Well, happy December and stuff!

First, some housekeeping details: you may have noticed that I don't update quite as often as in the past. I am no longer an officeholder at the Houston Area League of PC Users, but that organization continues improvement efforts and reorganization as we speak, or type (check their site for the latest).

Second, I continue to press onward with technological interests such as the open source movement, computer security, backup methodology, unusual internet content, publishing, et cetera.

Thirdly, I'll use this blog to prognosticate and pass on interesting tidbits to whomever reads this blog, as well as for my own use (as an online link repository, for example).

Upcoming topics here may include...

The Nmap book by the Nmap guy
BackTrack 4 final release changes and progress
Recent TRK changes and improvements
Adventures In Learning Perl (hopefully without attacking competing languages much)
Adventures In Deleted File Recovery (or Oops I Did It Again, and in a different oddball file format this time)

So stay tuned and let's see what I come up with.

I've made a momentous discovery.

Although I am mostly ashamed at having been talked into establishing a Facebook account, I have found something about that system that's actually socially redeeming. Somebody established "INTERCAL Enthusiasts" on FB. I'm not even a proper programmer and this is funny to me:

Here is the "Hello, world" program in INTERCAL:

DO ,1 <- #13
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #1 <- #234
DO ,1 SUB #2 <- #112
DO ,1 SUB #3 <- #112
DO ,1 SUB #4 <- #0
DO ,1 SUB #5 <- #64
DO ,1 SUB #6 <- #194
DO ,1 SUB #7 <- #48
PLEASE DO ,1 SUB #8 <- #22
DO ,1 SUB #9 <- #248
DO ,1 SUB #10 <- #168
DO ,1 SUB #11 <- #24
DO ,1 SUB #12 <- #16
DO ,1 SUB #13 <- #214
PLEASE READ OUT ,1
PLEASE GIVE UP

For more of whatever the above is, go to

The Intercal Place

, which is outside FB and should be given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Yes, from OUR Congress.

Tech Fest A Resounding Success

About a half-dozen denizens of Hal were present at the "users groups" table that Tech Fest afforded us, and the one other group that showed, the Houston Java Users Group. As for us, we got over six sheets' worth of email contacts and I'd guess that it totals to over 100 people expressing interest (Chris or Jim Ward may have the sheets and therefore could give an accurate count).

The scene was mostly .net developers but about 20% of the subjects were applicable to other things. It was well attended by head hunters, too; I'll be there next year.

NEWS

HAL-PC FUNDRAISER POSTPONED
Due to various time constraints, the Sept. 7th BBQ has been put off at least 6-8 weeks. Stay tuned to the Hal-PC site for re-scheduling notices.
LINUX 101 ROCKS YOUR SOCKS
I dropped into the Linux 101 SIG (special interest group) meeting after the executive committee broke up for the night (and John Davis and me had finished talking about the Houston Punk scene) and saw that they are drawing about the healthy half-dozen or so that my SIG used to draw (I think they're doing OK as well). And I'm not just pimping them because they (Linux 101, 1st Tue. of Month, 7pm, Hal-PC) looked at the latest Linux Mint. But that helped.

TECH FEST at Univ. of Houston

Hit this link for what's happening on September the 26th. Seminars!
Presentations! Job and app training possibilities! More geekiness! Such a deal.

BBQ MADNESS

On Labor Day, the Hal-PC folk would like to see you at the Volunteer Appreciation / Fund Raising Event! It's open (to other than registered volunteers with enough time logged) to all for a $15 donation that will help upgrade computers and such. Hours (for eating) are 1-6pm. Time to geekily parTAY. Check the link for directions to the Galleria-area HQ building.

New HLUG SIG Leader Elected

As I understand it, we have a new leader: Ron Lyle! Congratulations to he who stepped up to the plate. An election was held and Ron won (this would have been last Saturday; I was... let's just say "on call"). So under Ron's direction, meetings continue as the masthead of this blog states: every second and fourth Saturday, 2pm at Hal.

In other news, it's been suggested to me (by Jim Ward) that the Presidency of HLUG, as opposed to the Special Interest Group leadership position for the scheduled time slot, become a separate position (I think he had in mind an emeritus capacity). It seems doable to consider me a publicity figurehead at least in order to continue with this blog and other promotional activities, in spite of my employer's shift changes and their effects, which take me out of the scheduled flow. Also, having a President (in addition to a SIG Leader) maintains a connection with the structure of HLUG that originally merged with Hal about ten years ago; continuity is good.

I agree to such an arrangement if it's amenable to the new leader and the membership. Also, I'll be describing/pimping/reviewing the meetings here into the future (and naturally able to review something when I am not called upon to work Saturday and therefore could show up at the meeting).

See some of you at the Hal Board meeting tomorrow night.