Explorer Post 369

Andy Drake, Secretary/Treasurer, Explorer Post 369

Now to be fair, I had some previous NeXT experience in helping out a person who lived down the hall from me in my dormitory. His machine, Rivendell, crashed in a really ugly way one evening, taking his English paper with it. He and I spent a couple of hours bringing it back from the dead, with a little help from the NeXT system administration manuals, all 12 of them. Eventually, I went back to him and had an in-depth conversation about what it meant to own a machine like that - obviously, like any Unix machine, software is not exactly available at the "Sam's Wholesale Party Snacks and PC Express" store and that concerned me. We also talked about 3rd party support and obsolescence. I really wanted to make sure what I was getting into before I made a move that could prove costly, and since I knew a lot less about NeXT machines than about Suns, I decided another great place to look for information was the comp.sys.next newsgroups on the internet. I was able to catch a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document, which helped out a lot, as it really gave me the low down on what to look for and what to stay away from. Eventually, I began to read the comp.sys.next.marketplace Newsgroups in search of my machine. After posting that I was willing to trade some Amiga items and some cash for a NeXTstation with monitor, I received a couple of responses which I thought were fair and equitable.

So the moment of hesitation was upon me. Was I willing to shell out $600, an A3640 Amiga accelerator, a decent but hardly used Mac emulator card and a really crusty frame buffer card in exchange for a NeXTstation with 17" monitor, keyboard, mouse, 20mb RAM, a 540mb hard drive, modem cable, a NeXT CDROM drive, software, and administration manuals, all shipped in their original boxes? Needless to say, I paused before pressing the "return" key to send the mail. Should I do this? Do I even really need it? What a horrible thing a conscience can be! Just about everything flashed through my mind at this point from "Go for it" to "You'll be sorry" as well as "You'll shoot your eye out" and "I wouldn't if I were you." After careful consideration of my finances, I decided, heck, even if I am making a huge mistake, with some sweat in the prison colony known as a summer job, I could probably earn the money back soon enough, and have enough t keep my current Amiga A3000UX so I could network the two machines together. I pressed "return" and sent the email.

Pop Corn Sales

The Scouter

You can sell popcorn!

* It's the best fund-raiser that your unit can take part in.

* The profit has been INCREASED for 1995!

* Your unit puts no money up front, there's nothing to lose!

* Better prizes than ever before, or take the option for extra CASH! Prize incentives start at only 10 containers.

* The math is simple, if you have 35 boys in your unit and each sell 10 holiday tins (your profit $3.60 each) each on the prize program, you make:

35 X 10 X $3.60 = $1260.00

For your unit, plus each boy gets a set of pongs, and a prize form the 10 point category.

Sale Dates: Oct 28 - Nov 12.

New Post Positions

D.J. Gregor

A few meetings ago, the post split up the system administration duties into a number of separate positions. Instead of having one system administrator (SA) for all of the machines, we now have an SA for each machine, and we have a Post SA that will supervise and help each of the other SA's. This will keep our Post SA from being bogged down with work, and it will also give most of the members of the post some experience with System Administration.

Machine Type SA

charley Sun 4/110 Joe Harvey

seinfeld Linux 486SX-25 D.J. Gregor

belinda Linux 386SX-16 [New System]

harvey AT&T 3B2/400 Roy Niedzielski

bertha NCR Tower/3400 [New System]

Congratulations

Explorer Post 369's System Administrators on their new positions.

A Scout Prayer

Scouting Magazine Dec. 1959

Great Master of all good Scouts, we pray that Thou will make us trustworthy, for there are those who trust us.

Make us Loyal, for through loyalty we reach our highest ideals

Teach us to be helpful - through helpfulness we forget ourselves.

Make us friendly - there are so many who need friends

Train us in courtesy, for courtesy is the carpet on life's floor.

Make us kind - the fields and woods are full of they creatures.

Insist upon our obedience, for success comes only to him who first learns to obey.

Make us cheerful, for cheerfulness is the green grass near the pebbles in the road.

Train us in thrift, for thrifty habits enable us to be generous to those in need.

May we be brave - brave in the darkness and brave in the light, but save us from becoming fakers of bravery.

Help us to be clean - in thought, in speech, and in deed; and may we remember that our bodies are they holy temple.

Above all, Father, help us to be reverent - not only toward Thee but toward all things that Thou has made.

We ask Thy guidance in all these things and may we never forget the Promise to which all Scouts are pledged. Amen

Our Wish List

D.J. Gregor

m - We are looking for 32 1MB SIMM memory for our Sun 4/110.

m - SCSI Hard Drives and cases, any size

m - Two VGA Monitors. We have the VGA cards, but no monitor.

Post Advancement

James D. Corder

The Engineering Advancement Tests have been moved up to Tuesday June 27 to allow for the Explorer Honor Cords to be created while we are at Summer Camp.

The Engineering Advancement Tests have been reduced from three tests of 100 questions each to one test with a total of 100 questions.

The test is divided into three types of questions: UNIX for Users, UNIX for Programers, and UNIX System Administration.

The original test was designed as an Academic Placement Test for Engineering Professionals. The concept was to see if the Engineer taking the tests had successfully completed the courses at hand.

These same professional courses are now being thought at Explorer Post 369. Consequently our Explorer Post Members will fall into one of three ranks of honor: Introductory Unix User, Intermediate UNIX Programmer, and Advanced UNIX System Administrator. The level of the Explorer will be designated by the color of the Secondary Honor Cord worn on the left shoulder under the eplit.

If the youth or adult Explorer achieves 80 or better on the Engineering Advancement Test s/he will be presented with the Red Secondary Honor Cord.

If the youth or adult Explorer achieves 160 or better on the Engineering Advancement Test s/he will be presented with the Blue Secondary Honor Cord.

If the youth or adult Explorer achieves 240 or better on the Engineering Advancement Test s/he will be presented with the Green Secondary Honor Cord.

If the youth or adult Explorer achieves a perfect score of 300 on the Engineering Advancement Test s/he will be presented with the Gold Secondary Honor Cord.

The views in this NewsLetter are strictly those of Explorer Post 369 and they do not necessarily represents the views or opinions of the Reformation Luthern Church or the Boy Scouts of America and/or the Simon Kenton Council.

The Secondary Honor Cord is worn along side of the Primary, larger, cord. The all White Primary Honor Cord signifies membership in Explorer Post 369. The White with Black Primary Honor Cord signifies both membership in Post 369 and Eagle statice within Scouting. A Gold fiber woven into the Primary Honor Cord signifies the successful competition of both ones Exploring Basic Adult Leader Training and the Exploring Youth Protection Training.