[Nottingham] Awareness Day Part 2

[Martin]

Martin wrote:
> [...]
> 
> In summary for Day 1: A good fun day even if a little quiet at times.
>  (More prior advertising required...)


Awareness Day 2 started with a more practiced whoosh and a more
'open-plan' tables layout. The cabling seemed to similarly get better
laid out also.

> (Thankfully, I do have a backup from last night, phew. (:-))

After TWO sessions of Rob's Disaster Recovery talks, I was especially
relieved that my backups had passed their ultimate test to recover from
my overenthusiastic install on Awareness Day 1. A few GBytes later on
Friday evening and all looked good. PHEW.

My machine booted up Sat morning and I was soon playing with screen
savers and AmaroK while the rest of the world arrived...

(Still nearly got lost getting there whilst navigating through Radford -
St Anne's - Sneinton... (:-|)


We had a very nice gentle relaxed start. Then various people arrived and
for a while it got quite crowded...

There were a good range of people in the morning with various interests
and enthusiasm. Hopefully we generated further interest.

Debug and tweaks for Mandrake on a laptop entertained a few of us for a
good while, with good results. Various 'annoyances' were cured in a very
educational way. Page one of three was ticked clean, just two more (and
counting) to go... (;-))

We had some good explorations of the latest Gnome features demonstrated.
For a non-Gnome rushed Hack such as myself, the Mac-esq cleanness and
intuitive user interface look good.


After getting suitably talking exhausted, things then quietened down a
little after lunch which then gave us a chance to get some lunch for
ourselves. The sandwich femme whisked Rob away for some private
sandwiches...

I enjoyed a pleasant guided tour of the windmill and workings by
'Windmill Man Dave'. He has personally been behind the windmill's
restoration and operation over the last 20 years. As much organic flour
is ground there as the winds and time allow.


The late afternoon remained quiet and gradually morphed into a sociable
chinwag and venue for visits by some of the less frequently seen members.


> Mr Tux-Games was soon burnt out and excused after an all-nighter.

Michael survived longer on this session and was a key figure in the
afternoon's photo shoots for a certain magazine. Pictures may also
appear on the web (;-P)

We tried for a last dash UT lan-party but got caught out by the 4pm
finish time (:-((. Plans were then proposed for beers later (:-)).



> We got some very useful feedback from a newbie and a newbie-ish. Also
>  a few reminders of what the old hacks can still learn and sharing of
>  other stuff just 'taken for granted'. "What? You can do /that/?! 
> How?"
> 
> This is a good excuse to arrange an ad-hoc install-fest and problems 
> solving practical session soon. Bring along whatever hardware.
> 
> Also, I think some introductory 'newbies' sessions are long overdue.
> 
> What do others think? Open-Source style feedback required!

Folks, this is your group. Let us know what you think.


In summary: a good fun useful day.

To be repeated (with added prior advertising! (:-))

Cheers,
Martin

-- 
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Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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