[ale] How old is this list?

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Wed Feb 3 17:51:25 EST 2021 

The 20-something geniuses are impressive. What they lack in experience they over compensate for with enthusiasm and an ability to nearly instantly absorb new tech that I have to sweat over.

Your experience on the road underscores a need to replace 2-ton death machines with something better and well separated from living creatures in the high to medium density areas from urban to suburbs. 

I plan to use some of my retired time playing D&D and Magic The Gathering again. It's been too long.

On February 3, 2021 12:24:13 PM EST, Tod Fassl via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>I manage the research cluster for the math dept  at a Big Ten 
>university. I'm retiring partly because I can, partly because keeping
>up 
>with 20-something math geniuses is too hard at my age, and because I'm 
>blind. Being blind is a drag. I'm a distance runner, rock climber, very
>
>active in my community. But imagine your typical bad day -- spill
>coffee 
>on yourself, miss your bus, 271 messages in your inbox, etc. Then 
>imagine adding blindness to that. I've been run down by inattentive 
>drivers twice in the last 2 years. I mean hit and knocked down by 
>somebody on their phone when I was in a crosswalk with a green light.
>My 
>guide dog lost some teeth the last time. I just had some road rash but 
>the next time I had to get to my office, I found myself shaking when I 
>had to cross at that intersection. I got over it eventually but stuff 
>like that wears you down. I'm tired of being superman, of being
>fearless.
>
>
>I intend to work on open-source projects for the blind after I retire.
>I 
>have a program where you can treat a normal keyboard like a braille 
>keyboard and create brf (braille format) text files. I'm also working
>on 
>the world's first fully blind accessible Dungeons & Dragon's module.
>And 
>I'll probably work on bug fixes in the Linux screen reader, orca.
>
>
>
>
>On 2/2/21 11:48 AM, Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale wrote:
>> The Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts were a group of mostly university 
>> students who loved (GNU).  There are still web pages existent at 
>> ale.org that tell much of the history.
>>
>> The group founded in December of 1994, and in those days the first 
>> thing you did was form a mailing list, so I would assume that this 
>> list or something deeply connected to it started at that time.
>>
>> The Atlanta Linux Showcase started in 1996.  If I remember correctly 
>> it was held on the Georgia Tech Campus the first year, at the Apparel
>
>> Mart downtown in 1998, The Cobb Galleria in 1999 and 2000.
>>
>> In 2001 the original organizers had all graduated and were busy with 
>> jobs, buying houses, etc. and the USENIX organization took it over.
>>
>> USENIX made four gigantic mistakes:
>>
>> o they renamed it to the Annual Linux Showcase
>> o they moved it to Oakland, California in November, 2001
>> o they tried to take a free (as in beer) event and charge 350 dollars
>
>> for it
>> o they allowed Osama Bin-Laden to crash airplanes into the World
>Trade 
>> Center on September 11, 2001
>>
>> When USENIX had not sold a single reservation within three weeks of 
>> the event, I convinced them to make it free and about 300-400 people 
>> showed up, but USENIX never produced another Linux only show.
>>
>> The ale.org web site is still there, with just a few 404s.   If you 
>> want to see what the original events were like there are even some 
>> pictures.
>>
>> It is nice that the mailing list is still active.   The Linux group 
>> that I started in 1994 and ran for ten years also has a mailing list,
>
>> but it is much less active than yours.
>>
>> Congratulations to Tod for thinking about retiring....I still have
>too 
>> much fun and I will retire with my mouse still clutched in my cold, 
>> dead hands.
>>
>> Peace and love,
>>
>> maddog
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 02/02/2021 10:50 AM Paul Manno via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>> There are probably still some of us lurking here who were around
>when 
>>> the list was first
>>> created and who helped create those Atlanta Linux Showcase shows. In
>
>>> either case, I am
>>> not going to even try to think about when I started using either 
>>> Linux or UNIX...  LoL
>>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 9:59 AM Larry Johnson via Ale < ale at ale.org 
>>> <mailto:ale at ale.org>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     My memory isn't great as I'm about to turn 70, but I first
>installed
>>>     Linux in early 1995, and seem to remember signing up for the
>list
>>>     not
>>>     long thereafter.
>>>
>>>     Which means I might have been a lurker for around 25 years.
>>>
>>>     On 2/2/21 8:47 AM, Robert Reese via Ale wrote:
>>>     > Hi Tod,
>>>     >
>>>     > Monday, February 1, 2021, 12:19:30 PM, you wrote:
>>>     >
>>>     >> Am I misremembering? Because I think I got on this list when
>I
>>>     was in grad school which would have been in the mid-late 90s.
>The
>>>     reason I'm asking is that I am thinking of retiring. I was a
>>>     really old grad student and now I'm retiring early. Even so. Is
>>>     it possible I've been on this list my entire professional
>career?
>>>     > I'd say it's entirely possible. I joined in the late 90's
>also.
>>>     >
>>>     > Cheers,
>>>     > Robert Reese~
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     >> _______________________________________________
>>>     >> Ale mailing list
>>>     >> Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
>>>     >> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>     <https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale>
>>>     >> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>     >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>     <http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo>
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     > Cheers,
>>>     > Robert~
>>>     >
>>>     > _______________________________________________
>>>     > Ale mailing list
>>>     > Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
>>>     > https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>     <https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale>
>>>     > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>     > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>     <http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo>
>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>     Ale mailing list
>>>     Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
>>>     https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>     <https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale>
>>>     See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>     http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>     <http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo> 
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ale mailing list
>>> Ale at ale.org
>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo 
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>_______________________________________________
>Ale mailing list
>Ale at ale.org
>https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

-- 
Computers amplify human error
Super computers are really cool
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20210203/5b4978fc/attachment.html>

More information about the Ale mailing list