[SLUG] A suggestion!

[Jamie]

On Wed, Sep 11, 2002 at 11:54:57AM +0100, Al Girling wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> After last night, helping Mark to return his machine.  I was trying to think 
> how the experience could be looked at in a positive light.  It struck me that 
> we should probably discuss various methods and mediums for backing up data 
> and conifurations of applications!  (I'm not having a dig at Mark.  But I 
> think everybody said they'd done something similar in the past, so it clearly 
> applies to everyone!)
> 
> Now my main suggestion is.  Would the group benefit from aquiring an old 
> machine, say a 486 to use for demonstrations/experiments etc.  Where it 
> dosen't matter if it all ends up pants, so no-one ends up taking home a 
> machiine with less than they started with at the beginning of the evening.  
> Could it be possible to demonstrate on such a machine, how to set up 
> printers, zipdrives, scanners etc?  I personaly would prefer to see something 
> demonstrated on another machine before I experiment with my own and it's 
> unfair to expect someone to risk their own machine for my gain!

A good idea.  The stuff with the computer took up a large amount of time on Tuesday. In fact, we probably had one of the most unsucessful group meetings ever. Someone came in with a working Linux system, and left with one preloaded with Windows(tm), lol, it was almost funny (except for the loss of Marks docs).

I was quite looking forward to seeing Suse 8.0, unfortunately we saw very little else except the boot screen :)

> 
> The biggest problem I see with this, is who then owns such a machine.  If it 
> becomes the groups property, we immediatly enter the realms of finances and 
> commitees. :(  Could someone be persuaded to take responsiblity for such a 
> machine to avoid that senario?  It needn't be their responsibility to ensure 
> it arrives at every meeting.  But provided it's available, I'm sure someone 
> from within the group could collect it and ensure it arrives at meetings.

I would suggest that the donor sorts out the ownership issues. I dont know what spec it would need to be, I suggest that we all have a rally around and see what we can come up with.

We will need a volunteer to maintain and look after the box, I have no transport, so that counts me out. It needs to be someone who is able to maintain a linux system as they may need to pre-install applications, etc, for meetings.

Anyhow, lets see what we can come up with.

> 
> Provided this sticking point can be overcome, I think the benefits of such a 
> machine are manyfold.
> 
> O.K.  I've stuck my head above the parapit.  You may now start throwing 
> rocks!  ;)

DUCK!

> 
> Regards
> 
> Al
> 
> 

-- 
Jamie Adams

SCARBOROUGH LINUX USER GROUP
www.scarborough.lug.org.uk 

Daytime:   01723 340142
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