June 2011 - Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

Forum now available via Gmane gateway
by Ben Finney 15 Dec '11

15 Dec '11

Howdy all, This forum is now available via the Gmane gateway <URL:http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.foss.melbourne>. As described at that page, this allows the forum to be accessed via many methods in addition to the mailing list, such as NNTP (which is how I'm now posting this message), a weblog-style interface, and syndication feeds. I have given Ben Sturmfels instructions for how to make the past messages of this forum appear as postings in Gmane; hopefully he can find the time to do that. -- \ “If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the | `\ precipitate.” —Steven Wright | _o__) | Ben Finney

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Byte Into It, 2011-06-29
by Ben Finney 30 Jun '11

30 Jun '11

Howdy all, Another episode of 3RRR's Byte Into It program with lots of time given to software freedom. Relevant to Free Software Melbourne, I gave a long exposition on the StarOffice → OpenOffice → LibreOffice history, and the machinations of the parties involved. (Big thanks to Bradley Kuhn's many articles and discussions that informed my knowledge and position on this.) We also talked about federated social networking (as opposed to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or any other single-corporation “social network”); the Australian government convincing ISPs to “voluntarily” censor the internet and then the ISPs backing down days later; J. K. Rowling's laudable move to refuse Amazon and Apple's single-device publishing options and refusing Digital Restrictions Management on her works, and instead go it alone with Pottermore and no DRM. The episode page with the audio for download is now online at <URL:http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/byte-into-it-29-june-2011>. -- \ “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” —Groucho | `\ Marx | _o__) | Ben Finney

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Free software round-up
by Ben Sturmfels 25 Jun '11

25 Jun '11

Hi Freedom Lovers, Last discussion group --------------------- We had a small but interesting free software discussion group last week. It was satisfying to hear some success stories of people being paid to and paying others to work on free software. New wiki --------- I've just set up a wiki and added some of the discussion relating the ACTA and TPP agreements. Hope this helps us to gather our thoughts on these and other topics. Wiki: http://wiki.freesoftware.asn.au/ Melbourne Blender Society -------------------------- Alex Fraser is restarting the Melbourne Blender Society meetings. Next meeting is 30 June, 6-8pm at VPAC Head Office. Melbourne Blender: http://melbourneblender.wordpress.com/ Interesting discussion about Libre Office ------------------------------------------ Oracle recently donated the copyright of Open Office to the Apache Foundation so it could become an incubator project. Ben Finney pointed out Bradley Khun's interesting analysis of this move --- that switching to the Apache license is a sneaky political move to allow IBM to keep releasing proprietary versions. Free as in Freedom episode 0x11: http://faif.us/cast/2011/jun/07/0x11/ Upcoming discussion group -------------------------- The next discussion group meeting is 21 July, 6:30pm at the State Libary. I'd love to hear your suggestions for topics. Melbourne free software interest group: http://www.softwarefreedom.com.au/free-software-melb/ What do you think? ------------------- I'm very interested to hear how we can make this group interesting and relevant to everyone interested in free software. Please send me ideas or feedback (or to the list if you'd prefer). Regards, Ben

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Byte Into It, 2011-06-01
by Ben Finney 14 Jun '11

14 Jun '11

Howdy all, This week's Byte Into It program on 3RRR featured a lot of discussion of software freedom issues. That's because I was in the rare position of coming up with most of the content, so it was heavily slanted to my interests :-) Relevant to Free Software Melbourne, we finally talked a lot about the US Trade Representative office's activities and in particular the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We also discussed device manufacturers beginning to make noises about *not* locking down their boot loaders, and Groklaw's end-of-an-era in the changing challenges to software freedom. Catch the audio recording for download at <URL:http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/byte-into-it-1-june-2011>. -- \ “Science and religion are incompatible in the same sense that | `\ the serious pursuit of knowledge of reality is incompatible | _o__) with bullshit.” —Paul Z. Myers, 2010-03-14 | Ben Finney

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Discussion group this Thursday 14th, 6:30pm
by Ben Sturmfels 14 Jun '11

14 Jun '11

Hi Freedom Lovers, Just a reminder that this month's discussion group is on this Thursday 14 June, 6:30-7:30pm at the State Library. We meet in the foyer just before 6:30. The proposed topics this month are: How can free software compatible video succeed in a world of restrictive formats? Copyleft and Copyright. A tour through the most popular free software licenses. Look forward to seeing you! Ben

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