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steercom:2011-07

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SLUUG Steering Committee Agenda - 6 July 2011

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, July 6, 2011
  • 6:30 PM -

Attendees

  • Jerry Stutte
  • Don Ellis
  • Lee Lammert
  • Craig Buchek
  • Jeff Muse
  • Stan Reichardt :?:

Agenda Changes

  • Are there any additions, deletions, or changes to sequence of items in the prepared agenda?

Secretary Report

  • Nothing to report.

Treasurer Report

  • Bank Balance as of 6/1: $1499.94
  • Deposit from membership fee: $ 10.00
  • Deposit from NUI: $ 500.00
  • Balance as of 7/1: $2009.94
  • Officers signed new signature cards for US Bank.

Mailing List Report

  • Subscriber numbers (approximate) as of end of June 2011:
List Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
ANNOUNCE 755 739 736 724 718 717 718 717 717 708 703 704 701
DISCUSS 224 224 222 223 222 222 221 219 218 218 216 215 215
STEERCOM 40 39 39 40 38 38 38 38 38 39 38 37 37
SYSADMIN 19 19 19 19 18 18 17 17 17 17 17 17 17
  • Numbers as end of each month.
  • Blocking of mailing list attachments not completely configured yet. This will be much easier to do on Amber.
  • ANNOUNCE mailing list.
    • Still no volunteer editor to do a quarterly or monthly newsletter.
  • Command used to generate these (as root on Bud):
    • /usr/local/mailman/bin/list_members list_name | wc -l

Attendance Report

  • Initial mail list subscriptions are prompted by attendance sheets.
  • Group leaders are responsible for taking attendance at meetings.
  • Blank attendance sheets are available here
  • Attendance numbers, as of end of June 2011:
Meeting May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Steercom 4 6 6 4 7 6 5 7 5 (9) 5 5 11 5
SLACC 5 (6) ? ? ? 8 x 7 ? 5 ? (6) 5 8
SLUUG ? 18 22? 29(31) ? 29 ? 15 18 15 14 ? 19 21
SNUG SuSE 8 9 4 8 ? - 7 11(14) 11 15 - 7 ? 10?
STLLUG 19 9 17 21 17 16 (9) - 14 13 15 15 15 17?
STCLUG 6 5 12 5 6 6 4 - 4 ? - 11 ? ??
HZWLUG ? 8 ? ? 6 7 6 9 13 9 7 11 9 (7)
  • 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.
  • NOTE - Corrected STCLUG August and September counts.
  • NOTE - February 2011 Steercom was via IRC #SLUUG channel on freenode.

Meeting Review and Comments

June 2011

     June 2011
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 2

  • SLACC usually holds a Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - June 8

  • SLUUG usually starts with a tutorial or demo session before a main presentation.
  • BASE: TBD by Jerry Stutte
  • MAIN: "Amazing, Stupendous, Mind-Blowing Apps for iPad2" by Scott Granneman (confirmed via Gary Meyer)

SNUG - June 15

  • SNUG is the St. Louis Novell Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

STLLUG - June 16

  • STLLUG is the St. Louis Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: Two Coding Languages for Youngsters
    • Scratch by Ryan Brooks via Jerry Stutte
    • Looking Glass Presentation by Paul Gross via Jerry Stutte

STCLUG - June 23

  • STCLUG is the St. Charles Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: Basics of 3-D Graphics and Animation by Ed Wehner

HZWLUG - June 28

  • HZWLUG topics are usually determined by attendees. We usually cover more than one.

Presentation Schedule

Potential Presenters and Topics

July 2011

     July 2011      
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 7

  • SLACC usually holds a Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - July 13

  • SLUUG usually starts with a tutorial or demo session before a main presentation.
  • BASE: LastPass by Jay Truesdale (firm commitment) via Stan Reichardt
  • MAIN: Artificial Intelligence by Eric xu
  • BACKUP: Migration of SLUUG services to amber by Jeff Muse (tentative pending completion of work)

SNUG - July 20

  • SNUG is the St. Louis Novell Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

STLLUG - July 21

  • STLLUG is the St. Louis Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: Split presentation:
    • Part I: Yum repositories explored by Jeff Muse
    • Part II: Gnome 3 by Stan Reichardt
  • BACKUP: To Be Determined (TBD)

HZWLUG - July 26

  • HZWLUG topics are usually determined by attendees. We usually cover more than one.

STCLUG - July 28

  • STCLUG is the St. Charles Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

Aug 2011

    August 2011
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 - Aug 4

* SLACC usually holds a Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - Aug 10

* SLUUG usually starts with a tutorial or demo session before a main presentation.

  • BASE: To Be Determined (TBD)
  • MAIN: Migration of SLUUG services to amber by Jeff Muse (tentative pending completion of work)
  • BACKUP: To Be Determined (TBD)

SNUG - Aug 17

  • SNUG is the St. Louis Novell Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

STLLUG - Aug 18

  • STLLUG is the St. Louis Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: HIATUS per ITEN request (No meeting this month)

HZWLUG - Aug 23

  • HZWLUG topics are usually determined by attendees. We usually cover more than one.

STCLUG - Aug 25

  • STCLUG is the St. Charles Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

Sep 2011

   September 2011
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 21 24
25 26 27 28 29 30

SLACC - Sep 1

* SLACC usually holds a Linux configuration workshop - no presentation

SLUUG - Sep 14

* SLUUG usually starts with a tutorial or demo session before a main presentation.

  • BASE: To Be Determined (TBD)
  • MAIN: Internet Security (Joseph J. Papes Former FBI agent)
  • BACKUP: To Be Determined (TBD)

STLLUG - Sep 15

  • STLLUG is the St. Louis Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: Chris Leighton - Machine Vision & Facial Recognition (confirmed Lee)
  • BACKUP: To Be Determined (TBD)

SNUG - Sep 21

  • SNUG is the St. Louis Novell Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

STCLUG - Sep 22

  • STCLUG is the St. Charles Linux Users Group.
  • TOPIC: To Be Determined (TBD)

HZWLUG - Sep 26

  • HZWLUG topics are usually determined by attendees. We usually cover more than one.

Old Business

SNUG

  • 2011-05 Saint Louis Novell Users Group (SNUG)
    • Formerly a NUI group
  • Gary Hollingsworth (SNUG president) proposed formally merging SNUG group into SLUUG
  • SNUG is a 501©6 - trade or business organization (same as SLUUG)
  • Bob Sherrill is treasurer of NUI
  • SNUG Board plans to formally assign Lee Lammert as their treasurer
    • Lee will then be able to transfer money between accounts as necessary
    • Bank will need to get new signature cards filled out
  • Rich recommended at some point filing articles of termination with the state for SNUG
    • Once their bank account is depleted
  • Gary will get us a copy of the SNUG bylaws
  • SNUG annual filings have not been filed recently
    • Could not find "Saint Louis Novell Users Group" on MO SOS web site
    • Could not find "Saint Louis Netware Users Group" (former name) on MO SOS web site
  • Steering committee unanimously agreed to the merger
  • SLUUG board agreed to accept the decision of the steering committee
  • 2011-06 - No further update. Still need a copy of the bylaws.
  • 2011-07

Password Cards

  • 2009-12 We need to change root passwords.
  • 2010-01 Craig handed out new password cards.
  • 2010-06 Stan R. will build an unviewable page to record the number for server list.
    • Further implementation when we move BUD downtown.
  • 2010-07 Craig - change root passwords; make sure Mike Knight has a copy of the password card.
  • 2010-08 Status unchanged.
  • 2010-09 Status unchanged.
  • 2010-10 Mike Knight, Jerry, and Don all need password cards. Jeff sent mail to Craig inquiring.
  • 2010-11 Jerry received a password card from Craig.
  • 2010-12 Status unchanged.
  • 2011-01 Craig REALLY intends to change root passwords VERY soon.
  • 2011-02 Jeff will get pw info to Mike if he'll be at the main meeting. Afterwards, we can change passwords.
  • 2011-03 Status unchanged.
  • 2011-04 Status unchanged.
  • 2011-05 Status unchanged.
  • 2011-06 Passwords changed at work party for Bud, Amber, and Redhook. Don complained bitterly that he does not have a card.
  • 2011-07

Server Admin

  • 2009-12 Bud Light offline due to fan failure, is still offline.
  • 2009-12 Craig has been adding some packages to his server; would be willing to add them to SLUUG servers.
    • fail2ban - temporarily ban IPs that have too many SSH failures (unanimous agreement)
    • fcheck - file integrity checker - emails files that changed since last time run
    • logcheck - email anomalous log entries
    • munin - monitoring of system details
    • awstats - web stats
  • 2009-12 Carl recommended using one of the Sun Netras as a log server.
  • 2010-02 Craig wondered if we could put sudo back on Bud.
    • Configure it to require root password instead of user's own password.
    • Will follow up on SYSADMIN list.
  • 2010-02 Craig wondered if we could start applying the patches pending for Bud.
    • There are a lot of patches pending now, including kernel and security fixes.
    • We have some concern with DNS patches, but Craig has applied them on his systems without issues.
    • Will follow up on SYSADMIN list.
  • 2010-02 Noah has a server we can use.
    • IBM X325, dual P4 Xeon 2.8 GHz, 2x72 GB.
    • Name: Golden Wheat
    • Craig will get with Noah to install the system.
  • 2010-03 Noah and Craig will install it on Wednesday 3/10 at 2:00 PM.
  • 2010-03 Noah has loaded VMware ESXi 4.0
  • 2010-04 New server [Debian] installed from Noah - thanks!
  • 2010-04 Noah has two more Dell 2850s for installation at IT Enterprises for the OS lab, to be supported by SLUUG. Noah to contact them and confirm installation - this will be a good indication of the support level they wish to have for an ongoing relationship.
  • 2010-04 New server from Contegix - Amber
    • Contact Lee or SysAdmin list for info
  • 2010-05
    • PrimaryNet problem with possible rogue IRC activity on system we later identified as Golden Wheat.
    • Stan R. added some info on Golden Wheat to resources.txt file.
    • Taking Golden Wheat offline…
    • Mike Knight pointed out that Bud is not being backed up since BudLight went down.
    • Jeff Muse has started rsnapshots backing up Bud to Bock.
    • Noah Lance willing to diagram our assets – later.
    • Joe B will be installing Sun Netra box.
  • 2010-06
    • Golden Wheat ready for reinstall - setup with virtual appliance Debian 5 XVA.
    • Lee is building backup on a server built - aliased as AMBER. We might need different name.
  • 2010-07
    • Golden Wheat has been re-installed, and fully functional.
    • Amber had incorrect DNS entry; Craig fixed it.
    • Lee copied over Bud home directories to /bu/home on Amber.
      • Cannot get rsync to work between the 2 systems — JEFF FIXED THIS
    • Work party at the bat cave - started on web, mail, system services, user IDs. Big problem now is that mysql won't let postfix log in.
  • 2010-08
    • Jerry is working on setting up Nagios
  • 2010-09
    • Backups have been disabled, since they were filling the / partition.
    • Postfix integration with MySQL – not working yet.
    • Trying to get Zimbra installed – not working yet either.
  • 2010-10
    • Postfix and MySQL are now talking to each other (on Amber)
    • Mailman is installed - list info needs to be migrated over yet
    • Proposed date for work party to finish moving bud to the cloud box - Nov 13th. Location TBD.
  • 2010-11
    • We have 2 new boxes.
      • Compaq DL580 (G1) boxes at Lee's house.
      • 4 x 73 GB disks (old servers have 4 x 18GB)
      • 3 GB RAM (old servers have 4 GB)
    • Work party to finish moving bud to the cloud box - Nov 13th at Lee's.
  • 2010-12
    • Got Budlight back up and runnable
      • Got a fan to fit in it
      • Need to reinstall in rack
    • Got OS installed on DL580, but Grub didn't work.
    • Lee suggested we keep 1 of each system type.
      • Keep the 2nd of each system type as backup hardware.
  • 2011-01 At December Blue Sky session Stan wanted to gather web analytics.
    • Craig said that there are 2 ways to accomplish this.
      • Way 1 is to analyze Apache logs, such as webalizer.
      • Way 2 is to use something like Google Analytics.
    • The group decided against using anything external like Google for this.
    • Craig and Lee got Webalizer working after the blue sky session.
    • Gary and Stan have been looking at the Webalizer reports.
    • Lee disabled a disuse account with 280 MB of email.
    • Lee tested the PayPal button.
  • 2011-03 Status unchanged.
  • 2011-04 Michelob is sick/dying.
  • 2011-05 Need to schedule work time to finish building Amber.
  • 2011-06
    • May 21 at Lee's place – 10 AM. Much progress made on a budlight replacement. Some websites moved over to amber. Mail is working on amber but need to migrate user accounts. This is being held up by old-style DES passwords still in use. Jeff is trying to get them changed. Amber build is documented at Base OS Config
  • 2011-07
    • Posted item on SLUUG home page about mail server transition to Amber on Saturday, 9 July.

Wash U Cleanup

  • 2009-09 Jerry Stutte, Jeff Muse, and Eric Xu volunteered to cleanup Wash U site.
  • 2009-09 Gary Meyer is Captain.
  • 2009-10 Captain is AWOL. Carl will be available in November or later.
  • 2009-11 Captain was AWOL.
  • 2009-12 Captain still AWOL.
  • 2010-01 Captain still AWOL.
  • 2010-02 Captain Gary Meyer still AWOL. Search party has not reported back.
  • 2010-04 Pending until next month at the earliest.
  • 2010-05 This project open since September 2009. Gary immediately left meeting.
  • 2010-06 Gary not here, nothing resolved.
  • 2010-07 Gary not here, nothing resolved.
  • 2010-09 Gary will work on this.
  • 2010-10 No progress. Stan questioned Gary's usefulness. Suggested that he is merely decorative.
  • 2010-11 No progress. See note above about Gary's usefulness.
  • 2010-12 No progress. See note above about Gary's usefulness.
  • 2011-01 No progress. See note above about Gary's usefulness.
  • 2011-02 No progress. See note above about Gary's usefulness.
  • 2011-03 No progress. Gary is in Florida. See note above about Gary's usefulness.
  • 2011-04 No progress.
  • 2011-05 No progress.
  • 2011-06 No progress. Unless there is rain Gary won't be attending until September.
  • 2011-07

Recording Meetings

  • 2010-12
    • We have a voice recorder (VC) for recording meeting presentations and have posted some results on web site.
    • On 28 Oct Stan R. suggested buying an additional VC so that there wouldn't be a single point of failure.
      • We forget who has it.
      • We forget to bring it.
      • We forget to turn it on.
      • We forget fresh batteries.
      • We forget how to turn it on.
      • We forget to free up space on it.
    • There was some STEERCOM list banter but nothing was brought up at 3 November Steering Committee meeting.
    • Alternative of video recording suggested, huge size of video files was mentioned.
    • Stan R. passed voice recorder to Gary M. on 18 November and doesn't want it back.
    • Noah volunteered an old Digital8 recorder.
  • 2011-01 Continued discussion, but no consensus.
  • 2011-02 Not discussed during IRC meeting.
  • 2011-03 Gary M. returned voice recorder to Stan R. before going to Florida.
    • Stan needs to pull February 2011 STLLUG recording and post it (on Amber).
      • And email it to the speaker (Igor Gueths).
  • 2011-04 Stan R. passed on voice recorder to Phil Bunch, who should be at next general meeting.
  • 2011-05 Phil B. passed voice recorder back to Stan R.
  • 2011-05 Craig suggested getting another voice recorder (or 2), and extra batteries.
  • 2011-06 Jeff wanted to move that we use some of the Novell money to buy a second recorder, but we do not have a quorum. Stan suggested getting one that records in ideally ogg, but failing that, mp3. Either would be better than the current uncompressed format.
  • 2011-07

Web Site Suggestions

  • 2011-01 Mike Knight's emails regarding web site.
    • Stan changed the copyright dates.
    • Good idea to list other Open Source friendly resources.
      • On a separate page from our own SIGs.
      • Sites like WITS, CVillage, Arch Reactor, 2600.
    • Our site layout has not changed for years.
      • Would take some effort to re-do it, and seems to be working for most people.
  • 2011-02 Stan hasn't gotten around to building new resources page, yet.
  • 2011-03 No change.
  • 2011-04 No change.
  • 2011-05 No change.
  • 2011-06 There was brief discussion of implementing a CMS at the work party on 5/21. No decisions made.
       !!!   !!!   !!!!    !!!

Gary M noticed Wayback machine has STOPPED archiving our server as of after May 2009! Gary M thinks it would be good to get resumption of archiving at Wayback. How can we accomplish this?

  • 2011-07

STLLUG Sponsorship Credit

  • 2010-11 STLLUG is the St. Louis Linux Users Group.
  • STLLUG meetings are now hosted at IT Enterprises, which is affiliated with UMSL.
  • Typically because of meeting space value we recognize host as sponsor on our web pages.
  • Previously, some educational institutions (other than UMSL) did not want to be listed.
  • Lee updated the SLUUG web site sponsors list
  • 2010-12 No status change.
  • We should push the PayPal usage.
  • 2011-01 Stan suggested putting Hostirian at the bottom of all SIG web sites.
  • 2011-02 Stan hasn't gotten around to the pages, yet.
    • Noticed .PNG file doesn't show up on old county library browsers. Do we have .JPG file anywhere?
    • Not discussed during IRC meeting.
  • 2011-03 No change.
  • 2011-04 No change.
  • 2011-05 No change.
  • 2011-06 No change. The spirit is willing but the schedule is weak.
  • 2011-07
    • Stan R. added Historain logo stuff to bottom of home pages of all active Special Interest Groups.

LUGs and Attendance

  • 2011-03 Craig brought up the topic of LUG attendance.
  • Why is STLLUG attendance so low?
    • Is it the location?
    • Was it the change in location?
    • Is it because we have too many local meetings?
    • Is it the improving job market?
  • With low attendance, we cannot bring in bigger names.
    • Telling Red Hat they'll have 15 people to speak with won't get them to come here.
  • Craig will post a message to DISCUSS.
    • Explain why I'm asking.
    • Ask why people don't attend.
    • Ask what we could do to get people to attend more often.
    • Ask if we should combine some of the LUG meetings.
  • 2011-04
    • Craig has created a survey – http://stllug.org/2011-member-survey
    • Need to have STEERCOM members look at it first, to make suggestions.
    • Craig will send out the URL to DISCUSS and ANNOUNCE once we're happy with it.
  • 2011-05 - No progress
  • 2011-06 - No progress
  • 2011-07

PR

  • Jerry recommended we create a Facebook group and page.
  • Jerry recommended we post meeting notices on college campus bulletin boards.
    • Jerry will send out an email to Sanjiv.
  • 2011-05
    • Several people were opposed to this idea. (CLARIFICATION 6/1: The opposition was specifically to facebook)
  • 2011-06
     !!!    !!!    !!!   !!!!

Gary comments- Group is getting gray We need new blood! Young blood!

               college students and recent grads!
               PR is SO-o-o-o important!!!
               We can have great talks BUT unless we publicize them
               a week or 2 IN ADVANCE we will not 
               get increased attendance!   We need to plan out 
               meetings for NEXT MONTH and get abstracts 
               onto website, etc.
               Stan is right!  AFTER action reports on DISCUSS about
               how good it was WILL help future attendance.
               I still think it will help to get more subscribers to
               ANNOUNCE & DISCUSS.   How??
               

Stan suggested that Gary not spam the wiki and put his suggestions on IRC instead.

  • 2011-07

Wayback Recording

  • 2011-06 Gary Meyer brought up resume of Wayback Machine recording SLUUG pages.
    • Wayback Machine stopped recording SLUUG pages after May 2009.
    • Wants ideas on how to get it back.
    • Stan R. suggested project to contact sites listed on calendar. Volunteer needed.
    • Don has done some research indicating others have similar problems. No fix on our end is readily apparent, and it might be a wayback problem. Information forwarded to the STEERCOM list.
  • 2011-07

New Business

  • 2011-07

Annual Requirements

  • July 2011 - Renew SLUUG.ORG domain.
  • October 2011 - Reserve rooms at St. Louis County Library Branches.
  • October 2011 - St. Louis Business Expo
  • December 2011 - Renew STCLUG.ORG domain.
  • February 2012 - Renew STLLINUX.ORG domain.
  • February 2012 - SLUUG annual Board meeting and elections.
  • March 2012 - St. Louis Business Expo
  • April 2012 - Reserve rooms at St. Louis County Library Branches.
  • May 2012 - IRS Form 990-N for Tax Exempt Status.
  • July 2012 - Renew SLUUG.ORG domain.
  • August 2012 - Missouri Annual Report for Corporate Legal Status (every 2 years).
  • May 2012 - IRS Form 990-N for Tax Exempt Status.

Blue Sky

  • 2011-07

Advance Steercom Meetings One Week

  • Consider meeting on last Wednesday of month rather than first Wednesday of month.
    • Same day of week, yet a week earlier.
    • Advantage - Might give us more time to focus, hopefully less panic.
    • Advantage - Would allow one week delay during any winter time bad weather.
    • Advantage - Gives us more flexibility around major holiday and 4 day weekend pressures.
    • Disadvantage - December Holiday Season week might be no better than New Years Week pressures.
    • Possibly switch during a month that has greater number of Wednesdays (June, August, November).
    • Disadvantage: could be back-to-back-to-back meetings with STCLUG and HZWLUG

Recognize Useful Efforts

  • Recognize completed action items, and other useful actions.
  • Who did what?
  • 2011-06 - Work party.
  • 2011-06 -

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.
  • Craig - change root passwords; make sure Mike Knight has a copy of the password card.
  • Craig - work on getting refund for 2 months of Indian Trails reservations we did not use.
    • Or transfer the 2 months to SLACC or HZWLUG.
  • Craig - talk to Splunk reps about presenting.
  • Craig - follow up on potential presentations.
    • Kyle Cordes - ffmpeg or other
  • Jerry - find someone to talk to us about Android.
    • Talk to Lopez from FBI about Internet security.
    • Talk to Joshua Frank and Bill Zimmerly.
    • Talk to Rich Siebel to see if Andrew Prunicki of OCI can talk to us.
    • See Announce list from February 2009 for speakers from Java SIG presentations.
  • Noah - work on Amber build.
  • Gary - look into syncing domain renewals so they all happen at the same time of year.
  • Gary - follow up with Noel about transferring the SLACC.COM domain to us.
  • Gary - get Wash U site cleaned up.
steercom/2011-07.1309995637.txt.gz · Last modified: 2011/07/06 18:40 by SLUUG Administration