SPUG: Meetings at Amazon

Ken Meyer kmeyer at blarg.net
Thu Sep 23 12:47:40 CDT 2004


If you don't have any access to the "outside" Internet at all that could be
shared with you being responsible party, it seems to me that, from that
promontory, it is very likely that you could create a completely independent
Inet connection via some outside 802.11 access point, especially if the
conference room has reasonable visibility north and/or east.  You might need
to use a directional antenna of some sort  external to the transceiver card.
Perhaps such a connection could be bridged to allow sharing by the user
group attendees via a local AP.

In any event, at least the presenter could have access outside, which at
GSLUG, we have found to be an important capability desired by most
presenters in order to show related sites and/or to access information on
their own home machines.

You might even be able to find some "legitimate" 802.11 connections.  If
there is any potential feasibility in this WiFi approach, one thing that I
would do is to consult www.seattlewireless.net for potential nodes
maintained by "associates" of that organization that you might be able to
"see" from Jeff's Conceit.  I know that some of the main proponents of SWN
have nodes on Cap Hill, but I'm not sure that they are visible from the
south.

Another thing that I just learned at a recent GSLUG meeting at NSCC is that
an individual machine could acquire a DHCP IP address there without joining
the internal network -- just "not part of the school's domain" was the
explanation.  So they were able to see outside without having access to the
school's internal network.  Perhaps you could investigate that possibility,
even via some person who is not a new employee such as you apparently are.

Ken Meyer


-----Original Message-----

From: spug-list-bounces at mail.pm.org [mailto:spug-list-bounces at mail.pm.org]On
Behalf Of C.J. Collier
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 8:40 AM
To: spug-list at pm.org

Subject: SPUG: Meetings at Amazon

Hey all,

There is in fact free parking in the lot on the north side of the building.
We will have to walk between the main building and parking building to get
around to the front, but it's not a big deal.

Internet access is limited to Amazon employees only. As a contractor, I
don't even have access to their intranet. This is going to be a sticky
point, and if it is violated, they will likely become upset.

I will put together a "how to get to Amazon" document when I get a chance.
Unless someone else has the time and knowledge?

The room is large. It's big enough to hold around 50 people. If we know one
of our meetings is going to be very large, we can probably reserve the
middle room which I guess can hold as many as 100 people. I can even look
into pulling down one of the separators and joining the rooms. I don't think
the size of the meeting place is going to be a problem.

My friend Bill and I walk from Weller street to PacMed in about 5 minutes.
The International District and its abundant pre- and post-func locations are
about equidistant. If we have a qualified cat herder we can walk from Pac
Med to the ID in as little 15 minutes.

We have access to the projectors. I will be responsible for checking it out
and returning it unharmed.

Can any of you longer-time Amazonians on the list clarify at all?

Cheers,

C.J.



On Wed, Sep 22, 2004, Andrew Sweger wrote:

C.J. Collier, a longtime SPUG member and recent new hire at amazon.com,
has done all the footwork to provide SPUG the opportunity to hold our
monthly meetings in the A/V room at the amazon.com Pac-Med office (near
the I-5 & I-90 interchange). The arrangement would be similar to the years
we met at Safeco tower in the U-district (visitor sign-in, escort to
meeting room). C.J. is offering to sponsor our group in meeting there and
will be our representative (ambassador?) to the company (like Dora Choi
was for Safeco).

So, what do folks think about this?

Some information I already know folks will need include: access from
freeway, parking availability nearby, size of room, projector, Internet
access, nearby food/drink establishments for pre- and post-meeting
activity. C.J. will try to provide some of that when he has a chance. I'll
work on gathering some of this information next week when I'm back in
town. What else do folks need to know (as if the location wasn't enough)?

Discuss.

(We're tentatively lining things up to meet there for our 19 October
meeting. We are still welcome to meet at Geospiza for the foreseeable
future.)



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