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Fedora caught in language trap

24/05/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Oddities, Tech
Fedora, the community spin-off of Red Hat Linux, has announced the release of Pidora – a special remix of Fedora for the Raspberry Pi, as follows:
Pidora 18 (Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix) Release

We’re excited to announce the release of Pidora 18 – an optimized Fedora Remix for the Raspberry Pi. It is based on a brand new build of Fedora for the ARMv6 architecture with greater speed and includes packages from the Fedora 18 package set.

* * *

There are some interesting new features we’d like to highlight:

Almost all of the Fedora 18 package set available via yum (thousands of packages were built from the official Fedora repository and made available online)

Compiled specifically to take advantage of the hardware already built into the Raspberry Pi

Graphical firstboot configuration (with additional modules specifically made for the Raspberry Pi)

Compact initial image size (for fast downloads) and auto-resize (for maximum storage afterwards)

Auto swap creation available to allow for larger memory usage

C, Python, & Perl programming languages available & included in the SD card image

Initial release of headless mode can be used with setups lacking a monitor or display

IP address information can be read over the speakers and flashed with the LED light

For graphical operation, Gedit text editor can be used with plugins (python console, file manager, syntax highlighting) to serve as a mini-graphical IDE

For console operation, easy-to-use text editors are included (nled, nano, vi) plus Midnight Commander for file management

Includes libraries capable of supporting external hardware such as motors and robotics (via GPIO, I2C, SPI)
Unfortunately for Fedora, Pidora has a rather embarrassing meaning to some: in Russian, “pidora” is a derogatory word for a male homosexual. As a consequence, the following announcement has been posted on the Pidora website:

It has come to our attention that the Pidora name bears an unfortunate similarity to another word in Russian, and this has offended some community members and amused others.

Please accept our apologies for any offence caused. Our goal was to simply associate “Pi” (from Raspberry Pi) and “Fedora” (from the Fedora Project).

We are actively seeking a broadly-acceptable alternative Russian name in consultation with some community members, and will post more information shortly.
Grayling – contempt and abuse

24/05/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

Justice Secretary & Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling
Former BBC producer and current Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling MP is the first non-lawyer to serve as Lord Chancellor since the earl of Shaftesbury in 1672-3.

His lack of legal training could explain lots: he’s been brought in to do a hatchet job on the justice and legal system; some of the changes he’s planning to implement would never be contemplated for an instant by lawyers.

Whilst in opposition, Grayling became known as a national politician through his “attack dog” pressure on leading Labour politicians.

It would appear that Grayling is still on the attack if an interview in the Law Society Gazette earlier this week is examined.

Grayling seems completely unworried about removing the right of the accused to pick an advocate of his/her choice under the criminal legal system. Indeed, he’s positively contemptuous of those that end up in the dock!

‘I don’t believe that most people who find themselves in our criminal justice system are great connoisseurs of legal skills. We know the people in our prisons and who come into our courts often come from the most difficult and challenged backgrounds.

Yes, you did read that correctly. If you need to rely on legal representation funded by criminal legal aid, Grayling thinks you’re too thick to pick your own lawyer, so why not let the state pick one for you. Furthermore, by lumping together people who find themselves in the criminal justice system with those in prison, Grayling arrogantly seems to be equating being in the dock automatically with being guilty. What happened to the presumption of innocence, Mr Grayling?

However, Grayling’s contempt and abuse is not confined solely to those unfortunates in the dock. Several times in the interview he refers to the provision of legal services as an ‘industry’.

When I did economics 4 decades ago, the economy consisted of 3 sectors: primary (e.g. agriculture, mining), secondary (e.g. manufacturing, industry) and tertiary (e.g banking, insurance, legal services).

By referring to the ‘legal services industry’ Grayling has moved legal services from the tertiary to the secondary sector. In so doing he has reduced the role of the skilled legal professional to that of a mere machine operative and that of their clients to the widgets that the machine produces. Grayling is thus guilty of treating people as objects, which is not just a retrograde step for justice, but for British society as a whole.
Introducing Joeffice

24/05/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Open Source, Tech

Japplis of Amsterdam has released the alpha version of Joeffice, the first open source office suite written in the Java programming language.

The office suite comprises a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package, database editor and a drawing viewer.

Joeffice spreadsheet screenshot

Joeffice works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It also works online in a browser. Joeffice is released under the Apache license 2.0 which makes it possible for companies to change the code and redistribute it internally without having the need to share the modified code.

Unlike some other office suites, Joeffice has a tab and docking system when opening multiple documents. It also can
be installed online and it has a plug-in system under which third party plug-ins can be downloaded and installed.

Japplis’ developer Anthony Goubard states he developed this open source office suite in just 30 days, according to Le Monde Informatique. In Goubard’s words: “The office suite was built with NetBeans and uses several popular open source Java libraries, which allowed me to build the program in one month.”

Joeffice needs Java 7 to run.
Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 released

22/05/2013 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

The announcement below has been posted under the News section of the GNU website.

GNU Hurd is the GNU project’s replacement for the Unix kernel and comprises a collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file systems, network protocols, file access control and other features that are implemented by the Unix or similar kernels (e.g. Linux).

It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian “sid” at the time of the Debian “wheezy” release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release.

The installation ISO images can be downloaded from Debian Ports in the usual three Debian flavors: NETINST, CD, DVD. Besides the friendly Debian installer, a pre-installed disk image is also available, making it even easier to try Debian GNU/Hurd.

Debian GNU/Hurd is currently available for the i386 architecture with more than 10.000 software packages available (more than 75% of the Debian archive, and more to come!).

Please make sure to read the configuration information, the FAQ, and the translator primer to get a grasp of the great features of GNU/Hurd.

Due to the very small number of developers, our progress of the project has not been as fast as other successful operating systems, but we believe to have reached a very decent state, even with our limited resources.

We would like to thank all the people who have worked on GNU/Hurd over the past decades. There were not many people at any given time (and still not many people today, please join!), but in the end a lot of people have contributed one way or another. Thanks everybody!
Know Your Place

20/05/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Open Data, Tech
For people my age, “know your place” is synonymous with the British class system and was usually found in company with the idiom “your elders and betters“.

However, for Bristolians, Know Your Place is also a local success story, particularly as it’s somewhere one can learn about and share information about historic Bristol. It’s part of the local council website where visitors can:
- Explore historic maps of Bristol including 18th century tithe maps, late 19th & early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, plus Ashmeads plans of central Bristol from 1828, 1855 and 1874;
- Access information from the Bristol Historic Environment Record (HER);
- View early 19th century images from the Braikenridge Collection;
- Upload your own historical information and images; and
- Comment on your area’s heritage.
My bit of Bristol as seen on Know Your Place with 1880 Ordnance Survey map overlay

Know Your Place was funded jointly by the City Council and English Heritage and was money well spent, only costing £25,000.

Since the site went live, more than 500 people have contributed their own historical information and images, but there’s still more that could be added given that the city’s history goes back to at least Saxon times.

There are now plans to expand the mapping to Bristol’s surrounding authorities, which go under the acronym CUBA – Councils that Used to Be in Avon.

You can access Know Your Place at http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/knowyourplace/?maptype=js

Finally, more good news: all layers except the base maps in Know Your Place can be re-used and the HER data is available as open data.
Top judge: “It has not worked”

19/05/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

Today’s Express carries a story in which judge Sir Anthony Hooper – a former Court of Appeal judge – remarks on the Ministry of Justice’s proposals to auction off criminal defence work to the lowest bidder are recorded (posts passim). These proposals could ultimately see the criminal legal aid system run by corporations like London 2012 Olympics security fiasco specialists G4S and trucking giant Eddie Stobart.

As a precedent for the kind of chaos m’lud foresees under the criminal legal aid proposals, Sir Anthony cites the disaster that is the courts and tribunals interpreting service farmed out to Capita Translation & Interpreting (posts passim):

We have already seen what has happened when the Government appointed a single company to provide all the interpreters for courts around the country. It has not worked.

Regarding the criminal legal aid proposals themselves, Sir Anthony doesn’t pull any punches and foresees miscarriages of justice ahead:

The purpose of our criminal justice system is to acquit the innocent and convict the guilty. This requires a competent prosecutor, competent defence advocate and competent judge. If you take any of these elements away, the results will be costly and potentially disastrous, with innocent people being convicted and potentially dangerous individuals wrongly acquitted.

Under the Ministry of Justice’s proposals (currently out for consultation. Ed.), misleading entitled ‘Transforming Legal Aid’, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling wants to cut £220 mn. from the annual £2 bn. legal aid budget by tendering contracts to 400 firms and mega law shops in England and Wales. People unable to afford their own solicitor will be allotted one by the state, thus removing the all-important element of choice (isn’t the government trying to increase choice in other parts of the public sector such as the NHS? Ed.). Legal advisers appointed under that system will receive a single fixed fee to represent a client, irrespective of whether the client pleads guilty, raising fears that there will be little incentive to conduct a defence properly.

This was also criticised by Sir Anthony, who declared: “I’m afraid we are abandoning quality and replacing it with the lowest bid.”
Lamplight from tides

18/05/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Tech

Despite its long and fascinating history, Bristol has had a reputation over time of being the graveyard of dreams. Some dreams assume concrete form and it is the lack of concrete – or any other building materials – that are the subject of local author Eugene Byrne’s new book ‘Unbuilt Bristol’, which is published today by Redcliffe Press at a very reasonable £15.00.

Unbuilt Bristol is described as ‘The city that might have been 1750-2050’. As regards the book’s content, Eugene writes:

While all your old favourites are there (all the other proposals for a bridge over the Avon Gorge, the insane 1960s/70s plan to fill in the Floating Harbour and cover it in roads etc.) there are plenty more which you won’t have heard of. Like the Victorian scheme to put Bristol’s main railway station in Queen Square, or a visionary 19th century plan to run the city’s street lighting using power generated by the rise and fall of the river Avon.

And it’s the latter idea – that visionary 19th century plan to run the city’s streetlights on tidal power from the Avon that forms the subject of this post.

River Avon – the power behind the city of Bristol. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The project to generate electricity from the Avon to run Bristol’s streetlights is described in Charles Wells’ A short history of the Port of Bristol’, which was published in 1909 and is available free from the Internet Archive. Regarding the amount of tidal power available and the fate of the project itself, Wells wrote:

…when proposals were first brought before the city for the introduction of electric light (November, 1881), Mr. Smith secured the appointment of a committee to consider an interesting scheme for utilising the great power of the tide in the river Avon for generating the electricity. Mr. Smith said he believed by this method a saving of about £6,000 per annum could be effected compared with the cost of generation in the ordinary way. Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, who was on the staff of Bristol University College, had made calculations (upon data supplied by Mr. T. Howard, Dock Engineer) showing that the available tidal power at Totterdown was over 6 billions of foot pounds per annum, equal to 279,389 h.p. per tide. At Rownham the power was three times greater, and at Avonmouth over 2,000,000 h.p. per tide. To light by electricity the 4,274 street lamps then in the city would require from 4 billions to 2 billions of foot pounds per annum according to the system adopted. There was, however, no practical result from the appointment of the committee, and in March 1891 the Corporation voted £66,000 for the beginning of the present installation with an ordinary power station on Temple Backs.

Where it meets the Severn estuary at Avonmouth, the Bristol Avon has a tidal range of 15 m (49 ft), the second largest in the world, only being beaten by the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada.

Given the present concerns about burning fossil fuels and carbon emissions, perhaps it is time to revisit generating electricity from the Bristol Avon, although one factor that could prove a disadvantage is the heavy load of silt sloshing up and down the river with every tide.
Amarok 2.7.1 “Harbinger” released

17/05/2013 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech
Amarok is a great media player for the Linux platform and one I’ve used for years; and now it’s also available for Unix and Windows too.

The Amarok team announced the release of version 2.7.1, codenamed “Harbinger” on Wednesday this week. According to the following from the release announcement, it’s a release to fix one bug in particular:
The Amarok Team has discovered a very unpleasant bug in QtWebkit ↔ GStreamer interaction that made continuous playing almost impossible, due to frequent crashing. We decided to work around it in our code and take it as an opportunity to release a bugfix version. It contains a couple of other fixes we deemed important.

This version only contains some very essential fixes and changes compared to 2.7.0:
- A modification in handling MusicBrainz ID tags was needed to avoid problems with falsely duplicate tracks.
- We fixed a weird behaviour when the “Use Music Location?” question is answered “Yes” on the first run.
- We now have worked around the QtWebkit ↔ GStreamer bug that caused frequent crashes on track start; this happened if the Wikipedia applet tried to load a page containing an audio tag.
- The database is now also created if the home directory contains non-ASCII characters.
- The Nepomuk Collection now also shows track numbers.
These changes have also been incorporated into the next release – 2.8.0 – which is still in development and promises yet more fixes and enhancements.
Open source “strengthens democracy”

17/05/2013 Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

Croatian President Ivo Josipović
Open source strengthens democracy, according to Croatian President Ivo Josipović, as reported on Joinup, the EU’s public sector open source news website.

Josipović appreciates the open source community’s creative and innovative spirit and is reported as saying: “What you are doing is something good, creative and innovative”, while opening the Croatian Linux Users’ Convention 2013 in Zagreb on Wednesday 15th May. As regards democracy, the President remarked: “Most importantly, open source helps to strengthen democracy.”

President Josipović also expressed his “complete support” for the government plans to implement open source and open standards (what about open data? A stool needs three legs, not two! Ed.) in the Croatian public sector’s IT, according to the organisers of the Croatian Linux Users’ Convention.

This is not the first time that Mr Josipović has shown his support for open source and open standards (posts passim)
The polite brush off

16/05/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

There’s been more reaction to the Nottingham Crown Court murder case interpreter no-show last week (posts passim).

As previously mentioned, Northampton North MP Michael Ellis stated he was going raise the matter of Capita’s woeful service under its courts and tribunals interpreting contract with the Secretary of State for Justice, Christopher Grayling, as in Mr Ellis’ opinion the service was ‘out of control‘.

Mr Ellis has now contacted Chris Grayling, as has been reported by the Northampton Herald & Post:

Mr Ellis said Mr Grayling agreed to look into the matter.

He said: “Mr Grayling was concerned and said he would be looking into it and would take appropriate action in due course.”

In my experience, “looking into it” and “take appropriate action in due course” can be paraphrased as a “polite brush off“. If Mr Ellis doesn’t understand what a polite brush off is, in plainer language Grayling was actually saying: “I couldn’t give a toss“.

After all, Chris Grayling is far too busy at the moment taking the wrecking ball to criminal legal aid (posts passim) and trashing the probation service.

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