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

New Zealand drops pure software patents
by Alex Fraser 15 May '13

15 May '13

Hi all, It seems that our New Zealand friends have had some success in they battle against software patents: http://www.zdnet.com/new-zealand-drops-ability-to-patent-software-700001510… Actually I thought they were already at this point, but I guess there was still some uncertaintly around it. The fact that software alone is now unpatentable in nz is great, but I still wonder about the details. Surely all software just makes the hardware it runs on perform its function better? It will be interesting to watch the first court cases. So New Zealand have beaten us once again! Alex

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Meeting this Thursday?
by Bianca Gibson 14 May '13

14 May '13

Hi all, Are we meeting this Thursday? Any topics? Cheers, Bianca

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Free software dinner this Thursday 16 May, 6pm
by Ben Sturmfels 14 May '13

14 May '13

Hi Folks, This month's gathering will be dinner at Classic Curry, so hope to see you there! Again, sorry for the late notice. Regards, Ben ------------------------------ Free Software Melbourne Dinner ------------------------------ Thursday 16 May, 6-9pm Classic Curry Restaurant 597 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=-37.80484&mlon=144.958256&zoom=16 Informal dinner and discussion has been very popular in the past, especially since some people don't have the chance to stick around after discussion group meetings. Classic Curry has delicious North Indian food and a wide range of vegetarian and vegan options.

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Discussion group this Thursday 18 April, 6pm - DRM in HTML 5
by Ben Sturmfels 18 Apr '13

18 Apr '13

Hi Folks, Our monthly discussion group is on this Thursday 18 April. Look forward to seeing you there! ---------------------------------------- Free Software Melbourne discussion group ---------------------------------------- Thursday 21 March, 6-9pm VPAC Head Office Training Room (see website) http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ Agenda: - DRM in HTML 5 - experiences with e-book readers - Tasty dinner at a nearby restaurant

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GNU Media Goblin crowd-funding campaign
by Ben Sturmfels 13 Apr '13

13 Apr '13

Hi Folks, GNU MediaGoblin is a free software media publishing system for images, video, and audio. I've found it very useful for hosting my own photos. The goblins are running a crowd-funding campaign to add some advanced features like decentralisation as well as simpler installation and administration. I've just made a donation and thought you might like to to: http://mediagoblin.org/pages/campaign.html Christopher Allan Webber, the project lead was recently interview on Free as In Freedom. Definitely worth a listen: http://faif.us/cast/2012/sep/14/0x31/ Regards, Ben

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Software freedom discussion on Byte Into It, 2013-04-10
by Ben Finney 13 Apr '13

13 Apr '13

Howdy all, On this week's Byte Into It we had a number of items related to free software. * Facebook has released “Facebook Home”, an app layer which turns your phone into an entire Facebook interface. Never check Facebook again — it checks you. * Reading the fine print has revealed that the only way to delete an AppleID account may be to provide Apple with a death certificate. * GNOME has released version 3.8, including a new interface and a whole bunch of new features. * Drupal Melbourne are holding a Drupal mentoring group at the State Library of Victoria, Saturday April 20. <URL:http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/byte-into-it-10-april-2013> -- \ “When I get new information, I change my position. What, sir, | `\ do you do with new information?” —John Maynard Keynes | _o__) | Ben Finney

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Free software discussion group this Thurs 21 March
by Ben Sturmfels 08 Apr '13

08 Apr '13

Hi Folks, Sorry for the late announcement. I'm looking forward to seeing you all this Thursday night for Free Software Melbourne discussion group and dinner. I had an amazing experience this week; a video call using free software that worked beautifully. It's been a long wait for a free software equivalent to Skype. Perhaps we're close! I'd love to hear your experiences with video calling. Trisquel 6.0 was also released very recently; the fully-free distro endorsed by the FSF. I'll be giving a quick demo. Join us for all that and more free software chatter. Regards, Ben ---------------------------------------- Free Software Melbourne discussion group ---------------------------------------- Thursday 21 March, 6-9pm VPAC Head Office Training Room (see website) http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ Agenda: - Free software video calling: are we there yet? (discussion) - Trisquel 6.0 (demo and discussion) - Tasty dinner at a nearby restaurant

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MATE desktop
by Sven＠GMX 04 Apr '13

04 Apr '13

Hi, I updated MATE 1.4 to MATE 1.6 desktop yesterday without rebooting. I noticed few visual changes. When I turned my laptop back on this morning the entire desktop configuration was wrecked. Nothing is as it was before, all applets are gone, pretty much everything including panel settings is back to default. I also noticed, when making changes in appearance settings it stops working, can only select icons on the desktop but nothing can be run anymore and have to change to a console and reboot the system. Does anyone have an idea how to re-use the MATE 1.4 desktop configuration, because it is still there but just not being used? Any help is much appreachiated. Cheers, -- Sven (Andriske)/ VK3SIX

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[johns@fsf.org: Re: [libreplanet-discuss] DRM in HTML5]
by Adam Bolte 24 Mar '13

24 Mar '13

As touched on last night, the FSF has started their campaign against DRM in HTML5. ----- Forwarded message from John Sullivan <johns(a)fsf.org> ----- Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:23:56 -0400 From: John Sullivan <johns(a)fsf.org> To: "d.dn" <d.dn(a)free.fr> Cc: libreplanet-discuss(a)libreplanet.org Subject: Re: [libreplanet-discuss] DRM in HTML5 Our petition is now live at: <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5> We will be making a lot more noise about this next week, but help in promoting it (and any feedback) is much appreciated. -john -- John Sullivan | Executive Director, Free Software Foundation GPG Key: 61A0963B | http://status.fsf.org/johns | http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS Do you use free software? Donate to join the FSF and support freedom at <http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=8096>. ----- End forwarded message -----

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LibrePlanet: The FSF's annual conference
by Ben Sturmfels 15 Mar '13

15 Mar '13

Hi Folks, The FSF's annual conference, LibrePlanet, is coming up on 23-24 March. If, like me, you wish you were there, you'll be glad to know that they plan to have a live video feed: http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Watch_Live http://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2013/Program The program starts at 9am in Cambridge, Massachusets, which I think makes it midnight on Sunday 24 for us. Not an ideal time, but I might at least try to catch the opening talks by Karen Sandler and John Sullivan. Regards, Ben

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