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Technical Meeting: Tuesday December 12th

The December "technical" meeting (ie gaming) will be held at the standard day and time, Tuesday December 12th, 6 pm. Since things just don't seem to be panning out for gaming at Cinemagic or Chateau (more details will remain below), we're going with the old standby of Lounge51 (formerly Xgames).

Location: Lounge51, 115 North Broadway, this is next door to the Senior Center and just south of the railroad tracks. This is NOT the old Xgames location.

When: Tuesday December 12th, 6 pm. However they open at 10 am, so you're welcome to start earlier. Also, while Lounge51's posted closing time is 9 pm, if three or more people want to keep playing and they're paying hourly rates, Lounge51 stay open later.

Cost: $5/hour if a non-member. Other options are memberships or day passes. Snacking options: Pop, sugar, snack foods, basically anything that doesn't actually require a food license for them to sell.

Games available (and # of simultaneous players allowed): They have 24 computers. See http://lounge51.com/content/Games.aspx for a 6-12 month old list of games. Many more are now available. As far as licensing, that varies. Some games are available on every computer at once, and for those it's not available all at once it sounds like things are at least improved over Xgames' limitations. Examples I was given on the phone were:

-Age of Empires (version not specified), all machines

-Battlefield 2 - 10

-Counter Strike 1.6 - 6

-Counter Strike Source - 12

-Warcraft III - all machines

If there is a particular game you want to know about, I can call to ask. If there's a lot of interest in a particular game they don't currently have enough licenses for AND you are willing to pre-pay, they'd look into getting additional licenses for us. Besides computer games, they also have a big screen tv, with an Xbox, PS2, PS3, Gamecube, DDR pad, Guitar Hero, and lots of games to go with them.

I did try to look into other options. For future reference, I dug up the following information on several possibilities:

-computer gaming at Lounge 51 (formerly Xgames) with a charge per hour. Open to the public.

-Xbox gaming at Cinemagic, $6/half hour/person. At most 4 play at a time, and it sounds like only 1 room would be available. Open to the public.

-Xbox gaming at Chateau late at night with a per person charge ($25, but good for 6 months and includes other goodies) and at most 4 play at a time per room but multiple rooms would be available. Open to the public. Friday and Saturday nights, 9-11 pm on whiteboards, then 11 pm - 3 am in the theaters.

-Xbox gaming at Chateau with a room reservation fee ($35) with at most 4 play at a time

-free board and collectable card games at Chateau. Open to the public. Fridays starting at 8 pm.

All of these things except the one where we have to commit to paying a room reservation fee are things that are open to the public.

Planned Social: Monday December 18th

Long version: Being a couch or computer potato and eating all of that good food is just too tempting this time of year. Join us for an evening away from both of those on Monday December 18th. Meet with other geeks to walk for ~1 hour and 20 minutes, and plan for time afterwards to socialize over a cup of something warm. 6:30 pm, Panera South (just inside the doors to the right). Please don't be late, it'd be hard to catch up with us. Dress warm, we're walking outside for the whole time, no matter what the weather. This is a regularly occuring event on Monday evenings, so if you can't make this one feel free to join us for others.

Short version: Similar to November. Monday December 18th, 6:30 pm, Panera South, dress warm we're walking outside, don't plan to be done until at least 8 pm.

Planned Lunch: Thursday December 21st

Meet up with those geeks who aren't or haven't yet left town for the holidays. 11:30 am, near the Chinese restaurant in the Galleria

New Years Eve party?

The idea has been brought up to have a party, somewhere, on New Years Eve. Suggestions (volunteers?) are needed for where to host this. Are you willing to volunteer your house? If you're willing to open your home we can definintely make it a potluck, you wouldn't be stuck providing food/beverages. Or do you know of a place that wouldn't be too packed? As of the November 21st page update, there was no positive response for this idea.

Planned Technical Meeting: Thursday January 11th

Plone by Eldon Nelson, with PCIG. Also, KLUG officer elections. Please submit your nominations for president, vice president, and treasurer to the email list prior to the day of the election. Self nominations are accepted.

Planned Social: TBD, January

Some interest has been expressed in having an introduction to curling. Due to limited ice availability in the curling season, the hands on intro would have to be a weekend activity in January. You'd need to plan on at least half a day, since we'd have to go to Owatonna. Please let me know your interest level on this potential activity.

Planned Technical Meeting: Thursday February 8th

Paint Shop Pro, with PCIG. Note this is not our usual date, nor a truly Linux option, but given the amount of interest in Robert Nix's GIMP presentation I thought there might be interest in comparing/contrasting.

Old news

Social: Monday November 27th

Outside trail walking. Meet at Panera South by 6:30 pm, dress warm, prepare to walk ~1 hour 20 minutes with socializing and warming beverages at Panera afterwards. Don't be late or you won't catch up with us.

Lunch Meeting: Thursday November 16th

11:30 am near the Chinese restaurant in the Galleria. Discussion about December gaming options or desired social activities would be appreciated.

Technical Meeting: Swap Sale Thursday November 9th

Swap meet!! Buy/Sell/Trade - at this annual event, even the general public can bring computer / gadget related gear to sell or trade, or just come to browse for the bargins. Set-up will be at 6 pm, with an estimated swap start time of 6:15 pm. We also plan to have a truck available to recycle old equipment at a price of $0.35 a pound When: Thurs, Nov 9th 6pm Where: University Center Rochester Heintz Center in room HA108. Set-up will be at 6 pm, with an estimated swap start time of 6:15 pm. Location: RCTC room HA108 Attendance will include be members of PCIG, IBM Ham Radio Club, students from RCTC, and the general public.

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K-LUG Club members, we NEED YOUR HELP! How?

-Bring your stuff to sell/swap.

-Print and Show this Sale Flyer to friends

-Bring your computer stuff that needs to go to the recycling ($0.35/pound).

-Bring a bathroom scale that's accurate at low weight ranges, so we can figure out the appropriate recycling fee to charge.

-Bring your truck and be willing to take a load to the recycling during the recycling center's open hours (Mondays-Saturdays, 8-5). (Pat S. and Tim M.)

-Coordinate the pizza fundraiser, buy pizza and pop plus bring paper plates and disposable cups in quantities sufficient for those who show up. Will be reimbursed out of the profits from the fundraiser (charge is a donation). (Steve F. and Steve S.)

-Making some Ubuntu CDs to give away. (Dave Berg)

-Posting

Volunteers are needed to post to many locations. Please sign up to be the poster for the following (suggestions welcome):

-KLUG mailing list and wiki - Tina W.

-IBM calendar - Tim M.

-PCIG website - Tim M.

-Ham radio club - Tim M.

-Mayo classifieds - Pat S.

-Craigslist - Tim M.

-Rochester Freecycle (limited to free pick-up of non-swapped items headed for recycling at the end of the swap) - Steve F.

-UCR bulletin boards - in hard copy - Ren T.

-RCTC bulletin boards - in hard copy - Tim M. (I've made up something already, go here and print)

-Wherever else you can think of

Please RSVP for what tasks you can help with. If I haven't heard from anyone on a task, I'll have to start pestering people. This has got to be a group effort to be successful.

Mister House 2nd Opportunity: Monday October 30th

A second opportunity for you to see the Mister House presentation! 7 pm, directions are here.

Name	# of attendees
Robert Bleimeyer	3
José de Leon	1
Mark Diez	1
Bill Marshall	1
Joe Sedelmeyer	1
Mike Fallenstein	2

Social: Thursday October 26th

5:30 pm Frisbee golf at East Park. Weather-related cancellation will be announced around noon to email list and wiki if necessary.

6:30 pm Warming beverages and/or dinner at Whistle Binkies. You do not have to play frisbee golf to attend this portion, just meet us there. This will occur whether or not we have to cancel frisbee golf.

Lunch Meeting: Thursday October 19th

Come one, come all, at 11:30 am to the vicinity of the Chinese resturant in the Galleria food court.

Technical Meeting: Tuesday October 10th

Mister House - Home automation - road trip to a Rochester home being controlled by computers. We're limited to ~25 participants. If there are closer to 50, we might be able to split and have a second session. Please sign up, in order, below or email Tina to get added. Indicate if you could only attend if it were not the original October 10th date, you'd be at the head of the list if we had a second date. Some details on Mr House: http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/

Directions and map to Mister House can be found here.

Technical Meeting: Thursday, September 14th

Open source in Croatia, Croatian government. Guest speaker Vlatko Kosturjak, from Croatia, temporarily in the US. Room will be HA108, our new "permanent" location.

Wink has been postponed. Wink software used for making demos of new products. Records screen sessions and audio.

Old News Items

See the OldNews page.