Java Users Group will have it’s first pre-organizational meeting on Thursday 5:00pm in Taylor Basement. During the meeting we will recruit new officers, discuss ways to improve the organization and the agenda for the year. Come with suggestions and ideas that you think would help make JUG a success. Everyone is invited. If you are interested in becoming involved but cannot make it to the meeting, send a note (snarif@cs.utexas.edu).
What : JUG Meeting
When : Thursday (09/28/00) @ 5:00PM
Where : Taylor Basement
URL : http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/jug
Your Mind Belongs to the State writes “Don’t miss Your Mind Belongs to the State from 7:00-7:30pm every Tuesday night on kvrx.org 91.7fm. YMBTTS is a informal call-in talk show on technology issues that matter in Austin and all those other places.
This weeks topic is yet to be decided, but if you write in and suggest
one that gets chosen you can win something! Email state@kvrx.org.”
Just found out about the next High Tech Happy Hour. This one is September 26th from 4pm-7pm at La Zona Rosa. This one is being sponsored by ibooks.com, 101X, KGSR, and god knows who else. Because it’s downtown Austin, parking can be a bitch, but you already knew that. Look for the Geek Austin crew there. We’ll be the ones with the girls.
Here’s the scoop: RSA Patent Expiration Party Wednesday September 20, at Club Inferno 222 East 6th Street. 9PM-3AM. Cover : $3, $5 for minors.
The party features CTRL, DJ Deceptakahn, and DJ Cherub. Check out Thalassocracy for details. Hey guys, where’s my press pass?
BTW, if you didn’t hear the latest scoop on RSA , check out the story here
Sirius writes “I am all about non comercial feeding of the masses. A local pirate station to note is Free Radio Austin. I belive them to be operating on 300w, in the UT/Central part of town. 97.1 on the fm dial, and now livecast on the web. http://www.pirateradio.org/fra/“
I’m really glad to see the new offerings on the dial. I’ve been listening to both 97.1 and 94.3 in my car, while driving to work in the West Austin Themepark. I seem to be able to pick up 94.3 on the north side of town, and 97.1 in the campus- South Congress area. These stations, along with KVRX and KOOP, really expand the radio horizons. Unfortunately, I can’t pick up any stations in the concrete-and-steel bunker that is my apartment/network operations center.
I know most of you have cd players in the car, but I only have a tuner. A decent CD player would be worth more than my car — and I’m going to buy a couple more Linux boxen, an AIX, and SunUltra, before I replace my chevy POS.
Any of you listen to these stations? work at these stations?
Well, the SXSW 2001 site is now up. So the countdown begins. The music portion has been overrun by coked-up record execs, but I had a blast at the SXSW interactive last time. Don’t go for one of those cut rate day passes. All the cool stuff goes on at the panels — on the second floor. Just charge it to your company.
Did you go last year? Are you going this year?
We had the mail server configs quasi-b0rked on geekaustin.org. So if you signed up it wasn’t mailing you the initial random password, preventing you from logging in the first time, even though we did get your information. But it’s fixed now, so if you’re a new user all will work par for the course. If you already have an account, just go to the user login box to your right, and enter your username, hit mailpassword, blah blah. Pretty simple… Thanks for shopping geekaustin…
Writing that last story reminded me of a conversation I had with LinearB a few days ago, so I figured I’d post the question here to see what the wider array of public opinion was. The main question: do you think that a computer shop specializing in alternative operating systems would be a viable enterprise here in Austin?
Like many other people who dig non-Redmond OSes, I’m used to making my computers from spare parts and generally being a DIYer (do-it-yourself-er, from the home improvement crowd). However, there have been times where I wished I could go to a store and buy a ready-to-rock system with (linux | *BSd | BeOS | Solaris x86) installed. Also, I can see the store offering individual parts, with the “value-add” of having extra information about whether the parts work with OSes other than those listed on the box, and the steps neccessary to to get them to work (e.g. “Hi, I’d like a SCSI card for my BeOS system at home.” “Here, take a look at this Adaptec card, or if you’d like a somewhat less expensive solution, this Tekram card. Check (some sites) for drivers.”).
I can see the hazard of trying to support too many things, so perhaps some concentration on a subclass of the above mentioned OSes would be needed. Still, I think that there are enough people in Austin using things besides win32 that the client base could support such a shop.
What do y’all think?
On Page Two of the Austin Chronicle, Louis Black tells us:
Starbucks has made a corporate decision not to distribute free publications. An article in Columbus Alive by Jamie Pietras quotes Starbucks public affairs director Alan Gulick as saying that it was about clutter: “It’s more than aesthetics. It’s really about simplifying our stores and providing a great experience for customers. … Really one of the things we value a lot is the experience customers have in our stores.” Again, see our ad on page 11, but if you’re in a Starbucks you might ask them where the Chronicles are.
Having lived in cities like Detroit and Dallas, that didn’t have a decent alternative weekly, I really appreciate the Chronicle. Like it or hate it, the Chronicle helps us find each other as a community.
When my ex-roommate from Detroit came to Austin to start a band, it was through the Chronicle musician ads that he found bass player for his first group. When I opened Europa Books(RIP), back in 1990, it was the Chronicle who helped get the word out. And for those of you who say that the Chronicle supports local merchants according to their advertising budgets, it ain’t true. Ad or no ad, whenever my friends or did something newsworthy, we could count on the Chronicle to be there. I dare you to say the same about citysearch.
Coffee houses, when done right, also bring people together. Two of my best friends, I met ten years ago at Les Amis(RIP). I can’t begin to count how many people I met while hanging out at Quackenbush’s. Even today, I continue to meet interesting creative types at Mojo’s.
From it’s cookie-cutter conformity, focus-group tested interior, to the arrangement of chairs that encourage you to sit alone, there’s no place for such a community at Starbucks. With it’s rigid no tipping policy, try getting the average Starbucks employee to make you a drink that isn’t on the menu. We might as well be in Dallas.
Banning all local publications from Starbucks property only takes this one-size-fits-all monoculture a step further. It’s no surprise that I keep hearing the voice of the Borg saying: You will be assimilated!
I was reading the Daily Texan today, and in the “look how cool we are, show your parents so they’ll donate money and maybe we’ll name a building after them” part they describe a recent achievement by Dr. Barbara (a member of the Analytical division of the UT Chem and Biochem dept.), whereby a new class of selectively light emitting polymeric compounds was discovered…
These new guys are neat in that they’re brighter and more flexible than previous LED polymers. Potentially, if the compound continues to be promising as it is worked up to a larger scale (right now they’re at the use-a-microscope level) and is commercialized, this could mean lighter, brighter, and more flexible moniters for both desktop and portable use.
The article describing their findings was published in the Aug. 25 issue of Science. (As a side note, you can actually take a class form this guy if you’re an undergraduate. He teaches CH 376K Adv. Analytical in the spring.)
