Meetings

June 12, 2016 – SIG-Computing: A Newbie’s Guide to Data Center Design & Planning, SIG-Linux: Technologies That Linux Will Be Involved In

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General Announcements

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting and make general announcements.

When: Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Data Center

SIG-Computing
Topic: A Newbie’s Guide to Data Center Design & Planning:

Sharan Kalwani, a super computing expert, and SEMCO member will discuss: What is a data center? How is data center different from any other commercial building? What is involved in a data center design? What are the future trends in data center design? How does this relate to all this stuff I keep hearing about the Cloud?

For short but very enlightening answers to all of these questions, attend this talk to find out more!
Data Centers have been around as long as we have had computing, During the different decades in the evolution of the computer, various soothsayers have predicted the death of the center, citing client-server computing, personal computing, etc. as indicators. As we all know forecasting in this industry is hazardous at best. If anyone tells you that mobile and tablet computing will sunset data centers – well they are wrong, as these technologies actually depend on enormous data (aka cloud) centers. Come and attend the talk, ask questions, engage in discussions, join up as a member during the session on this exciting topic at SEMCO’s monthly meeting.

Sharan Kalwani is currently the Director at the High Performance Computing Center, which is part of the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research, Michigan State University.

Also: Questions and Answers following the presentation and during the social period before the SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during the social period.
When: Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

SIG-Linux
Topic: Technologies That Linux Will Be Involved In:

Sharan Kalwani will discuss the many new innovations being driven by both Open Source and Linux-based technologies. This will be brief talk to take a look at many such ideas and innovations and what they mean to the Linux community. It is always hard to predict the future and this is going to be no different, but there are certain parallels that we can see and even touch, so it makes sense to figure out what the possibilities are.

Due to a work emergency, SIG-Linux chairman Brian Brodsky will not be able to do the previously scheduled digiKam presentation this month. Our thanks go to Sharan Kalwani for volunteering to do a presentation on short notice.

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Altair Engineering, Inc., 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083
Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Free Wi-Fi available.  Our thanks to Altair Engineering, Inc. for providing our meeting space!

May 21, 2016 – SIG-Programming: Python

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Topic: Python:

We are learning Python using the book “Learning Python” by Mark Lutz. It is an O’Reilly book http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do, but can also be purchased at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416007152&sr=1-1&pebp=11416007164251.

We are to read Chapter 20, “Comprehensions and Generations” for the next meeting. If you have any questions contact Richard Jackson (see below). All are welcome to come.

Where: Richard Jackson’s home. Call Richard Jackson at 248-546-3694 for directions.

When: Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 2:00 P.M.

SIG-Computing and SIG-Linux Meeting notes from 8-May-2016

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Thank you for the great meeting today!  Please keep the discussion going!

SIG-Computing:  Windows Subsystem for Linux, and intro to SEMCO.org Google Apps

Windows 10 pricing will be $119 for Home edition after July 29, 2016.  Install fest recommended in late June 2016 – email jeff@semco.org

May “Patch Tuesday” patches expose the ”Get Windows 10” program again in Windows 7 and 8.1!  If you wish to prevent upgrades, check out Steve Gibson’s website:  https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

Mike recommended  http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

Web site maintainers, please patch OpenSSL and ImageMagick

Summer is a great time to get outdoors and away from computers, to interact with people more.  Great time to take more pictures.  Protect electronics from very hot temperatures and direct sunlight.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is out and will be covered at SIG-Linux today (4PM).  Please be careful upgrading.  Kevin O’Brien and some others have had trouble with the initial release.  I suggest waiting for the 16.04.01 release in a few days.

New Nvidia Pascal GPU’s released. AMD Polaris coming end of May.

Windows 10 – Windows Subsystem for Linux

Windows NT heritage

A real subsystem with its own process tree

Limitations – as a subsystem there are barriers.  Currently at least, file exchange may be awkward due to Linux v Windows carriage control, difference on allowed file names, and strong Windows file locking (Linux processes can access files while they are in use, in Windows that is more challenging), but Canonical and Microsoft have worked hard on these issues so far!

sudo apt-get install emacs     — It works!  Native Linux Emacs working on Windows!

ssh myusername@myhostname     — very good, some terminal emulation glitches in the preview, but promising!

sftp mysername@myhostname:myfile /home/jeff/stuff/        — wow!  Had to install PuTTY to do this in the past, and it was a bit slow.  WSL version is fast and can handle huge files!

rsync    — yay!  Works on Windows paths under /mnt/c  !

SEMCO’s Google Apps for NonProfits

Transitioning our semco.org email service to it

No advertisements

Data protection serivce level agreement is stronger than the consumer gmail.com service

YouTube, Google Drive (Sheets/Docs/Keep, etc.)

The No-No of semco.org

  • None of us may use semco.org for any commercial use!
  • Do not run a home business using Google Apps for NonProfits!
  • Do not use it for consulting!
  • With this said, though, it is no problem to apply what you learn using semco.org to your own site!

Groups may help us if Yahoo! Groups declines with the sale of Yahoo!

Having a @semco.org email address is a lot better than

@SOME-ISP.net!

Excellent collaboration facilities allow us to work together to create presentations, documentations, and yes, A SEMCO NEWSLETTER!

SIG-Linux: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

ZFS – controversial licensing, but great to have stability in a scalable file system for Linux!  The other alternatives are still very limited, but ZFS is very mature.

ZFS has awareness of solid state disks, may use them for caching or regular storage, with or without regular hard drives.

Improvements in the GUI

Updated packages

5 YEAR support lifetime!

Upgrade will be supported soon, but please do not upgrade right away.  Please wait for the upcoming sub-release.

ZFS Demo in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS:

sudo zpool create testpool sdb sdc sdd –f    # this will wipe disks, no redundancy!

sudo zpool list

RAIDz data redundancy (can handle loss of 1 drive, z2=2 lost, z3=3)

sudo zpool create testpool raidz sdb sdc sdd –f

sudo zpool status; sudo zpool list

sudo zpool add testpool spare sde  # add spare drive

sudo zpool autoreplace=on testpool  # allow auto use of spare drive

sudo zfs create testpool/jeff1  # Look, no partitioning needed!

sudo zfs list

sudo zfs set quota=5g testpool/jeff1  # you may resize this later!

sudo zfs set mountpoint=/home/jeff/jeff1 testpool/jeff1

# automatically mounts the file system, check ”mount”!

Other ZFS commands are available to export file systems via NFS, add/remove drives from pools, export and import, and do snapshots!

 

This is a promising release!  Please visit http://www.ubuntu.com/ for other new features and to download it!

 

 

 

May 8, 2016 – SIG-Computing: Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux and Google Apps, SIG-Linux: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

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General Announcements

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting and make general announcements.

When: Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

Windows10Update1-Windows10-PC-MENU_IS_BACK

SIG-Computing
Topic: Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux and Google Apps:

SIG-Computing Chairman Jeff Marraccini will present Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10: a look at the bash shell and the utilities available in the recent Insider Preview builds of Microsoft Windows 10. We will examine the WSL and discuss Canonical’s contribution to the upcoming Windows 10 Redstone release. Impacts of what bash and its related utilities in Windows 10 bring to the marketplace and our individual usage of Windows will also be discussed. Canonical and Microsoft have worked hard on this: what are they seeking to accomplish?

We will also take a quick look at SEMCO’s Google Apps for NonProfits site. SEMCO members may take advantage of this new service to gain an email address @semco.org, work on documents with other SEMCO members, family, and friends, and take advantage of an advertisement-free Google environment with strong data privacy protections.

Also: Questions and Answers following the presentation and during the social period before the SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during the social period.
When: Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

ubuntu-logo14

SIG-Linux
Topic: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS:

SIG-Computing Chairman Jeff Marraccini will perform a brief demonstration of the recent Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Linux distribution.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and related distributions (KUbuntu, LUbuntu, etc.) have been released in April 2016. This release includes the Zettabyte File System (ZFS) with the controversial license conflicts. Some have called for Canonical to be sanctioned, others hail ZFS as the definitive throwing down of the gauntlet between the various open source distribution licenses. We look at Ubuntu 16.04 LTS from both home and server viewpoints. Please do not upgrade just yet, though, there are some issues with this initial release on some hardware.

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering
Free Wi-Fi available.

APCUG Virtual Technology Conference Saturday 7-May-2016 @ 1PM EDT!

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[ This message was forwarded by jtaylour@apcug.org — Jeff ]

APCUG_VTC-AVO-may-07

FREE 2016 Spring Virtual Technology Conference (VTC)
Saturday, May 7
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Eastern time

Attend the FREE conference from the convenience of your own home! All you need is your computer, tablet, etc. and Internet access. The sessions are 50 minutes in length and offer attendees the opportunity to ask questions via Q&A; the questions are answered by the presenter at the end of the presentation or via e-mail if there isn’t enough time after the presentation.

Read more

James A. Fortune’s PowerShell notes – SIG-Computing – March 2016 meeting –

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Our thanks to James A. Fortune for his March 2016 presentation!

James has provided a copy of this presentation file at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxD-6ro_Q8n1c2NUbkp6Szdpdjg/view?usp=sharing

The supplemental notes and documents are at:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxD-6ro_Q8n1TVVMRmlUS0VDR0k&usp=sharing

Enjoy!

 

[ Updated 26-Mar-2016 ] SEMCO’s 40th Anniversary celebration – Sunday, 10-Apr-2016 at 1:30PM

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birthday_cakeSEMCO, the SouthEastern Michigan Computer Organization, is celebrating its 40th Anniversary on Sunday, 10-Apr-2016, at its general meeting!
1:30PM-6PM

SEMCO has been serving local computer and technology enthusiasts since the early days of personal computing and holds regular monthly discussions on interesting technology topics, including cyber security, leveraging open source software, strengths of Linux, Windows, and tablet operating systems, and more!

Our members are passionate on sharing their knowledge of what is possible now and what the future brings.

We will be serving light refreshments.  Please see below for the meeting topics and presenters.

Members will be bringing in several vintage computer systems and demonstrating access to some platforms that were in use in the early days of our group.  If you are interested in bringing hardware to the meeting, please let us know at semco40th@semco.org

Please join us in our celebration!

Meeting location:
Altair Engineering, Inc.
1820 E. Big Beaver Rd.
Troy, MI 48083
Please park and enter the Auditorium through the West entry door by the SEMCO signs.

We are featuring three outstanding speakers:

Mike Bader SEMCO President will talk about when he first joined SEMCO, his first computer, the technology changes, Bulletin Board Systems and FidoNet.

Jim Rarus, SEMCO’s second president, will provide a retrospective look at the beginning of the personal computer revolution.

Jim is the manager of Network and Security Services for the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency. Jim oversees Internet and technology services for school districts in Wayne County, Michigan.

Sharan Kalwani, a super computing expert, will present “Gazing into the Digital Crystal Ball: Trying to imagine the next 40 years would look like!”

The world of computing has now come to change all of our lives, in many ways no one could have imagined. Given the rapid pace of the last 40+ years, many techniques (and technologies) pioneered in this space have become a de facto way of life. For example, automation of many routine tasks, the way movies are made, logistics, travel, commerce, making the globe just another big village, big brother, “big data”, etc.,etc.

So taking cue from the past, I will attempt at imagining what kind of new boundaries we will be pushing aside in the never ending thirst for bigger and faster. There are a myriad of frontiers such as energy consumption, energy efficiency, turning the classical computer architecture as we know it, on its head, the growing use of weird computers of all kinds, some oddball forays in shaping silicon and a few innovative, maybe wild twists with existing models of digital life as we know it.

One thing is for certain, the next 40 years will most likely look totally different that the past! Or will it not?

Sharan Kalwani is currently the Director at the High Performance Computing Center, which is part of the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research, Michigan State University.

April 16, 2016 – SIG-Programming: Python

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snake-312561_1280

Topic: Python:

We are learning Python using the book “Learning Python” by Mark Lutz. It is an O’Reilly book http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do, but can also be purchased at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-5th-Mark-Lutz/dp/1449355730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416007152&sr=1-1&pebp=11416007164251.

We are to read Chapter 19, “Advanced Function Topics” for the next meeting. If you have any questions contact Richard Jackson (see below). All are welcome to come.

Where: Richard Jackson’s home. Call Richard Jackson at 248-546-3694 for directions.

When: Saturday, February 20, 2016 at 2:00 P.M.

SIG-Computing Meeting Notes from 13-Mar-2016 meeting

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Thank you for the great meeting! Notes are below.  Please see the very bottom for items we talked about during the meeting.

SEMCO Members:  you should have received your www.semco.org account information via email.  If not, please see an officer.  Thank you!

Android N preview is out! http://developer.android.com/preview/index.html

RemixOS for PC beta (Windows or dual boot):  http://www.jide.com/en/remixos-for-pc

Watch out for some new malware spreading from Microsoft!  *sigh*  Some SEMCO members have reported that their Windows 7 systems started installing Windows 10 because they did not cancel the dialog in time.  See http://serverfault.com/questions/695916/registry-key-gpo-to-disable-and-block-windows-10-upgrade to block if needed.

Reminder to disconnect backup drives when not in active use.  Leaving them connected may result in them being damaged if you get malware or worse, ”ransomware”.  If possible, rotate backup media (2-3 hard drives).  Had report of that happening to a local Windows 7 user early this month!

Windows 10 Upgrade and “phone home lock down” clinic in April, May, or June before free upgrades end?  Would involve bringing your systems, AFTER you back them up.  Evening or weekend, and we could do it a couple times. Interested?

Apple’s next event is March 21.  New iPhone, iPads?  Day after that is their next time in front of court with the FBI v. Apple iPhone unlock case.  March will be an interesting month!

Ditto tool discussed today (very nice clipboard manager for Windows, might come in handy during tax time):  http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/

Windows 10 install clinic April, May, or June, any preferences?  We can run it 2-3 times before Microsoft withdraws the free upgrades in July 2016 if useful.  Please discuss at semcoug@yahoogroups.com

Before attending the Windows 10 install clinic:

Must backup your computer first, and keep the backup at home

Backup possibilities:

CloneZilla

Acorns TrueImage

Windows 7 built-in Backup utility (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System)

Windows 8.1 – Settings -> Backup, then very small at the bottom of the window, choose Windows 7 Image Backup

Contact SEMCO via semcoug@yahoogroups.com if you need help with backup.

Bring your Windows 7, 8.1, or Windows 10 product key.

Getting product keys from an existing Windows 7/8.1/10 system:

PowerShell demonstration from James A. Fortune has a nice PowerShell example called “get-windows-product-key”

System Information Wizard (SIW) – thanks Ed Zaremba!

Belarc Advisor

Product Key Nirsoft.net

Magic Jellybean

 

March 13, 2016 – SIG-Computing: PowerShell, SIG-Linux: GnuCash

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General Announcements

Mike Bader, president of SEMCO, will start the meeting and make general announcements.

When: Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 1:30 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

PowerShell

SIG-Computing
Topic: PowerShell:

James Fortune will discuss the powerful PowerShell scripting language that is built into Windows. James will start by talking about software security concerns associated with PowerShell. Then he will explain what PowerShell is and talk about some things that PowerShell can do on a server or on a local computer. He will explain what PowerShell Remoting is and give examples of:

  • How PowerShell Remoting can be used to ease database administration.
  • Obtaining various kinds of information from your computer.
  • How PowerShell can be used to secure directories containing a certain string automatically.
  • How to prevent corrupted database files from being backed up.
  • How to set up a daily revolving backup system.
  • How to set up a weekly revolving backup system.

James will then cover how PowerShell can be used as an early virus detection tool for brand-new viruses. If time permits he will cover how PowerShell can assist in placing cleaned computers back on a network, creating a pre-installation environment, desired State Configuration, and new features in PowerShell 5.0.

James Fortune is a managing member of Golden Products and Services, LLC. He has written custom software for multiple Aerospace Tooling companies, including software utilizing Microsoft SQL Server.

Also: Questions and Answers following the presentation and during the social period before the SIG-Linux meeting. Snacks available during the social period.
When: Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 1:45 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering

GnuCash

SIG-Linux
Topic: GnuCash:

SIG-Linux Chairman Brian Brodsky will demonstrate some of the features of GnuCash. GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.

All are welcome.

When: Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 4:00 P.M.
Where: Map to meetings at Altair Engineering
Free Wi-Fi available.