/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2009/09/14/#ubuntu-learning.txt

=== starcraftman is now known as CanMoose
doctormoBiosElement: Hello again03:41
doctormoDid bzr play ball last night?03:42
BiosElementHey doctormo Yeah, it's mostly playing. Lemme link ya to what I upped. Afraid it's not much but I'll try to correct that problem. >.> Next project is writing a bzr for beginners guide for teachers writing a course03:43
BiosElementhttps://code.launchpad.net/~williamchambers/ubuntu-learning-materials/williamchambers03:43
doctormoCertainly an excelent plan03:44
doctormoAnd gets us all practicing creating classes03:44
BiosElementI figured at the very least it'd be a stopgap till the rest of the lesson is finised03:44
BiosElement*finished03:44
doctormolooking at it now03:49
BiosElementI probably organized it wrong >.>03:50
doctormoBiosElement, pleia2, paultag: Your advice please, I want thinking of having a description section for each course, explaining what it's trying to do and what we expect people to learn throught the entire course.03:52
paultagHay03:52
pleia2in one of the course documents?03:52
paultaggreat idea doctormo03:52
paultagdoctormo: it will help focus topics03:53
pleia2like an objective section03:53
BiosElementAlready thought we were going to do that eventually. >.>03:53
doctormoThinking they should be written before hand03:53
doctormoI think I'm also going to take dina's advice and have a section in each class lesson plan at the top which should be headed "Class Objectives" and in there a short description of what the students should achieve by the end of the class.03:54
doctormoShe called them learning ovjectives03:54
doctormoPerhaps that's a better name,03:54
* pleia2 nods03:54
=== CanMoose is now known as starcraftman
doctormoBiosElement: OK, notes about your class so far. Not sure about the headers with the [# Name] format.03:57
doctormoBut otherwise it's a great step forward,03:57
BiosElementAight. I kinda liked it but I figured they were easy to change later.03:57
doctormoI'm thinking that perhaps a better source compilation format is required, I fear that the odts are not modual enough for the kinds of publication and style definition we might want to do.03:57
doctormoThoughts on using TeX?03:58
BiosElementIf you give me a minute I may have an idea03:58
BiosElementWell, more like 10min >.>03:58
pleia2tex makes the barrier for entry much higher03:58
pleia2I think odt is good03:58
BiosElementPure .txt with syntax for headers, bold, etc03:58
pleia2we're already having a hard enough time getting people to write courses03:59
BiosElementHonestly, I don't like odt very much besides that it's an open format. >.>03:59
BiosElementBut I agree it's important to keep it simple pleia203:59
pleia2out of curiousity, what is the  ">.>" thing you end your lines with?04:00
BiosElementhaha, sorry. Just a nasty habit of mine. It's supposed to be "shifty eyes".04:00
pleia2ah, I thought that might be it but you use it a lot so I wanted to make sure :)04:01
BiosElementI've got a few options that should all be very simple.04:01
doctormopleia2: I agree, but we can help that by thinking about tools that make the workflow easy to get into, I was thinking about a simple dev tool that downloads the bzr branch and allows commiting like bzr-gtk04:01
pleia2doctormo: oh, that'd be great04:02
BiosElementThe one I first thought of is Sphinx which is what python uses for their docs. It's got a very clear .txt format. Not sure how hard it'd be to setup though. I can try later tonight.04:02
BiosElementHTML: http://docs.python.org/3.1/whatsnew/3.1.html04:02
BiosElementTXT: http://docs.python.org/3.1/_sources/whatsnew/3.1.txt04:02
doctormoBiosElement: If we can find somethign that is editable in openoffice, but more flexible. Then that would be best04:02
BiosElementdoctormo, I'm looking at pure .txt because It may always be possible to build later onto that.04:03
BiosElementAlso bzr commit changes should show nicer.04:03
doctormoOf course, although html, xml, wiki and pdf should all be considered publication target formats.04:03
pleia2yeah04:03
BiosElementExactly.04:04
BiosElementdoctormo, Any thoughts on the sphinx example?04:04
pleia2and if there is some kind of moodle format04:04
BiosElementpleia2, If there isn't I could probably hack one together.04:04
BiosElementreStructuredText and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown are the other two that come to mind. The python docs example uses reStructuredText04:05
doctormoBiosElement: As a python programmer myself, I'd have a bias for using sphinx and such, but we may need something more apt, I'm not sure how we should include images etc, but it's a larger scope than just doc04:07
BiosElementdoctormo, That's what I was thinking. I like python too. But Markdown is another that could work. though we'll have to figure out images.04:08
BiosElementPersonally I see no need to re-invent the wheel with several good proven .txt based formats out there.04:11
BiosElementImages work with markdown. Syntax is ![Alt text](/path/to/img.jpg "Optional title")04:15
doctormoBiosElement: And now what about editing tools? At least LaTeX has gui tools for editing we could use04:20
doctormoOh did I mention that your files should all have the name of the class rather than just the generic couse name 'Teaching'04:23
BiosElementI'd imagine there's a editor. I'll go poke around04:23
BiosElementAnd yeah, I figured that.04:23
BiosElementWould we even really need a gui though really? I mean the point would be to focus on the text. It could always be written in .odt and converted over to be upped04:26
BiosElementIMO the syntax is pretty clear04:26
doctormoBiosElement: Aye, sometimes it's just a matter of apperences though, if we could edit the entire class in one long stream but them have it split up when saved, that would be best.04:27
BiosElementI hear what you mean04:29
BiosElementFunny thing is Sphinx seems the least complicated >.>04:30
doctormoheh, well if you want to give it a shot just take my networking class and convert it into sphinx and see hwo easy the workflow is.04:32
BiosElementAight, I'll start toying04:32
doctormoBiosElement: The most research and playing around, the better our workfow I think04:40
BiosElementProbably04:41
BiosElementdoctormo, Sphinx can export to latex, html and probably pdf04:42
doctormoIf not, then latex or html will, I just want to make sure that I could define 1xdiagram, 1xexplination, 1xdescription and 1xexercise which can be combined into a published section with other sections into the overview sheets we know and love.04:43
BiosElementHonestly with a few changes I think sphinx can do it. It's a little focused towards documenting a project rather then just a document but that should be just a few template changes away04:44
BiosElementdoctormo, Question: Would it be useful to have digital "textbooks" and just use moodle for the "coursework" like quizzes, mail, etc?05:12
doctormoBiosElement: If we can do it so that the moodle is front end providing those downloads05:12
BiosElementdoctormo, Well it could be all in a pdf, zip, page-by-page or hosted.05:13
doctormoBiosElement: Depends how we do it05:16
BiosElementPersonally I'm really liking this format. It'll take me awhile to convert it all over but it's really simple to do and looks great.05:17
doctormoIf you can commit to a different branch, then we can both have a play around, what ever you do, I'll need to set up some tools to make this all easier05:26
BiosElementI don't mind if I have to convert others work over from .odt format honestly. the actual work isn't hard. Just I'm flooded with windows here so It's kinda slow work >.>05:27
doctormoBiosElement: I can see that formatting and structuralisation is fun for you yes?05:30
BiosElementdoctormo, I sound like a masochist don't I... >.> Not fun exactly, but it 'is' fun to get instant gratification.05:31
doctormoheh, well I'd like to see the first class and what scripts / tools to automate the workflow before you convert any more.05:37
BiosElementCurrently all you do is run "make html" in the directory and it dumps the html files into a seperate directory ready for use. If there are images it'll copy the ones that are used over also05:38
BiosElementdoctormo, http://bioselement.com/teachingtest.zip05:40
BiosElementNote that I haven't actually done more then a quick test. I got distracted by looking into the templates05:41
doctormo_BiosElement: Interesting stuff05:55
BiosElementThat's what I thought.05:56
doctormo_Now get it to build pdf files :-)05:57
BiosElementCan do06:00
BiosElementFor the record: pdf is where docs go to die06:00
BiosElement>.>06:00
BiosElementDear heavens doctormo_ the latex data for converting to pdf's is a freaken gig >.>06:05
BiosElementWhy? Because language files for every language under the sun, from english to the language of the lone fisherman in the middle of the ocean is required >.>06:06
doctormo_what? explain, I don't understand06:06
BiosElementtexlive requires every supported language pack to be installed >.>06:06
doctormo_BiosElement: bUll, redo the package if that's what it's doing06:24
=== doctormo_ is now known as doctormo
BiosElementdoctormo_, That's what I said. I'm poking through the packages now to find the exact one06:24
BiosElementIt's very poorly documented.06:24
BiosElement+1 for packages.ubuntu.com though >.> Making things much easier06:25
BiosElementLooks like texlive-latex-extra has the pdf generator and is 500mb less.06:25
doctormoheh, it's funny but if we were going to make use of it, we'd need it fixing anyway06:26
BiosElementdoctormo, Yep. Well I've got the generator installed but it wants fonts...back to the salt mines for me.06:27
BiosElementAhh, looks like I somehow didn't have 'textlive' installed with the fonts.06:27
BiosElementPDF: http://bioselement.com/TeachingTest.pdf06:28
BiosElementAll the blank pages are because I broke the Table of Contents format06:29
BiosElementAnd because there's hardly enough content >.>06:29
doctormoBiosElement: OK, so I want to see a diagram and I want to see a code snipit, styled. This proves two of the couter points.06:32
BiosElementAight06:34
BiosElementdoctormo, Re-download the pdf06:37
BiosElementAnd the zip is bioselement.com/TeachingTest.zip06:37
doctormoThey are the same06:38
BiosElementShouldn't be. Should have code sample + image06:38
BiosElementHang on06:38
BiosElementwww.bioselement.com/TeachingTest2.pdf06:39
doctormoOK so the code snipit should be in a coloured box similar to what I have in my PDFs and the image should come from the svgs available.06:40
doctormoI don't really want raster images to be the norm06:40
BiosElementFine by me, I just grabbed it as the closest image to toss in06:40
doctormoOh and align right.06:41
doctormoBut it's excelent work, I'm excited to see where this goes06:43
BiosElementAhh, I'll see what I can do. Thanks06:44
BiosElementNot sure about the right align but I suspect it shouldn't be 'too' hard to ad the code styling for the pdf06:44
BiosElementIt does support code highlighting06:45
doctormoWell I want to see how close to the style of my pdf you can get, since I want condensed styles, allowing teachers to print things out for students without bancrupting them06:45
BiosElementImages can be right aligned06:47
BiosElementI don't think I can get any kind of background behind the code for the pdf currently though06:48
BiosElementIt is monospace though06:48
doctormohmm, even html could put the code in a div tag which padding and borders06:51
BiosElementCurrently the html version does have a code bg, only the pdf uses pure monospace06:51
BiosElementHonestly I think that saves ink06:52
doctormoPerhaps, but I'd still like to know I have full power to control the style, if it's too hard to style (and I'd like the style to be some form of a style sheet) then it's inflexible.06:53
BiosElementIt's latex, It's a pretty standard format so I can't imagine there's nothing else out there.06:54
BiosElementSee first i generate the latex docs, then from that go to pdf.06:55
BiosElementAnd if we wanted we could always generate the html files with a special template and just print them off that way.06:58
doctormoWe could always generate them in a number of steps07:00
doctormoI suppose the html could contain the css refs and that could make pdfs of the right style07:00
BiosElementExactly07:01
doctormoNow you just have to show me it in action :-D07:04
BiosElementhaha07:07
BiosElementdoctormo, I want candy :P07:22
BiosElementThis is working nicely07:22
doctormoBiosElement: Wonderful, what kind of sweets?07:22
BiosElementhaha, I'll take anything sweet. Speaking of which, the .rst files look 'really' sweet.07:23
doctormocool, well I'll get you a crunchy bar, fair's fair07:24
BiosElementhehe, yay :P07:24
BiosElementFYI I'll need to add image padding to the css07:25
doctormoOK, so I'd like you to commit your work to an experimental branch attached to ubuntu-learning-materials, that way I can see it and help if need be, without uploading or padding around things07:27
BiosElementOk. One minor problem just now, lemme fix it07:27
BiosElementOh I see the problem07:28
doctormoDon't bother to commit any of the builded or compiled files, I should be able to work about it.07:28
BiosElementAight, the only hard part was pdf's07:29
BiosElementFYI doctormo the make command is "make html" in the main directory07:30
BiosElementdoctormo, Should be working https://code.launchpad.net/~williamchambers/ubuntu-learning-materials/sphnixformat07:38
doctormothanks!07:38
BiosElementdoctormo, Lemme know if it's missing anything....I think the makefile got list07:38
BiosElementdoctormo, It was. Pushing the makefile now07:39
BiosElementShould be fine now07:40
BiosElementdoctormo, Note this: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~williamchambers/ubuntu-learning-materials/sphnixformat/annotate/head%3A/systems-admin/source/01-command_line.rst07:40
BiosElementEasy to read, even with just text07:41
doctormook so I need to get sphinx, is that this bad package?07:42
BiosElementdoctormo, No07:43
doctormoE: Couldn't find package sphinx-build07:43
BiosElementdoctormo, One moment07:43
BiosElementpackage is python-sphinx07:43
BiosElementTo make the pdf's you will need texlive and texlive-latex-base07:44
BiosElementThe texlive-latex-base is the one that took me forever to find07:45
doctormohmm a bunch of warnings and errors07:51
BiosElementAbout?07:51
BiosElementdoctormo, Finished converting 01 - Command Line07:57
doctormocool, I'll pull07:57
BiosElement"just" fixed the index page too08:01
BiosElementdoctormo, Lemme know how it works08:07
doctormoLooks good, I will have to reform the css of course, since it's supposed to be more of a teaching thing than a documentation thing08:09
BiosElementOf course08:09
doctormoBiosElement: While I do that, can you get a simple svg2png process going on with the make, I'd like the svgs to be the source08:10
BiosElementJust outta curiosity, can't we just use svg's? I mean most modern browsers can read them and if we're teaching ubuntu I'd hope they have an ubuntu machine08:12
doctormoWe could, but we'd have to use different html, not until firefox 4.0 will we be able to specify svgs in the img tag08:14
doctormoOK, I think we should remove the align right from the source docs, it's more of the style thing anyway08:15
BiosElementFigures >.>08:15
BiosElementIt's up to you if you want too08:15
BiosElementBut we 'can' align it08:15
doctormoAye, I think I'll keep alignments in the css files, that way we can better control the publication08:17
BiosElementOnly problem with that is if we 'don't want to align it08:18
doctormoNah, that can be controlled too, alignment can be switched on and off at will08:20
BiosElementAhh, well if that's true then great08:24
doctormoThat one conf should probably apply to all sections of the same course, I'd like to make sure that the main editable documents are not stuffed inside of a directory and are the primary visible files08:24
doctormoThe only directories are perhaps if we end up splitting each section out, I wonder if we could get it to build them automatically08:25
doctormoBiosElement: Do you know what hands off workflowing is?08:26
BiosElementI'm 99% sure I've heard of it, 99% sure I used to know what it means. But I can't seem to remember08:26
doctormoBiosElement: It's where we can just add new files and directories into the right places and have the machinery pick them up, we should need to configure conf.py with each new class, or configure each Makefile for each course.08:29
doctormoIt's a sort of automated systematics.08:29
doctormoshouldn't*08:30
BiosElementAhh, yeah.08:30
doctormoThat should say, we shouldn't need to cofnigure08:30
BiosElementActually08:30
BiosElementconf.py was made by the generator08:30
doctormoAye, but I've just had to edit it08:30
BiosElementAhh08:30
doctormoI set the static page to a root path and set a title and a few other things.08:32
doctormoBut fortunatly, it's python, so we can make it more magic08:33
doctormoBiosElement: OK just commited a stylesheet and some mods for your merging in lp:~doctormo/ubuntu-learning-materials/sphnixformat08:50
BiosElementdoctormo, Aight08:50
doctormoBiosElement: It produces very boring html, not as fancy as the python doc stuff, but we can work up to what we want out of the docs, since my aim is to make sure we can make pds that are clean.08:51
BiosElementdoctormo, Well I don't think we should ignore the html version either. Because I'm sure we'll have classes taught on IRC too08:52
BiosElementHeck, I'd do some of those sometime08:52
doctormoOf course not, stylesheets can be very easily substituted for online use, but for building the primary must be clean so all formats are built and then we can publish as required.08:54
BiosElementGreat. Just making sure08:55
BiosElementdoctormo, Want to file a merge request or should I just do it manually?08:56
doctormoThe merge request is formality, you still have to merge manually08:58
BiosElementAhh, figures. GImme a sec then08:59
doctormoI've pushed up rev 6, updated styles09:01
BiosElementFigures...09:01
BiosElementI 'just' merged it09:01
BiosElementLemme update and merge again09:02
BiosElementYou should be proud of your teaching, a month ago I'd never touched bzr. >.>09:02
doctormothanks09:03
doctormoThat really does mean a lot to me09:03
doctormoalthoguh you did have a head start knowing what other vcs are09:03
BiosElementdoctormo, True. I must admit I can't decide if I like git or bzr better at this point. Though git is for sure more popular >.>09:05
doctormogit is faster and leaner, but bzr is python based and easier to use.09:05
BiosElementI mostly agree with you09:05
BiosElement>.>09:06
BiosElementNot sure about easier to use. It feels the same to me09:06
doctormoplus, while certain parts of git are perl (write once read never) and certain parts are C, I untimatly think bzr is the better structured.09:06
BiosElementCSS looks nice though09:06
doctormoJust not the better mathermatically worked out09:06
BiosElementSo, is this better then .od09:07
BiosElement*.odt's?09:07
doctormoyou can count on me for style sheets and image ;-) all this programming and marketing is just a day job.09:07
BiosElementhaha, Suggestion09:07
doctormoWell these files will be 100 times easier to translate, if you can get it to generate pot files for uploading into launchpad's translation service, then you've got a strong contender why it shoudl be used.09:08
BiosElementRemove the left+right bars on the code box. Because on a print view the text flows over the bar on the right and looks silly09:08
BiosElementAt least if there isn't a solid bar I don't think it'll look horrid09:08
doctormoBiosElement: That is why we make print css directives.09:08
BiosElementdoctormo, Ahh, Aight. And yes, I do know what that is :P09:09
doctormoalthough your going to have to take a screen shot, because my print preview shows no such thing09:09
BiosElementHang 1 sec09:09
BiosElementdoctormo, I THINK we can translate to .po files Not sure about .pot09:11
doctormoEr, you know how translations work right?09:12
doctormoyou make a pot file which contains all the original elements, and then eadch po file is a translation comapred to the pot file09:12
BiosElementdoctormo, More or less. Here's your screenshot. FF Shiretoko latest build http://i32.tinypic.com/23j1pph.png09:12
BiosElementYeah. I gathered that from the launchpad help page :P09:12
doctormowithout a pot file, you can't make po files ;-)09:12
doctormoAh it's the right side, not the left09:13
BiosElementYa know I gotta say this is alot easier to read through then odt too...It even feels better formatted. >.>09:16
BiosElementOh FYI, your bash: doctormo image was resized. It was something like 640x500 in the odt09:16
doctormoI think it's the PRE that causes that btw09:18
doctormothe overflow problem09:18
BiosElementProbably. PRE 'should' prevent text-wrapping but if we want this printed it has to wrap09:18
doctormoMy best guess, remove the python-code section use and use some kind of custom class for that text, once it's in <p>'s I can deal with it in css.09:20
BiosElementThe div's are<div class="highlight-python"><pre>09:21
BiosElementYou 'can' style <pre> just like <b> ETC. I can probably find what's needed to enable word-wrapping on the print version09:21
BiosElementhttp://users.tkk.fi/tkarvine/pre-wrap-css3-mozilla-opera-ie.html09:22
doctormoI got it09:22
BiosElementGreat09:23
doctormoSo far with this system I'm concerned with: a) Images being converted to pngs, but not originating as pngs, b) translations, c) pdf published format, d) Common Man Editing09:24
BiosElementa) Probably a python script can handle that, b) Possible problem but it should be simple enough, c) just a bit more work should solve that d) If needed I volunteer to convert them from .odt or similer format if they get the images to me in a folder.09:25
doctormoBiosElement: for d) you'd become a single point of failure and attempting to find the best ways of bringing contributors onboard is important. Hell if people want to edit wiki pages and have them commit in, fine.09:27
doctormoBut even wiki is not WYSIWYG09:27
BiosElementdoctormo, Exactly. Which is why I figure most people will be able to learn the format.09:27
doctormoThis is also good for the blind, because one of my students is blind, I have to make for him text files, html files would be even better.09:28
BiosElementAnd those who won't, I'm willing to convert it over. And if I die tomorrow someone else can. It's not exactly a difficult skill and I'm sure someone could be found to do it.09:28
BiosElementI'll also look into some form of WYSIWYG Web Editor later09:30
doctormoIs it possible to make odts from these source files?09:30
BiosElementNot sure.09:31
BiosElementdoctormo, http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/11960009:31
BiosElement2007 article09:31
BiosElementIt's in the repo's python-odtwriter09:32
doctormocool09:33
BiosElementcommand is.09:33
BiosElementrst2odt myinput.txt myoutput.odt09:33
doctormoJust thinking about ways we could allow _editing_ rather than creation in odt09:33
BiosElementDon't think it'll work backwords though09:34
doctormoYour the backwards :-)09:34
BiosElementheh09:34
BiosElementI do think we're making a bit of a mountain outta a mole hill though with the syntax. People learn to edit wikipedia all the time. While it does raise the entry barrier, it's not that big a jump and makes everything much easier once you jump it.09:36
BiosElementOh doctormo It also supports folders if I didn't mention that.09:37
BiosElementdoctormo, Gotta get some sleep. Do you want me to convert over the rest of your lesson tomorrow?09:42
doctormoBiosElement: before you go09:43
doctormoBiosElement: I agree with you but with two important conditions, 1) that there exists a barrier with bzr that is too high anyway, binging that down to common man editing will be harder, but is more important, 2) that when editing these files, that the results are tested before commiting, this required syntax tests09:44
BiosElementYeah?09:44
BiosElementOf course there would be syntax tests09:45
doctormoSo one of the things I'm pondering is how to get bzr easier to aquire without the CLI, your task (as well as converting things and doing the pdf and translation research) is to see if there is a syntax checker.09:45
BiosElementYou never upload untested-broken code to anything but your own experimental repo's09:46
BiosElementdoctormo, BZR has a great GUI >.>09:46
doctormoIf I can get aquasition and pushing methods to work without the CLI, then I'll need some editing for the text files09:46
BiosElementOlive Bazaar manager or something like that09:46
doctormoYea I just used it, it's not that great, it's a bzr manager, when what I need is a project manager.09:46
doctormoThat ties heavily into launchpad.09:46
BiosElementDon't think we can do a syntax checker because honestly the only way you can tell is by making it and looking at it09:47
BiosElementWe should just require you make html it and check first09:48
BiosElementThe core files for that are not that big and we could even make a little python script if  needed to doubleclick make it >.>09:48
BiosElementdoctormo, http://rst2a.com/ Might be useful09:59
BiosElementThere's also what looks to be nearly WYSIWYG with Gedit. http://textmethod.com/wiki/ReStructuredTextToolsForGedit09:59
BiosElementAnd a cheetsheet here. http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/cheatsheet.txt09:59
BiosElementNow I'm off to sleep, I'll log anything here.09:59
doctormoBiosElement: Wodnerful10:00
doctormoGood work tonight10:00
BiosElementThanks, Night10:01
=== doctormo_ is now known as doctormo
switchgirl[H]hi pleia215:12
pleia2hi switchgirl[H]15:13
switchgirl[H]hope your day is ok15:13
pleia2it's good, thanks :) hope yours is too15:13
switchgirl[H]kinda15:13
pleia2interested in contributing to this project?15:14
switchgirl[H]is there a way I can learn shell while using windows xp?15:14
pleia2if you have a shell account somewhere15:15
switchgirl[H]I mean like a lightweight emulation15:15
pleia2I don't really know much about windows, but there are some linux environments that can be installed, like cygwin15:15
pleia2and google tells me there is a bash port for windows15:16
pleia2http://www.google.com/search?q=bash+on+windows15:16
switchgirl[H]yeah I am on an eeepc so, looking for something thumbdrivable15:18
pleia2pendrivelinux.com is pretty decent for guides on that15:20
pleia2http://www.pendrivelinux.com/index.php?s=ubuntu15:20
switchgirl[H]thanks15:20
switchgirl[H]I should ask elsewhere I guess15:21
pleia2yeah, this channel is for actual course development15:22
pleia2not many people here for support :)15:22
switchgirl[H]oh ok15:22
switchgirl[H]in that case may I /msg you ?15:22
pleia2yeah, but I'm at work so I am kinda busy15:23
pleia2#ubuntu is a better place to find support15:23
pleia2and I've never done anything with usb drives ;)15:23
switchgirl[H]k, I thought you where American15:24
pleia2I am15:24
pleia2it's 10:30 AM, I'm at work15:24
switchgirl[H]oh. ok15:25
switchgirl[H]hopes your having a good day15:25
switchgirl[H]do you guys run courses for absolute beginners15:34
pleia2yes, you can see our subjects on: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning15:35
pleia2but we're course developers, loco teams and ubuntu classroom actually run the courses15:35
pleia2right now we're in the development phase15:36
switchgirl[H]I understand and I found a more appropriate channel for my questions #ubuntuforums-beginners sorry for hassling you15:39
pleia2not a hassle at all :)15:39
BiosElementpleia2, Did you see what we worked on earlier?19:00
pleia2BiosElement: not really, I need to focus on recruitment and finishing my own course19:01
pleia2as long as the barrier to entry is kept low, I don't mind what we use19:01
BiosElementAight, just trying to make sure everyone's in the loop.19:01
pleia2and I want to see this get moving soon19:02
pleia2we've spent like 6 months planning, I'm getting bored :)19:02
pleia2we have people eager to help out, and still we're talking about formats19:02
pleia2(and really, I didn't see a problem with odt to pdf)19:03
BiosElementYeah, I could see how that would be frustrating.19:03
dindaBiosElement: which course are you working on?19:04
BiosElementdinda, I'm working on the "How to write/teach a course" course that really needs a better name >.>19:05
pleia2it's actually "how to teach Ubuntu"19:05
pleia2https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning/TeachingTopics19:05
dindaBiosElement: how bout something simple like "How to develop courses"19:05
BiosElementpleia2, Thanks. Didn't know there was an actual name. doctormo didn't mention it >.>19:06
pleia2BiosElement: that wiki page is all yours :)19:06
BiosElementdinda, Thanks for the suggestion though.19:07
pranav1i need help with installation of ubuntu19:18
pleia2pranav1: you'll want to check out #ubuntu19:19
pranav1k19:19
ibuclawBiosElement, likewise, not everyone is an effective teacher ;)19:21
BiosElementHeh, you did fine.19:21
pleia2we should have a team meeting19:24
pleia2BiosElement: are you busy tonight?19:24
pleia2doctormo_: how about you? meeting tonight?19:24
pleia2tonight == 5.5 hours from now19:24
BiosElementShouldn't be but I 'may' be held up at the dentist.19:25
pleia2we can make it later if you want19:25
pleia2I'll be around all night19:25
BiosElementAhh, maybe in 6.5 hours and It shouldn't be a problem.19:26
dindapleia2: is there a meeting today?21:10
pleia2dinda: dunno, doctormo_ wandered off21:10
pleia2we didn't have anything planned, but I'm hoping if we can get some people together...21:10
dindapleia2: I've been busy but ready to find out what the stopping points are for you folks21:11
pleia2I think right now we are trying to figure out what format to use for course development21:12
pleia2doctormo_ is using odt and pdf, which I think is fine21:12
pleia2but BiosElement doesn't like it21:12
dindaMoodle works best with it's own html but it does seem to prefer html. . .21:14
dindapdfs are okay for final things which need to be printed but then you just get a course that's a bunch of linked pdfs21:14
pleia2yeah, so we've been putting the .odt files in bzr and releasing the courses as pdfs generated from that21:15
pleia2presumably we'd generate the html from that odt too, for moodle21:16
pleia2or go with another format entirely, but the fear is barrier to entry :)21:19
dindaanything involving bzr is a serious barrier to entry21:23
pleia2BiosElement is working on some super easy instructions21:25
pleia2we need something for sharing and revision control21:25
paultagI think I am teaching Bash tomorrow afternoon21:28
paultaglooking forward to it21:28
pleia2paultag: do you have a document you're teaching from?21:28
paultagpleia2: on meatspace paper.21:28
paultagpleia2: I am going to write it up + more after I teach it21:29
pleia2paultag: ok cool, let me know if you need help getting it into the format doctormo_ has developed21:29
paultagpleia2: its a 1:15 long session, so I am freebasing some of it in class. I am good at that21:29
paultagpleia2: Please, I will need help21:29
* pleia2 nods21:29
pleia2doctormo_: I am better at helping, reviewing and recruiting than writing courses21:30
doctormo_hey21:36
pleia2hey :)21:37
BiosElementHey, I'm around but I've gotta head out in just a bit.21:37
doctormo_pleia2: The work done for the formating, it's a kind of research. I want to exlore different ways of formatting.21:39
doctormo_pleia2: The problem with odt is that it's bad for translations, bad for modualisation, terrible for centralisation of styles and formatting.21:40
pleia2BiosElement, doctormo_, will you both be around at 9EDT?21:40
pleia2doctormo_: ah ok21:40
doctormo_So keeping an eye out for other ideas I felt was useful.21:40
BiosElementpleia2, I should be yes21:40
doctormo_I will be21:40
pleia2ok, let's discuss then21:41
=== pleia2 changed the topic of #ubuntu-learning to: Ubuntu Community Learning Project | https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning | Next Meeting: Monday September 14th @ 9pm EDT (01:00 UTC September 15th) | Support in #ubuntu
doctormo_dinda: There may be a way to reduce the barrier to entry for bzr21:42
dindadoctormo_: how so?21:43
doctormo_dinda: A nautilus plugin and some clever slight of the hand. Basically using XDG directories with a specified Projects directory you display a nautilus button that allows people to get involved with a project. This makes required dirs, stores important information, downloads the development focus and allows downloading of other branches too.21:47
paultagdoctormo_: pleia2 do we have an example ( completed ) lesson about? I saw one last time I asked, but forgot the link21:49
doctormo_paultag: about the bzr stuff?21:49
paultagdoctormo_: Whatever you have :)21:49
doctormo_paultag: There are irc logs and BiosElement is writing it up21:50
paultagdoctormo_: I'd love to take a peek21:50
pleia2paultag: an example of the final lessons? doctormo_ has published several already on his blog21:51
pleia2the latest: http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/systems-administration-network-infrastructure/21:51
paultagthanks :)21:53
pleia2they are all linked to here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Learning/SystemAdminTopics (have "Done" written after the links)21:53
paultagBBL thank you again pleia222:03
doctormo_BiosElement, pleia2: have you seen http://zim-wiki.org/Usage/VersionControl.html ? facinating project.22:25
=== doctormo_ is now known as doctormo
Vantraxgood morning all23:32
bodhi_zazen'lo Vantrax23:34
bodhi_zazenI see the test server was full23:34
bodhi_zazenI made more space23:34
bodhi_zazenbut I am having problems with dns =(23:34
Vantraxthats a good thing, means its getting used:P23:35
doctormoHey Vantrax and bodhi_zazen!23:35
Vantraxhi mo23:37
doctormoBiosElement is doing some research into possible source formats from which publishing into pdf/html/wiki is possible. Your thoughts please.23:38
bodhi_zazen'lo doctormo23:45
bodhi_zazenPDF is nice, but sometimes of poor quality in terms of images23:45
doctormobodhi_zazen: true, depends how it's made of course.23:45
doctormoTonght's meeting should be more about source formats though23:46
bodhi_zazenWhat time is the meeting tonight ?23:46
doctormo9pm EDT23:48

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