Re: [Discuss] Boston Linux and Unix InstallFest LXXII reminder, tomorrow Saturday October 24, 2026 Umass Boston

It's actually our 75th InstallFest, not our 72nd. On Fri, Oct 23, 2026 at 7:42 PM Jerry Feldman via Announce < announce@lists.blu.org> wrote: > When: Saturday October 24, 2026, from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm EDT > Where: UMASS Boston. CS CCS Conference Room 3rd floor McCormack Building > room 0721 a short walk from The Campus Center. > > Park in the Campus Center garage or take the UMASS shuttle bus from the > JFK/UMass station on the MBTA Red Line. This bus goes to The Campus > Center. Please see https://blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2025-ifest72 for > more detailed directions and maps. > > 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 images that you can try out and then install. > This can be copied to DVDs or USB sticks.There are a number of USB > creators, such as UNetbootin (https://unetbootin.github.io/). Both > Fedora and Ubuntu have a USB creator built in. > > COST: It's free! However, we DO have expenses, and contributions are > welcome. Please consider contributing $25 per machine. UMass Boston > students and faculty no cost. > > 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 distro > > Windows Subsystem for Linux > <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install> (WSL) may be the > easiest choice for Windows users. > > > Generally our volunteers have sets of the latest Fedora, Ubuntu, and > Mint distributions on Live USB. > * Fedora - https://getfedora.org/ (Fedora 42) > * Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com ( 24.04LTS or 25.04) > * Linux Mint - https://linuxmint.com/ (22.1) > * other distros can easily be downloaded at the Installfest > > We generally have them on local drives and can burn 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. Live images require about 1.5GB. I usually have some USBs > prepared or can easily burn a USB. > > We usually have both a Wired and Wireless network available. > > > Additionally, 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. Linux has a built-in virtual memory > system, but you can also download and install VirtualBox 6.0 > (http://www.virtualbox.org) which is free and is available for Linux, > and Windows > > > Please refer to the BLU website (http://www.blu.org) for further > information and directions. > > > > -- > Jerry Feldman<gaf.linux@gmail.com> > Boston Linux and Unixhttp://www.blu.org > PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7 > PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1 3050 5715 B88D 6F6B B6E7 > _______________________________________________ > Announce mailing list > Announce@lists.blu.org > https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.blu.org > https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix Email: abreauj@gmail.com / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6 PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23 C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

Boston Linux and Unix InstallFest LXXII reminder, tomorrow Saturday October 24, 2026 Umass Boston

When: Saturday October 24, 2026, from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm EDT Where: UMASS Boston. CS CCS Conference Room 3rd floor McCormack Building room 0721 a short walk from The Campus Center. Park in the Campus Center garage or take the UMASS shuttle bus from the JFK/UMass station on the MBTA Red Line. This bus goes to The Campus Center. Please see https://blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2025-ifest72 for more detailed directions and maps. 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 images that you can try out and then install. This can be copied to DVDs or USB sticks.There are a number of USB creators, such as UNetbootin (https://unetbootin.github.io/). Both Fedora and Ubuntu have a USB creator built in. COST: It's free! However, we DO have expenses, and contributions are welcome. Please consider contributing $25 per machine. UMass Boston students and faculty no cost. 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 distro Windows Subsystem for Linux <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install> (WSL) may be the easiest choice for Windows users. Generally our volunteers have sets of the latest Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mint distributions on Live USB.          * Fedora - https://getfedora.org/ (Fedora 42)          * Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com ( 24.04LTS or 25.04)          * Linux Mint - https://linuxmint.com/ (22.1)          * other distros can easily be downloaded at the Installfest We generally have them on local drives and can burn 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. Live images require about 1.5GB. I usually have some USBs prepared or can easily burn a USB. We usually have both a Wired and Wireless network available. Additionally, 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. Linux has a built-in virtual memory system, but you can also download and install VirtualBox 6.0 (http://www.virtualbox.org) which is free and is available for Linux, and Windows Please refer to the BLU website (http://www.blu.org) for further information and directions. -- Jerry Feldman<gaf.linux@gmail.com> Boston Linux and Unixhttp://www.blu.org PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7 PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1 3050 5715 B88D 6F6B B6E7 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

Boston Linux VIRTUAL Meeting, Reminder, tomorrow, Wednesday, October 21, 2026 - Managing LLM Drift with Forensic Logging

When: October 21, 2026 7:00PM EDT (6:30PM for Q&A) Topic:Managing LLM Drift with Forensic Logging Presenters: John Abreau Location: Online: https://meet.jit.si/blu.org Note: JITSI just imposed a 95 minute limit on meetings.  While we have been discussing a solution, temporarily we will create a temporary meeting room and announce it prior to the meeting expiration so that everyone in the meeting will get a chance to log in to the new meeting room. Meeting will be recorded, but not live streamed. Recordings will be posted: https://blu.org/video/ Summary: An approach for managing LLM drift by logging session's ground truth and packaging it as a boot prompt for the subsequent session Abstract: As LLM sessions stretch on, the context window fills. The model begins to silently compress details, drift from established rules, or drop constraints entirely. I'm developing a workflow for extracting the raw data of an LLM session and and filtering it into a bootable state for the next session. I'll be presenting a Chromium extension I'm working on to extract the raw forensic data from each round, including the user's prompt, the model's reasoning, and the model's response, along with associated metadata. For further meeting info please visit http://www.blu.org Our meeting recordings are found on the Video tab: http://www.blu.org/video/ -- Jerry Feldman<gaf.linux@gmail.com> Boston Linux and Unixhttp://www.blu.org PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7 PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1 3050 5715 B88D 6F6B B6E7 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

Boston Linux VIRTUAL Meeting, Wednesday, October 21, 2026 - Managing LLM Drift with Forensic Logging

When: October 21, 2026 7:00PM EDT (6:30PM for Q&A) Topic:Managing LLM Drift with Forensic Logging Presenters: John Abreau Location: Online: https://meet.jit.si/blu.org Meeting will be recorded, but not live streamed. Recordings will be posted: https://blu.org/video/ Summary: An approach for managing LLM drift by logging session's ground truth and packaging it as a boot prompt for the subsequent session Abstract: As LLM sessions stretch on, the context window fills. The model begins to silently compress details, drift from established rules, or drop constraints entirely. I'm developing a workflow for extracting the raw data of an LLM session and and filtering it into a bootable state for the next session. I'll be presenting a Chromium extension I'm working on to extract the raw forensic data from each round, including the user's prompt, the model's reasoning, and the model's response, along with associated metadata. For further meeting info please visit http://www.blu.org Our meeting recordings are found on the Video tab: http://www.blu.org/video/ -- Jerry Feldman<gaf.linux@gmail.com> Boston Linux and Unixhttp://www.blu.org PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7 PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1 3050 5715 B88D 6F6B B6E7 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

Boston Linux and Unix InstallFest LXXII Saturday October 24, 2026 Umass Boston

When: Saturday October 24, 2026, from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm EDT Where: UMASS Boston. CS CCS Conference Room 3rd floor McCormack Building room 0721 a short walk from The Campus Center. Park in the Campus Center garage or take the UMASS shuttle bus from the JFK/UMass station on the MBTA Red Line. This bus goes to The Campus Center. Please see https://blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2025-ifest72 for more detailed directions and maps. 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 images that you can try out and then install. This can be copied to DVDs or USB sticks.There are a number of USB creators, such as UNetbootin (https://unetbootin.github.io/). Both Fedora and Ubuntu have a USB creator built in. COST: It's free! However, we DO have expenses, and contributions are welcome. Please consider contributing $25 per machine. UMass Boston students and faculty no cost. 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 distro Windows Subsystem for Linux <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install> (WSL) may be the easiest choice for Windows users. Generally our volunteers have sets of the latest Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mint distributions on Live USB.          * Fedora - https://getfedora.org/ (Fedora 42)          * Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com ( 24.04LTS or 25.04)          * Linux Mint - https://linuxmint.com/ (22.1)          * other distros can easily be downloaded at the Installfest We generally have them on local drives and can burn 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. Live images require about 1.5GB. I usually have some USBs prepared or can easily burn a USB. We usually have both a Wired and Wireless network available. Additionally, 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. Linux has a built-in virtual memory system, but you can also download and install VirtualBox 6.0 (http://www.virtualbox.org) which is free and is available for Linux, and Windows Please refer to the BLU website (http://www.blu.org) for further information and directions. -- Jerry Feldman<gaf.linux@gmail.com> Boston Linux and Unixhttp://www.blu.org PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7 PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1 3050 5715 B88D 6F6B B6E7 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

September BLU meeting video published

The video of the September 16, 2026 BLU meeting has been posted to YouTube. https://blu.org/video/ https://youtu.be/B1Q0WSp9kY4 -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix Email: abreauj@gmail.com / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0x920063C6 PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23 C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

Boston Linux and Unix InstallFest LXXV Saturday September 26, 2026 Umass Boston has been postponed. The new date will be posted on the BLU web site

When: Saturday September 26, 2026, has been postponed due to the upcoming Noreaster. Please refer to the BLU website (http://www.blu.org) for further information.. -- Jerry Feldman<gaf.linux@gmail.com> Boston Linux and Unixhttp://www.blu.org PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7 PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1 3050 5715 B88D 6F6B B6E7 _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce@lists.blu.org https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/announce