Re: [wlug] The Fate Of The Fairfield Lab
So... What exactly is the Fairfield Lab? Where is it set up? a few details to elaborate on it's background might be helpful. I know someone with teaching (primary) and tech quals who might be useful. On 15 June 2015 at 11:56, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote:
To bring up a (not entirely) unrelated subject, I was at Te Whare O Te Ata last week, and I asked Mike Rarere what was going to happen to the computer lab.
It’s clear Bruce Kingsbury was instrumental in getting this lab set up and running, and it was providing a useful service to the community. All of which was shot completely to hell as a result of his criminality and stupidity.
I understood from Mike that, without somebody willing to provide full-time support for free, as Bruce was, the lab cannot continue. This seems a shame, but is there anything else we can do? Fundraise to pay someone to provide support, even if only part-time? _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- *Cheers...David Nicholls* *Computer Support* *Faculty of Science and Engineering* *x5006, *fsen_csg(a)waikato.ac.nz
On Wed, 17 Jun 2015 16:24:27 +1200, David Nicholls wrote:
So... What exactly is the Fairfield Lab? Where is it set up? a few details to elaborate on it's background might be helpful. I know someone with teaching (primary) and tech quals who might be useful.
That would be very handy--I’m sure any additional help would be welcomed. Te Whare O Te Ata is the community house <http://fairfield.org.nz/> located at 60A Sare Crescent. At the rear of the place is a building with ten machines in it. They are elderly PCs (nothing better than dual-core, some even 32-bit) donated by Genesis Energy, but still quite usable, running Linux. They are networked to a common server, and there is also a copier/printer in that room. Plus free wireless open to anybody in the grounds. The lab used to offer machine access to anybody who wanted it; for I think a $2 fee, they could spend the morning using the Internet or composing a CV (and printing it on the printer at some extra charge). Last year, on Wednesday evenings, there was a series of free sessions where people (children and adults) could come to learn Python. I volunteered to help out at these sessions. In the event, they were a bit more freewheeling than you might expect from a formal class; there was even some 3D modelling with Blender happening--at least for as long as we could keep the attention span of the kids... As I understand it, the lab was set up and run predominantly through the efforts of the now-disgraced Bruce Kingsbury. In November last year he was nabbed by the cops, and the whole service came crashing down. And it’s been on hold ever since. Yesterday, Rod Aldridge and I spent the afternoon going over the system and working out how it operates (automatic enforcement of morning/afternoon sessions etc), through a whole bunch of shell scripts and cron tasks which I thought were quite reasonably designed overall. I wrote up some notes which I sent to him and to Mike Rarere, the centre manager, (hopefully) for use in administering the system in future. Both of us are keen to see the service start up again, and Mike is also supportive.
I think that if if the system can be documented as Lawrence is doing, and operating instructions/manual created for supervisors,then people with moderate skills can supervise/teach at the sessions. Mike or a person he appoints can do routine maintenance, and a sysadmin will only be needed to be on call for trouble-shooting and for major updates or changes to the operations. I am helping with the manual and with some of the sessions when they get going. Of course all help will be appreciated, particularly technical and teaching and financial. Rod On 17/06/15 16:24, David Nicholls wrote:
So... What exactly is the Fairfield Lab? Where is it set up? a few details to elaborate on it's background might be helpful. I know someone with teaching (primary) and tech quals who might be useful.
On 15 June 2015 at 11:56, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz <mailto:ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz>> wrote:
To bring up a (not entirely) unrelated subject, I was at Te Whare O Te Ata last week, and I asked Mike Rarere what was going to happen to the computer lab.
It’s clear Bruce Kingsbury was instrumental in getting this lab set up and running, and it was providing a useful service to the community. All of which was shot completely to hell as a result of his criminality and stupidity.
I understood from Mike that, without somebody willing to provide full-time support for free, as Bruce was, the lab cannot continue. This seems a shame, but is there anything else we can do? Fundraise to pay someone to provide support, even if only part-time? _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz <mailto:wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- *Cheers... /David Nicholls/* /Computer Support/ /Faculty of Science and Engineering/ /x5006, /fsen_csg(a)waikato.ac.nz <mailto:fsen_csg(a)waikato.ac.nz>
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participants (3)
-
David Nicholls -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Roderick Aldridge