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OSHUG #39 — Radio Pt. 3, Thursday 19th March.
by Andrew Back 22 Feb '15

22 Feb '15

Hello, Registration is now open for the March meeting, details of which can be found below. Cheers, Andrew // Event #39 — Radio Pt. 3 (OpenBeacon, HPSDR, Building Things) 19 March 2015, 17:30 - 20:00 at BCS London, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/39 The thirty-ninth meeting will feature an update on the HPSDR project, which we first heard about back in October 2010 at OSHUG #5. There will also be talks on Bluetooth Low Energy programming and OpenBeacon, and Building Things. — Low Power to the People - take back Bluetooth Low Energy control! ** Programming BLE the hard way: bare metal programming of nRF51 BLE tokens for fun and profit. The talk will start with a brief overview of the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement protocol and how to implement bare-metal BLE on top of the ARM-based nRF51 chip — without using the manufacturer provided Bluetooth stack. The general development flow will be explored along with some useful examples, closing with some mischief that can be caused using this knowledge :-) The latest version of the OpenBeacon tag design is supposed to be the ultimate hacking, fuzzing and pen testing tool for Bluetooth Low Energy. The hardware schematics and the PCB layout were released under the CC attribution license. We strongly believe that the future of the Internet of Things can be privacy enabled and can work distributed, without selling your soul to large cloud services. Milosch Meriac has over 20 years experience in the information security business and hardware design. He is currently living in Cambridge where he works for ARM on securing the Internet of Things. In his private time he loves making and grokking things. He is currently playing with RGB strips to create light paintings. Milosch is the co-founder of active and passive RFID open source projects like Sputnik/OpenBeacon, OpenPCD and OpenPICC, and is committed to RFID related security research. He broke the iCLASS RFID security system and was involved in breaking Mifare Classic security. As a member of the Blinkenlights Stereoscope Core Team Milosch designed the 2.4GHz OpenBeacon-based dimmmer/Ethernet dardware that was used in the Toronto City Hall Installation. As one of the three maintainers of the former Xbox-Linux Project he helped to break Xbox security and to port the first Linux system to the Xbox. His focus is on hardware development, embedded systems, RF designs, active and passive RFID hardware development, custom-tailoring of embedded Linux hardware platforms, real time systems, IT-security and reverse engineering. — OpenHPSDR Update A review of hardware and software progress of the High Performance Software Define Radio, an open source hardware and software project being developed by an international group of ham radio enthusiasts. John Melton has held a ham radio license since 1984 and has developed several open source Linux applications, including ground station software for working digital satellites and software defined radios. He is a retired software engineer after 48 years developing software for several computer manufacturers including Burroughs Corporation, ICL, Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation. — Building Things Creative communities are having an ever increasing influence on the way in which global companies like Microsoft, Samsung and Google go about developing new products. Access to open source technology creates new ways for inventors, makers and coders to turn ideas into things others want to use or buy. Embarking on the journey of turning an idea into a product comes with numerous hurdles, including: access to expensive machinery, technology, or skills which just aren’t readily available to many. Miles and Will from Wireless Things (formerly Ciseco) will describe how ‘Building Things’, their latest open source hardware, will help people build their own cool wireless devices. Current CEO of Wireless Things, Miles Hodkinson previously made a living selling and supporting scalable IT infrastructure. Whilst Head of Software Security for Egg PLC he always harboured a passion for tinkering. Miles has transformed his passion from a hobby in his garden shed, to one of the ‘go-to’ companies for people building IoT solutions, all manufactured in his home town of Nottingham. Head of Channel Strategy for Wireless Things, Will Stone has spent the last decade between running an outsourced sales company and in engineering recruitment. Will teamed up with Miles at the beginning of 2014 and is responsible for commercial aspects of the business, including the management of their rapidly expanding chain of partners and distributors. Now with 40 recognized distributors across 21 countries, Wireless Things has a growing presence and reputation in the Internet of Things. Note: Please aim to arrive by 18:15 as the first talk will start at 18:30 prompt. //

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OSHUG #38 — Energy, Thursday 19th February.
by Andrew Back 27 Jan '15

27 Jan '15

Hello, Registration is now open for the February meeting. Details below. Cheers, Andrew // Event #38 — Energy (Exploring "open" in energy, Electricity from Woodchips, OpenTRV) 19 February 2015, 17:30 - 20:00 at BCS London, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/38 The thirty-eighth meeting will take a look open source technologies in support of the generation and efficient use of energy. — Exploring "Open" in Energy Arcola Energy builds energy systems using fuel cells powered by hydrogen. Fuel cells are one of those great ideas that has yet to gain much traction in real markets. They put men on the moon, but since then commercial progress has been slow. One way of opening up uses of fuel cells is to involve a much wider developer community. To explore this Arcola has developed a fuel cell developer kit and started on the road to working with open source groups. This talk will look at our journey, the success to far and the challenges ahead. Richard Kemp-Harper is a former research scientist who spent several years managing web development, including open source systems at Oxfam. He then moved into technology and innovation, working at Innovate UK running innovation programmes in intelligent mobility, rail and energy. He specialises in not being a specialist. — Electricity from Woodchips — An Edwardian Idea — Tamed with 21st Century Microelectronics First studied in the 1820s, gasification is the process of converting a hydrocarbon solid fuel, such as coal or wood, into a low calorific value gas suitable for running an internal combustion engine. Used for vehicle transportation during World War 2 — gasification has enjoyed a renaissance at the start of the 21st Century. Low cost, open source microelectronics are used to tame this technology, from a labour intensive manual process, to a fully automated turnkey system. In January 2012, Ken Boak quit his UK electronic design job and travelled to Berkeley, California, to work on a new biomass energy project — an open source, microcontroller based control system for a wood chip fired CHP system. The company — an East Bay area start-up — "All Power Labs", had a compact, self-contained biomass gasification system, close to commercialisation. In the 6 month contract, Ken productionised the open source, control and automation system, using standard, globally available components and rationalised the wiring loom so that low cost, modular assembly was practical. Ken started his career at BBC Research Department in 1986 working on digital signal processing systems for HDTV - and subsequently over 30 years, a mix of 10 other technology companies, both UK and US based, in the fields of instrumentation, automation, telemetry and telecomms. Ken tries to live a low impact lifestyle in a modest Edwardian house in Surrey, with a little help from modern electronics. — Scratching the itch: saving the planet When BigCo and .gov are not sorting your problem then open everything makes it easier for you to scratch your own itch, especially with the very positive innovation support around right now, possibly the best for 30 years. And when you can save the planet, be your own boss, and meet and work with lots of fabulous interesting people, what’s holding you back? Damon Hart-Davis is lead on the OpenTRV open source project created following his 2012 presentation to DECC's smart heating workshop. He has freelanced in technology for over 30 years, delivering mission-critical products from design to BAU in the City for more than 20 of those, and has founded and been involved in several start-ups over that time with his creations seen on TV, the Web, and his pioneering Internet Service Provider helping crack open that market more than 20 years ago. A previous virtual/on-line credit-card company start-up that he co-founded as CTO, Ixaris, turns over ~£10m. Mark Hill spent 15 years in the City after a solid grounding in IT at the chip level at the microprocessor manufacturer Inmos, designing and delivering highly complex systems. Project management, direction and governance are all part of his toolkit. He now speaks regularly about innovation, collaboration and IoT. Recently he founded a mobile phone software start-up and is now OpenTRV Ltd's co-founder. Note: Please aim to arrive by 18:15 as the first talk will start at 18:30 prompt. //

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Live stream of this evening's meeting.
by Andrew Back 22 Jan '15

22 Jan '15

Hello, For those who are unable to make it along to Sheffield this evening, there are plans to stream it live via YouTube. The URL won't be known until nearer the time, but for details you can follow either of the hashtags: #oshug #bcsossg And also @UKOSHUG, of course. Hoping to take questions via Twitter also. Cheers, Andrew

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Feb meeting and energy scavenging.
by Andrew Back 18 Jan '15

18 Jan '15

Hello, The theme for the 19th Feb meeting will be "energy" and I wondered if anyone had any experience with energy scavenging projects and fancied giving a talk? Or for that matter, any other interesting energy related applications :o) Cheers, Andrew

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Hardware Freedom Day 2015 in Manchester
by Michael Dorrington 13 Jan '15

13 Jan '15

Manchester Free Software and ManLUG are holding a Hardware Freedom Day event as part of ManLUG's meeting this Saturday. It'll be from about 14:00 to about 15:00 but there is time available if people want do hardware freedom lightning talks and/or demos. http://wiki.hfday.org/2015/UK/Manchester Cheers, Mike. -- FSF member #9429 http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429 http://www.fsf.org/about "The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users."

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OSHUG #37 — Open Source in Business, Thursday 22nd January.
by Andrew Back 05 Jan '15

05 Jan '15

Hello, Registration is now open for the first meeting of 2015, which will be hosted at Sheffield Hallam University and in conjunction with the BCS OSSG. In February we will return to hosting meetings at the BCS offices in Covent Garden. However, should anyone have any suggestions for hosting a special meeting elsewhere in the country, please get in touch! Cheers, Andrew // Event #37 — Open Source in Business 22nd January 2015, 17:30 - 20:30 at Owen Lecture Theatre, 1028 Owen Building, Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/37 An evening of talks exploring different commercial aspects of open source — hardware and software — including crowdfunding an open hardware microenterprise, navigating licensing issues, trade associations, and building a business on free software. Hosted in conjunction with the BCS Open Source Specialist Group. — Open Source Consortium - an introduction OSC is a trade association which represents companies and individuals delivering solutions and advice based on Open Standards and Free & Open Source Software. As a trade association, OSC gives its members greater influence than they could achieve alone by providing a collective voice, and by supporting initiatives such as the implementation of open standards in public sector IT, the inclusion of open standards in school curricula and levelling the gender balance in the industry. At the core of its vision, OSC campaigns for the use of Open Standards in all aspects of public and commercial life, promoting the unique advantages of Free & Open Source Software and the independent expertise offered by members. Irenie White has been Chair of the Open Source Consortium since 2013 after working with the organisation for 3 years. This year she was appointed as MD of credativ, a free software consulting and services company, after running operations there for 6 years. As a STEMNET Ambassador and through her work with Advancing Women in IT, Irenie is committed to supporting bottom-up growth in the wider technology industry. Outside of work her family comes first, music a close second. — Notes from the first three months of an Open Source Microenterprise * How I learned to stop worrying and love the Kickstarter Starting an Open Source Hardware business is lot of work, even if you've spent 11 years running a different one. There are all sorts of things you've forgotten about and there are a whole host of new challenges as you try to do things the right way from the start. None of it is easy, but all of it beats having a 9-5. Benjamin Gray is a proponent of Open Hardware, founder of MeArm, an open source robot arm manufacturer and phenoptix a recently retired maker business. Ben graduated from the University of Exeter with a chemistry degree and a fledgling phenoptix before moving to Nottingham to complete a PhD in theoretical physical chemistry. With 11 years of Maker business experience under his belt he's set out on a new adventure manufacturing the MeArm, a pocket sized robot arm. — But I didn't mean *that* Accidents and incidents exploring relationships between corporations and the licenses they use to share, from Creative Commons to GPL. Paul Beech used his graphic and web design skills to co-found Pimoroni, a maker company that does Raspberry Pi and Arduino stuff. Code: open source. Hardware: less so. — Giving it away: Free Software as a business strategy Bytemark Hosting has been involved in building, fixing and publishing Free Software since its foundation in 2002. Back then, free Software was seen as an unquestionable part of a winning business strategy for big firms, but within years firms that bet too much on it were brought down to earth. Matthew Bloch, Bytemark's MD, narrates his own company's successes, profitability and changes in strategy around this important social movement. Matthew Bloch is MD and co-founder of Bytemark Hosting, one of the UK's oldest and best-respected hosting and cloud providers, with its own data centre in York and staff of 23. Previous to Bytemark Matthew worked as a programmer on several Java virtual machines, and the PC emulator for Acorn computers. Compered by: Gareth Halfacree is a freelance technology journalist and the co-author of the Raspberry Pi User Guide, alongside project co-founder Eben Upton. He also writes the maker-centric Hobby Tech column for Custom PC Magazine, as well as numerous features in magazines including PC Pro, Linux User & Developer, Micro Mart, Computeractive and others. Formerly a system administrator working in the education sector, Gareth's passion for open source projects has followed him from one career to another and he can often be seen reviewing, documenting or even contributing to projects including GNU/Linux, LibreOffice, Fritzing and Arduino. He is also the creator of the Sleepduino and Burnduino open hardware projects and numerous small software tools, all released under permissive licences. Note: Please aim to arrive by 17:45 as the first talk will start at 18:00 prompt. //

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Meeting in Sheffield on Thursday 22nd January.
by Andrew Back 18 Dec '14

18 Dec '14

Hello, This is just a heads up that there will be a joint OSHUG and BCS OSSG meeting on the evening of January 22nd at Sheffield Hallam University. The theme will be open source in business and further details will follow in due course. There's a good chance that there will also be a UK Maker Belt Association meeting held in Sheffield around lunchtime on the same day. For the February meeting we will then return to the BCS offices in London. Cheers, Andrew

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More info released on lowRISC (presented at OSHUG Oct meeting)
by Alex Bradbury 18 Dec '14

18 Dec '14

A number of you may remember I presented our plans for the open source lowRISC SoC at OSHUG 36 in October http://oshug.org/event/36 You may be interested that we've released a document that describes in more detail two of the ideas I presented at the meeting - tagged memory and 'minion' cores (for software-defined I/O peripherals and other uses). Comments, feedback, queries etc are all very welcome. http://www.lowrisc.org/docs/memo-2014-001-tagged-memory-and-minion-cores/ Alex

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Video from October meeting.
by Andrew Back 08 Dec '14

08 Dec '14

Hello, The video from the October meeting is now up on YouTube: 1. Silicon Chip Design for Teenagers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EGX_z2j9g 2. Cocotb, an Open Source Verification Framework https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2rAOF4EvVI 3. lowRISC, Alex Bradbury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfgoRILvBg Cheers, Andrew

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Superoptimization and supercomputing talks, Wed 26th November at The RSA.
by Andrew Back 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Hello, There are no hardware talks this month, but the BCS OSSG is hosting two talks on open source software with a "super" theme — supercomputing and superoptimization. Details and a link to registration are below. Also note that this month the venue is the Royal Society of Arts on The Strand, and not the BCS! Cheers, Andrew //// Location: The Prince Philip room Royal Society of Arts 8 John Adam Street London WC2N 6EZ Date: Wednesday 26 November Time: 6:00pm for 6:30pm start Price: Free for BCS members and non-members Booking link: https://events.bcs.org/book/1320/ (Please remember to book your place.) N.B. Note the change of venue, due to a double booking at the BCS. The RSA is just the other side of the strand from the BCS. map: RSA, 8+John+Adam+St,+London+WC2N, This month we have two talks on a "super" theme. Talk 1: Superoptimization: How fast can your code go. Speaker: James Pallister, University of Bristol Modern compiler optimization can take almost any code and produce a reasonably efficient binary at the end. However compiler "optimization" doesn't make your code "optimal", just better. In contrast, superoptimization can produce perfect code - the fastest, the smallest or the most energy efficient code. The technique, first introduced in the late 80s found in some cases it could do 25% better than the best assembly programmer, and 40% better than the best compiler at the time. Free software has always played a central role in superoptimization research, with the GNU Superoptimizer being one of the very first tools constructed. However there is a downside. Superoptimization today is incredibly demanding of compute time, so currently it is limited to short instruction sequences. At present it is most valuable in optimizing code hotspots and key library routines, and can also be a valuable aid to the compiler writer for peephole optimization. Recent research has developed new techniques that can make superoptimization more applicable to general code. In this talk I will introduce superoptimization and give some examples of the weird and wonderfully short sequences of code it produces. I will introduce the GNU superoptimizer and show how it is used, including some of the recent improvements I have contributed. The final part of my talk will look at the latest research including machine learning and constraint solving, and show how in future superoptimizers may be able to optimize much larger programs. Talk 2: Open-source Software in UK Scientific HPC Speakers: Neil Morgan and Phil Ridley, Hartree Centre, STFC Daresbury There are hundreds of scientific applications, libraries and tools that are used within the UK's academic HPC community and a large number of these are open-source. To demonstrate this usage and the benefits of open-source to this community, a short review of some of these will be given. Applications will be included which are used for performing atomistic and molecular simulations, computational fluid dynamics, and statistics for bioinformatics. All of these are able to utilise the capabilities of high end computing architectures with thousands of cores to facilitate new science. Furthermore, since efficient object code is of greatest importance in HPC, the use of open-source in compilers, tools and libraries will also be described. N.B. Note the change of venue to the RSA. Booking link: https://events.bcs.org/book/1320/ (Please remember to book your place.)

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