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If you are looking for a slightly different gaming experience and have
a decent computer with good video card, I would suggest looking into
http://secondlife.com if you haven't already. It is a huge 3D virtual
world where the users get to make the scenery, buildings, etc...
There is a 3D object editor built-in and each object can be scripted.
If you create a unique and innovative item, you can then sell it to
others and make linden dollars. Linden dollars can be converted to
real US dollars!! It is great fun if you like that sort of thing. It
is free to play, but costs if you want to purchase and maintain land.
But anybody can go to a public sandbox and create things. There is
even a SLLUG which meets in-game every Thursday.
They recently released the client software as open source and it is
available for Linux, Mac and Windows. The Linux version is still
"alpha", meaning some of the frilly features don't work yet, like
in-game video... but it runs great on my archlinux box. I've actually
been having more problems with the Windows version in my
experimenting.
I've been trying this out for the past week or so and it is just too
addictive. If you will be trying it out and would like to give me
referral credit, use the following URL when signing up...
http://www.secondlife.com/?u=cb5b1f8820b34e97bae682db1eda2cf5
First of all, why can't I post responses to forum entries? This is so broken.
To answer your question: cruft.kwlug.org
We should probably make that site read-only, though...
Ah - thanks Paul. I was able to search the old site and find just what I was looking for.
I would agree that things are a little difficult when it comes to responding. I had spent a lot of this time wondering if I had done something wrong when I posted, thereby not allowing anyone to reply. As it is, I inadvertently stumbled across this post while poking around on the site.
Rob
This is the list of FLOSS Fund Nominees in the approximate order in which they will be presented to the group:
Donation: 24.00EUR = $36.96CAD
Donation: $$75.00USD = $81ish CAD
The Distribution Library & Burning CDs & DVDs at Meetings
With more new members showing up to meetings it seems prudent to provide some sort of CD/DVD Linux-distribution burning facility. It would be nice to provide something like the Freedom Toaster http://www.freedomtoaster.org/, and in fact I've been working on putting together a low-end (Pentium III 1GHz) version of the Toaster for The Working Centre's Computer Recycling Project, which is now in the basement of 66 Queen Street (door on Charles Street - hey, I'm Charles on Charles now). But in the meeting space we have to have something mobile. I propose to bring my notebook which has a DVD/CD Burner. If other members are also willing to burn CDs and DVDs at meetings please feel free to offer to do so at meetings.
I've kept an odd collection of Linux distributions, including some old versions. Why get an old version when there are so many security flaws? Here's a few reasons I can think of:
Anyway, here's a short list of DVDs I plan to bring to the next meeting:
Here's the short list of CD's:
I have some other CDs and DVDs which I can hopefully dig up before the meeting. Please note that I won't be bringing any blank CDs or DVDs with me. For longer sets (i.e. 8CD Aurora we'll either have to employ several machines or make the burned CDs available the following month). We also still have 7 DVDs of Fedora Core 4 to give away.
I'm open to better ideas of course.
Cheers,
Charles
The freedom toaster is awesome.
<a href="http://linuxcaffe.com/">Linuxcaffe</a> in Toronto burns distros in-house. Perhaps you can contact them and find out how they have implemented it. *thinks to self* <em>I bet that would be a cool presentation</em>
I am glad you had a good first meeting. We did get a good turnout for that talk -- we usually get 20-30 people.
The organization that was mentioned is CLUE: the Canadian Association for Open Source. Visit http://www.cluecan.ca for more information.
PeaceWorks is an computer consulting company that caters to nonprofits and charities. They have been doing good work in KW andsurrounding areas for something like 11 years, and they are looking for qualified people who have good technical skills and share their values.
There are two job openings: one for a Linux/Windows Client Network Administrator, and one for a Software Consultant. Full job descriptions are posted at
http://www.peaceworks.ca/index.php?content=Employment
Both jobs are mixed proprietary/FLOSS environments, so this could bea transition job for people who know a lot about Windows and something about Linux, and want to move in a more open-source direction.
- Paul
New release of LinuxBIOS 2-2536.
The LinuxBIOS team has released a new version of LinuxBIOS 2-2536. The team has listed a number of compelling reasons to use the BIOS:
Of course with 64-bit technology all the rage the team has some catching up to do. But it looks like there are quite a few LinuxBIOS deployments already in clusters, servers, embedded solutions, and notebooks (the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)). It might be interesting to play around with the LinuxBIOS on a couple of machines. Presentation?
[Gotta like RSS.]
Have you any experience with running this yourself? e.g. Does one order a PROM, flash one's own BIOS, or ???
(Sounds like a presentation topic to me! (-:)
<code>[color=#997e33]© B. Switzer - ALL rights reserved. No duplication in whole, or in part, permitted.[/color]</code>
Comes v. MS: Plaintiffs Get Right to Inform US DOJ of Alleged MS Noncompliance on APIs
It seems that Microsoft is in hot water again for not properly documenting APIs in accordance with a 2002 ruling against them. The complete story is on Groklaw.
One person, tiger99, commented that "I have had to use some of the documentation that he [Bill Gates] wrote, many years ago, which was undescribably awful. It was only a manual for Basic, which other suppliers invariably were able to produce to a decent standard." This reminds me of how little value you get when you buy Windows. The manuals that come with Windows are thinner than some of the magazines I subscribe to. There's no comparison (weight-wise) between a Microsoft Windows manual and the SuSE 9.2 manuals I got when I bought SuSE 9.2 a couple of years ago. Even better, the SuSE manuals were very well written.
Another person, OmniGeek, cynically pointed out that it isn't likely anything would come of the new allegations given the current administration in place:
"Given the current administration's less-than-stellar record regarding political
interference with science, and their evident willingness to subvert the due
process of law for their own convenience, I think it rather likely that this
request will be binned with the rest as "not containing responsive
information," and will be ignored." I'm apt to agree with OmniGeek. Before George W. Bush was sworn into office it looked like Microsoft was in for a devastating time. As soon as Bush got the situation practically reversed itself.
I discovered the kwlug when I came across a post by Rarsa on the puppy linux forums in my search for a simple distro capable of running on legacy hardware.
He mentioned that he uploaded an XDG-Menu presentation he did for his local Linux users group and his profile said he was from Kitchener, Ontario. I was surprised to see someone so close to home because most of the puppy users and forum contributors were from overseas. I checked out kwlug.org and had been planning on switching from vonage to a VSP/asterisk solution for a while so the next meeting topic was right up my alley. Thanks to John for his presentation and the nice gift.
I was astonished just by the number of people that were present and on top of that, the fact that it wasn't a complete sausagefest. It's a nice change to see both genders taking an interest in technology.
I'm looking forward to playing with trixbox and openstreetmap in the near future. I heard someone mention a Nominee for the FLOSS fund which I'm very interesting in learning more about. It was an organization devoted to educating the Canadian government about the benefits of OSS on a federal, provincial and municipal level. I've taken more of an interest in government OSS usage since I read time management for system administrators and the puppy research was actually for a system I'm donating to a first time computer user on town council who just needs web browsing, email and word processing.
It was a great evening (excluding the bad weather driving from Orangeville) and thank you to all the people who make the meeting possible.
We stand on the shoulders of giants.
This document is a guide to how to pay for your Free Software. A lot of people have put in a lot of time to make your high quality Free Software. They chose to licence it so that you can modify and redistribute it. They often, although not always, gave you the program without requiring that you pay any money for it.
Despite being cheap to obtain the development, testing, and maintenance of the Free Software you use is not negligible in cost, far from it. But unlike proprietary, commercial software, there are ways you can pay for Free Software that aren't money.
Lots of folks look at the library during our meetings. Does anybody use it on the web site? Any problems with it?
The Working Centre's Computer Recycling Project is moving to 66 Queen Street (door on Charles Street), which means the LUG Library will come with us. One of the things I had planned for the new location was a couple of walls of books, like what exists in the Cafe.
I've been using Tellico to manage my own book collection. Tellico's a gem because all you have to do to enter a new book is enter the ISBN number, save the record, then update it from online sources. Tellico also has a Checkout feature with a due date. It can also create reminders that a book is due (but only on the Tellico box - it doesn't email out reminders).
Since we'll probably end up with extended hours (and open more often) the library will be available to anyone regular days (I'm thinking hours like 10:30-6 to allow for those who get off work at 5).
Hi Richard! Sorry to have to post like this, but I seem to be unable to access the reply message you sent me, I get an "unauthorized" message even though I'm logged in and authorized for almost everything under the sun.
This also brings up the subject of user to user mail on the system, it isn't as apparent as it was on the old system. There is no mail tab, nor link under the username section on the right of the screen (below Upcoming events) where I'd expect mail to be. Even under my account there seems to be no mail sub-system. Of course one can click on a user name to send mail, but I think mail might need a bit more prominence on the web site.
Earlier in the year I started an hour long session with volunteers at The Working Centre to get them used to using Linux. I did some open office presentations. If people are interested, I could also show them during the pre-meeting.
In an unrelated note... I've also started putting the LUG books into Tellico.
From the web site:
<cite><a href="http://periapsis.org/tellico/">Tellico</a> is a KDE application for organizing your collections. It provides default templates for books, bibliographies, videos, music, video games, coins, stamps, trading cards, comic books, and wines.</cite>
Tellico uses XML to store data rather than an sql data base.
In reply to tellico link by richard
Thanks for pointing those details out Richard. It's a great little program. All you have to do to record a book is enter the ISBN number and do a lookup on the book, makes book entry a snap.
So I have 2 thoughts about Tellico. One thought involves bringing a small computer with it to LUG meetings so people can just sign the books out on the computer. The other is just continuing to use the sign out forms and I spend one hour updating the database a month. It's not a big job to do, and I'm in a better position to do it now than I was six months ago.
Raul S. mention at the last meeting that he has a friend who was sending computers to El Salvador. Coincidentally, The Working Centre is currently working on sending 15 computers to Meanguera del Golfo in El Salvador. I have 15 Pentium III's, but I'm short on hard drives above 6GB.
At first I thought I might install the K12 Linux Terminal Server Project and make the boxes diskless. But I think I'll just make 1 Samba file server and put 3-4GB hard drives in the rest with The Working Centre Linux Project on the client computers.
I already have a Pentium III 800MHz with 512MB RAM (which I'm upgrading to 1GB) ready to act as the Samba server. If anyone from the LUG is interested in helping build the client machines please give me a shout at work (519)749-9177 x. 255, or contact me through the list.
OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them; the project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways."
An introduction to the Who, What, Where, Why of OSM will be followed by a demo of the steps in collecting, categorizing and contributing data to OSM.
Intro to OpenStreetMap.org was presented Tuesday 12 December 2006 at <a href="http://hosug.org/">the Hamilton Open Source User Group</a>.
There have been several comment spammers recently. KWLUG members have been helping to delete these comments. Thank you.
We'll have a new web site circa February with more automated spam-control. Until then keep removing spam where you see it, and deactivate those accounts by choosing "blocked" in the user account. If this is more maintenance than we want to do then we can switch comments back off.
There are already LUG in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Cambridge, England. Why not Cambridge, Ontario? Well, now there is a LUG in Cambridge, Ontario. Or there will be, shortly.
CambridgeLUG Will hold pre-meetings, in December 2006 and January 2007 before the official grand Opening in February 2007.
The December, Organizational Meeting invites the participation and input of those interested in helping to form and mold Cambridge LUG.
The January 2007 Founders Meeting will embrace and extend the work of the first meeting. We'll discuss upcoming meeting schedules, topics for presentations and other matters of the LUG. We'll have our first presentation too.
The Grand Opening in February 2007 will feature clowns, dancing bears, an air show, and an audience give-away that will make Oprah look like a skinflint the wonderful embodient of our plans from the previous meetings. You might recognize some of the features of KWLUG meetings in Cambridge, and you might recognize some of the faces.
Come on out and be part of Cambridge LUG, as a complement to your participation in KWLUG.
The Public Patent Foundation is a US-based non-profit. They fight bad patents and bad patent policy. They argue that software patents are particularly bad and they use the legal system to have bad patents overturned, surrendered or rejected.
The Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”) is a not-for-profit legal services organization that represents the public's interests against the harms caused by the patent system, particularly the harms caused by wrongly issued patents and unsound patent policy. PUBPAT provides the general public and specific persons or entities otherwise deprived of access to the system governing patents with representation, education and advocacy.-- from PubPat web site.
You can support this excellent and important advocacy by donating money, or time as a legal or technical expert.
From their page, http://www.pubpat.org/About.htm:
> Many patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are wrongly issued.
As far as I know, U.S. patents don't apply to Canada. Beyond the point that a U.S. producer wants a patent, and if they don't get it they stop. If they do get it they then go for matching patents in other countries. [Is there not an international patent body?]
Is there a Canadian organization, or equivalent, to support?
For example, clicking support, then partners, reveals http://www.pubpat.org/Partners_and_Providers.htm, and, for example, the E.F.F. http://action.eff.org/site/PageServer?pagename=DON_splash_CANADA
<code>[color=#997e33]© B. Switzer - ALL rights reserved. No duplication in whole, or in part, permitted.[/color]</code>
Comments
I think that's stupid. Why
I think that's stupid. Why can't I comment without approval?
For most users, moderation
For most users, moderation isn't required. But for Ward it is. Ward is a figment of your imagination.
Ward is as real as you or
In reply to For most users, moderation by richard
Ward is as real as you or me.
Perfect. Request vouch'ing
Perfect.
Request vouch'ing please?
<br><br><code><FONT COLOR="#997e33"><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Arial">© B. Switzer - ALL rights reserved. No duplication, in whole or in part, permitted.</FONT></code>
Vouch'ed - gotta like
In reply to Perfect. Request vouch'ing by Bill
<br>
Vouch'ed - gotta like it.
Now let's see if this just goes through. Speell checking even!
<hr><code><br><br><code><FONT COLOR="#997e33"><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Arial">© B. Switzer - ALL rights reserved. No duplication, in whole or in part, permitted.</FONT></code></code>
Mind you, for reasons
In reply to Vouch'ed - gotta like by Bill
Mind you, for reasons unknown ... formatting changed.
Look at the 'signature' line of the prior 2 comments and you'll see both a font colour and font size change. For some reason the 2nd last paid attention, but the last didn't. Same code.
Hmmm.
<code><br><br><code><FONT COLOR="#997e33"><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Arial">© B. Switzer - ALL rights reserved. No duplication, in whole or in part, permitted.</FONT></code></code>
Cheap (or Free) RISC
Cheap (or Free) RISC Hardware
SGI Octane and SUN Ultrasparc 5 to highest bidder. Proceeds to ON Linux Fest.
Both working well. To express interest email me
email: tony.hanusiak@sympatico.ca