Re: Just stumbled this site...SWEET
Bryan Bishop
> Hey guys, I've been on this site for probably 5 minutes and find it
> and its purpose absolutely incredible. I'm not sure where to start
> here, I'm an undergrad student at the University of Florida majoring
> in Biology/Biotechnology and am looking towards a career in genetic
> engineering specifically. This site seems perfect for me and I want to
> do whatever is necessary to get involved. I don't know haha...where do
> I start?
Yeah, we're getting asked that a lot :-). See here too:
http://groups.google.com/group/diybio/browse_thread/thread/47cd16d9c79bbd64
One of the projects that I am working on is a standard format for
representing projects-- with a bill of materials and I guess what you
could call a "Bill of Technology" too. This way, we could get packaged
projects that are easier to digest. But there are other things going
on around here too, I'm sure others will chime inn shortly.
Peter Olson
Among other things, they solve the problem of how to express what your
project depends upon without incorporating the dependencies within the
project, and how to upgrade the project to the next revision level and
install it. Here's how debian does it:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/
peter
On Dec 26, 12:50 am, "Bryan Bishop" <kanz...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hey guys, I've been on this site for probably 5 minutes and find it
> > and its purpose absolutely incredible. I'm not sure where to start
> > here, I'm an undergrad student at the University of Florida majoring
> > in Biology/Biotechnology and am looking towards a career in genetic
> > engineering specifically. This site seems perfect for me and I want to
> > do whatever is necessary to get involved. I don't know haha...where do
> > I start?
>
> One of the projects that I am working on is a standard format for
> representing projects-- with a bill of materials and I guess what you
> could call a "Bill of Technology" too. This way, we could get packaged
> projects that are easier to digest. But there are other things going
> on around here too, I'm sure others will chime inn shortly.
>
> 1 512 203 0507
Len Sassaman
ports packaging processes -- Meredith's startup (unrelated directly to
biohacking -- it's a datamining company with a focus in media) uses .debs,
and I've been a FreeBSD port maintainer for years, so if anyone has any
questions on this area, we'd be happy to help. I think the docs are pretty
self-explanatory for both at this point, however, but should it be needed,
just give a shout on list or drop us an email.
Best,
Len
Bryan Bishop
> It would be well worth looking at free software package formats.
> Among other things, they solve the problem of how to express what your
> project depends upon without incorporating the dependencies within the
> project, and how to upgrade the project to the next revision level and
> install it. Here's how debian does it:
>
> http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/
And:
> FWIW, Meredith and I can help walk people through the debian or FreeBSD
> ports packaging processes -- Meredith's startup (unrelated directly to
> biohacking -- it's a datamining company with a focus in media) uses .debs,
> and I've been a FreeBSD port maintainer for years, so if anyone has any
> questions on this area, we'd be happy to help. I think the docs are pretty
> self-explanatory for both at this point, however, but should it be needed,
> just give a shout on list or drop us an email.
Combining a few replies here, I've been looking into the apt system
since the beginning and have found it unfortunate that it is entirely
too tied in to the debian system. It's surprising that there's no
actual individual package distribution system project that is
separated from debian, it's the beating heart of debian and such.
So, on the open manufacturing mailing list (and here, since April)
we've been working on a package management system. Here's some links
of interest.
For codestuff please see:
http://fennetic.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=skdb.git;a=tree
or:
# git clone http://fennetic.net/git/skdb.git
For some information on recipe representation:
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/browse_thread/thread/a8d8ee245aaae97d/719e8fd59cfe45a5
Some information sent to the Open Design Initiative guys:
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/browse_thread/thread/3f991441a6860b51/e7aa2f93e40ec8d6
These files are "dot debs" and essentially they are zipped tar files
with YAML metadata, a dot g file for CAD information (
http://brlcad.org/ , the F/OSS CAD program) if necessary, as well as
recipe information (which is some of the current work that is being
done).
What would packaging allow for? Consumable, packaged synthetic biology
projects, as well as other packaging initiatives, like of DNA
synthesizers, sequencers, and so on, plus the ability to analyze the
manufacturing processes that go into them. There's not just a "bill of
materials" built into this idea but also a "bill of technologies".
I've been insistent on making sure we get the recipes down so that we
can serialize instructions (in English) for how to make any given
package. Think of how many projects already *sort of* do this except
fall short:
* HobbySpace
* Howtoons
* wikiHow
* OSAerospace
* Make Community
* The Buckminster Fuller Institute
* Humanitarian Information for All
* ThinkCycle
* How to do things
* Wikipedia (to a limited extent, given a broader focus)
* The Internet Craftsmanship Museum
* Instructables
* The NIST Process Specification Language (PSL)
* Open Source Everything Project
So I'm glad this is moving forward. On the lab-side of things, some
inventory management software tied into all of this wouldn't be
terrible, so that you can do the "hrm, here's what I have, what can I
do" and one-click ordering of new supplies to do a project if
necessary, i.e. 'kits'.
Some of the packaging people show up in the IRC channel on
irc.freenode.net #hplusroadmap.
- Bryan