The UNIX® CRONicle |
June 1999 |
UNIX® is a registered trademark of the Open Group
Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
Online version: http://www.sluug.org/cronicle/
Wednesday, June 9, 1999 at 6:30 PM
Sunnen Products, 7910 Manchester
6:30 PM | Tutorial | Regular Expressions by Mike Kriz |
7:00 PM | Call For Help | (An opportunity for you to ask technical questions of the group) |
7:15 PM | Social, off-line conversations, & book sales | |
7:20 PM | Admittance to building may no longer be possible See Meeting Directions | |
7:30 PM | Presentation | The Micro$oft Anti-trust Case by Rich Seible & Rich McLennan |
Abstract:
For the June presentation of the St. Louis UNIX User's group, Rich Seibel and Rich Mclennan will explore the events and effects of the government's anti-trust case against Microsoft Corporation. We will explain what the case itself is about and what it might mean to the industry.
We will focus on some of the implications of a decision or settlement (if entered or threatened) by then, and perhaps a few cautionary tales.
We will entertain your ideas and observations about the case and its ramifications. But, we will not allow the meeting to turn into a Microsoft bashing (that would be too easy). So come prepared with facts and considered opinions. It promises to be a lively evening.
Biographies:
Rich Seibel is a consultant for Advanced Resources Inc. Rich was trained as an electrical engineer at Purdue University in 1966. He started out maintaining computers 25 years ago and moved into software and tracking technology. He is currently developing software for client server systems.
Rich McLennan is the general counsel for the SLUUG. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Wabash college in 1980, and his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1983. He presently practices in the areas of Corporate and Business law and litgation.
[ Editor's Notes:
Recent bit of free legal advice from The Law Offices of Rich McLennan to various members of our Steering Committee concerning disposal of excess equipment:
"...if you guys need for me to bail you out, just call me, give me your ATM cards and PIN numbers and I'll take care of everything."
You didn't have to be there to appreciate it. -- editor ]
Abstract:
It's everywhere, it's everywhere (in UNIX that is).
This tutorial will introduce you to using a powerful tool in UNIX called "regular expressions". Think of the power of "pattern matching" and what it can mean to you. They are a powerful tool for manipulating text and data. Think of wildcards, one-eyed jacks, aces wild and how they effect the cards you hold in your hand.
[ Regular Expressions and Mike Kriz will be a winning combination! -- ed ]
Biography:
Mike Kriz has been an Information Technology (IT) consultant specializing in UNIX and Oracle for over 15 years. He has worked for a variety of clients in the St. Louis market doing Oracle based business applications and data warehousing.
He has been a SLUUG board member and steering committee member in the past and has been doing tutorials for the Unix Users Group for quite a few years. For some reason not totally clear to him, members have found his tutorials either interesting, informative, useful, or entertaining enough in the past to ask for reruns, so he keeps doing them!
[ Editor's Notes:
Mike did last month's fine tutorial on the password file. ]
Title of the Month The 25% discount special this month is on Mastering Regular Expressions and (maybe) the ORA Micro$oft Annoyances books. |
All regularly priced titles are 10% off retail cost at the general meeting. (Excludes featured, or specially priced or promotional items) |
The O'Reilly and Associates line of books is available at each monthly general meeting as a convenience to our members.
Each month features a book related to that month's presentation or tutorial topic.
Perl Mongers
|
June 3, 1999 at 7:00 PM ( TOPICS: ) Tutorial on the CPAN module. Presentations: Maintaining connectivity with dynamic IP addresses, and History of Perl. CAIT, Training Room 024, 5 N Jackson Ave at Forsyth Blvd, Clayton, MO [St. Louis UNIX Users Group stuff] General Meeting |
June 9, 1999 at 6:30 PM | Sunnen Products 7910 Manchester St. Louis, MO Steering Committee |
June 15, 1999 at 6:00 PM | Daugherty Systems One City Place (2nd floor) Creve Coeur, MO Linux SIG |
June 17, 1999 at 7:00 PM | ( TOPIC: ) Something Wonderful by Some Guy Indian Trails Library 8400 Delport Drive (at Midland) |
The STL!/unix/usr/group meets the 2nd Wednesday of every month at Sunnen Products, 7910 Manchester Blvd, just east of Hanley on Manchester.
Directions From Downtown
See map at http://www.sluug.org/info/sunnen.html
(NOTE: A security guard from Sunnen is scheduled to be at the door from 6:20 PM to 7:20 PM to allow entry. After 7:20, the door will be unattended and attendees may not be able to enter.)
The SLUUG Steering Committee meets the Tuesday following the general meeting at 6:00 PM in the 2nd floor training room of Daugherty Systems, One City Place in Creve Coeur.
The SLUUG Linux SIG (SLUUGLS) meets the 3rd Thursday of every month at the Indian Trails Public Library.
See map at http://www.stllinux.org/directions/
ITEC (Information Technology Expositions and Conferences) Expo 1999:
Held at America's Center, Downtown St. Louis, May 19-20
Congradulations are in order for the survivers. This was our tenth year. It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. Selling books, selling our organization, selling Open Source concept, selling ideas about UNIX.
The ITEC show sales volume generated is one of the reasons we continue to be able to offer the O'Reilly & Associates books at our meetings. We won't know again if it was worth it until all the dust settles.
-- SLUUG Steering Committee
Below are results of the attendance & survey sheets collected at the...
SLUUG General meeting on 12 May 1999:
SLUUG Linux SIG meeting on 20 May 1999:
Results of each question on our OPTIONAL survey/questionaire:
[ Note that the general meeting results are listed under "Gen" and the Linux SIG results are under "SIG" ]
1. Tutoral (only at General meeting):
The Password File by Mike Kriz
Gen/SIG
2. Presentation:
Gen/SIG
3. Did you attend the last SLUUG General meeting?
Gen/SIG
4. Did you attend the last SLUUG Linux SIG meeting?
Gen/SIG
5. What UNIX/UNIX like OS(s) do you regularly use? Check all applicable items.
Gen/SIG
6. What GNU/Linux distribution(s) do you regularly use? Check all applicable items.
Gen/SIG
7. What OTHER operating system(s) do you regularly use? Check all applicable items.
Gen/SIG
COMMENTS:
OBSERVATIONS:
1. I don't know what the actual head count was at the General meeting; but,
talking with others put it at about 45 or so. Mike Kriz left right after
his presentation. Neither Gary, nor Rich filled out a slip, must have been
others. I just wasn't used to doing what is required up front.
The actual head count was 51 at the Linux SIG meeting. About six sheets were just not returned.
I recognized about 6 faces at the Linux SIG meeting of people that had talked with me at the ITEC earlier in the day. Most had never been to any of our meetings, some just hadn't been in a while.
I had talked to at least 4 other ITEC attendees that were extremely interested; but they could not make the Linux SIG meeting.
2. Six individuals at the General meeting didn't put down a good mailing address. At the Linux SIG the only individuals that didn't provide a mailing address on the attendance slip had provided one earlier at the General meeting ( as instructed ). I must have provided better instructions at the Linux SIG.
I had to call one individual to get correct email address.
3. One individual at the General meeting didn't answer any part of the survey/questionare. One individual at the Linux SIG did the survey/questionare but didn't fill out the attendance slip.
4. I didn't include GNU/Linux in question 5 and nearly got beat up. Some added it under the "Other" write in space and some didn't although they filled out the GNU/Linux entries in question 6. That's why I calculated the number.
I revised the survey/questionare to include GNU/Linux for the sheets used at the Linux SIG meeting. Seemed to be better understood that way.
5. Gary almost had a stroke when I used a sissors to cut the attendance slips away from the survey/questionare after the General meeting.
For the Linux SIG I had added a signature line at the bottom of the form which may have encouraged more responses; however, I had forgotten to bring the scissors and didn't cut them away until I got home. I only peeked at one sheet. No self control.
OPINION:
Maybe cutting slips away wasn't such a good idea and maybe it
was. I was thinking people would be more likely to complete
the survey part if they weren't going to be under the
"magnifying glass". So it goes with preconceieved notions,
they affect our actions and plans. Now, we wonder who filled
out certain sheets, just as I knew we would. That is too much
information any way. We really don't want to ask too many
questions, neither too often, nor too fast. We might get answers,
then have to think about the results.
In case you missed this announcement...
We've freed "OpenSources: Voices From the Open Source Revolution", a ground breaking collection of essays that offer insight into how the Open Source movement works, why it succeeds, and where it is going. The entire book is now online and freely redistributable. -- ORA
See http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html - for online version.
See http://www.interprise-orange.com/os/ - for PostScript & PDF files.
To keep up with NET events:
http://www.linuxtoday.com- daily news of mostly (but not only) Linux events.
http://www.slashdot.org- news for nerds - stuff that matters!
http://www.freshmeat.net- daily updates of Internet software releases. (check out the "appindex" button).
http://www.32bitsonline.net- Because There's More Than One Way to Compute.
http://www.lwn.net- Linux Weekly News.
http://www.webwatcher.org- Tracks when numerous WWW pages were last updated.
For the Paranoid:
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/6276.html- Careful, they might hear you.Movie:
http://movies.go.com/eos/ - Enemy of the State
This movie mentions the above technology, developed behind the Iron Curtain.June Magazines:
Internet Security Advisor Summer 1999, Volume 2, Number 2, has a favorable five page article "Is Linux Secure?" and a five page "Firewall: Linux Style" that look very interesting. www.advisor.comSys Admin June 1999, Volume 8, Number 6, has a Special Linux Section with four articles: "Legitimizing Linux", "Linux Firewall and Masquerading: The IP Chains Concept in Linux 2.2", "The All Linux Office" and "The Linux Kernel: A Case Study for CVS". www.sysadminmag.com
Kernel 2.2 Upgrades:
http://hardwarezone.community.com.sg/reviews/others/rh6.0_review/redhat6.html
- Good example of tweeking RedHat 6.0 install
http://lwn.net/1999/0513/ - Red Hat 6.0 breaks StarOffice.
http://lwn.net/1999/0513/dists.phtml - Many Linux Distributions are upgraded this month. Note the RedHat gotcha with the upgrade to PostgreSQL 6.4 breaking and the work around solution.
http://www.redhat.com/corp/support/errata/rh60-errata-general.html - RedHat Errata page listing RH 6.0 problems and solutions as available.
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/6377.html - Announcing Slackware 4.0
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/6383.html - CPUReview: OpenLinux 2.2
http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-04/lw-04-penguin3.html - Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 ...easiest installTo configure a Linux machine:
http://www.monitorworld.com- Specs on over 2100 monitors from 150+ manufacturers.
http://www.monitorservice.com- From Monitor FAQ page follow Performance Parameters link.
http://www.hercules.com/monitors- The monitor data base that had the one that I wanted!
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html- Knowlege base of Linux compatible modems!For the Linux beginner:
http://www.linuxberg.org- Useful info and easy downloads.
http://www.linuxplanet.com/ - ...for newbies.
http://qlink.queensu.ca/~3srf/linux-admin/ - Linux Administration Made Easy" (LAME) Pre-Release
Wounded:
http://www.luigui.org- Linux/UNIX Independent Group for Usability Information (Univ of Mich).
This site was broken much of last month and is still having server problems off and on. Still, it's one of the most interesting sites that I've run accross. Hope that you take some time to poke around in it.
Wow:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19773.html one million WordPerfect downloads
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/6315.html Linux Counter passes 100.000 users on May 26th
http://counter.li.org/ - Place to stand up and be counted.
http://www.oscounter.org/ - Another place to stand up and be counted.
Win one - lose one (overseas):
The U.K. Prime Minister's office has decided to drop a proposal that would have required anyone sending an encrypted message to supply the means to unscramble the message to a third party or the police."
see http://linuxtoday.com/stories/6318.html
The Australian Senate passed legislation... ... that requires ISPs to block any web site in the world that is classified as offensive by an Australian film board. The law is set to go into effect January 2000.
see http://slashdot.org/articles/99/05/26/1223245.shtml
Micro$oft:
The following was shamelessly plucked from Robert X. Cringley's site:Every week, Bob picks links relevant to his column. Ain't no jive, here's this week's five. [ as of 26 May -- ed ]
"I, Cringely" My previous column that Microsoft hated. ( http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit19990311.html )
[ I found the following point from that 11 March editorial to be most interesting:
"Microsoft's antitrust case is very much an evaluation of perceptions. Redmond always has a chance to be found innocent. However, failure to provide adequate Y2K bug fixes can be easily and factually proven. The legal risk could be huge. It won't take long to build a case and prove it in court. Bill's a clever guy. Maybe one justification for splitting up the company would be to provide insulation from Y2K claims."
...that last line, would splitting up really insulate them? Shades of yellow rag journalism and the National Enquirer wants to know. Guess I'll just have to go to our 9 June meeting to find out. -- ed. ]
Microsoft's nifty new consumer Y2K Web site that you can't use until June 1. ( http://www.microsoft.com/y2k/ )
[ If you want to request the Year 2000 Resource Center CD you will have to sell your soul, register your email address, turn on cookies and create a login ID ( TIP: Note that the logins "ms_sucks", "ms_really_sucks" and "ms_sucks_big_time" seem to be already taken). -- ed ]
If you are a software developer, this Y2K site's for you. ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/y2k/ )
888-673-8925 The number to call to order Microsoft's free Year 2000 Resource CD.
Y2K Spreadsheet This is a big... [ 65 printed pages ] spreadsheet file containing the current Y2K status of most Microsoft products. ( http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/msy2k.ZIP )
Hey...
The Perl Mongers group is just getting off the ground and could really use some promotion from within SLUUG.
What do we need to do?
Thanks,
Sarah
---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 14:32:52 -0500 (CDT)
>Come one come all... we have another meeting just around the corner!
>Directions:
http://www.cait.wustl.edu/gotowc.html
>Tutorial (5-10 minutes):
>Presentation (15 minutes):
>Presentation (30 minutes):
>News from last month's meeting:
>Our first meeting at the CAIT location was quite a success despite initial
hardships! Our room we had scheduled was locked, which wouldn't have been
so bad except the LCD projector we needed for Brent's presentation was
inside the afore-mentioned locked room. You get the point. Anyway, we
were saved by Bob Thomas of CAIT, who left home to unlock our room. We
had an admirable showing (13 brave souls) and photos to prove it. Links
can be found off of
http://stlouis.pm.org/events.shtml
For more info contact Sarah Burcham by sending
mailto:sarah@cts.wustl.edu.
The following PERSONAL COMMENTARY expresses personal opinions and SLUUG exerts no more editorial control over such content than does a public library, bookstore, or newsstand. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or Content expressed herein are those of the respective author and not necessarily supported by SLUUG. SLUUG does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorent I could hardly stand to have the
old man around. But when I got to be twenty- one, I was astonished at how much the old
man had learned in seven years. -- Mark Twain
As our membership grows, we have had some inquiries about the
possibility of having Special Interest Groups in several areas.
If you are interested in starting or participating in a SIG for
System Administration, Networking, C, Object Oriented Programming,
a specific vendor, etc., please call Dave Mills
at 230-5151, extension 103, or contact any officer of the group.
Visit the Linux SIG home page
(http://www.stllinux.org/)
for the latest meeting details.
For more information on SLUUGLS refer to the WWW home page for the group
at http://linux.feldt.com
or contact Matthew Feldt by
mailto:linux@www.feldt.com.
The CTI SIG is no longer having regular meetings and is currently using a webboard format.
The Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Users Group is a
non-profit organization open to developers, end-users, sales people,
and others who share the common interest of melding the
telecommunications and computing worlds.
For more information on SLUUG CiTI contact Tony Zafiropoulos by
mailto:tonyz@ctitek.com or (314)878-9855.
The Digital Alpha SIG is for those interested in Digital UNIX and the
DEC Alpha architecture. Visit the Digital Alpha SIG's home at
http://www.sluug.org/~newton/asighome.html for more information.
The SLUUG Steering Committee meets the Tuesday following the general 2nd
Wednesday meeting at 6:00 PM in the 2nd floor training room of Daugherty
Systems, One City Place in Creve Coeur. The guard can direct you to the
meeting location. Anyone is welcome to attend. If you would like to become more
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For more information about sponsoring the St. Louis UNIX Users Group,
contact Ed Wehner, send
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The St. Louis UNIX Users Group maintains a WWW page at
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Visit us to learn more about who we are and what
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SLUUG is looking for volunteers to help with presentations, web
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The deadline for article submissions is two weeks before the next
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correspondence with SLUUG should now be sent to:
>From: Sarah Burcham
>To: perl-hackers@stlouis.pm.org
>Subject: June 3rd: Perl Mongers Meeting
>Tutorial on the CPAN module
>-- Sarah Burcham
>Maintaining connectivity with dynamic ip addresses.
>-- Brent Michalski
>History of Perl
>-- Elaine Ashton
Personal Commentary
submitted by Almost Anybody
ANY OPPOSING COMMENTS MAY BE MADE BY SENDING
mailto:editor@mail.sluug.org
for consideration for future publication.)
Special Interest Groups (SIGS)
St. Louis Unix Users Group - Linux SIG (SLUUGLS)
Indian Trails Public Library
8400 Delport Drive
(at Midland)
(314)-428-5424
From 170:
Exit Page east to North-South Rd., go left on North-South Rd. to Midland,
go left on Midland one block to Delport, the Library is on your left
(see map at http://www.stllinux.org/directions/).
Computer Telephony Integration User's Group (SLUUG
CiTI)
Digital Alpha SIG
St. Louis UNIX Users Group Steering
Committee
Sponsors
SLUUG on the World Wide Web
SLUUG Administration is volunteer based.
/usr/groups/other
Contacts
Address Changes
and MembershipKlaus Mueller
Home: +1 (573) 334-6477
331 S Spring Ave
Cape Girardeau, MO 63703
mailto:mueller@mail.sluug.org
BBS Questions
Jim (Knight) Ford
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Newsletter
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Presentations
Open Position
Currently send info/ideas to mailto:gary@mail.sluug.org
Steering Committee
InformationGary Meyer
Home: (314)781-8644
mailto:gary@mail.sluug.org
SLUUG Treasurer
Christine Wanta
mailto:cfw1@mail.sluug.org
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Computer Telephony
Integration (CTI)Tony Zafiropoulos
Phone: (314)878-9855
http://www.ctitek.com/ctiusers/ctiusers.html
mailto:tonyz@ctitek.com
Linux
Matthew Feldt
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Submitting Articles to the SLUUG CRONicle
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