Thursday, March 5, 2015

PYPTUG Meeting - March 30th (Ansible, Devops, Security) -

PYthon Piedmont Triad User Group meeting


Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (March 30th 2015) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the perfect language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also the perfect tool that no expert would do without. Monthly meetings are in addition to our project nights.


What

Meeting will start at 5:30pm.

We will open on an Intro to PYPTUG and on how to get started with Python, PYPTUG activities and members projects, then on to News from the community, including some details on a security issue (how a public opinion vote was derailed), how it was discovered, and how python and data science tied it all together.

Then on to the main talk.


Main Talk: Automate with Ansible
Bio:
Greg DeKoenigsberg is the Vice President of Community for Ansible,
where he leads the company's relationship with the broader open source community. Greg has over a decade of open source advocacy and community leadership, building and leading communities for Eucalyptus and open source leader Red Hat. Greg has served as leader of the Fedora project, chair of the first Fedora Project Board, and Red Hat community liaison with the One Laptop Per Child project.
Abstract:
Ansible is an open-source software platform for configuring and managing computers. It combines multi-node software deployment, ad hoc task execution, and configuration management.  It is also the third most forked Python project on all of Github.

In this talk, Greg DeKoenigsberg of Ansible will walk through the basic usage of Ansible, the history of why it was created, why it has become so popular so quickly, and how to get started using (and contributing). There will also be an open Q+A at the end.

Lightning talks! 


We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.


When

Monday, March 30th 2015
Meeting starts at 5:30PM

Where

Wake Forest University,
close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:
"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List


Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

Meetup Group


In order to get a feel for how much food we'll need, we ask that you register your attendance to this meeting on meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/220920317/

HAB Project


We will conclude this meeting with some work on the High Altitude Balloon Project (Team Near Space Circus).

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

PYPTUG Project night - Team Near Space Circus

To Space And Back

Another project night where we will focus on our HAB project: Sending a technical payload into space, and back, as part of the 2015 Global Space Balloon Challenge (http://http://balloonchallenge.org/). The project will include a payload that will pay homage to the first NASA balloon flights in 1969 designed to take large area photographs of the earth from a very high altitude.

The payload will include a computer with operating system, many python scripts and various hardware including sensors, transmitters and other tech gear.

The monthly project nights until April will focus on building a high altitude balloon to send into near space. There is something to do for everyone, from art, to programming, to mechanical and electrical engineering, to finding stuff, reading regulations, making recovery plans, buying stuff, coming up with a team name, what experiments should be included in the payload etc. Don't wait for a direct invitation, sign up on our meetup group:

http://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/220377127/

This meeting will be on Wednesday, Mar. 18 at 6pm in the Dash room at Inmar:

Inmar

635 Vine St,
Room 1130H "Dash"
Winston-Salem, NC

This will be at the Inmar building in downtown Winston Salem.­

Some preliminary work has already started and discussion is ongoing on the PYPTUG mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pyptug

And look for the Near Space Technical Payload Official Thread (should be at the top)

Keep an eye on this site for progress reports. At launch, you will be able to track the actual balloon through a web page.

Note: this is tomorrow Wednesday the 18th. Come by and learn how to network multiple Raspberry Pi model A+ without ethernet...