alex.polvi.net

I successfully wasted my weekend doing random things.

UPDATE: I put apache2 and my gallery software on it. Then I hacked up gallery a bit so I can click “View this on Frame” and it will show up on the frame! Pretty slick!

Dr. Quinn, Kveton, Philips, and myself got together to talk a little more about adopting open source into EECS. This was the first meeting that Scott was involved in directly, and he nearly sealed the deal. Scott’s energy got all of us excited, including Dr. Quinn.

This Friday we are all meeting again. This time with Dean Adams, Dean Lundy, Dr. Quinn, Kveton, and Philips. We are going to talk about finding a permanent space for the OSLUG to foster open source innovation. :) We are also discussing curriculum.

Very very exciting!

My brother Jake recently went to China. I took my favorite photo from the trip and enlarged it using the rasterbator.

I ended up with this:

Here is the line up.

Wednesday: Send off scholarships I have been working on. Attend the career fair for many schmoozing opportunities.

Thursday: Harish Pillay from RedHat Asia arrives at Oregon State. I will be hosting him.

Friday: Breakfast with Harish in the morning. Meeting with Kveton and Dr. Quinn regarding open source in COE mid morning. Class all afternoon, followed up with the Oregon Stater dinner. At the dinner Harish will be put into the Oregon Stater hall of fame. After that it is Johnny’s birthday celebration.

Saturday: Attend Phu’s badmiton tournament at Oregon State. This will be the first time Phu (who took me to Vietnam) has come to OSU.

Fill in the gaps with working away at the OSL!

Go life.

Right now things are slow, too slow. Tonight I got ahead homework and finding myself running and rock climbing. I even hacked together a digitial picture frame out of an old laptop. Have no fear, in like 2 weeks we have finals and things will pick up again.

Well, got my math midterm back today. I got a big fat 50.9%.

On a good note a 50.9% translates into a B with the curve. The average was a 43%. I think this was the first test I have taken that I got it back and took a sigh of relief that it was 50%. I honestly thought I did a lot worse.

There is a conflict in the restroom. One side, “don’t waste the seat covers.” The other, “then give is paper towels!” Should I choose a side? I will admit that on occasion I have taken seat covers in order to dry my hands, but it is by no means an everyday thing.

The really interesting point is how much vigor students are taking on this issue. They are self organizing, writing letters, and actively providing reason for why paper towels are needed. Paper towels! Think if we could get everyone this fired up about a topic. Maybe the essence of the towel is that it is a basic need. Nobody wants wet hands. A lot of people want a lot of different things. Why can people rally around things such as a paper towel dispenser, but it is harder to tell your state you need lower tuition, or a new program based around free software?

I guess we all have our own agenda and it simply takes people fired up about the same thing to make change.

I vote paper towels.

Today Brandon, Mike, Ron Adams, Micheal Quinn, and myself all got together to talk again about open source in eduction. Prof Quinn brought faculties point of view to the situation. Here is the quick story, Dean loves it, to Quinn it was just another thing on the list of great things to do. In specific he said, “There are only finite resources, however there are infinite things to do”. He likes the idea, just not sure how it would work out.

I can’t think right now, so here is a list

• Should start by finding space for the lug to grow a larger community
• Creating curriculum is hard when there is no ghun-ho faculty member
• Things are already tight, so change is hard
• If something curriculum based was to happen, it would need external funding (anyone want to help here?)
• We need to develop a state of the LUG, telling what our accomplishments are
• Adams loves it
• Adams loves it
• We will prevail, because it is the right thing to do

Today I stuck to my new years resolutions and submitted a few more patches to open source projects. I was motivated by the OSLUG GentooBugDay (photos).

Monday I have a meeting with Dean Adams (yet again) and Micheal Quinn to talk more about open source in eduction. Also on Monday I get a new boss, pretty exciting. Finally will have someone that I can talk to about systems stuff and not feel like I am bringing others off task.

Tuesday Dan Frye and Randy Kalmeta from the IBM Linux Technology Center are staying in Weatherford, I am hosting them. The LUG is taking them bowling, should be fun :)

Wednesday is a math midterm from hell.

Friday I give a speech in COMM111 and it will most definitely be preaching Linux.

Lesson of the week/month/whatever: Everything works out.

No way I am related to this guy….

By the way, my brother is in China!