Why haven't I ever seen drivers and software mentioned on the list concerning computer driven knitting machines? Those are pretty sexy.
I apologize for not getting in the game earlier; this entire thread seems to have developed in the last twelve hours or so. Ever since reading Steve Levy's Hackers, I have more-or-less noticed a fixation among the kind of people that use computers, especially Linux users, programmers, and distro developers, to develop a 'one, true way', as Levy describes the original MIT hackers as doing. It is extremely appealing for myself, as well. However, I am beginning to fear that the one, true way doesn't exist in political systems. Communism isn't it and democracy (or republic) certainly isn't either, despite peoples' personal beliefs. At the same time, a formal environment and an informal one, like the PLUG/PDXLUG debate above, have severe troubles co-existing. 3CLUG (3clug.org), the Kennewick/Pasco/Richland LUG, on the other hand, has made a step in the direction of integration, holding /two/ meetings a month, one informal at a local eatery and the other being formal at the university. This has allowed the entire group to utilize most of the members and their resources, cutting costs, and the needs of the members are realized. For example, there is one web site, there is one mailing list, and communication with the entire group is unimpeded. 3CLUG still has its internal problems, but it's nothing like the flame wars which I've had the privilage to observe in P*LUG. Politically/Socially, there cannot be a one true way. My point is to illustrate that tolerance and cooperation is much more valuable in the sociological realm than the search for the one way. Personally, I like the segregation of the formal, informal, and purely internet groups (I'm surprised no ones mentioned #orlug in all of this); it allows individuals get their own proper doses of informal/formal/etc at the proper proportions without having to participate in all at once. Good luck. Have fun. Don't die. Jackman. KD7NYQ. _______________________________________________ PDXLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlug.org/mailman/listinfo/pdxlug IRC: irc.freenode.net #pdxlug
