Saturday, July 17, 2010

Social Good / TechFu ... Rob Inskeep @ BCAK4

School
Web Search
Alts to Google
Teachers don't have time or B/W to learn new stuff all the time
Friday night sessions after school with cups of tea or something stronger :)

Water neuron with drinking straws (!)
Fabiana from University
brain study
Tilt / holes in straws etc.
happens in real brain - pathways degrade, neurons break and die...
discussion in class after playing with the neurons outside in the sun (water play)
Teachers can't be expected to know everything anymore
Kids need to learn how to learn and to teach each other also
KiwiFoo Robert??? - Peter Hall ? teacher
- whose focus is figuring out ways to get kids to cooperate (vs. individual and performance-oriented system)
interest.co.nz Bernard Hickey (doom and gloom?)
economic principles in the classroom - mutual currency system in class
exchange of values
5 minute units of time
accrue, spend
excited email - kid approach could she spend / give it away to some other student who needed it more
saving / value / charity etc.
use/lose - decaying value over time
alternative to interest
demurrage - e.g. grain etc deteriorating over time
tradeable/not
Honesty, transparency, respect as basis of the classroom
?response to Friday night sessions - initial nervousness - not knowing what to expect
tips - how to convince? parent! - automatic entry :)
(this would work with Rangi for this year for me)
e.g. robotics Mindstorms
Peter Hall believes CS should be in core school syllabus

Computer Science Unplugged (book, Canterbury University)
Dance routine by logic

leading ego - teacher feels they need to know it all and teach it

Take time to show teachers things and explain, answer questions
e.g. didn't know computer was internet-capable
Cool tips etc. sites

Throw straw men
show up
stacking books on lib shelves coz nobody shows up

10pm parents coming in the next day
type up kids stories as prep

Mum works @ primary school
don't get it
start with basics
build trust

educampnz
Wiki page
similar format to BarCamp
out west? Sumerfield?

Tauranga art gallery
Wiki - kids - interpretations
sessions on MediaWiki - only some will show interest; fewer will actually do anything.

Find time - recognize value - feel comfortable with the change it represents
Classroom blog
videos of reading the stories etc.
[privacy issues?]
other teachers see and emulate
kids doing their own thing
parents happy in general if they see immediate value
AUP addendum etc.

Moodle partner - Brenda
object-based security etc.

Sugar project - Sugar On a Stick
(Sugar CRM?)
OS and apps run from a stick
persistent and stays with the child
Sat 11am Windsor Parnell active community
testing Sugar on laptops etc.
looking @ ways of getting schools involved

IT specialist tends to be either youngest staff members or last out of Teachers' College

Google groups
MLE reference group - Managed Learning Environments
OSS -- don't want to pay MS fees anymore
some resistant - stick with MS
others embrace OSS etc. - more open to help?
Otumoetai Intermediate - principal switched on (trialling WiFi access points)

Beer @ 11am is good

Mojo MOQ is 100
cheaper than an Eee
a school (unnamed) is looking @ getting them for class sets

Ubuntu login looks just like windows - trialled on kids - didn't notice they weren't using Windoze :)

WikiEducator - q.v.

lesson plans - IP of the teacher - not collaborative traditionally
MIT OpenCourseWare
remix/mashups of lesson plans

WikiMediaCommons - AV files contributed

Tracking POV - who's contributed? who hasn't?
Reputation building via transparent means

Making the most of Home Tech - Rob Inskeep

Used to work in an R&D company trying to think and live 3-5 years ahead - access to funding for gadgets on that basis... but...
Married an accountant => not same access to funds :)
=> need to get most out of what you have.

Buffalo TerraStation 6 yo PPC processor (later were ARM)
Community supported
SAMBA 3 etc.
Central disk storage
Disks scratch DVD's - kids
Linksys WRT(54G) Tomato etc.
...tweak power etc.
WAF - Wife Approval Factor :)
Media Center (Windoze, due to WAF)
MCE anyware/anywhere http://thegreenbutton.org
genre mood aartist etc. playlists
NASA space telescopes etc. - Hubble etc.
photo on web - South Island from ISS - stunning :) (NASA site?)
photos of holidays etc in place of just TV - helps to talk
Power usage monitoring
Special agent Laszlo - turning stuff off
Local weather (station on house)
walk dog? hang washing out? etc...
weather underground
Cost/kWh
Old house with old dodgy phone wiring - slow DSL
Google powermeter
http://inskeep.net/weather/
OpenMesh - ex Moeraki (evil?)

Media piping from one end of house to other
PRMA? VRMA?
PS/3 media server?
Samsung TV's VLMA? DLNA? hack to make TV think stuff is in a local USB device - so will play anything :)
Android TV Sweden?
Linux MCE
HDMI replacement over Cat5/6 - HDNet?
PoE?
100Mbps minimum capability required
SpeakerCraft NIRV
http://www.mynirv.com
64 zones of HD
2 pairs of cat6 to every plug
add boards in e.g. stairwell/cupboard
playlist follows you around the house

MythTV should be best IP TV backend
allow frontend to use web I/F
France - set top box IPTV for TV
from ISP
well-known standards
WDTV ? Linux under the hood - how to tweak?

WiFi not a great success
5.5 etc saturated as well as 2.4
old house - wiring round back of cupboards etc. (not in walls)

Build in Cat6 etc. - min 2 runs to each plate
@ least 2 outlets per room
3 for lounge etc.
Regret: not running ducting
future options: fibre - more coax - keep power etc out of network ducting - UHF / sat baseband etc.
PT106 Telecom - separations of data/power etc.
not many people implementing it
Fletchers?
large building companies
G.J.Gardner - can do but don't initiate the conversation by default
Google "cable your house Auckland"

LED lighting?
Solar panels - requests coming in for LEDs - different - beam shaping etc. and colors etc.

RightHouse - free advice
Passive systems (e.g. tilting house slightly to max insolation, extension options etc.
Waitakere ecoAdvisor -- hopefully will continue under the SuperCity
carrott.org/power/ power meter
type 5000 into box, then click somewhere else (bad JS)
Revenue meter from TradeMe $30
Dry contacts and flashing light
WallWarts from The Warehouse
Ripple control - helps - sometimes doesn't switch back on (West Auckland)
Meridian is state-owned - profits back to NZ
Genesis NZ owned but coal users
TrustPower - wind etc. - but overseas owned
"Contact is Evil"
Mighty River
Meter RJ45 - to - USB - replicate, virtualize it to various programs
?Query by mail to speaker?

Games

Angry Birds (iPad)
Strategery [sic]
Harbo(u)rMaster

pixelfusion ... incubator?

LISPer noticed @ BarCamp

Mick Buckley

Barcamp MongoDB presentation Sponno

Not relational - get over it :)

list of users incl EA, GitHub and BlueSpark :)

Rich document store

Properties (== metadata?)

Schemas for mongo www.kurl.??????
schema-less -- install and dont do anything with it afterward (schema-setup-wise)

JSON / BSON

http://www.mongodb.org/

autoSharding in v.1.5 (end of this month) - alpha @ present?

Commercially supported

mongodb.org

port localhost:28017

may lose data as there is no logging?
Mongo Repair
Durability - You had to ask ... Long long story
been slammed lately for loss of data

Upsert - update or insert

PHP

web08.db - OLD
SQL database - BaseDB

vs CouchDB -- need to do sharding yourself in CouchDB
comparisons online
couch's strength is in replication where things go offline a lot e.g. mobile

Mongo Hub GUI

backup - fsync (mongo command)
shutdown copy /data/db
mongodump/mongorestore

if i need to do X i would use Y (NoSQL book guy quote)

FoaF Redis

Voldemort 1 billion records/day
soir / solr? full text search
text search of volatile data: Sphinx
"Facebook still uses MySQL, a lot. Wikipedia uses MySQL, a lot. FriendFeed uses MySQL, a lot. NoQSL is a great tool, but it's certainly not going to bbe your competitive edge, it's not going to make your applicationhot, and most of all, your users won't give a sh*t about any of this. ...."

errors?
call back on (successful) write?
_id returns id of inserted object

Google NX version....

is apparently more robust than the NoMachine and FreeNX versions

Aaarrgghh .. gotta find some power ...

...else this lappie wil shut down in 15 mins

Yayy--found it :)

RapidFire sessions BarCamp

Lars?
Pacific Fibre
NZ <=> USA fibre
FTTH
need international component
Mark Rsuhworth ex Ihug head
David Kirk CEO
Tyndall
Gareth Morgan
900Gbps in Australasia - not much
2 fibre pairs
5Tbps
Vendor quotes
$US500M now but falling

-------------------------------


Maryland
Day Without Media
withoutmedia.wordpress.com
24 hours with no media
hated it failed - felt sick
"Worst experience of my entire life" (!)
-------------------------------

David ??

eval is evil... accept code and run it
security issue
arbitrary remote scripting
sandboxing
[demented coding]
-------------------------------

Seth Wiggler?
Christchurch
browser addons
Interclue
3M downloads
more you know the more you know you dont know
7 major points
1)hard to know what audience knows what about browser addons
JavaScript based extensions vs. directory addons
Interclue is far too complicated
Lazarus autosaves web form entries on HDD
2) how do you market addons? Nobody searches for them ... funded by toolbar installed by default etc.

3) what will the browser maker let u get away with?
Prefetch icons DNS fetch in background - not threadsafe, crashes
4) which browsers to support?
How hard? Market share?
5) Funding model -- freemium model (3 major ones one of which done yet)
6) ???
7) ultimatestatusbar.com

-----------------------------------------------

Scott Judson
judsonsteel.com
@dvint1

iPhone, Android

Job Dispatch
Hines Electrical
iPad for bigger hands
Technician Current Jobs
job - maps - relative geog from present loc
travel time
On site
add details site visit stock used
pause e.g. for lunch etc.
Job Complete
Q's help with invoicing and dispatch
Server sync
InFusion? backend
Call Out
Customer details etc.
Time sheets
job codes, stock codes

----------------------------

Group Photo...

-----------------------------

AR Augmented Reality

combines real and virtual
interactive in realtime
3D

General Electric
ecomaginati0on
smart grid
Lego model
Zugara shopping
markerless
futuroscope
BMW
TaT : Face recognition
augmented ID from face recognition

www.tat.se

mobile / geolocation
smartphones

NewYork nearest subway
YouTube
acrossair

Tools
ARToolkit desktop
FLARTToolkit for the web


LAyar for mobile
www.layar.com

----------------------

Wellywood Full Code Press

http://www.fullcodepress.com/

CodeBlacks

NZ vs. Australia originally

charity website

Organizers picked dream team

Matt Buchanan
Mike???
Amanda?
@sneak, @matthewbuchanan, @mandamonium

Web site design in 48 hours for charity who never met before

CodeBlacks mailing list

Amanda Project Manager

Lulu ???

Avoid coffee(!) -- V @ 2am => interesting results :)
[video for this]
Network issues - don't assume 24/7 availability of internet etc.
Server issues

Communal meals and mixing

Friday night setup
9:30 - 10am in Town Hall
11am meet client
Te Hua Rangitane Trust was CodeBlacks charity
@risk youth etc.

IA PoV
Parents perspective
Processes - how are kids looked after in the programs?
Structure
Client present for all but ~4 hours
clarification on the spot - invaluable
SilverStripe as CMS?

Low stress - calmest of all teams
vs. "expletives/blaspheming" from other teams

Organizing team fantastic - Natasha? (here)
Lots of volunteers
Facebook site hooked in
HTML5
Used GIT as SCCS/versioning
traditionally used SVN
Don't use unfamiliar technology in a competition situation

Can specify environment for server and ongoing sponsored hosting

Videos, photographs etc.
Judges around a bit - could talk to them'

Automating CMS installations - Liz Quilty

sparks? Sam - Drupal CMS

http://sparks.co.nz ?

Trouble with projector...

CMS from the commandline

@RHLiz @Velofile

Wordpress installation automatically

Fast - ~2 seconds
Less confusion for cust
Less human interaction

Magento Silverstripe Joomla Drupal OS Commerce ....

bash curl - as little as poss that is not default

Path URL Admin Email
DB user pass database root user

chk vars set
set any iunset vars
determine distro, set up vars accordingly
check everything installed and enabled
setup databases if not already set up

install -- download files
unpack chown/chmod - Install via curl or other

wget -c http://wordpress.com/latest.zip

installers
Drupal / Drush relies on PHP5.2
Silverstripe - Sake
Magento - broken simpleXML - php5.2 only
Joomla - Javascript only
Wordpress - easy

redhat /debian checks
php version det
clean url's - mod rewrite enabled

VPS $30 per month - can put 100 sites on it
vs. say $10 per site

install_$CMSNAME

CFEngine Puppet Chef ...

CentOS, Ubuntu

VPS's

dmail.co.nz

dmail.co.nz

startups

Workshop Enterprises

Starting what?
company
Project

when does it stop being a startup?
IPO?
High growth planning from the start
Ambitious targets

artfund.co.nz ?

Icehouse? incubator

Matched Funding

Singapore Incubators

Icdhouse - where?

TOR TechNZ (ex-FIRST)

YC model (Y Conbinator)

Rob (Rod) Jury? Xero

37Signals launnch and go hard

Xero should have gone global straight away .... $400k per month

T-shirts Despair

Hitting the ceiling -- NZ company vs global company
Networking opportunities in e.g. San Francisco much greater (?) -- only interested if they can see it 'in their backyard'

Face to face feedback is much more valuable than phone etc.
Beta customers especially important

e.g. Museums for mytoursapp ... SF has ? 30 museums

Ease of doing business in NZ is much better
Companies take smaller companies more seriously

Is NZ our incubator?
Really good @ connecting with each other
Who gives the legup? Govt?
KEA network of Kiwis in well connected strategic places - help Kiwis get connections and helps
Steven Tyndall's initiative

1 guy $10k budget sounds lame to nonKiwis but sensible to Kiwis

mytoursapp.com

startup

John Underkoffler

Fiction,
to Reality.
John Underkoffler points to the future of UI

Weekly Retrospect #10?

John Graves

NZPUG member
doing UI research stuff
(off to Kurzweil institute?)

Adam Greenfield

Everywhere (book)

Was @ Webstock

Back from Wellington

I'm back from Wellington (Upper Hutt)

Very tired after doing lots of tidying in very dusty rooms.

Lungs starting to clear again after a full day @ home again.

Barcamp Kites Cameras

Saw presentation on Kite cameras
UAV drones from $400 odd?
Helicopters in MIT join and cooperate

Barcamp

I'm @ Barcamp! Yayy!!
Ludwig presenting now on Natural UI
Xbox, Natal/Connect,
http://weeklyretrospect.com