Last update: $Date: 2024-08-27 21:37:40-06 $
Annual General Meeting and Elections
The Calgary UNIX Users' Group is holding its Annual General Meeting and election of the 2022/2023 Board of Directors. Nominees so far include the following:
7:00 PM, Tuesday, June 28, 2022
This will be a virtual meeting via Zoom. If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you the link.
Membership Renewals Due
It is annual renewal time for CUUG memberships. Membership fees remain at
$50.00 (no GST), and cheques can be made payable to Calgary UNIX Users' Group.
Our mailing address is as follows:
Calgary Unix Users' Group
Box 878, Station M
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 2J6
Invoices have been sent by email. If you have not received yours, please contact office at CUUG.
May General Meeting
Virtual Social Evening
This month's CUUG meeting will be a virtual social evening.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, May 24, 2022
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
April General Meeting
How Resilient Are Our Vital Services in a Cyberwar?
Speakers: Roy Brander, CUUG Life Member
We've all seen the Superhackers of TV. "Superhackers" compare to real hackers, like superheros do to normal people, two ways: they can do more in seconds, than normal heroes do in weeks; and, second, they don't exist.
It's not that it's completely impossible to get into major systems; we see the stolen-data stories all the time. These are not vital services control systems, though, the ones that keep you in water, power, heat. Those are exponentially harder to hack than your magazine subscription data. But, we have seen a few super-hacks now: Colonial Pipelines, causing gasoline line-ups.
Even in that case, however, the control system for Colonial Pipelines was never compromised: the ransomware gang compromised their billing and scheduling system. Colonial claimed that this made them fear their control system might be next; critics wonder aloud whether they weren't about to ship gas if they wouldn't be fully paid.
Roy Brander presents his unique perspective on the potential risk to our vital infrastructure in the event of a cyberwar—not from the affected companies themselves, which are particularly reticent to divulge any useful information about such matters, but from the Vietnamese Lunch Gang, a group of fellow technical people with whom he worked at The City of Calgary and who have since worked with other major companies.
Roy Brander is a CUUG Life Member. He has given a number of presentations on a wide variety of subjects, including the BSDWall project, the MEPIS Linux distribution, the Titanic, management of Calgary's water mains, and the ASUS Eee PC and Moore's Law. Roy has retired from his position as the Senior Infrastructure Engineer for Water Resources, The City of Calgary, and now lives in a Vancouver condo overlooking Stanley Park.
Roy's presentation is based on his blog entry on this subject.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, April 26, 2022
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
March General Meeting
Backups: How and Why
Speakers: Christopher Aziz, President, and Alan Dewar, Calgary UNIX Users' Group
The last day of March (i.e., the day before April Fool's Day) is World Backup Day. If you haven't been making regular backups of your personal systems and data, consider this an opportune reminder that it is in your interest to do so.
Join us for a discussion of all things related to backups. We'll review the factors which should be considered in implementing a backup strategy, and discuss some possible approaches you can take. We also invite you to share your personal experiences and tell us what approaches you've used. By the end of the meeting, we hope that everyone will be convinced of the importance of backups and will actually perform one by the end of the month.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, March 22, 2022
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
Image license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
February General Meeting
Global Navigation Satellite Systems
Speaker: Ron Ramsaran, Product Department Director, CHC Navigation (USA)
This month's speaker will enlighten us on the technologies behind Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
Ron Ramsaran, P.Eng. is the Director of the Product Department of CHC Navigation (USA). He holds a master's degree in Geomatics Engineering. He has over 30 Years of experience in various GNSS market segments. Ron has an excellent track record in researching, developing, and promoting cost-effective and user-friendly products for a broad GNSS customer base. His extensive knowledge and experience enable him to advise CHC partners in bringing cutting edge products to market.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, February 22, 2022
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
January Social Evening
Happy New Year!
This month's CUUG meeting will be a social evening, celebrating a new calendar year. Here's to hoping that this year turns out better than the last two!
7:00 PM, Tuesday, January 25, 2022
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
December Social Evening
CUUG December Holiday Season Virtual Social Evening
It's the December holiday season, and we'd normally be getting together in person for dinner to celebrate. Unfortunately, the world is still not normal, so we can't do that. However, that won't stop us from getting together virtually for an informal social evening. Feel free to bring your own pizza and/or Chinese food!
7:00 PM, Tuesday, December 14, 2021
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
Image Copyright © Mark Riedesel 2021; Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
November General Meeting
Unix Retrospective
By some measures, this month marks the 50th anniversary of Unix. Since its inception, Unix has undergone many changes and has produced many variants and derivatives.
Join us for an interactive discussion on the various flavours of Unix that have been in use for the past half century. Whether you've used AT&T Unix, any of the BSD variants, AIX, HP-UX, Digital UNIX, SunOS/Solaris, macOS, Minix, GNU/Linux, or any other Unix-like operating system, we'd love to hear your perspective on the good, the bad, and the ugly.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, November 23, 2021
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
October General Meeting
General Discussion
This month's meeting will be an informal virtual social evening to allow people to keep in touch. Everyone is invited to tell us what you're up to or what you've found of interest in recent news.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, October 26, 2021
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
September General Meeting
Remote Collaboration Alternatives to Zoom
Speaker: Alan Dewar, Software Engineer Staff, Synopsys
Over the past eighteen months, the world has moved from in-person gatherings to remote work and learning. Fortunately, we have technologies in place to facilitate this. By now, everyone is likely familiar with Zoom (including, obviously, those who are attending this meeting!), but it wasn't the first and is far from the only tool at our disposal.
Alan Dewar will present an overview of some other remote meeting technologies, describing the benefits and limitations of each. This will include live demos, with everyone welcome to join. We will then open things up for an interactive discussion of the tools and services that you've used, and your experiences and impressions of these. If you have any tips and tricks you've come across, or a particularly favorite tool, please share your expertise with the rest of us!
Alan Dewar is a long-time CUUG member and has served on the Board of Directors in multiple positions. He has been working remotely since March, 2020, as a staff software engineer for CUUG's silver sponsor, Synopsys. This has been going smoothly, but he looks forward to seeing real live people in person again some day.
Slides from this presentation are available in PowerPoint and PDF format.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, September 28, 2021
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
August Virtual Social Evening
Summer Break
CUUG does not hold meetings over the summer. However, we will have an informal virtual social evening to allow people to keep in touch. There is no presentation or agenda, and everyone is invited to tell us what you're up to or what you've found of interest in recent news.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, August 24, 2021
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
July Virtual Social Evening
Summer Break
CUUG does not hold meetings over the summer. However, we will have an informal virtual social evening to allow people to keep in touch. There is no presentation or agenda, and everyone is invited to tell us what you're up to or what you've found of interest in recent news.
7:00 PM, Tuesday, July 27, 2021
If you would like to attend, RSVP to "office" at "cuug.ab.ca" and we'll send you a Zoom invite prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
2021 Board of Directors
At the June 2021 Annual General Meeting, the following people were elected to the Board of Directors for 2021/2022:
- Christopher Aziz (President)
- Greg King (Secretary-Treasurer)
- Alex Chow
- Winson Duong
- Dick Miller