HACKERS FOR CHARITY August 2009.pdf · community with empowerment opportunities worldwide. Welcome to the ﬁrst ever HFC newsletter from Uganda, Africa! INSIDE THIS NEWSLETTER

The maybe-monthly newsletter of:

Hackers For Charity, Inc | http://hackersforcharity.org | [email protected]

HACKERS FOR CHARITYAugust 2009

Hackers For Charity connects the hacker

community with empowerment opportunities worldwide.

Welcome to the first ever HFC newsletter from Uganda, Africa!

INSIDE THIS NEWSLETTER

HFC FIELD TEAM MAKES A SPLASHTim and Dwight from White Wolf Security come to Uganda. They made a real difference, and have a ton of fun in the process!

Continued on Page 2

HFC ON-SITE IN KENYAWhere does the money from Informer and No-Tech Hacking end up? We show you.

Continued on Page 4

FUTURE PROJECT: RISIt’s been years in the making, but our Rehaboth High School project’s not quite ready yet.

Continued on Page 6

DEFCONVegas, Baby!

Continued on Page 8

THE HFC BBS PREMIERS

It’s where the action is. The HFC BBS will connect need with skill. It’s what we’re about.

Continued on Page 10

Check out what’s going on with Hackers For Charity

Issue 01 http://hackersforcharity.org

Class Fives on the Nile. This is work?!?

HFC Food Drive - Kenya HFC’s “Tight Security”

TEAM WHITE WOLF! PAGE2


WELCOME WHITE WOLF! We welcomed our first HFC "field team" to our home in August! Tim Rosenberg and Dwight Hobbs from White Wolf Security (www.whitewolfsecurity.com) brought nearly 50 laptops as checked baggage (mailing the batteries in a separate shipment) and installed our upgraded classroom at AOET's Rehaboth Primary School in Bugembe, Uganda. Some of you may remember this as the classroom we set up as a family back in 2007. In 2007, the classroom contained a dozen used laptops. Now, the classroom sports thirty new laptops (costing $6000, paid for by HFC donors) and power strips, keyboards, mice and power regulators (costing over $500, paid for by White Wolf Security). The updated classroom is impressive to look at, but the real value lies in the education the students will receive.

Many Ugandan college and university I n fo r m at i o n a n d C o m mu n i c a t i o n Technology (ICT) graduates have never touched a computer. Thanks to financial donations and the sweat equity provided by

teams like this one, Rehaboth's young students in poverty-stricken Bugembe will receive a computer education rivaling most Universities.

FREEZE!Team White Wolf spent a lot of time imaging the machines for the classrooms. As a result, the systems are well-prepared for the onslaught of knowledge-hungry kids. Each machine has been “frozen” with DeepFreeze software meaning that the machines return to their installed state after every reboot. A virus will only last until the machine is rebooted, and even the Windows system directories can be deleted without causing permanent problems. Net Support School has also been installed, which allows the teacher to control all student machines simultaneously.

ALL WORK, NO PLAY?Of course, HFC trips are not all work. In addition to the boat ride to the Source of the Nile River, Tim and Dwight paid for a rafting excursion on the more rough and tumble parts of said Nile River.

Thanks to financial donations and the

sweat equity provided by teams like this one,

Rehaboth's young students in poverty-

stricken Bugembe will receive a computer education rivaling most Universities.

Tim and Dwight tour the source of the Nile with crazy Mzungu kids. Tim and Jackie, the computer teacher.

TEAM WHITE WOLF, CONTINUED! PAGE3


Rehaboth Primary School Computer Classroom, Version 2.0

“Silverback,” One of the wicked Class Five rapids on the Nile

DwightTim

Girl overboard!Johnny

Dwight working hard

HFC KENYA “FOOD FOR WORK PROGRAM”! PAGE4


WHAT IS THE FOOD FOR WORK PROGRAM?AOET's program in Webuye Kenya is growing rapidly. Their child sponsorship p r o g r a m i s s t a r t i n g t o t a k e o f f (www.aoet.org/AOETCS1) and even unsponsored children's medical needs are being taken care of. However, many unsponsored children are still suffering because their medication is not effective without proper nutrition. AOET can simply not afford to feed every unsponsored child.

That's where the Hackers For Charity food program comes in. Proceeds from every Informer subscription and all the royalties from sales of my No-Tech Hacking book support the "Food for Work" program in Webuye, Kenya. Under this program, orphaned and at-risk children receive maize and cooking fat as well as vegetables and seedlings which they plant in their own gardens.

THE PROGRAM IN ACTIONWe had an opportunity to visit an HFC food distribution in Webuye last month, and it was overwhelming to see hundreds of

children and their guardians show up for the food distribution. When we pulled up, the crowd started singing, dancing and cheering for us. I didn't realize that Hackers for Charity is the sole source of funds for this program, but it is! We skipped a payment in June and July (due to lack of funds, and the confusion of our move to Uganda) and children went without food! This really encouraged us to keep at it.

We're dedicated to finding a stream of income to keep this and our other programs running. Lives are depending on our programs. It's just that simple.

“...many unsponsored

children are still suffering because

their medication is not effective without proper nutrition.”

AOET Kenya staff joined local government officials at the opening of the Hackers For Charity food distribution. Abel at the HFC food drive

Support the Food for Work program! Join the Informer, buy books, or make a donation at http://hackersforcharity.org!

HFC KENYA “FOOD FOR WORK PROGRAM”! PAGE5


Parents and guardians thank Hackers For Charity in Webuye, Kenya

Students enjoy the HFC computer lab in Webuye, Kenya

FUTURE PROJECT: RIS! PAGE6


For nearly two years now, I've been watching the construction of RIS with great interest. RIS is located up the hill from our home in Njeru, next to the AOET ch i ld ren ' s v i l l age overlooking the Nile on one of the most gorgeous pieces of land I've ever seen.

From the beginning, the scope of this school was massive, and as the idea for Hackers For Charity started percolating in my brain, I felt drawn to do something special for this school. At the time, we had a small computer lab at AOET's Rehaboth Primary school in nearby Bugembe, and even then I knew that once the high school was completed, we should focus on the lab there.

COMPUTER LAB AS A SHOWPIECE

I wanted to make the lab a showpiece for the efforts of the hacker community. I wanted the computer lab there to just plain rock. I knew that every penny we invested in it would be amplified because AOET is a solid, well-thought-out organization with it's finger on the pulse of the community and a clear vision of what it takes to eradicate poverty: empowerment.

THE NEED

After rather lengthy discussion surrounding the needs of the computer lab, we settled on the hardware list for the room:

• 16 Pentium 4 laptop computers ($8,000)• 30 Pentium 4 desktop computers (Approx. $15,000)• 1 Samsung P400 SVGA Projector ($600)• 50 keyboards ($300)• 50 mice ($250)• 15 Power Strips ($300)• 10 1000kVa power stabilizers ($450)• Hand made tables, benches (Approx $4,000)

Future Project: AOET’s Rehaboth Integrated

AOET’s Rehaboth Integrated School (RIS) in Njeru, Uganda.

Continued on next page

FUTURE PROJECT: RIS! PAGE7


Thanks to a very generous financial donation from Praxis Engineering (http://www.praxiseng.com) and Proteus Technologies (http://proteus-technologies.com), as well as the transport provided by White Wolf in August, the 16 laptops are here and accounted for. The LED projector was purchased using HFC funds, and is here as well.

WE NEED FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Even though the HFC bank account could bear the cost of the peripherals, we're at a loss for how we're going to pay for the desktop computers and the furniture for the room, which totals nearly $19,000. I am working on creative means of reducing the cost of the furniture (using local carpentry students), but the desktop price tag still remains, and construction of the computer lab is on hold until we can find further funding. We are offering branding rights to the classroom and the machines in exchange for corporate funding. This school has already caught the eye of the Ugandan government, and the school opening was attended by very prominent federal officials, so we're hoping this branding option will be appealing to a generous corporation seeking to make a real difference in this world.

“...We're hoping this branding option will appeal to a generous corporation

seeking to make a real difference in this world.”

RIS...continued

AOET’s Rehaboth Integrated School (RIS) in Njeru,

An empty computer lab for how long?

THE COLLECTOR! PAGE8

The Collector, 1234 Main Street, Any Town, State ZIP | 123-456-7890 | www.apple.com/iwork

DEFCON BOOTH POSSIBLE THANKS TO HFC VOLUNTEERS!

I was on the fence about DEFCON and Blackhat this year, but despite the 21.5 hour flight time and the severe jet lag, I'm really glad I made it to Vegas.

HFC volunteers really pulled together, manning the booth at DEFCON and getting the word out about our work. My "Me to We" talk (the name inadvertently borrowed from Craig Kielburger) seemed fairly well received, and the community seems to be behind us. Just like last year, we sold T-Shirts and vinyl provided by Kelly at Trix Graphix (TrixGraphix.com). This year, we also decided to follow up the successful Shmoocon silent auction with another one. At the last minute, when we realized our shipment of auction items wasn’t going to make it in time, I headed into Jinja town and bought local crafts to sell. Several members of the community donated items to the auction, and I was amazed at the response. Here are some highlights:

• Mac Powerbook laptop ($350)• Signed books ($420)• Ebony Mancala set ($100)• Soapstone chess set ($100)• TS-7300 FPGA ($200)• Beagle board ($200)• Prototype DEFCON 17 badge ($1000)• Tribal arrow set ($80)• Tribal spear ($100)

• Tribal drum ($70)• Lock Set ($100)• SyncVue DEFCON 16 DVDs ($140)• Signed WRT54G set ($85)

The stuff I brought from Jinja didn’t do very well (considering the pain it took to buy and bring) but the community stuff really took off ! Thanks to Charlie, Joe Grand, Kevin Mitnick, John Callas, Pauldotcom, “book dude” (and everyone else my aging brain has forgotten about) for the donations and support! To sweeten the deal, BigFix has promised to match those donations! Rock on!

Making money is always encouraging, but talking to people who are excited about what we're doing is even more encouraging. If one percent of the ideas tossed around in Vegas come to light, we'll be very successful as an organization.

Every time a volunteer effort comes together like this, I’m impressed and amazed. I shouldn’t be. After all, the community has done incredible things (the PayPal incident, for those of you that followed that, is one big example).

Thanks, everyone for a great year in Vegas!

Volunteers made the HFC booth at DEFCON a reality David Jamming on the drums

DEFCON! PAGE8

CURRENT PROJECT: PETER’S PRIMARY! PAGE9


Local Computer Lab to get Linux BoostLEGENDARY LAB NOT STACKING UP

Impressive, old, useless. Suns.

LOCAL LAB LEGENDPeter's Primary school is located up the hill from our home in Njeru. I had heard of Peter's from several people, each of which mentioned their "computer lab with more than forty computers". Through a crazy series of events, I received two invitations to visit the school, and when I did, I had to stifle a laugh. Of the "forty computers," thirty were Sun Sparc computers that the school had no idea what to do with. Because they didn't run Windows, the machines were sitting unused. I thought about finding a Sparc version of Linux to run on the machines, and on my trip to Vegas for DEFCON, I took advantage of the bandwidth and downloaded a few (dozen) ISO's for Peter's school.

LINUX TO THE RESCUEDuring his trip to Uganda, Dwight from White Wolf took the initiative to try out a few of the ISO's and after quite a bit of trial and error, he found success with Aurora Linux on one of the Sparc 10 computers. I'm playing with the installation now, and my plan is to install a ton of useful applications so the machines can be used to train

students in math, science, spelling, art and the use of basic office programs (via Open Office). Linux on Sparc could expand the capacity of Peter's computer lab threefold, which is impressive enough, but George, the headmaster, has a bigger vision: he wants to open a community center to provide low-cost or free computer classes to children and adults in the local community.

COMMUNITY CENTERSI've become quite interested in the concept of community centers because this model makes the computers and training materials available to a larger community. This maximizes the investment in the center and creates a larger impact in the community. Computer training is essential for students seeking advanced education, but the vision of a lab in every school becomes expensive very quickly. A centralized center can time-share the computers to many area schools. Computer training is also essential to entrepreneurs seeking to start just about any business.


CURRENT PROJECT: PETER’S PRIMARY, CONT...! PAGE10


Currently, this type of training is expensive (equivalent to several months average salary) putting the training far out of reach from the people that need it and could benefit from it the most.

THE NEEDSo, I've got my eye on Peter's Primary

as the first Hackers For Charity computer-based community center. (HFC-CCC? Hrmm... has a certain "Chaos Computer Club" old-school ring to it...) I'll continue to work on the Sun computers, but we've got a few obstacles. First, there's more to training than computers. We need:

• Curriculum (CBT's, CD's, DVD's, e-books)• an Internet connection ($150 + $40/month for a cheesy EDGE 20Kb connection, or a volunteer team to blast a signal from Kampala which boasts a shiny new fiber connection, thanks to Seacom. See the forum for upcoming trips)• A license for Deep-Freeze or something similar to lock down these public-use computers• A low-cost way to provide keyboards and mice to the 20 Sparc machines that are missing them (see the forums on our site)

Jump on our bulletin board if you’re interested in helping realize this vision for the HFC Community Center!

“Linux on Sparc could expand the capacity of Peter's

computer lab threefold, which is impressive enough, but George [...] has a bigger vision: he wants to open a

community center to provide low-cost or free computer classes to children and adults in the

local community.”

HFC volunteer Dwight + Linux + SPARC = “Easy!”

Stack -o- Suns = no love.

THE HFC “BULLETIN BOARD”! PAGE11


AN EXPERIMENTThanks to the work of our volunteer community and Zate Berg, we have what I'm calling a "bulletin board" (http://johnny.ihackstuff.com/forums). This board is designed to connect need with skill. Charities that have a need can post to the board, and anyone with skill can reply. This is the heart and soul of what we're trying to do, but so far the traffic on the board has been pretty slow. Are you interested in starting a local HFC group? Do you have spare gear that’s too old / heavy / smelly to ship anywhere? Do you feel the pull to "do something" but don't know where to start? Do you know of a local charity or non-profit that needs some help? Well then, get on the board! Seriously! It's a work in progress, but it's a start. Go ahead, jump in! Send us your feedback as well! We would love to improve the system!

“This is the heart and soul of what

we're trying to do, but so far the traffic

on the board has been pretty slow.”

The HFC “Bulletin Board”

THE LONG JOURNEY TO AFRICA! PAGE12


It’s hard to believe it’s been two months since we left our home to relocate to Uganda to focus on the work of Hackers For Charity. Here’s a recap of the past few months of our personal lives.

FAMILY HEALTH AND LOSS

Trevor fought off a stomach bug and Jen fights regular nausea (possibly linked to her Thyroid levels) but other than that, we have been healthy and safe so far. The kitten Makenna took in was killed in an accident in the compound, and on the same night, I saw a man die on the road from injuries he received in an accident. This combination was very hard on all of us, but thankfully, that's been the extent of the "drama" for our family.

OUR HOME

We live in Njeru, about a five minute drive across the Nile from Jinja. Our home is a real decompression zone thanks to the quiet neighborhood and the large compound, but even still we have been encouraged to keep a guard despite the unexpected expense ($150/month). Our Ugandan friend Dennis stays in the guest house behind our home and has been a great help to us in so many ways. Our home is spacious, comfortable, and nicely appointed (too rich for our blood) yet we still pay less than the average rental for a one-bedroom apartment in the U.S. Still, this makes us extremely wealthy by Ugandan standards, a "stigma" we are constantly aware of.

The Long Journey To

Africa


One last family photo from home before our journey

The view of the Nile from our upper balcony is spectacular!



PERSONAL FINANCES

Living off of donations is difficult. Thankfully, one-time and recurring donations to the "Long Journey to Africa" (see the website) cover approximately 65% of our total living expenses. This is great news, but every month we struggle to find the remaining 35% of our required expenses. So far, we have dipped into our personal "nest egg", but unforeseen housing expenses crept in and that money is gone. We'll run into financial problems fairly soon, unless we find more donors, or I manage to land some paid speaking gigs (preferably in Europe or Africa).

THE HFC TRUCK

Our first month was a challenge without a vehicle. Our Ugandan friends were very gracious with their time and even loaned us a vehicle for a short stretch, but we hated being a burden. So after a long search, and lots of great advice from local friends we found a vehicle that was durable enough to handle the rough terrain: a 1993 Toyota Prado Land Cruiser. We got a good price on the vehicle but after a good deal of maintenance (two new tires, brakes, balancing, and more) we found ourselves way over our vehicle budget. This was the right vehicle for us and it's already proven to be a good choice over the "all-wheel drive" cars, I just hope we get less nervous about the (~$12,000!) price tag over time.

The kids obviously hate it here.



King of the hill

My first ever HFC office!

Trevor’s cat, Sim-sim, eats cockroaches. SWEEET!

As good with kids as ever!

The long road home

Joseph, our guard!Dennis: our helper and friend.

Documents

HACKERS FOR CHARITY August 2009.pdf · community with empowerment opportunities worldwide. Welcome to the ﬁrst ever HFC newsletter from Uganda, Africa! INSIDE THIS NEWSLETTER