[BALUG-Talk] REMINDER: BALUG: meeting: TUESDAY 2020-02-18 Rich Morin...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting (purportedly?) Aaron C. (aaronco36@SDF.ORG):

> FYI, an excellent web-resource for 95percent-plus Linux events is
> Rick Moen's Bay Area Linux Events site http://linuxmafia.com/bale/
> (the one notable not-just-Linux-or-FOSS exception might be Rick's
> relatively recent listings for Tom's Berkeley Pi Meeting group
> http://linuxmafia.com/bale/#berkeleypi)

BALE has never had a hard requirement for either Linux or for open
source.[1]

It originated as, and frankly remains, a reminder calendar for Bay Area
technical events that Rick Moen happens to find interesting and to
mix well enough with the other events listed.  At origin, that was
mostly Linux groups; hence the name and URL.  And the verbal imagery
works, too, IMO:  It's a (virtual) bale of upcoming events, bundled into
a chronological list.  Perl groups, Python groups, BSD groups, and a lot
of others have followed that happened to catch my eye and make me think
'that's interesting' -- including groups like CocoaHeads, Silicon
Valley Chapter, which is strongly Apple-centric and proprietary, and
seldom has any intersection with Linux, but which I find interesting
despite those drawbacks.

It actually took me very much by surprise, about six months after I
first created the page, that the entire technical community in the
greater Bay Area was relying on and referring to BALE, in preference to
the groups' Web sites it points to.  Part of the reason was that the
individual group Web sites were (then) very poorly maintained, and
ignored basics like making most-needed information most-prominent.

About a decade ago, two of three individuals (notably one Ed Cherlin and
one Bill Ward) loudly demanded that I 'open up' BALE so that they could
insert into its listings arbitrary other groups they liked that I chose
to disregard because I just didn't find them interesting or for other
reasons.  I sympathised with their problem, but advised that BALE is
actually not a public utility.  It's my page, on my site, publishing
content curated by me.  OTOH, I pointed out, the underying software
('autobale') is fully open source, simple, and publicly available.
Therefore, I suggested they remember A.J. Liebling's aphorism --
'Freedom of the press is available only to those who own one' -- and run
their own damned autobale instance that implemented _their_ curation
policies.  I offered help, and even offered a Debian CD, or, if that
required too much competence, Ubuntu.  ;->

My suggestion and offer of assistance was, predictably, ignored,
however, and one of the strident dissidents, can't remember which one, 
created a Google Calendar, instead.

Because outsourcing to hosted propretary software run and controlled by
the world's second-nosiest corporation is so very much easier than
thinking.


> Besides SF-LUG's once-a-month meeting, I'd suggest your also looking
> into some of the outlier locations for their bona fide _Linux_
> end-user support and feedback for those relatively new to installing
> + using Linux, e.g., BerkeleyLUG, the Diablo Valley Linux User Group
> (DVLUG), the East Bay Linux User Group (EBLUG), and maybe one or two
> other regional Linux User Groups.

So, what's CABAL, then?  Chopped liver?  ;->


[1] I really wish people would take the expressions 'FOSS' and (even
worse) 'FLOSS' and dump them in a radioactive pit, somewhere.  Talk
about your incompetently obscure antimarketing.