From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Thu Jan 4 15:51:25 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Thu Jan 4 15:51:31 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Meeting Announcement: Intro to Linux Kernel Programming Message-ID: This Saturday, January 6th, TALUG will meet at Stautzenberger College by Southwyck Mall. Loren Weith has graciously volunteered to present an introduction to Linux kernel programming. As he says, it will be a general introduction covering basics such as... o getting things to compile o building a "Hello, world" module o how to interact with block devices, etc. While this will not really be a "workshop" with hands-on training, you are welcome to bring a system to the meeting and follow along. If you have a computer that you can bring with you, try to have a kernel source tree ready and compiled and be running that kernel. This way you can build modules against that source tree and load them into the running kernel. See *YOU* there! *** Also, you are welcome to attend our *** special (re)organizing meeting at *** 12:30pm in the same location. *** All are welcome and all input is *** appreciated! Thanks!! ============================================ TALUG Meeting Announcement ============================================ Topics: Intro to Linux Kernel Programming When: Saturday, January 6th 2:00pm - 5:00pm Where: Stautzenberger College 5355 Southwyck Blvd Toledo, OH 43614 Who: Presented by the Toledo Area Linux Users Group Open to the public *** Linux distributions on CD will *** *** be available FREE of charge! *** *** Be sure to request in advance: *** *** http://talug.org/freecds *** From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Mon Jan 8 00:51:55 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Mon Jan 8 00:52:02 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] World Domination 201 Message-ID: To all those who wish to see open source software take over, Here's that piece that I mentioned at Saturday's meeting: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/world-domination/world-domination-201.html It's called "World Domination 201" (with reference to the old Linus talk, which was 101, like beginning level college courses). It's written by Rob Landley and Eric S. Raymond (ESR). According to their introduction, "When 8-bit microcomputer hardware stopped selling, it took 8 bit software down with it. The end of 16-bit hardware undid the dominance of DOS, and the end of 32-bit hardware spells the end of the road for Win-32. What will replace 32 bit Windows as the next dominant OS has yet to be decided." What follows is a historical/statistical explanation of why the next dominant OS will be decided in 2008 followed by detailed arguments on what Linux needs to do in order to catch that tidal wave roaring in from the horizon. If you accept their thesis and if you accept their assumptions about market economics and Moore's law, then the arguments are sound and reasonable and point consistently to the same conclusion: we must bite our tongues and use every binary, proprietary blob that we can get in order to be the next de facto standard OS come 2009 or face marginalization for another 36 years or so. They assume that if Linux can become the de facto standard OS for the x86-64 architecture when it hits the low end in 2008 that we will then be able to demand open source drivers, first tier support from manufacturers, etc. Of course, that assumption is questionable. If Linux comes to be the dominant OS by adopting proprietary drivers and accepting proprietary software, then why would the manufacturers be inclined to change from that model? And arguably, the end result would no longer be Free (libre). Moreover, the multitude of people running this non-free/bastardized GNU/Linux would have adopted it without any concept of the benefits of software freedom and so would not demand it or protest if they had it and it was taken away. Following this reasoning leads one back to RMS and the FSF and the long, slow struggle to spread the memes of software freedom (ala their recent attempts at "real"/confrontational activism [1,2]). Regardless of where you fall in the debate, it's a debate that needs to be happening right now. The evidence does seem to point to an impending deadline at which the next "standard" OS will be chosen and there is no de facto winner. It could be any OS, as long as it provides the best experience on x86-64 at the crucial moment. We will all have to live with the consequences of that deciding moment, so maybe we should work really hard now make sure that we are the winners of that race (see helios' blog on the subject [3]). Or maybe the authors are way off (see this comment [4]). Or maybe it's irrelevant since most of the world isn't bound by first world economics. Either way, this "hard deadline" forces us to confront certain realities of our struggle in a new way. I prefer to see it optimistically: This could be the warning siren that awakens the penguin giant. :-) Jason Footnotes: [1] http://lwn.net/Articles/184779/ [2] http://lwn.net/Articles/214455/ [3] http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/91-OK,-Heads-Up-Linux,-Youre-on-in-5..4..3..2-cue-music....html [4] http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/91-OK,-Heads-Up-Linux,-Youre-on-in-5..4..3..2-cue-music....html#c2236 From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Fri Jan 12 23:31:39 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Fri Jan 12 23:31:46 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] "Free CDs" page updated with latest distros Message-ID: Hey, Linux fans. Some of them are still clogging up my broadband connection as I type this, but I've just finished bringing all of my Linux distro ISO images up to date and I've updated TALUG's "Free CDs" to reflect the latest and greatest. There were a few changes, so I figured I'd send a quick note to the list. First, there are some distributions which have fallen in their rankings on distrowatch (which means nothing really) and which no one has requested in a while. So, the following were removed from the list: - Slackware 11.0 - the full 4-disc Mandriva set (the single-CD versions are still up there) Know, of course, that if you provide sufficient notice (e.g. prior to a meeting), someone will be able to download and burn for you whatever distro you want. This listing is just the ones that we (I) keep handy because they are the most popular and because we (I) think that they're good for general use (our unofficial stamp of approval). New to the list, however, are the following: + Fedora Core 6 *Live CD* + PCLinuxOS 0.93a (Big Daddy) + openSUSE 10.2 I just sent a separate message about the FC6 live CD. It's about time! Finally, a way for people to try it out without downloading 3+ GB of data... PCLinuxOS is at the forefront of the desktop Linux advocacy and evangelism effort, which fits with our mission nicely. It is also a pretty sweet distro for beginners to use right out of the box, so to speak. So, it's about time it was part of our featured list. openSUSE actually surpassed Ubuntu in the (meaningless) distrowatch rankings in the last week of December, and it's routinely in the top 5, so it's about time it went up there. The number of discs always made me hesitate, but I just read that you really only need the first three to get going and the price of DVDs has come down enough that I think TALUG can afford to start giving those away as well... ...which leads me to mention that I added the text "(or 1 DVD)" to the "# of CDs" column for Fedora Core 6. It's about time, really. 5 CDs cost way more than 1 DVD and they have for a long time. And with most laptops coming with DVD burners nowadays, it seemed like a reasonable thing. Sorry it took so long. I also updated a few more to the following: ^ KNOPPIX 5.1.1 ^ TTCS OSSWIN CD 1.71 (12/20/2006) ^ (K/X/Ed)Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) So, if you would like a copy of any of these latest releases, please send an email to officers @ talug . org (without the spaces, of course) and we'll see what we can do. Oh, and if you're not sure what distro to choose, you could include some specs of the hardware that you intend to run it on and how you intend to use it and we could make suggestions. Jason PS: I would like to add Freespire, but it's last stable release is much older than these current releases so I feel it would be best to wait for the final release of the 2.0 version. From bobelmo at sbcglobal.net Sat Jan 13 06:00:37 2007 From: bobelmo at sbcglobal.net (Robert Eiser) Date: Sat Jan 13 06:00:43 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] "Free CDs" page updated with latest distros In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20070113110037.27169.qmail@web81115.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I'm anxious to get my hands on Freespire 2.0, since I've been running 1.0 since it came out. I've only had problems with the JACK server, and I hope 2.0 fixes this issue. Bob From bluesfreak72 at gmail.com Sat Jan 13 09:40:15 2007 From: bluesfreak72 at gmail.com (Scott Vargovich) Date: Sat Jan 13 09:40:21 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] "Free CDs" page updated with latest distros In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Jason, I know this is pretty late notice for the meeting today (BTW, I will be there - I've just confirmed it with "DA BOSS"). I'd like to get my dirty mits on a copy of the latest version of PHLAK. I have 0.2, but 0.3 has been out for some time. I'd like to check it out. Thanks, Scott On 1/12/07, Jason Bechtel wrote: > > Hey, Linux fans. > > Some of them are still clogging up my broadband connection as I type > this, but I've just finished bringing all of my Linux distro ISO > images up to date and I've updated TALUG's "Free CDs" to reflect the > latest and greatest. There were a few changes, so I figured I'd send > a quick note to the list. > > First, there are some distributions which have fallen in their > rankings on distrowatch (which means nothing really) and which no one > has requested in a while. So, the following were removed from the > list: > > - Slackware 11.0 > - the full 4-disc Mandriva set (the single-CD versions are still up there) > > Know, of course, that if you provide sufficient notice (e.g. prior to > a meeting), someone will be able to download and burn for you whatever > distro you want. This listing is just the ones that we (I) keep handy > because they are the most popular and because we (I) think that > they're good for general use (our unofficial stamp of approval). > > New to the list, however, are the following: > > + Fedora Core 6 *Live CD* > + PCLinuxOS 0.93a (Big Daddy) > + openSUSE 10.2 > > I just sent a separate message about the FC6 live CD. It's about > time! Finally, a way for people to try it out without downloading 3+ > GB of data... > > PCLinuxOS is at the forefront of the desktop Linux advocacy and > evangelism effort, which fits with our mission nicely. It is also a > pretty sweet distro for beginners to use right out of the box, so to > speak. So, it's about time it was part of our featured list. > > openSUSE actually surpassed Ubuntu in the (meaningless) distrowatch > rankings in the last week of December, and it's routinely in the top > 5, so it's about time it went up there. The number of discs always > made me hesitate, but I just read that you really only need the first > three to get going and the price of DVDs has come down enough that I > think TALUG can afford to start giving those away as well... > > ...which leads me to mention that I added the text "(or 1 DVD)" to the > "# of CDs" column for Fedora Core 6. It's about time, really. 5 CDs > cost way more than 1 DVD and they have for a long time. And with most > laptops coming with DVD burners nowadays, it seemed like a reasonable > thing. Sorry it took so long. > > I also updated a few more to the following: > > ^ KNOPPIX 5.1.1 > ^ TTCS OSSWIN CD 1.71 (12/20/2006) > ^ (K/X/Ed)Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) > > So, if you would like a copy of any of these latest releases, please > send an email to officers @ talug . org (without the spaces, of > course) and we'll see what we can do. Oh, and if you're not sure what > distro to choose, you could include some specs of the hardware that > you intend to run it on and how you intend to use it and we could make > suggestions. > > Jason > > PS: I would like to add Freespire, but it's last stable release is > much older than these current releases so I feel it would be best to > wait for the final release of the 2.0 version. > _______________________________________________ > TALUG-Murch mailing list > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > -- <>< Scott Vargovich <>< From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Sat Jan 13 22:54:55 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Sat Jan 13 22:55:03 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Draft Constitution posted for comment thru 1/21 Message-ID: Hey, everyone. Well, a bunch of us sat down today and hammered out a draft constitution for TALUG. It is only about two pages long, which is fairly small. We tried to keep it as simple as possible. Anyhow, we agreed that a one week period for comment would be good to give everyone a chance to put their $0.02 in. So, you have until next Sunday (let's say until midnight) to submit your comments to the talug-board mailing list. If you feel that a failure to meet the expectations set out in your comment would be a "show stopper", please indicate this with some duly grave-sounding words like "critical" or "make or break" or "show stopper". This way we are all on the same page. Otherwise, comments will be considered suggestions. All comments will be reviewed at the next organizing meeting and the final version will be posted for a vote on the website. We will use the current poll mechanism on the website. Since there is no formal mechanism for quantifying membership until the constitution is adopted, there is no point in trying to discern valid voters. The web poll uses some basic logic to prevent multiple votes, but it can be easily circumvented. We trust that you will vote only once. We think we've covered all the necessary items. A constitution is meant to be essentially unchanging, so if you think there's something missing, consider to yourself whether that thing really *needs* to be codified in the constitution or whether it is something that could change over the years. But, if you think you've got a reasonable suggestion, please, by all means, speak up. Thank you all for your patience. Jason From murphy43537 at yahoo.com Mon Jan 15 10:16:12 2007 From: murphy43537 at yahoo.com (Debbie Hamilton) Date: Mon Jan 15 10:16:17 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Re: Murchison Community Center In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <142435.27741.qm@web52807.mail.yahoo.com> Hello everyone, On behalf of myself, the Murchison center Board and staff, we'd like to thank the talug group for all of your help and support over the last year. Thanks to TALUG, we've had many accomplishments (a few include....going thru and accessing equipment in small lab, getting rid of old stuff, printing capability, upgrading software, and general maintenance) Can't forget the great pizza parties and Sat. morning breakfast !!... :-) Sincere thanks for what ever part you contributed. May your New Year be Blessed, Safe and Prosperous!!! In the spirit of community, Debbie Hamilton Executive Director W.J. Murchison Community Center 1616 Lawrence Ave. Toledo OH 43607 wjmcc@bex.net www.murchisoncenter.org From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Wed Feb 14 21:36:24 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Wed Feb 14 21:36:32 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Meeting Postponed! (Plain Text Solutions) Message-ID: Hello, all. Due to various factors, including the weather and personal schedules, the meeting originally planned for this weekend (Saturday, February 17th) has been postponed until the following Saturday, February 24th. We will also wait to announce the results of the vote on the Constitution until that time. Since I never got around to announcing the meeting topic, I'll tell you now... Steve Daley has graciously volunteered to present his thoughts on what he calls "Plain Text Solutions". He describes it as a way to cross-platform, text-processing bliss. It will be a discussion on why Steve finds plain text to be the most practical medium for what he has to do and how he has solved various problems, such as printing and markup. If you are interested in learning the pragmatic reasons why Linux is so grounded in plain ASCII text files and how its many free text processing tools can work for you, this presentation could be an epiphany. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will see each other at Stautzenberger College Saturday next. ============================================ TALUG Meeting Announcement ============================================ Topics: Plain Text Solutions o text processing o markup o printing When: Saturday, February 24th 2:00pm - 5:00pm Where: Stautzenberger College 5355 Southwyck Blvd Toledo, OH 43614 Who: Presented by the Toledo Area Linux Users Group Open to the public *** Linux distributions on CD will *** *** be available FREE of charge! *** *** Be sure to request in advance: *** *** http://talug.org/freecds *** From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Thu Feb 22 14:46:40 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Thu Feb 22 14:46:50 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Re: Meeting Reminder (Plain Text Solutions) Message-ID: A quick reminder of our impending meeting: Saturday, February 24th (that's in two days!) 2:00pm (until ~5pm) Stautzenberger College (Room 200, as usual) Topic: Plain Text Solutions (see below) o text processing o markup o printing *** We will also announce the results of the vote on the TALUG Constitution (hint: no one voted 'no') and the implications for upcoming organizing (including elections!). If you plan on taking an active role in the LUG, this would be a good meeting to attend. *** Also, I burned a bunch of Linux liveCDs recently, so if you want to try out some of the latest liveCDs (with Beryl, for example), I'll have a number of them up for grabs. See you on Saturday!!! Jason On 2/14/07, Jason Bechtel wrote: > Hello, all. > > Due to various factors, including the weather and personal schedules, > the meeting originally planned for this weekend (Saturday, February > 17th) has been postponed until the following Saturday, February 24th. > We will also wait to announce the results of the vote on the > Constitution until that time. > > Since I never got around to announcing the meeting topic, I'll tell you now... > > Steve Daley has graciously volunteered to present his > thoughts on what he calls "Plain Text Solutions". He > describes it as a way to cross-platform, text-processing > bliss. It will be a discussion on why Steve finds > plain text to be the most practical medium for what he > has to do and how he has solved various problems, such > as printing and markup. > > If you are interested in learning the pragmatic reasons why Linux is > so grounded in plain ASCII text files and how its many free text > processing tools can work for you, this presentation could be an > epiphany. > > Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will see each other at > Stautzenberger College Saturday next. > > > ============================================ > TALUG Meeting Announcement > ============================================ > > Topics: Plain Text Solutions > o text processing > o markup > o printing > > When: Saturday, February 24th > 2:00pm - 5:00pm > > Where: Stautzenberger College > 5355 Southwyck Blvd > Toledo, OH 43614 > > Who: Presented by the Toledo Area Linux Users Group > Open to the public > > > *** Linux distributions on CD will *** > *** be available FREE of charge! *** > *** Be sure to request in advance: *** > *** http://talug.org/freecds *** > From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Wed Feb 28 17:51:58 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Wed Feb 28 17:52:06 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Re: TALUG: Computer Donation In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The first program that comes to mind is CATNeT: http://catnet.utoledo.edu They target exactly the audience you described. They provide systems for community technology centers and for individuals who otherwise would not have a computer at all. At one time they were interested in Linux, but I'm afraid that all of those people have since moved on and the program may not grok the Linux "thing" at the moment. Last I heard they were also in the midst of a restructuring... not sure how that's progressing. The Murchison Center seems to have patrons who are in need of basic working computers. You could try contacting them. Jason On 2/28/07, adakkak wrote: > > Forking the discussion on places to buy a computer, I am looking for a place > to _donate_ two computers to a church or a community center. They are both > Compaq (ploriant?) 400Mhz, >128Mb of ram, ~8GB, 1 network card. They both > come with a 14" monitor, but no keyboard or mouse; I could also through in a > hub if you are trying to create a network. I can install any Linux OS on > them and prepare them for your needs; currently one has the latest zenwalk > and the other has xubuntu. > > btw. I do not want to give them to individuals unless this is their only PC. From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Fri Mar 2 10:28:42 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Fri Mar 2 10:28:57 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Re: TALUG: Computer Donation In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: will do On 2/28/07, Jason Bechtel wrote: > > The first program that comes to mind is CATNeT: > > http://catnet.utoledo.edu > > They target exactly the audience you described. They provide systems > for community technology centers and for individuals who otherwise > would not have a computer at all. At one time they were interested in > Linux, but I'm afraid that all of those people have since moved on and > the program may not grok the Linux "thing" at the moment. Last I > heard they were also in the midst of a restructuring... not sure how > that's progressing. > > The Murchison Center seems to have patrons who are in need of basic > working computers. You could try contacting them. > > Jason > > > On 2/28/07, adakkak wrote: > > > > Forking the discussion on places to buy a computer, I am looking for a > place > > to _donate_ two computers to a church or a community center. They are > both > > Compaq (ploriant?) 400Mhz, >128Mb of ram, ~8GB, 1 network card. They > both > > come with a 14" monitor, but no keyboard or mouse; I could also through > in a > > hub if you are trying to create a network. I can install any Linux OS on > > them and prepare them for your needs; currently one has the latest > zenwalk > > and the other has xubuntu. > > > > btw. I do not want to give them to individuals unless this is their only > PC. > -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Fri Mar 16 22:53:12 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Fri Mar 16 22:53:18 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Meeting Announcement: Nominations and FreeGeek? Message-ID: Sorry for the late notice. I'm still not sure exactly what the presentation is going to be, but I am sure that someone has stepped forward to present. Ian Wilson (usually hanging out in the Columbus and Lima areas) will present on ONE of the following topics: - FreeGeek (http://freegeekcolumbus.org/) - openNMS (http://www.opennms.org/) - Cacti (http://cacti.net/) CATNeT is currently undergoing a restructuring and FreeGeek could be the answer. TALUG could be a part of getting a local chapter up and running. So, I will be very curious to hear reports of what Ian has to say. If he chooses to present on one of the other topics, we will definitely bring him back to talk about FreeGeek in the future. And, of course, this is the nominations meeting. Please bring your nomination plans/ideas to the meeting. If you have someone in mind, try to get their consent in advance. Nominating yourself removes this tiny bump. If you cannot be in attendance, please email in your nomination to the talug-board list. You can sign up via the website: http://www.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-board/ Adam Shea will be chairing the meeting. Please help him in making the meeting a success. Good night, and good luck! Jason From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Mon May 7 18:03:36 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Mon May 7 18:03:41 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Fwd: [SFD-announce] Registrations are open for SFD 2007! In-Reply-To: <20070506205549.GB10230@waugh.id.au> References: <20070506205549.GB10230@waugh.id.au> Message-ID: Software Freedom Day, 2007 is looming on the horizon. At least one other person has expressed serious interest to me in making Toledo a real site for the worldwide event this year. I will gladly help, but we are going to need at least a couple more people to make it work. Please express your interest NOW (i.e. reply to this message) because planning is about to begin!! Freedom!!!! :o) PS: Do not register for us (TALUG), yet. We register as a team and we can't do that until we have a team! Thanks. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Pia Waugh Date: May 6, 2007 4:55 PM Subject: [SFD-announce] Registrations are open for SFD 2007! Hi all! Registrations are open for Software Freedom Day 2007! Welcome to the planning and preparation for Software Freedom Day 2007. We have more resources, documentation and goodies for you, and we look forward to sharing the biggest and best SFD ever with you all! == Registration == The SFD2007 team registration is now open! You'll need to register before the schwag deadline (31 July) to receive shirts, balloons and stickers to help your event look spectacular. Teams that register after the schwag deadline will still be included as official events, but will not receive any goodies. Each team (registered before the schwag deadline) will receive two SFD2007 shirts for free. We will have extra shirts for sale soon, however if your team has special needs or is in a developing nation, please send us a special extra tshirts request to info [at] sf-day.org and we will consider more shirts for your team on a case by case basis. There are limited numbers of shirts, balloons and stickers, and we will try to make sure teams are as well equipped as possible. Teams can find information from the Start Guide including artwork, marketing information, generic press releases, tips and tricks for running an event and much more - http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide Many thanks to Robert Schumann who tirelessy worked on the registration page! == Website == Firstly, please note that in order to keep the website sane, we have migrated all 2006 team pages to an archive page. You are completely welcome to copy and paste from your archived pages to a new page, but you'll need to create a new team page prior to your team registration. We've got a new look and feel. Many thanks to Phil Harper who created the look and feel and Judy Wilson who updated loads of information. == Team Communications == We are currently not running a forum, and encourage you all to post to the sfd-discuss mailing list for questions, ideas, team announcements and more. Join the sfd-discuss mailing list at http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss. All team leaders that register will be automatically added to the sfd-announce mailing list if they are not already on it. If enough people request the forum functionality back again we may enable it. Ensure your SFD team page is up to date so that people can find and attend your event. If you choose to have a SFD team page separate from the SFD website, please ensure you link to it so everyone can find events through the SFD website. Make sure you link any press coverage of your event and press releases to http://softwarefreedomday.org/press. == Competition == We will certainly be running a competition again this year, however will be announcing the competition within the month. Please check out last years competition for some ideas as this years competition will be very similar. http://softwarefreedomday.org/competition. == Questions? == Please post questions to the sfd-discuss mailing list so all teams can learn from and support each other. For specific or private enquiries, please email info [at] sf-day [dot] org. Cheers, Pia Waugh President Software Freedom International -- Software Freedom Day 2007 http://softwarefreedomday.org/ "There is no darkness but ignorance." - William Shakespeare _______________________________________________ SFD-announce mailing list SFD-announce@sf-day.org http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-announce From katewill at umich.edu Sat May 12 22:19:13 2007 From: katewill at umich.edu (Kate Williams) Date: Sat May 12 22:19:19 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] wireless mapping Message-ID: Hi everyone, I am involved in a project to map the wireless internet connections across several Chicago communities. We are driving the streets using netstumbler (geolocates each wireless signal received), a garmin gps device and our laptop wireless card. I'm thinking about using an antenna. Has anyone done this and have they used an antenna? This is like wardriving except we do not use the internet availability or keep any personal information, we're doing it to measure a form of the digital divide -- neighborhoods full of commercial/ commmunity/public/home wireless hubs and neighborhoods with less. thanks to anyone who can advise. kate From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Sun May 13 12:33:43 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Sun May 13 12:33:46 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] wireless mapping In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 5/12/07, Kate Williams wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > I am involved in a project to map the wireless internet connections across > several Chicago communities. We are driving the streets using netstumbler > (geolocates each wireless signal received), a garmin gps device and our > laptop wireless card. I'm thinking about using an antenna. Has anyone > done this and have they used an antenna? > Does your wireless card have a removable antenna? or does it have a connector on its side ( http://www.cantenna.com/laptop.html ). If so, then I think most people would recommend a cantenna, since they outperform most commercial solutions and could be built from household items ( http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html ). > This is like wardriving except we do not use the internet availability or > keep any personal information, we're doing it to measure a form of the > digital divide -- neighborhoods full of commercial/ commmunity/public/home > wireless hubs and neighborhoods with less. > Sounds like an interesting project. I would also add that their are some maps that is exclusive to fon available at maps.fon.com; fon is a service that enables you to either sell your wireless access or offer it for free, in return when you login to another fon access point you could either pay for the internet (if you chose to sell your wireless access), or use the internet freely. Hope this helps. > thanks to anyone who can advise. > > kate > > > _______________________________________________ > TALUG-Murch mailing list > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Mon May 14 23:18:21 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Mon May 14 23:18:30 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] TALUG Meeting Announcement Message-ID: ======================================== TALUG May Meeting Announcement ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Topic: Linux Desktops: Gnome, KDE, XFCE, and Blackbox ======================================== When: 2:00--5:00 pm on Saturday May 17th. ======================================== Where:Stautzenberger College (Room 2000) 5355 Southwyck Blvd Toledo, OH 43614 ======================================== The next TALUG meeting will take place this Saturday (May 17th). The presenter will compare kde and gnome --- the two most popular linux desktop environments --- along with often overlooked desktops such as xfce and blackbox. As always, the meeting will be held at Stautzenberger College (room 2000) from 2--5pm. Free Linux CDs, including the recent ubuntu releases, will be available. We will also have openSolaris DVDs available that contain not only openSolaris and all its source code, but also Nexenta (Ubuntu with a Solaris kernel) and Schillix (live CD version of openSolaris). Hope to see your there, Abdul -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Tue May 15 09:27:09 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Tue May 15 09:27:13 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Re: TALUG: TALUG Meeting Announcement In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Sounds great! Just FYI: Saturday is the 19th. On 5/14/07, adakkak wrote: > > ======================================== > TALUG May Meeting Announcement > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Topic: Linux Desktops: Gnome, KDE, XFCE, and > Blackbox > ======================================== > When: 2:00--5:00 pm on Saturday May 17th. > ======================================== > Where:Stautzenberger College (Room 2000) > 5355 Southwyck Blvd > Toledo, OH 43614 > ======================================== > > The next TALUG meeting will take place this Saturday > (May 17th). The presenter will compare kde and gnome > --- the two most popular linux desktop environments --- > along with often overlooked desktops such as xfce and > blackbox. > > As always, the meeting will be held at Stautzenberger > College (room 2000) from 2--5pm. > > Free Linux CDs, including the recent ubuntu releases, > will be available. We will also have openSolaris DVDs > available that contain not only openSolaris and all its > source code, but also Nexenta (Ubuntu with a Solaris > kernel) and Schillix (live CD version of openSolaris). > > Hope to see your there, > > Abdul From katewill at umich.edu Tue May 15 14:28:38 2007 From: katewill at umich.edu (Kate Williams) Date: Tue May 15 14:28:45 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] wireless mapping In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <54D453D4B1455F803BE614AC@[10.0.56.8]> thanks, this is really helpful abdul. and glad to hear from you! kate --On Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:33 PM -0400 adakkak wrote: > On 5/12/07, Kate Williams wrote: >> >> Hi everyone, >> >> I am involved in a project to map the wireless internet connections >> across several Chicago communities. We are driving the streets using >> netstumbler (geolocates each wireless signal received), a garmin gps >> device and our laptop wireless card. I'm thinking about using an >> antenna. Has anyone done this and have they used an antenna? >> > > Does your wireless card have a removable antenna? or does it have a > connector on its side ( http://www.cantenna.com/laptop.html ). If so, > then I think most people would recommend a cantenna, since they > outperform most commercial solutions and could be built from household > items ( http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html ). > >> This is like wardriving except we do not use the internet availability or >> keep any personal information, we're doing it to measure a form of the >> digital divide -- neighborhoods full of commercial/ >> commmunity/public/home wireless hubs and neighborhoods with less. >> > > Sounds like an interesting project. I would also add that their are > some maps that is exclusive to fon available at maps.fon.com; fon is a > service that enables you to either sell your wireless access or offer > it for free, in return when you login to another fon access point you > could either pay for the internet (if you chose to sell your wireless > access), or use the internet freely. > > Hope this helps. > >> thanks to anyone who can advise. >> >> kate >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TALUG-Murch mailing list >> TALUG-Murch@talug.org >> http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch >> > > > -- > 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 > _______________________________________________ > TALUG-Murch mailing list > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > > From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Tue May 15 18:06:56 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Tue May 15 18:07:02 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] wireless mapping In-Reply-To: <54D453D4B1455F803BE614AC@10.0.56.8> References: <54D453D4B1455F803BE614AC@10.0.56.8> Message-ID: It has been a while since I looked into wirless, but, as far as I know, netstumbler will not report hidden ESSIDs, while kismet would. Let me elaborate... Normally a router's ESSID, or wireless name, is set to be visible. This means that joe somebody could see my ESSID, and, if not properly secured, connect to it. One some routers, however, the user has the ability to not broadcast his ESSID, this means that a person with a regular computer cannot pickup the signal; the router does not exist. The ESSID is broadcasted, however, whether it is set to be hidden or not. Netstumbler, as far as I know, will not report it, while kismet will. The percentage of people who know that you can set this up is very low that it can be overlooked. Hope this helps btw. The best live CD to doing this type of wireless discovery, if I may :o), is backtrack ( http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html ) On 5/15/07, Kate Williams wrote: > > > thanks, this is really helpful abdul. and glad to hear from you! kate > > > > --On Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:33 PM -0400 adakkak > wrote: > > > On 5/12/07, Kate Williams wrote: > >> > >> Hi everyone, > >> > >> I am involved in a project to map the wireless internet connections > >> across several Chicago communities. We are driving the streets using > >> netstumbler (geolocates each wireless signal received), a garmin gps > >> device and our laptop wireless card. I'm thinking about using an > >> antenna. Has anyone done this and have they used an antenna? > >> > > > > Does your wireless card have a removable antenna? or does it have a > > connector on its side ( http://www.cantenna.com/laptop.html ). If so, > > then I think most people would recommend a cantenna, since they > > outperform most commercial solutions and could be built from household > > items ( http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html ). > > > >> This is like wardriving except we do not use the internet availability or > >> keep any personal information, we're doing it to measure a form of the > >> digital divide -- neighborhoods full of commercial/ > >> commmunity/public/home wireless hubs and neighborhoods with less. > >> > > > > Sounds like an interesting project. I would also add that their are > > some maps that is exclusive to fon available at maps.fon.com; fon is a > > service that enables you to either sell your wireless access or offer > > it for free, in return when you login to another fon access point you > > could either pay for the internet (if you chose to sell your wireless > > access), or use the internet freely. > > > > Hope this helps. > > > >> thanks to anyone who can advise. > >> > >> kate > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> TALUG-Murch mailing list > >> TALUG-Murch@talug.org > >> http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > >> > > > > > > -- > > 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 > > _______________________________________________ > > TALUG-Murch mailing list > > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > TALUG-Murch mailing list > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Tue May 22 00:13:16 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Tue May 22 00:13:21 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Call for presenters Message-ID: As you could probably see from the talug website, we do not have a presentation lined up for this month. So, if you think you have something interesting to say: a new app that you discovered, a collection of useful shortcuts that you wish to share, etc... then please share your new information with us. Presentation do not have to be long; approximately 30 minutes, and you do not have to be an expert in the area to give a talk. This is a good opportunity for people to learn about new applications. If you are interested in networking, for example, nagios is maybe something that you want to learn about, while if you are into security then prelude-ids, or snort, would be of interest. These are just examples, and you can pick any topic you wish. So if you have a topic that you think would be of interest of talug members, please reply. thanks -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Tue Jun 5 21:12:34 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Tue Jun 5 21:12:41 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] TALUG June Meeting Annoucement Message-ID: ======================================== TALUG May Meeting Announcement ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Topic: Geek Off ======================================== When: 2:00--5:00 pm on Saturday June 16th. ======================================== Where:Stautzenberger College (Room 2000) 5355 Southwyck Blvd Toledo, OH 43614 ======================================== Although we do not have a scheduled presentation for next Saturday, there should be a few linux users to answer your questions. If you learned something new or found some nifty software, then your are encouraged to inform people at the meeting (and the mailing list). As always, the meeting will be held at Stautzenberger College (room 2000) from 2--5pm. Free Linux CDs, including the recent ubuntu releases, will be available. We will also have openSolaris DVDs available that contain not only openSolaris and all its source code, but also Nexenta (Ubuntu with a Solaris kernel) and Schillix (live CD version of openSolaris). So bring your Linux questions and, hopefully, they will be answered. Hope to see your there... Abdul From 0slew0 at gmail.com Mon Jun 25 10:57:10 2007 From: 0slew0 at gmail.com (randy) Date: Mon Jun 25 10:57:15 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] wireless router Message-ID: <43d906460706250757h356f0d01w763ca3ed2ab7e8c9@mail.gmail.com> Does anyone have a wireless router laying around they no longer need? My girlfriend just bought a house and could really use one. She's currently learning linux on my gentoo box, so she's legit. :-) Thanks! From jshriver at gmail.com Mon Jun 25 11:12:34 2007 From: jshriver at gmail.com (Joshua Shriver) Date: Mon Jun 25 11:12:40 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] wireless router In-Reply-To: <43d906460706250757h356f0d01w763ca3ed2ab7e8c9@mail.gmail.com> References: <43d906460706250757h356f0d01w763ca3ed2ab7e8c9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Unfortunately I don't have any extra. I did a quick ebay check and it looks like most are going for the mid 20's + 10 s/h. You can pick up a WRT54G for ~$49 at local stores though. Think you can get a Belkin even cheaper. Hope one turns up for you though. -Josh On 6/25/07, randy <0slew0@gmail.com> wrote: > Does anyone have a wireless router laying around they no longer need? My > girlfriend just bought a house and could really use one. > She's currently learning linux on my gentoo box, so she's legit. :-) > Thanks! > _______________________________________________ > TALUG-Murch mailing list > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch > From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Sat Jul 7 21:35:05 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Sat Jul 7 21:35:14 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] IEEE Meeting Announcement Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------- Software Security --------------------------------------------------- Presented By: Dr. James Walden Assistant Professor of Computer Science Northern Kentucky University ++++++++++++++++++++++++ When: Thursday, July 19, 2007 6:00 ? 7:00 PM Where: The University of Toledo Nitschke Hall Seminar Room (NI 1027) ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Abstract: Criminals make headlines every week by hacking web applications. The rapid growth of attacks over the last five years has shown us that traditional reactive security measures like firewalls or intrusion detection systems cannot protect application software. Software developers can no longer rely on the operations team to protect their software. To solve this problem, developers must take an active role in securing their applications, and to secure their applications, they need to learn about software security. Software security is the study of creating software that functions correctly even when under attack. Software security doesn't focus on security features like authentication or ryptography. While such features are useful tools, most exploitable security vulnerabilities are software bugs like buffer overflows or cross-site scripting that can be found throughout the application. To produce secure software, security needs to be integrated into the software development lifecycle from requirements through quality assurance. This presentation will cover common software vulnerabilities along with the software security techniques, such as abuse cases and software- assisted code reviews, that are needed to produce software without such flaws. -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Fri Jul 13 19:51:18 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Fri Jul 13 19:51:25 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] July Meeting Announcement Message-ID: ======================================== TALUG July Meeting Announcement ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Topic: Regular Expressions and How to wield Them ======================================== When: 2:00--5:00 pm on Saturday July 21st. ======================================== Where:Stautzenberger College (Room 2000) 5355 Southwyck Blvd Toledo, OH 43614 ======================================== Jason Bechtel has volunteered to present about regular expressions (regex). For those who do not know, regex is a way to write simple expressions to match certain text. All of you probably use regular expressions without knowing it; whether you are doing a search on google or typing 'ls *.txt'. Jason will also present how you could use regex with sed and awk. Your regex knowledge will, however, transfer to all modern languages (java, c++, perl, python, ruby, ...) unchanged. And, Hopefully, your g/re/p-ing will be more efficiently by the end of the day :-D Hope to see your there... From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Tue Jul 17 14:32:08 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Tue Jul 17 14:32:16 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Re: July Meeting Announcement In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I forgot to mention, but we will be taking pictures to recreate the member's page. So try to wear something that you are willing to take a picture with. ex. I heard that Michigan shirts are baned ; ) On 7/13/07, adakkak wrote: > ======================================== > TALUG July Meeting Announcement > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Topic: Regular Expressions and How to wield Them > ======================================== > When: 2:00--5:00 pm on Saturday July 21st. > ======================================== > Where:Stautzenberger College (Room 2000) > 5355 Southwyck Blvd > Toledo, OH 43614 > ======================================== > > Jason Bechtel has volunteered to present about regular > expressions (regex). For those who do not know, regex > is a way to write simple expressions to match certain text. > All of you probably use regular expressions without knowing > it; whether you are doing a search on google or typing > 'ls *.txt'. > > Jason will also present how you could use regex with sed > and awk. Your regex knowledge will, however, transfer to > all modern languages (java, c++, perl, python, ruby, ...) > unchanged. And, Hopefully, your g/re/p-ing will be more > efficiently by the end of the day :-D > > Hope to see your there... > -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Sat Jul 28 23:16:41 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Sat Jul 28 23:16:47 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] Software Freedom Day: Taking open source to the streets Message-ID: Software Freedom Day: Taking open source to the streets http://www.linux.com/feature/118245 This is a nice glimpse of what is possible with a successful SFD event... It's very exciting! It would be great it Toledo could experience an invigoration of interest and collaboration around software freedom. We should definitely extend an invitation to groups that are related to or already interested in Free Software... For instance, the Murchison Center might be interested in directly participating in our event. I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves and bite off more than we can chew, but the potential is really exciting to me! :o) Thanks to the volunteers who've stepped up so far. If you're considering getting involved and haven't yet, we could use your help now. Just reply to the list and let us know how you would like to be involved. Jason From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Wed Aug 8 10:24:54 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (adakkak) Date: Wed Aug 8 10:25:03 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] TALUG: August Meeting Announcement (Different meeting location) Message-ID: ======================================== TALUG August Meeting Announcement ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Topic: Typesetting Documents with Latex ======================================== When: 6:30--8:35 pm on Thursday August 16th. ======================================== Where: Toledo Public Library (SANGER BRANCH) 3030 West Central Ave. Toledo, OH 43606 ======================================== In February Steve showed us how to easily typeset documents using ASCIIDoc; this meeting we will show you how to typeset using Latex. For those who do not know, "LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system? widely used by mathematicians, scientists, philosophers, engineers, scholars in academia and the commercial world, and other professionals? LaTeX is used because of the quality of typesetting achievable by TeX. The typesetting system offers programmable desktop publishing features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and cross- referencing, tables and figures, page layout and bibliographies." (From Wikipedia) If people are interested, we can go to get some food and socialize after the meeting. REMEMBER that this meeting will be at the sanger library branch NOT statz. -- 6 5 9 8 1 0 0 1 1 7 1 0 8 1 0 9 9 7 1 0 6 1 0 1 1 0 0 From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Wed Aug 22 12:45:38 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Wed Aug 22 12:45:47 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] router software upgrade Message-ID: SmoothWall Express 3.0 Released http://lwn.net/Articles/246331/ We should probably schedule a time to upgrade the Murchison router box to this new release. Any other major issues or new projects? From jasonmbechtel at gmail.com Thu Oct 11 23:04:19 2007 From: jasonmbechtel at gmail.com (Jason Bechtel) Date: Thu Oct 11 23:04:23 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] The Murchison Center has moved on Message-ID: Dear friends of TALUG and the Murchison Center, I'm glad to see the renewed interest in the talug-murch project with two recent subscriptions to the mailing list. Sadly, the Murchison Center has recently had to shut its doors due to a lack of funds. All of the computers and networking have been removed (I have a lot of wiring and random stuff sitting in boxes in my basement) and a new tenant has already taken over the space, serving the community in a different capacity. TALUG-Murch was a great project while it lasted. We started with lofty goals and we successfully converted the Center's computers (~20) to a mostly Linux lab (a few dual-boots remained). Abdul (QoD) Dakkak created some fun custom desktop wallpaper and Josh Locklear and the crew shoehorned Linux onto some older PCs and an ancient Mac. We experimented with LTSP, trying to give utility to some of the oldest hardware. We replaced their NT 4.0 server with a Linux desktop for shared printing and we added a firewall/router box by loading an old PC with SmoothWall Express. We provided training in OpenOffice.org and the KDE desktop. We had pizza parties and loaded older PCs with Linux so they could be donated to needy households. We never followed up on our desire to document the Murchison Center conversion project rigorously enough to quantify our success (eg: user polls, usability assessments, etc.), but subjectively, the kids reportedly enjoyed using Linux. We also used the testimony of some of the TALUG-Murch volunteers in at least one grant proposal. Also, some of the administrators have become life-long converts to Free Software and GNU/Linux. Abdul Alkalimat and Kate Williams were already most of the way there when Kate reached out to TALUG back on May 5, 2004: http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/pipermail/talug/2004-May/005717.html "I am a board member and volunteer at a local community technology center that wants to add gnulinux plus applications to what we offer and use. we are also sketching out how to offer audio and video production and editing but we have always been PC, never mac. maybe these two things are separate, maybe not. plus we have older win PCs to spare that might be good for linux. our sense is that open source is a basis for the center's growth... "would there be someone from the list who'd be interested in a (<1 hour) wed evening demo and conversation with a few of us about how we might make this shift? Sometime in may or june?" Lee Bernard and Debbie Hamilton would join the movement as the project took off and continued. Lee is currently in possession of the Murchison computers and there is the distinct possibility that another such center will arise using that hardware... and GNU/Linux. Debbie is still using Ubuntu on her home PC. In conclusion, we have much to be proud of for what the partnership between TALUG and the Murchison Center accomplished. In that spirit, I propose that those who are interested in building on this success coordinate and establish a plan for how to proceed now that the Murchison Center can no longer be the focus of our outreach efforts. Here are some questions to start the discussion: o Should TALUG volunteers actively reach out to the community with an offer to start a similar project? o Should TALUG volunteers target certain organizations strategically or issue a blanket offer? o Should TALUG volunteers just hook up with CATNeT (http://catnet.utoledo.edu/), which is currently in a (long) reorganizing phase, and wait for something to develop there, or use their community center contact list as a place to start? o Should outreach take another form altogether? o How much outreach does the current level of interest within TALUG currently justify? Since the TALUG-Murch project is now defunct, we could continue to use this mailing list for the proposed discussion. If anyone objects to that, we could have a new mailing list created for the purpose or we could move the discussion to the main talug list. One advantage of moving the discussion to the main talug list would be a higher level of visibility, perhaps attracting additional interest and more input into the discussion. A disadvantage would be that not all subscribers to this list (talug-murch) are subscribers of the main talug list and might not want to sift through all of the other discussions on that list. Any opinions on an appropriate forum? I've typed enough and said enough. The next step is up the rest of you. I will be in Toledo through May and I offer whatever support I can give, but I'm heading into thesis mode and probably won't be able to lead any effort. So, I'm putting this out there and I hope someone picks it up and runs with it. I know we made a difference once and we can do it again. We just have to make it happen. Jason From katewill at uiuc.edu Fri Oct 12 12:54:18 2007 From: katewill at uiuc.edu (Kate Williams) Date: Sun Oct 21 12:39:18 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] The Murchison Center has moved on In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <470FA6BA.4050609@uiuc.edu> Thanks for this wonderful summary Jason. PLease keep the planning discussion on talug Murch so that all the veterans can be included. Let me add (and anyone else add their memories too): The TALUG-Murch project was roughly simultaneous with a hiphop focus in Abdul's Wednesday Night Seminar so the two projects built on other's energy (linux building in one room, Reboot the CD project building in the other). Abdul is in process of writing up the experience. The CD has been a hit and copies are still available from us at least. http://www.toledohiphop.org/reboot/ keep in touch all kate katewill@uiuc.edu I had heard that Leardo Bernard is continuing the project at a different address. Jason Bechtel wrote: > Dear friends of TALUG and the Murchison Center, > > I'm glad to see the renewed interest in the talug-murch project with > two recent subscriptions to the mailing list. Sadly, the Murchison > Center has recently had to shut its doors due to a lack of funds. All > of the computers and networking have been removed (I have a lot of > wiring and random stuff sitting in boxes in my basement) and a new > tenant has already taken over the space, serving the community in a > different capacity. > > TALUG-Murch was a great project while it lasted. We started with > lofty goals and we successfully converted the Center's computers (~20) > to a mostly Linux lab (a few dual-boots remained). Abdul (QoD) Dakkak > created some fun custom desktop wallpaper and Josh Locklear and the > crew shoehorned Linux onto some older PCs and an ancient Mac. We > experimented with LTSP, trying to give utility to some of the oldest > hardware. We replaced their NT 4.0 server with a Linux desktop for > shared printing and we added a firewall/router box by loading an old > PC with SmoothWall Express. We provided training in OpenOffice.org > and the KDE desktop. We had pizza parties and loaded older PCs with > Linux so they could be donated to needy households. We never followed > up on our desire to document the Murchison Center conversion project > rigorously enough to quantify our success (eg: user polls, usability > assessments, etc.), but subjectively, the kids reportedly enjoyed > using Linux. We also used the testimony of some of the TALUG-Murch > volunteers in at least one grant proposal. Also, some of the > administrators have become life-long converts to Free Software and > GNU/Linux. Abdul Alkalimat and Kate Williams were already most of the > way there when Kate reached out to TALUG back on May 5, 2004: > > > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/pipermail/talug/2004-May/005717.html > > "I am a board member and volunteer at a local community technology > center that wants to add gnulinux plus applications to what we offer > and use. we are also sketching out how to offer audio and video > production and editing but we have always been PC, never mac. maybe > these two things are separate, maybe not. plus we have older win PCs > to spare that might be good for linux. our sense is that open source > is a basis for the center's growth... > "would there be someone from the list who'd be interested in a (<1 > hour) wed evening demo and conversation with a few of us about how we > might make this shift? Sometime in may or june?" > > > Lee Bernard and Debbie Hamilton would join the movement as the project > took off and continued. Lee is currently in possession of the > Murchison computers and there is the distinct possibility that another > such center will arise using that hardware... and GNU/Linux. Debbie > is still using Ubuntu on her home PC. > > In conclusion, we have much to be proud of for what the partnership > between TALUG and the Murchison Center accomplished. In that spirit, > I propose that those who are interested in building on this success > coordinate and establish a plan for how to proceed now that the > Murchison Center can no longer be the focus of our outreach efforts. > Here are some questions to start the discussion: > > o Should TALUG volunteers actively reach out to the community with > an offer to start a similar project? > o Should TALUG volunteers target certain organizations > strategically or issue a blanket offer? > o Should TALUG volunteers just hook up with CATNeT > (http://catnet.utoledo.edu/), which is currently in a (long) > reorganizing phase, and wait for something to develop there, or use > their community center contact list as a place to start? > o Should outreach take another form altogether? > o How much outreach does the current level of interest within TALUG > currently justify? > > Since the TALUG-Murch project is now defunct, we could continue to use > this mailing list for the proposed discussion. If anyone objects to > that, we could have a new mailing list created for the purpose or we > could move the discussion to the main talug list. One advantage of > moving the discussion to the main talug list would be a higher level > of visibility, perhaps attracting additional interest and more input > into the discussion. A disadvantage would be that not all subscribers > to this list (talug-murch) are subscribers of the main talug list and > might not want to sift through all of the other discussions on that > list. Any opinions on an appropriate forum? > > I've typed enough and said enough. The next step is up the rest of > you. I will be in Toledo through May and I offer whatever support I > can give, but I'm heading into thesis mode and probably won't be able > to lead any effort. So, I'm putting this out there and I hope someone > picks it up and runs with it. I know we made a difference once and we > can do it again. We just have to make it happen. > > Jason > _______________________________________________ > TALUG-Murch mailing list > TALUG-Murch@talug.org > http://webhost3.uniqsys.com/mailman/listinfo/talug-murch From adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu Sat Nov 17 12:26:26 2007 From: adakkak at eng.utoledo.edu (Abdulmajed Dakkak) Date: Sat Nov 17 12:26:32 2007 Subject: [talug-murch] November TALUG Meeting Announcement --- An Introduction to GNUPG/PGP Message-ID: Hi Everyone. Our next presentation will be of particular interest to many TALUG members. Long time Linux user and TALUG member, Loren Weith, will be giving a presentation titled "An Introduction to GNUPG/PGP". PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is used regularly in email, ssh, and anything else which needs to be encrypted. Loren will go over public key cryptography, digital signatures, hashes (including MD5 collisions), how to properly do key exchanges (and why it's important to be paranoid when doing so). Depending on the amount of time, ssh public key authentication may also be discussed. There will be time to ask questions, so bring your questions and come. I hope to see you there. =================================================== November TALUG Meeting Announcement =================================================== Topics: An Introduction to GNUPG/PGP When: Friday, November 23, 2007 6:30 - 9:00pm Where: The University of Toledo, College of Engineering, Room 1026 Who: Presented by the Toledo Area Linux Users Group (TALUG) Open to the general public *** Linux distributions on CD will be available FREE of charge. *** *** Be sure to request in advance! See http://talug.org/freecds ***