[Newlug] Linux Meetup Tonight

[rosslarson at gbpackersfan.com]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 1:15:04 +0000 (GMT), \\\"Mike Putnam\\\"
<mike at theputnams.net> wrote:
> It\\\'s also a shame that Jay Pharis couldn\\\'t make it.

Well, since Jay missed such a great meeting, here are some additional notes
from Tim and Ross, the unofficial minute takers during the latter portion
of the meeting:

Jess was our server and served our drinks and pizza in a friendly and
courteous fashion.

Ross suggested that the group consider having an Open source LAN party. 
Possible games are:
World of Padman (http://padworld.myexp.de/),
Tremulous (http://tremulous.net/),
Enemy Territory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfenstein:_Enemy_Territory),
Battle for Wesnoth (http://www.wesnoth.org/), among others.  
We are open to suggestions.
linux-gamers.net just released a liveDVD that might be worth distributing
for a party such as this.  It was released June 9th.

Josh talked about HDTV, but he has already explained it better than I ever
could.
He recommended "Fusion" cards as good HDTV tuner cards with decent linux
driver support.  Looking at the website
(http://www.fusionhdtv.co.kr/ENG/products/), it looks like they are at
version 5 of this card.  Ross mentioned the pchdtv series
(http://www.pchdtv.com/) of cards and the hdhomerun network-attached dual
tuner (http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/products/hdhomerun).
Josh recommended trying Channelmaster brand antennas
(http://www.pctinternational.com/channelmaster/0612/antennas_outdoor.html)
for use as terrestrial HDTV antennas in the area.  He said that the 4228
model was the best.
www.antennaweb.org was brought up as a resource regarding looking up
Over-The-Air HDTV signals in the are---Josh mentioned that the information
might not be 100% accurate in the area.

Tim talked about asterisk.

Mike talked about McMansions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMansion), and
indicated his desire to create an open repository of architectural designs,
licensed under Creative Commons, the GPL, or a similar open format.  

The group talked about different software licenses.  Ryan likes the FreeBSD
license from the point of view of a software developer so that hours of
work aren't given away freely without any compensation.  Ross mentioned
that from the user's point of view, GPL'd applications can better benefit
the end user.

The group discussed Time Warner's announcement that they were going to
start packet shaping.  (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18468495)
It will filter out certain traffic (like Bittorrent and newsgroups) reduce
the bandwidth to those applications and make them go slower.

We are planning to meet again and possibly have a speaker prepare a topic
for presentation in the future.  We are up for volunteers.

I would like to thank Ryan for getting the meeting going again.

Ross

>
> > > * next meeting will be second monday of july (the 9th), same time, same
> > place
> > > * more meetings! locations, regular meeting time, possibility of having
> > a
> > > week night and a weekend meeting. what\\\'s important at this point
in time
> > > is that we continue to meet, build the momentum and group identity.
> > > * put your individual profile, pictures, linux interests, etc. on the
> > > newlug wiki. or remain anonymous. whatever you feel comfortable with.
> > > * ryan will be talking to the host IS/IT contractor about details for
> > wifi
> > > router and internet access.
> > > * pchdtv, mythtv, antennas, stations, and things like that.
> > > * open-source software from sun: openjdk (java). also opensolaris --
> > just
> > > in case the linux kernel gets munged in court by the friendly folk at
> > > microsoft.
> > > * outreach to universities, tech colleges, high schools, to bring more
> > > participants in the lug.
> > > * linux game day
> > > * possible presentation topics for future meetings. anyone want to
> > volunteer?
> > >
> > > I know we talked about a dozen or so other items, but this is all i can
> > > remember on a caffeine-less brain.
> > >
> > > -- TT

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