It's a webconference dumdum errr uhh dimdim maybe

So I found myself wandering why good webconference programs aren't more plentiful on the Open Source side of the ballgame. I then decided to see what I could find and was promptly impressed by a simple server solution, dimdim. DimDim provides for webconferencing in a single host with multiple listeners scenario. Very good for educational uses where a professor could have a class completely online, but still lecture. With a white board and power-point built in, it's a hands down easy solution for this area. However, for the web conference with multiple speakers and group audio needs, it soon falls short. Only a max of three speakers (six if you setup your own server) at a time. They claim it's bandwidth issues, but I think more could be done to rectify that. We'll just have to see. I may delve into this project and get my own hands dirty, if only for the added audio users.

Surprising results

So one month ago I set up a system for my daughter to use. I decided that linux had finally gotten user friendly enough for end users so I figured this would be a litmus test.

Six years old and she thinks she knows everything about computers. Truth is I haven't even shown her a command line yet. She plays a lot of educational games on Noggin, UpToTen, etc. which she truly enjoys.

A fresh install of Ubuntu +parental controls on an old P4 box and boom, one fresh linux workstation. At first she was hesitant. until I showed her that her Bookmarks had been copied from our other desktop (Quick note: Firefox w/ Google Sync is AWESOME.) she then warmed right up to it.

So one month later and she has found most of the stock games that come with Ubuntu and has even had me install a few more. It is a great success. She doesn't quite care for the Win Box anymore.

so this changes the count...

1 Windows XP Box
1 Ubuntu Server
1 New Ubuntu Workstation
1 Mac Quicksilver 733 running OS X 10.4.11
1 Powerbook Pismo 400mhz running Ubuntu PPC 6.06 (this one is a pet project. I've always been fascinated by the PPC processors and this one runs like a top)
1 Macbook running OS X 10.5 (with vm's of every flavor of windows and linux)
btw, if you haven't had the pleasure of using a macbook, goto your local apple store. There is not a better line of portable computers on the planet.