Saving the World with Ruby onRails

Sean Marcia

@seanmarcia

Everyone is awesome!

This Talk1. The history of the project

2. The technology used

3. How you can get involved

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This is a story about bees

My own story with bees began when I was 6 years old...

Fast forward to today.

Bees are awesome and interesting!

They are dying :(

German is studying Colony Collapse Disorder

Possible Causes of CCD• Pesticides

• Mites

• Disease

• Genetic factors

• Habitat change

• Electromagnetic radiation

• Immunodeficiencies

• Java Programmers

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I wanted to help.

Turns out that German already hassome beehives at GMU

and they are on top of a parking garage

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German Would Love Insight Into:• Hive Temperature

• Hive Weight

• Outside Humidity

• Outside Temperature

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Challenges:• Open to the elements

• No power

• Very Limited Budget

• Must be easy to repair/maintain

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Challenge #1: No Power

Issue #2: Limited Budget

Solution:1. Raspberry Pi (first 3 were free)

2. Raspberry Pi specific devices (free)

3. SD Cards (3 for $20)

4. Wire/cables (free)

5. Temperature Probe ($8)

6. Solar Setup ($140)

7. Macgyver like ability to figure out solutions (free)

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Not perfect but we have a start.Including twitter.

...and the results?

TATFT

TATFT

Then things started happening really fast.

Now for the interesting stuff (The Technology Behind It)

Raspberry Pi's

gpio, pi_piper, wiringpi-ruby

So as to saving the world with Ruby and Rails...

Turns out I lied.

I'm using Ruby and Sinatra

Other Stuff Used• Phusion Passenger

• isc-dhcp-server (linux package)

• hostapd (linux package)

• iw (linux package)

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Pretty simple, eh?

So simple that anyone here could do it.

In fact, I'd like everyone to go out and do this.

Everyone here is amazing and has something to offer.

Educators need our help.

It's easy to get involved.

What's in it for you?

Easy Gateway into Open Source

Lots of intangible benefits.• You will hear bee puns on a daily basis

• Warm fuzzy feeling inside

• Learn interesting things

• Great Conversation Starter

• FUN!

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If this kind of thing interests you...

rubyforgood.com• Weekend Hackfest in Washington DC

• Aug 1-3 (free to come early/leave late)

• Stay in the Dorms at GMU

• Hack on Open Source Social Good Projects

• 72 People (18 teams of 4)

• ~$200

• Training sessions on Aug 2nd.

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Thank you so much for your time.