The Open Prosthetics Project

      The Open Prosthetics Project was started by Jonathan Kuniholm and his colleagues from Tackle Design. When Jonathan returned home from his tour of Iraq, he was missing part of his arm, and it was replaced with what he refers to as WWII technology. The basic metal hook that many amputees wear when attempting to replace their hands or arms are claimed by many to be the most effective. This is kind of sad if really thought about, seeing as the “better” and newer mechanical arms are only used by around 5% of amputees. This caused Jonathan and his colleagues to dismantle his prosthetic arms and discover they could easily improve all of them. With that in mind, they went to work and started Open Prosthetics Project.

     One might ask, What is the Open Prosthetics Project? Well, just like in the world of Linux and and open source software, the Open Prosthetics Project is set up as a collaborative for anyone and everyone that wants to help. At this point many feel that the prosthetic market is not big enough to properly support research and development, hence why there hasn’t been any major changes or updates to prosthetic limbs that are out now. With the project being open, this allows for anyone worldwide to input ideas. The hope is to even get the private sector in on it so that adequate prosthetic limbs can finally be produced.

     One project they are working on is Articulated LEGO Hand. This is a hand that moves like the fingers and wrist of a real hand does. The model has changed a lot since it was first shown in April, and there are even two similar designs by the same person. Below is a video of him demo-ing that hand. At this point it has not been powered by motors, which is one of the next hurdles to climb over. Another one of the projects going on is the Adaptive Grasp Idea. The thought behind this one is that the hand conforms to just about any object it picks up. To prove this, a latex glove was filled with small glass beads. The hand was then placed into position and had a vacuum applied to it. This, in turn, causes the hand to conform to the object and can even allow it to pick up things with very little effort. This, like many of the ideas on the site, is just a concept, and it still has many issues that would have to be figured out before taking a real look at this path.

Net Neutrality

     My basic understanding of network neutrality is that it's an idea or belief that the Internet should remain free of government or corporate restrictions and that all packets should be treated equally. However, there is a big debate on the exact meaning of net neutrality and if the government should be brought in to place broad regulations over the Internet in an attempt to keep net neutrality alive.

     At this point the big concern is that ISPs (corporations) are possibly looking to filter or slow data they don't want going through their networks and limiting what the consumers on their networks may have access to. For example (this is hypothetical), Charter and Comcast are both cable companies with TV being the main service offered. So to encourage customers that have only Internet to start paying for TV as well, they may slow down video streaming to those costumers or charge them more for it. Other concerns are out there as well, such as limiting voice and video chat over the Internet by ISPs like AT&T or Verizon or ISPs limiting which search engine you can use, making it difficult or impossible to get to websites like Google or Bing.

     With talk of this happening, I can see why a lot are getting worked up, but to invite the government in to regulate yet another part of our lives, just in case... No, thank you! If or when things like this do start happening, I feel the market can help to correct the problem by people like myself, that would just switch to a different ISP.

     Also in some ways this is already happening, at least when it comes to speeds. I can pay less monthly and get a slower speed, or I can pay more and get a higher speed. I'm fine with this, and, in fact, I like it that I have a choice in speeds and in ISPs. Some companies are known for slowing down P2P connections used in things like Lime Wire or Bit Torrent. Still, I don't want the government to step in until it has to, if it ever does.

Linux Job Hunt!!!

From what I'm being told on some Linux job based websites is that,

" Linux professionals are the fastest growing job category in the IT world."

With that being said one thing to keep in mind is moving may likely be involved. A lot of Linux Admin jobs seem to be popping up in San Antonio, TX.  Like in this link or this job offer.  Of course not all of them are in TX like this job offer based out of New Hampshire .

A lot of the offers I looked at pretty much had five or six main things the all seemed to want from any applicent, and that's:

• Average of 2+ years experience working in a computer technical field
• Must have Linux experience
• Ability to configure and update kernels
• Knowledge of PHP, MySQL, and/or Apache  
• Technical Certification of sorts (A+, N+, Linux+, etc...) 
• Bachelor's Degree

Many things need to be taken into consideration when looking into a new job, especially when moving is involved.  This is something my wife and I are leaning as we get ready to temporally relocate to North Dakota for work.  

Lastly just to show that moving isn't always needed here are two links to Linux based job in the Reno/Sparks area.

Linux Tutor in or near Reno 

Computer Analyst, Assistant Research Professor