February | 2021 | Steve Woods

Open source on Mars

21/02/2021 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

As per the title of the old Hawkwind song, Uncle Sam’s on Mars. Again.

On 18th February NASA’s Perseverance Rover touched down in Mars’ Jezero Crater.

Perseverance rover

However, what is less well known is the role played by Linux and open source software in the Perseverance mission to the Red Planet, particularly as regards its hitch-hiking companion – the Ingenuity helicopter.

This has been revealed by Steven J. Vaughan-Nicholas in a piece for ZDNet.

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter. Click on the image for the full-sized version.

Ingenuity weighs 1.8 kg and is attached to the belly of the 1,025 kg Perseverance rover. If its mission is successful, Ingenuity will be the first man-made vehicle ever to fly on another planet. It will fly itself using a combination of Linux and a NASA-built program based on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory‘s (JPL) open-source F´ (F prime) framework.

This will not be easy. Mars’ atmosphere is so thin, its density is one per cent that of the Earth’s whilst its gravity is one-third that of Sol III. Ingenuity is expected to make one or more flights within 30 days as a technology demonstration, according to NASA.

Timothy Canham, a JPL Embedded Flight Software Engineer, stated the following in an interview with IEEE Spectrum:

This the first time we’ll be flying Linux on Mars. We’re actually running on a Linux operating system. The software framework that we’re using is one that we developed at JPL for CubeSats and instruments, and we open-sourced it a few years ago. So, you can get the software framework that’s flying on the Mars helicopter, and use it on your own project. It’s kind of an open-source victory because we’re flying an open-source operating system and an open-source flight software framework and flying commercial parts that you can buy off the shelf if you wanted to do this yourself someday.

NASA has long had an involvement with Linux and open source. Linux has been used on the International Space Station (ISS) since 2013 (posts passim), whilst the agency has over 500 Open Source 3.0 software projects, whilst its Goddard Space Flight Center built the first Beowulf supercomputer, likewise using off-the-shelf components.

It still remains to be seen whether Perseverance succeeds in its mission to find traces on ancient life on Mars and if Ingenuity’s flight(s) will be successful, but yesterday Ingenuity ‘phoned home’ from the Red Planet.
Ambiguity

21/02/2021 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Social Media

in my first job after graduation (translator and marketing analyst for Imperial Tobacco in Bedminster, Bristol), part of my employer’s house style I had to absorb was an avoidance of all and any ambiguity.

I well remember my chagrin at being admonished for it by my line manager, who had left school at 14 with no qualifications, started out as a messenger boy in the post room and worked his way up to senior middle management.

Collins Dictionary defines ambiguity as “the possibility of interpreting an expression in two or more distinct ways” and “vagueness or uncertainty of meaning“.

This is a lesson that the employees of the Bristol Post/BristolLive (also known by some locals as the Temple Way Ministry of Truth. Ed.) have yet learn, as shown by the latest example below.

Who was interviewed: Mr Beresford or the trolls?
Iceland reviews bilingual signage policy in Welsh stores

20/02/2021 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Social Media

Following hot on the heels of the sacking of its Director of Corporate Affairs for insulting the Welsh (posts passim), comes news that frozen food giant Iceland is reviewing approach’ to bilingual signage in its Welsh stores.

The company had previously been criticised for its lack of provision of Welsh and English signage in stores, even attracting protests, such as one in Rhyl in 2018 reported by The Grocer.

At that time, Iceland was not exactly amenable to bilingual signage in its Welsh stores and even went so far as to issue a statement asserting its monoglot stance: “We do not currently provide signage in any language other than English in any of our stores in any part of the UK or Ireland.“

However, the company, which is based in Glannau Dyfrdwy (English: Deeside), had now announced this is changing, stating:

“We are currently reviewing our approach to providing Welsh signage in stores across Wales and updating this wherever possible. All new stores and those which are refitted have Welsh signage installed as standard, and this is also in place across all of our The Food Warehouse stores across Wales.”

The move has received support from Aled Roberts, the Welsh Language Commissioner, who has issued the following statement:

Research conducted by The Welsh Language Commissioner shows that customers in Wales want to see, hear and use the Welsh language in supermarkets in Wales. We have worked with a number of large supermarkets to develop their Welsh language services, supermarkets such as Coop and Lidl have responded brilliantly to develop a bilingual service. We would like to applaud their approach in working with us. We have contacted Iceland to inspire them to use Welsh, and encourage them to use bilingual signs, and we hope that they will respond to our request.
Insert word of choice

20/02/2021 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

For many years the garage sitting at the apex of the junction of Russelltown Avenue, Cannon Street and Whitehall Road in BS5 has featured a changing sequence of slogans painted by Stan Jones, who lives in the house to which the garage belongs.

It was 2017 when I first noticed it and, at that time, it focussed on the madness of Brexit.

Exit Brexit

In 2019 its message was still focussed on Brexit but had been repainted to featur the wording “Buck Foris” (fine use of a Spoonerism there. Ed.) and “Fromage not Farage“, so I think it’s fair to say Stan is not impressed with the right-leaning part of what passes for Britain’s political class.

In 2019 Stan’s efforts accidentally suffered the attentions of Bristol City Council’s fight against graffit. There was, however, a happy outcome as Stan received an apology and some paint from the corporation, as the Bristol Post reported at the time.

Below is Stan’s latest contribution, which really needs no further comment from me.

Stan’s latest (shame about the tags)
Fontaine’s schoolchildren now on Linux

19/02/2021 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

The French town of Fontaine (Isère) has recently converted 200 school computers from Windows to the elementary OS Linux distribution, Joinup reports.

Nicolas Vivant, the CIO of Fontaine, has been part of the transition to open source that the local public sector has implemented over the past 10 years. The local authority opted for open source due to openness and transparency, as well as value for money.

Default elementary OS| desktop

The switch to open source started in the town hall with a change from proprietary browsers and email clients to Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird. The schools’ switch to elementary OS represents stage 2.

Some of the software used by teachers presented some problems according to Vivant, as it was only designed to run on Windows, so the wine emulator had to be used to get it working.

However, Vivant remarked in an online event that for most users the switch to a Linux system has provided a better overall experience.

In addition to installing Linux on school machines, the schools are also running their infrastructure Debian servers.

According to Joinup, one of the benefits of using open source is that children’s privacy is better protected due to leaving a smaller digital footprint online, an important consideration when every third internet user in the EU is estimated to be a child.
Gibberish? You’re fired!

18/02/2021 Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Social Media

Keith Hann, director of corporate affairs for frozen food retailer Iceland has been dismissed with immediate effect after he was found to have made disparaging remarks about both the Welsh language and Wales itself.

The supermarket, which has its corporate headquarters on Deeside (Welsh: Glannau Dyfrdwy) in North Wales, was forced to apologise on Wednesday after reports emerged of Hann describing Welsh as “gibberish”

It also stated that Hann’s remarks did not reflect the company’s views and added it was a proud Welsh company.

Many Welsh customers contacted Iceland on Twitter stating they would be boycotting the company’s stores as a result of Hann’s crass insensitivity.

In addition to calling Welsh gibberish, Hann wrote on his blog that the Welsh language sounded “like someone with bad catarrh clearing his throat”.

Furthermore, in a tweet which has since been deleted, Hann wrote that the “inhabitants of the UK’s Celtic fringe loathe all visitors“.

Read the full story in the Daily Post.
The rubber stamp of approval

18/02/2021 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Politics

Going back to my schooldays over 5 decades ago, I recall being taught in English language classes that to rubber stamp means officially to approve a decision without giving the matter in question any proper scrutiny or thought.

Rubber stamping is indicative of lack of care, attention and is indicative of perfunctoriness.

Furthermore, the definition I was taught all those long years ago is confirmed by Collins Dictionary, which states:

When someone in authority rubber-stamps a decision, plan, or law, they agree to it without thinking about it much.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a general trend nowadays in the press to use this verb routinely for the approval of any decision, whether or not it is preceded by lengthy or indeed any debate at all.

It’s as if to rubber stamp has become synonymous with to approve, which is really isn’t.

One very guilty party in this respect is the Bristol Post, now rebranded as Bristol Live by its Reach plc masters, as per this example from 12th February, where we read:

The plan is due to be rubber stamped at a council meeting on Monday (February 15).

If there’s one thing I know about planning meetings (having attended them. Ed.), it’s that their decisions are never rubber stamped, as councillors serving on planning committees generally tend to consider all applications in the most minute detail. There’s no waving agenda items all through in a couple of minutes, so members can retreat early to the pub or somewhere else more interesting than a council meeting room.

I hope any passing member of the fourth estate will take note of – and act upon – the content of this little post.
KDE Plasma 5.21 preview

18/02/2021 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

Ever since I first starting using Linux seriously 16 years ago, KDE has always been my preferred desktop environment.

I’ve dabbled with GNOME and other desktops, but always come back to KDE for usability, customisability and good looks.

Now known as Plasma, the KDE desktop will soon be reaching the release of its 5.21 version.

Below is a sneak preview of what can be expected when the new version is released, together with a tribute at the end to Gustavo Carneiro. a KDE developer who unfortunately passed away from Covid-19 in January and whose work concentrated on KDE’s Konsole terminal emulator.

This 5.21 release of Plasma is dedicated to Gustavo’s memory.
TDF is 9 years old

17/02/2021 Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

Today The Document Foundation (TDF), the organisation behind the free and open source LibreOffice productivity suite, celebrates its 9th birthday.

On 17th February 2012 The Document Foundation was registered in Berlin as a German charitable foundation (Stiftung).

TDF had been created by members of the OpenOffice.org community to manage and develop LibreOffice, partially out of fears that Oracle Corporation would cease development of OpenOffice.org after its takeover of Sun Microsystems, the custodians of the OpenOffice.org project. The original OpenOffice.org project is now curated by the Apache Software Foundation.

The TDF’s goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support in a development environment free from control by an individual company.

This goal has been achieved too. LibreOffice is now on release version 7.1, is included as the standard office suite in many GNU/Linux distributions and been downloaded millions of times.

Many happy returns, TDF!
Fake interpreter and accomplice sentenced

17/02/2021 Steve WoodsLanguage

The City of London Police have reported that Mirwais Patang, aged 27, of Hillingdon, London, who stole the identity of a legitimate court interpreter and falsely provided court interpreting services in 140 cases was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Southwark Crown Court on 12 February 2021.

Southwark Crown Court. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Patang must also complete 300 hours of unpaid work within 24 months. He had previously pleaded guilty to 2 counts of forgery and 2 counts of fraud on 27 August 2020, plus a further 6 counts of fraud, and one count each of conspiracy to commit fraud and forgery.

Patang first acted as an interpreter of Pashto and Dari in March 2012, using his own name and identity to register with Capita, the company contracted by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to provide court interpreting services between January 2012 and October 2016.

Patang doctored a community interpreting certificate to prove his qualification to Capita and subsequently worked on 88 cases between March 2012 and August 2016, earning £35,574.

In September 2014, Patang stole the identity of a more qualified court interpreter. By using this identity, he earned just over £30,000 working on 52 cases between September 2014 and July 2015.

His fraudulent activity was eventually uncovered when Capita alerted HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discrepancies in timesheets Patang had submitted. This resulted in the City of London Police launching a fraud investigation.

Furthermore, evidence collected by the City of London Police showed Patang had paid his friend, Solimann David, also of Hillingdon, £1,400 to attend court on his behalf and provide translating services for eight weeks even though David also had no qualifications to act as an interpreter.

David, also aged 27, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit fraud. He was also sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 12 February 2021 to six months imprisonment, suspended for one year. He must complete 100 hours of unpaid work within 24 months.

Detective Andy Cope, from the City of London Police’s fraud team, said:

“The blind greed shown by Patang, and the total disregard for the implications of his actions and what it might mean for the integrity of serious criminal trials, is truly appalling. By thinking of only his own financial gain, he has undermined confidence in the criminal justice system and put victims of crime through unfair stress and worry.”

Posts navigation