Yesterday was the Bangalore Linux Users Group April meet. To whip things up a bit, Gopi, Shanu and I decided to present part of our upcoming Exocore Wireless Networking Workshop (in May) at the meet – specifically an Intro to Wireless Networking, Wireless Networking and Linux, and practical demonstrations of setup and procedures.

We expected some mild increase in interest, but 104 people in a hall meant for about 60 is a bit more than a “mild increase”.

IAC, the presentations went of very well, with Gopi “Zapping Them with Science” (tm, Hindustan Lever), giving them enough CSc fundas to be dangerous, then me bringing in the Linux part of it, and finally Shanu cakewalking through demos and setups. We had a ball, and I suspect so did the BLUGgies. I saw quite a number of Windows admins in the crowd, and they appeared quite taken aback by the ease of setting up stuff under Linux, especially when Shanu set up the Secure Access Point (no weakling WEP here!) and the VPN.

The only bad part of the evening (for me) was my being hit by a sinus inflammation minutes before we started. I asked Jessie if she had any Crocin with her, but no joy. And so I suffered through the meet with a really violent headache, bad enough to force me to sit down and continue halfway through my talk. And I most certainly wasn’t at my best during this talk.

Lots of socialising after the meet. Food was excellent as usual, and plentiful – we definitely got our money’s worth. The coffee was completely geek-quality – I was tossing and turning till 3 a.m.! Lots of fun, lots of leg pulling, lots of “hail fellow well met”.

Let’s see if we can keep up the quality with the next meet.