[nottingham] Heya

[Philip Scott]

Hey there :)

> Nice to meet you!  Thanks for `sticking your neck up',  Welcome to the
> Band of Merry {,wo}men.  I still can't remember where Calverton is though.

It's good to be part of it :) Calverton's just north of arnold, if that hel=
ps?=20
One of those funny pit villages.. I reckon I don't count as a calvertonian,=
=20
though, since I live on the hill leading out of it just *after* the=20
'calverton' sign. I look out from my uh.. mighty mansion, nay castle - and=
=20
survey my subjects 8*)

> What's the community centre like;  could you describe the format of their
> meetings?  What sorts of things to they do and what varies from week-week/
> month-month?

The communtiy centre itself used to be a really huge private house, but man=
y=20
years ago was aquired by the county council and hosts all manner of clubs a=
nd=20
societes. On monday nights alone there is a our computer club, a chess club=
,=20
and (I think still) the model railway club :) We have three room for use on=
 a=20
monday night; in one room they tinker with all manner of ancient and arcane=
=20
beasts of computing, making them do things god never intended them to do.=20
I've seen a spectrum linked up (concurrently) to no less than four 5 1/4 in=
ch=20
disk drives - for what purpose /*00000000000022222222222222222222222221nera=
l=20
chat, fix who's ever computer didn't survive the last week, and usually=20
finish with a game of unreal tournament :) I'm currently in the process of=
=20
converting them to this, our super duper operating system and so far there'=
s=20
two others besides me who use linux as a fairly 'primary' operating system,=
=20
and quite a few who are dabbling! The third monday of every week is 'specia=
l'=20
and something interesting usually happens then - either a talk from one of=
=20
the members or a guest speaker, or occasionally a visit - we've been to see=
=20
what makes the sainsbury's finance and stock system tick (turns out to be t=
wo=20
noisy ibm servers ;), to radio nottingham, the traffic control centre, the=
=20
horological society etc. It's all in good humor, and we enjoy ourselves :)=
=20
We're always looking for potential recruits, so feel free to drop in one=20
evening and see if you like what you see!

> > If you're interested, i've been happily running debian for the past year
> > and whilest not perhaps having attained 'guru' status,
>
> Debian, my favouritist choice!  I think you're most of the way to being a
> proper `guru' when you know which Operating System to choice!  ;-)

Amen  :)=20

Regards,
	Philip