Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Tonight I added the Maryland Ubuntu Team to the next Ubuntu Community Council Meeting Agenda.
A couple weeks ago I contacted Josh to put together an outline for our Application Page. I then emailed Jono to get his thoughts on the page that was there and what needed to be done to tweak it. To my surprise (due to the short notice I had given to Josh) he said it looks great! So I got around to adding it to the agenda this evening. The benefits of ‘Approved’ status will give us the ability to ask for and receive more resources from Canonical. Also it helps make the map a little more green.
The next step will be the IRC meeting itself. Once I know the time and date, I’ll post a follow up so you can feel free to attend. In the mean time, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
My one apology to the group is that I didn’t give you all notice on this. It kinda came together and with the randomness of the CC meetings I wanted to get it up just in case one is called sooner than later.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
What a great evening!
The Ubuntu Maryland LoCo Team was invited to the Central Maryland Users Group to give our “Why Ubutnu?” presentation.
Joel was our speaker. John was there with a demo machine that doubled as a repository and Craig had the monitor and networking gear to tie my presentation laptop together with John’s machine.
As their meeting was getting underway we did our configurations to get the computers tied together. Our gear worked together without any major problems. We simply had to make the small config modifications that you always do when you’re setting machines to work together for the first time.
During the break after their group topics and discussion, we gave out our handouts and Gutsy Gibbon CDs. I connected in my laptop to the projector and got set up. After resuming Joel got up and did a wonderful job of talking and answering questions. It’s great that we have such a natural presenter as a part of our team.
After the talk we did some demos. We installed a game from the repo server, took a screen shot with the provided utility as that topic had come up in discussion by one of the CMUG members. Craig was able to display the ability to just launch a python engine by request and begin a project. Rather impressive considering he did it on my laptop, I’m not a programmer and it showed that Ubuntu does have much of what you want by default. We had other discussions, answered some general questions, and really pushed the boundaries of the host sites ‘must be out by 10pm rule’. Afterwards John and I joined some of the members for appetizers and drinks at Uno’s Pizzeria and discussed Ubuntu,Windows, and computing topics until about midnight*.
We learned a few things, one of them being that if you want to use a Sprint EVDO card for internet access and a local wifi connection without internet, you have to set up the routing properly before hand. We have to get our presentation signals down a little better for the next slide, time, etc. My laptop has to be better configured to use a second monitor/projector with a keystroke rather than a reboot.
We also discussed among ourselves scheduling the next Install Fest. Our plan right now is to have it in late January, probably the last weekend of the month. More on that later.
*Thanks to Peg for letting me stay out late with the other kids!!!:)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Over the last few days I’ve been looking into the steps to get the Maryland LoCo Team approved by the Ubuntu Community Council. After talking with Richard Johnson who has been acting as a mentor to our team via the US Teams Project he thinks we’re looking good. So I shot off an email to Jono last evening and am awaiting a reply. As he’s just gotten back from a few weeks of travel, I’m not holding my breath.
Over the next few days I’m also going to start looking into becoming a member of the Ubuntu community in an official way.
Of course, this is going to have to be around the schedule of work, the CALug and MD LoCo team meetings over the next two days. So it’s probably not going to get rolling until this weekend.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
As you may remember I told Peg that it was okay if she got another dog. After the false start with Pet Rescue of Maryland she decided to go the foster route for now.
So about a week and a half ago we were interviewed at home and approved to be fosters by the Montgomery County Humane Society. Last Sunday we were contacted about two different dogs, and were able to take Rebel.
He’s been a good dog so far and I’ve taken to him more than I thought I might. It’s taken him most of the week to understand that he’s not going to yet another place for a little bit. This morning I took him for his walk all on my own and cleaned up after him. That was the big task that I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with having a dog.
Peg’s had a lot of people interested in him just from his photo and description. If it weren’t for his affecting our allergies I think Peg and I would consider keeping him around. There was an event yesterday that we took him to and several applications were put in for him. I’ll be surprised if Rebel is with us much longer depending on how long it takes the organization to process the applicants.
Today I put some chicken wire on the back gate at the gap so that we can let him and future dogs run in the yard without a line on them. Since it was a nice day out we also got some playtime out there with him and he got confused between his favorite toys and deciding which one to keep.
Isn’t it great when finacnes are under control! As some may know I started seriously working a get out of debt plan a while ago.
As part of that project, I have built up sinking funds for various things that happen routinely. One of these is car repairs. Over the last week and a half I noticed that my brakes were having problems. Yesterday I put the car into the shop to see what the damage was going to be. $775 for a brake overhaul and other routine things. That’s quite a bit of money. The good news is that my car repair sinking fund carried the brunt of the hit. The emergency fund carried the last little bit and that will be replenished shortly. The best part was that when I was contemplating the repair costs, and even when I heard the number, I didn’t worry about it. I knew I had it covered and under control.
So out of curiosity, I went to BankRate and used their credit card payment calculator. Had I put that $775 bill on a 15% credit card making just minimum payments of interest plus 1%, it would have cost me $626.74 in interest alone and I’d be paying on the card for 122 months. That’s just nuts to me in my current mindset, but it’s how a lot of people live.
Today I was working within MoneyDance to move the funds around and such. I decided to hunt down a problem that I’ve had since the changeover a few months ago from Quicken. After moving to MD from Quicken, my checking account stopped reconciling. I was $13.73 off each month. As there was that much more in the actual account than my records indicated I wasn’t worried as long as it balaced that way each time since. I dug out the paper records from the bank starting at the beginning of the year. Within minutes I found the issue. Some entries from the beginning of the year on paper were actually recorded at the end of ’06. So when I transfered from 1/1/07 a few items that cleared in 07, but were recorded in 06 didn’t make it and threw off the account.
So now I’m all balanced and good to go.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
What a great day it turned out to be, weather wise and event wise.
At the Howard County Library the Ubuntu Maryland Local Community Team held an install fest. With a strong turnout by our members and the public we had a real successful day.
We started out the morning getting set up. I was running a little late but with Krispy Kreme doughnuts in hand, I think I was forgiven. Craig, John, Chris, and others were getting our install stations set up. Luis was bringing us monitors to use at each place. We ran our cat5 and wired up the network to the update server that Craig took the time to set up and configure.
We had a few early arrivals for the low-cost, gently used computers that the library was offering at a reasonable prices, to benefit the Friends of Howard County Library organization. While waiting for the PCs to arrive, one of the customers even went home to bring her current PC set up for dual-boot. We had a few people come in during the day to either have their PC ‘upgraded’ to Ubuntu or purchase one of the PCs we were configuring.
As the day progressed we had a lot of good conversation and enlightened a few people as to the benefits of Free software. One of our ‘customers’ kept asking “Is it really free (as in soda)?” She could not get over that all of the software we were offering was free of cost and free as in freedom, though I don’t know how much that aspect affected her. Other people passing by dropped in to find out what was going on and what we were about. Several people took the disks we offered and the knowledge we imparted to them.
Midway through the day we had visitors from the IT staff of the library. All gave us much praise on what we were doing. They even bought lunch for the group of us. I want to thank them all for their hospitality at this event and our regular meetings.
I think the biggest downfall to the day was the weather. Outside it was one of those perfect early fall days. It was warm and sunny with a nice breeze blowing. In all honesty, had I not made the commitment, I would have been elsewhere. I would have spent the day with Peg on the dog search.
Of course, I’ll be doing that tomorrow 🙂
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Well I finally did it. I gave Peg the birthday gift that can never be toped, even by another ‘Easy Button’.
I gave her a (small) dog collar, as a symbol that I’m okay with her getting another dog. Of course it was a purple one, as I knew that would be the icing on the cake.
She has been hinting for a while that she wants another dog. Her last one, Hannah, passed away before we met. She put this desire for a dog aside knowing that I’m not much of an animal person. Yet after the week that we had Buddy, my sister’s dog, I saw how happy she was having a dog around the house. So after alot of thinking, I came to the conclusion that I can live with a dog, especially if I get to see her that happy.
It was such a thrill to see her open the gift. The moment she realized what it was and what it meant. I knew she couldn’t say much, but I could see the joy in her expression and her eyes. After the stun effect wore off, she got up and gave me a big hug. She sat down again just saying how happy and excited she was, practically vibrating. It did take her longer to get the laptop to start the search for a dog than I thought it would, but she didn’t want to seem too eager apparently. She’s cute like that.
Happy Birthday Baby!
(Of course the side benefit is that she will be totally preoccupied with finding a dog for a while and then with the dog once she gets it. Free time for me!!!!!!!)
The Ubuntu Maryland Loco Team is going great!
We’ve had a meeting every month at the Howard County Central Library since our initial gathering in March. So far every month we’ve had a new new faces show up with new ideas.
Our team has put together some great things. We have Josh working our wiki (among other things he’s volunteered for) better than I was ever able to. Craig and John and doing great things leading the push on our install fests. Joel has recently volunteered to lead our presentations team. LadyNikon is our IRC lead op. We’re still looking for a marketing lead, so if you have such inclinations please feel free to step forward.*
Our first event was an install fest a few weeks ago at the Loyola College Center for Community Informatics which went over real well. Everyone on the team who turned out was a big help and we had a great time. Our next event will be Software Freedom Day which is still in the planning stages.
So if you’re in Maryland and want to help with the loco team, pop over to http://www.ubuntu-maryland.org and find a spot to help out! We’ll be having our regular monthly meeting on August 16th at the Howard County Central Library.
*Names mentioned were culled from the volunteer lists on the Wiki, I didn’t leave out anyone out on purpose! 🙂
What Kurt did to Tony on pit road during the Dover race was wrong and uncalled for. It put the life of a pit crew member in jeopardy. I’m not much of a beer drinker but when I do it’s Miller Lite. If Miller doesn’t suspend Kurt for at least a race on top of whatever penalty Nascar applies, I won’t be consuming their product any longer. Contact Miller Lite and the Penske Racing team and let them know your thoughts on the matter.
Well I’m down here near Orlando, FL visiting with Peg’s sister and family. Their daughter is graduating high school and Peg has been looking for a good excuse to visit. Works out like peanut butter and jelly I guess!
Anyway this is the first time I’ve met this part of the family and they’re all good people. As soon as I met Debbie I knew she was family as I had to look down on her. We got to the house where I met Debbie’s husband Jeff. After we got settled a bit we did a little grocery shopping then back to the house where Marie, the graduate, came home just after us. Then a bit later Max, the oldest, made his appearance and introductions. Of course Tiki the dog made his little presence known right from the start at the house. Of course Peg gets totally focused on him if he’s around, but that was expected.
Today Peg and I slept in until about 10 or so. We were both amazed but we woke well rested. After getting ourselves together we went out and found a dog track and took in a couple races. We walked out about $15 up even considering we had no program and we just picked a dog by it’s number. Then after our adventure on the way home, we went out to dinner with Debbie and Jeff. A tour of the roundabout that is downtown then back home for a movie and relaxation.
It’s a good trip so far. Tomorrow is Graduation Day ceremony then Wednesday is an outing with the family day. I’m looking forward to it.