[conspire] giving away Mepis boxes at a LUG installfest

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at earthlink.net):

> I have a bunch of simple boxes that I could bring to an install fest 
> to give away to newbies.  Does anyone think that this is useful?  
> Should I do it?  
> 
> Being a relatively simple end user myself, I have never gone to an 
> installfest. 

Well, you missed a really nice one, yesterday, at SVLUG's new 3rd
Saturday installfest location (a Google building near Shoreline
Amphitheater, in Mountain View).  I dropped in for a short while, just
to see how it was going, and I'd say it's a great venue.  (Yes, they did
provide Internet access.)

I would say that installfest/workshop meetings are _more_ fun for new
users than standard lecture-format meetings, not less -- specifically
because they're participatory and social.  In the early days of SVLUG,
back when it was at the north San Jose Carl's Jr. on First Street, _all_
of the group's events were participatory and social.  That was something
that was in danger of being lost when speakers started drawing 100+
people:  It was no longer possible to have the former "random access"
open-discussion session that until then took up most of the evening
_among_ the members -- so the 3rd Saturday installfests got started at
that time, to make sure the institution survived.

Some people bring refreshments, share them, and hang around to shmooze,
others bring machines to get help with, and still others come to assist,
to learn from others, or both.

You're certainly welcome to bring your machines to any CABAL meeting,
since those _are_ effectively installfests (among other things).  But
please be prepared to take away any that don't get adopted, since my
place is entirely too crammed with computers as it is.  ;->