Manchester BSD Unix User Group Meeting - 7th November 2006 ========================================================= History ------- The start of my diary entry from last month''s meeting: "The first thing I noticed was her eyes. Actually, that''s a lie: I noticed her pert breasts and perfect bottom long before I noticed her eyes, but I was never going to tell her that - especially as she was a stripper giving me a lap-dance and would probably appreciate a comment about her eyes right about now." Now, I''m not promising any future attendees that the evening will descend into lap-dancing or debauchery of any kind, but we can at least aim for that, eh? In fact, last month was a quiet, amiable affair on the whole. I learnt that Beetham Tower looks a bit like a USB flash drive from Gorton. Pete learnt that The Briton''s Protection is nowhere near Kilburn Building and that Oxford Road is a nice place on a warm evening to walk. Two new attendees learnt we don''t lie when we say it''s a bunch of guys in a pub having a drink and talking Unix-related nonsense. Bob (re-)learnt on the way home about the delights of drunken consumption of Fish''n''Chips. We all learnt Sam is about to start selling MUGSS tickets again soon - and we''re scared. I learnt my diary entries have no bearing on the reality of what actually occurred that day. A lot of learning going on, see? You might even be able to expense the drinks if you attend and put it down as "Continuous Professional Development". What? ----- You might think this is just another GeekUp event. It isn''t - for starters, it''s smaller, half a dozen guys normally. It''s been going longer. It is ostensibly dedicated to BSD Unix, but normally we drift off-topic very easily. We do all know what real ports and what a real /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ looks like though. :-) This month, topics to discuss might include: - FreeBSD virtualisation - I need some. - Openfiler - Amazon EC2 - WTF don''t they support BSD, the gits... - The general resurgence of geekery in Manchester - More Code Golf and the Code Golf meetup on the 11th - I have ?3,000 to spend in January on tech. What do I buy? - Christmas gift wishlists that nobody you love will buy anything from - Why going out drinking in town with your laptop is a bad idea, and will cost you a ?100 in replacement screen parts - Writing a 50,000 word novel in a month (http://www.nanowrimo.org) - The UMIST (sorry, ''Manchester University North Campus'') Beer Festival starting the very next day Where? WHEN? TELL ME! --------------------- We hold our meetings on the first Tuesday of the month at The Briton''s Protection on Great Bridgewater Street. The next meeting is NEXT TUESDAY at 7:30pm. All welcome, although if you''re not into Unix you might just think we''re all a bit weird. If you turn up with a Windows or Linux laptop, we reserve the light to engage in light, mocking banter, but we''ll love you for caring, all the same. Who? ---- Right now, I''m in, and I have a definite ''no'' from a regular attendee. If others could give me an ''aye'' or ''nay'' I''d be grateful.