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Posts tagged as “open source”

An Educational Crap Shoot With Linux As A Player

By Ken Starks on August 12, 2014 |

Operating Systems and Software

300px-CrapsA few months ago, Brian Conner approached me and asked if I would be interested in talking to him about what we do at Reglue. He wanted to write an interview/story for Linux Journal.

I was not only surprised, I was honored to think that what we do might be of interest to the greater Linux/FOSS community. The article was published in the June issue of Linux Journal. Friends from all over the world are still emailing me, asking if I have seen the article.

Indeed I have, thank you.

What amazed me more was the conversation the story generated on Reddit and Slashdot. I don’t think it made the front page on either site, but there was a good number of comments and feedback, which we are going to talk about now.

Continue readingAn Educational Crap Shoot With Linux As A Player

Tentative Schedule Meets Tentative Schedule For ATO

By Christine Hall on August 11, 2014 |

Business, Media and Software

If last year’s inaugural All Things Open (ATO) conference in Raleigh was primarily an event for developers and admins, that’ll be even more true when ATO II cranks up on October 22 at the Raleigh Convention Center. At least that’s how it appears when scanning the tentative schedule posted on the ATO website. There’s also much on tap for management types, but the main focus is on developers and system administrators.

At first glance, it might look as if there’s very little for what blogger Gary Newell calls the Everyday Linux User, those who have adopted free software at home or in a mom and pop business. To my eyes, there is barely enough — but that still qualifies as enough.

That might change. The schedule is still tentative and very much in flux. There are no descriptions of the presentations posted yet and there were still a few slots that remain unfilled, presumably waiting on schedule confirmations. However, the presentations’ names are usually descriptive enough and there are bios of all speakers, making it easy enough to get some sort of idea of what to expect.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingTentative Schedule Meets Tentative Schedule For ATO

It’s Round Two for Raleigh’s ‘All Things Open’ Conference

By Christine Hall on July 28, 2014 |

Business, News and Software

It’s official. The All Things Open (ATO) conference that had it’s inaugural run in Raleigh last year wasn’t just a flash in the pan. As event chair Todd Lewis promised at the end of last year’s event, ATO is returning to the Raleigh Convention Center on October 22nd and 23rd. Again this year, FOSS Force is an official Media Partner of the conference.

During last year’s closing ceremonies, Lewis said he intended to make ATO the premiere open source conference on the East Coast. It appears as if he’s keeping his promise, as this year the conference will feature a greatly expanded schedule, with the number of tracks being increased to ten. Currently there are forty speakers lined-up for presentations, with more to be named soon.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingIt’s Round Two for Raleigh’s ‘All Things Open’ Conference
The Return of a Legend in Her Own MindFOSS Force

The Return of a Legend in Her Own Mind

By Christine Hall on July 27, 2014 |

Site News

Maybe you didn’t notice, but I’ve been MIA here at FOSS Force for some time – since the first part of April to be exact. During that time I’ve basically been missing as a writer and editor and other than a couple of much appreciated articles by Ken Starks, FOSS Force has been a silent site.

Without going into too much detail, it started when I fell ill.

Nothing serious, but it zapped me of my energy. I was still able to perform my duties at my “day job” at a local university library, but left me without the energy needed to write and edit the site.

During this period, FOSS Force lost a couple of good volunteer writers who’d written articles for us but which I was unable to edit. Eventually they grew tired of waiting for me to reply to their emails and quit our site. For that, I am most sincerely sorry.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingThe Return of a Legend in Her Own Mind
Where Loyalty and Trust Still MatterReglue loyality

Where Loyalty and Trust Still Matter

By Ken Starks on May 12, 2014 |

Operating Systems and Potpourri

It was in 2010 when Skip Guenter began winding his way through friends and contacts, finally succeeding in finding our organization a place to call home.

That place is Taylor, Texas.

Since 2005, HeliOS/Reglue has operated from any place we could find. We’ve worked from garages, work sheds, tack rooms, barns, the back of pickup trucks and even in monthly storage places.

But we are home now.

Taylor a small town of 15.5K or so. Big enough to have a Walmart but small enough for the checkout clerk to know you by your first name, as well as the names of your spouse and kids. That’s also true of the people at the post office, the bank, the grocery store, the vehicle registration place…. And that’s kind of nice.

Reglue loyality

Ken Starks

Ken Starks is the founder of the Helios Project and Reglue, which for 20 years provided refurbished older computers running Linux to disadvantaged school kids, as well as providing digital help for senior citizens, in the Austin, Texas area. He was a columnist for FOSS Force from 2013-2016, and remains part of our family. Follow him on Twitter: @Reglue

linuxlock.blogspot.com/
Continue readingWhere Loyalty and Trust Still Matter
Ikey Doherty Talks Evolve OS & Budgie DesktopEvolve OS logo

Ikey Doherty Talks Evolve OS & Budgie Desktop

By Ken Starks on April 24, 2014 |

Desktops, Distros, News, Operating Systems and Software

Ikey Doherty is probably one of the most tech-smart people I know. Fact is, Ikey is much like that guy you hear about on the news, the guy that can hear a string of four digit numbers and tell you the sum of them in a couple of seconds. Now, I don’t know if Ikey is capable of that feat, but I do know what he can do.

Ikey Doherty can code. Ikey Doherty can code in a number of languages.

Ikey Doherty
Ikey Doherty, Linux programmer.
So you might say to me, “Well Ken, I can code too. Anyone who goes to college to study Computer Science can code something.”

OK, I’ll give you that. But let’s back up a bit. How much could you code before you went to college? A little bit? Was it a hobby until you decided you were interested in doing it professionally? The last time I did the calculations in my head, Doherty writes extensive and complex code in at least four languages.

Ken Starks

Ken Starks is the founder of the Helios Project and Reglue, which for 20 years provided refurbished older computers running Linux to disadvantaged school kids, as well as providing digital help for senior citizens, in the Austin, Texas area. He was a columnist for FOSS Force from 2013-2016, and remains part of our family. Follow him on Twitter: @Reglue

linuxlock.blogspot.com/
Continue readingIkey Doherty Talks Evolve OS & Budgie Desktop
What Would You Do to Improve Linux?Linux magic wand

What Would You Do to Improve Linux?

By Ken Starks on April 21, 2014 |

Operating Systems

The Linuxsphere is a wild, wonderful and adventurous place. By its nature alone, Linux is often considered a maverick. It’s been my observation that Linux users tend to explore and take more risks when using their computers. For better or worse, it appears that Linux users have been associated with the hacker elite. I’ve even thought of it as being the wild west of tech. I’ve referred to using Linux as computing without a safety net.

Linux magic wandThere were days past when I let my idealism and fervor dictate my thoughts and actions. I saw magnificent potential in Linux as a desktop operating system. With all my heart and soul, I evangelized for a competitive presence of Linux on the desktop. Like many idealists, I ignored the facts and barreled ahead as if by sheer will I could blow obstacles to dust that would dissipate in my wake.

Ken Starks

Ken Starks is the founder of the Helios Project and Reglue, which for 20 years provided refurbished older computers running Linux to disadvantaged school kids, as well as providing digital help for senior citizens, in the Austin, Texas area. He was a columnist for FOSS Force from 2013-2016, and remains part of our family. Follow him on Twitter: @Reglue

linuxlock.blogspot.com/
Continue readingWhat Would You Do to Improve Linux?
Open Source Project Brings 11th Century Kannada Verses OnlineKannada Language project

Open Source Project Brings 11th Century Kannada Verses Online

By Pavithra Hanchagaiah, Omshivaprakash HI and Subhashish Panigrahi on April 2, 2014 |

Internet, Media and News

Vachana sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing in Kannada poetry that evolved in the 11th century C.E. and flourished in the 12th century as a part of the Lingayatha movement. More than 259 Vachanakaras (Vachana writers) have compiled over 11,000 vachanas. 21,000 of these verses which were published in a 15 volume set, “Samagra Vachana Samputa,” by the Government of Karnataka, a state in South West India, have been digitized. Two Wikimedians along with Kannada linguist and author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy are involved in the Unicode conversions, corrections and writing the preface for these verses. The entire work is now available as a standalone project called Vachana Sanchaya and ready to enrich Kannada WikiSource.

Palm Leaf Vachanas
Palm leaf of 11th and 12th Century with Vachana poems in Kannada language

This project was started a year ago when Kannada Wikimedian Omshivaprakash was trying to help Professor O. L. Naghabhushana Swamy and Kannada author and publisher Vasudhendra to easily access the vachana (verses) of Vachana Sanchaya. Swamy had challenges in using publicly available content on Vachanas since the data was in ASCII and searching text was a huge problem. Pavithra Hanchagaiah started helping to collect information about about vachanas and document them into Unicode by writing scripts to customize open source software to convert the Kannada fonts from ASCII into Unicode.

Continue readingOpen Source Project Brings 11th Century Kannada Verses Online