18th June –NWRUG Code Surgery and an introduction to Zsh

This month is the second NWRUG Code Surgery. Submit some code (See
below) and we will have an evening of code reviews and our own little
version of The Rails Way, NWRUG style. Ashley Moran will also be
giving a short introduction to Zsh.

I am currently seeing if we can get sponsorship for this month, so
nothing is confirmed yet but I will update the site and mailing list
if this changes.

Schedule
• 6:00pm :: Welcome & Pre-session bar visit.
• 6:30pm :: Introduction to Zsh (http://www.zsh.org/) by Ashley Moran
• 7:00pm :: Code Surgery – see the mailing list for details on
submitting code.
• 8:30pm :: Drinks at the BBC bar afterwards, then somewhere else
nearby after that closes at about 21:00.
If you want more information email nwrug@willj.net, call Will on 07939
547 962 or tweet @will_j

Sign Up
If you would like to attend this event please email me as the BBC need
a list of attendees before the event and I really need to know the
numbers so I can order the right amount of food and drink if we have
sponsorship. This month I shall be publicly coating people with
marmite who turn up without emailing me. You have been warned.

Location
This meeting is being held at one of our regular venues, the BBC
Manchester main building on Oxford Road in central Manchester (http://smallr.com/967
). If you get lost call Will on 07939 547 962

Submitting Code

Add your code to either http://gist.github.com/ or http://pastie.org/
including any comments about how you think you need help and send the
resulting URL as a reply to this email.

Hope to see you all there!

17 June NW Hackspace - Liverpool

Full details

NEW VENUE! Now at Mello Mello rather than FACT!

Fortnightly meet-up at 7pm at Mello Mello for anyone interested in connecting the internet to the real world, breathing life into inanimate objects and creating new ways to interact with things.

We'll be working on our hardware projects, explaining what hardware hacking is to anyone who's interested, and chatting about finding a more permanent location to break out the soldering irons and finding somewhere where hacking and creativity can bloom.

We're looking to create a hackerspace where anyone interested in technology, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and collaborate.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of ability or experience. Sign up to the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/NW-hack-space & introduce yourself. If you're really shy, you could just follow announcements on http://Twitter.com/hsNW - or subscribe to the data feed for announcements from http://nwhackspace.wordpress.com/feed/

Want to know more about hackspaces? Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace

17 Jun GeekUp Leeds - 2nd Birthday Party [CakeUp]!

Full details

GeekUp Leeds is celebrating turning TWO this month! In true tradition, we ask GeekUp folk to bring along a cake, preferably hand-crafted in some way, with an optional geeky theme ! PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF VENUE. We've moved temporarily to Mr Foley's as the Lounge terrace is getting a makeover. Regrettably, this means there will be no wheelchair access this month.

Apart from there being lots of cake, we will be following the regular format with some 20:20 presentations... if you have something you'd like to present on, please do let us know

Deb & Rob are soon to be out of action for a while and are looking for your help in organising GeekUp Leeds for the short-term future (either hosting a specific event, or general organisation help appreciated!). Again, please let us know if you think you can help out.

What is GeekUp?

GeekUp is a community of web designers, web developers, and other tech-minded folk from the North. Our socials take place once a month in Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Preston and Manchester and are always a lively place to share ideas and spread a little knowledge. GeekUp Leeds takes place every third Wednesday of the month.

Who can attend GeekUp?

While the focus for GeekUp is predominately web related anybody involved in the technology industry is more than welcome to attend a GeekUp. The monthly events are free, we just ask that you buy your own beer.

Drupalcamp Manchester 2009

Full details
The first Drupalcamp to be held in Manchester, brought to you by the organisers of the North West Drupal User Group. BBC Manchester are very generously providing us with space at New Broadcasting House.

The first event is strictly limited to 120 attendees, so please use the ticket link to register yourself as attending. Tickets are FREE!

16th June Manchester Free Software Talk - Jon Spriggs, Introducing Microblogging (Identi.ca, Open Microblogging, Laconica and even Twitter!)

Manchester Free software's next meeting will be on Tuesday 16th June 2009.

*Please note the change of venue*

Talk
------
This month’s talk will be given by Jon "The Nice Guy" Spriggs. He will
be talking about Microblogging (uBlogging), specifically citing
Identi.ca and Twitter, some of the conventions used in microblogging,
microblogging services and how you can use microblogging in your
projects and social networks. He'll then open the floor to questions.

Jon can be found on identi.ca at http://identi.ca/jontheniceguy, so
feel free say 'hello' to him!

Location
----------
The meeting will take place at the usual time, 7pm, at the Lass O'
Gowrie pub on Charles Street in Central Manchester. We will be located
in the Salmon Room upstairs, although there will be people
around a little earlier downstairs(probably sampling the food and drinks on
offer). Just ask at the bar if you can't find us. Their website[1] has
full details of how to get there and the
fine selection of food and drink available. The venue also provides wifi.

General information about Manchester Free Software meetings can be
found on our website[2].

If you would like five minutes to tell us about something, please
contact us at .

[1]: http://www.thelass.co.uk/
[2]: http://manchester.fsuk.org/blog/meetings/

6th June Sheffield Linux Users Group (ShefLUG)

Meetings are free and open to anyone to attend

Saturday 6th June 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

For the past two years we have held meetings at Starbucks coffee shop
at Western Bank next to the University. We thought that our June
meeting might go down well at the Walkley Cottage. The address is...

Walkley Cottage Inn
46 Bole Hill Rd
Sheffield, S6 5DD
0114 234 4968

http://www.walkleycottage.co.uk/

If you don't have a car then you might like to know that the No: 94
and 95 buses run from High Street and Church Street (across from the
Cathedral) through the city centre to the pub. This is a frequent bus
service every 10 to 15 minutes during the day. Call 01709 515151 for
bus information. Use Google maps if you don't know where the Walkley
Cottage is. Tea and coffee is available. There is a good selection of
beers which are well looked after. Look out for someone sitting next
to an Hewlett-Packard penguin with a laptop in front of him.

http://www.sheflug.org.uk/meeting.html

The topic of the meeting will be a general discussion or we can fix
some hardware or software. If you need some help with that we can
most likely point you in the right direction. If you want to
know more about anything else come along and ask questions. We seem
to have a growing band of EeePC people who bring them along to
meetings. We also see other netbooks such as Acer, Dell and Elonex.
Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope and it's associated operating
systems have been released. We can discuss this release and how
to install it. Also any other version of GNU/Linux that you might
be interested in. Most people who come along to our meetings have
used most versions of GNU/Linux and the BSDs.

3 June Exposure Leeds #4 - The Technology Special!

Full details

Exposure Leeds is series of monthly events in a user-group format aimed at helping those serious about their photography to improve and develop.

This months' event will tie in with Leeds Web Festival, LSx09, and deliver a special technology focus. Because of this we are going to run the evening in a mini-photocamp format - with simultaneous workshop / presentations. Because of this I am asking for speakers / workshop leaders to volunteer to deliver sessions of a more 'technical nature'.

This could be more obvious computer/web-related issues such as...
- Flickr secrets (Greasemonkey, anyone?)
- Websites
- Photoshop
- HDR :-)
- Lightroom
- Capture NX or
- Photosynth

Or could be otherwise 'technical'; but whichever you choose - it should be easy to cover (you'll have 60-90 minutes) and would be best if those in the workshop can get involved. Do you have ideas? Think you can help? Have some technical passions? We may also run a new short session of 'my top tip' - if you have one you'd be happy to share then please let me know! There will be time given over for networking and socialising - including continuing the evening at a nearby hostelry. www.exposureleeds.org

3 June NW Hackspace - Liverpool

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2495877/ ]

Fortnightly meet-up at 7pm at FACT. Join the efforts to make a hackerspace where hacking and creativity can bloom. It's a start to getting together a crowd to open a North West Hackspace in Liverpool.

We're looking to create a hackerspace where anyone interested in technology, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and collaborate. Everyone is welcome, regardless of ability or experience. Sign up to the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/NW-hack-space & introduce yourself. If you're really shy, you could just follow announcements on http://Twitter.com/hsNW - or subscribe to the data feed for announcements from http://nwhackspace.wordpress.com/feed/ Want to know more about hackspaces? Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace

2nd June OpenCoffee Leeds {June}

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2750703/ ] If you're working in the creative or digital industries, we'd love you to come hang out, chat, demo or just network with others...usually around 20-25 people each month...sometimes more :)

OpenCoffee itself runs from 10am to noon, but Old Broadcasting House has an open house in the afternoon with plenty of hotdesks available for those who wish to work into the afternoon and stick around for the company :)

SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting Techniques

Leeds Area SQL Server User Group Meeting, Leeds - Wednesday 3rd June - Sponsored by Quest Software

End-to-End SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting – Iain Kick

When attempting to diagnose a problem in a SQL Server application, there's no right or wrong way to go about troubleshooting. However, certain techniques yield much better results when used for end-to-end troubleshooting.

This presentation will teach you the best practices for finding the root cause of a problem in a SQL Server application, correlating that root cause to a specific set of activities being performed on the server, and tuning the problem activity for maximum performance-all using the native SQL Server tools. We will then compare and contrast those techniques to Quest Software's performance management and query tuning tools. All examples and syntax are verified for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

See http://www.sqlserverfaq.com/events/182/SQL-Server-Performance-Troubleshooting-Techniques-Sponsored-by-Quest-Software.aspx