November 2007 - BALUG-Admin

BALUG Event Announcement Emails
by Andrew Fife 01 Dec '07

01 Dec '07

Dear All: Based on a couple of email conversations that I had with Rick Moen last week (both on the balug_admin list and privately), I'd like to touch base with the rest of the group regarding the use of other LUG's mailing lists for BALUG announcements. As such I'm not going to do a reminder email blast of other LUG's lists for tomorrows event. The basic concern is some people on specific LUG lists don't like other LUGs posting their events. The rational is "If I wanted BALUG announcements, I'd subscribe to the BALUG announce list." I have personally only heard this complaint from Rick, and my gut tells me that his in the minority, but I don't want to be naive to the fact that others may share his sentiment so advice/opinions here would definitely be appreciated. The problem is that other LUGs mailing lists are a great way for BALUG to get the word out and abandoning them will make it quit difficult to let folks know about all of the great speakers we have lined up for 2008. My proposed solution, that I believe Rick supports, is to contact the organizations individually and ask them how to handle their lists. Thoughts? -Andrew ---------------------------------------- Andrew Fife Untangle - Open Source Security Gateway download.untangle.com 650.425.3327 (O) 415.806.6028 (C) afife(a)untangle.com

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January 2008 Meeting Poster
by Andrey Kuznetsov 27 Nov '07

27 Nov '07

Hi, could someone who has the template create a poster for the month of January 2008. That way I can print it out and present to the computer lab at CCSF, and see where I can post it with the example on hand. Thanks -- deathowl(a)gmail.com - http://kandrey89.dyndns.dk Live Long and Prosper, by Andrey Kuznetsov aka "Death Owl"

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BALUG also on virtual host provided by Untangle.com; ...
by Michael Paoli 26 Nov '07

26 Nov '07

Still a work in progress, but ... check it out: http://www.balug.org/ http://www1.balug.org/ http://www2.balug.org/ So, what's going on? http://www.balug.org/ is legacy site (hosted by DreamHost.com) http://www1.balug.org/* is (new.balug.org.) on the sf-lug.com. box http://www2.balug.org/** is virtual host I installed Sunday (on resources provided by Untangle.com) Excepting some legacy materials, contents from http://www.new.balug.org/ automagically*** propagate to the two other sites. The longer term goal (hopefully not too horribly far off) is to complete successful extraction of legacy content we care about from the DreamHost.com site (along with smooth migration of mail lists), and to have (at least) two hosts provide the BALUG services (for failover and/or relatively high availability). Anyway, we're a few steps closer to that now, with our third (and second non-DreamHost.com) host (virtual host in this case). Note that the DNS names shown here may be subject to change (e.g. www.balug.org should persist, most other names may be subject to change). * I haven't adjusted its redirect rules since I added www1.balug.org, so it takes that host name it doesn't recognize, and redirects to its default canonical name for that webserver on that IP ** still lots more configuration to do there ... it just serves up the pages loaded there with a nearly default configuration. *** via some rsync scripts and use of ssh with ssh keys; in general, changes should propagate within approximately 15 minutes or less

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Re: [Balug-Admin] updated flyer?
by Michael Paoli 20 Nov '07

20 Nov '07

Thanks for the updated flyer. It's now available on-line at: http://www.balug.org/flyers/2007-11-20.pdf PDF is "fine" (or at least okay) format, ... and relatively defacto standard for presentation format (generally quite consistent rendering). For some odd reason though, GIMP (at least version I was dealing with) wasn't handling it okay ... but xpdf (also open source) would render/display it just fine. And as "attachment" is fine too. Quoting Andrew Fife <afife(a)untangle.com>: > I think PDF is pretty common way of sharing documents across various > platforms, but if attaching the flyer causes confusion, I'm cool with > leaving it off. > > The new(er) version of the November flyer is attached. My version of the > text is a mix of several people's, but I've included copies in both .pdf & > MS Publisher so that folks can make changes if they wish. MS Publisher > licenses aren't that common and I don't know of an open source equivalent, > but if anyone else does, please let me know and I'll convert & > redistribute the file.

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Re: [Balug-Admin] BALUG Website Update
by Michael Paoli 20 Nov '07

20 Nov '07

My comments/replies in-line, some of the referenced stuff very slightly edited (e.g. some personal information removed) And I'm putting this one on the list (so, use due care if one hits Reply-all, as the list is publicly archived) - see also one of my comments towards the end of this e-mail (one is also not obligated to reply on list). Andrew - I'm also Bccing you - you ought to be subscribed to the "admin" list, but it appears you're not subscribed. Quoting Andrew Fife: > Hi Xavier & Michael: > > Just a quick note to check in regarding website issues and ask whether or > not you guys have been able to figure out getting Xavier root access to > the dreamhost box so that he can help work on the website. Well, you might want to check with the technical folks / sysadmins on some of this stuff first ... None of us have nor will we have root access on DreamHost.com ... period. Only DreamHost admins have that access. It's a hosted service. There's a lot of stuff we *can't* do there, and *don't* have access to change - or in some cases even view/inspect (e.g. http.conf) there. Nevertheless there's still a fair amount we can do there to get by at least semi-reasonably until we're set to completely move off of DreamHost.com. Work is significantly progressing - though it may not be highly visible at the casual glance. I alluded to at least some of this in some e-mail(s) I sent approximately last weekend or so. For those that might have bothered to peek (e.g. any and/or all of BALUG's webmasters (Andrew - you're on the alias to keep you informed of that stuff too, but you don't have the access to the stuff (and probably best that way, as we can much better use your skills and time in other areas)), things *are* changing. E.g. the webmasters now have much more freedom to change stuff on: http://[www.]new.balug.org/ http://[www.]beta.balug.org/ I've also added subdomain test.balug.org, and there's also http://[www.]php.test.balug.org/ (for our PHP volunteer(s) to muck around with trying some PHP fixes and such there (the PHP environment is also definitely not yet fully configured/available)). Though it might not be readily apparent, if one peeks a bit closely and/or looks at the configurations, they have separate DocumentRoot, so their pages can be mucked about with relatively independently. I did also set up earlier mechanism to automagicly update main page on http://[www.]balug.org/ from http://[www.]new.balug.org/ ... that's still in place, but I have in mind mechanism to expand that, so that "all" (with some very limited and clear exceptions) changes/updates including changes on pages and also adding/droping pages on http://[www.]new.balug.org/ would get relatively quickly (e.g. within 15 minutes or less) have their same changes made to http://[www.]balug.org/ It's still a work in progress, but it's not too horribly far away from having those capabilities (fairly likely I'll get that wrapped up this coming weekend). For those webmaster(s) that haven't peeked and/or played with it, poke around on the new.balug.org. host - you can change *most* stuff in http://[www.]new.balug.org/ and http://[www.]beta.balug.org/ ... do note however that if something is changed on the main page of http://[www.]new.balug.org/ it *will* cause that change to get propagated to http://[www.]balug.org/ I may also setup http://[www.]test.balug.org/ as an additional area (e.g. for doing non-production (and non-beta) tests (http://[www.]new.balug.org/ should be treated like production, as it does (presently a bit) and will (quite a bit more not too horribly far into the future from now) automagicly (at least by default) propagate most all its changes to the production http://[www.]balug.org/ web site. Anyway, I'll provide a bit more details on that stuff once it's slightly more settled (it's still a work in progress - much of that work having gotten done between last weekend and this week). > Also, I recently bought the following urls: > > Bayarealinuxusersgroup.com/.net/.org > Bayarealinuxusergroup.com/.net/.org Uhm, ... I presume you mean domains, ... but in any case, ... well, we might be able to do *something* with those, ... but perhaps not nearly as useful to us as you might have guessed/presumed. You might want to ask "us" (technical / sysadmin) folks a bit more about that first ... but that's a slightly moot point now. We could point those to the new.balug.org. host, or the to be hosted by Untangle virtual host or wherever ... could point them at one of the already separate areas on the new.balug.org host, or create yet additional separate NameVirtualHost setups on that host as may be desired. I think we should create as many separate areas as makes sense for their respective separate functions/uses ... but probably not more than that, otherwise we have inactive unnecessary gunk hanging out there. > Maybe we should forget about <registrant> and just setup a redirect to one > of these URLs. That way the legacy web server issues won't get in the way > of effectively switching hosts and at least getting up cosmetically > prettier interim site up. A) Catch-22 - redirect won't remove dependency, can't do an HTTP redirect without httpd.conf access - and we don't and won't have that on DreamHost.com, and meta redirect wouldn't work very well and has all the preceding problems and more. We can't move balug.org. off of DreamHost.com without a bit of assistance from <registrant> (I need to do a bit more follow-up on that again ... not critical to us *yet*, but will be at some point in our future). B) As noted in some earlier e-mails, I think we've got a good game plan for being able to do a much better site, while still allowing us to recover the legacy stuff and migrate critical legacy stuff (e.g. lists) without inducing undue pain for over 400 BALUG list subscribers. > What do you guys think? A) Have some patience, we're getting there, but not overnight. I'd guestimate by late this year / early next year we'd be set to fully migrate off of DreamHost ... but that's an approximate guestimate. I'd think a fair bit sooner than that (e.g. mid to late this month, perhaps significantly sooner) we'll be well poised to be able to make lots of changes to our web pages - and rather easily (add/drop changes pages, with any of the webmasters being able to do so). I also anticipate we'll soon have much better access "completed" for webmasters to be able to pretty darn freely muck about with most any relevant content that they should be able to change. B) Xavier - have a poke around http://[www.]beta.balug.org/ You should be able to go relatively hog wild changing things on there as the whim may strike you (I had in mind to plop copy of the pages you did there as one reference starting point ... but haven't gotten around to it yet, ... I think I've an older copy sitting around somewhere, but not sure if that matches whatever current version you may have on your ftp site). Also keep in mind (we'll probably want to "discuss" this) I've also got some ideas on how to do the web pages ... I really like much of what Xavier's done (and stuff Mae Ling Mak has also drafted), but I've got some ideas too, ... I think by combining a number of features of both we can probably get what's likely a "best of both worlds" - or at least nearly so. If you have a peek at the relevant configuration files (world readable) and sudo -l, you should get a pretty darn good idea of what you can do and where (feel free to ask me/us if anything isn't particularly obvious - between BALUG trying to keep things sufficiently separate from SF-LUG to avoid accidental interference, and multiple NameVirtualHost setups, and some redirects, there may be a few layers to look through to get familiar with how things are configured and where the various pieces are). C) Andrew - those bayarealinuxusers?group\.{com,net,org}\. domains you acquired - we should have a discussion about what you may wish to do with them, and what's technically feasible ... then figure out from there what we may care to do with them. D) Those domains you bought - as long as they're already bought and paid for, we probably ought to at least point them to something useful, ... in the meantime they basically look like a highly unimpressive parked site page (mostly a bunch of advertising). ... they're using DNS wildcard records too, ... so, ... we've got an exceedingly large number of (sub)domains that all lead to quite unexciting web pages. E) I also think, where feasible, we should do more of these communications on applicable publicly archived lists (dropping specific bits as/where appropriate, etc.). I think, where feasible, having the conversations in "public" has several general advantages: * others can catch up more quickly (point them at the archive) * it's often easier to find/reference earlier items (search out / provide URL) * it's more visible: * more folks see it, others might suggest useful stuff that we might not have considered or may have forgotten or overlooked, etc. * other folks can lean from what we do/attempt (what works, what doesn't, what is/isn't feasible (and why), etc. * and (e.g. for the "admin" list) folks can generally be more informed of some of the bits and pieces that are going on "inside" BALUG (e.g. this may be one of the more public items I've done in quite a while that gives folks a better "feel"/understanding of where we are (and aren't, and have yet to go) on doing many of the balug.org changes we wish to do. "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - Henry Louis Mencken "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein

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BALUG history/archives
by Michael Paoli 15 Nov '07

15 Nov '07

I did manage to retrieve a fair chunk of older BALUG history/archives. Thanks to The Internet Archive, I got what would seem to be much of the older mail list materials. Covering from approximately 1997-01-27 through approximately 2001-02-11. We have the list materials from 2001-06-15 going forward. The gap from 2001-02-11 through 2001-06-15 might be "lost" or very hard to obtain ... unless we find someone who saved an e-mail archive that includes that. That gap is likely from when the Internet Archive made its last pass over the older mail list locations, and when those locations were last used. On 2001-06-15 the lists picked up starting at a new location. There's still a fair bit of other material to retrieve. Some of the quite old web stuff (which can still probably be pulled from The Internet Archive - I've gotten much of that already, but have some other pieces to retrieve) ... and there's much of the more mid-timeframe range web content (e.g. meeting minutes and materials and lots of other useful/interesting stuff) ... from roughly 2003-09 through 2007-05 ... most of that is "trapped" behind some broken PHP/MySQL on our "legacy" site, ... there may also be some stuff that may be difficult to infeasible to find towards the early end of that range - most notably from the prior site from last pass of The Internet Archive through to the last changes on that older site before it went away and was replaced with the newer site. Anyway, I/we will likely make these older materials available (at least what we've got or been able to retrieve thus far) in the not-too-horribly-distant future. Would be nice to also close in the gaps of thus far missing or not presently accessible materials ... at least as much as feasible, anyway.

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BALUG November Announcements
by Andrew Fife 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

BALUG Volunteers: Michael Paoli & I mailed the November announcement to the following LUG mailing lists (see below) and we have planed to send reminders on Sunday or Monday. Quick Question: Does anybody know if BayLISA, East Bay LUG or Stanford LUG have mailing lists? If so, links to their registration pages would be much appreciated, as I have not been able to find them. Lastly, I have to say that I thought Bill Kendrick's post to balug-talk on November 10th regarding LUGOD was the best LUG announcement message I have seen yet. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery so I borrowed a lot of his style in sending out the message. LUGs mailed for Nov Meeting: SVLUG SFLUG PenLUG Bay Area Debian BayPIGgies SMAUG SoCoSA CABAL BUUG SFO BUG SF Perl Mongers NB LUG BaySec BAFUG Oakland Perl Mongers ---------------------------------------- Andrew Fife Untangle - Open Source Security Gateway download.untangle.com 650.425.3327 (O) 415.806.6028 (C) afife(a)untangle.com -----Original Message----- From: Michael Paoli [mailto:Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu] Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 4:30 AM To: balug-sc(a)balug.org Subject: RE: BALUG Nov. (etc.) annoncement Anyway, ... hopefully you all got/saw it, but in any case the announcement is out: http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2007-November/00 0095.html Quoting Michael Paoli <Michael.Paoli(a)cal.berkeley.edu>: > Well, I don't see the announcement out there yet, ... so, ... I'll > be sending it out very shortly unless I see any indication not to do > so. Hopefully I've incorporated "enough" of folks suggestions that > it will reasonably please most ... but seems infeasible to please > everyone 100% - so it's a bit of a compromise from various bits of > input and suggestions. > > Quoting Michael Paoli: > > > Anyway, to make getting the announcement out a bit easier, I also > > added these two folks: > > Andrew Fife <afife(a)untangle.com> > > Jesse Zbikowski <embeddedlinuxguy(a)gmail.com> > > as being able to post to the "announce" list unmoderated - i.e. > > you can now post it there directly yourself. I picked and added > > the two noted above, as, in addition to myself, they're doing most > > of the on-line posting/e-mailing/event listing publicity anyway. > > > > Also, I did slightly update the "announce" list policy and stuff, to > > clarify and improve it a bit based on various uses and intended uses, > > and feedback and suggestions from "announce" list subscribers (including > > also many of Rick Moen's excellent suggestions). > > The (slightly updated) policy can be seen here: > > http://lists.balug.org/listinfo.cgi/balug-announce-balug.org > > ... most notably, keep the "volume" down - probably aim for only 2 > > postings to the "announce" list per month, with a max of 3 (sort of > > hold the 3rd in reserve, in case the meeting venue burns down > > or Linus decides to pay visit to our meeting on short notice).

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(forw) 66 Balug-Talk moderator request(s) waiting
by Rick Moen 12 Nov '07

12 Nov '07

So, this illustrates why I had the retention period for pending moderator requests dialed down to 3 days (the length of a holiday weekend), and why the recent increase to 21 days strikes me as a bad idea: Dreamhost's spam-blocking is really terrible, so the held-postings count was at 66 today and was obviously heading upwards. So, I've reduced the retention period for all three mailing lists, once again, this time to 5 days. I do read my mail, and so will not fail to see notices of held legitimate postings, except perhaps once in a blue moon when I'm actually able to get away on holiday. ;-> ----- Forwarded message from balug-talk-bounces(a)lists.balug.org ----- From: balug-talk-bounces(a)lists.balug.org To: balug-talk-owner(a)lists.balug.org Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:02:37 -0800 Subject: 66 Balug-Talk moderator request(s) waiting The Balug-Talk(a)lists.balug.org mailing list has 66 request(s) waiting for your consideration at: http://lists.balug.org/admindb.cgi/balug-talk-balug.org Please attend to this at your earliest convenience. This notice of pending requests, if any, will be sent out daily. Pending posts: From: tiaoewaomfd(a)tom.com on Sun Nov 4 09:33:32 2007 Subject: ??!!??????????!!????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mihomiho333(a)so-net.ne.jp on Sun Nov 4 16:23:22 2007 Subject: ??????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mihomiho333(a)so-net.ne.jp on Sun Nov 4 16:23:23 2007 Subject: ??????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Sun Nov 4 18:05:26 2007 Subject: ??????100?OFF?? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: baomi204(a)163.com on Sun Nov 4 21:33:00 2007 Subject: ??????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: kkkkkkthkghfyhkk441(a)yahoo.de on Sun Nov 4 22:48:48 2007 Subject: ?????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: kkkkkkthkghfyhkk441(a)yahoo.de on Sun Nov 4 22:49:30 2007 Subject: ?????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: kasami21(a)so-net.ne.jp on Sun Nov 4 23:27:35 2007 Subject: ??????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: kasami21(a)so-net.ne.jp on Sun Nov 4 23:27:41 2007 Subject: ??????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Mon Nov 5 01:49:48 2007 Subject: ?GS????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: sakurasaku_0325_hy(a)yahoo.de on Mon Nov 5 01:59:23 2007 Subject: ???????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mayumi00(a)ocn.ne.jp on Mon Nov 5 02:00:26 2007 Subject: ???????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Mon Nov 5 02:45:13 2007 Subject: ???????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Mon Nov 5 03:46:30 2007 Subject: ???????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mit_soco(a)sohu.com on Mon Nov 5 06:13:01 2007 Subject: ?GS????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: gaojie0323(a)sohu.com on Mon Nov 5 06:34:58 2007 Subject: ?????????1????????????????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: neteast_mit(a)yahoo.com.cn on Mon Nov 5 11:50:55 2007 Subject: ????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Mon Nov 5 11:51:00 2007 Subject: ????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: leigywox4(a)a-net.ne.jp on Mon Nov 5 21:53:29 2007 Subject: ??????100?OFF?? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mlkjppxzra4(a)a-net.ne.jp on Tue Nov 6 01:33:11 2007 Subject: ??????100?OFF?? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Tue Nov 6 01:36:25 2007 Subject: ?24?? ?????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: balug-talk(a)infoseek.jp on Tue Nov 6 02:14:04 2007 Subject: ??????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: balug-talk-balug.org(a)msn.co.jp on Tue Nov 6 02:14:08 2007 Subject: ??????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mafan57(a)yeah.net on Tue Nov 6 02:47:05 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Tue Nov 6 03:14:21 2007 Subject: ?24?? ?????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Tue Nov 6 07:51:35 2007 Subject: ???????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Tue Nov 6 09:31:46 2007 Subject: ???????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: guojie230(a)163.com on Tue Nov 6 15:08:34 2007 Subject: ??????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: service(a)paypal.com on Tue Nov 6 16:41:36 2007 Subject: Your account has been flagged! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: nana77nana(a)so-net.ne.jp on Tue Nov 6 17:21:57 2007 Subject: ????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: nana77nana(a)so-net.ne.jp on Tue Nov 6 17:22:33 2007 Subject: ????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Wed Nov 7 00:38:27 2007 Subject: ????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Wed Nov 7 00:38:46 2007 Subject: ????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: taibian07(a)126.com on Wed Nov 7 06:08:30 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: sanlao202(a)sina.com on Wed Nov 7 09:56:53 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Wed Nov 7 10:24:06 2007 Subject: ?GS????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Wed Nov 7 11:09:14 2007 Subject: ?GS????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: sfh793(a)163.com on Wed Nov 7 15:29:07 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Wed Nov 7 23:11:39 2007 Subject: ????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Wed Nov 7 23:11:41 2007 Subject: ????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: o05689ok99(a)tom.com on Thu Nov 8 03:48:14 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: baomi201(a)163.com on Thu Nov 8 09:15:38 2007 Subject: ????????????????????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: o05689ok(a)tom.com on Thu Nov 8 15:13:11 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Thu Nov 8 18:18:26 2007 Subject: ?24?? ?????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Thu Nov 8 20:09:53 2007 Subject: ?24?? ?????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: bailao10(a)yahoo.com on Thu Nov 8 23:14:11 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Fri Nov 9 02:36:53 2007 Subject: ?????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: jywvt300gatz(a)yahoo.co.jp on Fri Nov 9 05:26:38 2007 Subject: ????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: neowycom6(a)a-net.ne.jp on Fri Nov 9 06:15:46 2007 Subject: ?????????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: jwcmwtaxzm5(a)a-net.ne.jp on Fri Nov 9 06:16:43 2007 Subject: ?????????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Fri Nov 9 07:27:51 2007 Subject: ?????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Fri Nov 9 17:14:56 2007 Subject: ?????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: cjyoujsd(a)yahoo.com.cn on Fri Nov 9 18:10:49 2007 Subject: ?????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: taibian03(a)yahoo.com on Fri Nov 9 22:17:50 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mit_soco(a)so-net.ne.jp on Sat Nov 10 02:20:16 2007 Subject: ??????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: mit_soco(a)so-net.ne.jp on Sat Nov 10 02:20:21 2007 Subject: ??????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: nanako456(a)sina.com on Sat Nov 10 09:00:45 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: gaojie0327(a)sohu.com on Sat Nov 10 09:16:45 2007 Subject: ???0???????????!!??????????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: bizawards(a)usamsgserv.com on Sat Nov 10 16:53:06 2007 Subject: Annual Conference Information Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: sfh702(a)163.com on Sun Nov 11 03:07:05 2007 Subject: ?????????????????????????????????!! Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: balug-talk(a)msn.co.jp on Sun Nov 11 04:21:44 2007 Subject: ??????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: balug-talk-balug.org(a)hotmail.co.jp on Sun Nov 11 04:22:23 2007 Subject: ??????????? Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list From: baomi202(a)163.com on Sun Nov 11 13:20:22 2007 Subject: ??????????????????? 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BALUG web site update (infrastructure, etc.)
by Michael Paoli 12 Nov '07

12 Nov '07

I think it's been a while since I put a bit of information on the list about some of the infrastructure updates. Anyway, though perhaps a bit slow, some of the plans are continuing to well progress. Most notably, as of quite recently (this weekend), at least a fair number of the earlier plans have now been implemented (though I should still round out and catch up on some documenting of it, but hopefully it's mostly relatively self documenting (e.g. those that have the access to change the relevant stuff generally also have the access to at least read the configurations to see how most, or nearly all of the pieces are tied together)). Anyway, webmaster (I'll use webmaster to refer to webmaster(s)) should have significantly improved access to be able to change stuff - including the production [www.]balug.org - at least indirectly, anyway. Starting from production [www.]balug.org and working backwards ... There's now in place a crontab driven rsync script, which propagates appropriate changes from [www.]new.balug.org to [www.]balug.org. [www.]new.balug.org is essentially pre-production staging area - stuff dropped there gets propagated to production ([www.]balug.org.) within approximately 15 minutes or less. webmaster has rather free reign over the contents of [www.]new.balug.org. Also, to avoid unintentionally clobbering legacy stuff in production (from which we still wish to extract some important content), various filters are in place on the rsync to prevent accidental clobbering, and also, in the DocumentRoot for [www.]new.balug.org, various ownerships/permissions are set such that webmaster can't place something where it couldn't be (safely) propagated to production. So, ... effectively, webmaster has relatively free reign in [www.]new.balug.org and that automagically propagates to production. This also affords a fair amount of safety and security, as the present production environment is rather fragile (there's no easy way to separate out webmaster and sysadmin roles in the present production, and the effective sysadmin access could easily by accident or intention destroy lots of stuff there that would be infeasible to impossible to restore/correct - we hope to more fully correct that situation in the future, but that's at least where we still stand presently - at least in part). Then there's also [www.]beta.balug.org. There are actually multiple levels of webmaster - one level that has access to do stuff that propagates to production, and one that doesn't. Only the lower level of access is required (at least presently) to change stuff in [www.]beta.balug.org. At least presently, similar to [www.]new.balug.org. it has various ownerships/permissions in place such that webmaster can't place something where it couldn't be replicated to [www.]new.balug.org and propagated to production. [www.]beta.balug.org may also be highly suitable for placing stuff we don't presently want propagated to production - e.g. for larger archival materials (such as audio recordings of past meetings) where due to space it may not be advisable presently to copy those to production - but we can well accommodate those larger items in [www].beta.balug.org. There's also [www.]test.balug.org - a scratch/test area. webmaster has even fewer limitations there - e.g. permissions/ownership allow webmaster almost completely free reign in the DocumentRoot of [www.]test.balug.org. Anyway, much of this is done via the following various mechanisms: * Apache NameVirtualHost configurations * appropriate separation of roles/users/groups, use of sudo, etc., e.g. the DocumentRoot for one of the webmaster IDs/roles: $ id; ls -ld . uid=10742(balugwm2) gid=10742(balugwm2) groups=10742(balugwm2) drwxrwsr-t 4 root balugwm2 4096 Nov 11 20:39 . $ * along with carefully crafted IDs, access, and ssh configurations, some carefully crafted crontab driven rsync scripting, e.g.: http://www.balug.org/.www.balug.org_rsync.txt (it's not actually run from that location, but the script is readable from there to aid webmaster in understanding exactly what's happening in production and how things propagate from [www.]new.balug.org to [www.]balug.org) A fair bit of the communication has also taken place off-list, but here's some more bits of earlier on-list communication references: http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2007-September/00040… http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2007-September/00041…

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[DRAFT] BALUG 2007-11-20: James Burgett, "ACCRC+Linux: Keeping computers out of Landfills"; etc.
by Michael Paoli 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

[ Note this is DRAFT for announcement. Flyer isn't present at the URL shown ... yet. If I don't get an updated flyer, I may make some edits on the older version and then use that. I did include mention of the door prizes - but kept it very brief. Anyway, I hope to have the "final" version out this evening / tonight, or 2007-11-07 A.M. I also tried to better approximate RFC 1153 message digest format, as that may make reading in many mail clients a bit more convenient and user-friendly. ] Contents: Bay Area Linux Users Group (BALUG)[1] 2007-11-20: James Burgett, Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC)[2]: "Free Software, The Environment, Social Welfare, and the Digital Divide" RSVP door prizes Other upcoming BALUG meetings references (about BALUG, time, location, etc.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For our 2007-11-20 BALUG meeting we are pleased to present: James Burgett, Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC)[2]: "Free Software, The Environment, Social Welfare, and the Digital Divide" flyer[3] (PDF) to help promote the event James will recount the path ACCRC has taken as it's grown in the last five years to reclaim and reuse computers, peripherals, and other electronic devices people donate. In general, ACCRC gives computers to individuals and worthy organizations without charge or strings. ACCRC uses Linux on the systems it gives away and has developed quite a bit of expertise in installing various Linux distros on various (old) hardware. ------------------------------ Planning to come to BALUG meeting? Please e-mail us a note at: rsvp(a)balug.org indicating meeting date and if more than just yourself the number of folks you're RSVPing for, etc. See also: http://www.balug.org/#RSVP[4] Thank you for RSVPing if you're planning to attend. ------------------------------ Door prizes[6]! Yes, we have at least the following for door prizes: _Pro Oracle Database 10g RAC on LINUX_ ISBN: 1-59059-524-6 _Practices of an Agile Developer_ ISBN: 0-9745140-8-X ------------------------------ Other upcoming BALUG meetings We also have quite a lineup of speakers/presentations for BALUG meetings. Not only do we have James Burgett, ACCRC[2] as noted above, but we also have the following lined up for the months ahead - be sure to check out our website http://www.balug.org/[1] for more details and the latest updates. If you're not already subscribed to the BALUG "announce" list[5], be sure to subscribe to be notified of these and future announcements. 2007-12 (no meeting in December this year) 2008-01-15 Eric S. Raymond 2008-02-19 Bruce Perens 2008-03-18 (TBD) 2008-04-15 Eric Allman ------------------------------ references: 1. http://www.balug.org/ 2. http://www.accrc.org/ 3. http://www.balug.org/flyers/2007-11-12.pdf 4. http://www.balug.org/#RSVP 5. http://www.new.balug.org/#Lists door prizes (past and coming up): 6. http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2007-August/000401.h… meeting time, location, and lots of other great BALUG information: Bay Area Linux Users Group (BALUG) http://www.balug.org/

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