[ale] How old is this list?

jonhall80 at comcast.net jonhall80 at comcast.net
Thu Feb 4 13:00:05 EST 2021 

Tod,

I salute you for all the work you have done.  Please do not take my email as any type of "criticism for you retiring early".

Technically speaking, I am "retired".  I live off retirement funds, but I do not report to anyone or anything other than me.

Like you, it gets harder and harder for me to keep up with "the younguns", but I substitute their youthful enthusiasm with my cagey skill at getting them to do the things I need them to do.

The things I do are because I want to do them.

Your "retirement projects" sound great.

Best of luck to you.

md
> On 02/03/2021 12:24 PM Tod Fassl <fassl.tod at gmail.com> 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~
> >>     >
> >>     >
> >>     >> _______________________________________________
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> >>     >
> >>     >
> >>     >
> >>     >
> >>     > Cheers,
> >>     > Robert~
> >>     >
> >>     > _______________________________________________
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> >
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