Yesterday, Kyle was invited to speak at Google about remastering Knoppix. Here is a video of his speech.

If you have used Knoppix long enough, you have probably eventually decided you would like to tweak it to add a setting or package. Most people resort to the full remastering process–uncompressing and changing the loopback file system–and are faced with a complicated, time-consuming process. In this talk Kyle Rankin will discuss a number of different methods you can use to change Knoppix’s default behavior while bypassing the compressed loopback file system

Also, Kyle is handsome!

Kyle will be speaking:

at Google on Thursday, April 10
at Penguicon at the end of April
at LinuxWorld next August.

… and possibly others.

I probably won’t go to any of these talk. For one thing, two of them cost money to get into. For another, watching Kyle speak makes me a nervous wreck. I really can’t stand it. I get empathetically nervous or something. In fact, I get more nervous for Kyle when he is about to speak than I would be if I were going to give the speech. It’s silly because he is an excellent speaker. Still… yikes.

Kyle is also writing a column for Linux Journal. This month, he wrote about PXE Magic: Flexible Network Booting with Menus . Doesn’t that sound important?

UPDATE: Kyle has published another article for TechTarget called Stop server monitoring tools from crying wolf.

Kyle was interviewed for an article published in Linux Insider. In it, Kyle talks about the next distribution of Ubuntu, which is coming out in the near future. After all, Kyle co-wrote Ubuntu Hacks.

Famous husband!

If you happen to be around San Jose tonight, Kyle is giving a talk on computer-things for the Silicon Valley Linux User’s Group. Based on Kyle’s book Knoppix Hacks, Kyle will be going over how to re-master Knoppix or something like that! The free event will be at 7 p.m. at Symantec in Mountain View.

If you can’t make it to that, Kyle is also speaking on Tuesday at the North Bay Linux Users Group, which he is also president of. I quote:

In this talk Kyle Rankin will provide an introduction to performing forensics analysis on Linux machines using the popular Sleuthkit tools with their easy-to-use Autopsy web-based front-end. The talk will cover initial installation and configuration of Sleuthkit and Autopsy, basic concepts and considerations for a forensics investigation, and at the end there will be a demo with a compromised Linux image.

That talk is Tuesday, February 12 at O’Reilly Media in Sebastopol.

Kyle is also speaking on similar topics at Penguicon this March, but unlike that conference, these speeches are free to attend. Hurrah!

UPDATE: Also, check out Kyle’s most recent article in TechTarget, Server names: A checklist for scalable schemes, about naming schemes for servers.

The sequel to Kyle’s best-selling tech book Knoppix Hacks is now in stores. The new book has many many more hacks and all the new information about the most recent distributions of Knoppix.

Book Description: If you think Knoppix is just a Linux demo disk, think again. Klaus Knopper created an entire Linux distribution on a bootable CD (and now a DVD) so he could use his favorite open source tools on any computer. This book includes a collection of tips and techniques for using the enormous amount of software Knoppix offers-not just to work and play, but also to troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, and disinfect your system without having to install a thing.

Knoppix Hacks is just like the distribution it covers: a veritable Swiss Army knife packed full of tools. Scores of industrial-strength hacks-many of them new to this second edition-cover both the standard Knoppix CD and the feature-rich DVD “Maxi” distribution, which is included with this book. Discover how to use Knoppix to its full potential as your desktop, rescue CD, or as a launching point for your own live CD.

Yay Kyle!

Buy Knoppix Hacks Second Edition by Kyle Rankin here.

Kyle’s birthday was a weekend extravaganza. We hung out with our friends, went to a wannabe-Speakeasy, ate Puerto Rican food for the first time, and spent Sunday with Kyle’s dad, who came down from Seattle to surprise Kyle. The three of us went to the beach, the redwoods, and took a tour of Korbel winery. We really know how to celebrate around here.

Here are a couple of pictures from the beach, which was fogged in, and the redwoods.

The pier off Bodega

I couldn’t get over the colors in the beach plants

Random woman in the mist

Kyle and Dennis doing important work.

In other news, I am going to get a new camera. I tried out the Nikon D40 and it is looking likely we’re going to splurge and get me one. I should have it in time for our cross-country trip. Hooray!

My handsome husband Kyle Rankin signing his books at last week’s LinuxWorld in San Francisco.

Thanks to Kat for taking this picture.

Kyle’s newest TechTarget article is up: How remote management saved me an emergency flight overseas. Excerpt:

They say timing is everything. This is especially true when you plan a server deployment. When crucial equipment arrives at the wrong time, it can ruin even the best plans. Even so, good planning and a good infrastructure can make up for even the worst timing. For a good example of this I only need to recall our last corporate retreat.

Like what you see? Read more here.

One thing I don’t understand: people who say marriage is work. My marriage is anything but work. Being married to Kyle is a constant source of joy and happiness in my life. It has been five years now, and I have to say–fastest five years of my life! Time flies when you’re having fun.

Kyle and I in the snow in Kentucky two years or so ago.

It was the weekend of festivals. On Saturday, I went to the San Francisco Oyster and Beer Fest to see the band Flogging Molly. On Sunday, I went to Maker Faire in San Mateo, which is put on by O’Reilly to promote Craft and Make Magazines. I took lots of pictures, too many for one entry, so I will split it up into two.

I will start with the second part of the weekend, the Maker Faire.

As an O’Reilly author, Kyle was asked to host the “Hacker’s Lemonade Stand,” where he answered questions about Knoppix, Ubuntu, or Linux Multimedia. Here he is at the booth helping some girls:

I, on the other hand, wandered around and looked at the crafts at the Bazaar Bizarre and all the exhibits. I saw robots, strange-looking bicycles, and explosions. But one of the neatest things for me was walking into the Make Store where O’Reilly was selling its books and seeing not one, but two, giant posters of the covers of Kyle’s books hanging on the wall. Here is the picture of the Knoppix Hacks poster (he’s almost done with the update of that book, by the way).

Wandering around, I got tons of article ideas and ended up buying some coasters and an art print. Here are some pictures:

The main room of the fair

This kid was playing a video game using that plane as a controller

Pirate guy

By wearing that suit, that guy was playing music on the computer just by moving his body.

Knitting and drumming at the same time, for some reason.

They were shooting fire with those gun things. It made children cry.

The children were happier with the giant robotic giraffe.

He will write you a poem about anything.

Tomorrow, part two of my weekend: The Beer Fest and Flogging Molly.