose in your system, it's no wonder that you have to wrap your computer in bits and bytes of security chains before you even connect to the internet.  You just never know what you've picked up that will want to co-exist with the software on your machine.  Here's what I find absolutely hilarious.  Those antivirus and antispyware programs you use often, can slow your system down so much that it becomes an exercise in patience just to go from page to page.  Many of you in turn blame viruses for doing what the antivirus software is actually doing.  Your hard-earned dollars at work.

The Microsoft Windows file system, coupled with a user's free reign within that system is what makes Windows so fallible.  There are absolutely no road blocks or speed bumps to deter reckless behavior or intrusion.

With me so far?

Good, we're gonna show you why Linux is light years safer than Windows. 

What we got here is yer good ol' natural laws of the universe.

In Linux, there is a system of "user permissions" set up when you install the system on your computer.  There are two parts to your system.

User Account and Root Account.

You operate as the user in Linux.  In fact, and as in Windows, you can have as many user accounts as you want.  There is, in some form, an Administrator account in Windows...it just doesn't function as one.  Each account is an environment unto itself, and it evolves as the user interacts with that environment.  Making changes to the color scheme and installing applications will dictate how the account changes as the user works.  These are little worlds unto themselves and are not aware of other user accounts residing on that hard drive.

The root account, or Administrator account is a different story.  It remains largely untouched as it exists only to keep order.  If you install a program, it insures all the individual parts are in place and havoc does not ensue.  Whereas you had all the permissions in the world to alter and ultimately screw up your Windows system, in a Linux environment, restricted privileges insure that order is maintained and access to critical files is controlled.  The end result is a stable, reliable machine that rarely needs rebooting.

"Well helios, so much for Linux being all about freedom then.  Turns out all that is a bunch of poop.  Linux is actually an authoritarian, police-like system.  At least in Windows I had the choice whether I could screw up my system or not."

You could look at it that way, but only if your ultimate goal is to eventually screw up your system.  Besides, on a single-user machine, who do you think assigns the root password?  You do, so ultimately, you have the same privileges you had in Windows.

Microsoft Windows assumes you are an idiot.  Linux makes you leave irrefutable evidence.

(see /var/log/)

With this system, if a bad guy should ever gain access to your machine via socially engineering you to initiate a script (you know them as .exe's), it can only cause its havoc within the user account.  It cannot do silly little things like meander its way to your address book and send itself out to dozens or thousands of recipients.  How do you think these viruses propagate so quickly?  The root account, the keeper of the castle, will not allow the bad code to do anything but trash your own house...It's house stays in order.  You can rebuild your system after a disaster in minutes if you are properly backed up.  Oppose that to a 3+ hour Windows re-install.

And that's what this is all about.

Productivity and order.  Natural Laws Of The Universe.

You know, I've worked Tech Support on and off for ten years now and Vista actually did implement a stringent Root account system.  It makes me laugh to know that the majority of the bad attitude of Vista is that it makes you provide a password before doing certain stuff.

Gee...wonder where Microsoft got that idea?

Chances are, those commenters in Carla's blog really didn't know a thing of which they spoke.  They had heard or read someone say that Linux was only secure because it is obscure and were simply repeating it to show off.

My dad had a saying he was fond of telling me...and he did it often as I remember.

"People can only assume your an idiot.  Once you open your mouth, you prove it to them."  

Think for yourself for a change.  Stop to think that upwards to 70 percent of the Internet runs on Linux.  Is that obscure?  If what you say were true, wouldn't the Internet be brought to its knees on a daily basis?  If it were Microsoft servers running the show, it may very well be.  As our good friend Sander from LXer.com noted recently, even if you want to argue the merits of what I say, the obvious evidence is right in front of you.  Google runs entirely on Linux.  Now you run right along and hack that.  And one more point for the road.  Many of you sidestep this to the point of embarrassment.  You insist on clogging your Windows System with Antivirus software for some reason.  I have never, ever had a byte of AV software on my Linux boxes.

You need it, I don't.  Deal with it. 

The fact that Linux exists gives you a stable environment to dwell on the Internet.  I'd be a bit more respectful and check my facts before I went leaving public record of my ignorance.  What you say or do on the Internet never goes away.  Carla should have posted those comments.

All-righty Then

Linux Against Poverty - It is a GO

For those that don't know yet, The HeliOS Project is raffling off two killer laptops plus some other cool stuff. Drawing is on the 3rd of July so get your entries into the hopper soon. You can click the TEXT link on the left side of the page or you can click here to enter. Details of the raffle can be found here.

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. ...Helen Keller

Quoting Helen Keller in a Linux blog may seem strange, but there are many parallels between this magnificent woman and Free Software/Linux. We both started way behind the competition with handicaps and hindrances that made it almost laughable that we would compete.

First they Ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they fight you
Then you win...

Of course you can only win if you compete.

Common sense. And not being afraid.

We've given much thought and study to the dynamics of change...personal and sociological dynamics. None here are scholars in the matter but some of us have had the educational background to at least pursue the rudimentary aspects of the topic. We've collected some extremely good empirical data, Our assessment of the situation? Getting Linux as a viable alternative to Windows on the desktop?

We're in for a slog.

But we can win, in time.

Personally, I have all but written off the current generation of computer users. We have had and will have our victories, but the genius of Bill Gates was not in keeping an operating system cobbled together. His genius was understanding human nature and behavior.

He only had to hold monopoly status long enough to ingrain Microsoft Windows into our society. We would do the rest for him. The Anti Trust sanctions leveled against him pale in comparison to the profits realized by his monopolization of the desktop.

We are lazy, and as a rule, most of us would rather deal with the devil we know than the devil we don't. We detest change.

Gates understood that...and built the most powerful business and political lobby in our history based on that knowledge

So how do we win?

We start with a clean slate...the minds of those not yet corrupted. Minds that can understand freedom without a mental boat anchor tied around their leg.

Linux Against Poverty is much more than an installfest. It is an effort between the Free Software Community in any given place and the greater community that holds it.

Lynn Bender is a professional organizer and the brains behind Linux Against Poverty. When Lynn first heard about The HeliOS Project, he immediately wanted to help and began outlining a plan to do so. He would gather Geeks, Community Leaders, Corporates and City Leaders together to accomplish one goal.

Collect enough computers and money to give organizations like The HeliOS Project some breathing room. Materials and funding for one year.

Lynn's contacts are impressive. He's been doing this for 20 years and he's either friend or acquaintance with mayors, City Administrators, Council Members, Police Chiefs and other leaders for at least a decade past. Lynn has had some ragingly successful events and he hopes that Linux Against Poverty can be one of them.

Here's the plan. It all comes together on August first, 2009.

Lynn's people will now begin soliciting companies and corporations in the Austin area for physical donations. He has secured the swank and popular nightspot known as Union Park for both the actual event and the party afterward. The Park will be full of volunteer Austin Geeks, ready to accept the incoming machines, triage them and place them into different staging areas. One of the brightest tech guys I know, Andy Krell from nFusion will be there in person to lend a hand. There is a place to sign up as a geek extrordinaire if you want to be part of this event. Email Tom at the above link and he will get you scheduled.
Tom King - HeliOS Project Network Guru and volunteer coordinator

While LAP has been scheduled for a while, we went through some changes in getting to the point to announce the event. Initially, it was planned as a global event...several cities on 4 different continents would be doing the same thing at the same time. We had the resources together to do it. The HeliOS Project, being the technical arm of the project had built the servers to feed the different project sites ISO files and distro manuals...we were all ready for it.

It didn't take long to realize that there were just too many people that didn't have the tools or know-how to do the actual organizing. That's when Lynn wisely decided that we would do the Austin event first, painstakingly document the process then let other cities digest the information and do their individual projects as they felt comfortable in doing so. Rushing this would not have ended well.

It was a smart call.

Mayhem would have surely ensued. This type of project, marrying the various components of the city to the techs in that city is brilliant in concept but not the easiest plan to successfully execute.

It's the kids that need these computers...and folks, having done this for several years, I am still in awe of the number of children in Austin Texas that do not have a computer or internet access in the home. We've barely made a dent. I can hardly imagine what it is like in LA or New York City or London. I receive emails on a daily basis, asking how to set up projects like The HeliOS Project and by those numbers, I am encouraged. These kids are the future of Linux and Free Software proliferation. It is up to us to see to it that they know they have a choice.

As of now, they do not.

A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to pay for it.

Period.

If you are a member or owner of a company and wish to schedule your donation or become a sponsor, contact Lynn here

If you have immediate hardware to donate and cannot drop it off at the actual event, contact Ken here.

We can make a difference...if we care to, and keep the quotation of one of the most famous Americans to ever live in our forethoughts:

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

All-Righty Then...

Gnome - The Curtain Is About To Go Up

For those that don't know yet, The HeliOS Project is raffling off two killer laptops plus some other cool stuff. Drawing is on the 3rd of July so get your entries into the hopper soon. You can click the text link on the left side of the page or you can click here to enter. Details of the raffle can be found here.

My experience in the theatre is limited to high school productions. Lousy renditions of Bye Bye Birdie and West Side Story. All played on an aging stage in an aging gym in front of small town parents who had nothing better to do than come watch their kids do lousy renditions of Bye Bye Birdie and West Side Story.

Still though...

I remember the semi-dark backstage madness...the charged whispers just before the curtain went up. The smell of old wood, canvas, perfume and electrical cables...the glitter on the floor from over-powdered girls and that feeling in your stomach that ranged somewhere between nausea and the most exciting thing you've ever done in your life.

And the last minute prayer seconds before the curtain rose.

"God please don't let me suck."

This was back in the day when you had to actually get up out of your chair and physically walk to the television to change the station. Oh yes, there were such things as remotes back then.

They were called kids.

"Hey Skip...put it on three, the basketball game is about to start...and get me another beer."

There were three stations to choose from and the knob on the channel changer went "clunk, clunk, clunk when you turned it. The most popular toothpaste was a brand called Crest, the Chevy 409 was king, and that year the Chicago Cubs lost a bid for the world series in a way that is all but but impossible according to physical probability and statistics.

I'm sure the dynamics of theatre have not changed much...that knot in your stomach, the glancing around for the little taped squares on the floor that told you where to stand...that feeling you got just before the curtain went up.

Hey Gnome people...if you don't have that feeling right now, you are spending too much time in Gedit and not enough time looking around you.

Your curtain is about to go up.

"God please don't let them suck."

I see it every day...I feel it. The low rumble of an impending change that will alter the way people use their computers from now on. That change is Linux, and that change is going to be facilitated by Ubuntu.

Like it or not, that's the way things have shaken out and we have to work within these system-sets. While Gnome is as good as any other environment in my book, we have to remember that this is the environment that people are first going to experience. What I have found most frustrating is that things have been left half-done and half-thought out for several releases now and it's time to get them fixed.

Like Dood, Wherez my Filez?

The first thing a new user wants to know almost always is this:

"Where are my files?"

The file structure of Linux is a system shock within itself. Where users did have free-range in Windows, their new digs may seem a bit confusing and even a little restrictive at first. I've easily explained to most users that all they really have to be concerned with is /home/myfiles.

And if you disagree with this technique, let me give them YOUR number so when they delete their xorg files. They can call you.

Home is where the files are. Everything else is just gears and pulleys.

I base my opinions here on my experiences in Konqueror. In my opinion, Konqueror is the best file manager out there. You don't have to install "scripts" in order to do simple things...you don't have to drill down three menu entries to do the easy stuff. Take a look at my scripts folder and see what I mean. Note the file folder in the middle of the pack. Shouldn't it follow heiarchy and be at the top?

Right click - move or copy files.

There is even a little addon called "Kim" (konq-kim in some distros) that gives you amazing control over your images with a simple right click....and it's there right in front of you when you right click. You don't have to open a series of other folders to get to it. You don't have to add separate scripts to change from different formats. You can even make compilations or DVD movies from you photos and lay in music underneath the presentation.

What is so hard about that? Now there may be plenty hard about that. I don't write the code that makes the magic happen. I would have to assume that since the people that write Nautilus have not made these seemingly easy and often requested changes for years now, it must be something terribly complex.

Or maybe John Hall was right.

John, Tom King and I were privately discussing Gnome at the 2007 Linux Symposium here in Austin. John boiled it down so that all the clutter was blown away immediately.

"Gnome Developers have perfected the art of ignoring their users."

Another choice is also available. They just cannot do it. It may be designed to fail the ability to make these changes.

In talking with new users, I hear constantly the frustration of having to find features after the right click. According to them, and I agree, there are simple things that should be there natively. Move and copy files are obvious and in my mind the most important. Even everyday users find themselves in the file manager constantly. We need to make that experience as functional, efficient and user-friendly as possible.

Right now I don't think it is. Why are we adding an extra step of adding scripts?

"Oh, you mean I have to go out, find them, drag them home and put them in a file folder I can't see normally? I thought you told me that everything ELSE was gears and pulleys. Now I have them in my home file? And why are there "hidden" files in my home directory. What is there that I am not supposed to see?"

And no...I don't want Nautilus to be Konqueror...I want someone to have sense enough to realize that moving or copying a file shouldn't entail a drilling expedition.

Functional, efficient, and user-friendly.

I was told once by a third party that the reason Nautilus did not include these simple features was because they did not want to be perceived as copying the KDE guys. I honestly hope that isn't true. If it is, that means the development of the première environment for file management is being fueled by ego.

So given the fact that Gnome via Ubuntu is going to be the face of Linux, what changes do you see as an evolution of the system? Post them here and we'll cull the best and send them forward. No they probably won't listen, but you can't give up until you try at least once. You people are pretty smart...we'd like to know what your ideas are.

And don't make me quote Mad Dog again. He charges me a royalty every time I do.

All-Righty Then...

The blog you'll never read.

Hey folks...take a minute and join in on the raffle for some great laptops and other prizes. Your donations go to fund the HeliOS Project. We are trying to gain enough support to take us through the rest of the year. You can go here to get the specifics. These laptops are extremely sweet. We honestly hope that we can meet the needs of others for the rest of this year. There is a text link on the left side of the page to enter or you can just click here. Thanks. - h

This isn't newsworthy stuff. It doesn't directly deal with anything the readers of this blog have come to expect. Instead, I am posting this as a simple communication to those people...and maybe bring some understanding to certain events that have taken place in the past few weeks. I haven't exactly been accessible or approachable lately.

Nothing earth-shaking...I simply want to talk to you about something.

Four weeks ago, I wrote my last blog.

It was for all intentions at the time to be my last blog. A blog you will never read.

It wasn't melodramatic, drawn-out or rambling. It was a simple statement as to why I have to quit doing what I do. Again, nothing deeply philosophical or profound, it was much more mundane than that...but more powerful than either of them could ever be.

I am tired to the core of my soul.

The kind of tired that surpasses physical fatigue...the kind of tired that rocks you with an inertia weight you could never before imagine.

For the first time in four years I honestly didn't care about what it was I started...what it was that I had a moral obligation to do unto perpetuity. The kids didn't matter anymore, the families...nothing mattered.

I simply wanted to go sit on the bank of a river and fish for the rest of my life.

A number of things brought this about. Recently, we had a chance to go on a local radio show and tell a huge audience about what The HeliOS Project does. I had high hopes...hopes for donations...hope for some help doing what we do. We would be reaching tens of thousands. We did get a response.

* One pentium III with a broken printer donated
* 81 requests for HeliOS Project computers

It was simply an event that brought the weight of what we attempt to do down hard on me. Now let me clarify something...something that is most important for me to say.

People I have never met...people I have come to meet via this venue have supported in large this effort for two years. I could not nor would not ever ask anything more of the fine people that have become part of what we do. You have been my backbone, and for that, you have my immortal gratitude. Thank you.

The problem settled into me that there just isn't anyone outside of you who gives a crap. Being laid off had a lot to do with it. I am out of work for a month now. I don't make it a big deal but I've pumped a butt-load of my own money into this project. I've never complained...I fully accept this thing I do as my calling in life and I would have done anything I needed to do in order to do it.

To include rip the ligament in my left arm to the point of needing surgery.

I went to a long-time friend and poured this out...I just puked every silly little problematic thing I felt all over his life...but he listened, like a true friend does. I don't know what I expected...I don't know why I thought he was going to give me the answers.

All he said is that I would know what to do when the time came. He asked me if I had considered the impact on the people I would not serve...the ones that would not benefit in the future from what we did.

I didn't want to answer him and he didn't push me for one...he knew he had scored a point.

See, the point he tried to make to me was that we are all not called to greatness. Some of us are called to pave the way for the great. The teachers, the mentors, the chance meeting with strangers that alter a person's course in life forever.

I've long known that I am not going to be great...never set out to be...never wanted to be.

But I had never considered myself being one of the bricklayers...that had never occured to me.

And then Gavin emailed me...out of the blue, without knowing anything about the mini-drama going on in my life, he wrote to me something that changed everything.

This is not about me or any of the people that help run The HeliOS Project....probably not about you either. It's about that one in a million that reaches leadership or influential positions that guide an entire people to greatness and prosperity....or to ingenuity and a better life.

All those people were kids once...someone molded and prodded them to be who they ultimately were to be. I want to share with you what Gavin sent me:

If I were smart enough to actually contribute an original idea to this world, I would prefer immortality over wealth. Who is more famous? King Henry III of England or Galileo Galilei? Philip I of France or Isaac Newton? Socrates, Karl Marx, Oliver Cromwell, Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Johannes Kepler, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - these are the names that are remembered beyond the borders of time and sovereign nations. Their ideas are printed in books and school papers alike. They are the giants who stood on the shoulders of other giants so that the rest of us could dare to be taller. Their genius has inspired every single generation after them, long after empires have fallen and great halls have been conquered by strings of enemies. They push us forward while whispering into our ears that we can be better, always and unconditionally better. A person may touch other lives before they die, but a very few people throughout history have touched THE WORLD, forever and always. You can't buy that! Not that all those geniuses died destitute and alone, but a few of them did and hardly anyone remembers that part. What we do remember is that the sun is the center of our solar system, gravity and motion have powerful rules, reason leads to truth, people can be equal to each other, rule by birthright is a silly notion, a simple smile can lift a failed flight machine, it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, matter and energy are one in the same, a brushless electric engine really IS possible, the planetary orbits have amazing patterns, and music has a power over the soul matched only by love. To be a part of that priceless company would be so incredible that I could die, right now, without regret. No dollar signs, no wine or women, no televised spotlights across the globe. Just peace, for the world, forever. Maybe not now, maybe not a hundred years from now, but someday it will be. And the pride and elation will belong to those few who reached across time and made it so. That's my opinion, anyway...

Somebody shaped these people...somebody influenced their lives so that they became what they were, or are. Gavin knows....the majority of us will never touch the world...but one of us may touch her that does touch the world.

Even if it's such an insignificant thing as giving them a computer when they are eleven years old.

I'm still tired, still unsure of how it is I am going to keep doing what I am doing. I do know that I no longer have the health and vitality to work a 10-12 hour a day job and do The HeliOS Project the rest of the time. It was suggested by my good friend that I find a way to fund it so that I can draw a small salary from what I do. I think I am going to do that. I am never going to be wealthy, my needs are extremely simple...truth was at one time I was fairly close to it and was the most miserable son of a bitch you ever met. I didn't like that man...but I like this one for the most part, enough so that I don't wince when I look in the mirror.

You probably didn't deserve this pouring babble...I am sure you didn't expect it. What I am sure of now is that a simple smile can lift a failed flight machine...and a loving chastisement can boost a tired spirit.

And that one small, seemingly insignificant act can breed the next Richard Stallman, or give him the tools to that person become.

Now if you will excuse me, I have computers to build...and a plan to put together so I can build them.

All-righty Then...

Invisible force Destroying the Status Quo

Wanna killer laptop? Chances are it's yours. We now return you to the regularly scheduled rant.

"I get the feeling that when more people find out how easy using their computer really is, they will not only be relieved, they will be angry as well. Hour many hours have we wasted fighting this nonesense?"

Dan Fields has an interesting life. He is a licensed commercial pilot and is currently a standby Captain for a major airline, but to earn his daily bread, Dan works as a Petrochemical Engineer. He's the only person I know that has been in the Antarctic and Belize in the same week. Now residing in Atlanta, Dan still keeps in touch from time to time.

He's also responsible for the above quote. While we're looking at quotes, let's look at a few more from the same source:

..."The main reason why I love Linux so much is that I don't have to worry about little bugs and viruses getting in my computer and crashing it! This has happened to me over and over in the past with Windows. I will never go back to Windows ever again."

"Well, this begins month two without having to reboot our computer and my kids have went download-crazy. The fact that they can play their beloved games and not ruin our setup like it used to happen is not only a relief, it has saved us countless hours of reformating and reinstalling Windows"...

"My name is Jack Mallory and I have a business which relies upon computers to accomplish our mission. For years, I have dreaded the annual visit of our Microsoft Rep. Every time he walks through our door he costs us more money. Thanks to you people, I was able to tell him that we would no longer be needing his services"...

Dan contacted us a couple of years ago with a problem. His computer was showing a blue screen with cryptic numbers and symbols. He had been fighting this thing for a week. If he rebooted enough, eventually he would get into his system and go to work but this time it wasn't letting him in. He had critical reports to email and was under a severe time gun. I took a few minutes to explain to him his options and told him that we could get him up and running with a live CD long enough for him to send his email. He invited us to come by and get him fixed up.

Once the CD booted and I showed him the browser, he was off and running. I sat in the chair opposite his desk and watched him as he worked. He logged into his office server, retrieved the data and used his newly-opened Gmail account to fire off the critical information. He turned from the screen and asked me if he could keep this program on his computer.

I 'splained to Dan that it wasn't on his computer and what he was using was an operating system on a disk. I pulled my chair up next to his and started navigating my way through the menus and options. I even showed him the files on his windows machine and pulled up All Along The Watchtowers" for him to listen to. All the time, he said nothing...he just watched....and listened

By the time I left, Dan Fields was a Linux User. There are no reports, print-outs or statistics to show it but Mr. fields doesn't use Windows anymore. Not at home, not at the office and not on his laptop. Those are three licensing fees that Microsoft will never see again.

That's why I simply laughed at the recent story of Linux reaching 1% of the market.

I spent a good part of my Sunday calling people that now use Linux, either through our HeliOS Project or via HeliOS Solutions. We do this on a regular basis anyway. It's good to track how many people are happy with their systems, find out what concerns or problems they are having or just visit for a bit and let them know you care enough to call.

39 phone calls

31 answers

100 percent retention.

Do the Powers That Be know these people? Are they ever included in any statistical data pertaining to Computer usage? Not according to any of them. In my conversations, I asked all 31 of them if they had been surveyed or questioned about their computer use.

Not a one, although a few of them were asked about their political opinions and the type of car they drive. Those folks come by all the time to gather information.

So OK...we're one small organization doing some modest work in Linux and Free Software advocacy. How many people across the globe are doing the same thing? It is my belief that you can take that one percent figure and slam dunk it into the circular file next to your desk.

Folks, People are tired of fighting with their computers. We can show you example after example of individuals who simply do not use Windows anymore...for anything. A recent article by Carla Schroeder drew the ire of a particular Windows sycophant and spent what had to be hours in defending his position...

Which is odd given the fact that he was the first to attack hers.

Here's the bottom line pal. People across the globe are weary of doing the Windows Shuffle. Patches, updates, virus definition downloads, anti-virus apps that clog and defile their registries. While many have discovered that Linux is more than suitable for more complex tasks, they are finding that they don't have to pay in time and money to do the few things they do on a computer.

Besides...If you read the various EULA's from Microsoft and still find comfort in using Windows, then there is not much that can be done for you. Everything else aside...if you make a conscious decision to stay with Windows after reading their EULA, there's a good chance that you are used to making compromises in your life in order to slide by the easiest way possible. And yes, I know dozens of people that have to use it at work, but when they get home, they would no sooner use Windows on their personal computers than they would juggle roaring chainsaws.

Dan Fields has read that EULA...as have many of our clients. The mildest reaction has been disgust.

As an aside and for the record, I do not read "popular Windows or Mac blogs". The sound of so many chains rattling becomes distracting after a while.

So it seems that the uncounted are the ones that will destroy the status quo, millions of them now...nameless, faceless computer users who quietly cut their chains and walked away from servitude.

Hey Redmond...count that.

All Righty Then

Laptop Raffle Features Alienware Beauty.

The HeliOS Project is happy to announce our semi-annual raffle. We do these twice a year so as to secure partial funding for the next half of the calendar. See the last paragraphs for how to enter and rules for this drawing.

This event sports some of the best prizes we've ever offered. From Alienware and Acer laptops to AMD personal internet devices to autographed copies of Carla Schroeder's Network Cookbook, we think we've got the Geek Thing covered. Take a look at what your 10 dollar donation puts you in the pot for:

Alienware m5500i-R3 Series. Dual core 2 gig chips with a gig of ram and 100 gigs of hard drive space. Radeon Mobility X1400 graphics brings you into the game. DVI output is present with a dvd burner and card reader. System is currently SuperOS with all the bells and whistles ringing and blowing. Runs great under full compiz effects...I've used this laptop for making first impressions with new users and it is a powerful tool. Not to mention that it performs beautifully. You can see a full slideshow here. An extra five dollars insures we ship a 1 gig stick of ram for you to upgrade it with.




Acer TravelMate 5720: Problems aside from getting the TrustedCore shredded into non-existence, this is a fantastic laptop. That bully will not bother you any more on this machine. Also I've now heard two stories of people falling with their 5720's and having the computer
breaking their falls...and then firing right up. I can believe it. Sporting a built-in WORKING webcam, it delivers your smiling face via the HD Radeon Mobility 2400 XT graphics setup. It is powered by a 2x Intel Core T7500 dual core chip. This comes with one gig of ram, a 160 gig hard drive. It has a VGA AND a DVI out with a dvd burner rom present. Personally. as much press as the Alienware gets...? I think this TravelMate 5720 is the better laptop. It has a card reader in the front and like the Alienware, it takes conventional and express PCMCIA devices...however wifi is built-in so you will probably not need them for connectivity. Full info can be found here.
An extra five dollars insures we ship a 1 gig stick of ram for you to upgrade it with.

Each laptop comes with the charging device and the Acer has a new spare battery still in the box included.

You want weird prizes? Check this out.

We are offering two AMD 50x15 Personal Internet Devices.

What are they? A minimal function computer about half the size of a toaster. It is capable of surfing the net, sending emails, and it comes with some fairly cool software to include a word processor and other office apps. It has plenty of USB inlets as well as a hookup for a camera to download and upload/email pictures. Aside from the fact that these run a CE version of Microsoft XP, they are pretty cool. Need a computer for the kitchen? Maybe one stashed in the garage or on the workbench for looking up part numbers? A friend keeps one in the glove compartment with 6 feet of cat five so he can connect at client's homes and access the internet. Keyboard and mouse are supplied but it needs a monitor. hey...it's a friggin' raffle. Some wifi dongles will work with this but you have to see which ones will work. Drivers and other software are installable via USB since there is no cd rom. These are new and still in the box, we are giving away two of them. You can see all about them here.




We never, and we mean never, have a raffle without bringing The Goddess Of The Grid and her Linux Networking Cookbook to you. Carla Schroeder has written, what has been described to me, as the definitive Linux Networking manual. I've loaned my copy to 20 year experts in networking and they've all asked me how they could obtain a copy. We have two left from the last raffle...some folks just don't want to get THAT serious about their Linux but their loss is your gain. And by the way...they are personally autographed by Carla.

Entry is Easy. The top left of this page holds a donation link or you can click here to enter. Donations per item are $10.00. So if you donate 30 dollars, you have three tickets in the drawing. if the donation is for like say... 25.00 then we immediately know you want two tickets and want the extra gig stick of ram shipped if you win one of the laptops. Unfortunately, we cannot ship the computers overseas, the cost is simply prohibitive, however Ms. Schroeder's book is shippable anywhere in the world. Directors of The HeliOS Project, volunteers for The HeliOS Project and employees of HeliOS Solutions are not eligible for this drawing. The laptops offered are previously owned and come with no warranty. I've personally both used and inspected these computers from the inside out and they are in great condition.


The funds for this drawing will see to it that we have gas money, maintenance costs and the everyday funding we need to operate our HeliOS Project effort for the next six months. Thanks for everything you do for us and most importantly, thanks for being part of what we do.

The drawing will be held on the Third of July...time to be announced. We are trying to arrange the local firehouse to do the drawing. If that fails, winners will be announced on Twitter.

All-Righty Then

How to screw a kid's day up

This isn't really for anything else but public record.

It's important that it is recorded. If for nothing else, the searchable text that will insure the proper dissemination of information. You'll see in a moment.

Last Wedensday was a busy day for us. With 4 HeliOS Project installs and a HeliOS Solutions appointment, my day started at 6 am. A boh reader and Linux guy named Jason had asked us to go out to Elgin Texas and install Linux on his mom's computer so HeliOS Solutions was happy to oblige. Fact is, due to circumstance, she was eligible for a new compter from The HeliOS Project so what turned out to be an install morphed into a very good day for this fine lady.

She got a great deal for a C-note I would say. Heck, it's a pretty good deal for anyone I would think.

Arriving at North Bluff Estates in South Austin, we found that two of our installs were across the street from each other. One location to unload the Rodeo for 2 installs was a good thing. We knocked on the door of the first install, introduced ourselves and unloaded their computer and got to work. About 20 minutes into the install I realized I needed a VGA to DVI adapter and stepped out to my car to get it.

Or where my car HAD been. Holy crap on a cracker, someone had stolen our vehicle.

I should have been so lucky.

It seems that the North Bluff Estates property management company has a policy that prohibits cars parking on the grass. That seems reasonable. Grass is hard enough to keep alive in the Texas heat without having to battle leaking motor oil and various toxic fluids that drip from older cars. In this neighborhood, that's about all there is. When I imagine someone parking "on the grass", I picture an entire car sitting squarely amongst the greenery, touching nary a bit of road surface.



Personally, I don't consider this "parking on the grass".

Fact is, rule or not; there is nothing posted at the entrance of the mobile home park about this rule, nor is there any such warning posted throughout the entire neighborhood about one's vehicle being towed away for said infringement. As well, if you are in an area that allows for towing off of personal property, you are required to have signs posted telling you where you can pick your car up.

Seems that less than six inches of tire sitting on a grass surface here is enough to get you towed to the automotive hoosegow.

Bad move.

See, I owned two towing companies here in Austin in the early 90's. Doing a quick check with the city of Austin, I discovered the rules of vehicle impounding have not changed. Again, you must post warnings of tow-able offenses and you must post signs in reasonable places telling you where to go to pay the ransom and pick up your recently-kidnapped car. This being "private property" may let them off the hook for this particular requirement...in fact, In thinking about it, I'm now second guessing my own knowledge here. Regardless, it's still sleazy.

They are seriously out of city ordinance compliance in other areas anyway. This is a matter I will personally bring up to the licensing board in the morning. In talking with a few of the older residents of North Bluff Estates, I found out that this place is bought and sold more than a US Congressman's vote and every time someone new buys it, they jack the rent up as far as the law allows. Because the population of this neighborhood is largely Hispanic, no one complains much about anything...many are not in a hurry to explain to law enforcement about their current citizenship status. Good hard-working people these folks are. We've done a lot of work in here in the past. I don't give a damn what language they speak.

What we have here is obviously a true and compassionate landlord.

So we had little choice. I spent most of the day borrowing the 200 bucks, trying to get the vehicle released. I made them stand there while I inventoried the contents of the vehicle. I wasn't in too much of a hurry to get it done. They couldn't care even less that we can't do installs for a week...we'll have to pay our debt before we do anything else. Once we do that, then we'll get back on course.

Making them witness me inventorying the contents of my vehicle wasn't much solace.

You ever seen the inside of my vehicle?

To equate it to a poorly kept computer parts facility would be kind.

A computer junkyard on wheels is probably more apt. I can almost see a dozen heads shaking in unison right now..the poor souls who have had to ride amongst the carnage within my car.

So anyway...all of this being said, the fine folks at North Bluff Estates couldn't care less about any of this. Here's where they should. We HAD 41 kids here scheduled to receive HeliOS Project computers during the last half of 2009.

They won't be receiving them from us.

I can't afford any more arbitrary impounds of our vehicle so some tow truck driver can make a quick 20 bucks. What's the next reason for impound? Bad paint job? mismatched tires? We've started making the calls and letter-mailings today, informing the un-chosen why they are un-chosen and our deepest regrets.

The people at North Bluff Estates simply do not care. Having been in the business, I would be interested to see the name of the person who signed the contract with the towing company...I mean just to see. I would never even come close to suggesting anything as unscrupulous as a kickback arrangement back to the management or anything.

The point of the matter is that they truly don't care.

They made it a point to say as much.

All-Righty then

EDIT - We have made arrangements to do the installs in this neighborhood. A few of the suggestions in the comments have been accepted and acted upon. Thanks for the ideas...your instincts were correct, there are "residents" that will not allow our vehicles to be towed again.









helios

A hard look at Adobe

Typing with one hand tends to force one to brevity. A seemingly minor injury has caused some temporary paralysis in my left arm so this comes to you courtesy of my right hand. Timing and Fate, being close cousins, have given me a chance to publish something here that I think is not only worthy of your consideration...I believe it merits your action, and mine.

Many who have contributed greatly to our societies began their efforts at a young age. From Edison to Tesla, Einstein to Stallman, their passions and beliefs drove them to ultimately become who they were fated to be. I've recently become aware of a young man who may well evolve into one of our great contributors. We middle-aged folks seem to think we have the market cornered on common sense and good ideas. For the most part, we do.

Every once and a while, someone much older than their years asks to be listened to. Max Shinn has my attention, and I think he should have yours as well...at least for now...for this moment, give Max some reasonable thought and feedback. The comments here have been known to get fairly rough and tumble but for now, if you disagree, do it without discouraging someone who may grow to be the next John Hall.

You never know.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Max Shinn aka Trobonechamp.

When you see Flash, Duck and Cover

The best thing anyone can do to continue making the Internet more closed, restrictive, and prohibiting is to use Adobe Flash as it exists today. The Internet was created to allow for the open and unconfined infrastructure to share information; yet, it is being used today for the opposite purpose: to stop this information torrent. Many people do not see Flash as an issue, and don’t view Adobe as a malevolent authoritarian. In fact, though, Flash is the biggest bottleneck on the Internet’s effectiveness in the same way that the variety of world languages spoken worldwide is the biggest bottleneck on the global social network. A change in Adobe’s business strategy with regards to Flash is the only way to turn this unnecessary throttle on the potential of the Internet-connected community into a true innovation and synergistic technology.

Some may not notice the restrictions we experience in our everyday lives. One such restriction is that of software like Flash. In the video market alone, Flash is the number one method used to control access to “intellectual property”. Flash does much more than just restrict video content, though. Unlike HTML and Javascript, which are saved in human-readable formats, Flash files are in a format that only computers can read, so nobody is able to see exactly what these files are doing to their computers. Because of this, anybody can restrict access to the content of the file itself, or even include viruses or other malicious software through the use of Flash Player.

The biggest restricting factor, though, is the fact that consumers must use the software distributed by Adobe in order to view Flash files in their entirety. This is a major problem because, with a 99% market penetration, Adobe can do anything it would like. Adobe Flash is installed on more computers than even Microsoft Windows, which naturally gives them a huge amount of power. The dependency of people on Flash Player is so great that Adobe could chose any day to shut all installations of Flash Player down until the user payed a $40 ransom fee. If Adobe ever fell short of money, this would be a convenient and no-hassle way to gain money, considering most people would end up paying this fee for access to games, videos, and a multitude of other possibilities online we often take for granted. This is only the tip of the iceberg, though. Adobe could block out competitors’ software, spy on the users, or even include a “back door” to allow employees to remotely control anybody’s computer. With Flash’s massive install base, Adobe could technically do anything they want to your computer.

Devoted individuals have begun developing alternatives through reverse engineering, such as “Gnash” and “swfdec”, but those are still unable to be completed due to the lack of cooperation by Adobe. Adobe initiated the “Open Screen Project” to give the appearance that it promoted choice in platforms and ease any fears regarding Adobe’s obsessive control, yet it really just restates the knowledge that was already gained through the effort of previous reverse engineering techniques. The only benefit of the Open Screen Project was the promise Adobe made not to sue any Flash-alternative projects, yet this promise, in reality, just affirms the excessive control Adobe has over the platform. Recently, Adobe sent a Cease and Desist to SourceForge, a company that hosts community-developed software projects, regarding a hosted project called “rtmpdump”. This project opened up features of Flash to average people that were previously only available in Adobe’s Flash Player. Despite Adobe’s claim to transparency and neutrality, SourceForge was required to remove rtmpdump from its site, confirming yet again the massive amount of power Adobe has.

A further issue with the Flash format is its dependency on software patented by multiple companies. These patents make Adobe’s promise worthless, as other companies also have the right to sue when their own patents are violated. Patent law was created to encourage innovation, but when computers entered the scene, corporations found they could benefit from the law by exploiting loopholes that allowed software to be patented. Eventually, trying to patent as many elementary concepts as possible became a business strategy, and any company who didn’t follow this strategy risked a lawsuit. Software patents have ranged from online tests to pop-up windows to hyperlinks to progress bars. In addition, almost all of the major audio, video, and image formats are or have been covered under numerous patents. As you can well imagine, nearly all computer software is covered by multiple patents from various companies. The biggest companies pool their patents together and agree not to sue each other in exchange for access to the patents from the other biggest corporations. In this way, Adobe cannot be sued for using certain components in Flash, but everyone else can for using those same components.

With the inability for consumers to use any alternative Flash players besides the one created by Adobe, one would expect the official player to be of high quality, right? Studies have found the opposite to be true. Not only does Flash have a huge number of security problems, but it also slows down computers significantly, especially computers that run operating systems other than Microsoft Windows. Flash consumes an average of 50-80% of system resources on Mac OSX. The leading cause of crashes in the Mozilla Firefox web browser, according to the bug reports submitted by users, is the Flash Plugin. Unfortunately, this is something Mozilla cannot improve, no matter how badly their users want it, because Adobe will not allow it. Efficiency can be measured in more than just performance, though. Flash users who want to minimize their carbon footprint will be unhappy to know how negatively Flash affects power usage. Flash, especially banner ads cause ones computer to use much more energy. Simply disabling Flash saves an equivalent amount of power to turning off a light bulb.

The most logical solution to this problem would be for Adobe to allow open access to view, modify, and distribute to the code programmers will understand used to develop Flash. This strategy would have a multitude of benefits for not only consumers and Adobe as a company, but for society as a whole. Collectively, consumers would like the best possible experience online, and Adobe would like to make as much money as possible. Both of these private interests would be stimulated.

Consumers would benefit greatly with Adobe’s decision to allow open and unrestricted modification and distribution to its platform. Consumers would no longer have to worry about what would happen if Adobe tried to exercise excessive control over users, because anyone would be able to modify Flash to exclude the offending features. If this were to happen, Adobe would no doubt lose its reputation; however, if it were to happen today, it is possible that nobody would ever find out. It has been shown by projects such as the Linux kernel that those who can, will make changes to software to scratch personal itches. Corporations will naturally make changes to improve community-developed software when it will help that corporation’s own products. A multitude of corporations currently depend on Flash, making them all candidates to assist in improving Flash Player for the benefit of all. Speed is important to everybody, especially wealthy corporations that want their employees to be as productive as possible. As demonstrated by the Linux kernel, security and stability problems in community-developed software get fixed incredibly quickly.

Adobe is the party that would yield the largest benefit from opening up Flash. Adobe’s business strategy with regards to Flash is to develop a massive number of technologies centering around Flash, and then sell a really expensive software to create Flash videos. The vast majority of these technologies have opened source code to stimulate usage and entice those who like modifiable and redistributable software. Unfortunately for Adobe, these have not penetrated the target market because the product they depend on, Flash, does not allow modification or redistribution. Adobe’s other income with regards to Flash come from licensing versions of Flash Player for use on embedded platforms, such as cell phones. While it is logical to expect monetary reimbursement from large corporations for the ability to use Flash Player, problems arise when these corporations choose not to pay for the license. A notable example of this is with the iPhone. The lack of cooperation by corporations results in Adobe losing control, because it limits access to the software from potential users. Through the exploitation of this target market (all Internet-connected users) Flash has the potential to become a true standard; in this case, Adobe would hold the key to producing content for the standard: “Adobe Creative Suite 4”, its flagship product. Allowing public access and modification to a company’s software is the only way to allow other corporations to help increase that company’s market share. For example, Flash could be improved by search engine companies to allow content to be indexed more easily, benefiting all companies involved and allowing for further standardization.

There are other possible solutions to this problem, though they are not as elegant or effective. For instance, it is possible for some devoted activists to start a new software project to replace Flash. It would have similar features, but would not be compatible with existing Flash scripts. Though many appreciate the value of this type of project, it would nevertheless advance very slowly in what we have come to expect out of modern Internet-based technologies. It would also make extra overhead for the consumer, creating the need to install yet another web browser plug-in. Finally, this solution would divert developer time away from Flash Player alternative projects, such as Gnash and swfdec, which are increasingly necessary, and make it impossible to use the existing jungle of Flash scripts.

Another solution, though much less plausible, is for consumers to stop using Flash altogether. The problems that come attached to this solution are obvious, though. First of all, it is nearly impossible to raise awareness for any cause, especially one that takes a long time for people to understand. In addition, Flash has become too embedded within the lifestyles of many Internet-connected users to “just quit”. With dependencies on video sharing sites, education material, games, and more, only the most devoted users would be able to resist the pressure. This option would be much more effective as a protest technique to convince Adobe to allow modification than it would be as a solution on its own.

As you can see, Flash started out as a slightly obnoxious insect, but it grew over time into the monster that it is today. Adobe has too much control over the software. The control it has makes it impossible for Internet content to be truly accessible to everyone, and requires every user to subject his/herself to Adobe. It also carries a large number of problems along with it that Adobe has no desire to solve, as solving them would not increase its market share. By allowing the modification and redistribution of Flash, both Adobe and its consumers would benefit from the synergy that would be achieved. Nobody can build a skyscraper alone. Until Adobe makes Flash more permissible, Flash users have no choice but to sit in the monster’s mouth and hope it doesn’t get hungry.

U know Ur Old When...

Your mind is your worst enemy. It whispers to you that you can do things you can or should not.

Yesterday, Justin (more on Justin later) and me loaded 70 crt monitors and about 40 computers into a truck.

From the third floor.

Today I am suffering 80% paralysis in my left arm from ligament strain. It hurts like hell.

(edit - the paralysis is not permanent...only temporary until it heals. thank you for the flood of concerned emails. I am however physically worthless until it does heal - h)

If there is anyone out there in the Austin area with a couple of hours to spare, we could use a hand unloading this borrowed truck. I am not sure how long our truck-loaning friend will remain friendly to our cause with us binding up his money-maker.

Typed ever-so-one-handedly...

Ken

Fun, Fun...and more Fun

Just posting this here on the outside chance someone wants to be part of the glamor and glitz of The HeliOS Project. A star-studded party after an install-fest? A packed assembly hall lecture listening to the benefits of using Free Software?

Oh no! It's way more fun than that.

We have been gifted 65 Monitors and 20 computers from a company here in Austin. Yeah,,,wait it gets better. They are 21 inch CRT's. We get to hand dolly them down three floors in an elevator and into a waiting truck at the curb! I know, you are bursting with anticipation to be part of this frolicking day. Sadly, there's only room for three people total in the cab of the truck so we are limited in how many people we can include in this joyfest.

If you are off this Friday and want to give us a hand transporting these donations to our warehouse, just comment here and let us know...and try to keep your exuberance in check...

Act like you've been a part of something this glamorous before.

All Righty Then...
Sweat is a good thing.

Ya Never Live It Down

http://www.linux-magazine.com/userfriendly/(offset)/4

Sheesh

Our thanks to J.D. "Illiad" Frazer for the blast from the past.

Coming out of the gates strong...

While we do keep a separate blog for most HeliOS Project stuff, we'd like you to know that this is the time of year we need to secure funding for the second half of the year. As of this posting, we've placed 91 individual computers, over half of The Settlement Home project is complete and we will finish Space12 right after the Linux Against Poverty event is over. Hopefully that event will bring us the LCD monitors especially required for that install.

We know that these are tough times for everyone. I myself am unemployed after being laid off two weeks ago so I am the first to understand how priorities can shift in times like this. Should you be in the position to help see us through the year, we would appreciate you clicking the donate button on the left side of this page. This funding is used for day-to-day expenditures like fuel, incidental parts and the constant small costs associated with our operation.

The vote is not in yet, but there is a possibility that we will be raffling off two really decent computers in the next week. One is an Alienware M5500 and the other is an Acer (don't start it) TravelMate 8210. These are mid to high end machines, running 2 gigs of ram and 160 gig hard drives. Both are dual core and fairly scream through any task you can through at it.

Keep an eye out for this announcement and if the Directors vote in favor of it, we'll rock and roll with the raffle. This isn't exactly a newsworthy blog so it will not receive any real exposure on the net. We would surely appreciate it if you would spread it around to your friends.

All-Righty Then

NetFlix Where Art Thou ?

OK...I think we can put the old wive's tale to bed that Linux Users just don't spend money.

2DBoy will be the first to punch a pin in that bubble.

I could have linked the same data with a personal quote from Kyle from 2DBoy in my blog but that wouldn't have proven much. The fact that Linux Users absolutely destroyed all previous first-day sales of World Of Goo by 40% is a powerful indicator.

What has been proven though is that Linux users will shell out a few bucks for what they want. We have another non-believer in our midst.

NetFlix.

This blog is to the point. Help us get the petition link out to as many people as you know.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Linflix/petition.html
Pathetically, less than 400 signatures reside on the petition at the time of this post. You don't think it will make a difference?

Oh, let me show you something...as if the Acer deal didn't show you your power.

A few of weeks ago, we highlighted the story of Mark Van Kingsley and his quest for a Dell Studio XPS with Linux pre-installed. Now mark isn't a militant sort of guy...well, yes he is when it comes down to it but he really didn't do anything to merit being transfered to "TEAM BLACKHAWK". Obviously a special ops customer service division to handle Linux Militants. In a word, Mark raised hell over the fact that he couldn't get the machine he wanted. When the agent invoked the Microsoft Licensing Agreement as the reason that he couldn't get said product with Linux, Mark asked them:



"So you mean Microsoft dictates to Dell what they can and cannot sell me?"

The tech responded: "Well you could look at it that way..."

Yeah, I guess we could Mr.-Team-Blackhawk-handler-of Linux-Militants. How else would one look at it?

And just so you know...I realize that Team Blackhawk probably has a completely legitimate roll...somewhere. I can appreciate someone else with an over-used sense of the melodramatic.

Mark wasn't the only one that contacted Dell about this. After we published the story, we received just over 3 dozen emails either asking for the right email address and phone number to Dell or communications telling us that they had already contacted Dell about this silliness.

Just over three weeks later....Voila!

That was just enough time for their techs to get the hardware kinks out of it. Now I cannot with a straight face sit here and try to convince you that we did this...the evidence is empirical at best and with Dell choosing not to answer out calls about it, I guess we will never really know.

But ya gotta wonder....ya really gotta wonder.

So if you would, give us a hand in letting NetFlix know we would very much appreciate joining in on the party. Between the Acer Debacle and the Studio XPS thingy...I think we're on a roll. And you should finally realize the strength you possess.

I'll bring the popcorn.

All Righty Then...

The Acer Debacle - Closing The Chapter

We have had our share of hassles and problems in getting the computers we build to our kids.

And for the record..."our kids" signifies the kids that receive our computers...not at all genetically linked here.

The problem with the Acer TravelMates however, has shown a disturbing trend that has been developing for over a decade. It used to be called "Customer Service"

Now I simply refer to it as "Customer Annoyance."

Not at all catchy or bright, but it gets to my point.

More and more we are spending inordinate amounts of time on hold, listening to inane tele-music or self-hyping ads for the company that is currently wasting your time by making you listen to it. You come close to meditation and prayer, hoping to hear a voice...a real voice, one that will assist you in solving your problem.

In my case, apparently the Deity I prayed to didn't speak English.

Neither did the "real voice" that I hoped for. Not well anyway.

So I want to recap what it took to solve the problem of the TrustedCore Setup Utility that I recently reported on.

The initial problem was that the computer came default with the Trusted Computing Module active. We have written extensively on Trusted Computing...fact is, in 2006, we wrote 11 articles on it. Simply put, this is big brother with it's boot on the throat of freedom. Now while I can see the value in someone losing their laptop and having this feature in place, I have first-hand, experienced the problems it can solve. Apologies were given as I fell into the "1 percent" that suffers its ill affects...it sux to be that one percent, trust me.

After trying the obligatory "000000" password, "password" and "acer", I was locked out of the password field to the left. I was then taken to an ominous black screen that said "entry denied". Under that was a 6 digit bracketed number. That number as it turns out, is the magic number you must give to the AcerTech. He then plugs it into the magic decifererererr machine that spits out 6 possible numbers that may or may not work.

They didn't...but fortunately for me, before I had to disassemble the machine and do the DIP switch machination, there was one looooooonnnnngggggg shot...one that seldom worked.

Making sure the AC adapter was plugged in, hit the fn + esc key and immediately smush the power button.

Yeah right, like that's going to circumvent this complex security chip.

I'll be damned if it didn't. Unfortunately, it did not work for the second Acer and I ended up with my hands in the guts of said machine. At least I now know what a DIP switch is. But to get to all of that, I had to go through some pretty unreasonable gyrations.

I got serious about resolving this problem on Monday, the 18th of May. My cell phone readout shows a constant connection to Acer Customer Service from 0917 AM until 1128 PM. In that time I was shuffled to three different departments and in the end, each one of their "sessions" ended with the suggestion that I pay the fee to ship the computer to Acer and let them "fix" it for 100 dollars.

The fact that I was a confirm-able charity didn't seem to interest them or sway the suggestion.

Tuesday, the 19th of May I decided on a new tact and began collecting Acer Executive phone numbers and email addresses for my days work. The best I was able to achieve in 2 hours and 57 minutes of phone calls was to talk to some admin assistant "gatekeeper", promising to have the Vice President of Pissed Off Customers call me right back.

Phone's been on since. VPOPOC has yet to ring me up.

On that Wedensday, I decided to start calling area technicians and stores that carried Acer products.

Don't ask...don't even friggin' ask. That was the day I decided that if I wasn't going to be able to get 2 extremely nice laptops operable for my kids, I was going to disassemble them piece by piece and start sending them, return receipt requested", to the various executives of Acer.

It wasn't to happen. Allow me to tell you what else isn't to happen.

And it would have been so much fun.

Michelle Minkin, a friend of this effort and an all-around nice lady; suggested that we auction off the opportunity to destroy these computers. We were almost ready to start soliciting the community for creative ways to make them go BOOM and film it for YouTube consumption.

You are right, it was a juvenile and silly idea. One I personally liked thank you very much. Sure it might have been silly.

So was spending 9 hours of my life seeking the solution for a problem that took all of 1 minute to solve.

I honestly don't know how AcerTech came to find out about our problem but it seems that two of them did at the same time. Both from the same city and extremely close to Austin.

Both were from Acer.

Both offered to help.

I am not sure if they heard about our plight and simply decided to take it upon themselves to fix it or were called from San Jose and told to put the fire out before it spread too far.

In the end, it really does not matter. Given some of the things said during the conversations we had, I would hazard a guess that number two would be most accurate. I am further supposing that there were calls made to different players and within the traceable chain of custody for this laptop to determine if indeed I had legal possession of it. If that's the case, then I can understand to a point. Then again, it shouldn't have taken three days of someone's life to untangle a seemingly small knot.

But again, it really doesn't matter.

What does matter is that there is an entire culture of Customer Annoyance within our society. Companies have gotten too big to care about your piddly-ass little problems and
the structure of Customer Annoyance has become bloated. Having worked in Tech Support myself, I know the Tier one, tier two....structure.

And it sucks.

Especially when you have to threaten to publicly destroy a corporation's property to demonstrate its worthlessness.

All moot now.

We have the laptops fixed and slated to go to good and deserving homes. Equally important, we know that voices joined are voices heard. And that some AcerTech somewhere decided that this had gone on long enough. My personal and sincere thanks to that guy,

Thank you for your voices.

All-Righty Then...

The Right Thing Was Done

I'm in a bit of a crunch for time here, I have someplace to be shortly so I will have to be more precise tomorrow.

I received a phone call from an Acer Tech "somewhere". Came across as "unknown number" on my caller ID.

Walked me through a set of fairly complex codes and key combination presses.

One TravelMate 5720 is now unbricked and enroute to possibly change the life of a child.

Or create a MySpace junkie.

We can only influence the first to the best of our abilities.

My warmest and sincerest thanks to a guy who did the right thing...even though he could have lost much for doing it.

All-Righty Then

helios

Acer Tells Kid's Charity - Pay Up or Shut Up

Yeah, it's my charity...

But that shouldn't matter here. I'd write about this regardless.

About two months ago, nFusion Group LLC, right here in Austin donated a small truckload of computers to The HeliOS Project. 90 percent of these machines were "plug-in ready". I didn't have to crack one case on all but two of them.

It was a pretty and impressive site to behold for us.

These were not cast-off's either. Case on point.

Two Alienware i5500-xxxx laptops and the rest were a mix of mostly Acer TravelMate 5720's and 8210's....throw in a couple of Top of the Line Dells and a toshiba 13 inch tablet laptop and bingo...our kids have computers.

None of these machines were more than two years old and the generosity of nFusion is obvious when you look at the retail prices of these machines sold new. Heck, take a look at what they are selling for at current market prices on ebay and you get a good idea of just how generous a donation this was.

Aside from one of the desktops needing a power supply, everything just worked.

Almost everything.

When I began triaging the machines to get them ready for our kids, I ran across two of the Acers that had what seemed to be a bios password on them. Not a problem, either flash the bios or pull the battery for some amount of time and problem solved.

Uh...no. Not here. Not for these.

What I ran into was something that I have ranted about in the past to the point where I almost bored myself.

Trusted Computing.

What I was running into was what seemed to be an even pre-bios window that read simply:

"Phoenix TrustedCore Setup Utility. It has a field for a password then two arrow-down's to accept - escape.

After stabbing around and getting locked out after the obligatory three attempts, I called Andy Krell, the IT Director at Nfusion. I told him of the problem and he said he would research it and get back to me.

In doing so, Andy assured me that no one remembered putting that "feature" on the computer and that his exhaustive search turned up no setup disks for that situation. He gave me the numbers to Acer Tech and Customer Service and I thanked him for his time.

A word about Andy and nFusion. Aside from their obvious generosity, these folks have bent over backwards to get this issue resolved. What we have are a small number of extremely expensive and much needed laptops that are essentially bricks....at no fault of nFusion. On two subsequent contacts with Andy, he further went out of his way to go back into the receipts and archives to find out where those disks might be stored if stored at all.

They weren't...and I fully understand that myself. Once you get employee's swapping hardware from one person to another, those disks generally vaporize into the nether-regions quickly.

Acer? I've spent at least 3 hours a day since Monday just trying to get through to someone who can help me. Either the tech support accents are so thick I cannot understand anything or I spend so much time on hold my ear goes to sleep.

These are the numbers I've called.

Let me tell you one particular phrase that these tech support folks did enunciate with clarity.

Credit Card.

After explaining to the fine Acer folks that we were a charity...a largely non-funded charity and that these laptops were meant for disadvantaged kids, it really didn't matter to them.

The bottom line for The HeliOS Project?

"Pay us 100 dollars and we will fix the problem for you. Other than that, you have no other options."

"Good bye."

So...several ideas have come to mind. I have the ability and know-how to disassemble most laptops to the third echelon level of maintenance. I'm thinking of Fedexing one small part each day to one of their top execs until I get their attention. Would I actually do that?

I don't know yet...as satisfying as it might be, I doubt it would do anything but cast a bad light on our efforts.

So Acer....a couple of Austin kids that were supposed to get life-changing gifts of technology will not. Thank you for welding closed what might have been an extremely good opportunity for them. Many now will remember Acer for that wonderful attribute.

And no...please...

We will not accept any donations for the 100 dollar extortion by Acer.

If they can't see past their company policy long enough to see an exceptable circumstance...

Maybe that idea of parting out these machines to their execs isn't a bad idea. Maybe purchasing any more of their products IS a bad idea. Maybe returning the product in a less than passive manner might get their attention.

Then again...there are some awfully smart people that read this blog. I am betting we get this resolved among ourselves.

I'm still thinkin' about it.

If you want a Linux machine, check out Zareason.com. They do nothing BUT Linux and they were Linux before Linux was cool... They also support financially many Free Software projects.

All-righty Then





helios

Asking a favor from our friends...

IYCC is a company started by Linux guy Loye Young. Loye manufactured and sold his own brand of computer. It was a beauty...I am facing it right now as I type this. The crashing economy all but crushed this small business. Everything was in place to succeed when the whole thing hit the crapper for him. While he re-groups, he is doing the little things to try to recover until he is in position to tackle the big things.

We can help him by making his simple portal our home page. It is a simple google search portal with some shopping and unobtrusive ads. We ask that when you do any searches, take the time to use his page to do so and from time to time, click an ad there. If you should have the need to do business at Amazon, purchase computer accessories or buy music, Loye makes a pfenning or two from using his portal.

Loye is one of the Good Guys that got kicked in the teeth by the nasty US economy...many of us suffered. Loye has suffered on levels I don't want to go into...suffice it to say, he's lost more than anyone ever deserves to lose.

This isn't really "news" so it cannot be submitted to any of the Linux wires. Please pass it along to your friends if you would. We want to circulate it as much as possible.

Give Loye a hand by doing the simple things above. It's doing most things we do anyway in our day to day computing. If enough of us do it, it could make a difference.

http://www.iycc.net/

Thank you...sincerely

Ken

Living To Hack and Getting It Done

It wasn't too long ago that we met here to talk about a recent youtube clip entitled "Linux Sucks". I stated that it was eerie...I had almost the same thoughts and ideas about 5 years ago...

I just didn't communicate those ideas as well or with the same media Brian Lunduke did.

In my opinion, he presented some valid points...points that have been discussed in ones-ies and two-sies, but never brought together in a complete package like the Lunduke clip.

Whether we agree with him or not isn't the point here...we've fairly well done that.

What we are here now for is to talk about actually moving toward getting it done. First though, let's look at some dynamics of our community...the entire community, not just the developers or code guys.

There is no "leadership" in the Linux Community, and it is that way for a reason...that reason being obvious. One person's vision cannot or should not shape something as globally important as GNU/Linux and Free Software.

There are however, people that lead individual projects within the community. Leadership on that level is paramount to accomplishing anything. Anyone not agreeing with that only need to revisit the Debian debacle. Leadership by consensus isn't leadership...it's a recipe for inertia. I first became aware of how problematic "group leadership" can be when Matt Garrett resigned from the Debian Team in 2006.

Sometimes people just need to step aside and let competent leadership do what it does best.

Don't let ego hinder a project.

Lead. Competently, and lead by doing...by setting the example and not letting ego get in the way of progress or the goal.

Quoted from Ryan Paul in December of 2008:

"Debian's ideological underpinnings are also occasionally an impediment rather than an asset. The project's commitment to democracy and intentional lack of strong centralized leadership sometimes cripples the decision-making process and contributes to an overall lack of direction. Development efforts can be impaired or derailed by endless non-technical disputes over specific ideological issues."

No, this isn't pick on Debian Day. I only set it on the table because I know most everyone either remembers it or was possibly involved in the numerous donnybrooks that ensued. As far as I am concerned, Debian is the cornerstone of GNU/Linux.

So on the project level, what defines a good leader?

First, it's someone with the ideas and the skills to either make those ideas real or assemble the team (s)he needs to make those ideas real.

Oh, Look what I found.

He's asked me not to reveal his name and I will not...he prefers to be referred to as simply HackToLive. Until we can get a program like shortkeys lite in Linux, (hint) I will refer to him as htl. He is a citizen of the EU and has been playing around with various distros and a smattering of coding for a while now. His work is based on Ubuntu and I asked him what he thought he had to offer the community. Ubuntu is pretty good just the way it is. This is what he told me:

I started out calling it "Super Ubuntu". I changed it from Super Ubuntu because I was informed about the ubuntu trademark guidelines, and I did not wanted to comply with them. Canonical (the official ubuntu sponsor) did not force me, and they were ok if I used the name IF I complied with the guidelines. I did this because I now think I have more freedom to do modifications to the OS (not using the "Ubuntu" name).

Super Ubuntu, now referred to as Super OS, started with a simple need: having a Live CD that worked out-of-the-box. "A long time ago" I used Live CDs a lot (now I use mainly Live USBs) , and one thing that frustrated me was having to install flash and MP3 codecs on the Live CD everytime I needed those features! I also know MP3 and flash (and all that restricted/"non-free" stuff) are probably the first things many people install on their Ubuntu systems, so I decided to make their life easier and at the same time promote ubuntu and open-source software.

But that only gives him a jumping-off point for his real innovation.

One of the other problems I found on current linux distros is the hard way to simply run files and install software not in the official repositories (forcing the user to use the command line to simply execute a program as root!), so I came up with App Runner and more recently SRUN (still in beta-testing). Other thing I also do not like is having to wait 6 months for new versions of software, I know there are backports, but they are not really well implemented... a good solution would be portable apps (or self-contained programs), something I am also working on (SRUN + portable apps).

Remember in our earlier article we talked about taking package management, or at least the front end to package management to a unified tool? Look closely as htl's beta projects above...SRUN and portable apps.

This is the beginning of his vision for unified packaging. He plans to work with other distros that want his help after he has the Ubuntu/Super OS project finished.

We talked about vision being part of a good leader. He isn't standing still when that is done. He also wants to improve the upgrade process between releases.

"I think I can make this much easier and less time consuming. Service Packs for Super OS. This would not force the user to re-install Super OS every time a new minor version is out. Service pack 1 is already being worked out, and I expect to release it in less then one month from now. My RoadMap:"

Since The HeliOS Project is constantly fighting the lack of Internet connections when we install for our kids, htl's superdebs and SRUN packaging components are ideal. We have implemented the use of Super OS on all of our installs now and plan to continue doing so. Htl has agreed to work as a HeliOS Project development partner and boy howdy was it needed...I couldn't code my way into a rocking chair.

There are efforts like htl's out there. Mint has done a great job in making the new user's experience easier, as has TheeMann's Ubuntu Ultimate. What we like about htl's Super OS is the direction he wants to take it. He wants to think ahead...not dress up something already pretty...but alter it in a way that leads to other possibilities, from other people.

And that's another thing that makes a good leader.

He's not afraid to be improved upon. It's all about the end result, not the notation behind it giving him credit for the achievement. Nor is he afraid of criticism...honest, non-defensive criticism. You may have questions about security, about the process...things that he may or may not have thought of. This is a good place to bring them up.

My guess is that he'll be watching.

Htl will need help with mirrors. He expects rapid growth once Super OS hits Distrowatch and based on the performance so far on our kid's computers, I am assuming uptake will be brisk. If you have any mirroring space or know of an organization that will mirror Super OS, please contact us via the comments and we will pursue it quickly.

If I were to hazard a prediction, it would be that he'd need the space pretty soon.

All-righty then

helios

A Major Meeting

I am often humbled by some of the comments and emails from people that read this blog. What humbles me the most is when people take time out of their busy lives and actually stop by to visit.

Sometimes from Europe for Kernel's sake...

I mean they had other bid'ness here...but while they were in the neighborhood...

Most every one of them don't want to just visit, they want to help.

Now I don't know what some people expect...there sure isn't any glamor in doing what we do here. Most times it involves manual labor and perspiration.

Sometimes freezing cold with accompanying sleet and rain....21 inch CRT monitors to be carried up three flights of stairs.

not-so-friendly dogs...

You get the picture.

So when people offer to "drop by", I make sure to tell them to wear clothing that isn't GQ and to bring gloves if they have hands that cannot afford to be damaged.

Like chip technicians. I know one in particular that has his hands insured for $750.000.00.

Often though, there isn't much to really do at the time or the only time our friends have to visit is in the evening. One such visit not only surprised me...it made me realize just how good a good friend can be.

He goes by the name of Colonel Panic on the LXer forums. I will let him reveal his actual name if he so chooses. Now the Colonel had been threatening to visit for quite some time so when he said he was "on his way", I checked my watch.

It was 10:30 pm. He wasn't to arrive for another hour.

Not alot of computers to install at that hour either but since I am a diagnosed short sleeper
this didn't present much of a problem. What surprised me most was finding out that the Colonel had driven 4 hours out of his way to meet with me.

Total time of our visit?

About an hour and a half at an all night diner...swilling coffee and intermittently swapping fishing lies and bash scripts. It was one of the most memorable visits I've received.

Those of us who use GNU/Linux and advocate for its use are not usually surprised by the extreme cross-section of Linux Users. Dr's, Politicians, policemen and even Senior Officers in the United States Army.

Now let me tell you...having spent a career in the Army, I know the protocol pretty good. Retiring as a Senior Non Commissioned Officer, I also know the Officer ranking and the nuance therein.

A Major in the US Army has sacrificed and proven a lot to become a Major in the US Army. This isn't a pony-tailed aging hippie tech nerd...this is a person who has proven his or her ability to lead effectively...and lead large numbers of people effectively. He will lead soldiers into battle or pull injured civilians out of tornado-destroyed homes. His responsibilities are awesome...represented by the oak leaves on his collar.

His name is Arick McNiel-Cho and as you may have guessed from the lead-in, he is a Major in the US Army.

And he is an avid Linux User.


Arick and his staff were in Austin on temporary duty (tdy for you army guyz) to look at some battle stuff and investigate it for implementation into various combat scenerios. I'd love to tell you more but I was advised that I shouldn't ask further or he'd have to...

never mind...you know.

Arick is a impressive fellow in stature and demeanor. Even someone without any military experience would intuitively know that he held a leadership position. Arick asked me to pick a place where we could go have a couple of beers and spend a few hours talking Linux shop.

With astounding precision, I screwed that up by picking a college bar. I felt like someone's dad, out looking for his wayward daughter.

There were a more than a few there that would give their fathers fits if they knew what their little cupcake was wearing out in public.

Mercy.

At any rate, we spent the next three hours talking bash scripting, advocacy and the general direction in which we wanted to see Linux go. The time really went by too fast. By 11 pm we both realized we had early days ahead of us and shook hands.

My point in all of this?

GNU/Linux has much deeper roots in the American Computer UserBase than most of us realize. The US Army uses the Linux Desktop across many different deployments...not just servers. If Majors in the US Army are using Linux as their only means of operating their computers, we have to ask ourselves "how many more are out there...quietly using Linux and not thinking anything of it?" Carla Schroeder's recent article hits the target like a computer-guided Patriot missle.

And destroying the myth with satisfying carnage.

And I did mention not-so-glorious work and perspiration...

Brian Griffin is a techno-geek. He makes his living on the software side of the house.

He took the Red Pill.

Brian is in Austin visiting family while waiting for new position to come open in Toronto. He emailed me and let me know that he was going to be around and did I need some help.

Ya think?

When the planets finally aligned correctly, Brian was able to meet me so we could move 4 pallets of computer inventory into our new warehouse facility.

This would also be a good time to announce our informal partnership with The Austin Samaritans. Aside from their international work, The Austin Samaritans have a grant to provide computers to disadvantaged kids in South and Central Texas. In exchange for some fairly generous warehouse space, The Austin Samaritans will receive from The HeliOS Project those Pentium II's and III's deemed not powerful enough for our needs. Sometime in the late autumn, I have volunteered two weeks of my life to go with them to Nicaragua to set up a Linux Server System for a hospital. Wanna go with me? Let me know.

It was that un-air conditioned warehouse that Brian Griffin labored in that afternoon.

He busted his butt.

And for that I am thankful...all of us at The HeliOS Project thank Brian for giving us several hours of his day to do the hardest work we do...moving equipment from one place to another. It can be exhausting. Thank you Brian, and may the Universe give you good things in Toronto.

You gave us good things in Austin. As so have all of you who stop by our effort here in Austin Texas.

All-Righty Then

The Thin Line Between Victim and Idiot

En Espanol

This is not meant for Linux user's consumption...rather it is meant to pass along to your friends that still use windows. It has some irrefutable arguments within.

Idiot...

That's a fairly strong word. I can't think of a situation where most people would not find it offensive.


Or rude.

Let me tell you something else that is rude, the offensive part I will leave to personal opinion.

Asking a friend to repeatedly fix your computer.

Not "fix" as in something inside the computer broke like a hard drive or a power supply.

I'm talking about your forays into Myspace and astalavista.box.sk.

I'm talking about having to repeatedly clean the garbage off your computer so it will run halfway decently again.

You seem to have no shame when it comes to this.

I personally stopped "fixing" Windows computers three years ago. That includes my wife's computer. Ahem...now my ex-wife, but that goes a bit farther than the scope of this discussion.

See, many of us have found a way to run our computers where we don't have to worry about that crap anymore.

Ever.

Many of us have told you of this miraculous operating system and have went as far as to offer to install it on your computer for you...free of charge.

Many of our motives are far from altruistic.

We're sick of cleaning up your messes. If we install GNU/Linux and Free Software on your computer, we simply won't have to be bothered again. I don't speak for all Linux Users...but enough of them to hear the applause in the background.

And trust me...it is a bother, whether we verbalize it or not.

In 2004, a variant of the Sasser worm infected my three-city network, and by the time the dust settled, it had cost me $12,000.00 in business. My machines were fully protected and fully patched. See, that's the problem with Windows exploits. These viruses and worms mutate quicker than the anti virus software makers can issue the fixes. In my case, Symantec was 72 hours away from fixing this variant...I was one click away from disaster.

It's convenient to blame the virus writers and anti virus software makers but ultimately it is your fault you get this crap on your machine. You are using a system that not only allows it...it fosters it. Let it be known that by reading further, you will learn that you have a choice in how you operate your computer. A free-as-in-cost and free-as-in-no-restrictions choice.

You will no longer be able to identify yourself as a victim.

The cost I incurred was in business loss. Today's viruses are not in it for the mischief...they are in it for the money.

Take a look at this.

These people are not going to stop. They are stealing billions of dollars a year by infecting your computers. There is too much money in this for them to even think about taking a break. What's worse, they are operating out of Russia and Nigeria for the most part...we can't get to them to stop them.

Yeah...it's not going to happen to you is it?

Right.

It wasn't going to happen to me either.

Linux is an alternative operating system much like Microsoft Windows...and no, it's not a "program". "Programs" run within an operating system. Think of it as a walnut. The shell of the walnut is your operating system. The goods within the walnut shell are the programs.

I'll not bore you with the details. If you are interested in finding out why Linux is safer and better, you can go here, here and here. There is a fairly comprehensive explanation as to why you don't need anti virus software here. Here is an article from a long-time Mac and Windows user who has seen the superiority of Linux and has put it on is own computer.

But this isn't a lesson on computer usage.

It's a wakeup call for common sense.

Did you know that most computer repair shops, once they "repair" your system; project future profits on the fact that you use Microsoft Windows? They know for a fact that you are going to need them again in six months.

They put their kids through private schools and upper-crust colleges because you are a Microsoft Windows User and are not able to adequately protect your computer.

It's getting harder and harder to do so. And don't look to Windows 7 for your salvation...you will still need to laden your system with the same anti virus garbage and registry cleaners you did with XP and Vista. There's an even money chance that they are going to fail anyway. So you've paid for what?

There is however, a thin line between being a victim and being an idiot. If you do not know you have a choice and bad things happen to you, then you are a victim.

If you know you have a choice and still insist on personally using a system over and over again that will ultimately lead to the same problems....

I think the descriptor of idiot is fair.

You disagree? You know that Windows is the problem...you know that it's just a matter of time before you have to do it all over again. You know you have an alternative but you insist on putting the source of the problem back on your computer. You may be uncomfortable with the term "idiot"...you give me another name for it then.

And if you have to use it at work...I understand. Unfortunately, as flawed as it is, it is still a Windows world. The good news? Slowly but surely businesses across the globe are making the switch. Even those that are not yet Linux companies are letting some employees run their choice of operating systems on their work computers. That choice is Linux.

Look. Here is the way it is.

When you buy a new computer, chances are it will have Microsoft Windows on it. That didn't come free...the price of the computer is jacked up anywhere from $100.00 to $300.00 to pay Microsoft. It's known as the Microsoft Tax. Microsoft has entered into deals with many of the computer manufacturers to insure that Windows is on about every machine they sell. The kicker here? Those agreements are secret and you and I cannot see them. We've written about this before.

Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on new computer sales.

Now there are independents such as zareason.com that sell nothing but GNU/Linux computers and they are great folks to deal with. In fact, I have never encountered service like Earl and Cathy Malmrose provide....and for the most part, they provide it for free. Dell has also begun selling Linux computers. Do you think Dell would sell a system on their machines that would cause them to lose money or damage their reputation?

When you call Microsoft for support, the first thing they ask for is a credit card.

So suppose you have bought a new computer and here comes the first 90 days...you start getting popups saying your anti virus protection is about to expire and if you want to continue to "be protected", you need to renew your subscription.

What?

Yep...now some anti virus companies go an entire year before they expire but still...eventually you are going to be frightened into shelling out more money in exchange for your peace of mind.

In other words, you have to purchase software to insure the software you've already purchased is going to work. Did you read that carefully? And you are ok with that?

If I did that, I'd be in jail by now...and so would you.

Linux amputates that part of the computing experience completely. Some people cannot get their head around the fact that they don't need to pay this extortion anymore. You have no idea what a sense of liberation this brings. Now some of you are sure to comment:

"I've run Windows for years without a problem."

Congratulations. You wanna Google it and see how many others have not? I suppose as long as your computer is ok, then all is right with the world.

We can open most any attachment without fear...we can visit websites that will bring a Windows machine to its knees...and we don't notice anything. And please...don't be foolish and say that Linux is too hard for the normal Windows user. We have 10 and 12 year-olds picking it up in a couple of hours...they never look back. Entire nations have already or are in the process of switching to Linux. Many countries in Asia and South America have made the switch. India is booting out Microsoft in their schools and migrating to Linux as we speak.

So. You've been told. You do have a choice...and it doesn't cost you one thin dime. If you choose not to at least look into it, and trust me, most of you won't....don't ask us to come fix your infected computers.

We know which side of that thin line you stand.

EDIT: A friend of boh was kind enough to send us this faux-sign...just seemed to fit the theme of the day.














All-Righty Then

Linux - Dealing with the reality

People that read my blog with any regularity will roll their eyes at the next statement...I believe I've made the point before:

I don't write because I think what I have to say is important...I write to draw your comments.

That's when I begin to learn...to understand.

Has my blog been a soapbox? You bet. The biggest, bestest one I could build. But through it all, it has existed as a learning tool for me.

That being said, the Deja Vu article drew some notable comments. I wrote it to state that I had the same revelation the "Linux Sucks" author had recently, only several years before. One comment in particular stood out and I thought I would share it verbatim, as a feature article. Thank you Magice for sharing your knowledge and thoughts. I believe they are important.

All-righty Then

h

My question to this kind of suggestion would be "then what?". Assume that we succeeded in "unifying" the effort and experience, and GNU/Linux achieves significant market share in desktops, then what? What have we offered to the world but Windows-with-Linux-kernel?

The real meat of GNU/Linux is not about speed, or stability, or usability. These are the result of the real meat, side effects at best. If you wish those that much, you can go for Macintosh just fine. Or some specialized version of Windows. GNU/Linux is not about these. I still put the "GNU/" part there to remind myself that GNU/Linux is all about personality and freedom. That is what this system offers to the world.

True, it takes time and effort to put together a GNU/Linux system. True, it may be weird and inefficient from time to time. But so what? It is, for God's sake, MY GNU/Linux system. It's different from yours. It's unique. It's like how your parents feel about you: you are not the best, but you are theirs, period. They love you, enjoy spending time with you, nurture you, not because you are the best, but because you are theirs.

Same goes of "joy of computing. It's not about showing off, or speed, or stability. It's PC, personal computer. It's mine. It took me a month to put everything together, and it sort of works. However, you know what, I love it. It's mine. I can sometimes even feel its working for me, restlessly overcomes any mistakes I made along the way. It's personal. If I don't like such and such component, well, dead with that. I will switch. I hand-pick the part that I trust and love. My fingerprint is all over the place: it's my personal computer.

Can Windows ever achieve that? Can Macintosh can ever achieve that? Windows Vista is flashy alright, professional alright, but it's someone else, it's something I bought, not built. It's just impersonal, cold, and fake at best (cruel at worst, if you are talking about the EULA).

GNU/Linux is different, that's the main point. It takes time, effort, and sometimes money. It can frustrate me from time to time. But it's like my little kid.

And that's what GNU project offers to the world: a taste of freedom, of possessing your own system. It's the meat of the whole project, and later the whole free software movement. Linux is adopted to be a part of that. Thus, it is best that GNU/Linux stays what it is, "an alternative to the mainstream" (quoted from forgotten source).

If we change, if we "standardize" the system, we just prove one thing: that Thomas Paine and his bunch were wrong after all; or any freedom worshiper for that matter. It is best to have some "developers" to control your system; it's best to hand over your computer to someone else; it's best to not doing anything; it's best to be under control, to be slave, to not think. Freedom, personality, possession are too effort-intensive, too time-consuming. Is that what GNU/Linux about? Oh, sorry. Is that what Linux is about? Is that PC? A brand, sounds good, connote nobility, but denotes nothing but an empty name?

Deja Vu All Over Again

It was a website called Lobby4Linux...my first step into Gnu/Linux and Free Software advocacy.

It wasn't half bad. A good but long-lost friend named Tracy Kuhlman from Oklahoma built the site from a Xoops template and he spent dozens of hours making it work. To my surprise it became fairly popular. A famous Linux journalist, Joe Barr, interviewed me about Lobby4Linux for Linux.com in 2006.

May God give Love and Rest to Joe's spirit. We lost him about two years ago.

Today Lobby4Linux resides redundantly, safely tarred on several hard drives...existing in it's own little cube. The only changes it sees these days is when I change icon sets and it is dressed by someone's representation of what a tar.gz file should look like. A 4 gig tar.gz file. Every comment made, every article written lays silent inside that cube.

Things change...evolve...

On that venue, in the summer of 2005, I wrote an article that pissed thousands of people off. To date, that article posted the third-most comments we've ever received. Many of them were not positive. I lost friends over it. I made publicly some fairly controversial statements. I said that the current model of the GNU/Linux desktop system would flounder in obscurity until a permanent level of standardization was reached.

And then I crossed the line.

I stated that while I was all for choice and freedom, Linux would continue to simmer on the back burner...never tasted by those seated at the tables out front...never quite done...never quite ready for public consumption. We need to have one distribution method of applications. Deb, rpm, tar.gz, apt-get, emerge = common user information overload. Therefore being ever ignored by the masses.

We needed to think about possibly presenting just one distro to the world.

Mcdonalds. I think their food sucks. Many of you think their food sucks, but we continue to eat it. So why are they successful? In part, because whether you are in Bamberg Germany or Boise Idaho, it sucks exactly the same. Windows is no different as a product. It sucks but people have grown used to the taste of bad software...and they not only accept it, they make excuses as to why they continue to consume it.

Even when they are presented with a better way of doing things.

Because they know what it is going to taste like before they eat it. When they sit down with it in front of them, they are already familiar with it.

I stated that we needed to form a single entity that took in and distributed funds for specific development teams. I even tried to organize it and was screamed at from people on six continents. We could have our Photoshop...our AutoCad...our Garage Band. Developers have to pay mortgages. Love of what they do and the love for their fellow man doesn't keep the repossession agent from the door. Many of you despise it but the fact remains that capitalism works...it's the driving motivation behind the majority of successes at every level.

"Developers have to eat."

That is quoted for a reason.

In the spring of 2009, at a Linux gathering in Northwest USA, a man stood before a large group of Linux Developers and said the same things. I am no smarter than this man, he's forgotten more about GNU/Linux than I will ever remember. I simply gave it some thought before he did.

I wonder how many friends he will lose because he said it.

You be the judge.


All-Righty Then

Who's Running Dell?

The title of this article? It's obviously a rhetorical question.

Unless you are a GNU/Linux User.

If you are a reader of LXer.com, you have read or have heard about the donnybrooks in the comments section concerning their line of Linux machines. From seemingly hiding the Linux choices to plastering "Dell Recommends Windows Vista" over the top of the Linux ad, things got fairly interesting. At times, members of Dell Management would chime in and do their PR work.

A phrase containing "a grain of salt" comes to mind here.




Mark Van Kingsley is a successful Linux-based business owner in New York. Fact is, Mark started his business based on my Open Sourced business plan. I put months of research and work into it and it is the perfect example of how a business plan should be structured. Mark was even offered loans to start his business based on his revised business plan. Anyone can receive it simply by asking. But I digress...

He decided it was time to get a new desktop. Knowing that Dell had Linux options, he navigated to their website and began his shopping. No one relates an experience better than the person experiencing it, so let me present it straight from the source. What follows is a verbatim account of his experience with Dell Sales on the telephone.

On 4-28-09, I was on the Dell site, looking to purchase a computer. One
of the options was to select Windows, Ubuntu or FreeDOS. I selected
Ubuntu, but it then grayed out all models except the "Inspiron." I
wanted a "Studio" and couldn't do it from the website unless I agreed
to spend 100+ dollars for a MS OS. I tried to build a "Studio" and
then deselect the Windows option, but it wasn't available. I
figured I'd call their customer service line and get this squared
away. When I told the first operator what I wanted, you'd have
thought I asked for powdered water and was quickly transferred to
another operator. Same go around with this one. what I was asking
for wasn't processing mentally.

Finally, I was transferred to (someone who's name I can't recall) at
"Team BlackHawk." I told this gentleman what I wanted, he said he
couldn't send me an unformatted HD, but he could send me one with
Ubuntu or FreeDOS. I was very happy and we continued to customize it
the way I wanted. When all was said and done, I thanked him and told
him I was looking forward to getting my "Studio."

This "Team BlackHawk" member then told me "No, its an Inspiron, not a Studio." I told him...again...that I didn't want an Inspiron. He
started to tell me about the license agreement with MS and I cut him
off:

"I'm not interested in your agreement with MS. I want your product, not theirs."

He told me he could only sell me an Inspiron if
I didn't want Windows. I then asked him "Are you telling me that Dell
Computer can't sell me a Dell Computer, unless MS says it it's OK?"
He said "Well, if you look at it that way..." and again I cut him off:
"How else would one look at that?" After an awkward silence on his
part, I thanked him and hung up.

Isn't that special...

Team BlackHawk.

I wonder if they come to work in Camouflage and fully-armed with assault rifles. One would wonder.

The first two pages of Google search results turned up zilch for any use of Team BlackHawk as it relates to Dell. I didn't bother to search any further. Some of you might suggest that there are other search engines aside from Google.

No there isn't.

I began doing a bit of research to find out why this was so. My first thoughts were that the Inspiron is built with hardware that has been extensively tested with Linux...and I believe that will be the official Dell response.

The Special Forces Dell Sales Representative said differently.

He evoked the Microsoft Licensing agreement. I want to see it.

I think we all should see it. Chances of that happening are as likely as Mark Van Kingsley getting his Studio laptop pre-installed with Linux. So the Microsoft Tax is alive and well at Dell. Mark has promised to follow this up with phone calls to Microsoft to pointedly ask why this is. Let's not hold our collective breath waiting for an answer.

It's a shame to see such a large and powerful company kneel at the feet of Microsoft but I suppose the old adage is true.

"Bowing to another does nothing but give your opponent the opportunity to knock you on your ass."

And yes...it is an old adage...about 20 seconds old.

All Righty Then

Bringing Light Into The Darkness

The Title of this blog?

It has nothing to do with us. Rather, it has everything to do with a group of people who care enough to wade through the human filth of child abuse and rescue those needing them long ago.

The Settlement Home is founded by 450 caring Austin and Central Texas women. They have built a place of safety and healing for girls that have seen the ugliest side of human nature...the side that cares only for satisfying a dark and uncaring id.

Don't ask me to be any more specific, rage is not far from me as I write this.

Mike Downing, the RTC Director called me last Wednesday. He wanted to know if his non-profit qualified for our assistance. Mike was about 1/3 of the way through his pitch when I stopped him.

"When can I come out and look the place over? We'll be glad to help you."

As Mike spoke, I Googled The Settlement Home. Something deep in the muck of memory was struggling to get oxygen...it struck me soon enough. And no, we won't go into the revelation...suffice it to say that there are some real-life hero's working within this system and I know who they are.

Not that it matters...it simply speaks to me the character of this place. These people wouldn't be there if it wasn't a place of healing.

I arrived at the Settlement Home at 10 am that next Saturday. I was met by Heather Siegfried, Youth Care Coordinator, and Brooke Fell, Support Services Coordinator. They walked me to the Administration building to meet the guy that was going to be our partner in this project.

His name is Ben Garcia and he is the Network Administrator for The Settlement Home. Ben fit my stereotype of a Professional Geek immediately. He was quiet, and when he spoke it was with precise focus on what he wanted to communicate without any fluff. His gaze was as intense as his knowledge of what he does.

I had dreaded this meeting for the entire span of time between Mike's phone call and the present moment.

The moment I had to tell this Network Administrator that I was going to use Linux exclusively for the project. I was ready for the argument when it came time to bring it forward.

Heather, Brooke and Ben walked me into the first dorm so I could see the physical layout of the work areas. All the dorms are basically the same so I could make sketches from this one and pretty much have an idea of the other three buildings. Some of the girls peeked in cautiously as we spoke.





There would be a total of 12 computers needed. Each room in each dorm had 3 girls residing within. We would supply 1 computer for every three-girl dorm room. As I made notes of the layout, I nonchalantly cleared my throat and addressed Ben.

"We're going to be installing Linux on these machines Ben, is that going to cause you any problems?"

I finished my sketch in the next two seconds and looked up to see his physical response.

"No, that's all I run here."

I was just about overwhelmed with relief and I raised my hand in a high-five invitation and couldn't help but show my delight.

"Dude!"

We completed the male ritual with unpracticed awkwardness. It was about 5 minutes into the rapid-fire back and forth about distros, servers, Kernels and networking stuff that I noticed the female portion of our group had left.

I can't blame them...male bonding can be a bit embarrassing. Especially Geek male bonding.

Ben took me immediately into the server room. He has been at The Settlement Home since 1999 and is one of the shortest term employee's at the home. The Executive Director, Linda Kokemor, just celebrated her 28th year there. The Settlement Home doesn't have any employee turnover. The people that work there are dedicated and loving people who love what they do...and they love each and every girl there as if they were their own.





Some of them do not make that an easy task. There are some extremely troubled girls within this Place of Hope.

Because of the sensitive nature of the clientèle and staff, the network there is hardened to steel-cased proportions. I watched and listened in awe as Ben showed me his work...work that had taken a decade to do. He built this elaborate and effective network from the ground up and it is a model of professionalism and pride. I spent the better part of three hours with Ben, walking the grounds, meeting the staff and the girls that live there...

The girls that are healing from some of the most atrocious wounds anyone can imagine.

Wounds of the Spirit.

So the HeliOS Project is going into The Settlement Home and we are going to provide these girls with the best we can give them. Mike, you and your staff honor us by allowing us to complete this task. We will spare nothing to make sure they have everything they need...no skimping, no short cuts. This will certainly tax our already critical need for wireless adapters but we will proceed as if all our needs will be met.

We are going to match the thing that The Settlement home gives them most.

We are going to give them Love.

All-Righty Then












many thanks to metallixfaker for the use of his fantastic art...Tattered Teddy Bear

Wireless Woes Continue to Woo Project

We've had some great success in getting computers donated for our HeliOS Project. Problem is, because we cannot get our kids the internet connections they need, we are now almost 100 percent dependent upon wireless connections.

We cannot get wireless devices donated.

Everything else is coming in well and people have been generous to a fault...they just don't have or won't part with wirless devices. We're kind of in a jam and we will come here to see if we can't get this at least temporarily fixed.

Pasted directly from the Current Needs page of our website:

Here are three kinds we can use. The PCMCIA Adapters, the USB Wireless adapters and the PCI wireless adapters. We need all of them in equal measure so any one of them would be greatly appreciated. You can order from the corresponding links and have them shipped to us, you can donate to our fund on the blog of helios website as we can buy them in bulk (on the left side of the page) If you work at a company or firm that has some not being used, we can use those as well. We have a drop point in North Austin if that is more convenient for you. You can also drop them off at our facility on Giblin Bend Road or we will pick them up as our resources allow.

If we were not so behind in getting these machines out, we wouldn't come here for this...we like to keep the HeliOS Project business on that side of the page, but in this circumstance, we hope that folks can give us a hand getting these devices here and into machines. If you care to purchase them and send them to us as an option, email icanhelp@fixedbylinux.com and we will get you our shipping address. That may be a bit more time than some people have so in that event, you can add to our bulk order fund at the top left of this page.

Thank you for being part of what we do.

All-Righty Then