Past Seminars

Ruby on Rails is an multi-platform, open source web application framework based upon the Model-Controller-View (MVC) architecture. Its adherence to principles such as Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY), convention over configuration, testing, and, more recently, database migrations and RESTful interfaces has made the framework increasingly popular over the past few years. This talk will present a brief demonstration of the Ruby on Rails framework. Some of the topics to be discussed include:

- Installing Ruby on Rails on Linux

- Creating a Rails application.

- Scaffolding/Migrations

- ActiveRecord (Models)

- ActionPack (Controller/Views)

Asterisk is a open source, full featured PBX and telephony platform. Designed to run on Linux, it offers most basic features that you would expect from a telephony system, as well as advanced features such as automated attendant, voicemail to email and Zapateller. Asterisk includes support for multiple trunking technologies including POTS, ISDN, PRI and VoIP.

The talk will include an introduction to telephony and Voice-over-IP to introduce needed terminology. There will be an introduction to Asterisk and selected features. The installation and basic configuration of Asterisk will be covered. Finally, there will be a demonstration of Asterisk in action.

Ruby on Rails is an multi-platform, open source web application framework based upon the Model Controller View (MVC) architecture. Its adherence to principles such as Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY), convention over configuration, testing, and, more recently, database migrations and RESTful interfaces has made the framework increasingly popular over the past few years. This talk will present an brief introduction to Ruby and the Ruby on Rails framework. Some of the topics to be discussed include:

- Installing Ruby on Rails on Linux

- Overview of Ruby.

- Creating a Rails application.

- Scaffolding/Migrations

- ActiveRecord (Models)

- Object Relational Mapping.

- Associations/Relationships

- ActionPack (Controller/Views)

The St. John's Linux Users Group and the Department of Computer Science will be offering a 3 hour special introduction to Linux and campus wide LabNet services open to all interested students, staff and faculty members. The session will be structured as a hands on lab with brief talks followed by an opportunity to apply the presented skills. The topics covered by this special lab are as follows:

1. An introduction to the Linux operating system

2. Navigating the graphical user interfaces provided by Linux window managers.

3. Productivity software such as web browsers, office suites and image editors.

4. Running programs through the command line interpreter including shell scripts and basic LINUX commands.

5. Installation of computer applications from the command line interface using configure and make.

6. Labnet services such as campus labs, 3 OS's, printing services, home directory services, backup services, integration with wireless services and more.

7. Installing Linux on your personal computer.

The lab session will conclude with a tour of the computer room in the department of Computer Science followed by an opportunity to socialize in the Computer Science seminar room over snacks and beverages.

People wishing to attend will be required to register on line so that we can be prepared for the number of course attendees at http://www.cs.mun.ca/~slug/reg/onlinereg.php.

What's with Python Anyway? A Look at Why Python is so Popular

Speaker: Michael Rayment

This talk will look at how the designers of Python got it right when they designed the language and wrote the Python interpreter. A quick tour of the language will reveal a symmetric object oriented data structure model at the heart of the language along with a rich set of program constructs that allow the programmer to manipulate the data easily. All data are dynamically typed objects that can be assigned to variables without worrying about type declarations. Python "does the right thing" according to the context in which the data is used. The variable name is simply a handle. Among other things this talk will describe some of the salient features of the language such as list manipulation, creating classes, handling exceptions, scope of variables and most importantly the rich set of predefined module libraries.

Bayesian Spam Filtering

Speaker: Donald Craig

Many strategies have been proposed to address the problem of spam. An effective technique, popularized by Paul Graham in 2002, makes use of a Bayesian statistical model. This approach has been demonstrated to have an accuracy rate of more than 99% in successfully identifying spam messages. In addition to showing earlier (and less successful) techniques for filtering spam, this talk will describe some of the fundamentals of Bayesian filtering and will demonstrate the configuration, use and implementation of a custom Bayesian filter on a Linux-based system.

Backups are one of those things that everybody knows they need, but never pay attention to until it's too late.

This talk is going to cover the basics of making backups, from the useful software packages, down to the media and cost per gigabyte.

We'll go over how to make and maintain backups of servers, workstations, and even "roadwarriors", running different Operating Systems.

Concurrent Version System (CVS)

Speaker: Jamie Goodyear

The Concurrent Version System (CVS) is a multi-user revision control system that allows users to track file changes/versions in a collaborative manner. The system is composed of a CVS repository (centralized area that stores a project's files) and one or more working directories (sandboxes) from which new development is contributed. In typical usage, a developer will check out a current copy of the repository, make some local modifications, and then commit them back to the repository for distribution.

In this talk, we'll briefly cover the client/server architecture of CVS, and then demonstrate how to setup a CVS repository and start using CVS through a series of examples.

Subversion

Speaker: Brian Kidney

In February of 2000, a open source project started with the goal of updating CVS. The idea was to start from scratch, building on the ideas used in CVS, but also fixing some of its problems along the way. After tonights discussion of CVS, a brief overview of Subversion, the CVS replacement will be given. The pitfalls of CVS will be high-lighted, and the ways Subversion fixes them.

Ever needed to get a file at home or work when you were one the road? Ever needed to connect two networks at different locations together? Did you worry about security? Now, more than ever, people worry about the security of their data when opening any part of their network to the world. Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are designed to alleviate these concerns by opening a tunnel into your network through which all data is encrypted and secure. This talk will briefly introduce the idea of VPNs. It will then go through the setup of and us of an Open Source offering called OpenVPN.

These days, digital photos seem to be as popular as conventional prints.

The purpose of this talk will be to show everybody how a Linux workstation can become a powerful photo lab.

We will cover the basics of digital photography, setting up the proper environment for photo editing, and how to do some common (and uncommon) photo editing/restoration using The Gimp.

(As a side note, 90% of this talk will actually be operating system independant, so Windows Gimp users are also encouraged to attend.)

Introduction to the Linux Kernel v2.6

This talk will discuss how the newest version of the Linux Kernel will make the world a better place. The talk will make use of the current test 2.6 kernel.

Topics will include:

1. Usual introduction to OS kernels

2. Additional features in v2.6

3. Getting and installing kernel

4. Writing a small kernel driver

Introduction to Public Key Cryptography

This talk will give a math free (or at least low-math) overview of how public key cryptography works, and a little of it's history.

We'll also discuss the concept of a "web of trust" and conclude with some examples using GnuPG.

MySQL claims to be "the world's most popular open source database." Industry has called it a "disruptive technology" that is commoditizing databases, to the point that "the future of the database market will be the standardization of MySQL."

In this talk, we'll look at some of the features provided by the MySQL database system and the important tools available for both database administrators and users. We'll look at the methods used to manage and run a MySQL database and give examples using a live server. We'll also discuss why MySQL is becoming so popular and compare its feature set and performance to some of the "big boys" of the database world.

Ruby is a portable, object-oriented scripting language that supports garbage collection, dynamic typing, threads, closures, iterators, exception handling, serialization, introspection and several other features. This talk will provide an overview of the language, its types and its various constructs. Throughout the talk, there will be some comparisons of Ruby with the Perl programming language and discussions of how Ruby tries to mitigate some of Perl's complexity. If you like the spirit of Perl but find its syntax and object-oriented support awkward, you may want to take a look at Ruby.

We'll conclude the talk with a Ruby hacking session, during which a limited version of the 'ruptime' command will be implemented.

Gentoo is a new and innovative Linux distribution that has been receiving a lot of hype lately. In this talk we'll discuss why it's so innovative and if it deserves all the hype. We'll also talk about the benefits/pitfalls of the Gentoo approach, and help determine if Gentoo is the right distribution for you.

Load Balancing and High Availability using Linux

There are often situations, when providing Internet services, when one server is just not enough. This talk will focus on how to maximize your serving potential, and availability, using Linux.

We will be focusing on the following packages:

- Linux Virtual Server

- Heartbeat

Topics will include:

- Benefits

- Theory of operation

- Installation

- Configuration

- Resources

- Discussion

X-Deuglification

As many people who have used the X Window System may tell you, it isn't pretty. It is unfortunate that this stigma has followed X for a long time and often causes people to pre-judge the viability of Linux on the desktop based on this outdated thinking. X, specifically the server put out by the XFree86 Project, has many new and interesting extensions that allow for many of the features that people have come to expect from a modern GUI based operating system. As well there are many new Window Managers and improvements to the two most popular desktop environments KDE and GNOME which take advantage of these features and create a very modern desktop which can be tailored to the needs of each user. With this talk I plan to give a tour of what these new features are and then describe how someone can then use these new features to their advantage.

Web applications are currently very popular. They're really the evolution of the simple CGI script of a few years ago. This talk will cover two popular ways of creating a web application, PHP/MySQL & Java Server Pages.

PHP, when combined with MySQL becomes a powerful tool for creating fast, database driven web pages very quickly and easily.

Java Server Pages are a very hot topic these days, and with good reason. Although not as simple to create, and requiring a more powerful server, they allow you to use all the power and convience that Java brings.

Security is becoming a very important topic in the computer industry, even more so after the events of Sept 11. This talk will cover some of the major principles and practices involved in maintaining a secure system, and how they can be applied Linux.

PalmOS application development has become a hot topic in the last few years. This talk will cover the PalmOS development environment with an emphasis on tools under Linux. The talk will center around several sample applications using the graphics and database abilities of the PalmOS. Also, conduit building will be discussed as well as Desktop manager software for Linux such as KPilot and J-Pilot.

A systems administrator is responsible for the smooth operation of both servers and workstations. These computer systems need to be regularly checked to ensure proper operation. A failure in these systems will result in a loss of service to their users. If a failure is left unnoticed, additional failures may occur due to the strain placed on other components in order to handle the loss of service from one component. Hence, to manage the responsibility of monitoring services on these computers, the systems administrator may chose to have an automated, systems monitoring tool implemented for their network.

A Network Monitoring System (NMS) will actively track and report the status of computers and other devices on a network. Upon the discovery of an error or problem, the NMS will inform the systems administrators via a web-based status display and/or email.

This talk will cover some of the command line tools that systems administrators use to determine system performance/status, and cover the installation/configuration of an Open Source Network Monitoring System.

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