@John Patterson<div><br></div><div>I thoroughly enjoyed reading your missive. Yes, I agree with you on all of your points, except I started out with the ZX-80....!</div><div><br></div><div>Anyway, I really wish The Lodge was available to me at any other time. However, because it is a 'relatively' active lodge, incorporating many lodges & side degrees they will only permit me 1 night of the week, this being sundays, when, for all intents & purposes it is closed - except for me :) That being said, my meetings are not THE CLUG, merely, probably, 1 of many such meetings CLUGgers attend...</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Damian<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 13 December 2011 15:52, John Patterson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john@johnpatterson.plus.com">john@johnpatterson.plus.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
Damian,<br>
<br>
I have been interested in your CLUG ever since I finally managed to
get Ubuntu to print something. It only took me 2 years to acheive
this. I live in Penrith. Travelling to Carlisle isn't a problem but
have not attended any meetings because Sunday evenings are
inconvenient. Last Sunday I was travelling back from Sunderland,
for instance.<br>
<br>
Back in the day, I used to attend a computer club in Maidenhead when
living in Buckinghamshire. This was in the days of Commodore
64/128, Atari, Amiga, etc. Ostensibly this was a branch of the
Independant Commodore User Group (IGPUG) but in fact all types of
machine were welcome. The success of this branch was due to many
things but here are a few:<br>
<br>
1) Meetings were monthly and held in the evening of the third
Thursday in every month. Come hail or shine, every member was
therefore aware of when the next meeting was to be.<br>
2) A brief seminar/demonstration was arranged for each meeting. The
topic for the each meeting was fixed and announced two meetings
before (i.e. 3 months). Since any form of computing was relatively
new at that time, everyone wanted to learn about all types of
hardware and software so attendances were very good. Usually about
20 or so turned up. I travelled about 35 miles to each meeting (and
back again). The first IBM 8086 PC (a 286) seen by me was
demonstated to us at such a meeting. Soon after that I bought an
Elonex 386. With the Elonex was bought a copy of MS DOS and a copy
of Windows 3. Windows 3 was brand-new at the time and it needed MS
DOS for it to run. Members of the group guided me in several weeks
of porting my data from my redundant 8 bit format to 16 bit format.
Most members, except for two who were IT administrators at two
different colleges, were newbies and were much in need of this type
of help. The first (to me) internet and email was seen at this
group.<br>
<br>
Unless the world of linux welcomes more and more users, then in
time, it will be battered to death by paid-for and patented O/Ss and
software. This should be the purpose and future of LUGS. They must
be centres of help and encouragement to Linux wannabees and
newbies. The parallels between Maidenhead ICPUG with CLUG are
many. Since Linux users are such a small proportion of PC users
then almost whole world of PC users are potential linux wannabees
and newbies. I am very much a newby after four years and have found
that 80% of articles in linux magazines, fly over my head but I have
helped at least two wannabee into Linux who didn't even know they
were.<br>
<br>
The road ahead may be long and hard but please keep up the good
work. If there are to be future meetings, I will certainly attend
but unfortunately, not if at weekends nor Wednesday evenings.<br>
<br>
John Patterson<br>
Penrith<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 12/12/11 11:13, Damian Hellstrom wrote:
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">@All
<div><br>
</div>
<div>CLUG Meetings at The Lodge, Carlisle have been suspended
until enough members show interest in attending. The Lodge
Custodian is not prepared to open the bar for 2 or 3 visitors. I
am not prepared to sit there & wait, often on my own, for
CLUG members to turn up.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So, if you're at all interested let me know, either through
this mailing list or Fakebook.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Damian</div>
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