[cumbria_lug] Greetings

[Schwuk]

Mark Andrews - SRI Ltd said:
> Just thought I’d email to say hi and introduce myself.

Hello, nice to meet you.

> I am 21 and I work as the ICT Support Engineer for SRI we are the ones
> who will be installing your wireless broadband connections!!

Well, I'll warn you now - I WANT MY BROADBAND! :D Please hurry up - I'm
sick of ISDN...

> I have checked on the database and we have 3 users signed
> up that say they are using Linux. I guess they are people in CLUG.

Hmmm - I'm only aware of two people in the LUG in the SRI catchment area,
myself and Adam, so you may want to 'nudge' the other one to join the LUG.

> Also being part of SRI I may be able to promote CLUG.

Any publicity will help at this point - unfortunately the LUG is pretty
much unknown unless you go looking for it.

> When is the next meeting for CLUG? I might be able to help with a venue.
> In Aspatria we have a resource centre with meeting rooms, We also have a
> 1Mbit connection to the net (Satellite).

The meeting room sounds very interesting - just the sort of thing we could
do with up here in north/west cumbria. One of our members has something
similar down near Barrow, but it's a long trek.

> If a pub is more the place to meet I can probably get the internet
> relayed over to the pub across from the office and WiFi’d for us laptop
> owners.

So, so tempting... Ian - are you listening?

I've got to admit though, I'm not sure how a group of laptop-toting
'geeks' discussing Linux would go down in an Aspatria pub... :)

> Does CLUG have a membership structure? Is there some ‘boss type person’?

No structure. In fact, almost no active membership. :( I run the mailing
list and website, but we don't have an 'chairman' or anything - we're far
too disorganised for that.

We currently have around 25 members - the majority of which are in West
Cumbria (around Whitehaven), then South Cumbria, a couple of us around
Wigton and a guy from just over the border (as they have even less LUG
activity there...). We have got a KOffice developer and Linux Format
writer amongst our number though.

> I also might have a small bit of work for anyone who can setup a decent
> cache server and firewall. We have one in the office and I want to make
> it more secure.

Well, we should be able to help you there - I've done a far bit of playing
with iptables/netfilter, and I'm just starting to look at squid. Ian (our
token scots member) is handy with firewalls as well - just ignore his
ranting about how mush better OpenBSD is better for the job. I'm more than
happy to help, especially as I'm just around the corner.

> Well it’s past midnight so I’d better get going for tonight. If anyone in
> the Wigton area is able to meet up to talk about linux in the next few
> days send an email markATsricumbria.org (replace AT with @).

Well, I'm happy to meet up. How about you Adam?

> I will be talking to Bill Knowles (SRI project manager) to see what we
> can do to benefit CLUG i.e. free use of the meeting room.

That would be great. If something can be sorted out, we'll make sure the
SRI  project is mentioned on the website.

Cheers,
-- 
Dave Murphy