Planet Fedora UK

What's your t-shirt?

2011-07-14T07:42:00+00:00

I've not started a MEME in awhile, so i thought it was about time i did one. Anytime you see a techy they are wearing a t-shirt, yeah yeah yeah i know it's not everyone, so my meme today is. What's your t-shirt.....what are you wearing right now? I'm wearing the one pictured, i would of posted a pic of me wearing it, but the camera on my phone is playing up, and besides you don't want to see my ugly mug :)

Upload a photo of you wearing your t-shirt, let's see what type of t-shirts people wear...link in my comments or do your own blog post :) hmmm wonder how many comments i'll get from my Fedora buddies ;)

Fedora EMEA ambassadors Meeting

2011-07-13T14:49:00+00:00

For all you Fedora EMEA ambassadors

Just a quick heads-up for you to not forget the

Fedora EMEA ambassadors meeting

for all ambassadors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

* Date: Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
* Time: 20:00 UTC (check [1] for your local time)
* Location: #fedora-meeting

Meeting agenda:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:EMEA_Ambassadors_2011-07-13

Please add your topic before the meeting and join us tonight!

Missed opportunities

2011-06-01T09:05:00+00:00

I've been receiving a lot of email / snail mail lately from website developers in the Nottinghamshire and surrounding areas. As a web developer myself i'm always curious and go and have a look at their site. And quite a few times i'm surprised at how crap these sites are, yet they seem to be doing ok, looking at their testimonials people are loving their creations. Either these people are great con artists or the people they are doing the sites for have no clue and will accept anything that has their name on a webpage.

And this is where the missed opportunity part comes in, i can do better than that. The only problem is, i haven't. I should do, i have the skills and the domain names and hosting solutions to provide it, but i don't.

Why? No idea, but after seeing these flyers i think it's something i'm going to look into.

Email frustrations.

2011-05-31T08:32:00+00:00

Now i get loads of emails a day, to be honest most of them spam, and they are quite easy to identify, i mean do i really think that some south African business man has left me £1.5 million dollars? Well no not really...delete. But one thing is starting to get on my tits and this is the emails that contain the immortal words "forward this onto 15 of your friends......"

God damn, do people really believe that this will work? Surely in this day and age people just see this and press the delete key? Well obviously not as i get about 15 a day. I'm not sure this is just people thinking they are being helpful or not realising this is SPAM! Maybe people need educating? For instance, how many people click on links in facebook without actually realising they are accepting an application that can post on your wall, read your email and do various other things and not need your permission to do it?

It frustrates me no end and it's just showing me that if i was the criminal type how much money i could make from these people......

Just take care when reading email, if it's from someone you don't know, delete it. If it has an attachent and you're not sure what it is, delete it. If it contains the words "please forward this onto 15 of your friends......" email the sender, tell them to sod off and stop sending you this crap and then delete it.

Oh look another one has just popped into my mailbox.......sigh

Fedora 15

2011-05-24T15:15:00+00:00

Here’s the announcement from Fedora Project Leader, Jared Smith.
Several new features are available, many which I am excited about.

GNOME 3 desktop environment – built from awesome!
Btrfs filesystem now optionally available
Better crash reporting
Better SELinux support
More apps in live media thanks to XZ compression
Better power management
LibreOffice replaces OpenOffice
Firefox 4
Systemd – the new and better replacement for SYSV init
And much, much more…

Download and share (via bittorrent) the latest release of joy and happiness. Fedora 15 is here!

This was blatantly stolen from Herlo's post.....:)

Fedora Elections

2011-05-17T08:51:00+00:00

If you don't know, and to be honest you'd need to have been under a rock, or just busy, it's coming up to election season :D

Board and FESCo Elections

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Elections

The nomination period has now closed, you can see who's up for nomination on the following pages

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Elections/Nominations
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Development/SteeringCommittee/Nominations

If you're interested, here is the rest of the schedule

May 15-22 Organize/Schedule Town Halls
May 22 Deadline for questionnaire response
May 25 Publish Questionnaire Responses
May 26 - June 1 Town Halls
June 2-8 Voting Period

HeartInternet

2011-04-26T13:09:00+00:00

Join our team & make a difference
Heart Internet provides shared and dedicated server hosting to businesses and individuals in the UK and Europe. We are a technical company who thrive on developing new products and providing one of the most advanced web hosting systems in the world. We were recently recognised by Deloitte as the 2nd fastest growing technology company in the UK and the 7th fastest growing in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Job Vacancies

• Linux System Administrator (Posted 03/04/2011)
• Technical Support (Posted 03/04/2011)

Linux System Administrator

We are looking for talented and enthusiastic system administrators to work in our System Administration team.

What we need from you:
• Advanced administration of Linux (mainly RHEL).
• Advanced knowledge of Apache.
• Good understanding of Exim & BIND.
• Command line MySQL skills.
• Experience of shell scripting and Perl.
• Good Unix skills like AWK, Vim, sed, SSH, iptables/netfilter.
• Understanding of PHP and HTML.
• Good understanding of server hardware and RAID configuration.
• Some on-call work.

What you will be doing:
• Contributing to our company by being a key part of our team.
• Streamlining our systems and automating server management.
• Managing security and backup processes.
• Optimising the existing infrastructure.
• Deploying and configuring new servers and services.
• Trouble shooting urgent server issues.

What you will get from us:
• Competitive salary.
• Great pension benefits.
• Free snacks, fresh coffee and soft drinks.
• No dress code.
• Relocation assistance for those who qualify.
• Your choice of OS for your desktop.
• A technical environment that encourages learning.

Salary:- Negotiable, depending on experience
Job Type:- Permanent

Technical Support

What we need from you:
• Good grades at school and college. A degree helps.
• An interest in computers and Internet technology.
• A problem solving mindset and terrific enthusiasm.
• A calm and patient nature.
• Desire to learn and move up in the world!

Skills that would be a great bonus on your application:
• An understanding of HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
• Experience of programming in PHP, Perl or ASP.
• Experience of publishing and managing a website.
• Applications skills like using Outlook, Word or Excel.
• Web Application skills like using WinSCP, Putty, FTP or Dreamweaver.

What you will be doing:
• Helping our customers to get their website online and get their email.
• Problem solving server side programming and email issues.
• Identifying system problems and bugs and liaising with 2nd line support to resolve these issues.

What you will get from us:
• Competitive salary.
• Great pension benefits.
• Free snacks, fresh coffee and soft drinks.
• No dress code.
• Relocation assistance for those who qualify.
• A technical environment that encourages learning.
• Free Web Hosting!

Salary:- Negotiable, depending on experience
Job Type:- Permanent

Application Information & How to Apply

• All jobs are based at our offices in Nottingham.
• No agencies.
• You must be able to work in the UK to apply.
• Please email your CV indicating the job you are applying for and anything else you think will be useful to:
employ (at) heartinternet.co.uk.

fedora-uk.org

2011-04-24T11:15:00+00:00

The fedora-uk.org site is coming along in leaps and bounds, we're getting more contributors and it's starting to get more content on it.

However we have a problem, our site needs a new banner and will that in mind we're doing our first Fedora UK competition. Pretty straigtforward, we need a new site banner which will be displayed on our front page -

http://fedora-uk.org/

Why note have a go and add your entries here -

http://wiki.fedora-uk.org/index.php/Banner_competition

Just a bit of fun, the only prize you'll get is knowing your image will be displayed on another Fedora related website and you'll also get the gracious thanks for the UK community, as small as it is.....FOR THE MOMENT!!!!!

Once we have a few images [if we get a few images] then the UK irc channel #fedora-uk on freenode, will vote for the one we like the best :)

Have fun and thanks.

Am I a freedom hater now?

2011-04-20T20:57:00+00:00

First things first; I’m Lee Williams, married with three children – I personally do not come on here to “troll” in any sense – I want to learn new stuff help out where I can and promote the use and philosophy behind FOSS. I “get” freedom and free software and 100% agree with it.

Whilst browsing through some ‘dents the other day I noticed a news link on the Google android story

Google is trying to use open source software to try and make money – one of the ways it can do this is by gaining a competitive advantage. But at the same time they try to follow the free/open source philosophy. However oftentimes the advantage is gained by going against the normal run of things from a FOSS perspective.

So android honeycomb is both open and closed depending on a Google decided business model in effect at the time. Of course it soon became apparent (see the thread) that this is pure evil and that Google are going to rape and pillage through our villages, towns, and cities aided by their proprietary applications in their honeycomb version of android.

First point of call with that admittedly misrepresented view is…wait for it…there may be no conspiracy – hold the phone, right! I know I’m real bleeding edge here. But it may simply be a way for Google to pump up the profit from android – equally of course it may be because of another reason which Google will publicise in due course. However, whatever the reason why Google at the least have the common decency to come out and be clear on their stance:

“Google has many projects that follow either the open or closed model, and others that do not cleanly fit either stereotype. Android and Chrome OS are examples of permeable interfaces between Google and the outside community, and would be defined as open on the surface. However, both projects periodically “go dark” on the community to surprise the market. In a sense, they are both open and closed depending on business needs at any given time.“

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/12/google_says_android_both_open_and_closed/

It was at this point I duly pointed out that of course Google could see fit to close source on future releases of android source leaving our community where? At which point Copyleft – you may think inevitably -was mentioned.

Copyleft is great: saving previously open sourced ventures from disappearing behind closed source. I think it’s a great thing and it’s use is to definitely be encouraged. Why would I want to discourage the community and openness it promotes?

The sad fact here though is Google have released the android source via the ASL2 and whilst compatible with GPL v3 does not include Copyleft – simply put – Copyleft cannot be applied in this instance.

I started off by saying I was undecided as to which particular side I fall on – but why can it not be the middle? Come to think of it…does it matter at all? On identi.ca djotaku pointed out that Google aren’t the only “Freedom Haters” in town – Canonical do this with in-house tech and their community seems to have grown well in spite of this happy in the knowledge their in-house tech will eventually make it’s way into the community. Change to a 60year old philosophy may be in order where would be if things hadn’t moved on in that time frame? All sat in front of smaller processors with tiny amounts of ram (by todays standards). As a community we want to have openness and transparency. We “say” all power to those who try to make a few pounds out of what our community achieves by taking something and adding to it/using it. I believe you may have to recognise that if you want corporate input into an open project eventually that corporate is going to want something back – and a week or two exclusivity on the whole when compared to some alternatives may not be such a bad thing.

Till next time.

willy.

FOSS for the Future

2011-04-13T19:51:47+00:00

After a discussion today on #fedora-uk I realised that there may be a little explored money saving scheme that the UK government may have overlooked – replacing their licensed software with the free alternatives that are available – we’re not talking replacing mission critical servers here more "front line" average user pc’s that are running Windows and Office etc. baby steps after all!

I’m sure the idea is not new but I’m taking it forward and trying to raise awareness by spamming everyone on my Facebook list (my moan about facebook taking over lives is still to come – but one cannot argue that it is a good starting point for something we’re trying to get "viral" etc.) anyhow… I did… there’s a group – depending on uptake we can move forward with it and look at template letters to MP’s and other points being available on a separate site – I know MooDoo has written to his MP so he may have a lot more to input on this subject, as he was the one that first raised it in my mind as a good idea worthy of consideration if nothing else!

For those that are on Facebook please feel free to join up…: FOSS for the future

Fedora 15 Alpha

2011-04-13T13:12:16+00:00

Well as mentioned here I made a decision here recently after speaking through some options with some of the good folks on #fedora-uk on irc I’ve decied to move some stuff around and get Fedora 15 Alpha on the laptop… no doubt I’ll be tapping them up for some advice in the coming weeks

As this is the case it’s only fair to point you to Fedora UK’s website.

Fedora 17 Name

2011-04-13T07:36:00+00:00

Well seeing as Beefy Miracle didn't get in, i think it's time to start campaign for F17, so here's a suggestion..... wait for it. YAWN!

And as part of the naming conventions, here's how it works.

Verne is a boring name and so is YAWN!

;)

The history of Linux.....

2011-04-08T08:43:00+00:00

.......in 3 short minutes

http://youtu.be/5ocq6_3-nEw

Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Linux with us. Watch the Story of Linux to remember - or learn for the first time - how Linux disrupted a market and has begun to change the world. Do you see yourself in its story?

From The Linux Foundation

Fedora UK Mailing List

2011-04-07T13:35:00+00:00

With the aim of getting the UK community more visable and active, i've finally gotten round to fixing the sites mailing list.

If you're interested in what's happening in the UK or want to speak to UK community members, then please feel free to sign up.....come on you know you want to :)

http://fedora-uk.org/mailman/listinfo/fedora-uk_fedora-uk.org

Gnome 3.0

2011-04-07T06:58:00+00:00

Thought i'd might as well get on the bandwagon.

Congratulations to all on the exceptional release that is Gnome 3.0, we didn't think it could get any better but it did.

Well done all :)

To my readers that have never heard of Gnome, or just think it's another variant of the Garden ornament, then go look at this page.

http://gnome3.org/

Fedora 16 - Time to vote

2011-04-05T10:04:00+00:00

Well it's that time of the year again, voting for the name of the next release of Fedora, in this case Fedora 16.

If you've not already voted, then do so here - https://admin.fedoraproject.org/voting

I've voted, i don't want to tell you which one i've gone for as it's too beefy for your mind to comprehend ;)

Planet Fedora UK

2011-04-04T13:24:00+00:00

With many Fedora users in the UK, we're starting to update the fedora-uk.org website. I've started with the planet site. http://planet.fedora-uk.org

If you're a Fedora user in the UK and would like your blog adding to the feed so that people can read about what you're doing in your life [both Fedora and personal] please contact me.

Just need to make it look good now....:)

Don’t be IRC’ed by it…

2011-04-02T19:57:17+00:00

Take Control

Due to me switching from Windows recently I’ve been needing a little hand holding so I’ve been spending some time in my IRC client on the freenode network getting support (as well as helping out and sticking my beak in when I can).

I came across an issue the other day and took some googling to find the answer to. The background was that I have registered my nick name with Freenode (by logging on and settig your username as required and then using the command /msg nickserv register <password> <email> more detail here). With that done I went on my merry way until I came to log in to my IRC client from work whilst having left my IRC client running at home logged in and identified.

Regaining Control of a Nick

In the process of clearing this up (at this time I did not have SSH setup to be able to log out properly etc.) I came across the following:

There are three commands that will allow you to regain control of a nick, for whatever reason – ghost, recover and release.

The first, and most commonly used is “ghost”. From time to time, you’ll lose your connection to the internet and/or freenode, but your nick will remain online as far as the network can tell. In this case, a ghost command is effective: /msg nickserv ghost <nickname> <password>. This command will “kill” your nick, allowing you to change to that nick (/nick <nickname>) and identify to nickserv (/msg nickserv identify $password).

In the event your nick is being used by another person or from a machine that autoconnects when disconnected, you may need to use the recover command (/msg nickserv recover <nickname> <password>). Recover performs a nick collide on your nick. Once this command is employed, the nick will be held until you use the ‘release’ command or until the release times out. If you are identified to a linked nickname, you do not need to supply a password. Otherwise, you have to supply the correct password.

The release command simply allows you to regain control of your nick after performing a recover command. To release the nick, type /msg nickserv release <nickname> <password>.

Fedora 14

2010-11-02T23:21:00+00:00

Just a short post to say that I've upgraded to Fedora 14, and it was pretty painless.

preupgrade from the command prompt and wait, reboot, wait some more job done.

Still on a new install you get the large icon spacing, which to be honest i don't like, but that's easily fixed from the command prompt.

gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel/padding 0
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/toplevels/bottom_panel/padding 0
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/applets/systray/prefs/padding 0

Fedora 14....get it, install it, use it :)

Fedora 14

2010-11-01T16:41:00+00:00

Tomorrow (2010-11-02) is the release day for Fedora 14!

Congratulations to everyone involved, it's an awesome release, then again did you expect anything different? :)