[Computerbank] Re: [cai-sa] Teen Challenge -Network

Wed Apr 2 11:23:44 UTC 2003

On Mon, 31 Mar 2003 07:51:10 +0930
Romana Challans <romana at timelady.com> scribed:

Hey Ro,
HTF-Rya !

> Thanks Pete for your report, its a beaut:)
> 
> Re Hardware, the new structure reassigns Hardware to various 
> people.....but we still need people on board for procurement & storage
> etc..
> 
> (the restructure diagram was there, went missing, is now back - makes 
> the restructure make much more sense:)  )
Oh I must have missed it .. I will try again in a bit..
> 
> Could pepole look at the diagram, and the list of people and roles 
> below, and fill in the gaps asap???? I'll update the web site as
> people work it out:)

I am very lazy please supply URL :)

> 
> I seem to have BIG shed for hardware storage - and Marion seems a lot 
> easier for peopel to get things to - so maybe we could transport some
> of that stuff down Pete? (I know, I just offloaded it to you, but I
> dont mind if its not inside the house anymore ;)))  )
I must say I am with David here.. lets leave it where it is .. where
it's all at least sort of working,
build a  control / accountability system and THEN check it into  storage
(e.g. your shed/ my shed Jennys shed).
A stock take. 
We also need some sort of universal system for storage of components
like cards MBs etc. (less space but more need to diff  through stuff)..
While a central location would be ideal, I think at least some of the
gear should be distributed, (and documented as such.)
(that way we can "service" local clients easily ... etc.)
Whatever we come up with has to be EASY / fast / friendly etc.

Once we have a system I will go through every thing here (again) and
organise to deliver it wherever it's required.
Or whatever .. No Worries ..

Hey Ro you don't happen to have kept all of those boxes you moved with
:) 

> 
> 
> r:)
> 
> 
> Peter Gossner wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > This is a Report on Hardware (as I am aware of it) Timor and Teen
> > Challenge.
> > But first...
> > Welcome aboard one Mr James Dean... It's great to have you with us
> > and even better that you are down near the airport :)
> > (I will try to get some gear to you this week)
> > 
> > I have been quiet lately, but some stuff continues to happen...
> > Heres is a quick report on Hardware ..
> > My back room is chokkers with a variety of gear 90 % of which is
> > useful. I have started resorting it out...>>>>
> > My back shed has a growing pile of less useful equipment (486s
> > etc)..
> > 
> > Gear out:
> > TeenChallenge (Murray Bridge branch)...
> > Teen Challenge recieved 2 NEC monitors , a few NICs (PCI)
> > Half dozen serial mice
> > and more importantly some support in the shape of Robyn Manning,
> > David Loyd and um me 
> > to set up a Mandrake based network at their office in Murray bridge.
> > It was an interesting day / night / early morning and was all up
> > succesfull.
> > (except for Robyns Car which I hope is now fixed ...)
> > 
> > The main problems we had were with CDROM (players) which proved to
> > be very frustrating.
> > (much switching of IDE ribbons and units about).
> > Gear In:
> > Kylie swapped / donated a heap of ISA NICs which I have yet to go
> > through but will be usefull for smaller networks where there is the
> > time to config each box individually and of course home networks. I
> > also snaffled various bits and pieces to add to the choas that is my
> > back room.
> > 
> > FWIW: (some OBs)
> > Mandrake has a nice installer which is generic / friendly  enough
> > for most cases but has some real resource requirements .
> > 
> > Mandrake has some (to a Debianite at least) quirks in some configs
> > that I best leave to Mandrake people to explain,( best to use
> > DrakeConf or whatever the thing is called) ..
> > Both the Installer and desktop (KDE 3) are really slow on low RAM (<
> > 64meg) boxen , does cheap  partitioning and strange things with
> > groups / root that I didn't have the time to really investigate on
> > site. I am not sure why it ignores /etc/hostname either but
> > functionally that seemed to make no difference. 
> > It would be great for 128meg boxes. 
> > To my mind performance is way too slow even at 64meg (It's a shame
> > but KDE 3 / QT3 is  still doing its usual ram suck).
> > Boot time is , well , um a chance to grab a coffee.. (but as you
> > only do this once It's not really that big an issue).
> > The kernel was 2.4.19 (something) and had all the usual set of
> > default modules.
> > The CDROM issue was sometimes due to old/broken gear and sometimes
> > and was complicated by some install CD's using the more modern
> > (lighter/faster) burns. Perhaps we should burn all boot cd's at
> > least with a slow setting and with eltorito formatiing ..????
> > i.e. assume to worst case.
> > 
> > As an "office/ MS replacement" it probably rocks and of course that
> > call is one that the end users should make.
> > I would feel comfortable offering the default Mandrake to our end
> > users as long as they could see it next to a proper Unix and
> > probably without any "desktop environment" or at least Gnome 2 as a
> > somewhat faster alternative. I guess Mandrake will offer Gnome2 with
> > their next release.
> >  (and yes I know that can be confusing).
> > 
> > I hope to meet with Tony and James on Tuesday (or sometime this
> > week) and bring some more equipment into their hands.
> > 
> > Timor:
> > Believe it or not the War has had a bit of an effect with the Darwin
> > people on this project .. I have had a full set of shots in case I
> > have to go as well... (I think I have had a total of 8 injections
> > and some Salk (polio) vacc. .. lost count).. The various bits of me
> > have stopped hurting :)
> > The short status is all we need is Transport and that has been close
> > 3 times now... We will also have some English speaking (Au) support
> > on site as well. (well a little) Until September AND there is an
> > attempt being made to get AUSAID funding for a feasibility / scoping
> > study for a real/ on going project sort of a train the trainers
> > thing.  I will do a full report when I have firmer details.. (this
> > is one of the things that is being held up for a bit by the Iraq
> > situation)..
> > 
> > Hardware install wise I have put it away for a bit and am going to
> > package everything up over the next couple of weeks (i will update
> > boxes just before they go).
> > 
> > Finally I would like to welcome the new structure and wish everybody
> > all the best with it. 
> > There is some info here: 
> > http://sa.computerbank.org.au/minutes/23march2003.html
> > (in case ya missed it)
> > As a few of you are aware I have problems getting about (transport)
> > and, like the rest of us, limited time to throw at the organisation.
> > As I live in Woodside my utility as a Hardware co-odinator is
> > limited as so I am hoping some other fool will take up this role....
> > David Loyd is Tech Cordinator and has some great ideas that I will
> > leave himself to share with you.
> > (just a nudge DSL :)
> >  I intend staying active I am hoping we can get more boxes out, and
> >  that
> > is going to need more than just me playing with the hardware.. 
> > Oh that means I officially quit as Official  Hardware /idiot/guru 
> > .... Will somebody else please take up this role , and perhaps the
> > admin people could knock up a "job description" - brief -scope or
> > something.
> > 
> > Pete..
> > NUOHC-CAiSA
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ??????????????????????????????????????????????????
> Romana Challans
> GPG Key fingerprint =
> F09E F80E 5DCA 9476 7753  9423 2CC7 81E8 4F07 1AD2
> 
> State Coordinator
> Computerbank Australia Incorporated - Sa Branch
> http://sa.computerbank.org.au/
> ??????????????????????????????????????????????????

-- 
<gossner at arcom.com.au>
<http://arcom.com.au/~gossner/>
<http://bigbutton.com.au/~hazzaday>