[Chicago] The Rudolph Hering Society

[Chris McAvoy]

Announcing the creation of *The Rudolph Hering Society*
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Named for the man that hacked the Chicago River, the RHS preserves the
legacy of this great engineer through the open discussion of
technology that scares the squares.  Programming, development
methodologies, testing paradigms, continuous integration, electronics,
Radio Shack, bottle rockets, and bread baking are all open topics on
the lively RHS mailing list.

How do I become a member?
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You already are.  Just join the mailing list to start talking
http://lists.rudolphheringsociety.org/listinfo.cgi/river-rudolphheringsociety.org

Do we have meetings?
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Sure.

Do we have a website?
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Sort of, we have a wiki at http://rudolphheringsociety.org

Do we have an irc channel?
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Sort of, #hering on irc.freenode.net  It's not really "formal" yet.

Do I have to live in Chicago to join?
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Hell no.

Will we have buttons, t-shirts, and those funny little badges for my blog?
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Hell yes.

Wait, this really has nothing to do with Rudolph Hering, you're just
using his name as a quirky title to your silly club.
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Says you.  Project number one at the RHS is to research Mr. Hering and
create a fitting wikipedia page for the man.  The RHS, in addition to
being a silly club, is committed to preserving the legacy of the man
whose feats make you go, "What?  How'd he do that?"

What's this really about?
-------------------------
This really smart guy named Ed Summers wrote this:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/chicago/2006-July/000983.html
yesterday, and it got me thinking that we really need a group that has
no allegiances to any one language, platform, or hobby.  What we need
is a society of like minded individualists who think that technology
is about more than what you can get paid for.  Sure, we all like
getting paid to do what we do, but chances are we'd still be doing it
if we didn't get paid.  Would Rudolph have reversed the flow of the
Chicago River had he not been paid?  Probably not.  Quit being a
nitpicker.

Do we have a headquarters?
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Yes, it's a mysterious building somewhere on the northwest side of Chicago.

Who is getting this email?
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The first burst is going to chipy, chirb, chicago.pm, and luni.
Please pass this on.  This is an open society...we like Java, .NET,
Fortran, and white bread.