Utah Open Source Blog

As a final reminder of how completely awesome the Utah Open Source Conference is and why you should attend, we present a final video from UTOSC 2008: Glenda Rhodes presenting on GIMP for Photographers. This video is now available at OpenSourceTV.TV as a in-line Flash video and also as Ogg Theora and Xvid AVI downloads.

Glenda Rhodes

This presentation discusses using GIMP as an alternative to Photoshop for editing digital photos. Basic GIMP techniques (black/white, sepia, cropping) and some advanced techniques (layer masks for selective coloring, head-swapping, background blurring) are covered.

Glenda says, “I have been on the outskirts of the open source community ever since my husband made me send out the initial release of Ubuntu in our Christmas cards back in 2004. Currently I help run Utah OpenTech, a company dedicated to helping small businesses implement VoIP using open source technologies. I am a frequent user of GIMP (on windows and ubuntu), using it for editing photos and most recently digital scrapbooking.”

Sorry this took so long, but here it is: Brandon Beattie’s much talked about MythTV presentation from the 2008 Utah Open Source Conference is now available for viewing online at OpenSourceTV.TV.

This presentation covers design, hardware, and software needed to build a Linux HTPC. Topics include what hardware works best in Linux, Distro flavors, available software, setup and using Linux multimedia. Software covered include MythTV, Xine, MPlayer, and VLC.

Brandon Beattie is a media and automation geek who has used Linux and OSS exclusively for over half of his life. He has worked on everything Linux from embedded systems to super clusters and has contributed to numerous OSS projects, local Linux groups and software standards. He is known locally for his media geekness, as a former president of SLLUG and internationally for his work with Linux Media projects including MythTV, developing the first HDTV support in Linux, and his large collection of Linux media howto’s. In his spare time he enjoys seeing sunlight and the lost geek art of socializing with non-geeks.

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 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

The Utah Open Source Foundation is proud to present video of the December 2008 Provo Linux User Group meeting presentation given by Stuart Jansen on Security-Enhanced Linux, or SELinux. You can view the video at OpenSourceTV.tv.

Stuart Jansen

The traditional Unix security model is simple and beautiful. For decades it has been good enough for most people. However, it is starting to show its age. In the highest security settings, a more fine grained control system is needed. In the past, this meant using expensive, complicated, special purpose versions of Unix: trusted systems. (Trusted Solaris, Trusted AIX, Trusted HP-UX)

SELinux, created by the NSA, is the most mature and complete response to the need for Trusted Linux systems. Unfortunately, because of the difficulty creating and maintaining trusted systems, their success has been limited. This is no longer acceptable.

Today, even desktop systems and cell phones need high quality security. Imagine being able to sandbox your Web browser and e-mail client. The
traditional Unix model makes this difficult and only partially possible. SELinux, on the other hand, makes fine grained security available to everyone.

When it first appeared, SELinux was hard to learn and mysterious to troubleshoot. As a result, many people fear it. However, SELinux and the tools to manage it have come a long way. It’s time to lay fear aside. Stuart will teach what SELinux is, why it is great, basic troubleshooting and maintenance.

The Utah Open Source Foundation is proud to present video of the March 2009 Provo Linux User Group meeting presentation given by Stephen Weeks on creating dynamic language compilers with Parrot and its associated tools. You can view the video at OpenSourceTV.tv.

Stephen Weeks

Jared Smith of Digium’s UTOSC 2008 presentation on Asterisk and Asterisk dialplans is now available from http://www.opensourcetv.tv/.

Jared Smith throwing a free copy of his book to an audience member at UTOSC 2008

Video of Michael Place’s (of UtahFM.org) UTOSC 2008 presentation titled HOWTO: Start an open-source radio station is now available from opensourcetv.tv. This was an excellent presentation and a jewel at UTOSC 2008.

Michael Place of UtahFM.org

Michael presented on Friday, 29 August 2008.

Video of Aaron Bockover’s UTOSC 2008 presentation titled The Banshee Media Player is now available from opensourcetv.tv.

Aaron Bockover

Aaron presented on Friday morning, 29 August

Doran “FozzMoo” Barton here with a short announcement about videos from the 2008 Utah Open Source Conference. In addition to the progressive streaming flash video versions available via OpenSourceTV.tv, we’ve made Xvid AVI and Ogg Theora versions of the presentations available as well. When you go to OpenSourceTV.tv, a list of links to alternate media types will appear below the embedded Flash applet.

We are continuing to produce videos of presentations from the conference, so stay tuned. Aaron Bockover’s presentation about the excellent Banshee media player is almost ready to go up to the site.