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Great meeting last night!
by Tim Keller April 17, 2024

April 17, 2024

Having our own Jitsi instance was fantastic! Jansen got into ollama AI stuff and it was really cool. He's expressed interest in doing a full end to end demo. We talked about the xz explot and it's entanglement with systemd and OpenSSH. It was a great conversation about the history and missteps of systemd and how we got to this place where so many pieces of critical software in the FOSS are supported by just a few people. Next month's meeting will need to be moved around as it conflicts with something, I'll give more details as I learn them. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Re: Great meeting last night! --- Sorry I couldn't stay
by Robert N. Evans April 12, 2024

April 12, 2024

I connected twice at 7PM, but never seemed to hear anyone. So I also did not stay. Firefox 124.0.2 (Flatpak), on "Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS" (HW is System76 Gazelle laptop) -Bob Evans -----Original Message----- From: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Sent: Apr 12, 2024 12:37 PM To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> Cc: Keith Wright <kwright(a)keithdiane.us> Subject: [WLUG] Re: Great meeting last night! --- Sorry I couldn't stay Kevin Stratton via WLUG writes: > I was able to connect using https://jitsi.uvhash.org/WlugMA%20uvhash.org, but > I was the only person (as a moderator) in the lobby at 7:20. Does you meeting > start at 7:30? I assumed that the meeting starts at 7:00. I connected to https://jitsi.uvhash.org/WlugMA (no %20uvhash) at 7:00 and found people there. Does jitsi create rooms upon demand from anyone? My problem was that, while I could hear other people (at least while they were near the microphone and the gloppita-gloppita machine was off) they could not hear me, except intermittently. Worse, it seemed that my laptop was generating noise and feedback, so people had to mute me so that they could hear each other. The problem seemed to be in the software or configuration of my Thinpad with Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) and Firefox ESR 102.15.1 of Sept 12, 2023. I thought I had tested it the day before. I found a way to make a recording and recorded a short speech, which I could play back. It all seemed to work, but when I unplugged it and plugged it back in it required reconfiguration and I may have missed something and wound up using the built-in mike. The same USB headphone/mike seemed to work when attached to a Windows machine, but where's the fun in that? I checked out early in disgust. Suggestions on how to debug the mike might be helpful. -- Keith _______________________________________________ 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/OA5FC…

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Reminder: Meeting tonight!! NEW VIRTUAL LOCATION!! Topic: xz, hosting, security, etc.
by Tim Keller April 11, 2024

April 11, 2024

Hey Gang, In an effort to actually eat our own cooking, I've stood up a Jitsi server for us to use. Physical location: Technocopia, 44 Portland st. Worcester MA The NEW VIRTUAL LOCATION: https://jitsi.uvhash.org/WlugMA Time: 7pm Date: Today! April 11th, 2024 Topic: We'll talk about the xz backdoor attempt, other linux related security stuff, How dead easy it was to self host jitsi, other hosting stuff likely, etc. As usual, I'm sure the conversation will wander, get really interesting and it'll be a blast. I'll have refreshments with me and we'll all head off to dinner afterwards. Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Um..wow..
by Tim Keller April 11, 2024

April 11, 2024

I'm busy spinning up an Jitsi instance in Digital Ocean for tonight.. the default Ubuntu 22.04 droplet.. needs 204 updates apply.. when it starts.. I was just a bit surprised.. Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Reminder! Next meeting April 11th, 2024 Topic: TBD, xz, net_filter, etc..
by Tim Keller April 9, 2024

April 9, 2024

Hey Gang, We've got a meeting next week on the 11th! Location: Technocopia, 44 Portland St. Worcester MA Time: 7PM Virtual Location: TBD.. Topic: TBD, though there's a whole bunch of security stuff to talk about! Obviously, we'd all be remiss if we didn't talk about xz. We should also talk about kernel root bug as well: https://pwning.tech/nftables/ Beyond that, I'm sure we'll get off on a bunch of different topics. If there's something you want to talk about, by all means bring it up! As usual, we'll have snacks and refreshments available and we'll head off for dinner and continue the conversation! Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Meeting next week! March 14th 2024!
by Tim Keller March 16, 2024

March 16, 2024

Hey Everybody! We've got a meeting next week! I think it's really worth talking about Self hosting. It's come up a couple of times, I think it's worth talking about what the options are, what they might cost and what can be hosted both using on prem hardware and your own cloud instances, options for networking, etc. I'd like people's ideas, caveats, etc. What have people hosted? Plex, etc. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Meeting Tonight, March 14th 2024. Topic: "self hosting"
by Tim Keller March 14, 2024

March 14, 2024

Time: 7pm. Date: March 14th 2024 Location: Technocopia 44 Portland St. Worcester MA. Virtual Location: hopefully hosted independently, but at https://meet.jit.si/WlugMA For now.. We are increasingly living in a world where our data isn't ours anymore. Everything is a service being hosted by some entity, subjected to the whims of that entity. Come to love some service? They're discontinuing it. Your data? They're using it to train some AI that you don't control. Functionality? Ever changing.. Costs? To change without warning and your data is now hostage. To that end.. What are people doing? What would people like to do? What options are out there? What's worked in the past and now doesn't? There's also SOAF "significant other acceptance factor" to consider.. If you own the data but it's so horrific to manage that it sends everybody around you fleeing back to some service, that's no good either. I expect this to be a pretty lively debate. As usual, we'll head out for dinner and continue the conversation. I'll have snacks and refreshments available. Thanks, Tim.

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fun crashing and burning in Google Earth Pro's Flight Simulator
by Doug Mildram March 13, 2024

March 13, 2024

Hey all (from doug in the boonies, retired = too much time on my hands) Brief my-nonexistent-skills-history: I've avoided fun/gaming on computers/screens forever. Well, ~ 1997 I bought a joystick and a couple windows games. Lost the joystick, but probably wouldn't help me in flight...? I did better with the 1990's era MS Excel97? magic escape to flight simulator that easily flew me on the moon, to a monolith. Fast forward to now. While looking for my town's GIS tax maps, (which I never found, just PDF's w/ lot lines, no owner names, no tax $info. Every town is different.) Then, under clueless town "Tax Maps" webpage, I found this note: *Please note*: Parcel boundaries are intended to be used for the purpose of property assessment and should not be considered survey accurate. You will need to have Google Earth <http://earth.google.com/> installed to view this data. For help using Google Earth go to the Help Center..... and forget all about tax maps ( I added that here-doug) doug> I got Earth help, yes! I have no joystick, so keyboard and mouse. Pardon doublespacing below. Some copy/paste's do odd things for my gmail edits (now I'm in tiny font in a battle to un-do the big effect of the above paste :) Stumbled into install cmds for google EARTH PRO (free), worked on Linux Mint20. 1) wget https://dl.google.com/dl/earth/client/current/google-earth-pro-stable_curre… (result: GOT a 58mb file named google-earth-pro-stable_current_amd64.deb) 2) sudo dpkg -i google-earth-pro-stable_current_amd64.deb (output: Preparing to unpack google-earth-pro-stable_current_amd64.deb ... Unpacking google-earth-pro-stable (7.3.6.9796-r0) ... Setting up google-earth-pro-stable (7.3.6.9796-r0) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24+linuxmint1) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ... (DONE). LAUNCH TO OUTER SPACE: 3) $ google-earth-pro If you see a few continents from space, good but here's the fun: ========First zoom to somewhere you know, use upper LH Search, enter your address or fun place. Adjust eyes, or ignore briefly, fuzzy view of map,streets,trees,whatever. The fuzziness disappears or changes, if you enter Flight Simulator from here. ==== PULL DOWN MENU for "Tools" has "Enter Flight Simulator". Choose the slower plane, not the F-16 jet if you suck like I do. The mouse now flies the plane. I want to skim over my hood. I use my four arrow keys , mouse-moves work too but I flip out. I know I'm missing some kind of flight/plane control, should RTFM. I thought Flaps controlled pitch/up/down, but my Flaps stay at 40% and I crash in hilarious various mistakes every minute or so. What fun! Resume Flight brings all control back so off you go to die again.... I'll try to shut up now and find out if any of you already mastered? this. Lots cheaper than a drone! Fast, Cheap, Good.... all 3? --doug

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(old?) Dell power-edge rackserver power supplies
by Michael Voorhis Feb. 26, 2024

Feb. 26, 2024

Hello all, I have a number of spare power supplies for old Dell power-edge rackservers. If anyone has an old rack server and they're looking for spare parts to extend its lifespan, I've got the following dell power supplies. Listed are # I have, the server they supposedly work with, and the power-supply model number: 6x pe-1950 PS, mod d670p 4x pe-r415 PS, mod d500e 2x pe-r710 PS, mod a870p 2x pe-???? PS, mod d750p. 2x pe-r200 PS, mod ?ps5341? 1x pe-r210-ii PS, mod. L250e Take them if you're going to use them. Please don't take them just re-sell 'em... --MCV.

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Zoom Safety-Privacy-Security Question on Ubuntu
by THE HAMMER Feb. 23, 2024

Feb. 23, 2024

Hey Gang, Is the Zoom meeting client a relatively safe thing to download unto a machine running Ubuntu? I thought I should ask here, as googling will gives me different responses. Thanks Ron

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