July 2006 - BALUG-Admin - lists.balug.org

Are directions to BALUG meeting location sufficiently current and accurate?
by Michael Paoli 22 Jul '06

22 Jul '06

Are directions to BALUG meeting location sufficiently current and accurate? Perhaps some folks that regularly, or at least semi-regularly, drive some or much/all of these routes could let us know if there's stuff that needs updating. Looks like it may not have been updated since 2005, and given all the construction work - most notably with freeway on/off ramps, but possibly also other local changes - I suspect it's probable at least some updates are needed. http://www.balug.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpWiki&file=index&pagenam…

2 3

Fwd: LinuxWorld BoF: Network, Device, and Environment Monitoring, Wednesday, 2006-08-16, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
by Michael Paoli 21 Jul '06

21 Jul '06

preface notes: I stuck the URL back together (looks like it had gotten folded), and at least based upon last year, I don't think there's a particularly "hard stop" at, or at least shortly after 7:00 P.M., but that might be a bit different 30/60/120/??? minutes later. ----- Forwarded message from Peter Mui <pmui(a)groundworkopensource.com> ----- Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 10:55:23 -0700 From: Peter Mui <pmui(a)groundworkopensource.com> Reply-To: Peter Mui <pmui(a)groundworkopensource.com> Subject: Announce LinuxWorld "Monitoring All Stars" BoF to BALUG? (and others) Hi Michael, here's a revised BoF announcement. ------------------------------------------------------- At LinuxWorld: BoF: Network, Device, and Environment Monitoring Wednesday, 08/16/2006, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Free with LinuxWorld exhibits pass Informal "meet and greet" reception at GroundWork's offices after the BoF Speakers: Ian Berry, Project Lead, Cacti Kees Cook, Project Lead, Sendpage Matt Massie, Project Lead, Ganglia Tobi Oetiker, Project Lead, RRDtool, MRTG, Smokeping Remo Rickli, Project Lead, NeDi It'll be a follow-on to a conference session earlier in the day (BP4); unfortunately people will need a full conference pass to attend that ($$$). Here's that URL: http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12SFO06A/conference/tracksessi… A roundtable on open source tools for network and server monitoring and management, we'll briefly discuss the the state of the IT management tools industry -- both commercial and Open Source. The project leads for ganglia, Cacti, rrdtool, MRTG, NeDi, and Smokeping will present briefly on their tools and answer questions. Finally, we'll describe an approach that integrates multiple open source tools to create a comprehensive Network Monitoring solution. ------------------------------------------------------- I haven't found out from LinuxWorld yet if there's a hard stop at 7PM; either way: everyone's invited back to GroundWork's offices at 139 Townsend St. (one block from AT&T Park) afterwards to mingle and continue the discussion. Thanks, and feel free to contact me anytime with questions. Cheers, -Peter Peter Mui, Open Source Community Advocate GROUNDWORK Open Source, Inc. 139 Townsend Street, Suite 100 San Francisco, CA 94107-1946 +1 415 992 4573 (direct) +1 415 947 0684 (fax) pmui(a)groundworkopensource.com ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0

Re: [balug-admin] At LinuxWorld: BoF: Network, Device, and Environment Monitoring BoF, Wednesday, 2006-08-16, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
by Michael Paoli 20 Jul '06

20 Jul '06

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately I didn't get to this e-mail before this month's BALUG meeting. In the meantime, I can pass it along to the BALUG "talk" list, and Cc: the "admin" list, and when we send out our next e-mailing to the "announce" list (probably about a week before the next BALUG meeting - that meeting being the day before the BoF session you mention), I/we can probably also include a brief metion (and relevant link(s)) to information about the BoF session. That will probably also reach more folks than verbal announcement alone at the meeting would have covered anyway. FYI, you can also post directly to the "talk" list yourself if you're subscribed to it. I didn't, at least easily, spot link(s) on the LinuxWorld site covering listing of specific BoFs for LinuxWorld - at least yet - but if those are available when we cover a later announcement, we could probably also include those links too. I also noticed that for this year's LinuxWorld in San Francisco, it looks like free Expo passes can be signed up for through 2006-08-13 - quite close to the start of LinuxWorld itself (not sure about the cut-off, but certainly after some date the registration probably becomes will-call pickup rather than being mailed out). http://www.balug.org/ Quoting Peter Mui <pmui(a)groundworkopensource.com>: > Hi Michael: > > I hope this gets to you in time for tonight's meeting. > > I saw your posting about upcoming BALUG meetings. We have an > upcoming event that BALUG members are invited to and might be > interested in: > > At LinuxWorld: > BoF: Network, Device, and Environment Monitoring BoF > Wednesday, 08/16/2006, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM > > Speakers: > Ian Berry, Project Lead, Cacti > Kees Cook, Project Lead, Sendpage > Matt Massie, Project Lead, Ganglia > Tobi Oetiker, Project Lead, RRDtool, MRTG, Smokeping > Remo Rickli, Project Lead, NeDi > > We'll open with the evolution of open source tools for network and > server monitoring and management, and briefly discuss the the state > of the IT management tools industry -- both commercial and Open Source. > We will then describe individual components for Open Source IT > management: many project leads for tools such as ganglia, Cacti, > rrdtool, MRTG, NeDi (and others) will present briefly on their tools > and answer questions. > Finally, we'll describe an approach that integrates multiple open > source tools to create a comprehensive Network Monitoring solution. > > Can you please mention these at tonight's meeting? People should > sign up for (free) LinuxWorld exhibits passes so they can attend the > BoF. > > We also have a regular conference session earlier in the day, but > people will have to get a full conference pass to attend that ($$$). > > Thanks, and feel free to contact me anytime with questions. > > Cheers, -Peter > > Peter Mui, Open Source Community Advocate > GROUNDWORK Open Source, Inc. > 139 Townsend Street, Suite 100 > San Francisco, CA 94107-1946 > +1 415 992 4573 (direct) > +1 415 947 0684 (fax) > pmui(a)groundworkopensource.com

1 0

Linux Kernel Engineer (System Management) Fulltime in San Jose - Direct Hire
by Blair Mandell 20 Jul '06

20 Jul '06

Job Opportunity for Linux Kernel Engineers Availigent is the leading provider of affordable, transparent and automatic high availability for Linux-based enterprise applications, giving companies peace of mind during planned and unplanned downtimes. We are specifically looking for a Linux Kernel S/W Developer to design, develop and maintain Availigent's System Manager component of Duration, the company's high-availability Linux infrastructure software. You will be responsible for architecture, design, implementation, code review, documentation and testing. This is a full time position w/benefits in San Jose, CA. Send a resume to: Blair Availigent Email: bmandell(a)availigent.com ============================================================= System Management Software Developer (ENG-SM) Availigent is seeking a talented senior software engineer to be responsible for development and maintenance of the System Manager component of DurationR, the company's high-availability Linux infrastructure software. Primary Responsibilities: Design, develop and maintain Availigent's "System Manager" and related modules. Assignments include architecture, design, implementation, code review, documentation, test and working as a member of the engineering team. Requirements: BSCS/MSCS with a minimum of 5 years of industry experience in C/C++ and Java Servlets/JSP/J2SE writing commercial grade applications. A minimum of 3 years experience programming in a Linux environment is desired. Core Technical Requirements: . Proficiency in C/C++ GNU tools, CVS and shell scripting . Proficiency in Java, J2SE/EE, JSP and Servlets and general "web" programming . Experience in distributed, multi-process, and multi-threaded programming in Linux . Proven experience with Apache/Tomcat or other Servlet engine . Experience with Linux network programming, including sockets, TCP/IP, UDP and related networking protocols . Experience with SNMP, MIBs, CIMOM etc. is desirable . Prior experience with high-availability, fault tolerance or system management technologies is preferred . Proven track record in designing, developing and releasing quality commercial enterprise software on time and to specification Non-technical Requirements: . The ability to work well with other members of the development and QA teams . The ability to work independently . Excellent problem solving skills . Excellent communications skills in both verbal and written English are essential

2 1

who wants to solicit speakers?
by Ann E. Worley 19 Jul '06

19 Jul '06

Hey Admins, I am taking chemotherapy injections Monday nights for the next 44 weeks, so my meeting attendance is not going to be consistent for Tuesdays. We have a speaker for August, does anyone want to take over booking speakers starting in September? Thanks, ~Ann

1 0

Fwd: Re: BALUG website [BALUG stuff to do (site, etc.)]
by Michael Paoli 18 Jul '06

18 Jul '06

... and propogate that error by copying it with the error a second time ... ----- Forwarded message from Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu> ----- Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 22:41:13 -0700 From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu> Subject: Re: BALUG website [BALUG stuff to do (site, etc.)] To: mikron <mikron1234(a)gmail.com> FYI, I ran checkbot against http://www.balug.org/ (excluding http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/) Most of the stuff isn't too exciting (e.g. minor corrections should be made, such as: http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/installfest --> http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/installfest/ http://www.linuxmafia.com/cabal/ --> http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/ ). Some of the stuff, I'm not exactly where checkbot dug it up (it probably included searching areas that needn't have been searched - at least some of the URLs and such that checkbot found, I couldn't find on the http://www.balug.org/ site - at least with some simple quick Google searches). Anyway, may want to review it and tweak those things that actually ought to be tweaked (and ignore the what's "noise" and essentially false positives). Checkbot: main report Status: Done. _________________________________________________________________ Report summary Links checked 59209 Problems so far 82130 Links to do 0 _________________________________________________________________ Overview per server Server Server Type Unique links Problem links Ratio [1]www.balug.org Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) DAV/1.0.3 mod_fastcgi/2.4.2 mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a PHP/4.3.10 mod_ssl/2.8.19 OpenSSL/0.9.6c 82871 82130 99% _________________________________________________________________ Checkbot session parameters --url Start URL(s) http://www.balug.org/ --match Match regular expression ^(http\:\/\/www\.balug\.org\/) --exclude Exclude regular expression http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/ _________________________________________________________________ Page created by [2]Checkbot 1.75 on Sat Jul 15 13:04:57 2006. [3]Valid XHTML 1.1! References Checkbot: report for server www.balug.org Go To: [1]Main report page, [2]301 Moved Permanently, [3]302 Found, [4]404 Not Found, [5]500 Internal Server Error, [6]903 URL contains double slash in URL. _________________________________________________________________ 301 Moved Permanently [7]http://www.balug.org/ + [8]http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/installfest + [9]http://mods.postnuke.com/ + [10]http://www.bxxp.org/bxxp + [11]http://www.c2net.com/ + [12]http://www.gnu-designs.com/palm+linux/ + [13]http://www.imap-partners.net/ + [14]http://www.linuxgazette.com/ + [15]http://www.linuxmafia.com/cabal/ + [16]http://www.suse.com/ + [17]http://www.wholewheatradio.org/ 302 Found [18]http://www.balug.org/ + [19]http://www.objfocus.com/ Moved Temporarily + [20]http://www.qlitech.net/products/laptops/index.html + [21]http://www.secondlife.com/ + [22]http://www.sw-soft.com/ + [23]http://www.thematrix.com/ Moved Temporarily + [24]http://www.valinux.com/ + [25]http://www.vonage.com/ 404 Not Found [26]http://www.balug.org/ + [27]http://balug.org/ml/balug-talk/msg00357.html + [28]http://phpwiki.sourceforge.net/phpwiki-wiki(1.3)/images/p ng.png + [29]http://www.art.unt.edu/ntieva/artcurr/japan/wabisabi.htm + [30]http://www.balug.org/index.php?module=Legal%20Documents + [31]http://www.balug.org/index.php?module=Legal%20Documents&f unc=privacy + [32]http://www.balug.org/meetings/kidslinux.pdf + [33]http://www.balug.org/meetings/kidslinux.sxi + [34]http://www.balug.org/meetings/mar1998/index.html + [35]http://www.balug.org/meetings/mar1998/speak32598.html + [36]http://www.balug.org/meetings/may1998/index.html + [37]http://www.balug.org/meetings/sep1998/speaker998.html + [38]http://www.balug.org/meetings/ssh1.zip + [39]http://www.balug.org/scripts/cookie_auth.gz + [40]http://www.balug.org/scripts/kernelnew1.sh + [41]http://www.balug.org/scripts/kernelnew2.sh + [42]http://www.balug.org/scripts/ppp1.gz + [43]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images/favicon.ico + [44]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images/icon.png + [45]http://www.google.com/company.html 500 Internal Server Error [46]http://www.balug.org/ + [47]http://tcl.apache.org'/ Can't connect to tcl.apache.org':80 (Bad hostname 'tcl.apache.org'') + [48]http://www.cdrom.com/ Server closed connection without sending any data back + [49]http://www.linuxcare.com/ Can't connect to www.linuxcare.com:80 (Bad hostname 'www.linuxcare.com') + [50]http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?LikePages + [51]http://www.yggdrasil.com/ Can't connect to www.yggdrasil.com:80 (connect: Connection refused) + [52]http://www.yourhost.yourdomain/images/picture.png Can't connect to www.yourhost.yourdomain:80 (Bad hostname 'www.yourhost.yourdomain') + [53]http://www2.parasoft.com/jsp/home.jsp Can't connect to www2.parasoft.com:80 (connect: timeout) 903 URL contains double slash in URL [54]http://www.balug.org/ + [55]http://www.balug.org//modules/phpWiki/images/rss.png + [56]http://www.balug.org//modules/phpWiki/images/wikibase.png + [57]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_0.gif + [58]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_1.gif + [59]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_2.gif + [60]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_3.gif + [61]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_4.gif + [62]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_5.gif + [63]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//mn_6.gif + [64]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_0.gif + [65]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_1.gif + [66]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_10.gif + [67]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_11.gif + [68]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_12.gif + [69]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_13.gif + [70]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_14.gif + [71]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_2.gif + [72]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_3.gif + [73]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_4.gif + [74]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_5.gif + [75]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_6.gif + [76]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_7.gif + [77]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_8.gif + [78]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//sidebox_9.gif + [79]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//top_0.gif + [80]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//top_1.gif + [81]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//top_2.gif + [82]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//top_3.gif + [83]http://www.balug.org/themes/Tekkno/images//top_4.gif _________________________________________________________________ Page created by [84]Checkbot 1.75 on Sat Jul 15 13:04:57 2006. [85]Valid XHTML 1.1! Quoting Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>: > Thanks for volunteering. > > I'm not aware of much/anything in the way of database stuff to do > presently, but regarding the site in general, you might start with some > of these items. > > Get yourself subscribed to the "admin" list <balug-admin(a)list.balug.org> > http://lists.balug.org/listinfo.cgi/balug-admin-balug.org > It's probably a fairly good idea to read/skim a moderate bit of past > archives (e.g. about the last 1 to 3 years). > You can also grab those from the archives: > http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/ > if you grab the gzipped stuff, and gunzip those, they're in mbox format, > so those could be browsed/skimmed with most mail client software, if > desired ... can probably also just concatenate them all into one long > mbox format file (something like that may be more convenient than trying > to browse lots of them via the web interface). > > Anyway, reviewing a fair bit of the "admin" archives will give you a > fairish overview of various issues which have been discussed and such. > > Probably good to also likewise at least skim the Subject: lines for the > last year or so of of the "announce" and "talk" lists. > > On the website itself, you probably want to look it over and get > familiar with the various portions of it. Some are probably in the dead > to semi-dead range - e.g. haven't changed in a very very long time, and > may not have been actively used for similarly long time. Opinions might > differ on this, but perhaps some of those could be turned into static > archives, rather than exist as "dynamic" stuff that nobody updates or > actively uses (other than looking at older/historic stuff). > > It's probably a *good* idea to preserve backwards compatibility, in > terms of content. E.g. folks do find, reference, search out, link to, > etc., various stuff on our web pages, so, preserving most of that > functionality - at least in terms of preserving references, can be quite > useful. Unfortunately some older stuff has been lost and/or > significantly munged (e.g. I've been active with BALUG since sometime in > 2003, and since then the mailing lists have gone through 3 very > different configurations, and in at least some cases access to the older > archived stuff has been effectively lost (I think the data still exists, > but not in a format we've been able to make use of)). > > The most active areas (at least in my opinion and as far as I can tell) > are the lists, and a few relatively "high level" web pages on the site. > Most notably (interpreting / tersely paraphrasing) there are the lists: > "announce" - low volume, moderated, "highly" important/relevant stuff to > BALUG (e.g. information about upcoming meetings/speakers, etc.) > "talk" - open unmoderated (must be subscribed to it) discussion (should > be reasonably topical to BALUG, but we haven't carved out a highly > specific policy for that list.) Traffic volume varies from quite > quiet, to very active. > "admin" - administrivia - basically for discussing (it's publicly > archived) BALUG administrivia stuff (the "business" of running > BALUG). Stuff that shouldn't be publicly accessible should go in > private e-mails (e.g. often communications to/from prospective > speakers arranging speaking engagements, passwords (unless very > strongly encrypted), etc.) > > I think we've got a fairly reasonable handle on the lists and their > management presently, so that's probably mostly okay. What could > probably use more attention is the website itself. > > It's hosted by Dreamhost, so, as long as that's the case, and the > interfaces are as they are, we can't go in a freely muck about with and > change things in any and/or all ways we might want to. Unfortunately, I > don't think we have, or know that we have a way to set up a "beta" or > "test" site, such that it would effectively be a copy, yet would have > the same interfaces when it comes to changing stuff - so that we could > safely test out changes without mucking up the main site. Unfortunately > some of the interfaces definitely leave things to be desired - not only > do we not have the lower level control of the site, but it is possible > (e.g. via a HTML error) to introduce error(s) into the site that cannot > be corrected via the same interfaces that introduced the error(s) (at > least from what I've been told and seen thus far anyway). So, ... one > does need to be rather to quite careful with at least some types of > changes on the web pages - at least given our current interfaces to > manage them. > > If you poke around some of the Dreamhost support and related web pages, > that'll also give you a rough idea of what we can and can't do, and how, > and also the types of problems/issues others have run into under our > present hosting arrangement. > e.g.: http://www.dreamhost.com/support.html and related pages. > > There's been occasional talk of switching to a rather/quite different > hosting arrangement. For that to be feasible, however, various > conditions would need to be met, e.g.: > o it would need to be quite affordable > o it would need to be rather/quite reliable (e.g. probably in a colo) > o it would need to be "sufficiently easy" to maintain - a web hosting > situation (such as dreamhost) may not give us the flexibility and direct > access we might like, but it saves someone from having to also do all > the OS and hardware maintenance, etc. Covering the OS and hardware > isn't particularly trivial ... unless that's just someone's N+1th > similar system (real or virtual) in an existing large managed set of N > systems - otherwise it's a fair bit of time and work for some person(s) > to cover, and do so reliably and regularly. > > > Yes, ... Post Nuke, ... get yourself set up with a login on the web site > using the New User? Sign Up! link on the main page, continue to get > yourself familiar with the site, and one of us with admin access to > the site can then grant that access to you presuming we're then settled > upon that. > > Again, thanks for your interest in volunteering to assist with this. > > Quoting mikron <mikron1234(a)gmail.com>: > > > Hi Michael, > > > > It was interesting to hear about the state of the BALUG website last > Tues, > > and I look forward to contributing to a fix up. > > > > I took a quick peak at the site, and discovered what content management > > system it runs on. It uses Post Nuke, and I discovered that by looking > at > > the HTML source meta tags. The post nuke site is here: > > http://postnuke.com, > > and a demo site is accessible here: > > > http://www.opensourcecms.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=130&Item… > > > > Presumably, someone has an admin login so we can manipulate our content. > > > > Not sure what the next step is, but at least we know what we are dealing > > with. > > > > Mike > ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0

Fwd: Re: BALUG website [BALUG stuff to do (site, etc.)]
by Michael Paoli 18 Jul '06

18 Jul '06

Now, the Cc: would have worked better if I didn't typo (or mis-copy/paste) the address. ----- Forwarded message from Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu> ----- Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 16:30:16 -0700 From: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu> Subject: Re: BALUG website [BALUG stuff to do (site, etc.)] To: mikron <mikron1234(a)gmail.com> Thanks for volunteering. I'm not aware of much/anything in the way of database stuff to do presently, but regarding the site in general, you might start with some of these items. Get yourself subscribed to the "admin" list <balug-admin(a)list.balug.org> http://lists.balug.org/listinfo.cgi/balug-admin-balug.org It's probably a fairly good idea to read/skim a moderate bit of past archives (e.g. about the last 1 to 3 years). You can also grab those from the archives: http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/ if you grab the gzipped stuff, and gunzip those, they're in mbox format, so those could be browsed/skimmed with most mail client software, if desired ... can probably also just concatenate them all into one long mbox format file (something like that may be more convenient than trying to browse lots of them via the web interface). Anyway, reviewing a fair bit of the "admin" archives will give you a fairish overview of various issues which have been discussed and such. Probably good to also likewise at least skim the Subject: lines for the last year or so of of the "announce" and "talk" lists. On the website itself, you probably want to look it over and get familiar with the various portions of it. Some are probably in the dead to semi-dead range - e.g. haven't changed in a very very long time, and may not have been actively used for similarly long time. Opinions might differ on this, but perhaps some of those could be turned into static archives, rather than exist as "dynamic" stuff that nobody updates or actively uses (other than looking at older/historic stuff). It's probably a *good* idea to preserve backwards compatibility, in terms of content. E.g. folks do find, reference, search out, link to, etc., various stuff on our web pages, so, preserving most of that functionality - at least in terms of preserving references, can be quite useful. Unfortunately some older stuff has been lost and/or significantly munged (e.g. I've been active with BALUG since sometime in 2003, and since then the mailing lists have gone through 3 very different configurations, and in at least some cases access to the older archived stuff has been effectively lost (I think the data still exists, but not in a format we've been able to make use of)). The most active areas (at least in my opinion and as far as I can tell) are the lists, and a few relatively "high level" web pages on the site. Most notably (interpreting / tersely paraphrasing) there are the lists: "announce" - low volume, moderated, "highly" important/relevant stuff to BALUG (e.g. information about upcoming meetings/speakers, etc.) "talk" - open unmoderated (must be subscribed to it) discussion (should be reasonably topical to BALUG, but we haven't carved out a highly specific policy for that list.) Traffic volume varies from quite quiet, to very active. "admin" - administrivia - basically for discussing (it's publicly archived) BALUG administrivia stuff (the "business" of running BALUG). Stuff that shouldn't be publicly accessible should go in private e-mails (e.g. often communications to/from prospective speakers arranging speaking engagements, passwords (unless very strongly encrypted), etc.) I think we've got a fairly reasonable handle on the lists and their management presently, so that's probably mostly okay. What could probably use more attention is the website itself. It's hosted by Dreamhost, so, as long as that's the case, and the interfaces are as they are, we can't go in a freely muck about with and change things in any and/or all ways we might want to. Unfortunately, I don't think we have, or know that we have a way to set up a "beta" or "test" site, such that it would effectively be a copy, yet would have the same interfaces when it comes to changing stuff - so that we could safely test out changes without mucking up the main site. Unfortunately some of the interfaces definitely leave things to be desired - not only do we not have the lower level control of the site, but it is possible (e.g. via a HTML error) to introduce error(s) into the site that cannot be corrected via the same interfaces that introduced the error(s) (at least from what I've been told and seen thus far anyway). So, ... one does need to be rather to quite careful with at least some types of changes on the web pages - at least given our current interfaces to manage them. If you poke around some of the Dreamhost support and related web pages, that'll also give you a rough idea of what we can and can't do, and how, and also the types of problems/issues others have run into under our present hosting arrangement. e.g.: http://www.dreamhost.com/support.html and related pages. There's been occasional talk of switching to a rather/quite different hosting arrangement. For that to be feasible, however, various conditions would need to be met, e.g.: o it would need to be quite affordable o it would need to be rather/quite reliable (e.g. probably in a colo) o it would need to be "sufficiently easy" to maintain - a web hosting situation (such as dreamhost) may not give us the flexibility and direct access we might like, but it saves someone from having to also do all the OS and hardware maintenance, etc. Covering the OS and hardware isn't particularly trivial ... unless that's just someone's N+1th similar system (real or virtual) in an existing large managed set of N systems - otherwise it's a fair bit of time and work for some person(s) to cover, and do so reliably and regularly. Yes, ... Post Nuke, ... get yourself set up with a login on the web site using the New User? Sign Up! link on the main page, continue to get yourself familiar with the site, and one of us with admin access to the site can then grant that access to you presuming we're then settled upon that. Again, thanks for your interest in volunteering to assist with this. Quoting mikron <mikron1234(a)gmail.com>: > Hi Michael, > > It was interesting to hear about the state of the BALUG website last Tues, > and I look forward to contributing to a fix up. > > I took a quick peak at the site, and discovered what content management > system it runs on. It uses Post Nuke, and I discovered that by looking at > the HTML source meta tags. The post nuke site is here: > http://postnuke.com, > and a demo site is accessible here: > http://www.opensourcecms.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=130&Item… > > Presumably, someone has an admin login so we can manipulate our content. > > Not sure what the next step is, but at least we know what we are dealing > with. > > Mike ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0

Anyone want to add anything to announcement to go out *real soon now*?
by Michael Paoli 16 Jul '06

16 Jul '06

Anyone want to add anything to announcement to go out *real soon now*? Unless someone beats me to it I'll send out announcement regarding Tuesday's meeting and also mention of next month's meeting. Anything else we should add? I'll probably get it out within the next two hours.

3 5

July Meeting reminder needed.
by Larry Platzek 15 Jul '06

15 Jul '06

Could we have a reminder for our July 18th meeting? Thank you! Larry Platzek larryp(a)inow.com

2 1

(forw) RE: UNIX/Linux Management Opportunity - Google
by 'Rick Moen' 10 Jul '06

10 Jul '06

Passing along... ----- Forwarded message from Amy Klein <aklein(a)google.com> ----- From: Amy Klein <aklein(a)google.com> To: 'Rick Moen' <rick(a)linuxmafia.com> Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:48:48 -0700 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353 Subject: RE: UNIX/Linux Management Opportunity - Google Hi Rick: I am going to be going on an extended vacation until most likely August/ September. When I get back, I will see if I can get a speaker for your meeting. Until then, enjoy your summer! Regards, Amy -----Original Message----- From: 'Rick Moen' [mailto:rick@linuxmafia.com] Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 5:14 PM To: Amy Klein Cc: balug-admin(a)lists.balug.org Subject: Re: UNIX/Linux Management Opportunity - Google Quoting Amy Klein (aklein(a)google.com) > Hi Rick: > > Thank you for getting back to me! > > Question for you...How large in your group? > What type of topics are you looking to be presented? Hi, Amy. The group's attendence tends to vary a lot based on topic and (presumably) conflicting events. Meetings are held at the upstairs banquet room of a Chinatown restaurant (the Four Seas) that can accomodate several hundred people, and the speaker's presentation follows a banquet-style dinner. (The speaker eats courtesy of the audience, of course.) Typical BALUG meeting attendance is about 50 people -- sometimes more, sometimes fewer. The audience is predominantly technical, so the best sorts of presentations are likewise, e.g., presentations about aspects of Linux and open source at Google, or Chris di Bona doing his talk about the Summer of Code program, or Marc Merlin talking about Exim (both friends of mine <grin>). Odds are, if a topic would be interesting to Google's own engineers and sysadmins, it would be to BALUG's membership, too. I am not actually the person who handles speakers for BALUG, but I'll be forwarding our mail to the people who do (CC'd). Thank you for your interest in BALUG! ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0