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-	This page is a discussion on the SCALE event and our participation.	+	This page is a discussion on the SCALE events and our participation.
		+	=SCALE-7x=
		+	==[[Linux 101]] An Introduction To Linux, Learning How To Learn==
		+	Unfortunately my Linux 101 presentation was a disaster. Rather than posting a "My Dog Ate My Homework" excuse I'll leave it that I was not prepared, I didn't have access to my outline and my slides were incomplete. When I realized that my brain was a deer in headlights and I could remember next to nothing of what I had prepared I wound up doing about 40 minutes of Q&A. So, to make up for it I'll post material and resources that hopefully will in some small way make up for a poor presentation. I'll create a new section named [[Linux 101]] and post information and resources there.
-	Soon we will archive this page and start getting ready for next year. It was a great event even though we were not able to get a good recognition rate with our speech recognition engine. Actually the lack of a presentation gave us a chance to talk more with the visitors about our organization, who we are and what we do. Even if we come up with the killer presentation of the decade for next year I think our focus should remain on the visitor rather than just a nifty show. --[[User:Miasma|Miasma]] 18:02, 12 February 2007 (EST)	+	== DD-WRT Project ==
		+	I have moved this section to its own page.  Go to [[DD-WRT on Airlink 101 AR430W]]
-	'''It's crunch time!'''	+	==Update==
-	Here is an update on where we are for SCALEx5	+	We just had our regular Saturday meeting and an interesting discussion about the upcoming SCALE meeting, February 20, 21, 22. We talked about reaching out to people of all sorts of skill levels. SCALE has put a recent emphasis on reaching an audience of people newly come to GNU/Linux. Because more of those new people have been attending SCALE lately and have been inquiring about having more entry level presentations available they have created a new beginner's track. It looks like more and more folks are starting to catch on to the Wintel monopoly and are looking for better alternatives. But it's not all going to be about newbies by any means and we plan to have demos and presentations that should be interesting for visitors of all skill levels and interests.
-	After more discussion at the last membership meeting it was decided to go forward with a multi pronged approach with an overall theme of "What Is A LUG" along with a demo of past projects. We will have a total of four passes for those who intend to spend a significant amount of time helping out with the booth. If you are interested in getting one of these passes please contact Brian ASAP.	+	Some of the topics discussed included our old standard, voice triggers for hands off computing, DD-WRT and other router enhancement tools, making custom live CD/DVD/USB distros, virtualization, available replacements for Windoze apps and how to better present the appearance of the booth. We are inviting all members of all skill levels to volunteer to demonstrate something cool that they have been doing with GNU/Linux. Even if a topic is already fairly well known by the community, if it is something you personally find interesting or useful to know chances are good it is something other people attending the expo will also appreciate.
-	It would be nice if we had some resources for visitors to use. We obviously can't provide free hand out disks but we could burn disks for anyone providing a blank.	+	We still have two, maybe three exhibitor passes for anyone willing to put a decent effort into helping man the booth. We invite all our members to help make sure that we keep SFVLUG, SCALE and the entire GNU/Linux/FLOSS community a vital and thriving. Sure we would love to have you help out at our booth and talk to visitors about your own experiences but just coming out to attend SCALE yourself and perhaps bringing a friend would also be great and we hope to see you at this year at SCALE and our regular SFVLUG meetings.
-	All members are invited to come help out at the booth even if you can't stay for most of the expo maybe you can hang out long enough to provide a break for those who do.--[[User:Miasma|Miasma]] 20:02, 28 January 2007 (EST)	+	Please post your ideas, suggestions or questions here at the [[Scale 2009]] page, in #sfvlug IRC channel or to our mailing list. More updates to follow as we progress.
-	Please see main [[Project Page]] for info on some of our other projects.	+	--[[User:Miasma|Miasma]] 14:23, 18 January 2009 (PST)
-	Perhaps we should think of making the SCALE topic more to do with "What is a LUG, and how do I join or start one?" than to focus on one particular project this year. Given the poor results with Sphinx2 lately we may not be able to put on an impressive showing with yet another retread of an old hit. I think we have a somewhat unique position in the community and have maintained a long and successful track record. It might be a good idea to share some of our experiences and pass on what we have learned as individuals and as a group. We can display individual and group projects.
-	We probably wouldn't be able to give a free pass to everyone making a contribution, but it would be a chance for members to show off their skills and interest in the open source community. We often get members clustered around our booth anyway this would give members a chance to more formally meet with visitors.	+	----
-	We are to have a meeting on the subject of SCALE at least once before the event, please look for announcements on when and where.
-	== Alternatives ==	+	'''Hi all, it's that time again, we are getting ready for this year's SCALE http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/
		+	'''
-	Voice Synthesis Possibilities:	+	This year in addition to our usual Psyche demo we are also going to spotlight some smaller projects too. Our overall theme is about using GNU/Linux/FLOSS in the home and small business, basically SOHO + personal use. The current working title is "Using Linux In The Home And Small Business Environment" but we still have a couple of days to come up with something better. If you have a favorite application, or more broadly any set of tools or applications, that you think might make a cool presentation please contact Brian or Kurt. You don't need to have an elaborate polished demo, just something you think visitors to SCALE might find interesting. You don't need to even attend the event as long as it is a presentation that fits in the theme, and our theme is quite broad and could include just about anything that could be useful to a small business or for personal use.
-	log watchers	+	Please check back, we will be adding more content here as things progress. Please feel free to post suggestions, comments or questions here, in IRC or in the sfvlug mailing list.
-	service checkers	+
-	status checkers	+
-	state checkers	+
-	harverster readers	+
-	ebook readers	+
-	documentation readers	+
-	security monitors	+
-	etc...	+
-	Voice Recognition Possibilities:	+	[[Scale 2009]]
-	Pursue a different voice recognition engine	+	== A Bit Of Reflection On SCALE 5x ==
-	Pursue a different voice recognition version	+
-	Contact CMU to determine sphinx2 status	+
-	Contact CMU to determine possible/best alternative	+
-	===Comment===	+	I consider our presence at SCALE 5x a success despite the fact that we were unable to present our Psyche demo this year after failing to achieve a satisfactory recognition rate with Sphinx2, the speech recognition engine we had been using in the past. I had a chance to spend more time soaking in the event by concentrating more on the interaction with visitors to our booth than in putting on a presentation. I got a chance to meet a lot of nice folks and while it would be nice to have an attraction to draw in more folks I was reminded that our focus needs to be as much on community as it is on the technology itself.
-	These are good ideas no matter the result of any attempt to improve on Sphinx2. --[[User:Miasma|Miasma]] 19:42, 24 November 2006 (EST)	+
-	Non Voice Possibilities:	+	I have a few suggestions I have based on my experience that might help us grow as a community through our presence at future SCALE events. Some of these suggestions have been discussed in the past but for one reason or another haven't been implemented.
-	Script Automation	+	* Printed Handouts - This year we provided printed hand outs with a map to our normal venues. This could be improved to include more information about our organization. Other information about Linux and open source software could be made available.
-	Bluetooth Presentation/Automation	+
-	Legalish Wifi Related Items	+
-	== SCALE Project Meeting Approach ==	+	* Better Signs - We had our SFVLUG Tux poster but some folks didn't understand who or what we were easily from our signs.
-	1. Come to table with discussed project possibilities and any backround/code thats available.	+	* Branding - It would be great if we could provide stickers, or other low cost swag with name and URL included
-	2. Set precedent for the meeting stating it won't be a social meeting and socializers will be asked to leave.	+	* Scheduled Participation - I had plenty of help with the booth but it would have been nice to have known in advance when I'd be able to attend a presentation or go to the bathroom.
-	3. Field the groups capabilities	+	* Printer - There were many times it would have been handy to print out information for a visitor.
-	interests	+
-	coding level	+
-	languages	+
-	topic experience level	+
-	no of weekly hours they can devote	+
-	contact information (preferably telephone numbers in an effort to establish perceived accountability and show we're	+
-	serious about time based progress)	+
-	4. Discuss potential project viability and fallback given the limited time alloted (perhaps consider working 2 projects at once).	+
-	5. Open floor to alternative projects not discussed in case the group feels theres something with more potential.	+	* CD/DVD Burner - I burned a few to hand out, mostly Knoppix 5.1.1 and Open CD for Windoze. It would be nice to continue this practice but a bit more on purpose.
-		+	--[[User:Miasma|Miasma]] 23:07, 13 February 2007 (EST)
-	6. Decide which project is most suitable based on the groups skills, desires, and most importantly donated time available.	+
-		+
-	7. Possibly have a mini intro to next meeting to try to bring some people up to speed on a given language	+
-		+
-	8. Write pseudocode to determine what code is needed. Assign Classes/Methods/Functions to groups members based on	+
-	the pseudocode spec (ie we need these classes and these methods/functions which takes this as input and returns	+
-	output in this form).	+
-		+
-	9. Create meeting outline before meeting stating the amount of time you'd like to spend discussing each item (adhereing to the	+
-	alloted time on the more irrelevant issues that might sidetrack discussion).	+
-		+
-	10. Setup some mechanism of peer review (easiest method would be to assign any one part of the project to multiple people	+
-	hopefully we'll see results from at least one of them).	+
-		+
-	11. Have definate plan and timetable for all actions when leaving the meeting, make sure people understand their task, what it entails,	+
-	the time it might take, and its due date. Also discuss alternatives to critical action items.	+
-		+
-	12. Set precedent for problem solving. If you can't accomplish this task, what alerternatives can YOU as part of the group recommend	+
-	or persue to achieve this goal by the deadline.	+
-		+
-	13. Communication! Point to sfvlug wiki, request that people spend 2 min daily checking out the SCALE projects state.	+
-		+
-	14. Write everything down!	+
-		+
-	15. Hand people a physical piece of paper with their task written on it. They won't forget and there won't be question as to what their	+
-	task was. Record the task in the project ledger.	+
-		+
-	16. Post meeting notes (minus contact information that can't be made public) and whose in charge of which task or tasks to enable perfect	+
-	information and dialoging.	+
-		+
-	17. Set a precedent to try to accomplish your assigned task as quickly as possible to enable task reassignment in the event they can	+
-	no longer accomplish their task (this might give people too much of an out and they may take the task alot less seriously if this is	+
-	even discussed, possibly only state to accomplish your task well before the deadline).	+
-		+
-	18. Socialization can occur before or after the meeting!	+
-		+
-	===Comment===	+
-	My assumption is that all this would be accomplished in a meeting proposed in the following section. We should probably bring this up at the next regular meeting to see how many would be willing and able to spend some time on this project. --[[User:Miasma|Miasma]] 19:47, 24 November 2006 (EST)	+
-		+
-	== Timetable ==	+
-		+
-	Max 7 weeks losing thansgiving and xmas/newyears weeks to relatives and responsibilities and the fact that the SCALE	+
-	meeting hasn't even been announced.	+
-		+
-	== Action Items ==	+
-		+
-	Have a SCALE related meeting ASAP	+
-	Bring project options to the table at the meeting annoucement in hopes to limit the groups discussion in a nonstructured meeting environment.	+
-		+
-	===About This Document===	+
-		+
-	This is all off the top of the head atm if its severity or content is wrong tweak it. I'm tired of typing this stuff so hopefully	+
-	I'll get back to this later (or someone else will).	+

---

Current revision as of 07:20, 24 June 2009

This page is a discussion on the SCALE events and our participation.

Contents 1 SCALE-7x 1.1 Linux 101 An Introduction To Linux, Learning How To Learn 1.2 DD-WRT Project 1.3 Update 1.4 A Bit Of Reflection On SCALE 5x

SCALE-7x

Linux 101 An Introduction To Linux, Learning How To Learn

Unfortunately my Linux 101 presentation was a disaster. Rather than posting a "My Dog Ate My Homework" excuse I'll leave it that I was not prepared, I didn't have access to my outline and my slides were incomplete. When I realized that my brain was a deer in headlights and I could remember next to nothing of what I had prepared I wound up doing about 40 minutes of Q&A. So, to make up for it I'll post material and resources that hopefully will in some small way make up for a poor presentation. I'll create a new section named Linux 101 and post information and resources there.

DD-WRT Project

I have moved this section to its own page. Go to DD-WRT on Airlink 101 AR430W

Update

We just had our regular Saturday meeting and an interesting discussion about the upcoming SCALE meeting, February 20, 21, 22. We talked about reaching out to people of all sorts of skill levels. SCALE has put a recent emphasis on reaching an audience of people newly come to GNU/Linux. Because more of those new people have been attending SCALE lately and have been inquiring about having more entry level presentations available they have created a new beginner's track. It looks like more and more folks are starting to catch on to the Wintel monopoly and are looking for better alternatives. But it's not all going to be about newbies by any means and we plan to have demos and presentations that should be interesting for visitors of all skill levels and interests.

Some of the topics discussed included our old standard, voice triggers for hands off computing, DD-WRT and other router enhancement tools, making custom live CD/DVD/USB distros, virtualization, available replacements for Windoze apps and how to better present the appearance of the booth. We are inviting all members of all skill levels to volunteer to demonstrate something cool that they have been doing with GNU/Linux. Even if a topic is already fairly well known by the community, if it is something you personally find interesting or useful to know chances are good it is something other people attending the expo will also appreciate.

We still have two, maybe three exhibitor passes for anyone willing to put a decent effort into helping man the booth. We invite all our members to help make sure that we keep SFVLUG, SCALE and the entire GNU/Linux/FLOSS community a vital and thriving. Sure we would love to have you help out at our booth and talk to visitors about your own experiences but just coming out to attend SCALE yourself and perhaps bringing a friend would also be great and we hope to see you at this year at SCALE and our regular SFVLUG meetings.

Please post your ideas, suggestions or questions here at the Scale 2009 page, in #sfvlug IRC channel or to our mailing list. More updates to follow as we progress.

--Miasma 14:23, 18 January 2009 (PST)

---

Hi all, it's that time again, we are getting ready for this year's SCALE http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/

This year in addition to our usual Psyche demo we are also going to spotlight some smaller projects too. Our overall theme is about using GNU/Linux/FLOSS in the home and small business, basically SOHO + personal use. The current working title is "Using Linux In The Home And Small Business Environment" but we still have a couple of days to come up with something better. If you have a favorite application, or more broadly any set of tools or applications, that you think might make a cool presentation please contact Brian or Kurt. You don't need to have an elaborate polished demo, just something you think visitors to SCALE might find interesting. You don't need to even attend the event as long as it is a presentation that fits in the theme, and our theme is quite broad and could include just about anything that could be useful to a small business or for personal use.

Please check back, we will be adding more content here as things progress. Please feel free to post suggestions, comments or questions here, in IRC or in the sfvlug mailing list.

Scale 2009

A Bit Of Reflection On SCALE 5x

I consider our presence at SCALE 5x a success despite the fact that we were unable to present our Psyche demo this year after failing to achieve a satisfactory recognition rate with Sphinx2, the speech recognition engine we had been using in the past. I had a chance to spend more time soaking in the event by concentrating more on the interaction with visitors to our booth than in putting on a presentation. I got a chance to meet a lot of nice folks and while it would be nice to have an attraction to draw in more folks I was reminded that our focus needs to be as much on community as it is on the technology itself.

I have a few suggestions I have based on my experience that might help us grow as a community through our presence at future SCALE events. Some of these suggestions have been discussed in the past but for one reason or another haven't been implemented.

• Printed Handouts - This year we provided printed hand outs with a map to our normal venues. This could be improved to include more information about our organization. Other information about Linux and open source software could be made available.

• Better Signs - We had our SFVLUG Tux poster but some folks didn't understand who or what we were easily from our signs.

• Branding - It would be great if we could provide stickers, or other low cost swag with name and URL included

• Scheduled Participation - I had plenty of help with the booth but it would have been nice to have known in advance when I'd be able to attend a presentation or go to the bathroom.

• Printer - There were many times it would have been handy to print out information for a visitor.

• CD/DVD Burner - I burned a few to hand out, mostly Knoppix 5.1.1 and Open CD for Windoze. It would be nice to continue this practice but a bit more on purpose.

--Miasma 23:07, 13 February 2007 (EST)