Unix Unanimous
From GTALUG
Unix Unanimous
Unix Unanimous is an informal gathering of people interested in Unix and related topics. There are no fees or membership requirements, and the meeting is open to all. Participants typically include Unix professionals, students, and hobbyists.
The meeting is always held on the second Wednesday of each month.
Contributed by Colin McGregor to the GTALUG mailing list:
Unix Unanimous has a website that notes time/place of next meeting here:
In summary, normally 2nd Wednesday of each month, room BA 5256 of the Bahen Centre for Information Technology at 40 St. George Street (just north of College St., part of the University of Toronto's main downtown campus).
The meeting format is fairly simple, at the start of the meeting a numbering scheme will be decided (normally something silly, like prime numbers, or cities with a King and a Queen Street, or...). Then each person will be asked three questions:
- Your name?
- What (if any) organization do your represent?
- Do you have question(s) for the board?
If someone has a question (or questions) for the board they will be asked to supply a number in the previously decided numbering scheme (which can make life hard for late arrivals :-) ) and their question(s). Once everyone has been introduced, and a bunch of questions are on the board, the moderator (currently Colin McGregor, previously it has been D'Arcy Cain, and Jim Mercer), will go through the questions in an order decided by the moderator (simple easy questions TENDING to be dealt with first, difficult and/or controversial questions TENDING to be answered last). Late arrivals will be asked the same three questions noted above, and it is a bit of a game to see late arrivals attempt to figure out the numbering scheme :-) . While Linux does come up in questions/discussions the focus tends to be on the *BSDs and commercial Unixes such as Solaris.
The idea at UU being that you learn from other people's problems. Normal turnout at the meetings is 15-20 people.
Once the questions are dealt with the group will in very large part head out over to the "Real Thailand" restaurant (350 Bloor Street West) where discussions will continue over food. What is curious is that since people know that after the meeting folks go to "Real Thailand" I have seen more Unix fans at the restaurant than at the meeting proper. The restaurant has a website:
What is also interesting is that the restaurant used after meetings has for many years been at 350 Bloor Street West. So over the years that has gone from being a Greek style restaurant, to a family style restaurant to the current Thai food. Ten years from now, who knows...
