Some time ago, we speculated about the possible end of open source use at Bristol City Council following the decision to replace Star Office with Microsoft Office 2010 (news passim) and allegations of bad behaviour involving one of the council’s suppliers. It now seems these speculations may have been premature in the light of a […]
A new post has appeared today on the Bristol Girl Geek Dinners site. We are currently planning an exciting event in collaboration with Wikipedia on the 18th August – Girl Geeks vs Wikimeet. This will be a Girl Geek Dinner merged with a ‘Wikimeet’ including a talk from an inspiring female Wikipedian. The theme will […]
As previously announced, the second run of the Bristol Wiki Academy took place on Monday this week up at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in Bristol (news passim). We got off to an early(ish) start at 10.30 am with a round of introductions, followed by a brief presentation on Wikipedia’s mission of free knowledge for everyone […]
In the flood of news about open source deployments by the public sector around the world, the UK public sector is beginning to look increasingly isolated with its devotion to closed source, proprietary IT (I believe this is what the experts call vendor lock-in. Ed.). The latest bit of news to reach the lab is […]
Following on from its first manifestation (news passim), a second Bristol Wiki Academy is now being planned to take place shortly on Monday, 4th July 2011. It will be hosted jointly by the BBC Anchor Project and Wikimedia UK. The details, including the venue, are still being worked out. However, the purpose of the day […]
Information is slowly emerging about the future of open source – or its end – at Bristol City Council (news passim). The Counts Louse has for the most part been a lone flag-bearer for open source since its brave (and now reversed) decision to ditch MS Office and adopt an open source alternative some 5 […]
The UK public sector has been characterised as an impregnable fortress as far as open source software is concerned. While public sector bodies in other countries are adopting open source (news passim), the British public sector is a virtual closed shop for advocates of openness (in terms of software). This dire situation has been further […]
Just after your correspondent had published yesterday’s LTSP round-up post (news passim), Acesabe got busy with his Twitter client, tweeting: #LTSP 4.2 & 5 running as #vserver clients on host laptop, old lappers get to live another day! He also posted the picture below online at Twitpic. The hands on the keyboard on the far […]
Earlier this week our 2 LTSP gurus, BenG and Acesabe, were busy configuring and preparing a new LTSP suite comprising some donated redundant Rock Clevo T200C laptops as the thin clients. These run on 12 volts and are being made ready for a trip to the forthcoming Barncamp 2011 up in Wye valley (news passim). […]
The Bristol Evening Post reports that residents of Southville, Bristol, will have a chance to talk to PC Nigel Ingram, their local beat manager in the Southville area, tonight between 7pm and 8.30pm in an online webchat this evening. To discuss any local policing issues and concerns with PC Ingram visit http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/Interactive/Webchat.
Bristol is a city with a long history, part of which is reflected in its civic institutions. One of these is the office of mayor. Bristol first had a mayor as long ago as 1216. In 1899 the plain old vanilla mayor was replaced by the grander sounding one of Lord Mayor, which the city […]
Last week BW volunteers Rich and Acesabe paid a visit to the Rosevear sheltered housing scheme in Newtown to see if their link to our network could be restored. One of the last things they expected to find there was wildlife interfering with our infrastructure… Rich takes up the tale below. “As I was unscrewing […]
Our friend Emma Harvey (a fine exponent of singing the ‘Free Software Song‘. Ed.) at Trinity Community Arts has sent out an email today to let people know Trinity is looking for volunteers to assist in developing its work. Amongst the types of volunteers wanted, we noticed the following: IT Assistant to help us build […]
Following on from Bristol Wireless’ recent work with Secret World and their badgers and other assorted critters (news passim), news reaches the lab that our colleagues up at Knowle West Media Centre have also been getting involved with wildlife – in their case the local wood pigeon population. You can access Pigeon Cam and follow […]
Bristol has become a hotbed of activity in recent times for all things related to Wikipedia and Wikimedia UK. In May 2010 Bristol opened its arms to delegates from various Wikimedia chapters from around the world (news passim). In February this year the city welcomed Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who gave a talk at the […]
News arrives at the Lab that our friends at UWE are organising the 5th annual run of their popular Linux Boot Camp on 20th and 21st June this year. Linux Boot Camp is aimed primarily at people who’ ve done their A levels and might be going on to do something IT-related in further or […]
Below is an email we’ve sent today to a Mr Eddie Grundy, of Keeper’s Cottage, Ambridge, Borsetshire. Dear Mr Grundy You might have noticed that one of your ferrets is missing; from your Twitter feed we reckon his name just might be Brooklyn. We haven’t kidnapped him (honestly) and decided to join us quite voluntarily […]
It’s 8.30 on the morning of Saturday 26th March and your ‘umble scribe is standing on a sunny Stapleton Road station waiting for the train. One and a half hours later, he alights at an overcast and chillier Hereford station and goes ambling into town in search of 2 things: firstly, breakfast and secondly, All […]
Over the Christmas vacation, Bath University took advantage of the absence of students to install 50 new computers on the 5th floor of its library. These new machines are faster, smaller, quieter and generally better to use, as well as being part of a demonstration of a new method of distributing energy. These computers are […]
Bristol Wireless has been using wikis for years to document and plan the development of the co-operative and its work, so we were delighted to accept an invitation to attend the Bristol Wiki Academy at the weekend (news passim). To the best of our knowledge, this was the first Wiki Academy to be organised in […]