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

Cory Doctorow talk on 'Free Computing'
by Patrick Sunter 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

Hi all, this is a long talk, and slightly O/T, but quite interesting I think if you have a bit of reading/listening time this weekend now the cricket's finished ;) Doctorow makes some telling points about problems with trying to 'lock down' general purpose (often Linux-based) computing machines, and thus germane to the FOSS software world from a broader perspective. http://boingboing.net/2011/12/27/the-coming-war-on-general-purp.html -- Pat.

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Re: [free-software-melb] Encouraging women
by Patrick Elliott-Brennan 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

Thanks, Russell. Great links and good post. Regards, Patrick (sent from Linux conf au) > > http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/08/terrible-bargain-we-have- > regretfully.html > > Could ALL the men on this list please read the above blog post, particularly > paragraph 11 onwards. If you start reading the post and think for a moment > that it doesn't mean you then IT REALLY MEANS YOU. > > There are some men who have been saying sensible things which indicate that > they have actually considered the issues. They should read that post too. > It's something that we should all read periodically to keep things in the > correct perspective. > > http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents > > The above URL has already been cited. I think that if this discussion > continues in the current form then it will justify another entry there. > > -- > My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ > My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au

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Re: [free-software-melb] encouraging women
by Russell Coker 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

On Fri, 13 Jan 2012, Andrew Pam <xanni(a)sericyb.com.au> wrote: > Changing the subject won't start a new thread of discussion; the > "In-Reply-To" headers preserve the thread regardless of the "Subject" > headers of the messages. It's preferable to use the "compose new email > to this address" feature of your email client instead of "reply". https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/wiki/ K9 mail (the best MUA I've found for Android) has poor support for doing that. There is no direct way of doing it and it seems impossible to create such a new message without first adding the address in question to your contacts. Copy/paste is impractical when you have a tiny screen and even tinier text. If someone wants to start writing free software for Android then this could be a good feature to add... PS It would be nice if Mailman supported users who have multiple email addresses, taking russell+lists to be the same as russell would be convenient for me. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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War on the Internet: it doesn't have to be like this
by Ben Finney 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

Howdy all, Here's an event that is likely of interest to free-software supporters. When: Saturday 21st January 2012, 3.00 - 5.00pm Where: Trades Hall, Corner Lygon & Victoria Streets, Carlton The response of governments and corporations to Wikileaks, Anonymous, the occupy movement and the Arab Spring has been defensive and warlike. The internet and social media were declared tools of agitation. Behaviour that sought peaceful democratic reform was characterised as treasonous or even terrorist. Government asserted the right to flick the internet off-switch, and law enforcement, Internet Service Providers, telcos and the judiciary were enlisted to harass activists via subpoenas, takedown notices, mercenary denial of service attacks, and direct denial of services based on unexplained breaches of hard to find user licences. It also involved the ritual harassment of activists in the far corners of international airports, dark places reserved for unlawful arrivals and criminal suspects. It doesn't have to be like this. Come and hear from an activist, journalist, researcher and legislator challenging the gatekeepers and proposing alternatives to the weaponisation of cyberspace. <URL:http://www.efa.org.au/2012/01/08/war-on-the-internet/> -- \ “I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then | `\ I thought ‘Why should I? He never reads any of mine.’” —Spike | _o__) Milligan | Ben Finney

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encouraging women
by Bianca Gibson 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

No meaning to me replying to that talk, I just searched to find the email address, hit reply and forgot to change the the subject.

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Unsubscribe please
by George Farley 08 Jan '12

08 Jan '12

Unsubscribe please George Farley

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Measures Governments Can Use to Promote Free Software
by Ben Finney 01 Jan '12

01 Jan '12

Howdy all, Germane to the mandate of our group, here is a new essay outlining why and what governments can do to promote free software – within their own operation, for their citizens, and throughout the world. <URL:https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/government-free-software.html> Looking at that list, all levels of government in Australia have a long way to go. We have a lot of work to do :-) -- \ “Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential | `\ things in rationality.” —Bertrand Russell | _o__) | Ben Finney

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Contributing To Debian slides online
by Ben Finney 16 Dec '11

16 Dec '11

Howdy all, The slides I used for last night's talk, Contributing To Debian, are at <URL:http://rasputin.madmonks.org/~bignose/presentation/free-software/contri…>. The work is licensed to all under CC-BY-SA 3.0 AU terms. The above URL has the reStructuredText source document, and the rendered S5 presentation. (More on reStructuredText and S5 at their homepages <URL:http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html> <URL:http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/>.) I don't know how long it will remain at the above URL. Anyone who wants to put it somewhere more permanent can do so, of course, under the terms of its license. -- \ “… one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was | `\ that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful | _o__) termination of their C programs.” —Robert Firth | Ben Finney

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Thanks for a great year!
by Ben Sturmfels 16 Dec '11

16 Dec '11

Hi Free Software Folks, Last night saw our largest attendance yet! Ben Finney told us how to get involved in Debian, one of the most mature and respected GNU/Linux projects. Alex and Les brought along snacks and drinks and afterwards a number of us headed around the corner for tasty Korean/Japanese food and more free software chatter. We also agreed to explicitly change the group's name to Free Software Melbourne (from Melbourne Free Software Interest Group). It's been a great year for the group. Thanks again to Alex giving us the opportunity to have a private and comfortable meeting space at VPAC. This has allowed us to grow significantly and see some very interesting free software discussion along the way. I hope that next year we can continue to complement the community's existing technical user groups with our own non-technical, free software-focused, informal social gatherings. Next gathering will be in February, due to holidays and conferences including the linux.conf.au free software conference in Ballarat. Dates for 2012 TBA. A few things we're considering for next year: - a introductory free software participation event such as a Debian bug-squashing party (not only for programming people) - a bigger role in Software Freedom Day 15 September - perhaps a local event to mark the FSF Libre Planet Conference 24-25 March We're looking forward to seeing you again for more free software in 2012! Regards, Ben

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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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