[matilda] Matilda Hacklab

[Alan Dawson]

. did some cableing at the upstairs ( thanks gareth) ,found a 32 port Intel
Express 510 [1] ...(so could replace some borrowed bits), and installed a
computer with ubuntu (warty warthog)[2].

Fixed the HP Netserver (thanks nico) - its currently running debian [3] with a
loop-aes-crypto fs [4], and providing linux terminal services[5]  -  (this
needs rebuilding.. it doesn't provide a good solution to these problems[6])

Had a discussion about sparcstations ( there are a few sparcstations kicking
about we could have) and old servers in general.  Are they worth having or just
overengineered, underpowered and expensive to maintain?

There was a brief chat on veejaying and multimedia. talked about dyne::bolic[7] 
This is a Live CD Linux distro that provide media streaming and manipulation
tools.  freej[8] the veejay tool is very hot.  If only I could get it to
compile on SuSE Linux :-(

Also watched some g8 video.  Very enjoyable, though ubuntu seems to lack a
decent video player, Mplayer[9] or some other  media player with a decent range
of codecs needs putting on.  The hacklab ought to support the IT needs of the
other collectives as much as it can.  

The network their in some state of disarray.  It's still running in a 'post G8'
mode and kinda of over complicated.  I'll be down again on Saturady (or
Thursday)...  A network diagram and other such stuff as posters on the walls
would be nice and even useful.

So we did quite alot.. even though it looked like we sat about drinking lager
all night ;-)

[1] http://www.nag.ru/ferra/switch/img/intel510.jpg
[2] http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
[3] http://www.debian.org
[4] http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Encrypted-Root-Filesystem-HOWTO/
[5] http://www.ltsp.org
[6] http://www.burngreave.net/module.php?mod=node&id=279
[7] http://www.dynebolic.org
[8] http://freej.dyne.org/
[9] http://www.mplayerhq.hu


AED
-- 
"If you make decisions about software -- or anything -- based solely on
short-term cost and benefit, someone with a longer view can easily
manoeuver you into a trap from which it is hard to escape."