Let's get this thing organized

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Shawn Drost on September 2, 2008 at 8:21pm

Hi! I saw Honolulu mentioned on Zed's list of potential first chapters. I'll be one of the five people. I like coffee talk on waialae; it's roomy, free wifi, pretty central.

Permalink Reply by Jon Rosebaugh on September 3, 2008 at 8:30am

Shawn Drost said:

Hi! I saw Honolulu mentioned on Zed's list of potential first chapters. I'll be one of the five people. I like coffee talk on waialae; it's roomy, free wifi, pretty central.

Sounds good to me! I've been out of town for a bit, but now that I'm back, I want to get going on this.

Permalink Reply by Mad Marv on October 11, 2008 at 8:03pm

Sid Savara, Joe Philipson and I were talking about how to extract the serious techies from Manoa Geeks and doing something new. I think the F.U. has the spirit of what we're looking for. I'll ping them.

Permalink Reply by Sid on October 11, 2008 at 10:01pm

Mad Marv said:

Sid Savara, Joe Philipson and I were talking about how to extract the serious techies from Manoa Geeks and doing something new. I think the F.U. has the spirit of what we're looking for. I'll ping them.

We were talking about how we are constantly sharing what we know, and we really need a group of people that is more, for lack of a better word, "experienced."

At Manoa Geeks, we have a broad group to socialize with - but that's a relatively recent change. In it's early inception, it was actually a lot more like this group - sharing knowledge, heavily tech oriented, and people who were doing things sharing what they were doing with others doing thing. For Manoa Geeks there's no going back- (and why would we? It's great. We meet & network with different people and learn things there we definitely wouldn't otherwise.

I miss the small comraderie of a group that all gets it though, and then Kyle (Mad Marv) mentioned this, and we realized this really could be that forum. I think the demos we could give would be more in depth and the QA could get far more technical, since at Manoa Geeks I don't want to alienate others who are there to be part of the tech scene, but at FHU meetings we could likely go more in depth since it's a different audience.

Permalink Reply by Jon Rosebaugh on October 11, 2008 at 10:08pm

Sounding good. Any ideas on when we could fire up the first meeting?

Also, there's an irc channel; #freehackersunion on irc.freenode.net. I'm Chairos there.

Sid said:

Mad Marv said:

Sid Savara, Joe Philipson and I were talking about how to extract the serious techies from Manoa Geeks and doing something new. I think the F.U. has the spirit of what we're looking for. I'll ping them.

We were talking about how we are constantly sharing what we know, and we really need a group of people that is more, for lack of a better word, "experienced."

At Manoa Geeks, we have a broad group to socialize with - but that's a relatively recent change. In it's early inception, it was actually a lot more like this group - sharing knowledge, heavily tech oriented, and people who were doing things sharing what they were doing with others doing thing. For Manoa Geeks there's no going back- (and why would we? It's great. We meet & network with different people and learn things there we definitely wouldn't otherwise.

I miss the small comraderie of a group that all gets it though, and then Kyle (Mad Marv) mentioned this, and we realized this really could be that forum. I think the demos we could give would be more in depth and the QA could get far more technical, since at Manoa Geeks I don't want to alienate others who are there to be part of the tech scene, but at FHU meetings we could likely go more in depth since it's a different audience.

Permalink Reply by Jared I. Kuroiwa on October 13, 2008 at 10:07am

So I'm curious... Unfortunately I stand on the line when it comes to being "against business" (and have an MBA)...

Permalink Reply by Jon Rosebaugh on October 13, 2008 at 10:29am

Jared I. Kuroiwa said:

So I'm curious... Unfortunately I stand on the line when it comes to being "against business" (and have an MBA)...

It's not so much that you have to be against business, as that the Union meetings themselves are not a place for businessmen to recruit programmers for their next hit web 2.0.blah idea.

Permalink Reply by Jared I. Kuroiwa on October 13, 2008 at 10:38am

I figured... The rant from Zed was quite funny... But obviously after all hell broke loose at Bear...

Permalink Reply by Laurence A. Lee on October 13, 2008 at 11:11am

It's the purest form of Hacker Ethic, and I applaud Zed for trying to create an atmosphere that preserves it.

While Zed is no Richard Stallman, it's still the same underlying principle: Business Interests only pollute the creative freedom that hackers enjoy. FU meetings would really suck if it was a bunch of Wannabes, posturing for a chance to impress a Business Recruiter who may be at the meeting.

Bravo for requiring a 5-minute presentation, and especially allowing for a colleague to present on your behalf. Lots of brilliant geeks out there who are terrified of public speaking, unfortunately.

Hopefully Hawaii's chapter starts with more Hardware Hacking at first. Build a windmill from scratch, show off a gorgeous carputer installation, or show off that cool robot that plays Guitar Hero by watching a TV screen. Heck, I'd even pay money to see a locally-built Guitar Hero robot successfully do "Through The Fire and Flames" on the hardest level. :-)

Maybe we can collectively chip in and offer a TechHui challenge and prize to high school robotics teams interested in building a Guitar Hero robot? :o)

Permalink Reply by Sid on October 14, 2008 at 10:56am

What kind of equipment/space is required for a meeting?

If we are going to have more than 2 or 3 people, I think a projector would greatly help (if we're showing a website/live code/something that's non-hardware). I can borrow one from work if needed, the next thing then would be to figure out where we could hold it.

Otherwise, we could just go to a normal coffee shop like Cafe Jupiter near Ala Moana, if we no projector is needed.

Podcamp is in 10 days and I am out of town the week following. I could make it on the Tuesday, October 28th (day before I leave) if that day looks good - just throwing one out there.

Worst case, I can offer my place. We have big screen TV (that we can hook up a laptop to) and seating at my apartment that could accommodate a small group, but I don't think it would be comfortable if we get past about 8 people. I am right near Ala Moana.

Permalink Reply by Shawn Drost on October 14, 2008 at 11:05am

Sid, your place would be great. I don't think we'll get too many people there. Oct 28 works for me.

Permalink Reply by Jared I. Kuroiwa on October 14, 2008 at 11:16am

Sadly, I'd be out... We're doing a mayors debate for the three counties (you should watch it on-air or online, pardon the plug). Wanted to go the first FU meeting, but c'est la vie.

On a side note... I find it funny how people confuse electrical engineers from electronic engineers... Not to say one is better than the other (I have a BMEE dual degree so I'm biased), but they are different as night and day IMHO. Just had this thought from the Zed rant... At SC, I never handled a soldering iron except when I was playing with something on my own.

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