[conspire] (forw) Re: Lug Guide

[Rick Moen]

I was in the middle of updating the Linux User Group HOWTO, which
reminded me that I received very bemused fanmail a few years ago
from a Linux activist in Sicily, in part about the domain
'linuxmafia.com'.  Here's part of my correspondence with him.


----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 14:08:09 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: "vincenzo.virgilio at poste.it" <vincenzo.virgilio at poste.it>
Subject: Re: Lug Guide

Quoting vincenzo.virgilio at poste.it (vincenzo.virgilio at poste.it):

> i was updating the entry of my lug on lugww and i took a look at that page.
> First of all, i manage also www.linuxsicilia.it and it was strange to me 
> to go to www.linuxmafia.com...

Eh!  I can only imagine.  <grin>

> So, your version of 2004 needs some updating, like some LUG directory 
> listings are not still on place, like redhat and instead Ubuntu has a 
> working one.

Yes, you're right.  I have a list of needed versions at
http://linuxmafia.com/lug/todo , and will add yours.  Thank you.

> Also, i was thinking about some suggestion.
> At last, if you agree, i'd like to put an italian translation of your 
> page and could be that we could take and translate some argument of your 
> linuxmafia to our linusicilia.it...
> 
> Let me know.

Vincenzo, I would be delighted.  Grazie!

Are you speaking of the Linux User Group HOWTO, by the way?  I believe
you are doing so, but wanted to make sure.  I notice that
http://lugww.counter.li.org/index.cms hyperlinks to _both_ the copy of
the Linux User Group HOWTO at
http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html _and_ to
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Linux_PR/newlug.html ("Recipe for a Successful
Linux User Group").

I should update section 8.2 of the HOWTO to clarify that the instance at 
http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html is the canonical URL, and
that the copy at linuxmafia.com is just my local development copy.


> P.S. Why you choose linuxmafia???? I'm still laughing

This is going to be a very strange explanation, but it's a very strange
topic.  ;->

Back around 2004, I moved to San Francisco, with my Linux machines, and
joined my friend Richard Couture in constructing a (locally famous)
Linux-based Internet cafe in an old light-industrial building.  It was
called "The Coffeenet".  Richard and I lived upstairs, and put our
respective Linux machines on the same LAN that provided bandwidth to the
cafe downstairs, connected to the Internet using a T-1 digital line.

Richard's initial idea for a naming scheme for the Coffeenet workstation
hosts was to use the names of Celtic gods (though he later abandoned
that scheme, because there weren't enough such names).  Just to be
slightly perverse, I decided I would name _my_ machines for _Norse_
mythological figures.  (I'm of Norwegian ancestry.)

So, my first few Linux machines on the CoffeeNet LAN were "hugin", "munin",
and "ymir".  "hugin" became the machine I had my main Internet presence
on.  Because I didn't yet have my own Internet domain, Richard kindly 
added DNS entries for them within his personal domain, "imat.com", which 
is short for "Imagine That", the business name he uses for miscellaneous
business ventures that have no distinct name of their own.

So, my main Internet host became "hugin.imat.com", and my e-mail address
"rick at hugin.imat.com".  Only one problem:  People never remembered that
correctly.  They always were misspelling it, mispronouncing it (as if it
were "hugging"), or just not being able to recall it at all.

I used to complain about this problem to my friends:  What's do damned
difficult about remembering (and spelling) "hugin"?  A couple of my
friends were employees at Penguin Computing, in San Francisco.  They
decided they could alleviate my distress by buying me a domain of my
own, and convinced Penguin Computing founder Sam Ockman to pay for it.
(Thank you, Sam!)  They asked me what domain name I wanted.  I really
had no idea, but wanted something memorable and easy to spell.  ;->

Somebody suggested "linuxmafia", and I said "Fine, buy me
linuxmafia.com".  A friend said "Shouldn't that be org?"  I replied, 
"Hey, I am not a non-profit charity."  So, com is what they bought.



----- End forwarded message -----