2008 USENIX Annual Technical Conference

It’s almost here! USENIX ‘08 on-site registration opens this Saturday, June 21, at 5:00 p.m.

For a little preview, check out the latest interview with tutorial instructors:

Todd Deshane and Patrick F. Wilbur: Introduction to the Open Source Xen Hypervisor (New)

Todd is a Ph.D. student in engineering science from Clarkson University. He also has a MS in computer science and a BS in software engineering from Clarkson. Todd’s primary academic and research interests are in the area of operating system technologies, such as virtual machine monitors, high availability, and file systems. During his Ph.D. years, Todd has been a teaching assistant and an IBM Ph.D. Fellowship recipient. At IBM Todd has worked on internship projects involving Xen and IBM technologies. Todd is a co-author of the book Running Xen: A Hands-on Guide to the Art of Virtualization.

Patrick is currently pursuing graduate studies in computer science at Clarkson University. His interests include operating systems, systems and application security, natural language processing, and home automation. He is currently a member of the Clarkson Open Source Institute, a volunteer at the Applied Computer Science Laboratories at Clarkson University, an emergency communications volunteer, and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. Patrick is a co-author of Running Xen: A Hands-on Guide to the Art of Virtualization.

And now the questions…

1. What is your class about? What can attendees expect to take away from it?
The class is about understanding, installing, configuring, using, and managing the Xen hypervisor. Beyond the basics of Xen, we will also discuss different implementation options, the advantages and disadvantages of each, security considerations, best practices, and performance issues.

The attendees will not only learn how to build and deploy Xen, but will also develop the skills necessary to use it effectively in their organizations.

2. Aside from your own class, what do you consider the most useful/exciting thing happening at USENIX ‘08?
It’s exciting that virtualization and security are a really big focus. There are a lot of interesting sessions on the virtualization and security tracks that we are looking forward to. It is also really great that Xen Summit is co-located with USENIX this year. The summit will be a nice virtualization touch, that will enhance the Xen-specifc interests of the attendees.

3. What other cool new technologies are you most interested in?
After spending a good amount of time working on writing our book, Running Xen: A Hands-On Guide to the Art of Virtualization, as well as our website at runningxen.com, we’re afraid we’ve lost touch with the outside world. Are you insinuating that there have been other technological advancements besides in the area of Xen in the last two years?! We must have a lot of catching up to do! But, in all seriousness, the technologies we’re probably most interested in would include other virtualization technologies such as KVM and VirtualBox, as well as hardware support for virtualization with AMD’s Nested Page Table (NPT) support and Intel’s Extended Page Table (EPT) support.

Find out more about Todd and Patrick’s class here.

USENIX ‘08 is less than 2 weeks away! Check out the latest tutorial instructor interview:

Golden G. Richard III : Live Forensics (New!)

Golden is an Associate Professor at the University of New Orleans, where he developed the Information Assurance curriculum and coordinated the effort to have the University of New Orleans certified by the National Science Foundation as a Center of Academic Excellence. He teaches courses in digital forensics, computer security, and operating systems internals. He is a co-founder of Digital Forensic Solutions LLC and is the author of the digital forensics tool Scalpel.

And now the questions…

1. What is your class about? What can attendees expect to take away from it?
The class discusses live digital forensics (with a bit of background on traditional digital forensics techniques). Our hope is that attendees will discover some best practices for digital investigations, the limits of data recovery, some novel investigative techniques, and most of all, leave with an appreciation for how tenacious sensitive data is.

2. Aside from your own class, what do you consider the most useful/exciting thing happening at USENIX ’08?
Birds of a feather sessions, invited talks.

3. What other cool new technologies are you most interested in?
Fountain pens, bop-era jazz on vinyl, and anything purple. And I’m serious.

Find out more about Golden’s class here.

The Early Bird Discount Deadline to register for the 2008 USENIX Annual Technical Conference is almost here.

Register by Friday, June 6, 2008, and save up to $300.

Find out more here: 

Today kicks off the first in series of brief interviews with USENIX ‘08 tutorial instructors.

First up:

Rudi van Drunen : Inside the Box: What You Need to Know About Your Hardware (NEW!)

Rudi met the UNIX OS and friends about 25 years ago on a DEC VAX at the University of Groningen (NL). Apparently the two got along pretty well, as nowadays he is employed as CTO and senior UNIX infrastructure consultant at Competa IT in the Netherlands. Before that, he was head of IT for a medical lab, where he did a.o. UNIX system administration and applied research in image analysis and neural networks. He is one of the tech gurus and a founding board member of Wireless Leiden, the leading wireless community in the Netherlands. Rudi has his own small open source and hardware design company, Xlexit. He has taught a number of classes and given invited talks on wireless and other topics at events such as LISA and SANE and to the Dutch UNIX community.

And now the questions…
1. What is your class about? What can attendees expect to take away from it?
IT is about HARDWARE, looking behind the faceplate of your machines, to (better) understand what is happening there, and how to do fix or keep it running until field service arrives.

2. Aside from your own class, what do you consider the most useful/exciting thing happening at USENIX ‘08?
The Hallway track, Meeting peers, meeting gurus (Yes, they are so accessible !) having fun, trying out the latest in software, and get new ideas to solve problems or get stuff done.

3. What other cool new technologies are you most interested in?
Data center stuff, virtualization, networking (ao. sensor nets)

Find out more about Rudi’s class here.

It’s hard to believe, but USENIX ‘08 is less than 5 weeks away! We’re plugging away here at the office getting everything ready to go. Use this blog to keep up-to-date with the latest news and behind-the-scenes updates.

New for ‘08, we’ve got the USENIX ‘08 Facebook page up and running. Spread the word about USENIX Annual Tech! Sign on here to chat with other attendees before the event or even find a roomshare.

Don’t forget that the Early Bird Registration Deadline is Friday, June 6. Register by then to get the best rate on the conference. Are you attending with more than 5 people? Take advantage of the Multiple Employee Discount.

Finally, we’re going back to Boston and hotel rooms are at a premium. Make your reservation at the Sheraton Boston Hotel by June 2. We also have rooms at blocked at The Colonnade Hotel. Hotel and travel info can be found here.

Stay tuned for tutorial instructor interviews, material previews, and a whole lot more. See you in Boston!