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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>rob levy wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>> > </span></font><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>The previous Boston Lisp Meeting on May 28th was <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>> > a success despite only 34 participants.</span></font><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>> </span></font><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:
Arial'>Could be the light rain, or maybe people are intimidated <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>> by the high concentration of elite lisp hackers</span></font><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I'm rarely intimidated by either of these, but, FWIW, it
could be the advanced registration for food. I often only know with only a
certain percent confidence that I'll be able to go, so I generally don't
respond saying I'll be there. Then when the event comes around I figure I
haven't said I'd be there and tend to be conservative about going to things
that require headcounts where I didn't say I'd be there. I have never made a
decision wholly on this basis, but more than once the nature of the food
headcount has weighed into my decision not to come in a kind of
"inertial" way that is hard to articulate but I think is nevertheless
worth mentioning.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I don't think it's bad to take a headcount, but I think it's
critical to say how you want people who aren't sure to respond and to emphasize
that they should still come if they haven't signed up, if that's what you want
them to do, so that those with the personality to think that's "party
crashing" won't feel that way. People differ culturally on this and the
fact that some people may think this is obvious does not imply all people do.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Even so, though, I think it's natural for people to fall off
some in attendance and to go only sometimes. I was surprised that you went for
an every-month thing, figuring that was very ambitious. I only ever planned to
attend sometimes, and continue to hope on a month-by-month basis that I'll find
the time.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>> </span></font><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:
Arial'>One thing I was thinking about that would be really interesting <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>> would be a talk about Lisp Machines,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>You're in the right town for that. But Lisp Machines are a
big topic area. That's kind of like a talk on "the C language and things
it has been used for". And the communities started off the same and then
diverged into different cultures such that everyone's reality was not even the
same. But even glossing that, there are issues of operating system, editing
environment file system, editing tools, mail reading, patching tools,
marketplace, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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