Helping out the Nosillacast in getting Ubuntu on her OLPC.
Feb 03It’s always nice to meet up with people of the ‘pod-osphere’ (horrible word), especially if you can do something in return for the many hours of audio entertainment they provide you. Take Allison Sheridan of the Nosillacast for example. This Geeky mom-of-two and all round techie-goof ball is the host of the Nosillacast podcast : " A technology podcast with an every so slight Mac Bias " For those of you with a love for technology and a good sense of humor ? You should have subscribed yesterday. I have personally been listening to the Nosillacast for quite some time now because it is one of the better tech-life centered podcasts out there. During her show Allison talks about all things tech (mostly Mac) and how she deals with them every day. But besides all that you’ll get to hear about her 80 year old mom, her crazy husband and her adorable kids who are all part of one geeky family. (She also likes to wax cars, can you tell ?) Sound familiar ? (well we have cats instead of kids) So suffice to say I’m in love with this show.
A few weeks ago she mentioned she had gotten an OLPC laptop and was looking to put Ubuntu on it, but had trouble with booting the SD card. We got talking on Facebook-chat (of all places) and I looked around if I could not find an answer for the problems. Being ignorant mysellf, I of course pointed her towards the Ubuntu Forums where there would undoubtably be someone who had ran into the same problem. And what do you know : There was ! I persuaded Allison to post her griefs into the forum. She was scared to upset the Linux Geeks but i comforted her that using the words ‘Noob and GIRL’ in her post would make sure that she got help. (She also threatened the entire Ubuntu Community with the wrath of Knighwise if they should be unkind to her .. but I doubt that threat carries any weight.) On the forum thread somebody showed his OLPC-Ubuntu machine in action and I suggested posting her question down and, if no one replied, emailing the guy who got it up and running at the first place.
A few days later Allison told me she got a reply and that the root of the problem was located at her own high standards. Apparently the SD-card she used as a bootdrive for Ubuntu was .. a SANDISK ! It needed to be a cheap-ass no name brand to work. She swapped out the card with a cheaper one, ran through the whole ordeal again and got it working.
For my small contribution I was mentioned in the Nosillacast as a "hardcore linux geek" .. MOI ? ? Hardcore ? No way 🙂 I like to tinker with Ubuntu, use it everyday and install it on everything beside my own refrigerator ( including my 81 year old gran-in-law) but Hardcore ? no way :). Still I like the plug and encourage all of you to go over and subscribe to the nosillacast . " The nosillacast podcast : Geeks all wished they had a mom like her "
Listen to the episode by Clicking HERE
Visit the website to subscribe HERE
