The pictures here are thumbnails. Click on the picture to
see the medium size image, or the "large" link below for the full size image:
The following pictures are from my trip to the
OM USA headquarters in July,
2002. The purpose of the trip (aside from seeing old friends and making new
ones) was to help the OM/USA computer department with a couple of short term
projects -- the kind of things that people never seem to have enough time to
fit into their busy schedules, but could really be helpful for the users in the
office. In particular, I was able to upgrade the system from the old Star
Office 5.2 office suite to the new
Open Office 1.0 (a.k.a., SO 6.0),
and to bring up the new 1.0 version of
Mozilla (including the
Spell Checker plugin).
The office is running a pretty much pure Linux network setup. There are a few Windows based desktop and laptop computers, but the majority of the users are using Linux based NCs (Network Computers). These are "fat" clients (meaning that most of the processing is done on the local CPU), but with no local storage. The joke is that the only moving component in the entire box is the cooling fan. The advantage is low software cost (no licensing costs for Microsoft software), low hardware costs (low cost processors and centralized storage), fully capable office applications and ease of maintenance (everything is centralized).
Greg, Michelle, Luke and Peter are actually working on another project at the office, building an Open Source, Web based application server called Centrallix, which will serve as a base for another application called Kardia, which will in turn be an application used, "to help meet the software needs of non-profit organizations in the realm of management and finance," (to quote from the Sourceforge site).
Kathy has the task of debugging user problems, doing training, and generally keeping the end users from revolting when things don't quite work like they're supposed to. (Of course, whenever I come in and introduce a whole lot of new software, it's Kathy's job to get all the users set up, trained and familiar with the new routine.) It's not an easy task, but she does a great job of it.
All in all, it's a great environment (personally, spiritually and technically), and a fun place to spend a week, even if it is doing "work"!
(Update 7/17: Added pictures from Ron)