TVIC // *6:30pm* Thursday 13th March 2008 (plus pre-event Robotics Talk)

[follower]

Hi all...

Thanks to all that made it to last month's The Valley in Christchurch
and Geekosystem events--we had a great turnout and people sure seemed
to be enjoying themselves. (I heard the last to leave the gallery left
around 5:30am!)

The organisers of the Geekosystem were also greatly encourage by the
turnout and were impressed by what resulted. My personal favourite
item was the multi-layered "Brick Game" piece--the show is on until 22
March 2008 so go take a look:
<http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/gallery/2008/ageekosystem/>.

PLEASE NOTE: We have a different time for our TVIC dinner this month:

-----------------8<----------------8<------------
What: The Valley in Christchurch Tech Dinner
When: *6:30pm* Thursday 13th March 2008
Where: The China Kitchen, on Hereford St, opposite the Flight Centre

Map: <http://zoomin.co.nz/?search/address/145+Hereford+Street++Christchurch+Central++Christchurch>
-----------------8<----------------8<------------

The reason for the slightly different time is a robotics talk by a
visiting US professor:

-----------------8<----------------8<------------
When: 5:00pm Thursday 13th March 2008
Where: Technology room at Science Alive (education entrance).
Duration: approx 1 hour.

Who: Chris Rogers is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Dept.
at Tufts University in Boston. He is the inventor and developer of the
RoboLab programming language that is used worldwide to program robots
using LEGO Mindstorms.

Chris spent 12 months during 2006-2007 working at a research institute
in Switzerland, playing with very small robots and working with some
rather novel data acquisition environments.

Further details:
<http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/chchrobotics/2008-March/000378.html>
-----------------8<----------------8<------------

I hope you can make it to one or both of these events or join us for
the likely post-dinner beverages.

Thanks for being a part of TVIC...

--Phil.

P.S. Please pass this invitation along to any friends or colleagues
who might be interested, here's our spiel:

The best thing about Silicon Valley is the people and the casual
conversations that lead to bigger things. These often happen in Chinese
restaurants. Christchurch has Chinese restaurants and it has techy
people so why not bring the two together?

Who: Maybe you? If this was a gathering of del.icio.us tags it'd
probably include "free software", "open source", "small business",
"contractors", "cool tech", "intelligent conversation", "community",
"international travel" but feel free to add your own.

[Jamie Anstice]

I'm keen - how vegetarian-friendly is the China Kitchen?

cheers
Jamie

[foll...@rancidbacon.com]

Hi Jamie,

> I'm keen - how vegetarian-friendly is the China Kitchen?

From memory we had at least one vegetarian fed there last month--so I
assume that means there's at least one "option"--but they'd need to
give their opinion as to whether that was considered friendly.

Hope to see you there.

--Phil.

[Paul LeBeau]

Not very friendly... There is one dish - Tofu & vegetables. I wasn't
very impressed with it though. I'm going to give it one more chance
tonight, otherwise I guess I'm bringing a packed lunch next month :)

Paul

[Sethop]

I've been thinking we should find a new place - preferably one that
has beer :-) Are people willing to go up a few dollars on the average
mains price in the name of finding better vegetarian options and an on-
licence? It's not like we're short on options in the central city.
There's a pretty good place right next door to CK as I recall.

[Marek Kuziel]

I agree. Let's discuss the options tonight and we'll see if we can
come up with something with good food and beer. Hmm, beer :)

--
Marek Kuziel <ma...@kuziel.info> http://kuziel.info/
Encode Ltd <marek....@encode.net.nz> http://encode.net.nz/
Phone: +64 3 332 5949, Mobile: +64 21 1727255
Skype: marek.kuziel, Twitter: http://twitter.com/vshivak
Jabber: marek....@gmail.com

[Simon Glass]

Hi,

I can pick up a bag of carrots on the way if you like ;-)

Regards,
SImon

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bluewater Systems Ltd - ARM Technology Solution Centre

Simon Glass

Ph: +64 3 3779127 x201 Bluewater Systems Ltd
Aus: 1800 148 751 Level 6, 119 Armagh St
Fax: +64 3 3779135 PO Box 13889
Web: http://www.bluewatersys.com Christchurch, New Zealand

[foll...@rancidbacon.com]

Hi all...

Unfortunately I'm not going to make it tonight as my Grandfather died
last night and I'm going to be spending some time with my family.

Hope you all have an enjoyable time.

--Phil.

[Michael JasonSmith]

I'll be there ☺

--
Michael JasonSmith http://onlinegroups.net/
Usability Engineer

[JazTheTaxGuru]

Hi there,

Glad you liked "Brick Game". I felt so bad about bricking a perfectly
functional handheld tetris game by with my rusty geekery skills while
trying to simply change its casing that I tried to redeem the
situation by turning it into an art piece.

Sorry I couldn't make it last night. I know it is a regular event but
could you please send out the reminders a few days earlier.

Thanks,
Jaz

> The organisers of the Geekosystem were also greatly encourage by the
> turnout and were impressed by what resulted. My personal favourite
> item was the multi-layered "Brick Game" piece--the show is on until 22
> March 2008 so go take a look:
> <http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/gallery/2008/ageekosystem/>.
>
> PLEASE NOTE: We have a different time for our TVIC dinner this month:
>
> -----------------8<----------------8<------------
> What: The Valley in Christchurch Tech Dinner
> When: *6:30pm* Thursday 13th March 2008
> Where: The China Kitchen, on Hereford St, opposite the Flight Centre
>

> Map: <http://zoomin.co.nz/?search/address/145+Hereford+Street++Christchurch...>
> -----------------8<----------------8<------------

[foll...@rancidbacon.com]

> I agree. Let's discuss the options tonight and we'll see if we can
> come up with something with good food and beer. Hmm, beer :)

So did anything get discussed? :-)

I'd really like to know what the new "old" place is like...

--Phil.

[foll...@rancidbacon.com]

> Sorry I couldn't make it last night. I know it is a regular event but
> could you please send out the reminders a few days earlier.

Do you mean more than a week in advance?

Normally I aim to get the first notice out a week in advance and then
a reminder that should arrive in the morning of the day. The initial
notice was delayed this month due to trying to plan around the
robotics talk.

--Phil.