[ubuntu-arizona] Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #39

[Craig A. Eddy]

Welcome to the Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #39 for the week
March 10, March 16.

    *

      Arizona Loco Newsletter

    *

      Thirty-Ninth Edition

    *

      Powered by Ubuntu

    *

      Wednesday-March 19, 2008

    *

      Arizona Loco Team Wiki: ArizonaTeam
      <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam>

    *

      Next meeting: Sunday March 23, 2008 9:00PM

    *

      Server: Freenode: IRC Channel #ubuntu-arizona


      Newsletter


        Summary of the March 16, 2008 meeting

johnc4510 called the meeting to order at 9:01 PM

johnc4510 began by addressing the team:

I want to start off by thanking all of you for you concern regarding my Mom and her problems. She is somewhat better, but still
having some problems that we are trying to work through. We are hopeful that in time she can get back to her normal activities.
Until that time, I will be somewhat limited on the amount of time I can spend in channel. If this becomes a problem, I will be 
he first to let everyone know, and we can address it at that time.  I really appreciate everyone's concern over the past week
or so.

johnc4510 has been contacted by an IT Manager here in Tucson wanting to
donate a server to our team. johnc4510 will call him tomorrow morning
and then pick up the server around noon. The specifications for the
server are:

    *

      2.4 GHz dual core xeon processor

    *

      2 gigs of memory

    *

      3 - 36 gig HD's, hot swappable

    *

      Raid control

    *

      Tape drive(for backup)

A similar server can be seen at 
http://www.stikc.com/dell-poweredge-4600-rackmount-p29790.html. It is a
used server, and the link does not show the actual server. Team members
expressed their appreciation of this new server. After he gets it home
we will see what kind of shape it's in and then determine how to best
put it into use. Going by specs alone, it should be a much superior
machine than the one we are using now, and we would own it. He believes
that with the release of Hardy LTS that's due out in April, this would
be a great time to "upgrade" and get rid of the current server we are
using.

A discussion then started concerning where to put the server, and how
and whether it should be used. johnc4510 began with the fact that he has
looked into upgrading his home cox account to a business account with a
static address. The cost isn't terribly restrictive. He is thinking we
could do a lot more with this machine than we have been able to do with
the one we have. Examples would be using drupal or wordpress themes for
our team website, hosting our own team blog for all to use, along with
individual member blogs that we could transfer to this server for
hosting, and email hosting.

paul928 asked if he could get it into a data-center? He didn't feel that
we would be happy with the performance of a home server. johnc4510
replied that he hadn't looked into it yet, but he would. tyche added
that he didn't think it would have that much of a strain against it, and
added that putting it in a data-center would increase the expense.
johnc4510 then mentioned that paul928 has suggested a hosting service he
uses, and of course we will consider that route too. He set up a test
page for us to look at also. It's here:  http://ubuntu-az.nfshost.com/.
soldats said that it wouldnt up the cost of a business class cox
account. johnc4510 responded that the upgrade to business is about $15 a
month, and tyche added that he was willing to chip in $20 a year to help
with expenses. johnc4510 mentioned that we should still find out what a
data-center would charge, and added that paul928's offer was free.

tyche mentioned that the advantage of johnc4510 having the server is
that we could learn how to setup and run servers. ianmcorvidae and
kennymc0 were in favor of the server, especially given we'd be
upgrading. ianmcorvidae added that way we can continue to do things such
as: the stats, tetrinet server, so forth. johnc4510 added that we would
have the advantage of setting up a LAMP server with file hosting and
email hosting etc. ianmcorvidae added that nearlyfreespeech.net does
email forwarding which works just as well in that respect. He did
counter with the fact that we can also do more customization of our
server. kennmc0 mentioned that the learning aspect alone made him think
the server is worth it, especially since the machine itself is free.
tyche mentioned that we wouldn't be locked into anyone else's themes.
johnc4510 added that if we go with me hosting through cox here, we also
get 10 free email addresses through them. ianmcorvidae mentioned that
nearlyfreespeech is a real host, so we can at least do anything they
have physical support for. johnc4510 closed this part of the discussion
with the statement that we have a couple of options to think about and
discuss in the next few weeks.

johnc4510 said that we wouldn't be doing anything with it until the
Hardy LTS release. tyche asked if he was waiting for the full release,
or would he be putting the Beta on for testing. johnc4510 felt that we
should wait for the final release. Once we start the server, if we do,
we want it to run non stop without having to upgrade. Waiting for the
Hardy Heron LTS final release met with general approval. paul928 added
that if we would like, we can always start using the 
http://ubuntu-az.nfshost.com server and later he'll transfer the
database to the server. johnc4510 mentioned that we have several
advantages with servers. slofgren and ianmcorvidae have good experience
on them, and a lot of knowledge.

johnc4510 added that one thing that concerned him is that we really
haven't been using the old server very much. If we _are_ going to use
this one he doesn't want us to be laying out extra $'s every month for
something we aren't putting to the best use. tyche mentioned that the
old server was rather restricted, and he, for one, felt that it would be
better if he didn't put a strain on it. johnc4510 agreed, and added that
perhaps we should discuss what people would like to do with a server
(that they would actually be willing to help implement). soldats
suggested that he thought the team blog and personal blogs would be nice
as well as email, and johnc4510 agreed. johnc4510 suggested that we have
one person as a server leader, like slofgren, and then maybe have small
groups working on different aspects of the server. Maybe have a
instructional by each sub-team on what they are doing. soldats suggested
that since we will have a personal forum as well we can have subsections
for that. johnc4510 added that in that way, we could all be learning and
at the same time teaching the rest of us.

ianmcorvidae felt that it seems like a reasonable plan, so long as there
is enough interest within the group, such that we'll actually HAVE those
groups. soldats felt he really would like to do this but maybe we should
pull a few more people into regular meetings and see if more people want
to be involved. johnc4510 mentioned that the newsletter about this
meeting might draw some in to learn about servers. [ed. note: there are
95 people listed in the membership rolls. Typically, the IRC channel has
about 20 members shown, not all of whom participate on a regular basis.
We would enjoy having more members active in IRC and participating in
our discussions and meetings. As you have joined this Team you have
added to our image and we have added to yours. The success of the Team
is your success, and your participation enriches us all.] kennymc0 said
that he would do what he can to help but he would need to be taught a
lot of this. johnc4510 told him not to worry about it, that he would
need to learn a lot of this, too. That is what this is for: learning.
soldats said that's what were all here for is to help each other.

johnc4510 then asked soldats if he had done the last update on the
InstallFest flier. Soldats responded with the link to the latest
version,  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=704786. When the Team
had had a chance to see it johnc4510 mentioned that he was a little
concerned with the "What To Bring" section. ianmcorvidae had a post
above soldats' last post that included a list of what people should
bring. soldats admitted that he had simply missed putting the
information in due to being rushed when he put the flier together. There
was a question of whether we should be helping people set up wireless
cards, considering that it was more advanced and some could be quite
difficult. The general consensus was that we should if we could.

We have a location for the Phoenix InstallFest:
West Building (basketball gym)
First Baptist Church of Peoria
8133 W Cactus Rd
Peoria, AZ 85381

johnc4510 mentioned that he was still working on getting a site for the
InstallFest in the Tucson area.

enigmastrat got us the location. It's in a church gym, and there are
plenty of plugs, wireless and wired internet. There will be a LAN party
going on at the same time. Next week, we need to have a discussion of
what _we_ need to bring to the InstallFest.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:55 PM.


      Credits

    *

      CraigAEddy <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CraigAEddy>

    *

      Johnc4510 <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Johnc4510>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-us-az/attachments/20080319/6a4de288/attachment.htm