Manchester BSD User Group June 5, 2007

Tuesday, the 5th June, is interesting for two reasons.

Firstly, it's the Manchester BSD User Group meeting, held from 7:30pm-ish at the Briton's Protection on Great Bridgewater Street in this, the finest city on Earth (or at the very least, we're further up the list than Hull).

Secondly, it's the 30th anniversary of the Apple II going on sale.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II :

"The first Apple II computers went on sale on June 5, 1977 with a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz, 4 KB of RAM, an audio cassette interface for loading programs and storing data, and the Integer BASIC programming language built into the ROMs. The video controller displayed 24 lines by 40 columns of upper-case-only text on the screen, with NTSC composite video output suitable for display on a monitor, or on a TV set by way of an RF modulator. The original retail price of the computer was US$1298 (with 4 KB of RAM) and US $2638 (with the maximum 48 KB of RAM)."

Upgrade from 4Kb to 48Kb of RAM for $1,340? And I thought the current official upgrade price to 2Gb on Macbooks was pricey...

Given that the BSD UG has turned into an Apple fan club with its head only slightly above the let's-hug-the-prancing-Unicorn-under-a-rainbow tide of cultism that real Apple User Group meetings seem to exhibit, we may choose to combine these two occasions into one big Unholy/unruly Celebration of VisiCalc.

Of course, unlike most real Apple fan groups, the BSD UG is attended by people who think that 4Kb of RAM is perhaps a little *too much* memory for a real computer, so our celebration might be along the lines of quietly grumbling in a corner "Who needs a screen when a bank of LEDs shows you everything you need?", "Paper tape is more reliable than magnetic media like cassette anyway..." and "1MHz? Who needs all that speed? The Intel 8008 is *more* than quick enough at 0.5Mhz"

What? Who?

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The Manchester BSD User Group is a group of Unix enthusiasts, users, developers and systems administrators who meet once a month in a pub in central Manchester. It's a friendly/social event and we don't do talks or presentations. We chat about various technical things that matter to us, but mostly it's a chance for people to meet up and find out what's going on within the industry or in our mad/bad personal projects.

In the past, conversations have covered a wide range of technical topics, so if you're interested in the kind of tech that you can pull apart and put back together again (even when you're not meant to), you'll find somebody interested nearby.

Where?

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The Briton's Protection pub on Great Bridgewater Street, in central Manchester. We normally occupy a large-ish area in one of the rooms around the back, but now the evenings are getting lighter if it's warm and sunny we may head out to the beer garden (if it's open).

The Briton's is a traditional English pub with real ale, quality lager, a range of soft drinks and an excellent selection of crisps. I believe they do food of a high quality, but don't know what time they stop serving.

When?

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We always meet on the first Tuesday of each calendar month. The next meeting is on Tuesday the 5th June, and the meeting after is currently planned for the 3rd July. We normally drift in to the place around 7:30pm, and most people drift off sometime between 9pm and 10pm.

Questions?

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Feel free to post queries to manchester@bsdgroups.org.uk or you can contact me directly. If you want directions to help find us, or need a mobile number in case you get lost, just get in touch.

Official Website: http://www.bsdgroups.org.uk/manchester