NOTE: Minutes posted on the wiki are always unofficial. Schedules for upcoming presentations are always tentative. (Some more tentative than others!)

Saint Louis Bread Company,
(at Old Olive and Olive),
10550 Old Olive Street Road,
Creve Coeur, MO 63141

• Wednesday, February 4, 2009
• 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

• Jeff Muse
• Craig Buchek
• Lee Lammert
• Stan Reichardt
• Gary Meyer
• Carl Fitch

• Secretary has printed out minutes for prior months. (Missing October 2008 though.)

• Balance: $1361.65 as of 1/31/2009
• Receipts (pending submission):
  • Carl - Annual registration fee to State of Missouri
  • Craig - Submit receipt for voice recorder.
  • Gary - Turn in receipt for domain registration.

• Subscriber numbers (approximate) as of end of January 2009:

• Numbers will now be as end of each month.
• Blocking of mailing list attachments not completely configured yet.

• ANNOUNCE mailing list.
  • Still no volunteer editor to do a quarterly or monthly newsletter.

• Numbers, as of end of January 2009:

* No - indicates no meeting.

• NA - Not part of SLUUG
• () - Numbers in parentheses are head count.
• ? - Question mark indicates attendance not taken or sheet missing.
• xx - attendance numbers not yet recorded.
• Dropped reference to LDAP meetings.

• HIATUS - Holiday schedule. No Meeting.

• Back to back meeting dates with STLLUG.
• BASE: The ps Command by Carl Fitch
  • Good. Thorough. Coverage from basics to advanced.
• MAIN: The bash Shell by Jeff Muse
  • Excellent. Good interaction. Good slides.

• Back to back meeting dates with SLUUG.
  • TOPIC: Hi-Def and Digital TV by Craig Buchek
  • Technical difficulties - no Internet (presentation was going to be on web)
  • Some hands-on with Stanford's new TV and some antennas.
  • Decent, considering difficulties.

• TOPIC: Dedicated DNS Server in a Zone, Continued by Jeff Muse
  • Covered various other topics:
    • iLo (Integreated Lights-Out Management)
    • Solaris Volume Manger
    • Solaris memory requirements

• TOPIC: Teaming and Conferencing Demo by Gary Hollingsworth
  • Very informative. Good demo.

• TOPIC: Software RAID by Carl Fitch
  • Lots of introductory questions asked.

• Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
  • Severe Winter weather shut down HZWLUG early.

   February 2009    
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28

• Linux configuration - no presentation
• Balloting.

• BASE: Different diffs by Stan Reichardt
• MAIN: Netbooks (Miniature Notebooks) by various via Carl
• Official Annual Meeting.
• Balloting.

• TOPIC: Dedicated DNS Server in a Zone, Continued by Jeff Muse
• Balloting.

• TOPIC: TBD
• Balloting.

• TOPIC: Mozilla-based Apps: Miro (formerly Democracy TV), Songbird, Komodo by Craig Buchek
• Balloting.

• Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
  • OPTION1: Continued exploration of /var directory.
  • OPTION2: Exploring the GNOME File Manager
  • OPTION3: Partitions
  • OPTION4: Anything else.
• Balloting.

• TOPIC: TBD
• Balloting.

• TOPIC: Installation and Troubleshooting by various
• Balloting.

     March 2009     
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31            

• BASE: TBD
• MAIN: Enterprise DB (web-based) TENTATIVE via Carl

• TOPIC: TBD

• TOPIC: TBD

• TOPIC: TBD

• Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
  • OPTION1: Continued exploration of /var directory.
  • OPTION2: Exploring the GNOME File Manager
  • OPTION3: Partitions
  • OPTION4: Anything else.

• TOPIC: TBD

     April 2009     
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
          1  2  3  4
 5  6  7  8  9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30      

• BASE: TBD
• Main: Live Demo IBM Virtulization by Sammie Allam, IBM (via Lee)

These are some people who can present, and possible topics they can speak about.

• Don Hardaway and Craig Van Slyke (St. Louis University)
  • TOPIC: Open Source on the Desktop: Why Not?
  • Gary to contact them to request a presentation from them.
  • See first article here
• Wehrenberg Theaters (via Gary)
  • TOUR/DEMO: Digital cinema projectors
• Sanjiv Bhatia (or someone from UMSL, via Lee)
  • TOPIC: AIX 6
  • TOPIC: Open Grid Computing
  • December or January
• David Letscher (Prof of CS at SLU) (via Gary)
  • TOPIC: TBD
  • Still gone for summer. Awaiting details.
• Rick Clark (Ubuntu) (via Craig)
  • TOPIC: TBD
  • Might be able to talk to STCLUG and STLLUG
• Jeff Logullo (Sun)
  • TOPIC: MySQL - now a Sun product
  • TOPIC: Project Indiana, a new package management system a la apt/dpkg
  • TOPIC: Versioning filenames (snapshots?) in ZFS
  • TOPIC: New release of ZFS
  • TOPIC: Belenix & other live CD's based on Open Solaris
• Scott Nesler
  • TOPIC: GIMP (follow-up from previous presentation)
• Jeff Muse
  • TOPIC: various Solaris topics
• Ed Howland (via Gary)
  • TOPIC: Last.fm, Amarok, etc. - free music downloads
  • TOPIC: Building a modern kernel
• Stan Reichardt
  • TOPIC/DEMO: Google Calendar
  • TOPIC/DEMO: Using Scribus
• Tim Dreste (via Stan R)
  • TOPIC: Untangle Gateway Platform
  • TOPIC: CentOS Linux
• unknown (via Carl)
  • TOPIC: EnterpriseDB (packaged version of PostgreSQL)
  • Would be a video-conference, so requires solving logistics problems
• Don Ellis
  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• Kyle Cordes
  • git and GitHub
  • Flying Boxes
• Craig Buchek
  • git and GitHub
  • ack (grep replacement)
  • GNU grep (–count, –context, -e, –color)
  • wget and curl
  • Mac OS X topics
  • Ruby on Rails
  • Test-Driven Development (or get Brian Button, if possible)

These are some topics that we've had requested, or brainstormed, but need to find speakers for.

• Unix glossary - define terms
  • mount point
  • white space
  • "well-behaved" app
  • zombies
  • parent process
• Knoppix karaoke (various users sit in front of Knoppix system)
  • regedit - edit Windows registry from Linux
• Drawing network diagrams using Dia or OpenOffice Draw
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5)
  • Still looking for volunteer; tried Clark Smith at Red Hat
• Fedora recent releases
• SuSE or OpenSUSE recent releases
  • Someone from Novell?
  • Gary Hollingsworth?
• HP-UX current release, features, future
  • Dave Mills?
  • HP corporate?
• iSCSI
• Using git
• CPUs
  • Features of modern Intel/AMD CPUs
  • x86-64
  • x86, x86-64, IA64, Sparc, PowerPC, ARM, POWER
• iPhone
  • Developing for (web, native)
• iPhone competitors
  • LG Dare
  • Samsung Instinct
  • Other Linux-based phones
  • LiMo versus Google Android
• Linux from scratch.
• SplashTop - a quick booting distro.
• PGP/GPG use in Email
  • Thunderbird Enigmail
  • KMail

• Two Board openings.
  • Terms expiring for Lee Lammert and Stan Reichardt.
  • Jeff Muse added to ballot.
• Nominate warm bodies.
• Determine eligible voters.
  • Stan working on it.
• Print ballots.
• STLLUG and STCLUG chair positions will be write-in only.

• Small Business Expo is March 18.
  • Lee has signed up for a booth – same one as last time.
  • Project is to build a business desktop with GNU/Linux to show off.
    • Need to get requirements/recommendations.

• Scott Nesler purchased and donated STCLUG.ORG domain.
• Gary renewed STCLUG.ORG domain.
• Craig added to Apache configuration, so it now runs off our servers properly.
• Gary needs to create DNS records in EveryDNS and point the domain at EveryDNS.
  • Currently pointing at GoDaddy parking page.

• Need to register SLACC.COM domain.
  • Carl - follow up with Noel about transferring the SLACC.COM domain to us.
  • Expires in March; need to renew.
• Check on SLACC.ORG - seems to be owned by a cybersquatter.
• Noel asked that we allow current email users to keep their SLACC.COM email addresses.

• Lee proposed resurrecting StlWebDev as a SLUUG SIG.
• Lee spoke w/ Allan Trick, president of (now-defunct) StlWebDev group.
  • They're willing to abide by SLUUG terms.
  • They've not held meetings for some time.
  • Would like to move the web site and mailing list to our servers.
    • Mailing list would be separate from our DISCUSS list.
    • Using our Mailmain and Apache services.
• Unanimous agreement.

• Omnitec offered to provide secondary DNS for us.
  • We would provide secondary DNS for them.
  • Lee and Carl would maintain DNS on both ends.
• Dark is alive again, thanks to a campus-wide power outage.
  • Anyone who needs to get anything off should do so ASAP.
  • We should retire this system.
• Wash U took our webdev box (128.252.19.27) off network Mon December 1.
  • They detected questionable IRC traffic with IP addresses in Finland & Norway.
  • We should analyze and respond.
• Jeff Muse added Ultra and Busch - Sun Netras running Solaris 10.
  • Expect to use one like Bud and one for backup storage.
• We have 2 Sun E250s, which are currently racked but not connected.
  • Carl proposed parting out those boxes.
  • Craig concurred.
  • One of the systems is reporting a bad/missing CPU.
  • The other seems to be OK, but needs power and an OS.
  • Jeff got 4 x 36 GB hard drives, and placed in the good Sun E250.
• We're planning to setup our own DNS on Ultra/Busch.
  • Make our own servers authoritative for our own domains.
  • Would allow us to publish reverse records.
    • Primary has said they can allow this.
  • Would allow us to publish SPF records.
  • We could offer dyanmic DNS services to our members.
    • On a subdomain, such as users.sluug.org
• Steve Smith (from Solaris SIG) offered a 36 GB drive to install in one of the Netras.

• Backups
• Work left to do:
  • Make sure docs are up to date.
    • Add documentation telling users how to configure mail clients to use Bud.
    • Started documenting client email configurations, to help users migrate.
    • See users and mail_setup pages.
  • Craig - Work on finishing server builds.
    • Document changes to PAM to correct MAIL variable. (Craig)
    • More security, for SSH and otherwise.
    • Get offsite backups working. (Mike)
    • Publish SSH host keys on web page.
    • Standardize/regularize user accounts (IDs, password expirations). (Mike)
• Other work to do:
  • Better web site management tools
  • Document useradd process.
  • Develop standardized 'Membership List' & same UIDs on all production machines.

• Current paying sponsors have been asked to renew with nice letter in April.
  • Gary - Ask Ajilon about continuing $200 sponsorship.
  • Craig - Ask S3 - Strategic Staffing Solutions (follow up)
• Potential sponsors
  • Sun - Jeff Logullo
  • IBM - (John Hodge may have a contact)
  • Red Hat - Clark Smith (Craig to follow up)
  • Canonical/Ubuntu (Craig to follow up)
  • VMware - Matt Skipton
  • We should review them once or twice annually and establish an end date on recognition.
• Need sign about sponsoring our group for booth/table display at meetings and trade shows.
• More effort should be directed to find new sponsors.
  • No effort means no more new sponsors.
• Need suggestions for following up with and attracting potential sponsors.

• Craig had a discussion with Jim Leingang about membership, and got several suggestions.
  • Assign small task to more members, so they feel more a part of the organization.
    • For example, have someone new every month doing sign-in sheets and new user contact.
  • Reward good behaviors.
    • Awards at the end of the year.
    • Provide incentives (like door prizes) for people who bring in new members.
• Membership drive
  • Need to print out name tags.
    • Omnitec will print them out and bring to SLUUG meeting.
• Cafe Press merchandise
  • Carl/SLUUG/Lee need to reconcile demo merchandise
• Lee has proposed to sell pizzas as fund-raiser if continued insufficient Memberships & Sponsors.

• Lee suggested we create a Rails app on Bud to manage the group.
  • Member data - payments, expirations, etc.
  • Sponsors - expirations, etc.
  • Attendance
  • STL Ruby Group is writing a similar application.
    • RAMS - Rails Association Management System
    • We should leverage that, and guide it to our needs
  • Scott Nesler has built an app for attendance
    • Stan has plugged data into it for the year
    • Not sure if the app fits any of our other needs
      • (app is developed on CakePHP MVC architecture).
      • Member Payment, expiration would be simple addition to existing table/screens.
      • CRUD functionality simplifies expanding the application with additional tables.
      • Compartmentalization of CSS and layout templates simplifies changes to the look and feel.

• Gary suggests we discuss why the #s on the general meeting and STLLUG are so low!
  • What can be done to return them to more traditional values?
  • Also relate to subscriptions to ANNOUNCE.
  • Gary suggests we talk about what can be done about the declining subscriptions to ANNOUNCE.
  • A ~20% drop in 18 months! (And it was over 1000…when?)
• Craig has a stuffed penguin to give away as a door prize.
  • Will give it to whoever brings the most (new, returning) people to STLLUG meeting.

• Anything?

• MythTV SIG - Should this be an official SLUUG Special Interest Group (SIG)?
  • Yes, unanimous support.

• Rick Clark from Canonical proposed SLUUG sponsor an Ubuntu release party.
  • Spoke w/ Carl.
• Need to finalize date.
  • Will be 2nd Saturday in May - May 9.
  • Will be somewhere in Westport Plaza.
  • Tony Lavasco from Nexradix volunteered to pay for the location.

• Nothing.

• Nothing.

• Recognize who did anything useful.
• Craig - printed out minutes from previous months.
• Stan - updated web sites, calendars, ANNOUNCE.
• Gary - emceed.

• Carl, Gary - Transfer and renew SLACC.COM domain.
• Gary - Renew STLLINUX.ORG.
• Gary - Contact Don Hardaway and Craig Van Slyke (St. Louis University).
• Gary, Stan - Election preparation.
• Craig - Contact Rick Clark (Ubuntu) about presenting at October or November STLLUG.
• Lee - Need list to print out name tags for paying members.
• Jeff Muse - Work on Sun boxes at Primary.
• Barry - Follow up w/ John Hodge about a presentation in the near future.
• Lee, Barry - Get someone from IBM to talk about POWER6, AIX 6.0, etc. (March?)

• Everyone - Talk to someone about coming to meetings.
• Everyone - Talk to someone about sponsorships.
• Everyone - Talk to someone about giving a presentation.