On Thursday 01 July 2004 02:26 pm, Adam Maloney wrote: > > so i guess i had a good experience. > > I've been to a few of them over the years. My experience has been that > there are very few actual deals, compared to what you can find on > pricewatch and ebay (if you swing that way). The exception is if you're > looking for something old and/or obscure. > This was the general opinion the last time I went. (Earlier this year.) The computer portion of the show was getting smaller and for the most part it was a general merchandise sale with more computer dealers in one section. Most people felt that many of the vendors had moved to ebay and didn't bother to travel any more to these shows. Some other folks questioned the source of the material. I don't think anything was not legit. For a while some of the local surplus vendors could be found at these on a regular basis in addition to the "road show" folks that came in from farther afield. <snip> > > Oh, and books. Most of the books are old (and therefore useless), but > very cheap. I picked up a book on Apache internals a few years ago for a > couple bucks. It was old, but still relevant. > The book guy was the reason I used to go. I've found a bunch of books on the 3 for $25 tables that I could use as supplements to the texts we have at school. Alas he was gone the last time and I suspect he won't be back. As far as the group attending, do we want to promote Linux? My opinion is anyplace that computer users gather in quantity is an opportunity for advocating Linux and Free Software. This offer may signal Bluestar's realization that the shows are going down hill and they need to do something to bring them back. Adding user groups may be an indication that they want the shows to have a more "local" flavor. -- Jack Ungerleider jack at jacku.com _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list