AUUG Canberra Summer Conference 98

Manning Clarke Centre - Australian National University

9.00am, Friday 13th February 1998

A conference on UNIX and Open Systems for the Canberra Region brought to you by the Canberra Chapter of AUUG Inc.

The Conference will be held on Friday 13th February at the Australian National University, starting at 9am. Registration is in the Manning Clark Foyer (building 26a), commencing at 8.30am. Lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments are provided.


Conference Schedule

Time SlotSpeakerTopic
9:00 - 9:10Jeremy BishopWelcome and Introduction
9:10 - 9:50Dr. Neil GuntherParallel Processing in Pictures: Form vs. Content
9:50 - 10:20Gordon Rowell/Peter BrayAutomated software distribution tool
10:20 - 10:50Peter ElfordVoice over IP
10:50 - 11:10MORNING TEA
11:10 - 11:40Phil YialeloglouSecurity - IPSEC
11:40 - 12:10Dr. Lawrie BrownA Current Perspective on Encryption Algorithms
12:10 - 12:40Andrew TridgellManaging Free Software Projects
12:40 - 2:00LUNCH
2:00 - 2:30Enno DavidsObject Serialization in Java
2:30 - 3:00Jan NewmarchRecent and Forthcoming Developments on the Web
3:00 - 3:30Peter BillamInternet Payment Systems
3:30 - 4:00AFTERNOON TEA
4:00 - 4:30Jeremy BishopWhat's the time, Mr Satellite? Using a GPS receiver as a NTP reference clock
4:30 - 5:00David PurdueSam-I-Am - A SPAM Filter System
5:00Jeremy BishopConference Close


Program Details

Parallel Processing in Pictures: Form vs. Content

Neil Gunther, Performance Dynamics

Modeling SMP scalability using simulations or queueing models is both time consuming and difficult to verify. A simpler approach is to use an equational model and fit it to measured data. The problem here is, there is more than one model from which to choose e.g.,

Without knowing the interactions expressed in these models, you are reduced to blindly form-fitting data with different predictions as the outcome. In this talk, I will reveal (for the first time) the underlying dynamics hidden in each of these models. Armed with this insight, the appropriate model is then easier to select.

Automated Software Distribution Tool

Gordon Rowell, Gormand Pty Ltd / Peter Bray, Telstra

This paper describes AutoInstall, an automated installation system for UNIX hosts. It provides hands-off, reproducible installation of software, patches and individual host configuration for networks of machines.

Voice Over IP

Peter Elford, Cisco

The Internet Protocol has proven to be be remarkably resilient, supporting speeds from kilobits to gigabits, a vast range of applications and scaling to truely global proportions. This presentation looks at why the next challenge for IP will be the transport of real time voice and how it will be accomplished.

Security - IPSEC

Phil Yialeloglou, Cisco

IPSec is a framework of open standards for ensuring secure private communications over the Internet. Based on standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), IPSec ensures confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of data communications across a public network. This presentation provides an introduction to IPsec concepts and operation.

A Current Perspective on Encryption Algorithms

Lawrie Brown, ADFA

This talk will present a perspective on the current state of play in the field of encryption algorithms, in particular on private key block ciphers which are widely used for bulk data and link encryption. With the recent call by the US NIST for submissions to define an Advanced Encryption Standard to eventually replace the DES, there has been increased activity in this field. I will briefly describe some of the known candidates, including the local LOKI97 algorithm.

Managing Free Software Projects

Andrew Tridgell, ANU

Over the years I have had the pleasure of managing several free software projects such as Samba, rsync and KnightCap. I have also contributed to other projects such as Linux and Dosemu. The projects involved contributors spread all over the world working on a single set of quickly changing source code. In this talk I will describe some of the problems encountered with this sort of distributed development and the solutions I have found that work well as well as those that don't. I will particularly talk about a web based bug tracking tool called JitterBug that I have recently developed to make the task a little easier. Other tools that I will describe include cvs/ssh, anonymous cvs and the "FAQ-omatic". Although I will emphasise issues relating to free software development I hope that some of the ideas will be of interest to commercial software developers.

Object serialization in Java

Enno Davids, Metva

Object serialization, the act of writing an object onto some medium in a serial, byte-at-a-time manner is essential for communications systems and persistence of data in Object Oriented systems like Java. With the advent of JDK 1.1 we are provided with means to allow this to happen in an automatic manner. We examine ways to achieve the same effect under all versions of Java and we examine the benefits of using a parsable ASCII format to allow objects to serialize themselves in human readable/manipulable form.

Recent and Forthcoming Developments on the Web

Jan Newmarch, UC

Developments on the Web continue to occur at a rapid rate. This paper looks at the state of the Web in January, 1998. It reports on the recent developments and on those still in progress.

Internet Payment Systems

Peter Billam, P J B Computing

This talk surveys some of the Digital Payment systems most adapted to life on the Internet. At their best they can benefit organisations large and small, offering them payment systems with the advantages of the Internet itself - global reach, high speed, low transaction cost and high automatability. Some of the privacy and security risks are mentioned. Particular emphasis is placed on the Australian context.

What's the time, Mr Satellite? Using a GPS receiver as a NTP reference clock

Jeremy Bishop, Dept. of Defence

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is widely used for time synchronisation of local-area and wide-area TCP/IP networks. NTP can use a variety of radio, atomic, and satellite time sources as reference clocks. The Global Positioning System (GPS), in addition to providing accurate, world-wide navigation, can also be used as a time source. This paper provides an introduction to NTP and GPS, and shows how a GPS receiver can be used as a low-cost, high-accuracy NTP reference clock.

Sam-I-Am - A SPAM Filter System

David Purdue, SunSoft Pacific

We all hate SPAM. So goes the myth, I myself am not convinced. The current methods for dealing with SPAM have drawbacks that mean that even though you do not end up reading UCE, the SPAMmers are still damaging the net. The current methods basically work by ignoring any mail from any part of the net that is a suspected SPAM source. This has two drawbacks - one is that people who want to receive this mail do not, the other is that a lot of legitimate mail is destroyed (throwing out the baby with the bath water). The Sam-I-Am system is an e-mail postprocessor. It uses various techniques to acquire SPAM messages. Having acquired SPAM, it uses a secure hash algorithm to produce a signature of this message. The collected SPAM signatures are used to clean SPAM from a user mail box before the mail is read. This paper discusses the techniques used in Sam-I-Am to clean mailboxes of SPAM, and discusses various ways this system could be deployed.

Information on the conference program will continue to be revised as it becomes available.


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