[Discuss] Greetings from the Valley of Tetravalent Metals (was: Welcome and meeting topics of interest)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting admin <info at bclug.ca>:

> any ideas on how to reach out to other Linux enthusiasts and let them
> know about us?

Well, a cheery hello is always a good start, and so well done!

Greetings, I'm Rick Moen, longtime Linux and BSD guy, alumnus of a few
Linux industry companies, senior system administrator, resident of the
San Francisco Bay Area, member of quite a few LUGs, and maintainer of
the User Group HOWTO at the (sadly moribund) Linux Documentation
Project.

May I please call to your attention the known regular _online_ meetings
of anglophone LUGs (i.e., via Jitsi Meet, Zoom, BigBlueButton, Google
Hangouts Meet, and all those other things) on the wiki friends and I 
maintain for BALUG (of San Francisco)?  

https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:covid-19
  aka
balug.org/covid   for short


So, for example, if you'd like to join me at tomorrow's online
open discussion at BerkeleyPi , it will be on Jitsi Meet at
https://meet.jit.si/Pi.BerkeleyLUG , at 11am-2pm, BC time,
Please feel welcome to drop in.  (I'm sure Thomas, who runs
Pi.BerkeleyLUG, won't mind.)

For those who are unfamiliar with Jitsi Meet, it is vaguely similar to
Zoom, except open source, _and_ you do not need a special client
program, as any modern Web browser that supports WebRTC and Javascript
will suffice.  However, if you prefer, there are also bespoke clients
for both desktop and smartphone OSes, too.  My notes:

---<begin>---

You will need:

o  Computer w/supported Web browser.  Jitsi Meet's supported list is at
   https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/user-guide/supported-browsers

   mic w/ speakers/headphones.  Headphones/earbuds
   are recommended because they avert audio feeback loops.

o  or one of the specialised Jitsi Meet client programs:

   o Jitsi Meet Client (28MB APK) for Android 5.0+ as published via F-Droid:
     https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.jitsi.meet/

   o Jitsi Meet Client for Android, as published via Google Play Store
     https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jitsi.meet

   o Jitsi Meet Client for iOS, published on Apple iTunes Store
     https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jitsi-meet/id1165103905

   o Jitsi Meet Electron desktop client (86MB binary: Linux x86_64, MacOS,
     MS-Windows), https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron/releases
     (Recommendation for headphones/earbuds still applies.)

---<end>---


Something we've recently been able to do here at the base of the San
Francisco Peninsula (Menlo Park), last Saturday:

http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2021-April/011579.html
http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2021-May/011587.html
http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2021-May/011595.html
http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2021-May/011598.html

Our "hybrid" meeting model with both in-person (for the vaccinated) and
online (Jitsi Meet) simultaneously, with interaction between the real
and virtual groups (described at the above links), worked well enough.
Now that the entire computing world has gotten accustomed to Zoom, Jitsi
Meet, BigblueButton, etc., it may be that "hybrid" meetings will become
popular -- now that we're regaining the ability to have in-person
collective events.


I am aware that in BC this "hybrid" meeting model sadly is probably not
yet advisable, owing to the need to get more Canadians vaccinated.  My
apologies for my country not yet being a good neighbour[1] and helping
out, as we should.

Anyway, again, greetings, and how may I help further?  The S.F. Bay
Area LUGs have become at least groggily aware of BC Linux Users Group's
commendable outreach effort, e.g., my friend Howard Sussman informed me,
and thus my showing up here.  (I notice membership in this mailing list
is up to eight, which is not bad for a brand-new effort.)

(I've probably puzzled people long enough with the Subject header.  It's
a gag my wife the _real_ programmer -- I'm only a sysadmin -- coined,
and translates to "Silicon Valley".  Yr. welcome.)



[1] Oh, since you don't know me, yes, I really am a Yank even though I
spell the language like a Brit, as a consequence of having spent
formative years in Hong Kong, long ago.