[Glastonbury] Tonight's meeting

[Martin Wheeler]

Thanks to all who turned up this evening, despite poor advertising of the 
fact that there *was* a meeting; and no indication of subject/focus at 
all beforehand.

Big respect to Phil who nevertheless travelled all the way from Lyme Regis 
to be with us -- and incidentally, brought with him tonight's major new 
discovery -- MEPIS.  (Latest download to boot.  Kernel 2.6.10, no less.)
Mepis loaded itself into my laptop from CD-ROM, *no* problem; and even 
made a determined attempt to get my wireless card working.  Now that has 
to be a first.  It now replaces Knoppix for me.

A copy was left with Steve -- anyone wanting to try it out, contact Steve 
for a CD.

Welcome also to Douglas, who only heard about us yesterday, and came in to 
get some advice for a new setup.  The relatively small group (only 7 
or 8 of us) meant that each knowledge-seeker was able to pair off on a 
one-to-one basis with a knowledge-holder, and discuss/work out problems on 
a personal basis.
This was actually a very pleasant way to work, and get things done in a 
quiet and organised fashion.  I think maybe we ought to formalise it as a 
working method for a 'practical' meeting later in the year.

Thanks also to Sean, for bringing in and spreading around copies of 
Ubuntu, which is proving very popular with those wishing to move on from 
Mandrake/SUSE.

However, we do have to do something about sorting out a programme for  the 
rest of this year.

Ian - you said something about neural nets?  That's a subject I'd like to 
know more about -- how about others?

Martin -- I had intended to rope you in to give us the lowdown on IRC if 
you came in tonight -- like others in the group, I've never actually used 
IRC; and haven't a clue which apps are the best for the uses you're 
suggesting -- I'd appreciate a run-through from someone who uses it 
regularly.

Anyone knowledgable about large graphics tasks?  There has been a request 
locally for access to a machine that can handle 800 Mb graphics files 
being prepared for publication (unfortunately, Windows + PaintShop Pro -- 
but I'm sure we could a good job of processing the eight A1 layers of 
graphics data under the gimp) -- Duncan?
   [ see:  http://www.glastonburytor.org.uk/ley-map.html ]


So who wants to do something for March 2nd?


Cheers all,
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
mwheeler at startext.co.uk                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
GPG pub key : 01269BEB  6CAD BFFB DB11 653E B1B7 C62B  AC93 0ED8 0126 9BEB
       - Share your knowledge. It's a way of achieving immortality. -