April 2012 - Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

android google apps
by Brian May 19 May '12

19 May '12

Hello, There seem to be more and more places distributing these apps without any legal consequences, has Google's restrictive licensing restrictions changed? Perhaps in ice cream sandwich? Or maybe Google have stopped caring about infringements? e.g. http://www.chip.de/downloads/Google-Play-Store-APK_54923571.html http://www.android-x86.org/ - not documented anywhere but was in the android-x86-4.0-RC1-asus_laptop.iso image I downloaded. Which is odd, because the iso is built directly from the source code, yet, as expected, I don't see this apps in the source code. ClockworkMod - apparently has option to download and install these apps (I haven't checked). http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Latest_Version/Google_Apps - has links to where you can download them. This last cyanogenmod link above suggests it is fine to download them separately, just not distribute them with Android. I asked about this on the android-x86 mailing list - which ironically is hosted on Google's severs; the only response I have got so far is "ther must have been a change... German popular computzer magazine Chip also offers Google Play market apk as download:". https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/android-x86/f1TWmYVjH-A So wondering what the story is? If Google had changed the licensing, I would have expected to see more about this. Thanks -- Brian May <brian(a)microcomaustralia.com.au>

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Re: [free-software-melb] Free-software-melb Digest, Vol 20, Issue 13
by Jean Elchinger 29 Apr '12

29 Apr '12

> Hi, > I would like to respond to Tim about this: > *It's hard enough to find CyanogenMod users at a LUG!* > Er, that was Russell. Are you taking revenge upon Tim for earlier misattributing Russell's text to me? :p Oops, yes I'm really sorry about that Russell. I get so confused sometimes with the message digest I receive.

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DRM Free Resources
by Bernie Schelberg 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

Hi, As agreed at our last meeting, I've begun a list of DRM free resources on the wiki. I've added most of the links posted over the last week or so on the topic. Feel free to add more if I've missed any. The page is here: http://wiki.freesoftware.asn.au/DrmFreeResources Cheers, Bernie

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Re: [free-software-melb] CyanogenMod 7 on SGS2
by Jean Elchinger 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

Hi, I would like to respond to Tim about this: *It's hard enough to find CyanogenMod users at a LUG!* Yep, I'm using CyanogenMod! I hope I'll come to the next LUG meeting. I like CyanogenMod and I would like more people to care about it. I would like to organize install parties for this. It's not that difficult to flash your phone when you have a USB JIG (http://usbjig.com/) Jean On Thu, 26 Apr 2012, Tim Cuthbertson <tim(a)gfxmonk.net> wrote: >> There are links to downloads of the google apps on that wiki, but I >> expect it's illegal to distribute them, and maybe even to download >> them. >I think that Google might be most concerned about mass distributors (which is >the point of copyright) and not particularly concerned about individuals. >Let's face it the number of people using CyanogenMod is too small to make any >commercial difference to any aspect of mobile phones. It isn't going to have >much impact on handset sales (either directly or through "free" phones offered >on plans), call or data use, app purchase, or anything else. >It's hard enough to find CyanogenMod users at a LUG! -- S'il vous plaît, évitez de m'envoyer des pièces jointes au format Word ou PowerPoint. Consulter http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.fr.html *Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html*

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drm free ebooks
by Brian May 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

Straight from my unsorted notes and google searches, hope I get the correct. Like I said it is sometimes hard to get information on DRM at some web sites. No idea if these are any good, I haven't tried them. Unrelated note: I suspect that epub format is better able to represent technical documents, such as bullet points, tables, pictures, etc, then AZW (Kindle's version of Mobipocket with DRM). Or it could just be that Amazon does a really lousy job at translating these documents into Mobipocket format. As in the formatting can be completely stuffed up, images too small and low resolution, etc. The quality of the technical epub books I have seen from Google books - epub with drm - seems to be better then what I have seen from Amazon market, plus (at least with Google), you have access to the original scanned document page. Amazon do have a new file format, KF8, based on HTML5 and CSS3, that maybe might resolve these issues. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats $0 cost or Public domain: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page http://www.freekindlebooks.org/ http://www.fictionwise.com/ http://gutenberg.net.au/ http://www.baen.com/library/ > $0 cost http://www.baenebooks.com/ http://oreilly.com/ http://www.smashwords.com/about http://www.ebooksjustpublished.com/ (seems to be a blog for above site) http://drmfree.calibre-ebook.com/ http://p2p.wrox.com/content/blogs/jminatel/all-wroxcom-wrox-e-books-drm-fre… http://blog.text2go.com/2008/01/04/the-top-13-drm-free-ebook-sites/ google search "drm free ebook" Harry potter Meant to be DRM free, except for Amazon. http://shop.pottermore.com/en_GB/books/HP1 google search "harry potter ebook" http://momentumbooks.com.au/blog/harry-potter-and-the-digital-rights-manage… http://gigaom.com/2012/03/27/what-book-publishers-should-learn-from-harry-p… http://copyrightandtechnology.com/2012/03/28/will-harry-potter-break-the-e-… http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/03/27/harry-potter-ebooks-are-not-dr… etc There is at least one blog poster who concluded because Harry Potter has DRM from Amazon, it must have DRM everywhere. Not convinced this is the case. There might be issues trying to translate from ePub to Mobipocket format, however I didn't read those comments in detail. Apparently Harry Potter ebooks are somehow water marked, is this a problem for us? http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173976 anti-DRM propaganda: http://boingboing.net/2010/01/11/david-pogue-tries-dr.html Last time I search I saw an author that was selling DRM-free ebooks under a name-your-price system. Can't find it right now unfortunately. -- Brian May <brian(a)microcomaustralia.com.au>

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ZaTab from ZaReason - a fully open Android tablet
by Chris Samuel 26 Apr '12

26 Apr '12

Hi folks, Sorry for being so quiet recently and missing meetings, a combination of lots of work and some timetable clashes.. The US company ZaReason who build Linux systems (and are currently investigating opening a store in New Zealand) have been working on a fully open Android tablet for some time now. Well it's now appeared on their website for pre-orders (unlinked from the rest of the site, but tweeted about) here: http://zareason.com/shop/zatab.html I've blogged about it here: http://www.csamuel.org/2012/04/25/the-zatab-from-zareason-a-fully-open-sour… summarising what I've learnt from their tweets and from their site, plus noting that the status of their GPU driver is unclear (there is an open source driver in development, but its maturity is claimed to be low). The tablet ships with CyanogenMod 9 and an unlocked boot loader. I would presume it doesn't ship with the Google Apps as they're not open. I've asked via Twitter if they plan on having F-Droid installed by default. Timely given the interest in free software Android devices! cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP

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Re: [free-software-melb] CyanogenMod 7 on SGS2
by Jean Elchinger 26 Apr '12

26 Apr '12

Yes Ben, I'm running CyanogenMod on my android phone and I hignly recommend it to everyone using Android. You can really customise your phone with it, and you have many more options you don't have with an official rom. It was worth it! I installed all the apps I needed, just sometimes the phone freezes when I was in the play market but everything else works fine. I even installed a plugin to make video call on the gtalk apps. Their a campaign from the FSFE to read for you folks: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/liberate.en.html Jean Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:51:49 +1100 > From: Ben Finney <ben+freesoftware(a)benfinney.id.au> > To: free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > Subject: Re: [free-software-melb] CyanogenMod 7 on SGS2 > Message-ID: <87bonkieu2.fsf(a)benfinney.id.au> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Jean Elchinger <jean.elchinger(a)gmail.com> > writes: > > > If you got this reboot loop problem too, after trying to install > > CyanogenMod 7 on SGS2 the solution exists, read carefully this topic: > > http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/38096-boot-loop-sollution/ > > Thank you for passing this on. Sorry you had to spend your weekend > discovering it! > > Thank you, especially, for not responding to a list-digest post, and > instead correctly starting a new thread for a new topic. > > > Then I finally succeeded to install cm_galaxys2_full-116.zip and the > > update-cm-7.2.0-RC1-galaxys2-signed.zip > > I hope this means you now have a computer in your pocket running > CyanogenMod? > > -- > \ ?A ?No? uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater | > `\ than a ?Yes? merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to | > _o__) avoid trouble.? ?Mohandas K. Gandhi | > Ben Finney > >

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Follow-up and minutes from last night's meeting
by Alex Fraser 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

Hi all, Thanks for a great meeting last night - and welcome to the new people! We had a good discussion around DRM, in the lead-up to next month's Day Against DRM. Below are some notes that I jotted down. I notice that some of the action items are already being worked on. Nice one! Suggestions for topics for next month: - How can we be more involved with LibrePlanet? - FOSS-friendly employers, both in terms of IT companies and others (e.g. how do you get the print shop you work at to start using FOSS?) Cheers, Alex ---- What message are we trying to get across? E.g. do we want to cause a boycott of DRM-encumbered media, or just raise awareness? Problems: - People don't care. - Common objection: "Amazon is so convenient" - It's an uphill battle, in the same way as it's an uphill battle convincing people to be green. Solutions: - Play up the convenience of having DRM-free media. - We must be able to cite alternatives. - Promote the DRM-free sources -> we should compile (or find) a list. - P2P distribution system that bypasses traditional publishers, but still allows authors to be paid. Or something like flattr. - Talk to people who have been burnt (e.g. Ubisoft customers, who couldn't play their games for a week). Comment: when (if ;) copyright on a work expires, what happens to copies of it that are DRM-encumbered? Actions: - Show the rest of the world that Australia is in a more favourable position, to get them to stand up for their rights. - E.g. region-free DVD players. -> Two Bens to write about this on our wiki. - Compile a list of DRM-free media vendors and authors. -> Bernie to create page on wiki.

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metlink timetable api
by Brian May 22 Apr '12

22 Apr '12

http://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/sm9fj/ive_discovered_the_unpubli… -- Brian May <brian(a)microcomaustralia.com.au>

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f-droid
by Russell Coker 21 Apr '12

21 Apr '12

http://f-droid.org/ The f-droid repository appears to only have 8 pages of applications, that would be 240 apps or less. Obviously we need to have a wider range of apps there. It seems that there are free apps which aren't in f-droid, the Serval and "c:geo opensource" people seem to be committed to free software but don't have their apps there. Also some app developers haven't published any interest in free software but have aims which match - the Marine Traffic app is one example where the developers should be FOSS friendly. So some f-droid and FOSS on Android advocacy would probably help. It seems to me that f-droid makes for a usable phone. It has applications of enough of the important categories to get by, I could potentially delete all my Google Play apps and install only f-droid stuff and have a useful system - one that would allow me to do my current web surfing and do all the things that my clients require me to do (IE the ConnectBot for ssh access). It would be really good if we had more games on f-droid. There are currently no games in the business simulation, action shooting (like 1942), cannon shooting (like Angry Birds), and tower defense genres. I now have a general plan to make my main Android phone have only f-droid apps at some future time for security reasons among other things. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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