Positive
December 19, 2007 – 9:21 pmOver the weekend my dad & I had a blitz on my garage. It is now a picture of order and safety. This momentum continued into Sunday when I built some flat pack furniture to equip the new bedroom for our imminent delivery from the stork.
On Monday I got a cracking email from the OpenOffice Project thanking me for making a donation. Although I donate money to such projects with no expectation of acknowledgement it is good to feel I have given something back to a very worthwhile project.
Last night was the final meeting of the Scundog LUG this year. As it is so near to christmas there was not the usual big crowd but a good little group who swapped some good ideas and tips. Robert Simpson, a face from Scundog’s past and a local, open source activist, gave us a demo of ecopup which is a variant release of the PuppyLinux distro.
Rob identified that this project is important for anyone who wants to recycle old computer hardware. The PuppyLinux distro is very easy to install and use. I say again, ‘puppy’ runs on some hardware that would usually end up in the bin (bin = dumpster for any North American readers).
Rob is now a project manager for Puppy Linux and I think he is highly suitable for the job. I gave him the URL of Jessamyn West’s website as this may be something of interest to her and her colleagues in New Hampshire. Rob has rolled out a complete IT suite at a drop-in centre in Scunthorpe. This suite has only cost £30 to set up as all the computer hardware is recycled and the software is open source. Rob’s website is here.
Today I helped someone who works for the UN to access their network (located back across the pond) from a UK based broadband connection. They were very grateful and although I have never met nor have any opinion of IT people within the UN, I was told I had been a great help. My head should be swollen like a pumpkin but instead I’ll settle for the fact that my nasal passages are playing up again. Bah - I had to be brought down a peg or two somehow :-).
Against this entire back drop of goodness there had to be a cost 
2 Responses to “Positive”
Scunthorpe is a funny librarian joke in the US because ur fitlring software breaks it. I’d love to hear more about puppy linux, I’ve had a hard time getting it installed and working speedily on my mac.
By jessamyn on Dec 21, 2007
Hi Shaun, firstly huge congrats for news received yesterday! Super, hope to see photos of new arrival soon!
Secondly, would you and your Father like to sort out my garage please, after moving house Christmas week as you know, it is rather in need of it! Cheers, and congratulations to Mummy and Daddy and Little Bill on you new arrival. x
By Andrea (MJ&S) on Jan 9, 2008