Open-source enthusiasts in Kingston, Ontario

Monthly archives for June, 2011

Meeting Topics

Jun16
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Ahmad Khayyat

In our fourth meeting, we agreed to focus each meeting on a particular topic.

The motivation behind this meeting format is to:

  • Avoid jumping prematurely from one topic to another in one meeting, and give every topic we start a proper coverage.
  • Avoid revisiting the same topic(s) repeatedly in multiple meetings.
  • Have something specific to look forward to in an upcoming meeting, and perhaps, if someone is sufficiently motivated, research the topic before the meeting.
  • Give everyone a uninterrupted chance to showcase their particular interests.

A member can, and is encouraged to, reserve a meeting for a topic of their choosing, by posting to the group’s mailing list. Include the topic you would like to present, and the meeting number, for example, the sixth meeting.

A topic presentation is highly informal. Simply put, your topic presentation is your chance to talk about something you enjoy, enjoy talking about, and would like to share with the rest of us. Show us the things that get you excited in the open-source world.

Posted in News

/var/log/meeting.4

Jun16
2011 1 Comment Written by Ahmad Khayyat

We would like to welcome our newest two members: Ian and Greg, who joined us during this meeting.

This meeting witnessed the inevitable. Emacs came up, along with all the famous quotes floating around it, and a short brainstorm for the things that you can do with it (a more practical endeavor would have been the things you cannot do with it). TRAMP mode and Org Mode were briefly mentioned. Other, relatively insignificant, topics entertained in the midst of our chit chats include, but not limited to:

  • IPv6, which proved to be a topic we knew little about.
  • backup solutions, such as rsync, rdiff-backup, network storage appliances, and a few online services.
  • Electronic design software for Linux (PCB layout and friends).
  • Unison, which keeps coming up almost every meeting!
  • Setting up game servers, which brought up YAML, JSON, and XML markup languages.
  • Programming for Infiniband interfaces, compared to MPI and its modern alternatives (high-performance and distributed computing).

We also agreed to give the “topic per meeting” format another run. Every member would reserve a meeting (via the mailing list) for a topic they are willing to present, informally, for five to ten minutes, which can then drive the conversation for the rest of the meeting. We emphasize the informality of the presentation. You are not required to, but welcome to, research your topic, and definitely not required to tell us something we do not know. Basically, talk about something you enjoy talking about, above all other considerations.

Finally, this was another fun and enjoyable meeting. We look forward to seeing new members in future meetings.

Posted in Meetings

echo “Fourth Meeting” | wall

Jun08
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Ahmad Khayyat

Announcing our fourth group meeting:

Where: Queen’s Grad Club (Google Map), second floor.
When: Wednesday June 15 7:00 pm.
For reference, here is our Group Calendar.

If you haven’t yet, try running the title of this post in a terminal, subject to the usual disclaimer: it should not cause any damage, but you cannot hold me responsible if, somehow, it does. Though I would be interested to know how it could. By the way, other post titles are either (almost) valid commands or mimic some vital file names on almost every *nix system.

Posted in Meetings