jedijf - bread geek

Geek of the Week

2011-10-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

Great geek week. Busy.

Monday: Hive76 MMMM The results.

Thursday: Ubuntu 11.10 Release Party at National Mechanics.

Back story: The Ubuntu PA Local Community Team has suffered a little due to its success. Many of the original core members have moved out of state, and on to bigger and better things. Life has gotten in the way, with work and families. All good things, in their own rights, but has also created a decline in activity.

More backstory: At FOSSCON 2011, the keynote address, given by Elizabeth Krumbach, made me realize that if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Thanks Lyz! So after being inspired at FOSSCON, I decided to take on the role of 'Team Contact' for the Ubuntu US PA Local Community Team (LoCo). In the Ubuntu Community, it is suggested that the Team Contact be an Ubuntu Member. So I applied, and was awarded Ubuntu Membership.

Back to the party, now that you're all caught up in the journey to get here. Organizing the Philly Area release parties, and the venues in the past, was a little easier with a strong core to ensure success. All we really had to do was agree on a location area, verify that we could all get there, and book a venue. I would just find what area everyone agreed would be ok, and then booked at one of my clients diners or bars.

This time would be different. No real core. Lyz was going to be in town for the release day, and would be staying in Center City, Philadelphia. She suggested in irc that we have a release party since she would be in town.

Brilliant.

I asked my friends over at Hive76 where would be a good place in the Northern Liberty/Old City area to have a Release Party. (I really wanted to have it at Barcade, but their opening in time to adequately promote the event was questionable.) One of the suggestions was National Mechanics. I emailed them about our plans, and they were more than accommodating. I emailed the event info to GEEKADELPHIA, and they tweeted and blogged it. Awesome, thank you so much.

The morning of the party the RSVP list was looking like 20 people. Not bad. An email in the morning from the 732 area code (Central Jersey) asking if it was too late to come to the party. Never too late!

National Mechanics had 2 tables reserved for us. I put out some leftover 11.04 cds from Software Freedom Day to mark our tables. The people started to come. The givens, me, Randy, Lyz and MJ.
Then the magic started. The 2 brothers from PACS, waltman, Scott from PACS. Then the real magic started. The 'new' people. Sorry I couldn't get to everyone, but the 2 tables were so packed, and so much was going on.....it was.....pretty great!

Things I noticed: an upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10 on an eeepc by a Pumpcon organizer. (How cool is that?) A fresh install with an awesome looking cd. Cisco employee, Java developer, the NJ folk, and more. Everyone having a blast, checking out 11.10, and feeling all the geek empathy.

Forums, irc, and mailing lists are ok, but when we get together, irl, it's really magical. We owe it to ourselves to do it more often.

Thanks to all who came out, already looking forward to the next event.

Saturday: PACS

Great Geek Week.

Gtablet Modding - The Journey, so far.

2011-09-03T14:30:00.002-05:00

Hurricane Irene Saturday, around 7pm, with Irene to arrive in full force at around 2am.

The word on the net was that the stock UI was a lttile lame. I began to explore the device with the stock UI. Not too bad. Then tried to install some apps that I was using on my phone. Too much drama. I got the device to play with it anyway.

First mod: Cyanogen 6. Follow the guide, try to boot. No go. Soft Brick.

Thankfully, I found this link to reflash back to original. It flashes back to pre-3588. Attempts to update via the original update app were failing. Possibly storm related.

I moved forward anyway.

This time, Cyanogen 7 First attempt was thru ROM Manager. Fail. Have to pay to be able to download mods. Soft Brick.

Reflash back to original; see above.

Try to update via stock firmware again. Fail. Blame it on the storm. Time to sleep, watch storm coverage and see what tomorrow brings.

Awake, it's now Sunday. No storm drama here. Great. Continue with the Cyanogen 7 install, this time through the ClockworkMod Recovery option. Success!

It boots (all the first boots take 5-10 minutes) after rebuilding the dalvik cache. App it up, with all my favorite Android apps. Pretty good. Not great.

Then, through Google, I find out that Honeycomb has been ported to the Gtablet. Maybe I should try Honeycomb, this is for educational purposes, right?

First 2 Honeycomb attempts fail.

Have to flash back to original firmware before flashing to Honeycomb. RTFM.

Honeycomb boots, albeit slow; see above for why and don't panic. App it up, with all my favorite Android apps. Pretty good. Then I look for the camera app. No camera with Honeycomb on Gtablet. Why have it then?

What to do? I have seen good things about Vegan-tab, and you've got to love the name.

Re-flash back to original, install Vegan-tab, wait for boot. Awesome. It figures. The last mod I try, is the one I like the best.

Still not crazy about the form factor. I need a harness or something.

Hive76, Irene and My Gtablet

2011-09-02T18:25:00.001-05:00

dtoliaferro couldn't host the Saturday Open House for Hive76. I like the idea of weekend open hours at the space, so I volunteered to host, even though as a 'dismember' I would need a member to let me in. Brendan stepped up to let me in.

Aaron from PACS stopped by to check out the space. I let him play with my Teensy. Then 5 people from space1026 stopped by!

I am amazed how many artists are interested in technology. Unfortunately, they were interested in Artemis, and I am not familiar enough with Artemis or the Hive76 computers to get a game going. Hopefully, they will watch for the next official Artemis action and come back.

On the ride home, while browsing the web, I saw that HP was discontinuing the Touchpad and support for WebOS. Blowing out all tablets for $99/149 respectively. I tried to buy a $99 Touchpad, but they were already sold out.

That was ok. I really don't like the form factor anyway.

Then Woot.com had the Viewsonic Gtablet on Monday. Too much temptation to handle. I Woot'd it.

Amazingly, the Viewsonic Gtablet arrived on Saturday, about 14 hours before we were supposed to be in the midst of Hurricane Irene. Perfect timing. When better to have a new toy, than during a storm? Plug it in and charge it, prepare house(s) for storm, and then......the green light on the tablet. All charged and ready to go.

To be continued, let the hacking begin.

Shmoocon - My first

2011-02-06T14:18:00.010-05:00

How excited was I that day in November, when from my van, using a 3g wireless card, I won 2 Shmoocon barcodes. The 500 available sold out in 6 seconds.

Reserved my hotel room at the Hilton in Washington. Waited.

The Wednesday night before the Shmoo weekend we were hit with a snowstorm. I ended up working 36 hours those 2 days (Wed & Thurs).

Friday in the office to pay everyone, down to Delaware to see some clients, and then leave for Shmoo.

5 miles into my ride, after visiting my clients, my transmission starts to slip. Won't stay in drive; keeps dropping to second. WTF!!

As I limp back to Abington, PA, I cancel my hotel reservations and put my barcodes on ebay at face value.

I arrive home, dejected. My wife offers her car, which I decline. I sell one of my barcodes. I decide to try to get my father-in-law's Cadillac de-snowed and charged up. 4 hours later, in the Caddy, around midnight, I leave for Shmoocon.

I tried to re-book rooms at the Hilton, but the conference rooms were sold out and the regular rates were over $100 more per night. I ended up getting a room directly across the street at the Marriott. It's now 4am, Saturday morning, but I am at Shmoo.

9am Saturday morning I head across the street, grab a breakfast sandwich, double shot of espresso, and 'Let the Shmoo begin!'.

Meet Deviant Ollam. I purchase a set of tools. Stay for the beginner class. See some people that I chatted with at the coffee shop before registering. We sit down, and begin picking the ONE pin lock. Hours later, having picked the one, two, and 3 pin locks, I leave to grab something to eat at the McClellan's at the hotel. Sit at the bar, and order the crabcake sandwich. The bartender was very attentive, the food was ok too. Conversation with nearby geek was very good as well.

Back to the Con to check out the books, the Johnny Long Hack for Charity Table, and all the stuff going on. Ultimately, head back to the Lockpick Village. There is a round of 'Gringo Warrior' being played. Joey is the contestant. WOW...3 minutes and thirty seconds and a score of 430.

Joey then joins us noobs at the table and starts to assist us with our lockpicking. Great community. Others stop by and offer their Zen picking advice as well. End up picking a master lock, and revisiting (for my ego) the one, two and three pins. It's now 5pm, all the talks are over. Most are getting ready for the parties later that night. Starting at 8pm are the firetalks, and the Get Lamp screening.

I then run into, and say hello to Darren from Hak5, as we both head to McClellan's to grab something to eat. Also, have seen Irongeek, Shannon, and Jason running around the con, too.

Again to the bar for something to eat. the bartender recommends the fillet sliders. Pretty good, and great conversation with another barmate. I head across the street to my hotel to regroup.

On my way back across the street, I see the only person I really knew before the con, Jfrost, heading down the street with a group of folks.

I head back, but giving the incidents of work and vehicle leading up to Shmoo, I decided just to go back to the hotel and rest. Lame; I know.

Sunday morning, head back to the con to grab souvenirs, do a final walk-through, and head back. At the Lockpick Village, Hak5 is taping a round of Gringo Warrior for one of their episodes. DrTran (from Philly) is the contestant, so I join the crowd to cheer him on. Grabbed a teeshirt from Johnny Long I Hack Charities, "Gray Hat Python" from No Starch Press, and "Professional Penetration Testing" by Thomas Wilhelm from Syngress.

Before I left, I had the chance to welcome Space Rogue and the Hacker News Network to Philadelphia. He recently moved to Philly. We chatted a bit about the PhillySec group, Hive76, and Philly tech in general. I felt a little fanboy'ish; but whatever.

Not bad. Definitely could have been better, but those elements were outside my control.

Skype

2010-12-26T18:22:00.002-05:00

Skype - Ubuntu - Acer Netbook

Everything works, except for builtin microphone.

install pavucontrol (Pulse Audio Control)

Silence right input channel. Test. Internal mic should now work.

Skype your friends.

PACS Hackathon - aka 'Grinching the Box'

2010-12-19T21:27:00.003-05:00

It's been in the planning stages for a while now. Actually started as something to do for Hive76's hackathon, but that never materialized. Well, the hackathon materialized, but this part of the hackathon never materialized.

Penetration testing is cool. It just is. It is also a decent back-handed way to introduce people to the Linux command line and not have them come in with the preconceived notion that it is difficult and not for them. Didn't realize that part until right now.

Nothing fancy, nothing too hard. Concepts, tools, and thinking.

The setup was fairly simple. De-ice-1.100 live cd in a vmware machine connected to a wireless router, SSID sploit_me.

Audience participawnage was the key. Seeing is ok; doing is so much better.

The highlight for me, was when PhD Russ squealed aloud when a password was cracked. That's what it's all about! (I recently had the same outburst over a blinking led and a msp-430)

Ken, the security special interest group leader at PACS, wrote up a recap:

Thanks to all who attended the hands on HACKFEST workshop this
month. The turnout and participation was fantastic!

Jim from the Linux SIG led us all through the process of thinking
our way through a simulated penetration test of a hypothetical corporation's
web server. Starting with establishing a connection to the sploit_me
wireless network, we then reconnoitered the factious company's website for
clues that we could use to gain access to privileged information on their
servers. Using Nmap, we scanned their network for possible entry points in
the form of running services with possible well known weaknesses. We also
did a parallel scan using netcat.

After determining that an SSL port was open and secure shell was
running, we proceeded to brute force the user ids and passwords using medusa
and hydra -- two password probing tools. A brief discussion of password
security and research about the potential targets ensued during the
execution of the brute forcing tools.

The brute force attack resulted in compromising one account which go
us on to the system so that we could see what other accounts were present
and with what privileges they ran (/etc/passwd on linux/Unix, SAMS on
windows). Using these other accounts we brute forced another password using
medusa and hydra, at which point we were able to gain administrator (root)
level access to the system so that we could download the encrypted passwords
file.

Running that password file through the john the ripper password
cracking tool (alternatively Googling the hash value) allowed us to finally
gain full root access where upon we ran out of time.

We received much positive feedback on the event and we plan on doing
another one in the future.

Ken Fox
SEC SIG moderator.

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

LTSP Server Revisited

2010-12-11T18:24:00.004-05:00

Ever since Kevin Valentine demonstrated his 'rolling' LTSP setup at PACS I have been interested in this setup. It amazes me that organizations don't utilize this technology to develop labs and classrooms that are low-cost and energy efficient.

Thanks to eric (d_m) from Hive76, I acquired a Dell PowerEdge 1400sc Server, running dual p3 1000 MHz processors with 512 MB of ram.

Not an ideal box for a rolling LTSP setup as the damn thing weighs a ton, but a nice box. So here's the setup:

Description: Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.7 (lenny)
Linux version 2.6.26-2-686 (Debian 2.6.26-26lenny1)

Then I ordered and add max ram - 4 512 sticks (1 bad), so currently:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1816360 1748252 68108 0 117004 1277088
-/+ buffers/cache: 354160 1462200

Using so much, because LTSP setup and running and writing this blog post.

I could probably run 4 more clients successfully max. More testing/stressing to come.

Debian LTSP installation guide.

That will get you installed.

Package: ltsp-server-standalone
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 5.1.10-2

Some LTSP notes: users and apps installed to server, not to chroot. This seemed counterintuitive to me; more reading required.

Window manager to server, ldm setup in chroot.

eth0: LTSP

I tried to do eth0 for the network, and eth1 for LTSP. Too much drama. Conform.

On the server I installed Mutillidae and WebGoat.

Bonus Find: By doing the Mutillidae/WebGoat install and utilizing the LTSP server I have a contained web application LTSP setup.

To do: Add pentest iso's to vbox on server and have an LTSP hack lab.
Build hydra to work on Debian.
Find 5 laptops to use as thin clients for demos.

UPDATE - Captivate USB tether

2010-10-09T18:16:00.002-05:00

Ok, so the whole issue must have been the user and adding that user to the dip and dialout groups.

Once that was done, the network-manager-gnome setup worked flawlessly.

Sweet!

Captivate USB tether

2010-10-09T17:16:00.002-05:00

Thank you AT&T. After the 'update' to 2.1-update1 the usb tethering no longer worked automagically. In fact, the whole option disappeared.

I kind of liked the option of tethering, even though I have an Aircard 860 wireless laptop connect card. When FIOS went down after a lightning strike, the tethering really came in handy. Also, my netbook doesn't support pcmcia, so the card is useless for that box.

The odd thing is, when I plug it in, with usb debugging ON, network-manager-gnome starts, and tries to setup up a new wireless broadband connection. The connection finds the phone, sets it up for At&t, but doesn't connect.

So, plan B:

1) Add your user to the dip group (sudo adduser user dip)*user is your user name*

2) Add your user to the dialout group (sudo adduser user dialout) *user is your user name*

3) Make this /etc/wvdial.conf file:

[Dialer Defaults]

Phone = captivate

Init2 = AT S7=45 S0=0 L1 V1 X4 &c1 E1 Q0

Modem Type = USB Modem

Init1 = ATZ

Modem = /dev/ttyACM0

Baud = 460800

Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1, "IP", "WAP.CINGULAR"

ISDN = 0

Stupid Mode = 1

New PPPD = yes

Phone = *99#

Password = test

Username = test

Now all you need to do is:

4) wvdial

5) sudo ifconfig ppp0 up

You are now tethered.

Yoda van

2009-08-27T10:08:00.003-05:00

Sierra wireless Aircard860 at&t 3g

Iphone Speed Results

2009-08-22T10:22:00.003-05:00

Heck, while I am at it, here's the info for the Iphone 3g:

3G:

Download: 680 kbps
Upload: 355 kbps
Ping: 455 ms

Edge:

Download: 54 kbps
Upload: 51 kbps
Ping: 3123 ms

Home Wifi:

Download: 6306 kbps
Upload: 7405 kbps
Ping: 100 ms

Fios Installed

2009-08-21T18:01:00.002-05:00

I think the numbers speak for themselves.

Yourls FIXED

2009-08-16T20:02:00.002-05:00

.htaccess file did not scp to server; once that was scp'd any new url's work - so delete any url's made before the .htaccess file was there. Or better yet, make sure .htaccess file is there before you start.

Iphone, new Van PC, URL shortener, and FIOS ordered.

2009-08-16T17:52:00.020-05:00

Well, after all the escapades with my Treo 650, it has finally bitten the dust. Please bow your head in a moment of silence. Of course, I had just purchased a new sim card and 3 new aluminum

cases for it! But alas, too many random reboots, so time to get a new phone.

My carrier, At&t doesn't currently carry anything that I really wanted. First choice, an android option; no go. Second choice, Palm Pre; again no go. I had to go with the Iphone. Refurbished, $49.00, not bad at all. I have purchased the apps I need, mocha VNC, and iSSH program, really not that bad. Sync via Exchange to ONE of my Google Apps Domains; mail, calendar, and contacts. Everything else I need I can access via the web connection. So far, pretty nice device.

And I jammed the Iphone into the Treo aluminum case; fits real well, just have to pop the phone a little out of the case to use camera.

My mobile setup has been a little shakey, the Toshiba A75 Laptop that I use seems to draw a lot of current. It has been hacked with a devil tail, an external ac adapter plug, because of the bad connection on the motherboard, but it kicks my 400 watt inverter off. This has become troublesome because I need the laptop to work always in the van - so I have switched the mobile laptop to my Dell 6000. During the switch, I noticed that the cigarette lighter adapter plug to the inverter had melted a little. No problem; I have a spare 200 watt inverter - that works fine with the Dell. More on this whole situation as things develop - need to get new power wire for the 400 watt and find out why the Toshiba is drawing so much current.

During my daily review of Lifehacker, I saw this cool article:

Make Your Own URL Shortening Service

Got it all setup on my Dreamhost account - gave it a whirl - seems to work. Only problem; the shortened url doesn't resolve. DOH! More work to do.

I have been very happy with my internet provider, Cavalier. A static ip, not too expensive, and not Comcast. My speeds are not the greatest, and with all the internet access in the house, it's starting to show. Verizon FIOS ordered, will be installed Thursday.

That's all for now - more to come.

Treo Sync Revisited

2009-07-05T19:20:00.006-05:00

Ok, I am one of the last people who gripe about Linux. Seriously, I get infuriated when people come to Linux and give no effort to learn a NEW OS. Yes people, this is a different OS. It is NOT free Windows. If the masses, or at least 7 to 9% of them, would give Linux the same amount of learning time as they give to Apple, I am sure we would have an awesome market share. End of that rant.

Now to my gripe. My gripe is not really Linux, although I initially blamed Linux. Heck, that is the easiest thing to do; right? I have been syncing my Treo 650 with Linux successfully, on and off, for about a year now. I use a usb cable, and sync to both Jpilot and Evolution (via gpilotd).

Friday night, as I prepared to sync my phone, I went through my routine; open a terminal window and issue: tail -f /var/log/messages, so I can see my device get recognized and watch it get assigned. Open Jpilot and get ready to hit the Hotsync button after I initiate the Hotsync on the phone. When you initiate the Hotsync on the phone is when the device gets assigned. Hit Hotsync on the phone....nada. Nothing happens. Do this repeatedly, rinse, repeat. Nothing. WTF. Why can't things just work. Especially the stuff I have already had to hack together, that we then fixed, and no longer have to duct tape together.

When I started playing this sync game I had to write custom udev rules to make Treo get recognized, then the developers fixed that. Yay!

Then you had to have the right device, by watching the /var/log/messages so the apps, (Jpilot and pilotd) knew where to gather the info from. It could be /dev/ttyUSB1 or 3 or 5, depending on how incessantly fast I hit the hotsync button on phone. Device assigned in pairs, the latter is the one that communicates with apps; so assigned 0 and 1, 2 and 3, and so on.

Then the developers fixed that, so by setting the device in the apps as usb: it would communicate with the last assigned of the last pair. NICE. I guess many of us were clicking like lunatics, a practice I also deplore in others.

See, I have a little history with this nonsense. But, right about now, I just want it to work. Friday night it wouldn't work.

I look at my usb connector for the phone; many little pins, maybe a bad connection. Alcohol and cotton ball and clean the contacts on the bottom of the phone. No go. Clean more. Nope. Jiggle the connector. Hold connector to phone applying pressure up, down, left, right. More alcohol (same cotton ball, only had one). It connected. GREAT.

It dropped the connection.

That's it. I am done. No more physical (usb cable) hotsyncs. Time to get bluetooth working. Really working. Completely. Hotsync and all.

Previously, because someone else had questions about bluetooth, (which is usually how and why I get hacking stuff) I got bluetooth file sharing to work. Files from computer, and files to computer. Never tried to get hotsync working. Now it was imperative.

Coming next; Sync with bluetooth and bluetooth file sharing. Stay tuned.

Thinkpad A21m - Jaunty - Window Managers/DE's

2009-06-14T18:57:00.015-05:00

This Saturday Project was the IBM Thinkpad A21m:

model name : Pentium III (Coppermine)
cpu MHz : 700.000

Mem: 121520

I think that this machine should be able to handle Ubuntu Jaunty, so I give that a whirl.

Unfortunately, Gnome Desktop environment put too much of a strain on it, so once again, it's time to find the best Window Manager/Desktop Environment for this particular machine.

The Players:
1) Gnome Desktop
2) Xubuntu Desktop (whole meta package)
3) lxde
4) Fluxbox
5) Openbox
6) E16 (Enlightenment)

The install was a full-blown Ubuntu Jaunty install. After the Gnome failure, I added Xubuntu-desktop, lxde, fluxbox, openbox, and e16. I then removed the ubuntu-desktop.

*Note* I chose to start with the full install to create a machine that was as end-user friendly as possible. I have in the past used the 'CLI only' install via the F6 install disk boot option. This CLI only option is fine for me, but again, for the typical end-user it may not be complete enough.

The Jaunty boot time is a very respectable ONE minute and 5 seconds.

Now to the Window Managers. A quick chart to show from login manager to complete window manager readiness:

Gnome (Ubuntu) 2 minutes 50 seconds
Xfce (Xubuntu) 2 minutes 20 seconds
Lxde 25 seconds
Fluxbox 24 seconds
Openbox 5 seconds
E16 5 seconds

The responsiveness of the above window managers seems to be directly proportional to their load times.

I do realize that xlde is an Openbox derivative, but that 20 extra seconds adds configuration that I feel may be relevant to the typical end-user; desktop icons, panel with launchers, etc.

I again, would probably use e16, although, openbox has me interested as well. But for the purpose of this machine's build,the typical end-user; the choice is lxde.

Application preferences so far:

File Manager: Thunar over Pcmanfm
Web Browser: Epiphany over Firefox

Van Laptop Mounted Professionally

2009-06-07T09:29:00.004-05:00

This Saturday project was installing Ram Mount Laptop vehicle mount in the van. It went great. Test driven. Nice.

DSL to HD Install

2009-05-31T08:43:00.009-05:00

Ok, so this time I am going to try Damn Small Linux to hard drive install with APT.

When done using this, it uses the Debian Woody repositories. Just have to be careful that updating and upgrading don't interfere with anything specifically compiled for the DSL os. The exact warning quote is very telling:

DSL is not derived purely from Debian, if you 'apt-get install' the wrong application you may break something, for instance, the X servers. You may have trouble if you try to upgrade your whole DSL distro to debian (apt-get upgrade)! Another caveat is that some of the dsl binaries use BusyBox multi call binary (instead of separate binaries for find, ls etc). It causes problems when used in some of the scripts inside certain debian packages, for example xpdf. Use apt to grab individual
packages, but only the expert should try major system upgrades.

I have now done this twice - once with 3.4.x and with 4.4.10 - both with apt enabled.

DSL 3.8. on:

DSL 4.4.10 on:

Custom Ubu System

2009-05-09T10:46:00.008-05:00

Ubuntu Jaunty cli only ~ 377 megs

add xorg about 200 megs more - 575M

add xfce4 - not xubuntu desktop - 155mb will be used - 702M now

let's see....perfect. Now for some applications.

Web Browser: Dillo

Documents: Mousepad

Images: Gpicviewer

Nmap - have to have.

That's my basic install - using on a Dell Latitude LM 166MHz Ram:

Jordyn Gets Early Start

2009-05-09T09:36:00.004-05:00

First things first. Another very nice release party for PA Ubuntu LoCo.
(Philly/Southeast region)

Food - An Install - Questions about switching people from other operating systems - all good stuff!

Always a good time, if you have the opportunity I recommend attendance. The empathy of other Linux users will recharge your need to geek.

The only jaunty preparation I did was to install the Ubuntu Net Remix to a usb thumbdrive so people could check it out. It was a big hit, would've been bigger if I would have remembered my ac adapter, but the 2 hours of playing with it and laughing at the big icons on a regular sized laptop were worth the effort. (by the way, it seemed to be the right size for my middle-aged eyes)

The following Sunday I updated my home laptop to jaunty with the assistance of my granddaughter Jordyn. Went super smooth, only some workspace switcher issues.

The release party had reminded me of how well Compiz works as an advocacy tool - you don't have to like it - you don't have to use it - but believe me: it grabs people attention! So, I Compiz'd up my gnome session. I rarely use gnome anymore, preferring to use xfce, the Xubuntu desktop, but since the majority of users are using gnome, I like to have it a session change away.

Compiz and the compiz-config are super easy to turn a capable device into a cube spinning terror. Also, btw, no fglrx driver for jaunty, would the open radeon driver work? YES! 3d effects were NO PROBLEM with the open driver.

jimf@dell6000:~$ glxgears
3834 frames in 5.0 seconds = 763.588 FPS

I'll take it!

Still one Gnome problem: Nautilus would crash - opening nautilus from terminal pointed me to the preferences segment of gconf. I looked at the info in the gconf-editor and kept missing that one of the boolean options was set to 'false' - DOH - 'false' was interpreted as a string, and indeed, NOT A BOOLEAN VALUE. Reset the key, and all was well, a fully functioning, cube spinning, advocacy heroin, Gnome session.

Very nice.

Now, what desktop for Jordyn?

Dell Latitude LM

2009-04-12T09:04:00.004-05:00

Ok so after thinking I had some bad hard drives, and that the power supply on my imaging box was fried, I am back on to refurbishing the laptops that I save from the recycling pile.

The hard drives were ok, I did FRY another 2.5 to 3.5 ide adapter. My local computer parts store didn't have any. MicroCenter to the rescue!
MC only had one left, the plan was to buy two so I always have a spare.
Ebay and the Hong Kong parts to the rescue, 2 for half the price of 1 !!

Back in business. Two Dell Latitude LM's,

(SPECIFICATIONS:
Pentium/166 MMX, 256Kb of pipeline-burst cache, 40Mb of RAM, 1.6Gb hard disk, ten-speed CD-ROM, 12.1in SVGA TFT colour screen, 1.1Mb NeoMagic graphics, removable floppy drive, ESS AudioDrive ES1688 audio, integrated stereo speakers, 115Kbits/sec infrared serial port, one Type III or two Type II PC Card slots, lithium ion battery)

it's real nice when I get common machines, makes setting them up easier after figuring out the first one.

No boot - have to add pnpbios=off to boot line.

My default Puppy Image installed, but the video resolution on these old boxes was too low to run in an acceptable manner. Try DSL - couldn't get any video to work, let alone be acceptable. Ok, no problem, I'll make these cli only machines for people who want to learn command line.

Install Ubuntu CLI only Hardy - about 350 megs installed - NICE.

The tty font sucks - ugly - hard to read - dpkg-reconfigure console-setup to change tty fonts to something acceptable - terminus - clean.

Hmm, I know I can increase resolution and add a desktop; more to come.

Dreamhost - What a Bargain ! Dropbox in the cloud.

2009-01-11T19:40:00.010-05:00

Every morning when I arrive to the office I have a ritual; check all my email accounts, then check LifeHacker for any new info.

This LifeHacker post caught my eye - DreamHost offering 2 year domain hosting for $11.00.

I was late by one day, so the promo code only granted me the 2 year deal for $42.00. What the heck. I signed up.

I already have 2 Google Domains. One for work, and one for the family.
They suit what I need very well. Actually, they more than fulfill all my requirements; except the need to GEEK.

I have enough equipment and internet accounts that I could have set up my own server and done it all myself, but that takes time. This was easy - sign up - set up ssh access - good to go.

Now what to do with my DreamHost account. Don't really want to set up a web page. Ok, maybe this was a bad impulse buy. But, I do have unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth to NOT use.

DreamHost bosts 'Single Click' installations for a variety of web applications. I had some time Saturday night, and Sunday during the football games to give it a whirl.

First install: Wordpress - Easy - Just as advertised. See it here.

Next install: Gallery - Easy - Just as advertised. See it here.

Final Install: MediaWiki - Easy - Just as advertised. See it here.

My domain is jedijf.com, and the hardest, and still ongoing process so far, has been trying to get a favicon that I like. It is still a works in progress.

DreamHost ++ So far, so good.

Also, I would like to let you know about Dropbox. Another LifeHacker find; before the DreamHost find. Finally started using this as well this weekend. I like having things 'in the cloud' as I use computers at home, in the office, and on the road (literally). Using Dropbox for some photos for now.

New Year's Day Treo 650 Sync and Bluetooth File Transfer

2009-01-03T20:34:00.012-05:00

Pet peeve. Works; stops working. That's how it is with syncing my Treo 650 cellphone with jpilot.

Actually, had it working with my iBook G4 and Gutsy; maybe Hardy, can't remember because I gave up on Ubuntu PPC and the iBook. I do remember that it involved creating a new udev rules file so that the usb cable would be recognized when plugged in. Info here.

The Sunday after the Ubuntu US PA LoCo Intrepid Release Party I helped get someone else's Palm device syncing before I could get my own to sync. All the while acting like it would be a piece of cake and then being shocked as hell when it worked.

The following week I worked on my own sync. Googled. Read. There was a known bug, and a fix had been released. Use the proposed repos; a patch had been added. It works. I sync my Treo. Fix info here.

New Year's Day, January 1, 2009; it's time to sync again. No go. What the heck. It's 8:30 am, I have plenty of time.

It's now noon. No sync. I remember talk in irc of bluetooth. This laptop doesn't have bluetooth, but I do have a dongle. I think I'll give that a whirl.

Bluetooth is recognized. Kensington dongle. Pairing is straight forward. Now Google and learn.
hcitool - hidd - lsping - rfcomm - all good stuff.

Bluetooth File Sharing. It's a Gnome thing. Supposed to allow right click nautilus file send to devices. The nautilus part doesn't work. But, if you use the bluetooth applet and right click the applet you can send files that way. Very nice. Jpilot is great for calendar and phonebook, but for files it was lacking.

In Xubuntu and with Thunar, right click bluetooth send to WORKS.

Ok. Bluetooth is a success, now to the usb cable, the Treo, and the Jpilot sync.

Open a terminal and issue the command: tail -f /var/log/messages

Open another tab in the terminal now. In the new window type: sudo modprobe visor

Now plug in device. Initiate the sync; nothing will happen until the sync is initialized. Switch to the first tab and hopefully you will see your device getting recognized and a device assigned. Note the second device, that's the one you need.

Open Jpilot and set that second device in File - Preferences - Settings - Serial Port.

Start the sync on your DEVICE, then hit sync in Jpilot. You should hear the sync tones.

Now we want to make this permanent, so sudo /etc/modules and add
visor to the end of the file.

So what started as a bummer, ended up being a bonus. Learned a little about bluetooth and got bluetooth file sharing to and from my phone working.

Next phone project: Bluetooth Sync.

The greatest peripheral of the season!

2008-12-28T17:00:00.002-05:00

On December 13th (great number for future bday parties) our first grandchild(daughter) was born. Welcome to the world, future Linux Chick, Jordyn Taylor.

NJ Lan Party - Games DO Rock!

2008-09-01T13:28:00.008-05:00

Ok, so the NJ Ubuntu LoCo was having their Lan/BBQ party in two separate locations; Cherry Hill and Butler, New Jersey; connected by a server setup in Butler.

Having the opportunity to attend for a few hours, I headed over.

I had no intention of playing any games. Rather, I thought I could pursue some technical stuff while there.

My feeling had always been, computers are for computing and game consoles are for gaming. That's it. Done.

I had played games when I was younger, and was very obsessed. Hours spent with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Mario Bros. Even took my photo with the Endgame screen and sent to Nintendo Power magazine! (Still trying to find the photo to scan as proof)

Well, upon my arrival, Randy, Dave, and Joe were already there, and game playing was the only thing on their minds. What the heck, I'll give it a shot. Urban Terror. It was a BLAST. I sucked.

Then, things started to change. The Quigley clan arrived; Bryan and his two brothers. After a brief setup period, the air in the room thickened. Joe became non-responsive, as all his attention and focus was dedicated solely to his laptop. It was on!! The Quig clan was running, jumping, shooting, and sniping; Joe was murdering me from all angles and distances. I sucked worse. Even Harding, who I had only credited with the powers of bash, sed, and awk was fragging the hell out of me. Shit, I was getting killed by a Teddy Bear.

Then we started to play different games modes. The bomb game. I was on the blue team, find and defuse the bomb. At some point, we switched sides; I was so focused on killing RED people that I didn't realize I WAS A RED PERSON. Dossy I am truly sorry that I shot you, my teammate. Repeatedly. Then came the knife fight. Someone called knife fight for the next number of rounds; by the time I figured out how to choose the knife as my weapon, everybody was back to guns. That was like 6 rounds.

Somewhere in all that Lyz and Matt arrived; but honestly the gaming was going too fiercely at that point to really acknowledge their arrival. Plus time was flying, and I had a limited opportunity to play, as I had to get home to help care for my Maltese recovering from knee surgery. Four hours gone in no time.

On the ride home, I connected to the server from the van so I could spectate. As soon as I arrived home, I re-setup, got on irc and tried to entice others to join. Bstempi joined, Bts was still at work. They switched to Armegatron for a bit, so I had to download that and play that also.

Then I put on the headphones. DOH! I could hear footsteps and gunshots and other things that would help me play the game. It didn't. I still sucked. But now I know that sucking does have a sound associated with it! It sounds like bleeding to death.

FOSS - open source - open mind - have fun - I had a BLAST! Thanks everyone.

Ekiga DOES work!!

2008-08-16T20:03:00.003-05:00

Wonk wonk wonk. Can you hear me? Wonk wonk wonk. R2? Is that you? Can you hear me now?

Giggles from my wife across the room. Strange looks from my daughter. Welcome to the wonderful world of Geekdom.

For a long time now, off and on; more off, I have been playing with Ekiga for sip Internet calls. It has been terrible. The audio quality has been inaudible.

It all started when I took my wife to the Berlin Mart in Berlin, NJ. She loves marting, and I was passing time in one of the mart stores and noticed the Auvi usb Skype Phone selling for $9.99.

Couldn't pass that up.

Get home, set up Ekiga, plug in the phone and find a victim. See the first two paragraphs of this post; repeat the same for 30 minutes.

Being the hard headed techno fool that I am, I can't let it die there, or admit that new technology can be flawed, so on I push to make this work. Hmm, through diamondcard.us and Ekiga you can purchase time to use your sip phone to call landline phones.

Ahh, that must be the catch. That will make it work better. Get that setup, call my answering machine, my giggling wife across the room, and my own cell phone. That sounds pretty good. Sure it does. :-/

A couple of months go by. Joe Terranova is all bragging about his asterisk system. Not to be out-geeked I pull the usb phone out of the laptop case and ask Joe to hit me up at jedijf@ekiga.net. See first two paragraphs of this blog; repeat for thirty minutes.

Do I need another phone solution? No.

Fast forward to today. Kejava is working on his webcam. Don't know how it happens, don't want or need a webcam solution. I do own 3 webcam devices though. Cheap ones, the dollar store types (at least 2 of them). In the spirit of advocacy, and believing, or being made to believe, that newcomers may want webcams to work in Ubuntu, I begin a new endeavour. Finally, I realize that the my Jazz Digi-Stix does work in Ubuntu. It just has a bad proprietary usb cable. (That's why I have a third, not dollar store type of webcam. My son purchased that one when the cable broke on the Jazz.) At least now I figured out why he bought that webcam, he would never buy anything when he could use my stuff.

Tell Kejava that the webcam is working and the next thing I know, I am getting a sip call on Ekiga from Kejava. After fiddling with the cable and inaudible convo, and much irc chat typing of said non-conversation, Kejava and I have a brief dual video conference call!! Success. Sort of. The sound was still horrible.

Since both of us are relentless geeks, we continued; my video froze, but still, with a usb phone to my ear, typing into irc what I was saying, watching Kejava do the same, we continued this high tech conversation,

Then suddenly, Kejava's sound changed; it sounded normal. "Hey, I turned off 'echo cancellation, you try."

Voila. To make Ekiga work, I mean really work. No more 'wonk, wonk, wonk.'

TURN OFF ECHO CANCELLATION
in the audio codec section of preferences.

Gonna give this Bug Squashing thing a Whirl

2008-08-09T07:20:00.003-05:00

In an attempt to get back in the swing of things, and keep momentum moving along, I have decided to give Ubuntu Bug Squashing a try.

The hard part is I am not real good at defining what is a bug versus what is a "Linux challenge".

I just asked Dave Harding, who I respect, and who has identified bugs in the past, if something was a bug. I had already determined that in my mind, it wasn't a bug, but realizing that my thinking is often flawed, I decided to ask.

RESULT: My thinking is flawed.

I will have to take two steps back and read all the documentation that is provided, and submit to the fact, if something doesn't work for someone, it is NOT whining, or being a wuss, to report it as a bug.

Years of playing with Linux has brought me countless hours of joy and frustration making things work, that didn't work originally. For me, that's what this hobby of mine is all about. Some call it hacking, others tinkering; for me it's just relaxation and diversion from the daily grind.

This isn't going to be easy. I can already feel the frustration. Supporting users with something that I am passionate about is difficult. I tend to judge them, which is something I need to let go of.

If I truly give this a whole-hearted attempt, it may end of squashing some of my own psychological bugs.

That's a pretty decent two-fer!!

Let the squashing BEGIN!!

Yoda_Van now running Ubuntu!

2008-08-03T09:02:00.013-05:00

Ok, it's been awhile.

I'll start with the most recent and work backwards.

Yoda_Van now running Linux!!!

This is major for me. It never felt right using a non-Linux os in the van. Thankfully, that os
choked. I took that as the opportunity to Linux up.

For those of you who don't know, Yoda_Van is my mobile alter-ego. It is the nick that I use when traveling in my van. I use the alternate nick so that people know why sometimes I may not respond timely, or make seemingly horrific typos (damn potholes).

It didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped, and it is not completely finished, but here is the journey.

The original van laptop, IBM ThinkPad 600e, 400MHz, 128 plus onboard 32 RAM, formerly running XP, and an AT&T AirCard 860 Wireless Laptop Card.

First Step: Install Xubuntu on laptop - effortless, everything, with the exception of sound works.
(Sound not an issue, at this point)

Second Step: Install Pcmcia AirCard 860 and see what happens.

Card not recognized. No Problem, that's why there is Google.

Need firmware. Then need to setup an old-fashioned modem connection,
like a dialup connection. Hmm, never did a dialup connection, and from
what I have heard, may not be too easy.

These links provided all the info I needed:

http://darrenalbers.com/gprsec/aircard.html

http://demo.umelink.com/2008/06/ubuntu-804-aircard-775-edge-wireless-internet-set-up.html

http://www.sierrawireless.com/resources/faq/PC_Card/AirCard850_860/Aircard_Linux.tar

Install firmware and the device is recognized. Very nice, going smoothly. Now to try the GPRSEC application to do all the hard work, communicate with card, have all the proper
settings and get online.

Not so easy. Back to Google. ThinkPads have a problem. Conflict with onboard serial port. Easy, go to bios, disable onboard serial and rock and roll.

Ahh, what bios. Older ThinkPads don't have a 'standard' style bios config. Instead they have
"Easy-Setup" bios overlay gui (my description) with this odd hummingbird mouse pointer thingy. Basically a system test app and change bootup device- nothing much more than that.

Back to Google. Two weekends (project time) later, many config changes, and one reinstall to get changed config files back to original condition because I am too stupid to backup before I
make wholesale changes; still no go.

ThinkPad on hold. Grab Toshiba A75, my tri-boot Devil box; XP, BackTrack2, and Ubuntu 7.10 (Satanic Themed), with the devil tail ac adapter plug and give it a whirl.

Install firmware, everything seems to work. Fire up GPRSEC and get a connection!!!

Now put it in the van and see how it goes. The Toshiba A75 is a desktop replacement laptop; a power hog. The ac adapter is 120 watts. That's pretty large, as most seem to be in the 60-90 watt range. My 200 watt inverter couldn't power the laptop and my cell phone charger. Thankfully, I have a spare 400 watt inverter, a little bulky and loud but I NEEDED power.

Laptop fires up, AirCard Connects, and Yoda_Van now runs Ubuntu !!!

I feel so much better now.

Advocacy does NOT need to be FORMAL

2007-12-09T14:13:00.000-05:00

So after a recent discussion in IRC with the NJ Ubuntu LoCo gang (Congratulations again on achieving 'approved team' status), I figured I would make my feelings known to a larger audience.

There seems to be a 'lull' in user group activity recently. More and more people are becoming comfortable with technology; but this is not translating into more membership for area users groups. Hmm.

Along those same lines of thought; more and more people are trying Linux. The distribution that I am active in is Ubuntu. As a primarily grassroots endeavor, we need people to advocate it's use to others. I believe that all that is needed is the desire to share your experience with others. You don't need to be a 'guru'. I think that people will be more willing to take Linux and us seriously, if they have empathy with current users. People will feel more comfortable if it isn't seen as a clandestine, hex-counting, klingon-speaking, dvorak-typing, jedi-worshipping, card carrying group of underground hackers.

Whatever experience you can bring to the table will help us extend our reach. All are welcome. All that is needed is a desire to let everyone know. Let them know what you like, and what you don't like. What works seamlessly and what requires you to reach out to those mentioned above for assistance. I don't really care what brings you, as long as you come. Once you are here, you will see why we are here. It's fun!

Ubuntu is working, I believe, because of it's community. Both virtual and physical communities. If you don't take advantage of the physical community; meetings, events, and all the other social type things that your local groups are doing, you are only getting half of the experience. Come out, give it a try.

Many people caught up in the Ubuntu phenomenon aren't even Ubuntu users. That's great. Come out, have fun, we'll get you through osmosis. Even if we never get you; that's cool too; we enjoyed your company and I am sure that you helped us promote our cause.

Try it. If you like it; tell someone. If you can, help someone. If you can't, tell them where they can get help. Come to a meeting. Come to an event. Come to a party. Chat it up in IRC.

Come as you are, we all had to start somewhere.

Hope to see YOU soon.

pacslinux: organized and focused

2007-11-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

Wow. Sometimes timing just sucks. But as the Philadelphia Area Computer Society in whole, is going through some trying times, the Linux Special Interest Group, Pacslinux, is starting to get really good.

PACS is a general computer users group that has a $30.00 yearly membership. For that membership fee, once a month, the group meets at the Upper Moreland Middle School and has various SIGS (Special Interest Groups) covering many different topics. The facility is awesome and even provides cafeteria service throughout the day. Coffee and Donuts to start, and lunch offerings til 1:15. The school provides wired and wireless internet access, and various lecture halls and classrooms are utilized for the SIGS. The meetings are held on a Saturday, from 8am to 3 pm, September through June.

This is a great value for any area computer enthusiast, and I believe we all need to help get the word out of its existence. Even a casual enthusiast will find many things of interest to them. If at all curious, please check out the link above, and attend a meeting and see for yourself.

I joined a year ago, October 2006. I quickly identified the SIGS that most interested me, Security, and the Linux Sig, and began to attend and get involved. During this past year I have created valued friendships and through the connections made at PACS, branched out to other endeavors advocating Linux in the Philadelphia Area. It was at PACS that I met Kevin Valentine and found out about this thing called an Ubuntu LoCo. Checked it out and haven't looked back. As we progressed with establishing the PA Ubuntu LoCo in the Philadelphia Region, my Pacslinux group seemed to have no direction. There was a core of 5 or 6 members, but no real direction. We knew that this was a problem, but didn't address it until the summer, during the time when there were no meetings.

We knew that we had to establish a firm meeting schedule. What topics we were going to discuss, formally stated for each month. We couldn't just 'wing it'. Without formal topics it ended up being just a group of people sitting in a room having conversations. Sometimes 3 groups of people, having 3 different conversations about subjects not related at all. Very messy.

This year, with formal topics set, seems much better. Everyone has a fixed focus to prepare for, and we can, as a group, come more prepared to present a more accurate and full, presentation on the topic. So as fate would have it, as the paclinux sig is getting our act together, PACS the whole is experiencing serious difficulties. I hope that if we stay on our current path of stated presentations and good content, this will roll over and benefit the whole. I am sure that it will help.

Bottom line, as I babble, is $3.00 per month for the value at the Phila Area Computer Society is amazing. I hope that we can keep this going. Please help.

2007-11-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

PA UBUNTU LoCo EVENT

Just a blank event sign to use at events.

GET THE SIGN !

Grand-puppies Trick or Treat

2007-11-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

Ok well our grand-puppies came to visit for Halloween.

JazPleia, Yoda Connor and Darth Dax. My daughter takes after my wife, costumes take after me.

Gutsy Release / Halloween Party

2007-10-30T07:06:00.000-05:00

Zac you suck. Ok, my friend, and client, and owner of Drake Tavern, Zac blew it big time. I should have gone over it one more time with him on Sunday as I know that he is more concerned with the culinary side of things, than the organizational; but geeze. We have been planning this for a month. Him and I directly. I even stopped in Friday afternoon to re-confirm how it was going to go. Dinner at 6:00 for 27 people, followed by party and such at 7:00 pm.

My biggest failure was not making sure he knew to alert his staff, because as a virtual community, some people would not know who was involved in the event. Most of us know each other, but the goal is to get new people involved.

We missed at least two people, and they missed us. I hope there weren't anymore. I deeply apologize. I really wanted to meet the Ubuntero guys and they were the ones we missed. DOH! No excuses.

But, even with all that, as usual, when we get together, for whatever reason, it turns out to be a great event. And we did get new people!!

NJ was there in full support; Joe, Christina, Dave, Bryan and his guest. As always, glad
you crossed the Delaware. Plug was in full force with Lyz, Matthew, Brian, and Alex.
The rowdy young crowd (you guys aren't rowdy). Oh, and Stitch. PACS was there with Me and my wife, Randy and Teddy, Norm, Rodney, Rich G, Kevin, Jaime, Zoie and Ben. A new PACS member stopped by and picked up a Gutsy disk but couldn't stay. MALT was in the house!! That was sweet. Nate, who we met at the LoCo's MALT CVG classroom was at the event. (I think he's hooked). There were the Crowleys; Jack, Molly, and Molly's boyfriend; another awesome catch. And there was another couple who I still don't know, other than the guy had difficulty with the KDE desktop and upgrading. (Funny the stuff we remember) Larry and Marilyn came to support Ubuntu. Larry is an OS/2 user. He recently took the plunge into Ubuntu and has been attending the NTR Monday Classrooms. Larry great to have your experience with the team!

Alex advocated to a regular bar patron. We got Randy's Dell Ubuntu laptop all upgraded and good to go after issues with his Nvidia card after the upgrade (Hmm, zero xorg config). Blame automatix.

Next event: Note to self: Hang the BANNER. Give Lyz fiber optic cable.

Now to what everyone really wants to see; the photos.

Farmers Market Promotion in NJ

2007-10-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

Saturday September 22nd, 2007 - Event - NJ Ubuntu LoCo Farmers Market SFD FOSS Promotion.

After supporting the PA LoCo's SFD event, the NJ LoCo decided to have a public information event at the Columbus Market in New Jersey.

The one thing that I have learned in my LoCo experience is how large PA and NJ are. The NJ LoCo is trying to attract more active members from regions other than South Jersey, and specifically the Cherry Hill area. Like any organization, getting active members, to give freely (and not so freely) of their time and resources is the biggest obstacle. It is tricky to be active and not burn out your active membership. Support is vital and needed.

Anytime I can get together with other people interested in Linux I am pretty stoked. So after going to the office and making sure everything was ok, I headed over to Columbus to give a hand.

Dave was already there, had a table and was all setup. I pulled the van near the table so that power would be available if needed. (Note to self: Disconnect the outlet strip in the van and use all the power for the extension cord.)

Dave and I had time to chat, solve all the important issues surrounding open source, and prepare for the market's opening. We had Ubuntu Live cd's, the OpenCd, and FSuite (osX FOSS) leftover from the PA SFD event to distribute.

A little later Joe, Christina, and Bryan arrived and joined us. It was very nice. Juggling, socializing, discussing and promoting.

I had to leave at noon, and the morning went very quickly.

Software Freedom, PACS Drama, and Linux Community

2007-09-23T19:04:00.000-05:00

Saturday, September 15th, 2007, Software Freedom Day. Probably not Hallmark ready yet, but real important to a certain segment of the population. It is important to me. Even though, I am not as philosophically connected as some people in the movement, I value the community relationships that the movement helps to build and promote.

The timing of the day, the third Saturday in September, makes the day and PACS (Phila Area Computer Society) new season start a no-brainer for a recurring event. I hope that this is the first of many. PACS itself is a group that is trying to find itself. Maybe redefine itself, may be a better phrasing. The grand-daddy of users groups in the Philadelphia Area is starting to look and feel like a Kevorkian patient waiting for Dr. Jack. But hope was on the way. A new President, some new board members, and a new direction. Unfortunately, the new president had to step down, and now hope is on hold. I know that at least myself, and a couple of my friends, that are also members, know the value of the organization, and will do everything possible to keep it viable.

But now to the event. The good stuff. The stuff that is why the organization is too vital a resource to let bureaucracy and ego destroy.

Again, 4:00 am, can't sleep. Nervous and anxious. Chris, the network engineer for the organization, has an immediate family illness to deal with. He says he'll stop by for a few hours and help setup. I try to let him know that he has to take care of his family first; I am sure he knows this; but I just wanted to let him know that everyone would understand if he couldn't make it. Chris and his son are there at 7:30am, with 2 new awesome banners. One for the PA Ubuntu LoCo, and one for PACS. Amazing. Thank you Chris and Jason. Hope everything gets back to normal soon. Ronn Homer, the new and former President was there at 7:30am also. Let the games begin.

Start setting up, and Randy and Teddy show up with the TTCS cd's and more OpenCd's too. Wireless is setup, banners are flying, and my stuff is in the cafe. 8:00am and the Security Sig gets started, and there seems to be an issue at the membership table. Let me see if I can help.

Apparently the Commodore Sig that was discontinued wanted to return the PACS funded equipment that they had accumulated throughout the years. I could feel the tension, and rather than have it escalate, I offered to take the stuff and offer it to people; and get rid of it if no one wanted it. Not a good start, but what the heck. Better than a geek brawl. Three handtruck loads later, a complete Commodore 128 system, software, peripherals and a Commodore 64 Color computer were taking up space on two tables in the cafe. Well at least that is done. Commodore Sig guy leaves, all seems well; back to the membership table for some new member schmoozing and map assistance. OK, some people arrive to help with the membership table, now to setup some of my stuff. Not so quick, a quick question, maybe you can help with....(Insert any stupid topic here). Then Scott, my new neighbor, who I told about the event shows up. Nice. Get him a Sig list and a map, unfortunately, no time to chat, have some stuff I would like to setup, and actually wanted to get to Security Sig. No such luck. Oh well, that's the price of fame.

Back to the table to setup, wait, a quick question, maybe you can help with ....(Insert any stupid topic here); not this time, sorry, I really have to get setup; come back a little later, and I'll see if I can help you. Geeze, this is getting ridiculous. Matt shows up. Awesome. Met Matt and his family at the PA Ubuntu LoCo Bar-B-Que. He offered to do a MythTv demo and we took him up on it. Then James and Matt from PLUG arrived to setup their Kiosk Demo. Nice, everything moving along. Crowd seems like a normal PACS crowd, no throngs of new people. That's alright, it's still early. Sort of. Elevenish, hmm, where are the Jersey people, Joe, Christina, Bryan, and main presenter Dave. They have my phone number, and Joe and Christina have been here before; relax. They're here.

Lyz and Mike arrive, with loads of equipment and start to setup Michael's Audacity Demo.
Ronn Homer resigns as President. Dave does the main presentation. 70 people. Nice. While Dave is presenting, I finish the setup for afterwards and try to eat something. Oh yeah, and of course, coffee, cigarettes, and Red Bull.

Randy mans the free cd table after the presentation, and gives out 62 TTCS cd's and 62 OpenCd's. Lyz and Michael handle the Ubuntu cd's. The Mac Fsuite cd's that Cindy, my wife burnt, are over by my PPC setup. Actually, only the iBook was setup, which isn't really a setup, just turned on, I never had the opportunity to setup the Blue & White G3. Doesn't even matter, that's what's great about Macs, they just look so damn good people don't even know or care if they work. For reference its a G3 with Xubuntu installed that did work in May. Alex shows up and starts to help with the crowd. Of course Norm and Rich, the Pacslinux guys were helping and Kevin and family show up. Nice. And Kevin has the Sony 200 cd changer with him. Everybody has been wanting to see that. Joe T, Bryan, Dave and Mike B check the Sony out. I know they like it. A good hour and a half of demos and such. Great job again. Let them eat cake.

Out to the van, and bring in the 'Thank You' cakes for all the volunteers from outside groups who came and did awesome demos for the PACS crowd. Probably the best part of the day. The Linux community, coming together, to show off their systems and what they can do. All different groups freely giving their time and talents. WOW. PLUG, PA Ubuntu LoCo, NJ Ubuntu LoCo, and PacsLinux all supporting this event. A little discussion of the future for all of the different groups and their various agendas, such as the PA & NJ Ubuntu LoCo's Gutsy Release Party Plans, Matts MythTv Installfest Phase One, the aKaDEmy Convention, and the possibility of having it in Philadelphia, and the NJ Ubuntu LoCo's Farmers Market Outing.

All in all a good day. Despite the efforts of Randy and his massive flyering, we did not get throngs of new visitors. But I am sure that his work was not in vain. I am an advocate of advertising and promotion, anytime your name is out there and seen, it is a good thing. Sowing the seeds is the only way that a harvest can happen. Great job planting seeds Randy, I am sure this year's PACS crop will show that your efforts were worthwhile.

The family that FOSS's together....

2007-09-09T14:05:00.000-05:00

Well, we did it. Yesterday, my wife Cindy and I went around posting Software Freedom Day flyers at local colleges and universities.

After yesterday morning's discussion about the state of women in Ubuntu, we both thought it very appropriate to place a flyer on that bulletin board at La Salle University.

It was a nice way to spend some time together on a Saturday. We posted flyers at La Salle, then Arcadia. At Arcadia, where our oldest daughter Lisa is going for her Master's Degree in English Lit. Education, we took some time to check out the campus and its magnificent buildings.

After those two, we took a break for dinner at the Inn Flight in Abington and headed down to Penn State Abington campus. From there to Blockbuster to return some DVD's and pick up "Pirates of Silicon Valley". Not that good, but interesting none-the-less. After Blockbuster we headed to Temple Ambler Campus and posted more flyers.

Nice day. 50 flyers posted. We then headed home so Cindy could complete burning the Mac 'Freesmug' Fsuite cd and get started on burning 50 more OpenCds. I worked on my 'email the local colleges' project and watched the dvd.

Finished the emails earlier today. Now dealing with work issues.

Big week ahead. Hope to see everyone at Software Freedom Day at PACS!

If you can't beat them, JOIN them!

2007-09-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

Wow. Advocacy by osmosis. My wife, Cindy, who claims not to be computer literate, has taken interest in my computer activities.

Her spider senses may have thought that this new obsession was not of pure motive.

Haha. No I am not having a cyber sexual affair. I am actually trying to help people, and at the same time help myself. The more I get involved, the more I learn, and the more relaxed and less work obsessed I become.

Well this morning, she decided to join the fold. She needs to do community service as part of an education class that she is taking and has been in a quandary as to how to fulfill this requirement.

After our morning discussion of gender bashing, precipitated by Lyz's anguish the night before, and while I was burning Mac FOSS cd's for Software Freedom Day, she realized that she could help me with promoting SFD and get her required community service requirements fulfilled at the same time. I am not sensitive, but I am really loyal. When one of my teammates is affected, I will try to help them; even if I don't understand. I don't understand the women issues, I am not a woman. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't try. It is understood in our household, that all matters of right and wrong are arbitrated by my wife, Cindy. I can talk openly and freely with her and get her insight. She knows me, and accepts me the way I am, and I value her insight into the things I just don't get. We complement each other well.

She then asked me what all this Software Freedom Day stuff was that I had been doing, and how it applied to people like her, her fellow workers at the daycare center, and her classmates.
She represents our target audience well. She doesn't really know, or want to how the computers work, she just wants it to work. I explained to her that she is using FOSS software, albeit Windows software. But she realized, on her own, what about people that didn't have "Power Point" or a husband like me, knowledgeable about FOSS; how would they be able to complete their class assignments that require "Power Point"?

After a half-hour dissertation about free vs. proprietary, and the proclivity of bootlegging as a result; she now understands the argument and the need for FOSS. She also made me promise to assist her co-workers, who are also classmates, with any technical issues they may have.

So, now, this afternoon, we are going out and promoting SFD at PACS together. And maybe, just maybe, if we can line everything up, she will be joining me at the event next week.

I really hope so.

BBQ was HOT - MALT on Fire - NTR Rekindling

2007-08-14T07:16:00.000-05:00

August; supposed to be slow because of the time of the year and vacations and such.

NOT with the PA Ubuntu LoCo.

BBQ - Socialize - Two uncommon sounding things in our little world; except if BBQ means microwaved hot dogs, or at most Forman Grill; and socialize is our irc chat room (relationship is pm). But Saturday August 11th at Norristown Farm Park all the stigmas were shattered. Armed with food, snacks, beverages, desserts, salads, plush toys and teddy bear treats, the PA Ubuntu Loco and invited guests from other groups and mailing lists descended upon the park and got our BBQ on. It was a great time! Met a whole bunch of new people and for me personally got to meet another of my local philly linux heroes; Michael Toren. As a Linux user who has been in the shadows for many years, because of business, family, and lack of time to commit to anything more than lurking websites and mailing lists; it was a pleasure to actually meet Michael. Plug's website, and members bios exploration has been my only contact with the Linux community for many years until recently. We could have gone on longer, and at the end, I don't think I was really ready for it to end; but, hopefully, it was the first of many to come. I think that having such a positive first experience will lead to more and even better summer get-togethers. I am already psyched for next year.

MALT - The Mt Airy Learning Tree CVG Computer Volunteer Group Project that Kevin has been working on/with for about a year is starting to shape up into a steady ongoing advocacy outlet. We recently partnered with MALT and Girls, Inc. for a project and have been trying to establish a LTSP classroom in their lab. The group meets weekly, but also has their own projects that need to be completed.

We have established the last Wednesday of the month as "The Linux Meeting" at MALT from 7pm to 9pm. Every Month, this meeting will be focused on allowing the volunteers to experience, administer, and play with Linux. The LTSP setup will be used to accomplish this. Hopefully, we will be able to get enough permanent thin clients to have it set up full-time so that even when we are not around anyone can have the Linux experience. More people; Randy and Brian, have shown up recently. The project is starting to take off; great work Kev, thanks for hanging in there when the going got tough.

NTR, the site of our first installfest, has reached out to us based upon the success of the installfest and the recent public interest in Linux and all things Ubuntu. Stan, the director has asked if we could train his staff at NTR on the installation of Ubuntu. We are actively working on this project and first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday August 22nd for 10am to 2pm.

August 22nd - NTR Install Training

August 29th - the First Official MALT Linux Meeting

Software Freedom Day
Saturday September 15th at PACS,

and work on Offensive-Security 101 class.

August is now FULL of EVENTS

2007-07-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

Wow. I am involved with some very active groups. PACS, PA LoCo, and the NJ LoCo.

At PACS we are actively promoting the Software Freedom Day coming up Saturday September 15th. This is an important event for an organization that is at a crossroads. When it was started, in 1976, PACS was the only game in town, and reigned supreme as the place to be if you were into computers in the Philadelphia area. But things that don't change; die. Everything is always in motion and failure to recognize and react is the downfall of many organizations, businesses and relationships.

The PA Ubuntu LoCo is having our BBQ, August 11th, at Norristown Farm Park. This will be nice, to get together with the people that we are normally online with.
What's even better is that we can hang out without having to 'do' an event. My previous meetings with Alex and Lyz were so short. We were in the same place for a long time, but the event(s) took precedence and didn't really allow any time for social interaction. The BBQ will change that, the whole event is about us being social. Cool.
The MALT CVG LTSP Project is finally taking off. Kevin has worked his ass off. Spent months lobbying, trash picking the server and setting it up. I have provided moral support and been a cheerleader. I am happy to see all of his hard work payoff and now the actual project can begin.

And finally, the NJ Ubuntu LoCo is having their BBQ on August 11th also. Due to my commitments in PA I won't be able to attend, but will provide items for their event also. I will miss not being able to attend. I have only met some of the people, other then Joe and Christina, one time, at their Installfest. They were passionate and fascinating. Hell, I've only met Joe and Christina twice, but they feel like family. Joe is a surrogate PA LoCo guy and Christina is a Christian Brothers' Girl with PA roots.

Just wasted an hour and a half trying to promote SFD at the Hatboro Auto Show. Made 900 business card size announcements and planned on handing them out to the crowd. Didn't really work. Actually, didn't work at all. Wish I would have flyered the town before the show and just let the flyers do the work. Didn't have time to do it. Lost an opportunity. Saw some nice cars though!

Gave out 10 announcements to Geek Boy Press, an artist with a shop (gallery) in Hatboro. Anime/Cartoon Type characters.

890 announcements and 60 flyers left to post. Emails to send out to all the local colleges, radio, tv and cable outlets. I will do a little promotion each day until Sept 15th. Slow and steady wins the race.

I do wish some people would help with promotion, get out to Mom and Pop computer stores, post flyers, send some emails. Thanks Randy, keep up the flyering!

Hey, It's summertime - Time for NJ

2007-07-01T09:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally did it. I joined the NJ Ubuntu Loco. I have been lurking around the Loco, following Joe Terranova, and trying to help as much, as he has helped us, in PA. I do what I can.

I have felt an allegiance to this LoCo because at least half of my life is spent in NJ, and many of my business contacts are there. But, initially I joined the PA LoCo where I live. Joe Terranova through his involvement with PA and NJ, has shown me that both is possible.

The whole LoCo experience, has been a positive experience for me. Blood pressure is down, and I am not as work obsessed. So I am going to run with it.

I attended the NJ Installfest, after taking care of a bread emergency which brought me into NJ. After meeting the membership of the Loco, I decided to officially join the NJ LoCo; if they will have me.

This does not alter my status with the PA Loco, as I will stay as involved with them as I have been. This is merely a further commitment for myself, to assist the NJ LoCo, with all my efforts when I am in NJ.

I don't want either of us, the NJ LoCo or myself, to look at the help I give as coming from PA anymore. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I want to be a part of this team also, independent of what we are doing in PA.

For all intents and purposes, I have dual-residency; I sometimes sleep and shower in my office; so now I have dual-LoCo membership as well. It is complete. My life, my work, and my Loco's are all intertwined. There is harmony in the Force.

LoCo - PACS - PacsLinux - All Coming Together

2007-06-24T13:57:00.000-05:00

Wow. I have been busy. Posting flyers to help the NJ Ubuntu LoCo with their upcoming INSTALLFEST, Saturday June 30 at the Cherry Hill Library.

http://nj.ubuntu-us.org/node/5

Flyers are posted, but still need to post more this week, hopefully will get to Rutgers - Camden, and some locations in Marlton and Haddonfield.

Trying to get a speaker for the PACS meeting September 15, 2007. Working with the new and former president has been very productive so far. Ronn Homer, son of one of my talk radio heroes, Evil Irv Homer, is the PACS president for the upcoming year. Ronn is dedicated and wants to promote and try to revitalize the organization which has lost some membership recently.

Thanks to Joe Terranova, Kevin, Lyz, Alex, and the whole PacsLinux gang, and the recent presentation, PACS is very interested in working with the Ubuntu-Pennsylvania LoCo on a full-time basis. Hopefully, in the Monday night IRC chat, PacsLinux will approve David Harding as a potential speaker for the Software Freedom Day event, Saturday September 15, 2007.

Ronn has given me the go ahead to book the speaker for the PACS event for SFD, but since I brought it up to the group first, I think a consensus is the right way to go. Someone else may have found a speaker also.

I have been a voyeur of David's stuff for awhile now. I enjoy the CHLUG mailing list immensely. Dave is very active in the mailing list and CHLUG, and the recaps of their meetings and presentations are great. I just wish that they weren't so late on Friday night. I am actually content with the recaps after the fact. I really don't have a choice, actually I do have a choice, but I don't want a divorce, so I will continue to be a voyeur.

And to add to all of this, The Ubuntu Community Council finally set a date for their next meeting. I had been waiting for this date to support Joe Terranova, who added himself to the agenda for membership.

+1 Terranova

And now the Ubuntu-Pennsylvania LoCo is up for approval on the same date.

Tuesday June 26 at 9:00 am til about 11:00 am is going to be insane.

That's what I have been doing, and looks like I will continue to do.

1) NJ installfest (Last week to promote)

2) PACS Software Freedom Day -
a) Speaker
b) Promotion (More Flyers)
c) Mailing Lists - ntr - malt - have to tap kev as a resource

3) Pacs Linux Software Freedom Day - Demos

4) Offensive Security 101 - Great Course

5) Malt + CVG Project(s) - thank god, a two week reprieve for construction.

Gotta go, I am already behind in my projects.

Welcome All New Ubunteros!

2007-06-07T07:58:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Ubuntu Community to all of the people who allowed us to install Ubuntu on their computers.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/Resources

We need your support.

A big thanks to everyone at NTR for all their help and for allowing us to use their establishment for this event.

A big thanks to all the volunteers who came out and freely gave their time to make this event a success.

Thank you to all of the LoCo members who could not attend, but whose work leading up to the event made it possible to achieve the results we achieved.

Amazing Installfest

2007-06-03T08:51:00.000-05:00

First of all, I would like to thank NTR. Without Stan and the whole crew at NTR the installfest would not have been the great success that it was. Thanks Stan, Chuck, James, Marcel, and the thrift store lady.

It's 7:30 am the Yoda Van is loaded and ready to go. Time to go to Wawa and Dunkin' Donuts and grab the cream cheese and coffee. Fire up irc chat - bam - Lyz must have been waiting for someone to arise - Lyz explains that she would not be able to attend. Bummer. Totally understand. All the preparation that Lyz performed was vital to the success of the event, it is truly a shame that she could not attend. I hope that all the blogs, mailing list, forum entries, and hopefully photos, give her and everyone who could not attend a glimpse of what they missed.

Grab Randy (aka Teddy D Bear) and Teddy and head down Broad st. Alex and Gabby arrive, followed by Stan and Kevin. Its ON.

James, one of the NTR employees that I had met on a previous visit arrives. He's excited. After 120 hours of work all NTR employees get a computer. When I had met James, he had just purchased a Red Hat Administration guide because of previous talks with Kevin, and looked forward to attending the installfest to watch. Well today Stan would be giving James his computer; a g4 Power Mac. He was truly excited.

Stan opens up the workshop and the preparation begins; the only thing that we really had to do was setup the greeting table (great job Gabby and Alex) and verify that all the tables had a working network connection. Everything was perfect - 10 tables setup. It seems that as soon as we were setup, people started to arrive.

(Please forgive me with the names, I remember faces and computers and setups, and there was a point in the day when; bam; there were people everywhere coming from all directions. As I try to recreate the goings on, I apologize if I miss you, your computer, or the setup)

Owen was the first arrival I remember. He heard about us via PACS and came on down. He didn't bring his computer. No problem, he lives in NE Philly and thankfully had enough time to go home, get the box and return.

Musa arrives with his uncle. Musa has two laptops, his and his fathers. I begin to work with Musa, as kevin takes his uncle. His uncle has a legacy laptop (very similar to an Acernote that I had) and kevin goes to work with a puppy install. This was a tricky install, no cd, pop the hard drive, put it in a desktop with a 2.5 to 3.5 converter and install os. Pop out and put the hard drive back in the laptop and pray. Sometimes it just doesn't work, but the uncle was cool with it and checked out the NTR laptops and was going to get one of those as soon as possible.

Rich G shows up with his linux box that has a sound problem and Randy gets to work on that.

Dave from PACS shows up with a laptop and Alex goes to work.

Ben shows up after the SAT's followed closely by Chris F. The troops have arrived. Another gentleman shows to help - don't know him at all but he was great.

I am about to finish with Musa's install and he's on the cell phone telling his wife to bring down the desktop and call people and tell them to bring their boxes. WOW.

Marcel, one of the NTR employees, comes in with a box. Young kid, very interested, so we start on his install. Smart kid, young and interested. He basically does his own install; Ubuntu is a little too overwhelming for his box, so I switch him to Xubu and he does his own. Install completes, and he spends the rest of the day theme-ing up his install, setting it up the way he wants, and helping me with installs. We created an Ubuntero!

Joe T and Christina arrive and get busy helping.

I see a bunch of people I recognize, the 2 mac brothers, and the beryl concrete driver with the disco HP from PACS. A lady from MALT ( I think) and Owen returns with a HUGE desktop (got enough room for expansion, Owen?)

Musa's wife arrives with the desktop. She has a Mary Kay cosmetic business, so I get her setup and show her that Ubuntu has all the software that she needs to run, manage and promote her business. She calls her sister-in-law and another friend and tells them to get down here. Her nephew Christian is with her and I tell him that when his mother and friend arrive that he's going to do those installs. He's ready for the challenge! Nice family. Their daughter was there all day and was amazingly well behaved.

Chuck from NTR gets a chance for him and Randy to start the external drive install and James comes in with his MAC.

While James is patiently waiting for someone to get started on his Mac, Stan gives him a desktop and a laptop to install Ubuntu on. James successfully completes the desktop, but can't get the cd to read on the laptop. Good job James.

There is a guy, I don't know him, who installed on his laptop, and then on a new drive on a desktop. All by himself, just wanted to do it at the installfest in case he had any problems. Good job that guy, way to go; glad we could be your security blanket.

Terri, Wes, and the young man (Michael, I think; decaf coffee drinker) from Malt arrive and Kevin and Alex start to assist them.

Now Joe Mac aka Joe Terranova, starts to perform the install on James' G4. During this time I see Kevin and Joe muttering something about Jobs and Woz, and their hardware platform. What year is it? What time is it. Sudo. Sudo who.
PPC, not for the feint-hearted. Joe Mac summoned all the lessons from his previous Tang Soo Do training and eventually beat the Mac. Kamsahamnida!

Christina goes from Ubu brown to Prince purple.

Tom the construction guy from the northeast who saw Kevin's flyer that I posted on Cottman ave at the former Coffee Tree Rest shows up. I had been wondering who took the tabs off that flier, if they registered, etc. Everyday on the way to work I pass and watch that flier. Saw tabs missing, and actually got to meet the guy who grabbed a tab.

Vinay and his wife, the linux wife, come down from Downingtown. He is instructed by his wife to have linux installed on the Dell laptop. (good woman)
Ben immediately starts to attack the machine.

Rich S, Pacslinux sig leader, shows up looking for help with one of his boxes, and Chuck from Ntr starts to help Rich.

Now to the parking lot, to release a few of the attendees. The parking lot is crammed, Musa's family is back to pickup their pc's, and people have to leave.

Tom the construction worker is being done by the guy that I still don't know, and Ben has to go to plans b,c,d,e on the dell. The Dell proved to be a problem, and Ben had to leave. Ben passed the Dell to me. Too late in the day to struggle with a problem PC, asked Vinay to bring the dell to PACS and I will finish what we started.

Clean up and go.

Big thanks to Stan's wife for letting him play with us so late, and I hope we didn't mess up your date night.

What an event! I hope that if you could not attend, this little play by play, as I can remember it, helps you get a feeling for the day we had.

Bad Week - Bad Sign

2007-06-03T06:04:00.000-05:00

The week leading up to the installfest couldn't be more screwed up!

Monday HOLIDAY - Tuesday 2 days worth of work to get caught up on, actaully 3 days if you include Saturday's work. One of my key people on vacation all week. Tuesday follow up appt with hand surgeon. Thursday another employee off for jury duty. Friday have to take my wife to montco for a test all morning.
Phillies game Friday night.

And to make it even worse, my security blanket, the Yoda Van, started to act up.

My 1995 Dodge conversion van - my mobile office - laptop -printer - copier - wireless internet (cingular aircard 860 w/ external antenna) and all the peripherals you could ever need - routers - cables - wireless cards - ethernet cards - usb wireless adapters - extension cords - basically a WORKSHOP on WHEELS was giving me grief.

The transmission was slipping. Timing couldn't be worse. But in the end, the guys at A+ transmission (Keith) came through and got the tranny done in 2 days.

A good sign - the Yoda Van will be ready for Saturday.

I sell bread - never baked a loaf in my life. I have people that do that for me. Very good people. Well this time I needed them to come through for ME. I wanted to bring an Italian Ring Loaf modified into the Ubuntu logo. I went to the Master Baker, Ronald, and gave him the logo, and told him exactly what I wanted. Checked on the status of the bread on Thursday. Ronald said he couldn't do it. NOT ACCEPTABLE. This was for me. I basically told him that he HAD to get it done, and that I was counting on him. In the end, Ronald earned his title of Master Baker, and came through with an excellent bread rendition of the logo. Thanks Ron.

Friday afternoon irc chat message, or was it the mailing list, can't remember - did any one print the disclaimers? Thankfully I was in the office - bang out 60 copies.

Home from the phillies game (they suck) check the irc-forums-mailing list : Resource pages - Bang out 50 copies. That's it lights out. Installfest tomorrow.

Running Out of Time

2007-05-28T06:15:00.000-05:00

Time flies when you are having fun. It seems to fly faster and faster as I get older and older.

No more posting fliers this week. Now, it's time to concentrate on the actual event. I think today, Memorial day, I will burn 5 Xubuntu 7.04 PPC alternate install cd's for the installfest in case we need them for the Girls Inc. Macs.

Busy week ahead. Tuesday afternoon follow up doctor 's appointment. The finger that was infected at the PACS presentation had to be taken care of by a hand specialist. No biggee, it was only one finger. It made typing this week interesting; especially in the yoda van.

Friday I have to take my wife to Montco Community College to take a test for her online course. She doesn't like to drive. Then Friday night, I have tickets to the Phillies game. Tickets are too good to pass up, and come with a free parking pass.

That only leaves Wednesday and Thursday for preparation for the Installfest. I would like to get to NTR to do some preliminary setup. Also, have to get all the gear together that we may need for the event.

Starting to get behind in my online course.Offensive Security 101 by the Backtrack crew. I have to get to work.

In true manic fashion, started thinking about / promoting another event, before even completing the installfest June 2nd. Software Freedom Day, Saturday, September 15th. That is the kickoff weekend for the new PACS season, and the timing couldn't be better. Ubuntu and the Opencd people are sponsors and providing cd's for the event. I will see tonight on our (PACSLINUX) weekly irc chat; every Monday night on freenode in room #pacslinux starting at 8pm, if the group is as interested in an event as I am.

Thanks to all veterans who served, or are serving this country. Thank you every day, and especially today for protecting our Freedoms and our way of life.

PACS meeting SUCCESS

2007-05-19T17:18:00.001-05:00

Wow! What a fabulous event. I was nervous and excited Friday night as I burnt more cd's. Do we need more ppc, are we going to have enough 7.04 386 live cd's; my mind was racing. The crowd is older, would they be open enough to even consider a different os? Is the G3 going to work as well out in public as it did in my living room. Have to get some sleep, the security sig (my favorite) starts at 8:00 am. HAVE to leave the house early enough to stop at WAWA for caffeine and nicotine. Woke up at 4:00 am, too early, get more sleep. Up again at 6:00; OK lets go. Oh no, the burn on my finger is getting worse; it may be infected; too bad, this is the event of a lifetime. Triple antibiotic cream, gauze, tape it up and start to load the Yoda Van. WAWA, caffeine; thank God (Yoda). Ok fire up Xchat, nobody is talking, maybe they're still sleeping. Pleia2 - writes - YEAH someone is awake. Lamalex awakes, yes the team is coming together. I arrive at PACS. It is 7:50 am, finish coffee, have a cigarette, grab some fliers, tape and scissors, let's go.
Nobody's here. Ok 4 people. WTF. Ok take this opportunity to get some fliers out. Finish with the security sig at 10:00 am. The security sig was very good today, good job Ben. Back to the van to get the G3.
Start the setup in the cafe. The G3 won't boot. WTF^2. Ok relax - set up the ubu iBook and the Toshiba with the faux Satanic Ubu. Reboot the G3, nothing. Check all connections, everything's plugged in; what gives. Reboot while screwing in monitor cable - ahh - the monitor tube - crackles on - G3 boots as it had the previous 2 times except this time the monitor was connected properly. DUH!.
People are around the table and interested! Start the sales pitch. Adrenaline, caffeine, nicotine, and an audience - ecstasy. Joe Terranova arrives with his girlfriend, loaded with pamphlets, cd's, tee-shirts (temporarily) and an Ubuntu BANNER. Sets up on another table. Lamalex arrives, followed closely by Lyz.
I've only met Alex once before and had never met Lyz, but through the Loco interaction it was as if I had known them for awhile. Virtual community is community.
I am very high voltage. I believe Kevin once identified it as spazzy. I am a salesman. I love human interaction, and to connect to people and grab their attention. I am very passionate about all of my endeavours. It's 5 of 12, almost time for the presentation. Kevin arrives; like a ninja, behind us calmly eating lunch. Kevin gets to play with the g3 during the presentation; I think he likes it.
Alex and Lyz setup a table right outside the presentation auditorium and wait to grab people as they leave the auditorium. The presentation's over and the crowd flows right to Alex and Lyz's table and start to DEVOUR the cd's -pamphlets- ubuntu women fliers (mostly men today, who knows). The demo table is next stop, where Kevin, Ben, Randy (pacs member),Rich (Pacs Linux Leader) and Norm (pacs member) help to show off the ubuntu family of products and register people for the installfest. WOW, what an EVENT!
I was talking to Chris, pacs board member, and long time pacs member, and he said HE "HAD NEVER SEEN A PRESENTATION CREATE SUCH A BUZZ".

Great job everyone. I feel part of something that is really special.

Peer Pressure

2007-05-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Yes i have succumb to peer pressure. I thought this was a high school phenomena, but apparently it can resurface as a mid-life situation also.

My recent involvement with the Ubuntu LoCo Community, specifically the PA Ubuntu LoCo, and even more specifically the Philly / Southeastern PA team,
has truly reintroduced community into my life.

The IRC channel has drastically reduced my productivity, but at the same time increased my sanity. I don't seem to be as work obsessed. Maybe I'll be able to strike a balance.

Ok that's enough for now, I have to continue burning cd's for the upcoming
PACS meeting and Joe Terranova's Main Presentation this Saturday May 19th at 12:00 pm, and the Philly Team's first INSTALLFEST June 2nd, 10:00am to 6:00 pm at NTR.