NOTE: THE SLUUG GENERAL MEETING HAS CHANGED LOCATIONS!!!

Table of Contents

• Calendar of Events
• Next General Meeting -- January 8
  • Presentation: Digital Rights Management by Scott Granneman
  • Book Specials
• Next Linux Meeting -- January 16
• Meeting Locations
• Articles
  • New SLUUG Meeting Location
  • Red Hat Road Tour Re-cap
• Sponsors
• Quotes
• 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, January 8

Presentation

Abstract:

Digital Rights Management (DRM, or Digital Restrictions Management, as Richard Stallman calls it) is a method by which the large media corporations wish to control what you can and cannot do with the media they publish. Unfortunately, these restrictions can (and will) be used to remove rights that the users previously had, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court. Already, we've seen eBooks of public domain literature, where the players would not allow you to copy sections, print, or read aloud. Even worse, Microsoft and Intel are poised to release Palladium, which will work at the hardware and OS level. If this should happen, your hardware will not load your Operating System unless it is signed by an "authority", and the OS will not run "unauthorized" programs. Needless to say, it is unlikely that Open Source programs or Operating Systems will be authorized -- even if they were, you would not be able to change them.

In this presentation, Scott will explain what fair use and other rights you have as a "content" user. He will show how DRM will be used by the RIAA and MPAA to restrict such fair use, via technological and political methods. Even if DRM does go into effect, it will only effect the end user, not the true "pirates". (Because if you can see it or hear it, you can copy it.) Finally, Scott will show why DRM is bad for society as a whole.

Bio:

Scott Granneman is a consultant, specializing in helping schools, non-profits, and businesses harness emerging technologies. He currently teaches college courses at Washington University and St. Louis Community College. While he is very technology-oriented, he is also interested in the arts, and concerned with civil liberties.

Scott earned his Bachelor of Arts in English and Education and his Masters in English degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. Scott's personal web site is at http://www.granneman.com/. Be sure to check out his poetry.

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).

January Special:

Next St. Louis LUG Meeting Is January 16

The LUG presentation topic is yet to be determined.

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

Meeting Locations

NOTE: We have a NEW LOCATION! (The date and time remain the same.)
Meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Free and open to the public.

Graybar
11885 Lackland
St. Louis, MO 63146

Directions: Take I-270 to Page east. Take first exit (Concourse). Turn right at stop light (Lackland). Turn right at stop light into Graybar parking lot. Enter building at main entrance and sign in with security guard. Proceed down 1 level to lake level and cafateria training room.

Map:   http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=11885+Lackland&zipcode=63146

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. 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/~stclug)

This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended for all Linux users in the Western parts of the greater metro area. Meetings are held on the 4th Thursday of each month, except December. Meetings run from 6:30pm to 9:00pm.

Ponderosa
513 South Main St. (just north of I-70)
O'Fallon, MO

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

This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended for Linux newbies. 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.

Prairie Commons Library
915 Utz Lane (between Howdershell and Dunn)
Hazelwood, MO

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

Generally meets on the 3rd Sunday of the month from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. Meetings are held at the ACLU building in the Central West End. This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended as a hands-on venue.

ACLU
4557 Laclede (just east of Euclid)
St Louis, MO 63108

Advanced LUG (http://stladvlug.zapto.org/)

Meetings are held on the 1st Monday of each month. The emphasis of this group is to work on Open Source projects.

WDT Solutions
9450 Manchester, Suite 204
Rock Hill, MO

MOSLUG - MO Open Source LUG (http://www.moslug.org/)

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)

No regular schedule yet. Look for guys with little red daemons on their shirts at SLUUG and LUG meetings.

Rock Road Library
10267 St. Charles Rock Road (1 mile east of Lindbergh)
St. Ann, MO 63074

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. Attendance is free, and you do not need to sign up -- just show up.

CityPlace One Auditorium
One City Place
Creve Coeur, MO 63141

Gateway JUG (Java Users Group) (http://www.gatewayjug.org/)

Meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Please RSVP (by the previous day) if you would like to attend, as seating is limited.

Maryville Technologies
540 Maryville Centre Dr., Suite 300
St. Louis, 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

CCSL - Computer Consultants of St. Louis (http://www.ccsl.org)
Monthly Dinner Meeting

Meetings are held the 2nd Tuesday of each month at Cheshire Inn. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Cost is $20 for members, $25 for non-members. Call 314-995-4652 (by the previous Friday) or email meeting@ccsl.org for reservations. 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 1st Thursday of the month. It runs from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

O'Fallon City Library
120 Civic Plaza
O'Fallon, IL 62269

SILUG - Southern Illinois LUG (http://www.silug.org)
Carbondale meeting

The SILUG Carbondale meeting is the 3rd Monday of the month, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

Morris Library, Room 325
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

CORCC - County Older Residents Computer Club (http://www.a-zuc.com/corcc/)

Meets (almost) every Friday from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Provides free classes for seniors 55 or older. For info, contact Tom Kimber (t.kimber@worldnet.att.net) or Arthur Hollman (ajhollman@juno.com).

Prairie Commons Library
915 Utz Lane (between Howdershell and Dunn)
Hazelwood, 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.

New SLUUG Meeting Location

After all these years, the Wednesday night general meeting is changing locations! There is a search for a new, permanent home. (If you have an offer or opinions on this, let us know!) At least for this month, and probably for the next few months, we will be meeting at Graybar Electric's NEW facility on Lackland near West Port Plaza.

So, please give yourself a couple extra minutes to find it this month. We're sure you will find this location enjoyable. As an extra incentive, Graybar will be giving us a guided tour of their new computer rooms.

And ... spread the word! Remind old friends that we are no longer meeting at Sunnen!

Coming from I-270 going either north or south, take the Page Avenue East exit (Exit 16A). Stay in the right-hand lane and be prepared to take the first exit (Concourse/Lackland/West Port). Stay in the right-hand lane on the exit and you will see a 6-story gray, glass building on the right as you are on the exit ramp. Make a right turn at the stop light. (Hooters is on your left while waiting at the light.) You will now be on Lackland Rd. Proceed west about 1 block and make a right hand turn at the first stop light (i.e. Graybar's lot).

You can view a map at: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=11885+Lackland&zipcode=63146

The address is 11885 Lackland Road. This is the northeast corner of Lackland and Concourse. It is west of Shutze and east of West Port Plaza Drive. This will be the entrance to Graybar. (There is a sign.) Park close to the south (main) entrance. There will be a security guard in the lobby that will direct you to the elevators and cafeteria training room. Go down one level to the Lake Level and go to the cafeteria area.

We'd like to express our appreciation to Sunnen for hosting us all these years. They don't even run any UNIX systems any more. Yet they've been allowing us to use their facilities for over 10 years. They've been great hosts. We hope to find a permanent long-term host that is generous as they had been, as well as centrally located. Keep your eyes and ears open.

Red Hat Road Tour Re-cap

We were lucky to have the Red Hat Road Tour stop in St. Louis on their way across the country this past November. Their stated mission was to determine the state of Linux in America and get feedback from the community of users. We contact them to arrange a stop in St. Louis, and they were happy to oblige.

To start out, many of us had gathered for the event. (Counts varied, but there were about 80 to 90 people there.) Of course, we were all waiting for Red Hat to arrive, and they were late. Traffic was a bear that day, and getting down Olive near 270 is never any fun during rush hour. We tried contacting them via cell phone, but weren't having much success. Even finding their big red bus coming down the road wasn't too easy in the dark. Luckily we had brought cookies and sodas to pass the time. Finally, they arrived (about an hour late) and made a "grand entrance" down the stairway to the auditorium.

There were 5 guys (http://www.redhat.com/roadtour/meet/). Only 4 of them worked for Red Hat. The 5th, "Cookie", was the driver, who just volunteered to drive the RV. Jeremy was the main speaker and the PR guy. He showed off Red Hat 8.0, pointing out many of the new features. Then he took questions. He took a ton of questions. Here are just a few tidbits from the Q&A sessions:

• The new BlueCurve desktop in Red Hat 8 makes KDE and GNOME both adhere to the same look and feel. While this was controversial, it was felt to be necessary to make the desktop appear as a unified whole instead of a bunch of random applications. While the KDE defaults have been changes, and some of the KDE apps have been moved out of the menus, they are still available.
• Bugzilla (http://bugzilla.redhat.com) is the best way to give feedback and suggestions.
• Red Hat ships their distro on a single DVD-ROM (as well as CDs) in the Professional version, following SuSE's lead.
• They have dropped support for the MP3 codec in Red Hat 8 due to patent and licensing concerns. [Editor's note: while they are cautious in this respect, it seems rather odd, since the patent only applies to the encoding, not the decoding.]
• In version 8.0, most of the configuration tools were written from scratch using Python and GTK. Some are still in transition. They've been given names like redhat-xyz-config. They've done away with the old GUI package managers as well. Some features people might want in the config tools and package manager aren't there. They'll be added based on demand.
• Typical of any dot-O release (or any release for that matter), there are some bugs. In particular, updating from KDE's RPMs and Ximian GNOME aren't working properly. If you use them, it's better to either remove them and install the Red Hat versions, or not install the Red Hat RPMs for them at all. There were also some difficulties moving from GCC 2.x to 3.x, especially for C++ programs. Compatibility libraries are required for C++ apps compiled under GCC 2.x, and pre-link object files compiled with the 2 versions are not compatible.
• NOC Plus is a management system for those with a large number of Linux systems deployed. It is being rolled into some of the Red Hat Network stuff to allow easy configuration and reconfiguration of large groups of machines.
• When asked about a bootable distro like Knoppix, they said that they had no plans, but might investigate if they thought it might not be too hard. They then told a story about two Linux aficionados who went to a Microsoft booth at a trade show, inserted a Linux CD, rebooted into Linux, displayed some Linux GUI stuff on the screen. They took pictures of themselves with the machine under the Microsoft banner, rebooted back into Windows, and left.
• Some of the hot markets where Red Hat sees Linux growth and business opportunities are K-12 schools, and local (state, county, and city) governments.
• "Why is my favorite software no longer included in the distribution?" Frequently because of lack of time to do quality control on the contributed software. They support their distros for 3 years, supplying bug fixes and security patches. Maintaining every package everyone might want for that long is not always justifiable.
• Success stories: Riverdale High School; Portland; Jefferson County Colorado; Amazon migrated in 90 days; AOL.
• Kylix from Borland is a commercial offering providing a decent cross-platform development environment. It partially addresses the need for something like Microsoft Access.
• Red Hat Advanced Server is the product aimed at high-end servers in corporate enterprises. Its differences from the standard Red Hat distro include: high-end I/O support (including higher-end hardware devices), patches to make Oracle and other high-end data-hungry apps run better, 24 x 7 support, ISV certification of 3rd-party applications, and a longer release cycle to increase stability.
• Red Hat does not see UnitedLinux as a significant threat in the market.
• Red Hat's answer to E-smith (a small business oriented version of Linux) is Red Hat 8.0.
• "How do we user groups encourage apps to be developed for linux?" Pressure multiple sources: the software vendor (including the management), the news media, Red Hat, and other distros.
• Red Hat sponsors the Open Source Now effort to promote Linux in schools: http://www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/intro.html
• Red Hat Rawhide is their bleeding-edge nightly build: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/rawhide/.
• Red Hat maintains resources for LUGs: http://www.redhat.com/apps/community/lug_resources.html

After the Q&A as a group, we VERY informally congregated as small groups around each of the Red Hat guys and engaged in small group sessions. Swag was handed out: t-shirts and hats, although the hats were black with a Red Hat logo. (A hat with a picture of a hat on it!)

After the event, several of us took the Red Hat guys to Blueberry Hill in University City. (Nelly was taping a video around the corner when we got there.) We ended up closing the place down. Word has it that when later asked in other cities which city was the most memorable, they said that the folks in St. Louis had been the biggest party.

Carl Fitch took some pictures and has put them on the web at http://sluug.org/~cfit/stclug/RedHatTour/images.html and also at http://sluug.org/test/redhat/pictures/. Red Hat's account of the tour is at http://www.redhat.com/roadtour/. Their journal entry about us is at http://www.redhat.com/roadtour/journal/archives/110602.html (although there are a lot of errors in it).

A special thanks to Daugherty Systems, for allowing us to use their auditorium for this event. And thank-you to Christine Wanta for making the arrangements. Thanks to Chuck Renner, Robert Citek, Tony Zafiropoulos, Gary Meyer, Carl Fitch, Christine Wanta, and Scott Granneman for their contributions to this summary.

Sponsors

• Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) - http://www.accenture.com
• Ajilon - http://www.ajilon.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

If Jack Valenti had been around at the time of Gutenberg he would have
organized the monks to come and burn down the printing press.
 -- Harris Miller, Information Technology Association of America president

Funny, I am using an Apple to simulate the CRAY-3.
 -- Seymour Cray, on Steve Jobs using a CRAY to help design the Mac

I pledge allegiance to the flag
That appears on my desktop startup screen.
And to the Monopoly for which it stands;
One Operating System, over all,
Inescapable, with Freedom and Privacy for none.

Nothing is perfect. Linux is nothing.
 -- Krishna S., Red Hat t-shirt slogan contest

The United Nations problem solving decision-tree:
1. If the problem is between two small countries, the problem 
   disappears.
2. If the problem is between a major power and a small country, the 
   small country disappears.
3. If the problem is between two major powers: the UN disappears.

Ogg vs MP3 - Who cares!?!
If you want your music to sound better, listen to better music.
 -- LoudMusic on Slashdot

I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence.
 -- Edgar Allan Poe

It's really hard to find a night.
 -- Brian Button, on scheduling User Group meetings

So it's GNU software running on top of a Windows kernel?
 -- Stanford Baldwin
GNU/Windows? RMS would wet his pants.
 -- Buck Pyland

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Volunteering

Contacts

Submitting Articles to the SLUUG Cronicle