HeliOS Project Brings Linux Technology to the East Side

It's called Space12.

What was once a place that only the bravest would tread, is now a place where you can find good things.

Safe things.

Sam Lee, the driving force behind Space12 has allowed The HeliOS Project to start a bold initiative within these Walls Of Hope. Space12 goes beyond a "community center". It is a place for all to come and find things that you wouldn't necessarily expect to find in this area. A place of laughter, of learning and of safety.

It hasn't always been an area conducive to safety and security.

Sam Lee being interviewed by Ryan Mlynarczyk while Tom King runs cat5 cable.

Fact is, whether merited or not, East Austin is notorious for its violence.

Recent efforts to stabilize the area East of I-35 in Austin have been encouraging. The replacing of Chester's Nightclub with Space12 is just one such change that is morphing this part of town into something other than a cliche'.

Our announcement of intent earlier this month has evolved into action. This past Sunday, Tom King and I arrived at 3121 E. 12th Street with 4 Pentium 4 computers, monitors and all the cabling and network gear to begin our installation of the Thomas M. Edwards Technology Learning Center. The remaining 12 will be installed after the April Linux Against Poverty event where we will be the recipient of computers needed to finish the project.

But this Sunday wasn't business as usual for Tom and me...it's not like we were doing anything different than we normally do on any given evening or weekend.

We had company.

Ryan Mlynarczyk and Mandy Creighton are doing something amazing of their own. They are biking across the United States and filming a documentary about sustainable communities. The name of their project is Within Reach and you can see their website at withinreachmovie.com.

Their work is published under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States.

Christian Einfeldt, producer of The Digital Tipping Point had recommended that the filming duo catch up with The HeliOS Project while they were in Austin and film some of their work.

"At first, we balked a bit about putting any effort into filming The HeliOS Project", said Ryan. "It didn't fit into the mold of what we thought sustainable communities are. We were thinking in a linear manner, stuff like growing one's own food for the community, barn raising's for the commune/community...things like that. But once we saw that these guys were truly building a sustainable technology community, it changed our outlook on the matter and we were eager to work with them."

With Ryan and Mandy filming and still-shooting our efforts, Tom, Sam and I went about our business of making these first 4 machines work. They are all P4's but some had specialized memory that we could not obtain for upgrades...the distros varied from a full Ubuntu Ultimate install down to an AntiX installation on a machine with only 256 meg of hard-to-find RAM.

Tom King has a special place in the Directorship of HeliOS Solutions. As a Server Engineer for Dell, Tom brings a wealth of knowledge to the effort...which is good because left to the efforts of helios, the best his networks could achieve would be akin to tin cans and string. Working with a D-link 4 port wireless router, we began the task of getting cat5 cable fitted with rj45 connectors and running the wire. Tom reset the router and had the entire system networked and seeing each other in moments. He began the updates on one Ubuntu Box while I got the OpenSuse machine updated and YAST fine-tuned.

The 4 distros for this particular install were Ubuntu Ulitimate, OpenSuse, Mint and AntiX. The main room center will more than likely be uniform installs of Linux Mint. That will make teaching classes a bit easier and lessen confusion.

This first installation found its home in the roomy office section of the center. Each machine has its own desk and chair and plenty of room for books or other study materials. The main part of the Learning Center will be built in a 9x15 room with long tables along each wall. We have some special needs for the main part as we will need to employ LCD flatscreen monitors there. There just won't be room for the bulky CRTs we are used to installing. Hopefully, the Linux Against Poverty event will net those for us in April.

That larger room will be the facility where Directors of The HeliOS Project will conduct weekly classes on general Linux/computer use, the use of OpenOffice and much to the surprise of many...a class on programming. Tom King will be conducting weekly classes using the Open Source application "Alice".

"Kids are hungry for this kind of education." Tom stated as he ran a script to set up the router. "Often, the ones that really want to learn stuff like this don't know where to go or who to contact. It doesn't matter what side of town a kid lives on...if they want to learn, we are going to teach them. There's no law that says tomorrow's programmers have to have a Westlake Hills mailing address."

Indeed.

The HeliOS Project will first concentrate their efforts to fill seats from the community housing sections right down the street from Space12. They are currently looking for volunteers that are fluent in Spanish to help them with some of the classes. The need for bi-lingual instructors is a given in this environment.

The big push here though isn't the actual installation of the Technology Learning Center. This center will be the hub for a wireless "guerilla-network" that will provide those without the means to afford broadband access a way to connect to a fast, secure internet connection.

It's not like we haven't almost begged Time Warner and others to give us a hand here. We've presented plans to help local residents budget themselves into full subscription plans...all we asked for is a reduced rate to start with.

They didn't have the courtesy to write us a PUAR letter or return a phone call.

Ken answers Mandy's questions during the interview.


That's fine...we'll get it done our way...it will simply take some time. We will deploy at least 20 percent of our computer installs in this area and work our way outward until we can start building our network. A free internet access network.

Access to technology should never be predicated on an ability to pay for it.

And now some of that time, for many of the kids in this East Austin neighborhood, doesn't have to be spent on the streets. Thanks to Sam Lee and the organization that gives him support, they can come and play foosball, read, study, talk or even learn how to use a computer.

Linux Computers.

It's what sustainable community is all about.

All Righty then












Special thanks to Ryan and Mandy. All photos posted were taken by Mandy Creighton.
You can follow their travels at http://www.withinreachmovie.com/.

You can also donate to their project and insure they eat more than Pb&J's on their trip. We were happy to donate them a laptop but last time I checked...they were really rough on the digestive system.

h

Open and airy...The first 4 computers for the Thomas M. Edwards Technology Learning Center are staged for install











Ken, Sam and Tom pose under the Space12 sign
















Mandy, Ryan, Ken and Tom grab something to eat after the install...Tom of course is taking the picture.













local community members are encouraged to sharpen
their photography skills and exhibit/sell their work at
Space12.

Treasures beyond measure

Fate.

Sometimes I think She is mistaken for just being in tune to what is going on around you.

Sometimes not....sometimes it simply cannot be explained that easily.

I do it every day. I stop by the Land Air Freight Company and see what has come in for our delivery service. I then load it and take it back for breakdown for the different routes.

Scott runs Land Air in Austin and he himself is a part-time geek. Of course, I am in full conversion-mode with Scott and it is an ongoing process. My daily visits there probably would be 15 minutes shorter if I didn't think I could convince him to use Linux.

I noted someone else sitting in the other dispatch chair and recognized him as a fellow truck driver.

This is a bad time for our economy...probably one of my most profound understatements to date. It has hit the freight industry hard. Manufacturers are not manufacturing due to the lack of demand so less commodities made means less commodities shipped. Major shippers like Pegasus have laid off 60-100 people at a time. It's happening all over the shipping industry.

Simple math, devastating consequences. I'm holding my breath.

Scott had hired my road buddy more as a favor than anything else. He has a family and needed work. Who else better to dispatch truck drivers than a truck driver...he knows the nuance of the business.

The conversation between them was personal. He was mentioning to Scott that before being laid off, he had been shopping for a laptop for his little girl. She's only 11 so it wouldn't have been anything fancy, just something that she could use for school and to help her learn how to do graphic art. She wants to learn how to do it on the computer. He was pretty bummed that he wasn't going to be able to do it for her.

Fate.

Sometimes I think She is mistaken for just being in tune to what is going on around you.

I turned around and walked out the door and approached my truck backed against the loading dock. Unlocking it, I opened the door and took the OLPC from the front seat along with the charging cord. It was donated by Dr. Joyce Statz of Austin Texas during our hardware and funding drive.

It was a simple exchange. I told him what we do and that this computer was for his Daughter. He waited for a bit after I told him that....he was waiting for the catch.

Nothing in this world is free...especially to an out-of-work truck driver.

I assured him that there indeed was no catch and that the computer was for his Daughter. I took a few minutes to explain the computer, OLPC and Linux.

He was grateful beyond expression and I began to feel just a bit uncomfortable. Men do that when emotional stuff happens. We like our emotional expressions infrequent and mostly bottled up. If it isn't a high-five moment, we're pretty much lost and confused by emotional expression.

I left and began my day...it wasn't until I got home to check my email that I found something I think I will put away. I will only take it out and look at during those times when I think the world sucks and 90 percent of the people in it do as well.

She's never seen Linux or an OLPC until now. She's 11 years old and she wants to study graphic art on her computer.

This is why we do what we do.

All-Righty Then

Operation Wired

There's just no other way to do it. Trust me, I've tried my heart out.

The HeliOS Project has done some good things to date, and no...I'm not hyper-extending my shoulder to pat myself on the back...

That is simply the result of unselfish work by many you who will never hear about. I'm just the guy driving their bus.

In the last 41 computer installs we've done, only 19 of them have internet connections. The two most important ones, I paid for out of my own pocket. It is disheartening to get the phone calls from our kids and their parents asking the question..."Can we get internet yet?"

We've repeatedly asked Time Warner for assistance and those requests have fallen on deaf email addresses and voicemail devices. They've not bothered to extend the courtesy of a simple "no thank you." We've talked to all the major folks who provide Internet service and to date, none of them want to do anything to work with us.

That's fine...I realize as a business owner myself that people don't go into business to give away their products and services. Our plan actually had our clients working a plan so that in 6 month's time, they had a functioning budget and could pay the entire amount themselves.

The multi-billion dollar corporations don't seem to care. I am sure they have their "charitable programs". We simply don't seem to fit into any of them. And no none will bother to call us and tell us so.

So here is what we are going to do.

The HeliOS Project is going to set aside a special fund for this purpose. We are going to work with the most agreeable of the bunch, AT&T Yahoo/DSL and make this happen. We can get their subscriptions for a limited time at ten dollars a month, but that is about to lapse. We will get to enjoy that rate for the next few months and then it is going to double. Still, twenty bucks a month for broadband ain't bad. When the families are able to pay, they will...we are not handing out our funding to just anyone. Remember, we are working with extremely disadvantaged families here, and it's only those who will receive our assistance.

We begin our project to place 12-16 computers at Space12 this Sunday. News 8 in Austin will probably cover it as well as a film crew traveling the nation, filming sustainable community efforts.

It is from this effort that we will start to build our wireless mesh. We will concentrate on donating machines to disadvantaged kids in this immediate area and build the kind of solid mesh network needed for accessible internet for the entire area. But that will take a couple of years.

It's come to the point where we fully realize that even the most heart-touching circumstances won't unbind the purse strings of these Megaliths. Again, they are under no obligation to so. We will simply build a network around them...one they cannot control, seize or negate. I've conferred with some of the brightest networking minds at Georgia Tech, UT-Austin and Arizona State University. Coupling our efforts with those of others who are doing the same thing and the city of Austin's free wireless network expansion, well...maybe Time Warner see's the handwriting on the wall and is trying to squeeze every penny out while they can. That's my S.W.A.G. I want to personally thank Don Davis for his extensive research and assistance in helping us get pointed in the right direction.

This can be done...and for those who honestly need it...it will be. It will simply take time and focus. Until then, we need to get the most disadvantaged among us wired. It was suggested prior to this edit that we were a "tin cup project" wasting resources when companies like NetZero and others exist. Man, we've tried those every 6 months to see if there has been any improvement in service and coverage. There has not. Our students need broadband for their studies and research. Saddling them with 1992 technology with 2009 equipment is oh, just a tad absurd.

Now look...I realize fully that someone in Boise Idaho or Fulda Germany really doesn't give a rat's rear about some touchy-feel-good program in Austin Texas.

But I am going to ask you to...just for now. Eventually it will benefit us all. What we learn and build, we will take to other areas and build it there.

We are in the process of applying for a few large grants that will allow us to operate autonomously and when that happens, you can bet that everything you have given will be given back to Linux/FOSS in spades.

We've set up our "Operation Wired" donation point at our Helios Project site and you can do what you feel is right there. There is no set dollar amount, no "goal". We simply need to amass some funding so those P4 computers we give to our kids are more than really bulky typewriters.

Do what you can, please. You can do so up on the left column of this blog.

We will reciprocate many times over. I promise.

All-Righty Then

Linux Gets Gooey on Friday The 13th

We have given out the last of the 10 free WOG downloads. Thank you to the bloggers who helped us make the point...there ARE Linux users who will support their developers. I am not at liberty to divulge the numbers but if you people knew the impact you made by supporting the 2DBoys, you would swallow your teeth. - h

It's been one of the loudest excuses I've heard for people not wanting to use Linux.

"Linux won't play my games."

Well first, that's not near as true as it was a short year ago. Second - if it is so, it's because the people that write the games don't think you are a market force worth investing in.

That, it seems, is changing as well.
Blogger Gedece brought this to my attention a while back and without his input, I would have not known about it.

Linux Community...Prepare to get Goo'ed.

Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel are Indie Game Developers. They've both spent some time "in the trenches" with companies such as EA...they made fairly good money and had steady work, but something ate at them...something uncomfortable and
nagging.

It wasn't the fairy dust and wind chime world they wanted to work in. Reality can suck...why make your living in it? Most of us have to. They don't...they write games.

And now they've written a game and ported it to Linux. This masterpiece has opened to rave reviews...and reviews by those who count.

82 percent of the people who play this game are likely to have stolen it. A twenty dollar game and they steal it. That's a shame. The World of Goo is a joyful, giggleful, and beautiful way to completely waste hours of your life. I know.

I'm not a gamer. I lack the dexterity to even tie my shoes correctly, thank Heaven for Velcro straps on my tennies. So when Kyle sent me a fully-licensed copy of TWOG to test, I wasn't exactly thrumming my fingers on the desk waiting for the download to complete. It was more out of needing to know what I was talking about than anything else that made me navigate to the "games" menu and click the entry.

It's a good thing I have a bit of discipline or I'd still be playing the game.

The Question.

It nagged me throughout the gameplay.

Why? Although a wildly successful game sales-wise, this 20 dollar bobble is still stolen without shame. Kyle and Ron refuse to chain their work with DRM or Regions. Why would you port this masterpiece to Linux? We are undoubtably the biggest Jack Benny-level cheapskates on the planet. Again, the question.

Why Linux?

Kyle Explains:

"We knew from the beginning that we wanted to make our game available to everyone, regardless of platform. We've also always had a secret desire to see the open ideas behind Linux take over. We met the guy who did our Linux port because he was a fan who created an open wiki for translating our game into a bunch of other languages. We were surprised - the language contributions from our community were of much higher quality than the translations we received from a paid translation service. They were so good, and fast, in fact, that we decided to use the community's translations for our European Wii release. They even helped us beta test each of the languages."
Yes, it is available for the Wii...and Mac and...

Linux.

With a smattering of Python and coding skills, I knew this undertaking wasn't easy. The genius behind the Linux Port is Maks Verver. He is the one responsible for the frame by frame marriage to the original Windows game. He has done some stunning work, and we didn't make it easy for him as will be discussed.

I asked Kyle about the technical problems involved in getting this done for us and I let him run with it. Some of his remarks strike home with us Linux Zealots but you have to remember, this is a guy who shoots straight...you cannot ask a question and then pout when the answers aren't what you want to hear.

Linux challenges (technical)

"There were a few small technical hurdles, but Maks is either a genius, or the port was not much trouble at all! One technical hurdle was with Pulse Audio, which apparently comes standard on major distros like Ubuntu. It introduces quite a bit of audio lag. This would be fine for most applications, but it's not good for games, where the goal is to build an extremely responsive system that feels snappy. We were able to work with it, and get the game feeling right, but it took a bit of effort. I realize I'll get shot for saying this, but in Windows, it just worked right away!"

"Also, and I've mentioned this before - Linux is created by too many smart opinionated people! There are a lot of very good ideas, but it can become difficult for developers to support all the different distro formats, bundles, audio/video systems. For linux to REALLY take over, it has to be easy for developers to make stuff, and easy for users to get stuff. It's one of those things where too many options can be suffocating, and ultimately hurt the cause."

Linux challenges (non-technical)

"Our blog stats tell us that only about 5% or less of our visitors are using a form of Linux, so we weren't sure if there would be much interest from the Linux community or not. Do Linux users play a lot of games? Maybe it's just a chicken and egg problem where Linux users would play more games if more people made their games available for Linux?
Our decision to make World of Goo available for Linux users was mostly out of principle - because games SHOULD be available for Linux! We just released it a few hours ago, so I suppose we'll find out soon if our decision made any business sense!"

*****This is an edit 72 hours after the fact. While I've been asked not to crow about numbers and specifics, let it be known that the "Linux Community" shattered one-day sales records for 2dBoy sales of World of Goo. You shattered it by 40% - h

Hurt the cause indeed. But there is something else that "hurts the cause" more than that.

Not supporting someone who has labored on your behalf.

We have always said that "We support those who support us." Well, it's time for us to do just that. This game is gonna run you 20 bucks and will bring you or someone you purchase for, hours of joyful, giggleful entertainment.

You can see an earlier and much more insightful interview with these two here.

OK folks...we are almost to Christian Einfeldt's Digital Tipping Point. Others are recognizing we are here and we have money to spend...we are all not skinflints that would rather go without than spend a few bucks on ourselves.

Kyle and Ron have donated 10 games for us to give out. Blog about this great game or tell folks about it in your forums and send us a link...we will send the first ten that do so a license.

We now get the chance to do what we say we are going to do. It's been coming for a long time...now it's here. The "big boys" won't give us games...the little guys will. It's time to say thank you.

And just so you know...I just did. You can do the same here.










I'm putting this on the next HeliOS Project Computer we put out.

All-Righty Then





helios

HeliOS Project Kicks It Into High Gear

It's not like we didn't already have enough to do...

More to the point...there is so much more that needs to be done.

The HeliOS project is proud to make two announcements. We have committed to two projects in the near future that promises to have a great impact not only on the Austin Community but the Linux and Open Source Community-at-large.

It's not the best part of town. Fact is, I was stabbed repeatedly while working in this very neighborhood in 2001. Nothing life-threatening fortunately...mostly unimpressive arm and shoulder wounds and a stolen wallet to show for my trouble.

Much has changed since then. Our new Police Chief, agree with his methods and politics or not, has made it a priority to clean that cesspool up. Chief Acevedo has pointed his force with laser intensity on this area and it has started to make a difference. Where once laid used syringes and condoms, are now swept and painted curbs and gutters. The "crakshax" have been torn down and neighbors actually wave to one another as they stroll during the evenings. They can do so without fear. They take pride in their homes and it shows. The past year has transformed that bad place into something good.

One man saw a chance and took it.

His name is Sam Lee and he runs the community center in that area called Space12. Their website will be up shortly. What used to be a violent and often deadly bar is now a place of hope and friendliness. This is a place where latch-key kids can come until their parents get home or just hang out at instead of on the street. Currently, they have two computers there.

Two computers.

We are going to see to it that they have at least 12-20 in the near future.

We are in the early planning stages of setting up a technology learning center at Space12. We have the room, we have their blessing...now we just need to do it. We need to build a completely open sourced learning center.

We spoke of this learning center earlier in one of our blogs. If we can come to agreement with the folks at Space12, it will be the Thomas M. Edwards Technology Learning Center. I don't anticipate any problems in getting that named as such.

This is an exciting opportunity for both The HeliOS Project and the community. All involved will benefit greatly. People like Thomas Edwards who live a life of helping others should be recognized for their kindness and open heart. If we have our way, Thomas Edwards will be recognized in just such a way.

And if that wasn't big news, then we have it for you here.

Lynn Bender, a long-time open source advocate and organizer has announced an event for Sunday, the 19th of April...It will be what Lynn describes as "The Mother of All Install-Fests".

And that it shall be. The event is titled simply "Linux Against Poverty".

Lynn has both honored and humbled us by asking The HeliOS Project to take care of all things tech for this event. Tom King and Darrel Raynor, both Austin Residents and Directors with The HeliOS Project, will be on hand with me to make this thing work. If we can swing it, we'll get Larry and Bob here as well.

Shortly before announcing this event, we got a special surprise.

We needed a server to take care of this massive event...and no, my Pentium II 450 gig gateway wasn't going to cut it. We needed an industrial-sized, bigger-than-a-1976-Buick server. Before we could really ask anyone for help, we got a phone call.

It was from Robbie Williamson at Canonical. Yeah...THE Robbie Williamson from Canonical. I had no idea he lived in Austin. Neither had I any idea that he was going to donate us a server that belongs on the Tier One Rack at Nasa. It is now in the capable and talented hands of Tom King who is preparing it for service. Thank you Robbie...Thank you very much. I don't think you realize just how much good your gift is going to do.

The Linux Against Poverty event is going to produce many computers from corporate donations and after the event, The HeliOS Project will be the recipient of many of them. In turn, we will give them to disadvantaged kids in the Central Texas area. They are all going to sport different distros, different environments and different organizations behind them. Lynn is also getting the ball rolling on making this day Austin's official Linux Day.

If anyone can get it done, he can.

So aside from our almost daily deliveries of computers for disadvantaged kids in Central Texas, we have this to look forward to. If you live in the Austin area and want to participate, contact helios at fixedbylinux dott komm and we'll get you signed up.

We could use some help. We are in almost desperate need of wireless pci cards, external cd/dvd roms, hard drives and 4 gig thumb drives. We are going to incur some added expense for preparation as well. If you could drop by the HeliOS Project website and drop a buck or two in the account, we would appreciate it. Lately, we've struggled to simply have enough gas in the cars to go do our installs...any help you could provide would be appreciated.

So...off we go. It's going to be an interesting year.

Thanks for being part of what we do...and a special thanks to Gene and Wanda Lake...for being there when we need them.

All-Righty Then...

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