[conspire] Need help with http://linuxmafia.com/bale/ ?

[Bill Ward]

Another option is to use the Google Calendar that I set up for
PenLUG's homepage.  I'm happy to share administrative access with you
Rick, or other LUG leaders, as appropriate & desired.
http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=caj9iea2ol69b7n2uqdek4ocso%40group.calendar.google.com
http://www.penlug.org/twiki/bin/view/Home/WebHome

On 4/16/07, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> [CC'ing conspire, in hopes of reducing the frequency with which I'm
> obliged to hold this conversation.]
>
> Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):
>
> > The BALE -- Bay Area Linux Events
> > http://linuxmafia.com/bale/
> > is a great resource, but it's getting rather out-of-date.
> >
> > Could you use some help maintaining it?
> > I bet we could fairly easily drum up some resources/volunteers to
> > help maintain it.  Perhaps even some perl (or other) code to much more
> > easly cover recurring meeting events.
>
> 1.  A couple of years ago, Deirdre converted it over to MySQL backend
> with templating of events, with each month populated by a Python script.
> The PHP and MySQL portions still work (but see below); the Python script
> has broken, at some point during the box's upgrade history.  Deirdre
> claims to have some insight into how and why that script broke; she says
> she encountered the same breakage elsewhere.  Deirdre has claimed at
> numerous points to be able to fix the broken script Real Soon Now.  I
> kept deferring a more radical solution based on the imminence of her
> promise.  However, she has not yet delivered on the promise.
>
> 2.  More recently, with Deirdre having become proficient with Ruby,
> Deirdre did a rough cut of a Ruby script that, in her words, "should
> work" in place of the Python one, and would be installing it Real Soon
> Now.  She has not yet delivered on that promise, either.
>
> 3.  Middle of last year, I got tired of waiting, and did a great deal of
> manual work to switch BALE back to all static HTML, and generate /
> maintain some months going forward that way.  That is the version you
> currently see.
>
> 4.  Concurrently with the above, the site's hardware has become quite
> inadequate (PIII/500, 256MB RAM, 2 x 9GB HD).  The site is perennially
> short on RAM, and is nearly out of disk space.   Because of the RAM
> shortage, MySQL (among other things) is currently shut down.  I started
> a separate initiative to cut over to a slightly less ancient box, which
> is sitting, running on dynamic IP, on my kitchen table.  (It _had_ been
> running on proper static IP in my laughable "server room" in my garage,
> until it turned out that the electrical service out there apparently
> could not support one additional server, tripping circuit breakers when
> my mother-in-law ran the washing machine.  The latter theory is
> unconfirmed.)  I'd be able to complete the cutover if people would quit
> interrupting me, but nobody respects my time.
>
> One of the things that chews up my time is composing replies to queries
> like yours -- but nonetheless, I do thank you for the offer.  WIth the
> above in mind, what would you like to do?  Please bear in mind that
> whatever you start doing may get interrupted if I start saying "Fsck off
> and leave me alone" long enough to do the server cutover -- not to
> mention avoiding repeatedly getting drawn into other people's problems,
> such as SVLUG server issues.
>
> If you want to do a big pile of gruntwork with obvious, immediate
> payoff, just grab the current BALE HTML, yank it into a text editor, and
> do a version for the next few months.  It's a lot of work and chew up a
> great deal of time, but I know from experience it can certainly be done.
>
> You may find http://linuxmafia.com/bale/groups-to-check useful.
> CSUEB Linux User Group (Hayward) is not in there yet; you'll find it
> linked from http://www.svlug.org/farm.php#other-local , however.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> conspire mailing list
> conspire at linuxmafia.com
> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire
>


-- 
Help bring back the San Jose Earthquakes - http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/