[ale] ALE NW meeting was a success?

[Eric VanWieren]

This was my first time to go to an ALE meeting, so I thought that I 
would throw my 2 cents in about the meeting.

First off, I have to admit that I made it to the meeting about 15 
minutes late. Sorry about that. However, when I came in, it was a zoo. I 
do not mind chaos, I actually work better in that kind of environment, 
but this was beyond what I would consider controlled chaos.

I think that the biggest problem was the tackling of multiple installs 
at the same time. With the way most of the packaged distros are, it 
might have been better to do one at a time, or to step through portions 
of each install and then go to the next when one got to the 
copying/installing phase. As it was, I was not able to follow everything 
that was going on. Then again, there was the debacle with the deletion 
of  the root user. No names are mentioned to protect the innocent 
(Emil). (Don't worry he is a friend of mine and should be able to take 
the joke) That was actually a good chance to teach people about how user 
authentication works. However, people were still hacking away at the 
other distro's while the problem of fixing the root user was being handled.

It would have been awsome if someone could have taken control of the 
room and brought their attention to the problem at hand. This would have 
provided a great learning opportunity ( redundant yes I know). From some 
of the comments in the room, it sounded as if not everyone was familiar 
with the layout of the shadow and passwd files. The problem was 
eventually fixed, but I do not know if anyone got much out of the situation.

Overall I enjoyed myself. However, if I was a newbie and it was my first 
visit, I do not know if I would return. I do not want to rain on anyones 
parade, but I am just trying to be honest. I might just be used to a 
little more structure, but I just can't say.

Anyway, I hope that I did not make any enemies by posting my opinions.

Eric VanWieren


Geoffrey wrote:

> postmortem on the last ALE NW meeting... ;)
>
> I think it was a success.  At times it was a bit confusing with three 
> installs going at a time.  Just the same, I think it was enlightening. 
> We had, I'll estimate, about 25-30 folks in attendance.  I think that 
> inspite of the removal of the postings Emil put up, the word still got 
> out.  I've got to think that the postings made a difference.
>
> Anyone interested in a presentation on any of these distros alone?
>
> One thing that disturbs me about the meeting.  We all know that, for 
> the most part, geeks are guys.  Every now and then we have a few 
> ladies show up at the meetings (and I know a number on the list).
>
> Question is, there was a young lady in attendance at this meeting, but 
> she left early.  If anyone knows her, I'd like to get some feedback as 
> to why she left.  Was it boring?  Over her head?  To much chaos?
>
> Anyway, if that young lady is on the list, please feel free to either 
> post to the list, or drop me personal email with feedback.  I don't 
> like seeing anyone leave a meeting early, although at times, there are 
> conflicts.
>
> If anyone on the list happens to know her, I'd appreciate it if they 
> could get feedback for me.
>