Chief scribe
In recent weeks we’ve reported several times on developments at Bristol City Council (news passim), but it seems the software wars between open source and proprietary are still going on down the Counts Louse. Computer Weekly now reports that systems integrator Computacenter has prevented Bristol City Council from publishing details of a consulting project that […]
According to the Raspberry Pi blog, the alpha boards for this ARM-chipped Linux device are now in production. This board is intended to be identical to the final device, with the resulting units being used to validate the schematic design and serving as Raspberry Pi’s interim software development platform. Key differences between the alpha and […]
This weekend the Bristol Wireless mobile LTSP suite made a trip to the Woodcraft Folk’s International Co-operation Camp in Nottinghamshire (news passim). Luckily our friend Sean was on hand to provide documentary evidence once it had been set up in the site’s shooting range and was in use (fortunately with no firearms in use. Ed.) […]
Yes, you did read that correctly; today, Friday 29th July is System Administrator Appreciation Day, the 12th since its inception. For 364 days of the year sysadmins toil away unappreciated, their arcane skills only really being noticed when a problem needs sorting out (and nobody can do any work at all until the sysadmin’s done […]
France Telecom is planning to shut down its Minitel service on 30th June 2012. Minitel is a Videotex online service accessible through the telephone lines, and is considered one of the world’s most successful pre-World Wide Web online services. It was started in 1982 by PTT, the publicly-owned forerunner of France Telecom. At the time […]
Our friend Sean Kenny of Circle Interactive has contacted us today to let us know that CiviCon London is taking place on Monday August 22nd at SkillsMatter, 116-120 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 7DP (map). CiviCon is the international meeting of CiviCRM users, implementers and developers to share knowledge, experience and to discuss the future of […]
Here at Bristol Wireless we’re keen advocates on green ICT and have many times experienced the delights of providing off-mains event ICT powered by renewables (news passim), so were overjoyed to hear of a recent development in India. India’s Simmtronics Semiconductors recently announced the launch of a solar-powered desktop. What’s more, it’s running Linux, making […]
Earlier this year we reported that Linux is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year (news passim). As part of the celebrations, the Linux Foundation invited video submissions to mark this milestone. A birthday greetings video from Microsoft has now been received by the Foundation. We hope you enjoy this submission from the ‘Beast of Redmond’ […]
Our friends at Bristol Hackspace are organising a beginners’ Arduino programming workshop on Saturday and Sunday 30th/31st July 2011 at the Bristol’s Pervasive Media Studio (map). By the end of the weekend participants should be able to: Make LEDs light up in different colours and patterns; Detect switches, light/dark, touch; Make sounds drive motors and […]
Question: when talking about Linux recently, who said the following? “Linux gives us the flexibility and technology maturity we require to evolve… and… to address the expectations of our customers.” The answer: Kenichi Murata, a project general manager with Toyota, upon Toyota’s joining The Linux Foundation. Murata continued: “The Linux Foundation provides us with a […]
Version 2 of the ‘Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies’ has become available following an online public consultation on the draft document which was initiated by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), according to OSOR. In March 2011 Glenn Archer, AGIMO first assistant secretary, requested feedback via the dedicated blog on […]
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 […]
OSOR reports that the Canary Islands are using open source software to forecast and manage forest fires. Capaware is an open source 3D geographical multilayer framework which produces realistic images of land and enables virtual navigation to a given area. Based on the environmental conditions of the area (including, inter alia, humidity, vegetation and wind), […]
The other day we heard about Doudoulinux. Leaving aside the rather scatological name of the distro (in English, anyhow. Ed.), it looks rather good at what it’s trying to achieve. Based on Debian – like lots of other fine general-purpose and specialised distros – Doudoulinux is specifically designed for use by children aged between 2 […]
Our friends in the Herefordshire Linux & Open Source Users Group have sent us advance details of their plans for Software Freedom Day on Saturday 17th September. As part of the International Software Freedom Day on Saturday 17th September, the Herefordshire Linux & Open Source Users Group (HLUG) will be holding a free public event […]
The European Parliament has decided that internet freedom is a component of EU foreign policy, according to the Dutch news site, Nu.nl. On account of this step, it shall be EU policy to condemn countries outside the EU as soon as they censor the internet or other means of communication. According to Dutch MEP Marietje […]
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 […]