Our July meeting saw a return to the more usual
proceedings where something like ten or more people assembled for our
monthly meeting. The venue was the Country Bookshop which is just
outside Bakewell where the old Hassop rail station used to be.
The British summer did it's usual thing
.
Occasional showers with some sun. This didn't put anyone
off. A good time was had by all as we discussed the recent issues
and what may or may not be coming up in the months ahead.
The day started early on the 9.30 a.m 240 bus from Sheffield saw Ben Fowler from WYlug and myself leave for Bakewell engaged in a long and meandering discussion about network security issues. This must have dragged on for more than eight hours during the course of the day and eventually involved all of us having a chat about IPF and iptables. An early arrival from Chesterfield was asking about problems with his own PC at 11.00 whilst Ben and myself tried to get some coffee and something else to keep ourselves awake. His was running slow. Not Ben's, the other fella from Chesterfield. We thought it might be an IRQ or swap file problem. We were hoping to sort him out in the afternoon but for some reason he declined and left at around 16.00. Ben brought his Macintosh with him which in his case uses the Gnome desktop and related components.
Although the official starting time for the meeting is at about 13.00 and has been for more than five years now most people start to arrive from 13.30 onwards. The usual suspects began to wander in through the door and we slowly but surely declared the meeting open. Rob Keeling came to see us from Ashbourne once again. Always good to see him around. He was asking questions about printers . Seems like schools based IT technicians never do anything else :) A Russian fella who is trying to find work over here came along and joined in. He was really interested in everything that took place. Hopefully we'll see him again some time. Brett Royles from King Edward VII School very kindly volunteered to bring his 22" monitor along and his 64 bit based Gentoo machine which "really rocks" to put it mildly. Took him some time to find the book shop. He kept on driving around the centre of Bakewell but eventually he found us. Later on Alec Melling arrived. Like most of us he likes the Bakewell venue. Just that for some of us it's a long way to travel. Although, my own argument is that if I can get there on the 240 bus and Ben Fowler can get there from Leeds then it shouldn't be too hard for anyone else to find it.
When we had all assembled we then proceeded to build a wireless network that all of us could use. It worked fine for most us. My brand new SuSE 2.6 kernel wouldn't allow me to use my wireless network card even though the orange and green lights were lit up on the card. Had to use a piece of wire instead. Fortunately someone had brought a conventional ethernet hub along. I was able to use that. Once the network was up we were able to use the internet and do other stuff. One of the lads had installed SuSE 9.1 into his IBM laptop. He was asking about package management. I introduced him to Fou4s for SuSE software. This particular project is growing in popularity. Not quite as sophisticated as apt-get on the Debian distro but we have seen some big improvements and much reliability in recent months. Best to watch this space !
It was a great meeting. Everyone who has been to our Bakewell sessions has said that they like to go there. A day out in the country makes for some good entertainment. Looks like our August meeting will take place at the Country Bookshop as well. Please do come along if you have the time. Keep your eye on our meetings page for more info about where and when.
Richard
www.sheflug.co.uk
.
Occasional showers with some sun. This didn't put anyone
off. A good time was had by all as we discussed the recent issues
and what may or may not be coming up in the months ahead.The day started early on the 9.30 a.m 240 bus from Sheffield saw Ben Fowler from WYlug and myself leave for Bakewell engaged in a long and meandering discussion about network security issues. This must have dragged on for more than eight hours during the course of the day and eventually involved all of us having a chat about IPF and iptables. An early arrival from Chesterfield was asking about problems with his own PC at 11.00 whilst Ben and myself tried to get some coffee and something else to keep ourselves awake. His was running slow. Not Ben's, the other fella from Chesterfield. We thought it might be an IRQ or swap file problem. We were hoping to sort him out in the afternoon but for some reason he declined and left at around 16.00. Ben brought his Macintosh with him which in his case uses the Gnome desktop and related components.
Although the official starting time for the meeting is at about 13.00 and has been for more than five years now most people start to arrive from 13.30 onwards. The usual suspects began to wander in through the door and we slowly but surely declared the meeting open. Rob Keeling came to see us from Ashbourne once again. Always good to see him around. He was asking questions about printers . Seems like schools based IT technicians never do anything else :) A Russian fella who is trying to find work over here came along and joined in. He was really interested in everything that took place. Hopefully we'll see him again some time. Brett Royles from King Edward VII School very kindly volunteered to bring his 22" monitor along and his 64 bit based Gentoo machine which "really rocks" to put it mildly. Took him some time to find the book shop. He kept on driving around the centre of Bakewell but eventually he found us. Later on Alec Melling arrived. Like most of us he likes the Bakewell venue. Just that for some of us it's a long way to travel. Although, my own argument is that if I can get there on the 240 bus and Ben Fowler can get there from Leeds then it shouldn't be too hard for anyone else to find it.
When we had all assembled we then proceeded to build a wireless network that all of us could use. It worked fine for most us. My brand new SuSE 2.6 kernel wouldn't allow me to use my wireless network card even though the orange and green lights were lit up on the card. Had to use a piece of wire instead. Fortunately someone had brought a conventional ethernet hub along. I was able to use that. Once the network was up we were able to use the internet and do other stuff. One of the lads had installed SuSE 9.1 into his IBM laptop. He was asking about package management. I introduced him to Fou4s for SuSE software. This particular project is growing in popularity. Not quite as sophisticated as apt-get on the Debian distro but we have seen some big improvements and much reliability in recent months. Best to watch this space !
It was a great meeting. Everyone who has been to our Bakewell sessions has said that they like to go there. A day out in the country makes for some good entertainment. Looks like our August meeting will take place at the Country Bookshop as well. Please do come along if you have the time. Keep your eye on our meetings page for more info about where and when.
Richard
www.sheflug.co.uk