[Newark] Learning by doing (was: PodCast)

[Steve Caddy]

AngelLaHash at aol.com wrote:

> Im intrested in any thing, the best way for me to learn is by getting my  
> hands on things and messing them up and learning how to fix them.. or watching  
> someone else, i get bogged down with reading stuff and there is so much of  
> reading for linux stuff, so Im basicaly willing to try and help on any thing if  
> i learn a bit more.

You are so right. I really loath reading HowTo docs. Few seem to make any sense 
to anyone else other than the author. My main fear is that by trying to fix 
something, I end up making things worse in such a way I get completely stuck.

Now pub meetings are really sociable, and great for discussions, but they're no 
good for whipping out your laptop and demonstrating how to hack 
/etc/xyzzy.conf. We've been offered use of a room, so maybe we could have a 
more formal seminar or workshop.

For example, I've got an old BT848 based analogue tv card (PCI). In my RedHat 
days, I could just about use the config tool to compile in the modules that I 
needed to get xawtv to use it. Under Gentoo, I have to admit I got a friend to 
do it for me, and I have no idea what he did. Under Ubuntu, I'm guessing it'd 
work out what drivers were needed, but I'm not really sure, and I wouldn't know 
where to start if it required some manual intervention.

Another example. I'd used photoshop for years. Now that I've ditched Win2k, 
I've had to get to grips with gimp. Does anyone here know gimp well enough to 
demonstrate the use of layers, and how to apply useful effects, etc, and point 
out where all the tools are?

Is there any merit is doing a session demonstrating an install, and invite a 
few local IT people to show them what all the fuss is about? I've done 3 Ubuntu 
installs so far, all for different things. My first was to set up a file server 
with samba, using the 7.10 minimal install (the hardware was very second hand, 
and really would take the graphical interface). The second was a basic web 
server for an intranet, again from the minimal install. My last was my new 
desktop, with brand new hardware, and so I went for an all singing all dancing 
effort. The flexibility of adjusting what you install to suit the intended 
purpose is something that has to be worth showing off?

Getting over that installation and configuration barrier is probably one of the 
main reasons I wanted to join a user grouop. It's the visible side of 
"community support" that is always mentioned when people talk about Linux. The 
web forum based "community" can provide some hints and tips, but seems very 
remote, inhuman, and won't have a pint of beer with you next to a log fire...

Steve

-- 
Steven M Caddy, MEng ------------------------------------------------------
"Hardware - the part of the computer you kick when the software fails"
Email: steve.m.caddy at ntlworld.com