The NYLUG Python group has been reinvented as the NYLUG Hacking Society. Now rather than discuss only Python, the meeting is open to discussing and learning about programming in general. Last night (2/3/2010) Robert Menes gave the first of what is intended to be a series of lessons presenting Smalltalk.
Click here to get the free ebook we downloaded last night, and here to download Squeak (the environment you'll need to work with Smalltalk).
Meetings will continue to be every two weeks, so the next one should be on February 16. If you're going to be in NYC and are interested in learning about Smalltalk, why not drop in?
Join the Hacking Society e-mail list here. The NYLUG chat room can be found at #nylug on irc.freenode.net .
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Rebuilding Haiti
There's been a lot of talk lately about rebuilding Haiti. Two facts need to be taken into consideration when this topic comes up. First, not all of Haiti was destroyed by the recent magnitude 7.0 quake. Second, whether Haiti was ever properly 'built' in the first place to now be 'rebuilt' is a subject worthy of debate.
As soon as I first heard of the earthquake on January 12 I thought of my friend Salonique. He, his wife and children live in Gonaives, 85 miles north of Port-au-Prince. No real damage from the quake came to them where they live and work with a church. It was a relief to know these people I care about were far from the epicenter of disaster, but the impact is being felt by them in other ways. Aside from concerns about friends and family they had in Port-au-Prince, Gonaives is now receiving refugees from the earthquake and is suffering from the disruption of its supply chain. This was a catastrophe for the entire country, even though not all the country was "destroyed" directly by the earthquake.
It could be argued, and I think correctly, that Haiti was never really 'built' at any point in its history. It is the first modern black republic, having won its freedom from France in the 1800s at great cost. Those expenses were ongoing, as France demanded reparations for war damage and loss. So much so that by 1900, 80% of Haiti's budget was dedicated to paying back loans taken out to pay the French bill. Without sufficient financial resources and with corrupt governance for pretty much all of its history, essential infrastracture was either never put into place, or else built in a very limited fashion.
Some are speaking, however hesitantly, of this nightmare situation as an opportunity. It is difficult to look for positives in the face of so much suffering and death. Over 100,000 and perhaps more than 200,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake. Yet, we the living have grieve the dead and then to look to the future.
Haiti needs to be set on its feet and assume its place among the nations. It has a unique and noble story to tell. What will it take?
Doctors, nurses and the clergy have been going on missions to Haiti for decades. This work needs to continue, not only now but in an ongoing, sustain manner. Those in the medical profession provide an obvious benefit, while people of the cloth can provide spiritual nurture and counsel to this very religious nation. What else is needed?
Engineers! Had the buildings in Port-au-Prince been built to code for earthquakes less property would have been destroy and the death toll would not be so astronomical. Also, the main supply road into Haiti from the Dominican Republic is said to be quite narrow and of poor quality for the most part. What Haiti desparately needs is solid physical infrastructure.
Roads, bridges, power plants, phone lines and more are needed in Haiti. With these phone lines there should also be fast Internet, widely available. Technology needs to be put into regular use.
How can this be done? There are many ways the work can be done. Factories would help. Not more than 100 miles from the American mainland (so I've heard), Haiti could be a fantastic place for garment factories and the like. Sweatshops? Well, hopefully nothing terrible, but certainly better than abject poverty and want.
Are there other suggestions? Is there something you can think of to be done, or that you'd like to do? Why not take it to "Haiti Rewired"? This is a new forum for discussing technology, infrastructure and the future of Haiti. I joined last week and strongly urge anyone with an interest in the topic to take part. Just talking won't help Haiti. Let's join together, share ideas, strategize and get busy.
See Also:
Haiti Rewired
Used Laptops Needed for Earthquake Victims in Haiti: You Can Help!
Haiti earthquake: engineers work out how to rebuild capital to withstand future shocks
As soon as I first heard of the earthquake on January 12 I thought of my friend Salonique. He, his wife and children live in Gonaives, 85 miles north of Port-au-Prince. No real damage from the quake came to them where they live and work with a church. It was a relief to know these people I care about were far from the epicenter of disaster, but the impact is being felt by them in other ways. Aside from concerns about friends and family they had in Port-au-Prince, Gonaives is now receiving refugees from the earthquake and is suffering from the disruption of its supply chain. This was a catastrophe for the entire country, even though not all the country was "destroyed" directly by the earthquake.
It could be argued, and I think correctly, that Haiti was never really 'built' at any point in its history. It is the first modern black republic, having won its freedom from France in the 1800s at great cost. Those expenses were ongoing, as France demanded reparations for war damage and loss. So much so that by 1900, 80% of Haiti's budget was dedicated to paying back loans taken out to pay the French bill. Without sufficient financial resources and with corrupt governance for pretty much all of its history, essential infrastracture was either never put into place, or else built in a very limited fashion.
Some are speaking, however hesitantly, of this nightmare situation as an opportunity. It is difficult to look for positives in the face of so much suffering and death. Over 100,000 and perhaps more than 200,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake. Yet, we the living have grieve the dead and then to look to the future.
Haiti needs to be set on its feet and assume its place among the nations. It has a unique and noble story to tell. What will it take?
Doctors, nurses and the clergy have been going on missions to Haiti for decades. This work needs to continue, not only now but in an ongoing, sustain manner. Those in the medical profession provide an obvious benefit, while people of the cloth can provide spiritual nurture and counsel to this very religious nation. What else is needed?
Engineers! Had the buildings in Port-au-Prince been built to code for earthquakes less property would have been destroy and the death toll would not be so astronomical. Also, the main supply road into Haiti from the Dominican Republic is said to be quite narrow and of poor quality for the most part. What Haiti desparately needs is solid physical infrastructure.
Roads, bridges, power plants, phone lines and more are needed in Haiti. With these phone lines there should also be fast Internet, widely available. Technology needs to be put into regular use.
How can this be done? There are many ways the work can be done. Factories would help. Not more than 100 miles from the American mainland (so I've heard), Haiti could be a fantastic place for garment factories and the like. Sweatshops? Well, hopefully nothing terrible, but certainly better than abject poverty and want.
Are there other suggestions? Is there something you can think of to be done, or that you'd like to do? Why not take it to "Haiti Rewired"? This is a new forum for discussing technology, infrastructure and the future of Haiti. I joined last week and strongly urge anyone with an interest in the topic to take part. Just talking won't help Haiti. Let's join together, share ideas, strategize and get busy.
See Also:
Haiti Rewired
Used Laptops Needed for Earthquake Victims in Haiti: You Can Help!
Haiti earthquake: engineers work out how to rebuild capital to withstand future shocks
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
My Doubts About Mobile Giving for Haiti
While everyone seems to be celebrating the rise of mobile giving, I have my doubts. Shortly after the Haiti earthquake word started circulating online that there were a few ways to give through a simple cell phone text. One of these is texting the word "Haiti" to 90999. Doing so bills $10 to your mobile account and designates the funds for the American Red Cross to use in its relief work in Haiti. As of yesterday the total was over $22 million raised for the Red Cross through this means. All well and good, right? Perhaps.
Donations sent via text message are not typically available right away. Usually the cell carriers wait a couple of months to process and disburse funds. This makes sense if you take into consideration the fact that people need to pay their bills first...and also the possibility of disputes. And therein lies the problem.
Suppose a working man, we'll call him Tom, has a teenage daughter who texts all the time. Next month he gets his cell phone bill and notices $150 extra, all under his daughter's number. Now, he pays for her to have unlimited texting, so this makes no sense. Without looking further he calls customer service. 30 minutes later he finally gets someone on the line who cheerfully explains to him that these were 15 separate texts sent donating money to the Red Cross.
Now Tom doesn't want to look like an ass, but how can he pay $150 extra on his phone bill? He can't, so he explains that his daughter did this without his permission and asks to remove the donations. Supposing the carrier complies, as it should in my opinion, this is $150 that won't be going to help out in Haiti. Multiply that by a few thousand families with equally irresponsible children plus some people who have second thoughts about their generosity after they see their bill and you can see the problem.
Yes, most of the money pledged may well be paid by mobile subscribers. Some won't be, though. Expect the complaints and backlash to begin shortly, as soon as billing cycles end and statements are sent out.
See Also:
U.S. cellphone users donate $22 million to Haiti earthquake relief via text (The Washington Post)
Donations sent via text message are not typically available right away. Usually the cell carriers wait a couple of months to process and disburse funds. This makes sense if you take into consideration the fact that people need to pay their bills first...and also the possibility of disputes. And therein lies the problem.
Suppose a working man, we'll call him Tom, has a teenage daughter who texts all the time. Next month he gets his cell phone bill and notices $150 extra, all under his daughter's number. Now, he pays for her to have unlimited texting, so this makes no sense. Without looking further he calls customer service. 30 minutes later he finally gets someone on the line who cheerfully explains to him that these were 15 separate texts sent donating money to the Red Cross.
Now Tom doesn't want to look like an ass, but how can he pay $150 extra on his phone bill? He can't, so he explains that his daughter did this without his permission and asks to remove the donations. Supposing the carrier complies, as it should in my opinion, this is $150 that won't be going to help out in Haiti. Multiply that by a few thousand families with equally irresponsible children plus some people who have second thoughts about their generosity after they see their bill and you can see the problem.
Yes, most of the money pledged may well be paid by mobile subscribers. Some won't be, though. Expect the complaints and backlash to begin shortly, as soon as billing cycles end and statements are sent out.
See Also:
U.S. cellphone users donate $22 million to Haiti earthquake relief via text (The Washington Post)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Factory Reset Rumor 2
When my daughter's phone, a Rumor 2 purchased through Sprint, started rebooting randomly and not always recharging we took it to the Sprint store. A battery swap and call to technical support later and we were issued a warranty replacement through the mail. Before sending her defective phone back I wanted to make certain all contacts and other data were removed. I knew the factory reset option was in the security section. A "lock code" was requested to access security, but neither my daughter, a Sprint customer service rep nor I knew what it was. A couple of days of searching I found it. I pass the info along here in order to make this simple task easier for others.
The path to reset:
Menu > Settings > More > Security > Enter Lock Code > Delete/Reset > Reset Phone
What's the "Lock Code"? It's the last four of the number associated with the phone. In other words, if the number assigned to the phone is 212-555-0020 then the "Lock Code" is 0020.
Got it? Simple, right?
The path to reset:
Menu > Settings > More > Security > Enter Lock Code > Delete/Reset > Reset Phone
What's the "Lock Code"? It's the last four of the number associated with the phone. In other words, if the number assigned to the phone is 212-555-0020 then the "Lock Code" is 0020.
Got it? Simple, right?
Friday, January 08, 2010
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Globe Skimmer
Do you have a favorite insect? I do. I guess I'm just that sort of geek. The dragonfly has long interested me, though not in the same way ants did when I was a child. An ant colony can be observed in action over the course of time, but a dragonfly just seems to flit about doing nothing in particular. There is a certain beauty to the dragonfly that I appreciate. So, when I saw a talk given by Charles Anderson about the impressive migration pattern of a variety of dragonfly referred to as "the globe skimmer," I took notice. Watch and enjoy.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Sailing a Sea of Titan
It's an idea that has captured my imagination: drop a probe into Ligeia Mare, a sea on Saturn's moon Titan. This idea becomes even more fascinating if you consider that the sea isn't composed of H2O, but rather liquid hydrocarbons. There is weather on Titan that includes a fluid cycle similar to what we find on earth. The elements, gravity and other factors are very different to those on earth, yet there are similarities. Besides the valuable data that can be brought back by this mission, the price is said to be lower than the typical approach of sending in a sort of weather balloon or parachute probe heading to a surface landing.
Images from this other world would be incredibly interesting, especially considering its exotic environment.
Click here for a BBC article about the proposed mission.
The following video describes the first landing of a probe on Titan. As you will see, everything didn't go quite as planned. Hopefully a probe dropped into a lake or sea on Titan will fare better.
Images from this other world would be incredibly interesting, especially considering its exotic environment.
Click here for a BBC article about the proposed mission.
The following video describes the first landing of a probe on Titan. As you will see, everything didn't go quite as planned. Hopefully a probe dropped into a lake or sea on Titan will fare better.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
CellScope: One Step Closer to a Medical Tricorder
This is one of those ideas I hear about and think, "Of course! Why didn't anyone think of this sooner!" Likely, though, the technology didn't exist to make a CellScope until now. What interests me most about this is that development doesn't have to end with a cell phone displaying and recording microscopic images (see the video above). Just as these different technologies are now coming together to potentially enable far-flung rural clinics around the globe to capture and transmit useful life-saving medical information, more divergent technologies will likely be incorporated into future devices.
Consider stand-alone GPS devices. It should be obvious to anyone who thinks about it that the utility and retail value of such equipment will likely diminish rapidly in coming years. Why? Because cell phones are increasingly being sold with GPS capability and accompanying applications. Further, cell phones are more and more becoming "smartphones." They are mini pocket computers, complete with cameras and video recorders. Varied technologies are converging, and there's no reason the same won't be true of these "CellScopes."Rework and integrate more fully the cellschope's hardware, include a fairly large memory with a complete database of medical information and what do you have? A medical tricoder, like in Star Trek. A full medical lab and library in one's hand. How many lives could be saved because of information that could be gathered and analyzed with such a device, especially in areas lacking medical facilities and well-trained professionals?
We'll get there.
