[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes - 12/12/2006
- From: Tom Brown <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FreeGeek Michiana <frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:16:25 -0500
:: Laptop Repair
Hot damn, Joe Bob! This here stuff is good.
JB Weld, or whatever goo Dale mixed and poked into the broken plastic
hinge thingy on the Gateway laptop, worked. The hinge on the lid/lcd
now moves pretty much like new, and, according to Goose, it ain't
never comin' off. Dale still can't believe it. Goose swears by it.
This JB Whatever stuff is definitely pro kit.
Caution: Use thereof can be dangerous to the inexperienced, eager or
hopelessly inept.
JB Weld -- http://jbweld.net/index.php
:: Edubuntu
Goose installed Edubuntu on an iMac and brought it to lab. Edubuntu
is an impressive distro for children or the young at heart who want
to refresh their high school science, math, and spelling skills.
Albert was fascinated with it.
John/Forest looked up the Gcompris educational game collection to see
if Edubuntu repackaged it. I am uncertain whether the question was
resolved. Kubuntu purports to be for K-12, and Gcompris says it is
for 2-10 year olds. Albert is going to see if a Gcompris package is
available for Vector Linux SOHO.
Edubuntu -- http://www.edubuntu.org/
Gcompris -- http://gcompris.net/-en-
:: Some More Buntu
Dale found a compelling reason to settle on Kubuntu for his personal
distro: He really likes KDE because it automagically detected and
displayed an icon for his second drive, a 20 GB IDE which was
formatted with Linux on another computer and stuffed into his box
_after_ he installed Kubuntu.
Unfortunately, KDE wouldn't automatically mount the second drive. I
showed Dale how to use the GNU/Linux shell to mount the drive and
configure the system to automount the next time he boots up. We
rebooted the machine and bada bing bada boom. There it was.
I steered Dale to the Linux Documentation Project so he can read
about GNU/Linux system administration at his leisure or need.
Kubuntu -- http://www.kubuntu.org/
The Linux Documentation Project -- http://tldp.org/
:: The Server That Died
Thank our lucky stars the server wasn't one of ours. Goose says the
servers at the warehouse are fine, thank you very much, and the lab
server is in good health too. The server that died is a file and
print sharing PC from one of my client's offices. The firm donated it
to FGM when it croaked.
[Cool Linux story sidebar -- The PC had SME5, a server appliance
distro similar to ClarkConnect, installed and ran four years
continuously with just one reboot. You might say it died with its
boots off. ;^ ) I pulled the hard drive out of the dead PC, put it
into a used Dell box and the system ran without a hiccup. The client
is happy. Ya gotta love this stuff.]
I thought a quick power supply swap might resurrect the PC. I thought
wrong. Dale did the swap, and the computer just lay there like
flattened squirrels on the streets of South Bend. But, unlike dead
squirrels, the MSI mobo's LEDs were lit redder than a baboon's butt.
Something wasn't right.
As the rest of us tried to find useful diagnostic information on
MSI's North American web site -- believe me, that isn't easy -- Rick
noticed the mobo capacitors were blown. There were half a dozen or
more caps on the mobo; all but one had bubbled over. Then Dale
noticed a toroidal coil was burnt. I mean blackened toast burnt.
Austin Powers, you've lost your mobo!
:: Unnamed Competitor Steals an Unnamed FGM Client And Will Likely
Live to Regret It Department
The unnamed local high school from a few weeks ago told Forest one of
our competitors offered to accept their monitors (busted or good) at
no cost. Since we haven't figured out a business model which allows
FGM to do anything but lose money on monitors, we charge a fee to accept them.
One can only speculate what our competitor is thinking. Is the
organization simply warehousing monitors hoping someday they'll have
enough revenue to recycle them? Will the citizens of Indiana pick up
the bill when the organization shutters its doors and leaves the
monitors stacked by the curb? Are the monitors destined for the
landfill? Is this ESRC, Act 2? Or, do our competitors know something we don't?
:: Dale's Recycling Report
Dale obtained prices on various metals from a local recycler.
Although I won't repeat the prices here, I will say they are
encouraging. Hey...local delivery of 700 lbs. of metal beats the cost
of shipping 700 lbs. to Chicago any day. John says he can arrange
deliveries so we will try the local vendor, who comes highly
recommended by a trusted source, Big Bob the Plumber.
:: Warehouse Mini-Report
Our recycling guru, Big Bob the Plumber, is looking for rack uprights
for us. For about $250, he estimates we can create 20 additional rack
spaces along the inside wall behind our office. BBtP is willing to
let us use cross members he has accumulated to construct the racks.
This is a no-brainer, rat-simple good deal. We'll get our inventory
off the floor, and our benefactors can park their trucks in the empty
floor space. BBtP says we can move the trucks temporarily any time we
need the room.
Goose created a fancy spreadsheet to keep track of our inventory. The
spreadsheet actually looks like the rack spaces in the warehouse.
Very creative.
Janice has agreed to supervise deman operations to free Albert to
manage the inventory. If this isn't good enough news, listen to the
next story. While we were talking about qualifications and
certifications to work with hardware, Albert disclosed that he was
told he can expect to earn $5000 per year more as an entry level A+
tech or MCSE because of his volunteer experience at FGM!
MCSE -- http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcse/default.mspx
A+ -- http://certification.comptia.org/a/
LPI -- http://www.lpi.org/
:: Quote of the Day
"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual
certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -- so I
became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can
meet girls."
-- Matt Cartmill
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