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=== Social:  Thursday July 25th, 6 pm ===


=== Planned Social: July 2016, TBD ===
Disc golf! Just up the road outside the RCTC field house. Meet at the parking lot edge / field house doors, 6 pm. Here is [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=217033483939111930234.0004a3795f42da701ae0b&msa=0&ll=44.015742,-92.422206&spn=0.003541,0.006942&iwloc=0004a37962daae4746296 a map].
Ideas can be found [http://www.k-lug.org/SocialMeeting here] or invent your own.  What would you like to do?  Tell Tina.


Probably yard games + ice cream at Tina's house, but if you have other requests/ideas please let Tina know.  Possibly also a [https://www.theescapechallenge.com/mission-background.html locked room puzzle event], The Norwegian Job because that one is handicapped accessible.




=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday July 11th ===


=== Technical Meeting: Thursday July 14th ===
Tim Anderson will present on his customized keyboard, a Dactyl WIP.  Attendees with their own customized input hardware to show off are welcome to bring theirs for "show and tell" that will occur after the presentation.


Robert Nix, on Red Hat Summit.  He will talk about what goes on there and what things are announced.
About the presentation:


Some if the benefits of, and my reasoning for, using an ergonomic keyboard. I'll cover some other open source keyboard projects that are available that I've discovered during my research into the topic, and finally a reasonably detailed overview of the process in which I took to build my Dactyl keyboard.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.


[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered. Prior to March 20th this room had been known as HA108. If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)


[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/ Campus layout]


[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/heintz/heintz-a.html Heintz Center Building Map]


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.




=== Downtown lunch:  Thursday July 14th ===
This is the special IBM day at Thursdays on First (a replacement for an IBM day at the Olmsted County Fair this year), so we should meet for lunch.  11:30 am, East on Historic 3rd Avenue off the corner of the Tap House (formerly Bilotti's), we'll try to find a table in the shade.


=== RochesterFest lunch: Monday June 24th ===
June downtown lunch at RochesterFest (Soldier's Field track oval), Monday June 24th, 11:30 am, weather permitting.


For those of you downtown who aren't up to walking that far (or your schedule doesn't permit the extra time), they are doing free trolley rides again 11-2 from in front of the Marriott Hotel; and revised this year they're adding a trolley run from Bethel as a park&ride lot:  "Park in the Augsburg University lot at Bethel Lutheran Church (810 3rd Avenue SE) and take the free trolley shuttle to Soldiers Field Park and back over the midday. Look for the signs in the south part of the lot along 9th Street."


[http://www.rochesterfest.com/food.php Map of the vendors], [http://cms.cws.net/content/rochesterfest.com/files/2019%20Food%20Vendor%20Items.pdf listing of the items for sale] and [http://cms.cws.net/content/rochesterfest.com/files/2019%20Food%20Vendor%20Coupons.pdf coupons] are available.


=== Planned Social:  June 2016, TBD ===
As our goal is conversation, we'll try to find a spot away from both stage and speakers, on the south/far end of the Main Tent.  If the weather is good we might look for a table in the sun in that same vicinity.
I'm going to host a yard games + ice cream event, but it'll probably end up in July, May/June has just been too busy (and our lawn mower is currently in the shop waiting to be repaired, so our yard is a field).






=== RochesterFest lunch:  Thursday June 23rd ===
=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday June 13th ===
June downtown lunch at RochesterFest (Soldier's Field track oval), Thursday June 23rd, 11:30 am, weather permitting (rain date TBD).  For those of you downtown who aren't up to walking that far (or your schedule doesn't permit the extra time), they are doing free trolley rides again 11-2 from in front of the Marriott Hotel.  Hopefully they will publish some coupons for food vendors again this year, if so I'll add a link later.
We do not have a speaker for the June technical meeting, so we will make our first attempt at disc golf for the year!  The weather report looks good, so keep your fingers crossed!  We will use the RCTC course.  Gather in front of the RCTC Regional Sports Center (aka the Field House, see the campus layout link below if you're not familiar with that location).  Don't worry if you're not familiar with disc golf, we have all skill ranges and some discs to loan out if you don't have your own.


6 pm, in front of the RCTC Regional Sports Center.




=== <strike> Technical Meeting</strike> Social: Thursday June 9th ===


Disc golf at Slatterly, 6 pm[https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B000'39.0%22N+92%C2%B026'52.5%22W/@44.0106201,-92.4496818,659m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d44.010823!4d-92.447921 Park here.
=== <strike>Technical Meeting</strike> PIZZA!  Thursday May 9th ===
No speaker, too wet for disc golf, sounds like a great night for pizza and socializing.  The usual meeting date and time (6 pm, Thursday May 9th), but we'll relocate to the [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pizza+Ranch/@43.867592,-92.4914597,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87f7564533a8f601:0x84f740738bc6192c!8m2!3d43.867592!4d-92.489271  Stewartville Pizza Ranch] pizza and chicken buffet.


We had a dozen people turn out, it was great!




=== <strike> Technical Meeting:  Thursday May 12th </strike> ===


=== Social:  Tuesday May 10th ===
=== Social:  Thursday May 2nd ===
Our annual clean up a corner of the world event, helping de-litter a local park as a part of Litter Bit Better. As usual we're teaming up with the [https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC84AAK_11th-annual-cito-and-rochesters-litter-bit-better geocachers who get CITO credit].


We did not get any speaker volunteers.  6 pm.  <strike> Plan B is to go play disc golf at [https://www.google.com/maps/place/43%C2%B051'31.3%22N+92%C2%B030'01.1%22W/@43.858691,-92.5024947,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0 Bear Cave Park]. </strike> (rained out)  Plan C is to enjoy dinner together at the [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pizza+Ranch/@43.867592,-92.4914597,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87f7564533a8f601:0x84f740738bc6192c!8m2!3d43.867592!4d-92.489271 Stewartville Pizza Ranch]. If you can find one of the half-page coupon books that either arrived in your mail or is at many free stands downtown, there's a coupon for BOGO50% off (adults).  [http://www.pizzaranch.com/menus/STEWARTVILLE Pricing and food] ideas for those who haven't been there before.
Parking is [https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B001'25.3%22N+92%C2%B029'52.8%22W/@44.0237038,-92.500194,17z here] or [https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B001'24.7%22N+92%C2%B029'36.1%22W/@44.0235278,-92.4955498,17z here], in the SE or SW corners of the park. The official group gathering location is on the SE corner of the park.  


If you have never joined us before and this will be your first event, you're looking for a family of four (F long hair and glasses, M short curly hair and glasses, 4 year old, 1 year old) sitting with an unknown quantity of other geeks, or use the email list to tell us how to spot you.
6 pm start time.  


Bags and trash are provided, you need to provide your own gloves and a sense of civic duty. If anyone has some waterproof boots and/or grabbers for cleaning the marshy stream edge, that'd be great too.




=== Social:  Thursday April 21st, 2016 ===


Our April social will be the Litter Bit Better park clean up.  
=== <strike>Technical Meeting</strike>  <strike>PIZZA!</strike>  CANCELLED:  Thursday April 11th ===
The bad weather, courtesy of power outages, wins for tonight.


That's 6 pm on Thursday April 21st, at Cascade Lake Park.
<strike>No speaker, bad weather, sounds like a great night for pizza and socializing.  The usual meeting date and time (6 pm, Thursday April 11th), but we'll relocate to the [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pizza+Ranch/@43.867592,-92.4914597,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87f7564533a8f601:0x84f740738bc6192c!8m2!3d43.867592!4d-92.489271  Stewartville Pizza Ranch] pizza and chicken buffet. </strike>


Parking is approximately [https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B001%2724.7%22N+92%C2%B029%2736.1%22W/@44.0235333,-92.4933667,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0 here] (or slightly further west, closer to the corner/park). Geocachers get [http://coord.info/GC6CYCW CITO credit].


Bags and trash are provided, you need to provide your own gloves and a sense of civic duty. If anyone has some waterproof boots for cleaning the marshy stream edge, that'd be great too.




=== <strike> Technical Meeting:</strike>  Disc golf socialThursday April 14th  ===
=== SocialMarch ===
We did not get any speaker volunteers. Go play disc golf at [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=217033483939111930234.0004a379c4172da19682b&ll=44.02311,-92.440456&spn=0.004606,0.007092&t=h&z=17 East Park] again.
<strike>What might you want to do? Tell Tina. </strike>


6 pm








=== SocialTuesday March <strike> 15th </strike> 29th ===
=== Technical MeetingThursday March 14th ===
Disc golf at [http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=217033483939111930234.0004a379c4172da19682b&ll=44.02311,-92.440456&spn=0.004606,0.007092&t=h&z=17 East Park]
Arhelger, on Wifi and Home Networking.


6 pm
Everyone asks Kevin what he recommends for Wifi routers, so he's going to put all of his thoughts into slide form to document it for posterity. He'll cover the explosion of options over the past few years to help you figure out what the best option for your situation. If you're looking to upgrade, have complaints about Netflix constantly buffering, or want to make sure your network is secure, this ones for you.


Note the change from the original date, due to rain/mud.


This presentation will be recorded, FYI if that bothers you.  For those of you who don't make it, look for the recording afterwards.






=== Technical Meeting: Thursday March 10th ===
We will also have a shorter presentation by George Chatzisofroniou, he's the lead author of [https://github.com/wifiphisher Wifiphisher], a free and open source tool that is available on GNU / Linux.
Marc Thomas, from NORLUG, on setting up and maintaining your own media server.


--
Wi-Fi Security Testing with Open Source Tools


Everything you need to know to set up your own media server, as ethically and legally as possible. From video codecs and containers, compression algorithms, DRM decryption and circumvention, transcoding, storage, organization, consumption, and all the tools that make this possible, all under Linux!
In this presentation, audiences will learn about the open source tools available to penetration testers and the situations in which they apply. The presentation will demonstrate how to conduct attacks with the help of open source tools.


--




Happy Pi Day!  The plan is to consume pie.


Also on the agenda for the technical meeting:


-PCIG elections
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.


-Discussions of the K-LUG email list
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]


-Choice of a March social event.  Possibly a [https://www.theescapechallenge.com/home.html locked room escape]?
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/ Campus layout]


-Requests for an April speaker
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/heintz/heintz-a.html Heintz Center Building Map]


-Consumption of semi-homemade Pi Day pie (peach, raspberry, strawberry; I cheated and bought crusts). Please bring your donation for the "hat".
Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know.






6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.


[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]


[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]
=== CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER!  <strike>  Social Ice: Thursday February 7th, right after the Technical Presentation </strike> ===
<strike>
Looking for a host to choose a time and location, and preferably at least one other person to commit to meeting up then/there, for this to happen yet tonight. Please email the list.


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Jon G or Tina know.




We're headed to Social Ice (aka SocialICE), an [https://www.downtownrochestermn.com/events/socialice outdoor ice bar on the downtown Peace Plaza], which if the -25 degree windchills as I'm writing this is any indication, will have no issues with melting or crowding this year (it's Minnesota, that may change).


For those of you who also love photography, note that SocialIce 2019 is holding a photo contest, each of 6 winners will receive a $50 gift card, details on the SocialICE Page.


=== Downtown Lunch: Thursday March 10th  ===
When and where? The group attending the technical meeting will head there whenever it's a good time to have wrapped up the presentation, and they'll have their own meet up location chosenSo plan to attend the technical meeting first.
11:30 am, 1st Avenue food court downtown, at the bigger tables near the entrance.  The Mexican place has closed, an Indian restaurant will replace it "soon"Mango Thai has opened.
</strike>






=== CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER!!  <strike>Technical Meeting:  Thursday February 7th <- Note date change! </strike> ===


=== Lunch: Thursday February 18th  ===
Due to weather, RCTC is closed, so there will be no technical meeting tonight. Rescheduled for the usual 2nd Thursday, but in March.
11:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.






=== "January" Social: Fridays February 12th, 19th, plus others ===
<strike> This meeting has been moved to avoid Valentines Day! I don't want to be in trouble with anyone's spouse or significant other.
We're going to try a map-based (eg armchair) road rally, http://home.earthlink.net/~oldmaltese/Massacre.html .  Due to there having been a start-up cost for this event, I will be asking for contributions (say $5-10/family?) for those who come participate.  Anyone bringing an additional "11x15 100-page-plus 2016 Rand McNally Road Atlas" (this same large scale copy MSRP $20, Amazon has for $15) will have their fee waived for their assistance uncrowding the map table.


I anticipate this being much better done by small groups, and it seems a bit lengthy.  So we are going to host two pre-specified nights of map reading, and if Friday nights don't work well for you then email me off-list to request your available T/W/Sat/Sun timeframe and we'll see if we can work something out.  Fees per family won't be re-collected at subsequent attendances.
Arhelger, on Wifi and Home Networking.


6:30 pm at Tina's house (email for directions). Snack/beverage potluck only (come with dinner already in your belly).
Everyone asks Kevin what he recommends for Wifi routers, so he's going to put all of his thoughts into slide form to document it for posterity. He'll cover the explosion of options over the past few years to help you figure out what the best option for your situation. If you're looking to upgrade, have complaints about Netflix constantly buffering, or want to make sure your network is secure, this ones for you.


Postmark deadline for submission of this for scoring is Monday February 29th, which realistically means we're going to have to mail it on Saturday the 27th, so our last potential night is Friday February 26th.


This presentation will be recorded, FYI if that bothers you.  For those of you who don't make it, look for the recording afterwards.


We may also have a mini-presentation by someone new to town, on wifiphisher, we'll let you know when we have more details ironed out.


=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday February 11th ===
Robert Nix, on LVM.


--
Immediately afterwards, at whatever time the meeting wraps up, those interested will go to Social Ice downtown on the Peace Plaza for our February social, led by Arhelger.  So if you want to attend this social, make sure you attend the meeting, or have coordinated communication with Arhelger in advance.  See the separate Social Ice posting below too.


Using Logical Volume Manager can simplify your disk space management on both large and small Linux systems. This will be both an overview, and a look at specific commands and results. See how LVM can be used to streamline your Linux installation and maintenance.
More presentation details expected to be posted on Friday February 1st.


--


Here are [http://k-lug.org/images/0/0d/Lvm.odp his slides] from the meeting.
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.


[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]


Also on the agenda for the technical meeting:
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/ Campus layout]


-PCIG second round of officer nominations (with elections in March)
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/heintz/heintz-a.html Heintz Center Building Map]


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know - but Tina won't be running this meeting, I'll let you know when I know who will be.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
</strike>


[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]


[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Jon G or Tina know.


=== "January" Social:  Saturday February 2nd ===
Sleigh rides!  We will go for a [https://www.rochesterwinterfest.com/events/sleighrides sleigh ride at WinterFest] for our "January" social.  This is an annual favorite with the smaller geekazoids.  In fact I think we've even made the advertising photo for this public event, I suspect that mini-Schmidt is in pink on the top of the snowpile and my own blaze orange snowpants can be seen behind the horses to the right of mini-Schmidt.


Saturday, February 2nd, at 10 am.


Park along the road on Salem Road, the sleigh rides are north of the road behind the History Center.


Plan to gather around the Schmidt family.  Sorry, no easily identifiable blaze orange to gather around this year.


=== Downtown Lunch:  Thursday February 11th  ===
11:30 am, 1st Avenue food court downtown, at the bigger tables near the entrance.




=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday January 10th, 2019 ===
Dennis DeLorme on his Garagenator (that's garage doing the work of a refrigerator), involving WiFi/Web based temperature sensor/logger:


<blockquote style="
color: black;
background-color: #eaecf0;
border: solid thin gray;
padding-top: 10px;
padding-right: 10px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
padding-left: 10px;
">
Did you have the family gathering at your place for Thanksgiving? Did you run out of space in the refrigerator? Did you wonder if the garage temperature was safe for overflow food storage? If so you needed the GARAGERATOR - the WiFi/Web solution to garage temperature monitoring.


=== Social:  Sunday, February 7th 2016 ===
In this presentation I'll describe how to use an under $10 WiFi module as a web server to monitor and log temperature. The "user interface" is via a web browser on a laptop, tablet, or cell phone. No special hardware or software is needed on the user side.
Winterfest cardboard sled race spectating for our February social, Sunday February 7th, 1 pm. There IS an indoor viewing area, per the description, so no trekking through the snow required.


http://www.rochesterwinterfest.com/2015/01/07/cardboard-sled-race/
I will demonstrate the web server as an Access Point (a stand alone
network) to collect and download data. This requires no additional networking, so it is not dependent on a local network.


Rochester Golf and Country Club
It can also be connected as a station on a local network and accessible to any device on the local network. I will describe how to do this (it is only a few lines of code difference). I don't know that I will be able to demonstrate this on the RCTC network - as I recall they had some additional interactions to sign on to their open network.
3100 Country Club Road SW


I will cover the hardware and software used in the project. For those that want to get a head start - the hardware is an ESP8266 module, a
DS3231 rtc, and a DS18B20 temperature sensor. The software is developed using the Arduino IDE with extensions for the ESP8266 (https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino).


NOTE: This is not an "Internet Of Things" (IOT) presentation. It could be connected directly to the Internet, but I lack the security knowledge (or, alternately, the level of stupidity) required to do that. It can, of course, access the internet via a local network - like other devices on a local network.
</blockquote>


=== Lunch:  Thursday January 21st  ===
11:30 am, Apache Mall food court, near B&N.




KLUG officer nominations and elections (president, vice president, treasurer).


=== Technical Meeting:  Thursday January 14th ===
PCIG officer nominations.
Dennis DeLorme on a recent basement project - the $2 wireless link.


--
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.


Do you wish there was an easy, cheap way for your micro-controllers to
talk to each other over a wireless link? If so, come and learn about the
Nordic nrf24L01+ type modules. These allow short range wireless
communication in the 2.4 GHz band. The nrf24L01+ is designed for PC
keyboard/mouse, remote controls, home automation, toys etc.


There is available software to use the nrf24L01+ modules with common
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/1926+Collegeview+Rd+E,+Rochester,+MN+55904/@44.021027,-92.4379617,17z/ Directions to Campus]
boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone Black. The nrf24L01+
module can be added to these boards for about $1 per node, if ordered
directly from China. I'll talk a little about my experience ordering
directly from China.
 
I will talk about the features of the nrf24L01+ and the software to use it. I will demo a sensor star network with a couple of them on Arduinos (what else?) sending data to an Arduino attached to a laptop as the base unit.
 
If you are ready to break your New Years Resolutions, I will be bringing
German Chocolate cup cakes with coconut pecan frosting.
 
--
Post-meeting addition - [http://k-lug.org/images/9/93/Klug-nrf24.pdf here are the slides] he has provided.
[http://k-lug.org/images/2/2f/StarNetDS18B20.odt Here is the code] in Open Office format because upload of text or code files is not supported.
 
 
6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA107.
 
[http://www.roch.edu/html-spectrum/getting_to_ucr.html  Directions to Campus]
 
[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/maps/heintzA.html  Heintz Center Building Map]
 
 
Also on the agenda for the technical meeting:
 
-K-LUG’s annual officer elections – president, vice president, treasurer.  Nominations or self-nominations for these positions please.
 
-Annual financial report from our treasurer.
 
-PCIG first round of officer nominations (with elections in March)
 
 
 
Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Jon G or Tina know.
 
 
 
 
 
=== Downtown Lunch:  Thursday January 14th  ===
11:30 am, 1st Avenue food court downtown, at the bigger tables near the entrance.


[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/ Campus layout]


[http://www.rctc.edu/campustour/heintz/heintz-a.html Heintz Center Building Map]


Anything else you want to see on the agenda?  Let Tina know.




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=== Older News ===
=== Older News ===


* [[OldNews2018]]
* [[OldNews2017]]
* [[OldNews2016]]
* [[OldNews2015]]
* [[OldNews2015]]
* [[OldNews2014]]
* [[OldNews2014]]

Revision as of 18:14, 5 August 2019



Social: Thursday July 25th, 6 pm

Disc golf! Just up the road outside the RCTC field house. Meet at the parking lot edge / field house doors, 6 pm. Here is a map.


Technical Meeting: Thursday July 11th

Tim Anderson will present on his customized keyboard, a Dactyl WIP. Attendees with their own customized input hardware to show off are welcome to bring theirs for "show and tell" that will occur after the presentation.

About the presentation:

Some if the benefits of, and my reasoning for, using an ergonomic keyboard. I'll cover some other open source keyboard projects that are available that I've discovered during my research into the topic, and finally a reasonably detailed overview of the process in which I took to build my Dactyl keyboard.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's H1411 (note: For those of you that have been coming for a long time, we are still in the same place, the rooms in the Heintz Center were renumbered. Prior to March 20th this room had been known as HA108. If anyone finds updated maps, please let us know.)

Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know.


RochesterFest lunch: Monday June 24th

June downtown lunch at RochesterFest (Soldier's Field track oval), Monday June 24th, 11:30 am, weather permitting.

For those of you downtown who aren't up to walking that far (or your schedule doesn't permit the extra time), they are doing free trolley rides again 11-2 from in front of the Marriott Hotel; and revised this year they're adding a trolley run from Bethel as a park&ride lot: "Park in the Augsburg University lot at Bethel Lutheran Church (810 3rd Avenue SE) and take the free trolley shuttle to Soldiers Field Park and back over the midday. Look for the signs in the south part of the lot along 9th Street."

Map of the vendors, listing of the items for sale and coupons are available.

As our goal is conversation, we'll try to find a spot away from both stage and speakers, on the south/far end of the Main Tent. If the weather is good we might look for a table in the sun in that same vicinity.


Technical Meeting: Thursday June 13th

We do not have a speaker for the June technical meeting, so we will make our first attempt at disc golf for the year! The weather report looks good, so keep your fingers crossed! We will use the RCTC course. Gather in front of the RCTC Regional Sports Center (aka the Field House, see the campus layout link below if you're not familiar with that location). Don't worry if you're not familiar with disc golf, we have all skill ranges and some discs to loan out if you don't have your own.

6 pm, in front of the RCTC Regional Sports Center.


Technical Meeting PIZZA! Thursday May 9th

No speaker, too wet for disc golf, sounds like a great night for pizza and socializing. The usual meeting date and time (6 pm, Thursday May 9th), but we'll relocate to the Stewartville Pizza Ranch pizza and chicken buffet.

We had a dozen people turn out, it was great!


Social: Thursday May 2nd

Our annual clean up a corner of the world event, helping de-litter a local park as a part of Litter Bit Better. As usual we're teaming up with the geocachers who get CITO credit.

Parking is here or here, in the SE or SW corners of the park. The official group gathering location is on the SE corner of the park.

6 pm start time.

Bags and trash are provided, you need to provide your own gloves and a sense of civic duty. If anyone has some waterproof boots and/or grabbers for cleaning the marshy stream edge, that'd be great too.


Technical Meeting PIZZA! CANCELLED: Thursday April 11th

The bad weather, courtesy of power outages, wins for tonight.

No speaker, bad weather, sounds like a great night for pizza and socializing. The usual meeting date and time (6 pm, Thursday April 11th), but we'll relocate to the Stewartville Pizza Ranch pizza and chicken buffet.



Social: March

What might you want to do? Tell Tina.



Technical Meeting: Thursday March 14th

Arhelger, on Wifi and Home Networking.

Everyone asks Kevin what he recommends for Wifi routers, so he's going to put all of his thoughts into slide form to document it for posterity. He'll cover the explosion of options over the past few years to help you figure out what the best option for your situation. If you're looking to upgrade, have complaints about Netflix constantly buffering, or want to make sure your network is secure, this ones for you.


This presentation will be recorded, FYI if that bothers you. For those of you who don't make it, look for the recording afterwards.


We will also have a shorter presentation by George Chatzisofroniou, he's the lead author of Wifiphisher, a free and open source tool that is available on GNU / Linux.

Wi-Fi Security Testing with Open Source Tools

In this presentation, audiences will learn about the open source tools available to penetration testers and the situations in which they apply. The presentation will demonstrate how to conduct attacks with the help of open source tools.


Happy Pi Day! The plan is to consume pie.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.

Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know.



CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER! Social Ice: Thursday February 7th, right after the Technical Presentation

Looking for a host to choose a time and location, and preferably at least one other person to commit to meeting up then/there, for this to happen yet tonight. Please email the list.


We're headed to Social Ice (aka SocialICE), an outdoor ice bar on the downtown Peace Plaza, which if the -25 degree windchills as I'm writing this is any indication, will have no issues with melting or crowding this year (it's Minnesota, that may change).

For those of you who also love photography, note that SocialIce 2019 is holding a photo contest, each of 6 winners will receive a $50 gift card, details on the SocialICE Page.

When and where? The group attending the technical meeting will head there whenever it's a good time to have wrapped up the presentation, and they'll have their own meet up location chosen. So plan to attend the technical meeting first.


CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER!! Technical Meeting: Thursday February 7th <- Note date change!

Due to weather, RCTC is closed, so there will be no technical meeting tonight. Rescheduled for the usual 2nd Thursday, but in March.


This meeting has been moved to avoid Valentines Day! I don't want to be in trouble with anyone's spouse or significant other.

Arhelger, on Wifi and Home Networking.

Everyone asks Kevin what he recommends for Wifi routers, so he's going to put all of his thoughts into slide form to document it for posterity. He'll cover the explosion of options over the past few years to help you figure out what the best option for your situation. If you're looking to upgrade, have complaints about Netflix constantly buffering, or want to make sure your network is secure, this ones for you.


This presentation will be recorded, FYI if that bothers you. For those of you who don't make it, look for the recording afterwards.

We may also have a mini-presentation by someone new to town, on wifiphisher, we'll let you know when we have more details ironed out.


Immediately afterwards, at whatever time the meeting wraps up, those interested will go to Social Ice downtown on the Peace Plaza for our February social, led by Arhelger. So if you want to attend this social, make sure you attend the meeting, or have coordinated communication with Arhelger in advance. See the separate Social Ice posting below too.

More presentation details expected to be posted on Friday February 1st.


6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.

Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know - but Tina won't be running this meeting, I'll let you know when I know who will be.



"January" Social: Saturday February 2nd

Sleigh rides! We will go for a sleigh ride at WinterFest for our "January" social. This is an annual favorite with the smaller geekazoids. In fact I think we've even made the advertising photo for this public event, I suspect that mini-Schmidt is in pink on the top of the snowpile and my own blaze orange snowpants can be seen behind the horses to the right of mini-Schmidt.

Saturday, February 2nd, at 10 am.

Park along the road on Salem Road, the sleigh rides are north of the road behind the History Center.

Plan to gather around the Schmidt family. Sorry, no easily identifiable blaze orange to gather around this year.


Technical Meeting: Thursday January 10th, 2019

Dennis DeLorme on his Garagenator (that's garage doing the work of a refrigerator), involving WiFi/Web based temperature sensor/logger:

Did you have the family gathering at your place for Thanksgiving? Did you run out of space in the refrigerator? Did you wonder if the garage temperature was safe for overflow food storage? If so you needed the GARAGERATOR - the WiFi/Web solution to garage temperature monitoring.

In this presentation I'll describe how to use an under $10 WiFi module as a web server to monitor and log temperature. The "user interface" is via a web browser on a laptop, tablet, or cell phone. No special hardware or software is needed on the user side.

I will demonstrate the web server as an Access Point (a stand alone network) to collect and download data. This requires no additional networking, so it is not dependent on a local network.

It can also be connected as a station on a local network and accessible to any device on the local network. I will describe how to do this (it is only a few lines of code difference). I don't know that I will be able to demonstrate this on the RCTC network - as I recall they had some additional interactions to sign on to their open network.

I will cover the hardware and software used in the project. For those that want to get a head start - the hardware is an ESP8266 module, a DS3231 rtc, and a DS18B20 temperature sensor. The software is developed using the Arduino IDE with extensions for the ESP8266 (https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino).

NOTE: This is not an "Internet Of Things" (IOT) presentation. It could be connected directly to the Internet, but I lack the security knowledge (or, alternately, the level of stupidity) required to do that. It can, of course, access the internet via a local network - like other devices on a local network.


KLUG officer nominations and elections (president, vice president, treasurer).

PCIG officer nominations.

6 pm, in or near RCTC Heintz Center's HA108.


Directions to Campus

Campus layout

Heintz Center Building Map

Anything else you want to see on the agenda? Let Tina know.



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