[Cumbria] Ideas for Presentations

[Paul Broomfield]

>On Sat, 2003-01-11 at 21:28, Ken hough wrote:
>> Chris Plant wrote:
>> 
>> >
>> > Hello
>> > I have an idea for a session I could run at the LUG, 
>provided people 
>> > are
>> > interested: BSD Sockets.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Chris Plant <chris@monkeyircd.org>
>> 
>> Is this peculiar to BSD or is it relevant to other operating 
>systems? 
>> A genuine question! I've heard of sockets, but haven't studied or 
>> addressed them directly.
>Their a fairly generic way of socket programming across 
>platforms, even WinSock is the same plus some extra init stuff.
>
>Chris
Don't get me wrong, but I think that the group as a whole is a little
far off being able to do anything with socket programming. Perhaps
something along the lines of quick and dirty apache configuration would
be useful.

Here are some of the things that I could do something with:

	o Qmail and Vpopmail configuration. ( I would do something on
setting it up but there are plenty of install how-to out there ).
	o Apache configuration. ( Using virtual domains etc ).
	o Bind Configuration.
	o Linux security ( Installing and configuring various tools such
as Iptables, logcheck and portsentry etc. )
	o Automation using bash scripts.
	o TCP/IP Routing, NAT, and an over view things like net masks
	o Digging dirt ( getting information about other peoples
networks and services ).
	o Secure remote computing ( Using ssh, scp, rsync and others.
Also getting email to work over ssl ).
	o Finding information ( tips and tricks on getting help for your
self ).
	o IRC A users guide.
	o Using windows and linux together.

I could go on for ages but I feel that these are some of the more
appropriate things. My feeling is that if these lectures are to work
then they must be something that a person with low experience within the
group can benefit from. Personally I don't feel the need to be lectured
to at all, this is not because I am big headed but I and I think others
in the group have the experience to know where to go to get the right
information and indeed who the best people to ask on the subject. I
started out on Linux because of IRC and because of that I am part of a
number of large communities that are experts in there fields. Because of
that I think that the best place to have our lectures is on Efnet as it
is probably the most technically aware network, and there are tones of
people on there willing to help. The problem with isolating ourselves on
our own net or a smaller network is that you won't find it so easy to
get help from people out side of the group. 

I think that what the 'guru's ( I hate that name ) want from this is
clearly different from the rest, however that doesn't mean that we don't
want to be involved. I personally will turn up to all of the meetings as
I like to help and I like to be involved even if the topic is below me.
I propose that cumbria.lug.org.uk stays as the main site and point of
contact for the group as a whole. I am going to take charge of
clug.org.uk so that the more advanced people have a point of presence,
and so that we have some where that we can release open source stuff and
so that there is a forum for our needs. I am not doing this to exclude
people more so that people can chose to participate at what ever level
they are comfortable with. 

As for Mr Gleaston watermill, I would personally like to thank him for
both the use of his building and for not throwing in the towel. 

My reasons for being in the LUG:
	o To network with other users that have similar a experience as
my self.
	o To help people with a lesser experience to gain confidence in
Open source.
	o To actively promote the use of NON win biased OS's.
	o To learn from people in different fields.

Am Radio
------------
The reason that I am interested in learning about that is that I see
that there is a lot of movement in the wireless side of networking at
the moment, and a knowledge of radio could be a great benefit. I also
feel that this is yet another medium that we could all communicate on. I
am sure that the equipment is no more expensive than a reasonable
computer and I think that if some one is going to take the time to give
me a weekend course for free then I am stupid not to do it. It would
also allow me to communicate with the people in the group that are
coming from that community and allow me to discuss Linux in a way that
is relevant to them. 

Lets take my suggestion 1 step further. Lectures given by ham radio,
backed up by irc with information on line, no one has to leave there
homes! 

I think if we did something like this then I feel that we would end up
getting publicity from all over the country, both in the ham community
and the Linux / it community. 

Some one want to tell me how viable that is?

The other thing that I was looking into was doing that over VOIP but not
every one has broadband.


Conclusion
------------

Sorry this has been a long and no doubt grammatically incorrect read.
The thing that I am trying to get across is if the group has the time to
be averaging 60+ emails a day to the list then surely we have the time
to work together on something that is worth while. Most of The newbie's
know amateur radio, so lets get into that and then they will be the
gurus. 

Any one interested in working together on the clug.org.uk site please
let me know.

Kind regards,

Paul Broomfield