My Goal: My goal this semester in COSI is to learn more about linux and its functions. I also hope to expand on my knowledge of a programming language and pick up new skills for future use in COSI.

Current Prject: Learning Perl and Trying to get as much of my hardware working on my linux boot as possible. Current issues... dual monitors, extra function support for logitech keyboards and mouse (37 missing extra buttons), Audigy 4 sound support of some kind,media remote support. Hope to pick up experience in linux in the process.

Midterm update: Failed Gentoo install, spent few days without any access to my computer til i patched grub and got windows boot again. Spent a workday watching Chris set up a headless server, running zen. Read opening chapter.

Final Update: Finally found a distro that works well for me. Installed SUSE linux on my computer, and it was first distro to recognize my sound card and able to configure it. (card not supported natively by alsa) , configured twinview for my dual head LCD's. Learned how to configure /boot/grub/menu.list for bootup, and spent a good amount of time configuring the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. I have not experiemented much with it, but SUSE seems to have a good program for configuring mice with any number of buttons.
I also installed SUSE on a friends laptop who previously used windows XP. He was pretty excited and i spent a few nights full configuring it, adjusting screen resolution and updating drivers. Brought the laptop in to COSI for help and learned how to configure wireless and the use of the dhcpcd command.
I went to at least 3 COSI workdays as well as attended the IMS presentation, of which i found very interesting. Especially the techniques for communicating between hardware components.

Links:
COSI Home
Clarkson Home