I discovered today that EECS has a site license for Redhat Enterprise Linux. I talked with JR and Jim and got permission to offer ISO downloads preconfigured for WSU (wsunexus vpn, EECS RHN update servers, SMB mounting of Z drive, etc). This also allows us to define RHN channels for different classes, etc.Yes, we could do this with Debian repositories as well.

What we'd need to do is fairly minimal. We'd need to write a script that requires WSU ID + password authentication via Kerberos before downloading the ISOs and we'd need to write simple scripts to preconfigure machines for the wireless and the Z drive mounting.

If you are looking for an alternative to MS Office or OpenOffice, you might be interested in SoftMaker Office. It's not open source or free, but does run on Windows and Linux both. (No OSX version yet) Best of all, the Academic price is only $14. That's good news for us poor students!

Check it out here: http://www.softmaker.com/english/education/

So we've all heard the old stories of the Ant and the Grasshopper, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Tortoise and the Hare. Today in IRC, the idea came up to write a series of fables patterned on Aesop's Fables, just with a more modern perspective.

Well, here it is! I present the SysOp's FablesDoes anyone have a suggestion for a better name? project for your amusement. I'll get the ball rolling tonight by posting The Boy Who Cried Troll tonight. Click the read more link below to get to the table of contents listing all the fables.

Ok, you guys freaking ROCK.

We had ONE hour's notification today, and somehow you guys all reached into your hats and pulled out something slick to demo and rescue IEEE's Student Expo. Thanks so much for making sure that the Expo didn't consist of me all by my lonesome in the middle of the lobby with an overgrown Halloween project.

I really mean it. I don't know how you pulled it off, but my hat's off to you; all of you. Go have a drink or two or five tonight. You deserve it.

Here's the pictures that Haven took: http://lug.wsu.edu/image/tid/116
and here's the original event post: http://lug.wsu.edu/ieee_student_expo_06

This is an email I received from my brother today. I thought it worthy of reproduction.
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I cannot and will not support racial profiling. I firmly believe every person is innocent until proven guilty and I accord EVERY person of this world with that same INALIENABLE expectation.

I will treat EVERY person the same way REGARDLESS of the color of their skin or any other such prejudice.

I do NOT want to believe anyone to be guilty of any crime or of any propensity to a crime simply because of their race. That is preposterous.

No man, woman, or child, is inherently more guilty or predisposed to evil than any other.