Plans

Short-term plans as of July 31, 2000. These include the plans from July 17th as well as contributions from Kim. For the short term, we have decided to focus on three goals:

Manoa data collection: a set of 5 linux boxes placed around campus, connected via the regular internet. As of July 31, Brian has provided the boxes, Dan and Rob and Brian/II have for the most part installed Linux and the weather software. We are planning to begin by providing them with a rain gauge, followed as soon as possible by a solar radiation sensor and if possible a temperature/humidity sensor. Some of the boxes (esp. the one in St. John) will also have a camera, and some (for example the one in POST) may have other sensors.
Linux has been installed on about 4 computers, with experimentation to try and minimize the amount of disk space needed (we are currently down to about 60MB). We plan to complete deployment before the beginning of the semester.
Getting the "box" computer up and running. Linux installation (Brian, Edo, Dan, Rob, Brian/II), power requirements and solar panels (Brian, Edo), 802.11 connection to a base station (mostly Brian), installing at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (Kim et al.). Same weather sensors as the Manoa units.
Linux has been installed. The power requirements have not been determined, though it is clear that the recycled solar panels are insufficient to the task even in bright sunlight. We still need to determine the power consumption. One 802.11 base station has been acquired, must be configured. The tentative plan is to complete deployment before the beginning of the semester.
Testing 802.11. We plan to purchase 1 hub and 6 NICs. The 6 NICs are all PCMCIA capable, and we also plan to purchase two IDE and two (???) adaptors.
Plan is to go as fast as possible subject to the whims of vendors and the UH purchasing process.

Other activities are ongoing. These include:

Developing the containers and sensors. Containers include several kinds of both rocks and tree branches. MichaelL and Monica have been working on these.
Han and Chris have been working on web page design and ways to handle the data we collect. Web pages of interest include better access to the daily images from HVNP, and this weather data. Also, some work in progress.
Purchasing and evaluating PC 104 boards and peripherals.
Purchasing temperature/humidity sensors.
Maintaining the camera at HVNP on the big island of Hawaii. This includes analyzing the data communications, especially any difficulties, and getting experience doing remote administration. We currently experience very low transfer rates which appear to be due to a relatively high error rate somewhere along the line (which consistently goes from HVNP to Maui to California before meandering back to Oahu). A planned upgrade to UH/ICS facilites on August 1st may or may not ameliorate the situation.