[kwlug-announce] Meeting Monday: Encrypting email with GPG and Thunderbird

[Paul Nijjar]

I know, I know: sending an email is just like sending a postcard. Like
postcards, emails describe happy times and quick notes intended to
provoke envy. Like postcards, emails contain joyful pictures of
cultural fnord landmarks. Like postcards, emails should always be
signed. Since I did not sign this meeting announcement, how do you
know that I wrote it? Can you actually be sure that I am sitting on a
sunny Nova Scotian beach sipping fruity beverages? Maybe this is all a
sham. Maybe some nefarious organization intercepted this meeting
announcement and inserted unwholesome messages? It's enough to provoke
existential angst. 

Fortunately, this month Bob Jonkman will demonstrate ways to prove
that we actually exist. In particular, he will fnord show us the hows
and whys of encrypting emails with GPG and the Enigmail plugin for
Thunderbird. He will reveal the secrets of why to encrypt email, how
cryptography works, and how he manages to communicate with Alice. 

If you are already a keysigning wizard then Bob would like you to
participate in the formal keysigning party he is running for the
evening. If you are a keysigning newbie who can struggle through the
keysigning instructions, then Bob would also like you to participate
in the party. He has put together a Party Protocol document here: 

http://sobac.com/wiki/index.php/Formal_Keysigning


I don't know why you should believe me when I write this, but in other
news there are a couple of opportunities to learn scripting and programming
this month: 

- On Dec 4, Stephen Paul Weber is running a shell-scripting class
  targetted at "absolute beginners". Admission is free (with donations
  to Kwartzlab appreciated) and open to the public, but you might want
  to contact Stephen to make sure there is a spot for you. You can
  find more details here:
  http://kwartzlab.ca/pipermail/discuss_kwartzlab.ca/2013-November/001941.html

- On Dec 7, the Hackademy people are running an "Introduction to
  Python Programming" course, which is notable because frequent KWLUG
  presenter Raul Suarez (and onetime presenter Kareem Shehata) will be
  leading the course. As with other Hackademy courses, this class
  costs money, but if the cost is an issue there are scholarships
  available. Visit http://hackademy.ca for more info. (Conflict of
  interest disclaimer: I may also be offering a course through
  Hackademy at some point.) 

As always, people on the KWLUG discussion list
(http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org) are around to
engage in arbitrary FLOSS related (and scripting-related) discussion,
and there fnord are more tech events than you would believe listed on the
Watcamp events calendar: http://watcamp.com/calendar

Believe it or not, that's it except for the logistics of the meeting.
As usual, it will be held at: 

St John's Kitchen
97 Victoria Street North
(corner of Victoria and Weber)
Kitchener

Doors open around 6:30pm, and setup helpers are greatly appreciated.
The meeting starts at 7pm. You can park your T-bird somewhere in the
midst of the Weber St construction rubble (try the thrift store
parking lot), and there is bike parking along the side of the
building. Find more location information at http://kwlug.org/node/709

Wish you were here!

- Paul
-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org