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

Weekend activities
by Adam Bolte 19 Jul '12

19 Jul '12

Hey all, It came up today at dinner that possibly some people might be interested in getting together for activities that are not strictly about discussing free software. Some ideas I have (off the top of my head) are: * Basic game development. I remember at a previous Software Freedom day there was a presentation somebody gave about all the mini-games he had made with Pygame, and it looked a lot of fun. We could compete individually or work as a team (some people on graphics, some on code, some recording sound effects and sourcing/creating music, etc.). FYI, I'm a Python newbie but I have messed around with the Pygame examples a little. I also suck at graphics but don't mind trying. :) * Creating some kind of short regular Free Software webcast or some such where we could record technical presentations on things like "How to run SaaS without giving up your freedom" (eg. a quick ownCloud tutorial/preview) and/or news items such as "What's new in the world of free software?". Think of something along the lines of the Linux Action Show, albeit shorter, and focusing on free software as opposed to "Linux" and without all the RMS hate. * LAN gaming using free software (eg, Nexuiz, Frozen Bubble, BoW). I'm always up for that. * Polishing free software for non-devs (performing usability studies, finding and submitting bugs, writing/improving/translating documentation and wiki pages, etc.). * Android application development. eg. We've discussed improvements that need to be made to F-Droid at previous meetings, so maybe we can work towards identifying and adding more free software that currently only exists in the Android Marketplace or Play or whatever they call it these days. I imagine these kinds of activities might work best on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon or something when there's more time, and people can stick around for as long or as little as they want. I have no ideas for a venue at this time. Is there any interest out there in any of the above, or does anyone have any other suggestions? Cheers, Adam

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Petition for transparency of the TPP agreement
by Ben Sturmfels 28 Jun '12

28 Jun '12

Hi Folks, Here's a petition calling for transparency in the negotiation of the TPP agreement. I'd encourage you to take a look: http://stopthetrap.net/ You may be aware that TPP is a trade agreement currently being negotiated in secret by governments around the world. Brett Smith's recent talk in Melbourne touched on some of the problems for free software: - expanding the scope of patents to cover any process with industrial applications—likely including software, - making it illegal to use or share software or other information that might circumvent Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on copyrighted works, - forcing everyone who registers an Internet domain name to provide accurate legal contact information, and - imposing harsh enforcement schemes for these provisions, as well as existing copyright, patent, and trademark law. FYI, I saw this petition through http://sumofus.org/. They're calling it "the worst treaty in history. Nice touch! Regards, Ben

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Android Jelly Bean and DRM
by Brian May 28 Jun '12

28 Jun '12

>From http://android-developers.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/introducing-android-41-je… : "App encryption: From Jelly Bean and forward, paid apps in Google Play are encrypted with a device-specific key before they are delivered and stored on the device. We know you work hard building your apps. We work hard to protect your investment." Smells and tastes suspiciously like DRM to me... -- Brian May <brian(a)microcomaustralia.com.au>

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Next meeting: Thursday the 21st of June
by Alex Fraser 21 Jun '12

21 Jun '12

Hi everyone, The next Free Software Melbourne meeting will be held this Thursday, the 21st of June at 6:00pm. Discussion topics include: 1. Picking your battles in free software; see Eric S. Rayond's article "Evaluating the harm from closed source" [1] 2. Ben Sturmfels' talk on software patents at a recent IP Australia forum in Sydney. There should be time for more topics; feel free to bring them up on the night. As usual, we will meet for two hours in the training room at VPAC from 6pm. Building 91 [2] 110 Victoria Street Carlton South We'll head out for dinner after the meeting to Classic Curry on Elizabeth St. See you then, Alex [1] http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4371 [2] http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/

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Free software discussions on Byte Into It, 2012-06-20
by Ben Finney 20 Jun '12

20 Jun '12

Howdy all, On last night's Byte Into It (2012-06-20) on 3RRR, we discussed free software in programmable helmets and robot camera planes. Also, prompted by the introduction of conversation-interrupting adverts in Skype, I had a bit of a rant about the need for software freedom in our communication technology. You can download the audio of the show at <URL:http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/webpage/byte-into-it-20-june-2012>. -- \ “The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must | `\ not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” | _o__) —Albert Einstein | Ben Finney

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Next meeting: Thursday the 17th of May
by Alex Fraser 17 Jun '12

17 Jun '12

Hi everyone, Please join me this Thursday (the 17th) to talk about: - DRM in cinema [1] - How can we be more involved with LibrePlanet [2]? - 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?) As usual, we will meet for two hours in the training room at VPAC from 6pm. Building 91 110 Victoria Street Carlton South (map [1]) We'll head out for dinner after the meeting, to Classic Curry on Elizabeth St. If you would rather go somewhere else that's fine, but please reply to this email; don't leave it until the meeting :) See you then, Alex [1] http://astortheatreblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/what-happened-last-night/ [2] http://libreplanet.org/ [3] http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/

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Draft Fedora plan to cope with Secure Boot on x86 hardware
by Chris Samuel 14 Jun '12

14 Jun '12

Hi all, Matthew Garrett has just posted a draft plan on how Fedora 18 plans to cope with Windows 8 certified x86 hardware that has Secure Boot enabled in EFI. http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/12368.html Basically it involves signing up with Microsoft, paying a $99 one-off fee and then getting them to sign a boot shim that will boot Grub2 that has been signed by a Fedora key. Then it has to be signed code all the way down to user space, so no loading out-of-tree drivers, filesystems or other modules, either FLOSS or proprietary (and certainly not a custom kernels) whilst Secure Boot is enabled. For those who've not come across what this means, he has a nice summary: # Secure boot is built on the idea that all code that can touch the # hardware directly is trusted, and any untrusted code must go through # the trusted code. This can be circumvented if users can execute # arbitrary code in the kernel. So, we'll be moving to requiring # signed kernel modules and locking down certain aspects of kernel # functionality. The most obvious example is that it won't be possible # to access PCI regions directly from userspace, which means all # graphics cards will need kernel drivers. Userspace modesetting will # be a thing of the past. Again, disabling secure boot will disable # these restrictions. # # Signed modules are obviously troubling from a user perspective. # We'll be signing all the drivers that we ship, but what about out # of tree drivers? We don't have a good answer for that yet. As # before, we don't want any kind of solution that works for us # but doesn't work for other distributions. Fedora-only or # Ubuntu-only drivers are the last thing anyone wants, and this # really needs to be handled in a cross-distribution way. Interestingly he also shows that you can use Secure Boot to ensure that your system will only be able to boot Fedora (etc) and never boot a proprietary OS: # A system in custom mode should allow you to delete all existing keys # and replace them with your own. After that it's just a matter of # re-signing the Fedora bootloader (like I said, we'll be providing # tools and documentation for that) and you'll have a computer that # will boot Fedora but which will refuse to boot any Microsoft code. # It may be a little more awkward for desktops because you may have # to handle the Microsoft-signed UEFI drivers on your graphics and # network cards, but this is also solvable. I'm looking at ways to # implement a tool to allow you to automatically whitelist the # installed drivers. Barring firmware backdoors, it's possible to # configure secure boot such that your computer will only run software # you trust. Freedom means being allowed to run the software you want # to run, but it also means being able to choose the software you # don't want to run. Interesting times! 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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Linus Torvalds: Linux succeed thanks to selfishness and trust
by Patrick Sunter 14 Jun '12

14 Jun '12

guys, apropos to the recent ESR blog post, here's some news about Linus T being up for an award and giving an interview. I disagree with quite a few of his remarks but somewhat interesting to see where he's coming from. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18419231 -- Pat.

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Eric S. Raymond on evaluating the harm from closed source
by Matt Giuca 13 Jun '12

13 Jun '12

ESR has put up a brilliant (IMHO) blog post about the importance of essentially "picking your battles". He says: A common failure mode in human reasoning is to become too attached to > theory, to the point where we begin ignoring the reality it was intended to > describe. The way this manifests in ethical and moral reasoning is that we > tend to forget why we make rules – to avoid harmful consequences. Instead, > we tend to become fixated on the rules and the language of the rules, and > end up fulfilling Santayana’s definition of a fanatic: one who redoubles > his efforts after he has forgotten his aim. > I think this is often quite true of open source -- that we really don't * need* open source everything. He defines a vague scale in various dimensions for cataloguing the harms of closed source software, and concludes that while some software types (desktop and smartphone operating systems, communications and productivity tools) really *must* be open source to protect our freedoms as computer users, it isn't quite so necessary for others (microwave firmware, games), and therefore, it is not so hypocritical for a free software supporter to play proprietary games.

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Re: [free-software-melb] Incentives for corporations to protect consumer freedom
by Patrick Elliott-Brennan 13 Jun '12

13 Jun '12

Dennis K wrote: > > It's not so much that its a different country, but that its a new > economy which hasn't gotten to the "fat, lazy" stage yet. I'm sure, > given time, any company will become lazy and undynamic. > I think, Dennis, that you're misreading the facts. The Chinese economic system is a blisteringly violent mechanism with little to no interest in worker rights and little in the way of concern for their safety. Community safety is also a low priority. A relative who lives in Hong Kong tells me all about the crappy engineering that gets passed as 'fit' over there. Additionally there was an engineering inspector on the ABC just last week saying that during his time over there he was appalled by the shoddy work and dangerous consequences. It's easy to make a radical change or 'fix' a problem in these circumstances. It's possible to be impressed until you consider the cost. These are the greater causes of the differences, rather than some idealised notion of being "lean" or "without fat" or "new". Regards, Patrick

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