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Re: Hosting in-person meetings at library
by Robert N. Evans July 14, 2021

July 14, 2021

I am not in MA today, but I am very interested to attend future meetings in Hudson as I live very close to there. Bob Evans -----Original Message----- From: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Sent: Jul 14, 2021 3:39 PM To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Cc: Joshua Stone <joshua.gage.stone(a)gmail.com>, Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> Subject: [WLUG] Re: Hosting in-person meetings at library I think it's a great idea! Speaking with the Technopia folks, they're interested in having us, but it sounds like it would happen in the Sept. time frame, I'd like to have a couple in person meetings before that. Is this something people would be interested in doing tomorrow? Thanks, Tim. On Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 9:25 PM joshua.gage.stone--- via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: Hey all, I've learned that the library in my town is open to the public for hosting club meetings! More info: https://hudsonpubliclibrary.com/ Some of the benefits I can think of for having meetings at the library include: - Free hosting - Free public wifi - Free on-site parking - Low noise levels - Projector and whiteboard are available - Books, music, movies, etc, are available for checking out (https://bark.cwmars.org/eg/opac/home) - Adjacent to many restaurants, most having outdoor seating - Has EV charging stations nearby - Access to well-maintained walking trails and public parks Cons: - Conference room capacity is capped at 10 occupants - Meetings must end 15 minutes before library's closing time, so would have to end at 8:15PM - Many restaurants might be closed by 9PM I could imagine going back to our usual monthly meetings, from 7:00PM to 8:15PM on Thursdays, then walking over to one of the restaurants next door for food and drinks. I can personally vouch for these local establishments, all reachable within a 5 minute walk: https://railtrailflatbread.com/ https://www.wellysrestaurant.com/ https://newcitymicrocreamery.com/ https://www.lessthangreaterthan.com/ https://www.kithandkinhudson.com/ https://www.horseshoepub.com/ https://freshwingma.com/ https://www.medusabrewing.com/beer-garden What do you think? - Josh _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/J7HU7… -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers". _______________________________________________ WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/W5KG5…

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VPN Question
by hammerron July 13, 2021

July 13, 2021

Hey everybody: A friend asked me about VPNs and I don't know a whole lot lot on the topic. They have a Windows computer and are using a McAfee VPN. The question is, is this a decent product, should they use it or not or consider something else? regards, Ron

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No meeting tonight.. sorry for any confusion. Next Meeting 7/15/2021
by Tim Keller July 8, 2021

July 8, 2021

Hey Gang, I just got back from vacation. We're going to have our meeting next week instead. Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Re: I'm thinking Technocopia is a no go.
by Robert N. Evans June 22, 2021

June 22, 2021

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I'm thinking Technocopia is a no go.
by Tim Keller June 22, 2021

June 22, 2021

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 June 17, 2021

June 17, 2021

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 June 11, 2021

June 11, 2021

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 June 7, 2021

June 7, 2021

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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Fedora 34 updates
by THE HAMMER May 21, 2021

May 21, 2021

I just installed Fedora 34 on a "junk laptop" to play along with. Looked on line and wound up with a couple different answers, and so perhaps they are all correct. My question is when I want to update all the packages in the lap top what is the correct/best command? Also what is the difference between dnf upgrade and dnf upgrade --refresh Thanks Ron

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Carbon-neutral living
by joshua.gage.stone＠gmail.com May 14, 2021

May 14, 2021

Hey everyone! Thanks for another night full of discussion covering many interesting topics! I'm interested to learn more about everyone's longterm plans for carbon-neutral/carbon-negative living! My wife and I have been researching on this topic for some time as we believe there are numerous benefits in reducing energy requirements, and we hope that when it comes time to become home owners we'll be able to start from the ground up with this type of living ingrained in our household! It turns out that there's a *lot* of room for improvement in energy efficiency, and by extension, carbon reduction. While I think transition to green energy is immensely important as a longterm plan, I also think it's important for us to evaluate ways to reduce our carbon footprint as individuals Examples include: - Switching to induction stoves which are more efficient and safer than traditional electric stoves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pftcQ6NGPfc - Switching to heat pump dryers for reducing energy usage with the added bonus of eliminating the need for vents https://www.energystar.gov/products/heat_pump_dryer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh-j0sWBEJA - Switching to heat pump water heaters https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-water-heaters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omivdhxdGv0 - Switching to air-source/ground-source heat pumps to replacing gas/oil/electric heating for hot water and heating https://www.energystar.gov/products/heating_cooling/heat_pumps_geothermal https://www.energystar.gov/products/heating_cooling/heat_pumps_air_source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zrx-b2sLUs I think heat pump technology could be very promising for a wide number of applications, as it turns out that the most efficient way to work with heat is to simply *move* it around, rather than generate more heat through gas, oil, etc. With climate change and global warming being an existential threat, the last thing we want to do is add more heat to the problem! A more ambitious longterm goal my wife and I have is that we would like to someday have a house built to Passive House standards, which is said to reduce home heating requirements by up to 90%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=secB3R0sIYU https://phmass.org/ https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/texas-passive-house-weathered-the-202… https://zeroenergy.com/portfolio/all-projects https://zeroenergyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RPA_Scranton_Passi… https://www.phius.org/home-page Something I find especially interesting about Passive Houses is that they're often able to achieve net positive energy production and EV charging with even a modust solar panel installation. This means they can give back to the power grid with fewer panels compared to other houses built to code, reducing the total environmental impact from solar panel manufacturing. Of course, there's a high upfront monetary cost to transitioning to eco-friendly living, but at least there are programs in place to help: https://www.masssave.com/ https://multifamily.fanniemae.com/financing-options/specialty-financing/gre… Hope to hear everyone's thoughts! - Josh

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