[wplug-announce] May announcements + events
Justin Smith
justin at js-wordsmith.com
Fri May 3 11:52:01 EDT 2013
====COMMUNITY NEWS====
Spring is in the air, and so is code! With Google I/O just a few weeks away and Google
Summer of Code applications closing today, May is shaping up to be an exciting month.
==GOOGLE I/O 2013==
Google I/O, if you didn’t know, is an annual conference held to teach developers how to
build programs using Google technology. That’s the “official” purpose, anyway. The real
draw for most people is the keynote address where Google shows off its latest products.
Last year, Google introduced the wildly popular Nexus 7 tablet, released Android 4.1, which
eliminated the UI lag of prior releases, and thrilled the media with a skydiving
demonstration of Google Glass. Who knows what will happen this year?
Well, I do, to an extent. Some people expect Android 5.0 to be released, but I think it’s
more likely that we’ll see another incremental update to the 4.x branch. Several Android
news sites have received visits from devices running “Android 4.3,” and the IP addresses
resolve to Google HQ.
There are also rumors that Google will release a 32GB version of its Nexus 4 smartphone
that supports LTE. The chipset used in current Nexus 4 models does support LTE, but
Google chose to disable it for reasons I can only guess at. If you’re willing to take matters
into your own hands, though, you -can- unlock LTE support for T-Mobile’s wireless
frequencies.
Don’t miss Google I/O! It runs from May 15-17.
==GOOGLE SUMMER OF CODE 2013==
I’ve heard about Google Summer of Code for years but never bothered to learn about the
specifics because it didn’t interest me. Now that I’m considering making a career switch to
focus on programming, I read over the official description, and I’m decidedly impressed.
Here’s an excerpt:
"Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers post-secondary student
developers ages 18 and older stipends to write code for various open source software
projects. We have worked with open source, free software, and technology-related groups
to identify and fund projects over a three month period.”
How about that? There are plenty of familiar faces in the list of participating projects: KDE,
openSUSE, XBMC, GNOME, and many others. Students can to propose ideas during a
narrow window of time that ends today.
Have any proposals caught your eye? Over at XBMC, a student from Brazil is interested in
bringing Miracast support to the Raspberry Pi. Miracast is a screencasting standard that
was developed as an open alternative to Apple AirPlay. You could use it to, say, stream
video from your Android phone to an HDTV over a wireless connection.
The cheapest Miracast receivers I’ve seen start at $70. Wouldn’t it be nice to that same
functionality in a non-proprietary device that costs half as much?
Look through the official list of participating projects and see what’s being proposed. You
might be surprised!
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2013
====UPCOMING EVENTS====
==GUM: Raspberry Pi workshop==
May’s WPLUG general user meeting is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 18th at
Carnegie Library Brookline.
Some of you have questioned the need to pay for meeting space. Well, CLP Brookline is
willing to let us meet at no cost as long as we don’t serve refreshments. If we do, there’s a
$30 cleaning fee. If all goes well, we may make CLP our regular meeting location.
There will be three Raspberry Pi mini-workshops. At the end, we’ll give out coupon codes
and/or discount links for the non-gratis products and services used. WPLUG Chair Pat
Barron will also be giving away a free Raspberry Pi to a lucky attendee!
My mini-workshop will cover how to turn a Raspberry Pi into an XBMC media server. We’ll
install the Raspbmc distribution, go over basic XBMC usage, and touch on sharing protocols
like DLNA that can be used for streaming content to the Pi. I may also talk about
SABnzbd/SickBeard/Couch Potato if time permits.
Pat will use two Pis, a Model A and a Model B, for two separate demonstrations. Some of
the ideas he’s considering include using the Pi in a model rocket, making the Pi into a
music player, and installing an IR receiver and setting up LIRC.
We invite you to bring a Raspberry Pi of your own so you can follow with us. Here’s a basic
shopping list:
-A Raspberry Pi from Newark ($35)
/http://www.newark.com/raspberry-pi/raspbrry-modb-512m/model-b-assembled-board-only/dp/43W5302/[1]
-The Multicomp-branded case that Newark sells ($7.35)
/http://www.newark.com/multicomp/mc-rp001-blk/enclosure-raspberry-pi-black/dp/07W8934/[2]
-An 8GB SD card rated at Class 8 or greater ($8.95)
/http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Class-Flash-Memory-TS8GSDHC10E/dp/B003VNKNEG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1367594439&sr=8-3&keywords
=SD+card+8gb/[3]
-A microUSB charger rated for at least 1A. ($7.99)
/http://www.amazon.com/PowerGen-Travel-Motorola-Samsung-Android/dp/B0085IDEBG/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1367594524&sr=1-8&k
eywords=microusb+charger/[4]
You could probably get away with using a spare cell phone charger, though.
====THOUGHT OF THE MOMENT====
WPLUG is getting ready to build a new WordPress-based Web site. Something of this scale
obviously isn’t a trivial project, so it could take a while to complete if we take it at our
usual clip.
Rather than letting this project drag on, we’re thinking about having a “hack day” where
we all get together somewhere for a day of coding, mayhem, and pizza. Would you be
interested? Got any ideas? Let me know.
--
*Justin S. Smith*
Vice chair/secretary, WPLUG Board of Directors
http://www.wplug.org[5]
"Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done."
-Linus Torvalds
--------
[1] http://www.newark.com/raspberry-pi/raspbrry-modb-512m/model-b-assembled-board-only/dp/43W5302
[2] http://www.newark.com/multicomp/mc-rp001-blk/enclosure-raspberry-pi-black/dp/07W8934
[3] http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Class-Flash-Memory-TS8GSDHC10E/dp/B003VNKNEG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1367594439&sr=8-3&keywords
=SD+card+8gb
[4] http://www.amazon.com/PowerGen-Travel-Motorola-Samsung-Android/dp/B0085IDEBG/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1367594524&sr=1-8&k
eywords=microusb+charger
[5] http://www.wplug.org
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