Previous Meetings
From FOSUG
List of Previous Meetings, All videos and slide shows are located in the Howto/Videos Section
April 2008
Install fest for Spring 2008. Two or three times a year, FOSUG holds Installfests, where experienced linux enthusisiasts show newer members and visitors how easy it can be to give new life to their own older computers, by doing a hands on, real-time install. The FOSUG meeting location had the power, tables and fistfulls of distribution disks to do the job.
While there were very few attendees that had never installed linux before, leaving Drew's 60gb of distribution isos feeling unappreciated, this month's Installfest theme seemed to be “unfinished projects”. Newer members consulted with the more experienced to work on various issues. One member was seen to be working on multiple installations at the same time, while another, got help tackling a wireless modem driver issue. Roz reported that she got Ubuntu successfully installed on her Eee, as well as the wireless modem and onboard camera working.
Our local Enabler enjoyed working his way around, chatting with members.
Afterwards, all that were able, met across the street at the Roundtable pizza for dinner.
March 2008
Steve Hollingsworth demonstrated the theory and ideas behind full hard drive encryption in Linux. Demonstrating how to create and use encrypted partitions and hard drive. Good password practices, and the use of common sense when choosing them. Steve explained the pros and cons to encryption, and pointed out several ways even encrypted data can be compromised.
Feb 2008
Mike Cederquist gave a demo on the Seti@home software. SETI is known for the search for extraterrestrial life or also more humorously known as “the search for ET”. Mike described how SETI uses computer non-use time to process information obtained by the various astronomical arrays. Boinc projects also use distributed computing for various other huge projects that can be divided into smaller projects. Seti can be set to run either on a schedule you specify, or run like screensaver to use smaller increments of unused computer time. Mike also described how he uses the seti project as a means to test a new computer's capacity and dependibility before actually putting it into production.
Jan 2008
This January, FOSUG offered 2 topics for demonstration. First, Andrew Baker, a long time Linux enthusiast, gave a demonstration on a basic install of SPLUNK. Splunk is a very powerful tool used to sort, search and navigate all the millions of logs that your average system administrator will deal with on a daily basis. The program automatically indexes logs and assigns them search variables based on repeating patterns in the logs. Splunk has various methods for accepting the log data. Files, streams, syslogs, direct serial, etc. Although splunk is NOT an open source application, it is built on a lot of OSS technology, and worthy of consideration. Splunk also offers a free license that will fit the needs of MOST small/medium architectures.
The second part of our FOSUG meeting was a demonstration by Chad Godfirnon on setting up software RAID using directories to simulate hard drives. Wikipedia describes RAID: "The main aims of using RAID are to improve reliability, important for protecting information that is critical to a business, for example a database of customer orders; or where speed is important", and Chad showed us how to use this option.
December 2007
In December, Dan Zahlis and Mattias Thorslund gave FOSUG a presentation on the Active Agenda Project. The presentation of the history of the project and Dan and Mattias' migration towards Open Source has been recorded and is available.
In addition, the slide presentation itself that Dan and Mattias used can be had at:
March 2007
Gentoo Linux install - Gentoo Linux is a highly customizable distribution of Linux, and a favorite of many. Drew Baker showed the high points of what is involved with installing this more complicated-to-install Linux distribution. February 2007: Beryl 3D Desktop - This was a very, very cool last minute demonstration. Chad Godfirnon demonstrated the Beryl 3D Desktop. With windows that burst into flames, flinch with motion when moved, and a cubed desktop selector to choose your workspace, this desktop system goes WAY beyond "skins" or themes. The demo went something like this YouTube segment, only with a lot more detail but without the music. Newer penguins attending were very impressed that such a cool piece of software is available to users of the Linux operating system.
January 2007
Pendrive Linux
December 2006
Linux Installs and Troubleshooting
November 2006
Linux Installs and Troubleshooting
October 2006
ESX Server - Mike Treas handled October's program "ESX Server". Mike gave us an overview on how ESX Server can help use server resources more effectively, and a tour of the interface that makes it happen. Session Outline available.
September 2006
The Linux Terminal - Drew Baker handled September's session topic "The Linux Terminal", the first of a multipart series. He showed us how to move around in the file structure, some commands to get things done, explained about file permissions, and how to find the user's manual. In addition, he showed us some commands that save you typing and make repetitive tasks easier. Finally, he indirectly answered that great cosmic question: "Why do Linux guys name their files differently than Windows users?" Session Outline available.
June 2006
Drew Baker - The many uses of VMWare
May 2006
Chad Godfirnon - MySQL basic usage and tools. Video available
April 2006
Robert Nickel - RT: Request Tracker. Video available
March 2006
Tom Limoncelli - Time Management for Network and system administrators. Video available
May 2005
Beginning Session: Steven Hollingsworth - Installing and Using Ubuntu Linux for Beginners. Video available
May 2005
General Session: Elliot Johnson - Elliot goes over how interprocess communication works in Unix, as well as the LISP Programming language. Video and slide show available
April 2005
Beginning Session: Stephan Aleman - Package Management in Various Linux Distros. Video and slide show available
April 2005
General Session: Robert Nickel - Logging and Graphing with RRDTool. Video and slide show available
February 2005
Drew Baker - Beginning Linux Session 3. Video available
November 2004
Beginning Session: Drew Baker - Beginning Linux Session 2. Video available
November 2004
General Session: Mike Cederquist - Integrating Samba and LDAP Overview. Video available
September 2004
Steven Hollingsworth - Using Iptables and Short. Presentation available
June 2004
Steven Hollingsworth - Building an OpenBSD Firewall. Presentation available