Presentation: Short Reviews and Discussion of Special Purpose Linux Distributions

We would like to have a number of people give short reviews (say 10-15 minutes) of different special purpose distributions, such as Knoppix, DemoLinux, Smoothwall, E-Smith, Netmax ..., Floppyfw, Freesco, Trinux, etc.

Presentation: A Compressed File System for Linux
presented by Shaun Savage <savages@mozapps.org>

Shaun Savage presented his work on embedded Linux and CBD (Compressed Block Device).

• What is an embedded system?
• Why use Linux for embedded system?
• Embedded Design Concepts.
• Linux filesystem overview.
• How buffers and block device work.
• Compressed Block Device CBD
  • 1/3 the size
  • Grub boot support
  • uses cache
  • secure
  • on demand decompression
  • build time compression
  • GPL kernel block device driver

Since he is unable to continue work on this project, he is looking for someone to be the new maintainer. Further details can be found at http://www.cbdlinux.org

Presentation: Anatomy of a Network Attack
presented by Doug Davis <doug@got-roots.com>

Doug Davis presented the steps of breaking the security on a network-attached computer with the purpose of making people think more seriously about security.

Presentation notes can be found at http://www.got-roots.com/security/

Presentation: "Teaching Learning Perl"
presented by Randal L. Schwartz <merlyn@stonehenge.com>

It's about 45 minutes or so on what I've learned over the years in giving hundreds of presentations about Perl. Not very much Perl content, but lots of info about doing presentations -- useful for those of you who are tapped for future PLUG meetings. And it's funny. I'll take Q&A at the end about presentations, Perl, my new Alpaca book, or anything else I can answer.

Home Page

Presentation: "The Open Source Bill"
presented by Ken Barber <pundit AT teleport DOT com>

House Bill 2892, the Open Source Bill, is a bill in the Oregon State House of Representatives to encourage government agencies to examine Open Source solutions to their needs before purchasing proprietary software. It also promotes the use of open data formats. Ken Barber who wrote House Bill 2892 will be in Portland to discuss this bill, and the role of Open Source software in government.

Presentation: "Helix DNA"
presented by Rob Lanphier <robla AT real DOT com> and Duncan Howard <duncanh AT real DOT com>

Rob Lanphier and Duncan Howard from Real Networks will describe Helix DNA, the first open and comprehensive platform for digital media creation, delivery and play back. Notes for their presentation are on the New York Linux Users Group web site.

Presentation:"An Overview of the Open Source Development Lab"
presented by Timothy D. Witham <wookie AT osdl DOT org>

The Open Source Development Lab (www.osdl.org) is an industry sponsored lab with data centers in Portland, Oregon and Yokohama, Japan. The lab sponsors key industry projects, including industry initiatives to enhance Linux for use in corporate data centers (Data Center Linux) and in telecommunications networks (Carrier Grade Linux). Timothy D. Witham is the lab's director. He will give a general overview of the lab and it's activities and what it can offer to Open Source developers. I suppose he will also talk about Linus Torvalds' decision to take a position with the lab.

Presentation:"An Overview of the Mandrake Security System"
presented by Dale Zeutenhorst <dale AT microsharp DOT com>

Dale Zeutenhorst has been kind enough to step up and lead a discussion of MSEC and prelude and other security features in Mandrake Linux. He has some good things to say, but he also says his presentation may be a bit short and he would be happy to share time with someone else with another short topic.

Presentation:"Software RAID on Linux"
presented by by Fedor Pikus <fedor_pikus AT mentorg DOT com>

Fedor will give a talk about Software RAID under Linux, with practical demonstration of different types of raid and their reaction to failing disks, reconstruction, etc.

Presentation notes can be found at http://www.pikus.net/~pikus/plug_softraid/

Presentation:"Comments on Forking a Linux Distribution"
presented by by Zach Welch <zwelch AT superlucidity DOT net>

Zach Welch has been working on a fork of the Gentoo distribution. He will discuss issues involved in building your own distribution.

Presentation: "A Few Linux Hacks"
presented by by Rael Dornfest <rael AT oreilly DOT com>

Rael Dornfest is editor of O'Reilly's Hack Series. We don't have many details on Rael's talk at this point, but may be able to include some with the second announcement. In any case, this is a great series of books; so we expect the talk to be very enlightening.

Presentation: "Introduction to LaTeX"
presented by Kevin Theobald <kevintheobald AT vzavenue DOT net>

Details to follow.

Presentation slides and related materials can be downloaded in a tarball from this server.