[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes, 1/6/04

From: Tom Brown <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: FreeGeek Michiana <frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 12:09:48 -0500

Lab Notes, 1/6/04

Present: Olin Zuercher, OJ Schlatter, Mike Cook, Tom Brown; 6:00 - 10:00 PM.

:: NetVista Project

Mike brought a compact memory card reader/writer and a NetVista box. He attached the reader/writer to a W98 box in the LTSP lab. W98 recognized the usb device but couldn't find a PnP driver. Mike doesn't have a driver disk.

OJ and Mike searched for a driver on the Net. Couldn't find one. OJ started a W98 driver update download, hoping to get a driver that way. But the update didn't finish until 10:00 PM.

Mike says that both Windows XP and Mandrake recognize the reader/writer and load PnP drivers. Unfortunately we don't have a Mandrake box at the lab so Olin will bring his XP laptop next week.

In the meantime Mike will try to order a driver disk from the manufacturer.

:: FreeBoxes and Classes

OJ brought five donated 15" monitors to the lab. I matched three of them to FreeBoxes and completed a set of six FBs. There are enough monitors left to complete a second set so I will call Jody Montgomery to schedule two FreeBox classes this month.

I brought the Compaq Deskpro which Goose fixed at home. Goose corrected an IRQ conflict which was acceptable to Windows but gave Vector Linux fits. I matched the box to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Presto! Another FreeBox!

:: Donations

Wanada and Terry Baxtor-Potter donated a 486 system with printer and monitor, and they paid the monitor disposal fee.

:: Demanufacturing Area

My goal is to begin demanufacturing in the Upper Room by the beginning of February. I will give Mike an estimate to construct workbenches from damaged doors and saw horses. Mike will determine whether building workbench frames from lumber is cheaper than saw horses. If so, he will build the frames.

Mike and Olin agree that RubberMaid tubs are suitable for transporting demanufactured components to the Barn. I will purchase various sizes of tubs to hold:

. mobos
. expansion cards
. floppy drives
. cdrom drives
. hard drives
. data and power cables
. power supplies

There are some pallets at the Barn now, but we need more. And we need gaylord boxes.

:: MLUG Stuff

Olin and I tracked down Rick Hughes' phone number. Rick is the previous vice president of MLUG. MLUG's domain name (mlug.org) is registered to Rick. Olin called Rick and asked him to assist us in transferring the domain to Olin, as admin, and to point the domain to Graham Pearson's DNS servers. Rick was happy to help.

Rick has changed his email address so Mike updated the MLUG mailing list manager from the LTSP lab. At one time three of us were using the Net and sharing the dialup connection from thin clients attached to a single 1 ghz server. Long live LTSP and Free Software!!!

Let's raise the funds to maintain a high speed connection and get the LTSP lab rocking.

:: Financial Institution

Unfortuately Teachers Credit Union is not the ideal place to do our banking. FGM is better off with an account at a commercial bank like Wells Fargo or First Source. My business account is at Wells Fargo. I will open a business account at Wells Fargo and transfer the balance of the TCU account to it.

Then I will begin making purchases for FGM and cut checks to FREE GEEK according to our sponsorship agreement. FREE GEEK has been very patient with us in this regard.

Gilbert Michel is our accountant. Even though FGM is a nfp corporation, we still have to report income to the IRS. Gil will help us stay right with the IRS and eventually apply for our own 501(c)3 designation.

Tom

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[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes, 1/6/04

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