Greetings List Lurkers,
If brevity is the soul of wit then last weeks announcement makes me the
wittiest, as I merely beseeched you to to go to the directions web site
should you need them at:
http://bosivt.org/directions
Meet at the adult swim and be happy. This week merely to annoy FN, I
thought to be a bit more in my style...
First off, I will see you again in 3 meetings!
We are currently about half way across the country in the Badlands next to
the Black Hills (these folks could use some optimism eh? :^). Went
tourist and saw Mr. Rushmore and the Indian Memorial in progress, the
Lakota Sioux have a lot to be proud of...
Now we push west...ever west...
The Vermont Computing Cooperative (VCC) of Randolph Vermont continues to
surprise and amaze me. From a distance I hear tails of why we all want
windows to flourish in the market. Apparently windows workstations and
servers will break in critical, unfathomable ways (e.g. unable to update,
sudden "slowness" etc.) and this keeps people working at a reasonable
rate. I suppose I should thank the Lard that the customers and general
public are not running Linux, as then there would not be so much revenue
in repairing/maintaining systems, which is why I believe VCC may be doing
a disservice to it's own market when they advocate the use of Linux, since
then the frequency and intensity of service calls will diminish...
Unless, Ian, Matt, Bob, Dan, Chris et al. at the Worker-owned cooperative
change the economic game from a Fee-For-Service (FFS) model to an
Insurance (Assurance) model. The costing metaphor might be like your
car... If you are driving around a red MG your are going to pay more in
insurance than if you are driving around a beige Ford. If the proposition
is that Micro$oft based computers are more profitable due to the amount of
service required, you need to bet the other side of this proposition, that
being that FOSS (Linux, BSD) are more reliable. The way you do this is by
establishing a monthly service fee that favors FOSS systems. The
particulars of the numbers involved with this fee are something that one
would have to figure out based upon the data gathered on the actual
service costs of the respective architectures.
Note that economic incentives the best ways of communicating with
businesses, but it is really necessary to do the back-office analysis in
order to get the monthly costs associated right or the whole exercise
might not work.
In any event VCC remains the candidate for the coolest thing of the year.
I really think that these folks are onto something, again let me say that
anyone with assignments, service opportunities or interested in Monthly
Assurance should contact Mr. Ian Stewart of VCC, Randolph. These are good
folks and this is a shameless plug. Keep the faith VCC!
Anyway, we have the technology and we will have the pizza, I stocked up!
This is the official notice of the Barre Open Systems Institute (BOSI) Adult
Swim. For those coming in via the Google Plus and the Internet, The swim stars
at 5:00 PM EST.
Our ongoing major objective is to continue to try to figure out how to invest
the time and resources to turn the Barre Open Systems Institute into more than
just the Adult Swim technical clinic and more into a real learning facility.
One direction we have been working on is to begin thinking about classes. The
curriculum that I am most interested in is teaching documentation.
We continue to wonder about how to build the BOSI curriculum to this webpage:
http://bosivt.org/classes Take a look if you dare...
As I cannot say too damn often, the meeting today is at 40 Washington Street,
Barre, VT 05641 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM!
Remember, the BOSI Adult Swim is essentially about helping out fellow users of
open source products in a clinic environment. Despite my very best of
intentions, the Adult Swim is really almost a perpetual Linux install-fest, and
only secondarily a learning environment,
Once again, the goal of the meeting shall be as usual, to get organized
and try to get the various projects moving forward.
The ever growing list of projects (now on our web site :^) includes:
- http://ledroid.org - Ok, this is a real project eh?
- http://bzinga.net - What happens when you combine Bash and Zenity?
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/nodejs - ok, it is on the list.
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/snobot - jesum they love this robot
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/furmon - monitor that pellet furnace
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/arduino - moving in the arduino groove
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/javajive - to get better at Javascript
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/tsp - Temperature Sensors Project
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/robotsrules - The quest for Roberts Rules -
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/visual.bash - Yea, I am not kidding...
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/mrtg - remedial raw mrtg for the slow...
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/raspberry - all versions
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/strembot.org - maybe a very cool project.
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/organized - oh please let me be organized!
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/music - this may be the least organized
site ever!
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/bb - A big noble idea.
- http://docbox.flint.com:8081/grantbot - A less noble idea to feed the
big idea...
Otherwise, Barre indeed remains a great venue for a Linux and Open Source
Software discussion and general system rejuvenation. Expect to be remotely
preached at on the various topics of Open Source and how I am confident it
shall cure all the evils and ills of this wicked world. In a perfect meeting,
people would come in, sit down, see the stuff we have been doing and hopefully
help us get the DIY stuff we are doing done, or maybe just fix a laptop.
So, do not forget that the Barre library stocks "Linux World", and the latest
issue is on the shelf, and it is good. The DVD's are available to checkout and
copy, we shall to continue provide copies and isos of each and every one. I am
continuing to duplicate abot a years worth of DVD's which is quite a task.
Anyway, come and do open source stuff. For more information about the BOSI
Adult Swim meeting time and location try this:
http://bosivt.org/directions
Show up at Hedding UMC if you have questions or are interested in Linux or the
concept of free and open systems. Again, we are in the basement of the Hedding
UMC facility which is actually working out pretty well.
If you wish to be included on the "Linux_adult_swim" mailing list, send a
response to this note.
This is Flint signing off from Souix Falls...
Kindest Regards,
Paul Flint
(802) 479-2360
(802) 595-9365 Cell
/************************************
Based upon email reliability concerns,
please send an acknowledgment in response to this note.
Paul Flint
Barre Open Systems Institute
17 Averill Street
Barre, VT
05641
http://www.bosivt.org
http://family.flint.com/flint
skype: flintinfotech
Work: (202) 537-0480
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