There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday:
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Interesting things to do with OpenOffice Basic
Ian Stewart has been doing some fun and interesting things with the built in Basic in OpenOffice, and has offered to do a presentation on this and talk about some of the things he's discovered along the way.
June 28th 7:30pm MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4)
The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today:
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Interesting things to do with OpenOffice Basic
Ian Stewart has been doing some fun and interesting things with the built in Basic in OpenOffice, and has offered to do a presentation on this and talk about some of the things he's discovered along the way.
June 28th 7:30pm MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4)
A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today.
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Saturday June 5th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TeWhanauPutahi) the community church at the end of Oxford Street.
We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.
A reminder; the WLUG Fixit Meeting is tomorrow.
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Saturday June 5th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TeWhanauPutahi) the community church at the end of Oxford Street.
We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.
Global-Pix.com runs several websites, including the Marathon-Photos.com site.
In 2009 we photographed more than 400 events through 30 countries - taking
more than 4 million images and recording over a thousand hours' worth of
video footage.
We are looking for another Programmer to join our small development team
based at our offices in Hamilton. We want someone with a minimum of 3
years' programming experience, particularly with the Python programming
language.
In this position you would help maintain and program both customer-facing
and internal/back-end systems, reporting to the team lead. You will be
responsible for implementing feature and change requests as well as
developing new projects. Most of our projects are written in python, but
you have some latitude to use other technologies where appropriate.
Any expertise in the following areas would be an advantage:
* HTML, CSS and jQuery
* Cheetah templating system
* SQL databases
* SMTP, IMAP
Experience in system administration would also be a distinct advantage,
especially:
* Server internals (eg RAID, SATA, UPSes)
* Debian GNU/Linux administration experience
* LAN management (configuration, DNS/bind, diagnostics, etc)
* Centralised account management - LDAP, SMB, SSH
Salary is negotiable based on skillset and experience. Our office has
a small and friendly atmosphere near the middle of the Hamilton CBD.
Please send email to vacancies(a)global-pix.com to apply or request further
information.
(If you reply to this email, please ensure that your reply stays off-list)
--
John McPherson
Back in the day (a Wednesday, for those who remember it) us WLUG/NZLUG
folks were pretty clued up when it came to things like connecting
Linux machines to Active Directory using SAMBA [1]. However, kids
these days just don't know what kind of crap we had to go through back
then, and while I haven't done the testing myself, I'm pretty sure
that today you just type 'apt-get install likewise-open', and you
don't have to know any magic incantations at all.
How about if you want to run a central directory on Linux, not on
Windows? You could look at the Ubuntu guide [2]. Or "LDAP for the
Lazy Sysadmin" [3]. Do go check that last one out - you don't have to
read it all. Just scroll through it for a second. I'll wait.
<<taps toes>>
That isn't lazy at all! Lazy is paying Microsoft for Active
Directory. Unfortunately, due to one complexity or another, it seemed
AD often won out for a situation where you had to have some Windows
machines as well as your Linux hosts. I remember thinking it strange
back when Windows was supposed to be all about the desktop and Linux
was supposed to be all about the server, that you got a better client
experience on Linux and server experience on Windows.
It's 2010 now. Flying cars, etc. I want central authentication
across a small network of Ubuntu machines - no Windows machines are
expected. Ultimately I'd like multi-master (I believe 389, formerly
Fedora DS/Netscape Directory Server does this; and OpenLDAP does not?)
so I don't have to think too much about failover/redundancy. Please,
someone, tell me there is a better solution? Is there a turn-key
method for this?
Craig
[1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/SambaAsPDC?action=PageHistory and
http://www.wlug.org.nz/LDAPAuthentication?action=PageHistory for some
examples. Look at the dates.
[2] https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/openldap-server.html
[3] http://wiki.ucc.asn.au/LDAP/LazySysadmin
> You'll want an LDAP server, a Kerberos server, NTP server, pam_ldap and pam_krb5. You can auth against ldap if you don't want kerberos, but I think krb is a much better solution.
>
> Setting up ldap will be the most pain, Active Directory and Open Directory come with schemas set up, but you'll have to figure out what you want yourself. I believe there are some gui tools for this these days, but last I checked it wasn't much better than 2002.
See, that's the point. I /don't/ want any of that. I want to apt-get
install --jfdi ubuntu-directory-server. Then I want to apt-get
install ubuntu-managed-client. If I have to figure out what I need,
the problem isn't solved. (Personally, I hate LDAP, but it is what it
is.)
Interestingly, there are blueprints and specs for almost every Ubuntu
release in the last 2 years suggesting they should implement this, but
there doesn't seem to be any movement. There is a guy working on a
bunch of Puppet recipes, and should I end up using LDAP and automating
deployment, I will probably end up contributing to this.
</rant>
Good news though, I did have another look at the eBox website today
[1], and it seems they have a potential turn-key-esque answer.
(Dagan, Apache Directory Studio looks quite good - I will check it
out. Unfortunately it doesn't solve the "which schema do I choose"
problem any.)
Craig
[1] http://www.ebox-platform.com/
NZ Computer Society National Series: ICT in a Disaster Zone
9 June 2010: 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Events Room 1, Gallagher Hub
City Campus, Gate 5
Tristram Street, Hamilton
NZCS is proud to bring you the next of the National ICT Series, this month
focusing on ICT in a disaster zone and the role technology plays in saving
lives.
National Series: ICT in a Disaster Zone
As we know, ICT has transformed everyday life and changed the way we do
things. As well as this, technology now plays a pivotal role in the global
humanitarian and rescue response when disaster strikes around the world.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have
established a number of IT & Telecommunications Emergency Response Units
(ERUs) to help in the response to disasters and emergencies around the
world. New Zealand's ERU was the 5th such unit and consists of a team of 20
with diverse backgrounds in telecommunications and ICT.
The Emergency Response Units are charged with putting in place emergency
telecommunications infrastructure to support the rescue effort. Ongoing
power and internet outages as well as IT system software and hardware
failures within the country create significant difficulties for Red Cross to
maintain ongoing contact with key partners, field staff and external
contacts, making this role essential.
As an active member of the NZ Red Cross IT&T ERU, Steve Davis will outline
the impact greater use of telecommunications and IT infrastructure has had
on the rescue efforts in disaster-hit areas such as Haiti, Tonga and the
Solomon Islands, the challenges faced, as well as some of the background to
the Red Cross IT&T team.
About The Speaker
Steve Davis has a background in Radio Communications and IT spanning more
than 25 years and has been putting this to use in the fields of Emergency
Management and Disaster Response through a number of agencies over the past
18 years.
Through an early interest in electronics and radio Steve obtained his
amateur radio license in 1980, soon after becoming a member of the New
Zealand Association of Amateur Radio Transmitters (NZART) and later joining
the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications group (AREC). Steve has served as
a member of the National Council for NZART, various offices for the local
NZART branch and as Section Leader for the local AREC Section.
Through AREC Steve became involved in Land Search and Rescue in New Zealand
and has responded to many searches to provide communications and IT support
at the Incident Control Point. Steve has also participated in local,
regional and national roles of the Land SAR organisation over many years.
In more recent times Steve has become a member of NZ Red Cross’s first
International Emergency Response Unit, providing IT & Telecommunications
support to International and Local Red Cross in times of a major disaster.
Steve is currently self employed providing training, consulting and
contracting services in a range of fields in the ICT and Emergency
Management sectors, and is active in NZCS, Scouts NZ, and the Mountain
Safety Council.
Note: Light lunch provided. Free for NZCS members, inexpensive for others.
Registration required at the following URL:
http://www.nzcs.org.nz/events/waikato_bop/152-National_Series_ICT_in_a_Disa…
<http://www.nzcs.org.nz/events/waikato_bop/139-National_Series_Transformatio…>
Regards,
David Hallett, BSc, MNZCS ITCP
P.O. Box 15-516
Hamilton, New Zealand
Phone: +64-7-210 5520
Mobile: +64-21-802 256
