[KLUG Members] KLUG Meeting Notes for 03/18/2003

[magoo]

KLUG Meeting Notes:  Tuesday - March 18, 2003  7:00PM       

I.    PRESENTATION RECAP    
II.   NEXT WEEK'S MEETING INFO   <===  TCL/TK!!! 
III.  KLUG MAILING LISTS              
IV.   KLUG & LINUX NEWS FLASHES 
V.    KLUG CONTACT & MEETING INFO 

Tonight's Meeting Moderator:  KLUG Chairperson Todd Pillars 
The question of the night during introductions was, "What database
do you use?"  The loyalty battle between MySQL and PostgreSQL was
very evident.  Be careful when you ask Linux users this question
to duck and run for cover.  Deep emotions can be revealed here!  :-)
Isn't it great that both tools are available for Linux databasers?

I.  PRESENTATION RECAP         
THIS WEEK'S KLUG PRESENTATION:   (18 active KLUG participants) 
***************************************************************** 
UniData (Multivalued database)
by Dirk Bartley
  
Tonights topic is the multivalued database "Unidata". Ardent 
Software released Unidata as one of the earliest databases 
available on the Linux OS. Unidata was purchased by Informix 
which was then purchased by IBM. Big Blue now sells and supports 
the Unidata database. Dirk will explain some of the similarities 
and differences between Uniquery and SQL. Also some of the 
differences beween accessing and changing data in a Unibasic 
environment as opposed to an SQL environment. This is not a 
standard "Free Software" presentation. Unidata is not 
distributed  under an Open Source License and is not free. 
Come to this meeting  if you are interested in an understanding
of a conceptually different databse than an SQL database.  

PRESENTATION SUMMARY:
**********************
Look for Dirk's Unidata presentation at http://kalamazoolinux.org
Find this on the Past Presentations web page

Dirk used the KLUG LTSP Server running Red Hat v8.0 with Impress
from OpenOffice.org v1.0.1 and the KLUG SVGA projector to show us
his 23 slide .sxi file containing plenty of Unidata technical info.

Not only did Dirk give us the full Unidata tour with his slide show
but he did a live demo of an actual Unidata database used to manage
a very complex inventory with the ability to tell the batch and
chemical processing certification of each item held and distributed.

Originally the Pick Database, Unidata was supported by Ardent, then
by Informix, and now by IBM!  This is a multivalue database.  The
originator, Pick, disliked the relational and SQL database models.

Unidata Outline Summary -
--------------------------
Pick of History -  Originally Pick Database
Brief Explanation
Multivalue Database Description
Reporting from a Table
Relating Info to other Tables
Programming in Unibasic
Journaling
Debugging

Some of Dirk's sources -
http://www.pcsnet.com.br/d3datapro.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/29457.html
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dhona/pick.html

This was a very detailed and professional presentation with lots of
spontaneously posed questions answered and insights shared by the
KLUG participants.  You can gain a great deal of information from Dirk's
slides... but you really should have been there to have grasp the full
impact of his communication.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

MORE on Unidata:
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/u2/unidata/
UniData is an extended relational database designed for 
embedding in vertical applications. Unidata simplifies DM 
and query logic, providing more power for online 
high-transaction applications.

Dirk Bartley, a WMU graduate, works as a systems administrator for
Schupan Aluminum Sales, a division of Schupan and Sons. His passion
for free software comes second to spending time with his wife Dawn,
an Upper Peninsula native, and taking Shelly, their sheltie/terrier
mix pound pooch, for a walk. These interests are only followed by
his love of playing ice hockey. Dirk is the past Chair of KLUG, a
position he was elected to for 2001 and 2002!


II.  NEXT KLUG MEETING - TUESDAY  03/25/2003   
****************************************************************** 
Script-O-Mania: TCL/TK
by Bruce Smith
  
This evening Bruce kicks off the Script-O-Mania series with an
introduction to TCL/TK.  A cross platform scripting language,
which includes and extensive set of GUI functionality, TCL/TK
is ideal for constructing simple application that will run on
almost any platform. However, Bruce refuses to pronounce TCL as
"tickle"; possible evidence of some childhood trauma.  For more
information on TCL/TK see http://www.tcl.tk/. 

TCL = Tool Command Language
TK = A GUI library, generally used with TCL

Bruce Smith is a Systems Administrator and Software Developer
for Armstrong International Inc. where he is responsible for
a HP-UX network of Servers, Workstations, printers and X-Terminals
spanning five buildings in Three Rivers. Bruce has a degree in
Computer Science and Mathematics from Central Michigan University.
(go Chips! :) Bruce runs Linux, almost exclusively, on all his 
PC's at work and home, and runs a lot of Armstrong's networking
services on Linux!


III.   K L U G    M A I L I N G    L I S T S 
************************************************************* 
Diversified mailing lists can be found on the KLUG web site. 
http://kalamazoolinux.org/listserv/
Facilitated by - John Bridleman listmaster@kalamazoolinux.org   
Sign up and participate to serve the Open Source community!!! 


IV.   K L U G    &    L I N U X     N E W S    F L A S H E S ! ! ! 
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RED HAT EXPANDS ENTERPRISE LINUX LINE  
Red Hat Inc. announced that it is expanding its enterprise Linux
product line and offering a range of lower price points for
customers.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,924908,00.asp
http://news.com.com/2100-1016-992155.html
http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/press/2003/press_enterprise/
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SUSE LINUX AIMS FOR THE ENTERPRISE
German-based SuSE Linux A.G. is working on an enterprise version of
its SuSE Linux Office Desktop product, which it hopes to release
before the middle of the year.  The new product will contain 
enterprise additions to the current code base and offer better 
administration and manageability. SuSE hopes to release it around 
June and will target it at those large corporations that will need 
to deploy several thousand copies. 
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,924481,00.asp
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GLOBAL ENTERPRISES TURNING TO LINUX SERVERS
A new report on Linux released this week by Forrester Research has 
found that global enterprises are increasingly turning to cheap 
Intel-based Linux servers to run a variety of datacenter applications 
and, in the process, are replacing both Microsoft Windows and 
proprietary Unix platforms.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,924764,00.asp
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ORACLE UNITES WITH UNITEDLINUX
Oracle said it will provide customers with enterprise-level 
technical support for the operating systems powered by UnitedLinux, 
in addition to support for the Oracle products.
http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2109141
=====================================================================
SUSE LINUX INTRODUCES NEW LINUX VERSION FOR HOME USERS
SuSE Linux unveiled its latest version of Europe's most popular, 
and the U.S.'s fastest growing, Linux package - introducing an easy 
to use, application rich desktop for home users.  Available April 14,
SuSE Linux 8.2, sets a new milestone for ease of use - incorporating
the latest version of KDE 3.1 - giving home users who want the 
stability and security of Linux easy transition from other platforms.
Also, the wide variety of the latest Linux tools and applications 
provide customers a feature-rich and comprehensive Open Source 
operating system. 
http://www.suse.com/us/company/press/press_releases/archive03/82.html
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LOCALIZED GOOGLE CENSORSHIP???
"Linuxsecurity.com has a link to a rather interesting story 
Regarding Google's use of localized censorship.  While not much 
information is given from the political side of why Google might 
be censoring information likely to annoy certain governments, it 
certainly isn't the first time Google has come under fire for 
censoring results on account of external pressures. Makes one 
wonder how many pages get filtered out around the world."
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/03/17/2046246.shtml?tid=95&tid=153
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CIO'S LOOKING AT OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
"There is an interesting article entitled "Your open source plan" 
in the latest issue of CIO. The article is about opens source 
software and its place in the enterprise systems market.
http://slashdot.org/articles/03/03/17/1429204.shtml?tid=126&tid=163
=====================================================================
MYSQL: A THREAT TO BIGWIGS?
Open-source database has dazzling opportunities ahead!
Talking last week with Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, took me
back to the golden days of 1999. Here was a fresh-faced, 
unbelievably enthusiastic CEO, raving about the future prospects
of his product, just like so many executives I met back in those 
unreal times. But Mickos has a very real opportunity. The 
open-source movement has become a major factor across the 
software industry, and MySQL is the world's most popular 
open-source database. 
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/03/12/fortune.ff.open.source/index.html
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MAKING ENCRYPTION A SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCE
"According to an article at SecurityFocus, the U.S. Justice 
Department is apparently planning to criminalize encryption 
when used during the commission of a felony under federal law. 
If you think you have nothing to worry about, think again. Have 
you ever filed too many tax deductions? If you use e-file via a 
web page using SSL for filing your taxes, under this proposal 
this becomes an additional five-year felony." 
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/16/
053255&mode=thread&tid=93
=====================================================================
MOZILLA V1.3 WAS RELEASED ON MARCH 13, 2003
Source:  Mozilla Project Summary:  Information about the latest 
release of the popular open source browser.
http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.3/
=====================================================================
FREEBSD V4.8 RELEASE DELAYED UNTIL MARCH 24TH
"FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Murray Stokley indicates in 
his email that the latest FreeBSD 4.8 release will need to be 
postponed until March 24 in order to include suggested fixes 
related to the XFree86 4.3.0 port. 
http://bsd.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/15/
1241209&mode=thread&tid=122
=====================================================================
STREAMING MPEG-4 WITH LINUX
One of the major reasons to use Linux for video streaming is 
it is inexpensive. Most Linux video encoding and streaming tools 
are free, and they are easy to set up.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6720&
mode=thread&order=0
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DO YOU WANT DSL RIGHT NOW?   <Contributed by Mike Williams> Great!!!
An excellent search feature that will tell you if you can get DSL
where YOU live!  If it is in your area you might not get DSL yet.
http://www.dslreports.com
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VIRTUAL PC 6 REVIEW
Connectix recently released version 6 of Virtual PC, the 
standard for emulating Windows on a Mac. With version 5, 
the main feature was Mac OS X compatibility.  With version 
6, the focus is on better performance and Mac integration.
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/14/
1412253&mode=thread&tid=109
=====================================================================
10 YEARS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB
NCSA Mosaic was first released ten years ago today (oh, I guess
you could mark time from the 1.0 release, but who's counting),
marking the first milestone in the evolution of the graphical 
World Wide Web
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/14/
1534218&mode=thread&tid=95
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KLUG WILL BE AT THE A1SCS COMPUTER SHOW IN KALAMAZOO ON MARCH 29TH!
Stu Gillis, KLUG Vice-Chair is lookjng for volunteers to staff the
KLUG display at the A1SCS Computer Show  http://www.a1scs.com/ on
the last Saturday of the month from 10:00AM TO 3:00PM!  E-mail Stu
at showperson@kalamazoolinux.org  The big yellow KLUG banner and the
inflatable TUX will be proudly displayed as we sell BSWare and let
the public know about the KLUG organization and invite them to join
us for an exciting KLUG meeting!  IT WILL BE FUN AND EDUCATIONAL!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[NOTE:  I had Stu's address incorrect last week!  Please try again!]
===================================================================== 
RED HAT VERSION 8.1 RUMORED TO HAVE AN APRIL RELEASE PLANNED 
This rumor was printed in the February 10, 2003 InfoWorld (p. 17) 
===================================================================== 
KLUG NEEDS VOLUNTEERS TO FILL SEVERAL VACANT POSITIONS 
Nutrimaster and Education Director volunteer slots are still 
vacant.  We need additional volunteers to act as the "Meeting 
Firewall" to handle Chamber access control and security issues. 
The Chamber has asked us to safeguard their assets as KLUG 
members come and go from the meeting room each Tuesday night. 
Bob and Zac need help with this function which requires that 
you get to the meetings early and see that the everything is 
locked up as the last person leaves.  This means being at the 
Chamber at 6:30pm and hanging around until 10:00pm. We have 
other volunteer positions available and many of these duties 
could be shared if you have an interest.  GET INVOLVED IN KLUG! 
Volunteers are needed for Beginner's Nights and Installfests. 
Please contact installmaster@kalamazoolinux.org for more details. 
See http://kalamazoolinux.org/organize for position descriptions. 
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********* - ********* - ********* - ********* - ********* - *********  
KLUG NEEDS SPEAKERS FOR THE WEEKLY LINUX RELATED PRESENTATIONS! 
********* - ********* - ********* - ********* - ********* - *********  
Contact Adam if you can give a presentation on any area of Linux 
related subject or application.  He would also like to hear your 
suggestions for topics and possible speaker referrals.  Do you 
know anyone who is using Linux in Southwest Michigan and might 
be willing to share their Linux expertise by making a technical 
presentation?  Professional, individual, or commercial speakers 
on Linux accepted.  Contact programdirector@kalamazoolinux.org 
with your referrals and ideas.  See the meeting schedule for open 
dates.   http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/meetings/schedule.php3
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V.   K L U G    C O N T A C T   &   M E E T I N G    I N F O  
************************************************************* 
KLUG WEB SITE  http://kalamazoolinux.org

MEMBERS AND GUESTS - COME JOIN US FOR A MEETING!!! 
http://kalamazoolinux.org/meetings           
WE MEET WEEKLY, EACH TUESDAY AT 7:00PM.      
                                             
Our meeting site is the Kalamazoo Chamber    
of Commerce office building downtown.          
346 W. Michigan Ave. - Kalamazoo, MI  49007 
http://kazoolug.org/meetings/maps.php3   <=== MAP! 

CONTACT INFORMATION: 
Kalamazoo Linux Users Group, Inc. 
6749 South Westnedge Avenue 
Suite K-288 
Portage  MI 49002 
e-mail address: chair@kalamazoolinux.org


                         Copyright 2003                 
                 Kalamazoo Linux Users Group, Inc. 
  >><< send corrections, additions, flames to the KLUG scribe >><< 
                          Ralph Worick 
                recordingsecretary@kalamazoolinux.org
                               = or = 
                 KLUG Meeting Notes Assistant Editor 
                          Bruce Atherton 
                    Taz <htgage3@chartermi.net> 

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NOTE THE MAILER USED TO SEND OUT THESE KLUG MEETING NOTES! XIMIAN!
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