Past Meetings

Ontario Linux Fest 2008 is coming up fast. And we have our regular monthly KWLUG meeting.

Doors open at 6pm, meeting starts at 7pm sharp. Join us!

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From the era where the only sound a computer would make was the terminal beep character to modern sound server technology, I will touch on it all from a historical perspective in a short amount of time. Whenever I am talking about something that is still of relevance to the average Linux user I will pause and discuss the details of its function and the basics of configuration. The presentation will wrap up with a couple of complete examples of useful sound hardware/software configurations for typical (and at least one not so typical) home and business/educational uses.

Shouldn't Labour Day be the beginning of the New Year? The kids are back to school. There is finally a break in the humidity. The leaves are about to turn.

Doors open at 6pm, presentation starts at 7pm, sharp! Join us.

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OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them; the project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways."

An introduction to the Who, What, Where, Why of OSM will be followed by a demo of the steps in collecting, categorizing and contributing data to OSM.

This topic was originally presented at HOSUG on 12 December 2006.
A modified and extended version of this topic was presented to Toronto Mapping Weekend attendees at Linuxcaffe 17 - 18 February 2007.

Boy, is it hot in here or is it just the eight core server?

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A slide show and talk about white hat Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing - how to bring more traffic to your site via online marketing through the search engines.

This will be a relatively non-technical presentation demonstrating techniques that will get you higher rankings and bring in more traffic. Suitable for technical folks, as well as site owners with less technical knowledge looking to bring in more traffic to their site.

Presenting on two areas:
1) Search Engine Marketing. Specifically how to run a successful Pay Per Click (PPC) Google adwords campaign. Adwords are the Sponsored Links shown in Google searches. I'll show you how to set up and manage a campaign, how technical people can write better ads than any advertising specialist and how to compete in competitive areas.

2) Search Engine Optimization. This section will discuss white hat ways to promote your site in the search engines. Specific techniques will be discussed. I'll break this presentation out into the following general areas:
- history of the search engine rankings. What used to work, still works, and what doesn't work anymore. This will provide the foundation of how to determine what search engines want and will provide some direction on the differences between white hat and black hat (where black hat means 'outside the search engine guidelines', not illegal or cracker techniques which is how black hat is used outside the search engine community). Also some background on pagerank and trustrank.
- how people search. This will show us how to target search terms and allow us to discover untapped, uncompetitive sources of converting traffic.
- On page optimization. This will be a brief discussion on specific things to change on your site that help your rankings. Technical level will be a rough understanding of HTML.
- off page optimization. Factors that affect your rankings that aren't actually on your website.
- step by step guidelines on how to make your website an authority. The premise is not to figure out Google's algorithm. Instead I'll outline how to create an authority site that the smart folks at Google will want to rank because it makes their search engine results better for the end user.

I optimized my first site about 5 year s ago. 5 years later, without any further work, the site is still ranking well. It's lasted through many algo changes intended to get spammy sites out of the search engine rankings. Using the right approach and by giving the search engines what they want you can build sustainable traffic through top rankings - on a website the search engines *want* to rank. And you can do it without resorting to technical loopholes or spammy techniques.

Long time KWLUGer John Van Ostrand will shed some light on the Linux Boot process for us this month.

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Presentation request / proposal

This presentation covers the boot process. What happens after you press the power button to start your computer? We'll look very briefly at POST and BIOS, then concentrate on what happens once Linux is in control.

• POST
• BIOS
• MBR
• LILO / Grub
• kernel
• initrd
• runlevels
• login managers

if we are lucky we'll hear about some new stuff in development for faster booting
• Coreboot
• initng
• upstart

Make suggestions to improve / complete this presentation.

Volunteer to present this topic.

Ah, summer time. What could be better than early evening with a Mint Julep on the dock, listening to the sweet ululations of the loons across the lake?

Well. The latest KWLUG meeting, of course!

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Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) has seen steady growth for the last two decades. Yet, it is not obvious nor easy how one would go about making a career of out FOSS.

In this presentation, we present various avenues on how to do that, with stories from the trenches.

And we should not forget the fun part ...

About the presenter: Khalid is a full time free software developer and consultant. His company, 2bits.com focuses on open source web based technologies, mainly using the Drupal web application framework and the LAMP stack.

Photo Credit: Whatknot cc by-nc-nd.

The meeting starts at 7pm, and the doors open for conversation and networking at 6pm.

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Kareem Shehata will show off his mad skills designing websites with Django, a web framework for Python.

New User Night!

Bring a new or potential new GNU/Linux user to the meeting for a night of introductory computer fun.

Doors open at 6pm for casual conversation and networking. The formal presentation starts at 7:00pm sharp!

Some of you may choose to join us at a local restaurant for more discussion and refreshments after the meeting.

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This is a presentation for the desktop home user.

This is not a technical presentation. No admin, no root, no command line.

Bring at least one guest that is new to FLOSS (family/friend/neighbor/co-worker). Promise them that they'll discover many possibilities on how to use their computer without having to spend a fortune on sofware, without running antivirus and without activelly maintaining the OS.

The presentation will have three segments

1. Show how the average home user can use FLOSS for common tasks (These are features that I really use but I'm open to sugestions from other KWLUG members)

• Browsing the internet (email, youtube, facebook)
• Chatting
• Organizing pictures
• Organizing and playing media
• Doing some workd processing
• Use the spreadsheet to run some numbers
• Edit pictures
• Manage home finances
• Creating greeting cards
• Contact management
• Searching a "lost" document
• Searching and installing software

2. Talk about the posibilities for niche uses without going into any details.
For example:

• Ltsp for large families
• Internet trafic blocking and monitoring
• Personal web design
• Multimedia content creation
• Home media and automation
• Portable linux distribution
• etc...

3. With help of all the other KWLUG members answer "can I" kind of questions from the guests.
e.g. I currently do x and y, Can I do it with FLOSS/in linux?

Although not explicitly talking about eye candy I will bring a computer with it turned on showing that now it's normal to have a pleasantly looking Linux desktop.

Even if you think that you know all this, use the oportunity to bring someone else. This won't be a political lecture, It will be a very practical demonstration
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The host for this meeting was Raul Suarez.

The meeting starts at 7pm, and the doors open for conversation and networking at 6pm.

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We have three great presentations lined up for the March meeting:

• Raul Suarez will demonstrate how to install Linux on a USB key. This installation can then be booted from any computer that supports USB booting.
• Andrew Cant will demonstrate the Subversion version control system. He will include some background of version control management concepts.
• Kyle Spaans will show off git, a distributed version control system initiated by Linus Torvalds to manage the Linux kernel source. Kyle will explain what git is, what makes it different from other source control systems, and what it's good for. He will finish off with a live demo.

The meeting starts at 7pm, and the doors open for conversation and networking at 6pm.

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Imagine a live demonstration of a Content Management System (CMS) where each member of the audience can follow the presentation with their own copy of the software running on a laptop in front of them. Now, after a 10 minute break, each laptop is emulating an OLPC machine, complete with network ability. After another 10 minute break, each laptop is now running a different CMS for the audience to put through its paces.

Our own Lori Paniak will give a newbie-friendly tutorial on how to use VMware in Linux to accomplish this silicon sleight-of-hand.

The Demo Room at Ontario Linux Fest consisted of thirteen laptops each running a copy of VMware Server. Demos were VMware images which could be quickly (and remotely) switched from one presentation to the next. This presentation gives a tutorial on the preparation and installation of VMware Server on a Debian system, cloning the installation to the laptops and administering the final system.

Mondoarchive disaster recovery software, the VMware Server Console and cluster management tools such as clusterssh each play a role in the tutorial.

Several copies of the installation DVD will be given away. Each disk will install a (nearly) ready-to-go Debian Etch/2.6.22 kernel/VMware Server system on a target hard drive.

Happy New Year! And welcome to the first 2008 meeting of keeping your Free Software Resolution. KWLUG meetings are open to everybody with an interest in Free Software, GNU/Linux and Open Source. Arrive when the doors open at 6pm for conversation and networking. Formal presentations start at 7pm. Often, many of us relocate to a restaurant for further discussion and sustenance after the meeting ends at 9pm.

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LinuxMCE is a free, open source add-on to Kubuntu including a 10' UI, complete whole-house media solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer skills.

With our history of "Standing Room Only" for MYTH-TV presentations, you'll want to be sure to arrive early for this Instant Classic as presented by our very own John Van Ostrand.

Happy GNU Year.

Why not ring in the GNU year with a donation to the Free Software Foundation? They run important campaigns like Defective by Design, that defends against digital restrictions management and Open Document that encourages free and open data interchange.

So Join, or update your membership, or donate in any amount or order some cool FSF schwag.

And of course, have a happy and safe GNU year.

The meeting starts at 7pm, and the doors open for conversation and networking at 6pm.

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Brent is our resident turntable mix-ologist and DJ-Extrordinaire. He's going to whip a little Learnin' on us regarding audio.

If you aspire to be a musician, or if you used to, or i you know someone who does, you might be interested to know that virtually ever tool you need to create, record, mix, master, and publish music is available from GPL software repositories, and you can do the job on virtually dumpster-class hardware. If all goes well, I will demonstrate in my presentation how to record music from both digital and acoustic instruments and vocals, mix it and master it into CD ready recordings, using the 64Studio linux distro--Debian based, and preconfigured for effective audio creation and manipulation.

I don't really have any music talent, but this talk will focus on the technology, which is a lot simpler than it may look. Some general music production knowledge will undoubtedly be imparted at the same time. Plus someone is probably going to have to sing something.........

The meeting starts at 7pm, and the doors open for conversation and networking at 6pm.

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We'll have a demonstration and explanation of the fancy eye-candy extensions.

This meeting will be round-table style. John will lead off with a laptop and discuss the challenges presented by the hardware selections made by the laptop manufacturer and how he solved them.

Bring your challenging hardware and tell us how to address it.

We have a vendor presentation scheduled for this meeting. Doors open at 6pm for casual conversation and networking. Formal presentation starts at 7pm.

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VMware provides virtualization products. The largest of four world wide VMware support centres is in Burlington, Ontario.

Brian Ferguson and a number of colleagues from VMware will delight us with stories from inside VMware. They'll provide us with configuration and deployment tips to make VMware work better for us.

Presentation outline
* Introduction to VMware and a little about our culture
* Most Interesting Cases we have faced
* Strangest Cases we have faced
* Most Challenging Cases we have faced
* Recognizing when and when NOT to use VMware products

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The host for this meeting was richard.

Summer is here and we have another festival of social interaction planned!

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Several people will present command line tools and tricks:

• Chris Bruner: wc
• Paul Nijjar: three ways to rename files on the command line
• John van Ostrand: network piping and diagnostic tools (strace, tcpdump, strings, hexdump, ldd, ls -lu), RPM commands (rpm -qi, rpm -qf, rpm -ql, rpm -qa)

This presentation is newbie-friendly.

IPCop is a specialized Linux distribution for firewalls. We'll learn how to acquire and install IPCop and how to use its web-based administration interface.

Addon packages can extend IPCop's capabilities. We'll look at selected addons if time permits.
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The host for this meeting was John Kerr.

Cedric Puddy will give us the "nickel tour" of installing Linux on the Linux WRT54GL hackable router. He will:

• flash the routers with OpenWRT
• demonstrate the flexibility of the built-in switch
• show OpenWRT's ipkg management
• share scripts that he wrote to make flashing the boxes easier
• Discuss differences between the stock Linksys images, OpenWRT and DD-WRT

If there is time Cedric will also demo the Wi-Spy 2.4 GHz spectrum analyser.

Before the meeting Brent Clements will demonstrate package management for newbies.
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The host for this meeting was User 26.

This is a periodic Meet & Greet meeting. Members are encouraged to come with "Show & Tell" from their latest or current projects. No formal presentations are scheduled beyond LUG-maintenance-type discussion.

Members are encouraged to meet and talk in informal groups. This is an opportunity to chat with LUG-folk that they see less-often.
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The host for this meeting was User 26.

HICK Tech is coming to Owen Sound on the Monday, 30 April and Tuesday 01 May 2007. This two day conference / workshop looks at several aspects of technology with an emphasis on rural users.

KWLUG regulars might even recognize a presenter in the "Digital Lifestyles" stream.

H.I.C.K. Tech is the [Grey-Bruce] region's first technology conference taking place in Owen Sound, Ontario from April 30-May 1, 2007 on beautiful Georgian Bay. Participate in HICK Tech by attending:

1. The Keynote Address: The Power of Community and How to Build It On-line at the Roxy by Jennifer Evans
2. The Forum: Attend up to nine workshops and sessions. There are more than 30 sessions to choose from!
3. The Digital Fair: Meet local IT businesses in our human-friendly trade show area.