BALUG NEWS: 2010-04-20: Sameer Verma on: One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Project: Plan, Updates, Direction, Participation; + other news - BALUG-Announce

1 Apr 2010


      BALUG NEWS: 2010-04-20: Sameer Verma on: One Laptop per Child (OLPC)  
Project: Plan, Updates, Direction, Participation; + other news
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Bay Area Linux User Group (BALUG)
Tuesday 6:30 P.M. 2010-04-20
Please RSVP if you're planning to come (see further below).
For our 2010-04-20 BALUG meeting, we're excited to present:
Sameer Verma[1] on: One Laptop per Child (OLPC)[2] Project: Plan,  
Updates, Direction, Participation.
This presentation will address updates from the OLPC project (hardware,
software, networks, schools, teachers, children, parents, etc), its
achievements thus far (what works and what does not) and where it is
headed in the near future (yes, its still alive).  We will also look at
how various communities (such as BALUG) can participate in the
educational, technological and social contexts.
Profess by day, tinker by night.  Dr. Sameer Verma is an associate
professor of Information Systems[3] in the College of Business[4] at
San Francisco State University[5].  His research revolves around the
diffusion and adoption of innovative technologies.  He also teaches a
course titled "Managing Open Source" at San Francisco State University.
In his free time, Sameer volunteers with One Laptop Per Child by
organizing activities for the OLPC-San Francisco Bay Area[6] group.  He
also runs his laptops, desktops, servers, tablets, phones, media
systems, and car music player on Linux.  The toaster sadly remains
unconverted (any day now).
1. http://verma.sfsu.edu/
2. http://laptop.org/
3. http://is.sfsu.edu/
4. http://cob.sfsu.edu/cob/
5. http://www.sfsu.edu/
6. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_San_Francisco_Bay_Area
So, if you'd like to join us please RSVP to:
rsvp@balug.org
**Why RSVP??**
Well, don't worry we won't turn you away, but the RSVPs really help the
Four Seas Restaurant plan the meal and they help ensure that we'll be
able to eat upstairs in the private banquet room.
Meeting Details...
6:30pm
                 Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 2010-04-20
Four Seas Restaurant http://www.fourseasr.com/
                 731 Grant Ave.
                 San Francisco, CA 94108
                 Easy PARKING:
                 Portsmouth Square Garage at 733 Kearny http://www.sfpsg.com/
Cost: The meetings are always free, but for dinner, for your gift of $13
       cash, we give you a gift of dinner ticket to join us for a yummy
       family-style Chinese dinner - tax and tip included (your gift also
       helps in our patronizing the restaurant venue and helping to
       defray BALUG costs such treating our speakers to dinner).
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Door prizes?  Giveaways?  We don't necessarily have such items at every
meeting, but we do often have giveaways and/or door prize items.  E.g.
at our 2010-03-16 meeting, over 14% of our of our attendees that donated
$13 (and for which we provide gift of dinner and dinner/door prize
raffle ticket) walked away with a brand new
iPod shuffle 4GB Silver (MB867LL/B) [MSRP $79][7]
courtesy of ScaleMP[8] - see also information on our 2010-03-16 meeting
presentation further below.
7. http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_shuffle
8. http://www.scalemp.com/
We will have a supply of Ubuntu[9] 9.10 "Karmic Koala" i386 CDs on hand
for our BALUG 2010-04-20 meeting, made possible by Ubuntu California[10]
and other contributors/volunteers.  We may have other stuff too.
9. http://www.ubuntu.com/
10. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CaliforniaTeam
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Missed our 2010-03-16 meeting, or want to review materials from that
meeting?
The "slides"/deck from the talk/presentation on
ScaleMP vSMP Foundation for SMP presented by Nir Paikowsky of ScaleMP
are available online:
http://www.archive.balug.org/2010/2010-03-16/ScaleMP_Technical_Introduction....
The earlier announcement on that talk/presentation:
http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2010-March/000147....
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"Working in the Business" (Linux/...) panel discussion
We're working on putting together a panel discussion on working in the
business - Linux and related areas - with emphasis on Linux and Open
Source and in the San Francisco Bay Area, but we may also include
related areas and comparisons (systems/network/database/security
administration, programming/development Open Source and other
environments, comparisons to other regions, etc.).  We're interested in
potentially and and/or all of (for the relevant areas):
o hiring managers
o Human Resources personnel
o persons with significant work experience in relevant areas
o recruiters
o agency client representatives
o persons newly experienced entering the field (e.g. new degree within
   last 2 years)
o persons with significant experience with any and/or all of the above
   (needn't necessarily be currently in the position)
o panel moderator - person who can well wrangle and moderate a
   collection of the above folks
ARE YOU OR DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE that you'd recommend for such a panel?
If so, please drop us a note, including
"Working in the Business" in the Subject
and email to: balug-panel-2010@balug.org
and with your name and contact information, and if you're recommending
someone other than or in addition to yourself, please mention that and
include their name and contact information.
We'll follow-up with more information.
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http://www.balug.org/