[ale] ALE NW meeting was a success,,,, I think

[Geoffrey]

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the first ALE NW meeting was a success, 
inspite of my lack of planning.  There was some lively discussion 
regarding zlib double free problems and other esoteric Linux issues.  At 
one point I caught myself counting heads and counted 36 folks.  I also 
requested a show of hands of folks who attended KSU, they far outweighed 
the non KSU folks.

There was a presentation provided by Dr. Hoganson of KSU regarding their 
new MS in Applied CS which is directed towards the existing IT 
professional.  My take on it is that it leans on your experience, not 
your specifice educational background.  Point is, if you're an on the 
job expert in IT, but your college education is BA in accounting, this 
MS is for you.  Check it out:

http://science.kennesaw.edu/csis/msacs/contact.html

So we had a presenter and didn't even set one up.  It wasn't Linux 
specific, but there was interest and received well.

We are still looking for presenters for upcoming meetings and are hoping 
to have an installfest in the near future.

One of the challenges we are going to have is balancing the needs/wants 
of the attendees.  As I suspected we had everything from Linux security 
experts and other seasoned veterans to folks who had never seen Linux. 
  We don't want to bore anyone, but we certainly don't want to scare the 
new folks off either.

We'll be looking at alternating the meetings focus, or split meetings to 
address these issues.  I personally like the split meetings, that way we 
get everyone to come to all the meetings.

Again, let me know if you would like to make a presentation.  There were 
requests for presentations on the following:

cd burning
usb
iptables
X configuration
video conferencing
apm
installs (particular interest in dual-boot installs)
Linux introductory (what is it, why do I want it, what can it do for me)
Linux package mapping to Windows packages (I use Outlook, what is there 	
	on Linux?)

I think that covers the requests, but keep me honest folks.

Those of you who have made presentations in the past at ALE meetings, 
let's do it again.  There will be folks at the ALE NW meetings who have 
seen them, but there will be a lot who have not.

I want to again thank all those involved in getting this going, including:

The KSU Student chapter of the ACM, Jason Rives, Dr. North, Dow Hurst 
and Ray Knight.

Special thanks to Jason, Dow for providing drinks and Bob Toxen for 
providing the Pizza.

Oh yeah, I'll plan on attending every meeting, but don't have any 
particular need or interest in doing the MC stuff.  Anyone else 
interested jump up.  I don't mind doing it, I've just got to work at it, 
and I hate those ackward silences. :)

FEEDBACK WELCOME!

-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric at 3times25.net

I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?


---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.