For the first time in what seems like a couple years, I’m building a new server. “Building” is in quotes. This is a Dell T105 obtained from the Dell Factory Outlet for around $250 and shipping. It appears to be the basic server offered on the standard Dell web site. Specs: AMD processor, 1 gig of RAM, 1 Western Digital SATA hard drive. (160GB).

I’m intending to install Windows XP and simply share the drive…but before that I’m installing Ubuntu… just to see how it works.

dum dee dum dee dum dee dum (15 minutes later)…. booted up fine and was trying to download all the updates, but I cancelled it. Now if I was really going to be sporty, I should set up a VirtualBox VM for Windows within Ubuntu and run that as outlined in the latest Linux Journal. But I’ve only got 1 gig of memory…so I think I’ll go native.

The unit seems quiet enough for a classroom environment.

40 minutes and counting from the Windows XP boot.

Windows is up. But there are no network drivers (!) ARRGH. Now let’s see if we can find them from Dell.

Found them. But the installer insists that the underlying OS has to be Windows 2003 or 2008 server.

So, now I’m going back to boot Ubuntu, to see if I can get an actual readout of the network chip. Ubuntu has a “live CD” version from the installation disk which allows it to run without actually installing on the chip. Once I get this up, I run the “System Test”, which identifies the hardware. It is a Broadcom NetXtreme BCM 5722.

Quick search on the internet to the Broadcom website, and I find the Windows XP drivers. Once these are installed, we appear to be in business.

So far, installation-wise, its Ubuntu 15 minutes vs. XP at 2 hours.

My recent impression is that Dell is all over the map. There used to be a fairly transparent set of product lines, maybe six or so, Two each desktops, Optiplex and Dimension, and a couple laptop lines, the Inspiron and the Latitude. Then they added a couple server lines, and the Dell Workstation, now they are off and running. I’ve probably bought or specified more than a million dollars of Dell gear over the years. Most has worked fine, with a one notable exception of an Optiplex tower that I had speced with a faster chip, and upgraded memory and graphics for almost $3,000 a couple years ago.

I was planning on using this machine to edit videos. The thing was jinxed from the get-go… fan always roaring away at high speed. I let my wife use it for a year; she complained that it was hanging up, so I gave her a little desktop Optiplex that also suffered from terminal cheapness and overheating. Piece of junk. The tower has sat on the office floor for a year, and I was going to try to see if I could coax it into being a server. I stripped out the graphics card, and went back to the onboard video controller. Turns out the whoosh was not from the fan on the graphics card, but from the auxiliary fan mounted on the processor chip. The whole thing still just ran hot. After several attempts to get Ubuntu installed, where it would just randomly hang, I gave up.

For $300, however, it looks like the T105 will be just the ticket if it proves to be robust. I think I’d like to get one for home.

Welcome to TechForNonProfits, the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting a chronicle of hardware and software adventures in the context of distance education, tele-health, and non-profit organizations. Part brain dump, part lab diary, it also includes discussion and experience in federal, state and foundation grantwriting on the funding side. Nothing like living on soft money to keep you on your toes.

In short, we break most of the rules for a “good blog”…(narrowly focused subject, multiple voices and experience, frequent posting, etc.)

While it is always difficult to predict, topics this month may include:

• The Rosetta Stone Diaries
• Macintosh Machinations
• The Federal Stimulus Package — The Real Truth
• The FairPoint Bankruptcy
• Stuff That Works
• Tech Friday

David Isenberg has laid out (again!) the case for Network Neutrality.

The largest providers of today’s Internet infrastructure are
also the strongest opponents of Network Neutrality. If their
profit stream diminishes, which it must if the Internet is to
remain neutral, stupid and open, then we weaken the
infrastructure for that which we value. This is not a new
thought, see The Paradox of the Best Network
http://netparadox.com. What is new is that the opposition of
the telcos and cablecos has now crystallized in a full-on
assault on the Internet’s neutrality. Their end game is a
corporatized Internet that stifles freedom, democracy and
innovation incidental to reifying the telco-cableco business
model. Ultimately, the vision of the Network Neutrality
movement must encompass more than the circumscription of
certain carrier behaviors; it must be structural.

We must resolve to persist until today’s dinosaurs evolve into
birds. That is, we must face the fact that if the Internet is
to survive as a neutral network, sooner or later we will need
Internet access without carriers as we know them today. So we
need to decide whether we keep the neutral Internet or we keep
today’s carriers, because we won’t be able to have both.

What’s interesting here is that you could substitute “existing health insurance carriers” for “incumbent local carriers” and “affordable, universal health care” for “network neutrality” and it would work in the health care domain. For example, the last paragraph:

We must resolve to persist until today’s dinosaurs evolve into birds. That is, we must face the fact that if affordable, universal health care is to exist as a human right, sooner or later we will need health care without the existing health insurance carriers as we know them today. So we need to decide whether we keep alive the idea of universal health care or we keep today’s existing health insurance carriers, because we won’t be able to have both.

Michael Covington on productivity.

The key principle is that unproductive people feel that they are just as “busy” as productive ones, if not more so. Life is full of things to take up your attention. A productive person knows what not to spend time on. I’ve seen plenty of Ph.D. candidates run aground by keeping themselves too busy with things that aren’t their thesis. Don’t follow TV shows or sports, or try to be too good at trivial things, or handle too much e-mail… Above all, don’t waste time on unimportant things just because they have short deadlines or a fast pace.

It is a short piece, and doesn’t take more than a minute or two to read, but is more valuable than all those seminars and books.

via Jeff Dunteman

Champlain College in Burlington Vermont is offering a Certificate in Non-Profit Management Certificate Training series which meets 2 Fridays per month September through January and has an online component using Moodle. Excerpts from the blurb on their web site:

Offered in Burlington and Manchester, Vermont, this intensive four-month series offers nonprofit leaders and staff the opportunity to gain and refine the essential skills needed to strengthen their organizations and achieve their missions. The program combines the best of face-to-face learning with ongoing discussion with colleagues and faculty via online learning portals.

Workshop Topics

• Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector
• Effective Leadership through Financial Management
• Strategic Planning
• Fundraising
• Marketing
• Human Resources
• Conflict Resolution
• Boards and Governance

Program Details

Class Size: Limited to 24 participants at each location.

Duration: 10 days of face-to-face training
Workshops run from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Registration: $1,250.00

Several casualties have been outlined over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog. The most serious from my perspective is that MindManager 7 has been completely broken…and it is unusable. Bit of a bummer. MM is promising an update by September 15th, and is trying to soften the anguish by touting the upcoming version 8. While users have been lamenting the lack of updates for MM compared to the Windows version, few of the enhancements that they have been touting are on my hot list; I just hope they fix version 7 as soon as they can.