LinuxWorld Expo 2007 Day 3

As usual with any show, the last day on the exhibit floor is very light. Both Marc and I were scheduled for the morning and Scott was not scheduled at all Thursday. We didn’t always stick to the schedule though. Marc didn’t get in until after 1pm and Scott was there most of the time anyway. Both Kir and Kostya made their rounds to see other exhibits as well did Scott. Not much swag was left, but it was fun to speak with others. In some cases it turned into just a cold-calling out on the floor. One exhibiter from rPath turned the tables on us (after Kir asked why rPath doesn’t support OpenVZ while several other virtualization products are supported) and wanted to know about OpenVZ instead of telling us about rPath. We ended up back at our booth finishing with a demonstration.

The DVD burning continued and we had no trouble keeping up with the demand… however we did end up burning all of the spool of 50. By the end of the show we only had about 5 left.

Eighth Annual Linuxfest Northwest

Each April computer buffs from across the Pacific Northwest trek to Bellingham, WA for Linuxfest Northwest.

Bellingham, WA, April 4, 2007 — The eighth annual Linuxfest Northwest takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., April 28 and 29, 2007 at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham, WA. Exhibits, presentations, and parking are free. All ages are welcome.

Linuxfest Northwest provides a range of educational and networking opportunities for techies, business users, and novices—anyone who wants to know more about the advantages of open source software. The Fest is an informative, low-key way for people to explore Linux and other open source products. LFNW features internationally recognized speakers from leading companies and well-known open source projects, as well as exhibits and demonstrations for a wide range of interests and technical abilities.

Previous Fests have included presentations by leading open source experts such as Jon “maddog” Hall (international Linux evangelist), Rasmus Lerdorf (of PHP fame), and Brian “Krow” Aker (MySQL, Slashdot). This year’s attractions include:

One Laptop Per Child — exciting technology that could change the world

Oracle, Google

Crispin Cowan of Novell

Second Life

Free Software Foundation

Hands-on test drives

Dee-Ann LeBlanc (author and open source expert)

Zonker Brockmeier (Slashdot, Linux.com)

RoboExpo — turning serious technology learning into fun

Again this year, Linuxfest Northwest will feature the LFNW World Famous Raffle of valuable computer products, services, books, vendorwear, and assorted keen stuff.. Proceeds from the raffle help to pay Fest expenses.

On Saturday night Linux Festivities will continue in downtown Bellingham. Events include April Brews Day, a benefit for the Max Higbee Foundation, which provides community-based recreation programs for adults with developmental disabilities. Linuxfest Northwest is proud to be a sponsor. Several Linuxfest exhibitors will be giving away tickets.

Open source is a collaborative approach for developing high-quality software. Open source software solutions are available for most computing needs at little or no cost. They are comparable to and compatible with most common computer applications. Two of the best known open source projects are the Linux operating system and the Apache web server. Other examples include:

Office applications – wordprocessing, spreadsheets and presentations

Email, calendar, contacts and other personal information management functions

Accounting, bookkeeping, personal finances

Games

Educational software

Desktop publishing

Database management

Collaboration; document sharing

Web browsers

Image editors

3D graphics

Digital camera imaging

Programming tools, tutorials and courses

For more information, please visit the Linuxfest Northwest website at http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/

WAP Final Blow?

In a second attempt to establish a secure connection to our original Orinoco wireless network yesterday afternoon, I made some advancements but one fatal blow had to be thwarted. The fact this AP1000 is rather ancient from 2001 era, its technology was pretty proprietary. Only other Orinoco clients would be able to connect if I enabled WEP security. I don’t know everything about HEX key security, but Orinoco seems to think one can just convert a passphrase by hand with their key code chart provided in the help documents!?! Okay so provided I used this, all is fine with other Orinoco cards but no way to fake this with a Liksys card which IMO uses true HEX security. Using the same passphrase and automatically generating the 26 character HEX does not even come close to what Orinoco would have you use. Even if I manually enter the Orinoco version… no go. So what do ya do? Replace it with a WAP11 running for $70 now! So I had a shop guy hoist me up in a cage to access the old chrome dust infested AP and replaced it with the WAP11. Even the Orinoco clients can connect to this with WEP enabled! Just need to enter the 26 character HEX manually is all. Unfortunately the furthest user continues to have 48% power. So my next plan is to find a booster which is what we already have on the other wireless network at both ends.

First thing this morning I thought it was going to be a printer hell day. First the wife of my boss calls with problems printing on their all-in-one HP printer. Seems that it just needed a reboot. I’m wondering if she thinks logging out is the same as a reboot. So now I think I may have found a better solution… but not as effective if ignored. I changed the Windows updates to download but prompt for installation rather than install automatically. I’m guessing that it installs and requires a reboot that in was not prompting for when nobody was logged in. So I guess as long as they don’t simply ignore the requests now. Time will tell. Secondly the boss calls just as I hang up with his wife with printer problems. It was printing only the header of the emails and stopping without ejecting the remainder of the page. Who knows! I do a power cycle there and run a print test.

While out running errands today when I picked up that AP, I also picked up a card reader for the boss. He wanted me to pick up the card reader from his home office while out at that end of town. So anyway it was nice to have it work without using the CD to install it. I just needed to run through showing him how to send photos as attachments through email.

Got my receipt for an upcoming Security Conference! This will surly be fun. I will get to see some of my old instructors from my CAD days out there at the college. I was grateful to know that the boss is all for extending my knowledge in security issues. I had no resistance what so ever in selling this to him in getting his approval. This conference will primarily be a Microsoft solution style but… several of us from the Linux community have banded together to come to this. To date we are not a part of their speaker/seminars, but who knows, they may have some sort of open forum discussion to attend. I ordered a couple shirts to wear during this too. Nothing offensive. Just a Tux patch on one and a work shirt with a “31337″ patch. Surly to loose enough there I’m sure! Rocky had the first Security Conference a few years ago I helped out with and we had quite the turnout. Wanted to have Kevin Mitnick come but he was a bit out of their budget. However they did get Marty Roesch, the father of Snort and Kevin Fenzie a well known security consultant from Colorado based Tummy.com. Not to mention several local computer guys in the area.