[TOS] Summer '10 POSSEs status

[Greg DeKoenigbserg]

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010, Matthew Jadud wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 11:14, Karl R. Wurst <Karl.Wurst at worcester.edu> wrote:
>> One question - in reading the HOWTO, it says we need computers for the
>> students. Is that true? I was expecting that they will bring laptops.
>> Let me know if I need to change to a room with computers.
>
> I know from my own experience that having machines that you know will
> "just work" is a nice thing. That is, if you're able to provide
> machines that the participants can
>
> 1. Check out Firefox onto
> 2. Build
> 3. Experiment
>
> without having to use their own machines, that could be a win.
> However, it might be that setting up one's own build environment is an
> important part of the process. I didn't feel it was a critical part,
> but I might be missing something here.
>
> Ah. I'm going to take that back. /me does a 180, as they say...
>
> It was *critical* that we could go off and work on things in the 
> evening. Providing machines makes that problematic. So, don't do that. 
> They should bring a laptop that they can use for this work. Do provide 
> wireless for the participants wherever they are staying. Make sure that 
> "just works."
>
> (I haven't read all the POSSE documentation, so that may already be in 
> there...)
>
> Contributing his 1p or 2c, depending on your currency of choice...

I wonder if this might be a reason to work on server-based projects 
instead of client-based projects.  It would be trivial for us to throw EC2 
instances at this problem, and then the only thing that anyone needs is an 
ssh client.

I mean, I suppose you could build Firefox on an EC2 system and then run 
remote desktop or something...

--g

--
Educational materials should be high-quality, collaborative, and free.
Visit http://opensource.com/education and join the conversation.