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SLUUG Steering Committee Minutes - 3 June 2009

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

Location

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

Date and Time

  • Wednesday, June 3, 2009
  • 6:30 PM -

Attendees

  • Craig Buchek
  • Jerry Stutte
  • Jeff Muse
  • Stan Reichardt
  • Gary Meyer
  • :?: Barry Morrison
  • :?: Carl Fitch
  • :?: Lee Lammert
  • :?: Tony Lovasco

Secretary Report

  • Secretary has printed out minutes up through May.

Treasurer Report

  • No report. Following info is from last month.
  • Balance: $1271.62 as of 3/31/2009
  • Accounts Payable: $100.00 for booth at Small Business Expo
  • Accounts Paid: $90.03 for electricity at Small Business Expo

Mailing List Report

  • Subscriber numbers (approximate) as of end of May 2009:
List May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May
ANNOUNCE 843 835 830 828 807 805 802 791 790 786 785 783 782
DISCUSS 188 188 192 193 192 193 194 196 201 206 212 215 xxx
STEERCOM 29 32 33 33 33 34 34 34 34 34 35 35 xx
SYSADMIN 15 15 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 xx
  • 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.

Attendance Report

  • Attendance numbers, as of end of May 2009:
Meeting May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Steercom 4 7 4 2 4 5 5 6 6 6 9 8 8
SLACC x 6 9 8 6 ? 4 4 - 6 5 6 6
SLUUG 31 18 17 15 18 21 20 27 24 23 18 32 21
STLOSUG 20 10 - 12 - 11 10 7 6 ? 8 13 -
SNUG NA 5 4 - 5 3 5? - 7 ? - ? (6)
STLLUG 29 22 20 23 13 15 11 10 19 32 18(21) 20 21
STCLUG 5 6 3 6 3 19 - 6 11? 12 9 10 8
HZWLUG 11 10 11 12 9 11 9 4 2 8 7 11 10
MythTV - - - - - - - - - 8 - - -
  • NA - Not part of SLUUG.
  • () - Number in parentheses is head count.
  • xx - attendance was taken, numbers not yet recorded.
  • ? - Question mark indicates attendance not taken or sheet missing.
  • - - dash indicates no meeting.

Review Free Software and Technology Expo

  • Success!
    • Vendors were happy with the turn-out.
    • Was able to cover costs.
  • Most attendees were SLUUG regulars.
    • Need to get the word out better next time.
  • Good turn-out, considering there were 150+ other events going on that weekend.
  • Rick Clark from Canonical showed up.
    • Had missed out on emails, due to white-listing and volume.
  • Thanks and congrats to Tony Lovasco for his efforts.

Meeting Review and Comments

May 2009

      May 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                  

SLACC - May 7

  • Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - May 13

  • BASE: Using System Rescue by Carl Fitch
    • Really good.
  • MAIN: Firefox Extensions by Mike Wilkerson
    • Good. More extensive than expected.

STLOSUG (Solaris) - NO MAY MEETING

  • Meeting canceled.

SNUG - May 20

  • TOPIC: AppArmor by Gary Hollingsworth
    • Good.

STLLUG - May 21

  • TOPIC: Patent-Free Codecs (Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, FLAC, Dirac) by Tony Lovasco
    • Good, but depressing (the fact that open codecs are losing out)
    • No projector (didn't really need one)
    • No voice recorder
    • No slides, used white board (worked fine, though)

HZWLUG - May 26

  • Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.
    • 2 new people
    • No projector
    • Helped solve user issues

STCLUG - May 28

  • TOPIC: An in Depth Look at SystemrescueCD, A Follow Up by Carl Fitch
    • Good.

MythTV - NO MAY MEETING

  • This SIG meets at irregular intervals.

Presentation Schedule

June 2009

     June 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            

SLACC - June 4

  • Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - June 10

  • BASE: Vim Folding by Stan Reichardt
  • MAIN: Neural Networks to Scan DNA by Bryce Meyer (via Lee)

STLOSUG (Solaris) - June 16

  • TOPIC: Migrating an RC script to SMF
  • New location is Pujols 5 Westport Grill
    • 342 West Port Plaza
    • Maryland Heights, MO 63146

SNUG - June 17

  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

STLLUG - June 18

  • TOPIC: Open Source Licensing - What You Need to Know by Craig Buchek

HZWLUG - June 23

  • Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.

STCLUG - June 25

  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

MythTV -

  • This SIG meets at irregular intervals.

July 2009

     July 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   

SLACC - July 2

  • Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - July 8

  • BASE: ack (grep replacement) by Craig Buchek
  • MAIN: Managing Systems with Puppet by Kyle Cordes (TENTATIVE, via Craig)

STLLUG - July 16

  • OpenGL by Jerry Stutte

STLOSUG (Solaris) - July 21

  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

SNUG - July 22

  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

STCLUG - July 23

  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

HZWLUG - July 28

  • Topics are usually determined by attendees. We sometimes cover more than one.

MythTV -

  • This SIG meets at irregular intervals.

Potential Presenters

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

  • Rick Clark (Ubuntu) (via Craig)
    • TOPIC: TBD
    • Might be able to talk to STCLUG and STLLUG
  • Kyle Cordes
    • Puppet
    • git and GitHub
    • Flying Boxes
  • Hostirian/Primary.NET
    • Tour of their data center
    • What it takes to run a hosting data center
  • Wehrenberg Theaters (via Gary)
    • TOUR/DEMO: Digital cinema projectors
  • Sammie from IBM,
    • Canceled Main: Live Demo of IBM Virtualization
  • 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.
  • Jeff Logullo (formerly of 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)
    • TOPIC: PGP and GPG
  • Jeff Muse
    • Software RAID
    • Solaris for Linux Admins
    • Mailman
    • Various other Solaris topics
  • Stan Reichardt
    • Evaluating Security (Internet access required)
    • DEMO VIM Folding
    • TOPIC/DEMO: Google Calendar (was done at STCLUG Apr 2009)
    • TOPIC/DEMO: Using Scribus
  • Tim Dreste (via Stan R)
    • TOPIC: Untangle Gateway Platform
    • TOPIC: CentOS Linux
  • Don Ellis
    • Mac OS X Snow Leopard
  • Craig Buchek
    • git and GitHub
    • 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)
  • Tony Lovasco
    • ???
  • Mike Wilkerson
    • Round-Table on Joe Linux User (moderator)
  • Jerry Stutte

Potential Topics

These are some topics that we've had requested, or brainstormed, but need to find speakers for. List was posted to DISCUSS on 25 May, asking for volunteers.

  • Google Wave
  • BSD jail
  • Unix glossary - unusual 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
  • AIX current release, features, future
    • Someone from IBM corporate?
  • Apple current release, features, future
    • Someone from Apple corporate?
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) or Fedora recent releases
    • Still looking for volunteer; tried Clark Smith at Red Hat
  • SuSE or OpenSUSE recent releases
    • Someone from Novell corporate?
    • Gary Hollingsworth?
  • Solaris or OpenSolaris current release, features, future
    • Someone from Sun corporate?
  • HP-UX current release, features, future
    • Someone from HP corporate corporate?
    • Dave Mills?
  • 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
    • New Google Android Phones
    • 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
  • Google Android
    • Gateway and STL JUGs both recently had presentations
  • GUI builders (GLADE, KDevelop)

SLUUG Server Admin

  • Lee will install (and document) Webalizer on Bud, to gather web stats.
  • Partitions on Bud are getting full.
    • Home and var partitions.
    • Tony looked into prices for 9 SCA hard drives - 36 GB and 72 GB.
      • $49 / drive for 72 GB drives.
      • Discussion on whether it might make more sense to replace the systems.
      • Discussion on whether it might make more sense to move storage to a separate NAS box.
      • Leaning toward NAS solution.
    • Jeff Muse brought in an EMC Clariion with 10 x 36 GB drives
      • Directly attached to Budlight via FibreChannel.
      • Still need to re-check hardware to get it running fully.
      • Will configure with RAID 5 and a hot spare.
      • Considering using an LVM partition for some users.
  • Jeff installed Solaris 10 on the remaining E250.
    • Ran into mirroring issues, due to disk sizes.
    • Other E250 has been parted out and sold off.
  • 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'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.
  • MAY ACTION ITEM: Gary - Clean up home directory on Bud.
  • :?: Anything new?
  • Major power outage at Hostorian

SLUUG Server Management

  • 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:
    • Document useradd process.
    • Better web site management tools
    • Develop standardized 'Membership List' & same UIDs on all production machines.
  • :?: Anything new?

Manage The Group

  • Lee suggested we create a Rails app on Bud to manage the group.
    • Sponsors - expirations, etc.
    • Member data - payments, 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.
  • :?: Anything new?

Increase Sponsorships

  • Made changes to web site to promote Hostirian.
    • As requested by Hostirian, in response to their hosting sponsorship.
  • Tony Lovasco will look into getting some sponsorships.
  • :?: Anything new?

Increase Membership (and Shell Accounts)

  • 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.
  • NEW MEMBERS FOR MAY:
    • Terry Wall - SILVER
    • John Gilster - SILVER
  • NEW MEMBERS FOR JUNE:
    • :?: Any?
  • :?: Anything new?

Increase Attendance

  • 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 gave away a stuffed penguin as a door prize.
    • Had stated that whoever brought the most (new, returning) people to STLLUG meeting.
    • Tony Z won the penguin, bringing his Linux class to the meeting.
  • :?: Anything new?

SLACC

  • Need to register SLACC.COM domain.
    • Carl - follow up with Noel about transferring the SLACC.COM domain to us.
    • Expires in September 2009; need to renew.
  • Check on SLACC.ORG - seems to be owned by a cybersquatter.
    • Expires in August 2009.
  • Noel asked that we allow current email users to keep their SLACC.COM email addresses.
  • MAY ACTION ITEM: Carl, Gary - Transfer and renew SLACC.COM domain.
  • :?: Anything new?

STLLUG

  • MAY ACTION ITEM: Gary - Update STLLINUX.ORG to show 3 names in WHOIS data.
  • :?: Anything new?

STCLUG

  • 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.
  • Craig will add DNS records on our EveryDNS account.
  • Gary needs to create DNS records in EveryDNS and point the domain at EveryDNS.
    • Currently pointing at GoDaddy parking page.
  • MAY ACTION ITEM: Gary - Point STCLUG.ORG domain registrar to EveryDNS name servers.
  • :?: Anything new?

StlWebDev

  • Mailing lists have been set up.
  • Web site has been recovered from old server.
    • Needs to be pruned - 250 MB.
    • Needs to be published.
  • :?: Anything new?

Other Old Business

  • MAY ACTION ITEM: Lee - Ask Sammie to bring past (and current) presentation to us on thumb drive.
  • :?: Any?

New Business

  • :?: Any?

Blue Sky

  • :?: Any?

Recognize Useful Effort

  • Recognize completed action items.
  • Recognize who did anything useful.
  • MAY - Jeff Muse, Jerry Stutte, and Carl Fitch installed more hardware.
  • :?: Any?

Follow-up and Action Items

  • Everyone - Talk to someone about coming to meetings.
  • Everyone - Talk to someone about sponsorships.
  • Everyone - Talk to someone about giving a presentation.
steercom/2009-06.1244076289.txt.gz · Last modified: 2009/06/03 19:44 by 64.241.37.140