hermes chipset pcmcia card

Pros:
reasonably cheap
good linux support
external antenna (lucent connector)

Cons:
not as many options as a prism based device (perfect for client use tho)

Uses:
laptops, multia (or other desktop with pcmcia bridge) based clients

Available from:
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.dabs.com

Please note that any card chipsets and specs posted here could change without notice 🙁 we will try and keep it upto date tho.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/02/25/HNlinuxdriver_1.html

Linux Centrino driver released

A Canadian software company has produced a driver that will let Linux users make the most of Intel Corp.’s Centrino wireless chip set.

Linuxant released DriverLoader 1.6 last week and is hoping to capitalize on a market that Intel itself has identified, promising in January that it will soon make a Linux driver available for Centrino.

"People were deploying Linux on their Centrino notebooks and then they would notice their wireless LAN would not work. DriverLoader 1.6 allows them to activate the WLAN interface on their notebook," said Marc Boucher, president and founder of Linuxant.

Further to a sit down with Rich on Friday 16/04, here are some structural suggestions for the BW website. I am aware that this was discussed a while back, and have tried to take on some of those issues; this is intended as a minimal friction re-vamp rather than a mighty site build from the bottom up… and nothing is set in stone obviously.

It aims to sit within Hamish’s mission picture (http://forums.bristolwireless.net/viewtopic.php?t=31) while practically meeting the possible requirements of all sorts of site visitors…

Sorry that other Ed could not make it, and hope you all like it enough to consider it as a practical braindump perhaps leading to a happy www rejig.

The point of it is to rationalise the site Information Architecture without disturbing the standing www pages (altho’ I don’t know about the second level nav), in order to make it clear to visitors what sort of stuff they will get where in the site… Here goes.

****************************************
BristolWireless.net website suggestions 19/04/04
****************************************

Aims:
—–
Maintain current accessibility standards as seen at bristolwireless.net
Structure website content clearly and relevantly for all visitors
Simplify the layout:
1. Remove ‘Gallery’ and other Right Hand side bits (integrated elsewhere)
2. Tidy up Left hand side, leaving navigation, search and links
Create a strong ‘call to action’ and sense of inclusion for visitors, and good links from BBS

Proposed user groups:
———————
These are non-specific groups based on people’s potential interest in the site rather than their ethnicity, age etc. (ie this is not a heavyweight usability analysis. I gather that the BW site has reached a satisfactory medium of desirable usability and actual do-ability).

Establishing these will give a basic outline
of *who* may use the site, which we can then further break down into *how*. This is not suggesting a site designed around specific user types – that might lead to a heavy re-build (?).

1. Totally technical types looking for totally technical information and discussion
2. Keen punters and interested parties, (potential) volunteers for all angles of BW
3. Totally non-technical punters wondering what it is all about and what for
4. Journalists
5. Sponsors
6. Easton Locals

Proposed content areas:
———————–
These are based on the information categories which BW offers online, and users’ likely activity requirements. This is not splitting the site into ‘who are you’ fragments at the top level, but placing the different information for different users within specific content categories. This is based on the theory that whoever they are, the visitors will have one of
the following information needs, which they will be looking for in clear categories.

The section headings might be links to those sections. The article titles might be links only. Can it be possible to create indented section menus when the visitors are in that section, or does it have to remain in the blogging structure? If it remains in the blogging structure, would it be good to have a set of anchor links at the top to lead the less-experienced
visitors to articles some way down the page? Obviously, the titles are suggestions rather than definitives!

1. ::Read up section::
History of BW, The CLAN
History of wireless networking and computer recycling
Overview of wireless applications
Heavyweight technical documentation
Training and give-away days
FAQs
An lightweight article about what happens when you put up a node
etc… etc… etc..

2. ::News section:: (or this might be simply the home page, blog-style?)
Regularly updated RSS feed from BBS

3. ::Get involved section::
Join mailing list
Come t
o meetings
Register your interest for training/give-aways
Sign up to IRC
Add BW RSS feed
Send an email to the list
Submit a link
Wikis

4. ::Press Releases section::
Press Releases
Business Cards

5. ::Interactive Easton secton::
Links to local stuff
Submit a link
Gallery

6. ::Links list::
This is to appear on every page below the content lists and navigation above

Other bits of navigation:
————————-
As well as navigating to the content and discussion stuff, visitors will also want some more

functional navigation as per normal website stuff. Could this fit in the banner?

1. ::Contact page::
Map
Directions
Phone numbers
Email addresses
Chelsea directions 😉

2. ::Site Map::
Erm, site map, really.

3. ::Sponsor list:: (As a footer to every page?)
IOP, Greater Bristol Foundation, PCT Health Service, Christian Haystack etc..

***********************************
So there you have it. All constructive debate is encouraged and all that. I’m off to France now, so will look forward to catching up on this posting in a few days… In the meantime, I will leave it up to Rich and Sean to moderate 🙂

Christian and Rich have done some sterling work in getting the redesign of the website going, a semi working beta is available for perusal at http://bristolwireless.net/wiki . As it’s a wiki, it’s ready for content creation now so get typing.

http://tinyurl.com/6g5av

Is there anyway of adapting this for embbing an RSS feed into a wiki page do you think?

BTW I used tinyurl cos the long url really mucked up the formatting on the new site, try it in the sandbox, I thought it would wrap, they did in the old forums.

Welcome to the first post in the Bristol Wireless News section in its new incarnation as a WordPress blog. So then, one might say that the news is that the news is new on the site…

Actually, what happened is that there used to be a phpBB bulletin board on this site, and, yes, it got hacked… taking down the wiki as well. So, after relocating the server from the Easton Community Centre (RIP) to a machine run by Psand, I managed to get the wiki restored to its pristine former glory but decided against reinstalling phpBB.

Instead, I wrote a php script to convert the content of the phpBB database to the MovableType export format, which WordPress was able to import. It did mean changing the way that the posts refer to one another (the initial entry was considered to be the post, and all subsequent replies have been imported as comments) but it seems to have done the job. What this means, though, is that any post before this one has been salvaged, and there may be some quirks as a result.

If anyone finds anything that has become munged in the conversion process, let me know, or mail the Bristol Wireless team.

Enjoy!

Christian

Forwarded from info@bristolwireless.net

From: Jim Barker <iflyrc2@pacbell.net>
To: info@bristolwireless.net
Subject: Wireless backpack repeater
Date: 08 Jun 2004 19:37:25 -0700

I would like to plans for the wireless backpack repeater. Software, antenna, etc. Thank you for your time.

Jim Barker
Grass Valley CA.
USA

Possible technical write-up required methinks

Sean

John Mayford has given us an invite to the Creative Expo 04 at the LShed on Bristol harbourside on 22/23rd October.

The event hasbeen orgnaised by Bristol East Side Traders – http://www.bristoleastsidetraders.co.uk/

and I’m sending off for an official pack now.

Are you an artist, designer, maker, photographer, performer, comedian, architect, street artist or poet or do you work in the performing arts, interactive media or the visual arts and live or work in Bristol’s inner city? Then Creative Expo 04 has been created with you in mind.

Creative Expo 04 is a two-day event hosted by BEST and will be showcasing some of Bristol’s most innovative creative practitioners. This spectacular event will be held at the L-Shed next to the Industrial Museum on Bristol’s Princes Wharf on Friday 22 & Saturday 23 October 2004.

Creative Expo 04 is your opportunity to:

* showcase your field of speciality
* market your product or idea to agencies, venues, galleries, corporate business and the public
* improve your promotional and selling skills & network with fellow artists

You will also be provided with an invaluable source of networking opportunities with trade, press and public audiences.

BEST will also provide marketing support to help you obtain maximum exposure from the event. Included will be a briefing and training day (covering all aspects of setting up an exhibition).

BEST invites applications from creative practitioners who work or live in the areas of St Paul’s, Stokes Croft, Montpelier, St Werburghs, Easton, Whitehall, Barton Hill, St Annes, Redfield or Lawrence Hill.

More details here – http://www.businessmatch.org.uk/697.asp

and I’m sending off for an official pack now.

Bristol Sound and Vision04 Update

ATV has booked the Cube Cinema on 27th October to showcase the films produced by the "Alliance For Innovation" team of Action Time Vision, Exploding Pictures and Firstborn Creatives as part of the Bristol Sound and Vision04 programme

Bristol Sound and Vision04 formed part of the St Pauls based 4 day youth festival organised by Imalya "Big Time 7" in St Agnes park July 27 -30th. The second section ATV ran workshops and screened the work of local filmakers alongside the BS5 Youth project ad to co-incide to the BEST organised street party.

The sound and vision format on both occassions took the form of workshops aimed at encouraging awareness and participation in new and innovative media and specific filmwork produced by Exploding Pictures and Firstborn Creatives respectively. Workshops were provided by www.plugincinema.com , Bristol Broadband Co-operative aka Dialect, Bristol Wireless, Liousa Jones aka Diss Miss of Dutty Girl, and Funk It Up.

The event will take place between 6.00 and 7.30 and is intended to celebrate the participation of those involved in the project and the work produced

Provisional Agenda for Business meeting on the wiki at http://docs.psand.net/twiki/bin/view/CLAN/ClanAgendaNextMeeting

All welcome, please attend, Bristol Wireless needs you :), several projects reaching critical stages.

Bristol goes open source

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/online/archives/microsoft/2004/10/bristol_goes_open_source.html

"The biggest ever switch by a UK local authority away from Microsoft software to ‘StarOffice’ desktop solutions based on open source software is set to take place at Bristol City Council," reports E-Government Bulletin.

"Bristol is poised to move up to 5,000 of its staff desktop computers to the StarOffice 7 system early in the New Year, in a move aimed at saving an estimated 1.4 million pounds over five years. The Bristol decision concludes a three-year evaluation of the technical, financial and cultural issues of software migration, including a 600-user pilot in the council’s Neighbourhood and Housing Services Department.

"’Our ICT officers are convinced that the technical quality of StarOffice is good, that the financial business case is accurate and that the cultural issues can be managed so that the migration is handled effectively,’ said Stewart Long, head of ICT. Long said it was highly unlikely that his council’s plans would go the same way as those laid earlier this year by the London borough of Newham, which abandoned a similar move following last-minute price concessions from Microsoft."

well, i sort of agree sam_ , and it its great shame. We live in the area of the planet occupied by the rich 10%, indeed are the rich 10% and it’s makes it hard to stay sane in such an unequal world if you have the slightest shred of empathy in your heart

… but fuck it, the scavengers are such good entertainment and we deserve to let our hair down occasionally, even better if we can continue to do something worthwhile while we’re doing it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/01/bt_wifi_quid/

BT is trying to drum up business for its Wi-Fi broadband service by offering an entry-level package for just £1 a month. Snag is, you have to be an existing BT Business Broadband, BT Broadband or BT Yahoo! Broadband customer to take up the offer.

That aside, anyone signing up to the time-limited promo before the end of the year can get 500 minutes of wireless broadband access for three months for just a quid. After that, the 500 minutes will cost £5 a month. BT’s Wi-Fi "Openzone" service – which has some 7,000 access points in the UK – usually starts at £6 an hour.

Chris Clark, chief exec of BT Wireless Broadband, reckons the UK’s dominant fixed line telco is trying to "fuel growth of the Wi-Fi market". ®

Nailing another Microsoft TCO tall tale

http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/10/06/1938256

At Rouse’s Supermarkets in Louisiana, it was just another July day in 2004. Customers placed their summer grocery selections on the conveyor belts; cashiers scanned them and collected the amount due using their touch-screen terminals, just like always. But underneath the hustle and bustle at the checkout lanes, a silent revolution had taken place. Even though their PC-based cash registers seemed the same, the operating system that all the technology rested on had changed from SCO Unixware to Linux.

And
even though it was business as usual for the frontline employees, vice president Tommy Rouse knew things were very different.

Rouse’s Supermarkets has been a family owned and operated grocery chain since 1959, when Tommy Rouse’s father started with one small store. The younger Rouse grew up living next door to the store, and so naturally he feels "deeply involved" in everything that happens with the business, which today has expanded to 15 stores.

Rouse’s has been utilizing ACR Retail point-of-sale (POS) systems since 1991. ACR, based in Jacksonville, Fla., has been providing software and systems integrations for grocery and drug stores since 1975.

ACR ported its ACR 5000 POS software to Linux about three years ago; before that, the company had worked with Linux for two years in a testing environment. When it came time for Rouse’s to upgrade its POS systems, ACR president and CEO John Huffman suggested thin clients and a server running ACR 5000 on Linux.

Tommy Rouse wasn’t a stranger to Linux. His IT staff had been using it for back office operations for several years, coding custom applications for data storage and retrieval. That experience, coupled with the desire to upgrade clunky Microsoft-powered boxes at each register to easily maintainable thin c
lients, made it easy for Rouse’s to say "yes" to Huffman’s suggestion.

In June 2003, Rouse and Huffman launched a single test store to "feel their way around it," according to Rouse. By May 2004, they were ready to start rolling out the new system to the rest of the stores, and the switch was complete by July.

For Rouse, the top benefit Linux brings to the company is lower initial cost and lower overhead. Huffman agreed, citing the flexibility his customers have when choosing Linux as the base OS.

"[With Linux] we can supply the functionality from the server and leave the client utterly dumb," Huffman said. The thin client "evolution" has resulted in drastically lower component costs, making the terminals so economical as to become almost "disposable." Not only that, but stores like Rouse’s no longer need to hire highly paid technical people, since no special training is required to replace a thin client if something goes wrong. "Rouse’s keeps a couple of spare terminals in the back. If one breaks, all you have to do is plug it in — no software installation or configuration," Huffman said.

Another benefit to using Linux is the flexibility it allows when selecting server iron. Rouse was pleased that he and his staff were able to build their own servers for less than $500 each. Because of the low cost, Rouse was able to install a separate cold backup server in most of the stores. "If we lose a server we can back that one in remotely just by making a couple of quick software changes," he said.

Huffman is enthusiastic about the future of Linux in the POS space. The key, he said, is the ability to completely remove the operating system from the thin clients, something proprietary operating system providers do not allow, since that would cut deeply into their revenue. "Microsoft is trying to do thin clients, but they’ve got to keep their software in there," Huffman said. "They don’t want to give it up. They live on the desktop and if that’s eliminated, they l
ose their market. They’re very desperate to keep some intelligence in their terminals. With Linux, we can do thin clients for effectively no cost, and Microsoft can’t. I love it."

Writing a winning grant proposal

http://ga0.org/ct/L7LD11K1aBZX/

10 Tips for Funding Technology

http://ga0.org/ct/LpLD11K1aBZ4/

OUTSIDE THE BOX is a celebration of the creativity of sport and art inspired and created by the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls.

Part Two – Saturday August 14th

We are looking for volunteers for Saturday August 14th, OUTSIDE THE BOX, PART TWO. It is being held at the Tobacco Factory and features many top Cowboys acts as well as Mosiamo, a local 8 piece band tipped for the big time, as well as Cowboy DJ Suv and MC L.Natural.

We will need people to do front of house (ie collect dosh, help direct peeps, give info etc) bring in the PA (and put it back later on the same night/morning!!! please note.), help set up the exhibition etc, shift stuff and shovel other stuff, you know the sort of thing, you’ve all done it really well before.

Please let Tinks, Dave M or Jack know ASAP Dave 0796 788 3392 Jack 0773 348 1935 Tinks 0117 952 1133 (please leave a message with name, number, etc)

We were there!!

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39166812,00.htm

http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157886

BCS survey finds ‘significant proportion’ of adults with no access to a PC
Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 07 Sep 2004

One in four Britons are in danger of being marginalised because they have no access to PCs at home or at work, the British Computer Society (BCS) has warned.

According to its latest survey investigating the nation’s computing habits, there are a "significant proportion of adults who are in danger of being marginalised as the government gears society up for the information age".

Although 59 per cent of poll respondents said they have a home PC, 26 per cent have no access to a PC whatsoever, whether at home, work, college or a public library, suggesting that the IT revolution is in danger of leaving behind a quarter of the population.

BCS chief executive David Clarke said in a statement: "It is clear that not everyone is experiencing the benefits of computing, despite the government’s aim to ensure that every home has access to a PC.

"This is an area which must be addressed. We see it as essential that all of society is able to use a computer with the same confidence as the telephone."

The survey also found that 54 per cent of respondents were frustrated with the complexity of IT, and 72 per cent were concerned over ‘immoral’ internet content.

But the poll reported that 80 per cent of the UK’s population now believe that computers have made a positive contribution to our lives.

Almost three-quarters of respondents used a computer to surf the internet, dismissing concerns that junk email, computer viruses and online fraud have irreparably tarnished the computer’s image as a force for good.

And 57 per cent of those using the internet do so to purchase goods and services, demonstrating a growing confidence in e-shopping
, according to the BCS.

Concerns that computer users spend hours glued to their PC screens have also been dispelled. Only 34 per cent of those questioned use their PC for more than five hours a week.

PRESENT
——-
Sean
Rich
Ben
Jim
Sam
Matt W
Andy
Pete
Paul
Matt L
Christian

APOLOGIES
———
Bails

UPDATE ON LAST MEETING
———————-
Finance:
Missing cheque found. Jason has audited account. We have around £200 in the pot. Still owed T-Shirt payments. Once nodes are rolled out and training completed, we will get £3000 for upkeep of the network. Owed money from ECC to pay tutors for courses we ran.
ERN:
All PCs rolled out, 4 connected to network. Paul to arrange training of users. Rich & Jim to arrange install of the last 6 nodes.
Machines all have RedHat 9 installed, not Fedora as requested. Suggest reinstall done, and invoice sent to LinuxIT.

MATTERS ARISING
—————
Website:
New site looking great. Old wiki to be moved to one of our servers with password protection. New site to go live next week with the new wiki.
Bannerman Road Distro:
School are happy with the progress. Possibly changing the school IT suite to dual boot Linux (paid project). We have 20 machines waiting to be built before distribution to parents. Should be done by end of next week.
Creative Commons:
Hamish suggests that we have a message on the website informing users of liability and copyright issue. We are going to use GPL for the website/wiki, and media will be licensed by the original author.
Linux Day:
Cancelled due to lack of interest. Possibly redo for April.

AOB
—
Bitorrent:
We should install a tracker on the server to distribute our media.