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K-LUG - Rochester, MN Area Linux Users Group

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Socials: October 24th and 28th

Chris Abbey is leading two photowalks. The nature/fall colors photowalk will be at Quarry Hill on Saturday October 24th, 2 pm. The architecture photowalk will be downtown on Wednesday October 28th, 11:30 am. For either/both, please RSVP off-list to Chris.

More details about Saturday:
It's looking like we'll hit a good 75-80% color by then, plus there's a chance for fresh snow the night before. We'll meet at the 9th St NE entrance to Quarry Hill Park. Hopefully no one will have the picnic pavilion reserved and we can meet up there. If not we'll be at sign post 17. Plan is we'll probably chat for 10 to 15 minutes then take off along the following sequence of sign posts: 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 7, 6, 3. There are a couple of variations along there, from 10 to 6 there are two ways to go, and after 6 there's a loop tht can be taken that will bring you back to the same point, but take you to a scenic overlook along the way. That will get us pretty much to the end of the wooded trails. From there you can take the most direct route back to where we started via points 5, 24/23, 18. Which will take you through both the pond/marsh and prairie areas... OR you can take a less direct route through the mine via 2, 4, 28, insanity, 21, 20, 18. If we time it right and we're heading out near sunset, the view from the scenic point between 25 and 27 should be stellar. I've been wanting to shoot the sunset from there for a while, and might take advantage of it. (After climbing up the hill from point 28, bear RIGHT when you hit the mine wall and bear right at all trail forks until you hit the end.) Weather forecast is for highs in the 40s Saturday, so expect it to be brisk. it looks to be about 2 miles. Post walk social gathering somewhere with hot chocolate, coffee, and/or soup I think. We can figure it out while we walk. Maybe great harvest? RSVP.

Map to make sense of all those numbers

Bad weather makeup will be 24 hours later, 2pm Sunday.

More details about Wednesday:
DOWNTOWN/URBAN WALK: Wednesday October 28, 11:30am? Meet up in the foyer of the mall/university/shoppes formerly known as the galleria mall. I'm thinking around the area of where Z Pizza is... the chairs near the stairs coming down from the U of M (Why? because I plan to be there at about 11am to have a couple slices for lunch before heading off on this excursion. Feel free to join me.) Again we'll meet up and chat for a few minutes then head out. Rough route would be: S on Broadway to 3rd St S, W on 3rd to 1st ave, N on 1st ave to 2nd St, W on 2nd to 2nd Ave, N on 2nd ave to 1st St, E on 1st st (through pease plaza) back to where we started. An alternate, longer route if folks want to is to keep going W on 2nd down to 3rd or 4th Ave, then take either of them N to Center and come back S on 2nd to the entrance to peace plaza. If you're looking for buildings, this might get you more of the older ones. This route gives us a nice mix of buildings and architecture, plus people heading out for lunch and errands. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough for some folks to eat lunch in the plaza. I'm trying to hold this one to a shorter timeframe so folks can get away with a "long lunch" and participate... don't feel you have to stick around to the end, if you want to break off part way through and head back to work, go for it. RSVP.

Bad weather makeup will be TBD. Maybe 24 hours later on Thursday... have to play this one by ear.

Annual Swap/Sale: Thursday November 12th

RCTC Main Campus, East Hall (EA) room 103

This location is larger than we'd previously been able to get (thanks Jose!), and it's near the parking lot entrance. Set up at 6 pm, festivities begin at 6:30 pm.

Come if you want to Sell Stuff!
Come if you want to show off Stuff! (prizes awarded for crowd favorites)
Come if you want to Buy Stuff! (K-Lug Tee shirts available too)
Come if you want to eat Stuff! (Pizza and Pop available for a donation)

We need volunteers for creating advertising, putting up signs, running the recycling station, and of course everyone should bring their stuff to sell/swap.
We'll make use of volunteer labor to help you get your stuff in and out too, no worries.

Job list - volunteers needed!
-Bring your stuff to sell/swap. Everyone.
In previous years some of the folks higher priced stuff or a lot of stuff have pre-announced their "list of goodies" on the news group or our wiki...that might bring out more customers.

-Bring your stuff to show off in the Vintage Electronics show, and a “hat” if you want to submit an item for viewers choice award. Everyone

-Come up with a Vintage Electronics viewers choice award, be in charge of distributing 1 ticket per customer, tally and award at end of night. _____________

-Create an advertising sales flier, here's last year's example (pdf) that all the people responsible for posting can download and print. Include who, when, where, and what (sale, swap, recycling, vintage, pizza, free CDs). Jon Gullixson

-Print and show this Sale Flyer to friends (currently last year's as an example). Everyone.

-Bring your computer stuff that needs to go to the recycling ($0.30 per pound, rounded up to the nearest dollar for ease of making change). Everyone.

-Help others bring their stuff up to the room, down to their cars. _____________

-Bring a bathroom scale that's accurate at low weight ranges, so we can figure out the appropriate recycling fee to charge. Mo Holahan

-Man the recycling area, do the weighing, cost figuring, and providing of change. _____________

-Bring your truck and be willing to take a load to the recycling during the recycling center's open hours (Mondays-Saturdays, 8-5). Brent V

-Coordinate the pizza fundraiser, buy pizza and pop plus bring paper plates and disposable cups in quantities sufficient for those who show up. Will be reimbursed out of the profits from the fundraiser (charge is a donation). Pizza supply list, from 2008 results: pizza (4), pop (4 2L), paper plates, napkins, plastic cups, ice. We had ~1/2 a pizza and ~2L worth of pop left over in 2008, but we broke even on the donations, so we were good. The "fancier" pizza flavors were the faster movers, such as supreme went much faster than cheese. And root beer and Mt Dew went much faster than Sprite. Set up a sign indicating that the pizza and pop are in this part of the room, that's it's for donation. Also label a cup as the donation collection container. _____________

-Making some (Ubuntu?) CDs to give away (5?). - Steve Severson

-Get a location - Tina W

-Posting. Volunteers are needed to post the flier to many locations. Please sign up to be the poster for the following (suggestions welcome):
-KLUG mailing list and wiki (done) - Tina W
-IBM calendar - _____________
-IBM Beehive- _____________
-Ham Radio Club _____________
-PCIG Website -_____________
-Mayo classifieds _____________
-Craigslist, Think Bank _____________
-Rochester Freecycle (limited to free pick-up of non-swapped items headed for recycling at the end of the swap) - (this probably won't get done due to posting requirements) _____________
-UCR bulletin boards - in hard copy _____________
-RCTC bulletin boards - in hard copy, bring your own push pins _____________
-IBM Building 107 - post hard copy - Steve Severson
-IBM White Building(664) - post hard copy _____________
-Other IBM buildings - post hard copy _____________
-Venture Computer - send email of flyer, request posting - Steve Severson
-NorLug? _____________
-Area 51? _____________
-Computer Liquidator on 2nd street? _____________
-p0wned? _____________
-Other places/ways to advertise? Public access? Would we qualify for free advertising on the radio, newspaper, etc?
-Wherever else you can think of. _____________

-Create illegal wayfinding “Tonight!” signs for posting at UCR on the evening of. ("Tonight!" with arrows in appropriate directions, highlighting of what the event is and the room number, advertise the free linux CDs on our signs, etc) ________________

-Arrive at UCR at 5:45 pm, post illegal wayfinding signs on all entry doors, nearby directional corners, and on the room door. Bring masking tape. Also responsible for taking down at the end of the night. Find a door stop so we can prop the room door open. The masking tape and a pen are also useful for posting a sign above the pizza/pop, saying it's available for donation. And for putting a label on a cup as being the donation collection container. _____________

-Arrive at UCR before 6 pm, write welcome message on the chalk board, also list upcoming KLUG events and dates, K-LUG website address _____________

-People could list what they haven't sold and haven't tossed, post-swap. http://www.k-lug.org/ForSaleorWanted . _____________

-After it seemed like everyone was there and set up, we went around the room and let each seller advertise their highlights and freebies. Let buyers have a chance to ask if anyone had something in particular that hadn't been mentioned. Advertised the recycling, and the food.

Lunch: Thursday November 12th

11:30 am, at the Apache Mall food court near B&N. Look for a multitude of miscreants.

Planned Social: November TBD

Ideas can be found here or invent your own. What would you like to do? Tell Tina.

Annual Holiday Party / Game Night: Thursday December 10th

Our December social occurred last year at Pwned (now closed), in the past it's been held at Area51 or it's been a LAN party (need host). Other options could include a night of non-computer games at a house (again need host, and btw if this type of thing interests you don't forget to check out the Activities email list and calendar, links on the wiki), X-box type games at a local movie theater, playing laser tag at the House of Bounce, or whatever else you suggest. Let Tim or I know what you'd like.

Planned Social: December TBD

Ideas can be found here or invent your own. What would you like to do? Tell Tina.

Free: Open Source Stickers for your Systems

Openstickers.com - download these images, print on sticker paper, cut and apply.

Planned Technical Meeting: Thursday January 14th

No presenters yet, please volunteer! Need some ideas? Here are topics your fellow K-LUGgers have requested.

Upcoming Meeting Crisis!

Well, not really a crisis, but we do need some meeting topics (& speakers) for 2009. We'd like to know what you want to see and hear about. Please email Tina or Tim with suggestions for topics. Should we run some previous sessions again (maybe something you really wanted to see but missed out on)? What type of topics are good, what type are bad? Also don't forget, Speakers earn up to $40 as an incentive for their presentation! Also see this page for a list of suggested topics http://www.k-lug.org/Meetings

Old News Items

See the OldNews page.