[Scottish] Virtualisation comparisons

[Dan Shearer]

I'm from Edinburgh, but I seem to have a lot of visits to Glasgow booked
up, so... hello everyone from http://shearer.org/Computing_and_Technology

Anyway. Here's some notes from a bit of experimenting I've been doing.
If you're interested in comparing a couple of the virtualisation systems
around, Alpha Systems (sponsored by the Japanese government) has just
released a new version of Xenoppix:

  We released new Xenoppix which is consisted of KNOPPIX5.1.1, Xen3.0.4, 
QEMU/KVM,
  and HTTP-FUSE(stackable/network virtual disk). You can compare Xen(3.0.4 on 
Linux2.6.16)
  and KVM(Release 12 on Linux2.6.19) on the CD-ROM.
  The boot of CD image is accelerated by LCAT.

http://unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/xen/index-en.html
http://www.alpha.co.jp/biz/rdg/ac-knoppix/index_en.html

(LCAT is impressive, it's the first fundamental improvement on Rusty's
cloop since its release c. 1999. All livecds will benefit from it.)

One of the things to compare these two against is QEMU+kqemu. kqemu is
now GPL. Another point: since QEMU is a vital part of Xen, QEMU is
implicit in the three most-used accellerated virtualisation systems for
Linux, four if you count VirtualBox although I don't think many people
are using it yet. QEMU 0.9.0 is out ( http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/ )

Regards,

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Re: [Scottish] Virtualisation comparisons

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 12:25:15PM +, Ben Thorp wrote:
> Don't suppose anyone would be interested in doing something in one of the 
> meetings about virtualisation? It's quite a hot topic at the moment and 
> I'm sure folks would be interested.

Never having yet been to a meeting, and the wiki indicating there isn't
a normal one this month... what's a meeting like? If there's scope for a
computer and maybe a projector I'll have a go. Dunno how that would work
in the 20-people-in-a-pub UK model of LUGs though :-)

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Re: [Scottish] Virtualisation comparisons

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 12:54:40PM +, Ben Thorp wrote:
> > 
> > Never having yet been to a meeting, and the wiki indicating there isn't
> > a normal one this month... what's a meeting like? If there's scope for a
> > computer and maybe a projector I'll have a go. Dunno how that would work
> > in the 20-people-in-a-pub UK model of LUGs though :-)
> 
> Meh - ignore the wiki. This months meeting will be on the 22nd. The 
> "formalised" part of the meeting is in Livingstone Tower, part of 
> Strathclyde Uni. You're likely to get 15-30 people there, and we should be 
> able to arrange a projector, but not internet access.

Ok, you're on. One way of meeting people :-)

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Re: [Scottish] Linux apparell in Glasgow

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 07:25:10PM +, Colin Speirs wrote:

> I'm going to a work organised Vista event next Friday.
> 
> Any good places in Glasgow to get a tasteful, but noticeable Penguin 
> T-Shirt?

Great stuff.

Any corporates there? They might like a nicely-printed copy of something
I wrote just for them, http://shearer.org/VistaForLawyers . Do what you
like with it, eg make the heading "Special Briefing for Company ".

Nothing like trying to be helpful.

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Re: [Scottish] Linux apparell in Glasgow

[Dan Shearer]

On Sat, Feb 10, 2007 at 11:44:38AM +, Colin Shorts wrote:
> 
> --- Dan Shearer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 07:25:10PM +, Colin Speirs wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm going to a work organised Vista event next Friday.
> > > 
> > > Any good places in Glasgow to get a tasteful, but noticeable Penguin 
> > > T-Shirt?
> > 
> > Great stuff.
> > 
> > Any corporates there? They might like a nicely-printed copy of something
> > I wrote just for them, http://shearer.org/VistaForLawyers . Do what you
> > like with it, eg make the heading "Special Briefing for Company ".
> > 
> > Nothing like trying to be helpful.
> 
> How about distributing some free Linux CD's at the event - that would be 
> really helpful :)

You could approach Kevin from LinuxExpress.co.uk in Edinburgh, he's said
he'd like to be involved in this sort of thing.

So long as they are likely to actually boot and don't need incantations like
"acpi=off", which is negative marketing to people who don't really
want to follow the fine details :-)


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[Scottish] Talk tonight

[Dan Shearer]

Virtualisation: The Latter Days of Steam

or, why Xen only solves only one, short-term problem

and, virtualisation principles in the different kinds of free software
solutions.

What We'll Do
-

Where virtualisation is going, what market forces are driving it, and
what free software bods can do about it all anyway.  Most of my previous
virtualisation talks have been along the lines of "this is what it is,
look at these amazing tricks, here's why it is useful, isn't life fun",
such as http://shearer.org/Linux_Virtualisation .  But now
virtualisation has reached a kind of saturation point, everyone will be
doing it over the next year or two, the question is "why should they
choose which solutions". Ah yes, and why Xen isn't helpful.

How We'll Do It

Alpha-test a way of explaining where virtualisation is currently going.
The assembled brains will be asked to hack the approach about. 

I was originally thinking of doing a demo-centric session, but these
days Xenoppix is so easy and powerful, and so many people have seen
QEMU, Hercules, VMware, VirtualBox and so on -- and at one level, they
all look much the same. I could do the amazing stacked virtual machines
demo, but that's more in the realms of party tricks. Demos do make a lot
of sense when it comes to virtualisation as a system and whole network
debugging solution, but that's not what we're doing tonight.

See some of you there. Thanks for the offers of help on irc.

Regards,

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Re: [Scottish] Talk tonight

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Feb 23, 2007 at 08:27:29AM +, Andrew Elwell wrote:
> >Virtualisation: The Latter Days of Steam
> 
> Please can you post the PDF somewhere - perhaps on the scotlug wiki if
> Sealne has set it to accept them

I have just done some notes at 
http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/2007-02-22 . It needs hacking about, do
please jump in with the things I've forgotton like the really good
questions. And make links work, etc.

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[Scottish] Welcome to the wiki, Edlug

[Dan Shearer]

Dear Edlug,
Cc Scotlug

Others can confirm and expand on this, but anyway...

During last night's edlug Faye, Alistair, me and maybe one or two others
dropped into #scotlug . Cut a long story short (such as when willie
dropped "apt-get dist-upgrade" into the conversation, followed by
"oops") there didn't seem to be a problem with Edlug using the Scotlug
wiki, as opposed to Edlug starting their own. It has "scot" in the name
doesn't it? Anyway #scotlug is inhabited by people from all over
Scotland.

If you look at http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Special:Recentchanges I've
started preparation for this as well as a little tidying. Jump in
everyone, politely. Some Scotluggers had observed that the wiki was a
bit dead anyway.

Incidently one of the Scotlug regulars (nick "MrLithic") is willing to
come across and give a talk at EdLug. So Faye's nice new meeting room
can get used.

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Re: [Scottish] Welcome to the wiki, Edlug

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Mar 02, 2007 at 04:55:09PM +, William Anderson wrote:
> Dan Shearer wrote:
 :
> > Scotlug wiki, as opposed to Edlug starting their own. It has "scot" in the 
> > name
> > doesn't it? Anyway #scotlug is inhabited by people from all over
> > Scotland.
> 
> I suggested using ScotLUG as an umbrella for all Scottish LUGs a few
>   : 
> [1]http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/scottish/2003-December/001408.html

That old thread is useful. Linux communities in Scotland have evidently made
progress since 2003. I wasn't here to see it happen, but congratulations
everyone anyway. I'm told a while back Aberdeen had a open Linux morning with 60
people turning up, for example. Debconf. Akademy. #scotlug. edlug list.

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[Scottish] For comparing VM technologies: VMKNOPPIX released

[Dan Shearer]

Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:56:02 +0900 (JST)
From: Kuniyasu Suzaki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Qemu-devel] VMKNOPPIX is released
To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org

Dear,

We released VMKNOPPIX. It was called Xenoppix but renamed to VMKNOPPIX
because it became a collection of Virtual Machine Softwares.
   http://unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/index-en.html

VMKNOPPIX includes Xen3.0.4(DomainU & HVM Domain), KVM14, VirtualBox, GPLed 
KQEMU, and normal QEMU.
   There are many techniques of Virtual Machine, para-virtualization, 
full-virtualization with 
   virtualization instruction(IntelVT or AMD-V), dynamic translation etc. The 
VM softwares runs 
   with OS images offered by some sites(For instance OSZoo's QEMU images).Have 
fun with the techniques!
  OSZoo's QEMU images 
http://www.oszoo.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Operating_System_Images
VMKNOPPIX includes "OS Circular" environment.
   OS Circular enables to boot OSes on Xen with a globalized virtual disk 
"HTTP-FUSE CLOOP".
VMKNOPPIX includes benchmark sotwares. We compared the results. (See below)
Pi calculation for CPU benchmark http://h2np.net/pi/pi_quick_start.tar.gz
dbench for IO benchmark
tbench for Network benchmark
Xengine for Graphic Benchmark
VMKNOPPIX includes xenoprifle to take profile of HVM Domain OS.
VMKNOPPIX is optimized by LCAT for fast CD boot.
  http://www.alpha.co.jp/biz/rdg/ac-knoppix/index_en.html

*
*** Virtual Machine Uages

* Xen
Boot with the first option "KNOPPIX/Xen3.0.4-0" of GRUB.
To run DomainU with KNOPPPIX.
  # knoppixU

To run HVM Domain with KNOPPPIX on IntelVT or AMD-V.
  # knoppixHVM
  Caution) Add "nofirewire" kernel option at GRUB Menu for Intel MAC.


* OS Circular
Boot with the first option "KNOPPIX/Xen3.0.4-0" of GRUB on IntelVT or AMD-V.
 # pump -i eth0
 # /etc/inint.d/xend start
 # httpfuse-hvm.sh
Selection Menu will be appeared. Select a near site. 
Contents Menu will be appeared. Select your favorite image. 
The OS will be appeared. Current Debian Etch has accounts, "root/http-fuse" or 
"http-fuse/http-fuse". 
 Caution) Add "nofirewire" kernel option at GRUB Menu for Intel MAC.
 Caution) The console must be wider than 80x24to run httpfuse-hvm.sh, because 
  "dialog" requires wide console. If the console is small, the message 
  "httpstoraged is ready ..." will continue.

The technical detail was presented Virtualization Miniconf at LinuxConfAu07.
  
http://virtminiconf.linux.hp.com/program/os-circulation-environment-201ctrusted-http-fuse-xenoppix201d
  Slide PDF http://unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/20070118-LCA-HTTP-FUSE.pdf


* VirtualBox
Boot with the second option "KNOPPIX(normal kernel)" on GRUB.
  # modprobe vboxdrv
  # VBoxSVC &
  # VirtualBox
After that, setup VM environment interactively. The CD-Drive is setup at the 
main menu after Interactive setup.

* kqemu/KVM/QEMU
Boot with the second option "KNOPPIX(normal kernel)" on GRUB.

Script "qemu-knoppix.sh" prepares network environment, shared memory for
KQEMU, and drivers for KVM or KQEMU.

The priority is as follows.
 1) If kvm drivers effective, kvm runs.
 2) If kqemu is effective, kqemu runs.
 3) If kvm and kqemu aren't available, qemu runs.

"qemu-knoppix.sh" aslo accepts the follwing options.
  -no-kvm   : disable KVM kernel module usage
  -no-kqemu : disable KQEMU kernel module usage
  -no-module: disable all kernel module usage

For examples, the following command runs kqemu.
 # qemu-knoppix.sh -no-kvm


*** Benchmarks
* pi calculation
  # time /opt/pi_quick_start/pi 300

* dbench (Read /usr/share/dbench.client.txt)
 # dbench 1

* tbench (Read /usr/share/dbench.client.txt via network)
 On Host
  # tbench_srv
 On Guest
  # tbench -t 60 1 "HostIP. Example 10.0.2.2 on VirtualBox,KVM, KQEMU, QEMU"

* xengine
  # xengine


*** Benchmark Results
* Pi calculation
   | sec   |Remarks
---+---+-
 Native| 14.67 | Core2 Duo T7200 
 kvm-14| 19.26 |
 kvm-12| 17.90 |(Sample. CD doesn't include)
qemu(kqemu)| 24.87 | "-kernel-kqemu" is not used
   qemu|227.1  | "-no-kqemu" 
 VirtualBox| 17.56 |
  Xen(DomU)| 14.68 |
   Xen(HVM)| 15.99 |
---+---+-

* dbench
   | MB/s  |Remarks
---+---+-
 Native| 341.0 | Core2 Duo T7200 
 kvm-14| 206.1 |
  kqemu|  36.20| "-kernel-kqemu" is not used
   qemu|  29.17| "-no-kqemu" 
 VirtualBox| 223.9 |
  Xen(DomU)| 283.1 |
   Xen(HVM)| 203.3 |
---+---+-

* tbehch between Host and Guest.
C2D: Core2 Duo T7200 (IBM ThinkPAD T60)
AMD: At

Re: [Scottish] For comparing VM technologies: VMKNOPPIX released

[Dan Shearer]

On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 11:31:52AM +, Andrew Back wrote:
> But where is Linux/390 running under VM on hercules on Linux? :oP

Can't help with the VM bit (for most people licensing is a problem
there) but I'll happily help people who want to add Linux/390 native
under Hercules on this image. It's less difficult than the strangeness
of it would seem to indicate. You really don't have to worry about the
fact that a 390 (or, more like, a 64-bit zSeries) doesn't have a bus in
the normal sense. Or what the "31-bit" name in the 390 architecture
means. Mostly it is just Linux with a funny looking main machine
console, and you can get a kick out of goingcat /proc/cpuinfo :-)

Comments:

  - all the others in the image are high-performance, or claim to be
(Hercules isn't particularly efficient despite being very solid,
and besides all the others are implemented in a like-on-like manner
to maximise performance

  - on the other hand, Hercules implements up to 4CPUs, which the others
can't, so perhaps people would find this useful for testing. Not
sure how that fits with the goals for VMoppix. If that matters.

  - anyway, it's fun


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Re: [Scottish] For comparing VM technologies: VMKNOPPIX released

[Dan Shearer]

On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 01:17:25PM +, Andrew Back wrote:

> >Comments:
> >
> > - all the others in the image are high-performance, or claim to be
> >   (Hercules isn't particularly efficient despite being very solid,
> >   and besides all the others are implemented in a like-on-like manner
> >   to maximise performance
> 
> I doubt anyone would want to use hercules in production. Maybe they do...

They do.

> It is indeed. Although I seem to be currently obsessed with running ye 
> olde VM and equally antique MVS under it at the moment (all on hercules). 
> Which it has to be said there is little point to... Well, aside from 
> marvelling at MVS revelations such as "bsppilot has terminated due to an 
> abend".

Nice to find another Herc aficionado :-)

I've had students at times tell me they really find all this computing
stuff quite easy. So I give them the instructions to get OS/360 going
under Hercules as a 370. What they usually do is make assumptions about
how computers work based on their experience and get it badly wrong. The
instructions are accurate but obscure since computers Didn't Used To Be
Like That!

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Re: [Scottish] For comparing VM technologies: VMKNOPPIX released

[Dan Shearer]

On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 01:41:44PM +, Andrew Back wrote:

Never heard of DIPOS, does it run under simh by any chance?

> It is for these reasons that I get annoyed when people talk about 
> Linux/UNIX/OpenVMS "doing things the wrong way". Wait, who said which way 
> was right? And just because Windows is everywhere does that mean it is 
> 'good', so is the common cold...

I attended a talk by Rob Pike once called "the Good, the Bad and the
Ugly: the Unix Legacy" or thereabouts which he used to chart the fall of
Unix from its principles and then compare against Plan9. He isn't the
only one that thinks Unix started to go all wrong when 'cat
somedirectoryname' returned binary rubbish instead of a list of files.
Thanks for breaking it all, sysV :-)

Actually thinking about it, that talk sticks with me less than the one
he did the next day on quantum computation. He did the "three bits of
polarised material demo" where you put two bits at right angles on the
projector and get total dark where they intersect, then you put a third
at 45 degrees to the other two and get light transmission again.  Not
that I have a hope of being able to explain the quantum mechanics
involved. Someone on this list probably can ==> now that's a Scotlug
talk I'd love to turn up to.

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Re: [Scottish] Re: Fwd: rpmdb: DB.LOCK

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Mar 09, 2007 at 10:11:13AM +, Peter George wrote:
> Bizarrely not seeing my own posts hitting either list, or anyone's replies. 
> :-(
> 
> Anyway, fsck from Kmoppix on /dev/sda1 & /dev/sda3 show OK.
> 
> QTparted shows;
> 
> /dev/sda
> /dev/sda1  ext3 101Mb /boot
> /dev/sda2  linux-swap 508Mb
> /dev/sda3  ext3  *Mb /
> 
> I'm going to try another FC6 install, testing the media this time.

Couple of quick things:

  1. Try going for the absolute minimum install and watch the logs
  carefully on the text console. Hopefully it will give you a more
  comprehensive version of the same error message. Then go to a shell
  prompt and start some manual rpm operations. What does it report?

  2. Make sure there isn't some basic problem between FC6 and your
  hardware. Boot the LiveCD. There's lots this won't tell you, but if it
  all works then that is a basic indication of reasonableness. 
  http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/projects/live/

> What other disk testing/formatting tools can I try from Linux rescue
> disk or Knoppix?

The error you reported didn't obviously indicate failed hardware to me,
but there's a lot I don't know about rpm.

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Re: [Scottish] Planet ScotLUG

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2007 at 08:40:19PM +, Andrew Barber wrote:

> I have been playing/theme-ing with Planet today out of boredom, and have
> made a theme for the ScotLUG planet, should you want it.
> You can see the theme at http://andrewbarber.homelinux.org/planet/scotlug/ 

Good move. A lot of people were pleased when Linux Australia did this,
aggregating from quite a few local contributors.
http://planet.linux.org.au/ . It seems to suit the FOSS community
approach. 

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[Scottish] Suggestion for this month's meeting

[Dan Shearer]

Someone could try to find the right sort of bribe for Nija, who's a
security specialist in Fife. I just pointed at some of his work on
http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Articles . I haven't spoken to him
specifically, for all I know he's on holiday. But worth a go.

D

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[Scottish] More on VPN talk

[Dan Shearer]

More on James' talk:

Talk details: http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/2007-03-29

Meeting details: http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Meetings

If you're coming from Edinburgh way, there's five seats free in my car
there and back and possibly some also coming across on the train.

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[Scottish] Scotlug coffees in L13.18 - still happening?

[Dan Shearer]

At http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Meetings it says:

  19:00 Pre meeting coffee and biscuits in Room L13.18, 13th Floor,
  Livingstone Towers, Department of Computer & Information Sciences,
  University of Strathclyde. A chance to get to know other people at the
  meeting.

Is this current? I'm bringing a carload from Edinburgh and it makes
sense to be present for this bit if so.

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[Scottish] April Scotlug

[Dan Shearer]

Gavin Henry just posted:
http://www.edlug.org.uk/archive/Apr2007/msg7.html i
Various people replied saying this would be good, yeah let's do it etc.

Claudio replied saying it's Scotlug night.

So... what about having the April Scotlug over with Howard Chu, chief
architect of OpenLDAP?

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Re: [Scottish] April Scotlug

[Dan Shearer]

On Sun, Apr 01, 2007 at 10:30:02PM +0100, William Anderson wrote:
> Dan Shearer wrote:
> > Gavin Henry just posted:
> > http://www.edlug.org.uk/archive/Apr2007/msg7.html i
> > Various people replied saying this would be good, yeah let's do it etc.
> > 
> > Claudio replied saying it's Scotlug night.
> > 
> > So... what about having the April Scotlug over with Howard Chu, chief
> > architect of OpenLDAP?
> 
> over == in glasgow for a regular meeting, yes?

I gather Howard will be in Edinburgh, so I meant over there. I mean,
outwith organisational happenstance, it'll be happening on the same
night anyway. 

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[Scottish] Freebie at tomorrow's Edlug

[Dan Shearer]

So James started it in Glasgow, giving away a good book (not even his
own, how modest!) Here's my followup: an Apple Airport, one of those
things that looks like a UFO and has a Lucent PCMCIA card inside. And
what's more, it comes with a range extender directional antenna. I can't
use it because my walls are too think. 

This goes to the person who most deserves it on the evening, criteria to
be worked out later :-)

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[Scottish] Re: [edlug] Freenode IRC Network

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 11:37:05AM +0100, James (njan) Eaton-Lee wrote:

> network (where both edlug and scotlug have IRC channels) is currently 
> holding a design contest.

Oh yes, you mentioned #edlug in Glasgow..  I wonder if for the moment
might it be better encourage newcomers to meet one another in #scotlug?
Already that's where people from all over Scotland know to congregate.
Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Stirling and places I can't pronounce. Seems to me
the OSS communities in Scotland are still coming out of their shells and
choosing now to split a nicely functioning channel isn't going to help
that.

My sense so far is that #scotlug isn't really Glasgow-centric, more
Scottland-centric. And like you I don't live in Edinburgh at all, so
#scotlug works for me. Or put another way, if a very small number of
people are talking about their software bits in #edlug I'd rather they
maximised the benefit (and got what is often an instant answer or
pointer) over in #scotlug. 

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[Scottish] Re: [edlug] Freenode IRC Network

[Dan Shearer]

On Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 02:09:01PM +0100, Robert Mclay wrote:

>  This is just my opinion to share with the group, and
>  I can see your perspective too.

My motivations are these:

 1. I'd like to see as many channels as active as possible

 2. Encouraging people to go to a channel where there isn't enough
activity tends to discourage people, and I know that if I point
someone at #scottish there's a good chance they'll find a
conversation to join and talk about whatever it was they wanted to
talk about. 

I don't really mind either, just so long as people do stuff with a view
to maximising the useful energy rather than bothering about geography.
I've yet to understand how an Apache problem is specific to Glasgow but
I'm sure it's possible :-) :-)

-- 
Dan Shearer
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PS Cc to scottish@ again

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[Scottish] Talk: OpenLDAP by Howard Chu, Friday 27th April 2007

[Dan Shearer]

The chief architect of the OpenLDAP project will be in Scotland
briefly. Faye Gibbins of Edlug, in conjunction with the University of
Edinburgh IT Forum, has arranged:

OpenLDAP, Present and Future

by Howard Chu

Friday 27th April, 2007
Edinburgh University

For an outline of the talk and venue details, see
http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Edlug-2007-04-27

Please note the date is one day later than previously suggested, since
Howard will only have just arrived (from giving the keynote at
http://sambaxp.org -- highly recommended conf btw, there's still cheap seats
to FRA available from GLA, ABZ and EDI :-)

Yes, we are aware of the clash with the Scotlug Paisley Beer Festival
event. Psychologists will be on hand to help those forced to choose.
Public transport is standing by for the rest.

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[Scottish] Eben Moglen (GPL author) lecture Edinburgh, 26th June

[Dan Shearer]

This is a heads-up: Eben Moglen, the lawyer behind the GPL family of
licenses, defender of our liberties and so on and so forth will be in
Scotland briefly this month, in conjunction with the Scottish Faculty of
Advocates.

Venue TBA - it will be in the evening in central Edinburgh but it will
take a few days to confirm exactly where. But note this in your diaries.

Eben is a riveting presenter, about as far from a dry boring lawyer as
you could get. And, quite apart from free software, it isn't often you
get to hear from someone who has personally been the motivator for
legislation in dozens of countries, and who is valued both by the
largest companies and the poorest regions in the world. His work
challenges the entire rickety system of IP rights we have. Google "Eben
Moglen" to see what I mean. 

Pass the word. I'm particularly interested in bringing along highschool
students, because the issues Eben addresses will, for better or worse,
form the nature of the world they will enter as adults.

Cheers,

-- 
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Re: [Scottish] Eben Moglen (GPL author) lecture Edinburgh, 26th June

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 07:07:55AM +0100, William Anderson wrote:
> Dan Shearer wrote:
> >This is a heads-up: Eben Moglen, the lawyer behind the GPL family of
> >licenses, [snip]
> 
> what?  RMS wrote GPLs v1 and 2 long before Moglen joined the FSF.

What I wrote is correct.

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Re: [Scottish] Eben Moglen (GPL author) lecture Edinburgh, 26th June

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 04:51:42PM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 07:07:55AM +0100, William Anderson wrote:
> > Dan Shearer wrote:
> > >This is a heads-up: Eben Moglen, the lawyer behind the GPL family of
> > >licenses, [snip]
> > 
> > what?  RMS wrote GPLs v1 and 2 long before Moglen joined the FSF.
> 
> What I wrote is correct.

More specifically, Eben was the first lawyer to become engaged in
understanding what the GPL2 meant, as far as I have heard. Understanding
what a contract really means is something that happens over time with
enforcement, and this is what Eben has been busy with for 15 years. I'm
pretty sure RMS did consult with some lawyers when drafting GPLv2, I
can't remember, but there were no lawyers behind the license until Eben
turned up.

Quote from http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Keynote_about_GPL3_at_HOSC_2006 : 

Well, first I want to put on record, yet again, the fact that I went to work
for Mr. Stallman in 1993. I don?t want any credit for GPL version 2. Not
because it?s not a thing that anybody in his right mind would want credit for,
but simply because I deserve no credit whatever, OK?  I came to the license as
a lawyer after it had already been long in use, I accepted the cards as they
were dealt and I thought they were the most brilliant hand I?d ever seen. I
thought anybody could play that hand. I thought ?It?s a shame that nobody
better than me has turned up to play this hand as a lawyer, because these are
the nicest cards on earth, and they?re going begging.? Of course there were
some people who thought they didn?t want Mr. Stallman as a client. That was a
fundamental misjudgment, in my view, but nonetheless.  So, with that in mind, I
would say that I was not surprised by any of the businesses participating in
the process, because I deal with those people all the time in my ordinary life
as the lawyer responsible for enforcing GPL on behalf of the Free Software
Foundation, and as the founder of the Software Freedom Law Center.

-- 
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[Scottish] Eben Moglen public lecture, Edinburgh 26th June

[Dan Shearer]

This is Eben Moglen, lawyer behind both the GPL3 and the GPL2 for nearly
15 years. You do need to book beforehand. (Depending on numbers the
venue may be moved a little, another reason to book.)


Regards,

--
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


---


   THE SCOTTISH SOCIETY FOR COMPUTERS AND
  LAW ANNUAL LECTURE 2007


 EBEN MOGLEN


The Global Software Industry in Transformation: After GPLv3

  * PRE-BOOKING ESSENTIAL FOR THIS FREE LECTURE  *

Tuesday 26 June 2007
6.30 p.m. (Reception from 6.00 p.m.)
  at
 The Faculty of Advocates, McKenzie Building
(behind Fringe Office) High Street, Edinburgh

  * To book reply by email to*
  * [EMAIL PROTECTED]> *
  *  *

The Society is privileged to welcome as the 2007 lecturer, Professor Eben
Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University Law School
and Chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center, New York. 

Professor Moglen's work has inspired a generation of both lawyers and IT
professionals, and the Society is pleased to recognise this by extending the
invitation to the Scottish IT industry.

Free software is irrevocably transforming the global software industry,
challenging not only Microsoft's dominance as a firm, but also the very idea of
software-as-product that characterised the Microsoft Era. Now, with the release
of version 3 of the GNU General Public License after eighteen months of public,
global legislative process, the outlines of the new industrial structure are
emerging.

In this lecture, Professor Moglen considers how private legislation is
replacing public law as the organising intellectual structure for software and
the technology industries, with far-reaching social consequences and
theoretical implications.

Professor Moglen has represented many of the world's leading free software
developers. He earned his PhD in History and law degree at Yale University
during what he sometimes calls his "long, dark period" in New Haven. After law
school he clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the United States District Court
in New York City and to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme
Court. He has taught at Columbia Law School ­ and has held visiting
appointments at Harvard University, Tel Aviv University and the University of
Virginia since 1987.  In 2003 he was given the Electronic Frontier Foundation's
Pioneer Award for efforts on behalf of freedom in the electronic society.
Professor Moglen is admitted to practice in the State of New York and before
the United States Supreme Court.


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Re: [Scottish] Eben Moglen (GPL author) lecture Edinburgh, 26th June

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 09:53:13PM +0100, William Anderson wrote:

> "Eben Moglen, the lawyer behind the GPL family of licenses" = incorrect

For nearly 15 years, if you were a serious GPL violater the FSF counsel
who would carry out the legal moves against you was Eben Moglen.  That's
what "behind" means. When RMS asked Eben to act for him in connection
with his (RMS') GPL2 it was because there was no lawyer behind the GPL
until Eben came along.  Without enforcement the GPL wouldn't be much use
to us.

Whatever -- let's lighten up, come along and ask him yourself!  I'm clearly
not a primary source, maybe I got it wrong!

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Possible Sam Hocevar talk next week

[Dan Shearer]

I know it is last second and everything, but if Glasgow people wanted to
it would be possible to export a little bit of Debconf to Glasgow next
week. Sam Hocevar, recently voted DPL, said he could do Thursday. 

Over to the locals, just a suggestion. If it's on chances are a gaggle
of others would tag along, no promises but these affairs are always like
ad-hoc networking.

D

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[Scottish] Wanted: Decent digital video for Eben Moglen talk

[Dan Shearer]

26th June etc as previously advertised. If you know something about
recording talks (I don't) and you have suitable equipment I'd be
interested in hearing from you.

Regards,

-- 
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[Scottish] UPDATED: Eben Moglen public lecture, Edinburgh 26th June

[Dan Shearer]

UPDATED: The Scottish Society for Computers and Law have told me of a
change in venue due to overwhelming demand. You really do need to
register or you will be turned away from both the reception and the
lecture. Many thanks to the SSCL and the legal community for opening
this event to the Scottish IT community.

Come and hear Eben Moglen, lawyer behind the GPL3 and the GPL2 for
nearly 15 years. 


Regards,

--
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


---


   THE SCOTTISH SOCIETY FOR COMPUTERS AND
  LAW ANNUAL LECTURE 2007


 EBEN MOGLEN


The Global Software Industry in Transformation: After GPLv3

  * PRE-BOOKING ESSENTIAL FOR THIS FREE LECTURE  *

Tuesday 26 June 2007
6.30 p.m. (Reception from 6.00 p.m.)
  at

 Lecture Theatre 175
 Old College
 School of Law
 University of Edinburgh
 South Bridge
 Edinburgh
 EH8 9YL



  * To book reply by email to*
  * [EMAIL PROTECTED]  *
  *  *

The Society is privileged to welcome as the 2007 lecturer, Professor Eben
Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University Law School
and Chairman of the Software Freedom Law Center, New York. 

Professor Moglen's work has inspired a generation of both lawyers and IT
professionals, and the Society is pleased to recognise this by extending the
invitation to the Scottish IT industry.

Free software is irrevocably transforming the global software industry,
challenging not only Microsoft's dominance as a firm, but also the very idea of
software-as-product that characterised the Microsoft Era. Now, with the release
of version 3 of the GNU General Public License after eighteen months of public,
global legislative process, the outlines of the new industrial structure are
emerging.

In this lecture, Professor Moglen considers how private legislation is
replacing public law as the organising intellectual structure for software and
the technology industries, with far-reaching social consequences and
theoretical implications.

Professor Moglen has represented many of the world's leading free software
developers. He earned his PhD in History and law degree at Yale University
during what he sometimes calls his "long, dark period" in New Haven. After law
school he clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the United States District Court
in New York City and to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme
Court. He has taught at Columbia Law School ­ and has held visiting
appointments at Harvard University, Tel Aviv University and the University of
Virginia since 1987.  In 2003 he was given the Electronic Frontier Foundation's
Pioneer Award for efforts on behalf of freedom in the electronic society.
Professor Moglen is admitted to practice in the State of New York and before
the United States Supreme Court.


-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: [Scottish] Eben Moglen lecture tonight

[Dan Shearer]

On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 04:35:20PM +0100, William Hamilton wrote:
> Can I just confirm the venue for tonight?
> 
> I take it that the venue was moved to South Bridge?

Correct. Lecture theatre 183, Old College. That's the massive building
with columns on South Bridge.

> 
> Regards,
> Billy
> 
> ___
> Scottish mailing list
> Scottish@mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish

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Re: [Scottish] Eben Moglen lecture tonight

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2007 at 01:11:04AM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 04:35:20PM +0100, William Hamilton wrote:
> > Can I just confirm the venue for tonight?
> > 
> > I take it that the venue was moved to South Bridge?
> 
> Correct. Lecture theatre 183, Old College. That's the massive building
> with columns on South Bridge.

Drinks starting at 1800 for those that booked.

Lecture starting 1830.

> 
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Billy
> > 
> > ___
> > Scottish mailing list
> > Scottish@mailman.lug.org.uk
> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
> 
> -- 
> Dan Shearer
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> ___
> Scottish mailing list
> Scottish@mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish

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[Scottish] Help with post-production on Eben Moglen talk

[Dan Shearer]

Hello everyone,

GPL3 is to be released this Friday, so we'd like to get Eben's talk up
before then; he had some relatively new things to say.

We have the raw files but we need some help with editing, a lot of help
in fact. If you have experience and equipment and want to help please
let me know.

-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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[Scottish] Eben Moglen talk available

[Dan Shearer]

Eben Moglen's lecture is up in text transcription, audio only and
384kbit video at archive.org .  Search for "Eben Moglen 2007". Thanks to
all who helped. The full DVD should be up in a few days.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Wiki editing blocked?

[Dan Shearer]

Is it just me or has wiki editing been accidentally blocked in the
course of anti-spam?

No matter what IP address I come from or username I try, I get a message
telling me that my address is 130.159.199.104 and I am a spammer :-)

Thanks to our heroic administrators,

-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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[Scottish] Edlug tomorrow: Synthetic Biology, Free Software and Everything

[Dan Shearer]

Hello all,

Tomorrow night at Edlug Alistair Marshall will be presenting on
"Synthetic Biology". I had the opportunity of seeing this talk elsewhere
and can highly recommend it. Biological Engineering goes where Computer
Science never boldly went, but the analogies and crossovers are
startling, as are the legal and ethical dilemmas. Every bug is a wee
beastie, and they are actually building real machines today. Nifty.

Usual Edlug place, refreshments and good company and those who choose to
find a local watering hole afterwards.  Faye has updated the talk page,
where you'll find all the details:

   http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/EdlugMeetings

and adds: "Some of us will meet at the Auld Hoose for food first.
Afterwards we'll repair to Mai Thai bar/restaurant."

Alistair's blurb:

Whilst this may not initially sound like this has much to do with Linux 
and open source code, however there are many similarities.

Genetic engineering is now at the stage where we can manipulate 
individual bits of DNA, so instead of programing with 1&0s we are 
programing with 'base pairs' or A, C, G and Ts. The possibilities of 
this are seemingly unlimited. imagine planting a seed and coming back a 
year later to see your dream house made out of a tree with excellent 
insulation, heating and utilities already in place or making a bacteria 
that will sit on your skin and produce sun screen when impacted with UV 
light.

This emerging science has is in a unique position of learning from the 
computer open source revolution. The ability to program individual bits 
of DNA is only a few years old and so new standards have to be made and 
refined, new 'devices' are being produced and published in a public 
registry. This licencing decisions being made now and in the next few 
years will have major effects on the science in future.

I am an engineering student at the university and am taking part in the 
IGem (International Genetically Engineered Machines) competition over 
the summer.

Alistair Marshall

---

do go there please leave in time to reach the venue.



Afterwards we'll repair to Mai Thai bar/restaurant.
Special thanks to Joe Barnett for arranging this.

www.mai-thai.co.uk

-- 
Yours
Faye

This time she's the lesser of two evils.

http://www.morpheux.org





-
--
You can find the EdLUG mailing list FAQ list at:
http://www.edlug.org.uk/list_faq.html

- End forwarded message -

-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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[Scottish] scotlug.org.uk wiki down?

[Dan Shearer]

Hello all,

Anyone know what's up with the wiki?

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[Scottish] GPLv3 - history in action

[Dan Shearer]

GPLv3 was released the week Eben was in Scotland, and some of his
comments were directed specifically towards The Monopoly. Microsoft has
now responded, the first time it has ever made a corporate-level
statement that I can recall specifically targetting free software. In
summary, even Microsoft is admitting the Novell deal is over:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070705205728953

Microsoft must surely know that this will drive GPLv3 adoption like nothing
else -- but they have no choice because if they cover any GPLv3 code with their
joint Novell certificates then their entire patent portfolio they were offering
cover for to Novell customers falls open for perpetual reuse by you and me and
any other user of GPLv3 work:

  If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you
  convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a
  patent license providing freedom to use, propagate, modify or convey a 
specific
  copy of the covered work to any of the parties receiving the covered work, 
then
  the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of 
the
  covered work and works based on it.

Eben predicted that Microsoft would have no room to move back in May, when he
said:
 
  You have been watching for months as Microsoft gave away these coupons --
  which were supposed to be valuable to Microsoft, and for which it paid a lot 
of
  money -- as though the coupons themselves were hot, as indeed they are. All of
  this giving away coupons activity by Microsoft is meaningless and useless. The
  coupons have no expiration date, and Microsoft can be sure that some coupons
  will be turned into Novell in return for software after the effective date of
  GPL 3. Once that has happened, patent defenses will, under the license, have
  moved out into the broad community and be available to anybody who Microsoft
  should ever sue for infringement.
 
This is a very interesting moment.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Re: GPLv3 - history in action

[Dan Shearer]

On Sat, Jul 07, 2007 at 12:32:47AM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
> GPLv3 was released the week Eben was in Scotland, and some of his
> comments were directed specifically towards The Monopoly. Microsoft has
> now responded, the first time it has ever made a corporate-level
> statement that I can recall specifically targetting free software. In

^ legal

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[Scottish] Free Demo Microsoft operating systems under Linux

[Dan Shearer]

Free for up to six months (that's free as in Microsoft.) 

Download trial operating systems and things such as Exchange and run
them on Linux. For those poor people who have to track interoperability.

http://shearer.org/Microsoft_Demo_VMs

Improvements sought.

-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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[Scottish] [Fwd] Backgrounder for Court of First Instance decision Monday

[Dan Shearer]

For those that care about such things, an important case is happening
soon that will be looking at how much access Microsoft is giving to
people wanting to interoperate with them (as little as possible) and
whether software patents are making this better or worse, and more. All
the fun of the fair.

D

- Forwarded message --

A major event this month is the scheduled Monday, September 17 release, at
*9:30 a.m.,* of the Court of First Instance's decision in Microsoft's appeal
of the DG Competition 2004 order.  See the Court's announcement here,
>
(PDF). > It contains details for the press.

That decision should appear roughly simultaneously on the court's docket at
.

A second page where the notice and a link to the decision are likely to
appear early is the Court's "future decisions" page, which tracks final
decisions in cases as they are released for a few days on a first-in,
first-out basis. .

The court is located in Brussels, so remember time zone differences, if
relevant.  Brussels will still be on Central Europe Summer Time, GMT/UTC +
2.  See .

The Court's judgment is in the hands of a 13-judge panel presided over by
Court of First Instance President Bo Vesterdorf, a Danish lawyer. See
,
Vesterdorf has previously announced that he plans to retire the same day the
decision is released.

The case was first assigned to a smaller panel headed by Judge Hubert Legal.
However, the case was reassigned after an article written by Judge Legal was
publicized that referred to unnamed other judges' law clerks as "ayatollahs
of free enterprise," suggesting that they might have been influencing some
judges. See Groklaw, " *EU MS: Judge Hubert Legal Is Kicked Off the Case," *
< http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20050708235116466>.

The public filings in the Court of First Instance are linked from the
Court's page with the very long URL linked above. The New York Times, by way
of FreePress, has released an article anticipating the decision's release. <
http://www.freepress.net/news/25551>, as have other publications. The Times
cites unnamed sources for a prediction that the decision will be a
cut-the-baby-in-half decision. Personally, as a retired trial lawyer, I'd
much prefer betting on horses than betting on judges; horses are far more
predictable.

A concise 2-page summary of Microsoft's grounds for appeal was published in
the Official Journal of the European Union in May, 2004. <
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/c_179/c_17920040710en00180019.pdf>.
Please note that proceedings in the Court of First Instance are far less
transparent than judicial proceedings in the U.S and  there is little
information about which issues will actually be decided other than the
Court's decision denying Microsoft request for the DG Competition order to
be stayed pending appeal.  That decision is linked from <
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20041222180405607>.


OTHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION

DG Competition home page for the Microsoft case, <
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/cases/microsoft/>.

Microsoft PressPass home page for the case:
.


NOTE

The Court's decision on Monday *may* heavily influence DG Competition's
ongoing investigation of Microsoft for alleged antitrust violations
involving, inter alia, refusal to disclose its binary Office file formats
and its undermining of the OpenDocument international standard with
Microsoft Office Open XML. The organization that filed the relevant
complaint based much of it on principles established in the 2004 DG
Competition decision and is a party to the appeal in the Court of First
Instance.  See analysis and links at <
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060224151804474>; ECIS web site
at .



-- 
BUCK "MARBUX" MARTIN
  Director of Legal Affairs
  OpenDocument Foundation
  Contact:

-- Universal Interop Now!


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Re: [Scottish] [Fwd] Backgrounder for Court of First Instance decision Monday

[Dan Shearer]

On Sun, Sep 16, 2007 at 08:19:15AM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
> For those that care about such things, an important case is happening
> soon that will be looking at how much access Microsoft is giving to
> people wanting to interoperate with them (as little as possible) and
> whether software patents are making this better or worse, and more. All
> the fun of the fair.

<http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp07/aff/cp070063en.pdf>.
The opinion itself is not up yet.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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Re: [Scottish] [Fwd] Backgrounder for Court of First Instance decision Monday

[Dan Shearer]

On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 05:35:13PM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 16, 2007 at 08:19:15AM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
> > For those that care about such things, an important case is happening
> > soon that will be looking at how much access Microsoft is giving to
> > people wanting to interoperate with them (as little as possible) and
> > whether software patents are making this better or worse, and more. All
> > the fun of the fair.
> 
> <http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp07/aff/cp070063en.pdf>.
> The opinion itself is not up yet.

Now it is:
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=EN&Submit=Rechercher$docrequire=alldocs&numaff=T-201/04&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100

In short, this is a big victory. The next step is to make sure there is
a specific determination that FOSS has as much right as anyone else to
access the protocols in question.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] OSS desktops and servers for 4000 users

[Dan Shearer]

Hello all,

This week's edlug talk is by Simon Wilkinson and Stephen Quinney of Ed Uni 
School of Informatics about using Open Source to support 4000 users.

The meeting is at 7.30pm on Thursday at the Edinburgh Training 
and Conference Venue at 16 St Marys Street, just off the Royal Mile in 
Edinburgh. 5 mins walk from Waverley station.

Abstract:  http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Edlug-2007-10-04
Venue: 
http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Edinburgh_Training_and_Conference_Venue

-- 
Dan Shearer
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Re: [Scottish] Moving house!

[Dan Shearer]

On Sat, Dec 01, 2007 at 10:12:13AM +, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:

> junk) I'm getting rid of some stuff.  These include but are not limited
:
> Some VAXStation 3100s
> A DECStation 3100
> A MicroVAX 3300
> Acorn Archimedes (not decided about the Archie yet).

For people curious about virtualisation and observing the crossover
between real world and fake silicon, you can boot the original media and
hard disk images for these machines under Linux using various emulators
including SimH, GXemu (well, DecStation 3100 is less well-supported than
the 5000 series which I know works; need to see, but you can certainly
run Ultrix binaries anyway if that counts :) and QEMU and RPCEmu for the
Archimedes. There's also Arculator for Windows.

Conversely for people wanting to run a real OS on very different
hardware, NetBSD runs on all of them (and depending on the model
maybe the Apollo as well) and Linux runs on the Archimedes.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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Re: [Scottish] Moving house!

[Dan Shearer]

On Sat, Dec 01, 2007 at 07:22:21PM +, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 2007-12-02 at 00:09 +1030, Dan Shearer wrote:

> I've contributed patches to SimH and written a PDP8
> emulator and an SC/MP emulator.

Thanks for the software, I'm an appreciative user.

> > Conversely for people wanting to run a real OS on very different
> > hardware, NetBSD runs on all of them (and depending on the model
> > maybe the Apollo as well) and Linux runs on the Archimedes.
> 
> Why the hell would you even consider trying to run Linux on the
> Archimedes?  It's got a perfectly good OS of its own.

It was precisely the goal of running Linux instead of RiscOS
(interesting though it is) that drove the ARM port of Linux as a totally
impractical hobby on outdated hardware. Then Russell King found his
hobby at the centre of interest by ARM Plc and embedded device
manufacturers, and it is now running on millions of devices. So three
cheers for pointless projects. There's lots of fun and education and
frustration to be had by jamming free OSs onto the kind of hardware that
turns up when people move house and I highly recommend it to people who
have only ever seen x86 :-)

-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

PS Now here's an interesting thing off /. : the GFDL will be changed to be CC
compatible, which is especially important for Wikipedia (with an
incorrectly-named URL):
http://blog.jamendo.com/index.php/2007/12/01/breaking-news-wikipedia-switches-to-creative-commons/

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Re: [Scottish] Drupal and the society.......

[Dan Shearer]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 02:31:46PM +, Kevin McDermott wrote:

> I think it's helpful for people in the more remote areas of Scotland to
> be able to use the Scotlug list to contact one another...infinitely
> easier than setting up a "Auchenshuggle LUG" and hoping people find it.

I think it is helpful for more than just the remote areas. Of course
some huge one-size-fits-all LUG isn't going to work, but right now Linux
and OSS in Scotland are still seeking their community voices it seems to
me, in that lots of people want stuff to happen but not much stuff
actually does. So in the short term overlap is good... and an awful lot
of free software topics are not related to geography anyway.

One of the missing ingredients is consistent energy, or energy of lots
of inconsistent people thrown towards the same end. Arron has energy so
if he and others like him are willing to spread it around, well, it
might make the good things happen sooner. Money can help, but it isn't
likely to come without the energy.

By way of vague analogy, not prescription, Australia has a lot of very
active LUGs (really, really active in fact) but Linux Australia at a
national level makes a whole lot of other things practical such as:
linux.conf.au, coordinated education efforts in parliaments against
legislation that will hurt most people, and national prizes, a place
that large companies can be unconfused about enough to sponsor very
substantially, etc.  But the linux-aus list is really big and messy and
busy all the same...

D

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Re: [Scottish] Re: News Letter April 08

[Dan Shearer]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 11:33:38PM +0100, Willie Fleming wrote:

> I'd be very interested to hear what plans Dan Shearer has for the domain. 

Three domains actually: scotlug.{com,org,net}

When I arrived in Scotland I wanted to find out who did FLOSS here. Like
many others, I found the most obvious thing online was Scotlug. It also
seemed to me the Linux community in this country was still working out
what it wanted to be. I thought it was likely that the most obvious
tag/name/brand for FLOSS in Scotland, Scotlug, would end up becoming
more important over time. So I got the domains before some other
sector[1] did.

In the last three years the Scottish FLOSS community has started to
define itself. Small (<40 people) events happen quite often in various
cities now; two mid-sized development conferences have been hosted
(Akademy in Glasgow and Debconf in Edinburgh); the launch speech for
GPLv3 was given in Scotland by its author; there is now an OSS category
in the annual Scottish Software Awards; MSPs are being directly involved
in FLOSS issues. I could go on. All very encouraging.

These days I think the happenstance Scotlug brand is stronger than it
was. The website has regular activity and is more clearly a jumping-off
place for finding your local LUG. So I think Willie is exactly right,
now's a good time to think about what's next for free software
representation in Scotland. I've written up some specific thoughts for
Scotlug including what we can do with the domains at
http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Improving_the_Scottish_Linux_Users_Group.
Then I discovered the wiki is locked and I can't remember what I do to
unock it. Please can someone do the necessary again, thanks :-)

In the meantime, since people have been talking about the idea of an
umbrella organisation, here's a case study I think is relevant:
Australia.  A decade ago the Australian FLOSS community was in an
analogous position to what we have in Scotland today. How has it turned
out?

In Australia there are many LUGs with wildly different structures and
styles. There is also a peripatetic conference, linux.conf.au, which has
gradually become a central brand[2] and is looked after by a very
light-touch central group called Linux Australia[3] which is constituted
so that pretty much everything happens electronically. It is Linux
Australia that awards the conference to a bid team from a city/LUG each
year, and who looks legit and long-term enough that large companies feel
comfortable handing over sponsorship cash year after year. It is Linux
Australia that is the notional official badge behind involvement in
national discussions about IP legislation, no matter who the particular
bods are who turn up to explain the world to MPs. It is Linux Australia
that decided to expand the community by defining New Zealand (4 hours
flying time away) as "Australia" so linux.conf.au could be held there,
and BSD as a kind of Linux with respect to linux.con.au..  But the
LUGs[4] are where the life is, and Linux Australia is dedicated to them.

Regards,

-- 
Dan Shearer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

[1] "ScotLug - general hauliers for people of the Northern persuasion", or
"ScotLug - Society for Plastic Ear Surgeons in Scotland", perhaps.

[2] http://lwn.net/Articles/267870/ is a reasonable summary. Many have
said its the best conference in the world. I'd modify that to "the
English-speaking world" and shed a tear for the demise of the Atlanta
Linux Showcase which was a similar 100% community organisation.

[3] http://linux.org.au

[4] compare each of http://www.linux.org.au/conf/200[1-7] with
http://linux.conf.au (2008) and http://marchsouth.org/ (2009) . Each
totally different, although code for things like the registration
database and documents for planning are passed along from year to year.



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Re: [Scottish] Re: News Letter April 08

[Dan Shearer]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 10:07:43AM +0930, Dan Shearer wrote:
 
> In the meantime, since people have been talking about the idea of an
> umbrella organisation, here's a case study I think is relevant:
> Australia.  A decade ago the Australian FLOSS community was in an
> analogous position to what we have in Scotland today. How has it turned
> out?

I should say there are other examples, especially Hispalinux, but I've
not been very close to them. The Australian example is close enough to
draw some lessons but far enough that just transplating ideas clearly
won't work.

Regards,

-- 
Dan Shearer
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Re: [Scottish] new user and study group

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, May 07, 2008 at 08:36:17PM +0100, Robert McWilliam wrote:
> On Tue, May 06, 2008 at 11:55:19AM +0100, overdrive emacs wrote:
> > At this moment I am looking for somebody interested in emacs and study its
> > code (c and lisp) and architecture. I would like to create a study group for
> > interested people from Edinburgh.
> > 
> > Let me know if you are interested. 
> 
> I spend most of my time working in emacs these days but have yet to
> find the time to poke the internals. This could be the impetus needed
> for me to look at it. 
> 
> You might get some more interest if you ping the EdLUG list as well: 
> http://www.edlug.ed.ac.uk/#MailingList

As it happens I'm just documenting talks for a LUG meeting in
Edinburgh... Borja maybe you'd like to spend a few minutes then
explaining what you have in mind?  I'll be updating the wiki shortly
with the agenda. As well as a special interest group, would you be
willing to do a talk about hacking emacs to the LUGs in Glasgow or/and
Edinburgh?

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Two talks with demonstrations, EdLUG 5th June

[Dan Shearer]

I'm told the next meeting of EdLUG will be on Thursday 5th June at 7:30pm at
The Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue, St Marys Street Edinburgh. For
more details including a map see http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/EdLUG:Meetings .

Robert Mclay: SME Server


Live demo of SME Server, with some background.

"SME" stand for Small to Medium Enterprise, and this is the target
market of the OS. Think of it as a Linux sheep in Windows clothing, with
a level of integration closer to what is expected in Windows than Linux.
This is aimed at being a drop-in replacement for a traditional Linux
server for < = 500 user LANs. The trusty WRT54G may make another
appearance in a supporting role.

SME Server is a Linux distro used as web, file, email and database
servers.  Based on CentOS, SME's main goals are simplicity, reliability,
& security. All configuration is done through the web front-end, or an
SSH connection.

 *  (break for coffee)  *

Alastair Bennett: Open Source Hardware
--

Over the last decade the Open Source concept has been paralleled in
hardware.  Not as much and not as fast, but with visible success.
Skipping the boring definitions, I will briefly run through three
projects that to illustrate what is available today:

* RepRap 3D printer
* OpenMoko mobile phones
* Ardunio microcontroller board 

For a grand finale I will do a demo of an Ardunio board doing something,
at the very least being waved around by me. 

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Listening to/participating in Ubuntu UDS

[Dan Shearer]

The Ubuntu Developer Summit is happening, trying to work out what's
happening with Ubuntu over the next six months for the Intrepid release. 

At the top of the session info at
http://people.ubuntu.com/~scott/uds-intrepid/ is information for IceCast
and SIP if people want to eavesdrop. And irc if you want to join in.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Cloba

[Dan Shearer]

Claudio's Bash Logger (subject of a recent Edlug talk) has a draft
writeup at http://shearer.org/Cloba.

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Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Linux Infrastructure help wanted

[Dan Shearer]

If you're looking for a job and are interested in Linux infrastructure,
I'm looking for people. The work is nearly all Linux, Linux networking
and virtualisation and will suit people who have a background in at
least one of these. On-the-job training is available if some of this is
new to you.

Requirements:

  * Must be able to write scripts for administrative purposes. This
means shell scripts, and optionally another language

  * Must be familiar with installing and running various web
applications

  * Must know where to begin looking when a server starts to have
problems

  * Must know at least what all of the following are, and the more you
know about them the better: LVM, iptables, rsync, package
management, revision control, nagios.

Parameters:

  * Positions are in the central belt. One of the positions involves regular
travel within the UK.

  * In addition to fulltime positions, there may be some part-time
work available, minimum 3 days per week.

  * Salary: depends on experience and skills, doesn't it always :-)

  * Equal opportunity: if you know BSD well but not Linux, that's fine!
If you know Linux well but not Debian/Ubuntu, that's fine too.

  * Drivers license well-regarded

Next Step:

You send me a CV, then we have a chat somewhere relaxed.  It would be
helpful if you could briefly show me over a system you maintain via an
ssh session maybe, or perhaps just your laptop. Alternatively you might
just prefer to comment on a system I create for the occasion.

-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Edlug 7:30pm 4th September: The LaTeX Document Preparation System

[Dan Shearer]

EdLUG is on again! 

  The LaTeX Document Preparation System

  by Denise Wood

  7:30pm Thursday 4th September 2008 at 

  The Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue
  16 St Marys Street
  Right in the middle of Edinburgh
  
  See http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/Edinburgh_Training_and_Conference_Venue 
for 
  more details and a map. Tea/coffee/bikkies.

>From http://www.scotlug.org.uk/wiki/EdLUG:2008-09-04 :

  Calling everyone who needs to create beautiful documents without wrestling
  with a word processor, especially for complicated or long documents, books and
  brochures. Jumping margins? Mis-aligned tables? Hard-to-maintain indexes? Wild
  page numbering?

  With a lively presentation interrupted for coffee at some point, Denise will
  show what the LaTeX document preparation system is and what it can do. LaTeX 
is
  the opposite of OpenOffice, AbiWord and others: you tag the plain text and
  compile it, and LaTeX does the formatting for you. LaTeX isn't hard, just
  different!

  Denise will cover:

* What does LaTeX look like? How do you pronounce it?
* How does LaTeX work?
* What is LaTeX good for?
* What sort of output can it produce?
* How does Denise use it daily for study and work (fun and profit)?
* How can you get started? 

There will also be a short intro on 'Author-Friendly Text Processing
Systems' by Dan Shearer:

   A very brief introduction to systems for logically describing what a
   nicely-formatted document should look like. There are many languages for 
these
   logical descriptions, some of them very popular. This sets the context
   for why the 20+ year-old LaTeX system built on the 30+ year-old TeX system is
   not only alive but very important today. LaTeX is roughly in the middle of a
   spectrum of logical markup languages that sees projects like AsciiDoc and
   friends on one side (very author-friendly) and XML on the other 
(unintelligible
   to humans.) 


-- 
Dan Shearer
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[Scottish] Copying PROMs

[Dan Shearer]

Hello all,

I'm looking for someone in central belt who will copy some PROMs for me,
off old SCSI hardware. Any ideas?

Alternatively, if someone has a working tool (as opposed to
should-work-thats-the-way-I-remember-it :-) for changing IRQ and I/O
port settings on Adaptec 2940 cards I'd be only too pleased to hear from
them!

Thanks,

Dan

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[Scottish] ANSWER: Slow writes on large modern SATA disks

[Dan Shearer]

New large disks, fast computer, good Linux install but lousy write
performance, with no errors to be found?

I've hit this twice recently and here's how I solved it:

http://shearer.org/Slow_Writes_4k_Sectors

Short version: modern drives won't work by default with common default
ways of installing Linux.

--
Dan Shearer
d...@shearer.org

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[Scottish] Scotland features in Microsoft ad regarding OOo

[Dan Shearer]

Someone contacted me about this October 2010 video by Microsoft
commenting on OpenOffice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdykNa2IBU

I noticed it features a quote by a David Sterling, ICT Manager for
"Central Scotland Police".

I think I know what this may be referring to, something that happened in
Lothian and Borders Police from before my time in Scotland, possibly
about 8 years ago. Is there someone conversant with the facts from the
time who can comment?

--
Dan Shearer
d...@shearer.org

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Re: [Scottish] RHCE

[Dan Shearer]

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 12:59:01PM +, Andrew Calverley wrote:

> In the enterprises I have worked in, LPI has never been asked for. RHCE has
> been the only Linux OS cert which I have seen on a Job Spec sheet.

I've never yet had a problem when stating that people I'm bringing into
companies are Linux engineers, even when specific qualifications have
been stipulated as a condition. Sometimes there is a query from
technical people, easily addressed, but I've never had one with
management.

Perhaps it's worth coming up with a better way to describe skillsets?
Maybe consider advertising something like "Experienced Linux engineers
with a background in Red Hat, SuSE, Ubuntu".

Dan

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Re: [Scottish] Cost of M$ in councils.

[Dan Shearer]

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 04:28:36PM +, John Thomson wrote:

> For the past 3 or so weeks, I have requested details on how much local
> councils all over the UK have been spending on software, compared to
> how many computers they use. 

That's a really interesting project. 

>From my enquiries, it seems a lot of Scottish government purchasing is
done on the basis that Windows comes free with the hardware, that is,
buying a bare PC is possible but the cost reduction is minimal (as
expressed to Scottish Government bodies, and then to me.) This is
certainly a widespread perception. A lot of purchasing is not done
centrally, although there are ways councils and other non-centralised
bodies can take advantage of central purchasing. If you have located an
expert on how IT purchases are handled across Scottish government I'd
love to meet them!

>From the perception that Windows is free the line of reasoning follows
that the bar for Linux is a lot higher, because Windows is compatible
with everything currently in use. Thus Linux is introducing cost for no
short-term functional gain.

--
Dan Shearer
d...@shearer.org

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