Welcome to ROSCo

[Mark Stosberg]

Welcome to ROSCo, the Richmond Open Source Community.

There are seven of us in this Google Group now and I expect more to
wander in.

Introductions might be a nice way to start. For ice breakers, I'll
suggest these questions:

1. Briefly, what's your experience now with open source software on the
desktop?
2. What's one desktop open source program you find surprisingly useful?

3. What's a service that you would like for ROSCo to provide that you
would personally be interested in helping with, or using?

( You are welcome to just lurk, too, but I'm hoping to spark a
conversation! )

I'll start.

> 1. Briefly, what's your experience now with open source software on the desktop?

I have used Mandriva Linux on my home and work desktops exclusively for
the past few years. I enjoy helping other people explore open source,
so I end up dabbling with a lot more software than I really use.

> 2. What's one desktop open source program you find surprisingly useful?

I have so many! Yesterday, through the power of open source, I enabled
the ability to click on phone numbers in a web browser (on any page!),
and have the phone system initiate a call to that number. I just pick
up my ringing phone and the call is connected.

This is surprisingly useful. Now when a tech support ticket is created
in our web-based tracking system, I can just click on the phone number
in the browser to dial.

That all worked because of our open source phone system, Asterisk, the
Firefox web browser, The Greasemonkey extension, a modified version of
the "Vonage Dial Linkify" script, and a bit of custom Perl code we
wrote. Viva la open source! (Ok, so technically that's not just /one/
program... )

As for all the other utilities I find surprisingly useful, I'll wait
for someone to ask about them. :)

> 3. What's a service that you would like for ROSCo to provide that you would
> personally be interested in helping with, or using?

I'd like to have some real-word get-togethers and help sessions, but
I'm not
sure what form that would take.

One concept that seems workable to me is to have an established time
where some ROSCo member would be "on duty" at a local wifi hotspot
(Charlie's?) to answer walk-in questions, just chat about the topic
with others who show up.

If no one else shows up, well, you just got some quality time with the
free broadband internet connection. That's not so bad.

Earlham currently has a bike co-op which works on this sort of model.
They have standard times where you can show up and expect to find a
volunteer and some tools to work on your bike.

Mark

[Jim Sizelove]

Hello all,

I am interested to see what will happen here at ROSCo, so I'll jump in
with my 2 cents.

> 1. Briefly, what's your experience now with open source software on the desktop?

I use several open source software development tools:
Python (my favorite programming language),
Vim (my preferred text editor),
CVS and Subversion for version control( I especially like TortoiseSVN
as my Subversion client on Windows),
databases PostgreSQL and SQLite,
and many more tools and libraries.

I use Thunderbird for email and newsgroups, and Firefox for web
browsing. I really like that I can use the same programs on Windows,
Mac, or Linux.

Over the past several months, I have started exploring Linux. I
started with a Knoppix Live CD. It is a nice way to check out Linux
without installing it. Then a couple of months ago, I installed Ubuntu
Linux on an old tangerine iMac. I am using it as a machine to install
and try out various tools.

> 2. What's one desktop open source program you find surprisingly useful?

Lilypond (http://lilypond.org) is a music notation program. It
provides a text-based input that it can transform into standard music
notation in PDF output, or audio output in MIDI format.

> 3. What's a service that you would like for ROSCo to provide that you would
> personally be interested in helping with, or using?

I am interested in sharing experiences with others exploring open
source software. One thing I really like about a lot of open source
programs is that they are available for multiple platforms. Windows or
Mac users can try out the programs without having to switch to a
different platform.

Who else is lurking around ROSCo? What are your interests?

Jim

[Matt Guynn]

Hello ROSCo peeps,

This is Matt Guynn.  I am newly exploring the world of Open Source, running several OS applications in Windows XP on my Toshiba Satellite laptop. 

I'm writing with a question/challenge: I have tried using GAIM twice, to no avail, logging in using my MSN Messsenger account.  What obstacle do you think I might be encountering?

Thanks,

Matt

Matt Guynn ~ root...@earthlink.net
P.O. Box 1767, Richmond, IN 47375

office: 765-962-6234
cell: 765-977-9649

“A great many of us [must] move from words to acts - from words of dissent to acts of disobedience.”

“To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek. The most effective action both resorts to power and engages conscience.”

~Barbara Deming

[Mark Stosberg]

Matt Guynn wrote:
> Hello ROSCo peeps,
>
> This is Matt Guynn. I am newly exploring the world of Open Source,
> running several OS applications in Windows XP on my Toshiba Satellite
> laptop.
>
> I'm writing with a question/challenge: I have tried using GAIM twice, to
> no avail, logging in using my MSN Messsenger account. What obstacle do
> you think I might be encountering?

Matt,

It's hard to say without more information. Exactly what happens when it
doesn't work?

From the buddy list, under the "Help" menu, select "Debug window". It
will provide you more information.

By looking on the Gaim website, I found they also had some support
resources there:

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/faq.php

They mention some MSN specific issues, as well as some Windows issues,
such as adjusting a firewall, so the MSN protocol can get through.

They also publish a way to contact the Gaim project for help, which is
not surprisingly by using Gaim. They suggest trying #Gaim on
irc.freenode.net.

It should be easy to add an IRC account in Gaim to try that route if you
want.

You are welcome to continue to follow-up here, but the Gaim experts may
know better.

Mark

[Matt Guynn]

Mark :

thanks for the website recommendations.  I will check them out. 

It attempts a handshake, etc., and then says: Unable to connect : Unable to authenticate.   Checking a firewall-type obstacle may be just the ticket.

Matt

[Mark Stosberg]

Matt Guynn wrote:
> Unable to authenticate.

This usually translates to "the username or password is incorrect".

Try double-checking the username and password you are using with MSN
messenger.

Mark

[Matt Guynn]

your suggestion related to firewalls was the gateway to success

here's what I found, which worked:

How do I configure Norton Internet Security for Gaim? - Unfortunately, Norton Internet Security doesn't correctly respect specifying "Permit All" for a program, and the following additional settings are necessary for Gaim to function properly. Symantec has be notified of the problem, but attempts to get it resolved have been fruitless.

1. Select Options -> Norton Internet Security
2. Select the Firewall tab
3. Under HTTP port list add the following ports:
   1. 443 -> MSN (ssl)
   2. 1863 -> MSN
   3. 5050 -> Yahoo
   4. 5190 -> AIM/ICQ
   5. 5222 -> Jabber (including Google Talk)
   6. 6667 -> IRC