As part of ALE’s recognition of the scheduled October 19th release
of Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy” and in consideration of the upcoming
Ubuntu GA / ALE Install Fest set for November 10th, our monthly
ALE Central Meeting on Thursday, October 11, 2007 will be:
“Planning the Future of Ubuntu Server”
presented by Rick Clark
Ubuntu Server Team Manager,
Canonical, Ltd
Synopsis:
This presentation will provide an overview of the current and potential
directions for the Server Edition distribution of Ubuntu Linux. The talk
will address the new features found in Ubuntu Server 7.10, plus look
at some of the tentative plans for development of the 8.04 release.
Discussions will also include details of the strategic partnerships that
Canonical has entered into, with a special focus on the Vmware
components. The Ubuntu Server team is also very interested in
learning what features ALE members would like to see in their
professional Server OS, so open discussion will be encouraged.
Bio:
Rick Clark has complete engineering responsibility for the Ubuntu Server
Edition as manager of the Ubuntu Server Team for Canonical Ltd, the
company behind Ubuntu Linux. Prior to his involvement with Ubuntu, Rick
worked in various system and security architecture roles for large financial
institutions and pharmaceutical companies. In the 1990’s, Rick owned and
operated an ISP in Gainesville, Florida. In 1995 he helped with the creation
of linuxnewbie.org, and a few years later founded linuxiso.org.
Links:
Ubuntu Server Info
Ubuntu-US-GA
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!