Utah Open Source Blog

The Utah Open Source Conference 2009 is just around the corner, October 8-10, 2009 is not too far away!!  It’s time to submit your presentations. UTOSC 2008 received over 90 submissions, and we ended up with over 50 presentations.  The odds are good that if your presentation is a good open source topic, it will get selected.

The Call for Papers for UTOSC 2009 is officially open! Paper submission deadline is August 15, 2009 at Midnight, just under 2 months prior to UTOSC 2009, October 8-10 2009.

This year, we’ve enabled a few new features to conman, our paper submission system.  First off, everyone can see all of the abstracts which have been submitted, which includes a new RSS Feed for watching new submissions.  Also, about 1 month before selections are made (about 2 months before UTOSC 2009), we’ll open voting to any registered attendees, speakers, volunteers, etc.  We’re excited to enable these new features and will be working hard to make more improvements to the system.  We want to send a shout out to our programmers for their hard work on our system this year.

If you’ve got something to share, something to tell, something to introduce or something to show, please take the time and submit a presentation to the Utah Open Source Conference 2009.  We’d love to see your presentation!!

Some people are natural public speakers and presenters while others are reluctant to imagine themselves in front of a group of people at a conference.  Nobody should feel unqualified or inexperienced to present. We want presenters who can share information at all levels.

And now, some tough questions.

What should I talk about?

You should talk about Open Source software, philosophy, technology, etc. The theme for this year’s conference centers around ‘Ability’ so your topic can be targeted at beginners, experts, or someone in between.

It may help to see what topics were presented last year. Go to <http://2008.utosc.com/speaker/list/> for information about 2008’s conference sessions.

This year, several sessions will be targeted at beginning or “newbie” users including those who are family members of an Open Source geek. Basic sessions around Linux, The GIMP, or WordPress are good examples of these types of sessions.

We have really expanded our categories offerings this year and you can select multiple audiences as well.  If there is a category you do not see listed, please let us know by emailing our program coordinator, Clint Savage at <clint@utos.org>.

What does a response to a call for papers look like?

You should come up with a brief outline, or abstract, of your presentation and who would be interested. You should also provide some information about you, your
experience with open source software and the specific aspects you’re proposing to speak about.

Here’s an example of an abstract:

Title: Open source home security

This presentation will outline how I have used a Linux server, IP cameras, and open source software, to provide around-the-clock video and image surveilance of my home which is archived for later viewing and is available for viewing via the Web when I’m not at home.

The presentation will describe how to set up a system similar to mine and what alternatives are available for software and hardware in the system.

What’s in it for me?

There are lots of perks reserved for people chosen to present at the Utah Open Source Conference!

Resumé material
Having presented on a topic at a conference is a great thing to add to your resumé and could make the difference the next time you apply for a job.

Free admission
If you’re chosen as a speaker, we’ll let you — and your family — into the conference for FREE!

A picture and a paragraph
Speakers are asked to submit a digital photo and a paragraph of biographical information which will be seen by those viewing the UTOSC website and those reading the conference program.

Warm fuzzies
Being involved in the Utah Open Source Conference is a great experience. Just ask anyone who was involved in UTOSC 2007 or UTOSC 2008.

What’s that URL again?
Go to <http://2009.utosc.com/> and get yourself an account. Then you can submit as many presentation ideas as you wish!!

The Utah Open Source Foundation, in its goal to promote Open Source throughout Utah and beyond, is proud to promote the following events.  These events are generally related to Open Source and Technology in Utah.  If your event is not listed below, please contact clint@utos.org to get it added.

Utah Technology Community Announcements

• UTOS-ConMan HackNights happen most every Tuesday night in June, watch http://utos.org for announcements.
• Watch for the UTOSC 2009 ‘Call for Papers’ - http://2009.utosc.com

If you have announcements or events that are happening around open source in Utah which you would like included, please contact clint@utos.org.
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Upcoming Activities for June 2009

Wed, June 10, 11:30pm – 1:00pm
SLLUG: Daytime SIG Meeting
Topic: IPTables Basics
Where: BetaLoft SLC - 357 West 200 S, Suite 201, Salt Lake City
Contact: Clint Savage, herlo1@gmail.com

Wed, June 10, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Provo Linux Users Group
Topic: KVM & QEMU
Link: http://plug.org
Where: Omniture
Contact: Ryan Simpkins, simpkins.ryan @gmail.com

Thu, June 11, 6pm – 9pm
Utah Mobile Developers Group
Where: STG Dev Center, 555 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
Contact: Glen Lewis, glen @ glenlewis.com

Thu, June 11, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Utah Python User Group Meeting
Link: http://utahpython.org
Topic: GUI Toolkit Extravaganza
Where: University of Utah, Emma Eccles Jones Medical Research Building, Room 1200
Contact: Dave, tonedevf AT gmail.com

Sat, June 13th (All Day)
SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF)
Where: Clemson, South Carolina
Info: http://southeastlinuxfest.org

Sat, June 13th, 12-5pm
Utah CodeAway
Link: http://codeaway.org/
Where: BetaLoft, 357 West 200 South, Suite 201, Salt Lake City
Contact: Laura Moncur, laura @ moncur.biz

Sat, June 13, 6pm – 8pm
Ubuntu-Utah Meeting
Link: http://utah.ubuntu-us.org
Where: University of Utah - Merrill Engineering Building (MEB) Comp-Sci Labs Rm 2555
Contact: Aaron Toponce, aarontoponce@ gmail.com

June 17-19
Open Source Bridge
Where: Portland, Oregon
Info: http://opensourcebridge.org

Wed, June 17, 7:10pm – 8:40pm
Salt Lake Linux User Group (SLLUG)
Link: http://sllug.org
Where: University of Utah, Warnock Engineering Building (WEB) room 101 or 103 (Previously known as EMCB)
Contact: Marc Christensen marc aT mecworks.com

Thu, June 18, 6pm – 9pm
Utah Java User’s Group (ujug.org)
Link: http://ujug.org
Where: SelectHealth (IHC), 4646 West Lake Park Blvd., West Valley City
Contact: Chris Maki, chrismaki AT me.com

Thu, June 18, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Utah PHP User Group (UPHPU)
Topic:  Fundamentals of PHP by Adam Barrett
Link: http://uphpu.org
Where: Bill Good Marketing, Draper, Utah
Contact: Victor Villa, vvilla @ gmail.com

Sat, June 20, 12pm - 2pm
Nerds in the Sun, Provo Linux User Group InterLug Barbecue
(sponsored by Utah Open Source)
Link: http://blog.utos.org/2009/05/27/event-nerds-in-the-sun-plug-summer-bbq/
Where: Scera Park, Orem, Utah (map)

Tue, June 23, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
SLC Ruby (slc.rb)
Link: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/urug
Where: Neumont University Room #300
Contact: Jake Mallory, tinomen @gmail.com

Thu, June 25, 8:00am – 9:30am
CTO Breakfast
Link: http://www.windley.com/cto_forum
Where: Novell Cafeteria
Contact: Phil Windley, phil At windley.org

Thu, June 25, 6pm – 8pm
Logan Dev Group
Where: Room 208 (Faculty Seminar Lounge), Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Contact: Matthew Reinbold, matthew.reinbold At voxpopdesign.com

Fri, June 26, 12:30pm – 2pm
UTOS/UPHPU Geek Lunch
Link: http://utos.org/geek-lunch
Contact: Victor Villa, vvilla AT gmail.com

Tue, June 30, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Ogden Area Linux User Group
Link: http://oalug.com
Where: Weber County Main Library, Board Room
Contact: Seth House, whiteinge@ gmail.com

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Each of the events were pulled from the Utah Tech Events calendar, feel free to subscribe by clicking the link below (or adding the following feed to your calendaring program)
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Utah Tech Events Calendar - Google Calendar: http://sn.im/ute-calendar
Utah Tech Events Calendar - iCal Feed: http://sn.im/ute-calendar-ics

Utah Open Source Foundation also regularly records Local User Group (LUG) meetings throughout the state.  Feel free to check out our podcasts and live streaming schedules.

Utah Open Source Podcasts - http://podcast.utos.org

This morning, many of us were informed of the story of Julie Stout.  She was diagnosed with brain cancer a couple of years ago.  This, in and of itself isn’t abnormal, but what is not normal is that this woman is the wife of one of Utah’s geek’s, Brandon Stout.  He’s been around this community for some time, contributed plenty and regularly participated in the Utah PHP User Group (UPHPU).

As of this morning, I was informed about their situation and wanted to do something for the family.  Thus, we’ve adopted the ‘Help a Geek Family’ mantra and opened an account on chipin.com.  We’re shooting for $1500 in donations and are already well on our way.  These donations will be sent to the account at Deseret First Credit Union and Utah Open Source will cover the paypal fees to make the amount complete.

If you are interested in helping out a geek family, please consider donating on our main page at http://utos.org.  In addition, if you are interested in learning more about Brandon and Julie, you can watch the story on ksl.com.

Cheers,

Clint

The Utah Open Source Foundation, in its goal to promote Open Source throughout Utah and beyond, is proud to promote the following events.  These events are generally related to Open Source and Technology in Utah.  If your event is not listed below, please contact clint@utos.org to get it added.  In addition, each of the events below was pulled from the Utah Tech Events calendar, feel free to subscribe by clicking the link below (or adding the following feed to your calendaring program)

Utah Technology Community Announcements

• Utah Open Source 2009 conference dates / venue / theme - http://2009.utosc.com

If you have announcements or events that do not happen on a regular monthly basis which you would like included, please contact clint@utos.org
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Upcoming Activities for May 2009

Sat, May 9th, 12pm
Utah CodeAway
Link: http://codeaway.org/
Where: Rocky Mountain Pizza Company, 3977 Wasatch Boulevard, Holladay, Utah 84124
Contact: Laura Moncur, laura @ moncur.biz

Sat, May 9, 6pm – 8pm
Ubuntu-Utah Meeting
Link: http://utah.ubuntu-us.org
Where: University of Utah - Merrill Engineering Building (MEB) Comp-Sci Labs Rm 2555
Contact: Aaron Toponce, aarontoponce@ gmail.com

Wed, May 13, 11:30pm – 1:00pm
SLLUG: Daytime SIG Meeting
Where: Salt Lake Public Library - Conference Room A Lower Level
Contact: Clint Savage, herlo1 @gmail.com

Wed, May 13, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Provo Linux Users Group
Link: http://plug.org
Where: Omniture
Contact: Ryan Simpkins, simpkins.ryan @gmail.com

Thu, May 14, 6pm – 9pm
Utah Mobile Developers Group
Where: STG Dev Center, 555 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
Contact: Glen Lewis, glen @ glenlewis.com

Thu, May 14, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Utah Python User Group Meeting
Link: http://utahpython.org
Topic: GUI Toolkit Extravaganza
Where: University of Utah, Emma Eccles Jones Medical Research Building, Room 1200
Contact: Dave, tonedevf AT gmail.com

Wed, May 20, 7:10pm – 8:40pm
Salt Lake Linux User Group (SLLUG)
Link: http://sllug.org
Where: University of Utah, Warnock Engineering Building (WEB) room 101/103 (Previously known as EMCB)
Contact: Marc Christensen marc aT mecworks.com

Thu, May 21, 6pm – 9pm
Utah Java User’s Group (ujug.org)
Link: http://ujug.org
Where: SelectHealth (IHC), 4646 West Lake Park Blvd., West Valley City
Contact: Chris Maki, chrismaki AT me.com

Thu, May 21, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Utah PHP User Group (UPHPU)
Topic: Security + PHP by Erik Johnson
Link: http://uphpu.org
Where: Bill Good Marketing, Draper, Utah
Contact: Victor Villa, vvilla @ gmail.com

Tue, May 26, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
SLC Ruby (slc.rb)
Link: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/urug
Where: Neumont University Room #300
Contact: Jake Mallory, tinomen @gmail.com

Tue, April 28, 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Ogden Area Linux User Group
Link: http://oalug.com
Where: Weber County Main Library, Board Room
Contact: Seth House, whiteinge@ gmail.com

Thu, May 28, 8:00am – 9:30am
CTO Breakfast
Link: http://www.windley.com/cto_forum
Where: Novell Cafeteria
Contact: Phil Windley, phil At windley.org

Thu, May 28, 6pm – 8pm
Logan Dev Group
Where: Room 208 (Faculty Seminar Lounge), Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Contact: Matthew Reinbold, matthew.reinbold At voxpopdesign.com

Fri, May 29, 12:30pm – 2pm
UTOS/UPHPU Geek Lunch
Link: http://utos.org/geek-lunch
Contact: Victor Villa, vvilla AT gmail.com

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Utah Tech Events Calendar - Google Calendar: http://sn.im/ute-calendar
Utah Tech Events Calendar - iCal Feed: http://sn.im/ute-calendar-ics
Utah Open Source Podcasts - http://podcast.utos.org
Utah Open Source Foundation - http://utos.org
Utah Open Source Conference - http://utosc.com

This Sunday I was given a call by our VPS provider.  There was a power outage at the colo where the virtual machine was housed.  I still have a few questions about why it wasn’t on a UPS (or if it was) and why it took so long to get power restored.  I guess I’ll get to those soon enough, but it caused some unintended outages and is probably a good test for all the system stuff we have running.

Specifically, the Utah Open Source Planet failed to update for two days, which, if you are following our feed, is probably why you just saw a bunch of posts come through.  It turns out the software I use, planet, was working fine.  However, it appeared to be the problem due to the misleading errors it was getting.  The error code was:

ERROR:planet:Error 500 while updating feed <url://to.planet/rss.feed>

This error would appear for each of the entries we have in our planet.  However, the error was not the planet’s fault.  At first, I grabbed one of the url’s and tried it in my browser, no problem.  The rss feed would load up just fine.  After a few minutes of digging, I started researching the network.  What I discovered was that I wasn’t able to resolve any hostname.

Because we run our own dns servers, we also point our machines at those servers.  However, when the power went out on Sunday, it appears we didn’t have the dns server set to automatically start on boot.  A quick chkconfig command to fix that and we’re back up.  Thus, the consequence in this case was lack of planet updates for a while.

However, I feel we were lucky (and good).  For the most part, things worked, that’s a good sign, but I think this goes back to one key principle in a system administrator’s repertoire.  Make sure to test your systems to validate that they come back up correctly.  Lucky for us, this was a minor service, but a service nonetheless.  I’m glad that everything else worked and it’s been a good testing day for that reason.

Cheers,

Clint

Last night, at the crack of 7pm, a new era of development in Utah began.  It began with 11 people in a room, talking about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, how it came to be and about the new partnership between UTOS, Fedora and Sugar Labs.  It was a night to be remembered.

A short presentation (thanks to Karlie Robinson for the slides) about the XO Developer project was given.  Everyone seemed interested and awake, so that was good.

We pulled up the list of activities and went through some of the 4th Grade math curriculum.  It’s a bit irksome that the activities aren’t well-defined.  Basically, all you get is a short description of an xo activity.  It’d be nice to have the components defined a little better.  This discussion led to the possibility of pulling in a few 4th grade teachers from around the local community.  We’ll see where this goes.

Finally, after narrowing down our list of activities, we settled on 3 activities for now, and started defining components to develop.  It was agreed that we’d first create some command line applications, then return next month to put a GUI on them, and sugarize them.

All in all, it was a fun evening, food and friends.  I look forward to next months OLPC meeting.  Watch this blog for more news about upcoming UTOS OLPC hackfests.  After the event, I created a wiki page for the UTOS-XO team, as well as a local mailing list for discussions to be had.  If you are interested in participating, please feel free to join the list and get yourself an XO.

Pictures are available on flickr.

Cheers,

Clint

The Utah Open Source Foundation is pleased to announce its 2009 Conference: October 8-10, 2009 at the Salt Lake Community College - Miller Free Enterprise Center in Sandy, Utah.

The Utah Open Source Conference 2009 will be focusing on the developer, but we also have presentation tracks that apply to the beginner and the business person”, stated Clint Savage, founder of the Utah Open Source Foundation.

The conference, now in its third year, is designed to help developers strengthen their skill and to teach them about the latest open source technologies.

See the official press release:  Utah Open Source Conference 2009 Dates, Venue and Theme

To keep up-to-date on the latest news, visit the Utah Open Source Foundation at these locations:

http://blog.utos.org - Utah Open Source Blog
http://2009.utosc.com - Utah Open Source Conference 2009 Website

In addition, feel free to follow Utah Open Source on these social networks:

#utos on irc.freenode.net
http://identi.ca/utos - Utah Open Source on Identi.ca
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3406&trk=anet_ug_hm - Utah Open Source LinkedIn Group
http://twitter.com/utos - Utah Open Source on Twitter
http://www.flickr.com/groups/utosc/ - Flickr photos from previous years

The Utah Open Source Foundation, in its goal to promote Open Source throughout Utah and beyond, is proud to promote the following events.  These events are generally related to Open Source and Technology in Utah.  If your event is not listed below, please contact clint@utos.org to get it added.  In addition, each of the events below was pulled from the Utah Tech Events calendar, feel free to subscribe by clicking the link below (or adding the following feed to your calendaring program)

• Utah Tech Events Calendar - Google Calendar: http://tinyurl.com/ute-calendar
• Utah Tech Events Calendar - iCal Feed: http://tinyurl.com/ute-calendar-ics

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Utah Technology Community Announcements

• Utah Open Source announces 2009 conference theme - http://tinyurl.com/utosc2009-theme
• Utah Open Source announces 2009 conference venue - http://tinyurl.com/utosc2009-venue
• Utah Open Source announces 2009 conference dates - http://tinyurl.com/utosc2009-dates
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Upcoming Activities for April 2009

Sat, April 4th, 1pm
Utah CodeAway
Link: http://codeaway.org/
Where: Rocky Mountain Pizza Company, 3977 Wasatch Boulevard, Holladay, Utah 84124

Wed, April 8th, 11:30pm – 1:00pm
SLLUG: Daytime SIG Meeting
Link: http://sexysexypenguins.com/2009/03/24/sllug-daytime-sig-cooking-with-pam-april/
Topic: Cooking with PAM by Thad van Ry
Where: Salt Lake Public Library - Conference Room A Lower Level

Wed, April 8, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Provo Linux Users Group
Link: http://plug.org
Topic: Home Automation by Ryan Erickson
Where: Omniture

Thu, April 9, 6pm – 9pm
Utah Mobile Developers Group
Where: STG Dev Center, 555 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah

Thu, April 9, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
UtahPython User Group Meeting
Link: http://utahpython.org
Topic: Pygame by Jeff Shipley
Where: University of Utah, Emma Eccles Jones Medical Research Building, Room 1200. (map)

Fri, April 10, 12:30pm
UTOS/UPHPU Geek Lunch
Link: http://utos.org/geek-lunch
Where: Teriyaki Express, 1898 W 5400 S Taylorsville, UT

Sat, April 11, 6pm – 8pm
Ubuntu-Utah Meeting
Link: http://utah.ubuntu-us.org
Topic: Conky by Mike Basinger
Where: University of Utah - Merrill Engineering Building (MEB) Comp-Sci Labs Rm 2555 - http://tinyurl.com/2k8px2

Wed, April 15, 7:10pm – 8:10pm
Salt Lake Linux User Group (SLLUG)
Link: http://sllug.org
Where: University of Utah, Warnock Engineering Building (WEB) room 101 (Previously known as EMCB)

Thu, April 16, 6pm – 9pm
Utah Java User’s Group (ujug.org)
Link: http://ujug.org
Where: SelectHealth (IHC), 4646 West Lake Park Blvd., West Valley City, UT (map)

Thu April 16, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Utah PHP User Group (UPHPU)
Link: http://uphpu.org
Topic: SSL + Apache presented by Lonnie Olson
Where: Bill Good Marketing, Draper, Utah

Fri, April 24, 8:00am – 9:30am
CTO Breakfast
Link: http://www.windley.com/cto_forum
Where: Novell Cafeteria

Thu, April 23, 6pm – 8pm
Logan Dev Group
Where: Room 208 (Faculty Seminar Lounge), Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan, UT (map)

April 24-25
LinuxFest Northwest
Link: http://linuxfestnorthwest.org
Where: Bellingham, Washington

Tue, April 28, 7:30pm-8:45pm
Ogden Area Linux User Group
Link: http://oalug.com
Where: Weber County Main Library, Board Room

The Utah Open Source Foundation has been working very hard this year. We’ve got a lot of fun things in store. In fact, we’re starting this year off with a new theme that really builds upon the foundations of open source and free software. We really believe that with this year’s theme for the Utah Open Source Conference 2009 we’ve hit the current trends on the head.

Now that you have seen the theme for UTOSC 2009.  Let’s talk about the three tenets of the UTOSC 2009 theme.

Affordability

Affordability doesn’t just mean cost, it also means value. Free and open source software (FOSS) provides this value. Not only in it’s low costs (aka free as in beer), but in it’s maintenance costs being only those of expertise. No contracts to sign, no company to ask for improvements, and value added because you can make the change yourself. In addition, because expertise is generally the only cost, companies that use free software won’t feel locked in when looking for support options.

Scalability

Scalability means many things to many people: flexibility of costs, software load management, ability to grow without complication, and many more. Scalability makes things better. Free and open source software provides solutions in every area from customer management to security, and simple applications to complex environments. Because code is so easy to view and change, FOSS has the most flexible, scalable solutions around.

Reliability

Reliability is among the most important components in free and open source software. The number of eyes looking at the code, and the community that helps make the software, provides a paradigm which sets FOSS apart. Being able to make changes and have a community willing to test the software makes it more reliable and solid. If you want reliability, you go with free and open source software, its community of developers, testers, and users.

These three components of the Utah Open Source Conference 2009 will excite the mind, challenge the soul and ultimately improve free and open source software. We at the Utah Open Source Foundation look forward to seeing your presentation, thoughts and enjoyment of this theme during the upcoming UTOSC 2009.

See you all at the Utah Open Source Conference 2009. Watch for the announcement of the venue and conference dates in the next couple days.

Cheers,

Clint Savage
Founder, Utah Open Source Foundation

Today @ 12:30pm will be the UTOS/UPHPU Geek Lunch at “The Soup Kitchen“.  If you are geek enough to join us, come on by as we’ll probably be there for a good hour and half.

Where: The Soup Kitchen, 1185 Richards St, Salt Lake City, UT 84101 (map)
Why: Because geeks need to eat and discuss
Phone: (801) 531-7093

General geek discussions will commence around sandwiches, soup and soda.  Come and join in the fun.

Cheers,

Clint