Join us at the AI Portland Meetup for an insightful panel discussion on the intersection of generative image AI and the creative industries. Our panelists, each with their unique expertise, will shed light on how professionals in various creative fields are harnessing the power of AI tools while preserving the essence of their craft.

April's Panelists:

Aaron Hockley, Author and Photographer Aaron Hockley is a photographer, author, and speaker who merges his expertise in photography and technology to help others find success. He’s a PPA Master Photographer and Photographic Craftsman and has represented Team USA in the World Photographic Cup. He writes and speaks about technical aspects of photography, photo businesses, and the industry as a whole. He's spoken to audiences of photographers, marketers, and media professionals on stages of all sizes nationwide. Aaron’s recent ventures have focused on how Artificial Intelligence impacts how photographers capture, edit, and manage their images with an eye toward the shifting future of the industry. Find Aaron: https://techphotoguy.com https://youtube.com/@techphotoguy https://instagram.com/techphotoguy

Karly Hand, Brand Developer & Creative Lead Seasoned brand developer and creative director Karly Hand blends strategic insight with creative vision to craft compelling brand narratives. With a distinguished portfolio spanning two decades, she has cultivated and propelled lifestyle brands like Aspen Snowmass, Verb Products, Smith Optics, Microsoft, and Adidas, shaping their identities and communicating their core value through strategic, artful brand expressions.

Karissa Liloc, Principal Product Manager Karissa Liloc (she/her) is a Principal Product Manager at Getty Images focused on Generative AI and other tools that make it easier for customers to find and use imagery. Previously at Disney and Gap, Inc, she has a track record of bringing cross-functional teams together to provide solutions to user problems and business challenges. Her most recent work has been bringing Generative AI by Getty Images to market, offering commercially safe, easy-to-use, AI image generation that compensates creators.

Emily Maass, Attorney Emily represents cutting edge companies as privacy and product counsel, general counsel, and a data protection and cybersecurity advisor. She helps clients navigate complex privacy frameworks, contract negotiations, regulatory compliance, and daily business operations, and she provides ongoing counsel for product development, launch, and management. Emily supports companies in AI, web3, gaming, automation, and software applications serving a broad range of industries.

This event promises a deep dive into the world of generative image AI, providing valuable insights for photographers, designers, AI enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the intersection of technology and creativity. Whether you're an artist seeking to enhance your craft or a business professional curious about the possibilities of AI, this meetup is your opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of the subject and engage in thought-provoking discussions.

Join us for an insightful panel discussion at the next Portland Design Thinkers event, exploring Surprises and Speed bumps When Practicing Design Thinking.

As a design-thinker, you might often find yourself collaborating with individuals who may not fully understand the value of your approach. How do you effectively advocate for design thinking and demonstrate its impact on your projects and organization? Learn from seasoned experts on how to thrive (or survive) in a dynamic, multi-function workplace. Whether you're an experienced pro or just starting out, bring your questions and gain valuable strategies to adapt, innovate, and lead.

Meet the panel:

Shashi Jain: Shashi Jain is a Technologist, Entrepreneur, and Teacher who believes in the power of deep-tech literacy and youth entrepreneurship. He began his journey at Intel incubating frontier technology into new business models, with partners. Over the course of 24 years, he’s delivered concepts in AI, the Internet of Things, Mixed Reality, Space, Healthcare, Additive Manufacturing, and Blockchain. He’s been mentor to deep tech startups (orbital observation, silicon photonics) and has sponsored translational research in AI for Space applications with NASA Frontier Development Lab. He currently serves as Principal at the Portland Seed Fund, advising and evaluating deep tech startups. When he’s not dreaming about quantum computers and neuroscience (in space), you’ll find him teaching innovation and entrepreneurship to high school students through TiE Young Entrepreneurs and serving on the Board of Directors at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. Shashi is also the author of “Creating Unstoppable Innovation” (coming in 2024)

Jamie Sherman: Jamie Sherman, PhD is a cultural anthropologist and user experience researcher. She has been working in the technology and UX space since 2012 when she was fortunate to join Intel, working on a range of existing and emerging technologies from virtual reality to gaming, content creation, and AI. Today she is Principal UX Researcher at ESRI focusing the UX of data and analytics in Geographic Information Systems.

Mike Premi: Mike Premi is an accomplished professional with a track record of success in sales and business development leadership, healthcare product management, and product marketing. With extensive experience in managing clinical trials of new technology solutions and driving global service innovation, Mike has cultivated strategic partnerships with prominent organizations such as the VA, American Medical Association, and American Pharmacists Association. His contributions extend beyond corporate realms, with multiple patents issued in healthcare software. As a co-founder of a healthcare startup business at Intel, Mike led partnerships with the AMA and APhA, resulting in the acquisition by a market segment leader. Transitioning to his third career, following roles as a US Naval Officer and Intel Business Development Leader, Mike's passion lies in leveraging computer technology to improve lives. He is currently dedicated to enhancing the lives of US Military Veterans through his work with SoldierStrong.org.

Paul Sorenson: With over 40 years of Human Factors Engineering/UX Research experience and a background that includes roles at Facebook, IBM, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard, and Intel, Paul Sorenson is an expert in user experience research. Specializing in user-centered, mixed-methods research, Paul's recent focus has been hand-held, wearable, and augmented/mixed reality technology and products. His expertise in experimental design, sensory perception, cognition, and human factors engineering has significantly influenced multi-sensory experience research and design.

Join us for a casual year-end accessibility social. Chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people, and discuss what you'd like to learn at events in the new year.

Food and drinks are available to purchase. This event is no-host (each participant pays for their own food/drinks), but there's no obligation to buy something to attend.

Location is wheelchair accessible, near public transit, and there is street parking for bikes and cars available nearby.

See victoriapdx.com or email [email protected] for more details about Victoria Bar.

Portland Java User Group

This month's topic is Java 21

Agenda:

5:30 - 6:00 - Assembling, meeting & greeting 6:00 - 6:05 - Call to order, Welcome, Introduction

6:05 - 7:15

Java 21 - Virtual Threads and Structured Concurrency - Tyler Van Gorder

Java 21 in Production - Sean Sullivan

Record Patterns, Pattern matching for Switch, String Templates, Sequenced Collections - Biju Kunjummen

7:15 - 7:30 - Tear down

Keith Belanger, SqlDBM Product Evangelist

Keith Belanger has over 27 years experience in the Data Architecture space and started his journey as a Data Modeler in the OLTP space and eventually migrated over to the OLAP space. He has had many roles over the years including ETL Development, BI Administration, DBA & Data Architecture. He was the Senior Data Architect and Director of Data Architecture for a Fortune 100 P&C Insurance Company. He also has consulted many companies in many verticals on their Data Modernization strategies. Keith is expert in Kimball (Star Schema) & Data Vault 2.0 solution strategies. Recognized Snowflake Data Superhero and board member of the Data Vault North America User Group.

Abstract In this presentation we will explore the benefits of top-down modeling approaches and emphasize the value of top-down modeling in data warehousing and highlight the importance of ontologies. We will discuss "why" top-down models should be considered, "how" to develop these models and apply it to your data warehousing initiatives. Ultimately, encouraging the adoption of top-down modeling as a flexible and forward-looking approach that can better meet the evolving needs of businesses while delivering tangible value.

RSVP for Google Meet link to be sent in advance, and available on the Eventbrite Online Event Page.

Portland Design Thinkers is thrilled to announce our next event with Damon Gaumont: Turning Empathy into Action – This Is How Digital Products Attain True Success

Turning empathy into action in digital product experiences is crucial for creating products that resonate with users, provide value, and foster positive relationships between users and businesses. It not only leads to better user satisfaction but also contributes to the success and reputation of the product and the company behind it. In this talk, Damon will cover why it is so important, various methods to achieve it, how to measure it, and how to ensure it is continually improved.

About our speaker: Damon currently guides brands accountably through the creation of digital experiences by tapping his extensive background and expertise in brand building, creative strategy, and experience design. His belief that all brand extensions start best with a clearly articulated vision is the first step in an accountable process that culminates with beautifully usable and inherently humanized branded digital experiences.

If you have any questions or would like to join the PDT Slack you can do so at this link: https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6

PDT is a volunteer-run organization, and as you can imagine, organizing events can be expensive. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you would like to help, we accept donations through Venmo @PortlandDesignThinkers.

Portland Linux/Unix Group General Meeting Announcement

Who: Mark/Xe1phix
What: Firejail and Linux VPNs
Where: 5500 SW Dosch Rd, Portland
When: Thursday, October 5th, 2023 at 7pm
Why: The pursuit of technology freedom

In this presentation, Xe1phix will cover:

Firejail - Sandbox - Namespace isolation (network namespaces, mount namespaces, user namespaces, PID namespaces), Seccomp-BPF - Syscall filtering Linux Capabilities (POSIX 1003.1e) filter AppArmor - Kernel module used to sandbox programs DNS-Over-HTTPS (DoH) - Encrypted DNS resolution using Mullvad DNS OpenVPN - Secure VPN setup Wireguard - Secure VPN setup Wireguard tunnels - Multihop VPN connections. Telegram - Instant Messenger Securely connecting to Telegram using Wireguard SOCKS5 proxy. Securely connecting to Telegram using OpenVPN SOCKS5 proxy. Sandboxing Telegram with Firejail Sandboxing Telegram with AppArmor qBittorrent Securely connecting to qBittorrent using Wireguard SOCKS5 proxy. Securely connecting to qBittorrent using OpenVPN SOCKS5 proxy. Using IPFilters to blacklist bad peers ProtonVPN - Trusted VPN setup DNS leak protection VPN Killswitch IPTables - Netfilter packet filter/firewall OPNSense/PFSense - OpenVPN setup Network forensics cheatsheets TCPDump, TShark, ngrep, ss, nfdump, etc Process logging cheatsheets Journalctl, lsof, ps, fuser, etc.

Xe1phix is a Linux systems engineer (Linux+, LPIC-1, LPIC-2).

He has studied Linux for 12 years, and has read over 200 books on Linux security. His primary focus, and passion in life is studying:

Linux system hardening/security Linux memory forensics & malware analysis Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)

Rules and Requests:

Please bring and properly fit a mask unless actively presenting

PLUG is open to everyone and does not tolerate abusive behavior on its mailing lists or at its meetings

Do not leave valuables in your car

Even for digital products and services, there is still always some kind of physical interaction. Whether it's by keyboard, touchscreen, voice, or something else, people choose a way to interact that works for them in their unique situation.

The Community Vision Assistive Technology (AT) Lab is a collaborative education and resource center that is open to the public. The Lab demonstrates a wide variety of AT, from communication devices and browser extensions to voice-controlled lights and adaptive video game controllers. Community Vision will be hosting us for the night to learn about these tools and explore them firsthand.

Note: The event is capped at 25 attendees; please RSVP on Meetup. Be sure you can attend in person; if your plans change, please remove yourself from attendance.

Agenda

• 5:30pm: Arrive and network
• 5:45pm: Introduction and guided tour
• 6:00pm: Open exploration of the lab, with AT Lab staff available for questions
• 6:30pm: Post-event socializing at a nearby location (TBD)

About Community Vision

Community Vision's mission is to make Oregon a place where people with disabilities can live, work, and thrive in the communities of their choice. Community Vision takes a person-centered approach in providing quality supports tailored to the unique needs and wishes of each individual and family. Learn more at cvision.org.

Accommodation requests

If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

As an accessibility professional, do you ever feel like you’re swimming against the tide as you try to make your company’s offerings more accessible? If so, you’re probably aware that the organization could be “better” with respect to accessibility, but you may have trouble identifying just what it would take to make real progress. Accessibility maturity models can help by providing objective assessment criteria and concrete steps for leveling up. In this talk, we’ll cover what is a maturity model, how they’ve been applied to accessibility, and strategies for getting started with your first assessment.

Event begins at 6:00pm; join early starting at 5:45pm for networking.

Agenda

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter

Andrew Hedges is a co-founder of Assistiv Labs, providers of a platform that simplifies manual testing of websites with assistive technologies. He is a longtime web developer having started building websites professionally in 1998. Soon thereafter he discovered this thing called accessibility and has been advocating for it ever since. Most recently, he led the design system team at Zapier where he was a major contributor to the company’s accessibility guild, including helping initiate Zapier’s first self-assessment of their digital accessibility maturity.

Accommodation requests

If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us in advance of the event to discuss.

Special thanks

Thank you to Assistiv Labs for providing tonight's Zoom hosting!

Join us for a casual summer-end accessibility social. Chat about your favorite accessibility topics, meet new people, and discuss what you'd like to learn at future events.

Food and drinks are available to purchase from a variety of food carts. This event is no-host (each participant pays for their own food/drinks), but there's no obligation to buy something to attend.

Seating area and restrooms are wheelchair accessible, via side/rear entrance. Location is accessible by public transit from multiple nearby bus lines, there is bike parking out front, and street parking is available nearby.

See hinterlandpdx.com or call (503) 231-4333 for more details about Hinterland.

Hello fellow PDXers! We have been dormant for a while, and want to gather for some networking and socializing this summer.

Join us on July 26th for a gathering at Laurelhurst Park, Picnic Area D near the intersection of SE Ankeny St & SE Cesar Chavez Blvd.

We'll provide some light snacks & beverages, but BYO is also encouraged.

A few rules from Portland Parks and Rec:

• No smoking
• Beer/wine only, no other alcohol
• Clean up after ourselves

Accessibility Notes

Parking

• Street parking
• Paved pathway to play area
• 250 feet to play area

Play Area

• Engineered mulch surface
• Ramp into play area

Play Equipment

• Transfer station
• Sensory play elements
• Adapted high-back swing
• Ramp onto play structure

Other Amenities

• Accessible restroom
• Accessible picnic table

Hello Rubyist! The Portland Ruby Brigade, also known as pdxruby and pdx.rb, is a user group for Ruby programmers in the Portland, Oregon area. The group welcomes all programmers interested in the language and its implementations, tools, libraries and frameworks, such as Ruby on Rails. The group has been meeting since August 2002 for presentations, demos and discussions applicable to all skill levels, from newbies and experts. Every month people come together to share their knowledge, projects and enthusiasm for Ruby.

Learn more about PDX.rb at: https://pdxruby.org/

Portland Java User Community! We are having an in-person event on Tuesday, March 14th out of the Google offices in downtown Portland. Join fellow Java enthusiasts for an hour of networking, learning, and planning for future events, over Pizzas and drinks.

Agenda:

6:30 - 7:00 - Assembling, meeting & greeting

7:00 - 7:05 - Call to order, Welcome, Introduction

7:05 - 7:30 - Microbenchmarking with JMH : Sean Sullivan

7:30 - 7:55 - Java in the Cloud - best practices: Biju Kunjummen

8:00 - 8:15 - Tear down

Wesley Rolfson will be joining us to discuss Instrumentation.

Data Instrumentation is the process of connecting things like output (from sensors, actions taken by a user, or feedback from a user action) and forming them into Events/messages which are then stored/translated into data structures.

In this Talk Wesley will cover: -What Data Instrumentation is -How it is applied by organizations -Where it fits in most data pipelines -What analytics should pay attention to -What graphic interface/ product owners should consider -Walkthrough 2 examples (website and application)

Join us Friday, February 3rd at 1 pm Pacific Time (2p MT, 3p CT, 4p ET) in our Google Meet room.

RSVP on Meetup: https://bit.ly/TechTalk023 RSVP on Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/TechTalkE023

Can't make it live? We will be posting the recording to our Tech Talks playlist on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/TTA-techtalks

Don't miss this great opportunity to learn and network!

Bio: Semih Salihoğlu is an Associate Professor and a David R. Cheriton Faculty Fellow at University of Waterloo. His research focuses on developing systems for managing, querying, or doing analytics on graph-structured data. His main on-going systems project is Kùzu, which is a new graph database management system that integrates novel storage, indexing and query processing techniques. He holds a PhD from Stanford University and is a recipient of the VLDB 2018 Best Paper and the VLDB 2022 Best Experiments and Analysis Paper awards.

Abstract: In this talk, I will present the Kùzu graph database management system (GDBMS) that we are developing at University of Waterloo. Datasets and workloads of popular applications that use GDBMSs require a set of storage and query processing features that relational DBMSs (RDBMSs) do not traditionally optimize for. These include optimizations for: (i) many-to-many (m-n) joins; (ii) cyclic joins; (iii) recursive joins; (iv) semi-structured data storage; and (v) support for universal resource identifiers. Kùzu aims to integrate state-of-art storage, indexing, and query processing techniques to highly optimize for this feature set. I will start by presenting the overall vision of Kùzu and then talk about the novel join operators in the system that performs joins using compressed factorized representations of intermediate tables. Kùzu is actively being developed to be a fully functional open-source DBMS with the goal of wide user adoption and under a permissible license.

Weekly Meeting of the Personal Telco Project, a volunteer based non-profit working to unfuck telecommunications policy locally, and also to build free-to-the-end-user public internet access.

The Portland Elixir/BEAM group is getting back together in the physical world.

Hack and Help Night Expectations

Hack and help nights are you opportunity to meet other people interested in Elixir or other BEAM-based languages in the real world. You can be a total newbie or just have interest in some of the ideas it brings.

Some free food and drink will be provided courtesy of sponsors.

You should try to attend if you:

Are new to Elixir and want to see what it's all about.

Need help with something you're working on or an idea you have.

You like listening and helping others, or just want to motivate people.

Want access to some hardware, electronics and sensors to play around with Nerves on.

Want to discuss the latest happenings in the community.

Need somewhere away from home to work on a project.

Just want something social to do.

We're still trying to lock in the venue for the in-person events and venues may change over time, as might the rules regarding masking depending on peoples' comfort level.

For the most part, the mask rules will follow the same restrictions as the venue and will evolve based on current trends of the virus and feedback from the community. If you're interacting with or sitting next to someone, and they would prefer for you to also be masked while nearby, please be considerate of their request.

Sponsorship

If you or a company you work for would like to host an event, or sponsor food, beverages or venue costs, please let me know! (see Event Coordinator Contact below).

Event Coordinator Contact

• Daniel: By email ([email protected]) or @dhedlund on the elixir-lang slack

The Portland Elixir/BEAM group is getting back together in the physical world.

Hack and Help Night Expectations

Hack and help nights are you opportunity to meet other people interested in Elixir or other BEAM-based languages in the real world. You can be a total newbie or just have interest in some of the ideas it brings.

Some free food and drink will be provided courtesy of sponsors.

You should try to attend if you:

Are new to Elixir and want to see what it's all about.

Need help with something you're working on or an idea you have.

You like listening and helping others, or just want to motivate people.

Want access to some hardware, electronics and sensors to play around with Nerves on.

Want to discuss the latest happenings in the community.

Need somewhere away from home to work on a project.

Just want something social to do.

We're still trying to lock in the venue for the in-person events and venues may change over time, as might the rules regarding masking depending on peoples' comfort level.

For the most part, the mask rules will follow the same restrictions as the venue and will evolve based on current trends of the virus and feedback from the community. If you're interacting with or sitting next to someone, and they would prefer for you to also be masked while nearby, please be considerate of their request.

Sponsorship

If you or a company you work for would like to host an event, or sponsor food, beverages or venue costs, please let me know! (see Event Coordinator Contact below).

Event Coordinator Contact

• Daniel: By email ([email protected]) or @dhedlund on the elixir-lang slack

The Portland Elixir/BEAM group is getting back together in the physical world.

Hack and Help Night Expectations

Hack and help nights are you opportunity to meet other people interested in Elixir or other BEAM-based languages in the real world. You can be a total newbie or just have interest in some of the ideas it brings.

Some free food and drink will be provided courtesy of sponsors.

You should try to attend if you:

Are new to Elixir and want to see what it's all about.

Need help with something you're working on or an idea you have.

You like listening and helping others, or just want to motivate people.

Want access to some hardware, electronics and sensors to play around with Nerves on.

Want to discuss the latest happenings in the community.

Need somewhere away from home to work on a project.

Just want something social to do.

We're still trying to lock in the venue for the in-person events and venues may change over time, as might the rules regarding masking depending on peoples' comfort level.

For the most part, the mask rules will follow the same restrictions as the venue and will evolve based on current trends of the virus and feedback from the community. If you're interacting with or sitting next to someone, and they would prefer for you to also be masked while nearby, please be considerate of their request.

Future Meeting Cadence

We'll be switching to the following format moving forward:

Last Tuesday of the month remains a virtual-only event, combining both the Portland and Seattle groups and anybody else who would like to join us virtually. This event has been mostly a "demos on demand" during the pandemic but will start to move back toward a 50/50 split with a pre-announced presentation for part of the event. If you have something you'd like to talk about, let the event coordinator know (see Event Coordinator Contact below). Future event dates will be: Jun 28, Jul 26, Aug 30, and Sep 27.

Two weeks before the meeting on the last Tuesday (third from last Tuesday), will be an in-person hack and help night in Seattle. Future event dates will be: Jun 14, Jul 12, Aug 16, and Sep 13.

The following night after the Seattle hack night will be an in-person hack and help night in Portland. Future event dates will be: Jun 15, Jul 13, Aug 17, and Sep 14.

Sponsorship

If you or a company you work for would like to host an event, or sponsor food, beverages or venue costs, please let me know! (see Event Coordinator Contact below).

Event Coordinator Contact

• Daniel: By email ([email protected]) or @dhedlund on the elixir-lang slack

The Portland Elixir/BEAM group is getting back together in the physical world.

Hack and Help Night Expectations

Hack and help nights are you opportunity to meet other people interested in Elixir or other BEAM-based languages in the real world. You can be a total newbie or just have interest in some of the ideas it brings.

Some free food and drink will be provided courtesy of sponsors.

You should try to attend if you:

Are new to Elixir and want to see what it's all about.

Need help with something you're working on or an idea you have.

You like listening and helping others, or just want to motivate people.

Want access to some hardware, electronics and sensors to play around with Nerves on.

Want to discuss the latest happenings in the community.

Need somewhere away from home to work on a project.

Just want something social to do.

We're still trying to lock in the venue for the in-person events and venues may change over time, as might the rules regarding masking depending on peoples' comfort level.

For the most part, the mask rules will follow the same restrictions as the venue and will evolve based on current trends of the virus and feedback from the community. If you're interacting with or sitting next to someone, and they would prefer for you to also be masked while nearby, please be considerate of their request.

Future Meeting Cadence

We'll be switching to the following format moving forward:

Last Tuesday of the month remains a virtual-only event, combining both the Portland and Seattle groups and anybody else who would like to join us virtually. This event has been mostly a "demos on demand" during the pandemic but will start to move back toward a 50/50 split with a pre-announced presentation for part of the event. If you have something you'd like to talk about, let the event coordinator know (see Event Coordinator Contact below). Future event dates will be: Apr 26, May 31, Jun 28, and Jul 26.

Two weeks before the meeting on the last Tuesday (third from last Tuesday), will be an in-person hack and help night in Seattle. Future event dates will be: Apr 12, May 17, Jun 14, and Jul 12.

The following night after the Seattle hack night will be an in-person hack and help night in Portland. Future event dates will be: Apr 13, May 18, Jun 15, and Jul 13.

Sponsorship

If you or a company you work for would like to host an event, or sponsor food, beverages or venue costs, please let me know! (see Event Coordinator Contact below).

Event Coordinator Contact

• Daniel: By email ([email protected]) or @dhedlund on the elixir-lang slack

This month's topic: Code Generation on the Java VM

Code generation has become a mainstream technique for building modern Java applications. Whether you are using OpenAPI, GraphQL, or gRPC, your team can leverage code generation to speed up development and reduce defects. This presentation will discuss common code generation techniques. We’ll examine how to automatically generate Kotlin, Java, and Scala code.

Bio

Sean Sullivan is a Principal Software Engineer in Portland Oregon. He is passionate about code generators and automated delivery pipelines. Sean is a frequent speaker at the Portland Java User Group.

RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/PDXJUG/events/285348647/

The Portland Elixir/BEAM group is getting back together in the physical world for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Hack and Help Night Expectations

Hack and help nights are you opportunity to meet other people interested in Elixir or other BEAM-based languages in the real world. You can be a total newbie or just have interest in some of the ideas it brings.

Some free food and drink will be provided courtesy of sponsors.

You should try to attend if you:

Are new to Elixir and want to see what it's all about.

Need help with something you're working on or an idea you have.

You like listening and helping others, or just want to motivate people.

Want access to some hardware, electronics and sensors to play around with Nerves on.

Want to discuss the latest happenings in the community.

Need somewhere away from home to work on a project.

Just want something social to do.

We're still trying to lock in the venue for the in-person events and venues may change over time, as might the rules regarding masking depending on peoples' comfort level.

For the most part, the mask rules will follow the same restrictions as the venue and will evolve based on current trends of the virus and feedback from the community. If you're interacting with or sitting next to someone, and they would prefer for you to also be masked while nearby, please be considerate of their request.

Future Meeting Cadence

We'll be switching to the following format moving forward:

Last Tuesday of the month remains a virtual-only event, combining both the Portland and Seattle groups and anybody else who would like to join us virtually. This event has been mostly a "demos on demand" during the pandemic but will start to move back toward a 50/50 split with a pre-announced presentation for part of the event. If you have something you'd like to talk about, let the event coordinator know (see Event Coordinator Contact below). Future event dates will be: Apr 26, May 31, Jun 28, and Jul 26.

Two weeks before the meeting on the last Tuesday (third from last Tuesday), will be an in-person hack and help night in Seattle. Future event dates will be: Apr 12, May 17, Jun 14, and Jul 12.

The following night after the Seattle hack night will be an in-person hack and help night in Portland. Future event dates will be: Apr 13, May 18, Jun 15, and Jul 13.

Sponsorship

If you or a company you work for would like to host an event, or sponsor food, beverages or venue costs, please let me know! (see Event Coordinator Contact below).

Event Coordinator Contact

• Daniel: By email ([email protected]) or @dhedlund on the elixir-lang slack

Presented by Ryan Wright, Founder, thatdot.com Abstract

This talk will introduce Quine: a brand new open source “streaming graph interpreter” meant as a new fundamental infrastructure component to address major challenges in data engineering and simplify enterprise data pipelines.

Quine fits in between the world of databases and stream processing systems. As data streams in from Kafka, Kinesis, etc., Quine builds it into a graph. Then using “standing queries”—queries that live inside the graph and efficiently propagate—it finds matches to complex patterns in the graph and streams the results out right away. Quine maintains a stateful representation of all data streamed through (like a database) so that complex results are built from the combination of new streaming data and potentially very old data—all without having to manage any time windows. Since the graph is fully versioned, you can always query for what the data used to be, at any historical moment. Quine is meant to be a complete package of everything that lives between two Kafka topics: high-volume events stream in, and highly-meaningful interpreted results stream out.

In this talk, we will explain the how Quine works under the hood, discuss some of the interesting and brain-bending challenges we had to confront in order to create it, and show some uses cases to illustrate why it’s important for modern data pipelines. Quine implements a property-graph data model on top of an asynchronous graph computational model. It’s like Pregel with Actors. Each node is capable of performing arbitrary computation, so we can bake in some powerful capabilities deep in the graph; and then package it up for easy use into user-contributed “recipes” available in the Github repo. Quine is free and open and the repo will be publicly available in February, and actively supported by thatDot and the community.

What You Will Learn This talk will introduce Quine: a brand new open source “streaming graph interpreter” meant as a new fundamental infrastructure component to address major challenges in data engineering and simplify enterprise data pipelines.

RSVP for Google Meet or Zoom link

Cost Free! (suggested donation $5-15 for non-members)

If you’ve paid any Data PDX/DAMA membership dues during 2019-2021 or are an employee of a corporate member, please choose Member RSVP.

Where

RSVP for Google or Zoom link

Date – Thursday, March 10th

Time – 4:30pm – 5:30pm

Why We’ve Changed Our Name

DAMA PDX has been rebranded as Data PDX. You’ll notice both the updated website and logo. While a shift in name only, this update represents our goal as a Board to better tailor the meeting content, group direction, and cross-marketing of other user groups and local organizations. DAMA will continue to be our governing body and we intend to remain affiliated to the shared values of training and exposure to all things data management. Our goal is to promote the world of enterprise data management in Portland metro and SW Washington.

Our new mission statement: To promote conversations around modern, enterprise-ready solutions to data-driven professionals in the Portland metro area

Agenda:

Membership Survey

Review results of survey questions about Topics and Content, Meeting Cadence, Meeting Format (including in-person vs virtual), and other items.

New “interim” Board Members and Elections

Finally, it’s our pleasure to announce that we have a few new “interim” Board Members who have been contributing to the group at a high level during the reassessment process.

Speakers

Your all-volunteer Data PDX board:

Michael England, President

Shawn Duffy, VP of Finance (incoming)

Gene Merrill, VP of Online Services

Bryant Alvey, VP of Membership (interim)

Katina Fischer, VP of Programs and Education (interim)

Where

Virtual event, RSVP for Google Meet or Zoom registration details

When

Date – Thursday, Feb. 24th

Time – 4:30 – 5:30pm

Portland Linux/Unix Group General Meeting Announcement

Who: Russell Senior
What: Russell's Excellent High Altitude Balloon Adventure
Where: https://meet.jit.si/pdxlinux
When: Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 7pm
Why: The pursuit of technology freedom

Russell volunteers with the Portland State Aerospace Society's (PSAS) OreSat program as an Industry Advisor. PSAS is a rocket club at Portland State University. The OreSat program works towards having small interactive satellites put into orbit by friendly launch services. OreSat currently consists of three small satellites based on a common design, the first one is due to launch in January. Russell's role is to help out with a system called dxwifi, a long distance S-band communication link. The goal is for ground-based student groups around the state to receive live video broadcast from orbit as the satellite passes overhead. Earlier this year, a high school student applied and got our satellite a ride on a high altitude balloon through a NASA program. One of the goals was to capture wifi data being transmitted by the payload. Because of the distances involved, this requires aiming a directional antenna at the balloon. This talk will tell the story of how Russell waded his way towards a solution using math, some hand tools, open-source software and some ingenuity.

About Russell:

Russell has been a Linux user since 1992. He worked for a few decades doing data management, programming, and analysis for a small scientific consulting firm. Since 2005 he has been deeply involved in the Personal Telco Project and trying to bring about telecommunications policy in the users interests, while also hacking on router firmware. Since 2018, he's been involved in an effort to bring at-cost fiber infrastructure to the Portland metro area, Municipal Broadband PDX.

PLUG is open to everyone and does not tolerate abusive behavior on its mailing lists or at its meetings.

How can employees at any level help companies embrace inclusive design? How can existing employees drive an organization towards more inclusive hiring?

At a young age, Janna realized that not everyone can access the world in the same way. Both through her own experience on and off crutches and her experience with a mixed hearing/deaf theater troupe, she gained a passion for making life accessible for all. This talk will focus on how to grow, and nurture, the practice of inclusion in your organization.

Agenda:

• 5:45–6:00pm Networking
• 6:00–6:15pm Introductions & announcements
• 6:15–7:00pm Presentation
• 7:00–7:30pm Q&A and discussion
• 7:30–7:45pm Wrap up

About the presenter:

Currently a Manager of User Experience Research at Hinge Health, Janna C. Kimel has practiced design research for over 15 years. Her current role ensures that the organization's experiences are seamless and help participants build healthy habits for a pain free life. In her past 2 roles, she has also led employee ERGs focused on accessibility. Janna has focused on health technology and wearables over the course of her career. She has run her own small consultancy and has worked at Intel, Microsoft to Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield and Dexcom.

She has published and presented on accessibility, behavior change, user research and wearable technology. She is a ramblin' wreck with a master's degree in industrial design from Georgia Tech.

Let's talk InfoSec!

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/OWASP-Portland-Chapter/events/280657220/

Bios:

Cassie Clark: Passionate about bringing humans into security. She develops awareness programs focused on behavior change, user enablement, and culture. As Security Awareness Lead Engineer at Brex, she built and leads security awareness for employees and customers. Prior to Brex, she built the security awareness function at Cruise and focused on security engagement at Salesforce. She holds a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies and can often be seen holding a cup of coffee.

Traci Esteve: As Director of Technology Governance and Risk for The Standard in Portland, Oregon, Traci Esteve is committed to protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and processing resources. She began her career as a developer and infrastructure engineer. This led to her rise to a premier technical architect at Accenture and to expanding the practice in Asia and Europe. Her journey includes staying home to raise her two sons and serving as an advisor to organizations to increase profitability, maximize customer value, and effectively meet regulatory requirements. She has a BS in Applied Science, MBA certification from Miami University, and a certification in Cybersecurity Risk Management from Harvard University. Traci enjoys cooking with her family, drawing, hiking, and encouraging high-school students to believe in themselves.

Portland Linux/Unix Group General Meeting Announcement

Who: João Corrêa
What: Hardware-Assisted Fine-Grained Control-Flow Integrity: Adding Lasers to Intel's CET/IBT
Where: https://li584-253.members.linode.com/PLUG
When: Thursday, September 2nd, 2021 at 7pm Pacific
Why: The pursuit of technology freedom

his talk presents FineIBT, a compiler-based enhancement that enables fine-grained forward-edge Control-Flow Integrity (CFI) policies on top of Intel's Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET). By combining the new hardware features with compiler instrumentation, FineIBT anchors indirect control transfers to sanity checks, enabling policies more restrictive than those supported solely by CET and increasing its effectiveness against control-flow hijacking attacks. An evaluation through custom benchmarks shown that FineIBT provides similar security guarantees with less performance costs when compared to Clang CFI, retaining its penalty between 1% and 7% while the latter added overheads between 5% and 53%. Beyond that, FineIBT also has other perks, such as benefiting from the CET's hardening against transient execution attacks and not depending on Link-Time Optimizations. This talk will explore the FineIBT implementation recently sent to the kernel-hardening mailing list, then discuss specific scenarios, such as how it could be used in the Linux kernel, possible improvements and expected challenges. Technical reference: https://www.openwall.com/lists/kernel-hardening/2021/02/11/1

Joao is an Offensive Security Researcher at Intel. His research interests are mostly focused in compiler-enabled features and analyses, but he will normally be down to chat about anything that involves binaries. Joao holds a PhD from the University of Campinas, where he worked on kCFI, a Control-Flow Integrity implementation for the Linux kernel (featured at Black Hat Asia 2017) and he also spent some time working for SUSE, where he bootstrapped the development of libpulp, an user-space live patching framework (featured at Linux Developers Conference Brazil 2019 and SUSE Labs Conference 2018).

PLUG is open to everyone and does not tolerate abusive behavior on its mailing lists or at its meetings.

Digital and physical surveillance are at all-time highs, and privacy is dissipating from our society. The consequences to us individually and collectively are significant, but what can we do about it?

In this session, AJ Rice will discuss what governments should and shouldn’t do to protect our privacy, evaluating good regulations and bad ones. Rice will also discuss managing trade-offs and what steps we can take individually and collectively to better protect our privacy, as well as provide some privacy-focused tech tips and tricks.

After the presentation and Q&A, the session will conclude with a guided hands-on exercise in threat-modeling and evaluating privacy-related tradeoffs geared at helping attendees better protect their own privacy and manage privacy-related tradeoffs in their own lives.

This is part-3 of a special 3-part privacy workshop in June. If you miss part 1 and/or part 2, you’re still more than welcome to attend this session:

For the meeting link and password, please RSVP via Meetup or send an email to: ta3mevents AT pdxprivacy.org.

Speaker bio:

AJ Rice is a privacy advocate and the Founder & CEO of Privo Mobile - a tech startup making dumb phones designed for kids with a modern user experience and interface. AJ is author of the privacy blog Private Matters.

Related links: Privo Mobile - https://www.privomobile.com/ Private Matters blog - https://privatematters.substack.com

By attending this TA3M meeting, you agree to follow our Code of Conduct: https://www.meetup.com/Portlands-Techno-Activism-3rd-Mondays/pages/22681732/Code_of_Conduct/

{short} Code of Conduct Portland's Techno-Activism 3rd Mondays is dedicated to providing an informative and positive experience for everyone who participates in or supports our community, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, socioeconomic status, caste, or creed.

Our events are intended to educate and share information related to technology and activism, and anyone who is there for this purpose is welcome. Because we value the safety and security of our members and strive to have an inclusive community, we do not tolerate harassment of members or event participants in any form.

Audio and video recording are not permitted at meetings without prior approval.

Digital and physical surveillance are at all-time highs, and privacy is dissipating from our society. But why should we care about privacy if we have nothing to hide?

In this session, AJ Rice will discuss how a lack of privacy affects us as individuals and as a society. Using specific examples, Rice will cover the direct consequences of a world without privacy and also the more subtle ways an absence of privacy undermines the rights of those who have nothing to hide.

After the presentation and Q&A, the session will conclude with a guided hands-on exercise in threat-modeling geared at helping attendees better understand the individual risks posed to them by different types of surveillance.

This is part-2 of a special 3-part privacy workshop in June. If you miss part 1, you’re still more than welcome to attend this session:

Part 3: Monday 6/28 – What we can do about it

For the meeting link and password, please RSVP via Meetup or send an email to: ta3mevents AT pdxprivacy.org.

Speaker bio:

AJ Rice is a privacy advocate and the Founder & CEO of Privo Mobile - a tech startup making dumb phones designed for kids with a modern user experience and interface. AJ is author of the privacy blog Private Matters.

Related links: Privo Mobile - https://www.privomobile.com/

Private Matters blog - https://privatematters.substack.com

By attending this TA3M meeting, you agree to follow our Code of Conduct: https://www.meetup.com/Portlands-Techno-Activism-3rd-Mondays/pages/22681732/Code_of_Conduct/

{short} Code of Conduct Portland's Techno-Activism 3rd Mondays is dedicated to providing an informative and positive experience for everyone who participates in or supports our community, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, socioeconomic status, caste, or creed.

Our events are intended to educate and share information related to technology and activism, and anyone who is there for this purpose is welcome. Because we value the safety and security of our members and strive to have an inclusive community, we do not tolerate harassment of members or event participants in any form.

Audio and video recording are not permitted at meetings without prior approval.