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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

• 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 the 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

• Johnc4510

Parent pages: ArizonaTeam/Newsletters ArizonaTeam

CategoryArizonaTeam