April 1999 - main

IMPORTANT: New mailing list details
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 10 Apr '99

10 Apr '99

* From: "Martyn B. Drake" <martyn(a)drake.org.uk> Hi folks, The folk at lug.org.uk have fixed the earlier problem - they didn't set the right permissions on the files :) Anyway, to subscribe to the new discussion list, simply do the following:- 1. Send a message to majordomo(a)lists.lug.org.uk with the "subscribe anglian" (without quotes) in the body of the message. 2. Await an answer from the Majordomo server (usually 5 secs or so for it to be processed) which will ask for confirmation of your subscription. Follow the instructions within the message to confirm subscription. 3. You're now subscribed! To send messages to the list, address all mail to anglian(a)lists.lug.org.uk. You may want to filter on [anglian] within your respective email clients so that the resulting messages don't mess up your Inbox. I'm not sure whether there is a digest facility with this list, but I should know soon. Any problems? Email me and I'll do my best to help. M. [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Re: [ALUG] Status of alug.lug.org.uk subdomain and mailing list..
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 10 Apr '99

10 Apr '99

* From: "Martyn B. Drake" <martyn(a)drake.org.uk> Spelling mistakes aside, we're now listed on the main www.lug.org.uk site. M. ----- Original Message ----- From: <alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk> To: <alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk> Sent: Saturday, April 10, 1999 4:38 PM Subject: [ALUG] Status of alug.lug.org.uk subdomain and mailing list.. * From: "Martyn B. Drake" <martyn(a)drake.org.uk> I've finally got confirmation that www.anglian.lug.org.uk has come through. I've just gotten around to setting up the web space for that, so it's already for someone to upload their stuff. [ snipped ] [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Things to do...
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 09 Apr '99

09 Apr '99

* From: Andrew Savory <A.Savory(a)uea.ac.uk> Hi all, I've thrown together some VERY basic web pages,take a peek at: http://www.cpc.uea.ac.uk/alug/ These are just an idea of a framework that we could all knock into shape. On the website front, I agree anglian.lug.org.uk is the right thing to do. I think we could also do with throwing together some form of press release that we can send out to all the local papers; something that gives them enough background info to give us a bit of free advertising. Before we do any mainstream advertising, however, I think we need to make a firm decision on venue/date for the first meeting. I've not heard any major dissent, so do we go for some time over Sat 1st/Sun 2nd/Mon 3rd May? If no-one else is silly enough to volunteer, I'll sign up to co-ordinate the first meeting. I'll also happily stump up the 47$ to make us a member of "Groups of Linux Users Everywhere" (GLUE - http://www.ssc.com/glue/) in the hopes of getting some freebies to give away at the first meeting. Does this seem like a good idea? Andrew. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A.Savory(a)uea.ac.uk - 01603 593473 - ITCS, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Why we should not form a committee or a single website
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 09 Apr '99

09 Apr '99

* From: Mark J Ray <h089(a)uea.ac.uk> WARNING: LONGISH MESSAGE FOLLOWS. SUMMARY: There is a LUG HOWTO; We've nearly done the setting-up tasks suggested; Request comments on: The ALUG web site: a WWWVL-ish model? http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/~h089/alug/template.html Intentional lack of a committee Limitation of the use of the ALUG name/voice Recognition of donations I've emailed Northants and Cambs. MESSAGE FOLLOWS Hi all I've just been looking through the LUG HOWTO (yes, it does exist! What was I saying on uk.comp.os.linux about the excellent documentation for Linux?) and I came across the following to-do list for setting up a LUG. Thought you may like to review it with me: DONE * Determine the nearest pre-existing LUG (Cambridge and Northants) DONE * Announce your intentions on comp.os.linux.announce and on an appropriate regional hierarchy (Well, uk.comp.os.linux and uk.local.east-anglia) * Announce your intention wherever computer users are in your area: bookstores, swap meets, cybercafes, colleges and universities, corporations, Internet service providers, etc. * Find Linux-friendly businesses or institutions in your area that may be willing to help you form the LUG Would people be interested in helping in these two? As soon as we've got some meeting details, someone with artistic ability could make a PostScript file of a poster available for the first. I guess the second is happening a bit already, with the nice support people are giving us ;) DONE * Form a mailing list or some means of communication between the people who express an interest in forming a LUG * Ask key people specifically for help in spreading the word about your intention to form a LUG Who do you think they mean? DONE * Solicit space on a Web server to put a few HTML pages together about the group We've more than enough places being offered. More about this a bit later. DONE * Begin looking for a meeting place NEAR * Schedule an initial meeting * Discuss at the initial meeting the goals for the LUG One for the meeting, Andrew! So, as you can see, we're pretty close to target already. The next bit of the list you can go read for yourself. Whereas some goes without saying ("Install Linux for anyone who wants it" etc) and some are really good ideas ("Meet in conjunction with computer shows"), there are some I completely disagree with. See what you think of: * Secure dedicated leadership * Elect formal leadership for the LUG as soon as is practical: some helpful officers might include President, Treasurer, Secretary, [...] Now, I've done this before, in various forms, and most of the time it follows the same predictable route: 25% of the time you get a really good committee and it's a blast for all involved; 25% you get a diabolical committee and it stands a chance of dying; half the time you get an average committee and it continues as it was before. The whole "committee" idea has some fairly major pitfalls to avoid: cliques, irrelevance and legality to name but three. What we're doing at the moment, with the mailing list as the "supreme body" of ALUG, looks like it may work. OK, we have the alug/alug-announce distinction between those people who are actually a working part of the group and those who just want to be kept informed about us, but it allows us to become more or less involved as time permits. We now have a de facto "hostmaster" for our domain, Martyn Drake, and Andrew Savory has agreed to co-ordinate the first meeting. The rest of us are donating things as needed: support, time, ideas, resources. If that's going to continue (I hope so!) and we think that most new members are likely to participate in a similar spirit, then I think we should NOT form a committee. After all, to quote the LUG HOWTO again for what makes Linux unique: This loose structure is not likely to change with regard to Linux as a software project. And it's a good thing, too. Linux works precisely because people are free to come and go as they please I am well aware that not having an organising committee has its weaknesses too. (No-one having time to organise a meeting is actually less of an issue, as there is a bigger pool of potential meetings co-ordinators to draw from.) The main among them are a higher list traffic, as everything is open for discussion by all members, less ability to resolve contentious decisions (as a clear on-list majority is required, else things will fail) and no-one being able to speak on behalf of the group apart from in limited capacities. (Linux avoids this because Linus can speak for it as a whole. We have no "benevolent dictator" and nor should we.) Following on from that last point, I'd like to suggest that regardless of who actually writes and orchestrates the press release announcing our formation, Andrew has to agree to (and put his name to) it, as our "First ALUG Meeting Coordinator". I also propose that anyone who donates anything to ALUG is mentioned on the appropriate bit of the website. Laurie, Martyn, Andrew and Net Communications have also made/are making major contributions to the group so far. I've probably missed someone out there. Right, the website: we seem to be blessed with a number of people willing to create websites, so rather than have to assign the management of the whole site to any one person, I'd like it if _everyone_ who wants to creates a page (or more) about something useful to ALUG. The main website then becomes an index for members own sites, in a WWWVL sort of way. (If you haven't seen the WWWVL, the UK mirror is at http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/VL/ oddly enough.) Just please keep us informed about what you're doing so that we don't duplicate too much work. I've a suggested template available at http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/~h089/alug/template.html -- download it (and alug_bar.gif and alug_logo.jpg) to your own site and use it as a base for your pages. I doubt anyone will care much how much you change, as long as you link back to the ALUG index near the top of each page. So, Andrew, can you change www.cpc.uea.ac.uk/alug/ into the index site for the time being (and keep the list info page and put up a first meeting info page). As soon as www.anglian.lug.org.uk is up, bounce people there and I'll change the template. And finally (at last!), as no-one else told me they have, I'm just emailing Northants and Cambridge LUGs about our first meeting. Now to get some proper work done... Hope you agree with all that ;) -- Mark. Stats Postgrad mailto:M.J.Ray@UEA.ac.uk http://stats.mth.uea.ac.uk/ UEA Norwich UK mailto:markj@stu.uea.ac.uk http://www.stu.uea.ac.uk/ My Windows unders~1 long filena~1, and yours? (r0gi(a)chat.ru) [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Mailing list created
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 09 Apr '99

09 Apr '99

* From: Mark J Ray <h089(a)uea.ac.uk> Argh. Just found I did a typo in my message, so it bounced horribly because I'm not a list member... Hi everyone, Thanks for your interest in the Anglian Linux User Group. This email list has been set up for general discussion about ALUG. Please check that this is what appears in your from line, else you can't send to this list: laurie(a)brownowl.com daniel(a)capricorn1.demon.co.uk A.J.Savory(a)uea.ac.uk Paul.Russell(a)uea.ac.uk W.B.Hill(a)uea.ac.uk eric(a)sponsystems.freeserve.co.uk livia(a)neosaur.demon.co.uk h089(a)uea.ac.uk D.Casal(a)uea.ac.uk phil(a)marcmstr.demon.co.uk dermot.musgrove(a)virgin.net richard(a)mieussy.freeserve.co.uk jg(a)cyberstorm.demon.co.uk newspost(a)ttfn35.freeserve.co.uk raph(a)panache.demon.co.uk martyn(a)drake.org.uk The welcome message for this list is: * A N G L I A N L I N U X U S E R G R O U P * This is the general discussion list alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk. We welcome all help in organising the ALUG. Hopefully, this will be the main place for that. While we are not against general Linux discussion, the newsgroup uk.comp.os.linux may be more helpful/appropriate. If you wish to get announcements of events only, please leave this list by sending "unsubscribe" in the subject line to this list and send "subscribe" in the subject line to alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk, without the quotes, of course. All messages sent to the announcements list are also sent to this list by default. ---END--- Hopefully, this list will do most of the event organising, as who has free time will doubtless vary from month to month. As some of you may know, Laurie has offered Melton Grange, Suffolk, www.meltongrange.co.uk, for the first meeting. Is May Day weekend a possibility? If we had it on the Sunday, I could catch the Jazz before, perhaps ;) Anyway, I think we need people to do these tasks pretty urgently: Make an information website Someone to tell the various places that our new LUG exists Someone to co-ordinate the first meeting Other stuff I haven't thought of Martyn has suggested we get someone from a company using Linux to come and give a talk. I believe he's making enquiries. I suggest we get machines set up with the latest Gnome, KDE and WM there for people to have a look at, if people would volunteer, along with the obligatory install CDs... As ever, it's over to you. I'll help when I can. -- Mark. Stats Postgrad mailto:M.J.Ray@UEA.ac.uk http://stats.mth.uea.ac.uk/ UEA Norwich UK mailto:markj@stu.uea.ac.uk http://www.stu.uea.ac.uk/ "Windows is a binary timebomb" -- jclayton [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Description for the majordomo list..
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 09 Apr '99

09 Apr '99

* From: "Martyn B. Drake" <martyn(a)drake.org.uk> Hi, In preperation of the new mailing list which is currently being arranged through the services of lug.org.uk, I was wondering how best to describe the list. Can anybody offer any suggestions for what should be used for when people send an "info <anglian>" command to the majordomo server? Should have the web space set-up by the weekend (possibly Monday if not) and the majordomo list should follow shortly after that. M. [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Re: [ALUG] Mailing list created
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 08 Apr '99

08 Apr '99

* From: "ERiC" <eric(a)sponsystems.freeserve.co.uk> Helloo Flying visit but I thought you'd wanna know I'm alive ; ) Good on ya Mark for getting this lot started. Oops, my boss is shouting again... Cheers ERiC [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Subdomain applied for..
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 08 Apr '99

08 Apr '99

* From: "Martyn B. Drake" <martyn(a)drake.org.uk> I've now applied to lug.org.uk for the subdomain of anglian.lug.org.uk - hopefully I should hear from someone soon and I will then set-up the appropriate web space and email forwarding on the mail server. You will have to put up with a "hosted by Net Communications" icon somewhere on the pages, but we'll have access to comprehensive statistics, plenty of bandwidth and resources to maintain the site. More news as I get it.. M. [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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Sending mail to this list
by alug＠stu.uea.ac.uk 07 Apr '99

07 Apr '99

You may send mail to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk only if you are subscribed to the list. To subscribe, send a message to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk with the Subject set to 'subscribe'. [ This email came to you via the Anglian Linux User Group list ] [ If you only wish to recieve event announcements, email the ] [ SUBJECT of "unsubscribe" to this list and "subscribe" to ] [ alug-announce(a)stu.uea.ac.uk -- We do need your support, tho' ]

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