Headline Story: ITEC - May 22, 23

Table of Contents

• Calendar of Events
• Next General Meeting -- May 8
  • Tutorial: zForth for Linux by Bill Zimmerly
  • Presentation: Reg, Sed, Awk by Mike Kriz, Robert Citek, and Rich Seibel
  • Book Specials
• Next Linux Meeting -- May 16
  • Presentation: QMail and Friends by David Ulevitch
• Meeting Locations
• Articles
  • ITEC
  • Using a USB digital camera with Linux, Part 2
• Quotes
• Sponsors
• Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• Volunteering
• Contacts
• Submitting Articles

Calendar of Events

NOTE: More information on these groups, including locations and web sites, can be found in the "Meeting Locations" section below.

Next General Meeting is Wednesday, May 8, 2002

Tutorial

Abstract:

Forth is an old programming language, first invented in the late 1960's by Mr. Charles Moore. Like all languages, it provides certain advantages as well as disadvantages. A strength can often be a weakness at the same time! Forth has the same strengths as a free country ... and the same weaknesses too. Is freedom important to you? Maybe Forth is exactly the freedom that you're looking for! Come and find out.

The presentation will include a simple and very short introduction to zForth for Linux, followed by an entertaining demonstration of what has already been done with the proprietary version of zForth for Win32: the zHTTP webserver and Knowledge Base Driven websites.

Bio:
Bill has enjoyed a 26+ year career as a systems programmer writing software that spans the spectrum from commercial operating system, device driver, and networking software to applications like Insurance illustrations. Forth is his preferred choice of languages since it imposes no artificial boundaries on what can and cannot be done.

Presentation

Abstract:
Regular expressions are one of the core concepts in UNIX when it comes to searching. They offer the ability to search for complex patterns within text. Many UNIX utilities employ regular expressions, including grep, sed, awk, and perl.

In this presentation, we will start out explaining the syntax of regular expressions, and how you can create a regular expression to find what you are looking for. Then we'll take a look at sed, the stream editor. Sed allows you to search for a pattern and replace it with some other text. Finally, we'll explore awk. Awk is a "little" language, perfectly suited for manipulating text data streams, lists, and tabular data. Throughout the presentation, we will show examples of how regular expressions can be used to perform routine daily tasks.

Ideas, questions and suggestions are welcome; please contact Christine Wanta (presentations@sluug.org).

Book Sales

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).

May Specials:

May 16

Abstract:

Qmail is a message transfer agent (MTA) which boasts a high measure of security, reliability, and efficiency. It is the third most commonly used MTA on the Internet today. Written by the (in)famous Daniel J. Bernstein, professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, qmail and its related tools have become the choice for serious system administrators.

In this presentations, David will provide an overview of the qmail method for maintaining speed and security at all levels of message transport. He will also cover the features of some of DJB's other software, including djbdns, a DNS server meant to replace BIND, and daemontools, a replacement for inetd.

Comments, questions, and ideas for the St. Louis Linux Users Group are welcome; please send email to linux@sluug.org.

Meeting Locations

Meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Free and open to the public.

Sunnen Products
7910 Manchester (at Hanley)
St. Louis, MO

Directions: Take I-64 (US 40) to the Hanley exit south. Turn left at Manchester, then an immediate right into Sunnen driveway.

Map:   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 Library
8400 Delport Drive (at Midland)
St. Louis, MO

Directions:   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.

Map:   http://www.stllinux.org/directions/

St. Charles LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~cfit/stclug)

JUST FORMED! We expect that meetings will usually be held at 6:30pm to 9:00pm on the 4th Thursday of each month, except during December, which will probably not have a meeting.
This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended for all Linux users in the Western and Northern parts of the greater metro area.
Current meeting place is:

EDC Advanced Technology Center
118 North Second Street
St. Charles, MO 63301

Hazelwood LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~hzlug)

Generally meets the 4th Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. (NOTE: Start time is now 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

CWE-LUG - Central West End LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~rwcitek/cwe-lug/)

Generally meets on Sundays -- no set schedule yet -- check the web site. Meetings are usually at the Saint Louis Public Library, Schlafly branch (Euclid and Lindell).

MOSLUG - MO Open Source LUG (http://www.nbtsc.org/~iguanacog)

Meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month, from 7:00pm to 11:00pm. 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 little red daemons on their shirts.

SLACC - St. Louis Area Computer Club (http://www.slacc.com)

Meets the 1st Thursday of every month, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

Thornhill Library
12863 Willowyk Drive (off Fee Fee)
Creve Coeur, 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

BDPA (http://www.bdpa-stl.org)

BDPA (Black Data Processing Associates) is a member-focused organization that exists to provide professional development programs and services to position its members at the forefront of the IT industry. Its members, minority and non-minority, share a desire to bridge the Digital Divide.
Meetings are held at 6:00pm on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and are free and open to the public.

Computer Village 4411 N. Newstead (at Pope and Carter) St. Louis, MO 63115

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.

ITEC 2002

The 2002 Information Technology Expo, at the America's Center, runs 
10:00am to 4:00pm, Wednesday/Thursday, May 22-23. For over a decade
we have participated in this event. Once again we are building on 
the previous year's incredible show success, and sincerely hope you 
will join us.

ITEC is our annual promotional event and we have several venues 
that will help to promote our various organizations as well as 
provide an opportunity to live up to our charter's vision of the 
promotion of Open Source/Open Systems as well as providing education 
in technologies.

Please visit http://www.sluug.org/ITEC for detailed information on our
participation. The site will be updated as information is finalized.

Here are some highlights of our participation this year:

   -- Booth #603, directly adjacent to the Keynote theatre.
   -- Seminar Rooms #123 and #125 (see website for details)

   -- Miguel de Icaza, Keynote theatre, Thursday, May 23, 1:30pm

   -- IT Myths, An Associations Collaboration, two separate events
       -- Association theatre, Wed., May 22, 10:30am-1:30pm
       -- Keynote theatre, Thurs., May 23, 12:30pm

There will again be in-booth demos both days, showcasing Open 
Systems and applications for the work place and home.

Spread the word to your co-workers that the O'Reilly line of books 
will be available for purchase with show special discounting.
This event allows us to maintain our status with O'Reilly and make 
available the excellent resource books at meetings.

The online registration is improving and makes it easier than ever 
to show your support. With an added search available of previous
attendance, you can simply update information instead of retyping 
it all. (Visit http://www.sluug.org/ITEC for details.)

Don't forget, let them know you are attending because of an invitation 
from the St. Louis Unix Users Group.

We look forward to seeing you there!

ITEC Planning Committee.

Using a USB digital camera with Linux, Part 2

Last month, I discussed using a HP 315 camera with a stock Red Hat 7.2 distribution. This low cost camera comes with a USB cable with a miniature Type B connector on the camera side and a normal USB flat plug that attaches to your PC's USB port. It pretends to be a VFAT filesystem and all the images are just JPEGs in a folder. Since last month we focused on GNOME, this month we'll examine the options under KDE. I'm going to show you the best-of-breed camera software for Linux: GNU's gPhoto2 and the Kompany's Kamera. The Kamera is a KDE IO slave that works with gPhoto2. This allows you to get the same thumbnail browsing effect as Nautilus by using Konqueror.

[A note from last month. As root, add the following entry into /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda1	/mnt/usb/cam1	vfat	ro,noauto,user	0 0

This allows any user to mount and unmount the camera. I just left it mounted and hot-plugged the camera between photo shoots. Note that if you have more than one SCSI device, you will need to make this /dev/sdb1 and so on. Also, using USB mass storage devices under KDE is as simple as under GNOME. If you've done the above, just click on the hard drive icon for cam1 and use Konquerer to browse to the photo folder.]

I also promised the photographic results of our InstallFest. The pictures I took can be seen at http://sluug.org/~edh/IF/gallery/index.html. I used the IGal HTML slide-show generator, a Perl script that uses ImageMagick. The complete description of how I created the slide show and uploaded the photos is there, as is the archive of lasts month's article.

To use gPhoto2 and Kamera under KDE, you need to be using at least KDE 2.2.2 or KDE 3.0. Stock Red Hat 7.2 only has KDE 2.2.1, and the updates do not contain Kamera. See below. However, you can still use gPhoto2 and for a GUI app, try GtKam. gPhoto2 can be found at http://www.gphoto.org/ or on SourceForge servers under the project name gphoto. I always use the tarballs and build from source. It takes a little longer, but it doesn't get into the endless dependency loop as badly. You also need the latest version of libusb, which can be found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb. Extract the tarball and build the library:

tar zxvf libusb-0.1.5.tar.gz
cd libusb-0.1.5
./configure
make
(become root)
make install

Libusb should install in /usr/local. gPhoto2 doesn't work with USB mass storage device cameras such as the HP315, but then you don't need it to. Since I didn't have another USB camera available, I'll substitute the Olympus D-220L instead. It uses a normal serial connection, but the principles are the same. Again, extract the tarball and ./configure; make; and (become root) make install. I also had to install the latest version of libaa.a (ASCII Art library.) So it may be possible to view your pics with just a plain terminal and no X running. YMMV. Once gPhoto is installed, you can call it from the command line:

# gphoto2 --camera "Olympus D-220L" --port serial:/dev/ttyS0 --speed 19200 --list-files
There are 21 files in folder '/':
#1 		P1010001.jpg 	rd   22KB image/jpeg
#2 		P1010002.jpg 	rd   21KB image/jpeg
#3 		P1010003.jpg 	rd   24KB image/jpeg		  
...
# gphoto2 --camera "Olympus D-220L" --port serial:/dev/ttyS0 --speed 19200 --get-file 1
Downloading 'P1010001.JPG' from folder '/'...
Saving file as P1010001.JPG

I needed to do this as root to be able to lock the port, which is a known bug. Note the 'serial:' before the port device path. If you are using USB use '--port usb:' and leave off the '--speed' option. To get a list of cameras supported by gPhoto, use --list-cameras. For full help: --help. The --delete-file option allows you to delete files on the camera. Finally, there is a --shell option for interactively manipulating the files.

gPhoto2 is just a set of libraries and modules and the gphoto2 command line interface is but one of the possible front ends. There are front ends for GNOME GnoCam, gtKam, and the Kamera KIO slave for KDE. The latter plugs into Konqueror. Or you can write your own. gPhoto2 can also be used with scanners, but many prefer XSane for that.

Kamera requires several prerequisites to run. Besides gPhoto and libusb, you also must be running at least KDE 2.2.2 (Nov '01 or later). It is beyond the scope of this article to describe the upgrade. However, if you attempt this, I recommend uninstalling KDE completely and building and installing all of it from the latest source. The Red Hat 2.2.2 RPMs did not contain Kamera. You can get the source at http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/kde/stable/2.2.2/src/. This is not for the faint of heart.

Alternatively, you can upgrade to KDE 3.0 which is included with the latest Red Hat release, 7.3. Or install from the RPM updates. TheRed Hat 7.3 comes with gPhoto2 and libusb. So these should also be available in binary package form as well. Be sure to select Kamera, gPhoto2 (not just gPhoto) and libusb if installing or upgrading the distro.

First, you need to set up the camera. Logged in as root, with the camera attached and powered up, open the KDE Control Center. Under Peripherals, select Digital Camera. Click on Add New and choose your camera make and model. If you are using a serial port, select the port as well. *Note* if your camera supports a max speed under 115200 baud, you may be out of luck because Kamera lacks a method of specifying the serial port's speed to gphoto2. GtKam does have this option.

Use the 'camera:/' URL in the address bar for Konqueror. This will present a list of cameras you have configured. Select the correct camera and you will see an icon view with thumbnails. From there you can drag them to your folders, open them in a viewer application or the Gimp and more.

If you need to troubleshoot your setup, first start with the USB side of things. I use usbview from http://www.kroah.com/linux-usb/. You can also look into /proc/bus/usb, but usbview is much easier to read. A similar thing exists in the KDE Control Center under Information | USB Devices, but it is not as detailed and fails to properly display the correct tree with hubs. Finally, use the --debug command line option with gphoto2 to see more detailed information.

The Universal Serial Bus and Linux are a match made in paradise. I'm currently using only USB external devices such as my keyboard, mouse, scanner, printer, and Zip drive. Soon, if not already, most of the major distributions will come with full support for digital cameras out of the box, especially with KDE 3 and GNOME 2. You don't really need a Mac or Windows box to jump start into digital photography. I hope these articles have helped you get the most out of your new toy!

Sponsors

• Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) - http://www.accenture.com
• Analysts International - http://www.analysts.com
• Bradford & Galt - http://www.bradfordandgalt.com
• CIBER, Inc. - http://www.ciber.com
• Cybercon - http://www.cybercon.com
• Cypress Systems, Ltd. - http://www.cypress-systems.com
• Daugherty Systems - http://www.daugherty.com
• Graybar Electric - http://www.graybar.com
• IBM - http://www.ibm.com
• Informix Corporation - http://www.informix.com
• K&S Pritchard Enterprises, Inc. - http://www.kspei.com
• Maryville Data Systems, Inc. - http://www.maryville.com
• Maverick Tube Corporation - http://www.maverick-tube.com
• O'Reilly & Associates - http://www.ora.com
• Renaissance Worldwide, Inc. - http://www.rens.com
• Sun Microsystems - http://www.sun.com
• Stopka & Associates - http://www.stopka.com
• Sunnen Products - http://www.sunnen.com
• Sykes Enterprises, Inc. - http://www.sykes.com
• Technisource Inc. - http://www.tsrc.net
• Triple-I Corporation - http://www.triplei.com
• Venmar Systems, Inc. - http://www.venmar.com
• The Law Offices of Rich McLennan - mclennan@sluug.org

For more information about sponsoring the St. Louis UNIX Users Group, contact Dave Mills (sponsorship@sluug.org).

Quotes

Have you checked the Emacs man page yet?  Emacs does almost everything.
 -- Robert Citek, on solving the Halting Problem

To paraphrase "Dark Paladin" in a recent article about his 
Mac OS X conversion: Microsoft Windows is like your class president
that didn't do sh*t. Linux is like a super-smart, sexy redhead
girlfriend that's also a bit insane. Mac OS X is like the geeky 
girl at school who shed her braces and became a total hottie--
and still wants to spend all her time hanging around with you.


Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the
network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots.
Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any
time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually
stealing the programming.
[...]
I'm not opposed to consumers getting a program without commercials
in it. But they have to create a new model that charges them for
that programming the way HBO charges them. 
 -- Jamie Kellner, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting on PVRs


....And viddy films I would. Where I was taken to, brothers, was
like no cine I'd been in before. I was bound up in a straight-jacket
and my gulliver was strapped to a headrest with like wires running
away from it. Then they clamped like lidlocks on my eyes so I could
not shut them no matter how hard I tried. It seemed a bit crazy to
me, but I let them get on with what they wanted to get on with. If
I was to be a free young malchick in a fortnight's time, I would put
up with much in the meantime, my brothers...
 -- Alex, from A Clockwork Orange

Those of us who DO study history are condemned to watching others repeat it.
 -- ch-chuck on Slashdot

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Volunteering

Contacts

Submitting Articles to the SLUUG Cronicle