I would like to have regular sunday meetings in Norwich every two months, held regularly on the last weekend of the month (i.e. roughly mid-way between the mid-monthly evening meetings).
1. Syleham is planned for every third month so every six months there would be a possible overlap. But, provided we don't choose the same date, I suggest that it is worth trying out since the extra mileage means that for some people Syleham is just that bit too far south of Norwich and for others Norwich is a little too far north compared to Syleham.
2. Use of UEA facilities with bandwidth would be great if it could be arranged regularly and reliably. If not then a reasonable venue that happens is better than a great venue that doesn't.
**If there is anyone on the list who is able to book a room at UEA please contact me.** Can people who work at UEA book rooms?
As has been said before, you don't need to do anything except make the booking. No organising, no responsibility to take, nothing... unless you want to do more of course :-)
Any comments on these suggestions?
Syd
On Mon, Aug 18, 2003 at 10:59:24PM +0200, Syd Hancock wrote:
- Syleham is planned for every third month so every six months
there would be a possible overlap. But, provided we don't choose the same date, I suggest that it is worth trying out since the extra mileage means that for some people Syleham is just that bit too far south of Norwich and for others Norwich is a little too far north compared to Syleham.
Any comments on these suggestions?
WRT to point 1, i think that several of the people who will make Syleham or Norwich one week will not make any venue the next week. I figure that 4 people I can think of who will attend any meeting anyhow will probably not want to make 2 within the same overlap period as each other.
May I suggest that for now we work out which venue would be better every 6 months and just move things out of step a bit more each time so that if norwich has a meeting in month 6 syleham gets month 7 or something like
jan Syleham feb Norwich mar $OTHER_VENUE apr Norwich may Syleham jun Norwich jul $OTHER_VENUE aug Norwich sep Syleham oct Norwich nov Syleham dec Norwich
now i work it out that is scary :D perhaps we move meetings onto a different schedule like every 4 weeks instead? that would give us (in a year).
1 Syleham 2 Norwich 3 $OTHER_VENUE 4 Norwich 5 SylehamS 6 Norwich 7 $OTHER_VENUE 8 Norwich 9 Syleham 10 Norwich 11 $OTHER_VENUE 12 Norwich 13 Syleham
I know that this is slightly less regular as in saying "4th sunday of each month" but this may mean that more people can come because they won't have to make a choice between "ballroom dancing with french lessons" which also happens every 4th Sunday of the month. Oh and yes i have noticed that with this system meeting 13 and 1 are at the same venue :D
Adam
On Mon, 2003-08-18 at 22:20, abower@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
On Mon, Aug 18, 2003 at 10:59:24PM +0200, Syd Hancock wrote:
- Syleham is planned for every third month so every six months
there would be a possible overlap. But, provided we don't choose the same date, I suggest that it is worth trying out since the extra mileage means that for some people Syleham is just that bit too far south of Norwich and for others Norwich is a little too far north compared to Syleham.
Any comments on these suggestions?
WRT to point 1, i think that several of the people who will make Syleham or Norwich one week will not make any venue the next week. I figure that 4 people I can think of who will attend any meeting anyhow will probably not want to make 2 within the same overlap period as each other.
May I suggest that for now we work out which venue would be better every 6 months and just move things out of step a bit more each time so that if norwich has a meeting in month 6 syleham gets month 7 or something like
jan Syleham feb Norwich mar $OTHER_VENUE apr Norwich may Syleham jun Norwich jul $OTHER_VENUE aug Norwich sep Syleham oct Norwich nov Syleham dec Norwich
now i work it out that is scary :D perhaps we move meetings onto a different schedule like every 4 weeks instead? that would give us (in a year).
1 Syleham 2 Norwich 3 $OTHER_VENUE 4 Norwich 5 SylehamS 6 Norwich 7 $OTHER_VENUE 8 Norwich 9 Syleham 10 Norwich 11 $OTHER_VENUE 12 Norwich 13 Syleham
I know that this is slightly less regular as in saying "4th sunday of each month" but this may mean that more people can come because they won't have to make a choice between "ballroom dancing with french lessons" which also happens every 4th Sunday of the month. Oh and yes i have noticed that with this system meeting 13 and 1 are at the same venue :D
Adam
Why not
Syleham every 3 months Norwich every 3 months other venue every 3 months other other venue every 3 months
That gives us 1 meeting per month, just need 2 more venues.
Cheers, BJ
John Woodard mail@johnwoodard.co.uk wrote:
That gives us 1 meeting per month, just need 2 more venues.
Norwich, North Norfolk, Syleham and Elmswell, Ipswich, Fenland: surely we should be spoilt for choice if all could do one occasionally?
Warning: MJR may not coincide with reality.
Norwich, North Norfolk, Syleham and Elmswell, Ipswich, Fenland: surely we should be spoilt for choice if all could do one occasionally?
This covers such a wide geographic area that it still seems to me that there is scope for more than one meeting in some months, even if as Adam says, Norwich and Syleham may be too close together to make it worthwhile (although I am not yet convinced of that either). How many people really want to make a 100mile plus round trip to meetings?
I think that in order to increase attendance we need more meetings, more regularly, more predictably and that are not so widely dispersed so that more people will find them easy to get to and will get into the habit of attending.
Just my NSHO of course :-)
Syd
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
[...] How many people really want to make a 100mile plus round trip to meetings?
Yes, 100 miles is about the limit for me. That said, Syleham is only 25 miles from Norwich, so probably don't want those two too close.
I think that in order to increase attendance we need more meetings, more regularly, more predictably [...]
Sure. Go for it, but I think we still need to make it easy enough for people to attend "out of area" as well, to avoid each place boiling down to the "same old half-dozen sat in the same room each time" that afflicts some LUGs. Then again, ALUG got dangerously close to that a while back, so maybe ignoring me is safest. I think it's recovering now.
Yes, 100 miles is about the limit for me. That said, Syleham is only 25 miles from Norwich, so probably don't want those two too close.
True if you are travelling east from Kings Lynn :-) But if travelling from the north or south, that adds another 50 miles to the journey.
I think that one the key points is that this is not every month but twice a year only.
I would like to try it and if we as a group find that attendance is being badly affected then we can reconsider. ALUG won't die in the Norwich/Syleham region because of a some smaller meetings over the next 12-18 months, surely?
I think that in order to increase attendance we need more meetings, more regularly, more predictably [...]
Sure. Go for it, but I think we still need to make it easy enough for people to attend "out of area" as well, to avoid each place boiling down to the "same old half-dozen sat in the same room each time" that afflicts some LUGs.
Well that is also very true although I think the remedy is not to assume that linux-interest is just a few people who will drive all over eastern England.
There are also a growing number of people who will want to go to local meetings if they are regular and advertised in advance. As you know, that is one of my goals for the Norwich area.
So, basically, we need to consider (a) target audience(s) including very technical content for the specialists and experts as well as novice support, (b) content, (c) publicity.
General interest in linux is growing therefore, looking ahead a year or two, meetings will grow unless we mess it up. That's my theory anyway but maybe it's me that's the dreamer :-)
Syd
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
I would like to try it and if we as a group find that attendance is being badly affected then we can reconsider. [...]
Go for it. We can't stop you, although Adam has the ALUG flamethrower at the moment. A suggestion: lay on volunteer transport from the normal Norwich meeting venue to Syleham for the clash once every 6 months if you were still intending Sundays, though. (Hrm, one as ALUG Xmas and one as ALUG BBQ maybe? The hall there is good for both and November is the next clash.)
[...]
General interest in linux is growing therefore, looking ahead a year or two, meetings will grow unless we mess it up. That's my theory anyway but maybe it's me that's the dreamer :-)
You're not the only one. (Hrm, didn't I see that on a web site?)
On Tuesday 19 Aug 2003 11:16 am, MJ Ray wrote:
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
I would like to try it and if we as a group find that attendance is being badly affected then we can reconsider. [...]
Go for it. We can't stop you, although Adam has the ALUG flamethrower at the moment. A suggestion: lay on volunteer transport from the normal Norwich meeting venue to Syleham for the clash once every 6 months if you were still intending Sundays, though.
There's only a 'clash' if both are booked for the same date and that *would* be silly - I have no intention of doing that.
Or do you mean have a joint meeting every six months with transport arranged? That could be interesting, provided there was enough transport and people turned up in time for the lifts :-)
Is Syleham already booked for November and if so what date?
I can't guarantee in advance to go to every Syleham meeting but I am very happy to give lifts to and from Norwich when I do. Given the situation I would make an extra effort in the months when there are meetings in both places.
(Hrm, one as ALUG Xmas and one as ALUG BBQ maybe? The hall there is good for both and November is the next clash.)
That could be interesting too if BJ is up for organising them, especially as combined meetings as above.
BUT... if all this is going to be a problem and cause too many rumbles etc, then perhaps it is simpler to follow BJ's suggestion and have Norwich and Syleham both on three-monthly schedules - that way there are no problems with clashes etc and there are 8 meetings a year in and near to Norwich, plus the monthly evening meets, altogether not too bad at all. Just need to adjust the starting points so we don't have a meeting scheduled for the last weekend in December.
General interest in linux is growing therefore, looking ahead a year or two, meetings will grow unless we mess it up. That's my theory anyway but maybe it's me that's the dreamer :-)
You're not the only one. (Hrm, didn't I see that on a web site?)
Mind you, as someone wrote cynically in Rolling Stone magazine many years ago when the song was first recorded "Imagine John Lennon with no money..." so idealism must be tempered with realism - maybe. Alternatively there is the situationist slogan from May '68 " Be realistic - demand the impossible" which in the current world situation seems more appropriate. Who tells us that ending hunger etc is impossible? What will happen if it continues to increase? Which is the most 'realistic'?
Anyway, I'll stop there :-)
Syd
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
Or do you mean have a joint meeting every six months with transport arranged? [...]
That was what I meant. Someone said that they didn't think two meetings in the same within 25 miles of each other would help numbers and I agree. Hopefully people wiser than me can answer your other questions or say what they think of it.
On Tuesday 19 Aug 2003 4:59 pm, MJ Ray wrote:
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
Or do you mean have a joint meeting every six months with transport arranged? [...]
That was what I meant. Someone said that they didn't think two meetings in the same within 25 miles of each other would help numbers and I agree. Hopefully people wiser than me can answer your other questions or say what they think of it.
Yes, got it now, sorry I didn't read it more clearly the first time.
After today's discussion I do now think that the suggestion of norwich meetings every three months is probably the best idea overall if there are going to be regular Syleham meetings every three months also. So let's move on.
What is the situation with current meeting plans/bookings for Syleham and elsewhere? I think a round-up of what is so far been booked would be useful.
Syd
Anyone on the list that has used this in a production env or at least used it :)
I have used it to mirror existing partitons but have a server giving some errors :-
EXT3-fs error (device ide0(3,7)): ext3_free_blocks: Freeing blocks not in datazone - block = 1885960807, count = 1 EXT3-fs error (device ide0(3,7)): ext3_free_blocks: Freeing blocks not in datazone - block = 1162092602, count = 1 Etc.. I have rsynced the data to a remote server but wonder if plugging a new drive in and setting up raid 1 for this partition and the raid mirror on hdc if it will rebuild the data and then I can just drop the partition on the failed drive and access the data on the new one?
Have done it in tests but this is a live server with lots of files :)
Darren
On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 19:55, Syd Hancock wrote:
On Tuesday 19 Aug 2003 4:59 pm, MJ Ray wrote:
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
Or do you mean have a joint meeting every six months with transport arranged? [...]
That was what I meant. Someone said that they didn't think two meetings in the same within 25 miles of each other would help numbers and I agree. Hopefully people wiser than me can answer your other questions or say what they think of it.
Yes, got it now, sorry I didn't read it more clearly the first time.
After today's discussion I do now think that the suggestion of norwich meetings every three months is probably the best idea overall if there are going to be regular Syleham meetings every three months also. So let's move on.
What is the situation with current meeting plans/bookings for Syleham and elsewhere? I think a round-up of what is so far been booked would be useful.
Syleham is booked for sunday 23rd November but that is as far as it is booked up to so the next meeting there should be around the end of Feb if we are running accoding to the 3 month plan,
Cheers, BJ
What is the situation with current meeting plans/bookings for Syleham and elsewhere? I think a round-up of what is so far been booked would be useful.
Syleham is booked for sunday 23rd November but that is as far as it is booked up to so the next meeting there should be around the end of Feb if we are running accoding to the 3 month plan,
OK, thanks, that's good. Since end of December is not a good idea I propose Norwich sunday meetings for next year starting at the end of January and three-monthly from there.
Comments? As if I need ask :-)
Syd Sun shining in Brittany - off to attack the back field with a large strimmer...
On Wed, 2003-08-20 at 09:53, Syd Hancock wrote:
OK, thanks, that's good. Since end of December is not a good idea I propose Norwich sunday meetings for next year starting at the end of January and three-monthly from there.
Comments? As if I need ask :-)
Works for me Syd.
Cheers, BJ
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
What is the situation with current meeting plans/bookings for Syleham and elsewhere? I think a round-up of what is so far been booked would be useful.
Syleham is booked for sunday 23rd November but that is as far as it is booked up to so the next meeting there should be around the end of Feb if we are running accoding to the 3 month plan,
OK, thanks, that's good. Since end of December is not a good idea I propose Norwich sunday meetings for next year starting at the end of January and three-monthly from there.
What? no Christmas meeting? awww <G>
On Wed, 2003-08-20 at 17:56, Brett Parker wrote:
Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
What is the situation with current meeting plans/bookings for Syleham and elsewhere? I think a round-up of what is so far been booked would be useful.
Syleham is booked for sunday 23rd November but that is as far as it is booked up to so the next meeting there should be around the end of Feb if we are running accoding to the 3 month plan,
OK, thanks, that's good. Since end of December is not a good idea I propose Norwich sunday meetings for next year starting at the end of January and three-monthly from there.
What? no Christmas meeting? awww <G>
Well if you want to host on Xmas morning we´ll have one round your house. Turkey dinners all round! :-)
Cheers, BJ
What? no Christmas meeting? awww <G>
Hmm, that's a good point - are there any December meetings scheduled anywhere yet? If not, then maybe a meeting a week or so before xmas would be fun.
All depends on how many people will be likely to attend, especially as it would be fairly close to the regular thursday meeting, plus the fact that it is busy time of year for alot of people. But a room can be booked if the demand is there.
Who wants a xmas alug meet mid-December in Norwich (or Syleham maybe - BJ?) or elsewhere for that matter?
Syd
On 2003.08.19 13:53, Syd Hancock wrote:
Or do you mean have a joint meeting every six months with transport arranged? That could be interesting, provided there was enough transport and people turned up in time for the lifts :-)
I'd be interested to know why people are put off going to meetings that are far away from home.
Is it the cost, the time, the need to drive or some combination?
Car sharing could be an answer to two of those particularly where there is a cluster of people together in the same place, e.g. Norwich. There is a meeting transport page already (http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?MeetingTransport), though at the moment MJR seems to be the only person using it.
I live in Felixstowe. For most meetings I will need to travel past Ipswich and will be happy to give a lift to anyone nearby or on the route.
I would be sad to see a situation where people were asked to decide which of two meetings to attend as I think it would encourage parochialism. The plan with a three month rotation of Norwich, Syleham and another venue looks good to me.
Steve.
On Wednesday 03 Sep 2003 3:00 pm, Steve Fosdick wrote:
I'd be interested to know why people are put off going to meetings that are far away from home.
Is it the cost, the time, the need to drive or some combination?
For myself, all of these factors combined: you have to be pretty keen to drive 100+ miles round trip.
It doesn't seem that many people do this. It's not the way to get larger meetings appealing to a wider cross-section of people.
Lift-sharing is OK in theory - I hope more people do it - but it's still not as convenient as making your own way to and from a local meeting.
I would be sad to see a situation where people were asked to decide which of two meetings to attend as I think it would encourage parochialism.
As long as they are not on the same day and not too close together geographically, I still don't see the problem with having more than one meeting in the same month.
It's only a potential problem for the small number of people who currently *are* willing to drive 100+ miles to attend every meeting and there are *very* few of those amongst us :-)
Most people don't drive long distances to meetings anyway. So there would be no need to 'decide' which meeting to go to if they are not likely to go to the distant meetings anyway.
For most people, I would think, having more meetings closer to where they live, that they are likely to be able to go to, is better than a few meetings which are also too far away to get to easily.
The plan with a three month rotation of Norwich, Syleham and another venue looks good to me.
This has generally been agreed as the current plan, starting from January. All the same, I would like to see more meetings eventually, for the reasons above.
Well, that is my opinion but I have accepted that I am 'over-ruled' and that the active list members prefer only one meeeting per month across the region.
Nevertheless it is all a bit 'shot in the dark' with no real information to make informed decisions. All we can do is discuss our own guesses and anecdotal evidence.
That is why I suggested that we at least *try* more frequent meetings for a year and then review the situation. Active research basically, 'suck it and see'. But I have to accept that the most active members don't agree :-)
Regards Syd
On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 10:54:09PM +0100, Syd Hancock wrote:
On Wednesday 03 Sep 2003 3:00 pm, Steve Fosdick wrote:
I'd be interested to know why people are put off going to meetings that are far away from home.
Is it the cost, the time, the need to drive or some combination?
For myself, all of these factors combined: you have to be pretty keen to drive 100+ miles round trip.
Ok, I have a quick question. Am I an American because I don't see why 100+ miles is such a big deal to drive.... It doesn't really take up that much time, isn't that tiring or anything. Is it just people can't afford the petrol or think their cars won't cope? Or is this a general apathy to being bothered to go and it is an extra hurdle?
I suppose I would understand more if it was 100 miles every weekend as that would get a bit heavy on the petrol costs. Once a month (well less actually as at least every few meetings should be quite local) shouldn't be a problem?
Adam
On Wed, 2003-09-03 at 23:14, abower@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 10:54:09PM +0100, Syd Hancock wrote:
On Wednesday 03 Sep 2003 3:00 pm, Steve Fosdick wrote:
I'd be interested to know why people are put off going to meetings that are far away from home.
Is it the cost, the time, the need to drive or some combination?
For myself, all of these factors combined: you have to be pretty keen to drive 100+ miles round trip.
Ok, I have a quick question. Am I an American because I don't see why 100+ miles is such a big deal to drive.... It doesn't really take up that much time, isn't that tiring or anything. Is it just people can't afford the petrol or think their cars won't cope? Or is this a general apathy to being bothered to go and it is an extra hurdle?
100 miles is well worth the effort for most ALUG meetings. For the knowlege and support ALUG has afforded me a short drive is of no concequence. I have to do a 60 mile round trip to do high st shopping so maybe I biased. Car shareing is good it gives an extra couple of hours chatting about my fav subject and is kind to the environment, win win situation as they say.
I suppose I would understand more if it was 100 miles every weekend as that would get a bit heavy on the petrol costs. Once a month (well less actually as at least every few meetings should be quite local) shouldn't be a problem?
Once a month is enough for me for weekend meetings but having an evening meet in between the Sunday meets would seem a good idea so how about evening meets every month spaced between the weekenders so a meeting once every fortnight? Just a thought.
Cheers, BJ
On 2003-09-03 23:14:59 +0100 abower@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I suppose I would understand more if it was 100 miles every weekend as that
In theory, sharing transport should make petrol costs less once it starts working. At each monthly meeting, we should see if we can arrange transport for the next.
I don't see a problem with shorter meetings more than once a month. They could be a good way for new areas to start, spark ideas for the larger meetings and help arrange travel too (2 spare seats from W.Norfolk to Norwich for 28 Sep available btw). Failing that, *hiC*
Ok, I have a quick question. Am I an American because I don't see why 100+ miles is such a big deal to drive.... It doesn't really take up that much time, isn't that tiring or anything. Is it just people can't afford the petrol or think their cars won't cope? Or is this a general apathy to being bothered to go and it is an extra hurdle?
I don't know, Adam, but not many people seem willing to do it, for what ever reasons.
And that is surely the important issue - do we want to make it easy for people to go to meetings or not?
Or do we want to say 'look at me, I do it, why are you lot so lazy'. That may be true but I don't see that that attitude is very helpful.
Syd
On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 11:52:40PM +0100, Syd Hancock wrote:
Or do we want to say 'look at me, I do it, why are you lot so lazy'. That may be true but I don't see that that attitude is very helpful.
Are you suggesting that this is what I mean? All I want to work out is why people are so lazy and don't want to be bothered coming to meetings (I suspect that they are all very fat lazy unsociable geeks who like to play D&D on weekends) and what their problem is.
Adam PS if you take this troll seriously then you must be a windows luser
On 2003-09-03 23:52:40 +0100 Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
And that is surely the important issue - do we want to make it easy for people to go to meetings or not?
Yes, but I can see the flip side. We live in a sparse area, so we need to use the region to get good numbers (although more marketing is required first) for feature meetings (yes, we need more features: Debian@Syleham? Need More Speakers. See next email.). Also, the people who do drive far create a useful ad-hoc transport network for otherwise poorly-served areas, which makes it easier. How easy can it be? We can't put ourselves on every ALUGger's doorstep. Even if we did, some effort is still required to go out the door. I also think there's a saturation limit for weekend meets around once a month: when I exceeded it, there were complaints.
The evening meetings have surprised me, but seem to draw from a smaller area and are more general. Can we use them to build weekends back up?
I also think there's a saturation limit for weekend meets around once a month: when I exceeded it, there were complaints.
Well yes, that is probably true and I am willing to go along with the general concensus reached a few weeks ago. I'm probably being too hasty and over-optimistic, it's been known to happen (cough).
The evening meetings have surprised me, but seem to draw from a smaller area and are more general. Can we use them to build weekends back up?
Perhaps they are succesful because they are more local, also because they are regular and a momentum is building up. It's something regular to look forward to in this sad sad world :-)
I do also think that they can lead to more successful weekend meetings as they are a good way for people to get to know each other better.
Perhaps one idea to consider is other regular evening meetings in other parts of the ALUG region?
Syd
Final thought for tonight as I really have stayed up far too late.
All I've been doing is to book a room ocasionally and try to judge the interest. It doesn't matter too much to me if people want to meet once a month or once a year. I don't have a personal stake in this - I'm not Mr Norwich Alug.
At first I thought there would be more enthusiasm for the idea of more meetings on a regular basis and someone willing to get more involved. But if the concensus is that fewer meetings more widely separated is what is best for ALUG then who am I to argue - I'm new to the area and new to linux too and I am very happy to go along with what we've decided.
To recap: regular sunday meetings in Norwich every three months, starting from January. Once we've seen the Billy Bluelight this month then a decison can be taken on the regular venue and I'll make the advance bookings for 2004.
In the meantime, if there is anyone who can book rooms at UEA, please get in touch since many people would prefer them to be held there.
Syd
On 2003-09-04 00:50:12 +0100 Syd Hancock syd@toufol.com wrote:
All I've been doing is to book a room ocasionally and try to judge the interest. It doesn't matter too much to me if people want to meet once a month or once a year. I don't have a personal stake in this - I'm not Mr Norwich Alug.
Oh, but you are. Rule us with an iron fist, Mr Dictator. Vote Syd 1 for Mr Norwich ALUG.
Seriously:
* More regular meetings - great. I'm really impressed with the Norwich 2nd thursday ones. Need to get the name badges etc together and probably link to other docs about running meetings, to make it easier for N.Norfolk and Ipswich to get running. Can we blag more penguins and distribute them to meeting organisers? What happened to the tsw one? J?
* Doing something about it: How about ALUG meets in the Fountain, Ely on the 17th September and the Wednesday following the 17th of every month thereafter? Who's coming this month?
* More feature meetings - great, if people will offer to speak or show posters. Nearly everyone on this list knows something interesting and we're not *that* many people that it's scary to bring something along. Until more people step forwards, can we try offering transport from Norwich's regular meeting venue to Syleham first?
* More willing people involved - yes, please.
Sorry, am having probelms at the moment re my computer turns into german when i use linux via vmware zet everzthing else is ok. So I apologise for and y and z that i mix up throught this email.
penguins and distribute them to meeting organisers? What happened to the tsw one? J?
Sorry, I went insane in october last zear and havnt recovered zet. Mz organisational skills are equal to that of a marsupial and I shouldnt be trusted with anzthing more dangerous then a stick of celery.
I can make no prommises to arange furutre meetings )unlles someone nearby wishes to re-organise mz life bz the use of extreme electroshock therapz.
AS for mz attendance at nowrich meets )and indeed anz others( zou will be forced to make do without mz annoying prescnes and whatever questions I have dreamed up to ask about this time around untill after the 18th of this month. thuis is due to povety.
Perhaps I should stop having expensive things like vmware and more things like social life.
J
On 07-Sep-03 James Edward John Taylor wrote:
Sorry, am having probelms at the moment re my computer turns into german when i use linux via vmware zet everzthing else is ok. So I apologise for and y and z that i mix up throught this email.
If you poke around in the VMware installation tree you may find a clue. In my VMware on Linux, there is a directory
/usr/lib/vmware/xkeymap
which contains files
. chde101 de101 es101 fr101 is101 jp106 pt101 us101 .. chde104 de104 es104 fr104 is104 jp109 pt104 us104 be101 chfr101 dk101 fi101 gb101 it101 no101 se101 be104 chfr104 dk104 fi104 gb104 it104 no104 se104
so in principle you should be able to set up an English (UK or in the limit US) keyboard map in the virtual machine. (I infer from what you say that your native OS is something different from Linux and Linux is a "guest" OS when you run VMware).
Alternatively, check that your Linux keyboard map is correct: For the console, you should look under /usr/lib/kbd/keytables, and also check out 'man loadkeys'.
For X11, your X configuration should set this up, but in any case you can look into it by looking at the file XF86Config (probably to be found as /etc/XF86Config but could be elsewhere, or indeed apparently in several places but really only in one, the rest being symbolic links -- check this).
Fairly early in the XF86Config file is a 'Section "Keyboard"' which offers barious ways (read the comments) to set up your keyboard; you will probably want to have a line
XkbLayout "uk"
as well possibly as some of the other options.
However, I'm not at all sure how these things work out through the triple layer of alien OS/VMWare/Linux/X!
Hope this helps! Ted.
On 08-Sep-03 Ted Harding wrote:
[...] For X11, your X configuration should set this up, but in any case you can look into it by looking at the file XF86Config (probably to be found as /etc/XF86Config but could be elsewhere, or indeed apparently in several places but really only in one, the rest being symbolic links -- check this).
Fairly early in the XF86Config file is a 'Section "Keyboard"' which offers various ways (read the comments) to set up your keyboard; you will probably want to have a line
XkbLayout "uk"
as well possibly as some of the other options.
Sorry, may be misleading; written without looking -- just for reference (your setup may need to be slightly different; it can vary with different versions of X) I have the following section in /etc/XF86Config:
Section "InputDevice" Driver "Keyboard" Identifier "Keyboard[0]" Option "Protocol" "Standard" Option "XkbLayout" "gb" Option "XkbModel" "pc104" Option "XkbRules" "xfree86" EndSection
HTH Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 08-Sep-03 Time: 08:44:10 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Ahhahahaaaaa yes it works (sort of) - the errror was in my x config (for some strange reason) as if i swapped to a terminal it would read it as uk keyboard. A simple enough proof.
dank
On 2003.09.03 23:14, abower@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
Ok, I have a quick question. Am I an American because I don't see why 100+ miles is such a big deal to drive.... It doesn't really take up that much time, isn't that tiring or anything. Is it just people can't afford the petrol or think their cars won't cope? Or is this a general apathy to being bothered to go and it is an extra hurdle?
I don't know - perhaps other people can join in here with their views.
This was, in part, why I raised the issue of car sharing as it can lower the cost, relieve all but one person in the car of the need to drive and, as you now have like minded people in a car together, conversation can make the jouney seem shorter.
Steve.
On 2003.09.03 23:14, abower@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
Ok, I have a quick question. Am I an American because I don't see why 100+ miles is such a big deal to drive.... It doesn't really take up that much time, isn't that tiring or anything. Is it just people can't afford the petrol or think their cars won't cope? Or is this a general apathy to being bothered to go and it is an extra hurdle?
I don't know - perhaps other people can join in here with their views.
This was, in part, why I raised the issue of car sharing as it can lower the cost, relieve all but one person in the car of the need to drive and, as you now have like minded people in a car together, conversation can make the jouney seem shorter.
Steve.
Again, sorry for my late reply...
The idea of more frequent meetings at different venues appeals to me. I live in Bourne, Lincs and the only ALUG meeting I've made it to was in Norwich and cost me a fortune on the train. I should really try and get to a PLUG meeting which is more local but seems less active (online at least).
Sharing transport would be great for me, in fact I have an idea...
Perhaps for the next ALUG meeting everyone could bring pieces of a minibus with them, each person could bring a wheel, seat or spark plug etc. until we have enough pieces to build an ALUG minibus which can pick up all the members of from their houses on the day of a meeting. The minibus should probably run on seawater like the car on topgear a while back, very environmentally friendly.
I can donate an engine from an old VW camper to get us started... if anyone can provide the transport to get it there ;) ;) ;) Second thoughts, I'm not sure it will run on seawater...
Does anyone know where I can buy a cuddly penguin for my linux lab?
-- Ben "tola" Francis
On Tue, 2003-09-16 at 20:38, Ben Francis wrote:
Does anyone know where I can buy a cuddly penguin for my linux lab?
http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/index.php?PAGE=21
Every home should have one :-)
Cheers, BJ
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