[sf-lug] introducing a newbie...bill hill

[BillHill]

Hi,
I'm just getting into Ubuntu more seriously again (after a couple years when it didn't seem to be 'ready' - or was it me? :)  Now I want to 'get it all working' on a dual boot desk machine (winXP/ubuntu8.04 already installed on this fry's 'GQ3091' 1.6ghz AMD Duron PC that i upped the ram to 1gb, and added a 500gb hd).  One of the projects i want to do on the machine is video capture from my sony digital8 camcorder via firewire - now to wmv files and ultimately to make DVD's, (and I've had semi success with windows movie maker, except that the 'movie' wmv runs twice as fast as it should on playback, and wondering if 1.6ghz duron is fast enough.) I'm even able to play the wmv file thru ubuntu - hurray!, would be interesting to see the capture happen in ubuntu.  Another peripheral is to get my canon Lide90 usb connected scanner working in ubuntu, maybe with GIMP? (it already has worked just fine in XP using microsoft 'photo editor').  And of course i'd like to be able to print stuff on my printer hooked up by ms workgroup on a laptop on my ethernet LAN - can i get ubuntu to 'talk' in a workgroup?  Finally i want to set up a periodicals library database, maybe with DLP (distributed library project - google it for more) which wants to be installed and run in Apache - definitely a linux project, but is ubuntu a good enough linux substrate to maybe try out on the GQ3091?

My friend Mikki has been happily coming to you guys at SFlug and alerted me about the meeting (this sunday 7sept, javacat) so i will try to make an appearance and see where we can get with all this.

--Bill Hill
141 Lansdale, Fairfax CA 94930
cell 415-686-6146
aropoika (at) earthlink DOT net, and now aropoika on skype even