The UNIX® CRONicle |
September 1999 |
Official Publication of the STL!/unix/usr/group
UNIX® is a registered trademark of the Open Group
Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
Online version: http://www.sluug.org/cronicle/
Table of Contents
Next Meeting Details
Wednesday, September 8, 1999 at 6:30 PM
Sunnen Products, 7910 Manchester
| 6:30 PM |
Tutorial |
Introduction to Perl
by Don Ellis
|
| 7:15 PM |
Call For Help |
(An opportunity for you to ask technical questions of the group)
|
| 7:20 PM |
Admittance to building may no longer be possible
See Meeting Directions
|
| 7:30 PM |
Social, off-line conversations, & book sales
|
| 7:45 PM |
Presentation
|
Perl Highlights of the O'Reilly Open Source Software Convention
by Sarah Burcham
|
Tutorial
Introduction to Perl
by Don Ellis
Abstract:
Perl is one of the hottest new UNIX utilities in years.
Perl is an interpreted language used for easily manipulating text,
files, and processes. It provides a more concise and readable way
to do many jobs that were formerly accomplished (with difficulty)
by programming in the C language or one of the shells.
Perl combines the simplicity of shell scripting with the power of a
full-fledged programming language. It is likely to be easily available
at any UNIX site.
Perl has been ported to virtually every operating system and most Perl
programs written on one platform will run without changes on another.
This tutorial will be given based on tutorial materail developed by
Brent Michalski from MasterCard.
Biography:
Don Ellis has a beard and a bunch of Apples. Sir Isac Newton started the
same way. Don has more fun than Isac.
Don started with UNIX in the dark ages
with a bag of seeds
under the old apple tree
where he was systems administrator
for a very long time.
Don Ellis has worked for computer consulting firms since 1986, previously
working in sales support for several prominent manufacturers. He has had
assignments on Unix systems, DOS PCs, and Macintosh installations. He is
currently between projects.
His last SLUUG tutorial was on "Web Scripting -- CGI & Beyond"
at the December 1997 general meeting.
Presentation
Perl Highlights of the O'Reilly Open Source Software Convention
by Sarah Burcham
Background:
This year's O'Reilly Open Source Software convention ( 21-24 Aug)
http://conferences.oreilly.com/
was held in Monerey, California. It combined six key technical conferences
at one site with over 120 technically sophisticated presentations addressing
the cutting edge of Open Source software.
The key technologies covered were Perl, Linux, Apache, Python, sendmail and
Tcl/TK. Perl was the largest part of the Open Source Software convention.
Abstract:
Sarah went to The Perl Conference (TPC) which was held in mid August.
She will give us the highlites of what new developements and directions
were discusssed there.
Highlights:
Perl Today - an overview of the current versions, platforms, etc.
What's Coming: Perl 5.6
Perl Advocacy
Excerpts from MJD's Tricks of the Wizards (Schwartzian transform!)
Links to presentations, etc.
Who said What
Photo slideshow
Biography:
Sarah Burcham is a web programmer for MasterCard's Internet
Development group. She's been programming Perl since her college years at
Washington University where she studied -- errr... is studying CS and
worked as a system admin/programmer.
Eventually she'll have a degree,
eventually she'll have enough time to bike the KATY Trail, eventually
she'll begin the 1000 years of peace. But for now, she's been to TPC.
For more info contact Sarah Burcham by sending
mailto:sarah@cts.wustl.edu .
[ Editor's Notes:
One of her favorite hangouts -
http://stlouis.pm.org/
-- What else??? ]
Special Promotion(s)
 |
Title of the Month
The 25% discount special this month is on any Java or Perl book. Get a free Tee Shirt with any $30 purchase.
|
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.
Discounts off retail cost are offered to all members and each month's featured book(s) may be additionally discounted. Usually, all titles are discounted 10%, while special titles are discounted 25%.
Upcoming Meetings
| DVD Party
[Not part of SLUUG]
|
Sept 2, 1999 at 5:30 PM
( TOPICS: )
DVD demos, gourmet snacks and drinks
7th Floor, Taylor Building
Corner of Tucker Bulvd. and Washington Avenue
1129 St. Charles
St. Louis, MO
|
| Perl Mongers
[Not part of SLUUG]
|
Sept 2, 1999 at 7:00 PM
( TOPICS: )
Discussing The Perl Conference with slide show,
Object Oriented Perl (part 2 of 3), with a Q&A session
CAIT, Training Room 024,
5 N Jackson Ave at Forsyth Blvd,
Clayton, MO
[St. Louis UNIX Users Group stuff]
| SLUUG General Meeting |
September 8, 1999 at 6:30 PM
Sunnen Products
7910 Manchester
St. Louis, MO
|
| COBOL Legacy Nulls |
September 9, 1999
|
| Steering Committee |
September 14, 1999 at 6:00 PM
Daugherty Systems
One City Place (2nd floor)
Creve Coeur, MO
|
| Linux SIG |
September 16, 1999 at 7:00 PM
( TOPIC: )
Java Swing by Cindy Pilling, Anderson Technologies
Indian Trails Library
8400 Delport Drive
(at Midland)
|
| Perl Mongers |
October 7, 1999
|
| SLUUG General Meeting |
October 13, 1999
|
| Atlanta |
October 12-16, 1999
Register at
http://www.linuxshowcase.org/
Third annual Atlanta Linux Showcase
Cobb Galleria
Atlanta GA
|
| Steering Committee |
October 19, 1999
|
| Linux SIG |
October 21, 1999
| | San Jose |
October 26-28, 1999
Register at
http://www.ispcon.com/registerfall.html
ISPCON Fall '99 - CLECexpo
The Largest & Longest-Running Event for Internet Service Providers
McEnery Convention Center
San Jose CA
| | Las Vegas |
November 15-19, 1999
Register at
http://www.linuxbizexpo.com/
Linux Business Expo Nov 15-19
Co-located with COMDEX Fall '99
Las Vegas Hilton
Las Vegas NV
|
|
Meeting Directions
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
- Take 40 West to the Hanley exit.
- Turn left (south) onto Hanley.
- Turn left (east) onto Manchester, then turn right ASAP into the
Sunnen Products driveway.
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/
Article(s):
The following article(s) express(es) 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(s) 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.
SLUUG BBS Systems are Stable
by Gary Meyer
As you may (or may not) be aware, the St. Louis UNIX Users group is
currently in the process of finding a new permanent home for our BBS
computer systems. Actually our systems are not a true BBS in the
traditional sense; but, they are donated machines that allow us to
provide user accounts with command line access using various
flavors of UNIX. They provide users with electronic mail, personal
file space, web pages and full Internet access,
Yes, the two main SLUUG computer systems are still at CTItek
thanks to Tony Zafiropolus.
Yes, we are still operating with limited resources and must be careful not
to over tax Tony's bandwidth.
Yes, we hope to move within the next month or so due to a number of potential
leads. Steering Committee members are in discussion with each of those
promising sites.
See last month's newsletter article at
http://www.sluug.org/~editor/9908.html#Article1
for very detailed background and some good references to alternative resources.
Please contact Gary Meyer by sending
mailto:gary@mail.sluug.org
if you need more specific information on the hardware or other aspects
of these SLUUG computer systems.
http://home.postnet.com/~ellisd/sluug
- Alternate SLUUG home page, if our server goes down.
Attendance Survey Results - No Holes
Below are results of the attendance & survey sheets collected at the...
SLUUG General meeting on 11 August 1999:
48 Actual head count.
28 Attendance & survey sheets were turned in.
10 attendees requested to be subsribed to our email newsletter.
2 attendees requested email address changes for the newsletter.
Results of each question on our OPTIONAL survey/questionaire:
1. Tutoral (only at General meeting):
Secure Use of DSL at Home by Chad Bersche
Plus: A Recent DSL Installation Experience by Tom Parsons
9 - Excellent
10 - Good
6 - Fair
2 - Late, didn't see.
1 - No response to question
2. Presentation:
Single-line DSL Technology by Peter Roberts, et. al.
9 - - Excellent
6 - - Good
7 - - Fair
1 - - Poor
2 - - Leaving, can't wait.
3 - - No response to question.
SLUUG COMMENTS:
DSL is a very timely topic.
Tutorial slides were unreadable.
Needed more detailed Tutorial slides.
Some questions were rehashed over and over. Cut it off.
Questions afterward were pretty good though.
Presenation was to much sales pitch. How about something on TCL/TK with
C programs, or how to install, set up paths, example scripts, how to
build, uses, etc.
Tutorial & Presentation both excellent & I have a lot to learn.
Tutorial speaker was confident but wrong on some issues; too much
Micro$oft bashing; let one audience member take over whole presentation.
Presentation much better even if it was a sales pitch.
I want a copy of the presentation for next month's Mac U. G.
Excellent topics this month.
Nice people, but too much sales and circular arguments ( some of the
problem being our argumentative people).
3. Linux SIG Topic: FreeBSD
The attendance & survey sheets got side tracked at the Linux SIG; so, only
10 responses were available. Not worth tabulating.
However, there were 60 people including the presenter at this session.
With a live FreeBSD installation, handouts that included 3 pages of notes
and 2 pages of configuration files most everyone seemed to think it was
either a good or excellent presentation.
OBSERVATIONS:
This was was a unusually large turn out (48) for the August general meeting,
compared to past years.
OPINION:
We may continue to forego more survey questions over the next month or so.
Quote of the Day
submitted by Mike King
You can't spell accident without "NT".
Interesting Browsing!
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.
Important:
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8789.html-
Linux Journal: The Coming Software Patent Crisis: Can Linux Survive?
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8190.html
Richard Stallman -- U.S. Congress Threatens
to Establish a New Kind of Monopoly
For the Paranoid:
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9042.html
InfoWorld: Justice department proposes system break-in rights
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/6276.html- Careful, they might hear you.
http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0531/web-nsa-6-3-99.html
- Congress, NSA butt heads over Echelon
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/9927/features-gunn.shtml
- The war over your personal privacy is over. You Lost!
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/07/16/1025259.shtml
- Britain Tapped Communications
Sun stuff:
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/21/0316212.shtml
Sun buys maker of StarOffice
http://www.sun.com/jini/overview/
Jini Connection Technology Executive Overview
Ugly stuff:
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9221.html
ComputerWorld: M$ Tightens Developer Testing Rules for Win2000
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9259.html
IT-Director: Windows 2000 Confusion May Delight Linux
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9292.html
PC Week: Windows 2000 to provoke domain game
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9339.html
CNN: Web site provided access to millions of Hotmail messages
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9025.html
ZDNet: 'Christmas' virus can destroy PCs
Other stuff:
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9070.html
IT-Director: Developers Demand Linux Port of Delphi And Get It
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/9262.html
The Retreat: The Loss of the Portability Battle
http://www.dreamscape.com/afasoldt/texts/linux071899.html
- Why Linux matters: An admiring essay ( quite long )
For the Linux beginner:
http://www.linux.org/ -
What is Linux?
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
http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/ -
The Linux Documentation Project
http://www.msnbc.com/news/290531.asp#BODY
- Unix/Linux Printing HOWTO Support Database
Resources:
The Linux Documentation Project has a new home. All the goodies you
have come to expect from LDP can now be found at
http://www.linuxdoc.org
All of the LDP mailing lists will be moving to lists.linuxdoc.org as well.
http://training.eklektix.com/talks/lw99-SystemAdmin/img0.htm
Linux System Administration in a Large Network Environment
http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/linuxlist/linuxlist/linuxlist.html
- Linux Software Encyclopedia
To configure a Linux machine:
http://www.monitorworld.com-
Specs on over 2100 monitors from 150+ manufacturers.
http://www.monitorservice.com-
After 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!
Dual-booting:
The following is a quick talk about Dual Booting, with specific steps for
using the WinNT boot loader, and mounting NT file systems under Linux:
http://ext2.org/99/06/newbieville/062099-newbieville1.shtml
- Linux and Windows on one computer
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8987.html
ILUG: Dual-booting Windows and Linux, a tutorial for beginners
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8990.html
LinuxForum: VMware Review - A virtual machine in
Linux to run your Windows programs
http://www.davecentral.com/
- Shareware, Freeware, Demos and Betas for M$-Windoze and Linux
Personal Commentary
submitted by Peter M. Roberts
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.
Dear Unix Gurus:
I would like to extend Phoenix Networks thanks for allowing us to present
our companies services to your organization.
We recently updated our SDSL pricing and would like to refer you to our
pricing page at
http://www.phoenixnetworks.net/pricing.html .
The price we refered to on the 160k Home User SDSL service was wrong,
it was recently lowered to 79.95 with a $499.99 setup fee that we will
waive half of from any member of your organization, please mention this
email to your dedicated sales rep.
Once again, thank you for allowing us your time.
Sincerely,
Peter M. Roberts, CEO
Phoenix Networks
GET YOUR SDSL NOW!! (877) SDSL NOW
Peter Munro Roberts, CEO - Phoenix Networks
13035 Olive Blvd., Suite 103 - St. Louis, MO 63141
36 Four Season Center, Suite 201 -Chesterfield, MO 63017 (Snail Mail)
(877) SDSL NOW - (314) 878-3999 x100 - FAX (314) 878-9939 - (314) 308-0327
Mobile Cell-Phone Email: mailto:3143080327@mobile.att.net
Skytel 2way Pager mailto:8006967647@skytel.com
Mailto:pete@phoenixnetworks.net or Mailto:pete@pnix.net
Corporate-wide email: Mailto:phoenix@phoenixnetworks.net
MS Chat: irc.pnix.net - CUSeeMe Site - mp.stl1.dbn.net
Websites: http://www.pnix.net - http://www.phoenixnetworks.net
InterNIC Contact# PMR29 - ICQ #10907560 - ARIN Maintainer ID #23454
Special Interest Groups (SIGS)
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.
St. Louis Unix Users Group - Linux SIG (SLUUGLS)
Visit the Linux SIG home page
(http://www.stllinux.org/)
for the latest meeting details.
LOCATION DIRECTIONS:
Indian Trails Public Library
8400 Delport Drive
(at Midland)
(314)-428-5424
| Follow 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/). |
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
Computer Telephony Integration User's Group (SLUUG
CiTI)
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.
Digital Alpha SIG
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.
St. Louis UNIX Users Group Steering
Committee
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
involved in the planning of SLUUG, feel free to join us at the next Steering
Committee meeting. Meetings usually last 1.5 to 2 hours.
Sponsors
Analysts International http://www.analysts.com/
Andersen Consulting http://www.ac.com/
CIBER, Inc. http://www.ciber.com/
Cypress Systems, Ltd. http://www.cypress-systems.com/
Daugherty Systems http://www.daugherty.com/
Informix Corporation http://www.informix.com/
Maryville Data Systems, Inc. http://www.maryville.com/
O'Reilly & Associates http://www.ora.com/
Renaissance Worldwide, Inc. http://www.rens.com/
Sun Microsystems http://www.sun.com/
Sunnen Products http://www.sunnen.com/
Sykes Enterprises, Inc. http://www.sykes.com/
Venmar Systems, Inc. http://www.venmar.com/
The Law Offices of Rich McLennan, send mailto:mclennan@mail.sluug.org
For more information about sponsoring the St. Louis UNIX Users Group,
contact Ed Wehner, send
mailto:wehner@mail.sluug.org.
SLUUG on the World Wide Web
The St. Louis UNIX Users Group maintains a WWW page at
http://www.sluug.org/.
Visit us to learn more about who we are and what
we do, visit other UNIX user groups' WWW pages, sign up for a SIG, or
just to browse.
SLUUG Administration is volunteer based.
SLUUG is looking for volunteers to help with presentations, web
page development, managing corporate sponsorships, and many other
tasks. If you would like to help out, contact Chris Wanta by mailto:cfw1@mail.sluug.org
or visit http://www.sluug.org/~cfw1/help.html.
/usr/groups/other
We publish other user group meeting schedules on a reciprocal basis.
If you are a member of another non-profit group, please inform them
of our policy and invite them to exchange meeting information by
mailto:editor@mail.sluug.org,
or call any of the SLUUG officers.
Contacts
Submitting Articles to the SLUUG CRONicle
If you would like to submit an article to the CRONicle of general
interest to the members of the St. Louis UNIX Users Group,send
mailto:editor@mail.sluug.org
The deadline for article submissions is two weeks before the next
general meeting.
SLUUG PO Box
The St. Louis UNIX Users Group has a P.O. box. All official
correspondence with SLUUG should now be sent to:
St. Louis UNIX Users Group
P.O. Box 411302
Creve Coeur Post Office
St. Louis, MO 63141-9998