[kwlug-announce] Meeting Monday: the Linux boot process

Paul Nijjar paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca
Sat Jul 5 20:16:04 EDT 2008


It's the question every parent dreads: 

"Mommy, where does Linux come from?"

"Well, there was this Finnish studen.."

"No! Not Linus Torvalds! How does Linux start up when I press the
power on our computer?"

When the question comes, how do you answer it in a sensitive and
age-appropriate way? This month accomplished parent and Linuxist John
van Ostrand will show us how. He will walk us through the mysteries of
booting from POST to login. No doubt this will be a family-friendly
presentation that will not contain a single rude reference to the
fork() command. This presentation begins at 7pm. 

Last month we appeared to have raised $47 for OpenOffice.org on behalf
of the FLOSS Fund. This month's recipient represents the genesis of
another first in our little social experiment: Drupal has the
distinction of being the first project to serve as our nominee twice.
As you probably know, Drupal is a content management system that
powers such highly-regarded websites as Amnesty International, the
Onion, the Ontario Linux Fest, and... um... askaninja.com . If you so
wish, you can contribute to the Fund at the meeting or by contacting
secret cabal member Andrew at acant at alumni.uwaterloo.ca 

In other birthing news, the Canadian federal government recently
drafted Bill C-61, which redefines copyright for the digital age. The
bill has been somewhat controversial, especially with respect to its
restrictions on breaking "digital locks" (e.g. playing DVDs in Linux). 

The full text of the proposed bill is here: 

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3570473&Mode=1&Language=E

and there is commentary all over the Internet. 

You can park yourself at our usual meeting location:

The Working Centre
43 Queen Street South
(Between King and Charles)
Kitchener

And you can park assorted vehicles to get yourself over here in the
back lot (free for all except elephant caravans after 6pm). 

- Paul










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