Informal TAC meeting minutes .

Thanks to William for the meeting notes. TAC had an informal get together at Panera Beard.

BDPA TAC August 28, 2007 Meeting Notes

• Gesu can have as many monitors as they want, however the number of desktops is still up in the air
• William will check with them about a time to deliver them
• Discussion about blogs

1. Blogspot , members showed off their personal blogs
   

• PHP tools for customizable web sites
• The BDPA podcasts now publish to iTunes
• The educational uses of Second Life
• More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whyville
• Can even be used to build online educational RPG games
• Need to figure out the what topics to discuss at the upcoming TAC meetings

1. Cliff will come up with some ideas and will post them
2. Will will post his ideas to the e-group later this week.

• Cost saving advantages of Linux versus Windows

1. Much cheaper software
2. Free versus 100s of dollars
3. Less likely to be stolen, $200 LINUX laptops that are now available.
   
4. Computers are cheaper and worth less
5. Most criminals will not understand how to use Linux
6. They can be marked and branded to further discourage theft; paint school logo or DPS ID on lid or laser etch it on.
   

• MIT OpenCourseWare available online to use by teachers/students.
  
• Free books in text and audio format are available through Gutenberg Project or use Google to locate other sources
  
• There is even technology that provides audio tones during certain audio books that accompany e-books in PDF format.

1. This is similar to children books from the eighties that played audio as a child read and would tone, when the child should turn a page.