blogs

by Matt Isaacs I recently started on a new project to improve the ease of use of the CUWiN network system. The project is a web application (PHP based) to allow communities and other collaborative entities to create and manage custom firmware images for their wireless nodes. The first portion is finished but not live. …read more

by Kevin Bulger I feel it is important to have a deep, full understanding of a problem before you go about finding solutions to it. Since I will be focusing on issues surrounding the Digital Divide and suggesting solutions for those issues, I need to know precisely what the Digital Divide refers to before I do anything. …read more

by Cheryl Jerozal Last week I had the opportunity to participate in my first "sprint". In a sprint, a group of people gets together and works on an open source project for a few days. In my two days (and one night) of sprinting, I learned a lot, met some awesome people, and contributed to the start of a project. I highly recommend sprinting to anyone who gets a chance to do it. …read more

by John Miller Imagine that you could run Windows XP, Mac OS X, and multiple versions of Linux on the same computer. That's already a reality--you just have to reboot to switch between them. Now imagine that you could run all these operating systems at the same time on the same computer. You could run MS Word 2003 at the same time you're running Safari, all while programming in Eclipse. It's possible. The technology that makes it possible: Xen. Xen is a virtualization technology that's based on Linux. It lets you run multiple virtual computers ("guest" operating systems) on top of one master operating system (called the "host" OS). In other words, you can run Windows and Linux on the same PC at the same time. That's the sexy use, anyhow. Xen is already in use by hosting companies to give customers their own computer. Instead of having to give customers a physical PC, Xen allows the hosting companies to fit many virtual computers onto one PC. This is ideal for customers that don't need much computing power. At the Community Software Lab, we're in the process of putting together a Xen-based server so that we can emulate our current network of servers from within one machine. Instead of having to prepare a new computer to become a server--install hard drives, memory, network cards, cd-rom drives, load the OS via cd-rom--we can type a few commands on the Xen server and have a working virtual computer in about five minutes. What once took a day to do now takes minutes. The kinks? The Xen server has to share its memory among many virtual computers, and these days an individual’s personal computer can use 256 MiB, 512 MiB, 1 GiB, or more. This puts a limit to the number of virtual computers that can fit onto one host machine. We're working the kinks out of our test server (now running computation-friendly virtual machines), and as soon as we hear from our server supplier, we'll be putting together the production server. Computer virtualization is nothing new, however. IBM's been doing it in their mainframes for over 40 years. VMWare is a widely used virtualization product. Various video-game emulators have been around for a while (I beat Rygar using good ol' Nesticle, all while surfing the web). Xen just seems most promising for the moment. I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't mention KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine--not Keyboard, Video, Mouse!). New in the 2.6.20 Linux kernel (the core of the operating system that handles memory management, task switching, networking, etc.), KVM might give Xen a run for its money. I'll try it out, but with time invested in Xen, that's where we're headed for the moment. …read more

[From the blog of Carl Seifert , September 7, 2006.] New CTC VISTAs Gariet Cowin & Carl Seifert at PSO So, details...I'm Carl Seifert. A cajun from Louisiana, now a resident of Arlington, Virginia, I got connected with a great CTC in Alexandria (literally across the street from Arlington) and started teaching adult computer literacy classes to out mainly immigrant clientele. After a while, the relationship was such that they wanted me hired on full time, but didn't have the money to pay me, soooo enter CTC AmeriCorps VISTA Project. Now, I'm going to be serving in a new capacity to increase our organization's ability to keep up with our students. During my tenure, I am charged with creating a way to not lose track of our students, some of whom lack consistent phone lines. This is in order to help with fundraising and increase our capacity to continue to serve the community even after their courses at Computer C.O.R.E …read more

[From the blog of John Miller, July 1, 2006.] John Miller (right) at Teen Summit In a few weeks, I'm heading up the web design workshop at the Intel Computer Clubhouse's Teen Summit. My task: to help 15 or so teenagers create a journalistically-slanted website covering the Summit. How to do it? What will make this website good or bad? …read more

[From the blog of Ellen-Rae Cachola, August 11, 2006.] HPP Staff: Mary, Cali, Bobby and Ellen-Rae I must say my favorite memories from the past year is meeting the most coolest people who I consider good friends! I think this project really got me closer with community and technology, helping me to see good side of technology. I know this roots reggae band called Bambu Station that say "technology is the tool for civil-lie-zation." Yet being part of community tech centers have helped me know how to use technology to serve the voices and perspectives of the oppressed/disadvantaged people. Good memories includes the orientations, conferences, blogs, sharing of knowledge, and feeling that many involved were all on the same level of caring and wanting social transformation, which fills me with inspiration still. Ellen-Rae finished her VISTA service in September '06, but continues to work with Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco. Read more from Ellen-Rae's CTC VISTA blog.

[From the blog of Raymond Varona, August 23, 2006.] Raymond Varona During the summer, most of our population was made up of kids whose primary language wasn't English and who had never used a computer before. As a result, the workshops were more like guided activities instead of real skill-building sessions since I have to literally show them, step-by-step, how to do every action (including opening files and browsing through folders). So I started off with an intro to Photoshop and gradually worked my content down to the point where my last workshop was on how to change fonts in different programs... …read more

[From the blog of Danielle Martin, 10/13/2006] Morgan Sully, developed an open DIY Digital Media Toolkit/CD-ROM, with a simple HTML start page and links to resources and free software (usually distributed on CD) to bring to sessions he did in his work with The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Community Center. …read more