Ubuntu Pennsylvania Local/Community Team

First off, we’ve finally gotten around to getting the Gallery back up, you can check it out here:

http://gallery.ubuntupennsylvania.org/

With the Gallery back up, we were finally able to post phots from the June MythTV Seminar with Matt Mossholder:

http://gallery.ubuntupennsylvania.org/main.php?g2_itemId=438

Finally, we’ve started running PennBot, the #ubuntu-us-pa IRC bot, from our new Linode server!

-!- PennBot [n=supybot@ubuntupennsylvania.org] has joined #ubuntu-us-pa

With this change, we’ve also able to put up chat statistics (updated daily) and real time IRC logs. Check both out here:

 http://ubuntupennsylvania.org/PennBot/

Kevin Valentine posted the following project information on our mailing list this week:

 I’ve decided to limit my presence at NTR.  Instead of going there up to
3 times a months I’m dropping it down to once a month - only during the
Bring a Computer Workshop.  There’s not much to do with the NTR Linux
Laptop project anymore.  We’ve finished all the laptops that are capable
of accepting DSL.  Now they just need to be sold.  Last I checked there
are 2 in the store and 10 in the warehouse.  So before or during the
Workshop, we can attempt to do the following:
1) enter products into database
2) check inventories
3) make sure ‘for sale’ laptops are setup and demonstrating correctly

The Bring a Computer Workshop is a great way to interface directly with
the people that we think need our help the most.  So far, almost every
time I’ve gone to one I’ve installed Ubuntu onto a PC.  Either as a dual
boot (Win + Ubuntu) or just straight Ubuntu.  I don’t force it either
(:  I give an honest effort to help with their Windows problem but there
are many times when a fast 1/2 hour Ubuntu install just gives them what
they want: a functional PC.  The only way it works is if they truly
understand what you’re giving them AND you understand what they need.
If they can only use AOL or Netzero dialup or NEED MS Word for
work/school, then you know the responsible thing to do.

Look forward to seeing some of you there next month.  Here’s the
calendar for more info on the time and place:
http://www.meetlinux.com/calendar/

After some changes over at Ace such as limited external access to our sites, we decided to look into finding hosting that would work better for us. We ended up approaching Linode with a proposal for sponsorship - and they accepted! We now have a VPS donated by them. Thanks so much!

We also have a new domain. Ace owns the meetlinux.com domain and retains ownership. They have been gracious enough to let us continue using it, but we also purchased a second domain name that we’ll keep ourselves:

UbuntuPennsylvania.org

So please start distributing this address instead.

The Friday April 25th Pittsburgh Hardy Release Party Photos are now in our gallery: http://gallery.meetlinux.com/main.php?g2_itemId=399

Looks like a great time was had by all!

Also, our Hardy CDs came in and Jim’s sent them out to the regional contacts. Check out this post from Jim to find out who the contact is for your region, or to become one.

The Ubuntu project is proud to announce its latest release, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. A full release announcement can be found here. We’re really excited about this release. Each Ubuntu release is a more stable, more full featured, and all around a better version than the last. Get it while it’s hot! Isos, torrents, cds, and dvds can be found here. Stay tuned for news on the Pennsylvania release parties, and a follow up interview on WCOJ’s Computer Corner.

Our NTR Laptop Project has been going on for several months now. Here’s an update from the project lead, Kevin Valentine:

The NTR Laptop Project has been moving along smoothly. I don’t have any hard numbers right now but we’ve sorted through about 30-40 laptops. Out of those we have about 10 that are almost ready to be sold at NTR’s thrift store. Before we do that they need to be stress tested - yet another stage in our refurb process. Last Saturday meeting was the first time we tested our new testing process. It went something like this:

• several volunteers were in another room powering up laptops and checking for minimal functionality
• another group in the laptop room pulls hard drives and searches for power supplies
• one person writes DSL images to the hard drives using our fancy new Python script (takes about 1 minute per drive)
• as the first group produces laptops that are function, the new imaged drives get placed in them and tested further

Initially the desktops were off limits to us. However, at the last meeting we were approached by one of NTRs employees, Chuck. He showed me and Jim a batch of about 20 desktops that we could install some flavor of Ubuntu onto. We don’t know all the specs yet but we think they range from 500 MHz to 1GHz. We’ll find out soon.

For those you haven’t been following along, please check out the project’s wiki page for more details: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/CommunityOutreachTeam/NtrLaptopProject

If you’re around right now, and want to meet the people involved with the LoCo teams project in the United states, join us in #ubuntu-us on freenode. It’s a great place to meet people in your area and in others, you never know when you’ll be in Utah and need a couch to crash on.

We’re putting out a public request for photos from past events. Last night was the Gutsy release party and I saw a lot of camera flashes so I know there are plenty of pictures out there. We’d like to put them in our gallery, but we need them from you first! So we’re requesting anyone with pictures they’d like to share, please email them to pennsylbuntu AT gmail DOT com, or email a link to your flickr, picasa, etc. Thanks to everyone who came last night, it was a fantastic time, hopefully we’ll have plenty of photos to share soon!

First off, the 400 Aluminium Case Badges that Jim Fischer bought via the case badge project by the Massachusetts team have arrived! The Philly region team will probably be selling these at events to offset some of the other costs, but we’ll see how it develops.

The whole team has an upcoming IRC meeting that we hope you’ll attend:

IRC Ubuntu PA LoCo TEAM Meeting
Date: October 17th 8:30pm
Agenda for the 10/17/07 Meeting: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/IRCagenda

The Philadelphia / SE region of PA is ready for another active month!

NTR - Next Training Session
Date: October 15, 2007 10:00am to 12:00 Noon
Topic: Update / Synaptic / Help
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/CommunityOutreachTeam/NtrTraining

MALT LTSP Classroom Project
Date: October 24th 7:00pm to 9:00pm
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/CommunityOutreachTeam/LTSPMALT

Gutsy Release / Halloween Party
Date: Sunday October 28th 6:00pm Until ?
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/EventsTeam/PhillyGutsyRelease

Still a few weeks away, September is shaping up to be another very busy month for our team!

But first, a few pictures from the BBQ on the 11th have been posted in the gallery: 20070811 - Philadelphia BBQ - Photos from Elizabeth Bevilacqua. The event was a great success, about 25 people showed up, several CDs were given out, more connections were made. Thanks to everyone who came out and contributed, especially thanks to Jim Fisher who took it upon himself to bring duplicates of all the essential BBQ items “just in case” - great move Jim!

The LTSP Project at MALT is well on its way, just yesterday several more thin clients were donated to the project. For more information on this project check out the forum thread and the LTSPMALT wiki page. Next meeting is scheduled for August 29th.

Software Freedom Day on September 15th the team is working with the Philadelphia Area Computer Society to do demonstrations of Ubuntu. One of our volunteers will also be presenting a MythTV setup with Ubuntu.

The weekend following SFD Matt Mossholder will be hosting an Ubuntu MythTV seminar where interested parties can bring their PCs for an overview of MythTV and an install session to review the basics.

EDIT (9/1): Forum thead by Kevin and Jim details these two other events:
NTR training session: Monday September 17th 10am to 12 Noon.
LTSP MALT Project: Wednesday Sept. 26th from 7pm to 9pm

For more information about all of these events and more, please visit our forums and/or subscribe to our mailing list.