[LUGSB] Meeting this Friday - call for topics

[Ilya Sukhanov (dotCOMmie)]

Hello all

I hope no one gets overly annoyed with me breaking the thread and replying to 2
messages at once, but I think its easier to address both of them as they are on
similar topic.

JT wrote:
> But taking that into consideration, I would be willing to cram as much
> knowledge into my head about something I don't know, and give a talk
> about what I have learned.  One thing that I have wanted to know more
> about for a while now (among many) is NTP, brought more into light now
> due to DST changes.

I'd love to hear something on NTP. I've been using NTP for a while but my own
knowledge of it is limited to how to set it up (aptitude install ntpd &&
/etc/init.d/ntpd start d:). I bet there are many people who are in the same boat.

> I am sure that I could have 5 - 10 minutes worth
> to talk about on friday, providing I am given leniency in my talk when
> I say something completely incorrect and mislead people.  Kind of not
> the best week for me to do this, but I'll be there with something to
> say about NTP and UNIX time in general.

I've given a couple of talks at lugsb and I think the audience is calm. 
Generally if there there is a member who has esoteric knowledge on your topic, 
don't feel intimidated. Instead try to use that person as a reference (in case
you get stumped). LUG meetings are usually more like a organized "discussions" 
so there is nothing wrong with redirecting questions to the audience.

Keep in mind that the audience at LUGSB has a wide range of experience, so the
details of topics should be discussed at a level which is interesting to the
majority and not just the few who know all the details.

Sometimes its useful to take 30 seconds before a talk and describe your
"relation" to the topic that you are giving. This will give the audience a 
feeling for which questions they can expect have answered. Along the same lines, 
you can limit the scope of your talk. IE "Shovels; how to use a shovel to clear 
the snow of a driveway." Given this, the audience will know that asking 
questions about how to dig a trench will fall outside the scope of your talk.

Diane Napolitano wrote:
> You know, I hate to sound like a hippie liberal female here, but I do have
> to say that JT has touched on a good point.  I for one, and clearly I'm not
> alone, am confident in my knowledge, but not confident enough to be sure I
> could hold my own in front of a crowd of 20 people who I'm trying to 
> impress while someone from the audience is engaging me in debate. 

I don't think anyone in the audience will challenge you to a duel especially, if 
you follow my advice from above. The audience of LUGSB is not that nasty.

> Think back
> to how many times you've been on a forum and been "instructed" to RTFM for a
> question whose answer you thought was unobtainable.  Now imagine doing that
> in person.

Saying RTFM on a forum/mailing-list is usually the result of a badly phrased
question (one that sounds more like a demand rather than a request) or the lack
of enthusiasm to retype something thats already documented. Neither of these
problems lend their way to face-to-face communication.


> Plus you're not exactly addressing the most sociable bunch here.

I'd have to agree with you there. Hopefully the "mini-talks" will jump start 
some more social interaction between the members during the meetings. Also maybe 
we should think about doing something more interactive and less official more often.

> I know this is the type of environment we're trying to work against here,
> but, well...I imagine it's a concern of many on this list, not just myself
> and JT.
> 
> - Diane