Manchester BSD Unix User Group November 7, 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.

Official Website: http://www.bsdgroups.org.uk/manchester/