Category Archives: Passion

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Come work on your project at UTOS Project Day

May 22, 2011 – 5:33 pm

UTOS Project Day is:

  • working on a project that you otherwise may not have time.
  • learning a new technology by joining others.
  • networking with other smart people who like to create stuff.
  • junk food for up to 8 hours of hacking on your favorite stuff!
  • being able to sit in a corner and focus on your project without interruption.
  • providing the best open source software hacking space.

Come on down this Saturday and hang out with other geeks.  We’ll provide you space to hack, snacks, lunch and plenty of projects to come and learn!

Date: May 28
Time: 12pm to 5pm
Where: Open Source Technology Center @ Novell (map)

More information available on the UTOS Project Day website and the UTOS Blog. UTOS is looking for operational volunteers. Stop by between 9-11am and volunteer to help out!

Always free admission, free software and free food.

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30-day Geek Challenge | Day 24 – Geek hero

April 3, 2011 – 10:01 pm

This post is part of my ‘30-day Geek Challenge‘.  As I stated, the order isn’t important, nor will I do one per day.  Feel free to make your own list, or copy mine and participate.  Should be a lot of fun!

I have been thinking on this one for a few days.  Mostly, I was thinking back to the first geek I could remember, but for some reason, nothing was coming to mind.  It was weird.

At first, I thought maybe the first geek I knew of was my programming and system administration mentor. His name was Mr Chumple (aka Paul Tiemman).  I met him back in 1999 when I worked as a programmer for Big Planet, an ISP company which was originally an investment from Nu Skin and then later purchased and rolled into it’s MLM conglomerate.  He taught me the ropes about programming, Linux and shell scripting.  Red Hat 5.1 was the first version I ever learned and it was fun.  Running WindowMaker was awesome! (still is)  I learned about Linus Torvalds and how he said ‘Linux’ :)  I still am very grateful to Mr. Chumple for all the time he spent with me during our time together at Big Planet.

Takes me back…

Later on, I continued to think more about the first geek I recognized.

Was it Bill Gates? No, surely not.  I mean, I had heard of him, but I don’t think I knew really who he was until I was using Windows 95.

Was it Steve Jobs? Nope, he wasn’t even in the picture in my mind until he started appearing on talk shows and was the face of Apple.  I remember him being forced out of Apple, but I don’t think he was it either.

So, more thinking, more cycles…and it hit me.  It wasn’t time to share with you about the First Geek I recognized.

My Geek Hero

Tonight, sitting at my computer, perusing Facebook I noticed a post from my friend Travis about Alan Turing.  Now that’s a guy I truly think of as a genius.  A guy who was truly a geek in every sense of the word.  So intelligent, so reclusive, so amazing, an enigma, if you will.

I remember reading about Turing in High School, probably senior year.  It was most definitely in a math class, might have been geometry.  The teacher was so enamored with the algorithms and the amazing things Turing did, I couldn’t help but look him up.

At the time, I wasn’t very interested in math, I’m still no good at it today.  But one thing that Turing did for me was help me to understand algorithms better.  Later on, in college, my discrete structures professor brought Turing back up, when the course covered the Turing machine. The class talked about Turing complete algorithms, essentially how the rules followed in sequence on arbitrary data can produce the result of any calculation.  Many of the modern programming languages and compilers implement Turing complete systems.

In the Facebook post I mentioned above, it appears there will be released a documentary about Alan Turing.  Including World War II, Computing, Code breaking and more.  In the preview they showed, which is available on Youtube, one gentleman mentions that it was a shame he died so early on.  If he’d have lived twice as long, the world would be completely different.  I don’t know if the world would have been better, but I do know that Alan Turing, my geek hero, surely has done more for the computing community than most.

Thank you for modern computing, Mr. Turing.

Cheers,

Herlo

 

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Fedora Passion Tech

What have I been up to lately? Chasing my own tail!

February 9, 2011 – 10:41 am

Lately, I’ve feel like I’m very busy trying to become busy

It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, and so far, being an independent consultant has been very fruitful for me.  Until mid-January, I was as busy as I ever wanted, sometimes too busy.  But time and time again, I’ve been reminded that there will be leaner times for me and Purple Atom, my new training and consulting start-up.

So far, it’s just me and a couple contractors who I have known for some time that I have used for a couple small jobs.  But it seems the work has slowed for now.  While I know it will be back in a month or so, I’ve been trying to land more work, that’s a bit like chasing one’s own tail.

As I grow my business, I’ve wanted to keep a steady income and be able to do the gigs I’ve wanted to do.  Mind you, I’m in no world of hurt monetarily, it’s just interesting to see my first real lull.  While I have a couple on-going contracts, I’ve not had any training gigs in almost a month.  And I have to say, it is nice and disconcerting at the same time.

I find myself doing a little each day to locate a new client, but most of my day is spent on projects I’ve previously ignored.  This is a good thing for my skillset and for the Fedora Project, since that’s where most of the work is going each day.  I’m the one giving me work, and I’m the one completing the work I’ve given myself.

It has been fun and useful

In late January, Jennifer and I took our little AJ to Tempe, Arizona.  I was heading there for the annual FUDCon conference, and Jennifer took AJ over to meet her extended family.  We spent eight (8) days travelling.  We travelled for two days, visited the Grand Canyon along the way.  Spent four (4) days in Tempe visiting family and attending FUDCon.  Our return over two days took us by the Hoover Dam and we stayed a night at the Luxor in Las Vegas.

When we returned, I’ve started to get into a routine of heading over to the coffee shop and working on one project or another.  Much of my time has been spent on personal projects.  I’m working on my own development project, PyCamps.  I’ve also worked on fpaste-server and the SCaLE FAD.

I also spent basically a whole day sorting out honeymoon plans.  Yes, that’s right, I’m getting married to Jennifer on May 13, 2011.  I’m really only in charge of paying for things, but since I’m in charge, we’re doing a real honeymoon too!

The future

Purple Atom is going well, but I want it to get to the vision I have for it.  I have some good partnerships for training and I love that part of my business.  The consulting part, however, I’d like to pare down and focus on helping small-to-medium sized companies build a better infrastructure.  There is much, much more to come about this, so if it interests you, stay tuned…

I know that in the next month, business will pick up with or without my pursuing other work. I’d like to think that I have the chops for this Entrepreneur thing, so I’m out looking for work.  If you know of anyone who is looking for a super-awesome-system-admin or needs help building or retooling an infrastructure, please contact me, leave me a comment, etc.

Cheers,

Herlo

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FUDCon Tempe 2011, as it happens, I’m on my way!

January 27, 2011 – 12:39 am

It’s strange, odd even.  I’m not quite sure how to react, but it is very weird to me.

FUDCon Tempe 2011 is here in just a few short days.  Some of the people I would expect to attend, aren’t going to be at FUDCon this year.  I am going to miss their presence immensely.

  • It’s the first FUDCon without the master of karaoke, Greg DeKoenigsberg.  He’ll be missing out on the warm weather and friendly collaboration for sure.
  • I know my good friend, David Nalley isn’t going to make it either. I have been at so many Fedora events with him, it will sure be a bit lacking without his late nights and overall good nature.
  • I’m also saddened to hear that Karsten Wade won’t be able to attend, he will surely be missed with his community insight and valuable opinions.

There are others, in fact, who I know probably would like to come.  These specific instances stood out to me because I think of them as amazing contributors.  Their consistent attendance at events like FUDCon have encouraged me to return year after year to events I now love. Mind you, the above folks I mentioned aren’t missing from Fedora overall.  In fact, I know that each of them and many more who can’t make FUDCon this coming weekend in person can still participate and contribute from afar (and will likely do so).

I see a new generation of contributor helping to grow Fedora into a grand new direction.  I’m interested in seeing where this road will take us, and I think that’s the joy.  With each new contributor in a community like Fedora, we continue down the path of the best of free and open source software, but we can meander into realms we had never thought of before.  This is what excites me!

Like I said, I’m on my way to FUDCon Tempe for what is no doubt going to be an awesome event. Right now, I am sitting in my hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.  A mere 151 miles, about 2 hours at 75mph, from the Courtyard in Tempe, Arizona, where most of our attendees will stay for four days.  I should easily be there by early afternoon tomorrow.

Mind you, this trip was planned for me to be eight days, two travel days to and from Salt Lake City.  Just this afternoon, we spent about 3.5 hours at the amazing Grand Canyon National Park.  If you get a chance to visit this amazing natural canyon, at 10 miles across, do it!  Our little family had a great time seeing the sights and riding the buses around.  By the way, dusk is really amazing at the park, don’t miss that either.

The FUDCon planning committee has crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s.  Thanks to sponsors like Google, Rackspace, and of course our hosts, Arizona State University, we get to have food and fun while working toward our common goal.  Thanks to all who put in such hard work to make this event rock!

See you all in just a few days!

Cheers,

Herlo

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The end of an era: Starting a new job and a new life

September 9, 2010 – 3:42 pm

Boy has my life has changed recently!

I mean it, It really has changed…just over two months ago, my son Alexander James was born.  He was 6 weeks early.  Wow, it’s been a ride.  I had to take some time off from my extracurricular duties and focus on family, myself and work only.  It was an interesting opportunity to introspect and think about my future.

I also have more change in my life in the next year than I believe I have ever had in any one year period in my life.  This change is good change.  This change is good for more than just me; it’s good for my two sons, and my future wife.  This change is going to make our lives different than they’ve ever been.  At least from my perspective, it’s a HUGE change.

So what is this change, you ask.  Well, maybe you didn’t ask, but I’m going to pretend you asked, because well, I’m going to tell you anyway.  Some of you might even care what the change is and how my life is going to change.

Back in April or May, I was approached about returning to teaching Linux classes.  The classes I would teach would be from the Red Hat Curriculum.  As I’ve always had a passion for teaching, I really liked the prospect, but I had a few hurdles to manage before I could really go forth with this idea.

Essentially, I had agreed to a non-compete with one of my former employers, which prevented me teaching Linux classes for any of their competitors until June this year.  The job I will be taking teaching for Red Hat would definitely be considered one of their competitors.  The other was expected delivery of our son AJ in August required me to have insurance and boy am I glad I did.  Because he came early, the insurance I had with my former company essentially saved us from bankruptcy.

With these two considerations in mind, I decided to stay until the end of August, then leave for this new position.

I’ve been employed for the last year and half at Backcountry.com.  They are a great company and their Site Operations (read Infrastructure) staff is amazing.  I was blessed with the opportunity to work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever worked.  I was also very blessed to work at a job that challenged me to no end.  But in the end, my passions got me, of which there have always been a few…

The first passion I have, is my family.  I actually never thought I’d be in a situation where I would have two children from different mothers.  I had sworn off dating, marriage, family (beyond my son, Shaun) for good.  But then along came this amazing woman who turned my life back around, and made me want to share my life with her and what will become our amazing family.  We’ve already started, with AJ coming six weeks early on July 2, we’re proud new parents with some very unique challenges.

Another passion I have, teaching and training.  I accidentally fell into a training role back in 2003, when I was forced to get a job to pay for child support right after my divorce.  Luckily for me, it was the best accident professionally that I could have had.  It allowed me to show my talents and skillset to those who really could benefit from my passion and enjoyment of sharing how technology works.  With the exception of the 21 month sabbatical from training that is about to end, I hope to be in some sort of educational role for my remaining professional years.

Lastly, while there are many other passions, I’ll discuss my love for free and open source software.  To me, it’s almost like my religion.  I believe in it so strongly, and think that there are so many things that FOSS communities can and do provide to help others, I want it to always be a part of me.  I especially want to instill in my children the importance of openness and sharing, and FOSS really allows me to give a very credible and altruistic vision of these ideals.  For me, it’s been a passion of mine for more than 6 years and I’ve spent a good portion of that helping with two big organizations, the Utah Open Source Foundation and the Fedora Project.

These passions keep me going, which brings me to the whole point of all that I’ve said.  My days are numbered here in Utah.  Yes, I’ve said it, I’ve loved living here in Utah all my life, but it’s time to move to pursue the first of my passions, my family.  Because I’ve been here in Utah so long, it’s been a very difficult decision to make and one that I’ve not come to lightly.  In fact, I’ve been debating when would be the right time, and I know that now is the time.

My son, Shaun, lives in Los Alamitos, California, and has lived there with his mother for more than 5 years.  I’ve done my best to be a good father at more than 700 miles away, but I don’t think I can ignore a few very important years coming up.  Shaun is now 10 years old, and will be coming into manhood in the coming years.  Because of this, I believe that I need to be nearer to him to help him deal with many of the tough challenges he will face as he becomes a teenager and starts to pursue more adult activities.  I want to be there for him, and I think it’s very valuable for him to be a big part of our now growing family.

So, where does this leave my other passions.  Specifically some big loves I’ll have to leave behind here in Utah.  My family has always been here and I’ll miss them sorely.  The Utah Open Source Foundation and Conference as well as the Local User Groups.  I love the mountains here, the beauty and especially, the people.  I’ll miss you dearly, I surely will.

Lest you think that I’ll be in a hurry to leave, it’s not the case.  I’m starting a new job next week, September 12, as a contract instructor.  Again I will be teaching Red Hat classes.  My plans to move to California require that I am able to sell my house and that means it will require some fix ups first.  All in all, I believe our family will be moved to Southern California sometime in late summer or early fall of 2011.

In the coming weeks, the Utah Open Source Conference will be happening.  It’s been a passion of mine for now 4-1/2 years.  My leadership as the Chief Executive of the Foundation and manager of the conference will end at the end of 2010.  I believe now is the time for UTOS to have a new leadership and new life. One of the big tenets of the free and open source community is that leadership should change regularly.  In this way, I look forward to many more UTOS events and especially the great tradition of UTOSC.

Hopefully at the Utah Open Source Conference, we’ll be able to nominate and elect new leadership for both the Utah Open Source Foundation Core Team and Board of Directors.  Their roles will start at the beginning of 2011 and transitions will likely happen in late 2010. I plan to run for the Board of Directors.  In this way, I will maintain a less day-to-day role in UTOS and more an administrative and support role to the new Chief Executive as well as providing support to the new and continuing members of both the Core Team and Board.

Now that this post has become somewhat of a novel, I’ll just say one more thing.  I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the the community here in Utah.  I’m excited for my future and the future of my family and look forward to many more great years of watching Utah’s tech and free software communities grow!  It’s always been the goal of UTOS to ‘Help Open Source Grow in Utah and the Mountain West’ and I see great things now and in the future!

Cheers,

Clint

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Combating Apathy in [Free and Open Source] Communities — Part 3

June 15, 2010 – 10:14 pm

This article is a part of a three part series, if you haven’t read the first part and second part, you really should.

How do we address this problem?  Who does it?

In other words, how do small to medium communities battle Apathy?

In all honesty, I don’t have the answer for this question.  If I did, I’d be preaching it to every community group that would listen.  But it does occur to me that the/re are a few things the folks in charge can do to help.  And some of these are documented by the larger communities too.

  1. First thing that comes to mind is to build a proper structure.  A meritocracy where those who do the work can decide what gets done.  As most will note, this is no different from any other Free Software development project.  But we need to state it out loud.  If you do the work in the community, you get to decide how the community functions. As part of this process, community leaders can define a loose structure where others can join up, and help build where they find holes.  It’s a definite organic structure, but one that really works well when encouraged.
  2. Have something people want, and give it to them.  For us, it’s the Utah Open Source Conference and the other events the Foundation has been providing, like hackUTOS, Nerds in the Sun, Geek Lunch, etc.   Most of these events are free and for anyone to enjoy, learn and network.  However, I can see the need for even more events and services that UTOS can provide.
  3. Remind people regularly that community is here.  Reminders are very important.  It’s like what Coke and Pepsi do, constantly remind you they are out there.  The only real difference is that they are looking to sell you something for money.  UTOS and other communities are really here to help you grow and learn.
  4. Constantly invite people to join the community and help.  The community is a process that is always evolving and growing, people are needed to make it evolve and grow the way they see it.  Notice I said the way they see it.  It’s up to the community members to decide where the community goes.
  5. Get out of the way.  This is somewhat of a corollary to step 4, but it’s really important to point out.  Once the community machine is going, don’t put process and leadership in the way.  The community can do what it needs to do if we just get out of the way, don’t be an obstacle to progress of the community.

As UTOS, we’ve excelled at some parts of this list, and failed at other parts.  I suspect many of the other communities around have succeeded at some of the parts as well.

Mostly, I wrote this to help me understand what the goals for UTOS will be as we start to expand into a more regional community.  But I think these things can help us all deal with apathy and encourage others to get involved.  I hope to hear from the community on this as my article is definitely a work in progress.  I believe I’ve got a good set of problems and possible solutions, but it’s definitely not me that is going to implement most of them.

Please take a few hours out of the month of June and help us grow and become an exciting, active prosperous community.  You’ll feel better for it, and you’ll definitely make a few friends along the way, grow your skillset, and possibly even encourage someone else to join up and help.

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Combating Apathy in [Free and Open Source] Communities — Part 2

June 8, 2010 – 10:14 pm
This article is a part of a three part series, if you haven’t read the first part, you really should.

Why don’t more people actually volunteer 2-3 hours per month?

One word, Apathy.  Yes, apathy.

I believe apathy is what kills communities around the globe.  They don’t have to be any specific type of community, but when someone, or enough people stop caring about a particular activity, event or cause, the community will die.  I don’t have any cold, hard facts on this, just my experiences, what I’ve read and my gut telling me it’s so.

If it were up to me, as an individual running a medium sized community conference based around Free and Open Source Software, I’d suggest that everyone come and spend 2-3 hours volunteering at the event.  While I know that’s not realistic, it can combat the apathy of which I speak.  But that’s kind of a problem too.

Where are we heading with this discussion?

For one, there are only so many volunteer positions available at the Utah Open Source Conference, or at a LUG meeting, or any such event.  But there are events that are currently not happening.  Imagine if everyone in the FOSS community in the Mountain West spent those 2-3 hours each month either helping a particular event, or creating their own special event or group.  What would the FOSS community landscape look like?

Each month I run into at least 5 people who want to help out within UTOS.  Each time I tell them the same thing, we have lots of things we need help with, we meet here at this time each month and would love to have you attend.  On rare occasion, we get a new volunteer coming to our meetings.  Sometimes they stay, sometimes they realize it’s too much and other things are a priority, and sometimes, they get so excited, they become one of the Utah Open Source Foundation’s ‘Core Team’.  So far, it’s been working well, but recently, we’ve been experiencing growing pains of our own and a little apathy as well.

Another thing to note, larger communities tend to have already dealt with this problem and have a plethora of answers for dealing with things like Apathy, a lack of knowledge and all of the other standard problems that smaller communities must deal with to thrive.  Most of those answers aren’t documented anywhere, at least not very well documented.

How does a community suffer because of apathy?

I am going to use the Utah Open Source Foundation to give some examples of where we fail.  Currently, I fear that our community suffers from apathy for a few reasons.

  1. The economy.  While it’s definitely important for people to have jobs, a paycheck and a promise of more work, I find that this is among the lamest excuse people use for not helping.  If you aren’t participating in the community, you are doing yourself a disservice.  Just think of all of the lost opportunities for employment, education, skill improvement (aka resume material) and networking.
  2. Family.  Again, I find that a lot of people in our community use their family as an excuse for not participating.  I’m not saying that families aren’t important.  In fact, I would say that participating in the FOSS community is a perfect example of how to show your family what you do, as well as encourage them to be part of a community and volunteer their time to their passions.  Families do take time, but I can guarantee that everyone can find 2-3 hours per month to volunteer.
  3. Time.  While possibly related to the other two issues, time itself can get in the way of volunteering to help the community.  People regularly fear that they can’t dedicate enough time to help, when a community really just wants people to dedicate a few hours a month.  If you are spending a couple hours a month in front of your TV, you could cut that down and spend it helping your community instead.

Watch for part three of this series next week.

Cheers,

Herlo

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Combating Apathy: How to Keep a [Free and Open Source] Community Alive

June 1, 2010 – 12:41 pm

This June will mark the fourth anniversary of the creation of the Utah Open Source Foundation.  In October, we will be hosting approximately 500 attendees at the fourth annual Utah Open Source Conference.

What started out as a simple idea in my backyard in Springville, Utah has blossomed into something much larger, a community of people who want to participate in the coolest events in the Mountain West.   Many of those events are hosted right here in Utah.

While there are other, larger communities in cities like Boston, New York and Los Angeles, the Mountain West has something that most other communities don’t have, a sense of volunteerism, community and brotherhood.  This even holds true for the most part in the Free and Open Source [FOSS] community.  I’ve really enjoyed being part of the Utah Open Source Foundation and Conference for the past 4 years and look forward to seeing it grow beyond Utah and its humble roots.

There are some really good examples of the FOSS community coming together right here in the Mountain West.  These include Local User Groups like the Salt Lake Linux User Group, Idaho State LUG, MontanaLinux.org, Rexburg Open Source as well as some great community events like AbleConf, PodcampSLC, Geek/Blogger Dinners, hackUTOS, BYU Unix User Group Installfests and many more.

While each of these events are great in their own right, there could be so many more.  But why are there not more amazing, or more complete events?

My real question here is why aren’t there more people helping do more of these events?

If I must use an example from my experience, I find that a lot of people really enjoy attending events and networking with others.  They believe that when they do this, they will have stronger relationships and when (not if) they need to change jobs, those they networked with will likely know of a position available.  While this is generally true, it seems to me that if people actually helped with these events, they’d actually have more contacts and more opportunities when they need to find work fast.

Just think about that premise for a few minutes…

If you spend just 2-3 hours per month, yes I said per month, volunteering your time toward the FOSS community, there will be many more opportunities for you when you need it most.

Read the next segment on ‘Combating Apathy in Communities‘.

Cheers,

Herlo

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FUDCon F13: Toronto, there are too many paths!

September 21, 2009 – 9:31 pm

At the moment, I’m committed to heading up to the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) this December 5-7.  And while it’s promising to be a blast with all of my Fedora friends, great hackfests, sessions and even a project I’ve decided to start working on.

I have been looking at airfare, hotel and other travel accommodations to FUDCon, but I seem to have more options than I can count.  Maybe some of you can make recommendations?  So here’s the details of my dilemma:

Option 1: Fly direct to Toronto

Now, of course, this is the easiest of the three options; in and out of Toronto International Airport (YYZ) is a great way to go.  What’s that you say?  Oh, right.  The cost prohibitive trip of a ticket that is well over $600.  WOW! That is all I can say…

Option 2: Fly to Boston and ride the FUDBus

To me, this option is the most appealing.  While I know that I can most likely crash with someone in Boston and then ride the FUDBus up, it’s going to be a bit more painful, but it might be worth the organizational headache to make what could become an epic hackfest (8+ hours) happen for me.

In this case, I would have to fly in Thursday evening, since the FUDBus leaves at around 9am from Alewife station in Boston.  And upon return, Tuesday morning could turn into Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday evening.  A bit scarier here for scheduling return flights.  The other part of this is the actual FUDCon event is only Saturday through Monday (Dec 5-7) so I would have to miss 5+ days of work, not just 1 or possibly 2 with the other options.

The price of this flight is a mere $409 round trip, a savings of over $180, so it could be worth the extra time as long as I don’t have to get an extra hotel room.

Option 3: Fly to New York City and ride a bus to get to the FUDBus

I have a good friend in Jon Stanley, who offered to put me up at his place on Thursday night, which is essentially the same as flying into Boston.  But there are a few benefits as well.  One is that the bus from NYC to Boston has an additional 4ish hours we’d get to hack and chat.  Since I’m really wanting to join the Fedora Infrastructure team, it would be a good opportunity to get my wings.  The other is that the cost from SLC to JFK is another $50 – $75 cheaper than Boston.

The drawbacks of having to leave earlier and travel longer seem to be a mitigating circumstance and really might be something I want to do.  I’m just not sure I’m willing to awake at 4am Eastern (2am Mountain) to take the bus to take the FUDBus.

Option 4: Fly to Buffalo and ride the bus to Toronto

This option seems the most economical and has the least amount of hassles save actually flying into Toronto.  Essentially, I would fly into Buffalo on Friday afternoon, catch a bus that would drive across the border and into Toronto.  The return trip is about as simple, just hop on the bus on Tuesday morning, and fly home that afternoon from Buffalo.  The cost is great too!  At a measly $200 round trip from Salt Lake, now that’s a deal!

I think the thing I am fighting with Buffalo, is that I’ll be doing this all by myself.  While it seems economical, I really, really would like to get on that FUDBus for the hackfest I am sure will happen.  Collaborating for an additional 8 hours is really really tempting.  Going to Buffalo would pretty much eliminate that option.  While I am a bit concerned about crossing the border and such, I don’ think it’s going to be the decision maker or cause me any real heartache.

Decisions, Decisions!

So what would you do?  How would you go to Toronto?  I have the funds right now and want to get everything booked in advance so I don’t have to worry about the details later.  I think my biggest debate point has to be whether to ride the FUDBus.  Money is probably the secondary issue, but comparing that seems to put Buffalo first without question.

I’m really excited either way for FUDCon this year.  I have some really good ideas to share and want to start building out a great Ambassador portal as well.  More on that to come!

Cheers,

Herlo

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SLLUG: A new daytime Special Interest Group (SIG)

February 4, 2009 – 4:52 pm

So, I’ve done it.  I’ve scheduled a room at the Salt Lake Public Library for the 2nd Wednesday of each month.  The meetings will begin at 11:30 and go til about 1pm.  We have the room reserved from 9-1 each time we meet so feel free to come early and participate.  Feel free to bring your sack lunch or buy something from the vendors on the first floor (just make sure to clean up after yourself).

Our first meeting will be next Wednesday, Feb 11 from 11:30am-1pm
I will present ‘Fedora Remix: Custom distributions based upon proven design’

Here’s the rest of the details:

Conference room A on the lower level of the Salt Lake Library has been reserved.  Head down the stairs, make a left turn (essentially a U turn).  The conference room is directly under the foyer area (the area with all the shops on the 1st level)  If you aren’t clear, ask the information desk.  A map is available here of all floor plans of the library.

Also, our meetings should be posted on the Electric Signs by the entrance to the library on the first floor.

Meeting Days & Times:

All meetings will be held from 11:30am – 1pm on the Second Wednesday of each month.

  • Wednesday, February 11
  • Wednesday, March 11
  • Wednesday, April 8
  • Wednesday, May 13
  • Wednesday, June 10

Feel free to add this and other Utah Tech Events to your calendar by adding the ‘Utah Tech Events’ feed to your calendar.

Traxx

You can get off 2 blocks west of the Library.  If you get off at the ‘Courthouse 500 South’ stop
There is also a University Train that stops right next to the library, but you’ll have to transfer at Gallivan Center.

Parking

Parking is recommended to be one block away from the Library as they have reduced the meters in front of the Library to only 30 minutes.  However the meters directly east (on 200 East) should still be 2 hours.  Make sure to check the time you allow yourself is plenty.

See you all there.

Herlo

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