the Personal Telco Project needs *YOU*!
Russell Senior
Personal Telco Project needs *YOU*!
To subscribers of the ptp-general mailing list:
The Personal Telco Project is a Portland-based 501(c)(3) non-profit
that got started in the year 2000 as a way to empower people to
build wireless networks that benefit their communities. We have been
working non-stop since then.
The Personal Telco Project is a volunteer-based organization that
normally has very limited costs, and consequently has very limited
financial needs. We don't usually ask for money. However, we are
embarking on a project to upgrade some of the networking gear we use
at PTP nodes, and we are looking to users and other Friends of
Personal Telco as a way to fund that upgrade.
Long ago we received a donation of discarded personal computers, which
we have used as routers in many of our hotspots. The routers provide
a means for us to administer the nodes remotely minimizing downtime,
communicate with node users about the project, and deal with the
occasional network abusers. These recycled PC's were a good choice at
the time, in that they cost us nothing and did a useful job. However,
these computers have moving parts that wear out. Furthermore they are
bulky and consume about 60W of electricity, 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year.
We have identified a replacement device that is much more compact, has
no moving parts, is about twice as capable and uses only about 5W of
electric power. The only downside is that it is not free. In a bulk
purchase, each one will cost about $175 to put together.
Initially, we'd like to buy 30 of these devices, which will total a
bit over $5,000, and completely replace all of the existing recycled
PC routers.
We'd like *YOU* to help raise that money.
If you can afford $20, $50, $100 or more, we'd sure appreciate it,
you'll help an organization that makes your life better and help
us to make this upgrade a reality. And you'll be helping to save some
salmon or reduce global warming a little bit with lower electricity
usage. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by
law. And there is still time to donate before the end of the 2008 tax
year!
You can make your donation by paypal here:
http://personaltelco.net/donate
Or you can mail a check to us at:
Personal Telco Project, Inc.
P.O. Box 12314
Portland, Oregon 97212
--
Russell Senior, Secretary
secr...@personaltelco.net
Keith Lofstrom
>
> We have identified a replacement device that is much more compact, has
> no moving parts, is about twice as capable and uses only about 5W of
> electric power. The only downside is that it is not free. In a bulk
> purchase, each one will cost about $175 to put together.
Sounds like our friend the ALIX. There is an additional advantage
to Alix, which is that the compact flash drives are under $10, and
we can carry spares in our wallets. Much easier to do a software
swap than with hard drives.
May I suggest a mechanical hardware change?
If you are rolling out 30 of these, you can afford to do a
little more case customization, rather than buying the stock
metal case. Is there anyone here with the ability to
route/sculpture wood, or alternatively to mold plastic?
What I DON'T like about the ALIX case is that you have to pull 8
screws and all the connections in order to swap out the CF card.
I'm also a little concerned that something so small might get
stolen. Cables pull out too easily, especially the AC adapter.
I propose a somewhat larger wooden case, the back board made
of routed wood (or plastic), the front board being a pretty
decorative panel with the PTP logo and some text. Make it 8.5x11
inches, about 1.5 inches thick.
The front board might be a sheet of transparent plastic with a
stick-on label sheet with holes to look at the status lights.
TAP plastic sells scrap sheets of clear plastic for about a
buck a pound. I have sheets of 8.5x11 waterproof vinyl sticker
paper I can print on my color laser printer - I've printed
bumper stickers that held up outside for a year so far. Send
me the images, I will print them. White background, please!
The back board would have a routed cavity that holds the ALIX
board, as well as routed channels holding the ethernet and power
cables securely in place. It could be screwed into a wall.
Wood isn't a very good thermal conductor, but 5 watts (actually
3 to 4 for the ALIX) is easy to get rid of. The ALIX board is
loose, held in place by the front board. The front board is
attached with Velcro strips. Velcro, velcro! This permits
rapid field swapout and maintenance without tools.
If someone got really ambitious, the back board could be made
of routed plastic, and there could be a groove to hold a gasket,
so the whole thing could be made waterproof. An outdoor version
would have security screws instead of velcro, but it would be
the same basic arrangement.
Since the ALIX has a mini-PCI slot, it can have a wireless card
attached. Perhaps the back board should have an upper cavity
to hold a small patch antenna.
A pretty box with a decorative front panel may be more
visually attractive to node operators. And routed channels
in a back board might help keep cables from pulling loose.
At the end of the day, this might not save a lot of money
over the metal cases that Netgate sells, but the results
will be better. If there is nobody reading this that can
route wood or plastic, then we probably can't build this.
OTOH, this might be an outreach opportunity - there might be
a wood shop that would like a PTP node. If it looks good,
the shop might sell back boards to many customers besides PTP.
> You can make your donation by paypal here:
>
> http://personaltelco.net/donate
Can we add a small advertisment to the splash pages of the
existing nodes? We should note that the ALIX will log on
and connect faster, and be more reliable - let the users
vote with their donations for better service!
Keith
--
Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
Tyler Booth
Tyler Booth // President ph. 503.548.2000 | fx. 503.548.2002
921 SW Washington St, Suite 224
Portland OR 97205
Greg Moore
Furthermore they are
bulky and consume about 60W of electricity, 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year.
This argument is compelling on its own.
We have identified a replacement device that is much more compact, has
no moving parts, is about twice as capable and uses only about 5W of
electric power. The only downside is that it is not free. In a bulk
purchase, each one will cost about $175 to put together.
Is this the one you showed me? Can I just say that it's a sexy device? I can? Fabulous. $175 does seem expensive for a node, but at the same time, it's a steal when you consider everything it's doing, ease of maintenance and reduced power consumption.
Initially, we'd like to buy 30 of these devices, which will total a
bit over $5,000, and completely replace all of the existing recycled
PC routers.
How many more after that?
Does this mean we can have a simple 1-2-3 easy-setup kit for new nodes?
We'd like *YOU* to help raise that money.
I'll throw it at our executive committee and see if they are willing to put forth the money. We're big into sustainable design and practice, so I may be able to appeal to their conscience for saving electricity. Thank you for putting this out there, Russel. Takes guts.
Rick Lindahl
Russell, all,
I just thought of one more question… Does this pricing for the Alix include the mini-PCI radio, pigtail adaptor and/or antenna? Or, are we expecting these to plug into existing wireless AP/routers? It seems short sited not to include everything “in the box” for this type of program, especially when you create a single management interface and tighter configuration. Also, managing a separate wireless ap/router attached to the Alix box creates all sorts of additional tech support headaches.
Thoughts?
Rick Lindahl
Invictus Networks, LLC
503-635-2562, f503-635-9207
Michael Weinberg
<ri...@invictusnetworks.com> wrote:
> Russell, all,
>
>
>
> I just thought of one more question… Does this pricing for the Alix include
> the mini-PCI radio, pigtail adaptor and/or antenna? Or, are we expecting
> these to plug into existing wireless AP/routers? It seems short sited not to
> include everything "in the box" for this type of program, especially when
> you create a single management interface and tighter configuration. Also,
> managing a separate wireless ap/router attached to the Alix box creates all
> sorts of additional tech support headaches.
This does not include radios, because they are intended to just
replace the NuCabs.
> Thoughts?
If we had a uniform node infrastructure, it might make sense to do
that, but, as it stands, I think there is a fair bit of variance in
the physical layout and networking setup of our nodes. The one thing
that is uniform is that the radios are all acting "dumb," so replacing
the NuCab with something that is easy to work with and accessible
should result in nodes that are easy to work with and accessible, at
least 9 times out of 10.
Of course, that's not to say that the expandability and the option to
throw a radio into the Alix isn't a selling point or something that we
should take advantage of in the future, its just that, for today's
purposes, it's the gravy not the biscuit.
--
Michael Weinberg
President
Personal Telco Project, Inc.
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit
Russell Senior
Russell> Furthermore they are bulky and consume about 60W of
Russell> electricity, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Greg> This argument is compelling on its own.
The electricity savings amounts to something in the range of $35-$40
per year, if I recall my calculations correctly.
Russell> We have identified a replacement device that is much more
Russell> compact, has no moving parts, is about twice as capable and
Russell> uses only about 5W of electric power. The only downside is
Russell> that it is not free. In a bulk purchase, each one will cost
Russell> about $175 to put together.
Greg> Is this the one you showed me? Can I just say that it's a sexy
Greg> device? I can? Fabulous. $175 does seem expensive for a node,
Greg> but at the same time, it's a steal when you consider everything
Greg> it's doing, ease of maintenance and reduced power consumption.
It is that device I showed you. I used it at the One Web Day event in
September as a gateway router. It has a spare ethernet interface that
I had available to do a wireless backhaul (via a nanostation2) in case
our DSL failed.
Russell> Initially, we'd like to buy 30 of these devices, which will
Russell> total a bit over $5,000, and completely replace all of the
Russell> existing recycled PC routers.
Greg> How many more after that? Does this mean we can have a simple
Greg> 1-2-3 easy-setup kit for new nodes?
The quantity 30 covers enough for all our existing nucabs, plus a few
spares. More would depend on how successful this fundraiser is. ;-)
There is still some site-specific adaptation required. You need to
configure the upstream connection (dhcp or static), you still might
need to run wires, etc.
Russell> We'd like *YOU* to help raise that money.
Greg> I'll throw it at our executive committee and see if they are
Greg> willing to put forth the money. We're big into sustainable
Greg> design and practice, so I may be able to appeal to their
Greg> conscience for saving electricity. Thank you for putting this
Greg> out there, Russel. Takes guts.
That would be awesome! Thanks!
--
Russell Senior, Secretary
rus...@personaltelco.net
Russell Senior
Rick> Russell, all, I just thought of one more question… Does this
Rick> pricing for the Alix include the mini-PCI radio, pigtail adaptor
Rick> and/or antenna? Or, are we expecting these to plug into existing
Rick> wireless AP/routers? It seems short sited not to include
Rick> everything “in the box” for this type of program, especially
Rick> when you create a single management interface and tighter
Rick> configuration. Also, managing a separate wireless ap/router
Rick> attached to the Alix box creates all sorts of additional tech
Rick> support headaches.
Rick> Thoughts?
The $175 does not include a radio. It would be effectively a drop-in
replacement for the existing nucab, using whatever wireless devices
are already deployed.
It would be possible to add a radio (the board I am thinking of has
one mini-PCI slot), and that might be useful/appropriate in some
cases. However, sometimes it won't, for example where there is a
rooftop radio or another "forward deployed" wireless device. The
nucab traditionally went in a backroom, or a wiring closet or
something (which mostly answers the concern Keith had about
pilferage), which is not so auspicious for rf propagation to the
target area.
Also, the three ethernet ports allow it to become the node's gateway
device, allowing it to prioritize the hosts private traffic if desired
(potential node hosts have from time-to-time expressed interest in
that kind of feature). In those scenarios, you probably want/need it
in their back office to reduce cable runs.
Keith Lofstrom
> Hate to rain on the wood parade, but aside from the heat insulation
> issue, wood also has the tendency to
> build up and store static electricity (I don't think I need to explain
> why that's a bad thing). Also, considering
> the time it would take to manufacture a single case it would add
> considerable cost to the finished product over
> the cheap aluminum cases that are pre-made for the board.
>
> While I agree that it would look WAY better than a cheap aluminum box,
> I don't think it's practical.
Dry wood out of the kiln has high resistance, about 10^16 ohm-m,
but is nothing like as high as plastic or glass. The charge
holding time for a chunk of fresh dry wood is approximated by
the dielectric constant times the resistivity, and is about
1000 seconds.
Moist wood, on the other hand, is VERY conductive, about 10^3 ohm-m
for saturated wood. It does not take much exposure to normal air
to make wood moist enough to rapidly dissipate a charge. My worry
was not static build up, but that moist wood can short out signals.
Many PTP nodes are either outdoors or in restaurants with a lot of
water vapor. Still, While those resistivities might drain some
parasitic power off the ALIX board in places where they touched,
it would not noticably affect signalling.
The plastic sheet on the bottom of the Netgate ALIX box IS highly
resistive. It will build and hold static charges for a long
time. However, like all surfaces it will develop a thin dirty
film over time, and that is what bleeds off the charge. That
is a good thing, because they don't put the plastic sheet down
very well; mine has bubbles in it, and on some boxes the
bubbles may be high enough to touch the board. Ah well,
puncture them with a pin and smooth them out. The plastic
is there to keep stray bits of debris from shorting the underside
of the board to the anodized metal case.
Again, my main objection to the Netgate boxes (and I have one
in front of me) is that the boxes are too tight, such that a
complete disassembly is needed to get at the CF, and there is
no way to anchor cables to the box.
The homebrew box does not need to be as elaborate as routed wood.
Rather than routing channels in wood, a large metal box ( perhaps
a cooking pan) would also offer enough room to get at the flash.
The box could be bolted to a wall. If the boxes have enough "lip",
the covers could still be held on with velcro. Rather than
mounting cables in channels, they could be tied down with zip
ties to adhesive anchors inside the box. You could still make
something nice looking, though perhaps not as nice as a slab
of polished wood.
Perhaps Rick can suggest some appropriately sized, inexpensive
metal boxes that are large enough, and flat.
Russell Senior
Keith> Again, my main objection to the Netgate boxes (and I have one
Keith> in front of me) is that the boxes are too tight, such that a
Keith> complete disassembly is needed to get at the CF, and there is
Keith> no way to anchor cables to the box.
I have some sympathy with you in a development context when you are
removing, copying new images on, and replacing the CF frequently. I
think in most deployed contexts, though, that isn't going to be the
primary issue. These things are likely going to be flashed once and
sit running for a long time. I don't think we need to optimize for CF
accessibility.
In most cases, I think we don't want the CF to be easily removable, as
that makes the CF more likely to be pilfered. If you do want better
access to the CF, another possibility that retains the thermal
benefits (which are something to bear in mind, with a passively-cooled
board) of metal would be to mill a slot in the stock case.
Rick Lindahl
The "simple" process then is to replace the NuCab with the Alix but that
still means 2 pieces of hardware, extra cabling, etc., when a single box
solution would create a better performing and supported platform as well as
saving more electricity. If we are offering to support the wireless node
completely, this kind of one-piece solution would be easier to support and
more reliable.
Re: Enclosures
There are lots of plastic (ABS, Polycarbonate) and metal enclosures
available. Here are a few examples on our beta estore site:
http://69.49.185.27/SearchResults.asp?Cat=43 We have other lines, sizes,
etc. and the price would be cheaper to PTP as well.
From: ptp-g...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ptp-g...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Michael Weinberg
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 11:14 AM
To: ptp-g...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ptp-general] Re: the Personal Telco Project needs *YOU*!
<ri...@invictusnetworks.com> wrote:
> Russell, all,
>
>
>
Michael Weinberg
<rus...@personaltelco.net> wrote:
>
>>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Lofstrom <kei...@kl-ic.com> writes:
>
> Keith> Again, my main objection to the Netgate boxes (and I have one
> Keith> in front of me) is that the boxes are too tight, such that a
> Keith> complete disassembly is needed to get at the CF, and there is
> Keith> no way to anchor cables to the box.
>
> I have some sympathy with you in a development context when you are
> removing, copying new images on, and replacing the CF frequently. I
> think in most deployed contexts, though, that isn't going to be the
> primary issue. These things are likely going to be flashed once and
> sit running for a long time. I don't think we need to optimize for CF
> accessibility.
Another thought on CF accessibility:
The main benefit (once deployed) is not that it's easy to swap,
because that unlikely to be necessary. The value of the swappable CF
card is that you can setup a new Alix by taking a CF card, putting a
stock image on it via a card reader, and then put it into the Alix,
thereby bypassing the Alix hardware during setup. Realistically, if a
support situation, it's nearly as easy to flash a CF card and install
it into a replacement Alix on the bench, then bring that unit out with
you in case of a bad CF card or a software screw up, as it would be to
flash the CF and just bring that along.
Keith Lofstrom
> Russell, all,
>
> I just thought of one more question… Does this pricing for
> the Alix include the mini-PCI radio, pigtail adaptor and/or
> antenna? Or, are we expecting these to plug into existing
> everything “in the box” for this type of program, especially
> when you create a single management interface and tighter
> configuration. Also, managing a separate wireless ap/router
> attached to the Alix box creates all sorts of additional
> tech support headaches.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Rick Lindahl
I'm only guessing here, but I imagine that the radio is not
included. Logistically, the box wants to go where the cables
go, in the wiring closet or near the floor, while the AP wants
to be mounted up high.
I am using a 3-Enet ALIX box down in my office where the
Internet comes in from Verizon, and it acts as firewall,
VPN server, DNS server, and all sorts of other functions
for my business. The PTP access point is up a floor and
40 feet away, and connects to the DMZ port on the ALIX.
I imagine many PTP venues will have similar constraints.
Still, it would be almost no trouble to provision the standard
PTP ALIX load to use a miniPCI radio if one is plugged in.
The ALIX board and some versions of the case make a radio
easy to add, and for those nodes that logistically permit
it, that is a nice way to go. One standard firmware load,
many possible configurations, remotely managable.
Since the ALIX box can do so much more than just run
nodogsplash, perhaps a "premium" version of the box can
be SOLD to node owners to manage a lot of network-related
functions as I mention above. Managing the extra functions
might make a tasty little side business for some underemployed
PTP members. The ALIX is a LOT more powerful than a NuCab,
and I would like to see these widely deployed for the service
opportunities they create. In the long run, service customers
who use ALIX boxes for business reasons only might be easily
convinced to host PTP nodes if all they have to do is plug
some cheap AP hardware into their unused DMZ port.
While I hope to kick in some bucks to help with this deployment,
if PTP structures the deal properly it will actually create
revenue and lots of new opportunities. The age of small, low
cost, low power, remotely configurable computers is beginning,
and PTP will be an important part of that. What a great way
to invest in my community!
Keith Lofstrom
When I was gathering pieces for my own ALIX box, I deviated from
the Netgate script by buying some CF cards from Newegg. Some
1GB cards of dubious quality run as low as $6.50. I splurged
and spent around $9 for some faster 2GB cards. "Faster" is
slightly important, size is not - damned near any CF card
will work, since OpenWRT is designed to run in a few
megabytes, and copies many of the files from CF to RAM
during boot. The ALIX, with 256MB of RAM, has plenty.
Another cost savings measure for this project would be to
locate a large stash of high-quality small CF cards. I
imagine there are professional photographers around town
with a whole bunch of used-once 128MB cards, abandoned
when they upgraded to larger and faster cards (you can
buy a 32GB card for $90 from Newegg). The major problem
with older cards is that they are likely to have slow write
times. Practically, waiting 60 seconds to write a few
megabytes to an older card, rather than 10 seconds, may be
justified by the monetary savings. I will be running some
speed tests on various cards soon, so I can quantify this.
BTW, I am programming my cards with a "Digital Concepts" CF
reader/writer that I bought for $13 at a suburban Maryland
Radio Shack. It Just Works with my Linux laptop - you Windows
guys may have more trouble :-). I bought it with a third CF
card a 2GB Sandisk marked down from $90 to $30. The R.S.
website shows they are on sale for $20. The point isn't that
you should buy from Radio Shack, but that you can get the
stuff to program these systems anywhere, and that the CF
cards are not expensive enough to steal.
They might be swapped by crooks, though. The usual saying
in computer security is that there is no data security without
physical security - if the bad guys can get at your hardware,
they can bypass all your security measures. While I like the
idea of easy maintenance, the fact that a bad guy can quickly
swap a compromised CF in place of the PTP CF may create a
security hole. I don't think we can stop a really clever
bad guy, perhaps there are some software tricks we can add
to the CF cards to make superficial tampering more detectable
- perhaps digitally sign random portions of the CF image,
and querying the systems remotely. Overall, I'm not going to
lose much sleep over this - in a world dominated by Windows,
where telephones are answered by gullible fools, there are
much easier targets.
Keith Lofstrom
Speed testing CF cards with ALIX
--------------------------------
Summary - it doesn't make much difference what you use.
I tried 3 different recently purchased 2GB CF cards for
the ALIX. I did 5 experiments, one trial each. I would
need to do more trials to find average differences that
I could reliably differentiate - nothing was spectacularly
better or worse. I set up a 200MB partition (of which I
am using 3%).
test 1 - initial write of the card, with a Digital Concepts USB
CF programmer. Timed by "dd" output.
test 2 - first boot. This takes a little extra time, as it
zeros blocks in the JFFS partition. I timed the boot manually
from first power to last message.
test 3 - second boot. Time from "reboot" command to last
message, with initial contents.
test 4 - third boot. Same as test 3, except I scp'ed a bunch
of overlay files and additional stuff into the jffs area.
test 5 - UDMA boot. I set the ALIX board to UDMA mode, to
see if that speeds up the card reading (hint - it doesn't)
The cards:
Kingston generic 2GB. This is their basic card. Kingston
claims other versions are faster.
SanDisl Ultra II "15MB/sec"
Results (all times in seconds):
Card Write Boot Boot Boot Boot
test1 test2 test3 test4 test5
Kingston 72? -- 41 46 38
SanDisk 100 160 38 45 39
Transcend 101 151 43 41 42
Conclusion: while there appear to be small differences, they
would probably average out with repeated tests. The speeds
are probably limited by something besides the CF card, such
as DHCP server times, other activities on the computer with
the CF card write on it, etc. I would like to try this out
with a really old camera card (256MB or larger), but I
suspect it doesn't matter a whole lot what gets used;
reliability is probably more important than speed.
Keith Lofstrom
> Speed testing CF cards with ALIX
Version 2 with corrections
Speed testing CF cards with ALIX
--------------------------------
Summary - it doesn't make much difference what you use.
I tried 3 different recently purchased 2GB CF cards for
the ALIX. I did 5 experiments, one trial each. I would
need to do more trials to find average differences that
I could reliably differentiate - nothing was spectacularly
better or worse. I set up a 200MB partition (of which I
am using 3%).
test 1 - initial write of the card, with a Digital Concepts USB
CF programmer. Timed by "dd" output. Note - this interface
came from Radio Shack, and melted (!!!) a few minutes ago,
so I can't re-run the Kingston test. I also have a PCMCIA
to CF adapter, and that programs a card in about 60 seconds
instead of 100. I don't often use it because I don't like
wearing out the PCMCIA slots in my laptop if I don't have to ...
test 2 - first boot. This takes a little extra time, as it
zeros blocks in the JFFS partition. I timed the boot manually
from first power to last message.
test 3 - second boot. Time from "reboot" command to last
message, with initial contents.
test 4 - third boot. Same as test 3, except I scp'ed a bunch
of overlay files and additional stuff into the jffs area.
test 5 - UDMA boot. I set the ALIX board to UDMA mode, to
see if that speeds up the card reading (hint - it doesn't)
The cards:
Kingston generic 2GB from Newegg. This is Kingston's basic
card. Kingston claims other versions are faster.
SanDisk Ultra II "15MB/sec" supposedly faster 2GB. There
is an Ultra III which is supposedly faster. 4x the cost
of the Kingston
Transcend 266x from Newegg. This is Transcend's "fast"
line, and about 50% more expensive. Very extensive
data sheet, specific electrical and timing and software
details, suitable for board-level and kernel driver
design.
Results (all times in seconds):
Card Write Boot Boot Boot Boot
test1 test2 test3 test4 test5
Kingston 72? 151 41 46 38
Russell Senior
Keith> test 1 - initial write of the card, with a Digital Concepts USB
Keith> CF programmer. Timed by "dd" output. Note - this interface
Keith> came from Radio Shack, and melted (!!!) a few minutes ago,
Keith> [...]
I've had pretty good luck with a little USB-CF adapter labelled
"CameraMate" from Zio. I got several of them from CompUSA back when
they were in business. I think I paid $10 or $15 each for them.
Prior to that, I had a dual SmartMedia+CF adapter, but had some
trouble with it. In order to detect the CF slot, you needed to have
a SmartMedia card plugged as well. After that I hunted for a CF-only
adapter.
Thomas Fitzgerald
I have a lot of different types of CF readers, the ones I've had the
best luck with by far are the "pro-grade" models that use firewire 800
as an interface they are a lot more money (70~80$) but if you are
loading/unloading data lots (we unload 4gigs of RAW or TIFF/JPG at a
whack) a USB version can take up to 30min, I knock 20 minutes off using
my firewire 800 model. They DO have firewire400 models for 20(sandisk)
Tom
--
The cripple that wins the gold medal in the special olympics 100 yd dash isn't necessarily fast... just smarter than the retarded kid that ran the wrong way.
Russell Senior
Russell> Personal Telco Project needs *YOU*!
Russell> The Personal Telco Project is a Portland-based 501(c)(3)
Russell> non-profit that got started in the year 2000 as a way to
Russell> empower people to build wireless networks that benefit their
Russell> communities. We have been working non-stop since then.
Russell> The Personal Telco Project is a volunteer-based organization
Russell> that normally has very limited costs, and consequently has
Russell> very limited financial needs. We don't usually ask for
Russell> money. However, we are embarking on a project to upgrade
Russell> some of the networking gear we use at PTP nodes, and we are
Russell> looking to users and other Friends of Personal Telco as a way
Russell> to fund that upgrade. [...]
A fund-raising follow-up:
We have raised over $500 as of today, and I will be kicking in $100
or more in the next few days. I just want to remind you that there
are only a few days left in this tax year.
I encourage those of you who think, as I do, that the Personal Telco
Project is still an important institution in Portland to step up and
help us out with a donation to ensure we are able to persist in our
mission.
Thanks!
Russell> You can make your donation by paypal here:
Russell> http://personaltelco.net/donate
Russell> Or you can mail a check to us at:
Russell> Personal Telco Project, Inc.
Russell> P.O. Box 12314
Russell> Portland, Oregon 97212
--
Russell Senior, Secretary
rus...@personaltelco.net
Hillsboro-WiFi
Mike Boyd