[Nottingham] Notlug RFC1

[Duncan John Fyfe]

Okay folks here are more musings on future events and a request
for comments on them.

They aren't in any particular order and some are just random thoughts
but they all need a bit of fleshing out to become good evenings.
Some of them would be too big for a single session and would probably
be better run as a  series of more frequent meetings.

Questions I need answering:

1. Do you have ideas for sessions to add to the list ?

2. I've left off invited speakers, do you know anyone who would make
a good/interesting  speaker and who would be freely (as in beer) available ?

3. Which if any of the ideas below would you be interested in ?

4. Can you help bring any of them about (particular expertise or just
an appreciative audience)


I also need help fleshing out the 'good' ideas and volunteers shouting
"I would be willing to teach/help people configuring apache using only
a toothpick and blowtorch".


1. Beowulf Cluster(s)

Spend an evening having fun with a beowulf cluster.
So we put together a Beowulf cluster and do what with it ?

The first person to suggest run SETI stuff on it gets shot.

I think we need a 'LUG project' to put together something fun
which would:
	a) Get everyone involved.
	b) Teach us a bit about developing / running things
	on a Beowulf cluster.
	c) Look good.
	d) Be fun to do.

Off the top of my head the only thing I can think of is
rendering a small animation via Film Gimp.

This could involve sound, graphics, scripting for and rendering
via Blender and or Film Gimp, viewing (with popcorn of course) and
ultimately release under a random copyright licence passed
backwards through a bable fish.


2. Software Review

How often have you found yourself struggling to achieve some goal
when someone tells you there is a nifty piece of software which
would have saved you lots of nights sleep ?

A session looking at peopl's software needs with what is available
and the experience of others could make a good session.
Pre-seedng it with a "wish list of software do's" and "really cool
software I have come across" could expand many of our views of what
is out there.


3. The Next Step

Defining a neonate as "someone who has installed and is using an easy
distro (SuSe, Mandrake...)"

We have a few neonates in the group, hopefuly more after the awareness day.
We also have quite a few seasoned Luggites.  I don't know what it would cover
but a session where the veterans could help expand neonates use of
Linux into new areas could work.


4. NCC-1701-E

I guess something like:
Given a standard distro what should I install and how do I go about setting
up a cool secure website with all sorts of whistles and bells (dynamic updates,
database backend, authentiaction, authorization, yodelling penguin in the corner) ?

It could also cover things like:
	Which 'language' would be best
	What is already out there that I could re-use
	What do I need to give my site external visibility (hosting, IP address(es), co-location, blind luck)


5. Distro Specific Evenings

Distros (such as SuSe) for which there are quite a few users we could
have an evening (or two) for them to educate us about their distro
and for them to get tips from each other on whatnot.


6. Hardware

For those who have never got their mits grubby inside a box we could pull
one or two apart and let people see (and touch) what is inside a machine.


Have fun,
Duncan

-- 
Duncan John Fyfe          X-ray Astronomy Group,
                          Dept. of Physics & Astronomy,
Phone +44 116 252 3635    University of Leicester,
E-mail djf@star.le.ac.uk  University Road,
                          Leicester, LE1 7RH, U.K.