Category: Meetings

May: OhMyZsh and Gemini

Date
7pm, Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Topic 1/2: Competitive Programming—OhMyZSH

Speaker: Tim-Hinnerk Heuer

A short introduction to becoming effective with OhMyZSH with a focus on competitive programming with C++. This will be free-form, so contributions are welcome. I’ll show you how you can become effective with CP on websites such as HackerRank, LeetCode and CodeChef using nothing but the shell, Vim, and the websites. You’ll need to be very proficient with a programming language for competitive programming. I would recommend C++ and Python as the two languages of choice, but you can use a lot of languages such as JavaScript, Java, and many more.

Hopefully we can all learn something in this session and most importantly—have fun.

Topic 2/2: Gemini

Speaker: Giovanni Moretti

Gemini is a new internet protocol which:

– Is heavier than gopher
– Is lighter than the web
– Will not replace either
– Strives for maximum power to weight ratio
– Takes user privacy very seriously

https://gemini.circumlunar.space/
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March: rsync and Quasar

Date
7pm, Wednesday, 10 March 2021

Topic 1/2: rsync

Speaker: Tom Ryder

You’d think copying files between two different machines would be a relatively simple task, but it’s fraught with all sorts of subtlety and wastefulness. The rsync tool changed everything—fast, efficient, accurate file copies, right down to preserving file permissions, compressed transfer, and differential transfer—transferring only changed data. Tom will provide an introduction to command‐line rsync and a treatment of a couple of applications using it: the Grsync GUI, and the Dirvish backup system.

Topic 2/2: Quasar

Speaker: William Bell

William will demonstrate projects with the Quasar VueJS JavaScript
framework, and how to use it with Docker.

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November: Azuracast & AV1 Addendum

Date
7pm, Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Topic 1/2: Azuracast

Speaker: Nick Skarott

Azuracast is an open source Internet radio automation solution deployable via Docker or Ansible. Nick will explain how he has used it to stream his own content over the Internet to enjoy on the run anywhere there is a mobile
data connection.

Topic 2/2: AV1 Part Deux – Developments and VMAF

Speaker: Nick Skarott

Just over one year ago Nick demonstrated at PLUG the beginnings of the next generation open source video codec, AV1. A lot has changed in that time in the AV1 space and it’s fitting to look at the developments, and in
particular, the work NetFlix has done (and then open sourced) with the University of Southern California and the Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering at University of Texas’ Austin campus, called VMAF.

Continue reading “November: Azuracast & AV1 Addendum”

October: A rocky outcrop.

Date: 7pm, Wednesday, 14 October 2020

As the internet grows into every corner of our lives, so too does pervasive surveillance within it. Your activity can be intercepted, analysed, and abused by many interested parties, from credit card thieves to abusive nation-states. The privacy implications of everything being networked in this way are enormous, and in most cases very poorly understood by the general public. Worse, unscrupulous and incompetent vendors take advantage of this confusion, and peddle white-labelled security snake-oil that gives users a false sense of security.

A better option for defending yourself from such surveillance is the use of the Tor network, which routes your internet traffic through multiple computers on the internet in such a way that your privacy is protected. Tom will explain the basics of how Tor works, and list some of the benefits and caveats in using it.

Continue reading “October: A rocky outcrop.”

Networking help for member

Longtime member Palmerston North Linux Users Group John Eyres writes:

Hi, at [last week]’s meeting I asked if anyone could help with UPS and
networking for the guys I work with. They have muscular dystrophy, and can’t move/breathe on their own. The UPS works OK, but the batteries are getting old. Their cabinet is too small. … Please email me if you have any ideas. They do their own scripting, home
automation and development…

John includes some photos below. Please get in touch with him at computerjohney@gmail.com if you can help!