Just before Christmas at the
November and December 2005 meetings some of us had a discussion about
the subject of the January 2006 meeting. For some years now we have
experienced variable figures for attendance of the January meetings due
to the seasonal holiday. It was thought that we might as well save
some money this year and cancel the January meeting in favour of a
somewhat enhanced February meeting.
The original plan for the February meeting was
to ask Alan Cox to give some sort of lecture about his work or some
aspect of his work that would be interesting for other people to listen
to. We finally decided that Alan might be able to give a talk about
the differences between propriatery and open source software
engineering. This turned out to be a raging success and on the day
many people turned out for what was a brilliant presentation. Shortly
after I put some basic info on the meetings page for the meeting on the
4th of February I received some e-mail from Megan Larko over in the
States. Megan had been a NASA Goddard Space Fiight Center systems
administrator for more than 20 years. Megan was asking whether she
could come along. Of course I said, yes, please do come along.
Apparently she hasn't visited England for something like twelve years.
It was her chance to meet Alan Cox and ask him some questions. A week
or two later she wrote back to explain she had a new job working for the same manager in what was now a privatised organisation which had been spun off from her place at NASA Goddard. So, showing interest in things other than work would seem to have improved her lifestyle quite a bit. After a few
days I had to explain to the South Yorkshire branch of the Institution
of Electrical Engineers that we had an addition to the original Alan Cox lecture. The IEE pay for the rooms that we use for our larger meetings. The 4th of February meeting was already thought to be a good one by everyone who was involved in organising it before Megan said she was visiting England. After I explained to them that Megan was around
and why didn't we ask her to give a talk of some sort they said they
thought that it was a good idea. I was asked to write to her to ask
her whether she might consider giving a presentation of some sort when
she visited Sheffield. She wrote straight back and agreed right
away. Just after that the online booking system went a bit crazy and
filled up very quickly. Our plan for the 4th of February was completed and a really good ShefLUG meeting was in prospect once again.
We thought it was best to start the weekends proceedings with some sort of social occasion. We found out that both Megan Larko and Alan Cox would be around for Friday night which was the 3rd of February. After some discussion we decided that we might as well take everyone along to Casanova's Italian restaurant at Crookes in Sheffield. This is a great place for a night out at any time. We got there for about 8 o'clock and left at about 11 o'clock. Something like ten people had a really good night out. Much fun was had by all and some good conversation was to be seen in progress about the subject of open source software. For some reason Megan sat next to Alan and from what we saw of it there wasn't much of a dull moment all night. Meanwhile I wandered around with a camera and made myself generally useful.
On the morning of the 4th of February I arrived at the University of Sheffield Department of Engineering to find Mike Diprose busily sorting through a small pile of danish pastries and making sure that the coffee was pouring properly. One or two other people were around but we didn't really see a crowd until about 10.30 a.m. Alan Cox started to talk in front of a crowd of about 100 people at 10.40 and finished at 11.35. The question and answer session was a good one. It went on for some time. There was a good bit of applause from the audience at the end of Alan's lecture. Megan finally got to give her first presentation of the day at about 12.00 midday. She finished at 12.20 having completely knocked out the crowd with her excellent presentation skills. The contents of her talk were also mind numbingly incredible. No one quite knew whether to stand up or sit down at the end of it. They did applaud and they did ask questions. It was so good that some of them came over to the afternoon session just to see it once again. Maybe we can ask her to come back at some time.
At about 1 o'clock we trooped over to the local Crucible theatre for lunch. The Crucible has a really good cafe where you can get hold of a good sandwich or similar at a sensible price. After that at about 13.45 we wandered across the road to floor 9 of the Howard building at Sheffield Hallam University. Room 943 on the top floor probably hasn't been as full as that for a long while. About 26 people arrived for what promised to be a really good ShefLUG meeting. And, it was. Probably one of the best we have seen for a while. Megan went into some detail of her work at NASA Goddard starting at about 14.10 and finishing at about 15.45. It devastated most of us and I don't think I saw Alan Cox look in the slightest bit disinterested at any time throughout the whole afternoon. We've seen some system admins and then we've seen some. But, to be honest, none of them were anything like as incredible as Megan is once she gets started on something.
At 17.00 we packed up and went across the road to the East Ocean Seafood cafe which is a popular place where one can get hold of a good bento box. A great time was had by all. We look forward to our March meeting and the prospect of seeing Dr. Owen le Blanc from Manchester Computing Centre and ManLUG in action once again. Hope we see you there.
Richard
www.sheflug.co.uk
We thought it was best to start the weekends proceedings with some sort of social occasion. We found out that both Megan Larko and Alan Cox would be around for Friday night which was the 3rd of February. After some discussion we decided that we might as well take everyone along to Casanova's Italian restaurant at Crookes in Sheffield. This is a great place for a night out at any time. We got there for about 8 o'clock and left at about 11 o'clock. Something like ten people had a really good night out. Much fun was had by all and some good conversation was to be seen in progress about the subject of open source software. For some reason Megan sat next to Alan and from what we saw of it there wasn't much of a dull moment all night. Meanwhile I wandered around with a camera and made myself generally useful.
On the morning of the 4th of February I arrived at the University of Sheffield Department of Engineering to find Mike Diprose busily sorting through a small pile of danish pastries and making sure that the coffee was pouring properly. One or two other people were around but we didn't really see a crowd until about 10.30 a.m. Alan Cox started to talk in front of a crowd of about 100 people at 10.40 and finished at 11.35. The question and answer session was a good one. It went on for some time. There was a good bit of applause from the audience at the end of Alan's lecture. Megan finally got to give her first presentation of the day at about 12.00 midday. She finished at 12.20 having completely knocked out the crowd with her excellent presentation skills. The contents of her talk were also mind numbingly incredible. No one quite knew whether to stand up or sit down at the end of it. They did applaud and they did ask questions. It was so good that some of them came over to the afternoon session just to see it once again. Maybe we can ask her to come back at some time.
At about 1 o'clock we trooped over to the local Crucible theatre for lunch. The Crucible has a really good cafe where you can get hold of a good sandwich or similar at a sensible price. After that at about 13.45 we wandered across the road to floor 9 of the Howard building at Sheffield Hallam University. Room 943 on the top floor probably hasn't been as full as that for a long while. About 26 people arrived for what promised to be a really good ShefLUG meeting. And, it was. Probably one of the best we have seen for a while. Megan went into some detail of her work at NASA Goddard starting at about 14.10 and finishing at about 15.45. It devastated most of us and I don't think I saw Alan Cox look in the slightest bit disinterested at any time throughout the whole afternoon. We've seen some system admins and then we've seen some. But, to be honest, none of them were anything like as incredible as Megan is once she gets started on something.
At 17.00 we packed up and went across the road to the East Ocean Seafood cafe which is a popular place where one can get hold of a good bento box. A great time was had by all. We look forward to our March meeting and the prospect of seeing Dr. Owen le Blanc from Manchester Computing Centre and ManLUG in action once again. Hope we see you there.
Richard
www.sheflug.co.uk