![[young Lady Ada looks on as the research starship swoops by]](../../img/logo/ship/augusta-ada-newstars.jpg)
Federation Starship
USS Augusta Ada NCC-55011
she dreams of the future...
The U.S.S. Augusta Ada meets monthly!
Early 1998
- Mae Ling Mak has this grand idea for a starship full of open
source fans. She is mildly active aboard the U.S.S. Simonov,
and very active in Linux user groups in the area.
- August 1998
- The first email message is sent my Mae Ling Mak to interested
crew members. Some of them even reply :)
- January 1999
- Heather Stern, one day while she was bored at the Coffeenet,
created a web page for the idea. The text was kind of catchy.
It pointed at the U.S.S. Simonov web page. Something like a
penguin feather (?) was used for the logo. Ken Parker is the
most likely XO for the crew.
- throughout 1999 and 2000
- The crew make occasional "Docking Runs" with their parent
vessel. The U.S.S. Simonov meets on an Air Force Base about an
hour and a half to two hours out of town, so this is fun, but
considerable effort. On one such Docking Run, we select a new
name to stick with -- the Augusta Ada, named after the first
programmer.
- August 1999
- Mae Ling Mak defects to the Black Fleet. A rather interesting
tale of transporter disasters and Ion Storms leaves only a tiny
pearl to remind us of our Weapons Officer.
- August 1999
- 'Dillo, Dave, Ken, and Heather attend the Region 4 conference
to show the enthusiasm of the new vessel. We officially are
declared a Flight Team. Our fellow trekkers return from lunch
to find us running our laptops in the conference room, and try
to declare us the Borg. We protest that we haven't even networked
any of our own systems together, much less assimilated anybody.
- September 1999
- On our email list (Sep 3-8) we hash out our thoughts for a
possible vessel, deciding on a 23rd century Vulcan shuttle with
a decently ranged warpsled. Alex Rosenzweig of the Starfleet
Vehicle Registry is pleased to give us a "go" for this vessel Sep 29.
- January-March 2000
- We coin the phrase "Kobayashi Maru" to refer to paperwork
hassles. With OTS requirements, VRR requests to sign, and
SFI memberships to settle, it takes us a few months to launch.
But, we officially establish ourselves within Starfleet as
a shuttle, an SFI provisional chapter sponsored by the U.S.S.
Simonov. Heather designs a logo to suit the name and ship.
Ken and Dave are the vessel leaders. We set a goal for a short
shuttle flight and early launch as a ship. In this we have the
blessings of our Captain and the Regional Coordinator; the
Shuttle Operations Coordinator, however, is rather SHoC'd about
the idea. Apparently most shuttles take about a year to launch
as a ship. And we just barely missed whanging the shuttlebay
door on the way out. Taking heed of this overdose of Chroniton
Particles, we start planning what ship class to launch with
right away so it will be done in time for our plans.
- July 2000
- Things don't look good for the Coffeenet. Something about
landlord troubles. Ken Parker and others seek a new meeting
site.
- August 20, 2000
- Alex Rosenzweig of Starfleet approves our VRR for the NCC-55011,
a beautiful vessel of the Olympic class, and our intent to have
it heavily modified at the shipyards. Heather Stern makes
arrangements to purchase a plastic model of this ship class. This
is harder than it would seem, since the vessel is only mentioned in
a few episodes, prominently placed in one, and only two models of
that type exist. In fact by the time an order is placed, only
one manufacturer still makes them.
- October 2000
- Having officially launched at the Western Regions Conference,
we're a ship. The paperwork arrives to say so and advises us of our
first mission, to retreive another vessel's lost shuttle. 'Dillo is
very proud of his new phaser cannon. We now meet at the San
Francisco Public Library.
- Throughout 2000-2001
- Our group grows slowly because of our double focus of interests
(free software and Star Trek - there are lots of software
user groups, and 3 or 4 nearby Starfleet vessels, not even counting
the Klingons). We face a rocky time every once in a while as
Starfleet memberships take a while to process. But, we're growing,
and the new Starfleet Ops personnel are speeding the SFI things
along too. So we're having fun.
- early 2001
- The manufacturer of our resin model has been overloaded with
requests for his other molds. Reaching through time and space
we enter Q's Continuum
and see the vessel emerge at last..
- Baycon 2001
- Having the painted model,
a fan table with colorful flyers,
and room parties at this annual (Memorial Day Weekend) science
fiction conference boosts our membership.
- June 2001
- We move to a new site, the Round Table Pizza in the Richmond
District, at the recommendation of a new member. This is really
handy; the library had seat limits and we couldn't eat onsite.
- You're still here ... and so are we.
- ... so perhaps you'd like to join us? We meet once a month
on the 4th Saturday, although members may occasionally recommend
Away Missions. See our command section for
directions. You
could join the list and be part of
our general discussions. We encourage you to
join Starfleet and declare yourself part of the NCC-55011 crew!
Copyrights and/or
Trademarks
Star Trek and numerous
references to persons or things within its universe are
trademark or copyright of
Viacom/Paramount.
Linux is trademark
of Linus Torvalds.
The BSD daemon is
copyright 1988 Marshall Kirk McKusick,
All Rights Reserved.
Tux the Penguin
was drawn by Larry Ewing using the
GIMP.
Of these and possibly other marks or items under copyright,
no infringement is intended; only fun and fair use.
Gold pips stay onsite
Gold half-pips lead off-site, to crew maintained pages
Silver pips lead off-site