The next LA Drupal meetup in West Los Angeles is on August 31, 2010. Join us! At this meetup there will be several presentations as well as time for open discussions and job announcements. Several of us may be going to a local bar or restaurant afterward.
Please note that this is a dog-friendly venue and that the owners have their dogs here every day. If this is an issue for you, be sure to bring any necessary medication. We are always looking for venues for LA Drupal events, so please contact the LA Drupal managers if you'd like to become a venue sponsor.
Attending the LA Drupal meetups is one of the best ways to meet and talk with other Drupaleros and we encourage you to attend as many meetings as you can, including the LA Drupal events in Downtown LA, in the San Gabriel Valley and elsewhere on the Westside. Whether it's about finding solutions to problems you've been having, sharing something you've learned or just meeting interesting like-minded people, the LA Drupal meetups are an essential resource for Drupal professionals and hobbyists alike.
This event is free – in fact, there will be raffle prizes and food and drinks will be provided – and no RSVP is required. To have last-minute details (if there are any) sent to you before the meeting, however, sign up by logging in and clicking the Sign up button below.
| When: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 from 7:30-9:30pm PDT |
| Where: Specialized Digital Solutions at 4136 Del Rey Ave., Marina del Rey, CA 90292 |
| Parking: Ample parking in the back between the Dogma and Guidance office buildings. |
| Seating: We need chairs. If you can easily bring one or more chairs, please do. |
We want your feedback!
During the meetup, we'll be gathered in the #drupal-la IRC channel and all are welcome to join us. The event organizers will also be checking Twitter for feedback and questions that mention @ladrupal or use the #ladrupal hashtag.
Agenda
If you'd like to give a presentation, announce a job position or ask any questions of the group, please come a few minutes early or leave a comment below. If presenting, be sure to bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.
As always, please feel welcome to leave a comment below and let others know what you'd like to present ahead of time.
Job announcements and open Q&A
Everyone has a problem every now and then and the open Q&A session is a chance for attendees to divine answers from the collective wisdom of the group. This is also an opportunity for local businesses to make job announcements and ask for referrals and recommendations.
Raffle! Prizes! Collect them all!
We love our sponsors and have several raffle prizes from our sponsors in the Los Angeles area and around the world. If you or your company would like to sponsor a raffle prize at the LA Drupal meetups, please come early or contact the LA Drupal managers.
Presentation: Shared vs. VPS Hosting
There were a lot of great questions about web hosting at last week's Downtown LA Drupal meetup (and in the discussion forums since), and this time, Christefano of Exaltation of Larks will be giving a two-part presentation on how to get the most out of shared hosting and an introduction to VPS hosting: pros and cons.
Lightning talks
We have time as well for lightning talks, which are 5-10 minute presentations from attendees who would like to share something with the group. If you'd like to give a lightning talk, be sure to come a few minutes early and bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.
Location
We are being hosted by Specialized Digital Solutions (SDS) at their offices in Marina del Rey, CA. SDS specializes in best-in-class website design, online marketing, Flash multimedia, corporate identity and print graphics, and is looking to hire a contract themer.
This is the second time LA Drupal has been hosted by Specialized Digital Solutions. The last time was for the Git with Drupal 7 event, which combined a Git bootcamp with a Drupal 7 code sprint and was announced on the Drupal.org front page.
Again, please note that this is a dog-friendly venue and that the owners have their dogs here every day. If this is an issue for you, be sure to bring any necessary medication. We are always looking for venues for LA Drupal events, so please contact the LA Drupal managers if you'd like to become a venue sponsor.
Drupal After Dark!
That's right, we're having another Drupal After Dark. After the meetup, several of us will be going out to a nearby restaurant to decompress and socialize. This time we'll be going to Gaby's Mediterranean at 20 Washington Blvd. near the Venice Pier. Parking on Washington Blvd. is difficult but there's parking along Pacific Ave.
Gaby's is both vegan- and omnivore-friendly. Their phone number is (310) 821-9721. There's a convenience store next door in case anyone wants to BYOB.
About LA Drupal
The LA Drupal community in and around Los Angeles, California, is one of the world's largest regional Drupal user groups. With regular Drupal trainings, monthly meetings and social gatherings, LA Drupal is Southern California's hub for all things Drupal. LA Drupal is also the producer of the annual DrupalCamp LA conference, the largest independent Drupal event in the world for two years running.
If you aren't already part of LA Drupal, it's easy to become a member. We have several meetings every month that are free and open to everyone. There are also social gatherings and formal working meetings that sometimes happen throughout the month. Events are announced here and at the LA Drupal website.
Comments
Any lightning talks for our 8/31/2010 meetup?
Anyone offering to do a lightning talk tomorrow night at our monthly Westside LA Drupal meetup? You get 5 minutes, unless more time is asked for ahead of time. Let us know.
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
can i make a request?
it would be very helpful to me if someone could do a succint site/db back-up walk-through... is this a 5-10min sort of thing?
5-10 minutes is perfect, so
5-10 minutes is perfect, so long as it covers what you want to see. What are the tools that you use? The more specific you are (whether you use cPanel, the command line, exclusively Drupal's UI, etc.) the more closely people can tailor a presentation to your needs.
I think just watching someone
I think just watching someone go through it would be helpful. I personally don't have any specific needs... whatever way the presenter is used to, and would have any tips to throw in. This is probably best suited to the Downtown meetup since I'd guess this is a fairly beginner level demo...
Lightning talk on site launch?
If people are up for it, I wouldn't mind doing a quick 5-10 minute talk on our redesign at calarts.edu (which is launching on August 31). It is in drupal 6 (no seven at this time), but some really fun stuff :)
I always enjoy postmortems on
I always enjoy postmortems on finished products; I would be down for that.
VPS Hosting!
I am looking forward to this. I have a Dell server that's vastly upgradable so far as processor, pluggable drives, and up to 15 Gb memory. My connection is Broad band. The server is big and noisy so I've got it unplugged in the closet but I'm ready to install an OS and setup as Virtual server but I have no experience for this. My first question is what is best OS to install, then what can this server handle so far as hosting sites. I will look for some forum content as I know there are recent instructions in here posted by Chris (I believe). Other than VPS, I am always interested to hear BTMash!
Don
VPS OS choice to install
First, pick the brand of virtual server, and the criteria to use is what OSes you currently use. Stick to what you know, and the project will be done sooner. Next criteria is what purpose or goal is to be achieved, and another is what applications will be running. That can change you away from an OS you know. Not likely, but it could. Follow these criteria and you will have fun doing VPS. I've done UML and OpenVZ and Virtual Box now.
So, what OSes do you use now? FreeBSD? Mac?
What is the goal? Ecommerce hosting with local storage of credit card numbers?
What is the application? Sure, Drupal, but what web app?
And why a VPS? That's likely the most key answer needed. Multiple untrusted users? Sandboxes to play in at the OS level? Public facing Internet box serving up web sites from separate VE's?
I'm ready to sit in on a BoF on this topic. Perhaps after the meeting?
Peter
LA's Open Source User Group Advocate - Volunteer at DrupalCamp LA and SCALE
VPS OS to Install
Hi Peter, I have spent past many months posting sites on a shared basis, as this is my year of Linux too. I'm running Centos5. The problem is I'm not expert. My goal is to become knowledgable. My current problem is Centos5 install of PHP, you can see the problem at at http://d7.markcox.net. Click through first and second screen and you will see the problem. It has to do with a PHP extension. Also (since you are so kind) there is a different msg at http://ad.markcox.net. The immediate problem is I cannot install Drupal 7.
I have Centos5 on a new quiet server. I may be able to fix the PHP problems, but I work on this every day and don't want to risk disruption. In the past some remote help has resulted in causing problems like address on wrong NIC, and quadruple outgoing traffic when Apache was running. I used Yum for updating PHP -- and hesitate to try and compile it (if that may be one way to fix it). I can put another OS onto a different machine running Ubuntu, for example, if it's a little less conservative than Centos.
I want to do an Ubercart install, for academic purpose. I've done cc and vc payment processors in the past but those I coded to vendor services.
So far as VPS, Sandboxes to play in at the OS level is the most correct thinking. And to understand the issues for allowing multiple untrusted users access but that's not an immediate issue.
I don't have production sites at the moment, except for one, and it's purely an exercise in SEO. I put it at drupalgardens.
Please if you can introduce yourself I'd love to discuss briefly just a little bit on the VPS issue.
I will bring my laptop as it has Virtual Box installed but I have not used it. I saw a helper friend come and use it but he was doing such good work I didn't bother him with questions. I just use PuTTY. I am naive about Virtual Box and that would be a great start for me to understand it better.
I have used Cygwin to install Git but unfortunately I have not used it yet. I would love to understand exactly how that will work with an eclipse project. I've actually only seen one live PHP in Eclipse project and that was today in a webcast. I've been busy just CCK and Views for last two months and have not had chance to read the Git documentation. This is not an immediate issue but I hope to start with PHP very soon and would appreciate a hand up to using Git right off the bat.
Thanks for offering assistance. Just talking in email helps. Thanks!
Don
Wont make it this time.
I'm getting over being sick AND a weeks vacation AND the kids are starting school, so I'm skipping this one this month. Maybe I'll catch up with you guys next month or host a Brewpal in Long Beach. Hope you have a great meetup and I'll miss you guys!
I would love to see a
I would love to see a lightning talk on the methods and practices people take to develop client sites, large or small. I would like to eventually become a freelancer/webdeveloper after I finish school, and I've been taking on a few clients here and there, but it's such a non-streamlined process, I know there's better ways of handling it.
Views embedded in Views and Style/Row Plugins
Using the View template method with the View API call views_embed_view and how the *.tpl.php files work for such. I know this is an ultra advance topic.
An alternative method is a Style Plugin, and how those are coded.
I've done my base research, and have some questions.
Anyone like to have an Advanced Developers Special Interest Group meeting? Where we talk PHP almost exclusively?
Peter
LA's Open Source User Group Advocate - Volunteer at DrupalCamp LA and SCALE
I think I'd be into an all
I think I'd be into an all advanced meetup. I have been struggling to get most of my development out of the UI and would love any pointer from others as well as add what I know to the discussion.
Advanced Developers Special Interest Group meeting PHP
I've worked a little PHP, Joomla, but lot's of ASP, JSP, and javascript. I hope to get up with PHP quickly. There's at least one video on lynda.com, plus I have a book I hope to read. This is what I've learned so far, there's much to learn! I'm very much interested in PHP discussions.
Don
It took a while, but my talk
It took a while, but my talk from this meetup on "Getting the most out of shared hosting" is now on blip.tv at http://ladrupal.blip.tv/file/4656252/