Don’t forget if you’re in the Columbia, MD area March 10th and want to learn about contributing to the KDE project in a non-technical manner come and join us for the Columbia Area Linux Users Group meeting!
Justin will be presenting his talk “Making the leap from KDE user to contributor”. Justin will discuss simple ways for KDE users to become contributors, even without knowing a thing about developing code. His talk will provide specific details about various teams that exist within KDE, what you can do to help them out, and who to talk to if you have questions.
Justin Kirby is an active contributor to the KDE Promo team. He has been a user of KDE for about 3 years but more recently got actively involved in giving back to the community in July of 2009. You can learn more about the KDE Promo team on their wiki.
We will be meeting at the Columbia, MD offices of Tenable Network Security from 6:30-9pm. From 6:30-7 we’ll be enjoying pizza and soda provided by Praxis Engineering. The entrance is at the back patio with the blue tables.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Hi Everybody,
Due to the snow conditions we are canceling the February CALug meeting.
I want to thank Jonathan Riddell for volunteering to give a talk to our group. Justin Kirby has agreed to come to our March meeting and give his talk to us at that time.
That being said, the KDE 4.4 release party scheduled for Fuddruckers in Columbia, MD on Friday is still on. Jonathan is planning to give his talk (without slides) and a Q&A at this event! So if you were looking forward to hearing what he has to say drop by, dine with us and hopefully learn something useful for desert!
* My attendance Friday evening is dependant on seeing a plow between now and then on the road outside…
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
For reasons that are obvious to most around here the CALug meeting for tonight, February 10, is not going to happen.
I’ll be getting in touch with Justin and Jonathan to find out if they are available to make a rare Thursday appearance. If they are willing we will make the decision Thursday morning pending conditions in the area.
Keep up with any and all the methods I outlined previously for updates.
Don’t forget the KDE release party happening Friday the 12th at Fuddruckers in Columbia, MD!
Remember to lift with the knees, not the back!
It looks like we’re in for more snow this Tuesday night into Wednesday. If we get what is expected the scheduled CALug meeting with Jonathan Riddell and Justin Kirby will be postponed until Thursday at best and canceled at worst. There are several moving parts right now that need to be coordinated before the final determination is made.
So keep an eye out here, on the CALug mailing list, my identica account, the CALug identica group and/or my twitter account. Those last three will be the same message across them all so pick your favorite (Hint: The Identica site runs Free AGPL software). The CALug website will also be updated but may be a bit behind the announcements I make via my feeds.
Also don’t forget that the local KDE release party will be at Fuddruckers in Columbia, MD on Friday the 12th. With luck the snow will be gone by then!
It was pointed out to me that my last post contained an error in the date. The next CALug meeting is Wednesday February 10th. NOT the 11th as was in the previous post. The corrected post follows:
Hi Everyone!
This coming Wednesday, February 10th is the next Columbia Area Linux Users Group meeting in Columbia, MD at the offices of Tenable Network Security.
Jonathan Riddell will be opening with his talk entitled “Kubuntu Community and Technology”. He will talk about the Linux distribution Kubuntu who makes it and the tools used.
Jonathan works for Canonical and started Kubuntu five years ago.
As long as Jonathan keeps to his contract and doesn’t do his Leno impression he’ll turn over speaker responsibilities to Justin Kirby*.
Justin will be presenting his talk “Making the leap from KDE user to contributor”. Justin will discuss simple ways for KDE users to become contributors, even without knowing a thing about developing code. His talk will provide specific details about various teams that exist within KDE, what you can do to help them out, and who to talk to if you have questions.
Justin Kirby is an active contributor to the KDE Promo team. He has been a user of KDE for about 3 years but more recently got actively involved in giving back to the community in July of 2009. You can learn more about the KDE Promo team on their wiki.
So join us at the Tenable offices at 6:30pm for pizza, wings and soda supplied by Praxis Engineering followed by the talks starting at 7pm.
* After minutes of negotiation with Justin’s agent I was able to secure a return appearance at a later date should Jonathan decide the evening belongs to him alone.
Hi Everyone!
This coming Wednesday, February 11th is the next Columbia Area Linux Users Group meeting in Columbia, MD at the offices of Tenable Network Security.
Jonathan Riddell will be opening with his talk entitled “Kubuntu Community and Technology”. He will talk about the Linux distribution Kubuntu who makes it and the tools used.
Jonathan works for Canonical and started Kubuntu five years ago.
As long as Jonathan keeps to his contract and doesn’t do his Leno impression he’ll turn over speaker responsibilities to Justin Kirby*.
Justin will be presenting his talk “Making the leap from KDE user to contributor”. Justin will discuss simple ways for KDE users to become contributors, even without knowing a thing about developing code. His talk will provide specific details about various teams that exist within KDE, what you can do to help them out, and who to talk to if you have questions.
Justin Kirby is an active contributor to the KDE Promo team. He has been a user of KDE for about 3 years but more recently got actively involved in giving back to the community in July of 2009. You can learn more about the KDE Promo team on their wiki.
So join us at the Tenable offices at 6:30pm for pizza, wings and soda supplied by Praxis Engineering followed by the talks starting at 7pm.
* After minutes of negotiation with Justin’s agent I was able to secure a return appearance at a later date should Jonathan decide the evening belongs to him alone.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
As announced today Ubuntu Lucid will be changing Firefox to use Yahoo! search (powered by Bing) as the default search engine due to a revenue sharing deal. This financial deal will be good for Canonical to pay for developers and resources for Ubuntu. That’s all well and good.
The issue that I have is that the current default of Google is actually my preferred search engine. It works for me and is part of my work flow. According to Popey’s post about the topic because I use the current Ubuntu default of Google when I upgrade to Lucid my default will change to Yahoo(Bing) search.
I’m wondering why the change is being forced. Why can there not be a pop up when launching Firefox the first time after the upgrade to Lucid? Something simple that prompts with two buttons and asks ‘Would you like to change your default search engine to Yahoo! (powered by Bing) and support Canonical and the developers of Ubuntu or continue with your previous search engine?’ The buttons can read ‘Support Ubuntu’ and ‘Keep Current Selection’. You will probably get a better than even selection of ‘Support Ubuntu’ choices.
The other issue I see with this deal is that it is with Yahoo search powered by Bing. For those unaware Bing is the search engine owned by Microsoft. Microsoft is the company mentioned in bug #1 which is still open. While not dealing with Microsoft directly, we are relying on their search engine for the default searches of the Ubuntu user base which chooses Yahoo search powered by Bing to support the Ubuntu developers. And we all know that when companies deal with Microsoft it is always a fair deal (he says thinking of patents, Novell and all the other positive things Microsoft has done for FOSS).
So even eliminating the particular choice of default search engine that is not my main issue (Microsoft software and products are, after all, another choice). The main concern is changing the existing user’s choice of search. Yes, it is just a couple clicks to change it back. I have to wonder though how many people will switch to a different search engine after an upgrade just due to the change being implemented by default rather than being asked.
As Popey suggested in his post there will likely be many people who say ‘you broke my internet/browser’ with the upgrade. What about site deployments, small or large, that upgrade? The admins and help desk techs of the network will have to spend time and effort customizing the browser package or deal with their users calling asking ‘Where did my Google go?’
That’ll be a sad thing to deal with when all that has to be offered is a choice.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Don’t forget to join the Ubuntu Maryland Loco team in Finksburg, MD this Saturday December 5th from 9:30am-11:30am.
I’ll be giving a talk at 10am on what Ubuntu is and how it can benefit you!
Check out the event page for more information!
Monday, November 16, 2009
This is an idea that’s been coming together in my head for a while.
What we are going to do is about once a month go to an area in Maryland and talk about Ubuntu, Linux and Free Software. We will take requests on areas to visit. With some luck we can find a volunteer to help us prepare there. The volunteer(s) will be asked to recommend a place for us to meet in the area. Post a few flyers or some other promotion that makes sense there.
To start this project off I’ve reserved a room at the Finksburg Library on December 5th from 9:30-11:30.
More details are to come. Be sure to keep an eye on our wiki page for the latest information.
Also keep in mind that this Thursday November 19th is our regular team meeting at the Howard County Central Library at 7pm.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Hi everyone! Ubuntu Maryland Team member and University of Maryland Lug (my first LUG way back when) President Craig Younkins has started a new project. Let’s Help FOSS.
This is an online event Saturday night from 8-10pm. From his original email:
Let’s….
– Contribute code to your favorite FOSS project
– Confirm, triage, and gather more information for Launchpad bugs
– Improve the community documentation on the Ubuntu Wiki or another FOSS project
– If you’re not very technical, your ideas can still be very valuable over at the Ubuntu Brainstorm
– Talk about the latest in tech and FOSS while doing it!
Hop on OFTC IRC Server and our SIP conference room to chat about
everything tech, linux, and geeky! Let’s have a good time while doing it.
IRC: #umbclinux on irc.oftc.net
SIP room: sip:5018622@ekiga.net
See how to use IRC and how to use Ekiga to join us. I’ll be there, and I hope to see you too!