Want My Help...? Take The Test.

 My friend and colleague Carla Schroder made a statement a few years back that invoked my best John Belushi imitation.  I only raised an eyebrow because as statements go, it seemed pretty silly if not outright insulting.

"Some people should never be allowed to own computers."  She went further in an email exchange and instead of maybe tempering her statement, she narrowed it.

"Some others shouldn't be able to sit down at one without taking a test."




As much as that may have rankled me at the time, I now join the small but firm minority in this belief.  Most anyone in tech support might have stepped over this belief line from time to time.  For me, it's no longer a line...it's where I live.

Belief hell, it's a matter of mental health survival.

So you might remember, last week I lamented about a father who took control of a computer we had given his daughter via The HeliOS Project.  Within two hours of us leaving his house, he was on the phone with us, complaining that no matter what he did, he couldn't "download anything".

He was confusing the act of "downloading" with "installing".  He was chapped because graboid.exe wouldn't install.  This after a 90 minute instruction session explaining that Windows apps do not run natively on Linux.  In the first place, we do not place these computers so the parents can download pirated movies and music. In the second place, we give these computers to the children, not the parents.



 Unfortunately, we cannot control the moral compass of those within the family of that child.  This isn't the first time this has happened but it is the first time that a parent or guardian has so blatantly claimed ownership of a computer we have given to a child.  I was prepared to deal with this in a few days but we had our hand forced last Friday.

Dad called us and informed me that he had indeed installed Windows 7 over our Linux install but he was having problems.  He no longer had wireless, nor was his screen presenting itself in the correct resolution.  He also complained that the educational programs that were previously on the computer were now gone.

This guy didn't understand that replacing one operating system with another would yield such results.

He was clueless even to the concept of an "operating system".  I withered at the possibility of explaining to him the entire issue of hardware drivers.  If he couldn't understand the concept of an operating system, I wasn't about to suggest to him that getting the needed drivers would have been a good thing to do before he blew away his system.

Can you imagine sitting on the phone, trying to coax him into finding out what the model numbers and chipsets were on his hardware?

So I did something I rarely do...something I make it a practice NOT to do.

I left to make the 1.5 hour round trip to his house while I was angry.  But before I set out upon my trek, it dawned on me that The Solution to this problem sat upon my desk, three minutes from my house.  I made a two minute stop at our facility and took a deep breath to get a better grip on my anger.

He answered the door like I was a neighbor.  He offered me coffee and a comfortable chair.  I wasn't in a cordial mood so I asked if his daughter was home and would he call her into the living room.  What happened next gave me a better idea of the dynamics within that household.

Instead of going to her room where she was, he bellowed for her like she was cattle.  She came into the room quickly and appeared apprehensive but when she saw me there, her face and body relaxed.  She was obviously frightened of this man.

With them both present, I reached into my pack and pulled out an envelope that contained a legal document and I explained it to him as I handed it over.  It is a simple instrument, calling upon the 2005 Texas Property Code CHAPTER 141. Transfers To Minors.

I told him in no uncertain terms that the computer we gave his daughter is her property and that his only interaction with that computer was to insure her safe and monitored use of the machine.  I informed him that as her dad, he most certainly had the right to see what she was doing on it but from a legal standpoint, he could not alter the contents or operating system of that computer, nor could he deny her the use of the machine to complete her school work.

I was prepared for him to give me the "while she's under my roof" sermon but wasn't prepared for what she was about to say:

"He isn't my dad."

When I initially installed the computer, he had assured me he was.  I looked at him for a long ten seconds while he figured out he was busted.

So again, we have a case of a bully live-in boyfriend pretty much sitting on his a$$ at home while the mom works to support him.

I patted the sofa cushion beside me and invited the 12 year old girl to sit next to me.  Reaching into my pack, I pulled out the new Asus netbook and opened it on my lap.

"This is your computer now", I told her as I looked at the live-in.  "It has the same operating system and games on it that your big one had plus it has a private password so no one can make changes to it.  Do you want to know what that password is?"

 She smiled as I leaned over to whisper to her.  She giggled when I told her what it was.

"Now, you have to ask permission to use the computer and if you get into trouble, your mom has the right to ground you from it.  Do you understand that?"

She nodded solemnly as I opened the netbook and began making changes to it so it was hers.  I took 20 minutes to reinstall a fresh copy of our remix and when I was done, I handed the computer to her.  I pulled out my phone and held it up as I again glanced over at wife-beater.

"Do you know your mom's number at work?  Can you call her?"

She took the Droid from me and once she had her mom on the line, she handed me the phone.  I explained to her why I was there and what I had just explained to her daughter and Mr. Abuse-R-Us.

She was quiet for a long minute then simply said "thank you".

"Now"...I said, after putting the phone away.  "let's get this other one unplugged and out to my car.  I'm going to leave the monitor with the keyboard and mouse so you have a bigger screen and I'll show you how to hook it up."

Boyfriend got up without saying a word to either of us and disappeared into the back of the house.  Little girl happily crawled under the desk for me and unplugged all the plugs and wires and walked out with me to my car.

I took a minute to speak with her before I got into my Explorer.

"Are you going to be OK when I leave?"

She shook her head and stated that her mom was getting off early because it was Friday after Thanksgiving and she should be home in less than an hour.  I handed the child my card, feeling a bit uncomfortable about leaving.  I've known guys like this and they are cowards.  I then figured out what to do.

"Hey, I've got an idea.  Whaddaya say I teach you how to play Tux Racer until your mom gets home?  I can show you some other stuff too."

She smiled brightly and almost skipped to the front door.  We sat the monitor and keyboard up on her desk and I took her through some of the functions of the netbook, taught her about fn keys and then we launched into the dozens of games that we include in our remix.  We were totally immersed.....

Immersed to the point that neither of us noticed when her mom walked through the front door.

Editor's note:  Upon getting the confiscated computer up on my work bench this afternoon, I found it indeed have a copy of Win7 on it.  Of course the screen was devoid of wallpaper, showing nothing but black and in the lower right hand corner of the screen was a message proclaiming this copy of Windows does not pass the Windows Genuine Advantage test.  Go figure...

All-Righty Then...



  

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Thanksgiving In Reverse.....A Geek's Perspective

Most Americans recognize Thanksgiving as the starting line for our holiday season dash.  A time where many of us forget the real reasons we mark these days on the calendar and spend them over eating, over spending and over extending ourselves.

I tend to take a more traditional view during this part of the year and I wanted to spend just a few moments in reflection and mention some important things that have happened.

Things for which I am deeply thankful.

Most recently, we installed a small 4 computer center at Furaha House.  Coming to a strange country and falling into a completely foreign culture is most usually a shock.  Furaha House is a non profit organization that aids African refugees and immigrants in learning the language, customs and all the while striving to be productive citizens in their new country.

Joshua Vaughan, a Rotarian and the Director of Global House had contacted us after we spoke during a Rotary meeting and asked us to help this great organization.  We of course were happy to help.  The computers will be used for both education and helping new arrivals learn about their surroundings.  Some of them cannot even write in their own language.  These computers will open educational doors for them as well.

I want to personally thank Solange Woodson of Furaha House (pictured above far right) for her warm and sincere welcome of HeliOS as we went about our task there.  I also want to thank Josh Vaughan (next to her) for introducing us to this opportunity to help.

And to the City of Taylor, a small, growing and friendly town that I now call home...I want to not only thank them for the opportunities they've provided us to be of service, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for giving us a place from which to work.  Where a city of over 1 million couldn't find us a place to operate from, a town with humble means and a struggling economy saw our value and made us neighbors.  Thank you Taylor Texas.  Thank you Jeff Straub and Bob Van Til.

To the one hundred and six families we have been able to help so far in 2011, I want to thank you for not only allowing us into your home but providing us with a way to give back.  Personally, I now find it hard to tell where Ken Starks stops and The HeliOS Project starts, but regardless of where that line is, I am comfortable in knowing that what we do as an organization defines me.

I have no problems with that.

And I think the most important thing I can mention here are the volunteers that have stepped in to help us do what we do.  We would not exist without the likes of Ron West, Carolyn and Jason Smith, Andy Krell....I could go on for an entire page and not mention everyone, but you know who you are.  And I know who you are.  Thank you.

So with a roof over our heads, and the bills somehow getting paid month to month, I don't think I could ask The Universe for anything more without coming off as greedy.

It has given me what I think we all desire and need as human beings.  A sense of purpose.

And for that, I am most thankful.

All-Righty Then.  

Microsoft and Some Press Catch Up to the 21st Century

It's hard to make blanket statements and still be correct, yet; it is heartening to see people in the position of reporting news finally see what's happening.

Finally.

Here's the first of the real shockers...

Microsoft has decided that Windows 8 should ship with it's very own, tied-in, tied-down, bundled, ne'r-to-be-separated anti virus.


Who'd-a thunk it?

While many of us do simultaneous facepalms and giggle at a decade-late decision, others question the legality of doing so.  A multi-billion dollar industry has grown, based on the absolute porous operating system that is Microsoft Windows.

I'm sure Windows fans will protest, saying such things as:

"Well, I've run Windows for years and NEVER had a virus".

Of course, when he says that, he should also hold up a sign to identify himself as belonging to the 1%.

Personally, I cannot suss where this will land legally.  It's hard to argue with the fact that MS is finally going to at least try to address the issue of virus/trojan/malware security.  But then again, we all know most anti virus "protection" is a reaction to something that's already happened on the system....

Most recently, my friend Adam who uses Windows from home for work purposes and casual use contracted the AV Security 2012 malady.  He had MS Security Essentials installed along with Malware Bytes free version.  Neither did anything to stop the bugger from infecting him, it simply and without gracious attempt, informed him he was infected.  Then  they unceremoniously told him that removal failed.


He now sports a spiffy, spotless install of Linux Mint 11 on his desktop and is loving it.

Still, I don't think the likes of Kaspersky and AVG are going to take this news quietly.

In other news....Business Insider/SAI leads with the headline:

What Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, And SAP Don't Tell Customers

On the Microsoft front and in a nutshell, our reporter warns us that Microsoft is trying to protect its monopoly by convincing the enterprise that a 100% Microsoft shop is a good thing.  It goes on to tell the MS strategy for doing this.

Um....no, thanks really for informing the 8 people on earth that didn't know this, but for the rest of us, it ranks right up there with the news that Milli Vanilli were actually lip syncing their performances.

Don't get me wrong...I appreciate the fact that The Gartner Group releases this news to CEO's who probably don't really know better but for the rest of us, it seems as if time has taken us back to 3 lb cell phones and Boy George albums.

Ah...Boy George.  At least he knew what innovation is.

All-Righty Then

Want My Help? Speak My Language....

 I do my best to stay away from rants.  I've found it to be a truism...no one takes an angry person seriously unless they are brandishing a firearm.  Any common sense or important point the Raving One offers is lost on their less than stable presentation of that point.

I know...I've been a "Raving One" from time to time.

There comes a time though when you either have to get it out or implode.  I have way too much to do this next month to do the implosion thing and I'm not one to leave others to clean up my mess, so I'll do this as delicately as possible.



It was a pretty simple thing.  I sat with a 12 year old girl and her dad as I explained how to use their new Linux System.  I spent the better part of 90 minutes working with them and felt confident that I had done a good job when I left.

Uh....apparently not.

I wasn't back at the shop 10 minutes when my phone rang.

It was Dad.

"I can't download anything", he complained.  "Everything I try to download won't download."

When I left there, the Internet was working fine.

"So, do your websites load?  Can you get to different websites?"

"Yes".

"But when you try to download something, it won't download to your computer?"

"No".

So I started at the beginning.  I had him make sure he wasn't getting cached pages, I had him trace the network cable from the router to the computer, we did the ping thing both from local IP and to the network.  I had him open up the Firefox preferences and checked is proxy settings and download settings.

Everything was fine.

"What is it you are trying to download?"

"Uh, just stuff."

"Are they images or music?  I need to know the size of the files and where you are trying to download them from."

Well, as it turns out....he was able to download fine.  It was "what" he was downloading that was causing him problems.

He was trying to "download" graboid.  For those that don't know...graboid is the GUI front end that you install on your computer and pay a monthly fee to use.  It is the evolution of the old Usenet news group movie program.  Back when newsgroups were still hosted by the ISP's, you could find a newsgroup for just about anything you could imagine.  From high speed goat porn to Ford big block engine rebuilding, it was available.  Once the ISP's began to feel the horrible bandwidth drain these newsgroups were causing, they shucked them off like a dirty shirt.

Apps like graboid took their place and basically they are just bit torrent files that have already been uploaded.  The software simply makes sure the movie/music or file you are downloading are somewhat working.

So I had two problems here.  I'm pretty sure that a 12 year old girl wasn't "downloading" graboid.....dad was and secondly, when he said he couldn't "download" anything, he meant that the downloaded .exe files were failing when executed.

So this guy lunches on 20 minutes of my time while I chase around phantom Internet problems and then tells me he is using a computer given to his gifted child for movie piracy.

I was pretty firm, if not too much so in explaining to him....again...that Windows programs did not work on Linux.  I made it a point to remind him that I spent well over an hour going over this stuff with him then spent another 10 minutes on the phone with him explaining the difference between "download" and "install".

I thought I was done.

No.

"Tell me how much memory is in this computer."

"2 gigs."

"2 gigs...that's not even enough for one movie."

I wanted to run my face into a wood chipper, but instead I patiently explained the difference between memory and storage.  But then it kind of got on top of me.

"Randy", I said.  "We brought this computer to help your daughter in her school work.  I'm getting the feeling that she's not going to have access to this computer.  Can you assure me it will be available to her for the purpose intended?"

There was a long silence and just when I was going to reassert my question, he asked me:

"So you mean that if I double click this icon, it won't download?"

I hung up the phone and went to see if the wood chipper had any fuel in it.

I'll revisit the child after Thanksgiving and see if I can't talk to the Mom.  Mom's most often are the brighter of the couple.

All-righty Then...

Mulawa Dreaming Easy Comes to Linux

It wasn't that long ago that we announced a collaboration between behavioral health professionals, academics and coders that would ultimately produce a Linux program to help autistic children learn the mouse.

That work is still in the developmental stages within our academic team...they are gathering resources and forming the framework for that software.

 An unexpected benefit of this effort was forthcoming soon after we announced it.

Peter Hewitt is a retired educator and IT professional who came to us not particularly interested in helping develop Meacher the Mouse Teacher, but in rebuilding his mouse teaching program Mulawa Dreaming Easy for Linux.  As it stood, it was a Windows only app but having over 200 thousand downloads of his varied projects, Peter believed that it was worth expanding to the Linux world.  He emailed me and told me that when he had something ready, he would email me.

I think it took him 3 days.

Mulawa is a simple program but within that simplicity lies its beauty.  It is primarily designed to help the physically or mentally challenged child understand how a mouse works, but should do nicely for the very young as well.   There isn't a lot of distracting noise, either visual or in the audio.  It rewards by sound and signals an incorrect choice with another sound.  Peter is no stranger in working with children and children's software.  He has developed over 30 activities for the OLPC program and continues to refine his other work.

The program comes within a simple tar file with the data file and an executable.  Ideally, this would be deb-packaged as well as packaged for the other installation formats as well.  You can find Mulawa to download it here.

Peter asks that you test the dickens out of it and post your findings here.  Hopefully that will lead to more work being done on Mulawa and further spread its use within the various Linux Distros.  If I remember correctly, Peter said it was tested and worked fine on Linux Mint, Fedora and Debian.

Test drive the wheels off of it and let's see if we cannot add one more great program to the educational software packages within Linux.

No one loses.

All-Righty Then

HeliOS Seeks Official Wallpaper

In the six years The HeliOS Project has been in business, we've applied various and sundry wallpapers to our outgoing computers.  Some, we've just picked stock work from what is already available, some we've found on the Interwebz, and I've even tried my hand at creating an "official" wallpaper for our machines.

Think six year old with dull crayons when you envision my renderings.

That being said, we are hosting a contest and asking our readers to submit their work for consideration as the wallpaper that will go out on our HeliOS machines.

I tend to like the reflective, glossy type stuff.  If I've learned anything, first impressions make a huge difference and if we can get the "ooowwhhhh, shiny" reaction, then we've captured the attention we are looking for.

The only requirement is that our logo is prominent on the submission.  You can add any other graphic you wish.  Of course, the wallpaper must be distro agnostic and designed with the knowledge that children will see your work constantly.

Please feel free to sign your name to your work...we will retain it on every use.

Prizes?  We're not sure yet.  There will only be one as we don't have that much to offer but it may range anywhere from an older small shuttle PC to a repaired laptop of dubious origin and quality.  If nothing else, it will be something to hack on.

You can get our official logo here in svg format.  Make sure to right click the link and choose "save link as".  Everything else is left up to your imagination.  If the svg doesn't seem to render in Firefox with the chrome ring, open it in Blender.

You can send your 1280X1024 submissions to helios at fixedbylinux dott kommm or upload them to a place of your own  choosing and send me a link.  You may enter as many as you like.

And once again....thanks for helping us do what we do.

All-Righty Then

The Time Weaver - Where FOSS Meets Fantasy

Thomas is a busy guy.  A father of two, he and his wife live in a small town in Ontario Canada.  He holds his college degree in Network Engineering and currently works as a software developer for one of the leading vinyl siding manufacturers in the world.

Sounds like a fairly well grounded guy huh?

Don't bet on it.


While Thomas goes about his business in this world, acting all normal and everything, he also dwells in a world where Evil Warlord Wizards cast mayhem and misery on the land.  But all things in balance, Good battles evil, sometimes with ambiguous results.

Thomas is the author of a new book, The Time Weaver.

Look, I'm an old Dungeon Master myself.  I've contemplated and fondled my share of eight-sided dice and I've created worlds where madness is the norm.

But nothing like Thomas weaves.

Thomas has not only written a great book for Fantasy fans, he managed to do it using only FOSS tools to get it done.  The humbling part of this...Thomas has pledged a generous percentage of every book sale to HeliOS.

I'll let Thomas tell you about it as his hand wove this book together:

"Every tool used to create this novel, from beginning to end was Free and Open Source Software.

My day-to-day writing is done in LibreOffice, Which has all the features required to produce a print quality PDF output, and a properly formated eBook source file.

To convert the final ODT file into a .MOBI eBook file, I used a great piece of software called Calibre. I can't stress enough how much I love this software. It takes the pain out of the eBook formatting process.

A special font was used to put the time symbol in all the chapter headings and scene breaks. The Font was created by me, in a tool called FontForge which is a great program for creating TrueType fonts.

My cover art, web graphics, logos, and illustrations were all done in either Gimp, which we all know, or in InkScape, which is a great vector graphics program. My wife is a graphic artist, and did all of the graphics and artwork for my book and website.

All fonts used in my book or on my website are free or open source fonts, available for commercial use.

In order to export my final cover art as a CMYK image for printing, I used a special Gimp plugin called Separate+, which does a wonderful job of this. The color profiles used in this process were obtained from Adobe, and are freely available on their website."

"I've been playing fantasy tabletop role playing games for almost twenty years, and for a long time have wanted to take some of my characters and write their stories down. In November of 2010, I heard about an interesting contest/personal challenge called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The idea is to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. 

So I signed up figuring this would give me the motivation I needed to get my book written. Alas, it took me until Nov 25 to finally find the inspiration to write something, and it took me the next eight months to finish the first draft. Why open source? Because like Ken, I believe that software should be free, as in freedom. 

I don't believe in locking people down and forcing them to use software in the way that I say they should use it. I believe that people should be free to use it in any way they see fit. And if that includes giving them the source code so that they can change it to do what they want, then perfect.

Why support the Helios Project? I've always been a supporter of this project, and believe that Ken and the Helios team are doing some amazing work. They truly deserve all the support we can bring them." 


So here's where the fun starts:
Time has stopped...

...and thirty-year-old Seth Alkirk doesn't know why. A car accident that should have killed him instead leaves him wandering through a town frozen in time. When a vicious creature attacks and knocks him out, he wakes up in the world of Galadir with an unknown companion and no memory of how he got there.

Sworn to protect Seth, Malia Corsair believes him to be the last of a race that can control time. She has been tasked with getting him to the safety of Findoor castle. The two journey towards their goal, plagued by attacks from the evil wizard, Grian, who is determined to capture Seth and use his powers to exact revenge against Findoor.

When a greater evil is resurrected, all of Galadir turns to Seth. With dark armies invading Findoor, and a portal rupturing out of control, he is their only hope for salvation. As the last Time Weaver, Seth must learn to control his powers and fight back, or watch the whole world fall to ruin.


Links:
My website: http://thomasaknight.com
My email address (author): taknight@dragon-wing.net
Direct link to my book on Amazon.com:   http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Weaver-ebook/dp/B0061GJX0U/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1
You can purchase my book in EPub format here. 



So spend a couple of bucks and immerse yourself in a great fantasy for a while.  There's not a loser among any of the choices here.  


All-Righty Then

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...