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.”

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!!

Where:  Scera Park, Red Pavilion.  This is on the east side of the park. (map)

When:  Saturday (Today), June 20, 2009 - 12pm - 2pm

For more information — READ THIS!!

Cheers,

Clint

DON’T FORGET TO BRING A POTLUCK ITEM TO SHARE (HARDWARE AND EATS)

We’ve mentioned the BBQ here a couple of times on this blog and several mailing lists have mentioned it as well.  But if you can’t remember the details, here you go again:

Party Information

Where:  Scera Park, Red Pavilion.  This is on the east side of the park. (map)

When:  Saturday, June 20, 2009 - 12pm - 2pm

Why:  To allow the geek’s significant others to socialize, sympathize and find ways to cope with their geek’s habits.  Or maybe it’s just to bring the kids to the park, and free food.  Either way, it’ll be fun!

Hardware Exchange

As normal, please feel free to bring any spare computer parts to trade or exchange.  There will be people there looking for something useful and you might just have what they need.  Anything left over will be recycled by Orem City*.

We hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

Clint

* - This is not recycling really.  If someone would like to recycle the left over computer parts, feel free to speak up at the BBQ.

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.

This post is a bit of an update to the details for the event.  As we stated, we’ll be at Scera Park, in the Red Pavilion.  Pretty much the same place we’ve been the last few years.

UPDATE

Utah Open Source will be providing 40 hamburgers, buns, cheese, mayo, mustard and ketchup.  If you are planning on attending, please bring any potluck food item you like, pickles, salad, desert, etc.  Utah Open Source will also be providing several 12-packs of soda (both leaded and unleaded) and of course, water.  If you would like to bring your own meat, please feel free to do so.

As usual, Joseph Hall (redbeard) will probably bring something all chef-like and amazing.  He might even share with you if you are nice, but I guess it depends if he attends.

In addition, we’re doing a Hardware potluck.  This means that you should bring all of your old hardware and swap it with others who could use it.  If it doesn’t get taken, it gets recycled to the big dumpster (not recycling at all).

Looking forward to seeing you all there.  Here’s the details again:

Where:  Scera Park, Red Pavilion.  This is on the east side of the park. (map)

When:  Saturday, June 20, 2009 - 12pm - 2pm

Why:  To allow the geek’s significant others to socialize, sympathize and find ways to cope with their geek’s habits.  Or maybe it’s just to bring the kids to the park, and free food.  Either way, it’ll be fun!

Cheers,

Clint

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

The problem is that the Utah Open Source Conference 2009 needs a registration system.  Recently released from the guys over at the Southern California Linux Expo is some good code in the ScaleReg system.  We’re going to update and improve it over the next few months.  Hopefully, by mid-July, we’ll have it up and running with Django 1.0, and have it ready to roll for folks to start registration.

Now the real question is why are we blogging about all this stuff recently.  Well, the reason is, we need your help.  We’re looking for folks who are interested in learning or improving their Python/Django skills, helping with css and graphic design, testing and any other intangibles we haven’t thought about yet.  We’re looking for you and we’re looking to start this coming Tuesday.  So come on over and join the HackNight!

You might ask yourself, why would I help out?  And that’s a really good question, so let’s provide some good answers.  If you participate and provide some good feedback, code or contribute in some other way, you’ll get free admission the to UTOSC 2009 (a $70 value).  In addition, you’ll learn a valuable skill or improve upon your skill set as this project introduces some interesting and fun challenges.  There’s also pride.  This project will be used by many of the community tech conferences around the nation and world and your name will be among the contributors.  I’m sure there will be some conferences we haven’t even considered who will be using your code or design.  We’re also working on getting a couple good mentors who are expert Python and Django developers.  They’ll be on hand to help you with troubleshooting, common issues, etc.

I think we may have your attention now, so let’s talk about the details.  We know you want to come an help, so here’s how:

When: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 from 6:30pm - 11pm.  We encourage you to come for as many hours of this as you can and you can come anytime during these hours.

Where:  Clint Savage’s home; 5225 Gravenstein Park, Murray, Utah 84123

This information is available on the Utah Tech Events Calendar as well — http://sn.im/ute-calendar (iCal: http://sn.im/ute-calendar-ics)

If you are unable to join us physically, we’re going to be working in #utos-dev on irc.freenode.net so please feel free to join us there as well.  We’ll have some folks hanging out there as well to include you in the development project.  They’ll try to describe the goals and get you started as well.

We’re planning on making this an every other week HackNight for a while, so come on by on the first and third Tuesdays from 6:30-11pm.  We hope to see you all at the first UTOS-Conman/Scalereg HackNight of 2009 on June 2.

Cheers,

Clint

The annual Provo Linux User Group (PLUG) Barbecue is upon us again.  This year it will be spectacular!  The Utah Open Source Foundation is excited to be a part of this event.  Because of this, UTOS will provide some soda, water and approximately 50 hamburgers.

This event is potluck so bring something everyone can enjoy.  Chips, salad, vegetables, fruit, etc., just don’t come empty handed.

Party Information

Where:  Scera Park, Red Pavilion.  This is on the east side of the park. (map)

When:  Saturday, June 20, 2009 - 12pm - 2pm

Why:  To allow the geek’s significant others to socialize, sympathize and find ways to cope with their geek’s habits.  Or maybe it’s just to bring the kids to the park, and free food.  Either way, it’ll be fun!

Hardware Exchange

As normal, please feel free to bring any spare computer parts to trade or exchange.  There will be people there looking for something useful and you might just have what they need.  Anything left over will be recycled by Orem City*.

We hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

Clint

* - This is not recycling really.  If someone would like to recycle the left over computer parts, feel free to speak up at the BBQ.

This month’s UTOS Geek Lunch will be held in three locations at once.  In other words, a new way of enjoying lunch with geeks in your area.  We thought it’d be nice to hang out with everyone in one place, but it’s so hard to do during the lunch hour.  Instead, the idea of having a Geek Lunch in each of the three main valleys along the Wasatch Front.

This month’s theme: Thai

Salt Lake County

Fri, May 29, 12:30pm – 2pm
My Thai, 1425 S 300 W, SLC, UT (map)

Davis/Weber County

Fri, May 29, 12:30pm – 2pm
Pad Thai, 1986 N Hill Field Rd #8, Layton, UT (map)

Utah County

Fri, May 29, 12:30pm – 2pm
Thai Chili Gardens, 430 West 800 North, Orem, Ut (map)

If you have any questions, please contact Victor Villa (vvilla At gmail.com) for more information.

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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