Raspberry Pi: It's not for eating

Yes, as the title suggests, tongue in cheek, it is Pi, not Pie.  Therefore, not for human digestion, but certainly for human consumption.

In many ways, it is unfair to compare Raspberry Pi to Arduino.  Yet, the general public will likely make this comparison, being unaware of the fundamental difference, even just from a product development perspective.

As stated on the Raspberry Pi wikipedia description, "The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools."  In other words, unlike the Arduino which is intended to be a programmable, electronic development platform, the Raspberry Pi was intended and developed to be a base computer board, albeit shy in performance, specifically so that it can be low in price or cost to produce and obtain.

Like an Arduino, a person could build their own Raspberry Pi, but the difficulty level and cost to make a "one off" board would likely be prohibitive.  The ARM and SOC portions are proprietary.

The features and capability of a Raspberry Pi though, are quite rich.

Safety and Security of Open

How safe and secure is Open Source?

Many people have heard that Linux is a safe and secure operating system.  It is.  It has always had some fundamental features of security as a part of it, simply because it comes from Unix.  That's not to say that Unix itself is extremely safe, although it can be.  It is more due to the fact that it can be very secure if locked down properly and it takes some very good skills and knowledge of Unix / Linux to even begin to break it.

But there's an even more important reason why Linux is as safe and secure as it is.  It is called the "million eyes" phenomenon.  It means that the more people who are working on it, the more people who are likely to find problems and fix them.

Could that really mean that other Open Source software and even the products of Open Source origin might actually be more secure, safer, and even of better quality than proprietary products?

Share and share alike: Why?

Open is not just about the ability to duplicate.  Sharing and sharing alike is truly the mother of innovation.

It's difficult to talk about Open Source, even these days with so much value coming out of that sector, without there being doubts and negativity coming out of the private sector which remains hugely invested in intellectual property.

That is certainly understandable due to concerns of potential loss in revenue on IP assets which are often very expensive.  Some of those IP costs are very real, including human costs, material costs, training costs, and the list goes on.

Yet what is interesting is, many of those costs for IP are actually an artefact of IP law in the first place.  If we had not created laws that assigned equivalent property rights of things like land or building to the  intellectual domain, would people stop making things?

It remains that the biggest argument about IP is that it stimulates innovation, yet as this article will explain, it is actually the open sharing of information that stimulates innovation.

Crowd Sourcing / Crowd Funding

So, how does open source work, under the hood?

Sure, you decide that you want a new bedside table.  You head over to the Open Desk web site and choose an appropriate model.  You download the design, get the necessary materials, and away you go.

Pretty simple as far as it goes.  Of course, a little daunting for those who don't have the tools or are unsure of their skills.  Nevertheless, there is not much to it.

But, what if you come up with an idea for a truck that runs on wood gas?  Do you know enough to make a truck?  Do you know how to gasify wood?  And what if you want to share this with the world by making it open source?

You might want to look at crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.

Arduino project: Weather Station

Every second week, we are posting an Arduino project of interest.  Some are probably quite easy, but don't seem so.  Others might seem quite easy, but aren't.  Your mileage may very, as one person's easy might be another person's difficult.

No matter what, being able to review a project can at least give ideas or insights on what we might build or how something works for use in a different project.

So this Arduino project should be fairly simple, but actually consists of three parts.  What we will be looking at is, one person's project to build an Open Source weather station.

These instructables come from instructables user msuzuki777, a self described "lazy old geek".  Based on the initial project, it started with wanting to know what the wind chill was before he took his dog for a walk, and ended up going from there.

Public Domain

Public domain is often shown as a copyright symbol with a line struck through it.  In other instances, it is the letters "PD" with a circle around them.

For people who spend a lot of time trying to understand copyright, Public Domain is a legal context, generally of a work of art or construction method.

Yet for many people, Public Domain is simply "common knowledge".  In a way, Public Domain is a foreign concept, as far as once an idea or method or work is made available to the world, it seems obvious that one can simply use the idea, method, or work for their own purposes.

One of the most interesting things about public domain, can be derived from it's definition:  "the realm embracing property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to appropriation by anyone".

Merriam-Webster suggests the first known use of the word dates back to only 1832.  But that might be disputed.  What does Public Domain really mean?

Open Source life, from the ground up

Open Source living.  What does that even mean?  Are people talking about a return to the 19th and early 20th century and the harsh life of homesteading?

The wonderful thing about living an Open Source life is, your Open Source life is up to you.  Certainly, you can move to a farm or live in a tiny house or maintain a minimalist lifestyle.

But that does not have to be the case.  Yes, a purist might suggest that a person must leave all creature comforts behind, move to the country, and put up a two room shack and live off the land.

The reality is, living an Open Source life is something between starting to live slightly different than how you are right now and doing it Amish-style...

We will take a look at the many ways you might look at as you start to live a life that you might just find hugely more fulfilling and gratifying.

Open Source Art

I don't know much about art, but I know what I like.

Probably the most common definition that people have in mind regarding art is, as defined by Merriam-Webster:  "works created by artists : paintings, sculptures, etc., that are created to be beautiful or to express important ideas or feelings".

It is said of art, that it can bring joy and wonder into our lives.  And while many of us cannot claim to be able to create great works of art, we may enjoy viewing it, while we may even crave to posses it in one form or another.

The world we live in has created an environment where art is commoditized and the value of the artist is disregarded.  How did this happen and where do we go from here?

Re-inventing the wheel: Open hardware re-engineering

If I knew then, what I know now.

A lot of people think of the wheel as the first invention.  As romantic as that might seem, it is probably not the case.  It would have required at least some sort of tool to create the wheel in the first place.

The cartoon image seems rather appropriate, though.  The humour of which is no less than a copyright image of what some might think should have been patent number 1.

To not lose out to seriousness on this article, though.  We'll just point to a sad reality that, what ever we make or invent today, we have to think about what patents or laws we might be infringing upon.

So in order to make a better wheel, it might be important to go back to a point in time, and re-invent the wheel all over again.

Copyright Coffee

So, for those who don't read the articles on this blog much, we obviously promote Open Source in all aspects of a person's life.

Of course, we also often mention that just because Open Source should be, and in many cases now, can be an option, we also recognize that commerce is a good thing and being able to buy something is a privilege that people should have as an option.

That said, readers or people who don't think Open Source is an option for them, or maybe even think that Open Source is a poor option, might want to re-consider as new copyright / patent restriction may apply to their coffee.

Arduino project: Twitter Enabled Coffee Pot

So this Arduino project article highlights the Tweet-a-Pot project.

Back in the day, if we wanted coffee, we would have to go to the forest, harvest some coffee beans, dry them out, then roast them, grind them, and boil the grinds in a pot of water.  Eventually, we would be soothed by a dark, coffee ground infused, hot liquid.

OK, maybe it's not quite like that, but although some coffee pots come with timers or even single servings, it still takes time for your coffee to brew.

Enter the Tweet-a-pot.  No, it's not instantly available, fresh, hot coffee.  But, it could be the next, best thing.  If you are on route to your coffee pot, you can send it a tweet to let it know you are wanting some coffee, and it will fresh brew some for you.  Maybe a bit pointless, but certainly this project can help you develop your skills and imagination for what can be done with Arduino.

Are three companies really enough?

There is a very interesting phenomenon that happens within industry sectors.  Given enough time and maturity of an industry, generally three major players rise to the top and become the go-to companies for the majority of consumers, leaving any new comer to struggle to survive, if possible.

One that people know the best, at least in North America, are Ford, GM and Chrysler.  Another set in phone services are Bell (AT&T), Rogers, and Telus.  In computer operating systems, it would be Microsoft, Apple, and Linux.  In antivirus software it would be Symantec, McAfee, and AVG.  BP, Chevron, and Exxon in oil.  In television, it was ABC, NBC, and CBS (that industry has completely changed, now).  Of course, while these companies may be global, different numbers and different regions may suggest who the big three are, otherwise.

The point is, as an independent, how can anyone in any industry hope to compete, unless they are open source, as one of the examples above has shown.