Tyler Tidman <tyler [ dot ] tidman [ at ] draak [ dot ] ca> wrote:
> I recently came to the conclusion that the local amateur radio
> community would really benefit from having an "old-school Linux
> Installfest" like OCLUG used to offer back in the day but with a focus
> on Raspberry Pi units with demos of how to actually get started playing
> around with them. Obviously, we would not turn folks away who are not
> amateur radio folks or random strangers who have Linux questions that
> aren't specific to Raspberry Pi units or folks who aren't members of
> any club (yet).
Interesting idea. Would one be installfest be to install the Pi,
or to install a devel environment on a PC to target the Pi?
Christian has many hundred Raspberry Pi deployed.
> I have already made arrangements with my friend and contact at
> Algonquin College (Richard Hagemeyer VE3UNW) to warn that I plan to be
> booking some space there (probably Room T119 and the hallway in front
> of it) for some weekend in the latter half of May. I will soon be
> contacting several local amateur radio clubs, namely: OARC, WCARC,
> OVMRC, EMRG, MARG (http://oarc.net, http://wcarc.on.ca,
> http://ovmrc.on.ca, http://emrg.ca, http://ve3rix.com) to check for
> interest there also. I already know there will be a bit of interest
> but I will try to get a better feeling for some actual numbers and
> maybe mention May as the tentative date.
> I have also already made some preliminary suggestions to BuyaPi as well
> (http://buyapi.ca, located across the street from Algonquin College
> Woodroffe) to perhaps try to secure having a ready supply of spare
> parts there on-hand at the event for Raspberry Pi, Cubieboard, Beagle
> Bone units. This will not be a commercial event and the participation
> of Buyapi is intended only as a convenience to us and to others and the
> plan is to charge participants $0 for the actual event (option to
> include food at the venue maybe for a small fee). I would expect that
> OCLUG and the radio clubs would have pamphlets available for pick-up
> there too so it might act as a bit of a membership drive also.
> However, having a successful "Raspberry Pi Boot Camp" really would
> benefit from having a lot of Linux-savvy people there to help and maybe
> being able to call upon the support of OCLUG to help spread the word
> and ensure that it isn't just me there all by myself. Hopefully, some
> of these email addresses still go somewhere other than /dev/null and
> reach people who might be interested in helping out. I would really
> appreciate any help you might offer to try to make this Installfest a
> success.
I'm happy to be available, if I'm available...
> (FYI: Apparently, Algonquin students are already using Raspberry Pi
> units as "hey, wow, it still works" development environments for
> programming.)
> I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
> Thanks and 73,
> Tyler Tidman VA3DGN, RAC CEC OCLUG Board of Directors 2007-2009, OCLUG
> Member 1997-2011 OARC Vice-President 2012-present