I'll be putting web stuff together (mostly just have to edit script
outputs from live demo portions to make them much more reasonably
readable ... most of the stuff will look like the handout materials /
"slides" ... except it's considerably more legible when viewed directly in
electronic form). On the web stuff, I'm thinking likely two locations -
one on space I have with an ISP, and (presuming BALUG webmaster and such
are agreeable) one somewhere on the BALUG web site. Presumably, at least
initially, the materials (at least what I provide) would be identical.
I'd guestimate the BALUG site may augment it with additional BALUG
related materials (e.g. your summation, some photo images from event,
etc.) ... and where I plop my "personal" (publicly accessible) copy
might have a tendency to evolve over time (like if I reuse the
presentation at another time/place, or update its information, etc. - so
it wouldn't necessarily be forever specifically tied to the 2005-05-17
version of the presentation).
Glad to hear you're writing up a summation. Feel free to run it by me to
check for any technical corrections or such (if folks want to see it up
relatively "fast" - particularly if it's on web rather than list - could
always get it there first, and it could always be tweaked/corrected as
warranted later).
Uhm, I tend to keep my "work" and "personal" e-mail relatively separate
(sometimes even chopping a message in two) ... likely some of the other
bits will be responded to separately within a week or so. Anyway, a
"reply" on this e-mail (which should use the Reply-to: header in preference
over the From:) should get it to the "personal" (everything that doesn't have
to do with stuff I do for my current employer) e-mail. Interesting, ...
I also notice the BALUG mail/list/archiving software shows the From: in the
archives whereas others (e.g. BAD) preferentially use (if present) the
Reply-to:. I suppose in archive context it may be debatable* which is
the preferable behavior when both fields are present, but their values
differ. E.g.:
http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2005-May…
vs.
http://bad.debian.net/list/2005-May/002860.html
... in both cases the items were sent to the list with Reply-to: as
shows in the BAD archive, and From: as show in the BALUG archive.
*debatable as in - if they're both the same person/entity, showing the
Reply-to: value probaly makes more sense. But if they are quite distinct,
showing the From: would probably make more sense (as the archived item,
showing only one, and without the header, seems to imply a sense of who/what
the item is from, rather than where replies should go - particularly if
the intent is to send replies to a distinct entity) ... differentiating
between the two cases highly reliably would be sufficiently challenging for
wetware, and likely infeasable to implement in a highly reliable manner
in software.
reference excerpts (yes, (semi-)random snippage may occur):
Quoting @wellsfargo.com:
> ... and stuff ...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathryn Tate
> Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 11:17 PM
> To: @wellsfargo.com
> Subject: and stuff....
>
> You did a great job of describing LVM,
>
> Question: It is my responsibility to post a summation of your lecture
> on our website. Are you also providing material for the website?
>
> Please advise,
> Kathryn
I may want to tweak/update the details on this after 2005-05-17, but from
earlier (2005-04-19) bits of testing and observations, this is what I come
up with for a write-up of our video capabilities at Four Seas Restaurant
(suitable for informing potential presenters of, etc.)
video hookup for BALUG presentations at Four Seas Restaurant
This is what we have available at the Four Seas Restaurant
3rd Floor Banquet Facility "The China Room"
There is relatively high (~20 ft.) ceiling mounted video projector and
screen above the 3rd floor bar area. Down near the stage area, where
we have access to connect video input to go to the projector, the only
inputs we appear to have available are for composite video, with RCA
type connector. It seems the video projector just handles NTSC.
BALUG has available to it a USB powered video converter, that takes as
input analog VGA/SVGA via a DE-15M (it also has a pass-through DE-15F
available for external monitor, etc.), and has NTSC SVHS and composite
(RCA plug) video outputs.
Note that this video converter seems to only convert and output to NTSC
video, about the upper left 640x480 of VGA/SVGA input, though it seems
to accept at least some higher resolution inputs (I tried these
resolutions:
1400x1050 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600 640x480)
all of them seemed to provide successful* conversion of the upper left
640x480 region.
Areas of the screen beyond the upper left 640x480 seem to be ignored as
far as conversion goes. Basic LINUX text console
80x25 text (VGA output) also appears to convert fine*.
Since all this is converted from VGA/SVGA to NTSC, resolution isn't all
that superb. Also, since there isn't an integral conversion between
input lines/pixels and NTSC scan lines and horizontal resolution, Moire
patterns and other undesirable effects can result with too fine a
detailed pattern. I'd estimate, for best results, the finest details
intended to be visually resolvable should generally be larger than two
NTSC scan lines ... working back to VGA/SVGA pixels/lines, that would be
three or more lines/pixels, as minimum width/resolution for adequate
projected video resolution.
80*x25 text makes marginally(/barely) readable display. To the extent
feasible, most objects/text/lines/details, etc. should generally be
larger to make for reasonably readable projected display.
*It may be the converter, and/or the video setup (projector, etc.), but
some of the extreme regions of the 640x480 and/or 80x25 area may be
slightly trimmed or lost somewhere before they make it to the projection
on the screen. For example, with 80x25 LINUX virtual console text, I
found only about the first 79.5 of the 80 characters of width were
displayed on the screen projection.
Due to resolution limits, distance to screen, etc., most of the general
advice/information about sufficiently large display elements, text, etc.
is probably relatively good advice to follow - or at least pay adequate
attention and consideration to.
references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moirehttp://www.fourseasr.com/pdf/3flrplan.pdfhttp://www.fourseasr.com/floorplans/3flrplan.gifhttp://www.fourseasr.com/http://www.balug.org/
Okay, ... announcement about the presentation has gone out on the announce list.
Might be good to link these snipets of text on the main BALUG web page:
Michael Paoli is presenting LVM (Logical Volume Managment.
presentation by Michael Paoli about the Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
to the URL for the more detailed announcement:
http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/balug-announce-balug.org/2005-May…
Okay, ... for meeting announcement and web link(s), etc.
Hopefully what I've included below can be used quite directly (I also
include suggested subject for the announcement e-mail). Anyway,
hopefully someone can grab these tasks and do them fairly soon:
* send e-mail to balug-admin-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org that you will
send the announcement to balug-announce-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org
(that way we hopefully avoid multiple folks sending the same
announcement to balug-announce-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org)
* check the balug-admin-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org archives that you're
first to claim the above task (avoid race conditions)
* send the item out to balug-announce-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org
* once the item has been sent to
balug-announce-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org and appears in the archives,
create link(s) where appropriate (key references to the presentation)
on the http://www.balug.org/ page to the archived
balug-announce-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org announcement.
========================================================================
Subject:
BALUG May 17th presentation: LVM (Logical Volume Manager)
========================================================================
For the BALUG May 17th meeting, we will feature a presentation on
Logical Volume Manager (LVM) on LINUX by Michael Paoli.
BALUG and meeting general information (location, time, dinner cost,
etc.) can be found on the BALUG web site:
http://www.balug.org/
About Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and the presentation:
LVM allows for rather powerful and flexible management of hard drive
space. Rather than mostly having to deal with physical disks and
partitions, with LVM, one creates logical volumes, which can then be
used to contain filesystems or other data.
With logical volumes, one can relocate and resize logical volumes
while the data they contain is in use, and in general, without regard to
partition boundaries or disk sizes - as logical volumes can also span
multiple disks. This can make LVM a very power tool, for example
allowing one to:
* grow a filesystem while it's in use (if the filesystem type supports
growing it on-line)
* relocate in-use data (filesystem or whatever) to different physical
device or type of storage (for example, take a filesystem that is in
use and move it between different types of storage (e.g. among
non-RAID, RAID-5, RAID-1 or RAID-0+1 devices))
* more efficiently manage multiple filesystems on systems from those
with large numbers of disk storage arrays through those with as little
as a single hard drive
The presentation also promises to include a live demonstration of use of
LVM on LINUX, and also a bit of information about volume management
software in general on LINUX and UNIX platforms.
About Michael Paoli, our presenter for this event:
Michael Paoli has been doing UNIX systems administration for well over a
decade, has been using volume management software for about 9 years, has
been using doing LINUX systems administration for almost 7 years, and
has been using LVM on LINUX for about 2 years.
========================================================================
Wouldn't it be more appropriate (presuming it's feasible) to have a
"Beta" test area, on the same system, but, for example, using a
different port (e.g.:
http://www.balug.org:8080/
)
Key advantages:
one could test on the same system, and when things were found to be
sufficiently "better", they could be migrated from test ("Beta") to
"Production" (primary web site area and related URLs).
The process could be repeated as necessary to make incremental
improvements (and possibly even rather to quite large changes too).
Avoids most of the issues of having to shift between different systems and
issues of accounting for inherent differences between systems (e.g. hardware).
Isn't it also more appropriate for most of these discussions to be on
balug-admin-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org
rather than
balug-talk-balug.org(a)lists.balug.org
... after all, I'd think most subscribers to balug-talk probably aren't
so interested in these administrivia e-mails being on balug-talk,
particularly if they aren't fairly interesting/topical in a general
LINUX or BALUG (as in meetings, presentation, general discussions of
things LINUX and/or BALUG) context.
Quoting Michael Hubbard <michael(a)offroadgeek.com>:
> > (There doesn't seem to be alot I can do against the small font and
> > cluttered layout.
>
> That's because you don't know how to properly manipulate postnuke.
>
> > Every time I work with postnuke I imagine how much
> > nicer it'd be to open kedit to an .html file across (s)ftp and be done
> > with it.)
> >
> Why don't you just create a new balug website with similar functionality
> and find a new host for the site, then I'd be happy to help with getting
> dns changed over to the new server.
>
> By the way, all of the data in the current wiki (phpwiki) would need to
> be moved to the new site too.
And yes, I'm confirming for the presentation for the BALUG 2005-05-17 meeting.
For the web site ... hmmmm, might first want to correct the presently
self-contradictory text (or whatever/however it was generated):
"The next meeting is today (Tuesday, May 17th) at 7pm"
Anyway, for at least a short(?) little blurb to update the web site, at
the moment, you can add this on there (or if this is way too long, see
the shorter alternative version further below):
"
For our May 17th meeting, we will have a presentation by Michael Paoli
on Logical Volume Manager (LVM) on LINUX. LVM allows for rather
powerful and flexible management of hard drive space. Rather than
mostly having to deal with physical disks and partitions, with LVM, one
creates logical volumes, which can then be used to contain filesystems
or other data. Unlike physical hard drives or partitions, however,
logical volumes can be relocated - including to other physical disks -
while the data is in use, and logical volumes can also be resized,
again, while their data is in use (provided whatever is using the data
can handle that - e.g. this can be very powerful for filesystem types
that can be grown with the filesystem mounted). Also, unlike
partitions on physical hard drives, when one grows a logical volume,
one generally only needs available space in the volume group (which is
composed of whole disks devices and/or partitions), and avoids all the
typical issues of resizing a partition (with partitions, one needs
contiguous available space after a partition to grow a partition). One
can also span multiple physical disks with a logical volume, and thus
have filesystems that are larger than the physical disk size. These
are some of LVM's powerful capabilities. The meeting presentation also
promises to include live demonstration of some of LVM's capabilities.
"
Anyway, ... that should do for a, ... uhm, ... "short" blurb on the web
site. If it's quite too big to be feasible to go there, perhaps
alternatively, this would do:
"
For our May 17th meeting, we will have a presentation by Michael Paoli
on Logical Volume Manager (LVM) on LINUX. LVM allows for rather
powerful and flexible management of hard drive space (e.g. relocating
mounted filesystem to another hard drive or growing it without
particular regard to partition boundaries, etc.). The meeting
presentation also promises to include live demonstration of some of
LVM's capabilities.
"
I'll also put together a bit more polished text that can be used for
BALUG-announce, etc. Expect that within a week (holler if you need it
sooner).
references/excerpts:
http://lists.balug.org/private.cgi/balug-admin-balug.org/2005-March/000017.…
I'll bring laptop for the 2004-04-19 meeting.
If we have there whatever we need to hook it up for video/projector,
I should be set to run some tests - checking on optimal resolution for
whatever we'd be using for presentation. If that works reasonably well,
I could then put together presentation materials for 2004-05-17 meeting
(or a later date if there's something else we'd rather do for the
2004-05-17 meeting). That would also allow us to know what resolution(s)
are optimal for our setup, so we could pass that information on along to
future presenters and potential presenters.
For video output ports, my laptop has:
VGA (SXGA+)
SVHS (I've not tested that, and not planning to anytime soon)
DVI - but only via docking station (which I haven't obtained)
Anyway, VGA type output is probably least common denominator in terms of what
most folks coming in with a laptop (or other computer) would have for doing
a presentation, so it's probably most useful to test against that anyway.
references/excerpts:
http://lists.balug.org/private.cgi/balug-admin-balug.org/2005-March/000017.…http://lists.balug.org/private.cgi/balug-admin-balug.org/2005-March/000020.…
I'd be glad to help with the mailing list and Web site. I've been with
BALUG since the beginning, and am an experienced Mailman listadmin and
Linux sysadmin.
(One thing I'm bad at, so please don't ask: Lining up speakers.)
I've taken out an account on the wiki, and joined this list and the new
incarnation of balug-talk on the "lists.balug.org" host. I'm reading
docs on Postnuke.
Some concerns:
1. balug-talk's archive has always been publicly accessible. Suddenly,
the new one isn't. Problems: (1) It's not what the membership
has always wanted and expected, and (more primarily because) (2) a big
part of the point of answering questions publicly is to advance the
state of collective knowledge, e.g., by people finding the questions &
answers via Web search.
My 2 cents: This change really shoots BALUG in the foot. Please un-do
it ASAP.
2. Host "lists.balug.org" doesn't accept mail to the postmaster account
as required by RFC2821 and numerous other SMTP standards.
(Specifically, it 550-rejects such mail with a "user unknown" message.)
This ensures that mail from BALUG will be (needlessly and avoidably)
discarded or rejected as probable spam, _and_ denies members of the
public to use of a required administrative contact in case there's
something wrong.
(If this is something "dreamhost" screws up globally and is not under
Michael's control, please just say so.)
3. http://lists.balug.org/private.cgi/balug-talk-balug.org/2005-March/
has some mis-parsed entries in it, that appear to be fragments of prior
years' mails to balug-talk. This is almost certainly fixable, but will
require command-line access (to edit the mbox file) and ability to
regenerate the Pipermail archive.
To see what I'm talking about, look at the 15 entries marked "No
subject".
4 As always, CABAL appreciates the calendar link from the BALUG front
page to CABAL events. However, there's no "Sat, March 26 2005" CABAL
event. Because of the desire to help out SVLUG and to avoid Easter
weekend, CABAL's second meeting of the month was this _past_ Saturday,
the 19th.
5. Attempting to bring up the BALUG calendar
(http://www.balug.org/index.php?module=PostCalendar&func=view&tplview=&viewt…)
shows this at the top of the page:
Warning: Smarty error: problem creating directory "modules/PostCalendar/pntemplates/cache/dad8523a2e18f1929871d45a6df8aac5/%%164/%%1643473877" in /home/.bluebellblender/miamlh1/balug.org/modules/PostCalendar/pnincludes/Smarty/Smarty.class.php on line 589
6. BALUG's "next meeting" information's out of date. I'd fix it if I
had access! ;->
