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Open Source

Video 'Write the Docs' is a Conference for People Who Write Software Docs (Video) 24

Posted by Roblimo from the documentation-makes-software-more-usable dept.
There is this guy, Eric Holscher, who has been doing FOSS development for quite a while. He's been on GitHub since 2008, and got involved in Gittip not long after it started in 2012. Not long after that, Eric started thinking about how open source software developers have all kinds of conferences and have many communities they can join and learn from each other, while those who write documentation, especially for FOSS, typically work all alone in a vacuum.

So why not have a conference for documentation writers (and developers who want to hook up with writers who can help them make high-quality docs)? Don't limit it to FOSS, but make sure that's the emphasis. Call the conference 'Write the Docs' and have the first conference in Portland, Oregon, in 2013. Which is exactly what Eric did. A year later, a second 'Write the Docs' conference is scheduled in Budapest (Hungary) at the end of March, and the next Portland conference is set for May 5.

Comment Re:Elegant isn't important. (Score 2) 164

by Roblimo (#46340115) Attached to: Electric Bikes Get More Elegant Every Year (Video)

I live in the part of Florida (Manatee & Sarasota counties) that has the highest bicycle accident rate in the state. The bikes rarely cause accidents - crappy drivers do, and we've got a load of them around here.

Because of this, combined with poor balance and general weakness since my 2010 heart attacks, I don't ride on the main roads but stick to side streets around my home that have low speed limits.

Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a powered bike so I could keep up with traffic better but then I remember that I have a car. So I'll probably do a 6-speed or 7-speed trike as my next cycle-type transport device. And it probably won't have an electric assist unless one pops up really cheap on Craigslist. And even then, probably not. I need more exercise.

Comment Re:Still ugly (Score 2) 164

by Roblimo (#46339663) Attached to: Electric Bikes Get More Elegant Every Year (Video)

I have an upright "old people's" trike and because you sit lower on it than on a standard bike, it has a flag. The flag is pretty much standard equipment for Florida old people's trikes.

This morning I was sitting out on my front porch and an old lady (mid 70s, I'd say) zoomed down the street on an electric trike. Dead quiet, fast as most cars go in our quiet little trailer park. 20 mph at least. Her hair was flying out behind her, and her flags (the real Kool Kids have 2 flags on their trikes) were bent aft at maybe a 30 degree angle.

I can go that fast on my 7-speed low-rider beach cruiser bike (which I made out of used stuff, pretty much), but my cruising speed in more like 8 - 10 mph.

So I'm selling my old trike, then I'm going to look for a new (or at least newer) one that I will motorize. Or maybe I'll just figure out a dual-front wheel setup for my lowrider bike. Hmmm....
Transportation

Video Electric Bikes Get More Elegant Every Year (Video) 164

Posted by Roblimo from the he-huffed-and-he-puffed-his-way-up-the-hill-because-he-forgot-he-was-riding-an-electric-bike dept.
Tim Lord first saw Faraday Bicycles at CES, where their bikes drew plenty of attention and a fair amount of media interest. The company ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012, and 2014 is when they are starting to ship their pre-ordered bicycles and hope to get new orders for lots more. Tim's travels later took him to San Francisco, where he had a chance to visit the shop where Faraday bikes are made, and to talk with some of the people who are designing and making them. (If you don't see the video below, please use this link.)
Open Source

Video Louis Suarez-Potts Talks About Making Money with FOSS (Video) 33

Posted by Roblimo from the bringing-free-and-open-software-to-the-masses dept.
Louis Suarez-Potts has been community manager for OpenOffice since it was sponsored by Sun Microsystems. He's still working with OpenOffice now that it's under the Apache Foundation umbrella. He also has a business going, along with several other long-time Free and Open Source boosters, called Age of Peers. They say it's "a collective forum for consultants, practitioners and boutique agencies, to collaborate on a bigger picture. We mix these ingredients in an organization built to foster collaboration, and harness creative cooperation into powerful new ideas." The company is focused on Open Source developers and companies, and often doesn't charge startups or individual developers for their services. They will be doing a live Google Hangout interview on March 5 that might give you some ideas about how to start, manage, and market an Open Source project -- even if you have no money to spend, which many people who have good ideas do not, at least when they get started. (Alternate video URL)
The Internet

Video A Primer on Data Backup for Small- to Medium-Sized Companies (Video) 76

Posted by Roblimo from the prepare-for-the-worst-days-and-the-best-days-will-take-care-of-themselves dept.
This is a conversation with Jeff Whitehead and Lou Montulli, respectively Vice President of Technical Operations/CTO and Chief Scientist for Zetta.net, a company that specializes in online backup and disaster recovery service. Also, while this interview was arranged without his help, in the interest of full disclosure we'd like to tell you that Zetta's CEO is Ali Jenab, who used to be CEO of Slashdot's parent company. But this discussion isn't about Ali or Zetta.net, but about data backup, and what methods are best and most cost-effective for companies ranging from home-based businesses up to enterprise operations with thousands of employees. Among other things, we discussed the importance of multiple-site storage for important data, a factor that was drilled in to us yesterday by an article titled Another Iron Mountain Fire Points Up Shortcomings of Physical Storage by long-time tech journalist Sharon Fisher. And never forget: You don't know how effective your backup and data storage arrangements are until you try to retrieve your data -- and if you don't try to retrieve data until you need it, and things don't work, you are in big trouble. (Don't see the video? Here's a link.)
Education

Video Watching a FIRST Competition Robot Being Built (Video) 29

Posted by Roblimo from the way-beyond-rock-em-sock-em-robots dept.
We have shown clips from FIRST Robotics Competitions before on Slashdot, with a concentration on the Dexter Dreadbots because they're the "home team" for Slashdot's home office in Michigan. Today we hear from team mentor Jennifer Bryson and watch as the team works on their 2014 competition robot. They need to have it finished by February 18, so they're in the home stretch of the robot-building task. The competition itself starts on February 28 and keeps going until the world championships are held during the last weekend in April. The Dreadbots did well last year. This year? Who knows. But win or lose, it's all For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, AKA FIRST, also AKA "The ultimate Sport for the Mind." And if you're not near Ann Arbor, MI, check for a FIRST competition near you. It's an international organization, so you're likely to find one -- and if you don't, perhaps you can help start a FIRST team where you live.And for those of you who don't see the video below, here's a link to it.
Technology

Video Five Easy Pieces: Short Product Presentations from CES 2014 (Video) 19

Posted by Roblimo from the new-and-hungry-companies-are-often-more-interesting-than-big-bloated-ones dept.
At CES and other big trade shows, small companies and start-ups are often overshadowed by industry giants whose huge promotional budgets let them dominate a show's exhibit area. In this video, Tim Lord asked the spokespeople for five small companies exhibiting at CES whose products interested him to give one-minute presentations about their products. So take a quick look at the ZeroHour USB "tactical grade" battery backup flashlight; MadeSolid, a 3-D printing material company; TangoPC, "the world’s most powerful Pocketable, Officeable, Entertainmentable, Gameable, Windowsable, Linuxable PC; Google Glass competitor GlassUp; and DoorBot, "the doorbell for smartphones," which was featured on the ABC TV show Shark Tank in November, 2013. DoorBot got no investment from the "sharks," but managed to raise $1 million from "traditional technology investors." DoorBot's fundraising success aside, today's video is about companies that are unlikely to get much coverage from "mainstream" news channels that cover CES. If you don't see the video (probably because you're enjoying the thrill of Slashdot Beta), you can view it here.
Medicine

Video Former Red Hat COO Helps Health Care Providers Work Together (Video) 74

Posted by Roblimo from the better-communication-can-lead-to-better-medical-care dept.
Do you remember the worries about getting different health care software systems to work with each other as health care providers starting moving away from paper? It's still a problem, but Joanne Rohde's company, Axial Exchange, is working to cure that problem not only as an entrepreneur but also because she has personal reasons to see health care providers communicate better with each other. In a 2012 interview for Huffington Post, she said, "While I was working for Red Hat, I got very sick... I ultimately had to go to 10 doctors to be diagnosed. Going from doctor to doctor, I could not believe I had to start over each time. No one actually talks to each other I became convinced that if I had had all the information, I probably would have been able to figure it out faster." In fact, Joanne got so sick that she quit her job as Red Hat COO after four years with the company. Once she started getting decent treatment for her Fybromyalgia and started getting better, she decided to apply open source principles to health care IT -- and to start a new company to do it. Opensource.com talked with Joanne in September 2013, and in January 2014 she talked with Health Care Finance News for an article titled Patients key to reducing readmissions. A phrase Joanne seems to be using a lot lately is "patient engagement," which has become a major part of Axial Exchange's work to improve communications not only between different health care providers but also between those providers and their patients. Update: 02/05 20:16 GMT by T : If you're seeing this post on beta.slashdot.org, note that we're still ironing out the details of video display here. You can view the video on tv.slashdot.org, instead. Please pardon our dust.

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