The SLUUG Cronicle |
January 2002 |
| January 1 | Tuesday | New Years Day | |
| January 3 | Thursday | SLACC | 6:30pm - 9:00pm |
| January 3 | Thursday | SILUG - O'Fallon | 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
| January 7 | Monday | SILUG - Carbondale | 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
| January 8 | Tuesday | LUCI - Newbie Night | 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
| January 8 | Tuesday |
CCSL - Dinner Meeting Topic: Civil Liberties RESERVATIONS: 314-995-4652 |
5:30pm |
| January 9 | Wednesday |
SLUUG - General Meeting Topic: Bioinformatics Tutorial: LDAP |
6:30pm - 9:00pm |
| January 10 | Thursday | St. Louis Java Users Group | 6:30pm - 8:00pm |
| January 12 | Saturday | Deadline: Submissions for Lightning Talks | 11:59pm |
| January 14 | Monday | SLUUG - Steering Committee | 6:15pm - 8:30pm |
| January 15 | Tuesday |
MOSLUG NOTE: Not the normal date |
7:00pm -11:00pm |
| January 15 | Tuesday |
STLWEBDEV Topic: Copyright |
6:30pm - 9:00pm |
| January 15 | Tuesday | XML SIG | 6:00pm - 7:00pm |
| January 17 | Thursday |
St. Louis Linux Users Group Topic: GNOME |
7:00pm - 9:00pm |
| January 21 | Monday | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | |
| January 22 | Tuesday |
Hazelwood LUG ELECTIONS |
6:30pm - 9:00pm |
| January 22 | Tuesday | LUCI | 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
| January 22 | Tuesday | Wireless SIG | 6:30pm - 9:00pm |
| February 13 | Wednesday |
SLUUG - General Meeting ELECTIONS Topic: Lightning Talks |
6:30pm |
| February 21 | Thursday |
St. Louis Linux Users Group ELECTIONS Topic: Vulnerability Detection |
7:00pm |
| February 26 | Tuesday | Hazelwood LUG | 6:30pm |
NOTE: More information on these groups, including locations and web sites,
can be found in the "Meeting Locations" section below.
| 6:30 pm | Tutorial | LDAP by Tony Zafiropoulos |
| 7:00 pm | Announcements | Standard Introductions & Procedures |
| 7:05 pm | Q & A | An opportunity to ask technical questions |
| 7:15 pm | Break | Social, off-line conversations, book sales |
| 7:20 pm | Admittance to building may not be possible after 7:20. | |
| 7:30 pm | Presentation | Bioinformatics by Robert Citek |
Abstract:
LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Application Protocol. That doesn't
really tell what it is though. It is a way to access information about
people (and devices) within an organization. In this case "Directory" is
more like a phone book directory than a directory of files on a disk.
LDAP can be used in several different ways. In this tutorial, Tony will show us a few of the ways that LDAP can be useful.
Bio:
Tony Zafiropoulos has a last name that's hard to spell and even for some
people to pronounce. That's why he often goes by Tony Z. Tony has been
very active in our group, helping organize InstallFests, ITEC
presentations, Linux meetings, etc. He currently serves as SLUUG
Secretary.
Abstract:
It all started on evening in a little pizza place. We had just finished
a Linux Demo Day, and gathered for some food. Robert started talking about
the work he was doing, which was involved in maintaining computer hardware
and software to do Genomic research. The conversation veered more toward
the Biology than computers, as Robert explained various topics related to
the work he does.
Eventually, we convinced Robert to give a presentation at SLUUG, covering the basics of Genomics as well as how he is using computers, and specifically Open Source, to help with the research. The presentation was great, but there's a lot of material to cover.
So we convinced Robert to give another presentation filling in some of the details. This is Part 2, a continuation of the previous presentation. Robert will rehash some of the original material so that if you did not attend last time, you will not be in the dark.
Bio:
Robert lives with his wife, who is from Argentina, and several computers,
who are from somewhere in Asia. He recently traveled to Argentina to visit
his wife's family, but hasn't been to Asia recently.
Ideas, questions and suggestions are welcome; please contact Christine
Wanta (presentations@sluug.org).
Books that are not available at the meetings may be ordered to be picked up at the next SLUUG general meeting. Contact Sue Hurst (booksales@sluug.org).
January Specials:
| Any Bioinformatics title | - | 30% off |
| Any Perl title | - | 30% off |
| "Mastering Regular Expressions" | - | 30% off |
| "Learning Red Hat Linux" (1st edition only) | - | 70% off |
| All Microsoft titles | - | 70% off |
| All other titles | - | 25% off |
Abstract:
GNOME is one of the leading open source desktop environments and
application development frameworks. Companies such as Red Hat have devoted
hackers working on GNOME full time. Ximian has built a company around
GNOME. HP and Sun have announced they they are migrating away
from CDE to GNOME in their UNIX offerings. The project is gaining momentum
and excited interest from outside viewers, but what does it all mean and
where are we headed?
The GNOME Project is in a state of transition right now, as developers are moving from the 1.x platform to the new 2.x platform, so now is a perfect time to talk about the state of the project. The purpose of this presentation is to make the audience more familiar with the project by discussing its history, current state, and taking a glimpse into the future of GNOME.
The following will be covered in the presentation:
I. History of the GNOME ProjectII. Where GNOME is at Now
- How it all started
- What makes GNOME special?
- How has the platform improved from a developer and user point of view?
III. The Future of GNOME
- State of the GNOME platform and desktop today
- GNOME apps: are they any good?
- Why would I want to develop my app with GNOME?
IV. How You can get Involved
- GNOME 2.0 Highlights
- GNOME 2.0 Release Schedule
- Beyond 2.0 (The Sky's the Limit)
- How I went from GNOME user to Release Team member
- Why being involved in a Free Software project is a Good Thing
- How you can get involved with GNOME
Bio:
Jamin P. Gray is 23 years old and works at BJC Health
System as a Senior Analyst/UNIX Programmer in the IIG (Integration
Infrastructure Group). He codes and maintains the interfaces
that handle the transfer of data messages from one Hospital
department to another within the BJC network. Previously he was a
consultant with Stockell Consulting placed at BJC. He has also
worked at Stockell Healthcare Systems as a Visual C++ Programmer,
Unigraphics as a UNIX C Programmer, and
Washington University Electronic Radiology Laboratory as a UNIX C
Programmer.
Jamin has been using UNIX and Linux for over 5 years, Linux being the only operating system he has used at home for the past 3 years.
Jamin started using GNOME several years ago when it was at about version 0.25. It was incredibly buggy and was not remotely palatable to the average user. Yet something struck him as being beautiful about the goals of the GNOME Project. For a year or two he kept a close eye on the project and used it as his primary desktop environment. When GNOME 1.4 was being prepped for release the release team sent out an email soliciting help. They wanted someone to help coordinate an additional release -- a set of extra applications that would work well with the core GNOME release. Jamin volunteered right away and ended up working with Ian Peters from Ximian to release what ended up being called "The Fifth Toe." Having such a wonderful time working with Ian and the rest of the release team on GNOME 1.4, Jamin volunteered for a second round for GNOME 2.0. We're in the thick of the release process now which you'll learn more about from my presentation.
Comments, questions, and ideas for the St. Louis Linux Users Group
are welcome; please send email to
linux@sluug.org.
Meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Free and open to the public.Sunnen ProductsDirections: Take I-64 (US 40) to the Hanley exit south. Turn left at Manchester, then an immediate right into Sunnen driveway.
7910 Manchester (at Hanley)
St. Louis, MOMap: http://www.sluug.org/info/map_sunnen.html
(NOTE: A security guard from Sunnen is scheduled to be at the door from 6:20pm to 7:20pm to allow entry. After 7:20, the door will be unattended and you may not be able to enter.)
SLUUG - St. Louis UNIX Users Group
(http://www.sluug.org)
Steering Committee
Meets the Monday following the 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:15pm to 8:30pm. Open to the public. This is where we make decisions on what topics to cover and other administration of the group. If you want to get involved, this is a good place to start.Daugherty Systems
One City Place, 2nd floor
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
St. Louis Linux Users Group (STLLUG) (http://www.stllinux.org)
Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month, 7:00pm to 9:00pm. The room is reserved starting at 6:00pm. (Ask a librarian to let you in if it is locked.) Members are encouraged to come early to mingle and/or give informal demos or presentations. Free and open to the public. (Formerly known as the Linux SIG.)Indian Trails LibraryDirections: Take I-170 to Page east. Turn left at North-South. Turn left at Midland. Drive 2 blocks and turn left on Delport. The library is on your left.
8400 Delport Drive (at Midland)
St. Louis, MO
Hazelwood LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~hzlug)
Generally meets the 4th Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. (NOTE: Start time has moved earlier -- to 6:30.) Free and open to the public. This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended for Linux newbies.Prairie Commons Library
915 Utz Lane (between Howdershell and Dunn)
Hazelwood, MO
MOSLUG - MO Open Source LUG (http://www.nbtsc.org/~iguanacog)
Meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month, from 7:00pm to 11:00pm. (NOTE: January's meeting is an exception and will be the 15th.) Meetings are free and open to everyone. This is a Linux Users Group (LUG) for all levels, from new beginners to the more advanced users.Culpeppers Restaurant (basement)
312 S. Kirkwood Road
Kirkwood, MO 63122
STLBSD - St. Louis BSD Users (http://www.stlbsd.org)
Does not have any official meetings, but they often gather informally at SLUUG meetings. Look for guys with Daemons on their shirts.
SLACC - St. Louis Area Computer Club (http://www.galilei.com/bbs.htm)
Meets the 1st Thursday of every month, from 6:30pm to 9:00pm.Thornhill Library
12863 Willowyk Drive (off Fee Fee)
Creve Coeur, MO
PerlMongers (http://stlouis.pm.org)
Meets the 1st Thursday of every month, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.CAIT
5 North Jackson at Forsyth
Clayton, MO
St. Louis Java Users Group (http://www.ociweb.com/javasig/)
Meets the 2nd Thursday of every month, 6:30pm to 8:00pm.CityPlace One Auditorium
One City Place
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
STLWEBDEV - St. Louis Web Developers (http://www.stlwebdev.org)
Meets the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Meetings are free and open to everyone. This is an open group to facilitate communications between diverse professions involved in Internet/Intranet design and development. STLWEBDEV is also the St. Louis chapter of the International Webmasters Association and the HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG).CityPlace One Auditorium
One City Place
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
XML SIG (http://216.247.69.25/xml/)
This is a SIG of STLWEBDEV. The first meeting will be before the STLWEBDEV meeting, at the same location. It will start at 6:00pm. Meetings are free and open to everyone.
Wireless SIG (http://www.stlwebdev.org/sigs/wireless)
Meets the 4th Tuesday of the month, from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Meetings are free and open to everyone. Refreshments at 6:30, program begins at 7:00. This group is a cooperative effort of both the St. Louis Web Developers and the St. Louis Java Users Group.CityPlace One Auditorium
One City Place
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
CCSL - Computer Consultants of St. Louis
(http://www.ccsl.org)
Monthly Dinner Meeting
Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at Cheshire Inn. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Cost is $20 per member, $25 per non-member. Call Susan Pope, 314-995-4652. Social hour starts at 5:30pm, meeting starts at 6:30pm.Cheshire Inn
6306 Clayton Rd.
St. Louis, MO
SILUG - Southern Illinois LUG
(http://www.silug.org)
O'Fallon meeting
The SILUG O'Fallon meeting is generally on the first Thursday of the month. It runs from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.O'Fallon Public Library
120 Civic Plaza
O'Fallon, IL
SILUG - Southern Illinois LUG
(http://www.silug.org)
Carbondale meeting
The SILUG Carbondale meeting is the 1st Monday of the month, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.Life Sciences III
1059 Auditorium
SIU-Carbondale
Carbondale, IL
LUCI - Linux Users of Central Illinois (http://www.luci.org)
All LUCI meetings are held at the same location, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. General meetings are on the 4th Tuesday of the month, and Newbie night is held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month.Illinois State Museum Research & Collections Center
1011 East Ash St.
Springfield, IL 62703
Mizzou LUG (http://mlug.missouri.edu)
The Mizzou LUG has an active web site, but does not appear to hold regular meetings. For information, check their web site.Columbia, MO
We publish meeting schedules of groups in the St. Louis
region that may be of interest to our members. If you would like to
have info added about your group, please mail the newsletter editor
(editor@sluug.org)
or call any of the SLUUG officers.
WARNING: These articles may express 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 authors 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.
This is the official notice. As required by the By-laws, the Thursday February 21, 2002 meeting shall constitute the annual membership meeting and elections. SLUUG is incorporated as an association in the state of Missouri. Anyone having attended 2 meetings in this previous calendar year is eligible to vote.
CHANGE IN VOTING PROCEDURES.
We are trying a new voting method this year. We will vote by paper ballot at 3 different meetings. You can only have your vote count once. You will be given an envelope with your name so that the judges know there is only one vote and you are an eligible voter. The ballots will then be removed and counted anonymously.
Ballots can be cast at:
The counting will take place at the February Steering Committee meeting. Speech making by the candidates will happen at the Wednesday general meeting. This change is being done to accommodate those members who make it on only certain nights of the week, etc. Comments are welcome.
The elections are for 2 seats on the Board of Directors. (There are a total of 5 directors.) One Board seat is currently held by Gary Meyer who will not be running this year. His seat is a regular 3 year term and is up for its regular election. The second seat is a special election. Dave Mills is resigning his seat with 1 year remaining on the term. The winner of this special election will fill the remaining year. As of this writing, only 1 candidate has stated his desire to run for a Board seat: Stan Reichardt. There will also be an advisory vote for officers. The officers are technically elected by the Board, but it is our tradition to hold this advisory election, which the Board will implement.
The current incumbents are:
President: Ed WehnerDave Mills will not be running again.
Vice Pres: Dave Mills
Secretary: Tony Zafiropoulos
Treasurer: Mike Kriz
We are VERY open to any additional nominations for these positions. For more information, contact Gary Meyer (314-781-8644 or mailto:gary@sluug.org), any Board member, any officer, or any member of the steering committee. (See the Contacts section below for contact info.)
If you would like to check whether you are listed as a valid voter, please contact
the Secretary, TonyZ.
LIGHTNING TALKS are two sessions of 5 consecutive 5-minute talks
separated by a ten-minute recess.
Note: The most current Lightning Talks information is at
http://www.sluug.org/~mike808/lightning-talks.html.
An FYI for our membership. I notice that St. Louis University's Mathematical Computer Science Department is teaching its undergrad class in Cryptography again.
It seems like a very worthwhile course that I haven't noticed elsewhere in town. I sat in on a couple sessions in previous years. It will be a mathematical treatment of encoding and encrypting messages with an natural emphasis on computers & communictaions. RSA & DES will be highlited.
The professor is Mike May S.J. He has his doctorate in Math from U.C. Berkley. (He has come to our user group meetings, most recently
in attendance at the Thursday Linux meeting on crypto about 3 months ago.)
He taught it with students sitting in front of computers, working problems and samples real-time, in-class.
It is a MWF class at 9:00-9:50am. It is a 400 level class, i.e. students are expected to be of "senior year" caliber.
Classes start the week of Jan 14.
For more information about sponsoring the St. Louis UNIX Users Group,
contact Dave Mills (sponsorship@sluug.org).
When free speech is desired, free software is required. -- unknown I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. -- Thomas Watson, IBM Chairman, 1943 Perl is like vice grips. You can do anything with it, and it's the wrong tool for every job. When someone says that in time of war we must curtail our freedoms, must curtail our civil rights, must put parts of the Bill of Rights in abeyance, [...] they are telling us flat out that the American Way of Life, that Democracy as a form of government, is too weak and fragile to be trusted during crises, but is merely a luxury to be enjoyed during those few moments of tranquility. -- Tom Chapin Anyone who wishes to advocate legislation requiring backdoors in encryption products must first write a paper showing how this would prevent terrorists from secretly communicating with each other. Explain the term "steganography" and show how your legislation would prevent terrorists from using it. Explain why terrorists would be unable to fall back on codebooks full of innocuous phrases, hidden in apparent music CDs. Explain how your legislation would be enforced outside the U.S. Prove that your legislation would not have any serious impact on banking, credit card transactions, or internet commerce. Be prepared to defend your thesis to a panel selected by Philip Zimmermann and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. -- unknown Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Those who study history are doomed to know it's repeating. -- JWhitlock on Slashdot Passport is like a roach motel. Your data checks in, but it can't check out. -- Scott Granneman Some day we'll have 170 gig drives laying around that we can't use because no machines will support drives that small. -- Leo Jones Those who mourn for 'USENET like it was' should remember the original design estimates of maximum traffic volume: 2 articles/day. -- Steven Bellovin Stan makes his members swipe their library card. -- Mike Knight A bash poem: time for echo in canyon; do echo $echo $echo; done -- Jon Abbott on Slashdot There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and BSD. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. Blessed are the poor, for they don't have to use computers. Assumption is the mother of all f*ck ups. -- Gibbys Box of Trix on Slashdot Nobody ever got fired for choosing Microsoft. Nobody ever looked stupid for choosing Linux. -- Jebediah21 on Slashdot
| President | president@sluug.org | Ed Wehner | |
| Vice-President | vice-president@sluug.org | Dave Mills | |
| Secretary | secretary@sluug.org | Tony Zafiropoulos | |
| Treasurer | treasurer@sluug.org | Mike Kriz | |
| Linux Users Group Chair | linux@sluug.org |
Craig Buchek Home: 314-426-5780 Cell: 314-374-5780 |
|
| Board of Directors | board@sluug.org | Gary Meyer Rich Seibel Ed Wehner Dave Mills Craig Buchek |
|
| Presentations | presentations@sluug.org | Christine Wanta | |
| Corporate Sponsors | sponsorship@sluug.org | Dave Mills | |
| O'Reilly Book Sales | booksales@sluug.org |
Susan Hurst Home: 314-822-9314 Cell: 314-486-3261 |
|
| Newsletter Editor | editor@sluug.org |
Craig Buchek Home: 314-426-5780 Cell: 314-374-5780 |
|
| Contributing Editor | reporter@sluug.org |
Stan Reichardt Home: 314-298-1183 |
|
| Steering Committee Info | info@sluug.org |
Gary Meyer Home: 314-781-8644 |
|
| BBS Questions | bbs@sluug.org | Gary Meyer | |
| Official Correspondence | SLUUG Mailing Address |
PO Box 411302 St. Louis, MO 63141 |