I'm not thinking of a full-blown Amersfoort style meet, for two reasons:

1. There's nowhere to park in London.
2. I don't have the necessary organisational skills.

Instead, this is just a thinly-veiled way for me to find some new drinking buddies who live or work in or near London.

Owner's Meet in London: You interested?
Yes
Possibly
No
I don't live anywhere near London, you insensitive clod

If enough people are interested, I'll look into the possibility of booking some space in a pub in Central London (or wherever else is suggested).

Roger,

Any time you fancy a lunchtime or after work beer I'm at London Bridge and don't need too much persuasion!

BTW theres a pub that does a good Thai curry just around the corner from where I work...

I'd be up for that. Work on Fleet Street, live in Limehouse.

Well, I'm based in Edinburgh, but my head office is next to HMS Belfast, and I'm supposed to go there on a fairly regular basis so if there is enough notice I should be able to wangle it.

I can see the Belfast from here if I look out of the window.

I float past it twice a day...

I can always think up some bullshit reason to come to london if needs be.

I used to work opposite Ye Olde Chershire Cheese pub (up the alley). That was at least 6 lifetimes ago however.

Well, you see that big shiny glass building (not the round thing the mayor of London hangs out in, but the next one along)

Our Advanced Solutions Centre is hidden away in there - great place for techies. We nearly managed to wangle a big Origin 2000 for it, but the powers that be decided there were enough blinkenlichts from all the other machines so we couldn't have it.

why? on a water taxi? or just hangin' out on the waves, dude?

We nearly managed to wangle a big Origin 2000 for it...

It's not quite as nice as an O2K, but if you guys feel like paying the shipping from the U.S., I could provide a nifty Challenge L.

Watertaxi

http://www.thamesclippers.com

Much less stressful way to get to work than the tube.

Given enough notice, I could even catch Easyjet down to London. Speaking of which, I will actually have a free weekend (it's been quite a while since last time - usually it's just in for a business meeting and out again) with my girlfriend in London in a couple of weeks. Anything on the *must see* list, assuming last time I actually had real spare time in London must have been 4 or 5 years ago?

Yep. I'd be up for that. I'm usually in central London most of the time anyway.

Neat. I've seen them before but never realised that they were watertaxis. Getting squashed against the tube doors does get old very fast. I'm just glad it's not like the Tokyo underground system where they actually employ people to push you in.

Any objections to an ex empeg owner (3 times) and regular lurker here tagging along?

I did pay full retail for a mk1 and 2 mk2s he says trying to justify the current emeg-less situation...

The London Eye is worth doing if you haven't done it already. I think it is closed for maintenance at the moment though.

I think it is closed for maintenance at the moment though.

Probably cleaning of the scorch marks from the fireworks...

Fleet Street, Cheshire Cheese, you're really taking me back, I only left Fleet Street for Yorkshire for a one year stint in '72, but never got back. My old firm's HQ was Chronicle House, 72 - 78 Fleet Street (right opposite the CC), I don't know if it's even still there.
Always looking for a good excuse for a journey through the past, not that that would describe an Empeg meet!

Roger,

I'm gunna be in London the 30th and 31st of Jan on the piss

Although, like Andy, I'm sure I can find an excuse to get down to the Big Smoke anytime

I'm not sure where in London I'm going to be yet (I've heard its quite a big place lol) it's sure to be pretty central.

Cheers

Cris.

I could provide a nifty Challenge L.

You mean for free? I am certainly interested should frog51 not be and provided the offer stands for other empeggers as well. A real MIPS machine would be a cool thing to have for my Computer Architecture and related classes given that we currently do MIPS datapaths, MIPS assembler, etc... without even having a MIPS machine at our University . Doesn't the Challenge L have multiple CPUs? The shipping costs across the pond probably shouldn't be underestimated. Any idea what the baby weighs?

The Challenge L is multiprocessor capable. If it's an L then it one of the deskside cases and can fit 3 CPU boards. Depending on what CPU family you use, you can have up to a maximum of 6 or 12. The Challenge series don't come with a graphics subsystem but I think you can use an Extreme graphics subsystem if you get the right adapter.

It's not going to be light but it's not as a bad as the rackmount case. The rackmount case fully populated was around 350kg.

According to the Owner's Guide:

Height       26 inches (65 cm)

Width        21 inches (54 cm)

Depth        29 inches (74 cm)

Weight

                195 lbs (89 kg)—minimum

                300 lbs (136 kg)—in shipping carton

Hmm - that sounds very tempting. Just let me go off and find out how much shipping would be

300 lbs (136 kg)

Hefty. Most likely hefty enough to make it more cost-efficient to find something over here.

Dunno, find somebody importing a containerised car and scrounge some space in one corner. Unfortunately I'm only RoRo'ing one 'cos I'm a cheapskate!

Gareth

OK, so it looks like we've got enough people interested. Do we want to try for a weekday after work, or a weekend?

Evening or Weekend
An evening (not Friday) after work
Friday after work
The weekend would be better
Both, dammit. I just can't get enough empeg-related goodness
Not bothered, I'll come to either

...then I'll start thinking about actual dates and venues...

Well, I'm trying to get down to London for most of the week beginning 8th of March for Websec2004 and my only evening booked up so far is the Tuesday, so the Monday or Wednesday would be ideal for me.

I'm gunna be in London the 30th and 31st of Jan on the piss

And I'm going to be there Jan 31 and Feb 1st...

The London Eye is worth doing if you haven't done it already.

Was actually thinking about it.

I think it is closed for maintenance at the moment though.

Hmm. Have to check out how long the maintenance will last.