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Free Geek Robbed
Ellen Wilson writes, "Portland, Oregon, non-profit Free Geek, which turns old PCs into Linux boxen, has been robbed of about $4500 worth of hardware. Portlanders are asked to keep an eye out for suspicious sales of Ubuntu laptops." This blog post has some details of labeling that could help to spot the stolen laptops. BoingBoing picked up the story and added that another local outfit, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which supports Portland's zine scene, had been hit on the previous night.
I've been to there a dozen times looking for old hardware and the place is just awesome. It bites that someone robs them and i hope whoever it is caught. They deserve the book, the largest, to be thrown at them.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
If this doesn't make it on CNN, I am so firing off an email.
I was playing in a band and we went on tour. We stopped in Birmingham, Alabama. After we played we were waiting for the follow up bands to finish and someone broke into our van and stole my laptop and someone else's laptop. They stole 2 of our cell phones too. I figured wtf, I'll call one of them. The robbers actually answered the phone and after about 30 minutes we convinced them to bring us the laptops back. We met in a dark alley and walked slowly with our hands in the air while on the phones to each other. I held up a couple 20's with some 1's and we did the swap. When I booted my laptop, it went into recovery mode as though someone turned it on, saw the linux boot up screen and thought, "wtf is this crap?! Jeez... I can't sell this... Hmm... the phone is ringing." and decided to try to get money for the crazy system from the owner.
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
"suspicious sales of Ubuntu laptops"
So, ANY sales of Ubuntu laptops?
Please stop using this boxen word. There is no such thing is boxen. The plural of box is boxes.
This madness must stop. Anytime somebody says boxen in real life to me gets a punch in the face.
An old Kaypro. One of those luggables with two full-height 5.25" floppy drives. This is probably the most useful thing you could do with such a system other than breaking it down into raw materials.
The only question would be to aim for the knees or the solar plexus.
Ubuntu laptops...CHEAP!
After all, they're running Ubuntu. And what is a 'zine scene' ? Is this 1992? /hippies
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
It's never pleasant to hear about someone being the victim of a crime, but some crimes are a cut below the usual. Stealing from a non-profit organizations whose aim is to help the poor ranks pretty low on a scale that's pretty low to start with.
If those responsible are caught, I hope the judge throws the book at them.
I hope it's the hard cover edition of War and Peace.
Burglarized, not robbed.
I wonder if the thieves made off with really old PCs that have no Windows resale value at all?
These guys must have been so eager to use Ubuntu that they couldn't wait long enough to download and burn their own copy or order one in the mail. While I admire their enthusiasm over Linux, I can't condone stealing stealing a copy.
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
A Kansas City local computer recycler, www.surplusechange.org, lost almost all of their stuff when the building next to their old one burned to the ground. They had about 10,000gal/min of water flowing between the two, as there was an elevated pathway connecting them. It was worse than being robbed, as nothing or very little could be salvaged. (I just posted and it came up as A/C, login didn't stick, eh?)
I also think that giving computers away to needy people is admirable.
But don't you think the folks at FreeGeek doing sort of a disservice to those they give computers to? Linux is not the easiest to learn, and once it is learned the skills are only applicable to less than 5 percent of all computers.
If I were a poor person scraping to get by, one of these computers may just convince me that computers are not for me at all.
I'm in Portland, and when I'm not at work I could easily be mistaken for a criminal (I look like a skater). I'm going to call up some of my more unscrupulous friends (I went to an inner city high school) and see if anyone knows where to find a 'cheap' laptop.
I think checking CraigsList and eBay can be helpful, although I've never had much luck with eBay. A friend of mine found his laptop on CraigsList and contacted the seller to buy it. Once he had met the individual, he was able to 'persuade' the individual into to giving it back.
I can't stand thieves in the first place, but from FreeGeek? That's low.
Hans Reiser
(this doesn't even deserve a punchline, but) ... you know who to call.
It's sort of like a paper blog.....
Where were you when the voynix came?
they clearly thought the hardware was open source too so they could just take it :-P
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Batman is hot on the case... So far all leads are pointing to the Penguin... Jokes aside, this sucks. I hope whoever did it gets nailed.
Considering that they aren't having much success extracting teabagging extortion fees from the fiercly masculine Linux userbase, they've had to resort to more desperate means. $4500 should cover the $699 fee for about six machines and Darl McBride's penis shortage.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Hi there,
I do volunteer work at FreeGeek. I teach the command line class once a week.
Freegeek does more than just hand out boxes. They teach people how to make the boxes. They teach people how to use the boxes. They empower people to fix their own stuff.
They're not always successful mind you. It's still a wonderful endeavor.
Right here I'd insert a "Teach a man to fish" line... but you get the idea.
-Tony
Some guys actually try to create open source hardware.- Graphics
A graphics card:
http://wiki.duskglow.com/tiki-index.php?page=Open
Various Open Source processors:
http://www.opencores.org/
Of course their efforts are somewhat hampered by the fact that chip manufacturing equipment is awfully expensive. If you could buy a Star Trek style replicator for the price of a PC, I guess we would see a lot more free hardware.
C - the footgun of programming languages
yeah, I'm a smartassw.
...boxin'.
Your hypocrisy digusts. (It doesn't disgust me because I have a very strong stomach, but won't somebody please think of the children?)
These stories are free but worth money.
It's FreeGeek's fault! They should have had better security!
If it works for breaking into a computer system and stealing credit card numbers, it should work for breaking into a building and stealing computer systems.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
But people would pay for the hardware, no matter what OS is installed.
Boxen
B0xen
Box3n
BoXen
boxen
B0xen
Box3n
b0xeN
Mush-ROOM!
Mush-ROOM!
Of relevance, many zinesters are proponents of the F/OSS movement. At this year's Portland Zine Symposium, a workshop was dedicated to using OSS tools for the creation of zines.
At http://www.qzap.org/(which I am a co-founder of), we're very vocal about using F/OSS software on our servers and some desktops. We recognize that it's not 1992... because of this, we actively hope that people will use what we do and roll their own projects.
..... Slashdot readers picking up the slack by donating PC's or donating money? I'm guessing that this organization could use the help.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Nine out of ten thieves agree, Linux is not ready for prime time.
Loose lips lose spit.
Time for you tell them firefox boys to get a real dictionary then.
/bok'sn/ (By analogy with {VAXen}) A fanciful plural of {box}
/bok'sn/, pl.n.
>$ dict boxen
3 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Boxen \Box"en\ (b[o^]ks"'n), a.
Made of boxwood; pertaining to, or resembling, the box
({Buxus}). [R.]
[1913 Webster]
The faded hue of sapless boxen leaves. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
boxen
often encountered in the phrase "Unix boxen", used to describe
commodity {Unix} hardware. The connotation is that any two
Unix boxen are interchangeable.
[{Jargon File}]
(1994-11-29)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
boxen
[very common; by analogy with {VAXen}] Fanciful plural of {box} often
encountered in the phrase `Unix boxen', used to describe commodity
{Unix} hardware. The connotation is that any two Unix boxen are
interchangeable.
(END)
This is news? $4500 of computers being stolen is national, no ... international IT news worthy of the front page of Slashdot?
Those "boxes" as you so call them are like oxen, very sturdy and can do lots of work. You know... boxen! Duh!
"as pointed out, one could consider a zine like a paper blog, but they're so much more"
Paper zines really have a lot of Myspace thrown in. You know, the basic idea of "if I can fit a graphic here, why not?" and the incredible fun of unreadable font/color/background combinations. I have yet to see one that didn't suffer from extremely poor design decisions.
Where were you when the voynix came?
again, we usually just ask for 20 hours of volunteer time as opposed to money
I don't know who you're selling these machines to, but 20 hours of volunteer time seems like a lot. Even low-balling the value of my free time, I could probably go out and buy a brand new system for that. If the work you're asking volunteers to do is in any way unpleasant (negative value), that's a very expensive computer. Though, if the work was fun, it might be a better deal. A lot of volunteer organizations that I've worked with, though, treat new people like crap and/or use them for whatever their "scut work" happens to be that day.
I'm not trying to act like a rich bastard here, because I'm not -- I'm your basic cube-slaving working stiff -- I just was startled by how high a bar that seems to be. (And perhaps I'm undervaluing these computers -- when I think of a 'used PC' I'm imagining something in the $100 "Craigslist" range.) I wouldn't mind working for a Saturday afternoon if there was a free computer in it (particularly if it was something interesting), but I just wonder how many people are willing to do 20 hours for something that would only require half that number of hours to buy outright in an average-wage job. Do you get a lot of takers?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I love Kaypros, you insensitive clod! Why, I just ran across someone selling one for $20 on craigslist last night.
I was seriously considering buying it. That was one fine luggable CPM Computer !
kaypro for sale
I still insist that a Kaypro and an Epson MX-80 is enough computer for any person.
I even had a text only version of Lode Runner on that baby.
music lover since 1969
And sometimes I read about servers being 'slashdotted'. That's not even a related to a real word.
So, there you have it - it's boxeN, and you'll learn to like it! Now get off my lawn.
Yo geeky ladies around the world
Got a wired box to show you
To telnet the boys and girls
Shell your brother, your sister and your momma too
Windows is going down
And you know what just to do
Wave your RAM in the air like you don't care
Run Glide with your games as hackers stop and stare
DVD and DVD and DVD then boot
Come on Linux tell me what's the word
Word op! Everybody say
When you hear the system call your drive will be getting underway.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
New words get into the English language all of the time. Why not "boxen" for a group of computers, just like a herd or flock?
"it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed" - Galinda
$4500 worth of computers is about to be exchanged for $200 worth of methamphetamine.
The other two were made up specifically for Unix in the last few years, probably because Unix geeks started saying it to sound "civilized" or some crap. Jargon, in other words. And mostly a way to be different. Still pretty damn stupid if you ask me. This is why Linux/Unix fails. Too many geeks thinking they're better than everyone else, and distancing themselves from "normal" people. Make Linux usable for the average joe, and it might start to catch on.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
Linux is not the easiest to learn, and once it is learned the skills are only applicable to less than 5 percent of all computers.
This is not true, but unfortunately it's a fairly common line of thinking. Although the parent comment was quickly modded "Troll" here on Slashdot, it would probably be taken quite seriously at a local PTA meeting. (Actually, come to think of it, pretty much everything that gets said in local town meetings ought to qualify for '-1 Flamebait'...but I digress.)
A whole lot -- practically all -- basic computer skills are platform-independent and interchangeable. If you're trying to teach someone who's never used a computer much before, and you're teaching skills that are very specific to one OS, you're doing something wrong. The basic concepts of computers today are widespread: the "desktop metaphor" with folders/documents arranged in hierarchies, use of the mouse to open/close/arrange windows, use of a browser to access the WWW, basic email concepts -- all of those things are the same, whether you're using a Mac, or Windows, or KDE, or Gnome (or even something more exotic). Heck, most mainstream OSes these days even have more similarities: a program-launcher bar at the bottom of the screen (in some form or another) is pretty common, as are the File and Edit menus, and Cut/Copy/Paste.
There really isn't much diversity anymore in computer operating systems, at least not in the major Linux GUIs, plus Mac and Windows. The differences are mostly either technical or trivial (mounted disks on desktop vs. in "My Computer," icons on left of screen or right, etc.). A person with a good set of basic skills, ought to be able to accomplish basic tasks on an already set-up system running either OS.
Teaching someone mindless procedural 'recipes' that allow them to do a task, without any conceptual understanding of what they're doing along the way, is really doing them a disservice. Telling someone "this is how you check email," and making them memorize some steps, which will stop working and leave them stranded with the next OS upgrade or interface change, is truly disempowering.
IMO, all basic computer classes, particularly those aimed at children, should be taught using computers that have a non-standard GUI and OS (which would follow conventionally accepted metaphors and design principles, but not be carbon copies of systems they might have already seen), to encourage critical thinking rather than mere procedural memorization and repetition.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I know "I been robbed" is oh so more exciting than "I been burgled" but this use of english is disgraceful.
rob: 1 a (1) : to take something away from by force : steal from (2) : to take personal property from by violence or threat
burgle: 1 : to break into and steal from
Now, which happened here?
Etymylogically, this appears to be an evolution of the word box toward its phonetically similar cousin, ox. The correct plural form of ox is oxen, and these are useful domesticated animals that have been used primarily for their ability to do heavy labor. Unlike traditional boxes, a computer is a special kind of box that is similarly used for carrying a workload. With this purpose in mind, it is not inapropriate to use the more specific term boxen.
You will also notice that human beings have a long history of personifying objects, especially technology.
--your local pseudolinguist
... a warehouse in Portland was found to be storing a large Beowulf cluster pieced together from old hardware for the purpose of sending out advertisements for "V1agra/C1alis".
I remember seeing a RedHat box getting stolen in a Walmart. It had to have been ~7 yrs ago or so... right around the time of RedHat 6. (Yes.. there was a time when Walmart stocked Linux distros on their shelf. ) There was this really sketchy looking guy wearing a heavy coat. He really didn't look the part of a computer geek. He must have had no idea what he was stealing. If he did, he wouldn't be stealing it. He grabbed the box and stuffed it under his shirt and took off. :)
Oh wait...
Karem
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
"With this purpose in mind, it is not inapropriate to use the more specific term boxen."
compound, be[oxen].
How far is Portland from Redmond..?
"You are mostly right about licenses, but this detail is an exaggeration."
Well he's wrong about the $500 price. But then he knew that from the last time I corrected him. Charities fall under different rules.
It's more general than that, see vaxen, facetious plural of Vax. The "en" plural form is probably just hearkening back to the Germanic influences on old English.
Come on criminals - show us your -*Jazz Hands*-!!!
..........FULL STOP.
beware of Geeks bearing gifts?
*ducks
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Once again: Revolution, wall. nuff said
.
Dah, comrade! And KGB don't beat people, they teach them honesty.
"loudspeakers"
in German.
cf President John F Kennedy: "Ich bin ein Berliner" - - "I am a doughnut."
The second and third definitions just record the fact that geeks started to misuse the word as a plural of box, it doesn't make it any less made-up. You do know what the word "fanciful" means, don't you?
Yes, language changes, but changes that are for the worse should be resisted. That's a highly subjective measure of course, but I know where "boxen" falls by my measure.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
There are soooo many lowlife druggies and "Punk" kids there, I am not surprised by this burglary. Saddened, but not surprised. What makes me mad is that the locals there tolerate the losers that do this. Portland really needs some tough law enforcement to clean up the town.
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Hey!
You scoundrel!
I haven't gotten in yet, I'll I've heard is the news... How are folks taking it? Any suspected morons?
-T
. . . don't take it personally. I don't actually have a grudge against the machines. In fact, I was going to write "Osbourne" but somehow "Kaypro" seemed funnier.
Also, Osbournes had rounded edges. The Kaypro luggables I remember hard square edges. That would hurt a lot more.
"fanciful" means "of fancy". aka, "not real".
Yes, this is Portland Oregon... and then there is Eugene. Combine the two and you have San Francisco.
I do so agree with you.
;-)
as in Vaxth, Vaxes, Vaxeth, Vaxande, Vaxende, Vaxinde...?
but is that not more applicable to Verbs?
Vaxen : Vax, to be.
Probibly depends a lot what country and region we are talking about.
Still, Boxen [to be]oxen, makes sence to me
Although the noun oxen is of course the plural of ox.
The nice part is that regardless of what way we look at it using either a slang suffix or prefix B[oxen]:(to be[oxen]) or box[en]:(box[to be]), it makes a lot of sense (to me anyway) when it is applied to *nix type systems or similar.
Partly matters of pronunciation, vocabulary or inflection. The form in Old English always ended in -th with some varitaion of the preceding vowel. In Middle English this ending was preserved as -eth in Sothern Dialect. In the Middle district it was replaced with -en probibly partly from the verb "to be". - W.F.Brian, "The Midland Present Plural Indicative Ending -e(n), MP,XVIII(1921).457-73.
But, I'm not English so I don't see things as clinicaly as that!
BOXEN ROCKS!
Oh, please. Who in their right mind would buy a Ubuntu laptop?
Are you kidding? I travel. I picked up a used IBM Thinkpad to put Ubuntu on. It has excelent security as very few know how to get into any information on it. I don't keep much information on it. It's great for on the road internet and managing photos from my digital camera. If it gets stolen, I'm out only $250 not $2500. Most thieves have no idea how to get past the login screen. It is likely they may re-partition it and install Windows destroying any sensitive information that may be on it.
By comparison, data theft off a Windows box is a piece of cake. Plug the drive in another machine as the second hard drive and copy off stuff to your hearts content. A linux partition is a little more difficult to mount for Windows users.
The truth shall set you free!
Mapquest is your friend.
Maneuvers Distance Maps
1: Start out going NORTH on SE 10TH AVE toward SE MARKET ST. 0.1 miles Map
2: Turn LEFT onto SE MADISON ST. 0.2 miles Map
3: Turn RIGHT onto SE GRAND AVE / OR-99E N / PACIFIC HWY E. 0.2 miles Map
4: Turn LEFT to take the MORRISON BR. ramp toward I-5 / SALEM / SEATTLE. 0.1 miles Map
5: Merge onto I-5 N toward SEATTLE (Crossing into WASHINGTON). 161.6 miles Map
6: Merge onto I-405 N via EXIT 154 toward RENTON / BELLEVUE. 14.5 miles Map
7: Merge onto WA-520 E via EXIT 14. 5.8 miles Map
8: Take the WA-202 W exit toward WOODINVILLE. 0.4 miles Map
9: Turn LEFT onto REDMOND WAY / WA-202 N. 0.7 miles Map
10: Turn RIGHT onto NE 79TH ST.
It's about a 3 hour drive.
The truth shall set you free!
Sorry, KGB don't beat people, they poison. Please, get it right. ;)
A lot of commenters have suggested this is an unimportant story, robberies happen all the time, bigger robberies occur often that aren't covered, etc. But other robberies don't hit as close to home for the Slashdot community as a robbery of a nonprofit that cleans up used computers, installs Linux on them, and donates them. The function that FreeGeek performs is unique and uniquely relevant to Slashdot. It is both a charity that makes computers and the Internet more accessible to those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it by recycling discarded computers, AND it broadens the Linux user base.
I cannot imagine a charitable cause more worthy of the support of the Slashdot community than this one. Before you post another comment suggesting this isn't an important story, please read the Free Geek mission page
Last year, this summer and to a lesser extent now, I have been working for a school's technology department, which puts together old computers that they have no use for anymore and distributes them to the poor citizens in our town. We install Windows 2000 on them (because we have the licenses to do so, and the department does not want an OS that they, themselves, cannot support), but beyond that only free software. That is, Wine, Firefox, OpenOffice, Gaim, the works (I even (semi-secretly) got Emacs on it :-)).
Now, we have a fairly nice security system, plus we live in a pretty quiet town, so I do not think that those machines are likely to get stolen, but still...
Burglary doesn't scale the way worms do. If there were automatic burglars that went around testing everyone's locks, it would make more sense to chide them for using shoddy ones.
Apples are apples, not oranges. Situations are analogous, except when they're not.
Just aint like they where in the old days.
Back when i was a kid them criminals would have robbed you naked in that alley then laughed for the next 2 weeks about what a dumbass you where.
Aint nothing like a victim that delivers.
Hmmmm.... probably those child-molestin', homosexual, immoral atheists who live next door and listen to Elton John music all day. ;^/
Any chance of posting some MAC addresses of the laptops in question?
- Installed Ubuntu
- Skimmed this Windows XP Install Guide
when it hit me...Linux is now easier to install than Windows!The basic premise underlying the above joke, that Linux is harder to use than Windows, is no longer true -- at least for installing the O/S.
I never thought I'd see this day.
After rape a little burglary is nothing!
If you doubt Microsoft was behind this, just ask yourself: Cui bono? Can't have Linux on old hardware outdoing Vista on expensive new boxes.
Next on the agenda: beating up little old ladies for violating Vista's built-in DRM!
(Note to the humor-impaired: Yes, this entire post is a joke.)
"I imagined (but didn't know for certain) that it would be technically possible to install over a network."
You imagine? There's no "imagine" to this. I use to work for one of the big name OEMs and that's exactly how we did it. No OEM in it's right mind is going to pay someone to sit their and insert CD's all day long. Use to be floppies in my day. Now most MB's have onboard NICS with PXE. Granted an OEM's setup is a tad more complex, but it's also a tad simpler too (full control over hardware). Like I said in the other post I don't care that your agenda is to push Linux. But misinformation isn't the way to do it.
Reminds me a little of the first electronics class I ever took, back in the day. First thing the instructor had us do was hook up a resistor to a variac, and increase the voltage until we smoked the resistor. Just so we would have all have done it, knew what it smelled like and looked like.
Sometimes the best way to get over your fear of doing something wrong, is to be forced to do it, and realize it's not that big a deal.
Probably a very smart teaching strategy on that man's part.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Which is worse though, boxen or virusen?
If the premises would of been protected by UCLA campus police.
©God
Too bad someone couldn't have posted some descriptions of what was stolen. There's an army of nerds out there that could have been checking pawn shops, eBay, Craigslist, etc.
Part of the charter of FreeGeek is to supply hardware to non-profit organizations. So what do you do when PFLAG, which is a non-profit, comes knocking?
From the Simpsons:
Snake: Oh NO, Linux!
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.