2001-03-22 The Bear Cross, Bournemouth

2001-03-22 The Bear Cross, Bournemouth

Here are a few of the key points discussed at the meeting at The Bear Cross on Tue 22/03/2001.

The Next Meeting

It would appear that Tuesday evening is Pub Quiz Night at The Bear Cross, which with the questions and answers being broadcast over the tanoy was a bit of an annoyance for us (and no doubt our conversation was a bit of an annoyance for the teams competing in the quiz). As a result, we decided that next time we would give The Bear Cross a miss.

James suggested that we meet in Dylan's, the bar on the University Talbot Campus, which is generally fairly quiet on a Tuesday night provided that there is no major sporting event on the TV that night. We can probably retire to one of a number of rooms on the campus if the bar proves to be a problem.

LUG Web Site

A few ideas that proved interesting included:

A hall of fame/shame. For this we need to collect photos of the various members and a short biography (e.g. name, location, digital camera to the next meeting to take a few photos.

Having map of members locations.

There were a few suggestions for good places to buy Linux related books and magazines but unfortunately, the only two I have written down are Borders (Bournemouth) and Omni Books (Poole).

Linux Install Day

It was suggested that we start setting-up in a room on the Talbot Campus from 10:00 on the Sunday morning and open for the public from 12:00 until 17:00. We can then clean-up and leave at about 18:00.

We discussed which distributions to use and came to the conclusion that we should try to use Mandrake 7.1/7.2 as it's pretty easy to install/re-install, understands most modern hardware and can run Win for Linux which allows it to coexist on a Windows file system, which should be good for anyone wishing to try Linux without doing any major changes to their system.

One of the down-sides to Mandrake not work on older machines (e.g. non-Pentium machines), so we agreed to keep a few distributions of Red Hat for such cases.

We also decided that having some copies of Demo Linux, which can be run from the CD-ROM and therefore requires no installation or disk partitioning would be useful for people who wanted to 'play' with Linux for a while before committing to it enough to re- partition their hard disk.

James kindly offered some of the University's hardware such as: keyboards, mice, monitors, NICs, cables, etc. and also some machines for demonstrations (a DELL running Mandrake 7.2 and an Alpha running Red Hat 6.2). (NB: we might need some PS/2 to keyboard DIN socket converters for the keyboards).

There were many suggestions for places/ways to advertise the Linux Install Day. These included:

Magazines (Linux Format, PC Plus)
Local Shops (Creative Computers, Clintons, Borders, Ottakers, PC World, Staples)
Linux for Schools (SuSE sponsored scheme).

Other Events

A few of us discussed options for the Linux Bier Wanderung (LBW) 2001 in Bouillon, including the possibility of taking a minibus across between us.

Tracy suggested that we might hold a mini-LBW in the New Forest (Foot and Mouth precautions permitting).

I'm sure much more was discussed but I didn't manage to take-in all of the conversations going on and get them down on paper. So, if you feel I've missed something, please post something to the list saying what was discussed.

Going forward

I would suggest that our biggest priority is to get things organised for the Linux Install Day, although this seems quite a long way away at the moment, we only have one more meeting before the event and we have quite a lot to organise. We could also do with continuing the enhancements to the LUG web site.

To get this done, I suggest we divide-up the tasks between us each taking on one or more tasks which we think we can do and reporting progress back via the list and the meetings. Here as a starting point for the list of tasks, is a modified version of the '7 foot agenda'…

  TASKS:

  Projects:

  0.1 Maintain this list ;-)

    LUG Mailing List:
  1.1   Form for subscribing/unsubscribing from the mailing list
          (that doesn't rely on 'mailto' links working from your web
          browser);
        [Beanz is awaiting a reply from Mark Lewis on this]
  1.2   Alias support (alternate addresses or post-only addresses);
       'Bounce' rejected mail back to sender rather than to LUGMaster;
       [Beanz is awaiting a reply from Mark Lewis on this]

    LUG Web Site (www.dorset.lug.org.uk):
  2.1  Logo (Tux);
  2.2  Next meeting:
  2.3  Date, time, venue & proposed agenda;
  2.4  Map/directions, parking, bus/train notes, etc;
  2.5  Recognising other LUG members (look for penguins!);
  2.6  Meeting type: informal!;
  2.7  Membership: free!;
       [The site needs updating to show the date/venue of the next
       meeting and the various comments above]

  3.1 Archive of previous meetings, locations, minutes, etc.
      [I will post a copy of the 'minutes' of the last two meetings
      to Beanz, if he can find time to put it up on the site]

      Member information (optional):
  4.1   Form for entry/update of information;
  4.2   Hall of fame/shame (photos & names);
  4.3   Map of members locations;

  4.4   Need to check Data Protection Act implications;
          [I will see if I can find out what the implications of the
          DPA are - JMS]

  5.1  Voting system for venues of meetings, etc (e.g. PERL);
  5.2  Calendar/Schedule (or use www.intranets.com);
  5.3  Results of users survey of distributions;

      Projects:
  6.1   Summary of present projects, contacts + status;
  6.2   Summary of past projects, contacts + status;

      Local (Dorset) related information:
  7.1   Good local sources of hardware;
  7.2   Good local sources of books:
          Borders, Omni Books (Poole);
  7.3   Good local sources of magazines;
          Borders;
  7.4   Internet cafes for visitors, etc.

      Dorset LUG related sources of information:
  8.1   Mailing list FAQ (My postings are 'lost, I get two copies, etc);
  8.2   Local expertise (e.g. PERL, networks, clusters, etc);
          Clusters - James (PhD/MPhil);
          C++ - John Smith;
  8.3   Informal HOW-TOs;
  8.4   Book/Hardware reviews;
  8.5   Informative articles;

      Other sources of information:
  9.1   Pointers to various FAQs and HOW-TOs held elsewhere;
  9.2   Subject categorised link lists;
  9.3   Documentation indexes;
  9.4   Linux related magazines (and where to buy them);
  9.5   Online bookstores (Computer Manuals, Amazon, etc);
  9.6   List of Linux related mailing lists;

      Local Linux related events:
  10.1  Linux Install Day (see below);
  10.2  Other Linux related events (LBW2001, etc);

      Miscellaneous:
  11.1  Merchandising (T-shirts, etc);
  12.1  Review other LUG web sites for ideas;
  13.1  contribs@dorset.lug.org.uk address;
  13.2  anonymous ftp accessible directory /contribs on the server;

  Workshops:
    Linux Install Day:
      Date: Sun 29th April;
      Time: Set-up: 10:00, Open to Public: 12:00-17:00.
      Venue: Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus. Room?
      Sponsors: Red Hat, SuSE & Mandrake are sponsoring the event;
      UK Site: http://linuxday.org.uk
  14.1  Distribution(s): Mandrake 7.2, Red Hat 6.2, Demo Linux.
        [I will try go contact the UK Linux Install Day people again,
        failing that I will try to contact the sponsors directly - JMS]
  14.2  Updates/Patches (esp. security);
  15.1  Charge to cover media & other costs (YAST non-free licence?);
  16.1  List of Help Needed:
  16.2  List of Help Offered:
  17.1  List of Hardware Needed:
          Spare keyboards, mice, monitors, etc;
          NIC, cables, etc;
  17.2  List of Hardware Offered:
  18.1  List of Software Needed:
  18.2  List of Software Offered:
  19.1  Demonstration machines/software;
  20.1  Power requirements;
  21.1  Repartitioning/Backup facilities;
  22.1  Security, labelling & logging facilities;
  23.1  Posters (with map & directions):
  24.1  Questionnaire/vote on distributions suitable for newbies:
          Qualities required (e.g. stability, ease of installation,
            ease of use, etc);
          Weighting of qualities;
          Weighting of experience level of user;
  25.1    Information leaflets:
  26.1    Printed Installation FAQs;
  26.2    Printed Linux Compatibility Guides;
  26.3    Sources of Help (Linux web sites, etc);
  27.1  Creating distributions;
          [James offered to copy distributions using the University's
          multi-CD writer providing we provide/pay for media]
  28.1  Testing distributions (on different hardware);
          Advertising:
  29.1  Voluntary donations to cover advertising/distribution costs;
  30.1  Dorset LUG web site;
  30.2  Linux Day UK web site (http://linuxday.org.uk);
  30.3  E-mail postings to Linux newsgroups;
  30.4  E-mail postings to friends/colleagues;
  31.1  Poster/Flyer creation:
        Poster posting (with permission):
  32.1    University campus;
  32.2    Other;
        Local hardware/software shops;
  33.1    Creative Computers;
  33.2    PC World;
  33.3    Staples;
        Local businesses:
  34.1    Clintons;
  34.2    Borders;
  34.3    Ottakers;
  35.1  Other local sites;
  36.1  Template letter creation:
  37.1  Newspaper article creation (human interest):
        Local newspapers:
  38.1    Poole & Bournemouth Advertiser;
  38.2    Bournemouth Echo;
        Local radio stations:
  39.1    BBC Radio Dorset;
  39.2    2CR FM;
  39.3    Wave 105;
        Local TV stations:
  40.1    Meridian;
        Linux magazines:
  41.1    Linux Format;
  41.2    PC Plus;
  42.1  Linux for Schools (SuSE sponsored scheme).

  Lectures:
  43.1  Possible mini-lecture for Linux Install Day;
  44.1  Possible lecture on Linux for BCS/BU;

What I suggest we do, is each of us pick a task (or tasks) we think we can do, post an amended table with your name/initials and comments against the tasks you plan to do back to the list so that we know who's doing what. We can then revise a master list from time to time, to keep track of things.

As always, these are only suggestions, please feel free to comment and/or amend them.