From:    Ken D'Ambrosio
To:    gnhlug-discuss
Subject:    New meeting time for GNHLUG/MerriLUG/Nashua
Date:    Mon, 14 Mar 2005 11:16:42 -0500

[And this time, I'll even send it from an address the listserv knows. sigh Please excuse if you get a duplicate.]

Hello! Below is the e-mail I've been trying to send out for some time; sadly, I wanted to include a schedule of upcoming meeting topics/speakers, but -- ah, the naivete -- I now know that such things require substantial bulldogging to accomplish. So, below is a TENTATIVE list of meeting topics, and anyone who's interested in giving chats for ones not already taken are implored to contact me. Anyway, back to your regularly-scheduled e-mail:

Howdy, all. Just wanted to let you guys know that, after much debate, consideration, and checking of calendars, it looks like the third Thursday of each month is the way to fly. I'm sure that that'll conflict with someone... so I'm sorry. BUT, it seems to conflict with the minimum number of people who responded, and -- unlike the fourth week of the month -- won't conflict with year-end holidays. [Thanksgiving's the FOURTH Thursday of November; I checked.] I've also firmed things up with Martha's, and they're glad to have us back.

Here's the current schedule for upcoming meetings:

• March 17 (that's this coming Thursday):
  • General LUGness. Come as you are, and we'll discuss the why's, wherefores, and so forth. See the end of this e-mail for a (very) rough idea of how the structure of meetings will go.

• April 21: MythTV (an open-source, Linux-based TiVo-like system)
  • I've got some goodies from the EFF for this, and would invite anyone who's set up a system to tell us how it works. Are enough people familiar with it that we'd consider having some sort of more formal installfest on a weekend?

• May 19: Security.
  • I'd like to do something on security, if anyone's willing to give a discussion about it. Often enough, I see comments to the effect that security implemented without knowing what you're doing isn't really security... but security, let's be honest, isn't trivial to implement with Linux. If anyone would care to discuss their favorite firewall front-ends, or what-have-you, I'd be very interested.

• June 16: WINE (www.winehq.com -- a WINdows Emulator)
  • Ira Krakow, who helped out at the GNHLUG booth at LinuxWorld, has kindly offered chat up WINE. For those that haven't used it, it does Windows emulation... kinda. It has a long and storied history, and can be interesting to get running. Ira's writing a book aoubt WINE, and I'd be very interested to hear what he has to say. Bring your questions, or your successes!

• July 21: New user meeting!
  • Meet and greet. New users are -always- welcome, of course, but one theme expressed at our previous meeting in February was that we should have an occasional meeting where new users, and their concerns -- and perhaps even their systems, if they're willing to lug 'em in -- are the focus.

• Aug 18: IP (not the networking kind) issues, both historical and contemporary.
  • I hope to be able to drag a specific speaker in for this that I met at the GNHLUG booth at LinuxWorld, but haven't been able to firm up a date.

Generally speaking, we usually get together at 6:00 p.m. at Martha's for some chow; this is entirely informal, and everyone is welcome to attend, or skip, as they see fit. Around 7:00, we filter up to one of Martha's function rooms, where a more formal meeting occurs; we'll have a Q&A time, and usually some topic of discussion for us to expound on. New users/list lurkers are invited to make themselves known; I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm terrible with faces and names, so please feel free to introduce yourself even if you aren't new -- given the sporadic attendance, it's likely you'll be new to at least a fair chunk of the folks.

My next notifications of upcoming meetings, I promise, will be with a bit more advance warning. Trying to fit everything together for an initial schedule was a bit on the daunting side.

Thanks!

-Ken