The website for the Iraqi Linux Users Group at this moment is one of the most interesting texts I've come upon in a long time. There are lots of subtle aspects to what's going on there, it's worth browsing through a bit.

Also, it's great to see some good old hobbyists getting together and just sharing their excitement and their info. Reminds me of being 11 and hanging out, open-jawed, at the local Commodore users group meeting (CUGOR), discovering that enormous group of learned people who dug what I had until then dug in isolation. I have no idea how that feels when you've just had your homeland rid of an oppressive, bloody regime, and when same is in the process of being developed by foreign commercial interests.

B. T. W.: traceroute seems to place the server somewhere in London. Shouldn't some exploitative American corporation be opening up rack hotels over there by now?

(ILUG sounds like a name for an old-skool portable.