[NCLUG] Speakers for 2007/2008?

[Chad Perrin]

On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 01:52:03AM -0600, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> It's getting time to start looking for more speakers for the NCLUG
> meetings.  Let me ask a few questions:
> 
>    Does anyone have anything they'd like to speak on, or know someone they
>    think would be good to speak to NCLUG?  Any sort of a technical
>    presentation related to Linux specifically or computing in general would
>    probably go over well.
> 
>    Are there any presenters in particular we should invite back?

Probably, but I have no specifics in mind at the moment.


> 
>    What do people think of the periodic "lightning talks" sort of evenings
>    we have periodically?  These are scheduled around twice a year with the
>    intention to give people 5 or 10 minutes to talk about what they're
>    doing.  Do you like watching them?  Would you like to talk about
>    something you've done at one of them?

I think they're great.  I don't think they should replace the longer
presentations, but they should not be eliminated either.


> 
> That said, anyone have any comments on the selection of speakers we've had?

In general, it has been great.  There were a couple topics that didn't
interest me personally as much as others, but these were simply topics
not exactly in my areas of interest.  I didn't think they were actually
*bad* topics.


> 
> Previously, when I asked, Evelyn threw out these suggestions.  I'd like to
> re-visit them:
> 
> >Virtualization - it seems like the technology is changing quickly and
> >becoming more widely deployed. I'd especially like to hear about using
> >virtualization in a non-data-center environment, or 'how do I get rid of 3
> >servers in my basement?'
> 
> The landscape has changed a bit since I last presented on this.  However,
> I'm pretty Xen and VMWare centric these days, and almost all of it in the
> data-center.  It would be nice if we could have someone with some
> practical experience with OpenVZ or similar.

I'd actually like to see a lot of stuff presented in the context of both
home and datacenter use -- and anything in between.  A sort of general
purpose treatment of a subject with comments on how it differs between
various circumstances seems more valuable to me than a presentation that
focuses on a specific set of circumstances to the exclusion of others.


> 
> >Security - what's changed on the threat scene? what is good security
> >practice?
> 
> This might be something that Kevin could address in a future talk.  Anyone
> else have a candidate around here to give a talk like this?

That's pretty general.  Maybe I could address some security-related
matters, if I had some idea of more specifics for what's desired (so I'd
know whether I'm qualified to address the subject).  I selfishly prefer
being in the audience, however, where I'm more inclined to learn more
stuff from the experience.


> 
> >Massive Multiplayer Games 
> 
> I really don't know of anyone doing this sort of thing around here under
> Linux.  Any ideas?

Oddly enough, between Lisa and I, we might be able to put something
together for this.  Maybe irc-nick _rockstar could contribute as well.
All three of us have had some success getting World of Warcraft running
on Linux.  I hope to get it running on a FreeBSD machine in the
(relatively) near future, too -- just as soon as I get my desk
reassembled so I have a place for my game machine.

Other things I'd like to see:

  1. I'd like to see more stuff about non-Linux open source OSes -- stuff
  like FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, PC-BSD, Plan 9, and even Haiku.  Others
  as well.  I know it's technically a LUG, but since there aren't any
  specifically "all open source" organizations around here, you guys are
  my surrogate.

  2. As I mentioned in the IRC channel, I'd like to see stuff about print
  layout using tools better suited to the task than word processors and
  spreadsheets, like Scribus and the various LaTeX tools.  I'm usually
  more interested in principles, server software and networking,
  programming, and security than I am in application-level stuff, but
  some of the more useful productivity-enhancing applications are on my
  list of things I'd like to see as well.  Also, perhaps ironically in
  some sense, I'd be pretty keen on a presentation dealing with several
  options for software used to create presentations.  Something like that
  might even induce more people to volunteer for presentations.

  3. On the subject of presentations . . . maybe someone that really
  knows his way around the approrpiate drivers and hardware could address
  the matter of getting a system to work with a projector.  That'd be
  nice to know.

  4. All the sort of stuff I covered very superficially in my list of
  things I tend to prefer over application-based presentations would be
  good.

I think that about wraps it up for now.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
W. Somerset Maugham: "The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for
wit."