comp japan article

[Craig Oda <craig@example.com>]

This is part of the text I am going to submit to the editors at Comp 
Japan.  The reason I wrote it from my perspective is that I didn't have
time get more information from all the members.  If you want
to add or change something, please make the corrections and additions
now.  I have to wrap this up on Thursday.  This is your opportunity
to speak out *before* it goes to press.    Pictures will be taken
at the meeting on Sunday.

Regards,
Craig

  

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     Craig Oda      12 40 82 A8 DF DD DD 30  BB 0E 26 22 E0 D8 F2 87         
     craig@example.com      Public Key: finger craig@example.com 
     phone: +81-3-3351-5977                   fax: 81-3353-6096
     Twics / IEC Building / 1-21 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160 Japan
     Now accepting resumes by postal mail.  CS or engineering degree required.
     send me e-mail for additional requirements.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------_
TLUG: History

In the beginning of March, 1994, Craig Oda and Nori Nishigaya sat next to
each other on a plane going from Tokyo to Oita prefecture and spoke
about the Hyper Network conference they would soon attend.  Commercial
Internet had been in Japan less than 6 months, but it was apparent that
Japan would soon witness explosive growth in its Internet services.

At the conference, Craig and Nori  spoke about a world 
without physical boundaries, where hundreds of people
thousands of miles apart could work on the same project using
the Internet.  They spoke about an outstanding example of the 
Internet being used to
coordinate a large project, the Linux kernel and the host
of FSF software that make it a complete UNIX-like system.  
The Internet was necessary for the creation of Linux and it was
necessary for the creation of the Tokyo Linux Users Group.  

Craig and Nori had a strong interest in the Internet and had 
informal meetings with others to talk about the Internet and hack on Linux.
In the beginning, everyone was on the TWICS public-access Internet
system because TWICS was the only Internet system in Japan at the time. 
On June 16, 1994, Jim Tittsler, an old MIT UNIX hacker, started
the "LINUX" conference on TWICS and everyone started helping each
other to fix problems and learn about Linux.  The atmosphere was
exciting and friendly. One of the early members comments:
"It felt as if we were all on the edge of this
frontier and that together we were taming this networked, high-tech
jungle.  It was great!"

The founding members were pioneers in their professional careers as well.
Nori got venture capital and started an ISP in Tokyo shortly
after the club got started.  Craig was running around trying to 
survive a monthly growth rate of 20 percent a month at TWICS.  Rainer
was starting up the Japan office for FORE Systems, the dominant manufacturer
of ATM (Asynchrnous Transfer Mode) switches in the world.  Steve
Casmar was busy hooking up the American School in Japan with a very
fast Internet connection.  Steve Turnbull was teaching at Tsukuba
University and hacking away at Linux all he could.  Jim Tittsler was
catching the multimedia wave and rapidly designing controllers for CD-ROM
drives.  

The first meeting in September of 1994 was held at an all you can 
eat Mexican restaurant in
Shibuya and ended at Ed Harter's apartment.  Rainer 
successfully installed Linux on Ed's system from scratch.  This was surprising
because he was doing pretty with his beer before the installation.  
By the December, the club had moved the meetings to the Cyber Technolgies
office in Yotsuya.  The office was equipped 64Kbps Internet access and 
about 6 Linux machines.  A summary of all the meetings can be read on the
TLUG homepage.  The URL is shown below.    



Current Status of TLUG

TLUG is a non-profit, non-political, users group whose members
exchange information on the development and use of the Linux
kernel and Free Software Foundation tools.  Physical and online
meetings are held in English.  The group is in the process of
organization and will elect officers in the future.  

Meeting times and dates are announced on the mailing list and the
TLUG homepage:

    http://www.twics.com/~craig/tlug.html

The TLUG mailing list is the major method of communication for TLUG:

    
To join the tlug mailing list send e-mail to 

    majordomo@example.com

    The subject line is optional.
    include the command:
          
        subscribe tlug

    in the body of your message.

Example:
echo 'subscribe tlug' | mail majordomo@example.com 

If you encounter any problems with the mailing list, send a message to 
   listmaster@example.com 


TLUG has a new BBS accessible with a WWW browser such as Netscape:

    http://metanoia.cyber.ad.jp/tlug-bbs.html 



Contacts:


      craig@example.com 
      anishi@example.com 
      rvm@example.com 


Everyone is welcome to join!