Linux

I'd like to thank the 7 team and the army of volunteers that made LCA 2007 an outstanding event. LCA 2007 was an event of extremely high standards that the Sydney Linux community could be proud of. I expect a standing ovation for your efforts at this weeks SLUG meeting.

Thanks & congratulations on a job well done.

Some things in life are beyond value. Some things you can put a monetary value on that will still not reflect the true worth of the item. The value of the Free Software community is one such thing.

I've been involved in the Free Software community since 1994. I've learnt and taken a lot from that community. I've also in my turn given and taught a lot. Friends I've made in the Free Software community count amongst the most impressive people I know.

I'm involved in a number of communities. One other community is the environmental movement. There, the members of that community are aiding and supporting my attempt to win a seat in parliament. Likewise, the Free Software community supports my business, whether by directly giving a hand, via financial support, referring business or providing me with the tools to do business. Referrals are particularly important as I do not advertise and all my business has come directly by word of mouth and community recommendations.

This community support recently took a quantum leap forward. I was approached to amicably take over another Free Software business (see the media release). This successful event occurred solely because of the Ubuntu Marketplace community pages, where I am fortunate enough to hold pole position.

This take over has put my company in a position of strength that was unimaginable a mere three weeks ago. It has come about directly because of the Free Software community. I now find myself in the strange position where I can put a precise dollar figure on the value of the Free Software community to my business. Though to put any monetary figure on the Free Software community would be to immediately under value it.

I've been asked to give a toast at an upcoming meeting on Free Software. The toast I will be giving will be to my colleagues and comrades in arms in the Free Software community. Without our community, we would have nothing. I will probably write the toast up and post it here.

Have a great silly season everyone. Hopefully I'll see most of you in the new year at LCA, if not before.

PS: Congratulations to the Free Software folk involved with the Victorian Greens. A great result there with three upper house seats being won on the back of your contributions of Free Software to the campaign.

I've just spent the last two days at the Education Expo, volunteering at the Linux Australia stand. Much unlike CeBit or Linux World, where most people have at least heard of Linux, almost none of the attendees that I spoke to at the Education Expo had ever heard of Linux. It certainly was outreaching to the masses of Australians who needed it most.

It was a long and rewarding weekend for the Linux Australia team, all of whom worked tirelessly and energetically, with special mention for Sara's excellent "Parent's and Teacher's Guide for Educational Outcomes" using Edubuntu. This document, combined with the excellent Edubuntu distribution, knocked the socks of both parents, teachers and kids who got their hands on the system. Many kids had to be practically dragged away by their parents, with all of them making sure that they had their copy of Edubuntu firmly in their grasp.

Showing the ease of switching languages (I had pre-installed Chinese and Arabic language packs) along with anecdotes that the demonstration machines were not only my kids machines but they (as 8 and 6 year olds) had actually installed it themselves also went a long way towards impressing people.

My favourite quote from Saturday - "You have changed my life, thank you! thank you!"

My favourite quote from Sunday - "Thank you for your enthusiam and your passion. This stand was the best thing about the entire Education Expo"

The demonstrations we made and the time we took to outreach and communicate with the people we were giving Edubuntu packs to has made lasting impressions on everyone the team talked to. Everyone who worked on the Linux Australia stand should be proud of the excellent work they did.

Great work everyone!

I've just spent the last three days volunteering for Linux Australia at the CeBit 2006 exhibition. Linux Australia had two stands, a standard sized stand with the LA banner floating across the back and a larger, triple-sized stand labelled as the "Linux Demo Zone".

Wednesday, 14th December, 6pm, James Squire Brew House 

Annodex foundation's inaugural general meeting will be on #anxfoundation on freenode.net; subsequently Foundation Party on #annodex and at the James Squire Brewhouse in Sydney; interim committee will also be constituted.

Hope to see you there, for the celebration of this amazing Annodex project that has been worked on so hard by so many SLUG-ers :)

Another CodeFest
has been and gone. It was a new venue and I'd be interested hearing from the twenty or so who atttended what they thought about the venue and the day in general so I can start planning for the May CodeFest. Thanks to all those who attended and particularly Jeff Waugh for his live and roaming "Jdub TV". 

If anyone has any photos can they send them through so we can put them up in the SLUG Gallery?

I've finally cracked the problem of hwclock hanging during startup and locking hard during shutdown on DELL Dimension 4700's running Ubuntu. You need to add --directisa to tzsetup, hwclock.sh and hwclockfirst.sh. I've put a more detailed answer on this page. Yay, one more bug down. Don't know whether this is a bug that needs to be logged against Warty or not but I'm happy it's resolved.