June General Meeting

An Introduction to Wireless Location

Speaker: Kyle O'Keefe, Professor of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary

Kyle will provide an introduction to Geomatics Engineering including a short history, and some basics about coordinate systems, measurement, methods, and models and then explain the different ways that mobile devices determine their positions and conclude with some examples and the future outlook.

Kyle O'Keefe is a professor of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary where he has worked on Global Navigation Satellite Systems and ground-based wireless location research since 1998.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. CUUG Annual General Meeting begins at 18:00. Presentation begins immediately after AGM.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

Annual General Meeting and Elections

The Calgary UNIX Users' Group is holding its Annual General Meeting and election of the 2024/2025 Board of Directors. Nominees so far include the following:

• Alex Chow
• Alan Dewar
• Greg King
• Dick Miller
• Rebecca Reid

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

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, AB   T2P 2J6

Invoices have been sent by email. If you have not yet received yours, please contact office at CUUG.

May General Meeting

Artificial Intelligence: Friend, Foe or Frenemy?

Speaker: Dr. Tom Keenan, FCIPS, I.S.P, ITCP; Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary

Anyone who tells you they know everything about Artificial Intelligence is hallucinating worse than ChatGPT on a bad day. What Tom Keenan can say is that he was teaching high school students how to create backpropagation neural networks over 35 years ago. He even got to testify about doing this before the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence.

In this fast-paced talk, he will say some good things and some bad things about AI and speculate on how it will change our personal and professional lives in the future. We will laugh together about the lawyers who were fined $5,000 for relying on AI to do their job. And we will answer the question, "Will AI replace radiologists?" If that's not enough, Tom will present five plausible ways that AI could kill us.

Tom Keenan is a long-serving professor at the University of Calgary, having taught in several faculties and been the Dean of one. He appears frequently in the media.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

April General Meeting

Dot Matrix Display Pinball Clock

Speaker: Chuck Rohs

Chuck has been building a pinball machine for the last four years. One of the many sub-projects (rat holes?) as part of that endeavor was tinkering with DMDs (dot matrix displays). He has built a standalone DMD "pinball" clock as a result of this effort. It is called a pinball clock because it displays animations from popular 1990s era pinball machines in addition to the time.

Chuck will present:

• some history of similar clocks
• the workings of the (LED variety of) DMD displays
• an overview of the hardware, an rp2040 based driver board
• an overview of the software

As a bonus, a clock will be running during the presentation, to give you something to look at in case Chuck is too boring or in case he attempts to talk too long.

Chuck has a background in embedded software development and security, and was a founder of Au-Zone Technologies Inc. He is currently retired and enjoys tinkering with embedded hardware and software.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

March General Meeting

Engineering-Grade OT Security: Latest Developments

Speaker: Andrew Ginter, VP Industrial Security, Waterfall Security Solutions

The Waterfall / ICSStrive OT Threat Report is releasing soon. Andrew will give us a preview of the 2024 findings and analysis. He will also have copies of his latest book, Engineering-Grade OT Security: A manager's guide, for anyone who was not able to grab a copy at the CUUG Christmas event. Andrew will walk us through the book's premise and conclusions, but this audience has seen much of the material already, because Andrew prototyped much of it at previous CUUG meetings. And if there is time, Andrew will take us into some of the material in Chapter 6 that has proven difficult to expand into greater detail, in hopes that the combined wisdom of the CUUG community can provide insights (again).

Andrew Ginter is the VP of Industrial Security at Waterfall Security Solutions. He has written three books on industrial cybersecurity, is a co-author of the Industrial Internet Consortium Security Framework, co-hosts the Industrial Security Podcast, is a lecturer for the Industrial Security Institute, and contributes frequently to industrial security standards and best-practice guidance. Andrew spent 20 years developing control systems and IT/OT middleware. He then led the development of the world's first industrial SIEM as the Chief Technology Officer at Industrial Defender. Today he leads a team of experts at Waterfall who work with the world's most secure industrial sites.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

February General Meeting

Things We Love About Unix

Speaker: Alan Dewar, Software Engineering Senior Staff Engineer, Synopsys

February is the month of Valentine's day, so we're marking the occasion by celebrating all the things we love about Unix. We'll cover the history of Unix, from its humble birth, through its difficult adolescence, to its current maturity. What features and philosophies have contributed to the initial success and the on-going popularity of our favourite operating systems?

A key contributing factor to the success of Unix is the community behind it. You, too, are a part of that community! Come share your perspectives: your first encounters, overall impressions, and what you find appealing about the Unix ecosystem. This is a chance to learn from the experience of others, and to share some tips of your own!

Alan Dewar is a software engineering senior staff engineer at Synopsys, working as part of the Software Integrity Group. He has been using Unix since the early 1980s and its predecessor, Multics, before that. He is also a long-time CUUG member and director, currently serving as CUUG President.

Slides from this presentation are available in PowerPoint and PDF format.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

Image: https://geekfamilylife.com/valentines-day-tutorial-linux-administrator-life/

January General Meeting

Learnings from Running a Free Public Cloud for 10 Years

Speaker: Micheal Jones, Technical Operations Manager, Cybera

Over the past decade, Cybera has provided the Rapid Access Cloud as a free computing resource for Albertans. We'd like to think there has been a healthy mixture of good (and bad) decisions for our users over that time period. Please join us as we reminisce about the last decade of cloud evolution: self hosting, virtualization, containers, container orchestration, network virtualization, and the decline of Windows on cloud. What has stood the test of time, and what has not? How can we better identify a "fad" versus something that will more likely change the industry? Where should Cybera's Rapid Access Cloud go from here?

Micheal Jones is the Technical Operations Manager for Cybera, where he oversees the team that, among other things, hosts and enables the services and infrastructure that many organizations in the public sector have come to rely on. He came to Cybera from the world of film and television (where he tackled an interesting variety of IT issues). As well as brewing a fine cup of coffee for his colleagues, he was also instrumental in building Cybera's Rapid Access Cloud.

Slides from this presentation are available in PowerPoint, OpenDocument Presentation, and PDF format.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

December Holiday Social

CUUG December Holiday Season Social Evening

After a three-year hiatus, CUUG is pleased to announce the return of our December social evening at the Regency Palace restaurant! CUUG members and their invited guests will get together on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. We'll have a private room and have food from the buffet. Attendees pay for their own drinks.

If you are a CUUG member and would like to join us, please e-mail office at cuug.ab.ca so that we can get an approximate count of how many people to expect. If you would like to bring a guest, please let us know your guest's name as well.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Regency Palace Restaurant

5:45 PM, Tuesday, December 12, 2023

This event is for CUUG members and invited guests.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

Christian Falkenberg-Andersen produced the geodesic dome and is willing to assist with anyone wanting to program the LED lights for one. Contact office at CUUG to get in touch with Christian.

November General Meeting

Exploring the World of Meshtastic: A Journey into Offline Long-Range Communication

Speaker: Christian Falkenberg-Andersen, retired M.D. and tech enthusiast

Join us for an enlightening talk at CUUG where we dive into the fascinating world of Meshtastic, an open-source software that operates on ESP32 units with LoRa (Long Range Radio) capabilities. This innovative technology allows for long-distance communication without relying on the internet.

During the presentation, we'll cover various aspects of Meshtastic, including its core functionalities, modes of operation, and practical applications. We'll explore how data packets are relayed from sender to receiver, highlighting the flexibility of single or multiple "jumps" to reach their destination.

Our discussion will also include a tour of the Meshtastic website to provide valuable resources and insights for enthusiasts. You'll gain a deep understanding of how to set up your own Meshtastic LoRa network, with step-by-step guidance and tips.

Furthermore, Christian will share his personal experiences and projects involving Meshtastic, offering real-world examples of its capabilities. To make the presentation even more engaging, we'll have hardware demonstrations to showcase Meshtastic in action.

Whether you're a seasoned tech enthusiast or just curious about offline long-range communication, this talk promises to be both informative and inspiring. Join us to unlock the potential of Meshtastic and discover the exciting possibilities it brings to the world of communication.

Christian Falkenberg-Andersen was born in Denmark and emigrated to Canada at age 14. His parents lived on a farm and solving problems on the farm is likely where an interest in tinkering started. He completed a bachelor of science, majoring in biochemistry (University of Calgary) and taking a course in instrumentation for scientists sparked a very strong interest in electronics. Subsequently he got a second bachelor of science degree (in electrical engineering) and postgraduate master of science degree in biomedical engineering (studying the nerve conduction of a compound action potential traveling down a nerve, and using FFT to calculate the distribution of nerve conduction speeds for the axon). During his work on his master's degree he entered medical school and received a doctor of medicine degree. Subsequently he qualified for practising medicine with specialty in family medicine. He has recently retired from working as a solo family physician since 1999 in Market Mall. Currently, his activities include a lot of tinkering with the Raspberry Pi and Arduino single board computers, as well as 3D printing. Sewing, cycling (electric-assist bike) and kite skiing round out his activities.

This presentation and related notes are available in PDF format.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

5:30 PM, Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

October General Meeting

Home Introspection with Barbed Wire & Duct Tape

Speaker: Raymond Burkholder

I wanted to see how things work natively, so being a programmer, I took bits and pieces and concepts from Home-Assistant, Node-Red and Domoticz and created my own app: Apparition.

It is an amalgamation of C++17 core code calling out to and being called by LuaJit code for sensor parsing, control and automation. Data collection is handled by Prometheus and charts are defined in Grafana.

MQTT queues as embodied by RabbitMQ form the backbone for message passing among collectors and devices.

BeagleBone Green and BeagleBone Black perform most of the data collection. There is an Espressobin thrown in there for good measure. https://github.com/rburkholder/bme680

Z-Wave JS UI interfaces with thermostats, AC outlet monitoring & control, Smoke/CO alarm and light Scene Controllers.

Zigbee2MQTT interfaces with Philips Hue lights, more AC outlet monitoring & control, and some PIR sensors.

There is a 433MHz SDR radio for listening to my DSC Alarm based sensors and some temperature/humidity thermapro sensors. A 915MHz SDR radio listens to my backyard WS90 weather station and my home water meter.

Raymond Burkholder is a Solution/Network/Datacenter Architect by day, a programmer/tinkerer and wannabe trader by evening: https://blog.raymond.burkholder.net

I have a couple one month old APC 1500VA SMC1500C UPS available for $650 each ($792 new). I am upgrading to some Eaton flavours and want to give these a good home. I can bring into the meeting for delivery.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office   ← note new location!
Same building, different floor — We're moving up in the world!

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

September General Meeting

Unix Video Night

The presentation originally scheduled for this month has had to be postponed. COVID is still a thing, despite our best efforts to ignore it, and our presenter, now retired from the medical profession, still prefers to do no harm. We wish Christian and his wife a speedy recovery.

In the meantime, we'll be viewing a number of short Unix-related videos at this month's meeting. Sure, you could just watch these at home, but then you'd miss out on the networking and interactive discussion — not to mention the pizza! So, please come join us for our first meeting of the 2023/2024 CUUG year. We look forward to seeing you!

Videos which we viewed or had lined up include the following:

• Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie Explain UNIX (Bell Labs)
• Pushing the Limits of Technology: The Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie Story
• Richard Stallman on Software Freedom
• Linux Torvalds: the Mind Behind Linux
• Penn and Teller's Lab Scam
• Brian Kernighan: Where GREP Came From — Computerphile
• Tim Berners-Lee: The Year Open Data Went Worldwide
• Jimmy Wales: The Birth of Wikipedia
• Dan Bricklin: Meet the Inventor of the Electronic Spreadsheet

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Plus-15 Conference Room

There is $2 parking available one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

2023 Board of Directors

At the June 2023 Annual General Meeting, the following people were elected to the Board of Directors for 2023/2024:

• Alan Dewar (President)
• Rebecca Reid (Secretary-Treasurer)
• Peter Carless
• Alex Chow
• Greg King