As a kid, I loved James Bond movies (I still like the old ones), especially the gadgetry. A shoe compartment, a multi-purpose watch, a micro camera. Needless to say, a lot of money has gone into ThinkGeek purchases Imagine my pleasure when I recently had to introduce the OLPC project to someone (potential funding source for a deployment). I pulled out a 8GB microSD card from a secret zipper in my shirt, placed it squarely on the table, and said "We won't be needing the Internet for now. This little piece of technology holds well over 100 albums and hundreds of books that are freely distributable. It also has a web server, a database server, a collaboration server, backup software, and a bunch more. We won't be needing the Internet to get this deployment off the ground".

Why?

Short version:

This project is the result of a desire to see if photo DVDs can indeed be made using only Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Creative Commons (CC) licenses. 

Long version:

At the end of Spring semester, after I turned in all the grades, I started to think about one of my courses - Multimedia business application development (http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/courses/29446.htm). Due to severe budget constraints (meaning no money!!!) and a desire to use new and different things, we have been trying to use only FOSS and CC titles in this course.

I wanted to see if I could use FOSS and CC to complete a real project. For some time now, I have been thinking about creating a looping photo DVD for a whole bunch of OLPC photos from around the world. Personally, I find these inspiring. I find it very energizing to see children using these green windows (no pun intended) to the world to discover, explore, reflect and eventually, learn. Hopefully they will begin where we falter.

I saw this digital photo frame at a store the other day, and thought "Wouldn't it be neat to have a looping slideshow that can be displayed easily at conferences, conventions and expos?". After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! That's a little over 7 full tweets!!! So, putting my plan into action, and trawling through the treasure trove of FOSS and grabbing photos and music from Flickr and ccmixter.org - both CC friendly sites, and a little help from flickrfs, audacity, dvd-slideshow, openoffice, Ubuntu and a near-binging desire to get this done right after Spring semester ended, I now have a shiny 1.6GB DVD iso.Part of it is online at http://www.vimeo.com/5048488

Cloud computing is very popular these days. You are almost worthless if you can't wing it about cloud computing. It goes well with hand gestures... "Don't worry, it all happens over there in the cloud". A cure-all for 2009.

If you always wanted your very own cloud, but didn't know how, here's your chance. A DIY cloud project called EUCALYPTUS from the good folks at UC, Santa Barbara (my tax dollars at work!). From their website:

More like how to keep poisonous people from crashing your efforts. Watch on...

P.S. Thanks to Faisal Khan for pointing out this terrific resource on OLPC Support Gang list.

I was wondering about the same thing when I first saw the URL. http://www.linuxhotel.de/

From their website, translated into English via Google Translate:

"Who wants to move forward, can not everything in the self-study work - in their own operation, there are too many disturbances, and every new beginning is overcome. Go now and then on a training course! The hotel is a Linux following the example of one of the best hotels in Germany built luxury hotel (previously a convent), but it was self-service basis, and therefore very cheap.  They learn and stay in an integrated overall system, the extensive experience with colleagues and teachers casually suggests. For all day and night hours, all free of charge (technical, material storage, literature, food, beverage ,...), and in our network can also open the configuration of open source virtual test server (DNS, Mail, LDAP, databases,. ..) view and modify a trial basis. Linux The hotel is a total concept that makes your integration into open source software quickly, successfully and with much joy possible. This does not always, but mostly. "

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Microsoft does its rounds once a semester or year on campuses. Its our turn today. Kenny Spade from Microsoft will be talking to our students about trends, jobs, and software. The poster says it will be about "Windows 7, XBox 360, Windows Mobile, Zune, Digital Photography, working for Microsoft, or anything else related to technology or Microsoft".

Well, thank you Kenny, for coming to campus and helping with our enrollments.

The announcement goes on to say "Free software, books, Xbox 360 games and other items will be raffled off!" They usually bring a few copies of Microsoft software and raffle it off. To keep up with the tradition of giving things away, I've put together a raffle of sorts as well. Its one where you win every time you play. Want to try out your luck? Guaranteed to work. Every single time. Even if you reload your browser.

As seen on Slashdot at http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F21%2F1319238&from=rss:

I have migrated several clueless windows users to Linux and I can say from real world experience that anyone can use Linux if all they do is browse the web. The problem comes in when people expect to do what they are able to do on windows and they cannot. This Christmas season the unexpected rared it's ugly head. My Neighbor got an Ipod and she tried to load Itunes to get her cds on her Ipod. No go. She had to call me and I had to dig into forums to get it going with Songbird. Songbird kicks ass BTW. Another user calls me up saying their daughter just gave them a digital picture frame. So they can see their grandkids. Guess what? they tried to load the software that came with it. When that didn't work they were lost and stuck. Another user called me up with a Garmin GPS that they could not update and another with a TomTom GPS that will not update on Ubuntu. Then I have one lady that brought home a perfectly good Lexmark laser printer from work. They bought a new printer and gave her that one for free. Well it won't work on her PClinuxOS. I can tell users till I am blue in the face to do their research before they get hardware for the Linux PCs but I can't control the presents and gifts that others buy them. This is a BIG problem. I keep getting asked "Why won't iTunes work on Linux? It works on windows?" On the flip side, a nursing home near me got 8 PCs donated to them. I got there to install them and they had pirated versions of WinXP with a message "This version of windows is not genuine" etc. I told them to buy WinXP pro for 8 computers at $199.00 each plus AV etc. They balked at the price tag so I put Ubuntu on all the the PCs. They called me 2 months later. They had 2 more WinXP PCs donated to them. But they had Legit versions of XP on them and were pretty clean of crapware so I told them I'll just connect the PCs as is and I did. They called me back a month later complaining about the 2 windows PCs. What was the complaint? The residents "Old people" did not want to use the windows PCs because they were already used to the Ubuntu PCs and said "It was too hard" compared to Ubuntu "Icons were too small" "Cannot zoom desktop"(compiz zoom feature) etc etc. The list went on and on. The elderly residents just could not go from Ubuntu to windows after using it for just 2 months. No one would go near the windows PCs. so I had to go back and wipe perfectly legitimate versions of XP of the 2 boxes and put Linux on those too.

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Here's an article quoted from the BBC, and my tongue-in-cheek humor in between the lines. Its based on the very first thoughts that came to my mind when reading the article. Enjoy

The latest Windows release will be available to everyone after a surge in demand crashed the Microsoft website on 9 January, the original release date.

Were they running the site on Windows? Probably!

In response, the company has lifted a planned limit on the number of copies of the Windows 7 Beta available for download.