[HLUG] Topics at Meetings

[Matthew Macdonald-Wallace]

On Fri, 2010-02-19 at 22:46 +0000, Julian Robbins wrote:
> > With all that said, one of the reasons that I've become less  
> > interested in coming to the meetings is that the discussions tend to  
> > revolve around how to migrate from Windows to Ubuntu or how to fix an  
> > issue in Ubuntu.
> >   
> You have a point, although I think its fair to say that discussions 
> based around 'getting my pc working with Linux' seems to not happen so 
> much now, perhaps there are less issues than there were a few years back.
> 
> Interestingly, in our Feb meeting we didn't discuss Ubuntu, how to get 
> our pc's working with Linux, or anything of that ilk - but I take your 
> (very valid) point. We discussed, Python, OpenERP (which I was hoping to 
> demo - ERP is Enterprise Resource Planning, for those that don't know, 
> which is basically software that can run your entire business, from CRM, 
> Sales, Stock Control, Manufacturing etc.), and we also spoke a bit about 
> Magento which is an opensource ecommerce application.

Damn, wish I'd been there for that, I'm a big fan of Python and have
implemented Adempiere/Compiere ERP in the past, it would have been
interesting to see how OpenERP compared!

> I think its a great idea having more talks / presentations on more 
> technical matters, and look forward to your presentation (though sadly I 
> have a feeling I'm away on the next meeting date, for work .... )
> 
> I think also it must be remembered that sometimes, our best efforts 
> don't always seem to be rewarded either - which can be offputtting. One 
> of our members put on an excellent demo of how easy it was to hack/crack 
> wireless networks, albeit to make you more aware of your own network's 
> shortcomings, but sadly only Mark and myself made it, even a good deal 
> of mentions on the mail list. I know the presenter was a bit 
> disheartened about this, as he had obviously put quite a bit of time 
> into preparing it.

Yeah, been there, done that, felt dejected too, that's one of my
concerns and why I asked if there would be interest in delivering a talk
on these matters.

> Unfortunately, at the moment my own more pressing matter is to find a 
> decent new home for our LUG meetings. We had some discussions about this 
> on Weds, and have a few ideas, but this can be discussed on another mail ...

That makes sense, there's no point planning for talks when there's no
where to deliver the talk!

> > 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! :)
> >   
> The last fairly obvious point I have to make is that we do have quite a 
> varied mix of members, old, young, retired people, students; male and 
> female. You can't please all of the people all of the time as was once 
> said etc ..

Sure, I understand that, and I'm sure that for many of them the
technical level may well be about right, but most of the original post
was for purely selfish reasons and revolved around the fact that I'm not
getting what I would like to see from the group! :P 

> But, quite rightly, we haven't had so many good in-depth technical talks 
> and you're right to suggest we need to redress the balance. Assuming we 
> have a venue (which will be somewhere, possibly Simpson Hall if we cant 
> find anywhere better), I propose that our March meeting consists of what 
> you suggest, so assuming you're happy with the usual third Wednesday on 
> the month, we can look forward to your server presentation ..

LOL, I should have expected that.  Let me check the date, and if I'm
free, you're on! :)

Kind regards,

Matt