Our feature presentation for the
Thursday, April 17, 2008, 7:30pm
ALE Central Meeting will be
Powerful Presentations
by Derek “Goozbach” Carter
Synopsis:
— A properly designed presentation can be extremely powerful.
From bedtime stories as children to computer slide shows at
work, we can all recall examples of presentations that were
effective, interesting , entertaining and educational
As common fare at conferences, user group meetings and public
events, presentations are also a big part of in the Open Source
movement. Involvement in this community gives us quite a
few opportunities to present on the advantages and use of Open
Source software for both our professional colleagues and the
general public.
This talk will examine how a proper presentation is more than a
concern for keeping the audience awake. We will cover every
consideration, from preparation to handouts, computer slide
shows to no slides at all, handling “that AL guy in the second row”
to “Wowing the room.” You might even learn what a “bathroom
review” is.
This presentation on presentation was designed to be effective,
interesting , entertaining and educational, so we’re promising
you won’t be disappointed!
Bio:
— Derek Carter (goozbach as his online friends know him) is active
participant in the Open Source community. Part-founder of two
Linux users groups. A former Linux instructor for Guru Labs (The
industry leader in hands-on Linux training). He has taught Linux
classes all over the United States, and the world for such companies
as Red Hat, IBM, Novell, HP, Lockheed Martin and others. Derek
has been actively using Linux as his primary OS since 1999. He’s a
certified RedHat instructor and examiner. He’s also a Star Wars
geek who has been known to dress up as obscure characters and
wait in line for the premiers.
====
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm in lecture room 1C
of the Emory Law School, Gambrell Hall building.
Directions to our Emory Law School venue can be found
HERE (or via the side bar link).
Our third Thursday, March 20th, 7:30pm
ALE Central meeting presentation will be
Bringing Asterisk on Campus
with presenter
Brian MacLeod
Synopsis:
For Georgia Gwinnett College, the question was not whether to switch
to IP telephony or not, but whether to continue doing IP telephony on
a $40,000/year proprietary system or to migrate to an open source
system where support is less than $1,000/year. While the choice looks
obvious, the path was not always this clear. Brian will present the
road GGC followed from idea to fully functional, operation critical
status.
Bio:
Brian MacLeod is a Linux System Administrator and developing VOIP geek
at Georgia Gwinnett College. He has worked for several University
System of Georgia institutions that have called Lawrenceville home.
============================
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).
A Couple of Notes regarding this month’s meeting:
First, a reminder that we moved our regular ALE Central meeting
dates to the THIRD Thursday of each month starting in 2008 to
better accommodate scheduling of our Emory Law School venue.
Also, due to many distractions from reviving the ALE Mailing
List and Server, we were not able to arrange a feature presentation
for this month’s meeting. Given the state of communications with
the group I didn’t want to cancel the meeting or move it to a social
venue without better notice, and instead am inviting ALE to
experiment with a more interactive meeting format. So….
The Exploratory Activities for the February 21st, 2008
ALE Central Meeting will include:
— Laudable Linux Tricks and Amazing Apps
— Baffle the Brain Trust
— Celebrating the Server and ALE Admin Volunteers
— The Emacs vs VIM Cage Match and/or Juggling Exhibition
…featuring informative presentation and entertaining participation
from everyone interested in contributing their talents.
Synopsis:
— Laudable Linux Tricks and Amazing Apps: A chance to
show and share the tools, programs, scripts or applications
that you’ve found most useful or interesting in your work
and play with GNU Linux.
— Baffle the Brain Trust: A casual forum for querying the
group’s knowledge base about any aspects of Linux that you
may be curious about. This will also provide an opportunity
to request topics for future meeting presentations.
— Celebrating the New Server and ALE Admin Volunteers:
Light refreshments will be provided to toast the revival of
ALE’s web presence and appreciate all the folks who
continually donate the time and resources that keep on
keeping us together (in a totally anarchist kind of way).
— The Emacs vs VIM Cage Match and/or Juggling Exhibition:
If things go according to plan, Charles Shapiro will be bringing
clubs. The choice of which activities they will used for will be
up to him.
Bios:
— Every GNU Guru participating in this ALE meeting will
be certifiable.
============================
We will be meeting in Gambrel Hall room 1C.
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 accommodate room scheduling at our provided venue we
have moved our ALE Central meetings to the THIRD Thursday
of each month starting in 2008.
Our January 17th, 7:30pm meeting presentation will be
 “Meshing Around with the OLPC XO Micro”
with presenters
  Charles Shapiro & Mike Harrison.
Â
Synopsis:
  “Meshing Around” will be a casual exploration of the anxiously
awaited XO micro laptop created by the One Laptop Per Child
project. Â At least 2 (and perhaps as many as 5) of the recently
released devices will be on hand for a variety of feature demos,
design discussions and hacking hints focusing around this
most unique and high minded Linux project.
Bios:
  Charles Shapiro is a fan of fencing, juggling, gadgetry, RC toys
and most anything the lesser world considers “geek” or “gear head”.
Consistent to this calling he has been a professional programmer for
over 10 years, specializing in C and unix with a couple years of C++,
Perl and a plethora of Python in the mix. He can type faster than
most people can talk, is a Linux Lunacy Cruise alumnae, a liberty
minded friend of the EFF and a committed Linux zealot since 1996.
  Mike Harrison originally trained as a USAF BioMedical Electronics
Technician and spent several civilian years as a Consulting Clinical
Engineer. Â Later he left the hospital/corporate world and founded
Higher Technology Services (HTS) in 1989, Chattanooga Online in
1993 and GeekLabs in 1998. Mike sold his interest in HTS and COL
in 2003 and made GeekLabs his business focus. Mike’s interest in
the OLPC is focused toward 2 separate coding projects — an online
educational system and a utility payment/control system that may
both be available to OLPC users in the near future.
============================
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).
Having received no objections to the idea of moving
the monthly ALE Central meetings to the Third Thursday
of each month, the new schedule is being implemented
beginning this month.
The first ALE Central meeting of 2008 will be held
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17th, 7:30 pm at our usual
Emory Law School, Gambrel Hall, rm 1C venue.
The main presentation will be a close up look at
the One Laptop Per Child portable solid state Linux
computer. Charles Shapiro and Mike Harrison were
among the bleeding edge adopters and will be sharing
their hacking attempts and explorations of the device
to date.
Complete synopsis and bio details to follow soon.