[ale] How old is this list?

Tod Fassl fassl.tod at gmail.com
Thu Feb 4 20:58:03 EST 2021 

Oh, I din't take it as a criticism. It's funny how I feel compelled to 
explain to people I've never met that I'm not a quitter. Probably 
something going on there that I'd rather not look at too closely.


But I also figured my story would be kind of interesting. I think I'm as 
tough as anybody. But I think the one thing people should know about 
being disabled is that it's such a beat down. If there is one thing I'd 
like people to understand about being disabled, it's that.


And it's relevant to this list. When you come across people with 
accessibility problems, take them seriously.

On 2/4/21 12:00 PM, jonhall80 at comcast.net wrote:
> Tod,
>
> I salute you for all the work you have done.  Please do not take my email as any type of "criticism for you retiring early".
>
> Technically speaking, I am "retired".  I live off retirement funds, but I do not report to anyone or anything other than me.
>
> Like you, it gets harder and harder for me to keep up with "the younguns", but I substitute their youthful enthusiasm with my cagey skill at getting them to do the things I need them to do.
>
> The things I do are because I want to do them.
>
> Your "retirement projects" sound great.
>
> Best of luck to you.
>
> md
>> On 02/03/2021 12:24 PM Tod Fassl <fassl.tod at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>   
>> I manage the research cluster for the math dept  at a Big Ten
>> university. I'm retiring partly because I can, partly because keeping up
>> with 20-something math geniuses is too hard at my age, and because I'm
>> blind. Being blind is a drag. I'm a distance runner, rock climber, very
>> active in my community. But imagine your typical bad day -- spill coffee
>> on yourself, miss your bus, 271 messages in your inbox, etc. Then
>> imagine adding blindness to that. I've been run down by inattentive
>> drivers twice in the last 2 years. I mean hit and knocked down by
>> somebody on their phone when I was in a crosswalk with a green light. My
>> guide dog lost some teeth the last time. I just had some road rash but
>> the next time I had to get to my office, I found myself shaking when I
>> had to cross at that intersection. I got over it eventually but stuff
>> like that wears you down. I'm tired of being superman, of being fearless.
>>
>>
>> I intend to work on open-source projects for the blind after I retire. I
>> have a program where you can treat a normal keyboard like a braille
>> keyboard and create brf (braille format) text files. I'm also working on
>> the world's first fully blind accessible Dungeons & Dragon's module. And
>> I'll probably work on bug fixes in the Linux screen reader, orca.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/2/21 11:48 AM, Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale wrote:
>>> The Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts were a group of mostly university
>>> students who loved (GNU).  There are still web pages existent at
>>> ale.org that tell much of the history.
>>>
>>> The group founded in December of 1994, and in those days the first
>>> thing you did was form a mailing list, so I would assume that this
>>> list or something deeply connected to it started at that time.
>>>
>>> The Atlanta Linux Showcase started in 1996.  If I remember correctly
>>> it was held on the Georgia Tech Campus the first year, at the Apparel
>>> Mart downtown in 1998, The Cobb Galleria in 1999 and 2000.
>>>
>>> In 2001 the original organizers had all graduated and were busy with
>>> jobs, buying houses, etc. and the USENIX organization took it over.
>>>
>>> USENIX made four gigantic mistakes:
>>>
>>> o they renamed it to the Annual Linux Showcase
>>> o they moved it to Oakland, California in November, 2001
>>> o they tried to take a free (as in beer) event and charge 350 dollars
>>> for it
>>> o they allowed Osama Bin-Laden to crash airplanes into the World Trade
>>> Center on September 11, 2001
>>>
>>> When USENIX had not sold a single reservation within three weeks of
>>> the event, I convinced them to make it free and about 300-400 people
>>> showed up, but USENIX never produced another Linux only show.
>>>
>>> The ale.org web site is still there, with just a few 404s.   If you
>>> want to see what the original events were like there are even some
>>> pictures.
>>>
>>> It is nice that the mailing list is still active.   The Linux group
>>> that I started in 1994 and ran for ten years also has a mailing list,
>>> but it is much less active than yours.
>>>
>>> Congratulations to Tod for thinking about retiring....I still have too
>>> much fun and I will retire with my mouse still clutched in my cold,
>>> dead hands.
>>>
>>> Peace and love,
>>>
>>> maddog
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 02/02/2021 10:50 AM Paul Manno via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>>> There are probably still some of us lurking here who were around when
>>>> the list was first
>>>> created and who helped create those Atlanta Linux Showcase shows. In
>>>> either case, I am
>>>> not going to even try to think about when I started using either
>>>> Linux or UNIX...  LoL
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 9:59 AM Larry Johnson via Ale < ale at ale.org
>>>> <mailto:ale at ale.org>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>      My memory isn't great as I'm about to turn 70, but I first installed
>>>>      Linux in early 1995, and seem to remember signing up for the list
>>>>      not
>>>>      long thereafter.
>>>>
>>>>      Which means I might have been a lurker for around 25 years.
>>>>
>>>>      On 2/2/21 8:47 AM, Robert Reese via Ale wrote:
>>>>      > Hi Tod,
>>>>      >
>>>>      > Monday, February 1, 2021, 12:19:30 PM, you wrote:
>>>>      >
>>>>      >> Am I misremembering? Because I think I got on this list when I
>>>>      was in grad school which would have been in the mid-late 90s. The
>>>>      reason I'm asking is that I am thinking of retiring. I was a
>>>>      really old grad student and now I'm retiring early. Even so. Is
>>>>      it possible I've been on this list my entire professional career?
>>>>      > I'd say it's entirely possible. I joined in the late 90's also.
>>>>      >
>>>>      > Cheers,
>>>>      > Robert Reese~
>>>>      >
>>>>      >
>>>>      >> _______________________________________________
>>>>      >> Ale mailing list
>>>>      >> Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
>>>>      >> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>      <https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale>
>>>>      >> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>>      >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>>      <http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo>
>>>>      >
>>>>      >
>>>>      >
>>>>      >
>>>>      > Cheers,
>>>>      > Robert~
>>>>      >
>>>>      > _______________________________________________
>>>>      > Ale mailing list
>>>>      > Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
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>>>>      <https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale>
>>>>      > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>>      > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>>      <http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo>
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>>>>
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