Meeting notes Dec 2007
About 8 people showed up.
Topics:
Sling box a streaming video device for cameras. Sling box allows you to view tv or camera data from your a hand held device. Bob, one of our members, was using it to view security cameras from his work place. If you use Sony Cameras, Sony has a proprietary device called ‘location free’.
Dave had some cups and firewall questions. His question was ‘How can I print from laptop to desktop when the desktop is fire-walled’. We suggested that he allow all connections from the laptop to the desktop or allow all internal traffic to the cups port.
Patrick mentioned that VNC was getting really cool. It lets you share screens now he said, which makes troubleshooting really easy. He uses VNC to troubleshoot his computer problems with his parents.
Someone had a question about Ubunto server. Patrick made the comment that it was idiot proof. He was not able to prove this:P
Mark has some filemaker pro database files and was wondering if the files could be opened in linux ? A quick google search revealed that Filemaker Pro 7 now runs on RedHat also. The newest version 9 only seems to have a Mac and Windows version. There was a suggestion that Open office might open it.
Mark also reported he figured out how to get his USB device working. He mentioned that proprietary software he was using was poling the device properly now. He configured Usbmount in debian to setup the permissions for the mounted devices.
Mark also mentioned he had a Windows machine in his lab that was displaying an ‘OK’ error. The only think displayed on the screen was a pop-up saying OK, which was weird. Someone thought it sounded as if the video card was acting up.
Nick had some questions about NIS and Windows Domain stuff that nobody was able to answer.
A new member named Joe came to the meeting. He has been using Linux for 6 years. He ran Slackware and most recently Gentoo.
The Laptop for every child project was discussed. Bob said he purchased one.
He promised to bring it in when it arrives. There is a good article in the WSJ about how Intel and Microsoft have been putting out their own competing version.
Bob mentioned that armed robbery of sever rooms is the latest way to steal money now. People that are smart thieves do not rob banks for cash. They steal their server for the account information.
There was also a little debate over what video format was the best. It appears most people in the LUG believe that blue ray is the best format since it holds 50GB. In contrast, DVD format only holds 4GB of video. There is a problem with blue ray. The format keeps changing. So if you buy a set top box, you might get stuck with one that only reads blue ray disks that were created before it. Most people in the LUG believe that the SONY PS3 is one of the best blue ray players since it allows for firmware updates.