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Thursday snow storm? Possible reschedule?
by Tim Keller 11 Feb '14

11 Feb '14

The weather people (who are using super computers running linux) are currently claiming that we're going to be getting heavy snow on Thursday night. I don't think WLUG has ever had this scenario... What's our game plan? Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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When's the next meeting?!?
by Tim Keller 08 Feb '14

08 Feb '14

Hey Gang, Is the next meeting going to be the 12th or the 13th? Any ideas for topics? Here's a couple that come to mind... 1. An overview of home backup solutions. 2. Software defined radios in linux (gnu radio) 3. ... 4. Profit? Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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RepRap
by Chris Thompson 11 Jan '14

11 Jan '14

Hey guys, OK - not really a Linux thing, but I was wondering if anyone had access to a RepRap? http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap Thanks! Chris

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where is the meeting tonight?
by Pete Wason 09 Jan '14

09 Jan '14

and what's it about? -- Pete Wason * Hy Noom Publications * 5088655414 * codevark(a)aim.com * codevark "Aborigine left speechless by steady disappearance of native dialects." -- The Onion

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Reminder: No meeting tonight, next is tomorrow Thu 1/9
by Chris Thompson 08 Jan '14

08 Jan '14

Fortunately, I visited the WLUG site tonight and noticed the change of day (yeah, I missed the mailing list mention of it). Just hoping to make sure others notice too! See you all tomorrow! Did I also miss confirmation on use of the same room? Thanks, --Chris

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[Super] 8mm Film to Video
by Larry Camilli 03 Jan '14

03 Jan '14

When I looked into this several months ago (because I, too, have a pile of old home movies), I discovered: The frame rates of film and video do not divide evenly. So, to get the video to flow at the same rate as the film, extra copies of frames are inserted here and there - at regular, but odd intervals. [I wonder if, on a computer, you could set the video refresh rate and video frame rate to something that would work for the original film frame rate.] There are some relatively cheap set-ups available to project a film on a small screen and video-record it. I can't imagine that the quality would be better than horrible. With the incompatible frame rates, how bad would the flicker be? I vaguely recall that you have to provide the projector and camera. Those once ubiquitous Kodak Instamatic projectors are famous for having brittle plastic gears. I have two such projectors; both broken. [They worked when stored 30 years ago. When I fired each up, little bits of plastic gear went flying.] There is a company I found on the web that provides instructions and parts to restore these things, but... I would think that trying to run an old film through a projector - with the jerky motion necessary to get each frame stationary in the gate when the shutter opens - risks shredding the film. Non-linear scanning at low speed sounds safer. Googling, I found a web site by some guy who was working on his own transfer mechanism. He was using a scanner with fine-enough resolution that he thought it would be OK for such tiny pictures. And, he rigged up some mechanical device to automatically advance the film some number of frames at a time and scan a group of frames. -And, he was working on some software to separate the frames and adjust them so that they're aligned (based on the sprocket holes) because the mechanism couldn't possibly align the frames on the scanner well enough. I'll see if I can find the site again. I wonder if there's pent-up demand for transfer services because the prices are so high. I had hoped to find a co-op or non-profit. But, commercial transfer equipment is so expensive, even a non-profit would have to charge a lot to break even. -Maybe a charitable organization interested in preserving old film and Americana would do it on the cheap? Or, a small number of people buying a (used) $1000 telecine machine could split the cost and take turns... ...and sell it when done? I would think that it'll be worth looking over the films carefully and deciding which are really worth transferring. [I used a microfiche reader to look at a few of mine. It was extremely awkward.] Some of the the companies in/near Boston allow you to use their equipment for free to view your movies. And, there are old viewers (hand-cranked, for editing) around... http://www.thebattles.net/video/8mm_restoration.html http://photo.net/video-forum/003WXX http://vimeo.com/22015773

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creating digital files from super 8 films
by The Hammer 27 Dec '13

27 Dec '13

I have a bunch of old Super 8 movie films from family in years gone by. Can any one recommend an efficient and economical way to convert them to digital files? I see online services available, but they are very costly. Thanks, Ron PS as a last resort I may experiment with using a projector to play the reels and try to record the projected image with a cam corder. My fear is that there will be too much quality loss this way.

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WLUG meetings in 2014 on Thursdays
by Chuck Anderson 20 Dec '13

20 Dec '13

For 2014, I may have conflicts on most Wednesdays. I just scheduled the next batch of meeting space for 2nd Thursdays of each month, with our next one on Thursday, January 9, 7:00 PM. I'm still waiting for confirmation on the meeting location, but I did request the same room we've been meeting in, Campus Center Mid-Century room 331. Happy Holidays, Chuck

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Meeting tonight at 7pm in Mid Century room (rm. 331)
by Tim Keller 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

Hey Gang, Tonight we've got a meeting at the mid century room (rm. 331) at 7pm. No topic, no speaker so it'll just be an open forum... I figure we can talk about linux current events, any interesting linux stuff people are working on and talk about what we want to do for demos/etc. for next year. If nobody objects, I'd like to sign myself up for the talk for next month. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Announce: WLUG Meeting tonight
by Chuck Anderson 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

Yes, there is a WLUG meeting tonight, 7PM, WPI Campus Center Mid-Century room 331. On Wed, Dec 04, 2013 at 04:35:56PM -0500, Henrique wrote: > Hey Linux Enthusiasts, > > Are we having a meeting next week? > > There are plenty of interesting stuff going on lately: > > Valve, one of the major distributors of games for PC is moving towards > Linux, and just joined the Linux Foundation - > http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/04/valve-joins-linux-foundation-prepa… > - > This is also pushing AMD/Nvidia to push for better graphics drivers. > > > Interesting bits from Kernel 3.13 - > http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTUxNTk > -F2FS a filesystem made only for Flash file systems. > - I am particularly skeptical about the "There's now NFTables as the > eventual replacement to IPTables." > > Some filesystems benchmarks: > http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_btrfs_311&num=3 > http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_312_fs&num=3 > I just find interesting that compression can actually increase your > performance. > > Google's Go Lang 1.2 is released: http://blog.golang.org/go12 > > Cheers, > Henrique.

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Fwd: Open Position @ Brown
by Phillip Deneault 05 Dec '13

05 Dec '13

Brown University is looking for a security-centric Windows/Linux admin for a special environment they are building to process health care records. If you have experience with security regulations and technologies and like the straight-shot commute to Brown via 146 rather than commute to Boston on the Pike, this might be for you. Please respond to the position description and not to me. I do not represent Brown or know anything about the job beyond what is here, I'm just posting for a friend. Thanks, Phil

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Meeting next week ?
by Henrique 04 Dec '13

04 Dec '13

Hey Linux Enthusiasts, Are we having a meeting next week? There are plenty of interesting stuff going on lately: Valve, one of the major distributors of games for PC is moving towards Linux, and just joined the Linux Foundation - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/04/valve-joins-linux-foundation-prepa… - This is also pushing AMD/Nvidia to push for better graphics drivers. Interesting bits from Kernel 3.13 - http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTUxNTk -F2FS a filesystem made only for Flash file systems. - I am particularly skeptical about the "There's now NFTables as the eventual replacement to IPTables." Some filesystems benchmarks: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_btrfs_311&num=3 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_312_fs&num=3 I just find interesting that compression can actually increase your performance. Google's Go Lang 1.2 is released: http://blog.golang.org/go12 Cheers, Henrique.

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Free Non-working Older Dell Server - For parts
by joel d 22 Nov '13

22 Nov '13

Please contact me direct (off list) if you would like this for parts. Non working server is a Dell 1600SC Problem with server's motherboard giving boot eror "No timer tick interrupt" also beeps 4-2-1 pattern. Server has no hard disks, and motherboard not working/booting. Offered for it's likely good parts (case, power supply, some ECC RAM, etc.). Contact me joelgroup(a)gmail.com if you have any interest. (If not it goes to elect recycling in a few days.) Thank you, Joel

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Upgrade
by Clint Moyer 11 Nov '13

11 Nov '13

My main PC is long overdue for an update. I dual boot Win7 and Linux Mint. Light use, no gaming or heavy graphics. A few questions: Are there any gotchas using a CPU with integrated GPU? Not talking about mobo chipset graphic, but something like an AMD CPU with embedded ATI graphic. I haven't yet dealt with any motherboard with UEFI bios. I know there was a big uproar over Secure Boot. Is this going to give me any headache installing Linux? Is there any specific manufacturer that implements it more properly than others? Asus has been my goto brand. I'll retain my current HDDs for storage but would like to use an SSD for the OSes. I'd assume that's pretty transparent as far as installing Linux goes? Anything I need to worry about here? Any specific advice or recommendations will be appreciated. Thanks. Clint

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Re: [Wlug] Wlug Digest, Vol 121, Issue 5
by David Hardy 10 Nov '13

10 Nov '13

When I got three new machines over this past year, they all came with Windows 8 (HP Pavilions) and Atheros ethernet controllers. I had to disable Secure Boot on the machines where I installed Linux and it was also a royal PITA dealing with the Atheros drivers. Ubuntu and Mint did not want to work with Atheros, and the one machine I finally put Linux on ended up working nicely with Fedora 19. One machine remains Windows 8 (and I had gotten stung pretty badly doing the Beta 8.1 "upgrade" so am keeping it at the 8 level.) Because of pending job stuff I have to, for now, keep a second machine running Windows Server 2012R2, which works fine with the Atheros (Windows 2008R2 did not). And my remaining machine runs Fedora 19 with a hardened Virtual Box running a Whonix vm running Tor and an offshore mail client. Good luck; YMMV, obviously, but I think the disabling of Secure Boot may be your first order of business. Regards from northern Vermont (and 1980s denizen of Woostah) Dave On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 12:00 PM, <wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org> wrote: > Send Wlug mailing list submissions to > wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wlug-owner(a)mail.wlug.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wlug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Upgrade (Clint Moyer) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 10:57:22 -0500 > From: Clint Moyer <cdmoyer(a)charter.net> > Subject: [Wlug] Upgrade > To: Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> > Message-ID: <C42E30DF-37B2-4081-B5F9-946E50BC2D71(a)charter.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > My main PC is long overdue for an update. I dual boot Win7 and Linux Mint. > Light use, no gaming or heavy graphics. A few questions: > > Are there any gotchas using a CPU with integrated GPU? Not talking about > mobo chipset graphic, but something like an AMD CPU with embedded ATI > graphic. > > I haven't yet dealt with any motherboard with UEFI bios. I know there was > a big uproar over Secure Boot. Is this going to give me any headache > installing Linux? Is there any specific manufacturer that implements it > more properly than others? Asus has been my goto brand. > > I'll retain my current HDDs for storage but would like to use an SSD for > the OSes. I'd assume that's pretty transparent as far as installing Linux > goes? Anything I need to worry about here? > > Any specific advice or recommendations will be appreciated. Thanks. > > Clint > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://mail.wlug.org/pipermail/wlug/attachments/20131110/7acc8a8c/attachmen… > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > End of Wlug Digest, Vol 121, Issue 5 > ************************************ >

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OPENING - Embedded Linux, Open WRT contract in northern MA
by John Spencer 06 Nov '13

06 Nov '13

We have a client in northern MA looking for a Sr or Prin level consultant for a new project They are looking for experience with embedded Linux and OpenWRT. If you or anyone you know may be qualified and interested, please let me know. I would be happy to share additional details. Please send a Word version of your resume with any questions. Please Note, your resume will not be sent anywhere without your prior approval. Regards, John Spencer Connected Systems Partners Connecting Top Talent with Top Companies 978-455-5550 x208 978-621-9743 cell jspencer(a)connectedsp.com www.connectedsp.com<www.connectedsp.com%20> GET CONNECTED! Unless otherwise explicitly instructed by sender, all information in this email is considered confidential and intended for the view and use of the recipient(s) only.

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Announce: WLUG Meeting Wed 11/13 7PM: OpenWRT
by Chuck Anderson 06 Nov '13

06 Nov '13

Hi folks, The next Worcester Linux Users' Group (WLUG) meeting will be held NEXT Wednesday, November 13 at 7PM. The location will be the WPI Campus Center, Mid-Centry Room 331. We will have a discussion of people's experiences with OpenWRT, and perhaps a demo of how to load OpenWRT on a Netgear home wireless router and configure it for Bufferbloat avoidance/improvement. Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 - 9:00 PM WPI Campus Center, Mid-Centry Room 331 Afterwards, we will go out for pizza. See you there, Chuck President, Worcester Linux Users' Group http://www.wlug.org/

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OpenWRT on WNDR3800 home router - my install thoughts
by joel d 04 Nov '13

04 Nov '13

Decided to try OpenWRT after Jim Getty's talk and strong recommendation last month for improved security and reduced local buffer bloat. What follows is my experience / thoughts from this process. I would happily bring the hardware to demo at a future meeting if there is interest. Likely wouldn't be a full meeting but a 10-15 minute filler. More likely Q&A than anything else. I decided to go with different router/firewall hardware so I bought a Netgear WNDR3800 which Jim mentioned and is also a favorite of the OpenWRT crowd. Mine was used and $50 shipped from e-bay. This model is one model old and no longer available new. FYI: Netgear website lists it as "out of support". My WNDR3800 was used prior, so I needed to do a hard firmware reset on the bottom of router with a paperclip (didn't know the prior IP used or the admin password). Once reset and rebooted, router worked fine and could login to the "default" Netgear firmware and configuration. Default username & password is printed under the router. Downloaded the recommended OpenWRT firmware for this model. Needs to be full "factory" (instead of partial upgrade) and squashfs is recommended. Netgear WNDR3800 Firmware download link gets you OpenWRT version 10.X version which is not latest OpenWRT. Web browser login to Netgear webpage/firmware and followed "upgrade firmware" link while pointing to OpenWRT download file on local disk. The upgrade/re-flash took around 4 minutes and after a reboot worked fine. Set password and reconfigured router and WIFI with my specifics. Was up and working on OpenWRT v 10.x. Next day realized I had OpenWRT, but not latest stable version. Upgrade firmware link does not go to Internet directly, so first download OpenWRT v 12.4 with "upgrade" and "squashfs" and save to local disk. Second apply this via upgrade button in OpenWRT web link. I could likely have saved a step by grabbing the OpenWRT v12.4 for WNDR3800 with factory and squashfs. I bet this would have worked had I tried it (and saved a step). General thoughts after use for a week: OpenWRT does not have an "update direct to mother ship" feature best I can tell that downloads file and updates it from web interface. Not a show stopper for me. Instead need to know your version of OpenWRT and download an "upgrade" file and apply as two steps. This would only matter if router was used/maintained by a non-geek. Prior problem occurred with similar hardware WNDR3700 with latest Netgear firmware (happened with prior Linksys also). A few embedded WIFI devices in home would disconnect and fail randomly and at least weekly. Thus far these device annoyances have not occured since swap to WNDR3800 and OpenWRT. No idea why, but definitely A win! OpenWRT has transmit power level settings for the WIFI radio transmit. Can decide to bump up the WIFI radio settings if user chooses. Even if you melt/destroy them, a cool option if needed & tested. Firmware update for OpenWRT works from a laptop on WIFI, which in my experience Netgear & Linksys and other vendors do not support flash without a cabled ethernet port. So the OpenWRT update scripts the 1) copy file 2) apply file 3) reboot device. My Next Steps: In another week will likely repurpose the WNDR3700 likely as a WIFI gateway for the "cheap WIFI radio" devices, (mainly TV, roku, DVD, etc.). Not yet sure if I will use OpenWRT for this. Look into the option of external antennas for the WNDR3800. I live out in the country and have few neighbors to notice/know/care. If I can get there... improved & reliable WIFI signal at my mailbox would rock.

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Idiot Service Providers
by Keith Wright 23 Oct '13

23 Oct '13

On recomendation from someone on this list, I signed up for Speakeasy DSL. The helped me set up a primary name server (DNS) and they ran a secondary name server for a few extra dollars per month. This has been working well for about a decade. Speakeasy was sold to MegaPath, who yesterday sent me a message that included this: > Dear MegaPath Customer, > > This email is to advise you that MegaPath is > migrating its legacy Speakeasy ISP, web hosting, > webmail and DNS services to a more advanced platform. > > <Braindead "customer-experience" > happy market-talk deleted> > > Going forward, we will no longer support secondary > DNS services. If your domain is set up in this > manner, please be sure to make the proper changes to > avoid a post-migration service disruption. This all happens next Tuesday. I read this is "We are breaking what has worked for a decade, there is nothing you can do, have fun finding a new ISP in two days." I was wall-punching cursing mad. When I calmed down a bit I began to think, if they don't break anything else, maybe it's not so bad. The system was designed to tolerate failure. _I_ was not designed to tolerate _intentional_ failure, but everything should still work if the secondary name server is broken. Since I have only one IP address on one DSL line, I never really saw the need for a secondary server in the first place. I run a primary server because (A) I like to think of myself as a programmer, and it is self education to figure out how to do it. (B) Sometimes I create subdomains and run test program servers in them. The RFC's require a second name server, and the registrar asks for it, but who's going to care really? If the primary name server goes out, so do all other servers in the domain, since it's all really just one computer. What would you recommend? If anyone else has the same problem, I could be your secondary, and you could be mine. -- Keith

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Barbarians at the gates...
by Tim Keller 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

This is a paper about High Frequency Trading, it's an interesting if not entirely terrifying read about what a crazy place the markets have become. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2536492 Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Bufferbloat demonstrations w/water and funnels
by Chuck Anderson 14 Oct '13

14 Oct '13

Here is a series of videos of a talk by Dave Täht where he uses water and funnels to demonstrate the concepts of bufferbloat: [1] Bufferbloat #1 - TCP 101 [2] Bufferbloat #2 - Tail drop queueing [3] Bufferbloat #3 - FIFO, RED, Blue, and Fair Queueing [4] Bufferbloat #4 - Wifi, Netalyzr, SFQ, SFQRED, and CoDel [5] Bufferbloat #5 - CoDel and Drop Head Queueing [6] Bufferbloat #6 - More on FQ_Codel [7] Bufferbloat #7 - Q&A [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD5TwLQnq_8 [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgFcqRMDqlk [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9xJbwb28Zc [4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol_BcKA9Ohg [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Esi0zjNdE [6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi-jumVNVGk [7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFH5fGNzBJU

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Changing your network scheduler in ubuntu 13.04...
by Tim Keller 14 Oct '13

14 Oct '13

Just so people know... this is how to change the scheduler on Ubuntu 13.04. tc qdisc replace dev eth0 root fq_codel limit 100 target 5ms interval 30ms ecn Obviously replace "eth0" with your appropriate network device... Enjoy, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Reminder: WLUG Meeting Wed 10/9 7PM Jim Gettys on Internet buffer bloat
by Chuck Anderson 07 Oct '13

07 Oct '13

Hi folks, The next Worcester Linux Users' Group (WLUG) meeting will be held this Wednesday. This month we will have Jim Gettys from Bell Labs talk about Internet buffer bloat. This is the talk that has been rescheduled from April. Note that there has been a room change to a larger room right down the hall from our regular location. Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 - 9:00 PM WPI Campus Center, Hagglund Room 301 The Campus Center is building #7 on the campus map [1], and the Hagglund Room is room 301 on the Campus Center building floorplan [2]. [1] http://www.wpi.edu/about/visitors/campusmap.html [2] http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/CC/Floorplans/37678.htm "Internet buffer bloat, by Jim Gettys (Bell Labs) VOIP and teleconferencing often perform much more poorly on today's Internet than the Internet of a decade ago, despite great gains in bandwidth. Lots of fiber, cheap memory, smart hardware, variability of wireless goodput, changes in web browser behaviour, changes in TCP implementations, and a focus on benchmarking Internet performance solely by bandwidth, and engineer's natural reluctance to drop packets have conspired to encourage papering over problems by adding buffers; each of which may introduce latency when filled. The mistaken quest to never drop packets has destroyed interactivity under load, and often results in actual higher packet loss, as TCP's congestion avoidance algorithms have been defeated by these buffers. The lessons of the "RED manifesto" of 1997 have been forgotten or never learned by a new generation of engineers." Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 - 9:00 PM WPI Campus Center, Hagglund Room 301 Afterwards, we will go out for pizza. See you there, Chuck President, Worcester Linux Users' Group http://www.wlug.org/

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Announce: WLUG Meeting Wed 10/9 7PM Jim Gettys on Internet buffer bloat
by joel d 03 Oct '13

03 Oct '13

I plan to attend Wednesday's meeting also (90% likely at this point). Joel

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Announce: WLUG Meeting Wed 10/9 7PM Jim Gettys on Internet buffer bloat
by Chuck Anderson 03 Oct '13

03 Oct '13

Hi folks, The next Worcester Linux Users' Group (WLUG) meeting will be held at its regularly scheduled time: the 2nd Wednesday of the month, which is Wednesday, October 9, at 7PM. The location will be the WPI Campus Center, Mid-Centry Room 331. This month we will have Jim Gettys from Bell Labs talk about Internet buffer bloat. This is the talk that has been rescheduled from April. "Internet buffer bloat, by Jim Gettys (Bell Labs) VOIP and teleconferencing often perform much more poorly on today's Internet than the Internet of a decade ago, despite great gains in bandwidth. Lots of fiber, cheap memory, smart hardware, variability of wireless goodput, changes in web browser behaviour, changes in TCP implementations, and a focus on benchmarking Internet performance solely by bandwidth, and engineer's natural reluctance to drop packets have conspired to encourage papering over problems by adding buffers; each of which may introduce latency when filled. The mistaken quest to never drop packets has destroyed interactivity under load, and often results in actual higher packet loss, as TCP's congestion avoidance algorithms have been defeated by these buffers. The lessons of the "RED manifesto" of 1997 have been forgotten or never learned by a new generation of engineers." Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 - 9:00 PM WPI Campus Center, Mid-Centry Room 331 Afterwards, we will go out for pizza. See you there, Chuck President, Worcester Linux Users' Group http://www.wlug.org/

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