tclug-list-request at mn-linux.org, circa Mon, 07-Oct-2002 at 11:39PM:

> Message: 12
> Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 22:49:47 -0500
> From: Tim Wilson <wilson at visi.com>
> To: TCLUG <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>
> Subject: [TCLUG] home servers for family use
> Reply-To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Like many of you I'm sure, it seems like my family and I are running in
> opposite directions all too frequently. I've been thinking about this
> problem a bit lately and I'm wondering if there's something that can be
> done to address at least the more mundane aspects of the problem.
> 
> I'd be curious to know if anyone on the list has implemented a home
> fileserver with (I'm just throwing out some names here) LDAP, email,
> shared calendars, sync for multiple PDAs, thin client access from
> somewhere in the house, iCal, CODA, Inter-mezzo, phpGroupWare, etc.
> 
> I'm thinking that if I had a single file server that could serve as our
> family information hub, we might be a little more organized. Of course,
> leaving Post-its sticking around the house might end up being just as
> effective. But it's not as fun to ponder. :-)
> 
> So has anyone tried something like this? Obviously there are many levels
> of integration possible, but I'm wondering about some of the more
> ambitious ones.

Aw, Tim -- forest for the trees, man! ;)  All we did is set up a Zope
server.  It's just on the regular rephil.org server.  You can put
LocalFS objects in if you want to serve a directory.  There's a couple
of Z-wikis for grocery lists and to give the functional equivalent of
the calendar hanging by the phone.  Works fine for phone messages too.

In our house, there's totally no reason to change people's habit of
leaving graffiti with meaningful content for each other for some
structured system that will get ignored, so the Wiki works perfectly
in this case.  YMMV.

Everyone has an e-mail account, and I run courier-imap.  There's a
Zope webmail that lets us at least read web-mail, but I know there are
better solutions for webmail stuff.  (I use mutt to the imap server
instead anyway, but it's nice to at least look and see if there's
anything requiring urgent attention from wherever one happens to be,
and my wife uses regular e-mail at home, and her work acct. at work.)

Unless your family is a whole lot larger than ours, or has to maintain
ISO 9002 certification ;), I wouldn't make it too complicated, but I'm
funny that way.

HTH,
Phil M

-- 
www.rephil.org / University of Minnesota

"To misattribute a quote is unforgivable" -- Anonymous