RACHEL Pi in NW Kenya

[Robert Holder]

Hi!  My wife Janice Dugger and I are working with a fellow in Soy, Kenya named Zack Matere to get Rachel Pi in the elementary school there.  We have limited funds and no idea what we are doing, which makes the whole experience pretty entertaining.  :)

Anyone who is interested in doing Rachel Pi in Kenya, please feel free to contact me https://plus.google.com/u/0/103421763607053395355/about

Maybe we can help each other out.  I can spend a few hours a week on this, and a bit more when needed.  I've learned a (very) few things about Kenya in trying to do this (M-PESA, some rough idea of shipping costs, etc.) and while I am no expert, I'll help where I can for anybody who is interested in trying to make things happen over there.

Zack has a website: zackmatere.com and although there is not much there now, we'll have more soon.

regards,

r

[Johnny Long]

Hi Robert! Thanks for the email. I'm Johnny Long, and I'm based in Jinja, Uganda where I'm running a little project called Hackers For Charity (http://hackersforcharity.org). My kids are attending school at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe Kenya. We are back and forth between Kenya and Uganda quite a bit, and I'm volunteering with RACHEL part time as well to help where I can. 

I think Zack could do great things with all the content contained in RACHEL. We (HFC) combine RACHEL with the content from GCFLearnFree.org to offer computer training courses and much more to the existing RACHEL content, all available without Internet. 

We're working quite a bit with solar and low-power implementations of RACHEL hardware as well.

In short, we're happy for your email and excited to see what Zack has done and we're here to help. So, what can we do to help?

Johnny

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Johnny Long

[Jeremy Schwartz]

Thanks, Johnny!  Just to avoid any confusion, the RACHEL 64GB download does include the GCF content.

+1.415.535.2138
Sent from my mobile

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[Robert Holder]

Hello Johnny, thanks for your reply!

Frankly, I'm in a bit over my head here.  :)  Initially, on the spur of the moment, I kicked Zack a couple bucks after watching his video, and we got to emailing.  In trying to figure out how to help him with his Rachel Pi that he wants to set up, we talked about shipping gear to Africa and how websites can accept donations and so on.

I set up the website on my existing bluehost account thinking that it would make it easier for him to accept donations, which has turned out to be much more difficult than I originally expected.  Paypal is the most economical (compared to Wells Fargo and the M-PESA transfer websites that take a big cut) way to get money there, but I believe he has to bicycle about 15 miles to actually retrieve the money.

It turned out that he had lost his login info and security recovery answers for the paypal account he provided me, so I sent some money to his M-PESA phone account so he could call paypal.  Apparently it is impossible to get a human at paypal on the phone in Africa, so that original money is in the old account, inaccessible to anyone.  I spent about an hour on the phone with paypal, but they need to talk to him, and he can't reach them... so just getting money there turns out to be problematic in itself.

As far as accepting donations on a website, I see now that doing actual donations to Africa has to be well-organized in implementation, and that is aside from the regulatory compliance aspects, of which I'm totally ignorant.  I did not foresee all this, and including the initial paypal transfer, the m-pesa transfer, and registering a website, I'm just about out of discretionary cash for this, so any future money has to come from somewhere else.  I'm embarrassed to say this, but I seem to have jumped into this without really thinking it all through!  And I don't want to discourage Zack, he is very enthusiastic.

Zack is a farmer, and they do farming there manually.  So they don't have much access to hardware, as I'm sure you already know.  I also don't know anything about collecting donations to help fund something like this.  Zack is enthusiastic and wants to make things happen, but his resources are pretty limited.  I think Zack would be delighted if you could mention him at Hackers For Charity, but first I suggest you email him directly: His email is zackmatere <atsymbol> gmail <dot> com

To me, the thorny part of Rachel Pi is hardware distribution.  Shipping from the states is hundreds of dollars even for a small package.  http://kanyugo.com does shipping container aggregation which allows a 24"x24"x18" uhaul box to be shipped for $250 to certain towns (Eldoret is the closest to Zack), although I've never worked with them, just read their website.

So I guess I have two main questions:

1) How do you get the "kits" (pi, case, power supply, ethernet cable, wifi dongle and SDHC card) physically to Kenya?

2) How do you pay for that?

I can put content up on his website, and put a donate button there, and ship boxes if the cost is covered.  Zack is excited and wants to start a non-profit, something I cannot do.  I can update his website once a week, but I cannot become a full-time 501c3 SEO guy managing a community around this.  Frankly, I'm a little overwhelmed.  :)  This has ended up consuming many more hours in the past two weeks than I imagined, although it has been very educational.

To me, the best thing you could do to help is to email him directly and see what you think.  I think he would be happy to hear from you.

Thanks so much for your reply, I really appreciate it!

Best Regards,

Robert

[Ed Resor]

Robert,

At first I thought, you and your wife were in Kenya, but I see you are at a similar altitude in Colorado.  You might want to try some of this stuff in the U.S. so you can better support Zack.  In any case, pass along this information, and let Zack get back to us with some more information and how he would like to proceed.  It would help to know the name and the long. and lat. of the elementary school or if the location on Google Maps is roughly correct.  That will enable us to see what speed Internet is possible if he wants to later add a public Internet access point at or near the school.  (See below the BRCK alternative which we are working on.)

My daughter returns from the U.S. to Nairobi in early May.  I could ask to her to carry one or two more RACHEL Pis.  I or you could prepare them and add the GCF Learn Free lessons as I do for South Sudan and Karamoja, Uganda.  I would like to get reimbursed for expenses sometime as I need to money for South Sudan.  I think my daughter would be very interested in meeting Zack and introducing him to some of her friends at the world famous iHub in Nairobi if Zack has not already met them.  Zack might want to try running RACHEL from the BRCK hotspot/wireless router being developed by a team that started at iHub.  Some BRCKs should be available this month.

In any case, I would recommend following the advice of Johnny Long in Jinja, Uganda.  He has been a big help of work I am supporting in Karamoja, Kenya and has more hands on experience.

If your and Zack can tell us all a bit more about your situation, and we might have some other useful suggestions.  Many of us started out like you and are still like you, working on other things and spreading RACHEL on the side.

You and we all are lucky to have met up with someone like Zack who has be able to put the Internet to practical use, especially in small scale, rainfed agriculture.  This type of agriculture is one of the most difficult areas to cover with offline content because it is so complex and location specific.  If I understand Zack's plan correctly, he wants to train school kids how to do research with offline content so they can then combine information from the Internet with the offline resources to understand and solve problems.  A big advantage of RACHEL is the high quality of the information and to lack of misleading and time wasting distractions.

Google Maps shows about a dozen primary schools in Soy.  Some of these may be private and have access to the special program negotiated by the Kenyan Private Schools Association to buy tablets, laptops, etc. at discounted prices and even with loans from Equity Bank repayable through MPesa.

1. What kind and what amount of electric power is available for the RACHEL Pi and for the community?
   The RACHEL Pi or the BRCK can run 24x7x365 off an old truck battery with one solar panel, but people need to charge their smartphones, tablets, and laptops in order to use it.
   
   As a last resort, find out who charges cell phones and how much do they "charge for a charge."  In Uganda the standard price is about $0.40.  If there is no power near the primary school you and Zack could work with one of these entrepreneurs to a charging business at the primary school with the condition that the person running the business power the RACHEL Pi off of his or her solar system and battery.  This business should be combined with another source of income that requires a person to stay at the school such as school cleaner or guard or even a teacher.
   
   {I noticed the story about a locally made wind-powered generator.  My advice is that for charging laptops and other devices, wind can help, but it is almost always not reliable enough on its own.  An off-grid system should be designed with solar as the primary energy source.  (Wind should really used for separate systems for lighting and phone charging until good charge controller is included to protect the batteries and other equipment.  If grid or generator electricity is available it can be safely added to a solar system because the equipment to do so safely and reliably is readily available and reasonably priced.}
   
   
2. What kind of security and access is available to protect the RACHEL Pi and its power system and the same time to allow people to walk up outside the school building and connect to the RACHEL Pi over the wireless link?
   24x7 access would be nice, but the local people will be able to set a more realistic period.
   
   After good content, I believe the key determinant of potential benefit for the local community is computer-hours of access per week. Don't think just of students, but also of farmers, moms, teachers, principals, nurses, medical officers, community leaders, government employees, etc.  Also, if their parents are interested, kids will learn more, better, and faster.
   
   
3. What devices do people have to access RACHEL?
   Pew Research estimated that in 2013, 18% of Kenyans over 18 owned Smartphones and 37% owned a smartphone or used the Internet at least occasionally.  Of course, in Soy these numbers may be below the national average, but possibly not.  There are many people in Kenya poorer than those in Soy, with lower literacy, with worse cell phone access, and a lot farther from the nearest Internet Cafe.
   
   Kenya may soon be swamped with over 1 million Intel Classmate laptops for primary schools.  It is a good idea to get ready for this flood with some good content and some trained teachers.  The Ministry of Education has done more preparation that most people give them credit for or would expect, but there is no such thing as being too well prepared to answer questions from kids and to help them learn.  (Of course, one must not let one's preparation close one's mind to the kids own ideas or to cause one to think one knows which questions are bad questions, as opposed to difficult or inconvenient, questions.)
   
   
4. Please support your local Internet Cafe?
   In his YouTube video, Zach mentioned how the Internet Cafe in Soy helped him get started.  5 years of extensive research around the world by the University of Washington shows that Internet Cafes and other Public Access Points are still a major requirement to help poor people learn how to use the Internet and benefit from it.
   
   Ask the Internet Cafe owner if he would like a copy of RACHEL to put on one of his computers.  If he does not have a local webserver already, the RACHEL USB package includes MOWES, a great, self-installing web server for any Windows computer.  All the computers in the Cafe as well as the walk-in laptops, smartphones, and laptops can then access RACHEL (with the Cafe owner's permission) and the computer serving RACHEL can still be used a customers to access the Internet.
   
   The Cafe owner should be happy to try running RACHEL when he or she understands that if some customers will be using RACHEL some of the time, the Internet will be faster for the other customers and the Cafe's Internet bills will be lower if it is charged by the byte download.
   
   If you, Zack, or one of your Internet Cafe owners wants a copy of RACHEL USB, we can arrange to provide a copy of RACHEL USB in Nairobi and possibly closer.  The Cafe Owner cannot charge for access to RACHEL, but he or she can charge the same fees as usual for using the Cafe network.  My colleague, a Catholic Brother from Uganda, currently based in Nairobi can copy RACHEL USB onto a laptop, USB Hard drive, or USB Flash Drive for you, as long as he is not up in South Sudan or Uganda.  You may also find other sources.
   

Best wishes, Ed Resor

(If I don't reply quickly, it is because I am doing my taxes, rather than avoiding doing them.)

[Robert Holder]

Dear Ed,

Thank you so much for all the great information.  I will forward it to Zack.  I think it is a very good idea if you could talk to him, you clearly know a LOT more about all this than I do!  I spent a few days reading about things in Kenya online, but that's about the extent of my exposure to the situation there.  The biggest thing I have learned from all this is how much I rely on modern infrastructure and conveniences to solve any problem.

Zack answers his emails at least once a day.  zackmatere at gmail com

He is also on google plus.  I believe I might have spent time on ideas about how to proceed with websites and donations and so on that are half-baked and poorly thought out, and I feel bad about that.  My first thought when I saw his video was, "I've got gear sitting in drawers unused that would really help those people!" and so I thought to just ship it over there.

Then I found out how expensive shipping is, so I thought, "OK, how can we raise a few hundred bucks to ship a box!"  So without thinking it through first, I grabbed the domain name, (I'm a computer nerd so that's the first thing I think of) and I started talking about websites and donations to him in email, which maybe was not the best way to proceed.  I just saw that his video had almost three million views, and I thought, there's your marketing right there.  It's already done.  I don't really understand why google doesn't have a donation link in the video itself, or a link to local groups in Soy, or something.  That doesn't make much sense to me.

It is clear to me from my emails with him that Zack is motivated to try to make things happen.  I'm not sure what his relationship is with the school, I think he is just an interested citizen trying to help out however he can.

It sort of drives me crazy that I can have a new wifi router at my house in two days for $25 without getting out of this chair (which actually just happened a few months ago, it's sitting on the table now) and yet it would cost $300-$600 to get it to Zack.  If they put that router up on a pole in a rainproof box, it's wifi coverage would reach pretty far.  You can chain routers and hubs like that hundreds of feet.  They could put together a local subnet that wasn't even connected to the internet which served the Rachel content over the center of town for a few hundred bucks, if it wasn't for the shipping costs.

When I realized how expensive shipping is there, and that less than 1% of the population has a powered vehicle, my thought was that Kenya may need more education, but it seriously needs MOAR TRUCKS!  lol  My understanding from what I've read online is that up to 40% of the harvest can rot before it reaches market.  That place needs better transportation, bigtime.  It needs mechanized agriculture.  Looking into that is how I learned about the PUP project at Purdue University:  https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lumkes/BUV/

...but they are working in Cameroon, on the other side of the continent.  I even came up with this design for a bicycle truss vehicle, because bicycles are so common over there:

I emailed it to Professor Lumpkes of Purdue, and he said it looks interesting, maybe a good thing for in-town where the roads are better, but it is not durable enough for agricultural use.

My first thought on connectivity was how does the Internet Cafe owner get his connection?  What speed is it, how much does it cost?  But then I learned that Zack uses the internet mostly on his phone, so they have cel coverage for at least part of the town.  I think one issue here is helping Zack understand what questions to ask, and to help him with a game plan.  I've never been to Africa so I don't really know what questions to ask.  It would be very good if Johnny Long was able to get up there and ask questions, because he has a technical background.  I think he would understand the specifics of the situation very quickly.  I don't know exactly where the school is, or where Zack lives, but I have looked at Soy and Eldoret in google maps.  Zack can answer those questions about location.

That's one of the things I thought about putting on the zackmatere.com site, an org chart or directory or similar information about who's who in Soy.  I don't know who the local school is, what councils or groups are there, I have no idea how that works.  But it would definitely be good info to have in one place.

And while I really hate to say this, I have been spending hours a day researching and thinking about this the past two weeks since I met Zack in email, and I have to scale back the hours per week I spend on this.  Speaking of which, I have a bunch of stuff to get done, so I've got to go now.  I will check back tomorrow.

Thanks again for your wonderful information, Ed.  Let me give Zack the link to this discussion, maybe he can chime in here.

Regards,

r

[Robert Holder]

On Thursday, April 10, 2014 2:47:21 PM UTC-6, Ed Resor wrote:

Robert,

My daughter returns from the U.S. to Nairobi in early May.  I could ask to her to carry one or two more RACHEL Pis.  I or you could prepare them and add the GCF Learn Free lessons as I do for South Sudan and Karamoja, Uganda.

OH YEEEEAHHH KOOLAIDS HERE looool

this is what i'm talkin' about baby!  I missed this the first time I read your message.  I will spring for a pi, case, power supply, cable, wifi dongle, SDHC card, and whatever so long as it's $100 or so, if I have a way to physically get this sucker over there.  That's badass, that'll work.  I'll do the extra accessories for the pi he already has too.

After that I really have to close my wallet for a good while.  But no way I'm passing up a chance to get gear over there at a sane price!  LOL :-D  My wife will give me The Look about the money, but I'll put the charms on her. Yeah, I've still got it.  loool :-D

But seriously, this is too good to pass up.  I'm in for one pi & 2 accessories, if your daughter has room for them.  you can email me at RobertH...@gmail.com and we can work out the details.

Man, if we could just put together enough bread for a short stack of SDHC cards, that would be killer.  They're tiny for packing, and it's a definite speedbump in deployment, those cards.  I need to get good, accurate info from Zack on the specifics of how exactly to get them to him, though.

Okay, now I'm happier, actual progress, we're cookin' with gas.

Regards,

r

[Robert Holder]

On Thursday, April 10, 2014 5:16:20 PM UTC-6, Robert Holder wrote:

I need to get good, accurate info from Zack on the specifics of how exactly to get them to him, though.

...here I was talking about the pi & stuff, not the "bunch of SDHC cards" which is just a wishful idea at this point.  Sorry, I'm a little scattered here, I have some other things going on at the same time.

--r 

[Robert Holder]

oh one last thing:

On Thursday, April 10, 2014 2:47:21 PM UTC-6, Ed Resor wrote:

If your and Zack can tell us all a bit more about your situation, and we might have some other useful suggestions.  Many of us started out like you and are still like you, working on other things and spreading RACHEL on the side.

My situation is that I saw Zack's video two weeks ago on youtube and got in contact with him through email.  I had never met him before then, and I am not with any group, charity, organization or whatever.  I just wanted to try to help out a bit.  lol :-)

I had never heard of Rachel Pi before Zack told me about it.  I've never been to Africa, and in the last twenty years the only time I've been out of the country was to mexico on a trip that my wife's company sent her on.  :-)  Oh, I did get to go to the Bahamas for a few days on my 40th birthday, eight years ago now.  ;-)  But Africa?  Never been there.

I am currently unemployed, which is how I had so much time lately to read about Kenya.  :-D  But I do have a lot to do, and projects of my own I am working on, and I actually am starting to get behind on things, so I'd better get moving here.

Thanks again you guys!

--r

[zackm...@gmail.com]

Hallo this is Zack Matere. Thanks for the help Robert.
I am small scale farmer and internet enthusiast.Someone donated a P.I and id like to pass it on to a small school in Seregeya Primary School
Forest Road
http://goo.gl/maps/Dh97d
they have 10 computers

[Robert Holder]

Thanks for the maps link to the school, and other info, Zack, that's a big help! :)

--r

[Robert Holder]

Just to be clear here:  I'm the one who initially started thinking and talking about websites, donation buttons, paypal, "leveraging three million youtube views" and so on, regarding this particular situation.  It was the only way I could think of at the time to solve the frikkin shipping problem--I'm just one guy.

I can see now that accepting cash donations is not a good idea, and that sort of thing is better left to organizations already in place that have their act together for efforts in the developing world.

I am responsible for any concern here about motives.  Anyone here who is under the impression that this effort to put Rachel in Soy is a front for some fast buck operation needs to blame me, and I'm happy to answer any questions about this or any other thing in detail.  Any concerns that Zack and I are a bit disorganized and unskilled in this sort of thing are valid.

But now we are here in the forum, and you guys know how this is all supposed to work, so Zack and I can get with the program, and do things the right way.  Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

--r

[Johnny Long]

Hey guys! This is great news about GCF being included. Super cool!

I am a tiny but wigged out that I missed that but of news though. I read all the Rachel traffic. Was this posted somewhere?

Does this mean we are actively pursuing the GCF updates? I only ask because right now the GCF vids don't work on iDevices and I was going to recode them. 

Various questions: 

1) Should I hold off or is GCF moving forward on HTML5? If you have no clue I can pursue it with my contact there. 

2) Does the bit sync include updates for the full 64gb version?

3) I'm getting ready to set up but sync here so I can get changes in a low bandwidth environment. To the wiki for setup instructions?

4) Jeremy, I got a call from that satellite guy saying he has a new tablet version of the receiver he's bringing to kampala this month for some conference. Are you in touch with him at all? Curious if bit sync will work over it. 

5) What's the process for uploading hardware solutions? I'd like to document the librarybox/openwrt solution. 

Thanks,

Johnny

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rachelproject/CANNQo7xFGhUH6xiqyq1mPijw-8t2CVctcL7Tzdm_KDOOrnz0Mg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Robert Holder]

Hi!

Zack is meeting with the School Admin on Monday.  Questions for him to ask or other guidance is very welcome!

I'm trying to think of suggestions for good questions for him to ask, info to gather, topics to discuss, etc.  There are a number of schools there, and I am making a google docs spreadsheet today of info that Zack will have write access to, so we can accumulate/organize specific info about each school's technical information:

The spreadsheet for Soy, Kenya will live here (WIP):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VOfQ9QqTohqgkSZ-lDcnxZ2FubaH2X0w_IRd5KYXWdQ

I am also working on a google form that automatically populates an associated spreadsheet with info submitted to it, to make it easier for Zack & the teachers/admins to catalog the specific info about each school.  Here is a test form I am working on, and once Zack, teachers and people here have had a chance to provide input on what needs to be on the form, I'll make the "real" form.

I would appreciate it if anyone here could try this form to see what I'm talking about, and give me feedback! :-)

Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Wak8DuL0_RysYN_9sP07Hs_s-luCClXSEFNeWRfkvgU/viewform

...when anyone fills out that form, the results are put into this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rs9Lrrem-AjYaElc7-MCQpaIiT0bzX38Jf-Xt5NaW3M

...if you use the form to enter info, you can then click the link to the spreadsheet to see how the info populates it.

Here are questions I am thinking about putting on the form.  If we can make a good form, anyone can copy it/edit it/re-use it in google docs for collecting info about schools in their area!

School Name: text

School Map Location: google maps URL

School Mailing Address: text

School Type: public/private/other

School District/Organization: text

School Administrative Contact Name: text

School Administrative Contact Email: text

School Teacher Contact Name: text

School Teacher Contact Email: text

Number of Students: integer

Electricity: Yes/No

Source: Utility/Solar/Wind/Battery/Generator/etc.

Voltage: 240V apparently (necessary?)

Breaker: Amperes/None?

# Electrical Outlets: integer

Network Hardware: router/switch/cables

# of Computers: integer

Type of Computers: Windows/Linux/Pi/Other

Internet Connectivity: Yes/No

Type of Internet Connectivity: Landline/Cellular/Other?

Connection Speed: integer

Data Cap: Yes/No

Data Cap Amount: integer

...This is what I've thought of so far.  If anyone has any suggestions or corrections, please let me know! :-)  It seems to me that  creating a simple, well-organized, portable way to survey the local school information processing capabilities will help with planning, not just in Soy but anywhere.

It would be great if anyone could comment or provide and suggestions or guidance before Zack meets with the school admin on Monday!

Zack uses the internet almost entirely through his smartphone.

I will ask him if there are ways for him to access the internet for things like working on spreadsheets with keyboard/mouse that don't cost him money.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time and attention!  :-)

Regards,

RobertH...@gmail.com

[Robert Holder]

oh one other thing:  if we can standardize this form/spreadsheet according to ya'lls wishes, then javascript/python etc. tools can be written to access these spreadsheets to aggregate info, make graphs, show statistics, etc. for lots of schools around the world.  It will be possible to make some custom tools that help organize all this info, using JS/python/whatever, the google APIs, and other tools.

Even if we can't/don't do that work, once the data is in the spreadsheets, others with coding skills can come along later and make tools that work with the data.  So it is worth trying to decide on a good format for the data (good form design, right questions, good spreadsheet columns) as early as possible, so that we don't have lots of versions of the spreadsheet floating around, if possible.

--r

[Robert Holder]

oh yeah (sorry!  i keep thinking of things after I post) remember that this data is not just useful for Rachel Pi deployment, it can also be locally consumed, and consumed by NGOs and other entities who work with the schools.  So it's usefulness extends outside just the Rachel project.  It could turn out to be pretty helpful I think, if there is a well-documented standard for how to do it.  I'm happy to help with this, but I need some guidance on what data needs to be represented in it.  :)

--r

[Robert Holder]

i see on this page

http://rachel.worldpossible.org/howto.html

...it says the rachel 64Gb USB image is "coming soon" for bittorrent sync.  i'd like to download it through torrent to save you guys charges on data transfer, is the torrent sync code available, or nearly available yet?  otherwise i'll ftp it.

--r

[Jeremy Schwartz]

It just doesn't exist yet. For USB all we have is the 32gb with ka lite for a little.

+1.415.535.2138
Sent from my mobile

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[Robert Holder]

thx jeremy.  fyi, i see an md5 for the 32 gig image in the /rachel dir, but i don't see one for the 64 gig image.

[Robert Holder]

doh, never mind.  the file ftp://anon...@worldpossible.org@ftp.worldpossible.org/rachel/rachel_pi_64GB_02222014.img is only 1 gig, so that must be a test file or something.

[Jeremy Schwartz]

Ya, can you go with the bit torrent sync for the 64gb pi file?

+1.415.535.2138
Sent from my mobile

On Apr 12, 2014 10:45 AM, "Robert Holder" <roberth...@gmail.com> wrote:

doh, never mind.  the file ftp://anon...@worldpossible.org@ftp.worldpossible.org/rachel/rachel_pi_64GB_02222014.img is only 1 gig, so that must be a test file or something.

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[Robert Holder]

hm, maybe this is a dumb question, but the file:

ftp://anon...@worldpossible.org@ftp.worldpossible.org/rachel/rachel_pi_32_20130924.img

ends in .img not .gz or .7z or .zip... is that file compressed?

[Jeremy Schwartz]

It is not compressed.

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[Robert Holder]

sure can, is that the same data?  i can do that for both 32 and 64 gig images and save on bandwidth costs, i will stop ftp in progress.

[Jeremy Schwartz]

Correct. The bittorrent sync is best for all versions. We've been ISP battling on the FTP lately and will be moving hosting providers shortly. Just need to set up new ftp site o n the new server.

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[Robert Holder]

On Saturday, April 12, 2014 11:50:33 AM UTC-6, Jeremy Schwartz wrote:

It is not compressed.

I understand you are on cel now, so no worries about responding immediately.  :)

 

I have a couple of thoughts.  In the field, this transfer can take on the order of days, right?  So compression would be a big help, obviously.

Also, I get why you want two versions of How-To instructions for Rachel USB and Rachel Pi procedures.  But to simplify maintenance, it would be nice to have one version of Rachel that intelligently installs/configures itself whether it lives on an SDHC card and gets plugged into a Pi, or lives on a USB stick and gets plugged into a Windows box.  Once I look at this, and MoWeS, Janice and I can talk about how you guys are doing this, and maybe help out in integrating the two methods together into one file that works everywhere, automatically.

There is a great program called UPX that creates self-extracting compressed executables, and it has linux, windows, mac os x and other versions.  Janice and I used it on a distributable for some software we made, and it works great at cutting down the installer size.  The beauty here is that you click on it, it self-extracts, and runs your installer which can be written to detect local hardware.  You could publish a single distributable that has installers for multiple OSes and can configure itself for whatever hardware it's on.

The work is in writing the installer.  It sounds like a fun problem, and honestly, my first thought when I saw that MoWeS is no longer supported was, "hey that's a good idea, a self-contained apache/mysql host, but php bleah, maybe i can write a new one in python or JS that is custom-tailored to ya'lls needs, put it on github under MIT license, and it can live and breathe as open source."  That's a bigger project, though, I'm just daydreaming at this point.  :)  it does sound fun though, and could be useful for other things besides rachel.

But consolidating Rachel into one intelligent hardware-agnostic installer is probably do-able.  I'll look into it once I get your distro downloaded and can see how it all works together and what it does.

--r

[Robert Holder]

ok I think I might have been confused.  I remember reading that mowes is not longer supported, but I see the http://www.moweshelp.chsoftware.net/ website, and other indications it is a current thing.  Somehow I got the idea it was abandonware, sorry.

it still seems like it might simplify things to have one downloadable rachel file that works on any platform.

Also, it would be nice if the download included an index.html that used javascript to determine what OS it's being run on, and then show the appropriate How-To on the end user's browser for the in situ hardware/OS they have--or better yet just click a button from index.html and guide them through setup/runtime with pictures and stuff interactively.  This whole rachel thing is for sites with no internet, and yet the How-To pages are on the internet... :) so it would be nice if the appropriate How-To was right there included in the distro when they plug the card/usb stick in.  Janice and I will look at it after download and maybe we can help if you are interested.

--r

[Robert Holder]

Janice and I were talking about it and reading the how-to pages.  It looks like you have two different use cases, one which is a bootable linux image for the pi, and then another use case for usb where the content is accessed from another already running operating system.  So I'm starting to understand why you're doing it this way, the pi needs a bootable image which... i'm thinking doesn't cohabit with ntfs or whatever: more complexity usually means more maintenance headaches.  i get the goal of plug-and-play, and minimizing complexity, for sure.

Janice is telling me that at her work they plug usb devices into their pi usb slot, so you could have rachel on usb, and the SDHC would just hold linux... it would be cool if you had your own linux distro :)  but then you have two separate memory devices to keep track of, rather than just two separate .img files.  I'm not sure what that really buys you, aside from the rachel img is always the same.  But requiring two memory devices, that's an extra hurdle where there are already plenty of hurdles...  So maybe my whole idea is dumb.  :)

i know you guys have already thought all this through, and i'm not trying to come across like i think you are doing it wrong, i'm just trying to think it through for myself to understand the use cases and the deployment scheme.

[Robert Holder]

I watched Johnny Long's Defcon 17 video, and have been reading his blog posts on HFC site.  I can see you guys have much bigger things to worry about day-to-day, than tweaks to rachel deployment :) so I will stop posting so much stuff here, sorry, I just got excited and interested.  :)

Holy crap, after reading Jaaja Barb's issues ($10K in BS fees at the border, $2K for the crane operator to do the job he already agreed to do) and Johnny's issues with the passports to see his kids with the forensics equipment/UPF... holy cow... i presume since he is still there it all worked out somehow.

I don't know how you guys do this stuff... I realize now how much more there is to trying to do even simple things in the developing world.  I'm also starting to get an idea of how much genuine risk is involved in any endeavor in these countries.... it's giving me a lot to think about...

[Douglas Mwangi]

Hello Robert,

I am keen to learn about your experience with RACHEL-Pi, we are keen in introducing it at Oasis Mathare

Thanks

[Jeremy Schwartz]

Please check https://community.worldpossible.org

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