[ANNOUNCE] St. Louis Area Computer Club (SLACC) ~ Thursday ~ 1 October 2020

St. Louis Area Computer Club (SLACC) https://slacc.sluug.org/ 6:30 ~ 9:00 PM (Central Time, USA) You are invited to attend the next ONLINE session, in lieu of our regular physical face-to-face meeting. Instructions below. ************************************************************** The session will use the following link: ************************************************************** The Saint Louis Area Computer Club (SLACC) is the oldest, longest enduring, continuously meeting personal computer organization active in the Greater St. Louis Metro Area. NO PHYSICAL MEETINGS until further notice. Our usual library reservations for room meetings were cancelled until further notice. Room fees had previously been paid by our sponsoring St. Louis Unix Users Group (SLUUG). Face-to-face meeting were usually held on the first Thursday of every month often 6:30 PM until 9:00 PM Central Time, USA. We hope to maintain this timeline into the future by using ONLINE sessions. All physical meetings and ONLINE sessions are free and open to the public. We have no membership dues or other charges for the meetings. So, please join us at our next meetings, sessions or other events for fun, knowledge and networking. Linux interoperability with all related hardware, operating systems and software are explored. HOW TO ENTER THE SLACC ONLINE SESSION: Our ONLINE sessions will use JITSI remote video meeting software service on a private remote host. Even if you do not have a camera and microphone, you can ask questions using the chat box, and you can still hear and see others. You must access the session using an Internet browser. A Chromium- browser is recommended. Using a Chromium-browser seemingly works better than FireFox. Some use a FireFox browser with seemingly no, to little problems; however, we believe it tends to disrupt connectivity. On a PC workstation you shouldn't need to install anything else. Mobile phones have an app available from 8x8 that works well. For those just getting started remotely with JITSI, watch the below ahead of time, as it seems to be a best short JITSI introduction. ************************************************************** We believe that we will have better low bandwidth access if most everyone turns off their cameras and mutes their microphones. However, we MIGHT have to begin with starting everyone's microphone muted anyway. Using the space bar as a sort of "PUSH TO TALK" should then work very well. • Recommend that you immediately mute your microphone upon entry. You can then use your spacebar as PUSH_TO_TALK. • Deactivate your camera to help reduce bandwidth problems. • Using the "More actions" selection found at lower right screen, go to "Settings" and enter into "Profile" your first and last name. This is needed to recognize you. * It is easier to enter your first and last name when first entering the Chat area. As you may know it is our intention to use JITSI video meeting software with NEWLUG and SLACC online gatherings. This may also be an acceptable alternative and backup to the ZOOM remote video service that SLUUG had successfully used since the March 2020 STLLUG session. We may also use JITSI, ZOOM, or yet some other remote video conferencing service with all our SLUUG sponsored remote sessions. Some detailed descriptions about the problems with using Firefox: There was very little relief when Firefox version 76 became available from the repositories. ************************************************************** SLACC holds a Linux Configuration Workshop when nothing else more interesting comes up, or when there is no other event or activity scheduled. Problems with other operating systems and hardware are also frequently fixed. New software tools are often demonstrated or discussed. Not being physically present with your hardware will be a new and challenging experience for us all. The Linux Workshop is where we usually examine, troubleshoot, fix and repair difficult hardware and software configuration problems for Linux newcomers. Linux is an Internet capable Networking Operating System that provides many fully functional applications that perform well on both older and new computers. Most Linux distributions are free or low cost and provides an extremely reliable and cost effective alternative to high priced proprietary software. We want SLUUG to remain the forum for exchanging information about open standards, open systems, open source, products, services and architectures. FOR MORE INFORMATION: -- -- -- stan r.