Re: Installfest Saturday 8/28

(my apologies for the formatting problems -shubes)

Alexander Henry wrote:
> I have some new language in the press release.
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> Community event: Phoenix Linux User's Group (PLUG) Installfest.
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> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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> CALENDAR POSTING
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> SHORT FORMAT - CALENDAR FORMAT - AZIPA/AZTECHLIST/TECHOASIS FORMAT
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> 8/28 (Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm) Phoenix Linux User Group (PLUG) Installfest.  Where: University of Advancing Technology: 2625 W. Baseline Tempe, AZ 85283 (Baseline Road, just west of I-10 and Pointe Hilton South Mountain, south side of Baseline).  The Phoenix Linux User's Group and the Arizona Open Technology Organization (AZOTO) would like to invite you to our monthly Linux Installfest.  Bring your PC, Mac, or other for one-on-onehelp to get your machine running Linux, and to learn how to use Linux.  If you're interested in Linux for home, please stop by and see our demos. If you are researching Linux for business use, especially small business, please contact Alexander Henry below, and we will arrange a specific demo.  RSVP appreciated, indicate interests:  Alexander Henry <ahenry@red7usa.com>    PLUG: http://plug.phoenix.az.us    AZOTO: http://www.azoto.org

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> LONG/ARTICLE FORMAT
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> (Phoenix, Arizona) -- DATE
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> The Phoenix Linux User Group (PLUG) and the Arizona Open Technology Organization (AZOTO) are holding their monthly Linux Installfest Saturday, August 28, from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. at the University of Advancing Technology (UAT), 2625 W Baseline Tempe, just west of I-10. Free and open to the public. Bring your P.C. for free one-on-one help with installing Linux. The Linux Installfest also features demos to view Linux for those considering switching to Linux for home or business use, as well as Knoppix CD's to try Linux at home without damaging your PC or files. While noRSVP is required, if you are considering attending, an e-mail to the event coordinator stating your specific interest would be greatly appreciated. Please e-mail Alexander Henry <ahenry@red7usa.com> with "Installfest"in the subject line. The PLUG/AZOTO Installfest is held at UAT on the last Saturday of every month.
>
> "PLUG and AZOTO, in the past, had only held bi-annual install conferences," says Alexander Henry, PLUG member and event coordinator. "These install conferences were huge, and included not only one-on-one installationhelp and Linux demos, but presentations and giveaways. The members at PLUG and AZOTO are impressed with the success of switching to monthly installfests," Alexander Henry continued. "The public responded positively to this move, and our turnout is steadily increasing." The larger installconferences will still be held. Henry also cited greater worldwide interest in Linux, support from large companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and exponentially increasing Windows virus outbreaks has raised greater interest in Linux. Henry continued that in the future, given demand, larger computer setup demonstrations as well as regular group tutorials would be held.
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> Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License, the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone. Apart from the fact that it's freely distributed, Linux's functionality, adaptability, and robustness has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other giants of the computing world have embraced Linux and support its ongoing development. More than a decade after its initial release, Linux is being adopted worldwide as a server platform primarily. Its use as a home and office desktop operating system is also on therise. The operating system can also be incorporated directly into microchips in a process called "embedding" and is increasingly being used thisway in appliances and devices. Countries such as China, India, Germany,Singapore, Brazil, and many more are ad
opting Linux as their official operating system in both servers and
desktops. Some governments are adopting economic policies around a
future boom in Linux.

.) alternative "to" instead of alternative "from"
.) replace "adopted" with "utilized"
.) "primarily as" instead of "as ... primarily"
.) replace "Countries" with "Governments", or possibly "Governments in
countries" (Countries aren't adopting, are they?)
.) I have a problem with the last sentence here. Can this statement be
backed up? Even if so, I'm not sure it's a good thing (adopting economic
policies based on any kind of boom). If there's a boom, there'll be a
bust (economically speaking). I think that simply pointing to the growth
of Linux (however you want to measure it) would have better impact.

>
> "My take on the Open Source movement," Henry says, "is that it's a model for the new economy. When Henry Ford tasked himself with taking academic research in materials science, physics, and engineering and producing something people could use, at that time in history the only way to do sowas to start with real estate, plant, and capital equipment, then apply an amount of material, management, and real labor to each car produced onthe assembly line. Today, to take research produced by investments by DARPA, the Department of Energy, Bell Labs, etc. and apply it to somethingusable, you don't need any of this. You just need to do a 'copy and paste'. The cost for producing the product is already sunk, and there is novalue added in making a copy. In fact, anyone who invests so much and works so hard at producing this research only to have the research go completely unused is harmed very badly." Henry provides another example, "Tgen was recently given a two million doll
ar endowment to find a cure (or at least a greater understanding) for
Autism. Once they find this cure, the last thing Tgen would think of
doing is to print the procedure for the cure on holographic copy-proof
certificates, sell them for $10,000 a copy, then sue anyone who
practices the cure for Autism without a copy in their pockets at the
time the cure is practiced. But this happens routinely for software
products."

This is a bit esoteric, IMHO. Leave it in if you like, but I don't think
it adds anything meaningful. Sorry, Alex. I would like to discuss it though.
>
> Henry continues, "Here's how Open Source works on an individual level. Think of a junior accountant. She takes some information, reorganizes it, does some calculations, then places it somewhere else. She will realize one day that she can write a script to do the same thing, and save herself from this boring work. So, she still spends eight hours a day doingher normal job (otherwise face termination), and invests her spare time at home writing this script. By the end of the month, she applies her script, reducing her eight hour job to a thirty second procedure on a computer, and (assuming her employers think like entrepreneurs and not like 'Pointy-haired Bosses') her time is free to pursue something more productive, or hopefully something that requires human judgment and not simple number-pushing. Today, like no time in history, does every individual have the power to script their position out of the company to leverage their labor. Better yet, if our junior account
ant shares her script with the entire accounting community, she can in
return receive scripts that she can apply for her employers: potentially
one script from every junior accountant in the industry." Henry again
points to IBM and Hewlett-Packard as real-life examples of large
companies embracing this new economy. "They are kind-of acting like
this junior accountant who has been pulled away from accounting to write
scripts full-time. They are using, supporting, and adding to open
source tools, then applying those tools to make money with their own
clients while releasing those tools for use by programmers worldwide."
I don't disagree necessarily with you Alex, but I don't see what this
(directly) has to do with the Installfest. Leave it in if you must, but
I think that Open Source, the Movement, the Economic Model, whatever it
is, is too big to describe in a couple of paragraphs, is too important
to skim over, and not fundamental to Installfest. (Ok, without OS we
wouldn't be having Installfests, I'll give you that)

As a suggestion for other content (in the place of OS narrative), I'd
like to see examples of what has-been/can-be done at the installfests,
such as dual boots, Live CDs, the variety of distros, in short -
achievements and capabilities.
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> The Phoenix Linux User Group is the local Linux user's group (LUG) for the Phoenix area. Like any other computer user group, it is populated byhobbyists and computer professionals, and provides a forum for discussion. Unlike many other computer user groups, LUGs also provide the same functions as a "regional office" for IBM, Macintosh, Microsoft, or Sun; they have the responsibility to train, support, and educate Linux users, coordinate Linux consultants, advocate Linux as a computing solution, and serve as liaison to local news outlets. Because Linux is 100% Free Software and Open Source software, LUGs are 100% volunteer and unpaid. PLUG holds several monthly meetings: one in the southwest Phoenix area, one in Glendale, one in Mesa, and one in Tempe. PLUG membership is free and anyone may join. PLUG also welcomes users and fans of all Free Software and Open Source Software such as GNU and FreeBSD.
.) I'd drop "100% Free Software and". Makes it sound cheap. Linux is
cheap ($ wise), but it's not (quality wise).
.) replace (the second) "100%" with "entirely" (some people believe in
100+%)
.) "volunteer and unpaid" is redundant. Pick one.
.) replace "Software and" with "or"
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> The Arizona Open Technology Organization (AZOTO) is an Arizona based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the use of Free Software andOpen Standards in the state of Arizona.
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> For more information, see:
> The Phoenix Linux User's Group website: http://plug.phoenix.az.us
> The Arizona Open Technology Organization website: http://www.azoto.org
> Linux Online: http://www.linux.org
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>
That's my 2¢ worth. Hoping I don't ruffle any feathers! ;)

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'
"There is no such thing as the People;
  it is a collectivist myth.
  There are only individual citizens
  with individual wills
  and individual purposes."
-William E. Simon (1927-2000),
     Secretary of the Treasury (1974-1977)
  "A Time For Truth" (1978), pg. 237

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