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Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

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  • From: Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>
  • To: InterNetWorkers <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: facts
  • Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 01:42:11 -0500 (EST)


On Tue, 25 Jan 2000, Chris Owens wrote:
> Up late snow-watching? Hey guys, since you're up, how's about a description
> of the average internetworkers' gathering (for someone who was pointed to
> the mailing list by a friend...).

OK, that works for me.

Maybe it'll take my mind off the fact that I can no longer see my truck,
long since buried under the drifts... :)

Generally, I show up late. On the one occasion that I arrived on time,
Heather and I met Don Rosenberg and enjoyed a cup of coffee together (I
had an Italian soda -- I was thirsty and already a bit cranked.) We had a
chat about speech recognition, which Don has been using for some time and
in which I've never had much faith. The topic drifted from Dragon's
products to the deleterious effect that Palm's "graffiti" has had on my
once-legible handwriting, and off into various modest "how having a Pilot
has changed my life" sorts of testimonials.

Then the ice weasels come.

(NO, no, no. Sorry. Looks like it isn't working very well as a
distraction...)

Ahem.

Folks start drifting in (oh, God, I can't see my truck beneath the
drifts...) and dusting off, getting coffee, or depending on the venue,
their choice of spirits. Paul Jones has Jamesons' Irish. I embarrass
myself by being able to discern various types of Irish whiskey in a dark
room without the benefit of taste or smell. :)

There's usually a relatively quiet period of saying hello to old friends
and subdued introductions (or, in the case of Gina Norman, dramatic
flourishes :) Sometimes, we eat. Others, we simply drink. Uzoma does card
tricks, and we wonder how he does it. Later, we find that the silver in
our pockets hasn't gone black at all, probably because it hasn't been
silver since the early seventies. But we still feel a lingering sense of
being a mite too close to magic. Fortunately, Uzi is a pleasant sort, and
will eventually stop shuffling with one hand long enough to chat a bit :)

The crowd is mostly composed of local geekdom, most of those being Web
geeks or programmers or systems admins but all with at least something to
do with the Web or 'Net. Paul's a teacher, and runs Metalab. Tom's an
ex-lawyer paying for his sins by being a marketing guy (or is it the other
way around?) I write, and do systems admin, and hack, and build sites.
Gina runs the Nortel site. Other folks do their thing. There's actually
quite a few of us. I'm pretty psyched to see everybody getting together.
The Triangle has a tendency to be a 9-5 sort of place, and it's nice to
be able to break out of that "going home after work" cycle, or, in the
case of the entrepreneurs, giving us an excuse to leave work before the
wee hours.

The point, you see, is to get to know people you don't know, and see
people you /do/ know, without the pressure of deliverables, stock options,
deadlines, or sobriety. Sometimes, there are games. Others, we simply
spend a few hours in the company of other geeks, with whom we do not
necessarily work.

It's pretty laid back. You should come. Maybe Gina will bring a new game,
or Uzi a new trick. And maybe we can convince them not to make us sit in
one corner of the meeting place and play -- and instead devote the time to
actually talking to people we haven't yet met :)

Steve,
I can't believe that wind outside... wow.




  • facts, Thomas A. Beckett, 01/24/2000
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: facts, Steven Champeon, 01/25/2000
    • Re: facts, Thomas A. Beckett, 01/25/2000
    • Re: facts, Thomas A. Beckett, 01/25/2000
    • Re: facts, Chris Owens, 01/25/2000
    • Re: facts, Steven Champeon, 01/25/2000
    • Re: facts, Acipa Media Inc., 01/25/2000

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