The "Programmer's Fest" is a working gathering of people who want to contribute to the code and documentation for EMC/EMC2. The goal is to accomplish a lot of work (bugfixes, new features, and more) while we're there, and to leave with a well organized plan for the remainder of the year.
Because of limited space, and because the Fest is being held at a US Government facility with security restrictions, all attendees must be pre-registered. Please contact John Kasunich (jmkasunich AT att DOT net) for registration information.
The Fest will start at 8:30 on Monday, April 25, 2005. Fred Proctor (one of the original EMC authors) will meet us at the Visitors Center and arrange for security badges for everyone. Once badged, we will be able to be on campus from 7 AM to 7 PM, through Thursday, April 28..
Monday, April 25, 2005:
8:30am: sign in at visitor center, take
care of badges and other details
9:30am (approx): tour of the Intelligent
Systems Division shops (tentative)
10:30am (approx): general overview of
goals for the Fest, followed by
discussions of specific projects, and
breakup into smaller working teams.
rest of the week: work!
A more formal agenda should be developed before the Fest, please send suggestions to John Kasunich. Hopefully, either at the beginning or end of each day we will have a short "status report" where individuals and small groups describe their progress.
We will be in the "Shops Conference Room" at NIST, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. This conference room normally seats about 30 people for lectures, but we will have more tables and fewer chairs. We will have table space for 12-15 people, their computers, and some benchtop size machines (Sherlines, etc). NIST will have a Sherline, and we will also have access to a Bridgeport knee mill with STG servo system on the shop floor nearby.
We will have high speed internet
access. All computers will need to use
static IP addresses, which will be
assigned by the NIST IT people. Each
attendee will need to sign a statment
that his/her computer(s) are up-to-date
with virus protection, and each attendee
will be held responsible for any
mal-ware coming from their assigned IP
address. DHCP clients/servers are not
allowed.
At this time, I don't know if we will
have to furnish the signed statements
ahead of time, or if they will be done
first things Monday morning. More info
will be posted when I get it.
Because NIST is a US government facility and has security restrictions, a map of the facility cannot be posted on the web. However, maps are available for Fest attendees, and will be included when you register. Directions to the facility are available here.
The NIST Cafeteria is available for lunch, it has been described as "good, if institutional". There are also numerous resturants in the area. Fred will be bringing coffee and donuts the first morning.
There are many hotels and motels in the area. Most are quite expensive. The most economical seems to be the Motel 6. Rooms are $57.99 (plus taxes). The Motel 6 is only a half mile from NIST.
All attendees must be pre-registered. Please contact John Kasunich (jmkasunich AT att DOT net) to register. You can register with John at any time, and he will add you to the list that appears below. The final list will be submitted to NIST a couple weeks before the event, so changes before that time are not a problem. If you would like to attend, please register with John as soon as possible. Non-US citizens will need to supply country of citizenship, company affiliation (or "self" if none) and address. US citizens only need to supply their names.
(last updated March 6, 2005)
Paul Corner
Ray Henry
John Kasunich
Stephen Wille Padnos
Matt Shaver
Steve Stallings
The following is the raw text of the emails I got from Fred about the Fest. This information will be reformatted and moved up to the main body of the page, and the mails themselves will be removed
Hi John,
I reserved our Shops Conference Room for Monday April 25 through
Thursday April 28. This room will hold a dozen people, computers and
equipment easily. It normally seats about 30 people, lecture-style. We
can move the tables any way we like. There is an LCD projector screen
and a flip chart also.
The room has Internet connectivity and I am working with our IT people
to set up a "visitor net". This will give everyone Internet access but
limit access to internal NIST resources. We may need MAC addresses for
each person ahead of time, but our IT people will be downstairs and can
set us up Monday morning. I will have hubs for a dozen computers. I
think we will have a DHCP server and won't have to resort to static IP
addresses. I will find out more.
I will need the names of meeting attendees a couple of days prior to the
meeting to badge everyone in. For non-US citizens, only Paul as far as I
know, I will need their country of citizenship, company affiliation and
address. Visitors should show up at the Visitor Checkin at our main gate
at 8:30 Monday morning. I will be there to welcome everyone and guide
them to the meeting location. Visitors are authorized to be on campus
between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm, longer if I am there as an escort.
Visitor information including directions and hotels are available at
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/visitor/visitor.htm
For security reasons, campus maps are not available on this external
site. I have attached one here. On this map the Visitor's center is near
the lower right. Our meeting will be in the Shops Building 304: right on
North Drive, left on West Drive, left on Research Drive, park in the lot
near the center of the map. You can park in any unmarked spot, and we
always have plenty of parking.
The NIST cafeteria is a good if institutional choice for lunch. I will
have coffee and breakfast goodies on the first day.
An agenda would be good to have, so at least I can be prepared to give
any tours or presentations. I suggest setting aside about an hour for a
tour of our Shops. I will also look in to a guided tour of our new
Advanced Measurements Laboratory. See
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/amlbrochure.htm for information on this.
--Fred
Hi John, I confirmed a network hookup for the EMC codefest with our IT people. They will set up a "Visitor Net" with some number of static IP addresses (no DHCP). The Visitor Net is a single network drop, into which we plug our own hub. Each visitor fills out a certification form stating that their system is up-to-date with virus protection and security patches. For Linux this isn't really an issue. The Visitor Net connects us together and to the Internet, but not to other NIST resources. It's one network, so their concern for virus protection is to ensure that other visitors, say at a molecular biology conference, won't be infected by the EMC crowd, or vice-versa. Also they don't want any attacks originating within NIST, since that makes NIST look bad. The code festers are asked not to set up their own DHCP server, since NIST wants an IP address to be associated with each certification form in case they have to do a post-mortem and figure out the source of any problems. The Visitor Net is behind the NIST firewall so that will provide some protection to us from the wild world outside. --Fred
Regarding equipment, I'll ask our security people about this. Sometimes they check cars randomly and I don't want them to be unpleasantly surprised. Company affiliations and addresses are only required for non-US citizens. All I need is a name for US citizens. The affiliation can be "self", with a home address.
Hi John, I will also have my Sherline minimill available in the conference room, and a Bridgeport knee mill with STG servo system on the shop floor nearby. I haven't run the servo mill in a while and will probably wipe the disk and reinstall. If the group wants to do anything specific involving hardware I have, let me know and I will make it available. I also have the usual test equipment: scopes, DMMs, dial gages. --Fred
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