I got this idea when I saw a post on some random forum, where someone had said that they would consider dual booting into Ubuntu, if there were a 'Ubuntu/Linux for beginners' book that wasn't for 30$.
He was looking on amazon at the time, and probably did not even look at the Ubuntu documentation. I haven't either until now. It's not easy to read and certainly not designed for beginners.
So, what I'm thinking is to provide exactly what he was thinking. A "Ubuntu for beginners" virtual book that can be easily printed and distributed with an open source licenses, Similar to the "wikipedia" physical books. The book may be sold for the cost of materials, or could easily be printed from home.
It could be featured somehow on Ubuntu's "shipit", as an option for new users.
Since it is specifically designed for beginners, it should not be deeper than necessary, and explain everything someone new to Linux needs to know to install and use Ubuntu.
The actual website for constructing should be Drupal with the "books" module. Many of the Ubuntu website's are already using Drupal (Including Ubuntu QA), and the books module provides the best and easiest features for both writers and readers. The pages can be easily ordered and structured in the book. The pages can be individually viewed, individually printed, or printed as a book.
Since Ubuntu QA already uses Drupal framework, it makes sense to use it on this "site" but give it it's own subdomain. Users of Ubuntu QA will not need a new account and Drupal will not need to be re-themed as much.
Others have said:
"I think that this is a brilliant idea. This would very much help the many new users that have just ventured out of Windows for the first time."
"Yes, it would be nice with a free .pdf Ubuntu book. The guy is just making excuses though. Or do did he buy a "Computer for beginners" and "Windows for beginners" book, too"
Contribute your own thoughts and vote on my idea on Ubuntu Brainstorm.
If the idea reaches 200 votes, I'll make the framework for it myself and host it (maybe temporarily) on a neomenlo subdomain. Ubuntu Brainstorm uses drupal, which I am very familiar with.
So I got to the AT&T store at 7:40 in the morning expecting a line, but not a 30 foot line with 50 people in it. Some had been camped there since 9 PM the previous night.
Before the store even opened, a police car showed up. The officer was not the typical clean cut officer that you would trust. This one was a scruffy, older, out of shape man with sunglasses and almost never took his hand more than 2 inches away from his holster. Even though he was nice to those waiting in line, and felt unnecessary, his presence was an omen that shifted the mood.
The doors opened at 8:01 according to my phone, followed by a weirdly silent cheer. The AT&T employees seemed to have plenty of time to hang out with us outside. They gave us some free stuff. Water bottles, a foam can insulator (which I'm still using), a clip thing that I still haven't figured out, and a stress ball.
A half hour passed. The first batch was still in there.
Another half hour, and another group was in there. The chairs the all nighters had brought were still outside with us because their owners were inside or at the front of the line when the manager came out. He told us there was a good probability that the rest of us would not get a 16 GB black iPhone. He explained that we could be put on a waiting list, and have it shipped to the AT&T store in a couple of days. This was explained to me before he had said it at that moment, when someone pointed out "Why couldn't we just pre-order it online." A simple question that nobody at AT&T had an answer they were willing to give. The most obvious reason, which had occured to me at that moment was that since AT&T is requiring activation in store, they do not want it to be shipped to your house. They're sick of people unlocking the iPhone and using it with a different provider.
It wasn't long before they told us that they were out of 16 Blacks. I had come to terms with that already, and was mostly unphased.
As the sun was rising, it started to get a lot hotter. One of the employees that was routinely coming out to hang out with us explained that the servers were backed up. I found this to be almost inexcusable knowing all that I know about computers. There is an entire industry that rents servers for companies who expect short spike in traffic. Even worse, AT&T, one of the larger Internet Service Providers around, should be more than capable of finding enough bandwidth.
Another hot hour passed.
Near 11 AM, I was just a few people back in line, when UPS truck showed up and brought several boxes into the AT&T store. Of course, we couldn't be that fortunate. Nonetheless, it successfully got my hopes up, and crushed them once again.
The water cooler that originally held water bottles was now empty, and the trash cans overlowing. The ice was dumped onto the hot pavement and quickly disappeared.
Finally it was my turn to go in. I was expecting the air conditioning to be a relief. It wasn't. Somehow it felt almost as hot in the store as it was outside. In my experience, the AT&T store was always fridged compared to the outside on a hot summer day. As I walked to the counter, an employee with a clipboard started taking names and letting customers in. Probably to avoid the liability of a heat related injury like a heat stroke. Still, it did not quite sit well with me that I had to wait in line in the heat, while they could have done that a long time before I had to come in.
The worst part about having to wait 15 - 30 minutes while people walked out with iPhones was about to hit me. As I looked at the circle of workstations and employees, I noticed none of them were engaged in their workstation. It seemed as if all of them were staring at each other in a calm panic, not sure of what to do. Our female representative went over to talk to a male representative, and nothing about the body language of their interaction made it seem important. None of them looked like they were. I looked over at the computer screens, which were all visible from my angle, and the seldom clicks that were made loaded instantly.
I was able to watch as I guided my representative through a straight forward pre-order of a 16 GB Black 3G iPhone. I refused the 70$ insurance rip-off that doesn't cover anything. The time I spent going over exactly which plan I wanted was wasted since I wasn't activating anything. All she had to do was put in a drivers licsense number, a name, and what model I want; something I could have easily done from the comfort of my own house. It took 10 - 15 minutes for those 3 things to be entered as she through a sales pitch. When that was done, I saw the transaction go through instantly, and left the Apple store with nothing related to an iPhone. Just a can holder, a clip, and a stress ball.
About BOINC
BOINC is an open source program that allows you to participate in a cluster. Research that requires large, complex computations can be distributed to many normal computers, as opposed to a really expensive and powerful one. This is what Google does with their servers. The difference is that you can donate your idle system power to research. You can even choose what research you want to help.
- For those interested in alien life, there is SETI, which analyzes the signals from space for unnatural sounds.
- For those who often render with Blender, there is BURP. This is a distributed render farm through boinc. You can have your own projects rendered.
- For those concerned with humanity, there are a few World Community Grid projects. Many try to find cures for diseases. All research done on world community grid becomes publicly available.
Most importantly, theres no performance draw on your computer. It takes your idle power by having the process be very low priority. You have the option of not running it while your computer is in use, but I leave it on all the time and there is no problem.
A NeoMenlo.org team?
Right now I've got 5 modern computers running world community grid, and I'm gaining rank fast. The widget below is updated every 12 hours.
I have been considering forming a BOINC team to spread the word of NeoMenlo. I do not want to be the only member, so please let me know if you are interested.
EDIT: With the promise of 4 computers from Jillene, I have made the official NeoMenlo.org BOINC team.
If you use World Community Grid, you can join here:
If you do not use World Community Grid, but would like to become a member of both Wolrd Community Grid and the NeoMenlo.org team, follow this link:
In this tutorial I'll be showing how to get a really nice workstation that can utilize two computers at once. The two computers will work seamlessly together, and is especially useful if you have a laptop because it can function as a docking station.
I will be using an Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) desktop with a hacked "Dual-View". The other unit will be a laptop that I mentioned in a previous post. It was recently received a laptop as a graduation gift. It is a HP Pavilion DV9700t.
While these are the computers I will be using, nearly every computer can be used. All that is
Requirements:
2 Computers of almost any kind
A LAN network, or at least way of networking two computer together.
Part 1: Windows / Samba Share
This will allow files to be transferred easily between computers
If you are try to set up a docking station, you will probably want to have the files hosted on the desktop unit. Laptops generally have less space than a desktop.
To Share:
Linux users will need to use samba share the files. Modern Linux distributions come with samba pre-installed. It can typically be administered in "System/Administer/Samba". From there, you can add the shares you need.
Windows users will use the built in sharing feature. Depending on the version of windows that you are using, you can typically share folders by right clicking on them, selecting properties, then sharing.
To Recieve:
The newest Linux Distributions can interact with Samba shares as if they are local files thanks to GVFS. You can also do this by adding this line to "/etc/fstab": "//fileServer/folderShared /mnt/local_folder smb defaults 0 0". Make sure that you have a folder made in order to mount it to. For example, you would need to "sudo mkdir /mnt/local_folder" in order for the previous instruction to work. You can get really fancy and mount individual folders to your home folders. This way you don't have multiple copies of your music or documents to deal with, and it is very well integrated. The downside is that the receiving unit is completely dependent on the sharing unit for those files. It is typically better to find a way to sync them.
The best way to recieve a folder is to navigate to it in your network, right click on it, and click "map network drive". Then pick a letter like "S" where you will see the "drive".
Part 2: Keyboard and Mouse
Synergy allows you to share a keyboard and mouse to other computers.
Most Linux distributions will have synergy in their software repository, so it can be installed very easily.
It can also be downloaded from sourceforge. http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2/
The windows install is fairly easy to configure, but there is easysynergy for linux as well.
On both Operating Systems, you will have to open up port 24800 in the firewall.
Part 3: Audio
Often times, especially with laptops, the speakers on one machine are not nearly as good as the other.
Sometimes, this may be best handled by a male-to-male heaphone cord.
If both of your computers are Linux computers, you can set up PulseAudio so that all sound comes from one computer. PulseAudio also works if you want to play the sound over a Windows computer. In either case, you will probably be using RTP.
It is also possible to use a program typically used for streaming audio over the internet, but this means that there will be much large latency. Usually 3-5 seconds.
The easiest way to do this on windows is to install IceCast and Edcast. Edcast is a client that will take either all sound produced by the system, or a microphone and turn it into a stream. If you are using Vista, you will have to follow this tutorial to get a sound source.