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Gairdner Symposia [was Re: FSOSS 2017 cancelled due to strike]
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 19 Oct '17

19 Oct '17

| From: Stewart Russell via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> | Subject: Re: [GTALUG] FSOSS 2017 cancelled due to strike | While there might be occasional grizzles on this list about FSOSS, the fact | that there is a conference on open things within transit range of us at all | is pretty neat. Let's hope it gets going again soon. I think that FSOSS has been great. Not perfect. Well worth my time. One problem: it is always scheduled for the same dates as the Gairdner Symposia. These are about things medical, not up my alley, but amazing. So this year I'm going to hit the Gairdners hard. <http://gairdner.org/events-upcoming/> The Gairdner Awards have been given our for decades and have an amazing record of predicting who will later win a Nobel prize in medicine. Each fall they put on three series of talks at the McLeod Auditorium, part of the Med. Sci building at the University of Toronto. They are free and open to the public but some require more background than I have. (They also scatter talks at campuses of other universities, including York.) Oct: 26: Here's the most accessible one of the three, The Gairdner Foundation Laureate Symposium. These are from each of the folks who got an award this year: <http://gairdner.org/events/2017-gairdner-laureate-symposium/> Oct 27: Another symposium is "New Frontiers in Targeted Therapies for Human Health". This one may require more background, but I'm going to try it. <http://gairdner.org/events/2017-gairdner-symposium-new-frontiers-targeted-t…> Oct 25: Still another is "2017 Gairdner Global Health Symposium". This one is not in the McLeod Auditorium. The morning session is at 686 Bay St. and the afternoon is at the U of T Faculty Club. It is free but requires registration (through Eventbrite). Again, I'm going to try it even though I expect that I don't have enough background. <http://gairdner.org/events/2017-gairdner-global-health-symposium/> Since the GGHS ends early on Oct 25, you could even follow it up with the "Women in Science with Dr. Huda Zoghbi" at 4:30. Free, but requires registration. (She was awarded a Gairdner in 2017.) Less fortunately, "CRISPR Unplugged: The Editing Business" starts before the GGHS but overlaps with it. CRISPR is a relatively recent discovery/invention which is revolutionizing gene editing. (Barrangou was awarded a Gairdner in 2016.) There are plenty of othr things on through the year. I'm watching this right now: <http://gairdner.org/events/public-lecture-dr-antoine-hakim/> Oops: it is in French. I wish I were more functional in French.

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Bruce Schneier speaking at SECTOR
by Dave Cramer 18 Oct '17

18 Oct '17

https://sector.ca/tag/bruce-schneier/ Dave Cramer

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FSOSS 2017 cancelled due to strike
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 18 Oct '17

18 Oct '17

<http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2017/index.html>

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VMware ESXi Licensing and Quality
by Giles Orr 17 Oct '17

17 Oct '17

I'm having some trouble figuring out the licensing on VMware's ESXi. It's proprietary - I've got that and I don't love it. But Packt's "DevOps Automation Cookbook" (2015) is essentially saying it's free to use, and implying - I don't think they ever stated it outright - that it's permanently free. But on VMware's site ( https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhos… ) it reads as if it's a 60 day evaluation, period. Which brings up a few questions: - is ESXi technically good enough that I should be pursuing this at all? (I'm currently using Proxmox. It works, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'll probably stick with it because of the licensing which is more open source friendly) - is ESXi permanently free? and can you get security updates if you're on the free licensing? - is there anything appalling in their license? eg. Facebook's recent license clauses "using our products means you can't ever sue us for anything" (point applies even though they fixed it) Thanks. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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Equifax borked by Adobe
by Russell 14 Oct '17

14 Oct '17

Kind of timely given the recent thread about Adobe forms. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/equifax-website-hack… -- Russell Sent by K-9 Mail

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Adobe Reader Alternatives for Linux
by Dhaval Giani 12 Oct '17

12 Oct '17

Hi folks, Yes, I am aware that there are many applications out there that can read pdfs. However the government of Canada (in its infinite wisdom) has mandated that to open and fill their forms, one use Adobe Reader. (As an example see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/citizen/CIT0002E-2.pdf ). Alternatives? Thanks! Dhaval

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Re: [GTALUG] Kernel and/or X upgrade broke my video setup
by Scott Sullivan 11 Oct '17

11 Oct '17

On October 11, 2017 10:19:28 AM EDT, ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: >On Wed, 11 Oct 2017 10:01:07 -0400 >Scott Sullivan via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote:. >> Desktop implement UIs that talk to this functionality, and handle the > >> 'memory' of layouts. KDE's for example will remember transient >> moinitor configureations, like my two different laptop docks at home >> and work, and will restore the right layout for each, matching >> against the Vendor IDs of the monitors. >> >Okay, but after a kernel update / distro update - no configs 'should >have' been over written... > >as it seems there has been config changes (both screens are still >working & mouse moves to both screens, etc etc) > Not necessarily. Software is free to mangle your configs at run time. Distro will knowingly or unknowingly push updates from the upstream that 'upgrade' preferences files in ways that don't roll back. Especially in desktop applications. Firefox will be doing this with the 57 release as we learned last night. But another factor is driver updates can also result in the Output names changing. I've seen this in my own laptop. Usually as the generic drives gets tweaked to be aware of the specific model. In that case the old config doesn't match the remembered state and would reasonable fall back to defaults. And defaults are the convention of the person that wrote the software. -- Scott Sullivan

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[GTALUG-Announce] Reminder: Board Elections Today
by Scott Sullivan 11 Oct '17

11 Oct '17

Today's meeting is special, it is the AGM. It's where members reaffirm their commitment to this community. Where volunteers step up to the board in order to guide month to month operations. Three of our five board seats will be open this year, for two year terms. Two of the incumbents, Myles Braithwaite, and Stewart Russell, have indicated that they will not be running for another term. We want to invite you as members to take a new, or even renewed, active role. Please consider running for the board, and keep in mind the following. The formal qualifications that must be satisfied: - Must be a member in good standing - Must not have any undischarged bankruptcy It is also important to be able to be available most months for Board/Operations meetings where we plan GTALUG meetings and activities. Board members are involved in and support the following activities. - Finding speakers for our monthly presentations - Running our internet infrastructure (website and mailing lists) - Organizing and running our annual Linux in the Park picnic If you are interested, we'd appreciate it very much if you can submit your intention to run to board(a)gtalug.org The current list of Candidates (Alphabetical by Lastname): - Gordon Chillcott - Scott Sullivan Potential Candidates are still welcome to announce their intention to run at the AGM. -- Scott Sullivan GTALUG President --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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touch screens
by o1bigtenor 11 Oct '17

11 Oct '17

Greetings Reading of the announcement of 2 new 'smart' phones at the meeting prompts me to ask the question. Am I the only person who finds that touch screens don't work worth a !@#$%^ using my fingers? Thumb, index and third finger take repeated attempts to get a result where the fourth finger seems to work 'ok' its not very 'comfortable'. I do work with my hands, albeit not like I used to, so I do have calluses (they really aren't as thick as they have been at some times in the past though), - - -- is that possibly why I haven't been able to find a touch screen that 'works'. I haven't only tried one 'brand' of phone either. The iPhone is a little less problematic but not enough so to warrant any kind of purchase from me (that's without the absolutely stupid pricing levels). Have used LG, Samsung and Motorola and the issue is consistent. At this point my opinion on touch screens is that they are over priced gadgets that I would rather not use. Regards Dee

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MBR and GTP Drives
by Howard Gibson 11 Oct '17

11 Oct '17

I am now completing my most difficult Linux install ever. My old hard drive with / and /home and /usr/local on it has died. My new 2TB drive was formatted for GTP. The Fedora installer warned me that GTP drives requre a /boot/efi partition. Regardless of how I partitioned, the system would not boot. I converted the drive to MBR format. The best I could get was to see the available kernels. It would not boot. I got fed up and I bought another new drive, and everything installed and booted effortlessly. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Version~1.1. (Version 3.0 supports GTP) New drive: Western Digital 2000GB SATA WD2003FZEX-0. Newer drive: Seagate ``Desktop HDD'' 2TB SATA. ST2000DM001-1ER1 From fdisk, I could see that the Western Digital drive was GTP. The new Seagate drive identified itself as "dos", which means it is MBR. Best Buy offered me a newer Seagate at a slightly lower price but one is claimed explicity to support Linux, and it supports some older protocols. When I told the people at the store I wanted MBR, not GTP, they just stared at me. The Western Digital drive works. It just does not work as a boot drive. I now have an /archive file system. I put my install instructions up on my website in the hopes that I am helping newbies. I am trying to make sense of all this. Right now, I figure if you have an old computer with an old hard drive that works, you should be able to install Linux. If you have a new (GTP) system that works, you should be able to intall Linux on it. If you have an old clunker and the hard drive dies, look out! Is this a Seagate versus Western Digital issue, or is my WD drive flakey? Can anybody make sense of all this? I would like to write this up as a useful document. -- Howard Gibson hgibson(a)eol.ca jhowardgibson(a)gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson

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