Our Principals
2) The difference between a winner and a loser is that the winner tried one more time. 3) K.I.S.M.I.F. 4) Y.C.D.B.S.O.Y.A. Our Web Page:![]() |
E-Mail Us!Our CreedExploring: Enthusiasm, Energy, & Excellence Venturing Crew 369Venturing Crew 369 was chartered on December 31, 1994 to the Reformation Luthern Church. Venturing Crew 369 specializes in UNIX for Programmers while emphasizing a deep theme of Engineering Computer Information & Science; Membership in Venturing Crew 369 is open to young men and women between the ages of 14 [and in high school] and not yet 20. Annual Membership fees are $25.00. |
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Richie Collins Youth-16
Kristofer Pister is developing small devices called Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also known as smart dust or motes, along with his team at UC Berkeley. "What are these MEMS?" you may wonder. They are small electronic / mechanical devices used to capture ambient information such as light, sound, temperature, and chemical composition. These devices are so small, that they were made to float in the air on a grain of sand (silicon - what computer chips are constructed on). So, smart dust really earns its name.
How do they work? Unlike computer chips, MEMS contain moving parts. Patterns are etched into the mote to make small mechanical parts such as optical mirrors or tiny motors. Each of these motes also contains a solar cell for power. Later versions may have a lilliputian lithium battery to operate at night. Each mote has sensors that are programmed to look for specific environmental information, a miniaturized computer for storing info, and an optical communicator to send messages to a base unit.
UC researchers have developed an optical communication device called the "corner-cube reflector." The reflector is like "a tiny hinged mirror that can flash millions of Morse Code-like signals per second" (sfgate.com). A laser fired from the base station reads these signals. They also have developed an operating system called Tiny OS. This OS can survive on extremely low power, and operate on 512 bytes of RAM. Your everyday toaster matches this processing power.
What real work do they have completed so far? First they have created a golf ball size MEMS. Later, they condensed the device down to approximately the size of a pea (62 cubic cm to be exact). They plan to make it the size of a single milliliter (cubic cm) by the end of summer of `02.
To find out more info on MEMS, go to http://www.sfgate.com/science!
Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
We are who we hang with! Your friends will determine to a great degree what kind of person you will be! God is telling us not to hang with those with no morals or values. Yes, as Christians, it is our duty to be with these people. However, it is up to us to determine if we will be the influencer or the influencee.
1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
God will bless those who enjoy living a Godly life, those that cherish the word of God. When we about to do something we need to ask ourself: "Would I want my Mother, Father, Husband, Wife, to be with me as I do or view this?", "Would I want my friends, children, brother, sister, to be with me as I do or view this?", and most importantly, "Would I want Jesus to be with me as I do or view this?" If you would be ashamed to view that web page with your mother then you shouldn't view it! If you would want your children to view that TV program then you shouldn't view it!
1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
When I first read this, I was wondering why I would want to be like a tree. Strong, Long Life, Many Uses. Then I thought about who the tree is good for. Is the fruit of the tree for the tree. No, it is for others. The fruit of the tree is excess life. An abundance to be given away to those that follow. The shade of the tree is not for itself. In fact it needs the sun light to prosper. Its shade is for others as well!
What are you doing for others? What percentage of your time is spent on others? How are you a blessing in the lives of others?
1:4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
When one harvests wheat there are two parts, the grain and the chaff. The grain is the part the farmer wants. While the chaff is the useless part that is often burnt or thrown away. The farmer beats the wheat with a rug like cloth. This separates the chaff from the grain. The grain is heavy and withstands the test of time. While the chaff is light and weak and easily blown away by the smallest of wind. What do you want to be the chaff or the grain?
1:5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
They are not going to heaven! Are you?
1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Choose your friends wisely. Hang only with those you want to be like. For you will be like those you hang with! View their actions, for they will speak louder than their words. Do they hold your confidences? Do they lie? Are they walking towards God or away from him? What direction are you going?
I want my friends to be like Boy Scouts, for a Scout is:
Heather Ward Youth
Honestly, I am very curious as to why this happens. Every Windows person and web page I've found suggests that I reboot, and if that doesn't fix it, reinstall. As if I'd never heard that suggestion before (hmmmmm). The problem with my family's computer is that it runs programs very slowly. They have plenty of RAM, and 25% of the hard drive unoccupied. I also have shut down most programs running. The funniest part of all is that the system clock loses about 15 minutes per day. When it reboots, it gets that time back, but starts losing time all over.
Jonathan Hogue Adult
just saw that you are running me... it's buggy. don't run it. it won't be out of beta for another year. just my opinion. 98 is a much stabler operating system. even 2000 workstation is better... (most non-computer people would prefer not to have to login, so search microsoft.com to figure out how to set the win2000 not to require a login.) also, run a virus scan. (boot from a known good floppy disk and run the scan from floppy... a memory resident virus can hide itself... loading from a floppy prevents a virus from loading itself and therefore hiding itself.)
Haven't done desktop support in a long time.... but, I would try defragging the harddrive (windows dynamically allocates virtual memory, and if your virtual memory is spread all over the harddrive, you'll get bad performance), install all the latest patches (start->windows update), look for bios patches for the board (although it sounds like a software issue, it might be a hardware one... be careful with flashing the bios, as if you grab the wrong bios image, you screw your mother board), if it's win95/98, i'd disable all programs in the startup using the msconfig tool (start->run->msconfig)
if it's another version, check all of the startup files (profile/<username>/startup, i believe), and the registry under current user, and local machine->software->micosoft->windows->currentversion->run ..runonce ..runex, etc.) and also check the autoexec.bat, because if that exists, it will be run as well. (it may not exists, and is only there for backwards compatibility.)
Heather Ward Youth
Jim Powers:
I don't think that we often step back and realize what Scouting has meant and done for us. As many of you know, Scouting is under attack right now. I think that you show below its true value. As I try to help you guys out as much as I can, I'd like to add my 2 cents.
Sadly I was never part of Exploring until I was an Adult (my family moved across the country a year after I got Eagle). That being said, I can unequivocally state that I am where I am today because of Scouting. My current position is Senior SAN architect at Quest Communications (a Fortune 500 company). Daily I must meet with customers, then design a solution, work with the customers and upper management to get approval and funding, then work with the Vendors to make sure that we get all of the equipment that we need when we need it, work with internal Operations to make sure we have what we need (space, power, IP's, firewalls, etc.), THEN I get to see it installed, put in the configurations/load the OS, tune, help the customer test, tune some more, do documentation, finally get approval to go live, and then go live.
I state all of this because I hope it seems somewhat familiar. If you have ever helped design a class, organize a campout, organize and run a fund raiser, you must DO most of the same things. Besides leadership and technical skills, Scouting teaches you how to organize people, how to motivate them, how to put a project plan together, and how to run a project. These skills are EXTREMELY important and honestly pretty rare. Most people are unable to do these things.
Many of you will find that in the LONG run, it is NOT your technical skills that you learned in the Crew that will be the most valuable. The MOST important skills that you have learned are first knowing how to learn (there are many people who learn a skill and then stagnate and become afraid of change), knowing how to organize, knowing how to run a project and motive people. In addition, in Scouts you learn to believe in yourself. I think that this is the most important thing. If you believe in yourself and are willing to work hard for your goals, you can achieve anything. And for all of the lessons that I learned from Scouting, I am eternally grateful. (8/2001)
When flown from a staff in a church chancel or speaker's platform, the flag should be placed on the speaker's right. If placed elsewhere than on the platform, it should be on the right of the audience as they face the platform.
I would just like to take a moment and say thank you to Crew 369. Without the Crew I would not have the knowledge, skills, or the contacts to have gotten this job. I now work for Steve Romig, Head of Network Security at The Ohio State University. My duties primarily include responding to network security incidents such as port scanning, denial of service attacks, and break-ins. My primary tools for completing this task are network flow logs, these are the reports generated by the cisco routers saying where every packet of data has come from and gone to through the University. This may seem like an incredible amount of data, and indeed it is. During a massive port scan the compressed log for just 15 min. can be over 20 megs, and this is after a filter has been applied to get only the traffic coming from the box initiating the scan. From there we scroll through the file looking for long connections, then look at the ports the connection happened between to figure out what was taking place. Once we have enough information, we decide how to handle the offender, it may be that the box was hacked and needs to be cleaned up, we may pay an educational visit to the offender (if it was a student), or inform the authorities depending on the severity of the offence. (2/2001)
I joined the crew because I was interested in computers. My knowledge has increased, and I've had a whole lot of fun. However, until one week ago I did not fully see what the crew is really doing for me. I recently started an internship at Fitch, Inc. The person who mentioned my name there was another member of the crew. While I had seen the crew as giving me knowledge to help myself get a job, I did not see it was giving me the friends that would help me too. In the business world, I think that this friendship will be even more valuable than any technical knowledge. It is these friends that will be with you ten, even twenty years down the road. The technology will change, but the people will still be the same.
Since working at Fitch, I have gotten to work on things that I wouldn't have been able to get experience with on any sort of home computer. I get to work on some low level systems administration, work on phone systems and wiring, and get other on the job training. I would not have been able to get much of this experience at such a young age if I were not to have someone within the company recommending me. With the crew having these connections, I would not have gotten this opportunity without the crew. Thank you 369. (7/2000)
I truly believe that my future looks great. I also believe that said future can be realized by applying the lessons taught by Mr. Corder, and the advising staff of Crew 369. Already I have begun to better myself by reading more frequently, being interested in current events, and trying to learn the newest technologies. In addition to these meta-physical properties I have had benefits in the physical world as well. I am currently contracting (1099) with the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. I enjoy my job of administering a Sun Ultra 60, and both a duel booting (Win98 / Linux-my install) PC and Laptop. I am also getting paid at a rate I could never have dreamed of in my previous job as a grocery store cashier. Thank you 369! (7/2000)
Since joining the Venturing Crew back in May I have been part of something that is helping to make tomorrow better. Scouting for almost a century has taught boys responsibility, leadership, and how to care for himself and nature. Being in this group I have found people who personify just that. (12/1999)
I had not heard about Exploring, much less UNIX Explorer Post 369 until the middle of my senior high school year. When I joined, I had expected classes about UNIX, teaching the technical skills to navigate the operating system. This would be just like the UNIX class I took a few years earlier. Or so I thought. I wasn't thinking big enough.
Sure, we were taught how to use the UNIX shell, shell scripting for automation, as well as networking concepts such as routing and IP telephony. Yes, technical skills are essential to UNIX System Administrators. So are leaders. Leaders work through a group to complete a task, whether that task keeps large data-centers in big multi-billion dollar corporations running all the time, or completing a high ropes course at camp.
A leader, we explorers learned, communicates well both through speech and writing. I have to talk with my peers to gain feedback, my teammates to complete a project, my boss or client to report how well (and sometimes, how not so well) I've done, and my friends so I can relax -- so I'd need finely-developed speech communication. Just as importantly, leaders require refined writing skills. Writing out lasts speeches. I'd need to write well on paper, through letters, with email, in web pages too. People I otherwise would never have met and talked to would read what I have to say (as you are right now). Again, I wasn't thinking big enough. A leader, we explorers learned, have visions and dream. Over the course of the past half-year, I've seen my fellow youth explorers and friends open their eyes. I'm continually surprised at how much more is possible. It isn't just that we had opportunities raining down like rain. It was great meeting guest speakers offering internships, a trip to Washington D.C. for the National Explorers Leadership Conference, writing for an internationally-distributed publication -- these pieces of paper you are holding right now -- and building team projects. "Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
Now, I have just passed my 20th birthday, and I have been doing UNIX system administration consulting for more than two years. My business skills that I learned in Exploring have helped me to successfully consult with a handful of Fortune 500 and other multi-billion dollar companies. The technical start that I also received in Exploring has helped me to take on some high-profile and difficult, "bleeding-edge" projects. At most of my clients, I have helped them to design and implement their Internet firewall architecture and portions of their enterprise mail systems. I have even implemented features on top of firewall and VPN products to provide configuration synchronization, which is needed for highly available operation, before vendors even started supporting it (all of the vendors that I consider to be of "enterprise quality" still don't support this, but most are working on it). When I told the vendors what I had implemented, their response was "Wow, that's a good idea--we should look into doing that."
It's both fun and scary to be on the bleeding-edge of technology. I get to work on the latest and greatest, fast-paced projects, but I often have to deal with immature products--ones that lack stability or important functionality required by large corporations. Overall, however, the entire experience has been, and continues to be very rewarding, and I would never have had the chance, at least at my young age, without being in Exploring. (8/1998)
To what end though? Would I like to be a millionaire? A billionaire? Own a mansion? Build a floating oceanic colony? Fly to and colonize the moon? Found a web design guild that lasts for generations? Become famous in the pages of history? Like I said, I wasn't thinking big enough. I do now. To see the opportunities dropping all around me, I first had to see my dreams and know where I'm going. Do you know where you're going? I know where, and I'll see you there. (8/1998)
My sophomore year in high school in my computer science class, my teacher, Mr. Edwards, handed out a flyer describing what Post 369 is. It said that Post 369 was a Boy Scout run organization with a strong focus on the UNIX operating system, and they were looking for some new members. At the time I was aware of the existence of UNIX but never knew much about it.
Several weeks went by and Mr. Edwards told us that the first night was next week and we need to R.S.V.P. "So what could I lose", I thought. That next Tuesday Mr. Edwards took us to the meeting, and it shattered my expectations.
Crew 369 not just something to go to on a Tuesday night because there is nothing else to do. The program requires that you put some effort into it; however what you put into the program is paid back ten fold in return. This is something that I am proud to be a part of! (8/1998)
After achieving my Eagle when I was almost 15, I did not want to quit scouting, but the regular troop was getting boring. I turned to Explorers. This was a great move in part because I love computers and got a chance to use them in different applications, but mostly because I met a great friend and teacher, Mr. Corder. Explorer Post 369 has offered me a chance to use technology that many people do not get to use. The biggest thing that I have gotten out of exploring and mainly Post 369, is the ability to further my technical skills. I have learned how to learn and teach myself. By teaching myself I have no limits to how much I can learn, and therefore can achieve anything I set my mind to. (12/1996)
It has been a pleasure to see the growth in technical ability of the other members of the post - if you would have asked me 3 years ago if we could manage the larger projects we're working on now, I would have been hesitant to answer. Now, these projects in combination with a new influx of equipment make the environment almost electric, its fascinating to watch people in action. (12/1996)
The exploring program has taught me many valuable technical skills, but by far, the most important facet of the program is it's focus on team building and leadership qualities. The non technical skills have allowed me to excel in my chosen profession rather than just be "technically proficient". The technical exposure in the program probably moved me ahead by years in terms of experience and gave me the environment to learn things I would have never learned in a work setting. My involvement in Exploring was probably the single most important part of my career education. (12/1996)
It's odd when I look back at how much I have changed since I joined Exploring six years ago. Back then, I was decent at hacking C code in KA9Q NOS (a TCP/IP implementation that ran on DOS), but I knew nothing about UNIX, systems administration, or how to look for a job in this profession. Exploring gave me the tools that I needed to hone my UNIX and system administration skills--once I had learned the basics of the Bourne shell, "grep", "vi", and the most under utilized UNIX command, "man", I could learn to do just about anything. At that point, I installed Linux on my PC at home, connected to the Internet, and from there on I could experiment with E-mail, web servers, security, or whatever. Exploring not only gave me technical skills, but it gave me the business skills that I need to survive and succeed in a corporate environment. It also got me started into what I consider to be the most important part of any long-term career--meeting and networking with other people.
I was wondering what others have said about us so I did some surfing through search engins and found the following:
My name is Susan and I am Cub Master of Pack377 here in McGehee, Arkansas. I frequent your site and you have a Fantastic Site! Keep up the good work!
Really great site. I think the biblical reference pages, links to religious organization's scouting divisions, and overall commitment to integrating God into your unit speaks volume about the quality of your crew. We are currently developing a site and your site is really a "model" to shoot for. It shows that over time masterpieces can be made.
My highest praise and compliments to your website! I am an Army officer (and former Boy Scout) assigned to the KY National Guard, and after several internet searches, I have chosen your site/ceremony as a base for a flag retirement ceremony at a local elementary school. Believe it or not, not even the US Military offers such a detailed guide!
Was searching for other 369 units and found your site. Visited your site and was impressed with the level of computing you guys are into and the amount of info on your site. Sounds like a great program.
I was looking for some unique clip art for our Troop, your site has been quit helpful. Thank you!
I LOVE your website. Thanks for your hard work. I am very excited as my son has just become an Eagle Scout. I was searching for sites for specific information... WHY SHOULD ONE ASPIRE TO BECOME AN EAGLE SCOUT? I thought this would be useful info. for the younger scouts. My son told me that if you join the Marines as an Eagle Scout, you are automatically advanced to Private First Class. If that is true, what else is out there? Thanks again for your assistance on Eagle ceremonies and inspirational poetry. LOVED IT! THANK YOU!
I am the Committee Chaiperson for Troop 8, and Tiger Group Coach for Pack 8. I just wanted to thank you for all of the info you have posted on your site. I am in the process of putting together our Troop's first Eagle Court of Honor, and your clipart was the best I've seen anywhere!
This type of "service" to other scouts should be commended! I have now marked your site as a favorite. I look forward to coming back to your website and reviewing other info you have posted. Thanks!
Ok guy's, the way I found your site was via an link from a woodworking page. Very cool, my son and I are going to build the patrol box from your plans. Thanks so much!
Anyhow, my son is a brand new Tenderfoot. I am a Cubmaster (till the end of this year) and we are just beginning the boy scout adventure together. I am a software developer and have thought about putting a site together for the cub's for awhile, but have held off, I need others to support this effort, so I really think that it's more of a boy scout project. Also, I'm thinking that the undertaking will get the Boy Scouts interested in technology and I can encourage them all to explore this as possible professions as they move through high school...
So, I'm jazzed, and I gotta tell you, I write internet/intranet applications at the Corporate level, and I must say, YOU GUY'S REALLY ROCK!
Also, I'm not sure who taught you all how to scrounge equipment, but I am incredibly envious of your abilities...
Anyhow, just wanted to offer up Kudo's, nice work.
I couldn't help but notice that your crew logo when I first entered your site. How did you get such an impressive logo. We're just starting up our crew and I was looking at different sites to see how we want to portray ourselves to the world. I very much like your logo and would love to have ours look similar. Keep up the good work. May God be with your crew and everything they endeavor to do in His name.
I am Cub Master of Pack 377. I frequent your site and you have a Fantastic Site! Keep up the good work! I recently created my own Web Page and added a link to your page.
James D. Corder Adult
"IBM wants Linux" Not!
Sometimes I get tired of the people that inform me that AT&T has switched all of their computers over to Linux because they read it in the paper. Just like the comment that I received pointing me to an article in slashot.
(Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 20, @08:15AM) (http://www.slashdot.com)
jsse writes "In a news conference IBM's senior vice president Steve Mills said `the company will gladly drop its version of Unix from servers and replace it with Linux if the software matures so that it can handle the most demanding tasks.' Now the Giant, along with many other companies, jump to Linux bandwagon. The question is wether this bandwagon is capable of carrying a Giant that huge. Or the question is: can Linux beats AIX?"
I would gladly give up my auto when horse can run at 65 miles per hour for 4 hours then after a short feeding go another 4 hours.
I would gladly give up my telephone for pigeons when pigeons can carry a gig-a-bit of information and fly faster than radio.
IBM said it would consider Linux as a replacement for AIX when it outperforms it.
(hedgehog at budweiser.com)
Perhaps the Open Source Community is up to the challenge, but AIX performs admirably in exactly the machines and situations in which Linux does the worst: multi-processor non-intel boxes with 4+ gigs of RAM. Right now, a person would be nuts to run linux in production on an RS/6000. The package stability on that hardware is sketchy, at best. IBM's also spent a lot of time doing little things like graphics acceleration for their workstations that Linux can't yet strongly match.
(Wladawsky-Berger) http://www.ibm.com/news/us/2001/08/15.html
We have the Linux Technology Center, which is an organization in IBM with over 200 people that actively open-source code and provide skills for the Linux community to help it scale. We are working actively to make Linux 2.4 better in four-way SMPs and to help push it into eight-ways next year. We are doing journaling file systems, scheduling, and lots of other technologies.
IBM is helping the Linux community.
Since Linux is just entering the 4 way and has yet to enter the 8 way systems I doubt IBM is going to give up its systems where the big money is:-)
Wladawsky-Berger basically said Linux is the fast growing operating systems in the world and IBM would be dumb not to watch it.
It is my opinion that Open-Source (not Linux) is what the big guys are investing in. For a free OS would be a strong nail in Microsoft's coffin! Therefore, GOOD!!! Remember the big three (HP, IBM, and Sun) make their money on hardware not OSs:-)
What makes me mad about places like slashdot is its readers will believe their yellow journalism. They will read the snippet out of IBMs 2 hour presentation and believe it to be true. The fact that they are quoted out of context is not even considered.
I can recall in my teen years I was interviewed by a TV network on hacking and cracking. They asked why "One" would crack... I made sure that no modems were in my home when they arrived. I took all of them out of my house and gave them to my girl friend to hold. So, there was no physical way they could get talked into showing them how!!! I was authorized by big ten company to do security audits of their computer network. I never cracked!
They asked why "some" crack... Why "youth" crack... However, when they aired the show They showed me typing at my computer then panned to the telephone then paned back to me while spliced in conversation of me talking about "others" cracking was being played. They spliced my words over the edited video making me look like a criminal. I must have received hundreds of pone calls from people amazed that I would crack on TV... I got visited by the proverbial MIB. Teachers no longer wanted me to use the Apple ][ computers, they no longer trusted me.
You can no longer believe what is on the InterNet, TV, Radio, and/or in print. You must consider the source to determine, not if it is slanted or bias, but how it is slanted or bias. Is the author and/or source left or right of center. Is it pro or con for the topic. Unfortunately in journalism the opinions of others is more powerful than the facts! I wonder how many people that read the snippet then went to IBM (the source) to read the rest of the story?
All of the Big Three have given millions of dollars to help develop linux. But none of them are frightened by it. Nor are they going to drop their golden goose. They are simply adding to the marketing hype!
The technologically ignorant mass media has said that Linux is the future. They don't even know what AIX, HPUX, and Solaris are. The PC People are dropping Microsoft like hot cakes and running to a stable OS (Linux). Though Linux is considered an Up-An-Coming UNIX, it isn't there yet. If Linux can replace any part of Microsoft I am all for it, and I believe that it can successfully replace most MS servers. However, it is just not there yet to replace the big boys yet.
When your server is down and you are loosing $1,000,000.00 a minute do you want post a request for help to the InterNet or do you want to call HP, IBM, and/or Sun and tell them to Fix It!!!
Linux is worth watching!