We had our inaugural return of the Monthly PLUG Linux Clinic today. We
had the odd stumble:
* I got there a minute or two late, rather than a half-hour early, so
it took a few minutes to get oriented and into the space;
* the elevator needed a fob to operate (there had been a suggestion
that it might be enabled);
* there was the odd hiccup connecting through the guest wifi
network's captive portal, which weirdly at first didn't allow ssh, but
then later did;
* the google-voice number that I post on the signs didn't always get
propagated in a super timely fashion, leading to some latency between
the "hey we're here, how do we get in?" and me noticing and navigating
to the appropriate portal.
But, those were minor and temporary. On the plus side:
* our host, Calvin, was there, sprung us through various doors and
elevators, hung out with us the whole time, and our other host Hillary
got us a door code to expedite entry.
* turns out the 10th street main doors were unlocked;
* the door code opens the stairway gate, once you work out the right
punctuation;
* we had 6 or 7 helpers, about 5 helpees, and helpings were dispensed.
* my Linksys E8450 OpenWrt client device was able to connect to the
guest wifi and pre-traversed captive-portal ethernet access to four
people at one of the tables and could have been extended to more with
the 24-port switch I brought, and it was fast enough that I was able to
download a 2.5-ish GiB .iso in a couple minutes, once I found a
cooperative mirror server;
* some of the attendees partook in the Hot Lips Pizza slices
Learnings:
* power strips aren't particularly needed, there are one or two
8-outlet mini-tower gizmos at each table.
* we were short a few AA batteries for a wireless keyboard (I had AAA
but no AA's), but I had one keyboard to loan.
* there are two monitors with HDMI inputs at the teachers station
available for connecting to, so long as they were restored to original
appearance and functionality before departure. if you need VGA, you need
to bring your own.
* backup media of sufficient size is useful.
It generally seems to have been a success, going to try to repeat next
month!
--
Russell Senior
PLUG Volunteer
[email protected]
