Category Archives: News

Penguicon 2014

I have recovered from the weekend and this seems like a good time to recap my own experience of Penguicon 2014, my first as part of the team.

I had been associated with Ohio Linux Fest for a few years, but Penguicon actually came first. In fact, I was recruited for OLF by Beth Lynn Eicher while at Penguicon where I had engaged with Jorge Castro of Canonical on the importance of working with Linux Users Groups. And while I enjoyed my work with OLF, I felt like I had done what I wanted to do there and that it was time to move on. So I contacted my friend James Hice and offered to “help” with the Tech Track. But sometime in February it became clear that I was “The Tech Track Guy”. Fortunately, I was not upset by this development since I had things in mind to do, and I have already indicated my willingness to continue in that role for another year. And I am excited that pretty much the whole Penguicon team is continuing, which makes the upcoming year exciting. I will no doubt have more to say on that as time goes by, but this is about 2014.

My focus is really on the Tech Track because I was responsible for that (I only attended one talk outside of it, in fact.) So my own recollection does not cover everything that went on over the weekend. And because we had approximately 70 hours of Tech Track programming I could not attend every talk in my own track. So when I got the complaint from others that they wanted to attend two talks that were scheduled opposite each other, I could sympathize, but frankly that is the kind of problem I will take any day of the week. The other “good” problem to have was that in many cases the rooms were packed. Penguicon had record attendance this year, which of course means we have to figure out how to do better next year. The host facility was excellent, the Westin Hotel in Southfield, Michigan, and everyone I talked to had good things to say about them. I hope we can go back next year.

I think this year was the best Tech Track in my memory at least, and the credit for that goes to our Con Chair, Nuri Gocay. Every time I asked how many talks he wanted, the answer was that there could not be too many Tech talks. We had two days-worth of slots (from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon) and by the end it was tricky just finding the rooms and equipment to make it happen, but we mostly managed to do it, and the result was about 70 hours of pretty good Tech programming. Our focus for the Tech track was on security and privacy issues raised by Edward Snowden, and we had some good programming to address different aspects of this. Michael Lucas did several talks that fit in here, including one on the proper way to set up sudo, and another on DNSSEC, and one on ssh key authentication. Michael is an author, and has written books on all of these which he sells from his site Tilted Windmill Press. He offered a special deal to Penguicon attendees that weekend to buy a bundle of all three e-books for $20, and I was happy to take advantage. I will happily have Michel back again as he really knows his stuff.

Then my friend Mark Stanislav from Duo Security gave us a talk on two-factor authentication. Mark is a great speaker and I always learn something from his talks. And Susan Sons ran the Cryptoparty, Penguicon Edition, with help from Eric Raymond, Chris Nehren, and John D. Bell. This provided a beginners guide to using encryption, and I was glad to have it. I also did a presentation with my friend Tony Bemus from the Sunday Morning Linux Review on the subject of Encryption which was well-received. People who have followed the series on this site already know the kinds of things we covered, such as using plugins for Thunderbird and G-Mail, but there are always people who haven’t seen this before and need the information.

Chris Krieger, another old friend, did a presentation on Securing Your Home Network with a Hardware Firewall. Chris focused on using PFSense, and I think I will be investigating this for my own series at some point. And for next year we suggested a presentation on snort. Mark Kikta did a presentation on Linux Dorking: Exploring the Basics of Linux From the Eyes of an Attacker, that was very good. Mark is yet another professional in the security industry, like Chris Krieger, Mark Stanislav, Michael Lucas, and Susan Sons, and that is what makes the presentations so good, in my view. You know you are getting the information from people who live this every day and know what they are talking about.

Aside from the purely technical aspects of security and privacy, we also addressed the policy aspects. Among our Guests of Honor this year was Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Cory Doctorow, noted author, was a Featured Guest. They addressed several aspects, but one notable panel was The NSA is Watching You: The Government, Surveillance, and You. We also had a Guest of Honor who covered multiple areas, YT Cracker. He was primarily a musical guest, but also has a background in hacking that let him contribute to panels in that area. And while I am on Guests of Honor, let me mention Ernie Cline, author of Ready Player One, Ed Mason from Gameface Labs, who showed off a virtual reality headset throughout the weekend in addition to joining panels, and Erika Carlson, a software developer who created Girl Develop It, a Detroit area group that focuses on helping girls become coders. It was an excellent group of GoHs.

There were some other things in the Tech Track worth mentioning, and in fact the Security and Privacy was probably less than 50% of the total here. Jorge Castro from Canonical gave a presentation on Ubuntu, and another on building a Steambox. We had an Ubuntu release party on Saturday night, put on by the Ubuntu MI Loco. Sunday Morning Linux Review did a live recording of their podcast, something that has become an annual event at Penguicon. And Ruth Suehle and Tom Callaway of Red Hat gave two presentations, one on Raspberry Pi Hacks which is the title of their recent book published by O’Reilly, and another on 3D printing using Linux.

In addition, there talks in HTML5, Python, Pascal, the Watson computer from IBM, programming for total noobs, and I could keep going. Just reporting on everything that went on would make this article way too long, and I have tried to focus on the things I actually attended. But the thing about Penguicon is that it also a Science Fiction convention, so that means you have literature panels, music session, costuming and cosplay, and everything involved there. And I believe Ruth Suehle from Red Hat won a contest for best costume. My one talk outside the Tech Track that I attended was a panel on the Future of Health Care, which is a personal interest for me, having worked for two hospitals in my career.

So I would encourage everyone to plan on attending Penguicon 2015. As soon as the date is confirmed I will surely be posting about it, but with the team we have I think it will be even bigger and better than 2014, and there is plenty there for everyone.

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KDE Manifesto Released

The KDE project has released its Manifesto. Since this is my desktop of choice, I thought I should mention it. It is very good:

The KDE Manifesto
We are a community of technologists, designers, writers and advocates who work to ensure freedom for all people through our software.
Because of this work we have come to value:
Open Governance to ensure engagement in our leadership and decision processes;
Free Software to ensure the result of our work is available to all people;
Inclusivity to ensure that people of all origins are welcome to join us and participate;
Innovation to ensure that new ideas constantly emerge to better serve people;
Common Ownership to ensure that we stay united;
End-User Focus to ensure our work is useful to all people.
That is, in pursuit of our goal, we have found these items essential to define and stay true to ourselves.

The reason things like this matter is that free software is about a lot more than just selling a bunch of software and having an IPO to get rich. It is about our values and empowering people to use software to make their lives better.

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Penguicon 2012 – April 27-29, Dearborn, MI

I thought I would share my own impressions of Penguicon 2012, which was held at the Dearborn Hyatt in Dearborn, Michigan, USA, on April 27-29, 2012. This is a rather unusual event, combining as it does both a Science Fiction convention and a Linux Fest. There are many examples of each of these, of course, on their own, but this is the only one I know of that combines both in one event. I have been going to this event for a number of years, and I have been a speaker for the last 4 years. So this is an event that means something to me. In what follows, I will mention what I did at Penguicon, but of course no other person would have followed this precise path. Every time slot probably had a dozen alternatives for what you could do, but that is part of the charm of these big conventions and conferences; you know you are at a good one when you feel that you are constantly having to choose between two good alternatives. My own choices leaned more towards the Linux/Technology side of things, even though I am a Science Fiction fan (hence my domain name), but I did manage to take in a few SF panels as well. The Guests of Honor this year included John Scalzi, perhaps best known as the author of The Old Man’s War, who was the SF Author GOH, and Jim Gettys, famous for diagnosing the problem of buffer bloat, who was the Tech GOH.

The con starts on Friday afternoon, so I took off work early and got there in time to hear my friend Ryan Kather give a talk on JuJu Charms. I didn’t know a lot about this technology, other than seeing a lot of posts by Jorge Castro that mentioned his work, but it was nice to get a simple, clear overview. And what I learned was that they are basically scripts for installing and standing up software platforms in the cloud. since my new job involves some of that it may come in useful. Then I gave my own talk, on Linux Directory Structure. It was well-received, and the room was fairly full, so I felt good about that. And the thing I liked best was that by giving my talk right at the beginning I could then relax and enjoy the rest of the con. Following my talk I joined the Ubuntu Michigan LoCo Release Party for 12.04, which had just been released the day before. Then it was time for dinner, and  joined a group of people that included James Hice, Craig Maloney, JoDee Baker, and Rick Harding, among others. I had known the others before this but it was my first time meeting Rick Harding, who is a developer for Canonical and as I recall works on Launchpad. Rick and Craig also do a podcast together called the LoCoCast (http://www.lococast.net). And that concluded my Friday at Penguicon.

Saturday was a full day of activity, and my day started with a talk by Bruce Schneier called Security and Trust. It was based on his latest book, Liars and Outliers, which I bought for my Nook but haven’t gotten to yet (I’m still working on Peter Diamandis’ book Abundance). Bruce talked about the balance between the trust we show every day in various social institutions and the way that trust can be abused. Bruce did a small amount of Game Theory in his analysis, but in short trust can only be abused if there is trust to begin with, and too much abuse and we all stop trusting. So there is a natural balance. After his talk I got my copy of Schneier on Security signed. Then I hit the Dealer’s Room and picked up a few Steampunk books. This gave way to a session on the Beagle Board, led by Jason Kridner. The Beagle Board is a great platform for hobbyists to experiment with, and runs Linux. Then I went to a panel on Libraries and Librarians in the Information Age, with Janea Schimmel and Jeff Beeler. I then attended the Heinlein panel, led by Eric Raymond and Jim Gettys, which ended up being an hour of geeks talking tech all over the place, with occasional nods back to Heinlein.

I then attend JoDee Baker’s talk on Citizen Science, which talked about some of the ways each of us can contribute to science even if we are not trained scientists. Of course, JoDee teaches Physics, so she in fact is a trained scientist, and I would guess from her talk a pretty good teacher ass well. I know I enjoyed her presentation. Then Craig Maloney did a presentation on the recently released Ubuntu 12.04 that focused on the changes that had occurred and where it was at the 12.04 mark. 12.04 being a Long-Term Support release, the focus was naturally on stability and performance, rather than introducing new features, and I decided during Craig’s talk that I would install it on one of my machines and give it a workout.

After all of this Saturday activity I needed sustenance, and Catherine Devlin and I went to the food court at the mall across the street and found some decent looking Middle Eastern food. For those who don’t live in this area, there is a very large Arabic and Middle Eastern community in Southeast Michigan, and the heart of it is in Dearborn, where the con was held. Catherine is well-known in the Python community, and is someone I run into at pretty much every Linux event I attend. She most recently ran a workshop at Indiana LinuxFest called Python for Women (and Their Friends) which I think I mentioned in my report from ILF. After dinner, I went back for a talk on IPv6 Software, by Michael Mol.  And by that time it had been a long day, so I went home.

Sunday began with a talk on Sustainable Engineering in Developing Economies by Kristy Currier. One of the key problems addressed was obtaining drinkable water, which is the key problem for many people in the world. The ideal technologies are ones that are inexpensive and can be maintained easily on the spot, and Kristy showed us some of that. Then I went to a panel called The Past Through Digital Audio, put on by members of the Science Fiction Oral History Association. We heard recorded talks and interviews with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Lester Del Rey, and others. SFOHA is doing two things it would appear, the first being to digitize audio recordings made on tape many years ago, and the second being to go to conventions currently and add to their wealth of material. This sounded exciting, so I have joined the group, and plan to do some digitizing since I have done some of that already and have it all set up right now anyway. I think this is something that SF fans should be helping.

I then joined a BOF session on Raspberry Pi, which was somewhat subdued because no one there actually had one yet. Then it was off to hear Ruth Suehle speak on The Pop Culture Guide to Open Source. Ruth made the point that open software and open culture are very related. I first heard Ruth speak at Ohio LinuxFest last September, so I knew she would give a good talk, and I was not disappointed. I got to chat briefly with her and Spot Callaway of the Fedora project. Then I went to hear Michael Mol one last time on IPv6 For the Home. For anyone who is interested, Michael pointed out that you can get IPv6 connections right now through Hurricane Electric (http://www.he.net), but what may be even more interesting is that they offer training materials and free certification for being an IPv6 expert. Well worth checking out. I ended my Penguicon 2012 experience with the closing ceremonies, where I learned that my friend Chris Krieger seems to be getting more involved with Penguicon. He has run the LAN room the last few years, but it looks like he is stepping up even more. Chris is a talented Linux and Security guy who has presented at my LUG, the Washtenaw Linux Users Group, for the last couple of years and just gave us a proposal to do it again this coming September.

So, I hope some of you may have found this interesting. If you are in the area of Southeast Michigan this is an event well worth taking in. It happens each year around the end of April or beginning of May, and I am already looking forward to 2013

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Ohio LinuxFest Calls for Women

Please Redistribute

I had two things happen to me this week that got me thinking. The first was the unforced error by Sqoot that by now has reached everyone on the Internet (but if you missed it for some reason, see Joe Brockmeier’s article at http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/03/how-casual-sexism-put-sqoot-in.php ).

The other was an inquiry I got from a representative of ArchWomen who had heard one of my recordings for Hacker Public Radio. In the recording I made a claim about Ohio LinuxFest pushing diversity, and this person asked nicely, but pointedly, if there was anything I could point to in support of this claim. In other words, you can talk the talk, but do you walk the walk? I thought it was a fair question, and one that I was able to answer satisfactorily.

But I also said we are not where we want to be, by any means. I was one of the people who reviewed the proposals we received last year, which we first sorted into categories as Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. I suspect most conferences do something similar. And we had women submitting talks, and most of their proposals were accepted. But the odd thing to me was that all of the proposals that I could infer were from women, judging by names, were in the Beginners category. And that means we never had an opportunity to put a woman into the more advanced track as a presenter.

I know that is not because there aren’t sufficiently knowledgeable women out there, because I have met them. They are working as syadmins, as developers, as project leaders, and in every capacity. So I am asking these talented women to submit talk ideas for us. I can guarantee that you will get a full and fair hearing for your proposal. So please go to https://ohiolinux.org/cfp and put in a proposal!

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Calling All 2011 Ohio LinuxFest Attendees!

We would really like to gather a teeny little bit of information about what you liked. I promise this can’t take more than a couple of minutes :

And to make it worth your while, we will select one respondent at random to get a free Professional pass to the 2012 event, which gets you: A day of training with the OLF Institute, which includes lunch on Friday, a t-shirt, and admission to the main OLF conference on Saturday. These normally run $350, so it is a valuable prize.

So go to and fill out the survey.

And thanks from all of us at OLF.

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Ohio LinuxFest Registration is Open for Business!

The premier Linux event in the Mid-West USA will run Sept. 9 through Sept. 11 in Columbus, Ohio, and registration is now open to all. Keynoters include Cathy Malmrose, Bradley Kuhn, and Jon ‘maddog’ Hall. There is an extensive Medical track focusing on the use of Open Source in various aspects of medicine, training from the Ohio LinuxFest Institute, and a great slate of presentations. Register now and reserve your place.

As always, we have a “Enthusiast” category for those short on funds. If you pre-register at the Web site, you can join us free of charge. Walk-ins will be charged a small fee.

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Indiana LinuxFest

We have a new arrival on the scene for Linux and FOSS fans. It is Indiana LinuxFest, and it is running from 3/25 through 3/27/11 in Indianapolis. The Web site with more details is at http://www.indianalinux.org/cms/. This looks like a nice addition and it comes at a time when we are coming out of our winter hibernation. I will probably be going, and I may even do a presentation there. So get your hotel room and make your plans.

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New Slide Show created

It has been a while since I posted here, but I just finished a new slide show, called “Help, My Computer Is Sluggish!”. I have added it to the Slide Show section, where you can download the ODP file or just run the presentation in your Web browser.

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Ohio LinuxFest Registration and Contest Deadline Extended

Registration for the 2010 Ohio LinuxFest has been extended through September 8th, and the registration contest has also been extended until the 1,000th registration has been reached.
One lucky registrant will win an upgrade to the Supporter Pass, or a Professional Pass registration for Ohio LinuxFest 2011 worth $350, at the choice of the winner. Sign up today and have a chance to win!
Online registration also qualifies attendees for door prizes and giveaways the day of the conference.
As always, the main schedule takes place on Saturday. The schedule kicks off with a keynote from GNOME Foundation Executive Director Stormy Peters, followed by five tracks of talks from open source and Linux experts like Taurus Balog, Amber Graner, Catherine Devlin, Dru Lavigne, Paul Frields, and Jon ‘maddog’ Hall. This year’s OLF also features a special medical track for those interested in the use of free and open source software in medicine.
The final keynote will be a real treat for Linux and open source enthusiasts interested in free media. Christopher “Monty” Montgomery of Xiph.org will be talking about next generation open source media formats.
Once again the Ohio LinuxFest is free to all, but space is limited. for $65 that includes lunch and an OLF t-shirt. For those who want to attend Friday’s OLF University sessions, a professional pass is also available for $350.
The Ohio LinuxFest is a grassroots conference for the open source community that started in 2003 as an inter-LUG meeting and has grown steadily since to become the Midwest’s largest open source event. It’s an annual event for Linux and open source enthusiasts to gather, share information, and socialize.

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Ohio LinuxFest is coming!

I just want to make sure everyone knows that Ohio LinuxFest is not that far off. It runs 9/10-12, with some great speakers such as Jon “maddog” Hall, Stormy Peters of the Gnome Project, and “Monty” Montgomery, creater of ogg and founder of Xiph.org, plus many other great speakers.

This year the theme is “How Will Free Change the World”, and in the wake of the SCOracle lawsuit I think the idea of free software is more important than ever.

Another very timely focus this year is on the use of free software in the medical field. You may now be aware of just how much of the Health Care Reform is focused on IT, and we want to make sure that free software gets every chance to be a part of it. So there is a full track of medical-oriented talks looking at how free software is impacting the practice of medicine. You won’t want to miss it.

You can register for the conference here, and book a hotel room here. But don’t delay, because it is filling up fast!

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