Oracle has finally taken over Sun Microsystems. Days of darkness are here but how long will it be?
Sun is not only about hardware. What will happen to OpenOffice.org, Java and MySQL? How about the Sun and MySQL Certifications?

How will Jonathan, being the last Sun Microsystem's CEO end his career there?

All the debates are ongoing in the internet but I look forward to Oracle making clear statements on these concerns.

@meewunk http://bit.ly/inqdice OR http://bit.ly/fleurdice - Which custom dice would you like better? (The 6 is the image shown) in reply to meewunk #
I'd love to watch @meewunk play Mass Effect 2, but I don't want to ruin the fun for me, so I gotta chill in my room and wait Q_q #
man it's cold outside [...]

I've been trying to create a wallpaper for Edubuntu. So far I have a few suggestions, but nothing that is good enough to be used as default wallpaper. Anyway, I just wanted to share my four current suggestion with you.

You can grab the .JPG versions in 2560x1600 px here:

• ...dark-glow.jpg
• ...gray.jpg
• ...rainbow.jpg
• ...tree.jpg

Welcome to the Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #114 for the week January 18, January 24, 2010.

* Arizona Loco Newsletter
* One Hundred Fourteenth Edition
* Powered by Ubuntu
* Wednesday-January 27, 2010
* Arizona Loco Team Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam

* Next meeting: Sunday January 31, 2010 9:00 PM
* Server: Freenode: IRC Channel #ubuntu-us-az

In This Issue

scott_ev began the meeting by reminding everyone that he is only filling in temporarily until johnc4510 can get back.

scott_ev then gave some announcements: Dustin Kirkland: 35,000-Core Ubuntu Farm Renders Avatar. http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2010/01/39000-core-ubuntu-cluster-renders... . Analysis: Will Ubuntu Take Windows 7 In Speed War? http://www.crn.com/software/222301154;jsessionid=SFZTST5CSBMQFQE1GHPCKHW... . Canonical to bundle CodeWeavers CrossOver? http://www.wine-reviews.net/wine-reviews/news/canonical-to-bundle-CodeWe... . Linux Mint 8 vs Ubuntu 9.10 - http://linuxbsdos.com/2010/01/16/linux-mint-8-vs-ubuntu-9-10/ . Introducing Ubuntu Electronics Remix 9.10 - http://news.softpedia.com/news/Introducing-Ubuntu-Electronics-Remix-9-10... . Ubuntu Bug Day https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20100128 . Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ . There will be a 10.04 Lucid Lynx release party at Boulders on Broadway in Tempe http://azloco.com/node/120 . I'm proud to announce an Ubucon at SCaLE8X on Friday, February 19th, 2010 http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/ .

PLUG and class announcements: Community college classes started last week. Classes for GNU/Linux, javascript and C/C++ are among the classes this semester. http://www.LuftHans.com/Classes . West Side meeting Wednesday night http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/347 . Monthly PLUG/LoCo Installfest Saturday - http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/158 . PLUG devel a week from Thursday - http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/553 . PLUG has started new IRC meetings, they are the first and third Sundays of the month just before the AZLoCo meetings. Next meeting is two weeks from tonight. http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/2273

There will be an Ubuntu desktop presentation at Lanier Technical College (Forsyth Campus) on January 28th, 6:30pm, Room A237.

The LUG at LTC is just getting off the ground. Joshua Roberts has been putting everything in place, setting a cached repository, and setting up meetings and presentations.

Go LTC!

I’m doing an Ubuntu desktop presentation at Lanier Technical College (Forsyth Campus, Cummings, GA) on January 28th, 6:30pm, Room A237.

The LUG at LTC is just getting off the ground. Most of the members are very new to Linux. Joshua Roberts has been working hard getting everything in place, everything from setting up cached repositories, to organizing presentations which cover the command line and system management.

Kudos to LTC for taking the leap.

# Begin slightly late post

Ubuntu Developer Week is a week of IRC sessions aimed at teaching those interested the basics of software development. It will be occuring from January 25th to January 29th (hince why this post is late) in the IRC channel #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.

Thanks to everyone whom has taken the time and patience required to teach a course and organize the event itself!

Useful Links:

Ubuntu Developer Week
Session Details
Joining In
Digg It!

Permalink

| Leave a comment  »

Ubuntu released the 9.10 Karmic last year. Due to all the hectic schedule I finally managed to install Kubuntu 9.10 today.

Kubuntu is installed on a Pentium III with 200Mb RAM having 20Gb hard disk. Mouse is with the Nano wireless and keyboard is PS2. With the L2 cache being 512k, it should mean something to Kubuntu to run smoothly (almost). Working just ok, and the desktop looks neat. Swap is taking up 144Mb of the 1,400Mb allocated during installation.

Following are among the first thing I did after install;

1. Did a system update and removed the package kubuntu-firefox-installer.
2. Set the screen to resolution to 1024x768
3. Checked with Konqueror the Internet connection...connected to the broadband via router.
3. Used KPackagerKit to install Firefox 3.5
4. Added stuff like password gorilla, Kphotoalbum

List of things to do next:
1. Install Java and Flash
2. Get a PDF reader. Currently Okular is installed by default.

David Siegel from the Ubuntu Design Team has suggested a way for opportunistic programmers to contribute to bug-fixing without knowing everything about dependencies, maintaining clean build environments, generating patches, version control systems, packaging or publishing PPAs. David wants to add a “Quickly fix this bug” to Launchpad that will download the source code and open it for you in Eclipse.

You should read the entire post, but let me just shortly summarize. David's user story consists of the following steps to create, test, and submit a patch for a small bug:

1. Click “Quickly fix this bug” on the Launchpad bug report.
2. Edit the source of the corresponding package in Eclipse.
3. Build the project and test the changes.
4. Submit the patch and comment back to Launchpad.

This would make a huge improvement in Launchpad bug workflow and the quality of software in Ubuntu - a great idea. Read "Improving Launchpad Bug Workflow for Opportunistic Programmers" here.

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #177 for the week January 17th - January 23rd, 2010 and is available here.

In this issue we cover:

* Developer Membership Board election results
* Ubuntu User Days A Big Success
* Bugs and hugs
* Ubuntu Developer Week: January 25th – January 29th, 2010
* Canonical Blog: ISV support for Ubuntu Server Edition widens
* January 20th America’s Membership Review Board Meeting
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubuntu LoCo Re-Approval Process
* LoCo Stories: the Ubuntu Honduras School Tour
* Launchpad 10.1 roll-out 09.00-11.30 27th January 2010
* Anonymous Access to the Launchpad Web Service API
* The Planet
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Introducing Ubuntu Electronics Remix 9.10
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Dave Bush
* Craig A. Eddy
* Amber Graner
* And many others
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

@meewunk daith? in reply to meewunk #
@meewunk aaaahhhh figures in reply to meewunk #
Grrr I have to dip my base coat on the front of my Valkyrie, the paint began to bubble up :/ #
@meewunk hey are you still coming over? in reply to meewunk #
New 40K Imperial Guard army build. 750 points v4 http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AklLSPfnPT85dFFrclM4ZFNRMUZkeHQ4... [...]

This week we’re travelling to Central America to visit the Ubuntu Honduras team, a LoCo true to the Ubuntu ethos and a mission of their own: encourage and promote the use of free technology through Ubuntu in the Republic of Honduras.

One of the most special activities the Honduran team organises to pursue this noble goal are their Ubuntu School Tours, a series of events where they travel to schools around the country and talk to students about Ubuntu. The idea is to promote the use of Open Source and raise awareness on its significance among students and teachers in educational institutions.

In words of Diego Turcios, the team contact lead, the idea is that “more and more people in Honduras learn about Ubuntu and Free Software and see it as an excellent Operating System option for laptops, desktops and servers. We also want to show that with Ubuntu everyone, be it home users or companies, have all the applications they need, such as a web browser, word processor, spreadsheed editor, instant messaging and others.”

Despite the political unrest in the country, which forced them to cancel many presentations, they showed their strong determination and great team organization in running two School Tour events last year, both with great success. In particular, they were at the Master School and at the Tridentino Institute in San Pedro Sula, the second biggest city in Honduras, in which we’ll focus to learn more on the event.

It was in the morning on the last Saturday of September last year, and during that time, they managed to provide a very complete overview of the team, Ubuntu and Open source in general. They started with a brief introduction to the Honduran team, followed by a presentation about what Open Source is and why Ubuntu is the OS of their choice. Next up was a demonstration of free office suite applications, GNU/Linux distributions and the four Free Software freedoms, followed by a showcase of Compiz which left more than one with their mouths open. The grand finale was an installation workshop and Q&A session, after which they left Ubuntu installed in one of the school’s machines and gave them a LiveCD to share.

From the testimonials of those present it was a very interesting experience: 20 students attended, showing a lot of enthusiasm in the subject, and who were in the end invited to join the LoCo and to participate in future team activities, which was also received with great interest.

All in all, another great example of the Ubuntu LoCo culture and spirit!

Links

• The Ubuntu Honduras Team
  • Located in Honduras, Central America
  • Wiki
  • Website
  • Team members
  • Forum
  • Mailing list (Archives and subscription)
  • IRC chat at #ubuntu-hn on Freenode

I’m writing to you from the Ubuntu LoCo Council. For the Lucid cycle we have undertaken to look at the re approving all approved Ubuntu LoCos. This was discussed at UDS Lucid in November.(https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/community-lucid-loco-counc...)

We thought it best to publicise and inform everyone about the re approval process of a LoCo. It was decided back at UDS to start this process. It gives us a chance to see how LoCos are doing, if they need a hand in areas and to give you a chance to give us some feedback.

How it will work, for all teams which have been approved over 2 years, a member of the LoCo Council is selected to be the point of contact with the LoCo team for re-approval, they will contact your Team contact / leader.

They will attempt to contact you three times over one month. Once contact is made, you will then invite you to the next available IRC meeting. Using the method you were originally approved, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoGettingApproved. We just want to see how you’ve progressed, your activity, and if you’ve had any issues, how you’ve handled them.

During this time, we may need to have more IRC meetings, but we will let you know when you are requested to attend. The re approval process is documented and the information is on the wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncil/LoCoTeamReApproval

The members of the current LoCo Council you will hear from are regarding this re approval process are

• Laura Czajkowski (czajkowski)
• Alan Pope (popey)
• Jan Claeys (janc)
• Efrain Valles (effie-jayx)
• Christophe Sauthier (huats)
• Chris Crisafulli (itnet7)

If you have any other queries about this, you can email us.
loco-councillists.ubuntu.com

[Discuss the Ubuntu LoCo Re Approval Process on the Forum]

Originally sent to the loco-contacts mailing list by Laura Czajkowski on Wed Jan 20 10:52:05 GMT 2010

As elected by the Ubuntu development team, the members of the Developer Membership Board are now:

Colin Watson
Emmet Hikory
Soren Hansen
Michael Bienia
Stéphane Graber
Richard Johnson
Cody Somerville

They will serve for a 1 year term, helping to welcome new Ubuntu developers into the project, after which we will hold another election.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered to serve on the board.

[Discuss the Developer Membership Board election results on the forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list by Matt Zimmerman on Tue Jan 19 20:15:32 GMT 2010

Welcome to the Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #113 for the week January 11, January 17, 2010.

* Arizona Loco Newsletter
* One Hundred Thirteenth Edition
* Powered by Ubuntu
* Wednesday-January 20, 2010
* Arizona Loco Team Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam

* Next meeting: Sunday January 24, 2010 9:00 PM
* Server: Freenode: IRC Channel #ubuntu-us-az

In This Issue

scott_ev began the meeting by reminding everyone that he is only filling in temporarily until johnc4510 can get back.

scot_ev gave calimer the opportunity to talk about Platinum Arts Sandbox Gamemaker: If you have a few minutes and would like to throw a vote our way it would be much appreciated: http://www.moddb.com/games/platinum-arts-sandbox

scott_ev then gave some announcements: Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid Lynx Alpha 2 Released - http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-2/ (Ubuntu); Plymouth In Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 - http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nzg4MQ ; Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 Removes HAL: http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/News/Ubuntu-10.04-Alpha-2-Removes... ; There will be a 10.04 Lucid Lynx release party at Boulders on Broadway in Tempe on the 24th of April - http://azloco.com/node/120 ; Ubucon at SCaLE8X on Friday, February 19th, 2010 - http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/ ; One of our SCALE 8x speakers, Linux Journal associate editor Shawn Powers suffered a tragedy this morning when he lost his home and family pets due to a house fire. Linux Journal has set up a Chip In site, http://helpshawnpowersfamily.chipin.com/help-shawn-powers-family, where people can donate funds to help Shawn & his family; Announcing Ubuntu User Day - January 23, 2010 - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays for a complete class list and schedule of classes; Tux takes a bow: Linux makes presence known at CES - http://tinyurl.com/yc7wl3q ; My Tracks - awesome GPS software that I use on my Droid - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/map-your-adventures-with-a-free-gps-mobile-... ; Rogue Phishing App Found in Android Marketplace - http://tinyurl.com/yfpryu3 ; Motorola brings Android to your home phone - http://tinyurl.com/yl9ml7l ; Video: Flash 10.1 running on Motorola Droid with 2.0 - http://tinyurl.com/yhnadnf ; Ubuntu v. Macintosh and Windows - http://countrycontemplative.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/1963/ ; Canonical, IBM: Ubuntu Will Counter Windows 7 At Lotusphere - http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/01/14/canonical-ibm-ubuntu-will-counter-wi... ;
Restart MythTV via Remote - http://www.baablogic.net/drupal/node/11 ; Amarok 2.2.2 Released - http://blog.lydiapintscher.de/2010/01/11/where-is-the-gold/ ; Call for testing: Cluster components of Ubuntu 10.04 - http://blog.init.hr/?p=69 ; Ubuntu Global Jam coming up. It's a great way to help Ubuntu get better. - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam ; Make Firefox a Productivity Powerhouse - http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7672/1.html ; Furious Google throws down gauntlet to China over censorship - http://tinyurl.com/ylpbsrl ; Researchers identify command servers behind Google attack - http://tinyurl.com/y8rcexo ; Tegra 2 supports Ubuntu Linux: Interested in touchscreen technology? - http://soltesza.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/tegra-2-supports-ubuntu-linux/

xHans gave PLUG and class announcements: Classes start this week. C++ and intro to GNU/Linux start Tuesday. Other classes as well. http://www.LuftHans.com/Classes ; Both Valley Stammtische this week, Tempe on Tuesday - http://www.LuftHans.com/Free_Software_Stammtisch#Tempe , Avondale/Goodyear on Wednesday - http://www.LuftHans.com/Free_Software_Stammtisch#Avondale ; West Side meeting a week from Wednesday. Topic is PCI compliance - http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/347 ; PLUG/LoCo Installfest a week from Saturday - http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/158

Read the whole thing at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam/Newsletters/10January20

From About Free Culture X:

Students for Free Culture is convening the international free culture community for two days of networking, learning and acting. Free Culture X, the 2010 conference of SFC, will take place on February 13th and 14th at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

read more

Many people are following the development of Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) closely, and so is many news sites:

• http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/
• http://arstechnica.com/
• http://www.softpedia.com/

...just to name a few. Following this development might be most interesting to developers and more tech minded people, because it often involves a lot of geeky terms. Raving Rick (aka Rick Spencer) recently wrote a blogpost titled Ubuntu desktop Alpha-2 and Alpha-3 work items update, where he provides a summery of what actually landed in Alpha 2 and writes about the re-planned for the next milestone, Alpha 3. Most of the Social From the Start items and the Xorg triaging and diagnosis tools didn't make it into the Alpha 2 release.

Alpha 3 goals
You can see the full and detailed current plan here:
http://macaroni.ubuntu.com/~pitti/workitems/canonical-desktop-team-lucid-alpha-3.html

So, what is planned for Alpha 3:

• Social from the start work focused on supporting the Me Menu
• UNE session for desktop, desktop session for UNE
• Finish xorg triaging and diagnosis tools
• Make the experience for users of proprietary graphics drivers more robust
• Switching to -nouveau open source nvidia driver by default to support 3d and KMS (note that this is risky work and will depend on stability and quality of components in xorg and the kernel and will be backed outbefore end of Alpha 3 if necessary)
• Continue to improve desktop start up speed
• Tweak compiz effects
• Continue to change apps to use Udev rather HAL
• Continual integration of Dx assets as available
• Continual integration of OLS assets as available
• Normal desktop throughput, such as update GNOME packages, updatesfrom Debian, bug triaging, etc...

 Source:
http://theravingrick.blogspot.com/2010/01/ubuntu-desktop-alpha-2-and-alpha-3-work.html

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #176 for the week January 10th - January 16th, 2010 is available.

In this issue we cover:

* Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid Lynx Alpha 2
* Ubuntu Developer Week
* Ubuntu User Day
* New Ubuntu Women leadership
* Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase
* Kernel Bug Day
* Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 Removes HAL
* Ubuntu Stats
* The Planet
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Craig A. Eddy
* Dave Bush
* Amber Graner
* Liraz Siri
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons LicenseAttribution 3.0 License

Canonical offers
dedicated support program for Lotus Symphony, the core component of
IBM Client for Smart Work on Ubuntu

IBM Lotusphere/Florida,
Jan 18, 2010: Canonical today announced a dedicated support
program for Lotus Symphony, the no-charge office productivity
alternative which is a core component of IBM Client for Smart Work
(ICSW) on Ubuntu. This support is made available to customers by
Canonical through the IBM and Canonical partner network.
Organisations can now switch to an alternative platform from
Microsoft for their business productivity needs with full confidence
that the core solution is fully supported.

read more

The Ubuntu User Days Team would like to announce the first Ubuntu User Day, on January 23, 2010. This will be a very informative one day session geared towards beginner and intermediate Ubuntu users, as well as people who are interested in using Ubuntu. We have 14 classes covering topics ranging from installing Ubuntu, finding help, equivalent programs, using IRC, getting involved in the Ubuntu Community and more. We have enlisted the help of many talented people to lead these classes throughout the day.

These classes will be taught in #ubuntu-classroom with questions being asked in #ubuntu-classroom-chat on irc.freenode.net. Please visit http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays for a complete class list and schedule of classes.

There is also a Spanish version of Ubuntu User Days being offered on January, 23, 2010. Please visit Día Del Usuario Ubuntu at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiaDelUsuarioUbuntu for more information on the Spanish Ubuntu User Day!

Firstly, some introductory reading for those who are not familiar with International Women’s Day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day and http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Ubuntu-Women has tried in the past to find some way to celebrate this event, but as far as I can remember it has never really amounted to much other than some chattering on IRC. So let us try a bit harder for 2010!

We have all come to Ubuntu in our own special ways — every single one of us differently to the next. Yet one of the most common questions we get asked is "How can I get $woman to use Ubuntu?".

Obviously we cannot really answer that question, but we would dearly love to have a collection of stories by women about how they discovered Ubuntu. Such a repository would allow us to demonstrate that there’s no one definitive answer, and at the same time maybe provide the gift of inspiration to women who are interested — showing them that it’s really not so unusual to be Ubuntu fans after all.

We are not expecting any particular length, but do remember that these stories should be suited to perusal at leisure and not require someone to allocate hours of their day to read. Anywhere between a few paragraphs and a OO.o Write page is ideal.

There will be two (2) prizes up for grabs. One (1) prize pack will be given to the story that the community votes is their favourite. One (1) prize pack will be given to a randomly drawn entrant. Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager will be drawing this entrant in a videocast, and announcing both winners to the world on March 8th.

Please email your stories to ubuntuwomen.competition at gmail.com by UTC 23:59 22nd February 2010.

By submitting a story, you acknowledge that it will be posted on the Ubuntu Women website under the Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives licence. If you prefer that your story be posted under a less restrictive licence such as Creative Commons Attribution or Public Domain, then feel free to let us know when you submit. All stories are to be non-fiction and of a family-friendly nature. The organisers also reserve the right to interview prospective winners over
the phone or other voice chat at their discretion.

We will celebrate International Women’s Day by announcing the winners, who will receive gift packs (which are still in negotiation — we will announce when it is confirmed!).

Good Luck!

p.s: Please pass this along to *any* women you know who *use* Ubuntu —
the more the merrier!

[Discuss the International Women’s Day Competition on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-women mailing list by Melissa Draper on Sun Jan 10 04:32:16 GMT 2010

…if this is the sort of email you're intending to send:

Subject: I had no idea that hot girls liked linux

Body: Are there more of you? I mean how does that happen? How does a good looking
female put off their social life to the point where they can actually use
ubuntu without ripping their eyes out?

Seriously, I don't want to hear it. Just think about it for one minute. What does appearance have to do with technical ability? Why do all the good looking men involved in K/X/Ubuntu put time into their favourite distro that could otherwise be spent on their social life? My answer's not going to be any different than theirs! And for that matter, why should it be social life or Ubuntu? Consider that many of the developers are friends with each other.

Also, isn't that being a little mean to Ubuntu? I mean, yeah, it's not as awesome as Kubuntu, but.…still… (joking!)

And yes, that's an actual email I received today. Ugh. Including his name and email address here is /very/ tempting, but it'd also be unethical, so I won't.

From http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com

Gnome Shell recently introduced a new notification system. Sadly it seems like GNOME Shell is going to duplicate a lot of the efforts from Canonical. Besides the notification system the application indicators also have similarities.

It looks like the Notify OSD of GNOME Shell is named the Message Tray. You can see a short screencast demo here: http://www.gnome.org/~mccann/shell/mockups/20090630-demo

I was truly hoping that Gnome would continue the fantastic work Canonical is doing rather than starting over. The question still remains, what experience will Ubuntu 10.10 ship?

Source:
http://www.gnome.org/~mccann/shell/design/GNOME_Shell-20091114.pdf

Once again the Federal Office Systems Expo (FOSE) rolls into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The official details can be found at http://www.fose.com/Events/FOSE-2010/Home.aspx

And, once again, the local geeks will be representin'. The scheduling wiki can be found at http://cyberigor.com/fose/ and the mailing list at http://calypso.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/fose

The Ubuntu User Days Team would like to announce the first Ubuntu User Day, on January 23, 2010. This will be a very informative one day session geared towards beginner and intermediate Ubuntu users, as well as people who are interested in using Ubuntu. We have 14 classes covering topics ranging from installing Ubuntu, finding help, equivalent programs, using IRC, getting involved in the Ubuntu Community and more. We have enlisted the help of many talented people to lead these classes throughout the day.

These classes will be taught in #ubuntu-classroom with questions being asked in #ubuntu-classroom-chat on irc.freenode.net. Please visit http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays for a complete class list and schedule of classes.

There is also a Spanish version of Ubuntu User Days being offered on January, 23, 2010. Please visit Día Del Usuario Ubuntu at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiaDelUsuarioUbuntu for more information on the Spanish Ubuntu User Day!

Please take a few minutes over the next week or so to promote the Ubuntu User Day to people you know, in your LoCo Team, in your blog, or any other resources you may have access to.

[Discuss Ubuntu User Day on the Forum]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-learning mailing list by Chris Johnston on Thu Jan 14 04:13:09 GMT 2010

Welcome to the Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #112 for the week January 4, January 10, 2010.

* Arizona Loco Newsletter
* One Hundred Twelfth Edition
* Powered by Ubuntu
* Wednesday-January 13, 2010
* Arizona Loco Team Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam

* Next meeting: Sunday January 17, 2010 9:00 PM
* Server: Freenode: IRC Channel #ubuntu-us-az

In This Issue

scott_ev gave some announcements, including: Lucid Lynx release party at Boulders on Broadway in Tempe (http://www.bouldersonbroadway.net/) on the 24th of April; Further information on an event for Tucson; The coolest thing at CES? http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3715 ; The Ubuntu Manual Project could use your help. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual ; An Ubucon at SCaLE8X on Friday, February 19th, 2010. The Expo is heald at the Westin LAX. http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/ ; For those interested in the current status of Kubuntu Documentation, visit the TODO page on the wiki: https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Documentation/Lucid ; If any of you were having problems joining the new deviantArt group, the issues have been fixed now. Go here to join: http://ubuntu-artists.deviantart.com/ ; 15 game-changing Linux moments of the decade - http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/15-game-changin... ; For those of you who have read the recent Slashdot article announcing Ubuntu’s new membership programme, this is clearly a mistake. Ubuntu has had the concept of membership for many years, helping us to identify those who have made a significant and sustained contribution. This is nothing new and nothing is changing. More information on Ubuntu Membership can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership ; Netbook Speculation http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/01/06/netbook-speculation-lenovo-dell-hp-a... ; Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs Moblin http://www.tuxradar.com/content/ubuntu-netbook-remix-vs-moblin ; J.A. Watson, ZDNet UK, reviews with screen shots some of the most popular Netbook-centric Linux distributions. http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10014719o-2000498448b,00.htm

scott_ev then asked xHans for any PLUG and class announcements: PLUG Security Hackfest Tuesday night. http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/security ; PLUG East Side meeting Thursday night. Probably a presentation on remind, which is a really cool calendaring command line app. http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/157

Read the whole thing at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam/Newsletters/10January13

I'm happy to announce that we have a topic and a speaker for our February meeting. Trevor Sharpe (Heartsbane) will be presenting on advancements in virtualization technology. This should be an interesting topic as virtualization continues to become more and more mainstream.

Location Details:

February 13th, 2010 : 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: MEB building at the University of Utah
Room: 2555

Map: http://tinyurl.com/2k8px2

See you there!

Welcome to the Ubuntu Developer Week! We will have one week of action-packed sessions from Jan 25^th 2010 to Jan 29^th 2010!

Ubuntu Developer Week is a series of online workshops where you can:

• learn about different packaging techniques
• find out more about different development teams
• check out the efforts of the world-wide Development Community
• participate in open Q&A sessions with Ubuntu developers
• much more…

All sessions will happen on IRC, and the best way to join is to use Lernid. (There are other ways too. :-))

If you’re not comfortable yet asking all your questions in English, we will have a couple of people helping to translate your questions and translating back the answers. Have a look at the Ubuntu Developer Week page to see how it works.

Like the sound of it? DIGG IT!

So let’s have a look at the schedule together, shall we? We have a number of sessions next week for all tastes and interests. Feel free to come to as few or as many sessions as you like. All of them are free and open to anyone.

Monday, 25th January 2010

• 16:00 UTC, Getting Started with UbuntuDevelopment — Daniel Holbach (dholbach): The first session of the week is going to get you started with Ubuntu development. It’ll give you an overview over how all things work, so at least you’ll have heard the most important vocabularly already and get your initial development environment set up.
• 17:00 UTC, Fixing small bugs in Ubuntu —Daniel Holbach (dholbach): So once we have our initial development environment set up, we’ll go ahead and fix a couple of small bugs… it’s going to be awesome and you’ll find out that it’s not really hard.
• 18:00 UTC, Django — Dave Walker (Daviey): Dave Walker, of Ubuntu UK fame will talk you through the first steps of using the Django framework to create a lean, understandable and scalable web application in python.
• 19.00 UTC, Working on the Bleeding Edge — Kees Cook (kees): Next up is Kees Cook, who will tell us how to best do both: 1) stay sane and 2) live on the bleeding edge. If you enjoy tracking development releases closely you should make sure not to miss this session. It’ll spare you a lot of pain.
• 20.00 UTC, Server oriented packages — Mathias Gug (mathiaz): Are you a server person? Would you like to get involved with the server team? Do you want to know what’s server-specific about packaging? Find out during the session: we have Mathias Gug here who’ll help you get started.

Tuesday, 26th January 2010

• 16:00 UTC, Java libraries packaging — Thierry Carrez (ttx): We have Thierry Carrez here who had the pleasure of working with Java Packaging extensively. Did you ever want to package a Java library or a Java application and struggled with your first steps? Don’t despair, we have an expert with us. Attend the session and learn Thierry’s tips and tricks.
• 17:00 UTC, Launchpad Translations under the hood — Adi Roiban (adiroiban) and Henning Eggers (henninge): Launchpad Translations is amazing. Millions of strings, thousand of translators, hundreds of languages and thousand of applications get together and make for an accessible and understandable great linux distribution. If you ever wondered how it works under the hood and how things get together, this is the perfect opportunity. Listen to what Henning and Adi have to say!
• 18:00 UTC, Internationalizing your application with quickly and Launchpad — David Planella (dpm) and Didier Roche (didrocks): quickly is a fantastic little application. It makes writing apps so much easier and comprehensible. There’s already a lot of apps written with quickly and already a bunch of instructions on how to use it. This session will specifically deal with how to get applications translatable and translated. Thanks a lot Didier and David.
• 19:00 UTC, Getting started with EC2 — Scott Moser (smoser): Next up is Scott Moser who will talk to us about how to use Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud. Ubuntu is a great platform to use in the cloud and this session will give you an overview and cover the best tools to make your cloud experience most enjoyable.
• 20:00 UTC, Automated server testing — Søren Hansen (soren): Mr. Søren Hansen wrapped his head around Automated Server Testing in the last few months and he has a lot of ideas to share. If you’re intererested in automating tests in general and testing servers specifically, this is exactly where you should be going.

Wednesday 27th January 2010

• 16:00 UTC, Writing good test-cases — John Arbash Meinel (jam): We all agree that encountering bugs in most cases is just not necessary. Sometimes it’s just a small typo that caused the problem or a wrong assumption. Enter test-cases. A lot of big open source projects have moved to test-driven development already or ask developers to add a test-case for bugs they fixed. The notion of making sure that bugs don’t happen again or that assumptions don’t suddenly change during some phase of re-design has prevented a lot of bugs. We have John Arbash Meinel here who will tell us how to cause less bugs by writing good test-cases.
• 17:00 UTC, Adding Ubuntu One support to your applications — Stuart Langridge (aquarius): You want your application to save data in a clever way? You want to get it synced across various computers? You want it in a place where it’s properly backed up? You have heard of Ubuntu One? Great, because Stuart Langridge will explain how to get this all done very very easily.
• 18:00 UTC, Getting your application in the panel — Ted Gould (ted): The status area in the panel has gone through some pretty fantastic changes in the karmic and lucid cycle. Ted Gould has been massively involved in the planning, design and coding. If you want to do some good work on the Desktop and make your favourite application benefit from the new indicators make sure you attend this session.
• 19:00 UTC, Developing and Testing in KVM —Dustin Kirkland (kirkland): Dustin Kirkland has been working a lot with KVM, a fantastic virtualisation technology, in the last few months. Once you learned all of Dustin’s tricks you will never going to miss them for developing and testing every again.
• 20:00 UTC, Python Applications Packaging — Luca Falavigna (DktrKranz): Your favourite application is writting in Python? That’s quite understandable. It’s not packaged yet? Looks like a small challenge ahead. Luckily we have Luca Falavigna who can help you with the task. He’ll talk about common pitfalls, how to avoid them and how to make the task as easy as possible.

Thursday 28th January 2010

• 16:00 UTC, Adopt-an-Upstream — Jorge Castro (jcastro) and Daniel Holbach (dholbach): Jorge Castro and Daniel Holbach will talk about the relationship between the Ubuntu project and Upstream projects in general and how you can help out. It’s not as hard as it sounds and if you are really fond of and passionate about a certain Upstream project, this is the perfect session for you!
• 17:00 UTC, Kernel patches — Leann Ogasawara (ogasawara): Kernel work is complicated? It can be… but there’s help! Leann Ogasawara is going to explain the workflow of the Kernel team and how we deal with patches there. You can get help from the team and Leann’s session will help you understand how to avoid the most common mistakes. Awesome.
• 18:00 UTC, Getting more detailed bug reports — Brian Murray (bdmurray): Brian Murray has looked thounsands of bug reports in his life. He knows how important it is to have all the important information right there without going through a feedback loop for weeks. Luckily there’s tools that can automate the process of getting us the right information right at the start. Brian will teach you how.
• 19:00 UTC, Bazaar and packaging — Jelmer Vernooij (jelmer): Jelmer Vernooij knows a lot about Bazaar and a lot about Packaging and he’s a great guy which will make this session great to fun to be in. Using a revision control system makes packaging and maintaining packages a lot more fun, especially if you start merging your work with others.
• 20:00 UTC, How to get started hacking Launchpad — Karl Fogel (kfogel): Launchpad is open source and it’s written in Python, which make it a perfect opportunity to get involved with and your personal pet peeve fixed easily. Karl Fogel will talk you through the first steps of hacking Launchpad. Awesome!

Friday, 29th January 2010

• 16:00 UTC, Writing Beautiful Code — Paul Hummer (rockstar): Paul Hummer is with us and he’ll show you how to write python code like a rock star. There’s a lot of worth in writing understandable, easily scanable code and there’s just a few conventions you have to follow to make yourself happier and your fellow contributors as well.
• 17:00 UTC, Doing merges right — Colin Watson (cjwatson): Merging is one of the inevitable things in open source development. We collaborate, we work together in the open and sometimes we decide to focus our attention on different things, so merges might be a bit more tricky afterwards. Colin Watson has been doing hundreds (if not thousands) of merges in his life, so he’s the perfect person to share a few tips to make the experience more seamless.
• 18:00 UTC, Meet launchpadlib — Jonathan Lange (jml): Ever found yourself in a position where you neede some data from Launchpad? Ever needed to automate a task that involved something in Launchpad somehow? There’s one answer to all these problems: Use python-launchpadlib. We’ll have Jonathan Lange there who will tell you how to use it efficiently and where best to start.
• 19:00 UTC, KDE/Kubuntu Junior Jobs/Papercuts — Celest Lyn Paul (seele): You’re a friend of the big K? You have a small usability bug you always wanted to fix? Always wanted to get involved with hacking on KDE somehow? Awesome. Celeste Lyn Paul knows how to do it and she’ll deliver a great session where we’ll talk about exactly that! Awesome!
• 20:00 UTC, Interpreting Stacktraces — Emmet Hikory (persia): Ever found yourself faced with a crashing application and you were told to decipher some kind of stacktrace? It’s definitely one of the proficiencies that are incredibly helpful and will help you fix a lot of problems. Emmet Hikory will deliver a great session about getting the most information our of stacktraces with the least amount of hassle.

This weeks is going to be fantastic and if you ever thought of joining the ranks of Ubuntu developers, this is the best time ever.

The Ubuntu Manual project has set out to create a complete beginners manual for Ubuntu, featuring comprehensive guides, howto's and information about anything you will need to know after first installing Ubuntu.

The manual will be available as a .PDF file and there will be a new revision released every six months there will coincide with each new release of Ubuntu. The work will of course be released under the CC-BY-SA license. The plan is to have the final version suitable for mainstream consumption ready in time for the Ubuntu 10.04 release.

At the moment the project has ten chapters and is translated into 20 languages and it has over a hundred contributors. Take a look at this very early release: Ubuntu Manual 0.1

If you want to contribute the easiest way for both you and the team is to follow these steps:

• Join the Ubuntu Manual Team and the mailing list.
• Check out the blueprints and find something that is unassigned that you think you might be able to handle.
• Assign yourself to that blueprint, and read up on it in the blueprints section of this wiki.
• If you can't find anything that you think would suit you, then scroll down a bit more and have a look at the "To Do List" or email the mailing list and ask for help, or join #ubuntu-manual on irc.freenode.net and ask someone what you can do.
• If there is something that you think is right up your alley, but is already assigned to someone else, then contact them and ask them if they would like any help - chances are they would love an extra pair of hands.
• If all else fails, then contact Benjamin Humphrey and he can find something for you to do!

Fluent in more than one language? Consider translating!

Source:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual/
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/37759660/ubuntumanual.pdf

We have scheduled a Lucid Lynx 10.04 Release Party! A proposed Flyer is posted on our forum.

# Location: Boulders on Broadway (530 W Broadway Road - Tempe, AZ 85282)
# Map: http://www.bouldersonbroadway.net/
# Date: Saturday, April 24, 2010
# Time: 5:00 PM -

Note: This release party is in conjunction with PLUG. There is an Installfest from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at UAT, with the release party immediately afterwards at Boulders on Broadway.

* University of Advancing Technology(UAT)
* Map: http://tinyurl.com/yemru26
* www.uat.edu
* 2625 W Baseline Rd, Tempe

We can really make this a success with a little advanced planning. We will need extension cords and power strips. Wifi will be in place by the time of the party. I will be accepting ideas and volunteers for presentations; email me at j.scott.gwin@gmail, find me on IRC #ubuntu-us-az scott_ev, or bring up your planned contributions in the weekly meeting. Someone needs to volunteer to make a flyer too. There is a new Lucid Lynx Planning Page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam/LucidLynx You are welcome to help plan this event and other Lucid events by adding to the page.

After blogging about my Ubuntu Release Schedule Video project, I received a lot of awesome feedback. Some of the feedback was received a bit too late in the process (like text suggestions) to make it in the video, but is still very much appreciated. Today I finally have something to show. Alan Pope have been so kind to provided me with the missing audio for the video. Although many people offered to help, I decided to go with Alan for various reasons. These include having English as first language, being a well known voice (UK Podcast and screencasts), having quality recording equipment. So, let's look at the result:

There's still a few thing I could/should have included, but other that I'm very happy with the result. About the YouTube subtitles that many people commented on, just send me the file and I'll add it. In case you want to add a voiceover in another language here's the .OGV source (30MB): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/175241/THIS_IS_THE_ONE.ogv

Although this video took more time to create than I intended to spend, I really want to create other similar videos. If you want to help out, please add your ideas, suggestion, comments to the wiki (kind of obsolete now that the video is done) or the forum thread.

Before I leave you, I should give a shout out to Jens Sage who (for some reason) send me this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1669637/indian_ubuntu.mp3

Once again, thanks for all the amazing feedback!

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #175 for the week January 3rd - January 9th, 2010 is available.

In this issue we cover:

* Edubuntu bug day on Tuesday, January 12th
* 2nd call for votes: Ubuntu Developer Membership Board Election
* Simplified Main Inclusion Request process
* New MOTU members
* Ubuntu Manual Project
* 2010: Your Year for Ubuntu Membership
* Ubuntu Stats
* Ubuntu Florida Team and the “Youth Build Day”
* Lanuchpad - Jonathan Lange: The Road Ahead
* The Planet
* In the Press & Blogosphere
* Community and Ubuntu Live Videocast
* Ubuntu Women project growing in Strength
* Upcoming Meetings & Events
* Updates & Security
* And much, much more!

This issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

* John Crawford
* Craig A. Eddy
* Dave Bush
* Amber Graner
* Liraz Siri
* And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly News, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons LicenseAttribution 3.0 License

Thanks to Martin Owens, there's now an Ubuntu-Artists group at DeviantArt.

Martin wants anyone who is involved in Ubuntu related art/design and uses or is interested in Ubuntu to join. He also want to favorites contain artworks made using Ubuntu, and the galleries to contain things that were made for Ubuntu (wallpapers, ui mockups, tans, fan-art, etc).

Martin writes:

I have only today noticed the a new feature in DeviantArt called Groups, this allows people to get together and form communities.

So I have applied to create a social group called “Ubuntu-Artists” which will hopefully act as a point of contact for anyone who uses ubuntu to create Art, for people who make Art for the community or for people who do UI design work for any of the programs in Ubuntu.

Available at the following link: http://ubuntu-artists.deviantart.com/
 Please do join and post your Ubuntu related artworks and designs.

What will be really good is getting a place where Ubuntu Art can be hosted, collected and shown off in all it’s glory. There are some really amazing art works created in Inkscape, Gimp and Blender on Ubuntu and it’s time we got to appreciate the artists who are striking out against the common belief that Macs make the best artist computers or that windows is where every drawing tablet works.

http://ubuntu-artists.deviantart.com/

Source: http://doctormo.wordpress.com/

DivX has a long history of trying to reinvent itself and this year at CES 2010, the company is attempting yet another shift: becoming an Internet TV platform for the living room. DivX TV will stream online media content to any connected device, including TVs, Blu-ray players and game consoles without requiring a separate box. Instead, the platform will be embedded directly into the device. DivX TV content will come from the AP, blip.tv, Break, CNET, Dailymotion, Revision 3, TED, Twitter and more. The software will also be able to stream music from Rhapsody and Pandora, as well as display pictures from Picasa.

DivX is hoping to leverage its existing partnerships with consumer electronics manufacturers to give them a new way to appeal to consumers who are viewing more content online these days. It's a compelling proposition: by embedding the Internet TV platform directly into a device, there's no need to buy a separate device and gives the manufacturer a slice of the advertising revenue.

Of course, as now-defunct Internet TV provider Joost learned the hard way, the product is only as good as its content, and without movie partners like Netflix or Amazon, or major studios to rent content as they do on Apple TV, it remains to be seen whether consumers are interested in watching Diggnation on their TV.

LG is the first partner for DivX TV, and the manufacturer will include the feature in an upcoming Blu-ray player.

Source: http://www.betanews.com/

In Denmark in an open letter to the mayor, city council and the IT manager in Lyngby-Taarbaek Municipality, the Virum School student council is now targeting sharp criticism against the decision to replace Microsoft Office with OpenOffice. There are major problems with programs and students lack training in how to use them, says the criticism.

Already last year there were debate around the municipality's decision to opt for OpenOffice rather than Microsoft's office suite.

Microsoft's technology director Jasper Hedegaard Bojsen then sent an open letter to the municipal mayor, which he denied that that OpenOffice should be an equal and cheaper alternative to Office. It led to accusations that Microsoft tried to implement a scare campaign.

Local newspaper site debate went back and forth between individuals. But now the pupils at school, are speaking up. In the open letter which can be read on the newspaper's website, they write include:

"Firstly, we think it is a huge problem that we have not learned to use the program, especially since 9th classes, the exam in a program they did not know and not know how to use. One solution might be to give us students a course in how to use the programs. It makes others know when they must learn a new program to know."

But criticism from Virum School student council will not stop here.

"We also have big problems with the layout. For example if we write a Danish-style home in the Word and spend much time on layout in style when we come to the school and must print it out or edit the layout is completely different and more cluttered than we had used time at home. This is a problem because we are also characters in order..." reads the letter.

Schoolchildren also regrets the lack of substitutes for several programs in the Office, including Publisher, is not in the OpenOffice package.

"We can not understand why only students and teachers to use OpenOffice, while all those who work elsewhere in the municipality still allowed to work with Microsoft Office package," they write.

The municipality has however been expressed that the entire administration to be shifted to OpenOffice and not just schools. The letter ends with this telling-off to the politicians:

"We think it is unfair that some of the most important tool in our school work and who previously has worked really well until we got OpenOffice, has now been changed to something that works worse."

I have always been an avid Vi enthusiast. And I have tried to keep abreast of the new features in Vi. Did you know Vi has a powerful adversary ? Yes you guessed it right, it is Emacs. But that has not stopped Vi from gaining faithful followers for itself. Myself being one of the staunch supporters of Vi.

Vim is the modern avataar of Vi and is created and maintained by Bram Moolenaar. Vim is choke full of features which would put any other text editor (except perhaps Emacs) to shame.

Once you learn to use Vim, it will bring immense power at your fingertips. With a few key strokes you will be able to accomplish text editing tasks which might otherwise take you a significant amount of time and effort.

However, you need to master a few skills in learning Vim.

Ramesh Natarajan at theGeekstuff.com has authored a very useful book on Vim named "Vim 101 Hacks".

It is a downloadable eBook that contains 101 practical examples on various advanced Vim features that will make you fast and productive in the Vim editor. The book is targeted at newbies and intermediate users of Vim.

If you are interested in buying an up-to-date book on Vim, do check out Vim 101 Hacks. It is worth the money well spent.

Welcome to the Ubuntu-Arizona Weekly Newsletter, Issue #111 for the week December 28, January 3, 2010.

* Arizona Loco Newsletter
* One Hundred Eleventh Edition
* Powered by Ubuntu
* Wednesday-January 6, 2010
* Arizona Loco Team Wiki: ["ArizonaTeam"]

* Next meeting: Sunday January 10, 2010 9:00 PM
* Server: Freenode: IRC Channel #ubuntu-us-az

In This Issue

* scott_ev announced: I believe most of you know that I am only moderating meetings on a temporary basis: I am not the team leader. Our team leader, johnc4510, is taking some time off from moderating our meetings. He is still around handling other aspects of running our LoCo and generally taking care of things that don't require a public presence. In time, this should change and we'll again be rewarded with the opportunity to interact with him. Until then we'll just have to see what we can do to keep this team active and on track.

* scott_ev made 11 general announcements taken from the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #174. For those interested, the UWN can be accessed from this redirect URL: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Current . It automatically takes you to the current issue.

* PLUG and announcements from xHans: PLUG devel is this Thursday night over at UAT - http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/node/554 . Community college classes start on the 19th - http://www.LuftHans.com/Classes/ . I believe the security/hackfest is now the 2nd Tuesday of the month, so a week from Tuesday. http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/security

Read the whole thing at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam/Newsletters/10January6

MyMeeting is a web application specifically designed to help you to better manage your meetings and get more out of them. Initially developed at the Open Source Competency Center (OSCC), it is the Malaysian governments’ first fully open source software.

MyMeeting2 Screenshot

Launchpad : https://launchpad.net/mymeeting

PPA : https://launchpad.net/~oscc/+archive/ppa (im still learning to do packaging, really appreciate if someone can help me to enhance the packaging

For more information on MyMeeting click here

Reporting MyMeeting bugs and request for enhancement browse to MyMeeting-Trac

MyMeeting Version 2 Installation Manual

Warning: Do not install Chrome as root as suggested below… installing as root was only a quick hack when installing as a regular user failed! Please read - http://community.livejournal.com/evan_tech/271230.html?view=1741182

This post is almost a month late! I’ve not been that up to date with news from Google lately but by chance saw an [...]

Although I love open source, I have to admit I'm a frequent Skype user. This week there's some big news from Skype. They're making a push for 720p video quality, with both new HD webcams and software support, but that's not the biggest deal here. They're also partnering with LG and Panasonic for Skype-enabled HDTVs.

Gizmodo writes:

The new Skype 4.2 beta can achieve better quality video than ever before: 1280 x 720 resolution at 30fps. They've also got a line of HD webcams (hardware from faceVision and In Store) that pack video encoding and processing onboard, so as not to confound your grandma's crappy old computer. There are two versions from each manufacturer: FaceVision has one with and one without a microphone ($100 and $70, respectively) and In Store has the Freetalk Pro at $120 and the presumably ever pro-er Freetalk Pro Plus at $140.

Now for those HDTVs. LG and Panasonic are the hardware partners here, and they've integrated both a webcam and Skype software into their HDTVs. They'll have just about every Skype feature the computer software has—voicemail, landline and mobile calls, free Skype-to-Skype, all that—as well as a 720p webcam and microphones specifically designed to pick up sound at couch distance. Want to say hello to your kid, niece, nephew, grandkid, whatever, but he or she won't sit still in front of a computer? Let 'em run around in front of the TV! We'll get more info from Skype on specific pricing and availability for these TVs this week.

Makes me wonder how this will work. Will every HDTV be running Skype on top of Windows or are Skype finally making a push for Linux? The last one would be the wiser choice.

This might seem desperate, and perhaps it is, but I really need your help with a little project I'm working on. Basically I want to create an introductory video that briefly explains how the Ubuntu release schedule/cycle works. This will very much be aimed at Ubuntu newbies.

My first idea was to create an introductory video that would summarize what goes into a release cycle (Toolchain, UDS, Freezes, Alpha, Beta, RC), but that part has been postponed mostly due to my lack of knowledge in these areas (how does one describe Toolchain upload?). Anyway, back on topic, I figured I could write most of the text for the beginner friendly release schedule video myself, and so I did. There's things that have been left out and things that I properly have forgotten. This is the current draft for the voiceover:

Hi, my name is ????? and I'm here to tell you about the Ubuntu release schedule.
Every six months a new Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server release is produced.
Each release is supported for 18 months. (perhaps this should be in years?)
Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge.
Every two years, a LTS version is released.
LTS is a abbreviation for Long term support
With the Long Term Support (perhaps just LTS) version you get 3 years support on Ubuntu Desktop.
There is no extra fee for the LTS version, the very best work is available to everyone on the same free terms.
There is 5 years support on the LTS Server release, which makes it ideal for enterprise users making large deployments.
The official name of an Ubuntu release uses the year and month of the release as the version number.
If the release is delayed the version number changes accordingly.
The first Ubuntu release was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released in 2004 on October 20.
Since (the actual release date may change and) humans tend to prefer names rather than numbers, Ubuntu releases are also given codenames.
The codenames, uses an adjective and an animal with the same first letter. With the exception of the first three releases, code names are in alphabetical order.
Visit ubuntu.com for more information
Thanks for watching

I'm still looking for someone to record the actual voiceover - preferably someone who speaks native English. Anyone?
I desperately need help with this, so if you want to contribute in any way, I will appreciate it. Also, if you think this project is a waste of time, please let me know :-)

By now there's a few really good media center application available for Linux, and today yet another joins the game. The very first release of Enna Media Center (v0.4.0) has came out!

click to view fullsize

Benjamin Zores, the project leader for the GeeXbox project and long-time MPlayer developer, has announced the first public (beta) release of Enna. Enna is a multi-media player that will be at the heart of the GeeXbox 2.0 distribution and is available as a separate program for those using other Linux distributions.

This project is still very very young and still lacks many features compared to something like XBMC, but Enna is said to be much smaller in terms of size, dependencies and resources consumption. Although we have XBMC, Moovida and LinuxMCE, it's always nice to see a new competitor on the block.

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic users can have a quick try at it, through apt-get, the whole stuff having been packaged for. Just add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://packages.geexbox.org/ karmic main

Once done, you may just install Enna through the following command:

aptitude update
aptitude install enna

More information about Enna can be found in this blog post.

Source:
- http://gxben.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/first-public-enna-0-4-0-release/
- http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nzg1NA
- http://enna.geexbox.org/index.html

On behalf of All about Linux blog, I wish you all a very prosperous, happy, and fullfilling New Year 2010. :-)