Red Arco Iris as a teenager
April 6th, 2009
Red Arco Iris (en Inglés, Rainbow Network) is coming of age and has much to celebrate. From Keith and Karen Jaspers’ vision 15 years ago to today, much has been accomplished.
Red Arco Iris - la red de redes
April 6th, 2009[en Inglés, Rainbow Network - network of networks]
I spent Friday morning with the managers of the seven Red Arco Iris project regions (”networks”) and other Nicaraguan staff, working towards la red de redes (the network of networks). I believe, and I think the staff believes, that improved use of email, use of Internet shared storage (SkyDrive) and Skype calling will facilitate better communication and more efficient use of time and other resources.
One of the surprises of that session was eagerness to try Linux. I’m encouraging exploration using Ubuntu “live” CDs.
another 15KM walk
March 29th, 2009
Today was another Capitol 10K. Not a lot different from last year, about 15KM from parking to getting back in the car, a little under 3 hours total this year, about 103.5 minutes on the race clocks, so about 100 minutes, just over 16 minutes/mile, after subtracting for pit stops. (My mental model was to stay with the peloton which maybe I did.)
This year’s cell phone photos are below.
Lost in the clouds? Stuck on the desktop?
January 26th, 2009a.k.a. (Google) Docs and other files live in the Sky(Drive)
a.k.a. ”This looks great! But how do I use it?” (silence)
Back in the 90s, Larry Ellison and others were positing the feasibility of the “Internet Computer” a.k.a. “Network Computer”, based on “thin client” hardware and ubiquitous network access to servers and services. Though impractical then, computing along those lines is (becoming) practical today.
For those with sufficient motivation, Google Documents (a.k.a. “Docs”) and (Microsoft) SkyDrive provide enticing capabilities.
XO musing (8.)2.0
January 15th, 2009I’ve not used my XO nearly as much as I anticipated:
- The keyboard is even more a “fatal flaw” than I thought at first.
- The LCD panel failed (right side went blank) just before I was going to take it to Nicaragua. (A free under warranty replacement machine was shipped promptly, but not promptly enough.)
- Miscellaneous software annoyances, most notably the WiFi limitations and the power management deficiencies, also limited applicability.
Obviously, the keyboard is not going to get better, the LCD failure is history, but there is good news about #3.
en Inglés and in Spanish (a reason to prefer Linux over Windows?)
January 15th, 2009About twenty 4 to 6 year-old computers were recently donated to Red Arco Iris (en Inglés, Rainbow Network). The disk drives had been reformatted to remove prior content, presumably both for licensing integrity and privacy. Now the question is how to transport/transform them into productive machines in the Network offices in Nicaragua. Likely transportation is from Springfield to Austin in a truck, and then from Austin to Managua in a shipping container.
Inertia would lead to sending the computers, without software, to Nicaragua. Then Spanish packagings of Windows, Office, et al would need to be installed with Spanish settings.
However:
Semi-annual Fedora Fun
December 10th, 2008The Fedora Project (and for that matter Ubuntu) seem to have settled into semi-annual, roughly May (April) and November (October), release cycles, with Fedora 10 general availability just over two weeks ago. As usual I felt obligated to explore the new edition, and assuming it was acceptable, quickly put it into production.
technology for a dollar a day world
October 15th, 2008Today, Blog Action Day cites 10,000 blogs trying to raise awareness of poverty and initiate action amongst 10,000,000 projected readers. They suggest posts consistent with a site’s other topics that address poverty. It’s very late in the day, so probably best to wait to say much, but here’s a start and some seeds for future posts.
liking Vista with a safety net (XP)
July 22nd, 2008My primary desktop computer, a 4+ year-old VAIO, had been flaky for months. I’d replaced the power supply, re-glued the north bridge heat sink to the chip, re-installed XP, and so forth. So I happily replaced it with a Vostro 200. It was time to try Vista (Home Premium) seriously. But not without a safety net, the ability to multi-boot to XP if/when necessary.
“but it would be wrong” (NT4->WinServer2008)
June 28th, 2008Supposedly there are still zillions of us running NT4 Server. Windows Server 2008 might almost be attractive enough to make us want to upgrade and get back in the realm of software supported by Microsoft. I would think Microsoft would want to make that easy to do, to upgrade directly from NT4 to the newest edition. But somewhere, it appears that some decision maker thought out loud “We could do it, but it would be wrong.”