Hello,First: The Supercomputing Tour was, and I think I speak for all who attended, extremely cool. The stereoscopic display wall was of course really fun to look at, but my favorite part by far was the rack full of 240x 750GByte hard drives providing storage for the CERN Large Hadron Collider which comes online in the summer of this year. Awe-inspiring.
As for the upcoming Microsoft promotion: Perhaps it is too "early" for us to make an appearance. Jimmy mentioned that it would be best to avoid the "crazy maniac style advocacy" and I agree; however, it is certainly possible to avoid this while still maintaining a presence. Regardless, I have a hunch that this is "not our moment." Let Microsoft have their time. It is not impossible for us to launch our own "grassroots and buzzwords" initiative promoting the use of free software for development of more free software.
One thing working against us is the "perceived value" effect - people think that getting a product for free that they'd ordinarily have to pay money for means that they are getting a "better" product than what they could have had all along for free. (That was a horrible sentence).
Not really sure how exactly we'd go about promoting development on Linux - I don't do a terribly large amount of programming, so I'm underqualified to comment on it. Some things that come to mind, however, are LUG-hosted Programming Competitions (Unix-based dev stack), collaboration on a piece of open-source software (I have a few ideas for software that I'm unable to write), etc. All these things could be done and promoted. I'm not sure whether or not BU already competes in programming competitions, but I'm aware that other schools do, and there is eventually a World Finals round. http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/v2/ (alternatively, we could keep it in-house)
Basically, in a nutshell, instead of directly locking horns with Microsoft, we could duplicate, emulate, and elaborate to the best of our ability to try to convince people that the MS way is not truly The Right Way.
Just thinking... Ryan On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Luke wrote:
I'd have to agree with Jimmy. I don't think we are even close to this level yet. And protesting Microsoft would send a bad message. I'm not sure we should get into the FOSS vs propriety thing just yet. This could quickly devolve into a serious argument between members.Luke Anderson Jimmy C. Chau wrote:I'm not sure if this is the reputation we want to earn for BULUG. As much as I'd like for everyone to make informed choices about the software, this approach may send the wrong message and send BULUG into the wrong direction: crazy maniac style advocacy.Just be careful. -Jimmy C. Chau <jchau@xxxxxx> Likai Liu wrote:I wonder how Microsoft reps would feel if we distribute Ubuntu CDs near their event... Even on Windows, I'm pretty sure that Eclipse(CDT)/MinGW/QT4 would make a competitive developing environment. Who needs MFC. Has anyone tried that combination? liulk ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lindsey Clarkson <lclarkso@xxxxxxxxx> Date: 2008/4/11 10:48 Subject: Microsoft Event: DreamSpark Launch Party + Job Opening 4/14 To: cs-internships@xxxxxxxxx, cs-jobs@xxxxxxxxx, Grad Students <cs-grads@xxxxxxxxx>, cs-ugrads@xxxxxxxxx, cs-faculty@xxxxxxxxx DreamSpark is a new Microsoft initiative to provide free developer?s tools to students! Stop by Monday, 4/14 at 6 pm CAS314 for a short presentation and grab an authorization code to allow you to download and install powerful Microsoft tools like the new Visual Studios 2008 (ERP $599) or the XNA Creators Club Membership (ERP $99/year) for FREE! ALSO, there is an opening for a Technical Microsoft Student Partner position for the next academic year! This job is a great opportunity to network with Microsoft employees, discover emerging Microsoft technologies way ahead of the general public, and earn great swag from a laptop computer to hard cash :) Please come by if you?re interested! Pizza and soda will be served! If anyone can?t make it and has any questions about either DreamSpark or the Student Partner position, feel free to email Barry Lai (current Microsoft Student Partner) at blai@xxxxxxx _________BU LUG: http://lug.bu.edu. To unsubscribe, email bulug-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field._________BU LUG: http://lug.bu.edu. To unsubscribe, email bulug-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field._________BU LUG: http://lug.bu.edu. To unsubscribe, email bulug-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field.
_________ BU LUG: http://lug.bu.edu. To unsubscribe, email bulug-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field.
