[GLLUG] GLLUG computer lounge update

[Charles Ulrich]

Hi all,

First, I'd like to apologize for my lack of communication and for 
missing the GLLUG meetings the past two weeks. I was besieged by some 
out-of-town business as well as normal work and real life. Here's where 
we appear to stand on the projects for the Penguicon computer lounge.

Linux distro burning box:

We've been searching for a good name for this thing and John Guest 
suggested "The Burn Unit" on the Penguicon mailing list. Several others 
like this name, so how about it? I can already imagine a cool design 
for the placard, if there is one.

Matt Graham stepped up right away to write a functional GTK+Perl 
interface for the box. In fact, it's already sitting in the Gone Wired 
Cafe ready to burn Linux distros for all. Among the enhancements to 
make:
* Have it log in and display the burning interface automatically
* Create a sign telling patrons what the machine is for
* Disable the screensaver (or make it the aforementioned sign)
* Acquire and hook up a joystick for input rather a mouse

Matt: If you have the time, could we add a "Credits" button to the 
interface so we can list of the names of those involved in setting up 
the machine?

The following is a small list of distros and CD images that I've seen 
suggested recently. If you have more, pass them along. 

Gentoo LiveCD
Fedora Core (all 4 CDs)
SuSE (all 4 or 5 CDs)
Debian install CD
The Open CD (open-source software for Windows)
Ubuntu (and Kubuntu?)
Knoppix
NetMax (http://www.netmax.org)
Knoppix CeBIT
FreeBSD
OpenBSD (are there ISOs of this?)
NetBSD
Slackware
Mandrake
Xandros
Vector Linux
Matt's GTK+Perl Interface Script

Can someone who worked on the burning station the last two weeks send me 
a list of what's already on there by tonight? I can then download some 
of the suggested distros overnight and burn them during my lunch hour 
then upload them to the burning station during the meeting. (dd still 
works well for that, no?)

Terminal Server:

Work will (I believe) begin on this during tomorrow's meeting. Somewhere 
I have more notes on this, I'll have to dig them up. For those who 
weren't following along, we're looking at a big beefy Opteron server 
with enough power to feed 20 thin clients. The OS will be Gentoo with 
terminal services installed as well as multiple desktop environments 
and a plethora of common applications.

Starting now, I'm soliciting donations for the use of hardware over the 
weekend of Penguicon. We'll take any hardware, old and new, with the 
exception of monitors. For monitors, we're going to start off by asking 
for 17" or higher CRTs or any size LCD panels. If we can't get enough 
of those as the con approaches, this requirement will be loosened. If 
you're attending the con and would like to donate the use of your 
hardware for the weekend, please drop me an email stating what you can 
provide and I'll contact you for verification a week or two before the 
con swings into action. I might be able to arrange a pick-up of 
hardware if you're not attending the con but would still like to let us 
use it. (No guarantees on that, though.)

Linux on Nonstandard Hardware:

David Menzel suggested that we could demo Linux on various forms of 
nonstandard hardware such as video game systems, PDAs, and wireless 
routers. Does anyone have any of these that they'd be willing to let us 
demo or know someone who would?

Those of you reading this on penguicon-general@ are more than welcome 
join us at the next few GLLUG meetings (Thursday nights, 6PM at the 
Gone Wired Cafe in Lansing) to help out and share ideas for the 
computer lounge. Eventually we'll be moving on to other projects as 
well, but I'm going to push for some periodic Lounge-related meetings 
throughout the year, especially as April approaches.

Charles
-- 
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