Geeky Demonstration

[P13808]

I have to do a 5-7 minute demonstration speech for school. Basically the only things I am capable is on a computer or math. Any ideas?

[cardinals_fan]

What are the requirements?

[mike1234]

I have to do a 5-7 minute demonstration speech for school. Basically the only things I am capable is on a computer or math. Any ideas?

Take a Live cd of Ubuntu to class. And then boot it. Even regular computer users will be impressed when they see an OS load up in about 2 minutes.

M.

[Dr Small]

Take a Live cd of Ubuntu to class. And then boot it. Even regular computer users will be impressed when they see an OS load up in about 2 minutes.

M.
Better not use Ubuntu then, unless you have alot of RAM. It probably won't boot in 2 minutes.

[BlackLLama]

yeah live cd is a good idea, especially you make your own live cd, with some cool apps on it, maybe with compiz on it or something, just pwn windows your whole speech

[mike1234]

Better not use Ubuntu then, unless you have alot of RAM. It probably won't boot in 2 minutes.


Says you. :D My Dell is P4 2.8, 512 ecc ram. Boots live cd in under 2 minutes no sweat.

M.

[damis648]

Better yet, if you have a laptop, hook that up and have a really cool theme and compiz running. Just blow them away. :popcorn:

[P13808]

Sounds good. Thanks. I'm testing my win2k laptop right now, see if itll work for the speech.

Requirements:
5-7minutes
Must be able to fit in room
must actually DO something
must be big enough to see at 10 metres distance

[crimesaucer]

You could do a "Customize Linux" demonstration.


Take a solid brand new install with the default theme.


Then add Compiz-fusion, emerald, a solid gtk theme, a solid icon theme, new panel, conky, desklets, dock, wallpaper, new gdm....


All within a few minutes and then show them how much better Linux can look compared to Vista.

[damis648]

You could do a "Customize Linux" demonstration.


Take a solid brand new install with the default theme.


Then add Compiz-fusion, emerald, a solid gtk theme, a solid icon theme, new panel, conky, desklets, dock, wallpaper, new gdm....


All within a few minutes and then show them how much better Linux can look compared to Vista.

Sounds like a good plan but maybe would be a bit too long... like 15 minutes?

[P13808]

Wow, good ideas. I'm trying to get this laptop to boot off the live cd. 2:30 so far.

[mike1234]

I did this in A+ certification class about 7 years ago at OSU with a Knoppix live cd. The entire presentation lasted about 15 minutes. And if you do this better burn enough disks for the entire class. I guarantee your classmates will want a copy. I burned 17 copies and all were gone after demo.

M.

[P13808]

I'm definately gonna have to use an install, because so far It's 6 minutes and it hasn't loaded yet.

[skintythe1andonly]

Might boot quicker for you off a USB depending on your CD read speed
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=740924

[mike1234]

I'm definately gonna have to use an install, because so far It's 6 minutes and it hasn't loaded yet.


That's too bad. You could load it and then shut it down, showing that it was all temporary. Just a suggestion. Or use a faster computer. It's a school that has computers? I'm sure they would let you use one for the demonstration. :D My system isn't the latest greatest, and I just timed the live boot on my cell phone stopwatch. 1:53.08 Less than 2 minutes.

M.

[P13808]

Its an old laptop. 130,544 kb ram. Doesn't say how much processor speed. 6GB hard drive free space(okay 9, but i need to leave some). Could I even install Ubuntu on this? I quit the live CD after 20 minutes and it gave up loading.

[mike1234]

Its an old laptop. 130,544 kb ram. Doesn't say how much processor speed. 6GB hard drive free space(okay 9, but i need to leave some). Could I even install Ubuntu on this? I quit the live CD after 20 minutes and it gave up loading.


I believe you need at least 256 meg ram to run in virtual. Like I said before, ask your teacher to "borrow" one. Hers. :)

M.

[P13808]

I'm started the installer. I hope I dont accidentally kill the computer. . .important police department data is on it(it may be my dads police laptop)

[mike1234]

I'm started the installer. I hope I dont accidentally kill the computer. . .important police department data is on it(it may be my dads police laptop)

I'm not sure if it will even install with that amount of ram. Or run extremely slow.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

M.

[cardinals_fan]

(it may be my dads police laptop)
It may be?! You don't know?

[crimesaucer]

Sounds like a good plan but maybe would be a bit too long... like 15 minutes?

You could have a compiz profile saved and ready to import, so to show off your favorite plugins and settings,


Have a emerald theme of choice ready to import, or bookmarked and ready to download, unpack, and then import.


Have your panel image or gtkrc-2.0 ready,


Have your gnome-looks.org gtk theme/icon-theme/gdm bookmarked and ready to download and unpack, and then place into the proper folders using the terminal or gksu drag and drop, or the ~/.folder.


Have a nice wallpaper that matches, ready to go.


Have a conkyrc script already written and ready to go.


Same thing for the screenlets... and since I've never used a dock app, I'm not sure how to make it configured fast.


It seems like all you would have to do is open the terminal and apt-get everything all at once.... while showing them that they could do all of that a little bit slower using synaptic instead of the terminal. (have all of your repos added before you start)


Then a few clicks and a few explanations and you should be finished.


reboot and show the new gdm, conky loaded with a start up script, compiz-fusin strarting from start-up apps, a nice splash screen....




.... It might be difficult to do all of that typing and configuring while giving a presentation.....


It's just an idea, good luck.

[smuki]

It would have been nice had things like this been around when I was in school, what a sweet project. Good luck with it!

[P13808]

I'm thinking about just bringing my computer. It can boot in very little time, plus that way I can have all the stuff installed and I can go the easy routte and make it look complicated(or at least not overly obvious)

[jimi_hendrix]

while it boots up you could give a brief history/description of linux because otherwise a teacher might think your "wasting time"

[zmjjmz]

I'm thinking about just bringing my computer. It can boot in very little time, plus that way I can have all the stuff installed and I can go the easy routte and make it look complicated(or at least not overly obvious)

Uh, that's what you should be doing.
I recommend the theming idea.
Bring some Ubuntu CD's too, and bring those themes on a flash drive just in case you don't have internet access.

[P13808]

Wow, this is getting unsimplified! Lol. Now I have to convince my mom to let me bring my computer(who cares if it's too big for my desk? I maage to get it in). Then again, maybe I'll do something easier on windows... eh, Hopefully I can use the Ubuntu idea.

Which (cant remember word) theme-like items work bestfor looking cool. Should I use the swerve windows and cube?

[jimi_hendrix]

work the cube into your demonstration...like start doing something that you can look away from for a second on one panel then cube over to another and start doing something else

[P13808]

darn. My computer is too large to get in to school easily. Linux won't load on the laptop(at least not the distro I use). I'm gonna go with a demonstration of the magic of HTML!(yeah, I know, weak, but I need the grade)

[zmjjmz]

darn. My computer is too large to get in to school easily. Linux won't load on the laptop(at least not the distro I use). I'm gonna go with a demonstration of the magic of HTML!(yeah, I know, weak, but I need the grade)

Actually, demonstrate the latest FF3.1 nightly.
This way you can show people a preview of raw awesome in web browsing form.

[P13808]

Can't do with a crash. Needs to be controlled. Sigh...have to use IE for this. Its old.

[bruce89]

Actually, demonstrate the latest FF3.1 nightly.
This way you can show people a preview of raw awesome in web browsing form.

One way to send people to sleep.

[zmjjmz]

Can't do with a crash. Needs to be controlled. Sigh...have to use IE for this. Its old.

Uh, no.
IE does not comply to web standards, and would be inappropriate for displaying HTML.
The latest FF3.1 nightly supports elements of the HTML 5 spec, in addition to the HTML 4.1 spec and the XHTML 1.0 spec.

[zmjjmz]

One way to send people to sleep.

"The magic of HTML" isn't much better.
EDIT: A good tool for this would be Notepad++, because it can put the code directly into a web browser (albeit limited to FF and IE).

[Corfy]

This is a suggestion that may be coming completely from left field, but if you can't use a LiveCD for Linux, how about a "Live Program" for Windows?

www.portableapps.com has a wide variety of programs that can run right off a USB key without installing on a harddrive, and all of them are open source apps (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, AbiWord, GIMP, VLC Player, etc.).

Granted, you do have to run the installer to get them on the USB key to begin with, but then they will run off any Windows computer that you can plug your USB key into without leaving traces of the program on the computer. I keep several of these programs on my USB key. They come in handy when I'm away from my computer. And it surprises people when I have these programs ready-to-run at a moment's notice.

[P13808]

Yeah, I got portable apps. I figure I'll go with notepad and IE. I figure once they start workng with computers THEN I'll conviently mention Linux.

(BTW, I may be demonstrating to a free community class how to use Ubuntu Linux. Havr to convince my committee.)

[zmjjmz]

Yeah, I got portable apps. I figure I'll go with notepad and IE. I figure once they start workng with computers THEN I'll conviently mention Linux.

(BTW, I may be demonstrating to a free community class how to use Ubuntu Linux. Havr to convince my committee.)

I hope you use Notepad++.
Makes things a lot faster. And I can't say I approve of IE, but I suppose you have other (http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Internet/Browsers/Portable-Google-Chrome-Chromium.shtml) choices (http://www.kejut.com/operaportable) that are lighter than FF.