SPUG: Meeting Announcement -- Hackers Night - 15 February 2005

Mon Feb 14 10:37:35 PST 2005

         February 2005 Seattle Perl Users Group (SPUG) Meeting
         =====================================================

       Title: Hackers Night & OSCON Preview
     Speaker: n/a

Meeting Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 
Meeting Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. (networking 6:30 - 7:00)
    Location: Amazon.com Pac-Med Building

        Cost: Admission is free and open to the general public
        Info: http://seattleperl.org/

             ===========================================

My apologies for the lateness of this announcement. Life is all over me
like a monkey on my back (but I'm enjoying it). Tim and C.J. had great
ideas. We'll have a hackers night and OSCON preview.

To start out the meeting, anyone who submitted a proposal to present at
this year's OSCON (they were due this last Sunday), you are invited to
tell us about your proposal and get constructive feedback from the
audience.

Next will be a chance for everyone to participate. For folks that are new
to Perl, this is a great chance to ask other Perlers what is up with those
crazy references or the real difference between an array and a hash. Or
perhaps you've been using Perl for years and want to know more about
objects. For artisans of the Perl, this is a chance to share your
experience and help others over those humps you struggled with so many
years ago. We'll work out a way to connect people at the meeting. Just
bring yourself, your questions, your brain, your laptop, your favorite
code, etc.

See below for more information on...

    - RSVP
    - Pre-meeting Dinner
    - Internet Access at Meeting
    - PGP/GnuPG Key Exchange
    - Directions to Meeting
    - Directions from Meeting

RSVP
====

If you've signed up and RSVP'd on Meetup.com, great. If you emailed me,
great. If you emailed C.J., great. If you haven't done any of that, great.
Just show up. But it would be really nice if you took a couple minutes to
sign-up on Meetup.com and indicate if you'll be attending. It's not
required, but it is immensely helpful to planning and makes things move
slicker 'an grass through a goose.

If you personally feel that you have a 50% or better chance of showing up
at the meeting, please RSVP. Toward that end, I have setup a Perl
Meetup.com group,

  http://perl.meetup.com/86/

Please consider signing up and joining the SPUG meetup.com group. Through
the website, you may manage your RSVP for the meeting and request
automatic reminders be emailed to you personally.

Pre-meeting Dinner
==================

I'm swamped this month at won't be able to attend a pre-meeting
dinner. For those that are interested, please feel free to start a new
thread on the mailing list to discuss logistics.

Internet Access at Meeting
==========================

A link to the Internet will be provided at the meeting (provided you have
suitable equipment). Tables, power strips, and Ethernet hubs will be
available in limited quantity. 802.11g WiFi will be available. Please use
the SSID: SPUG. The beacon will be broadcasting. No WEP/WPA. Please note
that the provided network services are _not_ secure. As I'm sure most of
you know, it is a trivial matter to "sniff" network traffic. Please use a
secure application encryption protocol or other secure VPN solution to
protect sensitive information. Use of the the provided network services is
at your own risk. Be a good network citizen. The network services are
provided gratis by our hosts. Access can be revoked at any time without
prior notification.

PGP/GnuPG Key Exchange
======================

If you want to exchange PGP/GnuPG signatures, please contact me directly
with your public key (now!) and I'll bring fingerprint checklists for
participants. Contact me if you want to know more. Oh, and you have to
show up at the meeting to exchange ID's and all that, please. Otherwise
this whole key exchange thing doesn't work.

Directions to Meeting
=====================

Our meeting will take place at the Amazon.com headquarters at 1200 12th
Ave S, Seattle, Washington.

Please let me know if you find errors or a better route. Thanks.

I-5 (from North or South)
-------------------------

On I-5, take the S Dearborn St exit and turn West on Dearborn (I-5
Southbound: turn right; I-5 Northbound: turn left) and proceed
approximately one or two blocks.

Turn right on 8th Ave S (the first light) and proceed North for three
blocks.

Turn right on S King St and proceed East for approximately five
blocks. You will pass under I-5.

Turn right on 12th Ave S and proceed South for approximately five blocks.
Along this way, you will cross over the Dr. Jose P. Rizal bridge and you
should see the Pac-Med tower directly ahead.

At this point, notice that you have been going in a circle.

Skip to Pac-Med Building below.

I-90 (from East)
----------------

On I-90, take the Rainier Ave S (hwy 900) exit Northbound and proceed
approximately six blocks.

Turn left on S King St and proceed West for approximately two blocks.

Turn left on 12th Ave S and proceed South for approximately five blocks.
Along this way, you will cross over the Dr. Jose P. Rizal bridge and you
should see the Pac-Med tower directly ahead.

Pac-Med Building
----------------

Turn right at Charles St (the light after the bridge). The Amazon.com
Pac-Med building is visible ahead and on the left as you make the turn and
proceed South on Charles (Charles borders the West side of the
building).

The North parking lot entrance will be the second drive way on the left
(the first has a Do Not Enter sign). The parking lot is on the left just
past the parking attendant booth. The "carpool only" spaces should be okay
to park in after 6:30.

Walk to the South entrance of the tower. There is stair next to the
parking garage structure that leads to a convenient path that goes around
the building to the main entrance on the South side of the building.

Enter building and go to the security desk. Sign in and wait to be
escorted to the meeting room (just like when we met at Safeco in the
U-district, more or less).

Google Maps:

  http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1200%2012th%20ave%20s%2C%20seattle%2C%20wa&spn=0.017365%2C0.032945

  (I just love these Google Map links!)

Yahoo! Maps:

  http://us.rd.yahoo.com/maps//maps/extmap/*-http://maps.yahoo.com//maps_result?csz=Seattle%2C+WA+98144-2712&state=WA&uzip=98144&ds=n&name=&desc=&ed=uVHuJep_0TqNClJbk4iFOtDnYtddbn81hKmaNuXswR2pUy1qXnoKfGK_rtqkypGYq5f_zb5ghVDwhYc8gzs3td4sOl73q3BVDyr7btbB3VI4IrVR&zoomin=yes&BFKey=&mag=9

MapQuest:

  http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&countryid=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=address&searchtype=address&address=1200+12th+ave+s&city=&state=&zipcode=98144&search=++Search++

Directions from Meeting
=======================

Getting Back Onto I-5 Southbound
--------------------------------

(Thanks to member Ron Pero for this helpful information.)

Although there is an I-5 northbound exit at S Dearborn St, there is no
entrance back onto southbound I-5 at Dearborn. So don't bother trying to
simply go back the same way you came.

Exit the Pac-Med parking lot on the East side of building (this is Golf Dr
S) and turn right. Bear left onto 15th Ave S (the right fork is 14th Ave
S. Proceed approximately 1.5 miles. Turn right on S Spokane St and go down
steep hill. Turn right at light and follow signs to I-5 southbound.

If you exit the Pac-Med parking lot on the West side of the building, turn
right on 12th Ave S and then right again on Golf Dr S (the light is the
one at the South end of the Dr. Jose P. Rizal bridge). Continue as above.

Technically, there's another way onto I-5 SB, but it involves some other
crazy route that I'm not going to provide here.