Letters to the Editor

Did you folks get my e-mail from out Humanitarian Support Operations Conference? The Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance's Humanitarian Support Operations Conference was held recently at the Ilikai Hotel in Waikiki. The event drew over 170 people from 23 Asian-Pacific countries including Thailand, China, South Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Mongolia, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and many others.

Supporting the conference was a pair of Linux machines providing Internet access (WWW and Mail) running NCSA's Mosaic and the COE's Conference Home page. Attendee photos were digitized and put online using an Apple QuickTake camera. Events included a working session and introduction to Linux, which was a first experience for many of these countries.

Future COE plans include travelling to these countries with Linux laptops, as we've chosen to use the OS as our Internet connectivity platform used with developing nations. In short, choosing Linux gives us a cost-free method of connecting dozens of dissimilar host sites with a similar operating environment. We'll begin building custom database applications, namely a front end for our Oracle SQL server (Sparc 20 based) for Linux by the first week of October.

We're very excited about Linux, and everyone at the conference was equally enthusiastic about seeing the “Linux Work-Servers” and the power they give to otherwise blah-entrenched x86s. One of the delegates from India asked me if his 486-100 would be suited for such a project...I had to laugh when I told him that the machine he was using was a 486-33! (We had 20 inch monitors on the desk and the boxes underneath...so it looked like we had some real powerstations going!)

If you'd like additional information about what our future plans for Linux hold, please don't hesitate to ask.

Rob!

In case you hadn't gotten this, I enclose the following reply sent to Keith Briggs. In his letter, Mr. Briggs called to my attention my apparent invention of a university:

Dear Mr Wilder:

I quote from Linux Journal #17, page 22: “...comes from the Australian Technical University in Melbourne,...” I am sorry to have to inform you that there is no such place in Melbourne. There is not even a place with a similar name! (The Australian National University comes closest, but it is in Canberra).

Keith Briggs

Dear Keith Briggs,

I don't know how I came up with the “Australian Technical University in Melbourne”; every reference I can locate in the materials I prepared the review from points to the University of Technology, Sydney. My apologies to all.

Dan Wilder dan@gasboy.com

I read your review of my book (Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days, reviewed by David Flood on page 15 —ED) in the November 1995 Linux Journal. In the review, David noted that he was unable to get an errata sheet from CompuServe. In case you have not yet managed to pick up an errata list anywhere, I have taken the liberty of enclosing one. This contains every error I know of.

Thank you for taking the time to review my book. If you know of anyone else who wants an errata sheet, let me know and I will pass this on to them.

I am glad that you have found my book useful, and of course encourage you to tell everyone you know to buy it.

Thanks,

—Dave Tillauthor of Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days davet@klg.com

The entire errata sheet may be found at the LJ Home Page on the WWW. Just browse the contents for Issue #19, November 1995, and click on the title of David Flood's review of Till's book to see the complete list.