Our Featured Presentation for the
Thursday, Sept. 18th, 7:30pm
ALE Central meeting will be
Embedding Video Clips into OpenOffice.org Impress Presentations
a casual ALE presentation about preparing a presentation about
preparing ALE as prepared and presented by James Kinney
Synopsis:
— Most Linux users know and use OpenOffice.org for creating documents and Impress-ive
presentations. It’s often nice to use embedded video clips as a part of those presentation,
though it’s especially nice when we can capture and prepare those video clips using all
Open Source Linux tools like Kino.
— This will be a practical demonstration of how to do this and how to avoid pitfalls in
keeping the presentation portable. These procedures were learned during the making
of the “Beer in Spaaaaace!” presentation for DragonCon 2008.
— Warning: Video clips of animated beer drinkers may offend the easily offended, though
we can assure our audience that no hops were abused in the making of this presentation
or the brew that accompanied it. Also, a possible linkage between Linux and beer may
appear if it ever compiles.
Bio:
— Jim Kinney shows up at ALE meetings when harrased by Aaron and when he remembers
what day of the week it is. Currently, Jim brews beer and prefers beer over serial ports.
No, really! Once you pour the beer over the serial ports you can go have more beer ’cause
the serial ports don’t work any more. Beer over PS/2 or USB ports may be hazardous to
your health.
— Jim has also been a Linux user since 1993 (Go Slackware!) and a strong open source
evangelist ever since. He masquerades by day as a Linux admin to support his hardware
acquisition addiction. He is actively involved in working to displace the dysfunctional
computer platforms in schools as a founding member of Georgia Open Source Education
Foundation (gosef.org). The group works with community groups such as Boys and Girls
Clubs of America and the Clarkston Community Center to set up Linux thin client systems
to support these groups need for reliable, low cost computing platforms for social support.
Links:
< http://www.Octobrewfest.com >
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We will be meeting in our usual Gambrel Hall room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
HERE (or via the side bar link).
Our Featured Presentation for the
Thursday, August 21st, 7:30pm
ALE Central meeting will be
“Using OpenOffice & Base with External Databases”
— or —
“Poking a Lance at Micro$oft Abscess”
presented by James Kinney
Synopsis:
— OpenOffice.org BASE is the database module initially released with OpenOffice.org version 2.0 and, for simple single user applications, it is currently on the HSQLDB database engine written in Java. However, BASE also has native drivers allowing OpenOffice.org users to connect to external full-featured SQL database servers such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and even Oracle through ODBC or JDBC drivers. OpenOffice.org BASE can hence act as a GUI front end for SQL views, table design and query. In addition, OpenOffice.org has its own Form wizard to create dialog windows for form filling and updates. Our presentation will be looking at some of the ways these OpenOffice BASE connections to external databases can be implemented and utilized for both single user applications and in a multi-user local network environment.
(reference Wikipedia entry on OOo Base)
Bio:
— James has been a Linux user since 1993 (Go Slackware!) and a raving loon about open source ever since. He masquerades by day as a Linux admin to support his hardware acquisition addiction. Outside of work, James spends countless hours tinkering with Linux systems in between long bouts of Linux software testing and researching things to do with Linux systems. He has been known to carry Fedora DVD’s into places that sell computers and give them to innocent bystanders while lecturing about how they should be using Linux and not the other stuff. Occasionally, James brews beer and organizes gatherings of beer drinkers around Linux topics. He is actively involved in working to displace other computer platforms in schools as a founding member of Georgia Open Source Education Foundation (gosef.org) and works with community groups such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the Clarkston Community Center to set up Linux thin client systems to support these groups need for reliable, low cost computing platforms for social support.
— James claims to have a family life as well, one where he is (mostly) tolerated by his wonderful wife, (often) dismissed by his teenage daughter and (usually) worshiped by his pre-teen super-geeky son. In addition to helping feed those mouths, he also feeds a collection of 4 legged creatures that bark or meow and a small orange thing that swims in a tiny tank of water. Of course, his additional claim to a also having stand up comedy career is dubious at best.
Links:
OpenOffice.org BASE page
Tech Tip on curing an Abscess data base by importing to OpenOffice.org BASE
============================
We will be meeting in our usual Gambrel Hall room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
HERE (or via the side bar link).
Our Featured Presentation for the
Thursday, July 17th , 7:30pm
ALE Central meeting will be
Securing Communications with OpenVPN
presented by
Brian MacLeod
Synopsis:
Whether it is at the office, on the campus or at home, secure network
traffic is becoming more and more important. Learn how you can set
up your own basic virtual private network with OpenVPN, and what
advantages and disadvantages might be found in using it.
Bio:
Brian MacLeod is a Linux System Administrator and developing VOIP
geek at Georgia Gwinnett College. When he is not exorcising the
Micro$oft demons or listening to echoes in telephones, he likes to play
around with critical network services to see what he can break…
err… improve.
============================
We will be meeting in our usual Gambrel Hall room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
HERE (or via the side bar link).
To complement the ALE OSPREX development project,
Daniel Howard was invited to share a presentation on his
work in promoting and supporting Linux in educational
environments. Thus our Thursday, June 19th, 7:30pm
ALE Central meeting is:
Bringing Linux to Georgia’s
Schools and Communities:
An Update from the Georgia
Open Source Education Foundation
with presenter Daniel Howard
Synopsis:
Building on the success of a 7 school Enterprise LTSP pilot project
that delivered over 2,000 Linux computer systems to Georgia students
last year, Atlanta Public Schools is expanding their comprehensive
Linux computer program into at least 30 more schools over the next
two years. Now Dekalb County schools have also begun a Linux
classroom pilot, while charter schools, community centers, and Boys’
and Girls’ Clubs all over Atlanta are discovering why Linux is the
superior choice for providing reliable, secure, high performance,
education compatible computing with minimized costs and liabilities.
A great deal of this success is due to the evangelizing, promotion
and support efforts of the Georgia Open Source Education Foundation.
Come get an update on how we’re helping bring Linux into schools
and communities throughout Georgia one venue at a time, and what
a difference it’s making to students and non-profit organizations in the
greater Atlanta area.
Bio:
Daniel Howard is a founder and CEO of GOSEF, a non-profit
group dedicated to promoting and sustaining the use of Open
Source Software in public and non-profit institutions through
advocacy, outreach, support, and recycling of donated hardware.
He has been a dedicated Linux evangelist and supporter since
2004, when he and William Fragakis established a highly successful
computer program at his daughter’s elementary school by converting
aging or dysfunctional Windows classroom PC’s into Linux thin clients
using K12LTSP with dozens of Open Source educational applications.
The substantial improvements in student performance attributed to the
Linux technology at Morris Brandon Elementary convinced
administrators to install Linux student computers throughout the
Atlanta Public Schools system.
For more background, see the GOSEF.org web site.
============================
We will be meeting in our usual Gambrel Hall room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found here.
========
PS: There may be some Linux / ALE related T-Shirts available
at the meeting for a nominal donation that will go to a worthy Open
Source project. Grab a shirt and say “Linux” wear-ever you go!
Our Thursday, May 15th, 7:30pm ALE Central meeting
will be focused on the state of Linux and OSS tools for
music & audio production with a program entitled:
Sound Computing Practices for Linux:
Inside Ubuntu Studio and XO Wave
with presenters
Bjorn Roche and Aaron Ruscetta
Synopsis:
— While Linux has formed a strong presence in almost every realm
of computing, digital media production is a specialty application
arena where Open Source software has only recently begun to offer
competitive options for professionals. Historically, the proprietary
file encoding formats and specialty hardware requirements of digital
media had hindered the development of OSS tools for audio & video
production, but the tide is changing as commodity hardware has
become more media capable and the digital formats have become
more open and standardized.
— Using comparisons to some of the popular commercial software
products available for the de-facto computer platform for pro media
production, Mac OSeX, our presentation will be evaluating a few of
the promising and capable OSS competitors found in Ubuntu Studio
(8.04). In tandem with our look inside Ubuntu Studio, we will be
making more specific platform comparisons as ALE’s Bjorn Roche
discusses the unique challenges he faces in developing XO Wave,
a multi-track audio editing and mastering package that he maintains
both commercially for Mac OSeX and as a free (as in beer) offering
for the Linux community.
Bios:
— Bjorn Roche is a long time Linux user and entrepreneur software
developer specializing in tools for audio production and primarily
working with Java for it’s cross platform strengths. In addition to
creating and maintaining his cross platform XO Wave audio editing
and mastering package, Bjorn has made numerous contributions
to the OSS community. Most significantly, he was an instrumental
developer of the Mac OSeX Core Audio layer which greatly simplifies
and facilitates porting of Open Source audio tools to and from the Mac.
— Aaron Ruscetta is a 30 year veteran of video, audio and computer
media production in all of its incarnations of form and format, both
analog and digital. Working as an independent contractor under his
business moniker of Image Architects for over 15 years has also
allowed him to very flexibly pursue his many computer geek and
videot savant passions, with titles ranging from College Instructor
in Computer Graphics and 3D Animation to Junior Linux System
Administrator to Director of Entropy Containment. Aaron has been
a consistently active contributor to any community that has been
willing to tolerate his eccentricities, serving in numerous officer roles
during 10+ years with the Amiga Atlanta users group and serving with
ALE for several years as an Event Coordinator and Meeting Moderator.
Links:
XO Wave / XO Audio
Ubuntu Studio
============================
We will be meeting in our usual Gambrel Hall room 1C venue.
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School can be found
HERE (or via the side bar link).