[luau] Looking for school LTSP project

Ben Beeson beesond001 at hawaii.rr.com
Fri May 24 20:22:00 PDT 2002


Aloha,

	Perhaps a little background....  My mil org gave a bunch of computers to a 
local high school about 2 years ago.  We wired the whole school as part of 
the project.  The boss supported it to the tune of letting several of our 
folks take about a week of time to go wire the school, install equipment, and 
setup all the computers.  Too bad it was M$ stuff, but hey a lot of high 
school kids now have access to stuff they didn't have before, and that was 
the goal in the first place.  The project turned to be a smashing success for 
all and we wanted to continue to do this type of stuff, but we have a new 
hiccup that is causing stuff to pile up, and I can't believe how much and 
what kind of stuff it is.  (It will continue to pile up because believe it or 
not, it is much easier to give away hardware to other military organizations 
or qualifying organizations outside the military than it is to "turn it back 
in to supply." )  The latest restriction preventing us from doing more 
charity like this is that boxes can't be given away with hard drives in them. 
 This is supposed to prevent accidental disclosure of sensitive info may be 
left on the box.  You would think this would be easy, but the act is not the 
hard part, getting an approved method is...   Thus, as our hardware gets 
upgraded due to new "improved" software, the old stuff can't be easily 
disposed of just yet, and so it piles up......

	The long and short of it is there really are at least two problems, and 
projects like this one can really help.  The first one is that no one wants a 
diskless box because you can't do anything with it.  LTSP fixes that one 
nicely if you can convince the user that it is a workable solution.  The 
second problem is, you still need a server with storage if you do LTSP, and 
that requires at least a harddrive -- a very small price to pay if the rest 
of the hardware can be obtained gratis.  The last issue is a qualifying 
organization.  I'm not sure on the legalease, but if you can sell it to the 
guy that controls the hardware, they will do their best to help you out, 
because it helps them out also.  (They no longer have to inventory that 
equipment, and it frees up space and money.)  

	I'm interested in this Kailua project since it is fairly close to where I 
live and I can be available weekends to help out if needed if I get a few 
days notice.  I'll check with our comm shop and see what the latest rules 
are. 

Ben 







The thing is, we are
> not sure that Cody will be able to get Air Force hardware for us to
> dedicate to a non-public school entity like his.  This is fair and
> should be respected.  Within the military is a ton of volunteer labor
> for cabling and a ton of hardware.  Because the military is a function
> of our government, they are under some regulations to ensure fair
> treatment with dedicated hardware.  I would imagine that there is room
> for misunderstanding if, for instance, too much hardware ended up in the
> hands of Christian denominations.  These limits are worth working with.


> I like Warren's suggestion that the hardware be accepted and labeled for
> our first public school. 

I would guess, though, that the kind custodian
> Cody is dealing with has paperwork to complete that requires some
> approvable detail about where the hardware is going.  Once we work this
> out, I think there is a wealth of hardware from our military friends, we
> just have to work within their regulations.  Cody says that there are
> many hardware custodians who would pass their old stuff to us.  They
> need recognition, volunteer hours, and an approved institution to give
> it to.  When they get that, the floodgates may just open.
>




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