15 years of the FSFE
This year the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) celebrates its 15th birthday (timeline here) and has released a short video to mark this milestone. Learn more about the FSFE’s campaigning work over the years.
Category Archives: Media and Content
News on media and content on the network
Latest version of Snoopers’ Charter before Parliament this week
This week the House of Commons is due to debate the Investigatory Powers Bill, the latest version of the Snoopers’ Charter (news passim), that will allow the United Kingdom’s police and services to regard the entire UK population as potential organised criminals, suspected terrorists and other assorted ne’er-do-wells and enable those same services to monitor […]
Journalist displays ignorance of encryption
There’s a general media adage that says never let the truth get in the way of a good story. It seems this maxim is now being applied by members of the fourth estate to that most concise social medium, Twitter. We refer to one of a series of some twenty or so tweets put out […]
A world without Linux – episode 2
For people who cannot read a map, the Linux operating system is invaluable since it runs many of the popular makes of GPS navigation aids available to the general public. A World Without Linux is a video series in 6 parts being produced by The Linux Foundation.
Best “superfast” broadband coverage in UK claimed for Bristol
Today’s Bristol Post features a report entitled “Bristol best in UK for superfast broadband coverage“. To quote from the Post piece: You might think the capital would have the best superfast broadband coverage in the country. But it is Bristol which tops the UK instead. Figures from thinkbroadband.com, complied [sic] by the Computer Business Review, […]
Open data in Bristol goes 3D
Bristol City Council is not unknown for its commitment to open data. So far it has been building up open data resources in 2 distinct locations: its dedicated open data site and profiles – its data and maps resource about Bristol and its neighbourhoods. We have now received news from BCC’s Kevin O’Malley that At-Bristol, […]
A world without Linux
Below is the first of what will a series of videos seeking to depict what the world would be like had Linus Torvalds not released his kernel 24 years ago, with that kernel then being combined with the tools produced by the GNU project to create a powerful and reliable operating system. A World Without […]
Government’s fast broadband programme ‘feeble’
UK residents can hardly fail to have noticed that a general election is taking place next Thursday, 7th May. As is usual with elections, the record of the previous administration, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, the UK’s first peacetime coalition since that of January 1919 to October 1922, is coming under intense scrutiny from all quarters. […]
Hate DRM? Tell the world on May 6th
On Wednesday, May 6th, 2015, activists across the world will come together to say no to Digital Rights Restrictions Management (DRM). In the last year, DRM has spread to more types of products; developments include Mozilla giving in to DRM in its Firefox web browser and the sycophantic media fawning over Apple’s DRM-laden “smart” watch. […]
Open Knowledge Foundation defines open
The Open Knowledge Foundation is doing marvellous work in the fields of open data and open content. The Foundation has just published version 2 of its Open Definition. This definition is released under a Creative Commons Attribution licence and is reproduced verbatim below (complete with US spellings and punctuation throughout. Ed.). Open Definition Version 2.0 […]
More criticism of ‘superfast’ broadband scheme
Close on the heels of complaints of poor connectivity in London’s Silicon Roundabout area (news passim) and the roll-out of ‘superfast’ broadband in Wiltshire being described as a ‘scam‘ (news passim), comes more criticism of the UK’s lousy connectivity from closer to home – Thornbury and Yate, the parliamentary constituency of Liberal Democrat MP Steve […]
Wiltshire: rural broadband roll out denounced as a scam
Our friends at the Western Daily Press yesterday published a less than favourable account of the inadequacy of the roll-out of so-called “super fast” rural broadband, as managed by British Telecom. In a deal between Wiltshire and South Gloucester Councils, B.T. were to receive £35.6 million of government grants (our taxes) to provide 91% coverage […]
FSF condemns partnership between Mozilla and Adobe to support DRM
In response to Mozilla’s announcement that it is reluctantly adopting DRM in its Firefox Web browser, Free Software Foundation executive director John Sullivan made the following statement: “Only a week after the International Day Against DRM, Mozilla has announced that it will partner with proprietary software company Adobe to implement support for Web-based Digital Restrictions […]
Put Ada on a bank note
The Bank of England recently announced that social and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who currently graces the English five pound note, is to be replaced by Sir Winston Churchill, leaving Elizabeth Windsor as the only woman shown on an English bank note – and that’s merely due to an accident of birth. Since the announcement, […]
BananaBread – a browser-based 3D shoot ’em up
Le Monde Informatique reports that the Mozilla Foundation has published a shoot ’em up game – BananaBread – to demonstrate the capabilities of its Javascript libraries. If it works in Mozilla’s Firefox browser, all Javascript-compatible browsers are affected by these developments. No plug-in needs to be downloaded since everything is implemented in the browser. The […]
CMV enabling computers to detect human emotions
The Centre for Machine Vision (CMV), part of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, is one of only a handful of centres in the world dedicated to exploring the potential of machine vision. It is conducting some interesting research at present into enabling computers to detect human emotions, as well as detecting threats to health and possible […]
Neelie Kroes criticises lack of women in ICT
Today is International Women’s Day and Neelie Kroes, the European Union Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, has drawn attention on her blog not only to the opportunities that ICT can provide for women, but also to the dearth of women employed in ICT. She writes: I think every woman should have the tools and skills […]
Half Life released for Linux after 14 years
After a delay of 14 years since it was first released for proprietary operating systems, the first version of Half Life, one of the most popular and influential first person shooter games of recent times, has now been released for the Linux platform, according to Softpedia. Half Life is based on a heavily modified Quake […]
How Linux is built
While Linux is running your phone (if it’s an Android. Ed.), tweets, financial trades, cash machines and much, much more, most people don’t know how it’s actually built. This short video from the Linux Foundation takes you inside the process by which the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing is organised. It’s […]
A message to BT
Fed up with the ancient telephone exchange and poor quality service from the UK’s largest telecommunications provider – BT, the villagers of Kettleholm in Dumfries and Galloway have produced the following video, which we trust readers will enjoy. Hat tip: Baskers