[penguicon-general] Various tech stuff

[Tim Schmidt]

First off...  Hi all.  I'm Tim.  By night, I'm one of the founding
members of the Open Hardware Foundation
(http://www.openhardwarefoundation.org), and an active contributor to
several FOSS and open hardware communities (ranging from graphics
chips to metalworking).  By day, I'm one of two IT staff for a growing
tool & die and manufacturing business in west Michigan (we've got ~130
employees).

I've known Matt Arnold (online) for a couple years now, I think.
(wow, time flies)

Penguicon '06 was my first.

I've talked about it quite a lot with Matt, and I would like to
volunteer to lead the Tech Track for Penguicon '07.

In that vein, here are some projects I'm already working on for
Penguicon, and I'd appreciate suggestions for more, or ways to improve
/ add to these:

Stepmania Console (http://www.stepmania.com/)
 - Mini-itx motherboard (already purchased - Via EPIA M10000 w/
aftermarket fanless heatsink)
 - clear acrylic case w/ carrying handle (purchased today - CAD files
for cutting the I/O ports w/ the waterjet at work are already done)
 - fanless DC-DC 60W power supply (already purchased)
 - 256Mb DDR ram (already purchased)
 - RCA audio-out jacks (need to purchase)
 - front USB connectors (already purchased)
 - water and gunk resistant keyboard (need to purchase)
 - USB flash storage (already purchased)

Ops Machine
 - just a decent, reliable, workstation.
 - needs free USB ports (preferably easily accessible)
 - needs wireless NIC
 - must be able to run OpenOffice.org and other misc productivity /
troubleshooting software
 - drive will have a second partition with a minimal Linux install,
pre-set to re-image the drive to 'factory' condition when selected
upon boot.  Just in case.

Printers
 - 2x identical
 - black and white lasers
 - network connection preferred
 - 250 sheet capacity minimum would be nice
 - ideally they'll be well supported under Windows, MacOS, and Linux
 - cheap

Troubleshooters
 - at least 1, preferably 2 or more
 - must be capable of troubleshooting projector, internet
connectivity, file formats, all the basic stuff that bites you at the
last minute.

And of course, the Tech Track presenters...  of which I've already
convinced a few, but I'm reluctant to post anything at such an early
date.  Matt has mentioned that he'd like about 80 Tech presentations
if possible for '07, and that the Con would ideally be a 24 hours a
day event, but that we're not quite there yet.  I don't anticipate any
problem fulfilling the 80 presenters goal.

I'm looking for suggestions, any other responsibilities the Tech Track
head should know about, and somewhat importantly, whether or not you
folks will have me ;)

Thanks for the great Con.

--tim