[lug] Re: Coding night questions

[D. Stimits]

Chris Riddoch wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the info, Sean. As you suggest, I'm posting this reply to
> BLUG as well. This is much more detailed than I'd expected, and it
> sounds like a lot of fun to me!
> 
> I'll see about getting ECCR 105 reserved for most Thursday evenings I
> can, for the semester.  And I'll bring my laptop. We can probably plug
> a CD player (or laptop - someone else's. Audio on my laptop is hosed,
> for some reason) into the speakers in the room and see how they do.
> 
> Is anyone else interested?

I am probably interested, but it depends on other things. I'm one of
those few people without a laptop, it kind of takes some of the fun out
of it begging to borrow.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

> 
> Sean Reifschneider <jafo at tummy.com> writes:
> > On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 09:13:11PM -0700, Chris Riddoch wrote:
> > >Purpose of the questions: I'd like to set up coding nights at CU, and
> > >would like to get suggestions on how to go about running such a beast.
> >
> > Here's a quick run-down of what we have going up here.
> >
> > Our local LUG meetings are on the first Tuesday of every month.  The
> > remaining three-ish Tuesdays we have the Hacking Society meetings.  A local
> > business has generously offered their conference room, including 802.11b
> > wireless access to the public net, for us to meet in.  The first 3 meetings
> > we held at our house.  We run our meetings from 8pm to 11pm on those
> > nights.
> >
> > The goal of the Hacking Society is to foster geek community-building
> > through the shared experience of hacking.  Of course, by "hacking", I mean
> > the historic meaning of working on interesting projects, not the "script
> > kiddies trying to compromise boxes" meaning which has become what most
> > people think of in relation to the term.
> >
> > The way that we determine what projects to work on is simple: you work on
> > whatever project you want to work on...  To get an idea of what has been
> > worked on in the past, see the Meeting Minutes on the hackingsociety.com
> > web-site under the "NCLUG" chapter (currently the only one).  So far, there
> > really hasn't been a problem with people keeping busy on their projects.
> >
> > My general feeling on it is that if you don't have something to do, you
> > should ask around.  I'd prefer it not be the other way around -- bringing
> > projects and asking around for people to help you on them.  It's meant to
> > be a place where you can come and work on things rather than a place to
> > come to have somone do something for you (like you would have at an
> > install-fest).
> >
> > It's meant to be a sacred place full of positive hacking energy, if you
> > will.  Hacking by osmosis -- where your progress helps drive others
> > progress, and so on...
> >
> > Of course, those are just the things that seem to work for us so far.  You
> > may or may not find that another structure works better in your
> > environment.
> >
> > We have had some "group projects", but none of them were really planned.
> > For example, at the first one, a group of three were working on a new
> > release of the HP-PA Debian distribution.  At a few others, two of us have
> > worked on getting the local LUG web-site checked into CVS.  I continue to
> > work on trying to get the hackingsociety.org web-site up to speed as well
> > as other projects...
> >
> > Evelyn has suggested the idea of organizing a "Knuth Study Group", but that
> > has not yet happened.  I would think that a meeting at the University would
> > be relatively easy to put together such a study group or other group
> > activity.  Perhaps, take some of those "programming contests" and each week
> > everyone works on one of the problems and then discusses the answers they
> > came up with.
> >
> > >What are some trial-and-error things you've run into that I should try
> > >to keep in mind and avoid?
> >
> > My biggest concern is about people who want to bring a machine and have one
> > of the other folks install a distro or otherwise do significant work.
> > There's nothing wrong with it, but that's more what the LUG install-fests
> > are for.  In general, it's gone extremely smoothly.
> >
> > You are welcome to use the "hacking society" name, in starting a Boulder
> > chapter.  I would be happy to set you up an area on that site for your
> > meetings.  I know there has been some interest in this from folks in
> > Boulder, and would expect even more interest if you were to post this
> > discussion on the LUG mailing lists, for example.  In fact, I'd highly
> > recommend you post this thread there, and/or on the hackingsociety mailing
> > list (http://lists.hackingsociety.com/mailman/listinfo/hackingsociety/).
> >
> > If you are looking for a group project, I have some ideas for what I think
> > the Hacking Society web-site should offer...  ;-)
> >
> > In general, I've found organizing the hacking society meetings to be
> > extremely easy...  The hardest part being locating meeting space.  For us,
> > we have 6 or so folks who show up regularly and 802.11b wireless was
> > *ESSENTIAL* to us.  In a University setting where you could possibly hold
> > it in any number of public meeting spaces including common rooms, class
> > rooms, and library space (though we find some music helps), it should be
> > fairly easier.
> >
> > Now that we have a regular location, managing the meeting is really as
> > simple as sending out an announcement and showing up...
> >
> > Based on what I've heard, it sounds like if you wanted a Boulder chapter of
> > the Hacking Society to start up, you may not even have to run it...  There
> > has definitely been some interest expressed, though organizing it is the
> > best way to make sure that it happens at the University instead of
> > Interlocken, for example.  ;-)
> >
> > Good luck,
> > Sean
> > --
> >  Gone Postal Sort: Iterate over elements, any element that is out of order you
> >  blow away.  -- Evelyn, Kevin, and Sean, watching Monty Python and reading DDJ
> > Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
> > tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python
> >
> 
> --
> Chris Riddoch       | epistemological
> socket at peakpeak.com | humility
> _______________________________________________
> Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug