Linux Admin's for Ron Paul

[ronpaulordietrying]

Hey guys,

I am a proffesional linux admin and I am glad to help you with your Ron Paul sites. Post any questions here. In order to get this kicked off I am going to post my script that automatically downloads the latest Ron Paul videos from youtube, something like this could be used to auto update your tube site with some tweaks but this what I simply use for my personell use to watch all the new Ron Paul videos. So lets get started.

This first command will grab all the urls for the latest 10 Ron Paul Paul videos posted on youtube and put it in a file called new_videos.txt:


curl -s "https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?q=ron+paul&orderby=published&start-index=11&max-results=10&v=2
"|fold -s|grep "watch?"|awk -F "'" '{print $2}'|awk -F ";" '{print $1}' > new_videos.txt

so now we have our list of the last 10 vidoes with the keyword Ron and Paul posted on youtube. There is infinite possibilities we can use this list for but in this example lets download them all with a program called youtube-dl. This command should do that, although it will take quite a long time depending on your connection speed this will download all the videos at their maximum quality:


for i in `cat new_videos.txt`; do youtube-dl --max-quality mp4 $i; done

Ok now that our videos are downloaded or at least a few of them lets put them into a playlist and watch them, for this you will need mplayer. You can always just watch them in your favorite video player manually by browsing to this folder but this is common software so lets do this:


ls -lah|awk '{print $8}'|grep flv|grep -v part > playlist.txt && ls -lah|awk '{print $8}'|grep mp4|grep -v part >> playlist.txt && mplayer -playlist playlist.txt

Now all of the videos you have downloaded fully will play, you can hit enter to skip through the videos....


Pretty basic but you get the whole idea. I hope I can inspire some people and perhaps improve on this later.

[ronpaulordietrying]

Ok so continueing on from the last post, that is helpfull and all but how does that help the cause for liberty? Ok now I will show you how you can automatically post Ron Paul videos to twitter.

So..If you followed the last tutorial you learned to get a list of the latest Ron Paul videos. Now we will pull the latest Ron Paul video every hour and tweet it. I haven't quite tested this because I am just doing this on the fly here but lets do it off the top of my head and hopefully this will work or give you an idea:


while [1]; do curl -u "user":"password" -d status="Checkout the latest RonPaul video: `curl -s "https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?q=ron+paul&orderby=published&start-index=11&max-results=10&v=2
"|fold -s|grep "watch?"|awk -F "'" '{print $2}'|awk -F ";" '{print $1}'|head -n 1
`" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml";sleep 1h;done


hopefully that at least works or works enough so you can figure it out. I will test it later and make any correction. I know this is pretty basic and rudementary but I hope this provides some inspiration. Any questions or requests feel free to ask.

[JimInNY]

tech stuff use to be one of our strengths in 08. I don't know why there is no interest any more.

I have no idea what you're talking about, but it still seems like some very useful and valuable info.

[LinuxJedi]

You should really join us on freenode (see my signature).

I have been trying to accumulate a critical mass of people, but it has not been happening.

[cjm]

You should really join us on freenode (see my signature).

I have been trying to accumulate a critical mass of people, but it has not been happening.

May I ask what you intend to do with the critical mass once you realize it?

[LinuxJedi]

There are tons of things to do... one project I wanted to put together was something like redmine with geographical data integrated, so that you can easily see "what needs to be done" near you. The grassroots lacks the ability to easily come together and coordinate in an organic way, everyone assumes everyone else did something... someone needs something buried deep in a thread, someone offers to do that thing deep in another thread.

Regardless, programmers generally work best in groups that come together and see what skills people have. I am not trying to do anything in particular other than to get people talking about ideas, and working on things we can do based on the expertise available.

For instance, I am an "alright" admin, but my life would be much easier if another Linux admin (more experienced) could help out. Likewise, my expertise is in algorithm design and large-scale computing (think massive things like Google / Facebook). But who knows what a group can do if they don't get together in the first place to brainstorm?

[JuicyG]

Cool. Maybe you can get home@folding installed on all those PCs you have access to and join RonPaul2102 team. http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?359295-Folding-Home-Any-active-Ron-Paul-teams&p=4176535#post4176535

There is Linux version of this client. Just check the link above and subsequent one leading to download section. There are several Linux versions supported.

[lib3rtarian]

You probably have no use for me, but I am a database admin who predominantly work on the mainframes. Can adapt to other DBs too if needed. My knowledge on UNIX is only smattering though. Just thought I'll throw this out.

[cjm]

There are tons of things to do... one project I wanted to put together was something like redmine with geographical data integrated, so that you can easily see "what needs to be done" near you. The grassroots lacks the ability to easily come together and coordinate in an organic way, everyone assumes everyone else did something... someone needs something buried deep in a thread, someone offers to do that thing deep in another thread.

Regardless, programmers generally work best in groups that come together and see what skills people have. I am not trying to do anything in particular other than to get people talking about ideas, and working on things we can do based on the expertise available.

For instance, I am an "alright" admin, but my life would be much easier if another Linux admin (more experienced) could help out. Likewise, my expertise is in algorithm design and large-scale computing (think massive things like Google / Facebook). But who knows what a group can do if they don't get together in the first place to brainstorm?

I've done a fair amount of Linux/Unix admin. I'm subscribed to this thread and I've updated my RPF profile to include "Unix Guru" (no Linux option there). Feel free to post here or PM me if you want some input on a particular project. I haven't been on IRC in maybe 10 years, but I can hop on for something specific.

[RonPossible]

I'm here if you guys need any help with anything relating to IIS7, MSSQL, C#.Net, Javascript, CSS, HTML, AJAX or JSON.

Also, LinuxJedi, if you need a table of all the US cities, zip codes, lat, long, time zone, etc... I have it. I also have several functions you can use to calculate the distance from any two points on the globe (if you wanted let people find stuff to do near them).

[bbar]

^^^ Looks like Joe (RonPossible) left his account logged in on my computer sometime this weekend. Feel free to respond in this thread or just PM me if it's off topic. Don't PM Joe...you guys will scare him with the technical stuff.

[LinuxJedi]

Looks like we are already assembling a good distribution of skills. I'm going to put together an idea for something we can easily do to mobilize us more efficiently, and post it later today.

Anyone have access to server hosting space? Anyone know Ruby on Rails?

[bbar]

I have rack space at a data center in Orange County, but it's configured on Win2008R2, .Net Framework 4.0, IIS7.5, MSSQL, which might be a problem for some of you LAMP guys. I've run PHP stuff on IIS7.5 using FastCGI before, but only in a test environment because I wanted to see it work. So that's an option...

[LinuxJedi]

The grassroots has become severely fractured and disorganized. I suggest that the reason for this, is the lack of a centralized tool for coordination of our efforts. I'll explain.

In 2008 (I was not around then), I have the impression that a small band of volunteers came together to really make a difference. The forums likely would have been conducive to planning and action at that time, because there was more signal and less noise. In particular, if there were few threads there would be fewer places to watch for an opportunity to help out. The few threads was likely a result of the smaller base of volunteers willing to help.

Today, there are many many threads (lots more people!). Some threads are pure speculation, and many are just conversation. This is fine, and this is what forums are about. However, this is not conducive to action and to allowing us to use our resources to their greatest efficiency. Consider that someone needs help, say for a moneybomb. They are likely making a plea for help to find someone who has the skills they need, but they don't know who to turn to. It is likely that in another thread, someone is offering the required skills but people don't know who needs them. The end result is that the lack of efficiency has resulted in something, and maybe something very important, not getting done.

This can lead, and I think has lead, to an environment where people think things are just getting done. It's hard to see what needs a helping hand, and to prioritize activities. The scramble to get signatures is evidence of this, as is the lack of coordination when it comes time to get anything important done quickly. So what can we do?

Well, my background is in open source software. We confronted many of the same problems that the grassroots has today, and I'd like to offer some advice for what has worked. This advice comes from reading about what has and has not worked in projects, and if you care to read more about it feel free to ask for some references.

What I propose, in a nutshell, is project management software. In particular, a slightly customized version of Redmine. Now, project management does not mean this top-down bull that some of you might think, so hear me out before you rush to say we don't need it. Redmine is very flexible, and there is a concept of projects and issues. The best way to explain is with an example.

I happen to know SQL and database technologies, so I'm going to join the “Database Group” on Redmine. I also know statistics, somewhat, so I'll join the “Statistics Group”. Let's say this is all I know how to do.

I have a friend named Ron, who is also on the site. He is trying to organize signatures for a district. He knows that the FEC has a lot of data on donors, and these people are likely willing to sign for Paul. Ron will open an issue on the “Database Group” site, and simply explain what it is he needs. When he does this, everyone on the Database Group will get an email, or see something via RSS feeds (depends on the individual). Somebody can help out very quickly because, well, if they are on the Database Group they know what they are doing.

Another friend, Paul is organizing a moneybomb. They are not sure how much the pledge amount should be, so he writes an issue up in the “Statistics Group” to see what prior amounts have been based on FEC data again. Again, everyone who has subscribed to that group based on interest sees it right away. But there is a problem, and this is where Redmine really shines. They need some data from the Database Group. The Statistics Group can write up what they need, and send it off to the Database Group, thus marking this issue as blocked by some data they need. A task has been delegated and delegated again, but everyone involved can see what is happening. If this was the forums, we'd already have lost track and assume someone is on it.

This is the basic idea. This idea has worked so well in open source software, that the response time for critical bugs is measured in minutes.

For us, this keeps everyone happy. I see what people need that I can actually help with, without getting distracted searching through the forums. Others get rapid help with their problems, and everyone makes progress.

Now, there is one thing I wish redmine could do... and that is to take into account geospatial data. If we could add a coordinate or location to issues, we could probably use it to help people search for things that need to be done near them. Imagine that each state can be its own project, and larger cities subprojects (another thing Redmine can do). This would allow the meetup groups to really really be on their game, and for information to travel at light speed.

In my opinion, this is what we need to do to really kick some butt at the polls, and get people out to vote.

Feedback?

[cjm]

This can lead, and I think has lead, to an environment where people think things are just getting done. It's hard to see what needs a helping hand, and to prioritize activities. The scramble to get signatures is evidence of this, as is the lack of coordination when it comes time to get anything important done quickly. So what can we do?

A lot (if not most) of the signature scramble is due to the official campaign. If they are unwilling to tell us what they have and what they need, the grassroots cannot identify tasks and prioritize them.



Well, my background is in open source software. We confronted many of the same problems that the grassroots has today, and I'd like to offer some advice for what has worked. This advice comes from reading about what has and has not worked in projects, and if you care to read more about it feel free to ask for some references.

What I propose, in a nutshell, is project management software. In particular, a slightly customized version of Redmine. Now, project management does not mean this top-down bull that some of you might think, so hear me out before you rush to say we don't need it. Redmine is very flexible, and there is a concept of projects and issues. The best way to explain is with an example.

<snip>

This is the basic idea. This idea has worked so well in open source software, that the response time for critical bugs is measured in minutes.

For every successful open source project using project management software, there are hundreds of projects using the same software that fail. There are also successful open source projects that don't even use project management software to collaborate. There isn't much correlation between using project management software and a successful project, let alone causation. Projects that are destined for success can probably be made more successful through good organization and helpful software, but I doubt that the software makes the difference between an unsuccessful project and a successful one in any meaningful number of examples.

That being said, I agree that a task based project management solution can only help those grassroots teams that are currently not well organized. But I am not convinced that the costs are justified by the benefits. By that I simply mean that I'm not sure enough people will use this kind of tool to justify building it in the first place. In the database example that you give, do you envision FEC data already collected and database populated? Or would the DB team take the ticket, acquire the relevant data, and then build the DB to fulfill the data request in the ticket? How would one vet users of the project management system? In other words, once a bunch of RPFers build a valuable DB, what's to stop an opponent from masquerading as a RP supporter and using our hard work against us?

Please don't take this feedback as negative. That is not my intent. My intent is to be critical so that we can identify and avoid troublesome aspects of beneficial projects. I support this idea in concept, but the idea needs to be fleshed out a bit more so that we can give it an honest evaluation.

Thanks for initiating this suggestion. :)

[LinuxJedi]

I don't believe that there are any examples of successful open source projects that do not use some form of bug tracking. What I propose is basically a form of bug tracking (in job-form) for Ron Paul. Almost anything you do will work to manage a small-scale project, but when you get up to hundreds / thousands of participants things simply break down.

I believe that the same thing is happening here, once the movement grows to thousands of people... it's hard to collaborate, this is just the nature of things. The "traditional" way is to have some top-down directive (think massive corporations), but we know that doesn't work and isn't likely to work with the personalities of libertarians. In contrast, the management tools built around open source software are fairly adaptive to people coming and going to projects, and following up with people.

Regarding my example of a database, bear in mind that the forums are filled with people doing analysis of data using Excel or by hand. We can do a query in seconds that can take people days to do by hand. I do think there is a strong need to collaborate as teams of people with similar interests. If I have a question about FEC data, where do I post it to contact others who have looked at the same information? People need to be able to collaborate within teams, and externally.

I really want to put something up, just a base install of Redmine, and start to see what happens. We can fine-tune as we go, but the most important thing is to start....

Does anyone have hosting options? Everything I have is tied with the company that employs me (ironically to develop open source software ;-) ), and it would be a problem for me to mix Ron Paul + employer.

Here's what I think:

- Let's setup a basic redmine + email server (outbound for notifications, inbound for reply to tickets_
- LDAP authentication? What can we do that's scalable and inter-operable with authentication to other Paul sites (that might be onboard).
- Setup appropriate trackers for Redmine
- Setup projects for every state
- Allow subprojects to come in under each state (for major cities / colleges and so on)
- Anyone who can link this with google maps / spatial information would be an awesome person who I owe a big favor to

In my opinion, nothing happens until it starts. Regarding the undercover masquerading supporter... well, this is always going to be a problem. Let's figure out a rep system or something, but later on.

[D.A.S.]

What do you guys think of RonPaulCountry.com? We could use some help with it.

First, we need to move it from Softlayer because we can't afford those hosting fees anymore -- maybe someone could volunteer a server to host RonPaulCountry.com? Our web guy ("orenbus" here on RPF) would obviously need to have root access to the hosting machine in order to install whatever is necessary to run the site and manage the database.

Second, if any of you can offer any ideas for how we could improve RonPaulCountry.com to make it more useful and appealing across the board or are willing to contribute technical skills, we certainly would love that :-)

Just posting here to see if there's any interest.

[ZanZibar]

Join the Ron Paul IT Professionals for RP page:
https://www.facebook.com/ITProfessionalsForRonPaul?ref=ts

[LinuxJedi]

Join the Ron Paul IT Professionals for RP page:
https://www.facebook.com/ITProfessionalsForRonPaul?ref=ts

I don't want to use facebook since I want to remain semi-anonymous.

[BUSHLIED]

i use ubuntu...will all this work with that? any good place for me to learn how to use linux more effectively? Do you just run this in a terminal? copy and paste. I don't even know how to run installs.