[ON Topic] How 'bout them Linux? Ain't they somethin?!

Ted Roche tedroche at tedroche.com
Sun Feb 8 19:54:58 EST 2004


maddog:

Thanks for an on-topic post! I think you've asked some great questions. 
I look forward to the discussion.

I'm the guy who showed up in Durham two years ago and suggested that New 
User night would be a good idea. I haven't made it back to a meeting 
since. It's a long story. I'll try harder in the future. On to your 
questions:

What do you look for in GNHLUG? Friendly help, support and cameraderie.

I am an escapee from the belly of the beast. I learned to program in 
'73, shipped my first commercial app in '78 and I've got 15 years of 
successful experience helping users design, develop and maintain 
database systems and the applications to use them. For many reasons 
we're all aware of, I'd like to move my skills to FOSS. There's quite a 
learning curve.

What brings you to a meeting? Obviously, not much <g>. It would help if 
the meeting time and place were announced two weeks in advance, even if 
there isn't a topic, and reminder 48 hours prior. I've been trying for 
two months, but the holiday season is tough. Made it to Concord Monday. 
Hope to meet you all in the near future.

What drives you away from a meeting? The "UNIX attitude." The perceived 
hostility amongst some members to newbies, and even amongst each other. 
I'd be glad to rtfm if someone could help point our which fm I should be 
r'ing. But the verbal abuse seen on this list is a strong deterrent. I'm 
no newbie; my first apps shipped before Intel had 8086s in production. 
I'm not shy; I've presented in front of 3500, and been dissed by better 
crowds than this. But toleration is an important principle for the group 
to adhere to.

What would it take to get you to bring new members to a meeting? A 
predictable schedule; knowledge we'd be welcomed.

Would you be willing to volunteer for helping to pull off some 
"activity"? Yup.

Would you be willing to spend a Saturday once or twice a year in staffing
some project?  Could you get your neighbor to do it? Yup. Neighbor, 
perhaps not. But an associate, perhaps.

If so, do you have any activities that you would especially like to do?
Particularly ones that you would be willing to participate in?

1. Advocacy. For example, a local activist group needs an online 
presence. Assuming they supplied hardware and contracted connectivity, 
could we set them up with web, forums/wiki/mailings list and teach a 
willing volunteer (perhaps me) how to admin the box? I'd appreciate 
learning the basics of admin'ing.

2. Group organization - membership, publicity. I've volunteered for user 
groups since 1987, and been president, treasurer, newspaper editor, BBS 
SysOp, membership chairman and janitor, sometimes all at once. Many 
hands make for light work.

Finally, after thirty-five years in the computer business it took a kid from
Finland to remind me that I got into this space to have FUN....so what 
things
would you like to do that would be FUN?

New stuff is fun. Learning is fun, in the proper environment. I've been 
plinking with a couple of Linux systems for a few years, and recently 
with an OS X box, and I'm having a blast! At the same time, like many of 
the list, I've got a lot of scheduling pressures and demands on my time. 
As you might surmise, my main interest is in a career move, staying in 
application development, and I'd like to see presentations by some of 
the journeyman programmers on how they do their jobs. Do they use IDEs? 
Which ones? How do they tie together disparate requirements, testing, 
source control, test data, debugging, scripting, compilers, make files, 
and so forth. That's my number one priority right now. And if I have to 
sit in at a Saturday bake sale or write up a GNHLUG press release or two 
to get it, so be it.




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