Chief scribe
I was going to start this post with the words ‘In the wee small hours I was listening to the wireless and a man came on doing Stephen Hilton impressions’, but, after some consideration, thought better of it. 😉 This week’s broadcast of the BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme featured reporter Tracey Logan in […]
Following on from the recent visit to Bristol and talk by Jimmy Wales for Wikipedia’s 10th birthday, Sam Downie has now announced the release an edited 6 minute version of Jimmy’s public talk at the Victoria Rooms (news passim). The event hosted by, and with the co-operation of Wikimedia UK, the University of Bristol, Bristol […]
Next Thursday up at Auntie Beeb’s place on Whiteladies Road, Bristol (map), Bristol Wireless’ Ben Green will be taking part in a panel session entitled ‘Innovation Academy: Digital Bristol – Imagine a City where…” from 1.45 to 3.00 pm. The event’s publicity blurb states: Imagine a city where you could tap into the gigs, films, […]
The Estonian Ministry of the Environment has saved millions of Euro over the past 10 years by using OpenOffice, the open source office suite, according to Meelis Merilo, the head of the Ministry’s IT department, in a news item posted on OSOR. Using the open source package has cost the Ministry no more than €64,000 […]
A couple of days ago, we received a generous donation of an Acer laptop from an anonymous caller at the Lab (thank you kindly, sir! We did ask him if he wanted any kind of thanks, but he resisted all our blandishments. Ed.). He only asked that we wipe the data off the hard drive, […]
As announced a few weeks ago, a meet-up for CiviCRM users and developers was held on Thursday 10th February last at Bristol’s CREATE Centre (news passim), ably led by Circle Interactive‘s Dave Morton, who was being assisted by our old friend Sean Kenny. The main aims of the get-together were to discuss how the CiviCRM […]
Computer World UK reports that a survey of wifi networks around NHS Trust hospitals in the United Kingdom has found that fewer than 1 in 5 secure data connections using encryption. Worse than that, over half have not changed the manufacturer’s default wifi access point settings, potentially making them easy targets for anyone with malicious […]
H-Online reports that the main exchange of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is now live trading with a Novell SUSE Linux based system, following final step set-up procedures on Saturday 5 February. The system has been trialled for several months and the LSE’s move to Linux continues what appears to be a trend for stock […]
Why not make this February 14th a very special Valentine’s Day? On Valentine’s Day, FSFE calls on Free Software users everywhere to show their love for Free Software . It is the perfect occasion to show our love for Free Software and the possibility to use computers in freedom. On its campaign page , FSFE […]
It’s a busy day in the lab today… Michael, our volunteer co-ordinator, and Rich have been having a meeting for the last hour or so with Volunteering Bristol to examine ways in which we can improve and enhance our use of our existing volunteers and new ones (we always welcome new blood. Ed. See news […]
Sexism in free and open source software (FOSS) culture has been increasingly discussed and documented over the past couple of years. However, little has been done about it. Moreover, the lack of women contributors to projects such as Wikipedia has been highlighted by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (news passim) and in Australia, Collective Action is […]
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is inviting individuals, community groups and institutions to celebrate Document Freedom Day (DFD) this coming 30th March. DFD is worldwide day of celebration of Open Standards, open document formats and their importance. Open Standards ensure the freedom to access your data and the freedom to build Free Software to write […]
Late notice I know (you might try apologising for your tardiness. 🙂 Ed.), but the Bristol & Bath LUG has this morning had details of the above event. To quote the event’s home page: The Linux & Open Source Expo 2011 is the UK’s only dedicated Linux & Open Source conference and exhibition. There is […]
One of the facts that came out of Jimmy Wales’ recent talk in Bristol (news passim) was that the majority of contributors to Wikipedia (aka ‘Wikipedians’) are male. Indeed, only 13% of current contributors are women. News now reaches the lab via Collective Action in Australia that a Women for Wikipedia campaign is running between […]
It’s come to the chief scribe’s attention that Herefordshire, another part of the country with a fine cider tradition, is having a bit of a do on Saturday 26th March and there’s a local Bristol angle, if you read down near the foot of the email reproduced below, which was posted to the Ubuntu UK […]
Debian News announces that next weekend, Debian developers and users from all over the world are organizing release parties for the release of Debian squeeze, which is due on the weekend of the 5th-6th February. For those interested in organising a local release party in their respective part of the globe, get cracking with the […]
News reaches the lab (hat tip: Lugbikaner) that Nigeria now has its own open source advocacy group called the Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON). According to OSFON’S website, its mission is The mission of Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON) is to promote and educate decision makers in government, educators, NGOs, businesses and citizens […]
OSOR reports that the Greek non-profit organisation ‘Free Software / Open Source Software’ (aka Ellak, in Greek) granted the northern Greek Municipality of Kozani four wireless access points and a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) line of 24Mb down/1Mb up in the town’s Lassanis square. Furthermore, Ellak undertook the installation, configuration, operation and technical support of […]
Arriving at the lab on Tuesday this week, your correspondent was pleasantly surprised to see that an additional batch of LTSP thin clients had been set up in the lab. He was even more surprised to observe that all 4 new machines were in use and a full-blown lesson on use of the Linux command […]
Today the BBC reports that Race Online 2012, the organisation that aims to reach out to the 9.2 million adults in the UK who are currently offline, will be offering low-cost computers as part of a government scheme to encourage people in the UK to get online for the first time. Prices will start at […]