By Solomon Chang

Synergy is a software application for sharing a keyboard and mouse between multiple computers. It is used in situations where several PCs are used together, with a monitor connected to each, but are to be controlled by one user. The user needs only one keyboard and mouse on the desk — similar to a KVM switch without the Video.
Once the program is installed, users can move the mouse "off" the side of their desktop on one computer, and the mouse-pointer will appear on the desktop of another computer. Key presses will be delivered to whichever computer the mouse-pointer is located in. This makes it possible to control several machines as easily as if they were a single multi-monitor computer.

Synergy is able to integrate Unix, Linux, Macintosh and Windows machines, even down to the clipboard and synchronization of screensavers. Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Synergy is free software.

By David Rolston

In this session, Dave will walk through everything needed to create a self contained Centos based LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server which you can run on your development workstation or notebook computer. This allows you to develop for your target server platform (assuming that’s a RHEL or Centos based server) whenever you want, with or without an active Internet connection. Another advantage of virtualization is that you can set up multiple virtual servers to test out clustering and configurations that would difficult if not impossible to simulate using one server. Dave will cover prerequisites, gotchas, and walk through the building and setup of the VM.

David Rolston is a Los Angeles based system developer who has worked for a variety of entertainment and game companies including Paramount Pictures, Broderbund software, and Vivendi Universal Games. He has focused most of his recent efforts on LAMP and is one of the founders of LampSIG. He contributes to a number of open source projects including Joomla, and is the project lead of a popular Joomla gallery component called PonyGallery.

This meeting will be for the discussion of booth topics for SCALE 8x.

By Solomon Chang

MySQL Replication has been a standard practice of scaling and failover for a long time, but what happens when you need to set up replication that routes through an insecure network? You have two options: you can either eliminate everyone you do not trust on that insecure network in the messiest way possible, or you create your own home grown SSL certificate and use that to encrypt all database traffic. In this talk, Solomon will teach the boring way that doesn't send you to jail, while providing an overview of setting database replication for those who may have missed it in earlier LAMPSIG meetings.

When he is not deliberately scheduling LAMPSIG meetings to conflict with Rosh Hashanah *and* Shabbat, Solomon is a professional DBA in Glendale and bears the guilt of being a co-author of the MySQL Cluster Certification Study Guide. He is MySQL-certified, although his mother really wishes he would have become a doctor or a lawyer instead, and settle down with a nice Jewish girl.

By Solomon Chang

Nessus is a vulnerability scannner. Despite being proprietary, it is free of charge for personal use in a non-enterprise environment. Its goal is to detect potential vulnerabilities on the tested systems. It accomplishes this by maintaining its own database of every vulnerability known to its contributors (for specific mainstream Operating Systems), with each vulnerability rendered into executable scripts. After selecting the vulnerabilities you want to test for, you simply launch... and wait. Nessus then returns a report of any backdoors, admin passwords, etc. that it has found, as well as helpful links to instructions on how to patch them.

Nessus is meant to be a security-testing tool that you deploy against your own machines before you put them on the public internet. It is not meant to probe other people's machines, although this is very commonly the case. Solomon will briefly discuss other security tools and common probing techniques, as well as protecting yourself against probes.

When he is not teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts 101 at Hogwarts, Solomon Chang is a MySQL certified DBA and the current acting director of LAMPSIG. He works as a professional Database Administrator four stories underground in an organization he is not allowed to talk about, and is a co-author of the MySQL Cluster Certification Study Guide.

By George McKinney

Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time." -- Wikipedia

Using a web camera, the Adobe Flash player, and open-source tools, it is possible to generate animated 3D objects in real-time. This Augmented Reality presentation utilizes the Papervision3D project and the FLAR Toolkit. We will also address Collada, which originated from Sony, and Google Sketchup. These are two tools for generating 3D objects that are free.

General Electric corporation showcased Augmented Reality in a recent marketing campaign for its Smart Grid, renewable energy program. http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

About George:
George McKinney is a web developer and marketing strategist with Hookstream.com. George enjoys manipulating bitmaps and coding assembly language. He received his MBA from the University of Southern California and his BA in History from Stanford University.

There will be no meeting in April. It appears all the major industry conferences are happening this weekend, and the Tom Bradley Center needed this time slot. We will resume our regular meeting on May 16th. Have a good weekend!

By Jorge Garifuna

Elgg is a white label, open source social networking platform. It offers blogging, networking, community, collecting of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. Everything can be shared among users with access controls and everything can be cataloged by tags as well.
Elgg was originally started by Ben Werdmuller and David Tosh, who subsequently founded Curverider in order to provide Elgg-related services. It has been under development since 2004.

Version 1.0 was released on August 18, 2008. This version was rewritten from scratch and included many powerful features including: a new data model; import / export; support for OpenDD) and more.

Jorge Garifuna is the CEO of Garinet Global Inc. which offers a multitude of Website services for organizations, businesses, entertainers and family members. Jorge joined LAMPsig at the end of last year and has added a new spark of enthusiasm to our group. He is quick to answer maillist questions or bring up new topics of interest to LAMP developers.

See you all at SCALE!

Magento is an Open Source e-commerce web application created by Varien, building on components of the Zend Framework. In addition to being open source, various commercial additions are available as well, from hosting plans to pre-built style templates. With Magento, you can get your e-commerce site up and running in minimal time. Magento also has integrated features reminiscent of modern e-commerce sites, including:
- Flexible Coupons (pricing rules) with ability to restrict to stores, customer groups, time period, products, and categories.
- Catalog Promotional Pricing by percentage or fixed amount with ability to restrict to stores, categories, products.
- Multi-Tier Pricing for quantity discounts.
- Bundled Products.
- Customer Group-specific pricing and group-specific tier pricing.
- Up-sells in Shopping Cart.
- Cross-sells on product pages.

This talk will go into the basics of installing Magento and getting a basic ecommerce site up in going in record time.

Alas, the Tom Bradley Center has pre-empted our venue this month for a charitable event. Not to dismay, I have been in contact with Charlie Semple of LACS, and we are invited to attend their Christmas party this year. Theirs will be held at:

Fellowship Hall of Westchester United Methodist Church
8065 Emerson Ave.
Westchester, CA. 90045

For those who are map-challenged, a link.

This is kinda sorta a potluck. Please bring food that can be eaten with fingers, and does not require on-site cooking or heating. So, that fondue fountain with the now-solidified stream of milk chocolate is out.

You are still welcome to show up at our regular venue, at our regular time, and bring a brand new toy to children in need.

SCALE is coming in February, and LAMPSIG will once again set up a exhibit!

However, exhibits don't run themselves and need people, henceforth known as "Exhibitionists".
Do you want to help the community and educate passers-by about the benefits of LAMP?
Do you want to meet fellow open-source enthusiasts?
Do you want to attend SCALE 7x for free?

Then show up this Saturday - we're still planning the next kick-ass booth application for this year, and discussions are definitely still open.