June 2021 - WLUG - {{ block.super }

Re: I'm thinking Technocopia is a no go.
by Robert N. Evans 22 Jun '21

22 Jun '21

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I'm thinking Technocopia is a no go.
by Tim Keller 22 Jun '21

22 Jun '21

I've reached out twice and my emails have gone unanswered, I think we should start planning to have WLUG somewhere else. I don't know if WPI is an option or not. I think the last of the people are gone from WPI so we don't have anybody to reserve a room.. If anybody knows someone, etc.. awesome. If people have other options, I'd love to hear them. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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opinions on home email services
by Mike Peckar 17 Jun '21

17 Jun '21

Hi, I've noted that many of you host your own email and file servers, and I've wanted to do this for several years, but I've been avoiding taking this on myself. This is due to the time investment (to learn tech I don't necessarily want to learn) and the added weight of responsibility for security. Quite frankly, I'm getting lazy in my old age and I'm considering a packaged solution/service like The Helm. I guess my question is, are the tech barriers to setting up a home email server really as formidable as claimed in the below justification from The Helm's web site? If a lazy guy like me sets up an email server, but then doesn't get around to applying security updates for half a year, is he just asking to be hacked? For context, I am a local Charter customer with a standard internet-only subscription. From: https://blog.thehelm.com/post/how-helm-works-part-1-networking [quoted text] For an email server to send and receive email with other servers on the internet, they need port 25 to be open. Unfortunately, ISPs in the U.S. block port 25 by default, a practice started in the 90s when home computers were hacked and turned into open relays abused for spamming. Sometimes it’s possible to get this port unblocked, but it’s not uncommon for the ISP to ask for a significantly more expensive class of service in exchange. ISPs also typically assign dynamic IPs to residential internet connections. Large email service providers block residential dynamic IPs en masse also due to the issue raised above. While it’s possible to get a static IP address from your ISP, they will charge for it and potentially require a more expensive class of service. PTR records, or reverse DNS, is also a key requirement for trustworthiness when setting up an email server. Getting this type of record with a residential internet connection can be a significant challenge and may also incur additional costs. To summarize, port blocking, dynamic IPs and challenges in establishing a PTR record all interfere with easily running an email server at home. It can cost hundreds of dollars per year and consist of a significant investment of time with your ISP to get things set up just right. After thinking about this problem and experimenting for a while, we managed to find a better way. [end quoted text] Thanks, Mike

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WLUG Meeting tomorrow! June 10th, 2021 at 7pm!
by Tim Keller 11 Jun '21

11 Jun '21

Hey Everybody, We've got a WLUG meeting tomorrow June 10th, 2021 at 7pm. This will be a totally virtual meeting, but hopefully our last!! Topic: I thought I'd give a quick update on my CNC machine and my quest to have a full FOSS toolchain.. what's worked, what hasn't, etc. I expect that'll only take a couple of minutes and then we'll move on to our usual banter! Location: https://meet.jit.si/WlugMA See ya there! Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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PipeWire pro audio support
by Joshua Stone 07 Jun '21

07 Jun '21

Hey everyone! The PipeWire project has been an exciting project to follow, as there has been heavy development for broad audio use case coverage: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/home https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/blob/master/NEWS It seems that the developers are currently prioritizing pro-audio use cases as of late: https://twitter.com/PipewireP/status/1401885732587847680 >A little question for our pro-audio friends out there. Now that we got freewheeling and latency reporting implemented, what is at the top of your wishlist for PipeWire features? This should be quite exciting! I've tried several DAWs over the years, and admittedly they seemed to require more effort than necessary to configure correctly with the Linux audio stack. I'm hoping PipeWire will be able to resolve this weakness! What do you think could use more improvement? - Josh

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WLUG June 2021