[BLUG] Multitracking

Hello All:
Here I am, sending out another call for help/advice.  I don't want to wear out my welcome here, so if this is not cool, just say so.  This time, I'm looking for help with multitrack recording.  I have Ardour GTK 2 installed, but wondered if there is an easier to operate software package.  Arudour seems pretty nice, and I might be able to figure out how to do what I need to with it.  But has anyone been able to get it going with something similar to an M-Audio Fast Track guitar/mic recording interface?  (That's what I have.)

As usual, I could take responses off list if no one else is interested in this topic.  However, I think someone presented on this topic a few months ago.

I appreciate it everyone - have a great night.  Again, if I'm abusing this list by being needy, just say so.
Matt

Re: [BLUG] meeting identifiers and other options

These are great ideas, James and Steven. As for "identifiers", I thought a table-full of Linux-lovers kinda stood out.  ;)

No seriously, these are good ideas.  I will say that if a newb is looking for us, somebody usually has a laptop or something like that.

I also love the idea of taking some meeting photos.  Many of us are far better-looking than someone might expect, and that could throw them off.  Eventually, I'd like to start recording the presentations, but that takes hardware.  Maybe I'll try it out with my Macbook next presentation we have, and see what kind of quality I get.

Dave Cooley dcooley@kiva.net

Steven Black wrote:

As a long-time meeter of people I only knew from online, I can say that an identifier (like a penguin) would work, but a better option may be to get photos of the folks that manage to attend regularly up. Better still would be some photos of some of the meetings (both social and structured).  Plus, I think photos may help encourage people to attend a little better. If there are photos of some of the meetings, they can get an idea of what happens. Worst case, someone can tell the spouse, "I'm going out to meet a bunch of crazy Linux fans. If I don't come back, these are their names and pictures."  Just my two cents. I'll be stuck in Indy until I can either take my baby home or she's big enough to transfer to B-ton.  Cheers,    

 
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Re: [BLUG] BLUG ideas

Hello All:

As for generating ideas for meeting topics, I do like the idea of exploring kids and Linux.  I also like the idea of exploring Linux - even better, open source - for teachers or schools.  Here are some ideas I wouldn't mind checking out:

• gradebook programs
• iTalc (I think someone may have presented on this one already)
• simulators - something like "Oregon Trail", "Sim City", "Flight Simulator"
• Linux alternatives to M$ Exchange for schools/school districts - things like Scalix or Zimbra.
• Linux based content filters for schools (though I too have reservations about this topic. . . )

. . . there are other ideas you all can come up with, I'm sure.  

Other random ideas for meetings:

• "Linux Challenge":  each month, year - whatever - we come up with some whacky, seemingly impossible task involving Linux.  For instance, getting Linux to run on the oldest computer we can find, or the oddest device we can find - say a Play Station 2 or something.  Document the projects via a blog or You Tube or something.  Really the projects could showcase Linux versitility and power; and anything that would showcase the "home brew" spirit of Linux folks.
• Open Moko demo.  Okay, that has nothing to do with Linux, but I still would really love to see it!
• I like the idea of doing a "Consumer Reports" type review of some of the more popular distros - no narrtive necessary, just spreadsheets, charts, and infographics.  I realize this might be tough for many reasons (different people are looking for different functionality, there are many different distros, criteria would have to be agreed upon, etc.)

. . . I hope to think of more later. 

Take care everyone!

Matt

Re: [BLUG] Virtual Box OSE: The Issue

Virtual XP machine now running - any ideas for fun experiments to try with this?  Anyway, I'm pretty excited.  Attached is a screen shot of a scene all to familiar to Micro$oft users.  (yuk yuk)

Thanks to Micheal for the help,

Matt

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 7:00 AM, Matt Zink <matthewzin@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry for the slow response.  Michael's suggestion has worked.  Now that I've mounted my DVD drive, the Windows installation has begun.  Unfortunately, I've had to cancel the installation b/c I have to get to work!  Any pitfalls I can avoid in the installation from here on out?

Can't wait for five o'clock. . . .

Thanks,

Matt

Re: [BLUG] BLUG ideas

On Fri, Nov 07, 2008 at 02:45:27PM -0500, Barry Schatz wrote:
> I remember using 4DOS... I actually stuck with MS until 2004, though I
> wanted to get into Linux years before.

I couldn't stand how ugly Windows 95 looked when I saw the beta so I
migrated to Linux in 1995, before its official release.

My father was like, "Well, there are other options... Here I bought you
this book which includes a CD." From there I was hooked.

> Logo provides immediate visual feedback, so it's good for young
> children. You can still learn the fundamentals of programming.

How young? 3? 5? If Logo is suitable for children under 8, then suddenly
it looks interesting.

My understanding is, though, that very little is actually suitable
for young children. I hear that Legos Mindstorm, with their graphical
programming thing (I've not seen/used it myself) is as yet the
friendliest to the very young.

By the time the kid is 8 they're old enough to learn Python. Not only
that, they're old enough to write games in Python. That's enough
immediate visual feedback for most.

> I used QBasic back in the day. I wrote some pretty elaborate scripts to
> handle the tedious parts of my math homework.

QBasic was a poor imitation of Turbo Basic. It *finally* got rid of the
line number requirement. It was still crippled in comparison to Turbo Basic.
Turbo Basic allowed you to compile real stand-alone programs.

Though IIRC, by the time QBasic was released, I'd already moved on. I think
I only ever started it up out of curiosity.

> Starting with C is like learning to drive on a manual transmission. You
> have to get past not stalling the engine before you can leave the
> driveway and actually learn how to drive.

C isn't nearly as hard as people seem to think. I mean, my father cut
his teeth on z80 assembly. (He knew people who could do it all in
hex without the need for an assembler.) C takes care of a lot of the
overhead for you automatically.

Then again, I mostly just "got" it. I think I may have asked my father
one question about lvalues, then it was like, "Ah. Okay. That makes
sense."

I never did understand the Basic FOR loop until I saw it compared to a C
for() loop. NEXT? Come on, that doesn't even make sense. (I used WHILE
loos exclusively when I wrote BASIC.) The C for() loop, on the other
hand is clean and elegant.

> That's why Python is so popular. It's derived from a language that was
> designed for teaching programming, but it has real power.

Exactly. This also makes it suitable as a first language.

> It depends on how you define value. I always found visual feedback
> helpful when learning new concepts. The best practices apply no matter
> what language you use, but some languages make it easier to learn than
> others. Solving problems with the tools at hand requires the same
> mindset. For young children (say, age 7 or younger), it makes more sense
> to keep the tools approachable. The thought process should transfer to
> what ever language you introduce after that.

Feedback is important, yes. This is the main reason the whole "plan it
all out on paper" design approach is to be highly avoided when going
after young minds. (Or, personally, I like to avoid that design approach
altogether.) If you take one of the rapid prototyping approaches with a
fast development cycle, however, you get near immediate feedback.

The kid needs to be old enough to read. (Otherwise they'll never get
through the documentation when they hit a tough spot.) The kid also needs
to understand the concepts of the basic math skills, and to have the
ability to describe a process, (like how to make a PB+J sandwich). Knowledge
of the scientific method would round things off, and provide a framework
for experimentation with variables.

Before a child has those skills, they are, in my mind, unsuitable for
programming. Those skills should all be covered at or by 3rd grade, unless
something has gone seriously wrong with the public education system.

> So you want to be the "Cool Dad" that all the kids wish they had. :) I
> salute your goal and wish you the best. Be sure to do a presentation for
> BLUG on how you set up your filtering/monitoring setup once it's done.

Yeah. The monitoring thing is fairly straight-forward in theory.

My goal is to one day sit down and write a plugin/patch for Squid to
allow it to track URLs per authenticated user. Why per authenticated
user? Well, in addition to tracking the URLs, it creates a database
which can be leveraged to have automatic whole-house history and
bookmarking for every site a person goes to. It provides a feature for
the end-user as well.

Then it becomes straight-forward to not *require* authentication, and to
also monitor unauthenticated URLs via transparent proxying. You can then
catch when someone tries to bypass the proxy, and when a neighbor brings
over a laptop.

Because you never actually block access to a site, it becomes less of
a fight over bypassing the security measure. When the thought comes to
look something up, they just do it instead of first becoming frustrated
that it won't work, and then venting their frustration out on your
setup.

I've played with the idea a little with a patch to tinyproxy. However,
that didn't support authorization at all, so it wasn't a good long-term
solution.

> > This would be why it would qualify as an idea for if not a series
> > of meetings topics, than an on-going BLUG-related project with
> > regular status updates. Plus a lot of folks like to try out the latest
> > distributions. Some of the work happens on its own, and it is only the
> > "scorecard" that really needs to be standardized upon.
> >
> This would be a cool project to start. Maybe we should start a wiki page
> for this and figure out some useful criteria to rate distros on.

That would be a great place to start, yeah.

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
Fingerprint: 108C 089C EFA4 832C BF07 78C2 DE71 5433 8596 FA8E

Re: [BLUG] BLUG ideas

Steven Black wrote:
> *SNIP*
> Yeah. I gew up on DOS as well. That was mostly just because there were
> a lot of games for it, though. I even wrote Batch files. In fact, I used
> the rebranded 4DOS (command.com alternative) that was bundled with Norton
> Utilities (IIRC), right up until I moved to Linux. I nearly wet myself
> when I discovered the power of BASH.
>
> I did have early exposure to UNIX-like operating systems, though.
>
I remember using 4DOS... I actually stuck with MS until 2004, though I
wanted to get into Linux years before.

> *SNIP*
> Yeah, Logo is popular. I remember it from when I was young, though. I
> thought it was crap. You couldn't do anything "real" with it. So why
> bother learning it first?
>
Logo provides immediate visual feedback, so it's good for young
children. You can still learn the fundamentals of programming.
> I cut my teeth on Borland's Turbo Basic. Don't get me wrong, this was a
> great product and *much* better than the then-current MS alternative.
> However, I always felt shackled by it. I knew it wasn't powerful enough
> to do some of the things I wanted to do, and it was just a matter of
> time until I was forced to learn something better.
>
I used QBasic back in the day. I wrote some pretty elaborate scripts to
handle the tedious parts of my math homework.
> I left Basic wholesale. I uninstalled the IDE and I wiped all my old
> code the day I decided to learn C. I never went back. Instead I wondered
> why I didn't just learn C to start with.
>
Starting with C is like learning to drive on a manual transmission. You
have to get past not stalling the engine before you can leave the
driveway and actually learn how to drive.
> These days there are other options for first languages. You can do
> "real" things with Python, and there are rich libraries to draw from.
>
That's why Python is so popular. It's derived from a language that was
designed for teaching programming, but it has real power.
> Why recommend someone learn something that is ultimately valueless?
> That's like recommending my kid start out with FreeDOS and Command.com,
> so they think BASH is super cool once they move on to it. Where's the
> value? It only adds to the confusion, and prevents early mastery of the
> best practices.
>
It depends on how you define value. I always found visual feedback
helpful when learning new concepts. The best practices apply no matter
what language you use, but some languages make it easier to learn than
others. Solving problems with the tools at hand requires the same
mindset. For young children (say, age 7 or younger), it makes more sense
to keep the tools approachable. The thought process should transfer to
what ever language you introduce after that.
> *SNIP*
> That's where transparent proxies fall in to place. Out-going ports are
> filtered so everything gets properly proxied and monitored or they get
> nothing.
>
> You *can* do content filtering, and it is possible to do it so that it
> actually works as designed. The problem though is that it rarely prevents
> kids from getting where they want to go. The easiest solution is to just
> go to a friend's house.
>
> My goal is to be that friend's house. Allow them to get the information
> they want and need. However, if something comes up that I should be aware
> of, I should be able to find out.
>
So you want to be the "Cool Dad" that all the kids wish they had. :) I
salute your goal and wish you the best. Be sure to do a presentation for
BLUG on how you set up your filtering/monitoring setup once it's done.
> People worry about sex and drugs and preditors. Sometimes they totally
> fail to spot things like anorexia (or the fact that there is a whole
> "pro-anna" community online that encourages the anorexic look). Then you
> have the fact that some of the kids themselves act like preditors...
>
> Ultimately the goal is for my kid to think for herself and make the
> right decisions. Correct decisions are rarely made in an information
> vacuum.
>
Education is always good. Again, I salute you.
>>> 4. An on-going report grading distributions for comparison purposes.
>>>
>> 4. Distrowatch is the closest thing I know of, but it doesn't do what
>> you're looking for. Maybe someone else can help.
>>
>
> This would be why it would qualify as an idea for if not a series
> of meetings topics, than an on-going BLUG-related project with
> regular status updates. Plus a lot of folks like to try out the latest
> distributions. Some of the work happens on its own, and it is only the
> "scorecard" that really needs to be standardized upon.
>
This would be a cool project to start. Maybe we should start a wiki page
for this and figure out some useful criteria to rate distros on.

#5 has been answered better by others than I could do myself.
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Re: [BLUG] BLUG ideas

I want to toss in the idea of a digital picture frame and yes I am
taking this as an oppurtunity to pimp a project I completed awhile ago
and did a howto on over at http://thedigitaldragonslair.com

Cheers

On 11/7/08, James K. Muncy <jmuncy@cs.iusb.edu> wrote:
> #5
> Check out the linux terminal sever project: http://www.ltsp.org
> I used it with 486s stripped to not even a fan in the power supplys.
>

--
Mettle not in the Ways of dragons for thou art crunchy and taste good
with ketchup
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