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 […]
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 […]
The CiviCRM blog reports that CiviCRM 3.4.4 and 4.0.4 have just been released and both are available for download. This release offers several important improvements to permissioning, helping to harden systems. The developers recommend an immediate upgrade to benefit from the new release’s improvements. The new releases can also be tried on the public demos: […]
OSOR reports that the Hungarian government wants to use the Open Document Format, an open, non-proprietary format for electronic documents, as a default for its documents. Zsolt Nyitrai, Minister of State for ICT, told parliament earlier this month that legislation to use ODF by default is being prepared. The ODF plans were announced on 1st […]
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 […]
Yesterday in Berlin a court hearing took place in a case that could set a crucial precedent for the embedded industry. In the lawsuit between AVM and Cybits, AVM maintained that others should not be allowed to modify free software on computers bought from AVM, such as the widely used Fritz!Box. At the heart of […]
On Monday the advance crew – by now known as the tat-down team and consisting mostly of Bristol Wireless volunteers – arrived back tired but satisfied from the rural Barncamp site up the Wye Valley. Our journey began the previous Wednesday afternoon, when the advance crew got to site after a frantic best part of […]
The Free Software Unit of the Secretariat of State for Technology of Tunisia’s Ministry of Industry and Technology has launched Taskforce Opensource, an initiative aimed at fostering the adoption and implementation of open source in Tunisia. The site’s home page states: This collaborative space is designed to collate your proposals and your comments on many […]
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 […]
It has long been the habit of purists (don’t you mean pedants? Ed.), such as rms, to correct those who call our favourite operating system Linux by reminding them that it should actually be termed GNU/Linux as it’s actually the GNU operating system with Linus Torvalds‘ Linux kernel. So, like me, you might have been […]
PC World reports that North Korea has started manufacturing computers, according to a report on North Korean state TV. The range of machines available consists of two for educational use and one for office use. The educational computers both run the same custom software and come in two versions: one is a netbook-sized laptop, whilst […]
Public internet access in libraries is a well established service nowadays. Indeed it’s been in existence here in Bristol for so long that one hardly ever gives it a thought. However, the other day Jules, the Bristol Wireless Treasurer, emailed the chief scribe with a tale from Albany in Oregon, where he’s currently sojourning. Jules […]
Our friends at Circle Interactive report that on 7th June LASA will be hosting a head-to-head comparison of 3 database software systems, featuring an in-depth analysis of the facilities of each. The Circle article continues: This is an ideal opportunity for any organisation, who [sic] is considering investing in a complete CRM system, to compare […]
Yesterday adelayde wrote to the Hacktionlab mailing list with a reminder about the forthcoming Barncamp 2011 (news passim). Hi 2010 Barncamper! You’re probably already aware that we are running BarnCamp again this year, in three weeks time, but as I wasn’t sure everyone was on the mailing list, I’ve decided to send this out the […]
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 […]
Bristol Wireless are advocates of green ICT and constantly urge people to refurbish and re-use hardware where possible before recycling or buying new kit. Nevertheless, we were most intrigued to come across the laptop in a pizza box illustrated below – a fine example of recycling both consumer electronics and disposable food packaging. Eagle-eyed Linux […]