North Bay Linux Users Group - Difficulty: User

General Meeting - Kino

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 09:01:05 -0700

Start: 2006/11/14 - 7:00pm

End: 2006/11/14 - 9:00pm

description:

Scott Doty from Sonic.net is going to present on how to use Kino to connect to a Sony Firewire camcorder and pull down videos, along with other interesting Kino tidbits.

Location:
O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol

Speaker:
Scott Doty

General Meeting -- OpenVPN

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:32:47 -0800

Start: 2008/04/08 - 7:30pm

End: 2008/04/08 - 9:00pm

description:

OpenVPN - Adding Trust to Untrusted Networks

Virtual Private Networks allow you to connect two networks securely.

A traveler with a laptop frequently uses a random internet connection but
wants to connect securely to a home or office network.

Traditional solutions are not well suited to the random connections of the
traveler with a laptop.

OpenVPN is a versatile cross-platform open source solution that's easy to set up.

This presentation will have an overview of the lingo and components of VPN and
a how-to demonstration of an OpenVPN server and laptop client.

Location:
O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol

Speaker:
Bob Blick

URL:
bobblick.com/nblug_openvpn

General Meeting -- Scaled-Down Laptops - Asus EeePC and OLPC XO

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:46:12 -0800

Start: 2008/03/11 - 7:30pm

End: 2008/03/11 - 9:00pm

description:

The Asus EeePC and the One Laptop Per Child XO are two small laptops with very
little in common. This month we have two presenters, Allan Cecil and Brandon
Williams.

Allan will talk about the One Laptop Per Child Project XO laptop, which
is technologically very unusual and supports some exciting educational and
networking applications. A mesh networking demo of multiple XOs is planned, so
if you are one of the lucky ones to already have an XO, bring it along and join
in the demo.

Brandon will be discussing the EeePC, its hardware specifications,
capabilities, the default operating system, and its great suite of open
source software. He'll discuss some of the niche distros popping up
specifically for the EeePC, some of the popular hardware hacks floating
around the web, and discuss some available options to the potential
buyer. We'll also hear about upcoming Ultra-Mobile Pc's, why their popularity
will continue to grow, and upcoming technology that are going to keep making
them cheaper, smaller, and more portable.

Location:
O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol

Speaker:
Brandon Williams and Allan Cecil

General Meeting -- Advantech FWA-660 Network Appliance

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:37:17 -0800

Start: 2008/01/08 - 7:30pm

End: 2008/01/08 - 9:00pm

description:

Paul Stagnoli and Brian Davidson, of Exchange Bank, will be discussing
hacking the Advantech FWA-660 network appliance. The FWA-660 specs
include four Ethernet ports, a Celeron processor, up to 512 meg of ram,
on-board USB and printer support, compact flash support, and a 30 gig
hard drive.

Paul will demonstrate how to install Ubuntu server onto the box via PXE.
Brian will discuss case mods he made to add USB and Printer support to
the box.

Location:
O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol

Speaker:
Paul Stagnoli and Brian Davidson

General Meeting -- Amazon Web Services

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:35:25 -0700

Start: 2007/08/14 - 7:30pm

End: 2007/08/14 - 9:00pm

description:

What’s possible in a post Web 2.0 world?

Innovation continues at a mind-bending pace, and this presentation will showcase some thought-provoking new directions that Web Services are headed in. The presentation will provide an overview of Amazon Web Services, including a Web Service named Mechanical Turk that allows computers to make requests of people, an online storage service, a Virtual Server controlled by a Web service, and more. There will also be a demo showing how to set up a virtual server. But mostly this will be an opportunity to have a discussion about innovation and entrepreneurial tools.

Location:
O'Reilly Media

Speaker:
Mike Culver

PowerDNS

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:18:26 -0700

Start: 2007/07/10 - 7:30pm

End: 2007/07/10 - 9:00pm

description:

The PowerDNS Nameserver is a modern, advanced and high performance authoritative-only nameserver. It is written from scratch and conforms to all relevant DNS standards documents. Furthermore, PowerDNS interfaces with almost any database.

In this talk August will discuss how PowerDNS can serve your Name Serving needs, some of its advantages and disadvantages, how it can play well with other Name Servers and how you can migrate to it.

August is the Senior System Administrator at Sonic.net; more information about him can be found at his personal website: www.schwer.us.

Location:
O'Reilly Media

Speaker:
Augie Schwer

General Meeting - Crypto, Linux and how Bob meets Alice

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:08:39 -0700

Start: 2007/05/08 - 7:30pm

End: 2007/05/08 - 9:00pm

description:

Cryptography has been around since the days of the Pharos, and could
possibly be the reason for the birth of the modern computer as we know it.
In this talk, Aaron will touch on some of the highlights of crypto's long
history; explain some simple and more complex ideas/terms, following with
information about how this involves Linux. He will cover how to secure not
only, the files you hold on your computer, but your traffic as it goes
over the tubes (from mail to myspace). Aaron will cover some of the common
misconceptions and overview some basic to advanced tools available. This
talk will try to have information and tips for those brand new to Linux
and cryptography... but also advanced users as well. Qrzbf ner ehzberq.

Location:
O'Reilly, Sebastopol, CA http://nblug.org/genloc

Speaker:
Aaron Grattafiori

General Meeting: Your Linux Questions Answered

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:22:26 -0700

Start: 2007/03/13 - 7:30pm

End: 2007/03/13 - 9:00pm

description:

As a predecessor to NBLUG's upcoming InstallFest (Saturday, March 17th), the NBLUG Panel will be answering all of your basic Linux questions at tonight's meeting. Topics range from multimedia (sound, video, burning, ripping), installing software, desktop managers (KDE, Gnome, et cetera), setting up printers, wifi networks, security, and much more. We will first start with the list of questions asked on our mailing list during the past weeks, and time permitting, will end with questions from the audience. Bring your friends and anybody you know who is interested in learning more about Linux for this new user-friendly talk!

Location:
O'Reilly Media

Speaker:
NBLUG Panel

General Meeting: Linux and the Linksys NSLU2 (SLUG)

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:54:26 -0800

Start: 2007/02/13 - 7:30pm

End: 2007/02/13 - 9:00pm

description:

The Linksys NSLU2 (Network Storage Link Unit) is a small NAS devices
(Network Attached Storage). The NSLU2 is most often refered to as the
"SLUG" by the Linux community built around it, due to the apparence of
its acronym. The NSLU2 runs Linux out of the box, due to this Linksys
was forced to release the source code under the GPL, opening it wide
open for anyone looking for a cheap/silent/small server. This talk
will cover Firmware Options, Installation of Firmware, Overclocking,
Installing a full version of Debian, and some cool uses for a "Slug".

Location:
O'Reilly Media

Speaker:
Paul Peterson

Asterisk

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:37:12 -0800

Start: 2007/01/09 - 7:30pm

End: 2007/01/09 - 9:00pm

description:

Chris will be briefly going over the history of Asterisk. He'll discuss a few available protocols like h.323, SIP, and IAX2. He'll go into a little more detail about IAX2 since it's simple and has low over head. Chris will be demonstrating a simple SIP device. Then make a call from one Asterisk server to another. Maybe even a couple servers hooked to each other. Possibly a call into his home PBX that goes over a VPN tunnel.

NBLUG members are invited to call my PBX by dialing: (707)703-1982 or connecting to: guest@odunix.org with their SIP or IAX2 client.

This is a link to his dial plan: http://www.odunix.org/pbx/

Here's an brief overview of what he will cover (Open Document format) http://odunix.org/pbx/asterisk/asterisk.odp

Speaker:
Chris Widger

VMware Server

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:58:01 -0700

Start: 2006/09/12 - 7:30pm

End: 2006/09/12 - 9:30pm

description:

As a Linux geek who always like to experiment with the latest Linux distributions and tinker around with local servers, my closet looked a lot like a used computer store. Old discarded desktops were perfect platforms to try out Linux. Now that power has gotten more expensive, I've replaced a lot of local machines with virtual ones, and with the introduction of VMware Server, I have all but replaced my physical test platforms for virtual ones.

In this talk NBLUG president Kyle Rankin will introduce how to install and configure the free VMware Server software and demonstrate some of its features including how to create new virtual machines, how to manage a group of VMs with the VMware console, and how to backup virtual machines.

Location:
O'Reilly Media Inc. in Sebastopol

Speaker:
Kyle Rankin

General Meeting - PXE Magic

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 08:24:28 -0800

Start: 2006/06/13 - 7:30pm

End: 2006/06/13 - 9:30pm

description:

These days most modern computers support PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) booting--booting from the network. Booting from the network allows you to do all sorts of interesting things including setting up thin clients, automate kickstart environments and more. In this talk Kyle Rankin will discuss how to set up a PXE boot server and will cover thin clients, kickstarting computers completely over the network, PXE booting rescue discs, and how to throw it all in a menu system that lets you choose what to boot.

Presentation materials are available at http://greenfly.org/talks/pxe/pxe-magic.html

Location:
O'Reilly in Sebastopol

Speaker:
Kyle Rankin

General Meeting - Gaming on GNU/Linux

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 08:31:04 -0800

Start: 2006/05/09 - 7:30pm

End: 2006/05/09 - 9:00pm

description:

Sometimes it seems like as a community we take ourselves too seriously. We
run serious applications and our most important economic demographic is
large corporations with men in very expensive suits. Maybe the reason there
aren't many Linux based home computers is that we're all not playing enough
games.

Stephen Cilley and Paul Peterson present gaming in GNU/Linux. They will
discussing several modern (and not so modern) games and bitch about ahem
... discuss the difficulty involved in their use. They will present the
modern alternatives in video cards, processors, and do their best to avoid
the holy war while discussing distribution and windows managers. They will
demonstrate the use and futility of win32 API implementations in Linux along
with native free games and native non-free games.

Location:
O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol, CA

Speaker:
Paul Peterson and Stephen Cilley

General Meeting - Linux on the XBOX

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 08:26:46 -0800

Start: 2006/03/14 - 7:30pm

End: 2006/03/14 - 9:00pm

description:

Allan will discuss how to mod the XBOX so you can run Linux from it, as well as how to use the newly-modded XBOX as a MythTV front-end.

Slides available at /presentations/linuxonxbox/linuxonxbox.html

Location:
O'Reilly Media, Sebastopol

Speaker:
Allan Cecil

URL:
nblug.org/presentations/linuxonxbox/linuxonxbox.html

General Meeting; gumstix

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 16:18:06 -0700

Start: 2005/07/12 - 12:30pm

description:

gumstix, Inc. creates the world's smallest commercially available
Linux boards and computers. Their devices are based on Intel's PXA255
processor with Xscale technology (also used in high-end PDAs and
smartphones), measure only 20mm x 80mm x 8mm -- the size of a stick
of gum -- and cost as low as $109. gumstix boards provide GPIO pins,
serial ports, USB 1.1 client, an MMC flash memory card slot, and
an I2C bus.

Location:
O'Reilly, Sebastopol, CA

Speaker:
<a href="http://www.hughes-family.org/craig/">Craig</a> and <a href="mailto:gordon@gumstix.org">Gordon</a> of <a href="http://www.gumstix.org">gumstix.org</a>