Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society
CACTUS Newsletter

Volume 22, Number 11 - November 2006

Next Meeting
UNIX-based Technical Discussion CACTUS Membership Thursday, November 16, 7:00 PM

The CACTUS Newsletter is a monthly publication, distributed to our members and other interested people. Visit the CACTUS Newsletter on the web at http://www.cactus.org/CACTUS/Newsletter/. There you will find archives of back issues, as well as instructions on how to subscribe to the e-mail distribution. We welcome newsletter submissions by our members. Please contact newsletter [at] cactus <dot> org for more information.

November Meeting Program

Starting this month CACTUS is meeting at a new location. Our program chair, Randy Zagar, after some discussion with Gil Kloepfer, checked out the meeting room at Mangia Pizza at the corner of Burnet Rd./Mopac service road and Gracy Farms Ln. and this turned out to be a good alternative location. See more about the new meeting location in the article below.

No specific presentation has been prepared for this month. However, we will be discussing various technical topics while eating pizza, and some of these topics have been very helpful to members in the past. Come on down and have some pizza with your fellow UNIX enthusiasts.

The next CACTUS meeting will be held on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 7:00 PM (informal discussion takes place from 6:30 PM to 7:00 PM) at Mangia Pizza - Gracy Farms (see end of newsletter for directions to the restaurant).

New CACTUS Meeting Location

by Gil Kloepfer

After at least 12 years of meeting at the same location, CACTUS meetings are moving to a new location. UT Applied Research Labs changed some of its policies and I was notified of these about a week and a half before the meeting. Continuing to meet at ARL would have meant substantially changing the way that that we conduct our meetings.

Through the efforts of Randy Zagar we have secured room at the Mangia Pizza in north Austin to hold our meetings. Some highlights of the new meeting location are:

Seating for approximately 40 people
Free wireless Internet access
Plenty of electrical outlets around to power equipment
Pizza made on-site
Wider choice of beverages
Permission to bring a screen/projector for presentations
Relatively convenient north Austin location

Mangia is making this location available for no charge provided we meet a minimum order for pizza. Our typical monthly pizza charges certainly fall within their minimum.

CACTUS has secured the Mangia Pizza location for the November and December meetings. After this time, if this location is suitable for everyone (including the Mangia staff), we will continue meeting there. Be aware that restaurants in general are not good places to hold professional meetings. While Mangia may turn out to be an exception to this rule, it would be appreciated if other CACTUS members would consider approaching their employers, friends, family, pets, etc. to see if there are other potiential meeting locations we could use.

Note that since Mangia serves beverages, we will not be providing these as we normally do. Please come prepared to purchase a beverage of your choice. We are still trying to figure out the logistics of how we order pizza and beverages yet.

CACTUS thanks UT Applied Research Labs for their generosity over the past 12+ years. Likewise, we appreciate Mangia's ability to accomodate us on short notice and look forward to meeting at the new location.

Membership Report

by Mark Scarborough

CACTUS would like to thank to Lindsay Haisley for renewing his membership.

To renew your membership, please send check or money order payable to CACTUS ($30/yr for regular membership and $100/yr for corporate sponsorship):

CACTUS
PO BOX 9786
Austin, TX 78766-9786

You can also pay in person at the general meetings. Please direct any inquiries or address changes to membership [at] cactus <dot> org.

CACTUS Officers

President:: Ron Roberts (ronr [at] cactus <dot> org)

Treasurer:: Johnny Long (longjy [at] cactus <dot> org)

Programs Chair:: Randy Zagar (jrzagar [at] cactus <dot> org)

Membership:: Mark Scarborough (mscar-cactus [at] cactus <dot> org)

Publicity & Webmaster:: Vacant

Newsletter:: Gil Kloepfer (kloepfer [at] cactus <dot> org)

Scribe:: Lindsay Haisley (fmouse [at] cactus <dot> org)

Members at Large:: Ian Remmler (remmler [at] cactus <dot> org); M.H. Khan (mhk [at] cactus <dot> org)

CACTUS Sponsors

Significant Contributing Sponsors

CoreNAP, L.P.: (Kenneth Smith, (512) 685-0010, kenneth [at] corenap <dot> com); Provides server colocation and high-speed Internet access to businesses in the Austin and central Texas area

Newisys, Inc.: (Tim Wood, (512) 340-9050, tim <dot> wood [at] newisys <dot> com); Development of enterprise-class servers

Onramp: (Chad Kissinger, president, 322-9200, info [at] onr <dot> com); Broadband Internet access, web design and colocation

Outserv.net, Inc.: (David Maynard, dpm [at] outserv <dot> net); e-Business Operations Service Provider

Friends of CACTUS

Applied Formal Methods, Inc.: (Susan Gerhart, 794-9732, gerhart [at] cactus <dot> org)

Auspex Systems: (Paul Levine, plevine [at] auspex <dot> com); Fastest reliable network fileservers

Austin Code Works: (Scott Guthery, 258-0785, info [at] acw <dot> com)

BestRegistrar.com: ((800) 977-3475, registrar [at] bestregistrar <dot> com); A top-level domain name registrar, CORE member

Covad/Laserlink: (Chip Rosenthal)

CTG: (Maurine Mecer, 502-0190 (FAX 502-0287)); Professional recruiting

Compaq Computer Corporation (now HP): (Ron Boerger, 432-8000); Provider of scalable, high availbility systems

EDP Contract Services: (Mark Grabenhorst, 346-1040); Professional recruiting

Hewlett Packard: (Bill Sumrall, 338-7221)

Hounix: (Marilyn Harper); Houston's Unix Users Group

Network Appliance Corporation: (Frank Mozina, fmozina [at] netapp <dot> com)

O'Keefe Search: (John O'Keefe, john [at] okeefesearch <dot> com, 512-658-9224 or 888-446-2137); Professional recuiting

Rocksteady Networks, Inc.: (Eric White, 512-427-1319, ewhite [at] rocksteady <dot> com)

Sailaway System Design: (Chris J Johnson, 447-5243)

Schlumberger: (Kathy O'Brien, obrien [at] asc <dot> slb <dot> com); Technical services and products in over 100 countries

Silicon Graphics: (Don Williams, 346-9342)

Solid Systems: (Pete Farrell, 442-2222)

Sterling Infomation Group: (Darrell Hanshaw, 344-1005)

Sun Microsystems: (Rick Taylor); Supplier of Unix client-server computing solutions

Texas Internet Consulting: (Smoot Carl-Mitchell, 451-6176, smoot [at] tic <dot> com); TCP/IP networking, Unix, and open systems standards

Technow: A Sun Authorized Training Center and a Hardware Reseller

Unison Software: (Shelley St. John, 478-0611); Supplier of networked systems management solutions

UT Applied Research Laboratories: (Gil Kloepfer)

UT Computation Center: (Mike Cerda, 471-3241, cerda [at] uts <dot> cc <dot> utexas <dot> edu)

UT Computer Science Department: (Patti Spencer)

Directions to Meeting Location (IMPORTANT -- NEW LOCATION)

CACTUS meets on the third Thursday of each month at the Mangia Pizza (Gracy Farms location):

Mangia Pizza - Gracy Farms
12,001 Burnet Road at Gracy Farms Ln.
Austin, TX 78758
(512) 832-5550
http://www.mangiapizza.com/33/Gracy_Farms.html

This location is approximately 2 miles north of our previous meeting location at ARL. Note that the Mapquest map on Mangia's web site is slightly wrong.

Mangia pizza is on the north-east corner of the Mopac service road and Gracy Farms Ln.

From 183 north of Duval Rd.:: Take the Duval Rd. exit on 183 and turn left onto Duval Rd. When you get to the intersection of Mopac (Loop 1) and Duval Rd., make the left turn as though you were going to get onto Mopac North (this is Gracy Farms Ln.). You will see Mangia Pizza in front of you to the left at the traffic light. Turn left and then make an immediate right turn into the little store cluster.

From 183 south:: Take the Burnet Rd. exit on 183 and head toward UT Applied Research Labs (ARL) as you would normally. Instead of going to ARL, continue on Burnet Rd. In approximately 2 miles, Burnet Rd. will fork - to the left will be Duval Rd. continuing straight will bring you to a traffic light (at Gracy Farms Ln.). You should see Mangia Pizza on your right. Continue through the traffic light and make a right turn into the store cluster.

From Mopac:: Exit at Duval Rd./Burnet Rd. From the south, continue on the service road. Continue straight at the traffic light to the next traffic light just a little bit further up. You will see Mangia Pizza in front of you to the left at the traffic light. Turn left and then make an immediate right turn into the little store cluster.; From the north, make a left turn onto Duval Rd./Burnet Rd. and then an immediate left turn (as though you were going to make a U-turn back onto Mopac) and there will be another traffic light where you will see Mangia Pizza in front of you to the left. Turn left and then make an immediate right turn into the little store cluster.

Note: If you pass Mangia Pizza, there is a U-turn on the left just a little past the store cluster. Follow the directions for Mopac coming from the north.

Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society CACTUS Newsletter

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