Posts published by “Ken Starks”

Ken Starks is the founder of the Helios Project and Reglue, which for 20 years provided refurbished older computers running Linux to disadvantaged school kids, as well as providing digital help for senior citizens, in the Austin, Texas area. He was a columnist for FOSS Force from 2013-2016, and remains part of our family. Follow him on Twitter: @Reglue

The Tears of a Linux Clown

By Ken Starks on April 1, 2015 |

Community and Software

With Lots O’ LibrePlanet Pics!

It was like a roundhouse punch to the side of the head from the Good News Fairy — the news that Reglue was chosen for the Free Software Foundation’s (FSF) Award for Projects of Social Benefit to be handed-out in Cambridge at LibrePlanet.

At MIT, the conference venue, I was also surprised by the large attendance, but more than that, by the number of people who traveled across oceans to be there. Beforehand, I received emails from Venezuela, South Africa, all parts of the EU, and one from Georgia. And no, not the Georgia bordering Tennessee.

LibrePlanet serving room — The serving room at LibrePlanet where refreshments were served and a mingle hour was planned for everyone to spend some time together and to meet new friends.

From a world-wide standpoint, this award is probably regarded as a niche thing. I suppose that if you don’t have any concerns about who can do what through your computer, whenever they want, via various software programs, it is a niche thing and not a big deal. But in our world, a world that emphasizes and demands transparency in the software we install, it’s a big deal. A big, big deal. One congratulatory email stated that in our world, we had won the equivalent of an Academy Award for best movie.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

LibrePlanet & the Sounds of Silence

LibrePlanet & the Sounds of Silence

By Ken Starks on March 31, 2015 |

Community and Humor

On Saturday the 21st of March, I climbed on board a passenger aircraft in order to eventually arrive in Boston that same day. It had one stop, where I had to change flights, but with 44 minutes between boardings, I was fine.

Except the connecting flight was four terminals away and I had to catch the local robo train to get to there. I had no idea where to catch it or when to get off of it. Thankfully, I was still in Texas and I spoke the dialect.

Oh wait…no I didn’t.

I didn’t speak at all. I no longer have a larynx. Try flying one third of the way across the United States without having the ability to speak…

In all, it wasn’t all that traumatic. Not for me anyway. But there were some interesting observations I made while on my trek.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

Using FOSS Out-of-the-Box

By Ken Starks on March 10, 2015 |

Community and Software

It’s a rare thing when I double down on a previous week’s article. Most of the time that second effort is perceived as defensive or argumentative. This is neither. It’s just a rare thing.

We spoke together last week about some glaring holes in AAC software in the Linuxsphere. AAC is short for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. I considered the topic to be important enough to be discussed here on FOSS Force. Given the thoughtful and helpful comments that preceded publication, it’s apparent that others felt the same way.

One of the commenters was thoughtful enough to even include a bash script that made working with the text to speech application Festival much easier. I’m putting the script here for anyone that wants to use it. It works great and I was able to make it work easily.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

The Cat That Has Linux’s Tongue

The Cat That Has Linux’s Tongue

By Ken Starks on March 3, 2015 |

Community, Operating Systems and Software

Can you hear me now? The question, if it’s presented with early 21st century pop culture in mind, is rhetorical. If you are relying on…

Visit With a Little Boy

Visit With a Little Boy

By Ken Starks on February 17, 2015 |

Business and Community

A while back, my globe trotting niece Niki Starks made the drive out to our place in Taylor. We spent most of the afternoon categorizing some of the old family pictures I had haphazardly thrown into a box. There were a lot of pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Pictures of my great grandmother, a woman I barely remember from my childhood.

I remember, at that moment, thinking just how old she looked, and she was old…94 years old. I remember attending her funeral as a young boy. My family has the custom of open casket funerals. Me? I think that practice is grotesque, but that’s just me. I’d rather my last mental image of a person be one of laughing and joy. I remember looking down on my great grandmother’s corpse and thinking she looked better laying there dead than she did the last time I saw her alive.

And that’s the thing…

The things we remember and the way we remember them. The four hours that Niki and I spent at our dining room table was probably the most important four hours I’ll spend for the rest of my life.

Often, I think of myself as a 61 year old orphan. Silly really…thinking of yourself like that when you are in your 60s. What solidifies that in my mind is that fact that I am the only one left alive in my direct family.

Both my parents died from various cancers and heart/liver disease. That didn’t take a psychic to see coming, given they both smoked and drank like they were in training for an Olympic event. My kid brother died in a nasty head-on truck wreck at 3:44 in the morning less than a mile from his home. I’m fairly sure that’s the time he died, because that’s the time the cracked and bent face of his watch bore when it was given to me. My sister dropped from sight shortly after receiving her share of our brother’s estate. Addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, there’s little doubt why she cannot be found. Odds favored her dying in an alley somewhere or in a cheap motel room that one of her “friends” paid for. I am still scouring the Internet for her death certificate. My older half brother Bill, Niki’s dad…he died in the hospital from heart failure. He was my boyhood hero.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

When Linux Distros Are Abandoned

When Linux Distros Are Abandoned

By Ken Starks on February 10, 2015 |

Distros and Operating Systems

It was a hard lesson learned.

The problem was, it wasn’t just me who suffered. It was dozens of people in my organization, and had this happened a month later than it did, it could have been hundreds.

We’ve had some fairly high profile Linux distros fold up their tents and move along. Whether due to a lack of financial support or the project growing larger than a one man dev team can manage, distros do go away. It’s never for a good reason but the fact remains: When a distro ceases to exist, a lot of people get left in the lurch.

Most recently, it was CrunchBang which rang the bell. I could feel the conflict and sadness in lead developer Philip Newborough’s statement. He didn’t want to do this, but for his own reasons he did. But what struck me in the middle of my being was his statement:

“As for me, while I’m deeply sad to let go of a project that in many ways has defined my existence for many years.”

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

1:31 A.M. Doesn’t Care Who You Are…

1:31 A.M. Doesn’t Care Who You Are…

By Ken Starks on February 3, 2015 |

Community

Ken Is Back!

Years ago I learned something from my social psychology professor, but it took me a long time to grasp the concept, not to mention putting it to use in my life. I say I learned it. Mostly, however, I only remembered it. Understanding it was a whole new game. A game that lasted 31 years.

“Butcher, baker, candlestick maker, it doesn’t matter. Gaining your sense of self, derived from what you do professionally, will ultimately end badly for you. Without exception and without mercy.”

— Professor John Sellers, Northern Arizona Junior college.

Wow…really? How do you not do that, when the prevailing questions asked upon meeting is often, “So hey there Ken, what do you do for a living?” The question is so pervasive that it seems to echo over and over throughout every day. “What do you do for a living…What do you do for a living?…What do you do for a living?” And convention dictates that the next 10-15 minutes of conversation gets intertwined around the answer.

What took me so long to understand is that I am not what I do. What I do only allows me to live well enough to be who I really am.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

Desktop Search: KDE’s Crazy Uncle

Desktop Search: KDE’s Crazy Uncle

By Ken Starks on January 27, 2015 |

Desktops, Operating Systems and Software

The Best of Ken Starks

My Dad’s side of the family was an amazing mix of loggers. lawyers, bank robbers, bankers, cattle rustlers, ranchers, soldiers, policemen and Gypsies.

No, really…I’m talking real Gypsies.

In some parts of Europe they are referred to as “travelers.” Today, many have been assimilated into the various ambient populations and cultures, but many have not.

My uncle Emil claimed to be of the Romnichel clan. He maintained his wandering ways throughout his life, right up until his 84th year when a State Trooper found him frozen to death on New Year’s Day at a rest stop outside of International Falls, Minnesota. His car had stalled, along with the heater, as it sat idling while Emil slept. He froze to death in his sleep, an empty pint of Four Roses whiskey on the seat next to him.

I remember, as a young boy, waking up to find Uncle Emil’s 1950 Chevrolet and his old Airstream trailer sitting in front of our house. He had arrived sometime during the night and I could always count on him to be sitting at the kitchen table with my parents, chain smoking camel cigarettes, drinking coffee and regaling them with his latest adventures.

Then, on any given morning, I might wake up to find him gone. He was with us only long enough to “borrow” money for gas and food, then disappeared with the wind.

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

Saying Goodbye to Java the Hard Way

Saying Goodbye to Java the Hard Way

By Ken Starks on January 20, 2015 |

Browsers, Community and Operating Systems

The Best of Ken Starks

We were fortunate enough to have a donated space in the expo hall at Texas Linux Fest this year. Carolyn Hulsey, who is one of our directors, manned the Reglue booth for us on Friday. She jokingly asked if I wanted her to be our “booth babe” this year. She was, indeed, all of that.

What was truly humbling was the number of people who recognized us without introduction. When someone approached, I stood and extended my hand in greeting. More often than I would have thought, the person shook my hand and told me, “I know who you are.”

Wow…just wow.

It was one of these people who later pursued a three day email discussion with me on free-as-in-beer software. And yeah…we all know the benefits. But what of the negatives?

His take on Linux distributions?

“Anyone paying for a Linux distribution is putting their money down the drain. What they should be doing is putting that money into the hands of a free distro developer so (s)he can make their distribution better.”

Ken Starks

linuxlock.blogspot.com/

When the Greatest Generation Can Use Our Help

When the Greatest Generation Can Use Our Help

By Ken Starks on January 13, 2015 |

Hardware and Operating Systems

The Greatest Generation. Those who blitzed the beaches of Normandy and faced their own death with nothing but the rifles they carried and the cast-in-stone conviction that they were our last hope to save the world. They embodied the heroism of a generation who protected us from the most vile of villains: Jack-booted thugs who would force their ideas of a perfect world upon us.

Those rifles and convictions ultimately saved our way of life.

That kind of bravery can’t be quantified or even verbally expressed. They were our moms and dads, our aunts and uncles, and our grandfathers and grandmothers. The Greatest Generation lived their lives based on ultimate truths and values. A handshake was a bond and the guy on the radio or TV was to be believed.