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Richard Guy Briggs

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Photo of RGB buried in Ximians
The air thick with cold
only frost dares to grow, yet
the pedals still turn.
-- Ron Miller, Self-Righteous Bicycle Commuter, Ottawa
View Richard Guy Briggs's profile on LinkedIn My CV: HTML TXT PDF
2018-04-01: While visiting the Maitreya Home (part of the Child Haven International network) in south Delhi, I had the opportunity to drive a TukTuk. I'd ridden a rickshaw down to the home from the compound where we lived (10km away) and arrived at the same time as the rest of the family by tuktuk. The driver said he started 25 years ago with a rickshaw and that this one was reasonably good. He wanted to try it. I wanted to try the tuktuk.
2018-05-05: I'd never actually had a chance to use OCTranspo's Rack & Roll program, so when I was displaying and demonstrating an assortment of odd bikes at the Crichton Community Council's Bike Rodeo I had a chance to try it. The two drivers were quite amused to see how it fit and were only too happy to oblige, posing with it.
2016-09-13: I had a very enjoyable visit from Cycle Trekkers Kelly and Michael (fb), a pair of Australian WarmShowers guests travelling from Vancouver to Halifax. Almost simultaneously, we stored bicycles for and subsequently hosted Carina and Marc from Germany at our place in New Delhi. Interestingly, both couples independently shared the fact that they had recently bicycle toured across Kazakhstan!
2016-08-25/26: In August I did a presentation at the Linux Security Symposium about some development work I've been doing at Red Hat to get Linux Audit working in Linux kernel namespaces and looking to the future in Linux containers. LSS 2016 slides are up and in particular, mine are here. Video has also been posted and mine is here (Linux.com article).
4
tuxes 2014-09-12: My mum (Jacqueline Bieler) gave the graduating address to the graduates of the Basic Intelligence Officer Course 0014 on the occasion of the dedication of the Canadian Forces School of Military Intelligence (CFSMI) facility at CFB Kingston (ON) to her father, Major Gustave "Guy" D.A. Bieler. My mother's brother, Jean-Louis Bieler, along with his wife Ann and their children (my cousins) Joanne, Bob and Kim were also present. Mum presented two copies of her book "Out of Night and Fog" and Uncle John presented my grandfather's medals. We were also invited to the formal officer's mess dinner the night before. monument unveiling

I am finally putting my money where my mouth is and jumping in with both feet to install a solar photovoltaic system on our house roof to generate electricity. It will earn revenue for the next 20 years. It went live January 20, 2012 and so far is pretty much doing as it was expected to do. garage panel cam live view
I finally got around to hacking a rack support for Nico's "Lamb" trailer-trike to attach Annabelle's WeeHoo. This was done in time for our annual trip to the CAMMAC music centre on Lake MacDonald north of Hawkesbury in the Laurentians. I had to do a bit of welding to get there. Here was our route.
The internet as we knew it, just ran out of addresses. The last /8s have been delegated, now those entities are handing out those last blocks. Here is APNIC's pool. And ARIN's stats. And some predictions on when they'll dry up completely. Ask your ISP and O/S and application vendors about IPv6 support. Here's a quick test to help you understand where you currently stand. Here's a quick start for the lazy. Easy IPv6: The Lookup Book, 2nd ed.

To find out and contribute more to this issue, please get attend or get involved in the IPv6 Summit in Ottawa, April 29th at the University of Ottawa. MRP IPv6 Status Survey.

IPv6 Certification Badge for rgbriggs
HPVOoO converts the convertible tandem recumbent trike into a steam train.
Our baby has finally started school.
I finally acquired a Hammond tonewheel spinet organ. It is a 50 year old Hammond M-3. It eventually was joined by a really beat up Leslie 145.
The four of us explored the geography and history of the river that joins my dad's house in Merrickville, 75km upstream from our house on the Rideau Canal system this summer by canoe.
Nico and I rode our trike/trailer-trike combo to CAMMAC again this summer (last year). Nico counted 324 motorcycles this year compared to 171 last year.
We replaced the mis-matched washer and dryer that came with this house with a front-loading stackable pair. I got a bit impatient with their delivery schedule, so I just went by bike to get them myself...
Recently digging around in my parts trunk, I found a vintage Commodore SR-9190R LED scientific calculator that appears to have been made in 1977. It contains 3 NiCd cells, so I plugged it in to see if it worked... At first, the display just blinked a couple of times and showed a line of dots, but after a bit of a charge, it works! A recent eBay auction with 22 bids put it at worth $185!
(orig)

This is a very clear representation of Perceived vs. Actual Risk that helps me rationalize and explain fear. Additionally, I'd strongly recommend "Risk" by John Adams, University College London. Bruce Schneier, computer security guru, also comments. Here is a Time article on Living Dangerously

We were out west in July 2008 for the 2008 North American Solar Challenge

2008-05-10: Dad has given us his canoe. The first time out in it while Carole was in Nairobi on a 4 week temporary duty for work we paddled upstream past the Cummings bridge and around Cummings Island. Nico innocently asked "Can we go visit the island?" I immediately replied "No" and then realized we were in a boat and there was nothing stopping us from doing so. Since I hadn't planned on that this time out, I promised that the following weekend we could bring a picnic and vitit it, which we did. There are still several concrete foundations and a 1.5m diameter well.

We almost broke the 1971 record of 444cm for snowfall this season

I spent 3 weeks in Australia for the 20th anniversary of the World Solar Challenge. I took a few personal pics while I was there.

Bochum

We just bought another house!

Here's the view from the balcony (camera)

route map 2007-03-15: I just booked my flights to attend the 20th anniversary of the World Solar Challenge. I'm getting pretty excited already!
photo of our family in front of our house, on our way in the morning We were interviewed by the Ottawa Citizen for a feature on car-free families (print ed.). That same feature caught the interest of CTV national news as part of an ongoing series on the environment, resulting in this report on the 2007-01-26 23:00 national TV news (video frame video link).
RGB soloing a birch bark canoe I had an opportunity to take out a birch bark canoe for a spin. I was warned it had a tiny leak and was very unstable. I have never been so impressed by the manoeuverability of any other watercraft!
photo of our newest family member Annabelle Persida, 2006-08-18, 06:24, girl, 3.9kg (8 lbs, 9 oz). Mom and baby are doing fine. Annabelle has her own web site.
photo of RGB on tallbike I acquired another Mike Watson original: a tallbike
photo of NASC 2005-07-22: We took a trip out west to intercept the North American Solar Challenge. We also did some family visiting, introducing our son to his uncle.
photo of Flossenburg 2005-04-18: My mum and I accepted an invitation from the Germans to represent my grandfather Gustave Biéler at the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Flossenburg concentration camp. It was an intense, but very worthwhile 12 day trip.

RECOVERED !!! Goldmember has been stolen !!!

Tuesday, November 11th, between 09:30 and 21:30, from the back yard of 192 Cambridge Street North. Please report any information to (613)237-1549, or email. A full description is here.

I recovered Goldmember December 4th at 04:30 AM while I was tracking down my very newly missing GTV in 4km fresh snow to 519 Bronson Avenue, 4 blocks from me. The organ trailer made it 1/2 block before being ditched.

photo of our newest family member Nicolas Gustave, 2003-06-15, 00:30, boy, 7 pounds. Mom and baby are doing fine. Nico has his own web site.
It *is* possible to tow a Hammond organ played live behind a bike.
We just bought a house!
Streamliner start line photo I was at the International Human Powered Vehicle Association's championships, taking plenty of photos and unexpectedly won a few awards.
Photo of solar powered laptop Here's my latest hack... solar powered laptop, it may be offline since it *is* portable.... (mirror)
Full-page photo of yours truly on the front cover of the Tech Weekly section There is a very thorough, fair and accurate 2-page+ article about the FreeS/WAN team in the Thursday December 6th, 2001 edition of the High Tech section of the Ottawa Citizen. There was also a full-page photo of yours truly on the front cover of that section and a full-width banner just under the mast on the front page of the first section. This was a bit more than I expected... I have my own FreeS/WAN resources page.
2013-09-06: John Gilmore's Speculation on BULLRUN
Photo of FreeS/WAN team present at meeting on 2001-11-02
I took delivery of a convertible tandem recumbent trike (GTVS6 #0790) from Greenspeed in Melbourne on 2001-10-03. Here is a fairly thorough review of it with photos. CAD drawings were sent for the vehicle in tandem and solo configurations. My friend Mike Gifford took the first photos of it here and here. Here's one that Brett Delmage took with me. It is probably time to do up a cycling page... Here are some of my cycling friends. There is now an HPV group starting up in Ottawa.
Photo of U of Missouri - Rolla solar car I was at the 2001 American Solar Challenge as staff photographer. Photos are online.
Photo of RGB w/mixer and laptop I have a strong interest in sound tech'ing (live P.A. and recording) and have some equipment that I use for supporting community and grassroots events. I have also been successfully been using BroadCast2000 under Linux for recording and editing multiple channels of audio (bcast2000 will also edit video).

Here's a really sobering self-assessment of ecological footprint.

I've created an account for myself on Photo.net and uploaded a few pics. It is a start at a portfolio. I've started a page about my photography.

I have been involved with the Ottawa Unitarians since 1983 when I first started doing sound for services, weddings and memorials. Since then, I taught "About Your Sexuality" to the 13-yr-olds for two years and have been a youth advisor since 1999.

I presented a tutorial about FreeS/WAN at OLS 2000. The Slides are available. Photos are also available. The lineup of speakers for that symposium was quite impressive!

Advogato seems like an interesting place. I have added myself to the community.

A couple of friends and I are seriously considering cycling from Whitehorse, Yukon (60° 43' 00" N - 135° 03' 00" W) to Inuvik, NWT (68° 21' 00" N - 133° 43' 00" W) from mid-June to mid-July, not quite sure what year yet. The first 500 KM to Dawson City looks relatively easy, on blacktop, but the last 700 KM looks like it is unsealed road. Fun! We may even try to get to Tuktoyaktuk (69° 27' 15" N - 133° 01' 55" W) on the Arctic Ocean. The NRCan website has online topographical maps of almost the entire country online at 1:50,000 and the rest at 1:250,000. Too bad it requires JavaScript... :-(

I was at Australia Linux Expo in Sydney from March 7-10, 2000 and spoke briefly about FreeS/WAN, hung out at LinuxCare Australia in Canberra for a couple of weeks in between and attended IETF 47 in Adelaide from March 27-31, 2000. Carole joined me afterwards for 5 weeks of traveling within Australia, then on to the Cook Islands and then L.A. to visit her father and I took in Death Valley.

I spoke at the second EurOpen/USENIX Conference in Sweden in Malmo on the 11th of February, 2000 about FreeS/WAN. The slides are available.

FreeS/WAN is a freely available, GPL'ed implementation of IPsec for GNU/Linux. Some history can be found here. MCR has submitted an IETF draft for an RFC for their only recognized holiday from serious work that was sadly not accepted.

I spoke at TOWARD SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES in Quebec City on the 4th of November, 1999 about the technical features of Conservation Co-operative, a co-operative housing community on the Rideau River in Ottawa, from a resident's perspective. Slides are available.

I spoke at Alternative: Linux in Montreal on the 3rd of November, 1999 about FreeS/WAN. The slides are available.

I spoke at the 6th International Linux Kongress in Augsburg, Germany, about FreeS/WAN. The slides are available. Someone took photos.

I spoke at the first Ottawa Linux Symposium about the experience and challenges of being on the kernel end of FreeS/WAN. Here are those slides in Applix and HTML formats.

It might have been more appropriate to rename SunRayce_99 to Drought_Relief_99 since it was so wet...photos. There are already some photos from other Challenges and Rayces. Sunrayce has been replaced by Formula Sun.

I stood for election as a member of the Green Party of Ontario in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier in the 1999 Ontario provincial election. I also ran in the same riding in the 1997 federal election as a member of the Green Party of Canada and presently host all of the mailing lists for the federal Greens. On of my supporters, Peggy Land, did this with one of my campaign signs.

Here are the slides from a presentation Hugh Daniel and I did to OCLUG on February 3rd, 1999 about FreeS/WAN.

Here is a no-panic, common-sense checklist to preparing for y2k.

I've been car-free all my life...

Carole Sauvé and I got married August 29th, 1998. These are no ordinary wedding pictures!

I wrote this article for the Peace and Environment News produced by the Peace and Environment Resource Centre in May 1995.

I found what may be my earliest (2) posting on usenet. I am certain there were others, but I may not have been using my full name at that point... It says I had been trying to get X running on Linux since mid-April 1992, but it also mentions that I had been following it since Linux version 0.11 which was released December 8th, 1991...

Here are some pictures of other adventures. My photos subdirectory hasn't been documented, but you are welcome to browse for now. In particular, some of my work includes solar vehicles, trips and cats.

Photo Nookawarra Station (wikipedia) holds special importance to me. I worked there as a jackeroo for March and April of 1994. Here's an old map I was given by the station owner. OSM BR G
The Murchison Radio Telescope Observatory SKA (Square Kilometer Array) is less than 5km off the SW corner of Nookawarra station (map) Nookawarra is not far from the Pilbara, possibly the oldest place on earth. It looks like a german couple (Imke and Ralph) on a two-year bicycle tour visited Merv at Nookawarra in 2018.

For those curious, 'Slàinte Mhath' is a Scottish Gaelic toast. It is also the name of a song and its lyrics by Marillion, whose music very much inspires me (discog, lyrics).

The Conservation Co-Op Community Network (internal link) ran on my network and internet connection. I volunteer as an Information Provider at the Flora Community Web.

The FreeS/WAN Project employed my Linux kernel hacking and Unix device driver computer engineering skills. If you are interested, here is my resumée. Here are important links to the Rudyard Kipling poem The Sons of Martha, written in 1907, the same year as the first Quebec Bridge collapse during construction (August 29, 1907), and the story of The Iron Ring. A copy of the original publication in the New York Tribune from April 28, 1907. The Sons of Martha is presented on the walls inside the block house museum in Merrickville, Ontario where I first read it in 1992 during a cycling tour with my dad, a year before he presented my ring to me. Here's the official site. I'm a third generation engineer. My grandfather Arthur Francis "Frank" Mayou Briggs earned his Science '09 B.Sc. Electrical Engineering in 1909 from McGill. (Science 09 SCI'09 Science 1909 '09 Winners of the Birkett Cup(riflery?)) My father, David Christopher Briggs earned his BEng. in metallurgical engineering from McGill in 1956, his masters in 1968 and his PhD in 1973 from Queens. He was also in the McGill Outing Club, 1953 1954 and Choral Society, 1954. Dad's brother Bob graduated from Arts at McGill, 1953, then graduated from Medicine at McGill, 1955. He was also in the McGill Outing Club, 1952, Wrestling Club, 1954. (MUA honour roll 1914-1918 Pleasantview Cemetary: grandfather:AFMBriggs grandmother:PMLOttmann uncle:ACBriggs) (brother: great uncle:Walter Harold Briggs (1924)) Our son Nico has started Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa in french and expects to graduate in 2026 or 2027.
My brother Peter.
My great uncle Charles F. Ottman will be inducted into the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame for his postcard photography 1902-1906. Here are a few programmer (I really like the git animals.). (kernelhub profile, old)

My parents met at McGill, mum Jacqueline Bieler graduated in Arts in 1957. They were married in 1958. They were part of the McGill Outing Club 1955 and Choral Society 1955 1956(it is possible that is dad in the bottom photo).

My middle given name "Guy" was my maternal grandfather Gustave Daniel Alfred Bieler's nickname in the second world war, the end of which he never saw... He spent the last 6 months of his life in this cell (#23, numbered 1-40, from the right). The Ottawa Citizen ran a series in 2007 including this article about him. Here's the french wikipedia article which is much more useful than the english wikipedia article about him.

Articles

Google turns up a number of other interesting hits (and more and more).

A Bieler family reunion in the summer of 2008 resulted in a video from which this excerpt is taken.

His paintings and medals: (key)

  • Several postings listed under War Crimes.
  • UK National Archives index entry
  • The most secret list of SOE agents: A-Z
  • Locals mark the 70th anniversary where my grandfather was caught by the Gestapo
  • Leslie McKinnon, CBC news, 2010-11-12
  • Grandpa Guy's brother: Maurice Bieler
  • Another branch of my grandfather's family deals with first world war
  • MI6, Section D, SOE

    My grandmother (his wife) was Marguerite Geymonat, born in Bobbio Pellice, Italy, passed away the year before I was born, in Ottawa. (Ramsayville cemetary photos) McGill Yearbook, 1933 RVC Historical Club 1933 1934 Her brother Paul was Deputy Sergent-at-Arms of the House of Commons from 1959 to 1964 ( HOC 24, 3 HOC 24, 4 HOC 24, 5 ). Here is a mention in a North Carolina newspaper.

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