2002.04.15 Meeting Notes

News

• idSoftware and Activision release the game code (but not the engine) for Return to Castle Wolfenstein under the GPL!
• Microsoft is urging 802.11b hardware manufacturers to strip their devices down, turning them into Windows-only hardware (like winmodems)
• Kernel 2.5.8 released. Stable is 2.4.18.
• 8 new security holes in Microsoft IIS! There are reports of Microsoft patches to IIS breaking systems.
• Other Microsoft security issues include elevated privileges using active X components, and the ability to steal MSN/Hotmail accounts. For some reason, these aren't considered vulnerabilities by MS!
• Owners of Times Square billboards are suing Sony for digitally changing the ads within the new Spider-Man movie.
• Apache 2.0.35 released. Considered first 2.0 stable.
• Red Hat security issues: tcpdump, libpcap, arpwatch, logwatch
• rsyncd security issue: fails to shed supplementary group id from the server process after changing to the specified unprivileged uid/gid.
• RoseLUG's next meeting (April 29) will be HP talking about their Blade systems

Project Reports

• Demo - The next Linux demo will be Sat. April 27th at the Davis Food Co-Op. Mike Simons now has the Demo machine, and will be reinstalling Debian/stable onto it.

• Installfests - Our next Installfest will be on April 21st. We may consider having (some of) our Installfests at the Davis Food Co-Op's conference room. It's smaller than the space at UC Davis, but has a network.

• LERT - No news.

• Library - Our speaker, Verbus M. Counts donated a large collection of books to the library!
  • The Essentials of C++: Quick Access
  • Web Security and Commerce
  • Oracle 8i Installation Guide
  • Tom Swan's GNU C++ for Linux
  • Learning GNU Emacs
  • Unix User's Handbook
  • Generic Programming and the STL
  • Using Oracle 8/8i Special Edition
  • Unix System Admin. Handbook
  • Business Modeling with UML
  • Building Business Applications with C++
  • Future for Future Database Systems
  • The C++ Programming Language (Bjorne Stroustrup's)

  O'Reilly donated 3 copies each of 'Using the VI Editor' and the 'VI Pocket Reference'. One pair was put into the library.

Other Business

• Officer Elections - Nominations included keeping all officers in their positions. Mike Simons was nominated for sys (Vice Chair). Rhonda Bailey declined running for /dev/null (Treasurer). Henry House declined running for sys, and ran for /dev/null. Running unopposed, and with no objections from the attendance, the new officers are:
  • root (President) - Pete Salzman
  • sys (Vice President) - Mike Simons
  • typescript (Secretary) - Melissa Hardenbrook
  • /dev/null (Treasurer) - Henry House

• Bylaw Changes - The following changes to the Bylaws (proposed prior to the meeting and posted to our mailing list and website) were accepted with no objections:
  • Art. I, Sect. I, Subsect. i, Par. e:
    From: "... the PO Box #820 ..."
    To: "... the PO Box #837 ..."

  • Art. I, Sect. I, Subsect. iii, New Par. d:
    Add: "d. To be responsible for LUGOD's taxes and interactions with the IRS."

  • Art. I, Sect. I, Subsect. iv, Delete Par. b:
    Delete: "b. To maintain the library, by bringing requested items to meetings, and arranging for the update of the library webpage."

  • Art. I, Sect. 2, Subsect. i, Par. a:
    From: "...to be entirely responsible..."
    To: "...to be responsible..."

  • Art. I, Sect. 2, Subsect. i, Par. b:
    From: "...hosting for the mailing list(s), vox*@lugod.org."
    To: "...hosting the LUGOD mailing lists."

  • Art. I, Sect. 2, New Subsect. v:
    Add: "v. The Installfest Officer
    a. is responsible for coordinating the installfests and making them run on a smooth and regular basis.
    b. s in charge of physical and network security during the installfests."

  • Art. I, Sect. 2, New Subsect. vi:
    Add: "vi. The Librarian is responsible for:
    a. Keeping LUGOD's library in a safe and convenient location.
    b. Bringing requested items to members and insuring LUGOD gets the items back in a timely manner.
    c. Updating and maintaining the library page of LUGOD's website."

  • Art. I, Sect. 3:
    From: "...event that an officer will be unable to continue..."
    To: "...event that an officer is unable to continue..."

  • Art. I, Sect. 4:
    Change Entirety To: "Nominations for elected officerships will be opened at the meeting directly after spring and fall daylight savings time changes, and will remain open until the beginning of the election at the next meeting. You are allowed to nominate yourself and nominations do not need to be seconded.

    Elections for elected officerships will be held the meeting after nominations are opened. Voting is to be anonymous. In the case where a candidate runs unopposed, typescript may ask that their approval for officership be passed by consent. If there is an objection to consent, the candidate must be approved by a 2/3 majority of a general meeting. If no candidate is elected for a position, nominations will be re-opened for that position until the next meeting, when a new election will be held, and so forth, as necessary until all positions are filled.

    A newly-elected officer's term shall commence at the beginning of the meeting after elections are over."

  • Art. II, Sect. 1:
    From: "The bylaws shall be publicly posted on the website at http://www.lugod.org/lugod/objectives/bylaws.html."
    To: "The bylaws shall be publicly posted LUGOD's website."

  • Art. II, New Sect. 4:
    Add: "Section 4: Small change clause

    Root and sys are allowed to make small changes to the bylaws. The scope of these changes is defined by:

    i: Spelling, punctuation, formatting and change of wording are always fair game as long as it doesn't change the general meaning of the bylaw being changed.

    ii: Minor additions and deletions will need to be brought to an informal vote by all the officers (majority wins) to see if the change is minor enough to implement without a general LUGOD vote.

    iii: Anything else needs to be brought to a general vote at a regularly scheduled LUGOD meeting."

• California 4-H Presentation - Henry House and possibly Nicole Carlson and Bill Kendrick, will be representing LUGOD at a presentation to California 4-H kids at a leadership conference on August 10th (6:30p-7:30p).

• Whole Earth Festival - LUGOD will be taking part in this May's Whole Earth Festival at UCD, probably on Friday May 10th (afternoon) and Saturday May 11th (all day). More volunteers are still needed. Mandrake has offered copies of Mandrake Linux 8.2, and Ryan Castellucci has offered 30 blank CDs for burning other discs, to be given at the WEF as a gift for donating to LUGOD, EFF and/or FSF.

• Class with DCN - Rod Roark has accepted a request to chair the committee to organize this class. The topic will probably be using Linux in an office environment, with some hands-on access to office apps. for Linux. Speakers and other volunteers are needed. Location and exact date still TBA.

• Game - For making the closest guess as to how many pages The Unix User's Handbook (donated to the library by Mr. Counts), Ryan Castellucci won a Linux voodoo doll (also donated by Mr. Counts). Ryan guessed 1250 pages. The last page in the book was 1366.

• Raffle - 2 of the copies of the books O'Reilly donated (Using the VI Editor and The VI Pocket Reference), and the copy of Learning Debian GNU/Linux (which we already have in the library) donated by Mr. Counts, were given away in a raffle!

  Rhonda Bailey and Carl Yates both won the VI pocket reference. Matt Roper and Sherry won copies of Using VI. After winning a coin-toss, Ryan won Learning Debian.

• Financial Report - $51.12 in voluntary dues were collected.

Presentation

• Verbus M. Counts from Advanced Open Source Solutions and Hewlett Packard in Roseville, discuss the VI editor, and a lot of the history and heritage of Unix.

  UNIX History web site (Link)

  VIM Website (Link)

Attendance

• Pete Salzman
• Rhonda Bailey
• Bill Kendrick
• Foo Lim
• Ryan Castellucci
• Melissa Hardenbrook
• Joel Baumert
• Jeff DeFay
• Martyn Wittaker
• Dave Nelson
• Lee Welter
• Curtis
• Marc Hasbrouck
• Verbus M. Conts
• Hugh
• Sheri
• Richard Harkey
• Gene Miner
• Matt Roper
• Nicole Carlson
• Steve
• Nathalie
• Carl Yates
• Mike Simons
• Christine Scobee
• Doug Huckaba

Photos: