meetings and topics in general

[Peter A. Van Tassell]

Hi all,
Just had to mention: I'm certainly not trying to steal the floor or 
anyones plans (I was invited).

I do think there needs to be a better balance between structured vs 
unstructured time. Example: My evening classes at ITT typically use the 
1st hour as lecture time (structure), followed by 2.5 hours of hacking 
away at it (unstructured). The last 1/2 hour is for review / Q&A 
(semi-structured). Works OK for me, anyway.

The December NFLUG meeting last week was the very 1st LUG I've ever 
experienced; there's a metric shitload of potential in this group. 
There's a lot I've got to learn, and a few things I wouldn't mind 
sharing. It would be easier for us all I think if the meeting topic 
decisions were determined at the meetings (structured), thus freeing up 
the mail list for in-between hacking (unstructured). Just an idea.

Multiple topics could also be a possibility, if the presentations can be 
kept short enough; perhaps printed documentation or floppy/CD-ROM could 
help there.

I do recall feeling quite lost; that's the first time I've ever met any 
other Linux users, so I'm dealing with that "lost" feeling. There's a 
bunch I'd like to learn; e-mail stuff, keyboard shortcuts, shell 
scripting tricks, Apache, Perl.... the list goes on. Bear in mind, my 
day-to-day occupation has nothing to do with computing; it's been 
entirely at my own time and expense, going on 6 years of Linux now.

Totally self taught, crashes and all.

BTW, if anyone does want to use that fix I made for doing kernel RPM 
compiles, let me know. I've got a couple different versions working 
here, and submitted the fixes to the kernel mailing list (and Linus).

If I bring my setup to the next meeting, it takes about 20 minutes to 
make bzImage and 40 minutes to make both the RPM and SRC.RPM 
(concurrently). I'll probably bring it anyway. What do you think? Let me 
know!

-- 
"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price."
		-- Richard M. Stallman