[H-GEN] Room Bookings Update

[Paul Gearon]

On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 3:26 PM, Robert Brockway
<robert at timetraveller.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2009, Paul Gearon wrote:
>> While HUMBUG supports the latter two, I thought it was also a place
>> for like-minded people to meet up, swap stories, expertise, etc. The
>> danger in that is that it can alienate new people, so it has to be
>> balanced.
>
> Hi Paul.  This thread is seeing a lot of names pop up :)

Yeah, I'm just waiting for Raymond and Bruce to chime in.  :-)

>> I've always been a little hazy on this policy at HUMBUG. Once upon a
>> time it was decreed that Windows should not appear at a meeting, but I
>
> Fairly early on the exec decided that a non-*nix OS (we meant MS-Windows
> but didn't say it) could be used at a meeting to assist in the
> installation or use of a *nix OS.  Examples given were booting MS-Windows
> to burn a cdrom, compare device behaviour in another OS, debug a network
> problem, etc.  Effectively MS-Windows wasn't meant to be run for its own
> sake.

I know, and if you go back to the mailing list logs for that era,
you'll find my contribution where I talked about systems like U/Win.
:-)

>From my perspective, running Windows was an impediment to learning
about computers. *Any* form of *nix made people much more aware of
things like networking, and encouraged learning. I always saw HUMBUG
as a club that promoted the learning of computers, and consequently it
discouraged the use of Windows. Also, in those days the people who
were running Windows only were doing so to play games or download
warez, both of which went against the spirit and (eventually) policies
of the club.

>> Initially, I don't believe that HUMBUG was about open source software,
>> though it seems to have evolved that way now, and I can see that you
>
> I'm pretty sure that thanks to Nooks ...err... I mean Jason Parker the
> support of free software[1] was put in the original Constitution.
>
> [1] The term "open source" wouldn't be developed for a couple of years.

Yeah, it's scary how long ago this little club got started.  :-)

Speaking of which, I always entertained the notion of being a
financial member, despite not being able to attend anymore (or ALMOST
never). Has anyone considered accepting subscriptions via Paypal?
Given how hard it used to be to find the cashbox at some meetings,
then this might be a useful alternative for locals as well.

Regards,
Paul Gearon