[HLUG] Topics at Meetings

Fri Feb 19 23:05:47 UTC 2010

Dave Jenkins wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> Just joined the mailing list. Good to see there are both sides on the list
> desktopers and server fans..  its  hard running any group so hats off the
> everyone involved for keeping things going its nice to see some respect and
> honest feedback bouncing around.
>   
Hi Dave

Yes due to the work of our lugmasters and members over the years we've 
kept it going when many LUG's have disappeared, or fell by the wayside 
(Worcester and Powys are two near neighbour examples). BTW, I hope I 
don't offend either of the two LUGs mentioned, but Powys's website is 
currently not available, and have only sporadic mailing list postings 
every few months, with Worcester much the same ...

So its not always easy to keep it going ... after the sudden untimely 
death of our first LUGmaster Noel, our meeting attendances went down to 
the point where there was at least one meeting where no-one is sure if 
anyone turned up :-). But we kept it going just about, and things are 
fairly healthy now
> Hope im not treading on any toes here but I know you dont have an active irc
> channel so if anyone fancies dropping in between meetings there is a bunch
> of us (3 ex herefordians and some other people we've picked up along the
> way) that idle in #open-inn on irc.freenode.net
>   
Well, we do have an IRC channel; but usual story, as its not used much, 
no-one uses it so its not used much ....
> We  chat about desktop stuff and server config so if you fancy dropping in
> anytime then do. Two of us are hoping to come to the next meeting so it will
> be good to meet some of you then, in the meantime if you want to stop by our
> irc channel and say hi your most welcome.
>   
Thanks for coming to the last meeting and your friend is more than 
welcome to come along of course

Julian
> dave - bromyard
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <
> matthew at truthisfreedom.org.uk> wrote:
>
>   
>> Quoting Richard Smedley <smedley358 at btinternet.com>:
>>
>>     
>>> Hello Matthew,
>>> This is a coincidence - LinkedIn has just thrown your
>>> name at me in a list of people it suggests that I
>>> should connect with. #SocialMediaCoincidences :)
>>>       
>> Heh, although I think I recognise your name from somewhere else -
>> possible the OSC?
>>
>>     
>>>>> I often feel that far from being a "Linux User Group" community in
>>>>> this country (and I do mean the whole of the UK here), we are rapidly
>>>>> becoming a "Ubuntu User Group" and that is not what I'm looking for at
>>>>> a meeting.
>>>>>           
>>> Local BSD groups went through this with MacOS a few
>>> years ago. The irony is that some of them are now
>>> so annoyed with Apple they've gone to Ubuntu =^)
>>>       
>> LOL, I was given a mackbook pro by work, it now runs Ubuntu (much to
>> the annoyance of the MAC die-hards here!)
>>
>>     
>>>>> 1) If there is interest in how to run a Linux server for fun and
>>>>> profit, or people would like to know more about securing and
>>>>> monitoring servers I'm more than happy to do a talk/presenation.
>>>>>           
>>> Sounds good. There are few evenings when I'm not working as
>>> an unpaid taxi driver - taking the kids to various band
>>> rehearsals, sports events, etc., but it's the kind of
>>> event I'd come to if I could - does that count as a
>>> positive vote for your talk? ;-)
>>>       
>> Yup!
>>
>>     
>>> Another change in the LUG landscape that you may not
>>> have noticed so much is the shift to web-based industries'
>>> groups. GeekUp [1] holds monthly meetings in Manchester,
>>> Preston, Chester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and now
>>> Grimsby.
>>>
>>> Hardware hacking has brought a combination of techies
>>> and artists to hackspaces [2]. Indeed a combination of the
>>> above two will happen next month when, at the border
>>> of Shrops, Staffs & Cheshire, a new GeekUp group
>>> will meet in Alsager partly to discuss the new
>>> Shropshire Hackspace [3] & a possible Stoke-On-Trent
>>> group.
>>>       
>> And a possible one in Monmouth (where I'm based) - I'm hoping to start
>> on the marketing and seeing if there's interest for Monmouth
>> hackerspace in the next few weeks - we already have the obligatory
>> google group @ http://groups.google.com/group/monmouthhackerspace
>>
>>     
>>> With many who work all day with servers going to
>>> GeekUp or Hackspaces in the evening, and many new
>>> GNU/Linux users coming along, it's probably natural
>>> that LUGs are becoming so Ubuntu-focussed - but
>>> that doesn't prevent them covering anything else,
>>> of course :)
>>>
>>>       
>>>>> As I said at the beginning, I've probably offended someone by the
>>>>> above and to put it bluntly the level of discussions generally at
>>>>> meetings tend to be on getting the GUI working as opposed to the
>>>>> technical in depth discussions that I crave, but that's probably just
>>>>> me! :)
>>>>>           
>>> Not just you, don't worry. Last time I went to
>>> a SC.LUG meeting in Cheshire there were people
>>> reminiscing toggling the instructions in in Octal! :-)
>>>       
>> LOL, I remember going to a BristolLUG meeting when I was relatively
>> new to all this stuff and being blown away by the number of people
>> talking assembly language or the finer points of tuning RPM Spec Files.
>>
>> Actually, that raises an interesting point, is it worth splitting the
>> meetings or alternating between "desktop" and "server" or "user" and
>> "administrator/developer" as guidelines for the kind of expertise that
>> the talks are aimed at?
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Matt
>> --
>> Matthew Macdonald-Wallace
>> matthew at truthisfreedom.org.uk
>> http://www.truthisfreedom.org.uk/
>>
>> --
>> Herefordshire LUG mailing list
>> Web:  http://www.herefordshire.lug.org.uk
>> List: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/herefordshire
>>
>>     