[NCLUG] Re: CLUE-North Meeting, 24 April

[Joe Martin]

I'd like to attend this, but a few months ago I showed up and was unable to
find the room.  Is it hidden somehow, at an undisclosed campus location?
Behind another room, maybe?  I'm pretty sure I had the right date and time,
but I must have spaced some other detail.

Yours in dorky spatially-challengedness,
Joe Martin


On 4/21/06, nclug-request at nclug.org <nclug-request at nclug.org> wrote:
>
>
> Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:07:30 -0600 (MDT)
> From: crawford.rainwater at linux-etc.com
> Subject: [NCLUG] ANN: CLUE-North Meeting, 24 April
> To: nclug at nclug.org
>
> Greetings:
>
> CLUE-North will be having its monthly meeting on Monday, 24 April 2006 at
> 7PM at DeVry University's Westminster Campus, room #334.  For directions,
> please visit
>
> http://www.cluedenver.org/display.php?node=north_info
>
> Topic: Linux Laptops for Flattops with Peter Kuykendall
>
> Peter will talk about a project that he thought up about a month ago. He
> calls it "Laptops for Flat Tops". The idea is to take used, surplus laptop
> computers that are currently gathering dust in basements, garages, and
> closets, and press them into useful service for soldiers overseas. This will
> enable them to communicate with their friends and families, read the news,
> play games, and just generally stay connected with the real world. He
> believes that this can be done with little or no cash outlay, just donations
> of services such as shipping and equipment such as "obsolete" laptop and
> desktop PCs.
>
> One paramount goal of this project is to ensure that no one person needs
> to contribute a whole lot of time or money or anything else. This makes
> contributing easy and fun without being overwhelming, which in turn opens
> the door to a whole lot of participants.
>
> We need volunteers who are willing to be leaders in the following areas:
>
>     * Development of software bundles for the laptops and servers. This is
> really just aggregating existing Linux and other free software.
>     * Acquisition of used laptops. Ancient 1995 vintage is OK for web
> surfing and email. Newer models allow video phone service!
>     * Acquisition of used desktop machines (Pentium 500 or better, for use
> as servers)
>     * Acquisition of miscellaneous networking gear (10-base-T, 802.11b,
> whatever)
>     * Loading of software bundles into used laptops
>     * Shipping (possible shippers include US military, as well as
> commercial shippers)
>     * Liaison with the US military, so that we can get this stuff allowed
> on base, along with a place to put it, power, permission to connect to their
> Internet connection, etc.
>     * People who currently live overseas or are interested in travelling
> overseas to coordinate installation.
>     * Liaison with existing charities.
>
> Some thoughts on likely software bundles: Run a very thin client. The
> smallest machines will be 486 class, 4 MB RAM, and just a floppy. Amazingly,
> that's still useful. It would be great to go completely diskless, but I
> don't *think* that any of the old laptops can initialize a PCMCIA NIC
> without help from something on a disk.
>
> Peter is an electrical engineer who has been working mostly in embedded
> systems for about 25 years. He currently works on satellite TV piracy issues
> for Comcast.
>
> Hope to see folks there!
>
> --- Crawford
> CLUE-North Coordinator
>