The next WYLUG meeting will be on the 14th of November 2011 at Old Broadcasting House.

Paul Brook will be giving a talk, An Introduction to OpenGL:

OpenGL is a low-level API for rendering 3D graphics. It provides a language agnostic, OS and hardware independent way for applications to utilise GPU acceleration. OpenGL ES and WebGL provide a reduced (but still fully functional) subset for embedded and web based applications.

I will cover the basics of how a 3D model is converted to a bunch of pixels on the screen, and how the different parts of this pipeline fit together. Followed by specifics of how to achieve this with OpenGL.

For those who have used OpenGL in the past I’ll touch on how the API has evolved from fixed-fuction pipelines to support the additional functionality provided by modern shader based hardware.

The talk will commence at 7pm, with doors open at 6:30pm.

After the talk we’ll be heading down to Mr Foley’s for beer and more geeky chat.

We don’t currently have arrangements for coffee, so if you’re a caffeine addict you’ll need to bring your own.

Feel free to bring your Linux problems and issues down for the experts to take
a look at (laptops only, of course).

If you’re new to Linux and want a little hand-holding, do come along, or if
you just fancy a bit of geeky chat there’s always lively debate on a range of
geek and non-geek subjects.

We’ll be in the back room from 7pm onwards.

This month we have a talk from Darren Drapkin titled “AWK, a dyslexic’s viewpoint”.

Do you have a three field, one million record database you need analying pronto? Is your favourite construction the regexp? Then AWK is for you !

AWK is a utility for processing and reporting on textual data and makes extensive use of regular expressions.

The venue will be open from 6:30pm with the talk commencing at 7:00pm.

After the talk and following any questions, we’ll be heading down to Mr. Foley’s for beers and chat.

The talk is free to attend and all are welcome, with no booking required.

Please note that we no longer have the use of the coffee machine at OBH. Alternative arrangements are being looked into.

Traditionally, the August meeting has been our summer social event. In previous years, various local businesses have sponsored some food for the event. We don’t have a sponsor for this year just yet, so if anyone is able to persuade their employer to help out, please get in touch.

The meeting is open to all, and the regular Linux experts will be on hand to help with any Linux problems you might have.

This month we have a talk from John Hudson titled “Brighten up your LaTeX: tips and tricks for LyX and LaTeX users”.

This presentation covers complex layouts, text enhancements, using RGB and CMYK colour to highlight paragraphs and tables, rotations and resizing of text and images in LaTeX.

The venue will be open from 6:30pm with the talk commencing at 7:00pm.

After the talk and following any questions, we’ll be heading down to Mr. Foley’s for beers and chat.

The talk is free to attend and all are welcome, with no booking required.

This month we’re fortunate enough to have a talk from Tim Schofield, who has spent much of the last 18 months implementing an open source solution in rural East African hospitals.

Tim will talk about some of the technical challenges and provide some entertaining “tales from Africa” anecdotes.

The talk will start at 7:00pm, but the room will be open for coffee, tea and chat from 6:30pm. Afterwards, we usually go to The Fenton pub, across the road from OBH, for more geeky chatter.

Location:
Old Broadcasting House
148 Woodhouse Lane
Leeds
LS2 9EN

More location details on the OBH contact page or on Open Street Map.

Update: The slides from the talk are available to download here: wylug-2010-01-11.odp

Robert sends cameras attached to helium weather balloons high into the stratosphere to take pictures of the Earth. An on-board computer takes pictures at timed intervals in various directions and then handles phoning home when it lands.

He’ll be talking to us about the challenges involved in designing and building these devices: GPS, HAM radio, nitrocellulose explosives and dealing with interest from the ministry of defence (they tend to notice unidentifiable devices 35,000 feet up above the Earth).

Robert will also be bringing along some of the stuff he’s launched for us to see.

The talk is open to all and starts at 7:00pm but the room will be open for coffee, tea and chat from 6:30pm. Afterwards, we usually go to The Fenton pub, across the road from OBH, for more geeky chatter.

Location

More location details on the OBH contact page or on Open Street Map the road from OBH, for more geeky chatter.

UPDATE: Attached a LyX LaTeX and TeX expanded notes PDF.

The meeting officially starts at 7:00pm, but the room will be open for coffee, tea and chat from 6:30pm. Afterwards, we usually go to The Fenton pub, across the road from OBH, for more geeky chatter.

Location

More location details on the OBH contact page or on Open Street Map the road from OBH, for more geeky chatter.

We’re currently looking for sponsorship for food (£7.50 per head for about 15 to 20 people) if anyone would like to volunteer. Otherwise we’ll probably go for a curry at Akhbar’s afterwards. We’ll post an update here if we get sponsorship in time.

Location:

Directions:

• Open Street Map
• Google Maps

Matthew Bloch is the Managing Director of Bytemark Hosting, a geeky UK hosting company specializing in Linux and virtualisation. His commercial software experience previous to Bytemark was in PC emulation and Java VM implementations, and he continues to work on systems-level code within the company, as well as supervising its day-to-day operations. As yet he has not achieved his ambition of becoming a rock-star games programmer.

The meeting officially starts at 7:00pm, but the room will be open for coffee, tea and chat from 6:30pm. Afterwards, we usually go to The Fenton pub, across the road from OBH, for more geeky chatter.

Location

More location details on the OBH contact page or on Open Street Map