[aclug-L] Re: [announce] Next meeting. (I am finally fed up.)

[Anne McCadden <amccadden@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am sorry that you have had a difficult time learning linux.  I also
had a difficult time at first.  I did find some people who helped me out
for a while.  James G. helped me with a couple of installs and explained
about permissions, commands, etc.  Jeff Vian setup a firewalll for me
after I was hacked into while on RoadRunner.  He also helped me setup
seti@home on a couple of my linux computers with a shell script and now
I am leaving some of the guys at work in my dust.  I am the only person
running seti on linux and I am out-pacing the guys at work and their
computers running windows.  Jeff helped me with several installs and
configurations of linux.  I now know a lot more about rc.d and programs
running at startup.

I found a Red Hat training CD at CompUSA and it has been very helpful. 
Most days I feel like I have so much to learn and so little time.  I am
hoping that things will turn around for the ACLUG group.  So many of us
are self-taught and we have gaps in our knowledge.  Maybe I should speak
for myself, I have gaps in my knowledge.  Sometimes I am afraid to ask
questions because frequently I get blasted with READ the MAN pages, info
pages, web pages, and all that stuff.  Sometimes it is just easier to
ask a question and get a simple answer, then directed to the appropriate
man or info page.  There is a nice web site called linuxnewbie.com, it
has a large amount of valuable info.  Too bad that some peoples ego gets
in the way of their brain.  This comment wasn't meant to be gender
specific, but if the MACHO shoe fits.....
--be nice to us newbies.

Randi wrote:
> 
> I am going back to M$ because there is not an easy way of learning Linux it
> is not user friendly when I ask for help I get a MACHO type attitude answer
> like I am suppose to know what I am doing. If I knew what I was doing I
> would not have the question's to start with. If the Linux community wants
> Linux to blossom they need to quit saying people are not man enough to work
> on Linux and make it user friendly enough for the general public. IBM and
> others are working with Linux to better the OS's chances but assholes that I
> have found on these help groups drag Linux back down. At least with M$ a
> person can get help without the attitude. I am even willing to pay for help
> "real help" without the bad attitude.
> 
> Randi
> rsee@xxxxxxxxxxx
> 
>  -----Original Message-----
> From:   discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx]  On
> Behalf Of Anne McCadden
> Sent:   Tuesday, February 05, 2002 9:30 PM
> To:     discussion@xxxxxxxxx
> Subject:        [aclug-L] Re: [announce] Next meeting. (I am finally fed up.)
> 
> I don't like the idea of name tags, but if we have someone who is new to
> the group, then I think that some of the group members should say
> something in some kind of welcome.  When I was sort of new people kept
> asking me if I was someone's mom or was I waiting for someone in the
> group.  No I was there for myself, to learn about and talk about linux.
> 
> I have volunteered to give presentations, but in the announcement it had
> that someone else was giving the talk that night.  After spending a
> couple of hours preparing my notes and printouts, I was ticked off that
> I was passed over.  I have volunteered again to give the same
> presentation and no one has taken me seriously.  So now I feel like you
> don't really want any help and I decided to give up to help out.  Just
> thought that you might want to know that I was going to give the talk
> about AMD vs Intel hardware for linux.  I know a lot more about hardware
> that I could ever think about web page design.  Just thought that other
> people in the group might want to know.  People like me have offered to
> help out and was ignored.
> 
> Dale W Hodge wrote:
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx]On
> > > Behalf Of David Wiebe
> > >
> > > I've been subscribed to this list for about a year and a half, have
> gotten
> > > fast, friendly tech support a couple of times, and have attended one
> ACLUG
> > > meeting.
> > >
> > > It appears like ACLUG is in the process of self-destructing.  This
> saddens
> > > me, but I can't say that I'm surprised.  Some observations:
> > >
> > > 1) During the one meeting I did attend, no one spoke to me from the time
> I
> > > entered the door until I left.  No welcome.  No introductions.  No "What
> > > brought you here?". Nothing.
> >
> > This surprises me a bit. Usually, we are a fairly social group. You ask a
> > question, and usually a number of the people in the room will have an
> answer.
> >
> > As for introductions, we have done that on occasion, but I always get the
> "do I
> > have to?" look from people in the room.  If people want, we could do the
> name
> > tag thing, it's just it had never been suggested.
> >
> > > 2)The meeting was extremely frustrating to sit through. The meeting
> began
> > > with a business meeting / open-ended discussion.  Most of it centered on
> > > inside information (and inside jokes) which since it was my first
> meeting I
> > > had no way of understanding or participating in.
> >
> > Unfortunately, that (inside jokes) happens when a group has been together
> for a
> > number of years.  It's been that way with every group I've ever
> participated in.
> > There's a core group who is *always* there, so it's going to happen.  But
> if
> > there is something you dont' understand, then speak up.  None of us are
> > professional Teachers or Lecturers, so we don't always realize when we're
> not
> > making things clear.
> >
> > > 3) I came because I'd just started a project related to the announced
> topic.
> > > I reasonably expected to get some good tips on how to proceed and maybe
> some
> > > hands-on tutorials.  Instead I got about 15 minutes of reading (boring)
> from
> > > the introduction of a very large book, followed by an ill-prepared
> attempt to
> > > write a short script, which I later found out wouldn't have run in the
> first
> > > place.
> >
> > Unfortunately, this is a volunteer organization, and not everyone who
> gives a
> > lecture on a topic is a dynamic speaker.  Basically, we take what we can
> get.
> > Sometimes it comes off well. Most of the time it's just okay, and a few
> times it
> > has outright sucked.  About half the time, the person who's giving the
> lecture
> > has just learned the topic himself. So, they don't know if
> frontwards/backwards
> > and have to rely heavily on notes.  If you (or anyone, for that
> matter)think you
> > can do it better, then volunteer to do so.
> >
> > > 4)I've seen you folks a couple of times at Saturday Sale.  I'd have to
> say
> > > that was a friendlier atmosphere, but again, you really blew the
> opportunity
> > > to show-off Linux.  You could be demoing all the new whiz-bang stuff
> Linux is
> > > developing, instead it seems like you sit and bitch that you aren't
> "selling"
> > > enough CDs.
> >
> > It's dang hard to really show off Linux at something like the Saturday
> Sale.
> > Unless someone comes over and asks specific questions, you end up spending
> 6
> > hours trying to find something interesting to do. A lot of what Linux can
> do
> > isn't that interesting to the casual observer.
> >
> > It's a *lot* of work. I have to get up early, spend half an hour packing,
> drive
> > 45 minutes, spend ~20 minutes setting up, sit there for 6 hours all the
> while
> > hoping someone else will show so I can get some lunch and a bathroom
> break,
> > spend 20 minutes packing up, and 45 minutes driving home. That's about 8
> hours
> > out of Saturday. That doesn't include the time I spend downloading and
> burning
> > the CD's that we sell, and the time it takes to print up any of the
> hand-outs.
> > Now ask me again why we bitch about not selling enough CD's. ;-)
> >
> > --dwh
> >
> > ---
> > Dale W Hodge - dwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Secretary & Website Maintainer - info@xxxxxxxxx
> > Air Capital Linux User's Group  (ACLUG)
> > ---
> >
> > ---
> > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> > Version: 6.0.314 / Virus Database: 175 - Release Date: 01/11/2002
> >
> > -- This is the discussion@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
> > visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi
> -- This is the discussion@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
> visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi
> 
> -- This is the discussion@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
> visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi
-- This is the discussion@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi