Re: [school-discuss] Mac Linux network install failure

[Jim Thomas <jthomas@bittware.com>]

Les Richardson wrote:
> 
> These kind of things point out the fact that 3 things are required:
> a) Hardware
> b) Software
> c) People trained to use them.
> 
> Like a three legged stool, the lack of any one and the whole thing falls
> over.
> 
> The hardware is now easy. Almost anything can function as an X terminal.
> 
> The software we're working on, although documentation would probably fall
> into the gray zone.
> 
> What about the training... now that is the hard part. What about the Unix
> philosophy? What about free software and GPL? These are the foundation
> stones on which things are built.
> 
> But of course, we already knew that. The problem in these
> Installations-Gone-Wrong was that the background and understanding of
> issues wasn't there. (and really can't be).
> 
> But who can we educate about these things?..... Let's talk to students.

Yup.  I have decided that I could save a lot of time if I started a LUG
at our school/church.  I have so many things I want to do to the
school's network that there's no way I can do it all and still have a
full-time job and a family.  I was thinking that maybe if I started a
LUG and got a few of my Linux-savvy buddies involved, we could train up
an IT department.  If I could hand off some of my projects to them, I'd
have time to attend the meetings ;-)

I've never attended a LUG meeting though, so this is new territory for
me.  There are several LUGs in my neighborhood, but they always have
meetings at a time that I am not able to attend.

My strategy is to hold monthly meetings.  One of my buddies or I would
present some training material on a selected topic.  We'd open LUG
membership to all interested people, but especially students and staff. 
After each presentation, we could throw out ideas for how to use the
material covered in new and interesting ways.  Then maybe one of the
attendees would volunteer to work on the project, and one of the guru's
would shepherd him (or her) along.

One downside to this is that it will require MORE of my attention in the
short term.  It reminds me of a story I heard in my woodworking circles:

<insert harp music>
A ship got caught up in a storm and struck some rocks which put a big
hole in the hull.  The captain - frantic - grabbed the ship's carpenter
and told him to get to work.  He communicated the urgency of the
situation very clearly.  To his surprise, rather than getting right on
it and cutting some boards or other such "carpentry" work, the carpenter
took out his tools and began sharpening them.  The captain asked him
what on earth he was doing.  Didn't he realize the ship was going to
sink if he didn't get to work immediately?  The carpenter then told the
captain that the quickest way for him to get the ship repaired was to
start with sharp tools.  The investment in time would more than pay for
itself.

I'd STILL have started by sawing boards though ;-)

-- 
Jim Thomas            Principal Applications Engineer  Bittware, Inc
jthomas@bittware.com  http://www.bittware.com          (703) 779-7770
The sooner you get behind, the more time you'll have to catch up