Welcome to the Provo Linux Users Group Website

Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Sun, 2006-08-06 18:23.

Membership:
The Provo Linux Users Group welcomes everyone with an interest in Linux and Free/Open Source Software. Most of our members live in, or near, Utah valley. There is no membership fee. The only membership requirement is active participation.

Meetings:
Meetings are typically held on the second Wedensday of every month at 7:30pm. Please subscribe to the mailing list or watch this web site for additional details as that is subject to change. The meeting location is at Omniture's Headquarters (click for location details).

New PLUG Server

Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Sun, 2009-06-14 08:56.

As many of you know, the PLUG server recently took a nose dive. The old PLUG server was donated years ago, there is an old 'about.com' property sticker on it. I'm guessing it came from them. In a nutshell, the hard drive failed (it was a single IDE drive). It would work for about 20 minutes, then it would throw errors and Linux would remount it read-only.

Corey Edwards has donated a new server to the group. I really appreciate his willingness to give us the hardware. The new server is much nicer, and has a SCSI RAID card (RAID 5) to ensure that drive failures don't knock us off-line any more. I believe the migration to the new server is complete. However, some services may no longer be available. Please let me know if you see something that is missing.

The new PLUG server is named: Europa.

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June PLUG Meeting: KVM & QEMU

Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Wed, 2009-05-27 16:29.
Date: June 10th, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Location: Omniture, Inc. Back to building G this month.

PLUG:

This month we have David Mair and Jim Petersen giving an introduction and demonstration of KVM & QEMU. KVM provides Linux in-kernel virtualization that supports many guest platforms via the userspace QEMU program. Supported guest platforms include Linux and Windows. Using KVM/QEMU is quite a manual task so Jim and David will demonstrate and provide some insight into their operation and their own workarounds to make life with them easier.

About David:

I have been a professional programmer for 21 years on a variety of platforms: DOS; Windows; NetWare; and, more recently, Linux. I have worked as a programmer at Novell for 11 years and currently fix bugs on a variety of Linux packages. I also maintain a number of personal projects.

About Jim:

I have been in technical support for 17 years, supporting DOS, Windows, NetWare, Linux, as well as WordPerfect Products, and Microsoft Office. I have been with Novell for 13 years. I currently provide escalation support for SUSE Linux. In spare moments I work on personal web and desktop based projects.

If you have any interest in virtualization, you do not want to miss this presentation. See you all there!

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Event: Nerds in the Sun (aka PLUG BBQ)

Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Tue, 2009-05-26 11:33.

Clint organized this event from top to bottom, including writing the announcement! Thank you Clint.

Mark your calendars! It's cue time!

The annual Provo Linux User Group (PLUG) Barbecue is upon us again. This year it will be spectacular! The Utah Open Source Foundation is excited to be a part of this event. Because of this, UTOS will provide some soda, water and approximately 50 hamburgers.

This event is potluck so bring something everyone can enjoy. Chips, salad, vegetables, fruit, etc., just don't come empty handed. Party Information

Where: Scera Park, Red Pavilion. This is on the east side of the park.

When: Saturday, June 20, 2009 - 12pm - 2pm

Why: To allow the geek's significant others to socialize, sympathize and find ways to cope with their geek's habits. Or maybe it's just to bring the kids to the park, and free food. Either way, it'll be fun! Hardware Exchangev

As normal, please feel free to bring any spare computer parts to trade or exchange. There will be people there looking for something useful and you might just have what they need. Anything left over will be recycled by Orem City*.

We hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

Clint

* - This is not recycling really. If someone would like to recycle the left over computer parts, feel free to speak up at the BBQ.

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May PLUG Meeting: The Open Source Datacenter

Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Mon, 2009-05-11 14:00.
Date: May 13th, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Location: Omniture, Inc. Building H this month.

PLUG:

I apologize for getting this out so late! Be sure to come. This is going to be a great presentation. Dan manages over 15,000 Linux servers. You may not have that many, but the lessons learned can help anyone who is using Linux as a server (from few to many). From Dan:

During the last 10 years of system administration I have been involved in a number of data center migrations and build-outs. As these projects came and went I began to see patterns emerge in the set of services and software required to run a successful operations infrastructure. This presentation will describe these patterns, and provide an overview of the Open Source software available to implement them.

About Dan:
Dan Hanks has been involved with Linux System administration since 1998, when he worked for EagleNet Online, a small ISP in Provo, which, in a sense, was the birthplace of PLUG. After EagleNet he worked as a systems and database administrator for Nothsky/About.com/Primedia/United Online and is currently a system administrator for Omniture. He has varied interests, ranging from computers and technology to astronomy, geology, music, art, and family history research. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from BYU, and is the father of 4 adventuresome children. He (occasionally) blogs at http://brainshed.com, and tweets as @danhanks.

Food will be provided by Omniture. See you all there!

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April PLUG Meeting: Home Automation

Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Tue, 2009-03-31 22:01.
Date: April 8th, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Location: Omniture, Inc. Building H this month.

PLUG:

This month we are pleased to have Ryan Erickson present. Ryan (RyanE), works for Control4 (http://www.control4.com), and has worked and played with Home Automation for over 10 years. He will present an introduction to Home Automation, and discuss Control4's Home Automation products.

Ryan will cover:

  • What is Home Automation?
  • How does it work?
  • Open Source Home Automation projects
  • DIY vs. 'Professional'
  • Control4's approach to Home Automation

    About Control4:

    Control4 manufactures a complete line of affordable wired and wireless home automation products, making safety, convenience, comfort and economy available to virtually any homeowner in America. Control4 wireless products can be installed in any home in just a few hours, without the need for extensive or expensive remodeling. Not only can homeowners easily customize their Control4 system to meet their unique lifestyles, but the modular nature of the products also enables customers to start small and add to their systems over time.

    Come and learn how to make your home a geek's paradise!

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    March PLUG Meeting: Parrot

    Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Thu, 2009-03-05 11:03.
    Date: March 11th, 2009
    Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
    Location: Omniture, Inc.

    PLUG:

    We were unable to get Stephen Weeks in January due to last second scheduling conflicts. We have invited him back, and he will be our presenter this month. He will be discussing the Parrot VM. From Stephen...

    Guru at Guru Labs for 1.5 years. I teach, work on courseware, and assorted Perl programming. In my spare time I work on Parrot and recently a roguelike. I've been working on Parrot for about a year, in which time I've written a LOLCODE and Ruby compiler and done a lot of work on Exceptions and some work implementing features in Perl 6.

    I'd like to talk about Parrot and/or Perl 6! That's about as specific as I get. If nobody has any more-specific requests, I'd like to run through implementing a simple language and the parts of a Parrot compiler. Maybe scheme? I haven't decided yet.

    About Parrot:

    Parrot is a virtual machine designed to efficiently compile and execute bytecode for dynamic languages. Parrot currently hosts a variety of language implementations in various stages of completion, including Tcl, Javascript, Ruby, Lua, Scheme, PHP, Python, Perl 6, APL, and a .NET bytecode translator. Parrot is not about parrots, though we are rather fond of them for obvious reasons.

    Come and learn about this highly versatile VM. See you there!

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    PLUG Services

    Submitted by Ryan Simpkins on Wed, 2008-12-17 13:23.

    Everyone may not be aware of the services PLUG offers its membership. PLUG does not charge any dues, it is a 100% volunteer run dis-organization/mind-share collective. We collectively happen to provide the following available to all members.

    Mailing Lists

    PLUG maintains two lists:

    PLUG - This list is 100% unmoderated and can be high traffic. Right now, 443 people are subscribed. Here you can post pretty much any topic that the community doesn't think is distasteful, or spam. It is a singularly unique platform to discuss what matters to you, with an audience of your peers.

    PLUG-Announce - This is a moderated list for meeting announcements only.

    Web Site

    Features include:
    Member directory with statistics.
    Local company index with statistics.
    Local Linux contractors.
    Polls, like this one regarding meetings.

    LinkedIn Group

    There are 139 participants on the PLUG LinkedIn group. We generally do not permit recruiters to join this group (you won't get spam'd). To join, follow here.

    IRC

    Okay, this isn't really just PLUG. Come talk any how.

    Jabber

    jabber.plug.org

    Meetings

    Meeting details are posted to both mailing lists and plug.org. It is easier than ever to stay informed. If you would like to present, please contact Ryan.

    Employment Help

    Due to the financial crisis more than a few of the members have recently lost jobs, or are at a higher risk of loosing their jobs. Being an active participant in PLUG is a great way to reduce the risk of job seeking. Don't be shy about promoting yourself on the PLUG list. We permit job postings, and we also permit seeker postings. Put yourself on the LinkedIn group, hang out in IRC with us, share your opinions.

    Social & Professional Network

    After every PLUG meeting we usually have a social networking portion of the meeting. You can shoot pool, grab a snack, relax, and discuss things that matter to you. It is a great opportunity to get exposed to ideas that you may not normally think about. You might find your next job or business opporunity, or a solution to a challenging problem. We don't bite - honestly. Well, harleypig bites - we keep him chained though.

    Sponsorship

    PLUG has various sponsorship opportunities available. Perhaps your business can sponsor a high-profile presenter, food for a meeting, discounts for PLUG members, or a special service. Nearly the entire membership is actively employed in various professional positions surrounding Linux/FOSS. It is a unique opportunity to gain brand recognition, and "street cred" with the FOSS community.

    Volunteer Opportunites

    You may not be a kernel hacker, but you can still give back to the FOSS community that has given us so much. PLUG needs help with the web site, server administration, PHP programming, mailing list management, meeting organization/presentation, employment.... the list goes on. If you'd like to give some of your time to further advance the cause of FOSS in our local community, PLUG is the perfect place to start.

    There are now more ways than ever to participate. If you have an idea for a service you would like to see provided, please share it!

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