Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Boston Linux Meeting reminder, tomorrow, December 18, 2013 - Python for System Administration

When: December 18 2013 7PM (6:30PM for Q&A)
Topic: Python for System Administration
Moderator:Jerry Feldman
Location: MIT Building E51, Room 315

### Please note that Wadsworth St. is still closed.
### Proceed West on Memorial Drive to Ames St. Ames will be
### 2-way during construction. Take a right onto Ames and another right
### onto Amherst.

Summary
Jerry will present various uses of Python as a scripting tool
for System Administrators

Abstract
Python is a very effective scripting language that can be used
for adhoc tasks or major applications. It fully supports
object orientation,classes, and modules. Jerry will demonstrate
how Python was used on the BLU servers to reduce a 1-hour plus
task to one of under 5 minutes. Jerry will also demo a
graphical tool used to manage the BLU hosts. (I use this at
work to manage 40 Unix and Linux systems.
Jerry will show some code examples in C/C++, Perl, Bash and
Python.


For further information and directions please consult the BLU Web site
http://www.blu.org
Please note that there is usually plenty of free parking in the E-51
parking lot at 2 Amherst St, or directly on Amherst St.

After the meeting we will adjourn to the official after meeting meeting
location at The Cambridge Brewing Company
http://www.cambridgebrewingcompany.com/

--
Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90
PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66 C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Boston Linux Meeting Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - Python for System Administration

When: December 18 2013 7PM (6:30PM for Q&A)
Topic: Python for System Administration
Moderator:Jerry Feldman
Location: MIT Building E51, Room 315

### Please note that Wadsworth St. is still closed.
### Proceed West on Memorial Drive to Ames St. Ames will be
### 2-way during construction. Take a right onto Ames and another right
### onto Amherst.

Summary
Jerry will present various uses of Python as a scripting tool for
System Administrators

Abstract
Python is a very effective scripting language that can be used for ad
hoc tasks or major applications. It fully supports object orientation,
classes, and modules. Jerry will demonstrate how Python was used on the
BLU servers to reduce a 1-hour plus task to one of under 5 minutes.
Jerry will also demo a graphical tool used to manage the BLU hosts.
Jerry will show some code examples in Perl, and Bash and Python.


For further information and directions please consult the BLU Web site
http://www.blu.org
Please note that there is usually plenty of free parking in the E-51
parking lot at 2 Amherst St, or directly on Amherst St.

After the meeting we will adjourn to the official after meeting meeting
location at The Cambridge Brewing Company
http://www.cambridgebrewingcompany.com/

--
Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90
PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66 C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Reminder: BLU Desktop GNU/Linux SIG Meeting - Learn Zim - Weds, Dec 11, 2013

When: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 6:30PM

Location: Akamai, 8 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA ­

Directions
http://www.akamai.com/html/about/driving_directions.html
Also easily accessibly by T.

Notes

1) Please note the location is different from BLU's
standard MIT meeting location.

2) Akamai has generously agreed to provide space
and 'free as in food' for this meeting.
Thank you to our sponsor!
http://www.akamai.com/

Summary

Learn Zim: The Free Replacement for Evernote
And Solution to Chaos in Your Life

Abstract

Zim (http://zim-wiki.org) is a desktop wiki and a wonderful
piece of free software that competes well with proprietary
alternatives like Evernote.

As we get ready to head into 2014, why not use Zim to
bring some order to our lives? Zim can be used as a
topic-based notebook, organizer, document editor, journal,
collection manager, and more.

We're fortunate to have Brendan Kidwell as our speaker.
Brendan will start his talk with an introduction to Zim,
followed by an overview of use cases, with a series of
short demos about solving particular problems like:

+ task tracking
+ diary
+ drafting a paper
+ making a web site
+ syncing notebooks across computers
+ and more!

Based on audience interest, Brendan can also answer
questions about his experience building a Windows installer
for the app and contributing to this free software project.

Transportation & Parking

The Akamai office is a short walk from the
Kendall Square T stop and other public
transportation.

Metered parking is normally available near our location.

More Events & Announcements

Python for Systems Administration
Wednesday, December 18 at MIT
http://www.blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2013-dec

Galileo, Linux, and the Internet of Things
Wednesday, January 15, Location TBD
http://www.blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2014-jan

Internet Festival of Things Festival
Saturday, February 22 at MIT
http://www.blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2013-iotfest
_______________________________________________
Announce mailing list
Announce@blu.org
http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

Friday, December 6, 2013

Boston Linux and Unix InstallFest L Reminder Saturday December 7, 2013

Boston Linux Installfest L
When: Saturday December 7, 2013 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: MIT Building E-51, Room 061
2 Amherst St, Cambridge
Plenty of free parking in the parking lot in front of E-51.
http://mitiq.mit.edu/mitiq/directions_%20parkinge51.htm

Please note that Wadsworth Street is under construction. You can enter
Ames St from Memorial Drive, and take a right onto Amherst St.

What you need to bring: Your computer, monitor, power strips and your
Linux distributions. We do have copies of some distributions.
In general we have expertise with most distros, but if you need special
expertise, please email the BLU discussion list in advance. Today, most
distros are using Live CDs that you can try out and then install.
Additionally, CD images can be pushed onto USB sticks using various USB
creators.

COST: It's free! However, we DO have expenses, and contributions are
welcome. Please consider contributing $25 per machine.

Our volunteers will help you to install Linux on your own system. While
Linux runs on most systems, some systems do have configurations and
hardware that may not be supported. Please consult the following web
pages for hardware compatibility. While we prefer you to bring your own
distros, our volunteers will normally have

Linux Howto Pages: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html
Linux Frequently Asked Questions: http://tldp.org/docs.html#faq
Additionally, there are forums and listservs for most distros.

Generally our volunteers have sets of the latest Fedora, SuSE and
Ubuntu distributions:
* Fedora - http://fedora.redhat.com (Fedora 19 DVD/Live CD/USB)
* Open SuSE - http://opensuse.org (OpenSuSE 12.3 - DVD/Live CD/)
* Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com (Rich Redbird 13.04 CD/USB)


We generally have them on local drives and can burn CDs/DVDs and
USBs.Since there are many variants of these distros, we advise you to
bring an empty USB stick with sufficient memory to hold one of the
distros. LiveCD images required under 1GB, full DVD images for Fedora
require about 4GB, and OpenSuSE needs 8GB. I usually have some USBs
prepared.

We generally have both a Wired and Wireless network available. The
wireless SSID at MIT is "MIT".


In addition, you can run Linux on your Windows PC through a virtual
machine manager, such as Virtualbox. You can install this in your
Windows machine and run Linux as a guest OS, or install it in your Linux
machine and run Windows as a guest. VirtualBox 4.2.6.
(http://www.virtualbox.org.) is free and is available for Linux, Windows
8, Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Additionally, there are also
some VMWare clients that are also free for Windows.


Please refer to the BLU website (http://www.blu.org) for further
information and directions. Parking is free and available in front of
the building on Amherst St. Enter the building, and take the elevator to
your left down 1 floor. Room 061 is opposite the elevator.

Lunch is generously sponsored By John Ross and Ron Thibeau, owners,
Bluefin Technical Services.
--
Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846

Monday, December 2, 2013

Boston Linux and Unix InstallFest L Saturday December 7, 2013

Boston Linux Installfest L
When: Saturday December 7, 2013 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: MIT Building E-51, Room 061
2 Amherst St, Cambridge
Plenty of free parking in the parking lot in front of E-51.
http://mitiq.mit.edu/mitiq/directions_%20parkinge51.htm

Please note that Wadsworth Street is under construction. You can enter
Ames St from Memorial Drive, and take a right onto Amherst St.

What you need to bring: Your computer, monitor, power strips and your
Linux distributions. We do have copies of some distributions.
In general we have expertise with most distros, but if you need special
expertise, please email the BLU discussion list in advance. Today, most
distros are using Live CDs that you can try out and then install.
Additionally, CD images can be pushed onto USB sticks using various USB
creators.

COST: It's free! However, we DO have expenses, and contributions are
welcome. Please consider contributing $25 per machine.

Our volunteers will help you to install Linux on your own system. While
Linux runs on most systems, some systems do have configurations and
hardware that may not be supported. Please consult the following web
pages for hardware compatibility. While we prefer you to bring your own
distros, our volunteers will normally have

Linux Howto Pages: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html
Linux Frequently Asked Questions: http://tldp.org/docs.html#faq
Additionally, there are forums and listservs for most distros.

Generally our volunteers have sets of the latest Fedora, SuSE and
Ubuntu distributions:
* Fedora - http://fedora.redhat.com (Fedora 19 DVD/Live CD/USB)
* Open SuSE - http://opensuse.org (OpenSuSE 12.3 - DVD/Live CD/)
* Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com (Rich Redbird 13.04 CD/USB)


We generally have them on local drives and can burn CDs/DVDs and
USBs.Since there are many variants of these distros, we advise you to
bring an empty USB stick with sufficient memory to hold one of the
distros. LiveCD images required under 1GB, full DVD images for Fedora
require about 4GB, and OpenSuSE needs 8GB. I usually have some USBs
prepared.

We generally have both a Wired and Wireless network available. The
wireless SSID at MIT is "MIT".


In addition, you can run Linux on your Windows PC through a virtual
machine manager, such as Virtualbox. You can install this in your
Windows machine and run Linux as a guest OS, or install it in your Linux
machine and run Windows as a guest. VirtualBox 4.2.6.
(http://www.virtualbox.org.) is free and is available for Linux, Windows
8, Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Additionally, there are also
some VMWare clients that are also free for Windows.


Please refer to the BLU website (http://www.blu.org) for further
information and directions. Parking is free and available in front of
the building on Amherst St. Enter the building, and take the elevator to
your left down 1 floor. Room 061 is opposite the elevator.

Lunch is generously sponsored By John Ross and Ron Thibeau, owners,
Bluefin Technical Services.
--
Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846