For April, Kyle Rankin is back with a talk! He’ll be presenting “UI Lessons from Antique Computers”:

Calculators are intuitive, right? Punch in some numbers on the number pad, choose an operation, and the answer appears. But it wasn’t always this way. One hundred years ago, an antique mechanical calculator’s UI was completely different depending on what company made it. Calculators directly exposed the mechanical mechanisms underneath, with few abstractions and little regard to ease-of-use. If you sat in front of one today and I asked you to perform basic arithmetic, you’d probably couldn’t do it without a manual, and that knowledge probably wouldn’t transfer to a different calculator.

If you’ve ever introduced someone to Linux for the first time, this might sound familiar. Fragmented, inconsistent UI, and applications that only barely hide their underlying code structure behind their interfaces mean a steep learning curve for new users. In this talk I will dive into the rich history of mechanical calculator UI, and draw parallels with modern Linux applications. The past, present, and future of calculator UI provides a roadmap FOSS would be wise to follow.

Join us Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The March meeting will be Tuesday, March 10 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The February meeting will be Tuesday, February 10 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The January meeting will be Tuesday, January 13 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The December meeting will be Tuesday, December 09 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The November meeting will be Tuesday, November 11 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The October meeting will be Tuesday, October 14 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The September meeting will be Tuesday, September 09 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe:

Redwood Cafe
8240 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati

Sadly, Flagship’s Cotati location will close September 7th.

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The August meeting will be Tuesday, August 12 at 7:00pm, at Flagship Taproom:

Flagship Taproom
8099 La Plaza St, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The July meeting will be Tuesday, July 08 at 7:00pm, at Flagship Taproom:

Flagship Taproom
8099 La Plaza St, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

For June we have a talk! Kyle Rankin will be presenting “Nextcloud as a Self-Hosted Cross-Platform Cloud”:

Using someone else’s cloud to sync photos, calendars and contacts? Proprietary services like iCloud are convenient, but only if you are in the Apple ecosystem. You can get many of the same basic cloud features in a self-hosted Nextcloud instance and sync files, calendars, and contacts on Linux, Mac and mobile devices. This talk discusses how to set up Nextcloud and configure Linux and Mac desktops and iOS mobile devices to use it, especially convenient if your household isn’t 100% Linux (or 100% Mac).

The meeting will be Tuesday, June 10th at 7:00pm, at Flagship Taproom:

Flagship Taproom
8099 La Plaza St, Cotati

We’ll be in the back room (up the stairs to the left).

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group

The May meeting will be Tuesday, May 13 at 7:00pm, at Flagship Taproom:

Flagship Taproom
8099 La Plaza St, Cotati

As always, feel free to bring any sort of Linux gadgets, old-school mechanical gadgets, questions, anything you want to talk about, etc.

See you there,

Tom Most
Vice President, North Bay Linux Users’ Group