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

Your recommended monthly intake of free software
by Ben Sturmfels 14 Nov '11

14 Nov '11

Hi Folks, Looking forward to seeing you this Thursday's for more free software chat than you can poke a stick at! Melbourne Free Software Interest Group Thursday 17 November, 6pm http://www.softwarefreedom.com.au/free-software-melb/ VPAC Head Office Training Room, Level 1 Building 91 110 Victoria Street Carlton South Map: http://www.vpac.org/about/contact Please arrive 10 mins early. Agenda ------ 1. Privacy and trust using GnuPG (Matt Giuca). If you have a gnupg key, this would be a good chance to get signatures of others. Matt can tell us a little more about how this works. 2. The state of free software social networking including Identica and Diaspora. (discussion) Cheers, Ben

2 1

Forum - Fighting the war on patents
by Ben Sturmfels 09 Nov '11

09 Nov '11

Hi Folks, Thought you might be interested in this seminar on patents by "IP Australia" next Wednesday. I'll be attending and hopefully asking some questions relevant to our campaign. Ben ----------------------------- "Fighting the war on patents" IP Forum 16 November 2011 From the battle to capture the hearts and minds of smart-phone consumers, through to the emotive issue of gene patenting - "Fighting the war on patents" is the must attend event for 2011. Hear from industry leaders as they pour over these issues and offer insights into how the battlelines are forming across multiple sectors, as IP increasingly shapes the world we live in. The event features three guest speakers: * Mr Philip Noonan, Director General, IP Australia * Dr Trevor Davies, Partner, Allens Arthur Robinson Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys * Dr Aaron Mitchell, Manager, South Australian Research & Development Institute Followed by a panel discussion and complimentary lunch. This free forum includes the opportunity for you to network with attorneys, lawyers, industry representatives and members of IP Australia's Executive. When: 11:15am - 02:00pm Wednesday 16 November 2011 Where: Melbourne Marriott Hotel Cnr Exhibition & Lonsdale Streets Melbourne VIC 3000 Cost: The event is free to attend but registration is essential as places are limited How to register: Please RSVP by Friday 11 November 2011 to Customer.engagement(a)ipaustralia.gov.au <mailto:Customer.engagement@ipaustralia.gov.au>

2 1

My favourite games
by Ben Sturmfels 06 Nov '11

06 Nov '11

Hi Folks, I've also posted a list of my favourite free software games that I demoed at the last discussion group: http://wiki.freesoftware.asn.au/favouriteGames I wouldn't recommend installing Battle for Wesnoth if you have other things you need to do. It's an excellent game and has kept me occupied for many, many hours (which may be understating it)! I'd love to hear about your favourites, so feel free to add to the wiki. I used to try out all the new games as the entered Debian, but since moving to Trisquel I haven't kept a close eye on the games. What do you enjoy playing? Ben

2 1

Re: [free-software-melb] My favourite games
by Bernie Schelberg 06 Nov '11

06 Nov '11

I second the warning on installing Battle for Wesnoth...! There's a couple that I like that aren't on your list: Warzone 2100: A very good RTS game, although you'll need hardware graphics acceleration for it to work properly. The cut scenes make it look a little dated, but the gameplay and in-game graphics are very good. Widelands: Another RTS, but with a much greater focus on resource management. Also has much less dependence on graphics performance. Then there's FreeCol: Turn based strategy, good gameplay, but has some performance problems which make it quite annoying at times. Bernie

1 0

Is a GUI better? Show me!!!
by Andrew Thornton 05 Nov '11

05 Nov '11

OK. If I am a software developer then Elvis still lives. So maybe this is all reinventing the wheel. I don't know. Anyway. I find Unity in ubuntu very counter-intuitive. It feels weird. Yet it is meant to be the latest thing/fad/trend to make me happy. No evidence. No measurements. No tests. I am just meant to be a "happy" Unity user. So, what about this: 1. the distance the mouse travels across the screen to use a GUI 2. the number of mouseclicks. 3. the clock time taken to do task x. 1 + 2 + 3 = user figure for a GUI. The lower the score the better. All you guys here who make software. Do you do any measurements like this to arrive at the usability of software such as a GUI or anything else? Or is it just Macbeth Witches style chuck in eyes of newt, frog legs, pigs' blood and basil into the cauldron and hope for the best? Andrew

5 4

Easy free software advocacy brainstorming
by Ben Sturmfels 05 Nov '11

05 Nov '11

Hi Folks, I've just posted our notes from our brainstorming session on some easier advocacy projects. Please feel welcome to add or change anything. http://wiki.freesoftware.asn.au/easyAdvocacy Cheers, Ben

1 0

Free software versus Microsoft's “UEFI Secure Boot”
by Ben Finney 24 Oct '11

24 Oct '11

Howdy all, At the latest meeting we discussed the impacts of Microsofts plans for UEFI Secure Boot for software freedom. The statement from Free Software Foundation on this topic was referenced <URL:http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot>. Matthew Garrett has a lot of experience with the Linux boot process, and has a number of posts on this topic, the most recent being <URL:http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/6503.html>. -- \ “The way to build large Python applications is to componentize | `\ and loosely-couple the hell out of everything.” —Aahz | _o__) | Ben Finney

1 0

Alex's OpenShot keyboard shortcut enhancement & Applied Code reading
by Rodney Brown 22 Oct '11

22 Oct '11

Alex's lightning talk on reading the python code of OpenShot to add a keyboard short cut reminded me of some of Diomidis Spinellis's blog posts - his IEEE Software "Tools of the Trade" columns, the latest of which are now available as podcasts http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/tools-of-the-trade Applied Code Reading: GNU Plotutils http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20090811/index.html Applied Code Reading: Debugging FreeBSD Regex http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20090916/ I think they may be from his book "Code reading: the open source perspective" http://books.google.com/books?id=8lYbNfsAVT4C&hl=en I should have read one post more closely "Process Substitution" was something I didn't know, advanced plumbing ... http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/advanced_bash_scripting_guide/proces… Chapter 22. Process Substitution Process substitution is the counterpart to command substitution. Command substitution sets a variable to the result of a command, as in dir_contents=`ls -al` or xref=$( grep word datafile). Process substitution feeds the output of a process to another process (in other words, it sends the results of a command to another command). Command substitution template command within parentheses >(command) <(command) His example follows.. To locate classes that call the method userGet, but don't call the method userRegister we process their source code with the following bash script. comm -23 \ <(find . -name \*.java -print0 | xargs -0 grep -l userGet | sort) \ <(find . -name \*.java -print0 | xargs -0 grep -l userRegister | sort) The script depends on a wonderful feature of the bash shell: the ability to make the output of a command appear as a file.

1 0

Furthering tonight's discussion about FOSS PDF readers on Gov. sites
by David Schoen 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

Hi, As I expected AGIMO (Australian Government Information Management Office) do set some standards already. I've collected a few things that might be of interest to the group. PDFs are never allowed to be the only source for any information - "Agencies are reminded that it is still a requirement to publish an alternative to all PDF documents (preferably in HTML)". See: http://webguide.gov.au/accessibility-usability/accessibility/ A list of PDF readers is already available from AGIMO, some free alternatives are included. There is also an invitation to suggest more alternatives to add to the list. See: http://webguide.gov.au/types-of-content/pdf/list-of-pdf-readers-public/ I've cherry picked some of the statements from some of the sites I'm familiar with below. Good: - None that I can find :( Bad: - http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/accessibility - http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/accessibility-statement - http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/accessibility - http://www.transport.vic.gov.au/accessibility-statement - http://www.pc.gov.au/legal/accessibility - http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/accessibility-tips Couldn't locate: - http://www.dbi.vic.gov.au/accessibility Most of the departments are inviting feedback via "Contact Us" style links so that is probably a nice easy place anyone on this list can start. I for one will provide the webguide.gov.au links I've listed above to content admins when opportunities arise. Cheers, Dave

1 0

Free software discussion group next Thursday 20 October 6pm
by Ben Sturmfels 19 Oct '11

19 Oct '11

Hi Freedom Lovers, What an eventful month it's been! Software Freedom Day, discussions about DRM'd BIOS (UEFI secure boot), some interesting chatter on the mailing list and a software patent review to round out the week. Looking forward to seeing you all next Thursday for some interesting conversations. 6pm seemed to suit people, so we'll stick with that (feedback welcome). Melbourne Free Software Discussion Group Thursday 20 October, 6pm http://www.softwarefreedom.com.au/free-software-melb/ VPAC Head Office Training Room, Level 1 Building 91 110 Victoria Street Carlton South Map: http://www.vpac.org/about/contact Please arrive 10 mins early. Agenda ------ 1. Video formats on the web: We've come along way, but why are we still divided about standards? (discussion) 2. My favourite free software games (show and tell by Ben Sturmfels) 3. Brainstorm ideas for a small, achievable projects that the group could take on. Easy-medium wins. Les suggested getting gov. websites to link to free software PDF readers. (discussion) Look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Ben

1 1