O'ReillyGMT - Tech News from 4 timezones either side of the Greenwich Meridian

Linux Open Administration Days, April 10-11, Antwerp, Belgium, Europe, Earth

Kris Buytaert writes:

On the weekend of April 10 and 11 the first Linux Open Administration days will take place in Antwerp, Belgium. Load days grew out of the common feeling with some of the system level Open Source guys that there was no real event for them in Belgium - yes there is Fosdem, which is the most awesome Open Source event around, but a real get-together of local Open Source minded System Administrators and System Engineers was something that surely could complement.

In a shortish 3 months, a core team of organizers found a location, a bunch of sponsors and created a pretty interesting schedule for it's first edition. With a mixture of international speakers from neighbouring countries and local speakers the Loadays schedule list topics ranging from System Monitoring, Backups, System Deployments (including both CFengine, Puppet and Chef speakers), on top of that there's some groupware, some identity management etc. In, short a mixture of everything important to Linux Open Administration, Loadays will have both regular talks, tutorials and open space discussions.

If you are around, drop in to say hi, to listen to some talks or even hang around for the pizza party and the pub later ...

Request Tracker (RT) Tutorial - London, Tues 11th August 2009

O'Reilly UK and UKUUG have another fine tutorial scheduled for your delectation. In London, on Tuesday 11th August 2009 between 9.00 and 17.00, we give you Request Tracker:

Request Tracker (RT) is an enterprise-grade ticketing system. It is designed to help your organization track what needs to get done and what still needs doing. From basic customer service to advanced back-office workflows, RT is flexible enough to keep your processes smooth and effective.

Your Tutor: Jesse Vincent, the author of RT, co-author of RT Essentials:

Jesse Vincent is the author of RT and the founder of Best Practical Solutions, LLC, a company dedicated to open source tools to help people and organizations keep track of what needs doing, when it gets done, and who does it. Before founding Best Practical, Vincent worked as the systems lead for a now-defunct dotcom and as a software designer at Microsoft.

Book now: online or booking PDF.

More event details at ukuug.org/events/rt/.

OpenTech 2009: 4th July 2009

The UKUUG have announced Open Tech 2009, scheduled to take place on 4th July 2009 somewhere within London's mystic environs:

Open Tech 2009 is an informal, low cost, one-day conference on slightly different approaches to technology, democracy and community. Thanks to 4IP for sponsoring the event.

*What do we need?*
- Proposals from people who want to give a presentation, run a panel, organise a tutorial, or run a demo of something new and interesting on something that they think matters or getting people to help.
- Publicity - please blog this announcement, write a newspaper article, forward to mailing lists, and tell your friends!

What topics do we hope to cover?
- Mashups, open data and security
- Disaster politics and technology
- Future of media distribution
- Community engagement
- Democracy 2.0
- Highlights, lowlights and lessons learnt
- Long term thinking on big problems and massive opportunities
- Tutorials & Workshops - share what you know
- If you've got an interesting proposal that doesn't fit into any of the categories above, please send it in anyway!

What have we already got talks or sessions about?
- ID, surveillance and data-sharing
- mySociety
- international disaster management technologies
- We're still looking for lots more talks on all our topics, so if you want to offer something, we're waiting to hear your ideas.

*How do I submit a proposal?*
- Online form via http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2009/offer
- Deadline for submissions is midnight on Saturday 1st May 2009

*Can I buy or reserve a ticket to the event?*
- Register at http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2009/list and we'll email you nearer the time with more information

European Conference Season is heating up ...

The Great Kris Buytaert writes:

European Conference Season is heating up ... again :)

This year no LinuxDays.lu to kick off the season, but Fosdem, the yearly Free and Open Source Software Developers European meeting, got moved 3 weeks earlier than usually, the main reason for moving being the main room (Janson) wasn't available on the Saturday morning of the regular weekend, so make sure your agenda is in sync.

This year Fosdem is on 7th and 8th February. Actually it starts with the Partner Track this time, so your spouse or friend can join you for the trip and see a part of Brussels as never before.

As usual, the Fosdem schedule - both the main tracks and developer rooms - is packed with interesting talks and you will have difficulties choosing between the available talks.

The UKUUG has also announced its Spring Conference, this time taking place in London. The conference will take place from 24th till 26th March ... with a tutorial on the 24th and the conference (final schedule still to be announced) on the 25th and 26th.

UKUUG/O'Reilly Tutorials - 2 Perl Tutorials with Dave Cross

The great Dave Cross - O'Reilly author, Perl Superstar, the Coders' Coder - is running two one-day Perl tutorials in London on the 25th and 26th February 2009. Day 1 is an Introduction to Perl, Day 2 is Advanced Perl Techniques. Both will take place in:

The Caesar Room
Imperial Hotel
Russell Square
London
WC1B 5BB

and will be run in conjunction with the UKUUG and O'Reilly.

Day 1:  Introduction to Perl - 25th February:

This one-day course is an introduction to Perl for complete beginners. No knowledge of Perl is assumed, although attendees will have a slight advantage if they have some knowledge of at least one other programming language. At the end of the course, attendees will have enough knowledge to write a number of useful Perl programs, together with details of where to go for more information.

Syllabus:

• What is Perl
• Input and output
• Creating and running a Perl program
• Regular expressions
• Perl variables
• References
• Operators and functions
• Finding and using modules
• Conditional constructs
• Smart matching
• Subroutines

Day 2: Advanced Perl Techniques - 26th February:

Perl has come a long way since the "scripting language" which powered most of the world wide web in the 1990s. There are many ways to build applications in Perl. In this course we will look at some powerful techniques which are used by the best Perl programmers in the world. This one-day course is aimed at programmers who have been using Perl for some time but who may not be completely up to date with the latest Perl techniques. At the end of the course attendees will have a number of modern Perl programming techniques to their programming toolkit.

Syllabus:

• What's new in Perl 5.10
• Dates and times
• Testing (including coverage analysis)
• Database access with DBIx::Class
• Profiling
• Object oriented programming with Moose
• Templates
• Web application development with Catalyst

Book now: online or booking PDF.

Early Bird rates apply until the Jan 21st 2009:
Non-members: £295 + VAT
UKUUG members' discounted rate: £195 + VAT (These prices are for each tutorial).

New User Group Newsletter

The new User Group Newsletter is now available - either use the link in the left-hand column, or click here.

Tutorial: Building the network you need with OpenBSD's PF

Hot on the heels of the highly successful Using Moodle tutorial led by Helen Foster comes the second UKUUG/O'Reilly joint venture:

Building the network you need with OpenBSD's PF

This tutorial focuses on building the high performance, low maintenance network you need. Along the way we explore the whys and hows and cover all bases from the basic one machine configuration and basic local area networks, all the way up to configurations with traffic shaping and load balancing with "self-healing" networks and counter-measures against common problems such as DOS attempts and spamming.

A basic understanding of TCP/IP and some Unix knowledge is assumed. This tutorial will happen very soon after OpenBSD 4.4 is released and will be up to date with the latest release.

Who should attend? Those who use or are considering using PF on any BSD. It goes from the basics to advanced usage of the latest versions of PF, including traffic shaping using altq, and the supporting features for higher level services such as trapping spam via greylisting and http filtering, SSL proxying, and load balancing. PFs simplicity and ease allows those new to PF to understand it quickly, while refreshing the best practices in filtering for those who have used PF for years.

Tutor Biography: Peter Hansteen is a consultant, sysadmin and writer based in Norway. A long time freenix advocate, he is a member of the BLUG (Bergen (BSD and) Linux User Group) core group and current vice president of NUUG (the Norwegian Unix User Group).

During recent years a frequent lecturer and tutor with emphasis on FreeBSD and OpenBSD topics, and most recently the author of The Book of PF (No Starch Press, December 2007).

Please note places are limited and early booking is essential. Booking deadline is 20th November 2008.

Early Bird rate (up to 24th October)

• Non-members: £225 + vat (£264.38 inc VAT)
• UKUUG members: (Discounted rate)   £175 + vat (£205.63 inc VAT)

Standard rate (after 24th October)

• Non-members: £275 + vat (£323.13 inc VAT)
• UKUUG members: (Discounted rate)   £225 + vat (£264.38 inc VAT)

The above prices include FULL day tutorial, refreshments, lunch and a set of tutorial notes. For full details and terms and conditions, see the booking form

Book now: online or booking PDF.

Open Tech 2008 - Photos

Open Tech 2008 was a glorious success. In the region of 500 people staggered through the rain to ULU on Saturday 5th July 2008 to see some marvellous presentations. Thanks to organisers Sam, Ben, Emily and Etienne and the whole of UKUUG  for a great day.

I was there with my trusty camera (experimenting with its curious 'out of focus' setting - those blurry photos aren't incompetence - they're art!) which you can find on our GMT flickr page. Interviews to follow ...

www.flickr.com

Using Moodle Tutorial - Early Bird discount expires 13th June 2008

The Early Bird discounted rates for Using Moodle, the Moodle tutorial organised by UKUUG in conjunction with O'Reilly, expire on 13th June 2008:

* UKUUG members - discounted rate: £140 + VAT
* Non-members: £175 + VAT

Register here while prices are low!

Tutorial: Using Moodle

O'Reilly are very pleased to announce Using Moodle, a tutorial run in association with the UK Unix User Group. Using Moodle will take place on Monday 30th June 2008 in The Caesar Room, Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London WC1B 5BB:

The Using Moodle tutorial will cover how to:

• Create a course in Moodle and add content, such as worksheets or links to websites
• Use forums, chats and messaging for communication and collaboration
• Set up assessment activities, with the option of students receiving instant feedback
• Manage students and monitor their participation
• Give students additional roles, such as forum moderator or, if necessary to restrict access, the role of naughty student

There will be opportunities throughout the tutorial for delegates to ask questions, and you'll need to pay attention as you may be asked some questions too!

Delegates will be given a copy of the book "Using Moodle" plus supplementary materials describing how to make use of Moodle's roles and permissions system.

Tutor Biography: Helen Foster is a Moodle administrator for the site with the most users (over 400,000 with more than 500 new users daily) - moodle.org - and is a facilitator for the Using Moodle course, which provides free 24-hour support for Moodle users worldwide. Helen now works full-time for Moodle as the Community Manager.

Please note places are limited and early booking is essential. Early bird booking deadline is 13th June, final booking deadline is 24th June 2008

Early Bird rates - until 13th June

• Non-members: £175 + VAT
• UKUUG members - discounted rate: £140 + VAT

Standard rates - after 13th June

• Non-members: £225 + VAT
• UKUUG members - discounted rate: £190 + VAT

The above prices include FULL day tutorial, refreshments, lunch and a set of tutorial notes. For full details and terms and conditions, see the booking form

Book now: online or booking PDF.

Join UKUUG Today!