KCLUG

10 participants
3254 discussions

Internet Access (The Lack Thereof) At ITEC (was Re: regarding "just plain works" as a goal)
by Leo Mauler 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

--- On Wed, 10/8/08, Billy Crook <billycrook(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 16:46, Leo Mauler > <webgiant(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > Secondly, every year for the past three > > years there hasn't been reliable free > > wireless Internet on the ITEC Exhibitor > > floor. This means that the option of > > showing people the Internet on the demo > > Linux PC will most likely not be available, > > which prevents people from seeing the > > "blinkenlights" Internet (for good or bad). > > Bring a wire. Find a hole to stick it in. > Convention halls usually have ethernet. I > guarantee there's not going to be hundreds of > people there, and no internet. Not in 2008. You've clearly never been at ITEC if you feel you can make the claim that the Internet is available at the Overland Park Convention Center. I've been there for three years. Personally I can't even remember the Microsoft booth having Internet, to drop a name of a vendor with deep pockets and a vested interest in the Internet itself. Its all business cards, paper forms, business-card-sized CDs, and sneakernet flash memory keys at ITEC, even back in 2007. Internet availability would mean you would get the ITEC attendee to type in their information for you, saving paying a data entry operator back home, but still no one has Internet at ITEC. > If they want to charge, bring a 300 foot cable, > and a router, and walk around telling other > vendors your a nonprofit, and beg for bandwidth. > If you really want it, bring a sign for whoever > agrees that says "we support the KCLUG" for > whoever cooperates. Well, the coffee shop 100 feet away from the entrance to the Exhibitor hall (so we'd need more like a 300 foot Ethernet cable plus another 200 foot Ethernet cable plus some form of signal booster between the two and a power outlet there as well) has Internet kiosks available for free. Everyone at ITEC who needs Internet goes there. I figure if Microsoft couldn't convince a coffee shop which runs Microsoft OSes on PC hardware to share its Internet with their booth, that Internet must not be available. Again, I've been to ITEC. Clearly you haven't, if you think that admission to ITEC is expensive for *everyone*, even to Basic ITEC Attendees. Sometimes they even throw in the Conferences for free. BTW, wouldn't calling KCLUG a non-profit be untruthful? I thought it was just a "not expected to make a profit" organization. Claiming to be a nonprofit while not being a nonprofit can bring on legal troubles.

3 2

Reuse, recycle - Things to do with an old computer… @ Digital Nomads
by JDP/Frogman 08 Oct '08

08 Oct '08

Sent to you by JDP/Frogman via Google Reader: Reuse, recycle - Things to do with an old computer… @ Digital Nomads via MAKE Magazine by Phillip Torrone on 10/8/08 MAKE is participating in a campaign with DELL called Digtal Nomads, my latest post is about things you can do with an old computer... I seem to be magnet for old computers. It’s not a bad thing really — people assume that an old or broken laptop will likely find some use when handed over to me. It’s true. Photo frames, music servers, print servers, robot brains, postage stations, MAME (retro gaming)… whatever, I’ll do something with an old computer before ever consider throwing it out. I’m sure many of you have the same collection somewhere. But the thing I like to do the most when receiving an old laptop is to wipe it completely and set it up for a kid or someone who doesn’t have a computer to use. It’s the most rewarding thing you can possibly do. You never know what will spark a mind to become interested in science and technology but I think a computer increases the odds. I fill the drive with PDFs of some old science texts and bookmarks to all the sites I think are fun and educational. It’s a bit of a lottery ticket approach, maybe these kids will just goof off, but if just a few end up solving some of the challenges ahead because they tuned in early it’s worth the hour or so I spend fixing up these old machines. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this! Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to MAKE Magazine using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

1 0

A quite on topic comment regarding "just plain works" as a goal
by Oren Beck 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

We have several levels of computer user. Defining them is edgy beyond the basic dividing line between GUI and CLI users. There are many folks who consider either extreme quite viable. and they get a bit -intense in expressing it. Same applies to the "Multimedia" crowd which considers animated blinkenlight and sound/video presentations as preferable to flat text. The devil appears in reconciling a conflict for mundane users in the extreme application biases. One set of websites might be so deadly flat it looks more like a log dump than a web page intended for humans. The other set may replicate "Grand Theft Auto's look&feel." Let me explain the shortest form as to why both extremes affect the Linux world. WE use browsers that may not be "default ready" to handle the "video game replication" websites. Which to the "Video gaming consumers" makes Linux seem a dead duck.. I am damned if I have easy answers beyond the warning scream that if at ITEC for example a walkerby or lookylou idly punches up their favorite website on a demo Linux machine- and they see "placeholders" or "click to see image" or anything other than the site rendering as it does on their Flash laden home machine- WE FAIL.and so does Linux... Same with Audio. -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

3 2

Re: Midrange Web Browser? (between Firefox and Dillo)
by Sean Crago 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Have you tried simpler Gecko engine based browsers? The fact that they use it on the Nokia Internet Tablets (considerably weaker than your laptop, I'd imagine) implies that you might have more luck trying something like Epiphany. Not sure if that particular project is terribly succesful, but it's a starting point. Opera, though not free, also warrants a try for the same reason. It tends to perform quite well on older and embedded platforms. That said, the first thing I'd try is installing FlashBlock and ad blocking plugins on your existing Firefox install. That generally does the trick for me, on these older machines. It's not the browser but the poorly designed/over-designed flash ads that tend to cause the vast majority of the problem. Of course, there's always Lynx if the above doesn't work. Sean Crago Kathmandu, Nepal

6 11

[Fwd: Reminder: ITEC Kansas City is two weeks away – register now]
by Chris Bier 06 Oct '08

06 Oct '08

3 2

Re: Midrange Web Browser? (between Firefox and Dillo)
by Leo Mauler 06 Oct '08

06 Oct '08

--- On Sun, 10/5/08, Brendan G <moldybeats(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I haven't tried it, but there's a browser out > there called Midori: > http://www.twotoasts.de/index.php?/pages/midori_summary.html > > It's associated with Xfce, who always has their eyes > on lightweight software. I suspect it's probably > nearer to Firefox than Dillo just because it supports > JavaScript, etc., but it might be worth a try. Their website lists the most current version of Midori as 0.0.18. I realize that Linux software, and GPLed software in general, frequently works nicely well before a major version number, but software which doesn't even have a minor version number yet can't possibly be reliable enough for regular use. The Midori site also implies that WebKit is currently rather buggy (a "please don't blame Midori programmers for all the bugs" plea if I ever heard one), a comment on the other "WebKit" messages here which state that tablet-based browsers are moving away from Gecko and towards WebKit, in some cases having been on WebKit for months. Is WebKit a good choice or just an ideological choice?

1 0

Ikea cabinet Linux cluster
by Oren Beck 05 Oct '08

05 Oct '08

http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/09/24-core-linux-cluster-in-2999-c… -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

1 0

Midrange Web Browser? (between Firefox and Dillo)
by Leo Mauler 04 Oct '08

04 Oct '08

On the desktop PCs the slight bloat of Firefox doesn't cause a problem, while giving me lots of fun Firefox features. However, my much older laptop with its limited RAM (192MB) isn't as much fun with Firefox. Dillo is already on DamnSmallLinux and does display webpages, but I was wondering if there was a web browser, on the "free software" rack, with slightly more functionality than Dillo but still not as big as Firefox.

1 0

RE: Men's Health id 73020856
by admin＠Viagra.us 04 Oct '08

04 Oct '08

1 0

Reiser FS or ext3?
by gary hildebrand 02 Oct '08

02 Oct '08

I have a couple older distros of SuSE -- 6.4 & 7.2 and was wondering if there is an easy way to do it with a journaling FS? Whenever I'd get a hit/crash in ext2, it would sorta eat itself up, and then over a period of time, become unuseable. 6.4 has a wide variety of packages no longer available on the new distros, and I'd like to have a drive set up so I can boot it when wanted. Gary HIldebrand St. Joseph, MO

13 33

Jump to page:

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

KCLUG