Sqeaky's Dumping Ground

Silicon Prairie News – Last Call to Action

Silicon Prairie News accepted a guest submission from me about motivating the Omaha-Council Bluffs Area about Google Fiber. Please read the article and do some of what it suggests, like:

• Nominate us at the Google Fiber for communities page
• Become a Fan of this movement on Facebook
• Get as many people involved today and tomorrow as possible

We can do, but we only have two days left.

Interesting BringGoogleFibertoOmaha, Google, SiliconPrairie

• I Could Help *More* with 48 Cores

  Posted on March 22nd, 2010 admin 11742 commentshttp://www.assuredts.com/toppij/?p=1174I+Could+Help+%2AMore%2A+with+48+Cores2010-03-23+00%3A10%3A54admin

  In response to AMD’s 48 core contest.
   
  I am working on an open source game, and I have learned that there are a few hurdles open source projects have to go through to get real working results. If I were given this 48 core server, I would do everything In my power to enable other open source projects. I would share every resource I could spare.
   
  I am already working on setting up a series of virtual machines that will compile software, and automatically build packages for a variety of Linux distributions and Windows. For the game project we are starting to track down things like software dependencies and package naming inconsistencies. When we are done with our first game “Catch!” we will have an interesting build system that will easily accept one link to our source code repository and build installable packages for Windows and the top 20 or so Linux distributions. I think this software system would perform really well with 48 cores that each support Hyper-V. After setting up a clean and easy to use web interface, calling it the Open Build and Packaging System, and letting anyone use it, what else could I do?
  

  

  Previous Opteron CPUs

  
  Next, I would sell the copy of Windows and buy a few ATI graphics cards with the proceeds. Right now the Open Source AMD/ATI graphics drivers could use some work (and the closed ones have problems too). On my laptop I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 5730 and I am stuck with an “AMD Unsupported Hardware” watermark on my screen. If I donate the cards and maybe some cash, to the AMD Open Source driver group, maybe I can help. With my help and their newfound ability to make all those packages, they might free up some time to catch up on the drivers.
   
  Even with extra resources, some time will pass before development is complete. When complete The Open Build and Packaging System will be constantly tapping out all 48 cores. I will need some more horse power. OpenCL will be supported by the Open source drivers and maybe I could pitch in some coding time with GCC. There has been a little bit of talk about getting GCC to use OpenCL, maybe I could help make that happen, then I could drop in some of the latest and greatest cards and continue servicing the Free Software Community for the foreseeable future.
   
  Finally, Once I have helped everybody else out, I think I will help myself by helping everybody else out some more. I understand that AMD is working on an Open Physics Initiative, which will help enhance Bullet Physic’s GPU support. It is too far forward to say what I will do, but likely I will do some bugfixes, packaging, and multi-core testing of Bullet. Anything I add to bullet, something my game already uses, will directly benefit myself, and any the community as a whole. Then there is my old AI research, Aritificial Neural Networks with OpenCL…
  Interesting AMD, Ideas, OpenSource, Physgame, PleaseLetMeHelpOpenSource

• Be Active in the Community – Bring Google to Omaha

  Posted on March 2nd, 2010 admin 11463 commentshttp://www.assuredts.com/toppij/?p=1146Be+Active+in+the+Community+-+Bring+Google+to+Omaha2010-03-03+00%3A09%3A35admin

  I am still trying to raise awareness of Google’s Fiber Internet access roll-out project. However I am not getting the traction I wanted. If you want really High speed Internet Access, for all the good it will do for You, the Omaha-Metro Economy and The Omaha-Metro Community, then you should do something. Take Action, tell your friends, tell your family, call people in power… do something.
   
  Here is what I did, and what I think you should do: I called the Mayor’s Hotline, KPTM, WOWT, KETV, and The Omaha World Herald. I called the Mayor’s Hotline, because he is the big decision maker in town, and I contacted the news outlets because they can each reach all of Omaha rapidly.
  

  

  This place could use some Incredibly fast internet

  
  Here is all of their contact info:
  • The mayor’s hotline – (402) 444-5555
  • The Omaha World Herald – (402) 444-1000
  • KETV Channel 7 news – (402) 978-8954
  • WOWT Channel 6 news – (402) 346-6666
  • KPTM Channel 42 news – (402) 558-4282

   
  This is what I did, but see what creative ways you can alert everyone in Omaha to Google’s Fiber Internet access plans. Tell them about how this could create jobs, how it could bring Videos into the home in seconds, How it could make Husker Games available anywhere at anytime, How, with the help of the medical community, it can be used to save lives and How it can do things I haven’t thought of but you will.
   
  If you are talking to Google, this is also to their advantage. Since they already have an Office in Council Bluffs, they already have a staging point for planning. Since they want to service Internet Service Providers as well they can work with Cox and Qwest. They want Technically inclined home users and people to move away from dial-up, and we have plenty of people who want this and want to ditch their dial-up.
   
  Any questions, drop me line at toppij@gmail.com or give me a call 402-714-7539. I would like to involve all of Omaha and the surrounding communities so give it your best shot, and if you would like to help but don’t know how, talk to me and we will work it out.
   
  Also see my First post on bringing Google Fiber to Omaha and all my recent blog posts about Google Fiber in Omaha.

  Interesting BringGoogleFibertoOmaha, Community, Fiber, Google, Omaha
• « Older Entries