Personal thoughts on Social Justice, Environment, Linux and Buddhism
I own musical CDs (and who doesn’t?) and I run Ubuntu Linux 8.10 on my laptop. I rip songs from the CDs as MP3s (sorry, not Ogg-Vorbiss because my MP3 player doesn’t support that encoding format) and plan on putting the large numbers of digital copies on a house system to talk directly to my stereo. I’m OK with all of this – works for me quite nicely. So, what’s the beef?
Get creative! Think of novel ways to incorporate Linux systems into the existing school with Windows-centric technology infrastructure… Here are some strategies/tricks I’ve done to bring in Linux through the back door and onto the campus.
"Be verwy quiet…. huhuhuhuhuhu. " Whoever said that Elmer Fudd wasn't an Open Source strategist! He saw the writing on the wall and now you too can devise a sinister plot to infiltrate the dread world of Redmond, be tricksy, my preciousssss. Here are some strategies I've used so far to bring Linux onto my high school campus:
So many school districts think that if they aren’t using Microsoft products everywhere, especially on the desktop, that they will be missing out on some type of golden opportunitiy. Opportunities like, Bill Gates is going to give them free software for perpetuity, that some huge conglomerate will recognize their district as deserving of some special accommodation because they have played ball, followed the party line, tasted the fine slop while feeding at the huge Microsoft trough…
A $100, hand-cranked powered personal computing device (can’t really be called a laptop) that is being developed and promoted by folks at MIT and elsewhere is causing some sleepless nights in the techno centers and headquarters around the U.S. A little PC that is being developed for the technology-starved emerging nations (specifically Africa and the Far East) is causing quite a storm.
Summer is brutal in Tucson: lots of heat, and when the “monsoon” rain season hits, there’s the high humidity to deal with, it’s murder! Tough working conditions for computers, especially for laptop users: My Dell Inspiron 5150 is my primary machine–a decent desktop replacement that I’ve been pretty happy with, especially using SuSE Linux 10.0.
I’m having an issue with the system: in times of intense, heat-creating activity (running KDE or Gnome and loads of eye-candy and processes running, lots of hard drive activity, processor really cranking, WLAN interface active as primary network connection), I’ve experienced situations where the laptop does a preventative thermal shutdown with the briefest of warnings. I’m thankful that I ‘m not experiencing motherboard melt-down, but it’s very annoying! Why do I continue to use KDE as my primary desktop/window manager when it could be contributing to the problem? Which window manager/desktop system to use on my laptop?
I've written in a previous article about helping low-income residents with the cast-off technology schools are in the process of upgrading. Here are some ideas on how to introduce Linux to students, parents, and teachers.
I have an article elsewhere on Beelybox about more students using cell phones and those students being technically savy. What about the students who have very limited access or no access to technology at all? What happens to them in this flattened world? Here are some points to consider and ideas that can be implemented.
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