[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes, 5/25/04

Lab Notes, 5/25/04

Present: Sherral Stamatovich, Tom Brown, Terry Click, Jay Schlatter, Mike Cook, Njoke, Richard Zimmerman

:: Volunteer Council Meeting

We began the lab with a volunteer council/board meeting which included the volunteers listed above. I called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM

.. Netvista sale

The council discussed the prices below and confirmed them.

  - $40 untested, as is
  - $50 tested, as is
  - $100 preconfigured, tested, as is

Jay will help me inventory the Netvistas this Thursday or Friday. I will call the Caleb Group's office to arrange a convenient day and time to get into their back room to do the inventory.

Jay and Mike will check with their respective employers re allowing us to use their shipping docks, materials and tools to prepare the Netvistas for shipping commercially. If we cannot ship commercially, Jay volunteered to deliver the Netvistas to the buyer in Cleveland, OH. He proposed we charge $250 for delivery. The proposal passed by consensus.

I proposed to hold back some Netvistas to use as workstations to demo LTSP. The council agreed.

I told the council that our buyer intends to write up converting his company from Microsoft to Linux and LTSP. Netraverse, the publishers of Win4Lin, have agreed to publish the write up as a case study on their web site. Jay suggested I ask the Netvista buyer to include a mention for FGM in his paper.

.. Leaflet immediate neighborhood

I proposed to leaflet the neighborhood (Lincolnway on the north to Sample St. on the south, Michigan St. on the west to Lincolnway on the east) to increase awareness of our programs and to increase participation from the neighborhood. The council supported the proposal.

There wasn't enough time or enough volunteers to leaflet during lab. I will leaflet the neighborhood myself during the next week.

.. Jay's World

Mike suggested that I investigate public service announcements on WVPE radio and an interview on WNIT-TV, the public broadcasting stations. He said a program on FGM would be more interesting than most of the content they air on Sundays.

Jay jokingly suggested we shoot a tech show for broadcast. We immediately dubbed the show "Jay's World." Like, yeah. Dude. I suggested producing the show for GreenTV and altering it to air on WNIT-TV.

The suggestions never evolved into actual proposals. But I will look into the suggestions.

.. Pro bono accounting services

Jay will continue to pursue an accountant he knows re pro bono services for FGM. Jay will also contact Crowe-Chizek.

.. Private listserv

I proposed that we switch wholly to a private listserv. I am concerned about the amount of information about people and organizations which we are making public. Our current listserv is completely open to Internet (Google) searches. The council generally felt the same concern about privacy.

Mike pointed out that closing the list will affect the free advertising we may be receiving from the public list and will limit the desirable information which is contained in our online discussions and which others can use. Also, there won't be any way for subscribers to join the list except emailing the list manager asking to be added.

The council did not come to clear guidelines re what should be public and what should be private. So I proposed to set up a simple private listserv using an Exim dot forward file just to test the concept. The council approved the Exim list by consensus.

I will also create a public user account on Indy to archive the private list. Volunteers now keep their own local archives for searching. If Exim keeps a subscriber archive on the Indy box, local archives will be optional. This would be helpful if we switch to a private listserv.

.. I closed the council/board meeting at 7:30 PM.


:: Plan Move to New Lab Room

Mike, Jay, Terry, Goose (Richard) and I looked at the storage room which the church is offering as the new lab room. All agreed we should accept the offer. The room is larger than the current lab.

We estimate the room can hold a dozen workstations and store completed FreeBoxes. We're not sure whether to use the room to demanufacture computers or not. The consensus was to leave the built-in cabinets intact and add electrical outlets.

Can we still use the the old lab room for storage or demanufacturing? I will contact Nick and Jody when they return from vacation re specifics.

:: DSL Line

I installed a DSL filter on the lab's telco wall connector, and it eliminated the static immediately. The modem dialed out and held the line perfectly. So we know that the lab phone line (church's fax line) has DSL service.

We didn't look for the DSL modem, but assume there is one because of the static on the lab line.

The next question is whether the church wants to route DSL service to the whole church, selected computers in the building or just to the lab. Whe don't know the specs on the DSL service. I'll contact Nick and Jody when they return from vacation.

:: Printer for Sherral - Vector Linux Disappoints

I brought two printers from The Barn for Sherral. One turned out to be Apple Mac only. The other was really dirty and nasty looking. Jay brought in a clean donated HP 9xx Deskjet, and Sherral naturally picked it.

In attempting to set up the printer for Sherral's FreeBox, Mike discovered that the downloadable Vector Linux 3.2 ISO does not include three files necessary to install a printer. VL does provide the packages on the CD they sell, just not in the download ISO.

  - Apsfilter.tgz
  - ghostscr.tgz
  - gsfonts.tgz

I will grab the three packages from the VL web/ftp site and burn them on CD. Mike will burn copies of his purchased VL 3.2 CD. Next week we will have all the packages available to install printers on VL 3.2 and a complete installation ISO to replace the crippled ISO we've been using.

:: Printer Compatibility List

Njoke began compiling a list of printers that are 100% compatible with Linux. She browsed Linux Printing dot Org's database and copied model names into a GNUmeric spreadsheet. We will hand out the printer list to FreeBox recipients, our volunteers and potential donors. I copied the speadsheet to the Indy box, /home/public. The list isn't finished.

The complete online compatibility list is available at http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi?make=Anyone.

:: FreeBox Needs List

Njoke and I compiled a list of components we need for FreeBoxes. I will present the list to two recyclers who are interested in providing components to FGM.

:: Toshiba 2060CDS Sale

I offered volunteers first crack at the Toshiba 2060CDS laptop which is up for sale. A customer wants it, but I promised volunteers first crack at it. Nobody wanted the laptop so it goes to the customer.

:: Bashor Children's Home Computer Repair

Rhoda Weaver Watson is a social worker at Bashor Children's Home. Her Compaq Deskpro stopped booting. She asked if I would fix it. I said I would take the box to FGM lab. Of course I asked her for a donation too.

Jay found the problem. The CPU retaining clip had dislodged, and the CPU was loose on one side. I am hoping that the low cost repair will earn us a modest donation and some goodwill at Bashor Home -- I want to speak to the director about a K12LTSP demo and Free Geek Michiana programs.

:: Computers at Broadway Christian Parish

Terry volunteered to help me cart computers out of the basement at Broadway Christian Parish. John Billings and I stored computers there last year. The church board recently approved a proposal to seek funding for a Free Geek lab.

To prepare I need to sort out the junk boxes and haul them out of the church for disassembly. I will leave the boxes which are suitable for workstations at the church. What remains after the first two cuts should be FreeBox material.

:: Test Barn Boxes

Terry, Jay and I tested boxes from The Barn. I don't think we got a complete install of VL 3.2 on any of them before we ran out of time. But we cannibalized parts and will get a few FreeBoxes out of the junk computers that Culver Military Academy donated. Mike brought a couple of boxes in for refurb or disassembly.

Tom




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