Packet Filtering – April 8th, 2003

A continuation of the Packet filtering talk from Jim Small, also more discussion about the new venue for future meetings, and we’ll be taking up a collection for a friend who we lost a few weeks ago.

Slides: Packet Filtering Theory
Bill Cheswicks slideshow

A couple of things to take care of at the next meeting:

  1. Most of you should have received the news last week about the loss of one of our long-time members. Glenn Jacobson had been sick with Pneumonia, and he passed away on March 26th. The family had requested that rather than send flowers, we should instead make a donation in Glenn’s name. What we’d like to do is take up a collection at the April meeting, and send a donation to the Free Software Foundation. Glenn was a true believer in Free sofware and Open Source, and I’m sure he’d appreciate that. So, if you have something that you can add to the collection, it would be greatly appreciated.
  2. The main topic at the April meeting will be a continuation of the Packet Filtering talk that Jim Small started at the March meeting. The first part was really interesting, and Jim’s got a great way of explaining how it works, so make sure you are there in April to see the rest of it.
  3. As was announced at the March meeting, the April 8th meeting will be the last meeting at Rosa’s Italian Chop house. Beginning May 13th, we will be meeting at the Farmington Community Library, on 12-mile road, between Orchard Lake and Farmington Road.

Here is the address of the new location:

Farmington Community Library

32737 West 12 Mile Road

Farmington Hills, MI 48334

Support Our Friends!

So, as you can see, we’ve got alot to cover, so make sure you don’t miss it.

Packet Filtering – March 11th, 2003

Several topics to cover, including the announcement of a new venue for the monthly MUG meetings and an Introduction to packet filtering theory.

We’ve been meeting at Rosa’s Italian Chop House (Formerly Leather Bottle Inn), since some time in the early 1990’s (nobody remembers exactly when). Well, the April meeting will be our last meeting at Rosa’s. Beginning at the May meeting, we will be meeting at the Farmington Community Library.

Also, Jim Small will begin his first of several meetings discussing packet filtering.

Interchange: Free eCommerce Package – February 11th, 2003

Tonight’s meeting includes the elections to the MUG board of directors, an introduction to Interchange by Ron Colcernian, current events, and the Unix grab bag.

We’ve got a very busy schedule for the February 2003 meeting.

Lots of great stuff to cover, including:

Current Events – Catch the latest news in the computer industry.

If you have some news you want to talk about, this is a great chance to bring it up for open discussion.

Nominations for the MUG board of directors

The Board of Directors of the Michigan Unix User Group is the group of people who manage the operations of the user group. This includes such things as: Meeting locations, Meeting topics, running the meetings and running the MUG website. If you know someone who wants to be on the MUG board of directors, this is your chance to Nominate that person.

Interchange Free eCommerce package presented by Ron Colcernian.

This is a full featured shopping cart system for commercial websites.

Ron will be showing some of the features of the package, and he will be discussing many of the issues involved in launching an eCommerce site.

Coders Corner – A new monthly feature where we spend a couple of minutes showing a cool feature of a programming language.

Elections for the MUG Board of Directors This is it ! The election where we all decide who will be on the next board of directors. Think about it… You really don’t want to miss this.

Linux Grab Bag – Once again test your Unix/Linux skills by reaching your hand into the bag, and pulling out a random command. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge and have some fun too.

Potpourri – January 14th, 2003

This month we will have a handfull of mini-topics, including:

  • Configuring Apache for secure personal use
  • A Tour of Interchange – A free eCommerce package
  • Icewm – An introduction to a lightweight window manager
  • Return of the Linux Grab bag

Nominations for the MUG Board of Directors

An Introduction to JSP and Struts – October 8th, 2002

Main Presentation: An Introduction to JSP and Struts
Billy G. Allie

Mini presentation: Introduction to IP Routing
Jim McQuillan

Tonights presentation is an introduction to the Struts framework for developing web based applications. Struts is a product of the Jakarta Project at the Apache Software Foundation.

Jim McQuillan, Mug president, will be talking about routing IP packets between subnets. This is just an introduction to routing, so if you’ve been curious how to setup and view routes, and why you need them, this should be a good place to start.

Potpourri – September 10th, 2002

Main presentation: Customizing the Look-n-Feel of Mozilla
Wolf (mozilla developer)

Mini presentation: email virus scanning on Linux
Erick Tyack

Wolf is one of the few developers who actually gets paid to work on Mozilla. He’s given talks for us in the past, and we’re happy to have him back to discuss customizing the look and feel of the Mozilla browser.

Erick Tyack is a local consultant, and a member of MUG. We are happy to have him back to discuss setting up an email virus scanner in a Linux/Unix environment.

Panic to Profit: My Journey with PHP and PostgreSQL – August 6th, 2002

Lonny Granstrom will be giving a talk titled:

Panic to Profit: My Journey with PHP and PostgreSQL

Also, Jim Glutting will be giving a demonstration and talk about an internet appliance called the ‘Instagate’ from eSoft. Jim recently setup a couple of these for a customer to create a VPN between to offices

What is PHP and PostgreSQL?

That was my first question in November 2001, when I was asked to help create a website to help doctors place, Medicare acceptable, orders for medical equipment/supplies for their patients.

In late April 2002 the website launched… PHP, running as an Apache webserver module, controls the dynamic creation if all webpage content, including connections and data transfers with the database. PostgreSQL is the RDBMS. PHPLib, a PHP Class library available
on SourceForge, was used as the backbone for session management, user login security, and webpage HTML templates. PHPLib also uses PostgreSQL.

Topics relating to the website functionality will include:

  1. Configuration of PHP and Apache for improving security;
  2. Session Management with PHPLib, or PHP in general;
  3. Templates for page construction, including Class generation of HTML Elements;
  4. Class-based generation of !PostgreSQL SQL statements;
  5. Database connections and coding practices in a CVS environment;
  6. HTML GET and POST Form variable passing; and,
  7. Record set transaction control with historical record retention.