HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM HELIOS

As my second favorite horror movie host would say.....
Ooowwwwwwwhhhhh, Scarrryyyy.

My thanks to Adam Schneckloth for carving the HeliOS pumpkin this year.

Now carry on and pursue your annual sugar rush.  That is all.

Oh, and my first favorite horror movie host?  Did you really have to ask?






All-Righty Then

Natalia's Path

It feels good to get it right.

HeliOS has been criticized from time to time for giving computers to kids that probably wouldn't use them to their full potential.

I'm not going to argue the point.  the criticism is more than likely valid.

But we don't operate on "mights" and "could be's"

We work on the assumption that with the right encouragement and strong parental guidance, the child will excel once given the right technology tools.

A precocious, smart and goal-oriented 10 year old has helped prove that point.



To say that Natalia is bright is by all measure, an understatement.  Natalia was doing extremely well in public school, but she was bored.  One of the biggest mistakes we can make as parents and educators is not recognizing this.  If a child isn't challenged, she isn't going to learn.

Natalia's mom, Maryanne; recognized this and she applied for enrollment in the  KIPP  Austin Public Schools.  While KIPP isn't a private school, the staff and teachers within a KIPP school take a different approach to how they teach the child.  It is also a college prep school.  The Austin Independent School District reports that only one in five students go on to college.  KIPP students can boast an 80 percent enrollment rate if the child stays in KIPP through the 8th grade.

You can learn more about KIPP by following this link.

Natalia has flourished there.  She not only learns Spanish while attending KIPP, she has been chosen to learn Chinese.  Natalia shows a strong aptitude for languages and that aptitude has been recognized and channeled.

In our regular public schools, I doubt that would have happened.  Natalia has also been chosen to be an American Child Ambassador next year where she will travel to England and France to exchange ideas and cultures with children her own age.

Now, how has giving a computer to Natalia helped?  According to Maryanne:

"We would make daily trips to the local library so that Natalia could do her online research and assignments.  She is such an inquisitive child that she would often have to be told that her time was up and another student was in line for using the computer.  Her assignments were always completed with extra credit given for the extra effort Natalia put into her work.  Having a computer at home has not only lessened a burden of daily travel to the library, it has increased Natalia's exposure to her research assignments.  Having a computer in the house has definitely aided Natalia personally and scholastically."

On using Linux instead of Windows:

"Oh Linux has been great.  Even the tech from Grande Communications commented on how good Linux was when he came to hook up our Internet.  It's been such a blessing not to have to worry about crashes and slow computers.  I've come to love the stability of our computer and am amazed at the amount of free software available.  I couldn't come close to being able to afford comparable software on the market."

Maryanne is completely immersed in Natalia's school and her life.  We can give thousands of computers away but in the end, parental involvement in a child's work and life is what makes the difference.  Maryanne is singularly focused on Natalia's education.  She is also teaching her the importance of community involvement.  Maryanne and Natalia showed up yesterday to help with our HeliOS organization day.

Oh and by the way...Natalia is not allowed Facebook  exposure.

I wonder how many more Child Ambassadors we could create if more of us did the same.

All-Righty Then...

Living Without My Shadow.

I don't think I've dreaded a day more than I dread tomorrow.  If I were to list my schedule for October 28th, 2011 from bottom to top, it would look like this:

3.  Do Margret's install
2.  Pick up donated computers from Renew Data
1.  Take my oldest and best friend to the vet and have him put to sleep.

My oldest and best friend is Shadow.

First off, my Shadow isn't "just a dog".  He has been part of my life for 15 years and he has seen the good and the bad in those years.

There were extremes of both.

Let me tell you something about the bond between a person and a dog.  it can grow just as deeply as any other relationship you might have in your life.  The main difference you must understand is that your dog is dependent upon you for both his health and happiness.

His happiness.....

If you chain a dog up in the back yard and neglect him, you should be beaten to the point of physical therapy.

And those of you that state a dog does not feel emotion...you lose on two counts.

You are wrong and you have not been blessed by the love of a dog.

Shadow was with me when we had a nice house, new cars and exotic vacations several times a year.  He was also with me during a homeless period shortly after my divorce.  He has been by my side as I lay sick unto death, and as I failed time and time again to accomplish my goals.  And ultimately, when I gained some measure of success.

And through it all, he was my dog.  He tolerated others in my life, but that's all he did.  He stayed at my side, slept in my bed, rode shotgun in my car, ate with me at the kitchen table and waited for me to come through the front door every time I left.

He is fiercely independent, and is what I refer to as a proximity dog.  He doesn't necessarily want to be touched, but he does want to be close.  He moves from room to room as I go about my business.  Now he lays two feet away from my chair, not quite sleeping but resting and ready to get up as I go out to the kitchen or living room.  Unfortunately, now he cannot.  Shadow has been that way all of his life.

It started out with what I thought was simply old age and arthritis.  He hesitated briefly to get up into a standing position and was careful as to how he laid down...always favoring his right side.  As the days and weeks past, it got worse and soon he would struggle for several minutes on end until he could gain his feet.  Last week, I began carrying him outside to do his business as he could no longer walk or stand.  I had to physically hold him in position so he could go to the bathroom.  It broke my heart.

The vet was compassionate but no amount of compassion could blunt his diagnosis.

Spinal nerve disease was creeping surly from back to front.  He has lost all use and feeling in his back legs and eventually, the paralysis will attack his vital organs.

As of now, he is in no pain, but when it reaches his organs, it will be hell on earth for him.  I cannot allow that.

So my little guy, born from Corgi and Border Collie stock...with those short and stout little legs, will take one last car ride with me tomorrow morning at 10 AM.  I will give him a strong sedative beforehand as he despises the vet.  He will be sound asleep as the needle slides into his vein and the chemical will painlessly and quickly stop his heart.

And in many ways, it will stop mine.

Let me ruin what should normally be a joyful experience for you.  The next time you go to the local shelter to pick out a puppy or a kitten for your family, keep one thing in mind above all else.

You will outlive your pet, and you will have your heart broken when the time comes.  That's why I follow the Dog Lovers Ten Commandments and I will share them with you now.  And please.  You can be a "dog owner", but that doesn't mean you are a dog lover.  Your dog will know which one you are before you do.

Keep these things in mind as you contemplate adding a pet to your family:

A PET OWNER'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.........

 
1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you will be painful.
 
 2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.
 
3. Always remember that I trust you without reservation.  If you call to me from across a busy street, I will come without looking.  I know you would never do anything to hurt me.
 
4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.
 
5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.
 
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.
 
7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.
 
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.
 
9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.
 
10. On the ultimate and difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

So now I am going to go stretch my creaky, overweight body down on the floor one last time and lay with my dog for a little while.  I'll whisper nonsensical things and stroke his ears.  He likes it when I do that.  I do so wish I had done more of it.

Ken

I Can't Believe It's Almost Here

We Central Texas denizens, after weeks of straight 100+ degree weather, have just experienced our first cool front of the year.  It was welcome with or without rain.  This summer has been the most brutal in Texas history and it spawned the largest wildfire ever recorded in the state.  The final count?  1500+ homes destroyed and the cost of this catastrophe is in the billions.

So after this, a cool front is a blessing.  But it served as a reminder to us HeliOS folks of one thing...

Christmas.

Last year as Christmas approached, we crossed from apprehensive to accepting the fact that we would not meet the annual hard increase for computers.  With only a couple of weeks before Christmas, St. Jude Medical stepped forward with a 70 laptop donation and we were able to fulfill all requests.  We did 19 installs in the last 4 days.

I personally did 3 installs on Christmas Day.  It was an extremely good day.

We've had a good year for equipment donations this year, but we've also been challenged several times within that year.  Most recently, we found ourselves in an Autism resource database that all but wiped us out of equipment and resources.  Last week, we found ourselves without gas money to do any deliveries.  Fortunately, some good Ebay sales came through and we got out of that jam.

Unfortunately it did leave our cupboards all but bare.  We have about 19 machines that are repairable, maybe 15 monitors and mostly empty RAM bins.  We predict at least double that in requests this holiday season

If you are local and work for a company that is close to doing a computer refresh, please let them know that we will most certainly take those machines off their hands.  For the record, we did approach Dell about this but the best they could do was offer to sell us refurbished ones at their listed price.

How special.

At any rate, the season is almost upon us and we need to gear up for it.  If you have video cards, RAM (especially PC2 4200 1 giggers), USB flash drives, old laptops or desktops, please keep us in mind.  We do have minimum requirements for machines and you can see those here.  If you care to make a financial donation, you can do so as well electronically here.  Your donation will go towards component purchases or fuel for delivery vehicles.

We will do our best to get your donations into the hands that need them most.

And as always, thanks for helping us do what we do.

Meacher the Mouse Teacher - Meet the DevTeam

After 3 weeks, we have the semblance of a Development Team for an application that will help autistic kids learn to use a mouse.

My thanks to Ken Jennings for coming up with a name for the software.  As many of you know, I have real problems with goofy or esoteric names given to some applications, especially in the Linuxsphere.


However, I did get a taste of just how difficult and frustrating it can be.  After this, I doubt I will be as harsh on those naming their own apps.    Just when you think you have the perfect name for your project, a Google search proves it unusable because someone else has it. 

Or close enough to warrant a cease and desist order.  That can mess up your whole day.

We had some great suggestions but there were several things to consider in naming the app.  Not only does the child/parent/teacher/caregiver need a simple yet descriptive name, it needs to have keywords that are descriptive and searchable in the different software databases.  I had originally asked for a simple one word name, but taking the above parameters into consideration, I was convinced otherwise.

As an example, I will use  the Python app, Pydance.   It is obviously some sort of app that deals with dancing, or one would think.  A simple search in your repository should provide Pydance as one of the possibilities.  On the other hand, apps like Pysycache give you no clue as to what it is or what it does.  Pysycache is a mouse learning app but if one was to scan the list within the repo...how would you know?

I'm sure that this will be boiled down to just "Meacher" over time, and that's fine.  As long as it can be easily found and understood for what it is.

There are actually going to be two programs, Meacher and Meacher lite.  The lighter of the two will probably be programmed in Python and used for older machines with less resources.  Meacher full will probably be programmed in C, C++ or Java.  We are still waiting for our Academic Team to give us a starting point for the software map, and that is work that cannot be rushed.

DPR stands for Dancing Ponies and Rainbows.  This is how I describe the glitzy, shiny and slick full version we will try to create.  Linux has a reputation of providing software that is "just good enough" and often this leads others to think that it is inferior.  Of course nothing could be further from the truth but there are enough examples out there to substantiate the claim if someone wanted to make the case.


The lite version or NHD (No Horrible Distractions) again will probably be coded in Python and as noted by several people in the original blog, sometimes the glitz gets in the way of the AC and can do more harm than good.  Hence, the two versions.  As quoted from the aforementioned posting:


"I am "on the spectrum" myself. I remember my childhood as a time full of awful noise. Imagine trying to study at a desk in the middle of a dance floor, and you get the idea."

Having promised this.....Let me introduce you to the current members of the Meacher Development Team.

David Ashley - Project Manager

David is no stranger to HeliOS.  He currently teaches one or two nights a week at the HeliOS 101 classes at our facility.  David is also putting together the curriculum for our 102 classes to be offered beginning next year.

David has almost 30 years of IT experience on a wide range of platforms. He has worked as a software developer, consultant and IT instructor during that time. David currently works for IBM in Austin as a software tools developer for AIX and Linux. He is also the project lead for the Open Object Rexx Project (http://www.oorexx.org/) which is an open source implementation of the Rexx language and contributes to other open source projects as well.

And no...I have neither the time or talent to manage a project like this although I will participate as the Program Originator and do what I can to help.  David knew that without me having to say it and graciously volunteered to lead the effort....

Thus assuring it will probably get done and everyone will still be speaking to each other when we are finished.  With me?  It would have been a crapshoot at best.

Iffat Jabeen - Academic Team Lead/Software Mapping

Iffat is our Academic Team Lead for Meacher.  While our project will teach the Autistic Child (AC) how to use a mouse, it will incorporate life skills training to do so.  This way, the child learns while he learns.  I had the sincere pleasure of working with Iffat when Don Davis (see below) headed a Documentary Team on free software and Internet access for the less fortunate.  Iffat is THE consummate professional and she will head the software mapping part of our effort.  Iffat will supply the DNA, so to speak for this application.

Iffat Jabeen is a Doctoral student in the area of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. Her experience in the field of education spans over a decade and she holds a Masters degree in Special Education and another in Educational Technology. In the course of her career she had the opportunity to work with children in the general education system as well as in special education, specifically children with autism and those with intellectual disabilities. Iffat is a true believer that incorporating technology in instruction can enhance the learning of students with special needs.

Don Davis - Talent Coordinator

I've known Don since the early days in his graduate studies.  Don is a long-time friend of HeliOS and a personal friend of mine.  Don will be helping us find graphic artists, will aid Iffat in locating voice talent, and help fill in the gaps when our developers need to step away from the project for a time.  Don will also solicit other professionals in various fields as needed.  Don knows a lot of impressive folks in the academic world and his participation is golden.

Don Davis, M.Ed.

Don Davis is a PhD student and former teacher. Previously, he facilitated the acquisition of academic English language use in recent immigrants at a Texas high school (i.e. he taught English). He also worked with students in setting up a community mesh network and was able to introduce students to Alice - the visual programming language, GNU/Linux, and Python as well.

He’s currently involved with research examining computational thinking. He’s an avid supporter of GNU/Linux and sees free (as in freedom …and cookies…) software as a tool to promote social justice through equitable access to our modern information society. He’s the guy that interjects “not all students have access to computers and the internet.”

Sean Robinson a.k.a. "Nz17" - Software Developer

 Sean was the first coder to volunteer for our project.  Sean's code of choice is Python.  While he has a TON of irons in the fire and cannot contribute to Meacher as often as he would like, he has volunteered to help us get the project off the ground and act as an advisor if needed.  He looks forward to contributing to Meacher. 
Sean is 29 years old, and has gone by "Nz17" on the Internet since 1997, he is a self-taught programmer, wrote his first program in fifth grade, and previously contributed to other FLOSS projects (voice work for the announcer on PyDance, bug fixes for countless others), and he created and produce the longest-running anime podcast in the world (started in 1999).  Sean will also supply male voice talent to Meacher.

 Karim Lalani - Software Developer

Karim was quick to answer our call for help in developing Meacher.  Karim brings multiple coding talents to this effort and will be key in writing the full version of Meacher.  As I mentioned earlier, there will be two different versions of Meacher.  Karim will lead our effort on the DPR version.  His numerous coding skills include C, C++ and Java.  This is one of the reasons why Karim is so valuable to the team.  He will be able to look at the software map and make a decision as to what language would best suit the application. 


Karim lives in Smyrna Tennessee and is currently employed by Wipro, a global information technology service.  As you can see, his skills are impressive:

"I am a software programmer and a long time Linux user. Linux and programming are both also my hobbies and my passion. Lately
I've been contemplating on combining these two passions of mine. I have also been thinking about getting active in the community. While I am not a kernel hacker or any sort or have tens of years of experience writing software, I can find my way around other people's code, and whenever necessary, I am not afraid of creating new code.  I can work with most C style languages like C# (for .Net/Mono) and C++ (on Qt framework) and Java."

Peter Hewitt - Software Developer

Peter has done some impressive coding work and as a new Linux user, he came to us interested not so much in being a major player in Meacher, but porting and rewriting some of his existing software with the AC in mind.

Peter is the author of Mulawa Dreaming Easy activities.  Currently Mulawa is a Windows-only app but after hearing about our efforts, Peter thought his own efforts would be better spent getting Mulawa written and available in Linux.  I appreciate his thoughts and dedication to this effort.  As Peter told me:


"My background is a mixture of secondary teaching and IT. I retired in 2006 and now spend a lot of my time in volunteer work.
 
Three years at an Aged Care facility using my computer for diversional therapy - while there I developed "Mulawa Dreaming Easy" - a suite of Windows activities for folk with no previous computer experience and for folk with limited physical mobility.

I work with children in care - again using the computer but in this case more for intellectual development than diversion.

Over the past year I've developed over thirty activities for the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project - these are all written in Python using Pygame - nice match with Sean there. Total downloads are currently in excess of 200,000. Their main attraction is that most of them use no words so they are truly global in reach."

We also have several other people who have volunteered to do coding and testing.  As this project evolves, we will introduce them to you along with the work we've done so far.

I want to personally thank the Free Software Community for their participation and interest in Meacher.  From what I can see, this project could have an impact not only on this generation but the next one to come.

And really, isn't that what our work is about?

All-Righty Then





 
 

 






 

Small Victories? I'll Take 'Em...

I took the call late last week.  It came in on the HeliOS Solutions side of the fence.  HeliOS Solutions is the small company I set up to help fund The HeliOS Project.

A local business woman had just installed Windows 7 and was disturbed by what she was being told on the screen.  After installing Win7, she went about installing all the applications she used to conduct her business.  The computer she had been using ran Vista Business and she had come to depend on this group of freeware apps to do her job.   Of course, she had a licensed copy of Microsoft Office 2007 along with some Adobe apps.

But now, after she installed her freeware apps, Microsoft Security Essentials was giving her dire warnings about viruses...three or four of them according to her and would I come and look at her computer.

You bet.

What had happened is all too common in the Windowsphere.  Many of the developers for freeware apps she used had signed deals with advertising and marketing agents.  Developers have to eat too, but in order to do so, these apps now come bundled with "toolbars".  My customer insisted that she had check marked against "Install MyWebSearch search bar."

Along with other nuisanceware offered to her in the other programs.

I guess in this case, no doesn't always mean no.

This is nothing new, but this had not been present in the apps she had installed on her computer 3 years ago.

How things change.

Some of these bars are tough to get rid of...even to the point of editing the registry, but after an hour or so, I had both MSSE and Malware Bytes reporting a clean machine.

While I took the time to do the security and service pack installs, I told her about Linux and how it could save her a lot of headaches.  I explained to her that she could run her Windows7 in a virtual machine or use Wine or Codeweaver products to get individual Windows apps working in Linux.  Once I had the machine updated, I slid in a Linux live CD and gave her the tour.

One thing I notice over and over when showing people Linux...they cannot wrap their heads around the whole "No antivirus needed" thing.  I take the time to pull up various articles encouraging computer users NOT to use Windows to do their banking.  That usually does it.

She told me that even if she could not run her apps in Linux, she would like Linux installed as a dual boot so she could bank with confidence on the Internet.

Done deal.

That should be the end of the story but it isn't.

She told me that stability was essential to her business and that she did not want any further changes made to her computer.  She asked me if there was a way to make sure updates did not occur without her knowledge.  I explained to her that Microsoft had a nasty habit of changing the option back to daily checks and installs but we could set it up anyway.  I had her watch me as I did it.

She called me yesterday, absolutely livid.  Not with me, but with Microsoft.  Windows 7 had indeed went in and changed her options for updates.  She had spent two hours on hold or on the phone with MS support and the eventual answer was that it might possibly be a pirated copy of Windows.  In all likelihood, Windows had sniffed this machine as having a pirated copy and changed the settings to install the infamous KB971033.

Livid turned to near-rage as she spit the licensed serial number out at the tech.  She had paid 130 dollars at Best Buy for the licensed copy and could not believe someone would accuse her of having put a pirated copy of Windows on her computer.  She asked for a supervisor and was told that if she wanted to file a complaint, he would give her the URL to do so.

With that she slammed down the phone and called me back.

Unfortunately, one of her most counted-on apps will not run in Wine or Crossover.  Efficient PIM is a great little all-around calendaring app with a ton of features.  She has now upgraded to the full version just so she has a license, should she ever have to reinstall.  I had a legit license for WinXP SP3 and I installed it via VirtualBox on her Linux side.

From what I understand, she is now working more than half the time in Linux.  Microsoft is in the position to abuse their customer base this way because people think they have to endure it to access their computer.

I am glad to report there is one less of them today.

All-Righty Then...

Can You Name This App?

Many of you know that I've been critical of goofy, hurtful and esoteric software names in Linux.  While many think little of this, many more have stepped forward to agree that if Linux is to even think of gaining market share, we have to think more in lines of Market instead of Me.

Well the shoe's on the other foot now.

We recently announced a project going forward that addresses the need for a Linux application that teaches all levels of autistic kids how to use a mouse.  We are talking to several software coders, with one already on board.  We have Ph.D's and a Masters of Special Education   working with us to begin mapping out this software.

It truly looks to be moving forward.

So the question is, what will we name this software?  It would be nice to have a cognitive path between the name and function but I realize this is much easier said than done.  It should also be one syllable if possible and easy to pronounce.  I've racked my brain trying to come up with cute acronyms and names...to no avail.

It would seem that naming a software app while traversing the minefield that is trademark and copyright law is harder than it looks.

So, the best thing to do now is turn it over to the community...people much smarter than me will find a name for it.  We've asked the slashdot community for help as well.  If you want to vote for the article to get full exposure, you can do so here.

On that I would bet a week's pay.

All-Righty Then...