CPOSC and Ubuntu Together Again!

Coming up Saturday October 16, is the 3rd Annual Central PA Open Source Conference to be held at Harrisburg University, Harrisburg, PA.   Over 20 speakers are scheduled include 2 teammates of mine from the Pennsylvania Ubuntu Local Community Team: Brian Stempin and Chris Teodorski.

Brian's presentation will be on a topic that is of particular interest to me, Open Source Geospatial Technologies.  I've been a big fan of PostGIS for a while, although I haven't had the time to play with it much.  This will be really interesting, I am sure.

Chris will be covering the Open Web Application Security Project's Top 10 list of vulnerabilities and using Mutillidae to examine how these vulnerabilities can be exploited so that web developers and security testers can help design more secure web applications.

Tickets are still available for this exciting event, so buy one now before they're gone!

Look for me there, I'll be hanging around the Ubuntu Table handing out goodies.  I've met a lot of good people at last year's event, and am expecting to see more this year!

We are looking to raise money for the Ubuntu Table at the event.  If you can spare any amount, please click on the PayPal donate button on the upper right corner of this page.   Every dollar helps promote Ubuntu and Open Source Software, so please give.

A CPOSC afterparty at ABC (Appalachian Brewing Company) would be really fun, so if anyone wants to get together there, shoot me an email at freelancer317 AT gmail DOT com.

I really can't wait for October 16th!

IMG_0392

IMG_0392, originally uploaded by lfaren.

I had a great time at CPOSC. Here I am during the Django presentation. I'm the one on the right in the blue shirt with glasses in between the Brian (wearing the green shirt on) on theleft and the guy with the orange shirt on the right.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

My first 5k race! And it's for a good cause!

On October 3rd, I will be participating in my first 5k race, to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central PA.  This is a great program, and I am really looking forward to the run.  My time really doesn't matter (but I will post it).

Cost to run is $25 until Sept. 30th, after that it is $30 for the 5k.  There are other events including a kids fun run, a 2 mile run,  and a 2 mile walk.  I hope to see some friendly faces there!

CPOSC is coming!

CPOSC 2009 and The Pennsylvania LoCo Team

Congratulations to my friend and fellow Ubuntu Pennsylvania LoCo Team member Elizabeth Krumbach for being accepted as a speaker for the Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference (CPOSC) on October 17, 2009! Her talk is on Participating in Open Source Projects, and I am really looking forward to seeing her in action. I'm hoping to meet alot of other team members there, and meeting up at Appalachian Brewing Company (ABC) after the event!

Also this is a great opportunity for the PA LoCo to build community relationships, and foster greater adoption of Ubuntu. So I would like to raise money so that we can be a sponsor and have a table at the event. I have also requested a conference pack.

The fee for a Bronze level sponsor (which will get us listed in the materials, website, etc. as well as get us a table) is $100. Since my employment status is currently in the "not" column, I'm going to ask for donations from anyone who can spare some money. I can't stress how much this will mean to the group, and to Ubuntu in the Central Pennsylvania area.

I'd also like to see who will be attending CPOSC, so we can get together! So post comments or email me!
**** UPDATE**** We've raised the funds and secured the sponsorship!  Thanks to everyone who generously donated!

Classes Start Monday... Not for the kids, for me!

Just finished the last semester, and have kept up the string of A's since starting back to school two years ago. Two years ago. Hang on, that doesn't sound right... It sounds too long ago... Could time really have slipped by that quickly? Hang on let me check.

Yes, it was Fall 2007 when I went back to school. I'm taking two classes right now, and then following that up with two in the spring, and that leaves one little class (which I'd like to test out of). So, cool, we are nearing the end of the first level of reeducation.

Overall, I've been pretty fortunate. A little over a year ago, I knocked down a developer job with a small company in Harrisburg, that taught me boatloads. Recently, the economy and some internal decions at the company have forced them to make some cuts (read me), and now I am unemployed. Not entirely a bad thing, since I have picked up some freelance work which is really getting me more experience and applying a lot of what I have learned at school, and from one of my past careers in transportation management (freight traffic manager).

The project is a light Warehouse Management System for a non profit that is doing 3rd party warehouse work for some manufacturers. I'll post more on that later. Right now I'm talking about school.

So, on Monday I start two classes, Network Communications I and C Programming. Both of which will be very important classes. While I grasp the principals and worked some with networking, I haven't really had any formal training, so I am sure that I have a lot of "holes" which will be filled in with this class.

The C programming is important in a different way. For one, I have fallen into the middle of programming. I've learned Visual Basic.NET, Python, a Visual Pascal derived language (C/AL for Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision), and have always had to work very hard to learn them.
I didn't really learn from the bottom up. While this is not vital, by any means, for me I think that learning C will show me a different approach to programming.

Ah regardless, I babbled on too much for right now.

Upcoming post teaser: Ubuntu Developer Week, Ubuntu Global Jam, Warehouse Management project, and more!

Stay tuned.

I'm going to Ubuntu Developer Week, How about you?

More to come in very shortly

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I am alive, but I haven't been active. Coming up I will be documenting a project that I am working on, how my running has been going, and what's up with the job search.

Talk to you soon!

The Heron Has Landed!

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support)
on desktop and server, continuing Ubuntu's tradition of integrating the
latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality,
easy-to-use Linux distribution.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS in the following press
releases:

Desktop edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.04-lts-desktop
Server edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-8.04-lts-server

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS will be maintained and supported for three years on the
desktop and five years on the server.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is also the basis for the new 8.04 release of Kubuntu:

http://kubuntu.org/news/8.04-release

8.04 brings a restructuring of Edubuntu as the Ubuntu Education Edition.
The education desktop and application bundle now installs as an add-on to a
standard Ubuntu desktop.

http://www.edubuntu.org/news/8.04-release

The Ubuntu 8.04 family of variants, Xubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu,
are also released today:

http://www.xubuntu.org/news/hardy/release
http://ubuntustudio.org/
http://www.mythbuntu.org/


To Get Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
----------------------

To download Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, or obtain CDs, visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Users of Ubuntu 7.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 8.04 via
Update Manager. As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are
entirely free of charge. For further information about upgrading, see

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

Users of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS may wish to wait for the first point release
of 8.04 LTS, due in July 2008, before upgrading.

We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document
caveats and workarounds for known issues. They are available at:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/804

Find out what's new in this release with a graphical overview:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/804overview

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but
aren't sure, try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel, on the Ubuntu Users
mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:

#ubuntu on irc.freenode.net
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

Helping Shape Ubuntu
--------------------

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways
you can participate at

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/

About Ubuntu
------------

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, and
servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A
tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and
an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.

Professional technical support is available from Canonical Limited and
hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about
support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support

More Information
----------------

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's
very low volume announcement list at:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

Holiday Flying Penguins! Watch Out!

Dibert rules!

This is a new widget... And while I feel like I work for the same company as Dilbert some times, this is fun.

Any other Dilbertheads out there, let me know!

Bret

When Hearts Attack!

Well, this has been an interesting week, and not in a good way.
My mother who is a young 59 year old who watches what she eats, exercises every day, and has a rather low cholesterol level, had a heart attack Saturday.

It completely blew my mind. It completely blew every one's mind! Nobody would have ever suspected that this woman, who takes such good care of herself, would be struck down by a heart attack.

Turns out that it was only one artery with a blockage. She was catheterized and they inserted two stents. The Doctor was rather surprised by how clear all her other arteries are.

So.... Ultimately, she will be fine. The damage to her heart was negligible, and the shape that she is in will make the cardiac therapy extremely easy (Dr.'s words). But what an experience...

Biking and Golf, OH MY!

After a punishing headache the night before, I dragged my butt out of bed this morning to take my son to ride bikes with my cousin and my parents. First off, let's clarify that while I am 39, my cousin, is 8. My son is almost 11 so the two of them are close enough in age to enjoy each other's company quite a bit.

My cousin has not mastered the art of bike riding yet, so this was a joint multigenerational effort to help him get the two wheeler down pat. It was an hour and a half of very physical labor for everyone involved (especially Riley, who fell once to demonstrate to my cousin that a fall, while a bit painful, will not kill him).

After a quick ice cream stop at the local Dairy Queen, we went to Beaver Bend Golf Course, a par three course in Hummelstown. It's a great place to teach the kids about the basics of golf, without wearing them out completely.

Although the bike riding had taken it's toll, so their energy waned on the back nine significantly.

It is very nice to be able to spend time with family.

Now to bed so that I can rest up for more biking tomorrow.

-30-

September 15th is coming... Do you know where your free software is?

Coming soon to a town or city near you (hopefully), is Software Freedom Day. This year it will be Saturday September 15th, and there will be events all over the world to celebrate FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), and to promote the use and adoption of open source software.

What a great concept this is, a gigantic community moving forward to make great software, and to continuing to improve that same software. I am proud to be a part of this movement, and I look forward to seeing how many events are held this year. I am working with the Ubuntu Local Community Team for Pennsylvania and CPLUG (Central Pennsylvania Linux Users Group) in the Harrisburg and York areas right now. One of our teammates is looking into setting up at the York Fair, which would be rather amazing considering the thousands of people who go through that fair.

Around Harrisburg, I am more interested in getting together a group of people to host a screening of Revolution OS, or set up cook outs at various busy parks or colleges.

Also I am starting to assemble my media kit, and my "hit list" for the local media to be invited or for press releases.

Stay tuned for more exciting information!

The Pennsylvania LoCo Team has been appproved!

We've done it! Below find the transcript from the event where the Pennsylvania Local Community was approved by the Ubuntu Community Council.

Everyone on the team deserves a huge round of applause! I am honored and proud to be working with such great people.

03:51	jsgotangco	ok let's move to pennsylvania
03:52	jsgotangco	yay
03:52	Ubuntuser	:D
03:52	jsgotangco	Zic: i doubt he'll come today
03:52	cypherbios	Sounds really great! Thanks all!
03:52	rpereira	:-)
03:52	freelancer317	That's us! I'm the team contact!
03:52	dholbach	congratulations :)
03:52	freelancer317	Our application page is http://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/ApprovalApplication
03:52	Zic	jsgotangco: ok ... thx
03:52	jsgotangco	Bret?
03:52	freelancer317	Congrats to Brazil!
03:52	jsgotangco	ahh
03:52	pleia2	I'm here for pennsylvania too :)
03:52	AndreNoel	thanks!!
03:52	freelancer317	That's me
03:52	OgMaciel	:)
03:52	jedijf	pa here
03:52	rpereira	Thanks everybody. :)
03:52	Joe_CoT	I'm not from Pennsylvania, but i live very close!
03:52	jedijf	congrats serbia and brazil!!
03:52	lamalex	PA here
=== etank is cheering for pennsylvania \o/
03:52	Ubuntuser	this is begin... ;)
03:52	teddy-dbear	Pa here
03:52	freelancer317	Thank you for the opportunity to review our application to become and approved Local Community Team! First off we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the great people who have joined this team, and although I started it, without them, there would be no application in front of you now, nor would there be for a very long time.
=== andrew is here for PA
03:53	freelancer317	The US-Pennsylvania LoCo Team was established in March by freelancer317 (Bret Fledderjohn) with the assistance of Vorian (Ohio Team Contact). Since that time, we have grown to 51 direct members on Launchpad. We have also established strong bonds with active LUGs, had four successful events, and are building several ongoing projects and events which will not only spread the word about Ubuntu, but also (in many
03:53	freelancer317	cases) will help make our local communities better places.
03:54	freelancer317	http://www.meetlinux.com is our website.
03:54	dholbach	what has the team been concentrating on in the last time? how did you find new members?
03:54	freelancer317	We've initially been working with LUGs and several Nonprofits
03:55	lamalex	We've been working with a lot of non-profits to help under priveleged people benefit from technology and free software
03:55	freelancer317	the forum and Launchpad have also been attracting alot of attention
03:55	jedijf	and with local lugs to cross-promote events
03:55	freelancer317	We had a joint installfest with the Central PA LUG and we had our own installfest in Philly
03:55	jsgotangco	i see lots of activites with non-profits on the website
=== jwendell [n=wendell@ubuntu/member/wendell] has left #ubuntu-meeting ["Bye"]
03:56	jedijf	that is an ongoing thing - now that we've started relationships, the projects flow from one to the next
=== myriam_rs cheers for US-Pennsilvania LoCo Team too!
03:57	dholbach	that sounds good - launchpad says you have 55 members - do you have a chance to meet often as a team?
03:57	pleia2	thanks myriam_rs :)
03:57	freelancer317	We are also putting together a statewide media contact list, and will have a subteam working on distributing press releases and interacting with the media
03:57	lamalex	not in person as a whole team
03:57	lamalex	pennsylvania is a large state
03:57	freelancer317	dholbach outside of irc meetings, no
03:57	jedijf	weekly irc chats
03:57	lamalex	wednesday nights, 8:30pm est
03:57	jedijf	and active daily irc contact
03:57	jsgotangco	yeah i saw the calendar
03:57	freelancer317	we have subteams that cover the different regions
03:58	Vorian	Pennsylvania has been doing wonderful things in the name of Ubuntu. I strongly recommend them for a +1
03:58	freelancer317	Thanks Vorian
03:58	jsgotangco	how is the team preparing for SFD?
=== etank agrees with Vorian
03:58	jedijf	we are promoting a major event with PACS - phila area computer society -
03:58	lamalex	philly team is working with the philly area computer society for a large bbq/speech/party
03:59	freelancer317	Well, there is an event being planned up in the northeastern part of the state. Philly is planning a big thing with PACS, and Harrisburg is working with CPULG
03:59	jedijf	providing a speaker and demonstrations from 8 am to 3 pm
03:59	freelancer317	oops cplug
03:59	lamalex	:P
03:59	freelancer317	we hope to have an event in most major cities and towns in PA
03:59	freelancer317	Pittsburgh is in the infancy of developing the event
04:00	dholbach	nice - the team looks well organized to me
04:00	lamalex	they are beginning to form in pittsburg
04:00	lamalex	there is interest, but it hasn't fully come together. Progress is being made and other regions are encouraging them
04:00	freelancer317	dholbach thanks! We've got a real good core group of people working to get this going
04:00	jsgotangco	a lot of stuff looks solid to me as well, but i advice taking advantage of SFD to have a big get-together, should be fun, the bbq party is a nice touch, i give my +1
04:01	dholbach	I'm happy to give a +1 for Pennsylvania as well
04:01	MikeB-	+1 for me
04:01	freelancer317	thanks dholbach and jsgotangco and MikeB!
=== georgia [n=georgia@pdpc/supporter/basic/Georgia] has joined #ubuntu-meeting
04:01	dholbach	elmo?
04:02	elmo	+1
04:02	dholbach	congratulations! :)
=== lamalex throws his cap
04:02	dholbach	ok, let's move on to member applications
04:02	myriam_rs	Congratulations from the SwissTeam to Pennsylvania LoCO Team!
04:02	pleia2	thanks everyone!
04:02	dholbach	bashelier: it's your stage
04:02	Vorian	Yay Pennsylvania!!!!!!
04:02	freelancer317	thanks myriam_rs!
04:02	Vorian	Congrats!1

Here it comes... Ubuntu Community approval!

Months of work by our group has culminated in our chance with the Ubuntu Community Council for approved status as an Official Ubuntu Local Community Team (LoCo). Tuesday June 26th at 9am EDT, at the Ubuntu Community Council meeting, we will be up for approval.

I have been very fortunate to have such a dedicated, motivated, and fun team to work with. Without them, this never would have happened, let alone this fast.

This is a very quick post, but I hope to go more in depth soon, as well as catch up with things that have been happening.

I have been busy as all get out at work, and we also have been working hard on getting a party together to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary (the party is Saturday June 23rd), so I have been extremely limited in my time.

Dellbuntu Experience from another blog

I thought that this was interesting.

Captain Tux's Blog

Central Pennsylvania Linux Users Group Installfest/New User Meeting

Coming up this Saturday (5/19) at ITT Tech in Mechanicsburg from 10a-6p!

I'll be doing a short presentation on the different flavors of Ubuntu - Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu at noon.

Everyone is welcome... Bring food. :-)

More information is here.