PLUG's Upcoming Events

Topics for May's virtual meeting

Published: 14 May 2020

We have 2 presenters for this month's VIRTUAL MEETING.
Attend my going at 7pm Thursday the 14th to: https://lufthans.bigbluemeeting.com/b/plu-yuk-7xx

Matt McGrae: Getting Started with Nextcloud

Description:
A brief history of Nextcloud and why you might want to use it for yourself.

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der.hans: Big Blue Button Video Conferencing

Description:
Big Blue Button (BBB) is a Free Software video conferencing tool with good moderation tools.
Originally created for use with classrooms, it also has instructional options and ties into Moodle.

BBB doesn't require extra software to use with desktops, lapstops, phones or tablets as it uses the WebRTC browser standard.

BBB Presentation features include:

* video conferencing
* shared chat
* shared editing
* showing documents and video
* breakout rooms

The Greenlight project is an addon for instance administration.

It includes some necessary moderation tools including:

* password protected call
* waiting room
* presenter role
* participant sharing restrictions ( lock out microphone, video, chat, etc. )
* kickout disruptors

The presentation will cover using Big Blue Button from an attendee's perspective, including a feature list and a tour of the user interface.

AZLoCo has been using Big Blue Button on a home server for at least a decade.
Recently BBB switched to WebRTC and the LoCo has been quite happy with that upgrade.

In the Free Software community there are some community run BBB instances available for testing.
You can also install BBB on your own system and run your own instance.
Alternatively, there are a few commercial hosting options available.

The PLUG general meeting will use a hosted Big Blue Button instance.
The Free Software Stammtisch will also use the hosted BBB instance for this month's meeting on Tuesday the 19th.

Biography:
der.hans is a technology and entrepreneurial veteran.

He is chairman of the Phoenix Linux User Group (PLUG), Promotions and Outreach chair for SeaGL, BoF organizer for the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) and founder of the Free Software Stammtisch. He presents regularly at large community-led conferences (SCaLE, SeaGL, LFNW, Tübix, OLF, TXLF) and many local groups.

Currently a Customer Data Engineer at Object Rocket. Public statements are not representative of $dayjob.

Mastodon - https://floss.social/@FLOX_advocate

Plume - https://fediverse.blog/~/LuftHans

Open Org Meeting Tonight (4/7)

Published: 07 April 2020

PLUG has been a great community resource for more than 25 years. We want
that to continue being the case throughout the shutdown. #FlattenTheCurve

PLUG is a volunteer run group. Everything we do is because volunteers have
stepped forward to do the work for the activity.

Tonight, at 19:00, we're having an open organization meeting to all who want to
productively help PLUG continue to be an excellent community resource.

Attending is not a promise to volunteer. It's promise to be interested in
helping PLUG be a resource for the community and hopefully consideration
of volunteering.

Good news is that we already likely have some extra participation coming
in. We can also be open to more people as it will be easier to
participate. Hopefully we'll even get some out of state PLUGgers to
partcipate more :).

We have already planned a general meeting with the theme of tech careers
for Thursday. There is also job networking and Free Software Stammtisch
two weeks from tonight.

Beyond those events, we need some volunteer assistance to keep things running.

We also want feedback

We have an agenda in etherpad.

https://pad.sfconservancy.org/p/PLUG_open_meeting.20200407

The meeting will be using a hosted jitsi ( Free Software video
conferencing ) account.

https://8x8.vc/estammtisch/plug_org

We have some backup options should there be an option. Keep an eye on the
list and the IRC channel.

You can chat during the meeting via etherpad or our IRC channel.

PLUG Topic for March 12th Space Night 2

Published: 07 March 2020

This month we'll be treated to PLUG's second Space themed night.

Space Night 2

Description:
Join PLUG for a space panel featuring members of the MASTCAM-Z team discussing the roles of Free Software and open standards in their projects and the open science they're investigating as part of their missions.

Based at ASU, the panel members have worked on projects such as the MASTCAM-Z and MASTCAM projects for Mars rovers, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Psyche Mission.
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Video from previous Space Night panel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxge96YO3A

Panelists:

Ernest Cisneros

Ernest received a Bachelor's of Science in Geology, from the University of Texas at El Paso (1989). After a stint in graduate school at Northern Arizona University, studying the metamorphic history of the Old Woman Mountains, he began a 27 year career combining his love of geology and computers. Ernest has worked at the USGS in Flagstaff, Duke University, Northwestern University and most recently at Arizona State University. Ernest has supported science and data processing for Clementine, MSI on NEAR, CRISM on MRO, MDIS on MESSENGER, Pancam on MER. His most recent work was developing the Science Operations Center for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, supporting multispectral data processing of MASTCAM images from MSL, developing the ground data system for MASTCAM-Z instrument on the Mars 2020 rover, and developing the Science Data Center for the Psyche Mission. During his career, Ernest has seen Linux grow from "just something we are playing with for SysAdmin stuff" into a mainstay in server rooms, desktops and at home, tackling a wide-variety of roles. He has used a variety of Linux flavors: Slackware (installed from floppies), Redhat, Debian, CentOS, SuSE, and Ubuntu (most recently), installed on everything from SBC (Raspberry Pi and Tinkerboards), Intel/AMD PC's, PowerPC, RISC and a variety of other architectures.

Kristen Paris

Kristen is the Down-link Operations Lead for the Mastcam-Z camera for the Mars2020 rover mission and previously worked with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera also at ASU. Kristen has been using Linux-based systems for NASA Instrument Operations for over 10 years. Usually she uses her Linux-y powers for good, but sometimes her powers have other (unintended) consequences. Kristen automated myself out of a job and enjoyed it! She has also brought a 200+node computing cluster to a screeching halt (know if 3rd-party software is secretly trying to be "helpful" and know how to disable these "helpful" features). Kristen loves Space, enjoys computers (when they do what she intends for them to do), and considers herself a Danger Linux Power User.

Corrine Rojas

Corrine is a NASA Mars 2020 Rover Mastcam-Z Instrument Operations Engineer based at Arizona State University (ASU). She is a science team collaborator for the Mars Science Laboratory, formerly at the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Her specialty is spacecraft operations (orbiters and rovers), research in planetary geology, and creating all kinds of maps, particularly 3D terrain maps that are out of this world. She has a BSc in Geography and Geographic Information Science from ASU. She was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ to loving immigrant parents from Durango, Mexico. In college, she was a Shirley G. Schmitz Foundation Scholar for entrepreneurs; participated in an ASU-funded start-up DemocraSeed in which she mentored high school-aged kids in a rural AZ town about creative problem solving issues in their community using design thinking; and interned at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Curiosity rover mission operations team. She is currently on the board of the Society of Women in Space Exploration, and on the leadership council of Latinas in Earth and Planetary Sciences (Geolatinas). She does not consider herself a technical computer science person, though she is slowly coming to terms that her job is 80% bash scripting to manipulate a ton of data, and you kinda have to have a good idea of what you’re doing in order to spare your perfectly obedient hardware from being smashed by a 2x4.

Nathan Cluff

Nathan is the Lead Systems Administrator for the Mastcam and Mastcam-Z cameras on the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 rovers in addition to supporting operations for various other missions such as the Luna Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-map) mission. Nathan has been involved in various Linux administrative positions for the last 18 years and has been in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU for the last 4 years.

Topic for Security meeting on Feb 20th

Published: 18 February 2020

Donald ‘Mac’ McCarthy: Firewall Fundamentals and Network Segmentation with pfSense

Description:
This presentation will cover two fundamental steps in properly securing networks.

Firewalls are one of the most basic and universal network and security controls in a security engineer’s tool bag. We will cover some basic setup and rule creation with pfSense.

Network segmentation is critical for maximizing the effectiveness of security controls. We will discuss some strategies for segmenting networks, practical segmentation, segmentation challenges, and how to best deploy network controls within network segments.

About Mac:
Mac is a 17 year veteran of the IT industry. He has experience worked for organization ranging in size from 10 to 200,000+ employees. Mac has been involved in information security for the past 9 years with organizations in the academic, healthcare and financial, and public sectors. Mac is a linux enthusiast with a passion for using large compute clusters to help solve the most challenging problems in security analytics. He has given presentations globally on business email compromise and credentials stuffing. Mac currently serves as the Director of Field Operations for Open Source Context.