ALE Mailing List: ale@ale.org
Our ALE Central Meeting presentation for
Thursday, September 13th, 7:30pm will be:
“An Intro to Web Application Design
with Django”
presented by Ben Chapman, Emory Law School
with Chris Heisel, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Ben Chapman, head of information technology for Emory Law School,
will introduce us to Django from the perspective of an intermediate-level
programmer with a concrete business problem to solve. Chris Heisel helps
manage web services for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and will be
offering an additional view of Django development from a large scale
enterprise angle, while lamenting the challenge of recruiting good, web
savvy, Python programmers who understand the Open Source model.
[hint, hint]
Django itself is a BSD license Open Source project providing a “high-level
Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean,
pragmatic design.” The introduction will give a quick overview of what
Django development is like, using as its example the creation of a
classroom “dashboard” system for faculty and staff that allows them to get a
quick overview of class rosters and allows them to contact students and
perform other classroom-related tasks. Tools used will be Django, Python,
MySQL, and Apache, all running on a Centos 4.5 box.
For more background on Django, please see the
Django Project Home Page.
============================
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School are at the
Central Meeting link on the side bar.
ROOM NOTE:
We should be back in our regular meeting
space, bottom floor lecture room 1c.
In recognition of California’s recently released report
on their independent testing and successful hacking
of the same zero evidence Diebold computer election
systems which we are forced vote with here in Georgia…
Our ALE Central Meeting presentation for
Thursday, August 9th, 7:30pm will be:
“Invisible Ballots vs Open Voting:
The Challenge of Exposing Computerized
Election Fraud”
a Documentary Screening and Discussion
moderated by Aaron Ruscetta in association
with Defenders of Democracy
Synopsis:
. Â The presentation will use segments from the documentary
“Invisible Ballots” as discussion points for the various technical
and ethical concerns surrounding the electronic voting issues.
. Â Special focus will be given to Georgia’s corrupting influence
as the first State to allow a private corporation to monopolize
its entire public election process using costly, proprietary
computer voting systems that, by design, provide no public
means of exposing software failures or election fraud.
. Â For contrast and comparison, the presentation will consider
the options in legitimate and transparent election processes,
examining the importance of Open Source system software
and the work of the Open Voting Consortium, a group that
helped motivate the recent University of California “red team”
testing of computer voting systems.
Bio:
. Â Aaron Ruscetta has been a participating member of ALE
since migrating to the Linux platform in 1999. He regularly
contributes to the community as an Event Coordinator and
Central Meeting Moderator. Â He has been studying election
systems and voting rights issues extensively since January,
2003. As a founding member of the Defenders of Democracy
voter advocacy organization he has presented on the topic of
electronic voting for various events and for numerous groups
including the Atlanta Freethought Society, Electronic Frontiers
Georgia and the InterZ0ne computer security conference. As
a volunteer citizen lobbyist he has also provided professional
testimony on voting system issues at State election board
meetings and several Georgia Assembly committee hearings.
Related Links:
— Article on California Red Team Testing
— Defenders of Democracy
— VoterGA (lawsuit to stop zero evidence elections)
— Open Voting Consortium
============================
Meeting time frame is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School are at the
Central Meeting link on the side bar.
** ROOM NOTE **
We will be meeting in room 5F (top floor
of Gambrel Hall) due to renovations of the
1st floor lecture rooms. The 1st floor east
side entry may be locked – use the 2nd floor
entry by the library.
============================
Our ALE Central Meeding presentation for
Thursday, July 12th, 7:30pm will be:
“Fun with Drupal 5:
Beyond Content Management”
Presented by Elmer Masters
Synopsis:
In the context of the current projects I’m working on, I’ll
talk about setting up Drupal multisites, sharing database
tables between sites, using external authentication, managing
content and users, customizing content-types, building
modules, and a bit of theming, time permitting.
Generally, I’ll expose that Drupal is not merely a content
management system, but functions well as a complete web
development framework and platform.
Bio:
By day Elmer Masters is the Director of Internet
Development for the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal
Instruction ( CALI, http://www.cali.org ) where
he is currently heading up a one-man project to move all of
CALI’s web resources to Drupal.
By night, he is also an admin of the Teknoids mailing list
and website ( http://www.teknoids.net ) and
occasionally blogs at http://www.content4.symphora.com/.
==============
Meeting time is 7:30pm to ~9:30pm
Directions to Emory Law School are at the
Central Meeting link on the side bar.
** ROOM NOTE **
We will be meeting in room 5F (top floor
of Gambrel Hall) due to renovations of the
first floor lecture rooms.
ALE-NE March Meeting – July 5, 2007 7:30PM – NO MEETING
No Meeting this month! Enjoy 4th of July!
Announcing the
Supersized Atlanta Linux Install Fest
and Social Forum Support Spectacular
Saturday, June 16th, 10:00am to 6:00pm
at Taylor Letter Service,
385 Northyards Blvd. NW, Atlanta
An Open Source Software project from members of
the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts and the USSF Information
and Communications Technology group in support of
the the U.S. Social Forum event being hosted in Atlanta
from June 27th through July 1st!
http://www.ussf2007.org
Please join us for some free treats and beverages and
help install GNU/Linux on over 60 reclaimed computers!
Bring your own systems for installation and tech support!
Help to raise computer literacy on a global scale!
EVENT DETAILS:
The global community supporting Freedom Friendly Linux
and Open Source Software will have an active presence at this
year’s global community conference for promoting Freedom
Friendly ideals of social justice, democracy and civil liberty.
In keeping with the principles of the Social forum, the vision
of the USSF Information and Communication Technology
team (ICT) is a free and open source powered infrastructure
to provide Internet access and communications support for
media, administrative and public information functions
throughout the U.S. Social Forum event.
The USSF ICT team is currently on task to prep, install and
deploy from 60 to 90 reclaimed PIII computers for use as
Linux workstations at the forum’s main Civic Center venue,
so they are hosting, in association with members of the
Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts and other Georgia Open Source
software groups, The Supersized Linux Install Fest and Social
Forum Support Spectacular.
While the support project is the primary focus of the event,
this will still be a regular Linux Install Fest as well, so everyone
is invited to bring their own systems for installation, trouble
shooting, or just to show off.
Everyone will also be welcome to present their systems for
a fast network install of the USSF’s slightly customized (32bit)
version of the latest Ubuntu distro. [ For network installs we
are requesting minimum system requirements of a PIII 750mhz
processor, 256meg memory, working (bootable) CD rom drive,
10gig hard drive, 10/100 nic and VGA Graphics support of
1024×768 screen resolutions ].
Many monitors, keyboards and mice will be available for
everyone’s use. Some free food and free beverages will be on
hand in keeping with the free software and free thinking of all
the participants in the Supersized Linux Install Fest and
Social Forum Support Spectacular!
ALSO PLEASE NOTE that donations or loans of 10/100 network
distribution hardware and cabling for use at the forum will be
very greatly appreciated!
LOCATION DETAILS:
Taylor Letter Service, 385 Northyards Blvd. NW, Atlanta is
located near the Georgia Tech Campus and Coca-Cola
headquarters, just off of North Avenue near it’s intersection
with Northside Drive. Northyards Blvd. is a cul-de-sac and
Taylor Letter Service is at the last driveway on the road.
For any additional information needs, please contact:
Aaron Ruscetta
( ICT, ALE, LNS )
404.315.0406