EVENT: June 9th Girls Inc Dual Boot PC Donation

[kejava]

We may not be having another event any time soon so I hope you can show up for this. The Philly Stock Exchange has donated 10 nice Compaq Evo desktop PCs to Girls Inc in Philadelphia (http://www.girlsinc.org/). We have teamed up with the Mt. Airy Computer Volunteer Group (CVG) to provide the recipients of the PCs with dual boot systems: Ubuntu 7.04 and Windows 2000 Professional. Up to 5 girls of ranging in ages 12-15 years old should be there. We will demonstrate the basic usage of the two different operating systems and the applications that are installed. Here's the rough time line for the day:

10:00 am --> Show up and setup
11:00 am --> Demonstrate Windows 2000 + applications
12:00 pm --> Lunch
12:30 pm --> Demonstrate Ubuntu + applications
01:30 pm --> Questions and Answers
02:00 pm --> Wrap it up and go home


Again, this is a rough idea of how things will go. Please use the poll to let us know if you're coming. The Girls Inc. people are buying us lunch and need to know how many to feed. For directions and other info, please see this event on our LoCo team's google calendar (http://meetlinux.com/calendar/).

As usual, sorry for the short notice. The install-fest seems to have eclipsed this event.

[jedijf]

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend Saturday - I will be there Wednesday - Unfortunately, I will not have a chance to play with the old world mac tonight as I am stuck in the office til morning.

I will be at malt wed even if its in a bread truck.

[andrewPCT]

A friend of mine is having his Eagle Scout ceremony on Saturday. For those who will be there, good luck and have fun.

[elizabeth]

Any idea what the parking situation is down there? Street parking? Garage?

[kejava]

On a Saturday you may be able to get metered parking but garage is always available.

[jedijf]

fyi - for garage and parallel parking phobics or take the train

there is a parking lot on 8th and market - open air - usually has space on the weekends - exit walking on 9th street and your only 5'ish blocks away. reasonable rates for cc.

http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107833541640468485872.000001130b30f574360e5

http://www.google.com/maps?q=1315+Walnut+St,+Philadelphia,+PA+19107,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=image

[lamalex]

I'm going to do my best, I told my friend James I'd go bike shopping with him Saturday so I will be in Philly at least. Hopefully I'll be able to make it.

[elizabeth]

Joe had photos up before I even got home:

http://www.joeterranova.net/photos/girls_inc/

It went well considering the time restraints and other pressures. Thanks again to Kevin who pretty much did all the prep work for this!

[kejava]

Hi Lyz. Thanks for recognizing that :) I should have pushed more tasks out to everyone else. I probably wouldn't have forgotten so many things. Oh yeah, I have pictures too. Is our the meetlinux site going be hosting pictures for our events? Presently I have no place to upload them unless I put them on tinypic, one at a time :/

[elizabeth]

Is our the meetlinux site going be hosting pictures for our events?

Yep, just email them to me and I'll get them up.

[bfledderjohn]

Good job Kevin, Jeff, Lyz, and Alex! I hope that I didn't miss anyone, but great job! I looked at some of the photos and it looks good. Alex, you shouldn't have checked yourself out of the hospital, just for this one meeting! ;-)

Well, now Kevin can get a bit of a breather. Although, knowing you Kevin, you don't ever stay at rest. What's the old physical law, "a body in motion tends to stay in motion."

[lamalex]

What's the old physical law, "a body in motion tends to stay in motion."
Unless acted upon by an outside force. I think his wife is going to be that force ;) As for the hospital, I think I'll be checking back in, my palms aren't healing and my knee is getting stiffer :\ I HAVE A RACE IN A MONTH I NEED TO GET BETTER!

[kejava]

Good job Kevin, Jeff, Lyz, and Alex! I hope that I didn't miss anyone, but great job! I looked at some of the photos and it looks good. Alex, you shouldn't have checked yourself out of the hospital, just for this one meeting! ;-)

Well, now Kevin can get a bit of a breather. Although, knowing you Kevin, you don't ever stay at rest. What's the old physical law, "a body in motion tends to stay in motion."

Thanks! We worked hard yesterday. I'm so psyched to be part of such a competent team. I'm really looking forward to more projects.

I do intend to take a bit of a break this week. But my emails and planning won't stop :) Jim and I are working together to get something going with one of MALT's classroom networks. Hint: LTSP. I also sent out a message to Manuel Portillo of the Open Borders Project earlier today. LTSP will quickly fuel the interest for massive installs. IMO, we still need a better way to image multiple drives quickly and with free software. We are working on that too ;)

I just added a page to the wiki that describes the changes made to the Girls Inc PCs (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/Philly/GirlsIncPCSetup/).

[lamalex]

well if we're using LTSP imaging multiple drives shouldn't be a big deal, the clients can be diskless no?

[kejava]

well if we're using LTSP imaging multiple drives shouldn't be a big deal, the clients can be diskless no?

LTSP is only being used for the existing networks in classroom environments. Better knowledge of mass imaging will still be important for PCs that go home with kids/adults, much like this Girls Inc project.

But yes you're right, ultimately it would be great to ditch installing to hard drives. At least, not so many. My long term plan is to work out a project where we setup a multiple row-house communities. Make someone responsible for the main terminal server(s). It could be outside in a weather proof lock box that we manage remotely. All the other PCs are thin clients, each house potentially having more than one. Only the terminal server will need internet access. $10 a month through wireless philly if you're on the Digital Inclusion plan (http://www.wirelessphiladelphia.org/get_wireless.cfm) :-) But that's another project all together ... Perhaps, when we're a part of the FreeGeek.org non-profit franchise. Uh-oh, am I getting ahead of myself again?

-kevin

[elizabeth]

FYI: PhillyChix page about the event: http://phillychix.org/meetings/060907.php

I'd be interested to know when the press release from MALT goes out too - any word on that?

[kejava]

I'd be interested to know when the press release from MALT goes out too - any word on that?Jim and I spoke with Greg last Wednesday. He said something to Jim that made it sound like it was moving forward, just very slowly. We should find out more this Wednesday night.

[elizabeth]

As the coordinator for the PhillyChix I received this letter in the mail thanking the groups involved for their work on the PCs - how nice! See the last paragraph where the groups are specifically thanked, there's Ubuntu PA!

http://meetlinux.com/images/girls_inc_june_20_thankyou_letter.jpg

[kejava]

Hey Lyz, I just got my letter too. Had it sitting in my todo box for scanning/posting. Glad you got it out. Probably would have taken me a few months to get it posted!