It’s been a hectic Saturday … started pretty early with a intervention (work) which I carried from home. I was hoping to finish before noon but those slow RDP connections messed up my plans. Oh yeah, intervention on WinServers.

During the week Pritvi created a facebook event for Linuxfest brainstorming. By this morning, the event page had 8 RSVPs, but more people showed up :) I reached 2 hours late. Folks were already there having some geek chat. Hmm… except for the ladies.

I reached Bagatelle Mall at 15h00. Pritvi, Nirvan, Avinash Seetaram, Nitin J Mutkawoa, Pawan and Avinash Mayaram were inside Mugg & Bean. Neha, Darshini & another friend of theirs were gossiping outside. When I arrived I pinged the ladies & they joined in. I first presented my apologies for being late & then took out the WinServers frustration. I shared the daunting experience regarding today’s intervention (slow RDP connection … grrr!). Nayar came a while later.

We started with a quick chat about Linkbynet Openday 2013. Nitin & Nayar had already registered on the website. Avinash Mayaram also wanted to know about the event. I explained him briefly the process of setting up applications on one’s own PC and how Linkbynet will validate the well-functioning of the same. Neha & Darshini had pinged me earlier on facebook to know more about the event. So, I pulled Pawan’s netbook & showed a quick Apache installation, accessed the default page on Nitin’s netbook and modified the page to show them that it’s not as difficult as they had imagined. Yup, being a sysadmin is more than just installing Apache. However, this did give them an idea of what to expect ahead. Pawan on the other hand was more curious to know about SSH. We then installed OpenSSH on his netbook & connected using Nitin’s. I then asked Pawan to get an SSH client on his Android phone & do the same. All three of them, Neha, Darshini & Pawan, found this SSH connection thing amazing. I could see it in their smiles.

Well, Linkbynet Openday, Apache and SSH talks had been long. At the same time others were continuing the geek chat. I adore this whole community. Everybody had something to share & discuss. From time to time Avinash S & me, we made some Windows or Mac reference to make fun. We usually do that in office too. Pawan & Neha took a copy of Ubuntu 13.10 to try at home. After the Apache & SSH fun we all moved to join the Linuxfest 2013 talk with Pritvi and Nirvan. I made a quick recap of last week’s points. More ideas were tossed on the table today. We laughed … We laughed a lot. Indeed the team’s made up of creative minded people :) Drop in our Linuxfest 2013 on November 25 at Octave Wiehe Auditorium, Réduit and you’ll understand why.

Photo, courtesy of Nirvan Pagooah.