Hello! Careful. This is long.
At this week's meeting, the discussion was spirited and wide-ranging. Some of the action included Don's demo of Knoppix and preparation for the installfest. Don't forget! It really is this weekend at 1pm in VH1200!! Bring your box, your monitor (if at all possible), a distro disc if you want (they will also be provided), and your power cables. Maybe your mouse & keyboard (makes life simpler). Anyway, attend!! :) We now have two fairly large things we need to plan/talk about. The first is our MOSIX cluster. A cluster is cool because it lets you spread processing out over several computers (or, increase your total computing power by connecting multiple machines together, depending on how you choose to look at it). A MOSIX cluster is especially cool because it automatically spreads your program's processes out over the machines in the cluster - you don't have to write special code into your programs. Anyone who is interested should read up a little bit, and email me or the list saying they're interested. If we can get 3-4 people who want to commit some time to it, I think it'd be a great project. The other project we are involved in is the Linux Workshop Series. This thing is so new I may have just made up the name of it :) Anyway, the other presidents and I met with Dr. Beck this afternoon. He is fully behind the effort. We decided to have what amounts to a division-wide test run this semester (in preparation for a well-funded, campus/town wide set of workshops next Fall), after Spring Break, on the 25, 26, and 27 of March. Here's what we think might happen: ACM meets on Tuesdays, in this case, that's the 25th. During this time slot, all three organizations will sponsor an introductory workshop that deals with Linux and Free Software in a big-picture kind of way. TSLUG meets, as you all know, on Wednesdays. That's the 26th for those of you following along at home. Again, all three organizations will be sponsoring all the workshops. On this Wednesday, we'd like to see a talk/introduction to the Linux user environment from a command prompt perspective (X will be left alone at least for a little while). We may include permissions in here, we may not. A lot of the down & dirty content depends on who we can get to present, and what you guys say - if you want something specific for any of the days, or have any suggestions about any of this event at all, pleasepleaseplease email them to me or the list and they will certainly be considered. Anyway, Thursday is TWICS's usual meeting time; we will be using it for an introduction to text editors by creating a rudimentary web page. It is likely that both major editors (vi & emacs) will be presented. This is the culmination of the three days, with people actually walking through a baby project and using some of the things they've learned. All these workshops would be interactive, with users following along on Xenon, Kronos, or their own machine. Also both ACM and TWICS want an Installfest dedicated to this. This semester, we'll wait and see how many people demand one after the workshops, but for next semester, it would probably be cool to kick things off with an installfest. What do you think? Seriously, if you think it's outrageous, either good or bad, email the list and express yourself. We want input, and we definitely need to gauge the interest there is in this. For what it's worth, I imagine that, over time, higher level topics will start to pop up in this format - if it lives through the next semester or two. By the way, if anyone has insight about the application process FAC uses to distribute money for speakers/events, it'd be much appreciated if you'd tell me - at this point, the three organizations are considering a joint application to fund a Big set of workshops next semester, including a keynote speaker (finally :) ). Yeah. I'm still not done. Does anyone have any favorite/awesome reference cards/tutorials that deal with the proposed topics? That'd be nice. Also, just so you can start planning to attend (!), we'll be having a meeting the week we come back from Spring Break to prepare for the workshop thingie. Watch this space for more details. :) So, I'm not sure that's all, but it's a lot (probly too much. sorry). I think I'll leave you with that. See you tomorrow! Nate ----------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Subject: unsubscribe -----------------------------------------------------------------
