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PodCamp Halifax 2010

On Sunday, January 24 Halifax, NS will yet again be showing its true colours as the interactive, wired city that it has quickly become.  Last year was an amazing event bring 173 people together to share what they know about social media, and the Internet.   They also shared what they learned with the World Wide Web.

We are pleased to announce that HRCAP is PodCamp's GOLD sponsor this year. Join us January 24th 2010 at Alderney Landing.    HRCAP will be hosting a session as well as sponsoring the main venue.

Seats are EXTREMELY limited. Fifty extra seats were added this morning.  Act fast. Register here: http://podcamphalifax2010.eventbrite.com/

A podcamp is meant to have an open, participatory, user-generated series of workshops. The people who attend are the presenters. In typical Unconference style, audience members are encouraged to make the most of the experience by following their interests and allowing the conversation to flow both in and outside of the presentations.

Podcamp is YOUR place to BE as a public access provider, and will count towards your minimum attandence in order to maintain your cap site status. Each site must attend one meeting or event each year. 

2009 Sustainability Grants

These were mailed to you in the last week of December.  DO NOT CONFUSED THIS with 2010-2011 year grants which have yet to be awarded.

The grants you received dated December 2009 are for your 2009-2010 operating year (April 1 2009 - March 31 2010).    Reporting will be due on March 21st 2009 and will consist of online forms as in previous years.  The website will be updated with the reporting tool by March 1st 2010.

As a C@P site you are required to maintain the minimum requirements and your site can be audited or monitored for compliance at any time with or without notice.  All standards, minimums & forms needed to run your site can be found here.

Lake Echo Greening

I am pleased to say that we are wrapping up the final phase of the Lake Echo IT Greening test site.  Lake Echo has become the first 100% open-sourced, virtualized C@P site in CANADA.

There were many aspects to this research.  We started a little over 18 months ago with the quest to find a solid-state, lower energy computer replacement.   CKDU Brodcast engineer & author of Open Radio, Stephen Kelly, tested a number of options and operating systems.   Our final choice for new computers in the Halifax network is the FitPC2, a compact, solid state "thin client" which consumes only 1watt, and at 340 grams, has the smallest ecological impact in terms of e-waste.  Kelly also tweaked the open-source operating system, Ubuntu, as a replacement for branded (and expensive) operating systems.

A second component was to conduct a comprehensive energy audit of Lake Echo C@P both before and after the refit.  Mike Lovell, a consultant with his own firm TintedGreen Technologies, started this study by meeting C@P coordinators from across the province durin an initial presentation phase in White Point, May 2009.  His report shows that with the consistant use of new systems, Nova Scotia C@P could save as much as 21 000 $ (twenty-one thousand) on energy alone, per year.

As well as being able to replace aging computers with the low energy thinclient, we can also "USB Boot" old computers, giving up to five years more operating life to older machines, for as little as the cost of one USB stick.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

• After March 31st 2010, you can NOT use C@P grants to purchase branded operating systems, or branded productivity software if an open-source alternative exists.
  

• Effective March 31st 2010 you may NOT use C@P grants to purchase computers in excess of 8 pounds (weight) or in excess of 40 watts (energy consumption). (PS: we have worked really hard to find you a 1watt, 340gram alternative!)
  

How this works:

• HRCAP owns a server & operating system which are located in Lake Echo.
• The server does ALL the computing FOR YOU, access points are only "terminals"
• Cap sites will be able to purchase FITPC2 thinclients
• USB Boot Keys will be provided free of charge
• Computers in your C@P sites will no longer require local storage (hard drives) or operating systems (Windows), they will get these directly from the server
  
• Once migrated with a USB Boot key, your computers will operate on the custom EdUbuntu operating system located on the server.  THIS REPLACES WINDOWS.
• Every time a patron signs in, the sever creates a new copy of our customized public access system.
  
• Many users may log on at any given time  without effecting the others.
  
• Once a patron logs out the server deletes all traces of that session, operating system included.

This is a groundbreaking new way to deliver public access.  

As a Halifax C@P site, the transition away from Microsoft branded products may seem difficult at first, but please be patient.  You are part of an experiment in O/s virtualization with no precedent in history. 

We are offering "a twenty thousand dollar solution to a million dollar problem", all while, significantly reducing the operating costs and carbon footprint of our C@P Sites.  By leading by example, we can help other Canadians have cost-effective, environmentally friendly internet access not only in C@P sites, but in homes and businesses too.

Together, we can make a difference.  

You can now follow us on TWITTER

http://twitter.com/hrcap

View our Twitter Feed:

C@P Project Update: September 25th, 2009

Syndicated from http://www.tintedgreen.net/?page=article&id=16

Mike Lovell is the owner of tintedGreen Technologies and is retained as a consultant with the Halifax Regional C@P Association with funding from the Community Access Program. This is his report. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

As this project is starting to wind down, I thought I would give a quick update.

If you would like to know more about the thinclients and the C@P perspective of the project, take a look at Dan's write-up on the C@P site.

For the last couple of months, I have been working on the software and server side of the project. Utilizing the same kind of virtualization software that will be used in the system, I have built a full working version in my home office.

Here are some features:

• The Ubuntu version of Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is now fully operational on a virtual machine.
• The ability to boot any computer off my network and turn it into a thinclient. Computers are set to PXE boot in the bios and they automatically boot into a Linux desktop environment off the LTSP server.
• A usb key version of Thinstation Linux that boots to linux and then connects automatically to a Ubuntu Virtual Machine using No Machine NX.

Essentially, all this means is that I can take any computer, connect it to the network, and have it running off our virtual machine with a full linux desktop environment in seconds. The usb key setup means that any computer in the world with a wired internet connection (barring any network setup restrictions) can also connect to a virtual machine on our server.

I have been doing extensive hardware and software compatibility testing with the system with any computer that comes through my office (which is a lot) and I have run into very few problems. The computers and operating system are responsive. Mice, keyboards, monitors, speakers, and other peripherals work great. Programs like web browsers, word processors, and educational software work perfectly. Other fun stuff like games, music, and video also run exceptionally well.

The front of the server.

The Dell R710 Server just arrived yesterday (after a few delays). It is a beast with two Intel Xeon E5520 CPUs and 16GB of ram. For this pilot project, we know that these specs are a little overkill. However, we really want to stress test the early parts of this setup and have lots of room for expansion if/when we move this setup to more C@P sites.

Here are some pictures of the current testing setup of the system:

Virtual machine running LTSP on my computer.

The server running as a thinclient. Pretty soon it will be running the whole system. See also the fitpc thinclient we plan to use in the system (it is not connected at the moment).

An old laptop without a hard drive running as a thinclient alongside the server. We should be able to run dozens of computers on this system at the same time (once it is completed). Note that I am playing "Midnight Cowboy" on the laptop at the same time. Picture quality and sound are great, even in full screen.

This is showing that both of the thinclients are running separate user accounts. Each computer can log into individual user accounts, allowing the user to have their own desktop setup and change their desktop appearance and background.

A shot of the server internals.

The next step is to move the system onto the server and setup everything at Lake Echo. When that is done, I want to invite people to come and try it out.

At this time, I'd really like to say how impressed I am with the Linux Terminal Server Project, Thinstation, and VMware. The companies and contributors working on these products and projects are awesome and the amount of information online is amazing. The fact that anyone can build something so cool and functional on a shoestring budget says a lot about the power of the open source movement and virtual machine software.

Stay Tuned...