[cumbria_lug] CLUG meetings suspended

[John Patterson]

Damian,

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.

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:

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.
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.

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.

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.

John Patterson
Penrith

On 12/12/11 11:13, Damian Hellstrom wrote:
> @All
>
> 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.
>
> So, if you're at all interested let me know, either through this 
> mailing list or Fakebook.
>
>
> Damian
>
>
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> Cumbria at mailman.lug.org.uk
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> http://www.cumbria.lug.org.uk

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