It has been a busy year
For the last year, I have been volunteering as an IT director for Odyssey Research Institute to work on various big data projects that focus on specific environmental concerns.
This has required expanding, an already busy server farm, with additional data base servers and another website to provide the eductional materials and survey information for this important research.
This project is one of the biggest ones ever prouced on this server system in over 20 years. Some of these web pages are desinged with several layers of coding to them to focus on secure data collection using several encryption methods.
The site should be completed by September 2026.
While there is work to do, there is play
There are many activities going on in the next few months from Philomath to Sweet Home that I will be attending.
May 30th is the Retro Gaming Show at the Benton County Fair Grounds.
In recent years, interests in retro gaming has increased and I support many of the homebrews and podcasts covering it.
There is collection of games (official software and licenced digital content) in the house that cover many systems built in the 50 years.
Some of this will be focus of development as AI may not touch this area for it's obsolescence but it is great to learn this for artistic purposes and it's hobby applicaitons. It has been a business for a few as well.
The Wave Pool at Wild Waves Water Park (source: Tim Babcock archives)
Last season at Wild Waves
The 50th anniversay is the final season for Wild Waves in Federal Way, Washington.
A lot of this web server system was built on those chairs around the wave pool in 2003 and 2004.
It was built at a time when Federal Way was growing into a bigger community whose history, in recreation, has been there for over 100 years due to its location between Seattle and Tacoma.
While I have taken a different look into the area (over the years) it has become the 10th largest city in the state of Washington with overlap from nearby cities (Des Moines, Kent, Auburn, and Tacoma) that didn't get positive media attention when it was featured on Cops.
Covid has changed a great deal of the community. Some of this was documented in 2022 (on this website) when the Sound Transit Link light rail system was being added to the area.
Former Masonic Home of Washington (source: Tim Babcock archives)
The Future of The Masonic Home of Washington
This home has been a landmark, along the Puget Sound, for over 100 years in the Zenith neighborhood of Des Moines.
It can be spotted from Point Ruston, on a clear day, as the retirment community was in the line of sight of the days ASARCO was on the park property.
It has endured many earthquakes including the 1966 earthquake when the area was in the epicenter.
After the Nisqually Quake happened, the integrity may have been in question as well as it's accesibility for it's residents when the building was built without elevators, wheelchair ramps, and automatic doors as it was being repurposed during the 2000's as an event center.
I have been in the home many times and even picnicked in the park, behind the buidling.
While it would be good idea to keep the building standing, it does require a great deal of extensive work to the property.
The building was last painted when it turned 50. The roof is in need of repairs.
The buidling would need many things to happed for ADA compliance including removing of the two elevators.
A great deal of the wiriing in still in it's 1920's form. Only the first floor was modernized (with the exception of kitchnette areas on each floor).
The construction of another building may reveal a great deal of lead and arsenic, within the ground, as well the building itself that hopefully doesn't become airborn to nearby residents and Des Moines Elementary School students and faculty.
Linux Tutorials
Many server farms use Linux as the primary operating system. Even this farm uses it as an operating system (along with Windows 11 and Windows Server).
Linux operates a great deal of our cloud and data base services. While there are more support people and clients using the system, it is now time to create Linux operating system classes.
Two of them will be created in November and December.
One class will cover the desktop version of Linux.
The second class will cover the commands using the terminal.
There are many things in your house that are already running Linux today. This can show you how it works.