[volunteers] Speaker Coordinator Introduction

[Luke S Crawford]

Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> writes:

> 2.  What is SVLUG's relationship with Via.net like?
> 
> Via.net, a small, family-run hosting company in Palo Alto, run by Joe
> McGuckin, his wife Mary, and a couple of staffers, houses the legacy
> lists.svlug.org host, which is a shallow-depth Rackspace-branded 2U
> sitting on a shelf at Via.net.  512 MB RAM, 80 GB disk (single PATA hard
> drive).
> 
> They let us keep the machine there for free.  Sometimes when we visit,
> they mention to us that it's _customary_ for their 'free' hosted
> machines' sponsoring groups to give them a bit of money every year, but
> we have never done so.  Once when I came there and mentioned our hopes
> to replace the machine with a more-redundant, more durable machine, they 
> mentioned something about how they'd prefer that we, instead, migrated
> to some sort of virtual-hosted alternative.  

Eh, just as an option, if Joe doesn't want you, I can give you 
some space here in svtix in san jose or at he.net in fremont.  I can
give you physical access.

I'm about to start doing co-location again, so it'd be advertising
for me, and thus I'd have an incentive to make sure the damn thing
stays up and that you people don't say bad things about me.  

I'd treat you as a paying customer, e.g. you'd get a serial console
and a network drop (and maybe a remote rebooter;  that part has not been
decided yet.)  and physical access to the rack.   

But note, I'm not really volunteering to SysAdmin the thing.  
So as Rick points out, I'm not really offering to solve the 
problem;  just giving you another option if whoever decides 
to set it up wants hardware rather than a virtual. 

(I seem to be pretty bad at follow through when customers aren't 
clamoring for something,  so I figure just making you a customer might 
solve that particular problem.  Also, if it's a standard product,
it's not very much work for me after you are set up;  I've gotta keep the 
power and network up so the other customers in the rack don't leave.
Also, Nick tends to deal with that sort of thing when I'm not around.) 

> As you can see, SVLUG's needs really aren't those of new hardware.
> SVLUG _has_ received a number of old computers in the past, notably
> huge, power-sucking old VA Linux Systems gear and a huge, power-sucking
> JBOD chassis capable of holding qty. eight of 3.5" SCSI SCA disks.
> Somehow, these have all ended up in my garage.

It seems to me like the right answer is something that'll take the least
SysAdmin time.   Is that a virtual or a physical box?  I'm not sure.  
Virtual stuff has the advantage of someone else handling the hardware.
On the other hand, it sounds like getting things to work in 256MiB ram 
is probably going to be work.  Maybe the best option is to ask linode 
if they could bump that up a little? If you are stuck with 256MiB, I 
think hardware might be the least work.  

I think asking for a donation of new or nearly new hardware is probably
likely to get a better response than asking for SysAdmin time.  

Of course, if I'm wrong and having more ram doesn't make things significantly
easier, then there's really not much point.