[Coco] CoCo Fest video and chat

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that John Hogerhuis may have mentioned these words:
>I've never been to a fest myself, but it looks like fun.
>
>Going to a fest costs money, more for some than others. Plus there's
>the opportunity cost of going (what could I have been doing if I
>didn't go to the fest... say, work and earn money?)

This is a very big point - I was hoping to be able to go this year, but my 
company just got bought out, so I've been working 60+hour weeks (not 
including the 2nd job) trying to get things merged & smoothed out. Things 
should be smoothed out in another month or two, so I'm *really* working 
towards going next year. (AAMAF, last year I said that I wouldn't go to 
Hamvention this year primarily to free up funds to go to RainbowFest. 
Unforch, timing wasn't working out as well as I'd hoped.

>[snippage]  Also the VCF does move around a bit...

For those who don't know *how much* the VCF gets around, here's a 
'ferinstance':

The 'original' VCF has been held out on the west coast (SoCal) and is up to 
version 8.0 or so;

There's VCF East, and 3.0 will be held in New Jersey this year; 2 years ago 
2.0 was just outside Boston, on the Sun campus there.

There's VCF MidWest 2.0, which will be held Sat, July 15th. at Purdue 
University in Indiana; 2nd year in a row for that one.

Then there's VCFe - e == Europa, (IIRC) held somewhere near Munich in 
Germany; I think that's up to 4.0 or 5.0...

There was one VCF Italia, if I'm not mistaken.

I've "wanted" to help set up a VCF Canada, as altho I'm a "dumb Amurkin" 
;-) , I live right near the Canadian border (Ontario), but again, money & 
(mostly) time has precluded much to happen on that front. Depending on 
where it would be set up would depend a lot on my involvement as well. 
Sault Ste. Marie's a (relatively) small town and somewhat out of the way, 
compared to Toronto or Hamilton, which I'm about 7 hours away from by car.

The 'primary force' WRT the VCFs is Sellam Ismail - I've known him thru 
email nearly a decade now. And of course, more info's available at the link 
John provided:

>http://www.vintage.org/

My one "nitpick" WRT this thread (and this is constructive criticism - not 
trying to initiate a flamewar, but just giving you my perception of what's 
been discussed so far) is that altho I understand Mark & Boisy's passions, 
I somewhat perceived those "impassioned" statements that for people who 
choose their priorities in such a way that the RainbowFest isn't high 
enough to warrant the expenditure, that these people have (deserve?) a 
lower station/standing/caste in the CoCo community.

IMHO, if others perceived your statements in a similar manner, that could 
have the effect of shifting the RainbowFest even lower on their priority 
list, which would be a shame.

Anyway, that's my take on the thread thus far.

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | A new truth in advertising slogan
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy...
zmerch at 30below.com          |                         ...in oxymoron!"