The February 16 PLUG meeting will focus on three aspects of networking that are often lumped together, routing, network address translation (NAT), and firewalling. What these things are, and how to configure them under GNU/Linux will be discussed. Live CDs and floppies that can enable a computer to take on these roles will be demonstrated.

Date/time: February 16th, 2006, 7:30pm.
Location: room 2M70 (M=Manitoba building) at the University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue.

Although I don't live in Winnipeg anymore, I thought I'd keep you guys updated on my latest project: EveryGUI, in which I think all UNIX users can find useful.

EveryGui provides two applications: Chameleon, which is a dynamic GUI for virtually any tool or OS command, and Designer which is a visual environment for editing config files that determine Chameleon's different behaviours for each tool/command.

There are more details of the project at the website. I developed this as one of my first projects written in python, and I must say it is a great language. Check out my python rant on the "about the author" page.

Ubuntu, a popular GNU/Linux distribution has the slogan "Linux for human beings". Like other distributions that aim for ease of use on the desktop, Ubuntu comes with several graphical tools for system configuration.

A default installation of version 5.10 includes the following:

• Add Applications
• Device Manager
• Disks
• Language Selector
• Login Screen Setup
• Networking
• Printing
• Services
• Shared Folders
• Synaptic Package Manager
• Time and Date
• Update Manager
• Users and Groups

Our meeting on Thursday January 19 will feature a demonstration of each tool. It is at 7:30pm in room 2M70 at the University of Winnipeg. (the boardroom on the second floor of the Manitoba building)

We are aiming to have multiple presenters. If you could cover one or more of the above tools, let us know on our mailing list, Sparkplug. Also, the demonstration of the printing configuration tool would be enhanced if someone could bring a printer.

story contributed by Mark Jenkins

At the December PLUG meeting, we were demonstrating OpenOffice Writer in Windows to give people a feel for how easy it can be to use free software. One attendee remarked that there was no "Translate" feature on the tools menu, like there is in MS Word. She was disappointed: the feature was essential to her work -- she teaches English as a second language. She uses the "Translate" feature to show students translations of words that are very hard to demonstrate by actions -- words like "like", "if", "how", etc. But she also types in entire sentences and MS Word translates them into Cantonese or Mandarin apparently well enough that her students answer the question correclty in English.

In software terms, this task is referred to as "machine translation". It is a very difficult artificial intelligence problem, and perhaps a tough one for an individual programmer to take a large enough bite out of for such a project to reach critical mass of developer participation. What options exist for "in document translation"? Is this feature on the roadmap for OpenOffice? Not that I can tell. But in looking around on the internet, I found OpenLOGOS which is an open source version of the commercial LOGOS translation engine.

OpenLogos uses a dual license for their software: if you don't want to abide by the GPL, you pay for a commercial license. If you like the GPL and you don't mind contributing your code back to the community, you get the source code for free. Same as MySQL. With access to the source code, it should theoretically be possible to link the translation service directly into OpenOffice. It may even be possible to do it using macros. Anyway, I'm just babblefishing now...

Python has been around almost as long as the GNU Project, so it qualifies as one of the grand-daddies of Free Software projects. Python is:

...an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It incorporates modules, exceptions, dynamic typing, very high level dynamic data types, and classes. Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax.

With ease, power, elegance, convenience and portability, Python sure has a lot to recommend it as a programming language. With thousands (perhaps millions, but there are no licenses to count) of individual programmers and organizations using Python now, it is becoming a tool of ever-increasing importance in the toolkits of systems administrators and software developers everywhere. Having been impressed by Python creations such as Zope -- a web-application framework -- and by Plone, its companion content management front-end, I have become increasingly immersed in Python code, and I must say, I've been enjoying the swim. That's why I was especially happy to discover that Winnipeg now has a Python Users Group!

Today I attended the small but enthusiastic innaugural meeting during which we talked about future topics of interest. The group is both informal and informative, showing a surprising breadth of talent and expertise given the numbers that gathered today. To find out more about the group as it springs into action, and to help determine what direction it takes, you can join the mailing list, courtesy of python.org:

http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/winnipeg

Manitoba’s non-profit and voluntary sector organizations are utterly modern in their composition and function, -- based on strong social and community networks, and yet they are struggling. Why? Of the 8,000 or so that exist in the province, nearly a third are facing collapse. For many Voluntary sector and non-profit organizations, the difference between failing and flourishing can be measured in the smallest of margins. The smallest savings in dollars, a boost in efficiency of any fraction of what the private sector has enjoyed over the last several decades, could mean the difference between living and dying. Our organization, the Prairie Linux User Group, is no different. Whether the difficulty is posed by lack of funds, lack of expertise, or lack of committed individuals, the result is the same – when one of these vital organizations closes its doors, some important and badly needed social good gets left undone.

This sector of society – civil society – neither state nor market nor family, has by acclamation assumed the mantle of defender of the Public Good. Public good depends above all else upon strong social networks, which in turn require citizens and institutions who see cooperation as a virtue. The State cannot build using co-operation, its tools are more coercive than cooperative, while large-scale business is competitive rather than cooperative. So the future of social cohesiveness and defending the Common Good rests with civil society. Since voluntary and non-profit organizations play such a crucial role in maintaining the health of our society, we can't afford to let them fall apart.

But what can be done?

There have been computers running GNU/Linux at the University of Manitoba for a long time. Such installations have always been for specific groups of staff and students. Today that changed. Academic Computing & Networking launched a "Linux Pilot Project", where for the first time, desktop computers running GNU/Linux became available in open area labs to all U of M staff and students.

The goal of the ACN Linux pilot project is to broaden the service offered in the ACN labs to provide Linux in addition to Windows and Solaris. The pilot project is a working model on how we might deploy Linux in the open area labs. This approach allows us to gather feedback from the user community while simultaneously developing the support infrastructure needed to administer the system.

The first machine up is linux02.cc.umanitoba.ca, located in 113 Machray Hall, a 24 hour lab. I will post an update to this story when the other ones come online in the next few days.

More information on this pilot project.

PLUG's next meeting will be on September 15, 2005 at 7:00 pm, in room 2M70 at the University of Winnipeg. It will focus on free software with an educational value to the K-12 sector.

There are two ways you can help:

1) Bring teachers to this meeting.

2) Volunteer to give a talk on a specific package. Contact the sparkplug (http://mail2.plug.ca/mailman/listinfo/sparkplug) mailing list, and announce which program you would like to show.

Hackers rejoice!

Winnipeg might not have a big hacker conference like the ones in Las Vegas, New York and across Europe, but this summer we have our own little mini conference within a larger festival. (see www.freeculture.ca)

Hackfest has five goals:

1. To demonstrate the quality of Free Software to non-hackers.
2. To explain why freedom and openness in computing will benefit society.
3. To provide help installing a free operating system for anyone who brings a computer to our event.
4. To help our community by writing an application assigned to us by the OpenCity board. (probably a web front end to a DB). We will call this the Free Software Barn Raising. (moo!)
5. To share advanced knowledge with each other.

Location: Kismat Banquet Centre, 280 Fort St.

Dates:
Thursday August 18, 9am to 11pm
Friday August 19, 9am to 3am
Saturday August 20, 9am to 3am

Conveniently, there are two other events at OpenCity that are in the same building. There is a conference in an adjacent room from 9-5 each day, and a spectacular line up of music in the same room as us starting at 7pm on Friday and Saturday.

There is no cost to participate in Hackfest@OpenCity_2005, except during the music performances on Friday and Saturday night. Admission is $4.99, and totally worth it, there is nothing more exciting than hacking with loud, live music in the background. [And, it's cheaper than DEF CON. :) ]

You can also attend all the OpenCity events at no cost by becoming a festival volunteer. Agreeing to make a good contribution to goals 1-4 will be enough to get you volunteer status. Contact OpenCity Volunteer Signup or call 633-3259 to become a OpenCity volunteer.

Join the Hackfest@OpenCity_2005 mailing list .