Courthouse Village 100822 – Flagpoles with Flags

The parking lot is paved and lined. The front walk area is practically completed. Looks like it will be open for business soon.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:

See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

• SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)…
• SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)…
• RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)…
• BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)…
• SQTCH (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)The front walkway is of brick. Three flag poles; one each for the US flag, Virginia flag, and Spotsylvania flag. The sign in front reads:

  Spotsylvania County

  Community Development

  Economic Development

  Social Services

  9019 Old Battlefield Blvd.

• SQTBR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)…

Courthouse Village Chronology by Mark Caldwell Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

FredPod 100821 Show Notes – LinuxCon 2010

This program was produced on August 21^st, 2010. And today’s topics will include:

• Recent releases on SourceForge.
• Selections from “yum info recent” on the Fedora Linux project.
• The Latest from FredLUG, including our plans for merriment on Software Freedom Day and afterward.
• Today’s feature is a look at some of the overlooked sessions at LinuxCon 2010, which was held in Boston the second week in August.

• And we’ll close with a Creative Commons licensed work by
  Simon Fagan entitled “Water’s Edge.”

→

Here are some projects with recent releases on SourceForge (links are in the shownotes):

• OpenSeaMap—OpenSeaMap’s goal is to add nautical and tourism information a sailor could be interested in to OSM (OpenStreetMap) and to present it in a pleasing way. Those include beacons, buoys and other seamark and port information.
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/openseamap/
• Flat File Checker—A simple to use but powerful tool for flat file validation. FlaFi can find Data Errors in the batch of flat files basing on the schema(XML) that defines business rules. It can be used for data exchange screening and data validation.
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/flafi/
• Firewall Builder—Object-oriented GUI and set of compilers for various firewall platforms. Currently implemented compilers for iptables, ipfilter, OpenBSD pf, ipfw, Cisco PIX firewall and routers access lists.
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/fwbuilder/
• Visual Disk Test—VDT performs I/O tests on files and/or devices. ( The BUD Toolshed is a set of utility programs to improve operating system administration, ranging from security and storage to performance analysis; VDT is the I/O tester ).
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/budtoolshed/
• AWStats—AWStats is a free powerful and featureful server logfile analyzer that shows you all your Web/Mail/FTP statistics including visits, unique visitors, pages, hits, rush hours, os, browsers, search engines, keywords, robots visits, broken links and more…
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/awstats/
• restblog—Blogging with reStructuredText. Use the simplicity of text to create, edit and delete posts and pages from a WordPress blog using XMLRPC. Written in Python.
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/restblog/
• opacity—The project name is an acronym for Open Protocol for Access Control Identification and Ticketing with privacY, is a standard suite of Key Establishment and Authentication protocols based on ECC and AES, for optimized contactless transactions and simple PKI based Key management. OPACITY is now officially registered to the ISO 24727-6 standard registry.
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/opacity/

→

Here are some recently updated items in yum at the Fedora project:

• Name : MayaviSummary : Scientific data 3-dimensional visualizerDescription : The Mayavi project includes two related packages for 3-dimensional visualization:

  :

  : * Mayavi2: A tool for easy and interactive visualization of data.

  : * TVTK: A Traits-based wrapper for the Visualization Toolkit, a popular open-source visualization library. These operate at different levels of abstraction. TVTK manipulates visualization objects, while Mayavi2 lets you operate on your data, and then see the results.

  Most users either use the Mayavi user interface or program to its scripting interface; you probably don’t need to interact with TVTK unless you want to create a new Mayavi module.

• Name : amsnDescription : This is an MSN Messenger clone for Unix, Windows, and Macintosh.: It is written in tcl/tk and supports filetransfers, webcam, etc.

  Tcl (Tool Command Language)

  Tk is a graphical user interface toolkit

• Name : choqokSummary : KDE Micro-Blogging ClientDescription : A Free/Open Source micro-blogging client for K Desktop Environment. The name comes from an ancient Persian word, which means Sparrow! Choqok currently supports Twitter.com and Identi.ca services.
• Name : gnupg2Summary : Utility for secure communication and data storageDescription : GnuPG is GNU’s tool for secure communication and data storage. It can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the proposed OpenPGP Internet standard as described in RFC2440 and the S/MIME standard as described by several RFCs.

  :

  : GnuPG 2.0 is a newer version of GnuPG with additional support for S/MIME. It has a different design philosophy that splits functionality up into several modules. The S/MIME and smartcard functionality is provided by the gnupg2-smime package.

• Name : nssSummary : Network Security ServicesDescription : Network Security Services (NSS) is a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications. Applications built with NSS can support SSL v2 and v3, TLS, also public-key cryptography standards PKCS #5 (Password-based Encryption Standard), PKCS #7 (Cryptographic Message Syntax Standard), PKCS #11 (Cryptographic Token Interface), PKCS #12 (Personal Information Exchange Syntax Standard), S/MIME, X.509 v3 certificates, and other security standards.
• Name : openoffice.org-xsltfilterSummary : Optional xsltfilter module for OpenOffice.orgDescription : The xsltfilter module for OpenOffice.org, provides additional docbook and xhtml export transforms. Install this to enable docbook export.
• Name : phpMyAdminSummary : Web based MySQL browser written in phpDescription : phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields, manage privileges, export data into various formats and is available in over 55 languages.
• Name : setroubleshootSummary : Helps troubleshoot SELinux problemsDescription : setroubleshoot gui. Application that allows you to view setroubleshoot-server messages. Provides tools to help diagnose SELinux problems. When AVC (Access Vector Cache) messages are generated an alert can be generated that will give information about the problem and help track its resolution. Alerts can be configured to user preference. The same tools can be run on existing log files.
• Name : squashfs-toolsSummary : Utility for the creation of squashfs filesystemsDescription : Squashfs is a highly compressed read-only filesystem for Linux. This package contains the utilities for manipulating squashfs filesystems.

→

You can find additional information on these, and many other recently updated packages, by typing yum info recent at the command line.

The Fredericksburg Linux Users Group, meets on the third Monday and last Saturday of each month. The meetings take place at the main Library in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Caroline Street in Meeting Room 2:

• You can find the FredLUG calendar by going to Google Groups and searching on F-r-e-d-L-U-G. Near the top of the page is a link to the Google calendar containing the meeting schedule. Feel free to import the .ics calendar files from the Files section into your own calendar.
• Besides the FredLUG Google Group, you’re also welcome on the IRC channel pound FredLUG on irc dot freenode dot net.

For Software Freedom Day, a.k.a. SFD, we in FredLUG are doing something different this year. Our plans include:

• Having a table in front of the Capital Ale House on Caroline Street; SFD coincides with a local Oktoberfest celebration (yes, in September!). We’ll greet visitors amidst the merriment and sing the praises of FOSS.
• We’ll have Fedora and Ubuntu live CDs for the taking; and we hope most of those will be tried out when they get home.
• The artistic talent in FredLUG, has prepared promotional and informational materials, for distribution before and after the event. See our current materials in the Files area of the FredLUG Google Group. Many of us will be wearing T-shirts with a graphic of Tux in lederhosen at Oktoberfest, which we hope will serve as icebreakers allowing us to strike up conversations and promote FOSS.
• We’ll have a secondary back-up location in our usual Meeting Room 2 at the Library, which is just down the street from the Capital Ale House in Fredericksburg.

As a follow-up to SFD, we’ll have an InstallFest the following Saturday, September 25^th. Anyone whose interest was sparked at SFD the week before, will receive personalized help installing Linux on their computer. We’ll have plenty of install media, and a kickstart server for rapid network installs.

→

Today’s feature item is a look at some of the overlooked sessions at the recent LinuxCon. Links to the presentations are in the show notes.

Much of the mainstream coverage of LinuxCon focused on the keynote talks. These were interesting, including the one on the legal landscape. But among the sessions at LinuxCon 2010 that I found the most fascinating and useful to me were the following:

• Tutorial: Linux System Performance Monitoring
  The content used for this presentation is at ufsdump.org, (link is in the shownotes). It’s in a 44-page PDF that covers in practical detail command line monitoring tools and how to combine and interpret their output. What’s great about this presentation, is that the techniques shown use common tools, most of which are common stand-by’s that cost nothing. But the key is the use of these tools in tandem. It includes some creative ways to analyze the output of common utilities such as:
• vmstat—all purpose performance tool
• mpstat— provides statistics per CPU
• sar— all purpose performance monitoring tool
• iostat— provides disk statistics
• netstat —provides network statistics
• dstat —a monitoring statistics aggregator
• iptraf —traffic monitoring dashboard
• netperf —Network bandwidth tool
• ethtool —reports on Ethernet interface configuration
• iperf —another Network bandwidth tool
• tcptrace —Packet analysis tool
• iotop— Displays IO per processIf there’s a message here, it would be to try using a combination common no-cost utilities before thinking that a complex analysis tool is needed.
• SPDX: Collaboration Beyond the Specification
  If this sounds new, that’s because it is. The session description included: “SPDX (Software Package Data Exchange) is a specification to enable companies and organizations to share license and component information (metadata) for software packages and related content with the aim of facilitating license and other policy compliance.” It’s best explained in the current version of the spec, available as a PDF (link is in the shownotes). SPDX is an excellent idea, and I think the usefulness of the spec would be greatly enhanced by porting it to an XML schema; it’s half-way there already anyway.
• Tutorial: Recent Advances in Network Booting
  The use of a wiki (link is in the shownotes) has allowed a synergy of network booting expertise. The several demos of booting a computer that did not have a hard drive, proved the possibilities are abundant and growing. As stated on the wiki, Here you will find various information about the Etherboot Project, and a repository of useful contributions from people who use Etherboot and gPXE. What might further spark your interest is gPXE is an open source (GPL) network bootloader. It provides a direct replacement for proprietary PXE ROMs, with many extra features such as DNS, HTTP, and iSCSI. gPXE evolved from Etherboot, and is maintained by the Etherboot project.
• Open Source Tool Chains for Managing the Cloud
  The possibilities of using common open source tools to manage enterprise systems have increased to a serious level of practicality. Take a look at the presentation PDF (link is in the shownotes) for a survey of provisioning tools such as kickstart and cobbler; and compared these with other tools such as OpenQRM, Spacewalk, and Viper. Also compared were Configuration Management & Automation Tools : (in alphabetical order) AutomateIT, bcfg2 , Cfengine, chef, Control Tier, Func, and Puppet. The cloud presentation also included a comparison of Open Source Monitoring Tools , such as Cacti, Nagios, OpenNMS, Zabbix, and Zenoss (in the interest of disclosure, the presenter was with Zenoss). The DevOps ToolChain Project was mentioned, which is a Project centered around how to automate and improve infrastructure management using Agile/DevOps methodologies . It was good to hear ITIL and Agile mentioned prominently; perhaps we really can energize freedom and innovation while at the same time keeping chaos at bay. Automated tools will help do that.
• Tutorial: Git Wrangling Advanced Tips and Tricks
  This was an excellent presentation showing how the use of lesser known capabilities in git enable collaboration in some of the more complex contributor relationships. Use git clone from the link in the shownotes to get the presentation materials. You’re not done yet, though, for this one. You’ll need to use ruby to gem install the showoff utility to be able to view the slides the way they were presented. All is not lost, however, if for some reason showoff won’t show; you can still view the content “.md” files in a text editor, and there are plenty of useful examples and references there.

Add all these things together, and I think it becomes readily apparent that Linux is primed for prime time, in both the enterprise and the desktop. Some of the greatest obstacles to adoption at this point are vendor lock-in and fear of something unfamiliar; both of those are primed to wear thin sooner than later.

→

Today’s podcast will close with a Creative Commons licensed work by Simon Fagan entitled “Water’s Edge,“ from Mevio’s Music Alley. Check it out at ‘music.mevio.com'”

Enjoy.

FredPod by Mark Caldwell Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

LinuxCon 2010 was Worth the Trip

Among the sessions at LinuxCon 2010 that I found the most fascinating and useful to me were:

• Tutorial: Linux System Performance Monitoring
  The content used for this presentation is at ufsdump.org, and is in a 44-page PDF that covers in practical detail command line monitoring tools and how to combine and interpret their output.
• SPDX: Collaboration Beyond the Specification
  If this sounds new, that’s because it is. The session description included: “SPDX (Software Package Data Exchange) is a specification to enable companies and organizations to share license and component information (metadata) for software packages and related content with the aim of facilitating license and other policy compliance.” It’s best explained in the current version of the spec, available as a PDF. SPDX is an excellent idea, and I think the usefulness of the spec would be greatly enhanced by porting it to an XML schema; it’s half-way there already anyway.
• Tutorial: Recent Advances in Network Booting
  The use of a wiki has allowed a synergy of network booting expertise. The several demos of booting a computer that did not have a hard drive, proved the possibilities are abundant and growing.
• Open Source Tool Chains for Managing the Cloud
  The possibilities of using common open source tools to manage enterprise systems have increased to a serious level of practicality. Take a look at the presentation PDF for a survey of proven tools such as cobbler and puppet.
• Tutorial: Git Wrangling Advanced Tips and Tricks
  This was an excellent presentation showing how the use of lesser known capabilities in git enable collaboration in some of the more complex contributor relationships. Use git clone to get the presentation materials from here. You’re not done yet, though, for this one. You’ll need to use ruby to gem install the showoff utility to be able to view the slides the way they were presented. All is not lost, however, if for some reason showoff won’t show; you can still view the content “.md” files in a text editor, and there are plenty of useful examples and references there.

Add all these things together, and it becomes readily apparent that Linux is primed for prime time in both the enterprise and the desktop. Some of the greatest obstacles to adoption at this point are vendor lock-in and fear of something unfamiliar; both of those are primed to wear thin sooner than later.

mcw

This item by Mark Caldwell Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Courthouse Village 100808 – New Walls and Killdeer Birds

Brick walls and steps, as well as additional work on doors, are visible. I included a picture of a killdeer bird as an inset in SQTBR; these little birds are often seen running around the grounds.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:

See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

• SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
• …
• SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
• …
• RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
• …
• BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)…
• SQTCH (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)Brick walls and steps since last set of pictures.
• SQTBR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)A picture of a killdeer bird is in the inset in the lower right corner of this picture.

Courthouse Village Chronology by Mark Caldwell Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Courthouse Village 100718 – Progress in the Heat and Sun

In the intervening weeks since the last set of pictures, it’s been record-setting hot (got to 100F last Friday). And not much rain either. However, the County building now has columned entrances almost completed on all sides.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:

See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

• SYE (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

  

  …

• SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

  

  …

• RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

  

  …

• BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

  

  …

• SQTCH (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

  

  The front door construction progresses to the point of getting a better idea of what the final design will look like.

• SQTBR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)

  

  This is an added perspective to round out the picture set.

Courthouse Village Chronology by Mark Caldwell Walker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.