December 2007 - KCLUG

Kansas City *BSD User's Group Announcement
by djgoku 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

A new group has been formed in Kansas City area, called Kansas City *BSD User's Group. I would like to welcome anyone interested in any of the BSD variants to join us at our first meeting. The first meeting will be January 9th, 2008, at 6:00PM - 8:45PM in the small meeting room at the Plaza branch (http://tinyurl.com/2ssd33) For the first meeting I will be discussing a possible permanent meeting place, and giving a demo of yaifo (http://tinyurl.com/22yxbt) Website: http://kcbug.org Mailing List: http://groups.google.com/group/kcbug/ Thanks, Jonathan

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Linux on a Saturn V?
by Oren Beck 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

Ok- this a question of "could it ever ?" Several folks have proposed American funding for Big Dumb Boosters. Think a cloned only slightly updated Saturn V. Problem being that NASA has made "Lawn Ornaments" of all the unused ones they had, then shredded or burned all the project docs. Which included ***ALL** known copies of the software. So even if that mythical "found one complete in a warehouse" scenario were true? We would have to recreate software not only to fly the bird, but to support it. That is quite likely the same level of complexity as writing code for ANY such giant rockets.If we copy a Saturn V or make the not yet hatched Saturn VI. Thus it becomes viable to consider Linux and it's ancillary tool sets Then again - would you ever be able to find enough coders in any other STABLE viable OS? -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Good Call Phil
by Julie 11 Dec '07

11 Dec '07

As a person who has been a professional driver and pulled mountainous regions in this sort of weather I can confidently say that Phil has made the correct decision. We old truckers have a saying that goes something like this: "When there's snow, you go slow. When there's ice, it's no dice!" There is no sense in being out in this stuff to attend a function that is an _elective_. I agree that a trial run should be rescheduled...with a close eye on the weather forcast. http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Kansas+City&state=MO&site… Someone mentioned that there may 'only' be a traffic jam. All it takes is ONE moron who THINKS they can _Drive_ in this stuff to cause big problems! ...ESPECIALLY where there is a large number of vehicles on the roads increasing the percentage of such a fool screwing things up for everyone else. Kudos, Phil ;) Julie @};- --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

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I wish we had such a place here.
by Oren Beck 11 Dec '07

11 Dec '07

http://www.techshop.ws/join_now.html

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Setting common rules about weather cancels of KCLUG events.
by Oren Beck 11 Dec '07

11 Dec '07

Today is an example of Weather raising concerns about travel safety in some areas. I'd expect common sense to bat last but we all know that Darwin Bats Last. So therefore can we consider some rules for meeting cancels and informing us about it? MY short concept is if the closest public school to the meeting location is closed =no meeting Most of us would bookmark a suitable to us source and be done, I think we can do better. IF that's agreeable? Then it gets checked as to which school- and a link to the school closings list is placed on the KCLUG splash page explaining why and how to use it. Added utility may be someone with expert "script fu" writes a mailbot to notify us "School X Closed- No meeting tonight" " Non List? Hit the KCLUG intro page. See the item about "Is there a meeting?" Click. Answered." Oren Beck Or can any one do better? "Why is it called Common Sense" if it's so rare?"

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Puppy linux on OS X a few months old but still may be of interest.
by Oren Beck 09 Dec '07

09 Dec '07

I know we have a few mac users here. So - http://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2007/10/running_puppy_linux_inside_os… Hope it helps as something to try on a day when going out is suicide.

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more STUPID now than ever
by Oren Beck 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

*This is a new level of stupid. A drive should do what it is told. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/06/western-digital-netw.html*

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HastaLa-Vista
by Julie 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

At breakfast after the last meeting I promised a handful of peeps that I would post a couple of links to YouTube that are about Vista that I've saved, so here they are: "Vista Wonders" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Tu5CPVoP8 "Install Vista in 2 Minutes" http://youtube.com/watch?v=FVbf9tOGwno ENJOY! Julie @};- BTW: ....How about this S-N-O-W and ice???? NIIIIIICE, isn't it? NOT!!! Heads up: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Kansas+City&state=MO&site… --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

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Google redirect explains some comment spam- may be a Linux boost? With a rant of mine
by Oren Beck 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

I mentioned near the end of last night meet about some weird spam. THIS: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/139999/search_google_click_to… May explain more details. suffice to say that if spun right Linux can profit from their malice. All I can say in my proper person so to speak is that were such effort spent on legit ends they'd be in the top 50 instead of risking 50 years. I can understand temptations but this now is an unarguable predicate malice. Damned if all I can see our kids learning from this is a distortion of sanity. "Download a song and you are presumed guilty with no appeal beyond counter suit. Kick your way into a small town store-steal a day's receipts and a good lawyer beats it for you . STEAL literally millions and cause more millions in collateral damages instead as that's SAFE" THAT warped mindset is ALREADY FREAKING HERE if you read the news. A disconnect where premeditated crime is ok and innocence is no defense. Linux offers a mitigation. As raising the bar of effort to commit certain crimes adds to the degree of premeditation. An increased degree of premeditation makes proof of witting criminal intent more explicit. It's akin to a zippered bank bag having a key lock on the zipper. Yes, a thief CAN "slit the bag" but that shows both tangible proof and overt bad action all at once.. Annd if that locked zipped bag were behind a wooden door locked with a key-in knob lock? damned few thieves will"pick" such a lock bump keys etc aside- they just use the DocMartens key and kick it open. Inelegant but effective. Then they slit open that bank bag they found in the drawer under the cash register. A stack of overt bad acts rather hard to profess innocence after the fact . It makes the lawyer defending you work much harder to explain that many stacked overt acts. Yet our perp knows enough money will protect them despite quite real guilt. Let's call that perp."Boots" AND HOW MUCH $ for Boots? Minus lawyer$ but including the crimes they never get caught for.? Another perp does the malware trip- Let's call that one "Keys" Keys does not have the worries of Boots. And why? Who here can overview HOW a malware con gets Keys paid. And how much? Then a cost estimate on collateral damages from Keys doing the game After those snapshots let's consider the relative cost of switching from MS to Linux Vs a steel door,Good quality safe, and making bank drops nightly. The last point being where the MS/ Linux mindset gap lives. All that goes to show cause for considering at minimum a rethinking of exploitable software being acceptable. As when enough of us are running software that's harder to exploit? Keys will reconsider a last phishing trip to buy a set of DocMartens.

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i chat Therefore i am
by Ryan Smith 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

it does not take long for them to start talking about the meaning of life. http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am - Ryan Smith

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