Bristol Wireless News

Yesterday the Bristol Wireless lab was graced by a visit from Ronnie Corbett – the real one that is, not the wee comic…

Anyway, avid readers of BW News will remember that Ronnie was the warden at Princess Royal Gardens (news passim). He’s now retired from wardening duties for Bristol City Council, but is still keenly interested in IT for senior citizens and feels he can now throw himself into this fully without any of the constraints imposed by being a wage slave.

How does Ronnie intend to provide IT for the elderly on little or no budget? By using free software and Linux of course! (How else? Ed.)

Rich Higgs was chauffeured by Ronnie yesterday to a prospective install site at a local social club for an initial visit. More details as and when they arrive…

In the meantime, thanks very much for the biscuits Ron, and your justification for computing for the elderly is still the best we’ve read.

Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project, was recently interviewed by Rosalie Marshall of Australia’s IT news and gave the following intriguing response when asked: “Do you think public authorities should be leading the way with free software?”

Every public agency has a duty to maintain its control over its computing, as a matter of sovereignty. Using a non-free program means giving the program’s developer control over that computing. Thus, public agencies must reject proprietary software and move to free software. Venezuela and Ecuador are on the right track.

Discuss.

Hat tip: northxsouth

Our old friend Shevek has just given the first notice of the next Adventure in Technology will be returning again early in 2009. Writing from the other side of the Atlantic, Shevek posted the message below yesterday to the BBLUG mailing list:

Hi,

We are holding the next episode of our festival of creative technology in Bristol on the 28th February 2009, where we will be removing lids marked “Do not remove this lid”, going “ooh!” and making more interesting things out of the debris. There will also be both high- and low-tech talks and demos on topics including cryptography, demo coding, talking to politicians, audio production and robotics.

This time, in addition to guests from Europe, we are likely to have a number of notable guests from the USA (where I am currently residing).

The event web site is at http://www.techadventure.org/ – please join the group (Google) as further announcements will mostly be placed there. Entrance will be free, as this is one of our guiding principles, and there is a car park and a licensed bar.

Of course nobody knows quite what people (including you!) are going to bring or do until the day of the event. If you want to talk or demo something, it will help us if you contact us in advance so that we can warn the stage crew of numbers, and what to expect. However, if you just turn up on the day, we will do our best.

Come along and have fun!

S.

This year’s event (news passim) was great fun. What Shevek didn’t mention in his announcement was that the venue will be the same as last time – Trinity Community Arts, our near neighbours and another organisation committed to using free and open source software. Finally, the Techadventure Google group is already firing off a flurry of messages (thanks to whoever signed me up! ) and I’ll be there on the day to cover the fun.

Every now and again one’s previous work comes back up again to haunt – just like the previous night’s dodgy takeaway meal.

This has just happened to Bails, one of Bristol Wireless’ longest serving volunteers, who yesterday posted the following message to the BW mailing list:

Last year I was requested to put together an LSTP server and several clients for a friend. These were subsequently shipped out to Senegal. They have now arrived (12 months later) after the hassle of getting them through customs (via a neighbouring country).

We set the system up so it should JFW. But now the computers have arrived in Senegal, they have realised they have no technicians who understand Linux or LTSP.

If anyone is in that region and could help would they please reply to this thread and I will put them in contact with the people on the ground.

Thanks

Bails

For the Francophones out there, here’s a French translation of Bails’ message:

L’année dernière j’ai préparé un serveur LSTP (Linux Terminal Server Project) et plusieurs clients légers pour un ami. Ceux-ci ont été ultérieurment expédiés au Sénégal.

Ils sont maintenant arrivés (12 mois plus tard) après les ennuis de les dédouaner (par l’intermédiaire d’un pays tiers voisin). Nous avons installé le système d’exploitation et le serveur et les clients doivent ainsi fonctionner sans aucune intervention ou configuration ultérieures. Depuis l’arrivée des ordinateurs au Sénégal, on s’est rendu compte qu’il n’y a aucun technicien qui comprend Linux ou LTSP.

Si quelqu’un dans la région peut offrir de l’aide, vous êtes priés de répondre à ce fil et je vous mettrai en contact avec les personnes sur site.

Merci à l’avance

Can you help Bails out here? If so, can you please subscribe and respond to our mailing list (details here).