Club Linux Coffs Harbour

Working as I do in a Microsoft Windows-centric IT department has its challenges. None of them technical. Many years of installing and reinstalling Microsoft operating systems and the multitude of other software, patches, updates, workarounds and fixes has become second nature. So much so that I often have waking nightmares involving Office 2007, docx, Eu-fu!*ing-dora, MS-SQL, MSDE, Visual Studio, Service Pack 3, Genuine Advantage and Outlookpst files. When I say not technical, I mean it, all this stuff is just knowledge. When to click, Next, OK or Cancel.

Oh the irony of reading about this on a Microsoft site - link
This bit was particularly interesting -

Microsoft Netherlands spokesman Hans Bos noted that its Word documents were still allowed as equal alternatives to ODF for the moment, and added he expects the company will soon receive approval for its Open Office XML to qualify as "open source."

But he said the company was worried about and opposed other aspects of the Dutch policy.

Specifically, he said, the provision that government agencies should prefer open source was overly proscriptive.

Overly proscriptive?! Now hang on a minute....

I expect there are a fair few of you who have bought one of those cheap MP3 players from The Good Guys or WOW. I know I have one which cost me about 30 bucks and plays half an hour of audio which gets me to work and back on my bicycle.

Slashdot has been discussing this article:

Becoming a Linux OEM: A Roadmap

Which got me thinking... The Mid-North Coast could really do with a computer recycler. Matthew mentioned Computerbank, they seem to have a few outfits around the place but none that I know hereabouts. The general idea is to get old computers, stick linux on them and get them back into the community for as little money as possible!
Simple hey?

A friend of a friend offered to pay me to set up broadband internet on his old computer. Money shmoney, I foolishly thought, I'll do it for free. So I bought a $30 modem off ebay and set it all up with a reputable ISP, the computer was running Windows 98 but I didn't have to use it so that's fine. An hour to set it all up and provide a quick lesson in how to use the net and I'm done.

A bit of free help randomly thrown out into the world, leaving behind a warm fuzzy glow.

Well... hey, after that last meeting I got all fired up and upgraded from Dapper to Edgy and installed Beryl. So for the past week or so I've been whizzing round my 3d cuboid desktop thingy, writing my Uni assignments - I'm not sick on eye candy quite yet. It is kinda fun to laugh at all the 'early adopter's using Vista and seeing how they have to struggle to get similar affects with a brand new machine and graphics card whilst my crummy 3 1/2 year old lappy runs rings round them.

Stuff nerds to for fun hey...

I've always liked the idea of having multiple desktops but have never really gotten into them. When I'm in the Zone I tend to just do my thing until I run out of steam or can't find that 34th window I opened earlier. With the 3d cubey thing I just seem to keep going for longer and it feels much more tactile. Does that sound pervy?