[X2Go-Dev] RfC: X2Go HackTrain Reloaded (@Alex and esp. @Morty & @Reinhard, please READ THIS :-D)

[Stefan Baur]

Hi everyone,

as some of you might know, last year, we had an "X2Go HackTrain" event.

The train used for the X2Go HackTrain event is a vintage multiple-unit
Diesel Railbus, built in the late 1950ies/early 1960ies. It's operating
every Sunday between Ulm, Germany and Kleinengstingen, Germany, until
Mid-October.


Last year's participants were:
- Heinz M. Graesing
- Oleksandr 'Alex' Shneyder
- Mihai 'ionic' Moldovan
- and me, Stefan Baur, as the organizer and sponsor.

Sadly, the invitation I had sent out to some of the other core devs (see
subject) seems to have gone into their spam-catcher mailboxes.

Feedback from last year's participants was positive, so I was thinking
we could repeat it this year, possibly with more participants.

Last year's problem (and the reason why we opted for the HackTrain
rather than a BBQ) was that Alex only has two truly "free" weekends per
year, and those are pretty late in the year (X2Go HackTrain 2012 took
place in late September).

So:
@Alex - please let me know (off-list) if and when you could participate
         this year, or if you don't know yet, let me know by when you
         will know.

@Morty & @Reinhard - please (at least) provide a short "ping" that
                      you're paying attention to this thread, or I will
                      keep bugging you via various other contact
                      methods (IRC and all e-mail addresses I can find,
                      and yes, that is meant as a threat! )

@Mike - Of course, you and your family are most welcome as well.
         If you can spare the time, but don't know where to stay, I can
         give you a few recommendations.

@all the others:
- If you consider yourself a core developer and would like to take part,
   assuming that the date (most likely a Sunday, but the exact date is To
   Be Announced, see above) suits your schedule, please contact me
   off-list and we'll see if my company can provide you with a sponsored
   train ticket for a part of or even the entire ride. (This may mean
   having to team up with other participants at certain railway stations,
   to make use of rebates offered by German Rail.)
- If you're *not* a core developer, but still would like to meet us,
   feel free to contact me off-list or by responding on this thread, so I
   have an approximate idea of how many participants to expect.

Tentative Plan for the day:

- collect participants along the stops, depending on where/when they
   want to join us
- lunch (either at last year's location or a new one)
- guided tour through Baden-Württemberg's state horse farm in Marbach,
   as last year, we went to a car/motorcycle museum, and since they're
   still showing the same exhibits, I'm guessing last year's participants
   will not want to go there again, so it's the horse farm this year. Of
   course, we can also split into two groups, if someone would prefer to
   go to the museum instead, has a horse hair allergy, or whatever.
- chat/party inside the train
- ???
- Profit!

The sequence of events (lunch or farm/museum first) will depend on which 
participants will join where and when, and the location where we're 
going to have lunch, so this will be finalized and published at a later 
date.

Note: If we manage to assemble approximately 20 people, we can arrange 
to have one of the train's cars (the dining car, most likely) reserved 
for us.

Kind Regards,
Stefan Baur / www.baur-itcs.de
Last year's X2Go HackTrain event sponsor and organizer