Big question, what OS was on the desktop?

Ideas, questions and suggestions are welcome; please contact David Ulevitch by sending mailto:du1@cec.wustl.edu

Next Linux SIG Meeting Is 16 November

Abstract:
Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: Indian Trails Branch - Saint Louis County Library

The real presentation title is "The Winter 0f 1991-1992: How It Changed The Future of Computers".

As background consider that in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee released the WWW to the world. Nearly simultaneously, Linus Torvalds released what we now think of as Linux version .01 on Usenet.

We are almost at the end of the first decade of these Net phenomena. Right now, about 40% of the Web servers in the world run some form of Linux. How did we get here? Where will we go?

Biography:

Peter H. Salus, Chief Knowledge Office of Matrix.Net, is the author of "A Quarter Century of UNIX" (1994) and "Casting the Net" (1995). He runs Solaris on his desktop and Red Hat on his laptop.

Comments, questions and ideas about this session are welcome; please send mailto:matthew@linuxguys.net

Special Promotion(s)

Title of the Month The November discount special will be 25% on any "In A NutShell" books. There will be a 10% discount on all other 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.
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 Events

Meeting Directions

Directions From Downtown

1. Take 40 West to the Hanley exit.
2. Turn left (south) onto Hanley.
3. Turn left (east) onto Manchester, then turn right ASAP into the Sunnen Products driveway.

(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 (SLUUG-LS) meets the 3rd Thursday of every month at the Indian Trails Branch Library.

See map at http://www.stllinux.org/directions/

• Newsletter Editor Wanted
• Steering Committee Night Has Been Changed
• Hazelwood Linux User Group Forming
• Lightning Talks - Topics So Far
• Quotations
• Interesting Browsing
• Personal Commentary 

Newsletter Editor Wanted

For all that did not make the last Steering Committee meeting, it should be know that I have requested to be replaced as Editor of the SLUUG newsletter.

My reasons for finding a replacement are conflicts with personal time. My wife believes that I spend too much time working on it. There is some truth to that.

I first offered to do it because I saw that it was a good way for me to contribute to SLUUG. By giving my time I was allowing others more time to contribute in other ways. Too many months came along where no body had done it until the last minute.

I had no idea that I would learn so much and have so much fun doing it. The first month that I did it, well, I didn't have a clue. I thought the newsletter content was done in text and converted into HTML. It took only a while for me to realize that I was doing it backwards. No one had made it clear to me that the HTML had to be done first. It was then extremely simple to save the HTML as text using Netscape Navigator. That text file becomes the emailed newsletter.

So, I had to learn some HTML to do the process correctly. I had even documented some of the web linking process. Unfortunately, much of our web page structure is now being redesigned and invalidates certain points when it comes to putting the final up on our web site. However a quick apprenticeship should be all that is needed to take over.

I really have enjoyed doing it the way that I do and will find it hard to pull myself away from it. So any volunteer would not be left out in the cold on this.

I had committed to finishing the November newsletter and Christine Wanta had offered to provide any help if I need it. Others have offered to help any volunteer. Our hope is that someone new, rather than one of the regular volunteers will offer to take it on.

We need NEW volunteers. Not the over committed ones.

For more information members can contact Gary Meyer by sending mailto:gary@mail.sluug.orgfor details.

Steering Committee Night Has Been Changed

The SLUUG Steering Committee after debate has changed the night on which it meets. Each SLUUG General meeting is always the second Wednesday of each month. The previous Steering Committee meeting had always been the Tuesday following that General meeting. That has now been changed to Monday night.

The most immediate and pressing reasons for a change are that the St. Louis Web Developers meeting is currently on Tuesday evening and this was an unfortunate conflict for many regular attendees.

Just as everyone is welcome to attend the meetings, so also, is everyone invited to join the discussion of this and other organization topics in the STEERCOM mailing list.

For more information members can contact Gary Meyer by sending mailto:gary@mail.sluug.orgfor details.

David Ulevitch (one of our new members) has inspired me to initiate a new Linux group and I've already lined up a small room at:

Prairie Commons Branch Library, 915 Utz Lane (between Howdershell and Dunn), Hazelwood, Missouri 63042-2739

The first meeting will be 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM on 28 November 2000. What the first meeting will be like depends on who shows up. The room is small, just right for beginners and those curious about Linux. The structure and direction of the meeting will be up to those that attend. Meetings might be without any formal presentations, but I have more than enough material to keep a small group of beginners happy.

Meetings will be held at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM on the 4th Tuesday of each month, except during December, which will be the 3rd Tuesday of the month.

That means that the next three meetings will be:

My efforts will be to work with a small Linux group at an introductory level. I hope only to complement SLUUG and STL Linux SIG. Only time will tell how it goes over.

I will be happy with a monthly attendance of just 10 to 15 users. Especially if they are mostly beginners or the curious that don't make the regular STL Linux SIG meeting.

I hope that David U. or someone start a Linux oriented group at Washington University, and others start one at UMSL, downtown, Warrenton, Fenton, Eureka and other places. Take on the world.

For more information contact Stan Reichardt by phone at (314) 298-1183 or by mailto:stan@mail.sluug.org

Current information will posted at http://www.sluug.org/~stan/hlug.html

Lightning Talks - Topics So Far

LIGHTNING TALKS are two sessions of five consecutive five-minute talks separated by a ten-minute recess.

Topics submitted so far:

We need more submissions from the general members.

Note that the speaker need not be a SLUUG member, just that their topic would be of interest to us. So tell your fellow cow-orkers and spread the word. We are not particularly against commercial presentations - remember it's only five minutes if it's a stinker.

Note: The most current Lightning Talks information is at

http://www.sluug.org/~mike808/lightning-talks.html

* Have you used an Open Source or Unix/Linux solution you want to tell people about?
* Do you have a SLUUG project you want to throw out for discussion?
* Are you looking for people to help you build something?
* Do you want to proclaim a manifesto?
* Have you used an Open Source or Unix-based technology that you think should be better-known?
* Do you want to announce you're looking for a new job or new employees?
* Don't think you have enough material for a tutorial or a main presentation?
* You've never given a talk before and you would like to start small?

If any of these apply, then we want a Lightning Talk from you!

LIGHTNING TALKS are consecutive five-minute talks on a tight schedule. You should be prepared to take the stage immediately, explain your idea, and then leave immediately. If you want to take questions, chat, or trade business cards, resumes, or URLs, you do it *after* the session. Be prepared to provide a URL for your topic.

If you'd like to give a LIGHTNING TALK, send an abstract of about 50 words about your topic to:

mailto:mike808@mail.sluug.org?subject=Lightning+Talk+Submission

All submissions _must_ be received no later than Midnight of Saturday, December 16th, 2000.

The SLUUG Steering Committee will be presented with recommendations, and will make the final selection of talks at the December 19th, 2000 meeting. Notification will be sent to the selectees, and the schedule announced at the December Linux SIG meeting on December 21, 2000.

The final schedule of Lightning Talks will also be announced in the Cronicle prior to the January 10th, 2001 meeting.

Interesting quotes...

> How steep is the learning curve for Linux?

Not too bad, and it's getting less steep all the time. (That's assuming you don't already have Unix experience... If you do, Linux is *easy*.)

--Steven Pritchard | http://www.silug.org/

Learning Basics:
http://www.linux.org/lessons/ - Getting Started with Linux

Open Source:
http://www.vision.com/press_and_news/vision_news/2000/oct_17_2000.html - StarOffice Goes Open-Source
http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/story?id=39f869180 - Freedom 2.0 Linux client Goes Open-Source

Current Culture:
http://www.nickelodeon.com.au/toonroom/sponge/menu.htm - the Sponge Bob Song
http://spongebobsquarepants.net/them_song_lyrics.htm - transcript of song and MP3

Follow Up:
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue57/nielsen.html - Nice CVS intro
http://www.cvshome.org/ - CVS home page
http://www.cvshome.org/docs/blandy.html - A CVS tutorial
http://opensource.oreilly.com/news/cvs_0900.html - some advanced CVS tips
http://members.aol.com/nova1337/tutorial.htm Elonka's Tutorial
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/ - Linux Laptop homepage
http://www.stllinux.org/meeting_notes/2000/1019/ - October STL Linux SIG presentation notes

Personal Commentary
Submitted by Paul Garman

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.
 

A personal commentary....

With sailors like this, the country will always be strong.

>> Subject: Fw: USS Cole >> From: Marjorie Cromer

I had this sent to me today by a friend. It is something to think about. I forward this message with a tear in my eye and great pride in my heart for the crew of the U.S.S. Cole.

He is a pilot in HSL-42 who is presently deployed with the USS Hawes. This is something to think about and, probably a better insight than CNN could give...

It wasn't until a few days ago though, that we started doing something that I feel may be the first thing I've seen in my short Naval career that has truly made a difference. Right now we're supporting the USS COLE and her crew in Aden. When the attack occurred we were a day away. Just by luck we happened to be on our way out of the Gulf and headed towards the Suez and could get here in a relatively short amount of time.

I know what you all have seen on CNN, because we have seen it too. I just want you all to know that what you see doesn't even scratch the surface. I'm not going to get into it for obvious reasons. But I will tell you that right now there are 250+ sailors just a few miles away living in hell on Earth. I'm sitting in a nice air conditioned state room, they're sleeping out on the decks at night.

You can't even imagine the conditions they're living in, and yet they are still fighting 24 hours a day to save their ship and free the bodies of those still trapped and send them home. As bad as it is, they're doing an incredible job. The very fact that these people are still functioning is beyond my comprehension.

Whatever you imagine as the worst, multiply it by ten and you might get there. Today I was tasked to photo rig the ship and surrounding area. It looked so much worse than I had imagined, unbelievable really, with debris and disarray everywhere, the ship listing, the hole in her side. I wish I had the power to relay to you all what I have seen, but words just won't do it.

I do want to tell you the first thing that jumped out at me - the Stars and Stripes flying. I can't tell you how that made me feel... even in this God forsaken hell hole our flag was more beautiful than words can describe.

Then I started to notice the mass of activity going on below, scores of people working non-stop in 90 plus degree weather to save this ship. They're doing it with almost no electrical power and they're sleeping (when they can sleep) outside on the decks because they can't stand the smell or the heat or the darkness inside. They only want to eat what we bring them because they're all scared of eating something brought by the local vendors.

Even with all that, the USS COLE and her crew is sending a message guys, and it's that even acts of cowardice and hate can do nothing to the spirit and pride of the United States.

I have never been so proud of what I do, or of the men and women that I serve with as I was today. There are sixteen [ now 17] confirmed dead sailors who put it on the line for all of us, and some of them are still trapped here. Please take a minute to pray for their families and say a word of thanks for their sacrifice - one made so that we can live the lives that we do.

All of you that serve with me, thank you. All of you that have loved ones that serve, thank you.

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 (SLUUG-LS)

Indian Trails Branch Library
8400 Delport Drive (at Midland)
(at Midland)
(314)-428-5424

For more information on SLUUG-LS refer to the WWW home page for the group at http://www.stllinlux.org or contact Matthew Porter by mailto:matthew@linuxguys.net

Digital Alpha SIG

St. Louis UNIX Users Group Steering Committee

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