Question for the list, who has made the jump from Apache to a faster web server? <br><br>This talk next Thursday will be a technical look at benchmarking Apache and alternative web servers. <br>I got a bit of a preview and it looks really good. <br>
<br>-Forest<br><div class="gmail_quote"><br>
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UNIGROUP OF NEW YORK - UNIX USERS GROUP - MAY 2008 ANNOUNCEMENTS<br>
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<br>
----------------------------------<br>
1. UNIGROUP'S MAY 2008 MEETING NOTICE<br>
----------------------------------<br>
<br>
When: THURSDAY, May 22, 2008 (** SPECIAL 4th Thursday **)<br>
<br>
Where: Alliance for Downtown NY Conference Facility<br>
Downtown Center<br>
104 Washington Street<br>
South West Corner of Wall Street Area<br>
Downtown, New York City<br>
** Please RSVP (not mandatory) **<br>
<br>
Time: 6:15 PM - 6:25 PM Registration<br>
6:25 PM - 6:45 PM Ask the Wizard, Questions,<br>
Answers and Current Events<br>
6:45 PM - 7:00 PM Unigroup Business and Announcements<br>
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM Main Presentation<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------<br>
Topic: Serving High Performance Web Sites - Where Apache Fails<br>
-------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Speaker: Anthony Ferrara,<br>
Bigtrue INC.<br>
<br>
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<br>
INTRODUCTION:<br>
-------------<br>
<br>
This month's presentation should be very interesting... a technical<br>
talk on High Performance Web Servers and alternatives.<br>
<br>
We are also planning our next BSD meeting, with another<br>
presentation from George Neville-Neil of the The FreeBSD Project<br>
Team... tentatively something along the lines of: The FreeBSD<br>
Networking Stack (including recent work on supporting very<br>
high speed Ethernet standards, and security/packet filtering).<br>
<br>
We are also planning a Launch Meeting for the newly released<br>
OpenSolaris (Project Indiana) Distribution.<br>
<br>
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<br>
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:<br>
---------------------<br>
<br>
To REGISTER for this event, please RSVP by using the Unigroup<br>
Registration Page:<br>
<a href="http://www.unigroup.org/unigroup-rsvp.html" target="_blank">http://www.unigroup.org/unigroup-rsvp.html</a><br>
<br>
This will allow us to automate the registration process.<br>
(Registration will also add you to our mailing list.)<br>
Please avoid emailed RSVPs.<br>
<br>
Please continue to check the Unigroup web site and meeting page,<br>
for any last minute updates concerning this meeting. If you<br>
registered for this meeting, please check your email for any last<br>
minute announcements as the meeting approaches. Also make sure<br>
any anti-spam white-lists are updated to _ALLOW_ Unigroup traffic!<br>
If you block Unigroup Emails, your address will be dropped from our<br>
mailing list.<br>
<br>
Please RSVP as soon as possible.<br>
<br>
Note: RSVP is not mandatory for this location, but it does help<br>
us to properly plan the meeting (food, drinks, handouts,<br>
seating, etc.).<br>
<br>
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<br>
MAIN PRESENTATION<br>
-----------------<br>
<br>
Topic: Serving High Performance Web Sites - Where Apache Fails<br>
<br>
For nearly a decade, Apache has been seen as the only practical<br>
choice for serving static and dynamic content. To this day, it<br>
powers the majority of all web sites. However, Apache has several<br>
limitations and forthcomings (especially in the area of<br>
performance). Nearly a decade of experience has many people<br>
believing that these limitations are inherent in serving content<br>
(An entire industry has even been created to deal with these<br>
limitations). In reality, none of these limitations exist.<br>
We'll look into some of these shortcomings, and alternative<br>
technologies which exist that do not suffer from them.<br>
<br>
This talk will focus on technical and theoretical limitations<br>
inherent to the design of Apache. There will be at least a few<br>
benchmark results shown and explained. A big part of the talk<br>
will focus on why mod_php fails, and why FastCGI is superior.<br>
<br>
The following alternative web servers will be discussed:<br>
- FastCGI over mod_{php,perl,ruby,etc}<br>
- Lighttpd Web Server<br>
- Nginx (if there is time to finish the benchmarks)<br>
- TUX webserver (discussed briefly, including some<br>
system layouts possible with it)<br>
<br>
Web Resources:<br>
--------------<br>
<br>
Apache Web Server<br>
<a href="http://httpd.apache.org/" target="_blank">http://httpd.apache.org/</a><br>
<br>
Lighttpd Web Server<br>
<a href="http://www.lighttpd.net/" target="_blank">http://www.lighttpd.net/</a><br>
<br>
Nginx<br>
<a href="http://nginx.net/" target="_blank">http://nginx.net/</a><br>
<br>
Apache Modules: FastCGI over mod_{php,perl,ruby}<br>
<a href="http://modules.apache.org/search?id=73" target="_blank">http://modules.apache.org/search?id=73</a><br>
<a href="http://modules.apache.org/search?id=80" target="_blank">http://modules.apache.org/search?id=80</a><br>
<br>
TUX Web Server<br>
<a href="http://www.stllinux.org/meeting_notes/2001/0719/tux/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.stllinux.org/meeting_notes/2001/0719/tux/index.html</a><br>
<br>
Joomla CMS<br>
<a href="http://joomla.org" target="_blank">http://joomla.org</a><br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Speaker Biography:<br>
------------------<br>
<br>
Anthony Ferrara is the team lead of the Joomla! Bug Squad, a<br>
member of the Joomla! Developer work group, owner and operator<br>
of JoomlaPerformance.com, and has released open source several<br>
caching programs to increase website speed. He has quite varied<br>
background ranging from Mathematics to Emergency<br>
Medicine (and quite a bit in between).<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Company Biography:<br>
------------------<br>
<br>
Anthony's company, Bigtrue INC, specializes in consulting and<br>
development focusing on performance (specializing in<br>
the Joomla CMS).<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Giveaways:<br>
----------<br>
<br>
Addison-Wesley Professional/Prentice Hall PTR has been kind<br>
enough to provide us with some of their books, which we will<br>
continue to raffle off as giveaways at our meetings.<br>
<br>
O'Reilly has been kind enough to provide us with some of their<br>
books, which we will continue to raffle off as giveaways at our<br>
meetings.<br>
<br>
Unigroup would like to thank both companies for the support<br>
provided by their User Group programs.<br>
<br>
Note: The chances tend to be about 1 in 5, that any attendee of<br>
our meeting will walk away with a fairly valuable giveaway<br>
(ie. most books are valued between $30 and $60)!<br>
<br>
** Thanks to our friends at Sun Microsystems, Unigroup also has<br>
some Solaris 10 DVDs to raffle off.<br>
<br>
As always, all of the books will be available for review at the<br>
start of the meeting.<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Fee Schedule:<br>
Yearly Membership (includes all meetings): $ 50.00<br>
Non-Member Single Meeting: $ 20.00<br>
Student Yearly Membership (with ID): $ 20.00<br>
Non-Member Student Single Meeting (with ID): $ 5.00<br>
Payment Methods: Cash, Check, American Express.<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Complimentary Food and Refreshments will be served. This includes<br>
"wraps" such as turkey, roast beef, chicken, tuna and grilled<br>
vegetables as well as assorted salads (potato, tossed,<br>
pasta, etc), cookies, brownies, bottled water and assorted beverages.<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Directions:<br>
<br>
Alliance for Downtown NY Conference Facility<br>
Downtown Center<br>
104 Washington Street<br>
Wall Street Area<br>
Downtown, New York City<br>
<br>
This building is located on the West side of the street, the<br>
second building north of Rector Street. Cross Streets:<br>
Between Rector (South) and Carlisle (North) Streets.<br>
<br>
Our meeting location is in the Lower West Corner of Downtown,<br>
North of the Battery Tunnel, South of the Downtown Hotel,<br>
East of West Street, and West of Greenwich Street. Walking West<br>
on Rector Street from Broadway, you pass Church, Greenwich then<br>
Washington Streets.<br>
<br>
There are multiple blocks of parking lots right there, between<br>
Washington and Greenwich Streets, starting at the Battery Tunnel<br>
and extending North for a number of blocks.<br>
<br>
Nearest mass transit stations, in order, are the '1/9' (Rector<br>
Street), 'R/W' (Rector Street) and the '4/5' (Wall Street).<br>
<br>
-----<br>
<br>
Please mark this meeting on your calendar and join us!<br>
Please tell your friends about Unigroup!<br>
<br>
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<br>
----------------<br>
2. LOCAL NYC EVENTS<br>
----------------<br>
<br>
a) IASA IT Architect NYC Regional Conference - May 22-23 2008<br>
==========================================================<br>
<br>
The IT Architect Regional Conference is the largest event<br>
in NYC which addresses the needs of IT architects today.<br>
This event is sponsored by the NYC IASA Chapter.<br>
<br>
For information and paid registration visit:<br>
<a href="http://www.iasahome.org/web/itarc/nyc" target="_blank">http://www.iasahome.org/web/itarc/nyc</a><br>
<br>
For information about the local IASA NYC Chapter visit:<br>
<a href="http://www.iasahome.org/web/newyork" target="_blank">http://www.iasahome.org/web/newyork</a><br>
<br>
<br>
b) SIFMA (formerly SIA) Technology Management Conference 2008<br>
==========================================================<br>
<br>
Date: Tue, June 10 12:00pm - 6:00pm<br>
Wed, June 11, 9:00am - 6:00pm<br>
Thu, June 12, 9:00am - 12:00pm<br>
<br>
Where: Hilton New York<br>
1335 6th Avenue<br>
NYC<br>
<br>
For information and online registration visit:<br>
<a href="http://events.sifma.org/2008/107/event.aspx?id=526" target="_blank">http://events.sifma.org/2008/107/event.aspx?id=526</a><br>
<br>
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<br>
-----------------<br>
3. UPCOMING MEETINGS<br>
-----------------<br>
<br>
We have a series of meetings in the works:<br>
<br>
- FreeBSD 7 Launch Meeting, Part 2<br>
- OpenSolaris Launch Meeting<br>
- Planning: IPsec and IPv6 and VPNs (possibly 3 meetings)<br>
- Planning: Unix/Linux/BSD Distribution Round Table Discussions<br>
- Planning: Asterix / Bayonne / OpenPBX-CallWeaver / VoIP<br>
- Planning: NO SPAM!<br>
- Crypto / PKI / GPG-PGP<br>
- The latest on *BSD (NetBSD/OpenBSD)<br>
- Patching and Updating Unix/Linux/BSD (rpm. yum, yast, etc.)<br>
- Building Custom Kernels Unix/Linux/BSD<br>
- Are there too many Linux Distributions?<br>
- Unix/Linux/BSD Clusters and Clustered Databases<br>
- Linux Clustering Part 3: Beowulf version 2<br>
- Building a Firewall using FreeBSD and Linux<br>
- LAMP Part 2 - PHP<br>
- Field Trip to HP<br>
- Unix 35th Birthday Celebration (Sun has offered to host this!)<br>
- Samba<br>
- DNS<br>
- High Performance Internet Servers / Web Acceleration<br>
- Unix Office Tools: Word Processors, Spreadsheets, Accounting Packages.<br>
- GNU Development Environments<br>
- iSCSI, Serial ATA, and other new peripheral technologies<br>
- Java and/or JavaScript Programming<br>
<br>
** Unigroup Needs Speakers!!<br>
Please let us know about any other meeting topics that you may be<br>
interested in. Potential speakers on Unix/Linux/BSD related<br>
technology topics should please contact the Unigroup Board.<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
--------------<br>
4. PRIOR MEETINGS<br>
--------------<br>
<br>
** Formal Thank You's to our previous speakers will appear<br>
in an upcoming announcement.<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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<br>
--------------------<br>
5. UNIGROUP INFORMATION<br>
--------------------<br>
<br>
Unigroup is one of the oldest and largest Unix User's Groups serving<br>
the Greater New York City Regional Area since the early 1980s. Unigroup<br>
is a not-for-profit, vendor-neutral and member funded volunteer<br>
organization. Unigroup holds regular and special event meetings<br>
throughout the year on technical topics relating to Unix and the Unix<br>
User Community. Unigroup is/was also the Greater NYC Regional Area<br>
Affiliate of UniForum - an International Unix Users Group.<br>
<br>
Unigroup holds regular meetings planned for (at a minimum) the Third<br>
THURSDAY of Odd Months. We generally try to hold Field Trip or<br>
Vendor Specific Meetings on the Even Months, although we do have the<br>
ability to hold monthly meetings at our new downtown meeting location.<br>
<br>
Planned regular meeting dates are (usually 3rd Thursdays):<br>
5/22/2008, 7/17/2008, 9/18/2008, 11/20/2008, 1/15/2009...<br>
Watch for our Special Event meetings at the various trade shows in NYC<br>
as well as "Field Trips" to the facilities of local hardware and<br>
software vendors.<br>
<br>
=========================================================================<br>
= For Unigroup Information, Events and Meeting Announcements be sure to =<br>
= visit our World Wide Web Home Page: =<br>
= <a href="http://www.unigroup.org" target="_blank">http://www.unigroup.org</a> =<br>
=========================================================================<br>
<br>
For further information or to get on the Unigroup Electronic Mail Mailing<br>
List send an EMail message to:<br>
unilist (-a_t-) <a href="http://unigroup.org" target="_blank">unigroup.org</a><br>
<br>
To contact the Board of Directors of Unigroup, send an EMail message to:<br>
uniboard (-a_t-) <a href="http://unigroup.org" target="_blank">unigroup.org</a><br>
<br>
If you have recently attended a meeting and you are not receiving<br>
Email announcements, please send us an Email and we will make<br>
corrections to our lists.<br>
<br>
Please Email the Board with any suggestions, especially potential<br>
meeting topics and speakers. Unigroup welcomes contributions and<br>
content suggestions for our newsletter. Unigroup is a volunteer<br>
organization and we need your assistance! Please let us know if you<br>
can help!<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
-Rob Weiner<br>
Unigroup Executive Director<br>
unilist (-a_t-) <a href="http://unigroup.org" target="_blank">unigroup.org</a><br>
<a href="http://www.unigroup.org" target="_blank">http://www.unigroup.org</a><br>
<br>
</div><br>