The SLUUG Cronicle

August 2003

St. Louis UNIX Users Group


HTML version: http://www.sluug.org/cronicle/




Table of Contents



Calendar of Events

Aug 4 Mon StlAdvLUG 7:00pm-11:00pm
Aug  5 Tue Gateway JUG 6:00pm-8:00pm
Aug  5 Tue MOSLUG 7:00pm-11:00pm
Aug 6 Wed SLUUG - Steering Committee 6:30pm-8:30pm
Aug  7 Thu SLACC 6:30pm-9:00pm
Aug  7 Thu SILUG - Fairview Heights IL 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug  7 Thu SILBSD - Fairview Heights IL 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug 12 Tue CCSL Dinner Meeting ($ - RSVP) 5:30pm-
Aug 12 Tue GAMUG 7:00pm-
Aug 12 Tue LUCI - Newbie Night 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug 13 Wed SLUUG 6:30pm-9:00pm
  Basics: Files
  TOPIC: Cyber-Liberties
Aug 14 Thu STLBSD 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug 14 Thu St. Louis Java Users Group 6:30pm-8:00pm
Aug 17 Sun CWE-LUG 1:00pm-5:00pm
Aug 18 Mon SILUG - Carbondale 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug 19 Tue STLWEBDEV (NOTE: NEW Location) 6:30pm-9:00pm
Aug 21 Thu St. Louis LUG 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug 26 Tue STLWEBDEV - Wireless SIG 5:30pm-
Aug 26 Tue Hazelwood LUG 6:30pm-9:00pm
Aug 26 Tue LUCI 7:00pm-9:00pm
Aug 28 Thu St. Charles LUG 6:30pm-9:00pm
 

NOTE: More information on these groups, including locations and web sites, can be found in the "Meeting Locations" section below.


Next General Meeting is Wednesday, August 13


6:30 pm Basics Files by Stan Reichardt
7:00 pm Announcements Standard Introductions & Procedures
7:05 pm Q & A An opportunity to ask technical questions
7:15 pm Break Social, off-line conversations, book sales
7:30 pm Presentation Cyber-Liberties by Matt LeMieux



Basics

Files
by Stan Reichardt

Abstract:

This is a tutorial for beginners about files, directories and filesystems. About inodes, paths and links. About hardware, data and security. About everything on a Unix or GNU/Linux system; because everything is a file, or at least the kernel thinks so.

Bio:

We suspect that Stan Reichardt has some level of education, that he is licensed to drive his pickup truck, and that his employment has often been doing things other than his job title.

He is too cheap for the latest technical gadgets and his devotion to the VIM text editor (a "vi" emulation) is quite strong. For the last many years his personal choice of Operating Systems has been RedHat Linux, but longs for time to explore Debian GNU/Linux.

His philosophy of life is that even though Y2K was a let down, similar opportunities for disaster happen all the time. Just ask about his kitchen.

Stan is Dictator for Life of the Hazelwood LUG. It's there that he gets to spend some time giving back to the community by patiently helping out folks new to the whole Linux thing.

Check out Stan's personal web page at http://www.sluug.org/~stan for a glimpse of his subtle sense of humor about vacations and near death. Questions and comments are welcome. Contact Stan Reichardt via email to stan@mail.sluug.org or by phone at 314-298-1183.



Presentation

Cyber-Liberties
by Matt LeMieux

Abstract:

How our society ultimately deals with technology issues and social concerns eventually effect our daily lives.

Information will be given and discussed on the impact of the USA Patriot Act and other recent government actions on cyber liberties. We will also discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision on the use of Internet filters in public libraries.

Bio:

Matt LeMieux is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Eastern Missouri.

Ideas, questions and suggestions are welcome; please contact Terry Linhardt (presentations@sluug.org).



Book Sales

The O'Reilly and Associates line of books is available at each monthly general meeting as a convenience to our members. Proceeds from the book sales go toward running the organization. Most months we feature special offers on titles related to that month's presentation or tutorial topic. Discounts off retail prices are offered to all attendees.

Books that are not available at the meetings may be ordered to be picked up at the next SLUUG general meeting. Contact Sue Hurst (booksales@sluug.org).

August Special:

Books with a red sticker
(discontinued titles and older editions)
- 70% off
Books on special - 30% off
All other books - 25% off


Next St. Louis LUG Meeting Is August 21

SSH
    by Dustin Anders

Secure Shell (SSH)

Abstract:

Secure Shell (SSH) provides the UNIX/Linux community with encrypted remote login. This adds to the long-term solution to the problems of network eavesdropping. The orginal services such as telnet, ftp, pop and many others unfortunately transmit passwords as clear ASCII text.

Bio:

Dustin apparently has DNA and is a warm blooded biped. Actually those are guesses, all we know is that he works along side Craig Buchek.

Comments, questions, and ideas for the St. Louis Linux Users Group are welcome; please send email to linux@sluug.org.



Meeting Locations

SLUUG - St. Louis UNIX Users Group (http://www.sluug.org)
General Meeting

Meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Free and open to the public. For the year 2003, we are meeting at:

Graybar Electric Co, Inc.
11885 Lackland Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63146

Directions: Take I-270 to Page east. Take first exit (Concourse). Turn right at stop light (Lackland). Turn right at stop light into Graybar parking lot. Enter building at main entrance and sign in with security guard. Proceed down 1 level to lake level and cafateria training room.

Map:   http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=11885+Lackland&zipcode=63146

SLUUG - St. Louis UNIX Users Group (http://www.sluug.org)
Steering Committee

Meets the first Wednesday of each month, 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Open to the public. This is where we make decisions on what topics to cover and other administration of the group. If you want to get involved, this is a good place to start. This month we will meet at:

KPG, Inc.,
(Ground floor meeting room - marked with signs)
14528 South Outer Forty Drive, Suite 333,
St Louis, MO 63017

St. Louis Linux Users Group (STLLUG) (http://www.stllinux.org)

Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month, 7:00pm to 9:00pm. The room is reserved starting at 6:00pm. (Ask a librarian to let you in if it is locked.) Members are encouraged to come early to mingle and/or give informal demos or presentations. Free and open to the public. (Formerly known as the Linux SIG.)

Indian Trails Library
8400 Delport Drive (at Midland)
St. Louis, MO
Directions:   Take I-170 to Page east. Turn left at North-South. Turn left at Midland. Drive 2 blocks and turn left on Delport. The library is on your left.

Map:   http://www.stllinux.org/directions/

St. Charles LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~stclug)

We expect that meetings will usually be held at 6:30pm to 9:00pm on the 4th Thursday of each month, except during December, which will probably not have a meeting.
This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended for all Linux users in the Western and Northern parts of the greater metro area.

Ponderosa
513 South Main St. (just north of I-70)
O'Fallon, MO

Hazelwood LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~hzlug)

Generally meets the 4th Tuesday of each month, 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Free and open to the public. This is a SIG of SLUUG, intended for Linux newbies.

Prairie Commons Library
915 Utz Lane (between Howdershell and Dunn)
Hazelwood, MO

CWE-LUG - Central West End LUG (http://www.sluug.org/~cwelug/)

Generally meets on the third Sunday of the month from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. Meetings are now held at the ACLU building.

ACLU
4557 Laclede (just east of Euclid)
St Louis, MO 63108

Advanced LUG (http://www.stladvlug.org/)

Meetings are held on the first Monday of each month. This group is intended to be a venue for advanced topics as well as a time to work on Open Source projects as a group. Free and open to the public.

WDT Solutions
9450 Manchester, Suite 204
Rock Hill, MO

MOSLUG - MO Open Source LUG (http://www.moslug.org/)

Meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month, from 7:00pm to 11:00pm. Meetings are free and open to everyone. This is a Linux Users Group (LUG) for all levels, from new beginners to the more advanced users.

Culpeppers Restaurant (basement)
312 S. Kirkwood Road
Kirkwood, MO 63122

STLBSD - St. Louis BSD Users (http://www.stlbsd.org)

They have held a number of monthly meetings, but no regular schedule yet. Also look for guys with little red daemons on their shirts at SLUUG and LUG meetings.

St. Louis Java Users Group (http://www.ociweb.com/javasig/)

Meets the 2nd Thursday of every month, 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Attendance is free, and you do not need to sign up -- just show up.

CityPlace One Auditorium
One City Place
Creve Coeur, MO 63141

Gateway JUG (Java Users Group) (http://www.gatewayjug.org/)

Meets 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month. Please RSVP if you would like to attend.

Maryville Technologies
540 Maryville Centre Dr., Suite 300
St. Louis, MO 63141

STLWEBDEV - St. Louis Web Developers (http://www.stlwebdev.org)

Meets the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Meetings are free and open to everyone. This is an open group to facilitate communications between diverse professions involved in Internet/Intranet design and development. STLWEBDEV is also the St. Louis chapter of the International Webmasters Association and the HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG).

Savvis Communications (across from Maryville Centre)
1 Savvis Parkway (near I-64 and 141)
Chesterfield, MO 63017

GAMUG - Gateway Area Macintosh Users Group (http://www.gamug.org)

Meets the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7:00pm. GAMUG has a number of active SIGs, so be sure to check out their web site. Of special interest is the Mac OS X SIG (which meets in Fenton). Membership is $30 a year for individuals.

Parkway Central High School
369 N. Woods Mill Rd. (Hwy. 141, between Olive and Ladue)
Chesterfield, MO 63017

CCSL - Computer Consultants of St. Louis (http://www.ccsl.org)
Monthly Dinner Meeting

Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at Cheshire Inn. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Cost is $20 for members, $25 for non-members. Call 314-995-4652 (by the previous Friday) or email meeting@ccsl.org for reservations. Social hour starts at 5:30pm, meeting starts at 6:30pm.

Cheshire Inn
6306 Clayton Rd.
St. Louis, MO

SILUG - Southern Illinois LUG (http://www.silug.org)
O'Fallon meeting

The SILUG O'Fallon meeting is generally on the 1st Thursday of the month. It runs from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

O'Fallon City Library
120 Civic Plaza
O'Fallon, IL 62269

SILUG - Southern Illinois LUG (http://www.silug.org)
Carbondale meeting

The SILUG Carbondale meeting is the 3rd Monday of the month, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. The location can vary due to scheduling issues, so be sure to double-check their web site.

Morris Library, Room 325
SIU-Carbondale
Carbondale, IL

LUCI - Linux Users of Central Illinois (http://www.luci.org)

All LUCI meetings are held at the same location, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. General meetings are on the 4th Tuesday of the month, and Newbie night is held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month.

Illinois State Museum Research & Collections Center
1011 East Ash St.
Springfield, IL 62703

CORCC - County Older Residents Computer Club (http://www.a-zuc.com/corcc/)

Meets (almost) every Friday from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Provides free classes for seniors 55 or older. For info, contact Tom Kimber (t.kimber@worldnet.att.net) or Arthur Hollman (ajhollman@juno.com).

Prairie Commons Library
915 Utz Lane (between Howdershell and Dunn)
Hazelwood, MO

We publish meeting schedules of groups in the St. Louis region that may be of interest to our members. If you would like to have info added about your group, please mail the newsletter editor (editor@sluug.org) or call any of the SLUUG officers.


Articles:

WARNING: These articles may express personal opinions and SLUUG exerts no more editorial control over such content than does a public library, bookstore, or newsstand. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed herein are those of the respective authors and not necessarily supported by SLUUG. SLUUG does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.


Steering Committee Schedule Change

The St. Louis Unix Users Group Steering Committee has moved to meeting on the first Wednesday of each month. The previous schedule for Committee meetings being held the week after the general meeting was just too difficult to schedule. By keeping it as simply the first Wednesday we hope to make it easier to find a new permanent location.

The next three Steering Committee meetings will be on 6 August, 3 September and 1 October.

The 6 August meeting will be held 6:30 PM at:

KPG, Inc.,
(Ground floor meeting room - marked with signs)
14528 South Outer Forty Drive, Suite 333,
St Louis, MO 63017

KPG is located 4.8 miles west of HWY 270 on HWY 40. Take HWY 40 to Timberlake Manor Parkway (Exit 21), go east on South Outer 40 Drive for 1/2 of a mile, KPG is in the first office building on the right in suite #333 of the Corporate Plaza Building.



Lead Time for Presentation Manager

We as an organization will benefit in the coming months from the efforts of Terry Lindhardt, our new Presentation Manager.

The Presentation Manager is not expected to find presentations, only to act as the single coordinating focal point. When we have multiple potential volunteers to do topics, the dynamic and shifting changes and cancellations wreck havoc. One single person must track and know the current or final status.

Sometimes our attempts at scheduling tutorials and the more advanced presentations at SLUUG run into the all too common situation of no volunteers until the last minute. When volunteers do come forth and try to fill the gap there are a lot of things to do besides preparation of the actual presentation.

Topics, presentations, demonstrations and such at each of the Special Interest Groups are the responsibility of the respective group leaders.

We would prefer to schedule items far enough in advance to do all the extra things, like publishing a short abstract of the topic and a little background about the presenter. This is often like pulling teeth. We would like to also post the information on our web pages for the next event shortly after each monthly meeting. Just knowing the exact title of the presentation and the correct spelling of the name of who ever is going to give it seems elusive.

Your ideas, questions and suggestions are welcome; please contact Terry Linhardt (presentations@sluug.org).



Volunteer Editor Wanted

Our position of Editor is open for a good volunteer.

The tasks involve gathering and editing articles, event schedules and any newsworthy items for publication in our monthly newsletter.

The social process starts with reminding others that you don't manufature articles, the news, upcoming events or volumes of mindless sentences.

The editing process starts with creating the newsletter in HTML form and converting it into a simple text format for bulk email distribution. Neither process is very complicated.

Contact us by mailto:volunteer@sluug.org


Volunteer Librarian Wanted

We would like to create a volunteer position of Librarian for the organization.

This would be a completely new volunteer position with the goal of placing copies of monthly presentations on our web sites.

Contact us by mailto:volunteer@sluug.org

Sponsors

For more information about sponsoring the St. Louis UNIX Users Group, contact Frank Lipski (sponsorship@sluug.org).


Quotes

Win? Duhos!

Hey you, out of the gene pool! - Gary quoting a bummper sticker

Google is your friend.  - Phil Bunch




Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

As our membership grows, we have had some inquiries about the possibility of having Special Interest Groups in several areas. If you are interested in starting or participating in a SIG for System Administration, Networking, C, Object Oriented Programming, a specific vendor, etc., please contact any officer of the group.

Volunteering

SLUUG administration is volunteer based. We're always looking for volunteers to help with presentations, web page development, managing corporate sponsorships, and many other tasks. If you would like to help out contact Christine Wanta (mailto:volunteer@sluug.org).

Contacts

  President president@sluug.org Christine Wanta
  Vice-President vice-president@sluug.org Ed Wehner
  Secretary secretary@sluug.org Buck Pyland 
  Treasurer treasurer@sluug.org Mike Kriz 
  Linux Users Group Chair linux@sluug.org Frank Lipski
  Board of Directors board@sluug.org Ed Wehner
Craig Buchek
Robert Citek
Stan Reichardt
Christine Wanta
  Presentations presentations@sluug.org Terry Lindhardt
  Corporate Sponsors sponsorship@sluug.org Christine Wanta
  O'Reilly Book Sales booksales@sluug.org Sue Hurst
  Newsletter Editor mailto:volunteer@sluug.org Open position
  Librarian mailto:volunteer@sluug.org Open position
  PR reporter@sluug.org Stan Reichardt
  Steering Committee Info info@sluug.org Gary Meyer
  BBS Questions bbs@sluug.org Gary Meyer
  Official Correspondence SLUUG Mailing Address PO Box 411302
St. Louis, MO 63141


Submitting Articles to the SLUUG Cronicle

If you would like to submit an article to the Cronicle of general interest to the members of the St. Louis UNIX Users Group, send your info or complete article to editor@sluug.org. The deadline for article submissions is the second last day of the month. Plain HTML format is preferred.


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