Technical Open House
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2004-09-25 06:07:42 - Graham EllisLisa and Graham are planning a "Technical Open House" at our place in Melksham, Wiltshire from early afternoon on Saturday, 27th November [2004] through to early afternoon on Sunday, 28th November. We say "come as a student, leave as a friend" and many have; we'll do some update presentations on what's happening in the Open Source world on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning - we'll really be up to speed on this as we're scheduled to attend talks by Rasmus Lerdorf, Monty Widenius and Larry Wall next month, and we've recently written quite a bit of new material. I'd also be very happy to hear about Simple Machines, OS Commerce, Zope, Plone and other topics from those of you who, I know, are using them!
Talks / sessions will be kept fairly light and frothy and we'll make sure to include some Perl, some Python, some PHP and some MySQL. Based on past experience, there'll also be some Mac geek sessions, graphics art and web site subjects too such as the old perennials of search engine placement and easy site maintenance. Perhaps XML, XSLT, graphics ... we also have a library and lounge so that you can sit sessions out and chat if you wish. Some first ideas have already been posted to OpenTalk and I've opened a further thread there too that's not Perl-specific.
It's been suggested that on the Saturday evening, we descend on the local Indian restaurant for a curry (I'll alert them ahead of time so that we can be sure to get in), and I can recommend / check with local hotels / B&Bs if necessary. We're not in the accomodation business ourselves - simply not set up at all for overnighters.
Tea, coffee, cold drinks, snacks, computers (and connections for your own), internet access, pens, pads, "Of Course" newsletters all on hand and available free of charge. No charge for the the lectures either - this is a personal offer from Lisa and Graham and we're not looking for a penny, though you will need to pay travel and accommodation if you stay locally. Charlie the cat has promised to be available for stress relief (stroking) at least some of the time. If we descend on the Indian restaurant, we'll get the bill split evenly. Note - they don't serve alcohol but you're welcome to take your own or buy it from Kwiksave across the road.
Please:
* Email me (graham@wellho.net) if you're interested - even if it's just "provisional".
* Email me if I can persuade you to give anything from an informal 5 minute talk to an hour's lecture.
* Let me know what topics you're especially interested in - no promises, but I'll see what I can do
Useful Information / Links
Map of our location
Accommodation and other services in Melksham
Plenty of parking available, and we'll do a pickup run to Melksham station to meet the 12:57 arrival on Saturday (from Southampton, London connection leaves at 10:45 and Bristol connection at 11:58). Drop off for "the 13:43" on Sunday.