SPUG: "High Tech Nomad" meeting tonight

Tim Maher tim at consultix-inc.com
Tue Dec 17 12:23:03 CST 2002


         December 2002 Seattle Perl Users Group Meeting
     -----------------------------------------------------

   Speaker: Steve Roberts, Nomadic Research Labs
            wordy at microship.com

      Time: Tuesday, December 19, 2002 7-9pm
  Location: SAFECO bldg, Brooklyn St. and NE 45th St.

      Cost: Admission is free and open to the general public.
      Info: http://seattleperl.org/

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Steve Roberts is a hacker, inventor, author, nomad, and popular
public speaker, who invented the engineering discipline he calls
"technomadics".  You may have seen him on TV, read about him in
the press, or seen photos of his custom high-tech bicycles and ships.

His first headline-grabbing project was his recumbent bicycle
"Winnebiko," on which he spent 3.5 years covering 17,000 miles around
America.  A later 580-pound model with a 105 speed transmission and
an on-board network that included an early SPARC was called BEHEMOTH
(for Big Electronic Human-Energized Machine... Only Too Heavy).
He then turned to shipbuilding, and has spent the past decade
developing a pair of amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimarans with
extensive on-board embedded systems and communications capability.
These "Microships" will be the basis of his next adventure,
a 15,000-mile circumnavigation of the Eastern USA along with a
whole flotilla of nomadlings (forming an ad hoc floating network
of wireless boatlets).

Needless to say, all the equipment involved in these projects
costs a lot of money, so Steve had to assemble a network of over
100 corporate donors for funding (which is a major accomplishment
in itself)!

In this talk, Steve will tell us about his latest inventions,
and how Open Source software, including Perl, is used in them.

He'll be joined by Ned Konz, lead software guru on the Microship
project.  Ned is the author of three CPAN modules, is part of
the core Squeak community, and has extensive experience with
embedded systems.  He is working on the ad hoc network design
for the Microship project as well as a variety of other projects,
and will be there to provide a technically chewy counterpoint to
Steve's hand-waving exuberance and bizarre road anecdotes.

======================================================
| Tim Maher, Ph.D.            tim at timmaher.org       |
| JAWCAR ("Just Another White Camel Award Recipient" |
| SPUG Founder & Leader       spug at seattleperl.org   |
| Seattle Perl Users Group    www.seattleperl.org    |
======================================================


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
Contact Info:
	Steven K. Roberts, N4RVE        Nomadic Research Labs
	Microship Website: 		http://www.microship.com
	Current location:		Camano Island, WA

The Microship live page carries a new photo and short text update 
almost every day:  http://www.microship.com/latestnews/live.html
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Pre- and Post- Meeting Activities
---------------------------------
The pre-meeting dinner will be at the Cedars restaurant, at 50th
St. and Brooklyn, in the University District, near the Safeco
building where the meeting will take place. The phone number is
527-5247. If you're planning to be there, please post a message
to the list with your expected arrival time (5:30-5:45pm is
recommended).

As usual, those seeking liquid input before (and/or after) the
meeting are invited to congregate at the nearby Finn MacCool's
tavern, at 4217 University Ave. North, (206) 675-0885.  (But if
somebody has a *specific recommendation* for an alternative location
that's more conducive to conversation, please let me know, and
we'll consider trying it out.)

See the web-site for more details.

======================================================
| Tim Maher, Ph.D.            tim at timmaher.org       |
| JAWCAR ("Just Another White Camel Award Recipient" |
| SPUG Founder & Leader       spug at seattleperl.org   |
| Seattle Perl Users Group    www.seattleperl.org    |
======================================================

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