Older blog entries for kilmo (starting at number 62)

Two days ago we had a Linux day. A nice event where innocent people bring their computers to us, we install Linux on them, try to fix broken configurations, and give lectures.

The people from Actcom sponoered lunch as always, and the T-shirts for installers and gurus. The Bezeq people came late and sponoered an ADSL line for one day. It was very nice of them, besides the fact they were 3 hours late, and forgot to bring filters... so we had network only 5 hours after we started configurations ;). The people from BeyondSecurity (Aviram Jenik's company) came and brought installers (3) and some stuff. They also came a bit late ;).

The local people who worked on the day to be a success are:

• epsalon - Alon Altman, who did a lot to make sure all matters, both technical and administrative would function as expected.
• EzAton - after configuring his server to perform as a kickstart nfs server (we mainly installed RH 9.0 + updates), and bringing lots of network things, he still went on and installed, solved problems, etc.
• Meir Maor - did a lot as installer, helped to carry the heavy stuff around.
• Shachar Rijndael (it's not the way he writes his name, but in Hebrew is name is equivalent to the one used by the Advanced Encryption Standard) - just like Meir - helped to carry the heavy stuff, and installed a lot.
• ladypine - arrived after work, and helped to make sure things were running smoothly (which as usual wasn't the case).
• shlomif - came, installed, wrote the slides for the lecture.
• Adir - Besides a little lifting made more noise than expected. He was in charge on few things, and most of them were screwed up. This fact didn't caused him to understand he did almost nothing, and to behave like the boss.
• yours truly - as I was in Central America during the summer, I wasn't one of the real organizers. However, I gave the lecture 3 times, tried to make sure there will be a nice music all around the event (almost succeeded in that for 9 hours). etc. I did also some heavy lifting.

Thanks are also due to Guy Keren (the ever lasting guru), Nadav (the never ending installer), GuyT (the undercover guru), Shlomi Loubaton, Amichi Rotman (I came, I saw, I installed), Emil (I came, I saw, I lifted) and all those I forgot.

Hopefully next time would be better ;)

btw, after the mess, I re-certified Alon as a journeyer. He really deserves this status, after working hard, and trying to communicate with Adir (usually without success). I also certified shlomif (at last). Even though I am not using his scripts, he still did a good job, and good job is always entitled to recognition.

Today, Hamakor, the Israeli FS and OS NPO have released a reply to some article presented in "ha'aretz" newspaper. The newspaper has each Tuesday a section dedicated to the Internet, called "Captain Internet". Yesterday, someone asked where from he can download mandrake 9.0. Instead of giving him a link, or saying, use 9.1, the captain started telling the usual crap about Linux (lack of Office, no Hebrew support, etc.).

Well, Aviram Jenik wrote a short reply, and sent it to the captain, and asked the Israeli Linux users to send them a request to publish this as the community's reply... well, I am part of the community... so I send them the mail... but I started it with the most obvious literature piece which is relevant to the situation:

O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trip is done,
The Linux has weather'd every rack, the Hebrew we sought is won,
The office is here, it's open I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady kernel, the vessel grim and useful,

But O heart! heart! heart!

  O the bleeding drops of ink,

    Where on the deck my Captain lies,

      Fallen wrong and mistaken,

This is of course the opening of "Oh captain! my captain!" by Walt Whitman, after few changes in the relevant places.

Well I must admit that the Hebrew support is still a bit lacking, and my diary of yesterday proves that even after 5 years around, some things are hard to achieve, but still ... Linux is a great system after all.