Hi Folks, Just a reminder that Free Software Melbourne is on tomorrow, Thursday 17 April at 6pm. Look forward to seeing you! Regards, Ben On 08/04/14 11:48, Ben Sturmfels wrote:

Hi Free Software folks,

This month: Damien Zammit talking about freeing your BIOS, lots of Free Software news as always, plus a tasty dinner afterwards. See you next Thursday!

Regards, Ben

Free Software Melbourne ----------------------- Thursday 17 April 6-9pm (inc. dinner at nearby restaurant)

VPAC Head Office Training Room Level 1, Building 91, 110 Victoria Street Map: http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/

Damien Zammit: Freeing your BIOS -------------------------------- Following recent disclosure of widespread US government surveillance, it's becoming clear that Free Software is critical to building devices that maintain our that act in our interests, rather than someone else's.

Although we don't yet have much choice but to trust the security of our hardware[1], it is possible to have Free Software right down to the BIOS level. Damien has been interested in this area some time and has recently succeeded in installing a free BIOS in his laptop. He'll be telling us about his work in this area.

[1] Matthew Garret's LCA 2014 keynote gave a risk analysis of trusting our hardware: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMStnFzgRM

The Gnews --------- Blender's project Gooseberry http://cloud.blender.org/gooseberry/

Novena free hardware laptop: http://www.crowdsupply.com/kosagi/novena-open-laptop

Update on TPP: https://action.sumofus.org/a/trade-sustainers/4/4/

Remix culture: http://www.ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix