July 2015 - luv-announce

LUV Main August 2015 Meeting: Open Machines Building Open Hardware / VLSCI: Supercomputing for Life Sciences
by Andrew Pam 27 Jul '15

27 Jul '15

PLEASE NOTE we are now commencing at 6:30pm, half an hour earlier than our old starting time, as it will not be possible to enter the new venue after 8pm. A sign with a phone number will be posted at the entrance of 200 Victoria St. to call and gain entrance to the building. Start: Aug 4 2015 18:30 End: Aug 4 2015 20:30 Location: 200 Victoria St. Carlton VIC 3053 Link: http://luv.asn.au/meetings/map Speakers: • Jon Oxer, Open Machines Building Open Hardware • Chris Samuel, VLSCI: Supercomputing for Life Sciences Jon Oxer, Open Machines Building Open Hardware The "Open" revolution has passed through a series of stages. First, Open software was built on closed toolchains such as compilers and source code management systems. Then the toolchains themselves opened up, giving us a fully Open software stack and toolchain. Then Open Source Hardware (OSH) began to give us accessible physical platforms on which to run our code, but the hardware itself was still designed on closed tools. Then the rise of FOSS CAD (Computer Aided Design) projects such as KiCad and gEDA allowed us to design our OSH projects using Open tools. But even OSH projects designed using FOSS tools are typically manufactured using big, expensive, closed-source machines such as pick-and-place robots. Now even that barrier is being broken down by Open Source. The last 12 months has seen a rapid expansion of the Open revolution into the electronics manufacturing space, with a combination of motion control systems, machine chassis reference designs, and FOSS CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software projects maturing into credible competitors to the entrenched proprietary CAM equipment suppliers. In this talk Jonathan will demonstrate how he combined a variety of Open Source projects to build his own pick-and-place machine for about $1000 over just a few weeks of spare time, allowing him to assemble Open Hardware projects using Open machines right from the bare PCB. He'll also bring along his pick-and-place machine so you can see it in action. Jon Oxer is happiest when working right at the intersection of hardware, software, mechatronics, and magic. He's past President of Linux Australia, founder of web application development company IVT, founder of open hardware manufacturer Freetronics, and author or co-author of a number of books including "How To Build A Website And Stay Sane", "Ubuntu Hacks", "Quickstart Guide to Google AdWords", and "Practical Arduino". Follow his adventures at http://jon.oxer.com.au/ and http://twitter.com/jonoxer Chris Samuel, VLSCI: Supercomputing for Life Sciences The Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative is a supercomputer centre for life sciences hosted at the University of Melbourne and serves a wide range of projects and researchers. Chris will cover the various aspects of this site including the supercomputers (past, present and future) and other hardware and the software that's used to run them as well as some case studies into things that can go wrong. Chris Samuel has been running computer systems since the early 1990's and has been using Linux since 1993. He's run more different UNIX variants than he could shake a rather large stick at and has been working with supercomputers for the last decade. He is currently the Senior Systems Administrator with the Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative (VLSCI) based at the University of Melbourne. Before and/or after each meeting those who are interested are welcome to join other members for dinner. We are open to suggestions for a good place to eat near our venue. Maria's on Peel Street in North Melbourne is currently the most popular place to eat after meetings. LUV would like to acknowledge Red Hat for their help in obtaining the venue and VPAC for hosting. Linux Users of Victoria Inc. is an incorporated association, registration number A0040056C.

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LUV Beginners July Meeting: Ask the experts
by Andrew Pam 14 Jul '15

14 Jul '15

Start: Jul 18 2015 12:30 End: Jul 18 2015 16:30 Location: RMIT Building 91, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton South Link: http://luv.asn.au/meetings/map This month we'll be asking attendees for their pressing Linux and Open Source issues, and our resident Linux experts will then attempt to explain the topics to your satisfaction! If you've got something you always wanted to know more about, or something you'd like to know how to do, come along and ask. There will also be the usual casual hands-on workshop, Linux installation, configuration and assistance and advice. Bring your laptop if you need help with a particular issue. LUV would like to acknowledge Red Hat for their help in obtaining the Trinity College venue and VPAC for hosting. Linux Users of Victoria Inc., is an incorporated association, registration number A0040056C.

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LUV Main July 2015 Meeting: Ansible / BTRFS / Educating People to become Linux Users
by Andrew Pam 02 Jul '15

02 Jul '15

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF TIME. It will not be possible to enter the building after 8pm. Start: Jul 7 2015 18:30 End: Jul 7 2015 20:30 Location: Trinity College (former EPA building), 200 Victoria St. Carlton VIC 3053 Link: http://luv.asn.au/meetings/map Speakers: • Andrew Pam, An introduction to Ansible • Russell Coker, BTRFS update • Lev Lafayette, Educating People to become Linux Users: Some Key Insights from Adult Education Andrew Pam, An introduction to Ansible Quoting from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible_%28software%29 Ansible is a free software platform for configuring and managing computers. It combines multi-node software deployment, ad hoc task execution, and configuration management. It manages nodes over SSH or PowerShell and requires Python (2.4 or later) to be installed on them. Modules work over JSON and standard output and can be written in any programming language. The system uses YAML to express reusable descriptions of systems. Andrew Pam first discovered an interest in boolean logic when his mother carried him in her arms at just the right height to reach light switches as they passed through doorways. He was lucky enough to go to a school with an obsolete PDP/8e: switches, lights, core memory, paper tape, punched cards and all. He first started programming on a TRS-80 model 1 level I and the first computer he owned was a Commodore VIC-20. Russell Coker, BTRFS update Quoting from https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page Btrfs is a new copy on write (CoW) filesystem for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration. Jointly developed at Oracle, Red Hat, Fujitsu, Intel, SUSE, STRATO and many others, Btrfs is licensed under the GPL and open for contribution from anyone. Russell Coker has been working on SE Linux since 2001. He writes most of the policy for Debian. He has done lots of other Linux development over the years, mostly involved with Debian development. Lev Lafayette, Educating People to become Linux Users: Some Key Insights from Adult Education We all want people to use Linux in favour of non-FOSS operating systems. But how do we convince them to do so? Having done so, how do we convince them to become good computer users who will use their systems in an effective manner? "User education" is a much-lauded phrase in the IT world, but in many cases technology specialists have expressed a great deal of frustration in their attempts. However it doesn't have to be this way. Key insights from adult education can be applied to Linux user education successfully. In particular, educators will be successful if they take a systemic approach to the subject using andragogical techniques when evaluating the audience, the content, and the delivery. The end result is users who are motivated, who know what they are capable of, and have the motivation to find out more. Lev Lafayette is a committee member and past president of Linux Users of Victoria who collects postgraduate degrees when not being a political trouble-maker. He has been involved in computer systems education and training for quite a while, and in the past few years through his employment at the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) has conducted such sessions for researchers at the University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, La Trobe University, the Australian Synchrotron, the University of Sydney, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Australian Institute for Health Innovation at Macquarie University, the University of New South Wales... and many other places. Before and/or after each meeting those who are interested are welcome to join other members for dinner. We are open to suggestions for a good place to eat near our venue. Maria's on Peel Street in North Melbourne is currently the most popular place to eat after meetings. LUV would like to acknowledge Red Hat for their help in obtaining the venue and VPAC for hosting. Linux Users of Victoria Inc. is an incorporated association, registration number A0040056C.

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