donated computers lab setup

[Norm]

Guillermo Garron wrote:
> On 12/31/06, Norm <maillist at sios.ca> wrote:
>> Ric Moore wrote:
>> > On Sat, 2006-12-30 at 09:22 -0800, Norm wrote:
>> >> Tim wrote:
>> >>> On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 13:20 -0500, Ric Moore wrote:
>> >>>> a similar setup in Beckley WV, using 16 XT's and 386's as dumb
>> >>>> terminals. Someone donated two Dickens Terminal Servers and I just
>> >>>> ran DOS on those machines and Qterm for text logins at 9600 baud.
>> >>>> People could use Pine and email to the internet just fine or play 
>> MUD.
>> >>> Not too many years ago I scored a collection of XTs, 286s, and a 386
>> >>> from the local high school that was just going to dump them.  I 
>> sorted
>> >>> out what worked, and a local disability group took them for their 
>> blind
>> >>> members to log onto their BBS to chat, do mail, and play games.  Even
>> >>> what most would consider to be obselete, often has a use to someone.
>> >>>
>> >>> The lady who took them off my hands was confined to a wheelchair, 
>> barely
>> >>> able to speak or do anything physical, but you'd never guess that 
>> when
>> >>> you chatted to her on-line.  Computers to her, were a liberating
>> >>> experience.  Just for a change, she got treated the same as everyone
>> >>> else.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >> Tim
>> >> Your project is the type of project more of us in the IT world should
>> >> do.  Too often people in IT are considered nerds and not part of the
>> >> real world, if a a group we use our IT skills to help the 
>> disadvantaged
>> >> and at the same time spread the use of Linux we can all feel we have
>> >> done something to help society.
>> >
>> > Well here's one of huge magnitude that needs Linux users to reclaim 
>> Open
>> > Source ground that Windows and Mac users have grabbed a hold of.
>> >
>> > http://www.croquetcollaborative.org
>> >
>> > Yeah, I'm gonna pang on this one until we get some interest started.
>> >
>> > People like Alan Kay are directing this project and if we snooze we
>> > lose. The project is completely Open Source, but from the people I 
>> am in
>> > contact with, there is for all intensive purposes very little
>> > participation shown by the Linux Community. We leave it to the Win / 
>> Mac
>> > crowd, someone will paste a "For Sale" sign on parts of it or patent
>> > Virtual Reality and then the crying towel gets tossed into the ring.
>> > And, it'll be our own damn fault.
>> >
>> > This is bigger than spreadsheets and databases ever thought of being.
>> > IMHO, it's the next Big Thing that can issue in the New Era. The dnload
>> > is supposed to work with Linux, Windows and OS-X. Guess which part is
>> > the buggiest? First introduced under Linux, it can't find openGL
>> > libraries out of the box.
>> >
>> > I'd REALLY like to see the Fedora Foundation and RH take this one under
>> > their wing as Alan Kay is also part of the $100 one-laptop-per-child
>> > project, as is RH and MIT. I'm using it for my OAR project to reduce 
>> the
>> > recidivism rate among the 2.7 million incarcerated in the US. As 
>> much as
>> > I cut up, I'm stone cold serious on this one. I want to put RH or 
>> Fedora
>> > on the servers with everything running as it should, and I'm no 
>> coder by
>> > any stretch of the imagination. I want to get Linux into public
>> > institutions, in this effort, before Bill Gates sees 2.7 million
>> > licenses. Ca! Ching!
>> >
>> > Please dnload it and check it out. See if you can figure out why it
>> > doesn't grok localhost, running a server and a client app on the same
>> > machine. I can't. It's beating my ass here. They don't connect and I
>> > think they should be able to, without having to have another machine on
>> > a local network. I hope some of you gifted ones can eyeball this thing
>> > and participate in the project.
>> >
>> > Thanx for any considerations, Ric
>> Ric
>> Years ago Mac almost became the OS of choice after they started giving
>> few equipment to schools.  Most people will prefer to stay with the OS
>> the first learn on.  The Linux community is no where near as cohesive as
>> a single company like Apple or Microsoft can be.  This does not mean we
>> can not take a page out of the marketing manual of the others,  As a
>> community we need to find projects that will bring new users into the
>> community.  How, each of us have specific ares of interest related to IT
>> and and the world at large(in my other world I swing into an
>> environmentalist mode),  If as a New Years resolution we can each
>> resolve to bring one more person into the Linux community, by finding
>> ways to support projects like th One-Laptop-Per-Child we can make a
>> difference.  Support can take many forms from expanding the number of
>> application they will need, of course money, providing recycled
>> computers to those that miss out on the one laptop program, but probably
>> the biggest area is in finding ways to supply individual support to
>> encourage the child to stay with the program.  Is there an online help
>> or mail list focused towards the program that will be available?  The
>> challenge of setting up a useful multi-language help desk is big.   As
>> community do we have the resources to do this?  If we can keep the new
>> users on Linux for their first year the odds are they will stay for a
>> lifetime.
> You are right, that is specially helpfull in countries like mine
> (Bolivia) where most of people do not have PCs, and if they have they
> can't afford to pay Microsoft for using XP, or Vista, or anything.
> Linux is a great chance to do it, but as you said, they need support
> to stay on linux, as the most users are on windows.
> I am starting one week ago a site
> www.go2linux.org (where i will try to put the few things I know about
> linux) also created jaws.go2linux.org (Spanish site) and
> foro.go2linux.org (a spanish forum)
> that will be my small help to the linux community.
> Any ideas are welcome, and if some of you have documents or How-Tos to
> share with me, or I can translate to spanish to publish here, will be
> great!
> 
> regards,
> 
> Guillermo.
> 
Guillermo.
Good to see that you are doing your part.  I don't have any recycled PC 
available at this time and none "promised".  If I acquire  several 
(enough to make shipping them worth while) are you in a position to 
distribute them?
Recently I found a well written howto on SSL certificates at 
http://www.eclectica.ca/howto/ssl-cert-howto.php, He does have a Spanish 
version on line already but it may be a good quick add to your site.