Manchester BSD Unix User Group April 3, 2007

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.

-- Emily Dickinson

'tis true that a little madness in the spring is wholesome unless by "madness" you mean "install Vista".

There has been some consternation suggesting that my recent posts announcing the Manchester BSD UG meetings have been lacking in:

a) Sufficient poetry
b) Sufficient humour
c) Sufficient information

To this, I reply that poetry and humour are not rights, but privileges, bestowed upon ladies and gentlemen of the finest character. In recent months I have noticed a shocking decline in said character of group, e.g.:

a) Not enough people wearing flowers in their buttonholes
b) I saw several people arrive *without a gentleman's hat* the other month.
c) Unpolished shoes. Enough said, I fear.

You are therefore undeserving of poetry and humour and I shall now act merely as custodian of records and guardian of your moral decline. Sounds like fun, no?

However, there is no excuse for a lack of information about these little events:

**** What? ****

The Manchester BSD User Group started in 2002 at the Lass O'Gowrie pub as a means to getting Unix users of a certain character and ability into the same physical space on a regular basis in order to share information, stories and guidance.

Since then it has become a night in the pub populated by sys admins, developers and various tech/geek types of different hues. We no longer laugh quite so hard when somebody mentions Linux or the GPL, and secretly we all want to run Ubuntu on Apple laptops.

A few months ago I proposed a logo for the group which consisted of a unicorn prancing under a rainbow. This was received with much support. It'll either be that, or the source code of 'xargs' manipulated somehow into a fractal image: we are a mass of contradiction and confusion, if nothing else.

The meetings are an informal, relaxed, friendly chat down the pub. There are no talks, no agendas (at least not written down - I have a secret plan to rob everybody, but don't tell them), no schedules or mission statements. It therefore resembles an unorganised rabble, and we're proud of it.

**** When? ****

We always meet on the first Tuesday of each calendar month. The next meeting occurs on the 3rd of April. Likely dates for the next 3 months after that are:

1st May
5th June
3rd July

We typically meet around 7:30pm. Sometimes people turn up earlier, sometimes people don't get there until much later. People drift on when they feel they want to, and in recent months that has been around 9-10pm.

**** Where? ****

One of the public rooms around the back of the bar in:

The Briton's Protection Pub
50 Great Bridgewater Street
Castlefield
Manchester
M1 5LE

+53.475072, -2.247262

Or, in old money:

+53° 28' 30.26", -2° 14' 50.14"

Or in Crown Copyright money:

SJ83599765

If you can't find it with that lot, mail me off-list and you can have my number and I will come and find you somehow.

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