EXPLORATIONS -- Right Work

Explorations are intersections...deeper conversations on spiritual matters. They aren't designed to answer questions as much as spark some thought about the union of digital and spiritual technologies. 

In Buddhism as well as the Tao there is this fundamental idea of not making waves in the water, a sort of stillness. You are always where you are are supposed to be and thus to fight to try to be somewhere else is counterproductive to "The Way." This mindfulness...living in the moment...is no easier than becoming a professional body builder or a marathon runner. This sort of peaceful existence...being present for the presents in this present  - and that could be why they call this a practice. IJS

The Buddha warns against careers that harm other beings and suggests that we avoid any occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action. He says, “The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.”

Entering the Chaos of Free Software

In my search for Dharma on the command line I am regularly confronted with matters far beyond my control. The choice to step outside of the noise and enter the stillness brings with it a constant confrontation with the unknown. In that space is where creativity happens, out of the chaos comes the peace.

Free software doesn't come without it's share of chaos. Releases don't always address your needs. New features you may like may go unsupported. There's constant troubleshooting to do and often things you'll just leave broken until someone in the world of developers fixes it or find a work around until you can fix it yourself. Yes, you are sometimes confronted with the unknown on this road to FreeDome. This is perhaps why business and desktop users have stayed away from Linux. Perhaps this is also why the road to enlightenment is the path less traveled.

I wonder how much of my life as a Systems Administrator is spent running from the chaos? 

Designing, building, maintaining and running systems  that you must keep working at optimum capacity, securely...in a live production environment is full of chaos. It is the very reason there is an imperative need for Systems Administrators. System Administrators ... well, good ones, strive to work smarter and not harder. The ultimate goal is to create an environment that is secure, ready and reliable. When I think of what that right work looks like I think of M. O'Brien. When faced with the reality of the unknown I am reminded my former boss at Bloomberg LP. He was the picture of a steady captain.

He embodied the presence of a Bodhisatfa as he kept vigil over thousands of servers and hundreds of thousands of users scattered around the world. He was kind and gentle but firm and resolved. He was aware of what was happening around him but he was not moved by it. His is what I call "good work." He sat in the center of the chaos with a level head and a clear sense of presence.

Being is more important than doing and that concept alone can take a lifetime to understand. Ancient Khametic people would go one further and ask not what is being done but who is doing it?

IMPOSSIBLE!

Oh My GOD! Apple makes it impossible to do anything with their hardware EXCEPT put their OS on it. Now I am not complaining as Mac OS X is a variant of OpenBSD and in that respect it's Unix anyway but Apple has NO intention of sharing it's hardware!

We (my good buddy Patrick and I) have been plugging away at trying to wipe the drive on an old iMac and install Linux for a friend....What a travesty. If I thought Microsoft was a proprietary horror shop well move over because Apple has taken xenophobia to a whole new level. 

YOU CAN NOT boot to a USB or a CD-ROM easily unless it's a Mac disk...well a Mac CD because Apple only wants their OS on their hardware. Now that's not a problem if you're running a currently machine but if you have older hardware like the machine above you're dead and stinking in the Apple water. They won't upgrade it's software and you can't upgrade the hardware. SO what do you do with a pretty paperweight that contains a CPU and a HD?

YOU INSTALL LINUX ON IT!

Well that's easier said than done. But then this is the Tao of SysAdmin so this is part of the journey.

I'll keep you up to date as the build goes along....but I've had to call in reserves and I've invited my buddy Pat over to help ... well he's done the cracking and gotten the box up to Ubuntu PPC version 10.10LST.

I'll tell you how that progressed on my next post. :D  OH...here's a shot of my newest Desktop build...hope you like

Learning as I go

File transfer between machines is ultimately what any network is about...shared resources is the heart of a client server based network. Linux is such a client server based solution. That's sort of  the way community is supposed to be. In an indigenous culture that's the case. Perhaps the Open Source community is a lot like the indigenous people in the way they share and work together. The vision of Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation create an environment of sharing and exchange that's resulted in the Android OS. 

"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank."  - Chief Maquinna, Nootka

Resignation??

Is it really resignation if I choose not to install Funtoo on this netbook? The kernel wouldn't compile...there just wasn't enough space. My journeyman in the IRC warned me...he suggested that I not get discouraged if it wouldn't load. Oh if he only knew how encouraged I've become. This has not deterred me...it's why I set out on this journey

I had to think about it. I could put some patience to work and go back into the kernel and learn every module (which I plan to do at some point) or I could put Bodhi back on it and streamline the package selection. I looked at how long it took for the software to compile and thought that I would do better to continue to learn to program while I re-member myself as an admin.

I am not resigning to failure when I acknowledge that it would be possible but impractical to continue to install funtoo/e17 on this netbook. It would be a learning experience to say the least but would it be functional in the end? Would it be practical? Now ... we're on a journey here with this Open Source thing...trying to find enlightenment on the command line so what's the lesson...what was this really about?

Was I just impatient and wanting something to do ... there's plenty to do around here if I were to get up from this PC. Perhaps I was looking to prove something to myself ... that I could do it alone. I soon found out that I would need help. I would soon find out that this wasn't about anything tech related...it is and was and always will be about me.

I gave this a good shot...spent a few days trying to get funtoo installed on this netbook. Well...even the folk in the IRC said they don't know that there would be any noticeable difference with gentoo installed. The system just wasn't able to handle it. There wasn't enough memory and the processor was supported by the kernel but it would be such a more enjoyable experience with a binary disto...for now.


Does that mean I'm gonna give up on FunToo? OH NOT AT ALL!!!

I'm just going to have to get a better machine to install it on. My cousin said he's going to give me a desktop that I can have....tower, monitor and keyboard/mouse. I'm not sure what state it's going to be in but regardless it's going to give me a test box and I can retire this laptop as a primary PC and use the netbook for travel. --------

OH YEAH!!!!!  ---- I put Bodhi back on the netbook

And barely used 75% of the Memory. I have a web cam app, chat, browser, email, text editing, WiFi...Pandora.....backup. What more could I want from a notebook. Thanks Bodhi! 

Linux rocks when it's enlightened!

Tao Te Ching 

Written by Lao-tzu
From a translation by S. Mitchell

44

Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success of failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.

The compiling has begun...OMG is it slow and tedious. I knew this coming into this so I can't fuss...it's all part of the experience of The Tao. Being at one with the where we are when we're there. This part of the build could go wrong and I'd have to go back...most probably will want to go back and rebuild this kernel and turn off a lot more modules. I have to become ... should I say I am becoming more comfortable with this process and thanks to fread2282 I have a companion on this ... other folk come in and out and share the love but for the most part fread2282 has been the chariot mate on this build.

I must look deeper into this funtoo/gentoo tree difference. Some things come from funtoo some come from gentoo and there seems to be little problem ... though I did have to find an alternative install method for the portage tree. Now...if that sounds real foreign to you don't worry...it sounds foreign to me also. I understand the concept but I've never made ready use of such knowledge and thus am at a loss.  I wonder though....could you use funtoo and enlightenment as an appliance..that a distro bundled with a specific set of software and use enlightenment to create the unifying apps and interface....

I have an idea and though it's far beyond what I can do myself I know that I can accomplish it at some point. I am on the journey and it's starting with this kernel ....cranking away..creating the core...the real Linux.

WEMEUS 

Here goes the install and here goes my imagination - How about I build a version of linux for the person who doesn't know a lot about computers and doesn't really want to. they usually use windows and are afraid of viruses and malware. They want a digital solution to the office place but can't afford much of the licence fees often associated with commercial business software. They are looking for support and though they will try it on their own they need help doing most things therefore they would appreciate an ongoing service contract that's fair and scales based upon their independence. 

More often than not they are craftspeople who don't have a tremendous amount of business background and they often do not have any organized technical infrastructure. The realistic client realizes the need to invest in business and would see this as an opportunity to modernize and streamline their business. Using the combination of GNU/Linux OS, Open Source Software, Time Bank, Land Trusts and education WEMEUS has as it's goal to build an OS supported by the small business community. 

What would happen if people found a new way to use old things

Lesson from cooking

You can want to have rice pudding after dinner and if you don't know early enough in the day you won't have rice pudding that night. Things happen in an order and you can not rush them. You just can't. 

If I wanted to rush this process along other than choosing different hardware or putting more time in to my kernel selection process...other than that I wouldn't have any way to speed this up. Whatever comes after this .. even there, I have no way of speeding up that process either. I can't rush ahead and to sit here and watch the code crawl by on this screen would be wasteful...of my time. 

If there's time to lean there's time to clean

That was a regular saying in the kitchen...and there truly was always something to clean. Well there are cobwebs in the corners and recesses of my mind regarding systems administration and I truly have to clean them out and fill the empty spaces with fresh new knowledge. I feel as if I am learning more about myself than I am about Linux at this point. Habits, behaviors, things that can lead to my success or my failure. 

So in the process of cleaning on this strange Sunday full of compiling - I go and take my Chooea out for a walk. He's always happy to accompany me on a run outdoors in the hopes that he'll find a chicken bone or something. It was a long walk...to clear my head. The ideas come at me with such speed that I can't contain them all...a good walking meditation with my Chooea always get's me back in order and slows me down. 

Warriors

Sometimes...sitting at the command line you're focused on what you're doing. Preparing for what's to come. Visualizing virtual spaces and thinking about what's ahead for this machine. Before you lay the foundation for the environment you have to bear the burden of setting the rules. Well...there's only room on a keyboard for one set of fingers and though there are eyes that might glance at a screen...no look in the world can stop an <ENTER> pressed too soon.

So we learn to move slowly through the wood..we take our time, reading each line of code over. Did we put a - and not a = again...this tiny little keyboard forces me to take my time. Reminding me of why I am headed back...to find what I left there...my joy. I find myself spinning my wheels and remembering how much help I got last time I went to the #funtoo IRC --I went back and lo and behold I was received with honest help! It came not a minute too soon...the beast of a ride that is Funtoo rose up to greet me and thwart my movement. At every pass, filesystems won't format right because boot medium is out of date. New medium installation script doesn't work have to do it manually. New boot medium uses different wireless interface...hell it even uses a GUI! This one's gotta go in the pocket for future use...seems like it's gonna be useful later. ***note to self. :D

It all sounds poetic but there was a battle going on today between me and this box. I had to get up and move around and force myself to go out. Chooea insisted that I take him out for a walk and I had company otherwise I would have never gotten up. The beast raged against me but I wasn't alone. That's the lesson of today ... you are never alone - there's always guidance and help available.

The many folk who helped me fread2282 blaise ... you helped beat the beast back and reminded me the power of preparation and forethought. How important it is not to waste someone's time. The notion of theft and not stealing comes to mind. Not stealing someones time by not being prepared or consuming their knowledge at the expense of your own. I've gotten few things done today other than prepare to emerge --sync.

And the servers are down.....

So I send this out to my digital warriors---cyber tygers

She's guarding the wood....keeping me in her view. All goes well...emerge we say and things appear. Just like that, simple. Emerge world. lol...she's there, while Michael Jackson beats on Pithos in the background