Everything easy is hard

[Kevin Cole]

Dan McGarry wrote:

> A few technical nitpicks from the frontier:
> 
> - Could you please let us know where to find the tuxLab Cookbook in
> something other than PDF format? We pay almost USD 200 per month for
> dial-up access here in Vanuatu, which means that 9 computers are
> currently sharing one little modem. HTML is vastly more desirable than
> monolithic PDF documents.

It's still one big monolithic document, (with some big illustrations) but a
version in HTML can be found at:

http://www.upfrontsystems.co.za/Members/jean/cookbook/docbook/cookbook.html

(Maybe elsewhere as well.)  XML/Docbook formats are also available.

> - Could you please use static links (or proper redirects) for file links
> on this and other pages? I frequently schedule downloads of larger files
> for off-peak times using wget. This wiki's linking system doesn't seem
> to get along very nicely with wget. I haven't had time to diagnose the
> problem just yet, but if files were linked statically I wouldn't have to
> script around[*] someone else's cleverness. 8^)
> 
> [*] Which wiki software are you using, BTW? I should just submit a patch
> directly to the maintainers, as the link works properly in Firefox, but
> returns a 403 (Forbidden) to wget - that's just broken.

It's MoinMoin, a Python-based wiki.  But as to your specific troubles,
I leave it to others to answer.

>> Hmmm... I'm not sure which page you refer to, but if it
>> was a wiki page, then it was "locked" because someone else
>> was editing it.  As for the login process, if it sent you
>> to Launchpad, then yeah, I can see your point about it being
>> a bit tedious.  On the other hand, e-mail isn't always ideal
>> for feedback either.
>  
> I would have thought that feedback to a mailing list would be the,
> er, canonical method. 8^)

Ouch. ;-)

> What other methods of feedback are preferable?

I wasn't saying don't use the mailing lists.  I meant that the wiki
supplemented the mailing lists and vice versa.  But I'm relatively
new here, and shouldn't be seen as a representative of the general
attitudes.  (I only replied to the last message because it appeared
very related to the documentation I'm working on.)

>> (See the tuxLab Cookbook mentioned above, as well as
>> http://www.ltsp.org/longstory.php and maybe
>> http://k12ltsp.org/contents.html for more info.)
> 
> Perhaps these links could be added here:
> 
> http://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuDocumentation/AboutEdubuntu
> 
> in the Linux Terminal Server Project section. That way, the question
> won't need to be asked again here.

The folks at LTSP.org were in the process of moving their stuff around
(specifically to a twiki wiki), and there's a better version of some of the
docs, including the "long story" referred to above.  However, they haven't
made them public yet.  But we could point to the current docs for now.

>> How do educators needs differ from anyone else's?  Most
>> of what you mention applies to just about anyone using
>> computers.  
> 
> I read the originating message as stating that these applications were
> not clearly listed in the docco, making it hard for teachers to know
> whether this particular distro actually met their needs (which as you
> rightly state are quite similar to others').

'Course it meets their needs!  It's Edubutu GNU/Linux. ;-)
But I see your point.

>> The LTSP stuff (better explained in the tuxLab Cookbook) 
> 
> And, if I understand correctly, soon to be available in expanded form on
> the Edubuntu website?

SOON?  Heh! Dream on!  We had our FIRST meeting today. ;-)  That said, it
went rather well, actually.  We made good progress editing, and hope to do it
on a weekly basis. The new document will be both expanded and contracted. The
tuxLab Cookbook serves a more specific audience, and a lot of the details
specific to that group can be trimmed.  Ultimately, I think the new document
will be smaller than the tuxLab Cookbook.  But that will leave us some room
to expound on some of the details that may not be clear.

> Best regards from Vanuatu!
> 
> P.S. My copy of Edubuntu 5.10 is arriving in a parcel some time late
> this week. I'm really excited about kicking the tires. We've been using
> Ubuntu on public access workstations since Breezy, but had to hack
> together our own thin-client solution.

Although I work at a university, I'm not an teacher or lab admin, and so I'm
not using LTSP/thin-client stuff... yet.  I hope to convince some folks around
here to give it a whirl. I gather the Edubuntu LTSP stuff is still a bit rough
around the edges but functional.

-- 
 Kevin Cole                    |  Key ID: 0xE6F332C7
 Gallaudet University          |     WWW: http://gri.gallaudet.edu/~kjcole/
 Hall Memorial Bldg  S-419     |   V/TTY: (202) 651-5135
 Washington, D.C.  20002-3695  |     FAX: (202) 651-5746

 "Using vi is not a sin. It's a penance." -- St. IGNUcious, Church of Emacs
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