Gutsy Release / Halloween Party

Zac you suck. Ok, my friend, and client, and owner of Drake Tavern, Zac blew it big time. I should have gone over it one more time with him on Sunday as I know that he is more concerned with the culinary side of things, than the organizational; but geeze. We have been planning this for a month. Him and I directly. I even stopped in Friday afternoon to re-confirm how it was going to go. Dinner at 6:00 for 27 people, followed by party and such at 7:00 pm.

My biggest failure was not making sure he knew to alert his staff, because as a virtual community, some people would not know who was involved in the event. Most of us know each other, but the goal is to get new people involved.

We missed at least two people, and they missed us. I hope there weren't anymore. I deeply apologize. I really wanted to meet the Ubuntero guys and they were the ones we missed. DOH! No excuses.

But, even with all that, as usual, when we get together, for whatever reason, it turns out to be a great event. And we did get new people!!

NJ was there in full support; Joe, Christina, Dave, Bryan and his guest. As always, glad
you crossed the Delaware. Plug was in full force with Lyz, Matthew, Brian, and Alex.
The rowdy young crowd (you guys aren't rowdy). Oh, and Stitch. PACS was there with Me and my wife, Randy and Teddy, Norm, Rodney, Rich G, Kevin, Jaime, Zoie and Ben. A new PACS member stopped by and picked up a Gutsy disk but couldn't stay. MALT was in the house!! That was sweet. Nate, who we met at the LoCo's MALT CVG classroom was at the event. (I think he's hooked). There were the Crowleys; Jack, Molly, and Molly's boyfriend; another awesome catch. And there was another couple who I still don't know, other than the guy had difficulty with the KDE desktop and upgrading. (Funny the stuff we remember) Larry and Marilyn came to support Ubuntu. Larry is an OS/2 user. He recently took the plunge into Ubuntu and has been attending the NTR Monday Classrooms. Larry great to have your experience with the team!

Alex advocated to a regular bar patron. We got Randy's Dell Ubuntu laptop all upgraded and good to go after issues with his Nvidia card after the upgrade (Hmm, zero xorg config). Blame automatix.

Next event: Note to self: Hang the BANNER. Give Lyz fiber optic cable.

Now to what everyone really wants to see; the photos.

Software Freedom, PACS Drama, and Linux Community

Saturday, September 15th, 2007, Software Freedom Day. Probably not Hallmark ready yet, but real important to a certain segment of the population. It is important to me. Even though, I am not as philosophically connected as some people in the movement, I value the community relationships that the movement helps to build and promote.

The timing of the day, the third Saturday in September, makes the day and PACS (Phila Area Computer Society) new season start a no-brainer for a recurring event. I hope that this is the first of many. PACS itself is a group that is trying to find itself. Maybe redefine itself, may be a better phrasing. The grand-daddy of users groups in the Philadelphia Area is starting to look and feel like a Kevorkian patient waiting for Dr. Jack. But hope was on the way. A new President, some new board members, and a new direction. Unfortunately, the new president had to step down, and now hope is on hold. I know that at least myself, and a couple of my friends, that are also members, know the value of the organization, and will do everything possible to keep it viable.

But now to the event. The good stuff. The stuff that is why the organization is too vital a resource to let bureaucracy and ego destroy.

Again, 4:00 am, can't sleep. Nervous and anxious. Chris, the network engineer for the organization, has an immediate family illness to deal with. He says he'll stop by for a few hours and help setup. I try to let him know that he has to take care of his family first; I am sure he knows this; but I just wanted to let him know that everyone would understand if he couldn't make it. Chris and his son are there at 7:30am, with 2 new awesome banners. One for the PA Ubuntu LoCo, and one for PACS. Amazing. Thank you Chris and Jason. Hope everything gets back to normal soon. Ronn Homer, the new and former President was there at 7:30am also. Let the games begin.

Start setting up, and Randy and Teddy show up with the TTCS cd's and more OpenCd's too. Wireless is setup, banners are flying, and my stuff is in the cafe. 8:00am and the Security Sig gets started, and there seems to be an issue at the membership table. Let me see if I can help.

Apparently the Commodore Sig that was discontinued wanted to return the PACS funded equipment that they had accumulated throughout the years. I could feel the tension, and rather than have it escalate, I offered to take the stuff and offer it to people; and get rid of it if no one wanted it. Not a good start, but what the heck. Better than a geek brawl. Three handtruck loads later, a complete Commodore 128 system, software, peripherals and a Commodore 64 Color computer were taking up space on two tables in the cafe. Well at least that is done. Commodore Sig guy leaves, all seems well; back to the membership table for some new member schmoozing and map assistance. OK, some people arrive to help with the membership table, now to setup some of my stuff. Not so quick, a quick question, maybe you can help with....(Insert any stupid topic here). Then Scott, my new neighbor, who I told about the event shows up. Nice. Get him a Sig list and a map, unfortunately, no time to chat, have some stuff I would like to setup, and actually wanted to get to Security Sig. No such luck. Oh well, that's the price of fame.

Back to the table to setup, wait, a quick question, maybe you can help with ....(Insert any stupid topic here); not this time, sorry, I really have to get setup; come back a little later, and I'll see if I can help you. Geeze, this is getting ridiculous. Matt shows up. Awesome. Met Matt and his family at the PA Ubuntu LoCo Bar-B-Que. He offered to do a MythTv demo and we took him up on it. Then James and Matt from PLUG arrived to setup their Kiosk Demo. Nice, everything moving along. Crowd seems like a normal PACS crowd, no throngs of new people. That's alright, it's still early. Sort of. Elevenish, hmm, where are the Jersey people, Joe, Christina, Bryan, and main presenter Dave. They have my phone number, and Joe and Christina have been here before; relax. They're here.

Lyz and Mike arrive, with loads of equipment and start to setup Michael's Audacity Demo.
Ronn Homer resigns as President. Dave does the main presentation. 70 people. Nice. While Dave is presenting, I finish the setup for afterwards and try to eat something. Oh yeah, and of course, coffee, cigarettes, and Red Bull.

Randy mans the free cd table after the presentation, and gives out 62 TTCS cd's and 62 OpenCd's. Lyz and Michael handle the Ubuntu cd's. The Mac Fsuite cd's that Cindy, my wife burnt, are over by my PPC setup. Actually, only the iBook was setup, which isn't really a setup, just turned on, I never had the opportunity to setup the Blue & White G3. Doesn't even matter, that's what's great about Macs, they just look so damn good people don't even know or care if they work. For reference its a G3 with Xubuntu installed that did work in May. Alex shows up and starts to help with the crowd. Of course Norm and Rich, the Pacslinux guys were helping and Kevin and family show up. Nice. And Kevin has the Sony 200 cd changer with him. Everybody has been wanting to see that. Joe T, Bryan, Dave and Mike B check the Sony out. I know they like it. A good hour and a half of demos and such. Great job again. Let them eat cake.

Out to the van, and bring in the 'Thank You' cakes for all the volunteers from outside groups who came and did awesome demos for the PACS crowd. Probably the best part of the day. The Linux community, coming together, to show off their systems and what they can do. All different groups freely giving their time and talents. WOW. PLUG, PA Ubuntu LoCo, NJ Ubuntu LoCo, and PacsLinux all supporting this event. A little discussion of the future for all of the different groups and their various agendas, such as the PA & NJ Ubuntu LoCo's Gutsy Release Party Plans, Matts MythTv Installfest Phase One, the aKaDEmy Convention, and the possibility of having it in Philadelphia, and the NJ Ubuntu LoCo's Farmers Market Outing.

All in all a good day. Despite the efforts of Randy and his massive flyering, we did not get throngs of new visitors. But I am sure that his work was not in vain. I am an advocate of advertising and promotion, anytime your name is out there and seen, it is a good thing. Sowing the seeds is the only way that a harvest can happen. Great job planting seeds Randy, I am sure this year's PACS crop will show that your efforts were worthwhile.

The family that FOSS's together....

Well, we did it. Yesterday, my wife Cindy and I went around posting Software Freedom Day flyers at local colleges and universities.

After yesterday morning's discussion about the state of women in Ubuntu, we both thought it very appropriate to place a flyer on that bulletin board at La Salle University.

It was a nice way to spend some time together on a Saturday. We posted flyers at La Salle, then Arcadia. At Arcadia, where our oldest daughter Lisa is going for her Master's Degree in English Lit. Education, we took some time to check out the campus and its magnificent buildings.

After those two, we took a break for dinner at the Inn Flight in Abington and headed down to Penn State Abington campus. From there to Blockbuster to return some DVD's and pick up "Pirates of Silicon Valley". Not that good, but interesting none-the-less. After Blockbuster we headed to Temple Ambler Campus and posted more flyers.

Nice day. 50 flyers posted. We then headed home so Cindy could complete burning the Mac 'Freesmug' Fsuite cd and get started on burning 50 more OpenCds. I worked on my 'email the local colleges' project and watched the dvd.

Finished the emails earlier today. Now dealing with work issues.

Big week ahead. Hope to see everyone at Software Freedom Day at PACS!

August is now FULL of EVENTS

Wow. I am involved with some very active groups. PACS, PA LoCo, and the NJ LoCo.

At PACS we are actively promoting the Software Freedom Day coming up Saturday September 15th. This is an important event for an organization that is at a crossroads. When it was started, in 1976, PACS was the only game in town, and reigned supreme as the place to be if you were into computers in the Philadelphia area. But things that don't change; die. Everything is always in motion and failure to recognize and react is the downfall of many organizations, businesses and relationships.

The PA Ubuntu LoCo is having our BBQ, August 11th, at Norristown Farm Park. This will be nice, to get together with the people that we are normally online with.
What's even better is that we can hang out without having to 'do' an event. My previous meetings with Alex and Lyz were so short. We were in the same place for a long time, but the event(s) took precedence and didn't really allow any time for social interaction. The BBQ will change that, the whole event is about us being social. Cool.
The MALT CVG LTSP Project is finally taking off. Kevin has worked his ass off. Spent months lobbying, trash picking the server and setting it up. I have provided moral support and been a cheerleader. I am happy to see all of his hard work payoff and now the actual project can begin.

And finally, the NJ Ubuntu LoCo is having their BBQ on August 11th also. Due to my commitments in PA I won't be able to attend, but will provide items for their event also. I will miss not being able to attend. I have only met some of the people, other then Joe and Christina, one time, at their Installfest. They were passionate and fascinating. Hell, I've only met Joe and Christina twice, but they feel like family. Joe is a surrogate PA LoCo guy and Christina is a Christian Brothers' Girl with PA roots.

Just wasted an hour and a half trying to promote SFD at the Hatboro Auto Show. Made 900 business card size announcements and planned on handing them out to the crowd. Didn't really work. Actually, didn't work at all. Wish I would have flyered the town before the show and just let the flyers do the work. Didn't have time to do it. Lost an opportunity. Saw some nice cars though!

Gave out 10 announcements to Geek Boy Press, an artist with a shop (gallery) in Hatboro. Anime/Cartoon Type characters.

890 announcements and 60 flyers left to post. Emails to send out to all the local colleges, radio, tv and cable outlets. I will do a little promotion each day until Sept 15th. Slow and steady wins the race.

I do wish some people would help with promotion, get out to Mom and Pop computer stores, post flyers, send some emails. Thanks Randy, keep up the flyering!

LoCo - PACS - PacsLinux - All Coming Together

Wow. I have been busy. Posting flyers to help the NJ Ubuntu LoCo with their upcoming INSTALLFEST, Saturday June 30 at the Cherry Hill Library.

http://nj.ubuntu-us.org/node/5

Flyers are posted, but still need to post more this week, hopefully will get to Rutgers - Camden, and some locations in Marlton and Haddonfield.

Trying to get a speaker for the PACS meeting September 15, 2007. Working with the new and former president has been very productive so far. Ronn Homer, son of one of my talk radio heroes, Evil Irv Homer, is the PACS president for the upcoming year. Ronn is dedicated and wants to promote and try to revitalize the organization which has lost some membership recently.

Thanks to Joe Terranova, Kevin, Lyz, Alex, and the whole PacsLinux gang, and the recent presentation, PACS is very interested in working with the Ubuntu-Pennsylvania LoCo on a full-time basis. Hopefully, in the Monday night IRC chat, PacsLinux will approve David Harding as a potential speaker for the Software Freedom Day event, Saturday September 15, 2007.

Ronn has given me the go ahead to book the speaker for the PACS event for SFD, but since I brought it up to the group first, I think a consensus is the right way to go. Someone else may have found a speaker also.

I have been a voyeur of David's stuff for awhile now. I enjoy the CHLUG mailing list immensely. Dave is very active in the mailing list and CHLUG, and the recaps of their meetings and presentations are great. I just wish that they weren't so late on Friday night. I am actually content with the recaps after the fact. I really don't have a choice, actually I do have a choice, but I don't want a divorce, so I will continue to be a voyeur.

And to add to all of this, The Ubuntu Community Council finally set a date for their next meeting. I had been waiting for this date to support Joe Terranova, who added himself to the agenda for membership.

+1 Terranova

And now the Ubuntu-Pennsylvania LoCo is up for approval on the same date.

Tuesday June 26 at 9:00 am til about 11:00 am is going to be insane.

That's what I have been doing, and looks like I will continue to do.

1) NJ installfest (Last week to promote)

2) PACS Software Freedom Day -
a) Speaker
b) Promotion (More Flyers)
c) Mailing Lists - ntr - malt - have to tap kev as a resource

3) Pacs Linux Software Freedom Day - Demos

4) Offensive Security 101 - Great Course

5) Malt + CVG Project(s) - thank god, a two week reprieve for construction.

Gotta go, I am already behind in my projects.

PACS meeting SUCCESS

Wow! What a fabulous event. I was nervous and excited Friday night as I burnt more cd's. Do we need more ppc, are we going to have enough 7.04 386 live cd's; my mind was racing. The crowd is older, would they be open enough to even consider a different os? Is the G3 going to work as well out in public as it did in my living room. Have to get some sleep, the security sig (my favorite) starts at 8:00 am. HAVE to leave the house early enough to stop at WAWA for caffeine and nicotine. Woke up at 4:00 am, too early, get more sleep. Up again at 6:00; OK lets go. Oh no, the burn on my finger is getting worse; it may be infected; too bad, this is the event of a lifetime. Triple antibiotic cream, gauze, tape it up and start to load the Yoda Van. WAWA, caffeine; thank God (Yoda). Ok fire up Xchat, nobody is talking, maybe they're still sleeping. Pleia2 - writes - YEAH someone is awake. Lamalex awakes, yes the team is coming together. I arrive at PACS. It is 7:50 am, finish coffee, have a cigarette, grab some fliers, tape and scissors, let's go.
Nobody's here. Ok 4 people. WTF. Ok take this opportunity to get some fliers out. Finish with the security sig at 10:00 am. The security sig was very good today, good job Ben. Back to the van to get the G3.
Start the setup in the cafe. The G3 won't boot. WTF^2. Ok relax - set up the ubu iBook and the Toshiba with the faux Satanic Ubu. Reboot the G3, nothing. Check all connections, everything's plugged in; what gives. Reboot while screwing in monitor cable - ahh - the monitor tube - crackles on - G3 boots as it had the previous 2 times except this time the monitor was connected properly. DUH!.
People are around the table and interested! Start the sales pitch. Adrenaline, caffeine, nicotine, and an audience - ecstasy. Joe Terranova arrives with his girlfriend, loaded with pamphlets, cd's, tee-shirts (temporarily) and an Ubuntu BANNER. Sets up on another table. Lamalex arrives, followed closely by Lyz.
I've only met Alex once before and had never met Lyz, but through the Loco interaction it was as if I had known them for awhile. Virtual community is community.
I am very high voltage. I believe Kevin once identified it as spazzy. I am a salesman. I love human interaction, and to connect to people and grab their attention. I am very passionate about all of my endeavours. It's 5 of 12, almost time for the presentation. Kevin arrives; like a ninja, behind us calmly eating lunch. Kevin gets to play with the g3 during the presentation; I think he likes it.
Alex and Lyz setup a table right outside the presentation auditorium and wait to grab people as they leave the auditorium. The presentation's over and the crowd flows right to Alex and Lyz's table and start to DEVOUR the cd's -pamphlets- ubuntu women fliers (mostly men today, who knows). The demo table is next stop, where Kevin, Ben, Randy (pacs member),Rich (Pacs Linux Leader) and Norm (pacs member) help to show off the ubuntu family of products and register people for the installfest. WOW, what an EVENT!
I was talking to Chris, pacs board member, and long time pacs member, and he said HE "HAD NEVER SEEN A PRESENTATION CREATE SUCH A BUZZ".

Great job everyone. I feel part of something that is really special.