On Wed, 21 Jan 2004, Nick Rout wrote: > but seriously, what do we want? more tech talks? demos (a la Jason's > talk on multimedia) ? installfests? workshops?
* Networking opportunities. (Who is doing what in ChCh?) * Technical Excitement. (Look what computers are doing.) Way back when when the moon was young, a small "Amateur Computer Club" started up a yearly computer expo. At the time it's emphasis was "ooh looky, what neat things these micros can do." It was _very_ successful. The success started to kill the committee who sold it off to a private expo convener for enough to fund the club for years. A couple of years ago I was queuing to go into the annual expo when one of my colleagues pointed at a sign announcing that it was the Twentieth Annual Computer Expo and Wow! the expo had been on longer than he had been alive for! I very loudly said, "BullCrap! I distinctly remember going to the first one!" After due consideration I realised that both statements were true, that Computer Expo started by the Amateur Computer Club that ran from the basement of the local university did start twenty years ago, (longer now), I did go to the first one, and the expo was older than my colleague. I also realised what was missing. Back then, Computer's were exciting things full of promise. Now they were the irritating things that the secretary doesn't quite know how to use. I love Linux because it recovers some of that early excitement, and I believe there is room for an expo that aims purely for that excitement factor. Such an expo shouldn't be purely a Linux thing, but a demo of the fun things that _are_ being done with computers, program languages, embedded systems, DSP's, FPGA's, Robotics, Biotec... in the Canterbury area. The emphasis should be on fun and excitement, not Linux. I'm sure as a result of that emphasis Linux will feature heavily... John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639 Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632 PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] New Zealand A Million Monkeys can inflict worse things than just Shakespeare on your system.
