The Little Hacker's Room

I am thrilled to announce El Salvador Ubuntu LoCo Team will be hosting an Ubucon El Salvador next Saturday September 6th!

I’ll be spending next week in San Salvador and I thought it would be nice to meet some Ubunteros there. I wrote to their mailing list, one thing led to another and *boom* ! Having presented at Ubucons in Seville, New York City and San Francisco before I am really happy to add one to my list ! I am trying to think of any sentence in this post I wouldn’t end with an exclamation mark but I can’t !!!

A few emails and IRC chats were enough to settle on having a round table to discuss Ubuntu’s place in free software, Celvin Rivas will also be presenting about the state of Ubuntu in El Salvador. If there’s enough people interested there’s discussion about having some workshops - gotta love last minute things

From “Running an Ubucon“:

An Ubucon is a community driven, community organised event that is all about Ubuntu. These events often include a number of speakers, BOF sessions, demos, social events and more, and they are excellent ways to grow the Ubuntu community in your area, and to build an interesting and fun event. Ubucons are different to large Linux expos and conferences in that they are uniquely community focused and driven, and uniquely Ubuntu.

Cyrille Béraud et la compagnie qu’il a fondé à Montréal pour offrir des services en informatique libre a écrit un long manifeste sur le libre au Québec, plus particulièrement au gouvernement. Il tient depuis un carnet, La longue route du logiciel libre au Québec et hier il participait à l’audience publique concernant la requête en rejet déposée par la Régie des rentes.

Il faudra attendre deux semaines pour en savoir plus sur la requête en rejet Il semblerait que le rejet ait eu lieu et voilà que maintenant FACIL conteste en Cour supérieure les pratiques gouvernementales [1] (English) dans cette affaire d’achats massifs de logiciels sans appels d’offre.

FACIL avait apporté son soutien ainsi que Koumbit, deux associations locales qui font la promotion du libre par différents moyens au Québec. La GRICS aussi avait souligné l’affaire.

Une conférence de presse est prévue vendredi le 29 août 2008 à 10h30 au 7275 rue Saint Urbain, bureau 201 à Montréal.

Voici quelques liens en vrac pour compléter votre lecture :

• Le processus d’invitation à soumissionner
• Ligue des contribuables du Québec

Je viens de lire un petit article sur wikinews: Calls for bottled water bans grow in Canada. J'y ai appris que des villes canadiennes ont interdit la vente d'eau en bouteille quand il y a un accès public à de l'eau du robinet, comme dans la plupart des édifices publics. On peut y admirer la profondeur des contres-arguments des représentants de Coca-Cola, grand embouteilleur d'eau: une bouteille est plus facile à emporter que son lavabo. Rien de tel qu'une affirmation incontestablement vraie et triviale pour éviter de discuter des autres problèmes, dont le coût écologique d'un embouteillage d'eau du robinet. Bien sur, rien n'est plus facile que de remplir sa propre bouteille d'eau dans les places publiques, alors utilisez ce remplacement simple et éprouvé.

If you’re all bored this weekend (or not) and want to contribute to Intrepid, you need to see this post on the Ubuntu Forums!

Thanks to Peng for pointing this out in the Ubuntu Weblogs which is another *huge* source of interesting Ubuntu bits & pieces!

Today I went to Bureau en Gros, which is the same as Staples stores in the USA. Think of it as the office supplies and electronics / computing store. Although I knew netbooks were coming “sometime soon” I didn’t expect to see them here in Montreal, particularly at a “mainstream” store like BeG!

I took some pictures, but here are direct links to BeG online catalog:

• Hewlett Packard 2133 Mini-Note PC with Windows Vista listed at 699.96 CDN$
• Acer Aspire One with Linpus Linux listed at 349.96 CDN$
• MSI Wind Notebook PC with Windows XP listed at 529.96 CDN$

Update: I am told this guide to install Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire One should be in my post
Update 2: The Aspire One has since gone out of stock and is not even in the catalog anymore!

I find it very interesting they were side by side and had clear tech specs, including operating systems right down to the graphics chipset. I took more detailed pictures, although not very high res as I only had my phone camera at the time. I’ve put them all on Flickr in case anyone is curious. Can’t wait to see any Ubuntu netbook remix machines available in Canadian retail stores!

I had the greatest time 2 weeks ago at Linux World Expo 2008 in San Francisco, USA. Although I had the best intentions and wanted to blog just about everything, I just couldn’t get 5 minutes near a keyboard! I’ll be posting some of it over the next few days.

Today while reading Planet Ubuntu and Canonical joining the Linux Foundation I remembered visiting their booth at LWE and seeing Linux Foundation’s new Linux Developer Network (Beta) which just launched.

From the site:

The Linux Developer Network (LDN) is the online community for Linux application developers and independent software vendors who want to start or continue their journey developing applications for the Linux platform. In other words, if you or your company wants to work with Linux, this is the place to be.

The LDN’s goal is to empower developers to target the Linux platform. A platform is only as strong as the applications that run on top of it, and the LDN wants to make sure those developers have everything the need to successfully and cost-effectively target Linux. One of the ways LDN will help developers accomplish this is to help them build portable Linux applications.

LDN is also about giving developers the tools they need to create the best Linux apps possible, no matter which platform developers want to work with. We’ve designed the LDN to be flexible and go where the community wants it to go. Mobile, embedded, driver development, cloud computing–keep an eye out for what’s next in the world of Linux.

Here on LDN you will find in-depth articles, white papers, and howtos that describe the latest practices of Linux development. Blogs from top kernel and application developers help round out the expertise.

It’s not just talent and advice; LDN also offers tools and documentation to determine just how distribution-portable your current application is, and outlines ways to make it more portable. If LSB certification is your goal, then the LSB Software Development Kit is available for new applications, with guidelines and demos available on how to port existing apps to the LSB.

Linux is about the strength of community, so LDN also provides developers with peer-level support, through forums and mailing lists, as well as tips, tricks, and tools to create and discuss the hottest brainstorm ideas in the community. You can even get your own blog started, hosted by LDN!

In fact, community is such a huge part of what LDN is all about, we’ve started the LDN Rewards Program–a way to earn points, gain visibility, and enhance your professional reputation in the Linux community. Get points for posting in the forums, adding to the brainstorms, writing articles–however you want to contribute. Monthly point leaders will be eligible for LDN-exclusive prizes, and top participants will be eligible for trips to Linux Foundation events!

J'ai assisté à la fête soulignant le mariage récent d'Éric et Caroline. Le bonheur et l'harmonie qui se dégage de ces deux photos des nouveaux mariés laisse présager une longue union pleine de surprises heureuses. Vive les mariés!

J'ai trouvé ce petit vidéo sur youtube completement par hazard ... Mais je ne pouvais m'enpêcher de pensé a mes amis Allemands :P