[PLUG] PLUG West meeting notes 2007.04.17

[TuskenTower <tuskentower@gmail.com>]

I (Amul Shah) am making meeting notes my monthly contribution to the
PLUG West meetings.  This email will be as chronological as possible.
I am open to suggestions on the format and content people want or do
not want to see.

Chris Shank from the ACE Tech Group (http://www.acetechgroup.com/)
gave a presentation on Zenoss.  Someone bailed out giving a
presentation on HDTV on Linux.

It was MJ's last meeting.  He is heading out west to SFO living
somewhere called Knob Hill.

Charlie asked about choosing a distribution for machines with limited
resources.  Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux and a stripped down Debian
(a possibility) were suggested.

Mark Hoffman mentioned that he is becoming the maintainer
(http://lists.lm-sensors.org/pipermail/lm-sensors/2007-April/019537.html)
for lm-sensors.

We had some new people join the meeting.  However, since I decided
today that I would start keeping notes, I don't have their names.  One
of the new people to join the meeting is completely new to Linux and
asked about choosing the right distribution and learning a programming
language.  For distributions for a new user, the general consensus was
to stick with one the big name distributions like Ubuntu.

As for programming languages there was a discussion about interpreted
vs compiled languages and what our new member wanted to learn.  I
think he settled on C because it is the most blessed programming
language. ;)  Actually, he wanted to learn the nuts and bolts of what
the computer is actually doing and C is the likely candidate for that.
Fred Stluka lobbied articulately for Java and may have swayed the new
member.  I plan on re-reading the thread on languages from a few weeks
ago.

We discussed the meeting day and everyone in attendance favored the
third Thursday of a month.

A key signing event was held at the end of the meeting.

Site News:
I am now the dedicated host for Unisys at the PLUG West meetings.
Presenters, please contact me if you have any questions about our
facilities.  We do allow you to bring laptops and connectivity to the
outside world is almost unfettered. Through the Unisys grapevine I
have heard that MontCo PLUG meetings will be held at the Unisys Blue
Bell site.

Meeting Information:
PLUG West is held every third Thursday of the month
Meeting Host: Paul Snyder
Site host: Amul Shah (amul.shah@unisys.com)
Site: 2476 Swedesford Rd, Malvern, PA 19355
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