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Michael Still | 4 May 2004 03:25
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Grant application: ComputerBank NSW


The Linux Australia committe has been considering the following grant 
application. The committee has voted to recommend that this grant 
application be accepted.

According to the procedure at: http://www.linux.org.au/projects/grants/, 
the community now has two weeks to comment on this grant before further 
action can be taken.

-----------------------------------------------------------
ComputerBank NSW Inc - urgent transport assistance

Date: 14 April 2004

Project Name: Emergency regional transport support - Sydney to the bush.

Aim of Project: Clearance of major backlog held in temporary storage of 
donated equipment from single major donor to ensure that equipment is 
not lost to ComputerBank in NSW for refurbishment and reuse. Removal of 
these items from Sydney to regional locations is essential to enable the 
ComputerBank Sydney repository operations to continue to function given 
the major donation currently in progress. Regional ComputerBanks are 
unable to cover the costs of these truck hires as their own funds have 
been exhausted and it is considered unreasonable that regional 
ComputerBank volunteers be asked to fund this further major transport 
effort.

Person Responsible for Request: Geoff Tregenza, President ComputerBank 
NSW Inc. for/on behalf of ComputerBank Hunter (Bob Beaven) and 
ComputerBank New England (Roland Bernett).
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Leon Brooks | 4 May 2004 05:30
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Re: Grant application: ComputerBank NSW

On Tue, 4 May 2004 09:25, Michael Still wrote:
> Does anyone here have a comment to make on this grant?

Yes: do it. Amongst other things, it will keep the pipe open for later 
donations, after this windfall is cleared, and might give country areas 
an infusion of gear which starts or maintains a local computerbank-ish 
(reliable contact with the outside world is far more valuable in 
isolated regions).

Open question for Geoff: would it fit within the rules to do stuff like 
"selling" your donated machines for twice the price of freighting them?

The concept I have in mind is that if a corporation in (say) The Alice 
has a use for fifty older computers, can they either...

  * freight 100 to Alice Springs, keep 50 and hand 50 to the local
    computerbank-ish for preparation, or;

  * freight 50 in, and in the absence of a local ComputerBank slash
    ComputerAngels chapter donate whatever their own freight costs
    were to CBNSW to allow someone else to get 50 machines?

Chees; Leon

--

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Vice President, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Past Committee Member, Linux Australia
http://osia.net.au/             Member, Open Source Industry Association
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Tregenza | 4 May 2004 08:48
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Re: Grant application: ComputerBank NSW

Hi Leon
Thanks for your support.

ComputerBank Australia is effectively a federation of semi-autonomous
operating units within the 'computerbank-ish' umbrella.  There has been
little if any interbranch operational coordination in respect to financial
transactions.  Each branch (and within NSW each regional operational unit)
is responsible for its own costs and revenues.

ComputerBank generally has taken a minimalist approach to finances.  With
some notable corporate sponsorship exceptions secured some time ago by
ComputerBank in Victoria, each ComputerBank has been run essentially on
financial and other provided by volunteer members. This has included both
cash and in kind contibutions for transport, storage and related costs - let
alone opportunity costs. Inevitably the more active a member the more likely
it is that they cough up to get the job done.

The rapidly increasing scope and scale of 'donations' (in) and
'distributions' (out) has already worn thin with many in NSW.  And the
additional transport/logistics costs required for operational units outside
Sydney (eg New England and Hunter) is becoming problemmatic.

Philosophically, ComputerBank units have taken the generous view that
ComputerBank provides 'free computers' (both hardware and software.  As
increased cost and other resource pressures begin to bite on the operational
realities needing to be addressed to remain viable, there is emerging a
tendency for a new philosophical expression - 'low cost' computers.

The cause of Computerbank is both helped and hindered by the strangthening
policy position of government in all spheres: Commonwealth, State/Territory,
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mlh | 4 May 2004 16:13
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Re: ACS Policy on Open Source, based on OSEGs good work


The document has (in 2.1) Linus's surname and
nationality wrong.  He's Finnish and the name
is TorvaldS.

On an completely different point, 
could this mailing lists archives have a screwy
ordering .. it's ordered by monthname alphabetically.
(April, August, December ....)

--
Matt
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Conrad Parker | 5 May 2004 03:47
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creativecommons au

Hi,

does Linux Australia, or anyone here, have any linkages to
iCommons Australia?

http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/au/

(some light reading there for those of you who've taken up the hobby of
reading legal docs recently).

btw. Rusty, thanks for coming to SLUG last Friday to talk about the FTA.
I learned is that legislators are the maintainers of the law, and their
job is to accept or reject patches from us. So let's get hacking.

Conrad.
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Leon Brooks | 5 May 2004 03:36
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Re: Grant application: ComputerBank NSW

On Tue, 4 May 2004 14:48, Tregenza wrote:
> But if an Alice Springs corporation wanted 50 items and was prepared
> to support the idea of another 50 being made available to the local
> community on the basis you proposed, then I for one would support the
> initiative.

> Leon, I hope that my free-range thoughts (I'm considering writing a
> book!) are of some interest and give you and others some insight into
> ComputerBank currentb thinking (at least my NSW-based view). We
> welcome other ideas and suggestions at any time.

Excellent!

I'm presuming that you've done this already, but I ask anyway for 
completeness' sake: have you talked to any of the big freight companies 
about getting them involved? They might be able to squeeze a dozen 
here, twenty there of your computers into a truck or rail container, 
standby-ticket style, write it off tax-wise as a charitable donation 
and get their name up in lights. That would solve the longest leg of 
the problem, sometimes.

For the Perth subset of that particular insurance broker's machines, if 
ComputerAngels are unable to come to the party I have a six-week 
contract which brings me to the CBD regularly, and out to Bentley 
regularly, and if I use our van can probably squeeze a dozen or so 
machines and screens into that at a time. CA's new office is not far 
off my line of flight West Perth -> Bentley via the Polly Pipe, or I 
can stash up to a couple of dozen boxes in my shed for a few weeks 
(starting next week) if CA're full. Consider that to be once-off 
volunteerism. (-:
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Con Zymaris | 5 May 2004 07:02
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Re: creativecommons au

On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 11:47:57AM +1000, Conrad Parker wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> does Linux Australia, or anyone here, have any linkages to
> iCommons Australia?

Yes, I know Ian Oi and Prof. Brian Fitzgerald who launched CC here in 
Australia. We're in the process of putting together a round-table on open 
source and IP/legal issues. You need pointers to them?

ps, QUT has also established http://www.creativecommons.org.au/

--

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz@...> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne,
Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
Web: http://www.cyber.com.au/  Phone: 03 9621 2377   Fax: 03 9621 2477
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Leon Brooks | 5 May 2004 12:33
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Hardware resellers of the world, rejoice!


    http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1581842,00.asp

    Microsoft is expected to recommend that the "average" Longhorn PC
    feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs
    of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in,
    Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics
    processor that runs three times faster than those on the market
    today.

All of those arguments about whether Linux uses more or less RAM than MS 
Windows just became moot, methinks.

Cheers; Leon

--

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Vice President, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Past Committee Member, Linux Australia
http://osia.net.au/             Member, Open Source Industry Association
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Ben Jensz | 6 May 2004 03:11
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Re: Hardware resellers of the world, rejoice!

I reckon that must be a load of ...... .

There is no way that anyone is going to adopt Longhorn if you have to 
have a system with specs such as that.  I'm assuming from the graphics 
card comment that they are talking about end users on desktop machines 
there running Longhorn and not just servers (considering all servers 
need is a graphics card that (barely) works).

A lot of businesses work on a 3-4 year cycle of computers (some longer), 
so considering the release is supposed to be around 2006-2007(?), 
businesses currently buying computers now for their next cycle certainly 
aren't going to be able to touch it if you need specs like that. 

I seriously don't think even Microsoft are that insane.

/ Ben

Leon Brooks wrote:

>    http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1581842,00.asp
>
>    Microsoft is expected to recommend that the "average" Longhorn PC
>    feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs
>    of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in,
>    Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics
>    processor that runs three times faster than those on the market
>    today.
>
>All of those arguments about whether Linux uses more or less RAM than MS 
>Windows just became moot, methinks.
(Continue reading)

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Jeff Waugh | 6 May 2004 03:21
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Re: Hardware resellers of the world, rejoice!

<quote who="Ben Jensz">

> I reckon that must be a load of ...... .

> I seriously don't think even Microsoft are that insane.

It is consistent with previous releases and hardware cycles. They can and do
drive hardware up. If you're calling them insane because you think it won't
happen, I don't think it's insane at all.

However, this time, there's a viable competitor on track which might be a
better option when it comes to release date and decision time. *That* is not
consistent with Microsoft's past experience...

... and let the chips fall where they may. :-)

- Jeff

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GVADEC 2004: Kristiansand, Norway                    http://2004.guadec.org/

                      Jeff: Whatchootalkin'boutwillis?
                            Pia: What's Willis?
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