[ahimsa-tech] TINA or TIAA, that is the question: was: Re: ahimsa-tech Digest, Vol 41, Issue 1

[dan blah]

On 12/6/06, boud <boud at riseup.net> wrote:
> hi libertinus,
>
> On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Libertinus wrote:
>
> > what?
> >
> > why this? indymedia urbana what's doing? selling web service?
>
> Ummmm.... dan says he's paying for the dedicated servers himself.
> i'm not sure that giving him some "refund" is necessarily "buying".
>
right, these servers are funded for my own tinkering.  as long as i
don't significantly go over my allowed monthly bandwidth no one is
obligated to pay anything.  if i do go over i will only hold the
responsible user accountable not all users.  i also wanted to specify
that they are not owned by uc-imc (think benevolent dictator) but are
in many cases manged by the uc-imc tech group.

> > Im lost
>
> >> Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 14:32:28 -0600
> >> From: "dan blah" <dan.blah at gmail.com>
> >> Subject: [ahimsa-tech] who am i and overview of U-C IMC tech
> >>      resources/facilities...
>
> >> Existing server resources and space at the U-C IMC are available.  As
> >> it is now, the U-C IMC pays for both power and bandwidth at the Urbana
> >> facility.  We have older 20U+ racks laying around that could be used
> >> as a dedicated racks as well as shelving for non rack mounted
> >> equipment available.  The servers located within the U-C IMC are
> >> administered by 4 U-C IMC tech group members who have 24/7 access to
> >> the space.  The dedicated servers are available for use but funded out
> >> of my own pocket and are thus not directly managed by the U-C IMC Tech
> >> Group.
> >>
> >> As for the cost of bandwidth, power, space, and other services that
> >> may be needed would have to be negotiated on a per proposal.  Be
> >> assured that costs, if any, will be substantially lower than most
> >> anything else out there.
>
> On the other hand, this paragraph does sound a bit strange. Asking for
> a refund for what he has spent from his own money is one thing, but here
> it sounds like bargaining positions and power relations based on money
> are creeping in, under the idea "it's necessary (TINA)".
>
this was said with the idea that in the event services the uc-imc
provides the global indymedia network (or anyone for that matter)
exceed our capacity it could result in an attempt to raise money to
raise our capacity.

see:
http://chambana.net/

example:
> dan - it would be great if you could help UC IMC "non-techies" switch
> to gnucash and/or sql-ledger (or some other free software money
> management package).  We have the rather embarrassing situation that
> they (you) have advertised for two Giga-$-corporations:
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2006-September/0908-j2.html
>
> There were two replies from UCIMC that i noticed:
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2006-September/0919-xl.html
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2006-September/0919-jm.html
>
> but they essentially said (as far as i understand them) "we were
> forced to advertise for Giga-$-corporations because we couldn't find
> any pratical alternative; therefore (implicitly) it's not advertising
> because it was obligatory advertising: TINA".
>
heh... ya this was addressed by the finance group who conferred with
the ucimc tech group around that time.  it's not feasible for for
uc-imc to move to gnucash (which imo is the best osfs out there... i
know i use it for my personal expenses).  it's something that has been
tried out and argued over internally several times and has been
collectively decided by both the uc-imc tech and finance groups that
the current osfs out there is lacking.  no doubt we could utilize
several applications and probably write a few scripts to make osfs
work (if the tech group were able and had the time) at the cost of
more time spent managing our finances.

do know that when moving to an osfs will not require our finance group
to loose data or spend unavailable time migrating data, the uc-imc
finances will be managed by osfs.

*begin flames/trolling/general (deserved?) bashing*

> also puzzled
> boud
>


-- 
Daniel