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Second review of Assistance and Access Act, deadline 22 February (Friday!) for submissions
by Les Kitchen 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

Hi fellow FSM-ites, I recently found out by accident, listening to Geraldine Doogue (spelling?) on ABC Radio National, that the deadline for public submissions to the review of the Assistance and Access Act is this coming Friday, 22nd February, only a few days away. I knew that the review was coming, but I wasn't expecting it so soon, and I must say it caught me by surprise. So if we want to do a joint submission as FSM, then we really have to get moving on it pretty quickly. I was talking to Tatiana over the weekend, and she suggested we could work on this at our FSM meeting on Thursday. Even so, we'd need to do a fair bit of preparation beforehand. The current government webpage for making submissions (and some information) is: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence… There you can also look at submissions that have already been made. That would be useful to see what people are saying. Not to be confused with this is the old webpage for the previous review from last year: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence… But similarly that provides access to the public submissions that were made to that earlier review, which also might be worth reading if you have the time. (I made a submission to that review, and got an emailed acknowledgement for it. But strangely I can't find it on the list. I don't know what happened there, and right now I don't have the time to track that down.) One complication is that I'm away in NSW at the moment. My Dad, who's 90, had a fall week before last. Luckily no broken bones, but concussion and bruising. He's been discharged from hospital to return home. But it's been pretty disruptive, and I need to stay with him for a bit while he recuperates. That puts limits on how much I can contribute to our submission this time. I'll try to do as much as I can, but I'll have to leave it to the rest of you to move this along in time. I guess that's about all for now. — Smiles, Les.

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Correct Meetup date! - 21st February 2019 - All about Mastodon
by Michael Verrenkamp 07 Feb '19

07 Feb '19

Sorry, please ignore the first announcement. The date was wrong. My wife pointed out that I am an idiot and I agree. :D The meetup is the 21st of February, not the 14th. --------------------------------- All about Mastodon A lot of people have not heard of Mastodon, it is a social media service similar to Twitter that you can self host. Its various separately operated user bases are federated across many different sites and its de-centralised nature can mean it will potentially be a lot more resilient compared with other online services. We will show you through it all and why you might be interested in using it. We will also have the Gnews as usual and discussion about the 'Assistance and Access Bill' that will impact all of us. This is a non-technical event and all are welcome. The event is on 6:30PM - Thursday 21st February 2019 at Electron Workshop; 31 Arden Street North Melbourne. Doors open at 6pm and the event will go through to 8pm. Afterwards we will have dinner in North Melbourne as usual and we can continue any discussion that will have arisen.

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FSM Meetup - 14th February 2019 - All about Mastodon
by Michael Verrenkamp 07 Feb '19

07 Feb '19

All about Mastedon A lot of people have not heard of Mastodon, it is a social media service similar to Twitter that you can self host. Its various separately operated user bases are federated across many different sites and its de-centralised nature can mean it will potentially be a lot more resilient compared with other online services. We will show you through it all and why you might be interested in using it. We will also have the Gnews as usual and discussion about the 'Assistance and Access Bill' that will impact all of us. This is a non-technical event and all are welcome. The event is on 6:30PM - Thursday 14th February 2019 at Electron Workshop; 31 Arden Street North Melbourne. Doors open at 6pm and the event will go through to 8pm. Afterwards we will have dinner in North Melbourne as usual and we can continue any discussion that will have arisen.

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Apple starts patenting Swift Programming functions
by Michael Verrenkamp 30 Jan '19

30 Jan '19

Howdy folks, Just a heads up to those who follow the progress of various development technologies. Apple appeared to be doing something really good for the world when they decided the make their Swift programming language open to the world to be used as people wished. Apparently they could help themselves and have decided to start patenting various functions of the language. https://patents.google.com/patent/US9952841B2/en Michael ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Committee Member - Free Software Australia - http://www.freesoftware.org.au/ Advocating for freedom in computer software

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FSM December Dinner - 7pm 21st December 2018
by Michael Verrenkamp 02 Dec '18

02 Dec '18

It is the end of yet another great year and as tradition we will be doing away with the formalities and be having an end of year dinner. No Gnews, no talks, no worries! Going against tradition, we will be doing it on a Friday rather than the typical Thursday meetings. That way if you have a Monday to Friday job then you will not have to worry about having to get up early the next day and can just enjoy a good meal and good chat for the end of the week. Staying close to our normal meetup and dining location we will meet at 7pm at Char Su House on Errol St. This is an event for everyone and new comers are more than welcome to come along. Friday 21st December 7PM Address: 37 Errol St, North Melbourne Victoria 3051, Australia http://www.charsiuhouse.com https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/melbourne-december-dinner-21st-december-20…

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Free Software Melbourne/Australia. Past. Present. Future.
by Michael Verrenkamp 28 Nov '18

28 Nov '18

Just an update on were we are going with Free Software Melbourne and Free Software Australia in a more bored sense. On Thursday 15th November was our final "official" meeting for FSM for 2018; while there will be an end of year dinner to come in December (date to be decided) - we also had our yearly committee vote. There have been three changes to committee. Firstly Damien Zammit has stepped down from his role. To put it bluntly, Zammit is simply far to busy saving us from the clutches of proprietary software to be worrying about, frankly, a minor role of organizing these monthly events - and we are forever grateful for his work in the field. He is doing far too much good in the role of software warrior to be worrying about writing an announce for these events! That said, the time he put in especially in terms of the audio archives of meetings in 2016/2017 are wonderful. A real treasure to be cherished and a great record of our past. I'm sure he will turn up from time to time with our ongoing meetings and we look forward to hearing about the latest developments of his work or just being one of the many cool folk in the community. Secondly, Ben Minders while not officially stepping down from the committee will no longer be directly organizing and running the monthly event. While not the direct reasoning, we choose to prefer the narrative of Ben re-starting the engine of Free Software Brisbane! Anyone want to step up for Free Software Sydney/Hobart/ACT/Adelaide/Perth/Darwin etc/ ? We are more than welcome to help you out. A little note on Ben's time with FSM. Ben has been a part of the committee since March 2015 as Secretary and took over the full reigns of the organization in March 2016. To say that Ben has been the driving force of FSM for the last 2 and 3/4 years is a bit of an understatement. He has kept the organization alive and on target and constantly out in the Melbourne scene looking for people to share their projects and ideas. Always ready to organize the next meeting, get it all prepped and announced and then ready to jump on to the next months meeting ready to 'spread the good word' if you will. Having organized, along side Linux Users Victoria, the last three Software Freedom days has not been an easy thing to do. But it is something that we the committee have always jumped behind when guided by Ben's ideas and concepts. Personally it sometimes felt like we were taking credit for his work like a group high school project but it was never intended in this fashion. You could always count on Ben to turn up to these events with a big smile, a great attitude and always some news about some new programming technology that half of us had never heard of. There will be a lot less 'pan-docs' presentations going forwards. He will be missed at these events but definitely not forgotten, I'm sure whatever groups he gets involved with up north will be glad he turns up. So lucky them! He will leave a vacuum of interesting ideas, resources and most importantly personality. So best of luck to Ben where ever he may go. This is good thing! Dang it! Needless to say, we wish him all the best in his new endeavors and we will be hearing from him from time to time in future - probably via a projected live stream via Jitsi or Mumble. With this we have to focus on the future and were FSM will be heading. The direct Melbourne based committee now consists of essentially three positions. Tatiana and Myself (Michael) are still serving and will be organizing events going forwards. Les, a frequent attendee will also be pitching in when possible even if in a semi-part time situation. We couldn't be more than happy to welcome him on board! We will be doing some contemplation over the next few weeks and months as too the direction of FSM and Free Software Australia as a whole. This will come down to the timing of meetings, the kinds of meetings we want and how we can interact with other people and groups for the benefit of everyone. To essentially get at the heart of what we and others want us to achieve. A somewhat nervous but exciting thing to be doing. We want to be a force for good and welcoming to all that want a free digital world too. FSM/FSA in 2019 will continue to provide an alternative voice in the crowded world of computer technology. A community for which we can meet and discuss the ideas and technology that will help us try to keep and eventually grow our freedoms. Don't be shy, we are welcoming and the digital water is inviting. ;) A side note, just because you are not part of the 'committee' doesn't mean you cannot help out if you wish. This is a community, not a dictatorship. Thank you to everyone that has come along this year. We could not have done it without you. Also Special thanks to the following people. Ben Sturmfels for creating FSM and guiding us through out the years. Also for providing on going mumble servers for us to organize these events. "System Saviour" Adam Bolt from providing on going hosting of not just the website but these mailing lists. Without this service I wonder want awful state this organization would be in, or more accurately, what nasty non-free alternative we would be trying to use. The folks at Electron workshop for not only providing us a meeting space but also for putting up with our noise, especially on games nights. It might be early to say this (42 days early!) but Happy Gnew Year and we hope to see you at one of the many events on next year. Michael Verrenkamp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Committee Member - Free Software Australia - http://www.freesoftware.org.au/ Advocating for freedom in computer software

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Meetup November 2018 - Show and Tell / Committee Voting
by Michael Verrenkamp 09 Nov '18

09 Nov '18

Alan Watts once said "You know you are wearing a comfortable pair of shoes when you are aware of the comfort" or something to that degree. In the same essence, when you know you have a good piece of free software you know how good it is and you just want to share it with the world! In that essence, it is time for 'Free software Show and tell' when you can show off the great software you use or even some you have built yourself! Discuss what you see or provide recommendations to other. We will also be conducting our annual committee elections to vote in or out those that help organize Free Software Melbourne/Australia every month. If you are interesting in running then please step forward. Have a nomination for someone, that is all good as well. Maybe I will be pushed out of my spot? Anyone's guess nowadays. This is a non-technical event and all are welcome. The event is on 6:30PM - Thursday 15th November 2018 at Electron Workshop; 31 Arden Street North Melbourne. Doors open at 6pm and the event will go through to 8pm. Afterwards we will have dinner in North Melbourne as usual and we can continue any discussion that will have arisen. https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/show-and-tell-committee-voting/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Verrenkamp Committee Member - Free Software Australia - http://www.freesoftware.org.au/ Advocating for freedom in computer software

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Free Software Melbourne - Spring Libre Games Night - Thursday 18th October
by Michael Verrenkamp 03 Oct '18

03 Oct '18

Greetings fellow freedom lovers, it is that time of the month again. We might not be Druids celebrating the change of the seasons but we do celebrate a similar quarterly event - our Libre Games Night! Time once again to come together and have a good time as we complete and co-operate in all manner of games both free and libre. We can show you new titles to try out or just have fun with your current favorites. If you need help installing some on your own machine then we are more than happy to help out and get you playing. If you don't have your own computer we will try and provide you with one for the evening. This is a non-technical event and all are welcome. The event is on 6:30PM - Thursday 18th October 2018 at Electron Workshop; 31 Arden Street North Melbourne. Doors open at 6pm and the event will go through to 8pm. Afterwards we will have dinner in North Melbourne as usual and we can continue any discussion that may (Almost definitely!) have arisen. Michael Verrenkamp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Committee Member - Free Software Australia - http://www.freesoftware.org.au/ Advocating for freedom in computer software

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Software Freedom Day
by PuZZleDucK 20 Sep '18

20 Sep '18

Hi all, Thanks for coming out to Electron Workshop last Saturday for some fantastic talks and to celebrate another Software Freedom Day. I've just put together a list of the groups at our community get together this year... and I highly encourage you get involved with one of these fantastic groups if you're not already: Free Software Melbourne: http://freesoftware.org.au/ Linux Users Victoria: http://luv.asn.au/ Designing Open Democracy: http://designingopendemocracy.com/ Policy Incubator https://policyincubator.com/ Electronic Frontiers Australia: https://www.efa.org.au/ ~~ Ben

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Australia: Speak out to save encryption
by PuZZleDucK 07 Sep '18

07 Sep '18

Hi folks, Open Media are currently running a campaign to make it super easy to have your voice heard on the current draft legislation proposed by the Australian government. This legislation would attempt to force companies to create ways to access encrypted communications. All you need to do is fill out your details and optionally customize the (rather sensible) template letter outlining concerns with the draft. https://act.openmedia.org/AustralianEncryption We only have until the 10th, so get signing... now! ~~ Ben Minerds

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