[GLLUG] more Penguicon thoughts

Dan DeSloover zifferent at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 23 16:18:17 EDT 2007


I agree. Ron and I (from MonroeLUG) went to sign up to help out and were 
told that it wasn't open to people outside of GLLUG. While I completely 
understood the need to not want random con-people watching your 
hardware, recruiting from within other area LUGs can ensure a minimum 
amount of Linux knowledge, and a certain level of  responsibility (which 
can be  verified by the individual LUG leaderships.) Just something to 
think about.

Caleb Cushing wrote:
> I think we should petition for help for computer lounge volunteers 
> from outside of gllug (maybe the other LUGS and UHACC). We have a 
> sizeable group but it make it difficult. especially if your like me 
> and the weekend was your vacation, and you don't care about the refund 
> for serving 6 hours.
>
> I like the Idea of a seperate gaming room. Although I would want it to 
> be a permanent installation for the weekend because the hardware would 
> be too much to set up and tear down every night. We could also take 
> games like Doom 3 (really violent and gory off of our list). another 
> option instead of making gaming completely separate is find a way to 
> partition it off from the rest of the lounge. this would be especially 
> true if we can't get more machines.
>
> On 4/23/07, *Marshal Newrock* <marshal at idealso.com 
> <mailto:marshal at idealso.com>> wrote:
>
>     Overall, the computer lounge was a success.  I think that we should
>     begin planning for next year now, to avoid the last minute rush.  If
>     the first meeting of each month is dedicated to penguicon, that should
>     be sufficient.
>
>     So, my thoughts:
>
>     1) Terminal server.  Once it was up and running, it was working great.
>     However, right before the con, it was updated (just updated, not
>     upgraded to the latest version of ubuntu), which broke it and took
>     several hours of valiant work by Jeff to fix it.
>
>     On a related subject, does anyone know of anything like the load
>     monitor in gkrellm, except multi-column, so we can have nice large
>     graphs of load for each CPU?  If we'd had that, we could have
>     displayed
>     that on the projector.  After all, the terminal server has 8 logical
>     CPU's.
>
>     2) Terminals and related hardware.  More is better.  I'd like a 10%
>     surplus for next year.  If need be, extras can be stored in rooms.  I
>     also wouldn't mind seeing better cabling.  A few seconds tying cables
>     to shorten them would prevent the rat's nest that was at the center of
>     every quad.  It would also make it easier to quickly remove terminals
>     to make room for other machines during installfest if need be.
>
>     3) Burn Unit.  Largely successful.  The biggest area it fell down in,
>     though, was that there's only one.  Somehow, next year, we need to be
>     able to burn several discs at once, whether it's with multiple
>     machines
>     or a single machine.  There's also UI and admin improvements that
>     can be
>     made.  If Clay is agreeable, I think this could become a GLLUG
>     project.
>
>     4) Printing Station.  Once configured to be on the network and talk to
>     the printer, it was pretty good, except that the printer in question
>     does not do network at all well.  Next year, we need to remember to
>     bring parallel printer cables if it's the same printer.
>
>     5) Gaming Station.  There was only one computer there, and it
>     tended to
>     be a babysitting machine.  I'd like to suggest that next year, if
>     we do
>     anything with computer gaming, it's not in the computer lounge.
>     Instead, we could probably get an empty panel room late at night,
>     similar to what Ars Technica got.  If we have 3 or 4 gaming machines,
>     possibly with scheduled games and/or talks on gaming on Linux (both
>     commercial with and without wine, and open-source), I think this would
>     work out a lot better.  Computer gaming would have to be staffed
>     during
>     the entire time that it's open, of course.
>
>     We could use the space that would be otherwise taken up by Computer
>     Gaming to have more terminals or more "bring your own computer" space.
>
>     6) MythTV.  I think this suffered from lack of attention.  It was just
>     kind of sitting there.  Occasional demos/talks would be good.  Due to
>     its need for a CATV connection, it would have to be done in the
>     Computer Lounge.  Stan, do you think you'd be up to this next year?
>
>     7) Installfest.  More successful than we expected.  Made me dislike
>     Ubuntu.  It was very crowded and difficult to identify the techs.  We
>     also had a lack of available table space.  Not having Gaming in the
>     computer lounge, as well as being able to quickly remove terminals,
>     could help with this.
>
>     One thing we may want to do next year is have a stash of snacks and
>     drinks available for techs, and to have the front desk be manned by a
>     tech, with as much rotation as possible.  Running around like a
>     chicken
>     with your head cut off is exhausting.
>
>     8) Staffing.  This is going to be a perpetual problem, and I don't
>     have
>     any quick solutions for this.  Chick did his best, but there was
>     insufficient resources (aka people) and too many random factors (aka
>     too much fun to be had at the con, and subsequent mental crispiness).
>     This will likely be a topic for several Penguicon meetings.  I
>     think we
>     should start asking for volunteers through Penguicon at large.
>
>     That's all for now.
>
>     --
>     Marshal Newrock
>     Ideal Solution, LLC - http://www.idealso.com
>     _______________________________________________
>     linux-user mailing list
>     linux-user at egr.msu.edu <mailto:linux-user at egr.msu.edu>
>     http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Caleb Cushing
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-user mailing list
> linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
>   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/public/linux-user/attachments/20070423/cfd09099/attachment-0001.html


More information about the linux-user mailing list