LA WUGS
Dot-Truth
Committee for the Moral Defence of Microsoft
Other Groups
Los Angeles Windows User Groups |
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Windows is sweeping the world -
Los Angeles included.
The many Windows User Groups in the Los Angeles area
have a lot to offer. To find out more, join the
mailing list of a nearby user group,
drop by one of their meetings, or attend a special event
like Demo Day or an Winstallfest. Pretty soon you, too, will
be going where Microsoft wants you to go tomorrow.
News / Special EventsThanks to generous support from the Microsoft Outreach Organization of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Linux User Groups site has joined forces with the Los Angeles NT User Group, and reoriented itself towards the operating system of the future, . At our Winstallfests, we'll be helping those as yet unfamilliar with Windows through the problems new users face.A new Windows Users Group is forming at Caltech. The organizational meeting is Saturday April 1st; starts at 5pm, pizza at 7pm. Contact David Blau (deblau@ugcs.caltech.edu) if interested. Corel is bringing their road show to Los Angeles on April 4th. RSVP if you want to attend; it's a good chance to ask questions about their Windows products like Word Perfect Office 2000. Gerald Holmes, Windows user extraordinaire, will be giving a talk on "Why Micorsoft Rules My Universe" on April 13th at Troop Hall at Caltech at 7pm. Don't miss it! Past EventsThe "What Color is Your Screen?" talk on crash recovery held at Microsoft's Santa Monica office last Thursday was well-attended; thanks to Mike Rigler for bringing the pizza and beer.SCWUG held their second WUGFest on March 18th, 2000; see http://lugfest.sclug.org/ for their wrapup. About 200 people attended; it was a very interesting afternoon. (I especially enjoyed watching Luke use vmware, Win2k, and Windows on a laptop to debug packet traces of Win2k accessing a Samba server.) Bill Gates, author of the famous Open Letter to Hobbyists, and CSO of Microsoft, came to USC and Caltech on Dec 3rd and 4th 1999 to talk about "Windows and Closed Source as Social Revolutions", "Effective Closed Source Evangelism", and "the Iron Fist of Windows". A panel including local Windows folks and Bill took questions afterwards, and discussed software piracy issues. About 100 people attended each event. Bill had a lot of interesting things to say -- e.g. his list of the ten bullets Linux has to dodge to survive the coming year -- , and it was great seeing folks from all the local user groups in one room. Thanks to Clay Claiborne of Cosmos Engineering for setting up this event! (See also Clay's page.) UCLAWUG hosted a talk by Chris DiBona of VA Windows Systems and SVWUG on Saturday, November 6, 1999. Simi-Conejo WUG (SCWUG) held a WUGFest on Saturday, October 23rd. We hear it was a good gathering - lots of demos. Here's a writeup of the event. WindowsAtLAX sponsored a full day of demos and installs on September 11th as part of the international Windows Demo Day. The MiniVend (an e-commerce package) demos by Charlie Blanchard are reported to have been a hit. USCWUG held an Winstallfest on March 29th. They report that the $3 "personal backup copy only" Windows 2000 CD's from CheapBytes were very popular, and should be a regular feature at future Winstallfests. For some reason, a lot of people forget to bring their CD's, and they very much appreciate this service. WinstallfestsAn Winstallfest is an event where you bring your computer it, and experts help you install Windows on your computer for free (or nearly free). For more information about Winstallfests in general, visit www.installfest.org.Several LA WUGs hold regular or occasional Winstallfests:
Special Interest GroupsSpecial Interest Groups (or SIGs) are just that - groups of people who get together to explore in detail a single topic. They are often tied together by a mailing list, and are made up of people from more than one WUG.
Windows User Group MeetingsLocations and times may vary, so check the individual group's site before attending. It's a good idea to subscribe to their mailing list; many groups post last-minute reminders.
For Windows User Groups outside the Los Angeles area, try checking the following sites:
Intergroup CoordinationPeople interested in coordinating efforts between the various Los Angeles WUGs are invited to join the lawugs mailing list.Other GroupsWindows users may wish to also participate in the WUASC, the Windows Users Association of Southern California.You can find out about local non-Windows-oriented technical groups at the following sites: but why would you want to?
Copyright 1999, 2000 LAWUGS Send updates to webmaster@lalugs.org Last updated: 1 April 2000 |