[Next Linux SIG meeting: Oct. 15th at 7:30 PM]
Tonight’s meeting session included three presentations: 1. Report on the FOSSCON Conference in Philadelphia in August, 2. Helping Solve a Molecular Biology DNA Problem-Discussion, and 3. Using a Raspberry Pi with a camera, a garage door sensor, and an interactive web application to open or close the door.
1. Report on the FOSSCON in Philadelphia in August (Free Open Source Software Conference–FOSSCON)
FOSSCON met at the Franklin Institute, which is Philadelphia’s very popular museum and worth a visit just to see exhibits. Attendees numbered in the low hundreds, but with much enthusiasm and energy. The talk I liked best for this 1-day conference was by Charlie Reisinger, IT manager of the Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, PA. The district has a number of schools, with 3500 students using Ubuntu laptops, completely configured for student use with many of the popular programs that Linux users tend to use. Students quickly become help desk assistants and leaders for the younger members of the schools.
This year’s FOSSCON drew about 250 attendees, which turned out to be a nice advantage since lots of time could be spent after the talks one-on-one with the speakers, to engage with questions and further ideas. Larger FOSS and Linux conferences I’ve attended tend to be overcrowded, with little time between talks to engage with the speakers and many people wishing to talk.
2. Helping to Solve a Molecular Biology DNA Problem — A look at a new disease discovery tool (a look at using Python and Kalzium to help identify a DNA nucleotide distribution of a disease species).
In the ‘Scientific American’ June, 2014 edition, there was an article, “Germ Catcher”, which discussed rapid identification of disease species and subspecies by looking at the ratios of adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine in a sample strip of DNA. The article motivated me to write and use a Python program to tease out the possible A, G, C, T ratios in a sample, using its molecular weight and the molecular weights of the four nucleotides. My program using the article’s data found a number of possibilities from the calculations–each ratio pointing to a different animal or plant. Typically, species that are not closely related have noticeably different ratios in their DNA. The ratios are known for those species in which DNA has been studied.
I went on to explain some of the traditional difficulties of doing this time-consuming work in a lab: severely exacting measurements, the tight precision levels required and the continual fight to obtain funding. Consequently, any method to speed up the process is welcome. I further explained my personal use of a free chemistry program, Kalzium, to find molecular weights of elements and molecules. A Linux distribution such as Ubuntu provides a comfortable environment in which to study the mathematics of nucleotide counting of a DNA sample, using a Python program and Kalzium.
3. Using a Raspberry Pi with a camera, a garage door sensor, and an interactive web application to open or close the door (a look at the code in C, Bash and PHP/HTML and the project’s hardware)
Jim Ritterbusch showed his updated application to monitor his garage doors via video, server, Internet and cell phone–all to open or close a garage door remotely as needed. His application showed a picture giving the current status of his garage door. He could then change it via his cell phone and the new photo would show that the door had moved. His application also used a radio configuration using a low-pass filter, which was also explained along with the circuitry used with the Raspberry Pi.
Jim showed much of the programming code required for the camera mounted on a Raspberry Pi (modified C), Linux computer (Bash), and Webserver (Bash, HTML, PHP) This neat package shows a glimpse of the $35 Raspberry Pi world, which is available for all computer users to experiment with.
Lastly, we turned our attention to an attendee wanting GNU APL on a Linux computer. The recent GNU APL version apparently needs an up-to-date version of Ubuntu. The application we found worked on an Ubuntu 14.04 laptop, but not on an Ubuntu 10.04 tower. A dependency issue on the older computer could not be resolved. Some programmers might remember APL (“A Programming Language”). An attempt will be made to upgrade the Ubuntu on the older computer. The user manual for GNU APL is available on the Internet.
Next Linux SIG Meeting
At the October 15th meeting, no new presentations are scheduled as of the moment. However, attendees can certainly raise topics and issues as they feel the need to do so. We will continue to help with individuals migrating their older Windows computers to Linux. This typically is the Linux community’s normal way of sharing, which we mirror at our SIG.
Join us at our next meeting in the DACS Resource Center of Ives Manor. Bring your laptop, Arduino or Raspberry Pi and show us a thing or two. Our meetings are for the beginner, intermediate or advanced user, so topics vary considerably depending upon the needs of the attendees. Linux topics cover software and hardware along with the joys and sorrows of those using it. Check the DACS Forum (Linux) for updates.