[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes, 1/11/05
- From: Tom Brown <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FreeGeek Michiana <frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 10:05:18 -0500
LAB NOTES, 1/11/05
:: The Blasters
Al, Terry and Ed loaded VL on hard drives. They exceeded the goal of 8
drives, and we now have over 40 hard drives ready to install in FreeBoxes.
Assigning at least 2 volunteers to install VL on drives definitely works
best. Ed needed more training on installing VL. At the end of the night he
had set up 2 drives on his own without any help. The "Blasters" easch
loaded a drive install on PCs at home. They want to familiarize themselves
with VL.
Rick googled for "ghost"-like utilities for GNU/Linux and found one he that
interested him. The utility does sector copies. It will copy to a larger
drive but not a smaller one and will not resize automatically. I believe
Rick said the utility was called G4LINUX or GH4LINUX. There is also
PARTIMAGE which comes on Knoppix live CDs.
http://www.partimage.org/
:: The X-Men
Rick finished one FreeBox (FB). John ran into hardware troubles on two
machines in a row and was able to complete one setup. Terry did one setup.
So the X-Men total was 3 FBs. We didn't have enough volunteers to dedicate
two full time to X-Windows setups. Karen and I cleaned the exteriors of FB
systems from last week and the new ones from last night.
:: Storage
John, Al and I toured the storage space South Bend Warehousing and
Distributing is offering us. About half is cold storage, and the other half
is sort-of heated. There is good physical access to the space and a
rentable fork lift: there is a ground level overhead door for passenger
vans and a dock level door for trailers and straight vans. We can drive
passenger vans and pickup trucks to within a few feet of our space and
off-load manually. Lager trucks will need to use the loading dock and the
fork lift.
SBWD allows light manufacturing so we can use the space to demanufacture or
refurb equipment. Lighting is not good, but electrical outlets are fairly
handy. Electricity is included in the leases. We'll need to buy work lights
on stands. They are cheap, $15-$20 per double light unit.
The only deal killer is security access. The facility is open M-F only and
7:30 AM to 3:30 PM only. However, Al said that Dana Corp. ran two shifts in
the SBWD facility. John will talk to the manager about late afternoon and
evening access and weekend access.
:: Classes Start Jan. 22
Terry is scheduled to work this Saturday, the 15th, so I decided to
postpone the first class of the new year until January 22. Postponing will
give us an extra week to prepare FBs and recruit students, and I will have
Terry to assist me. Terry is eager to teach classes. I think he will be
ready to instruct on his own by the end of February if not before. Al
expressed an interest in observing classes. But he works almost every
Saturday and earns overtime pay.
Terry and I plan to recruit assistants from among current volunteers and FB
class grads. Terry assisted me at the last few classes. He was a big help.
I'll assist Terry for the first few of the classes he instructs. Then he
and I will find assistants which will enable us to trade off weekends or
double classes on Saturdays, one in the morning and a second in the
afternoon. The latter option is possible only if we can build 16 FBs per
week -- at the moment that isn't going to happen.
We'll run classes continuously on Saturdays until we run out of computers.
:: FGM Web Site
I'll make a special effort this week to set up Dynamic DNS (DDNS) for our
domain name. Then we can place our web site and email servers on Phoenix at
Goose's house. The deadline to move the web/email is mid-January. So there
are only a few days left. Once I find out how to punch the necessary holes
in the Sally's firewall, we can migrate the web site and email service to
the Sally. Goose and I have one of the Turbines waiting to do the web site
and email chores. The Turbine needs more work but can basically operate
now. And we are close to finished with converting the web site to Rivet
code. All that remains are the FB graduate files.
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