124 replies to this topic

[LeMOGO]

I am starting this thread about an idea that I've been toying with: a platform to meet, share, learn, socialize ...

I am putting this out to get input and ideas on how and what will make it worthwhile, interesting, and productive. It would be nice if we could come up with a workable list of desired:

• subjects
• presentations
• demonstrations
• skills
• tools
• venues
• meeting formats
• ballpark figure for affordable fee (if any)
• ... anything that should be part of the logistics (please specify)

I would like to suggest Washington, DC as the first location (unless someone has better to offer - a good opportunity to visit the US).

We will need a panel starting right here from REBOOT. If you would like to present something that you think might be beneficial to the community, please let us know.

Thank you all for making this the great community it is and for all your unique contributions.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UPDATES ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This section lists the updates to the topic as a one stop place to quickly get follow ups.

While Nuno works with the presenters to come up with some form of commitment/agreement, here are the updated proposals and offerings (confirmed items will be marked "[confirmed]" when they are):

Proposed location:

• Wherever you happen to be, through video conferencing.
• Washington, DC [1][2]
• A university campus - if possible [source]

Proposed format:

• Online video conferencing (service and format TBD) - for those who can not make the trip for one reason or the other.
  
  • Office Live Meeting
  • video and chat systems for reboot members to follow the talks and participate from the Internet as well
  • Cisco WebEx
  • OpenMeetings
• Live sessions with presenters followed by Q&A
  
  • two keynote presentations a day, then just the rest of the day is split into hour long demos/workshops [source]
  • It would be nice to be able to sit down with experts and learn how to their tools to better advantage without having to find a lot of time to sit down and learn by yourself. This could be done between sessions. [source]

Proposed dates:

• June 7th to June 10 th 2012 [source]

Prposed time (GMT):

• TBD - a time slot that will provide the least disturbance around the world

Proposed topics:

• Quick tour of Reboot.pro - [Nuno] - [confirmed]
• Alexa and reboot.pro - [Nuno] - [pending wonko's promise][see answer]
• Booting .vhd Windows
• PXE/http Windows booting
• Running Windows from USB media
• Slimming Windows size [source][2]
• presentation about Windows VHD by Sambul61 [source]
• see some demos to see what random stuff people are doing [source]
• How to boot w7pe pxe as a solution to run a bunch of scripts which would for the most part fix 80% of common problems. [source]
• Some security related papers which Team Reboot yet needs to discuss.
• a small scale on-the-spot CTF event
• Getting the most out of WinBuilder
• Grub4DOS: methods of use, tools, utilities, graphic menus, development trends, Burg
• Tools to access, format and repair your PC hard drive.
• Boot Windows anywhere.
• Reboot.pro - from MSFN roots to 1st place in Alexa ranks.
• Linking boot knowledge bits together.
• WinPE and its tools evolution.
• Windows and Application Security.
• Advanced Networking. [source]
• A quick "Look what is possible" session listing and demonstrating (as much as possible) the accomplishments from the various threads would be useful.[source]- [Nuno] - [confirmed]
• And see what others are working on ...

Proposed presenters:

• Team Reboot
• Nuno
• Wonko, was_jaclaz, jaclaz
• sambul61
• tinybit
• chenall
• ded
• ilko
• steve6375
• laddanator
• Icecube
• cdob
• wimb
• karyonix
• sha0
• olof
• sara-pmedia
• pscEx
• sbaeder
• ChrisR
• Jamal
• Holmes Sherlock
• joakim
• erwan
• sfinktax
• OverFlow636 [confirmed]
• Team Reboot might try to invite members of other CTF teams of non-Rebooters [source]

Edited by LeMOGO, 22 February 2012 - 05:15 AM.

[LeMOGO]

In case you don't like burgers (USA), we can do pasta (italy)!
I'm sure there is what it takes here for good meetings and networking on the ground (wherever it might be beneficial).

Or maybe Tandori chicken (India)?...

[Brito]

Hello,

I like this initiative and would certainly be present.

Some topics I'd like to see focused:
- Booting .vhd Windows
- PXE/http Windows booting
- Running Windows from USB media
- Slimming Windows size

Sorry for just suggesting Windows related topics.

[AceInfinity]

I'm looking forward to this Conferences are something new to me until this year where I have quite a few. I think you could reach to more of the community if this was through an online session. You'd need a good platform that allows for the best way of the most personal communication though to feel like you're in a real conference where people can collaborate in a session of learning, sharing, and providing support to contributions and ideas.

I haven't used it yet, but there's Office Live Meeting, and that's about the most professional one I know of after IRC and things like MSN, which aren't really great and professional ways of communication.

[Wonko the Sane]

For NO apparent reason.


Visual location comparison

Washington D.C.:




Fiji islands:



Wonko

[Holmes.Sherlock]

Honestly I don't think that such an effort will have much participation as U.S. VISA is still too costly for countries like India.

[MedEvil]

Have to agree with Wonko. When i need to fly half way around the world to attend something, it better be in a nice place.
Washington is not a place that comes to mind first.

Is there anything else that would speak for Washington?

[Wonko the Sane]

More than that (you know geeks at conventions tend to gather in dark rooms in front of little LCD screens and keyboards ), we should find a location which is not only barycentrical equidistant from the countries where partecipants live, but also - due to the different income people may have available - correct this distances with lowest travel and accomodation costs.

I mean, if one has a monthly income of (say) US$ 2,000, he/she may be able to spend (say) half of that (US$ 1,000) for this conference without much problems, but if the monthly income is US$ 200, even with the greatest effort spending 5 months income for it is unpracticable.

At least from Europe, the lower air travel and accomodation would probably be the Red Sea (Sharm El Sheik - Egypt), Tunisia or Canary Islands.
Cannot say if it would cost a fortune from the US or from India/Asia or if there would be beareaucratic obstacles.
Casually India - whilst being much more expensive - is not that bad.
Still in Asia, probably Thailand, Bangkok or Koh Sa Mui could be affordable.



Wonko

[Brito]

In percentage terms when looking to regions where reboot visitors come from:

- US with 18%
- Germany with 6.85%
- India with 6.01%

We are an online community so it will always be difficult to find a place to accommodate everyone. This year I see no problem in the States, especially since LeMOGO is working so hard to make the first reboot.pro conference possible. If Galapo was around, then I imagine it would be even harder for him to be present at a conference, regardless of where it would take place except perhaps if we all went to Australia.

What we can do is make available video and chat systems for reboot members to follow the talks and participate from the Internet as well. After this experiment we can try another region of the globe as well, such as Germany or India depending on popular feedback.

For example, Team Reboot could be present as host of a CTF event at this occasion like it was done in the Netherlands last year (just an idea). In the end, we might not have not enough room for everyone who wants to be there physically..

[Holmes.Sherlock]

We are an online community so it will always be difficult to find a place to accommodate everyone. This year I see no problem in the States, ....

If you are serious at this discussion, I earnestly request you to take into account the fact that $1 maps to > INR 50.

At least from Europe, the lower air travel and accomodation would probably be the Red Sea (Sharm El Sheik - Egypt), Tunisia or Canary Islands.
Cannot say if it would cost a fortune from the US or from India/Asia or if there would be beareaucratic obstacles.
Casually India - whilst being much more expensive - is not that bad.
Still in Asia, probably Thailand, Bangkok or Koh Sa Mui could be affordable.

Mr. Dijkstra, Mr. Bellman & Mr. Ford provided nice algorithnms for such calculation years back.

[AceInfinity]

Yeah, I live in Canada, so if you take peoples preferences which are most likely similar to Wonko's then I doubt that i'll be able to stay here while this conference is going on and be at the conference or anywhere near it at the same time lol!

Perhaps there could be some kind of an online integration as well though for the people that can't participate? They can see the event going on, and contribute to a distant participation in this event from their computer?

[sambul61]

We should find a location which is not only barycentrical equidistant from the countries where partecipants live, but also - due to the different income people may have available - correct this distances with lowest travel and accomodation costs.

How about Income Sharing Adventure for the month of the conference? That would help lower income parties to arrive. Where we should start - possibly from sharing Tax Returns to ensure there is no cheating.

[Wonko the Sane]

In percentage terms when looking to regions where reboot visitors come from:

- US with 18%
- Germany with 6.85%
- India with 6.01%

Hmmm.
Your friends at Alexa have different figures :
http://www.alexa.com...nfo/reboot.pro#

Visitors by Country for Reboot.pro

Country Percent of Visitors
United States 15.0%
Germany 9.8%
India 9.5%
United Kingdom 6.0%
Spain 2.8%
Portugal 2.6%
France 2.2%
Australia 2.1%
Indonesia 2.0%
Romania 1.9%

maybe the above are as senseless as the rest of Alexa.


@Holmes.Sherlock
In real life it does not work like that, if the destination is well organized, is cheap and a "turistic place", the distance is less relevant, so those algorithms need to be corrected heavily (or better put aside and simply get the cheapest destination from all countries AND weight the average income AND - as you rightly pointed out - possible beaureaucratic obstaacles )
Consider - though unrelated - the difference between rhumb line/loxodrome and gereat circle/orthodrome routes.

@Sambul61
Sure, let's hire an international chartered accountant to analyze and validate them and guarantee the absence of cheating, first .
I guess we could have Standard & Poors or Moody's to look into the matter.



Wonko

[Brito]

Your friends at Alexa have different figures

I'm not surprised. The values I mention before are derived from google analytics that tracked users from last month who visited reboot.pro with javascript activated.

Alexa tracks strictly the users who have the alexa tool installed on their browsers.

[Wonko the Sane]

Alexa tracks strictly the users who have the alexa tool installed on their browsers....

...thus producing meaningless metrics, in a senseless self-referring circle... Q.E.D.


Wonko

[Brito]

Wonko, Sambul & co, let's please get back to the conference topic..

I'd really like to see a presentation about Windows VHD by Sambul61. Would you be available?

Many other topics around here that would be nice to see and discuss on a live event.

[sambul61]

I might think about it...interesting initiative. Did I get it right, LeMOGO is offering a California Ranch as a host for this adventure?

Or, its going to be a Virtual Ranch - I can probably network boot into it from a WinPE based Diff VHD ?

[Wonko the Sane]

Many other topics around here that would be nice to see and discuss on a live event.

Good, why instead of discussing about the problems about a "real" convention, don't we organize a "virtual" one?
I mean, there will be practical difficulties to actually meet somewhere in the real world, why not organizing a "virtual" (online) meeting?
What would be needed will be:

• finding a suitable timetable for the appointment (different timezones - will have to find a compromise)
• prepare a list of the topics
• prepare the "presentations" or "papers" related to the list
• find some software that allows some form of videoconferencing (this would also be useful to allow those that won't be able to take part to the "real" meeting)

Then, IF we'll ever be able to actually organize a "real" meeting, the only thing to do will be to prepare the suitcase and go to the meeting.


Wonko

[sambul61]

Are you saying, Wonko may actually appear some day on a Video Conference out of the blue suffusion? I love this idea already...

[Wonko the Sane]

Are you saying, Wonko may actually appear some day on a Video Conference out of the blue suffusion? I love this idea already...

Of course, to protect the innocents I wil need to be disguised, not unlike Mr. and Mrs. Starkwell:



Wonko

[MedEvil]

I'm not surprised. The values I mention before are derived from google analytics that tracked users from last month who visited reboot.pro with javascript activated.

Alexa tracks strictly the users who have the alexa tool installed on their browsers.

In that case, both give useless numbers.
We're not a houswives board, used strictly by people, who have no clue about computers, mostly because they don't want to.

We're a geek comunity.
Can't believe, anypne here actually surfs the net without a NoScript like function.

[Holmes.Sherlock]

I think we are digressing from the topic. Let's come back.

What I realize that we need some time to come to a consensus regarding the location & agenda, keeping all other factors like affordability, availability balanced. Meanwhile, doesn't Wonko's idea sound impressive? Can't we have a virtual meeting & have a trial? This is easier to set up. More are likely to join.We can use services like Cisco WebEx or similar. What do members say? Please share.

[OverFlow636]

A conference sounds like an awesome idea.
Would like to see some demos to see what random stuff people are doing!

The conference makeup could be something like one or two keynote presentations a day, then just the rest of the day is split into hour long demos/workshops
Fee: 100-500 would be acceptable to me

If anyone is interested in the following i could present it.

I worked in pc repair for a college doing free repairs for students. As you can imagine there were always tons of laptops dropped off everyday. I developed a nice w7pe pxe solution while i worked there. The pxe worked so well it became our step 1 for fixing the machines. It would take ~10 minutes to boot and then do a bunch of scripts(taking hours) which would for the most part fix 80% of the machines we got in, reducing our turn around time to 1 day from up to 2 weeks.

The main thing important with the pxe image was that it needed nic drivers for everything or the script would fail once it booted. I had to keep the image updated with new nic drivers as they came out. and i think my image was about 200mb which worked fine over pxe.

The next thing was just what to run on the comps to fix common problems. We did chkdsk, virus scanning, temp file removal (fixed a good number of virus/malware) and even some offline registry repairs.

[sambul61]

Yeah, the Conference is a good idea. Not sure about 100-500 though, depends on chosen currency.

I'm kinda surprised, LeMOGO suggested to meet and socialize in a place not known to host programmer forums, after placing his last one liner here in June 2011. Unusual urge after a lengthy absence... I'd really like to hear a presentation about the final touches to The Boot Process: Step by Step saga at the Conference.

[tamico1021]

Great idea... being a newbie and still figuring stuff out probably couldn't offer anything, but would like to see what others are working on and how I could improve my project. Plus being from Jersey that would be an easy trip!!