Monthly Archives: March 2021

  • Dortmund adopts free software policy

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

    Phoenixsee, Dortmund. Image courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsDortmund’s city council has paved the way for “Public Money? Public Code!” In the future, software developed or commissioned by the administration will be made available to the general public, the Free Software Federation Europe (FSFE) reports.

    Back in February, the city council approved a motion previously submitted by the SPD, Bündnis90/Die Grünen, CDU, Die Linke+ and FDP/Bürgerliste. In the future, Free Software is to be used wherever possible and software developed or commissioned for development by the administration is to be made available to the general public.

    Matthias Kirschner, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe states: “We are happy that the DO-FOSS initiative was able to convince the city of Dortmund of the principle of “Public Money? Public Code”. Free Software gives everyone the right to use, study, share and improve software for any purpose. These freedoms also benefit administrations. Public administrations that follow this principle can benefit from numerous advantages: Collaboration with other government agencies, independence from individual vendors, potential tax savings, innovation and a more solid basis for IT security. The Council’s decision means that there is now the political backing to gradually break down dependencies on proprietary vendors. We will accompany the implementation and at the same time call on other administrations in Germany and Europe to follow Dortmund’s example.“

  • Corvids nesting in BS5

    Steve WoodsBristol

    Having been brought up in rural Shropshire, I normally wouldn’t have paid a lot of attention to corvids when I lived there.

    However, things are different now I’m an inner city resident and appreciate all the birdlife I see.

    As regards corvids specifically, magpies and carrion crows seem to be the most numerous. Indeed, magpies nested in the large ash tree in the ‘pocket park‘ around the corner a couple of years ago.

    Furthermore, jays, those most colourful of British resident corvids, are not unknown in Easton, whilst sightings of ravens are rarer (posts passim).

    Indeed, the only members of the resident 8 strong British corvid family that I’ve not seen locally over the years are the chough (which tends to prefer sea cliffs as habitat. Ed.) and hooded crow, which is more readily found found in N and W Scotland, N Ireland and on the Isle of Man as a replacement for the carrion crow.

    Croydon Street crow's nest
    Croydon Street crow’s nest in top of sycamore.

    Monday was a lovely sunny day and returning from my constitutional, I was passing down Croydon Street when I noticed a crow alight in a nest in a roadside sycamore tree. A crow’s nest is best described as a roughly crafted collection of sticks in the fork of a tree. Most corvids are not builders of complicated or artistic-looking nests.

    As I was attempting to get a halfway decent shot of the nest, the other bird in the pair turned up with fresh nest material in its beak. It can be seen in the picture below. Apologies for the wobbly camera work: I was leaning back and pointing the camera straight up at arm’s length.

    Croydon Street crow's nest with bird to left
    Croydon Street crow’s nest with bird to left

    Update: there’s also a crow’s next in a tree in the pocket park on Chaplin Road.

  • SUSE IPO this summer

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    SUSE logoSUSE was the first Linux distribution I actually used as a day-to-day working system over 15 years ago. It was the distribution on which I learnt about Linux, so it has a special place in my affections.

    The impetus to install it came from a friend who bought a set of 5 installation CDs off eBay for me as a present.

    Later on, I treated myself to SUSE Linux Professional 9.3 for some £50. It came as a box set of 2 DVDs and 5 CDs, along with a doorstep-sized manual.

    SUSE is a good, solid distribution and excellent for business use with its SUSE Enterprise Linux server and desktop offerings and paid-for support.

    SUSE also sponsors the community-supported openSUSE project, which develops the openSUSE Linux distribution, which is available in both rolling release (Tumbleweed) and regular release (Leap) versions.

    Founded in Germany 1992, SUSE was the first company to market Linux to business. Over the years its ownership has changed many times. In 2004 it was acquired by Novell. Novell and with it SUSE were then purchased by Attachmate (with financial assistance from Microsoft) in 2010. In 2014 Microfocus acquired Attachmate and SUSE was spun off as a separate division under the name SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH. Finally, EQT purchased SUSE from Micro Focus for $2.5 billion in March 2019.

    News has now emerged that SUSE is being prepared for stock flotation in Europe in via an IPO in the next few months (May is mentioned as the earliest date) with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley executing the IPO with the aid of Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Jefferies.

    According to Le Monde Informatique, SUSE is likely to have a market valuation of €7-8 bn. for the IPO.

  • New alternative to binning soft plastic

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Politics

    Tesco logoThe BBC reports that Tesco is to introduce collection points for soft plastic packaging such as crisp packets, pet food pouches and bread bags at its stores in England and Wales.

    This follows a successful trial in 2018 at 10 stores.

    The roll-out will start with facilities being installed in 171 stores in south-west England and Wales.

    Tesco is hoping to collect 1,000 tonnes of soft plastic a year and customers may return packaging from other retailers as well as its own packaging provided all packaging presented for collection is clean.

    Soft plastic is notoriously hard to recycle and most currently ends up going to landfill or being incinerated.

    Given Bristol’s wide range recycling collections, this type of plastic makes up the majority of my residual waste collected by the refuse lorry.

    With this move, Tesco is finally living up to its “Every little helps” motto.

  • Theft, consent and tautology

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    Another day and every regional newspaper in the country is replete with examples of one of its mainstays – reports of criminal cases being processed through the local courts of justice.

    The details of one case in particular on the Bristol Live (formerly the Bristol Post. Ed.) website caught my eye for one single sentence.

    In the relevant sentence we are told that the defendant*

    stole his dad’s car keys without consent last October.

    I have never before heard of an item being stolen with its owner’s consent, so let’s examine that sentence in detail.

    We are told the defendant “stole his dad’s car keys“.

    The dictionary definition of the verb to steal is “to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force“. That definition includes the words without permission, i.e. without consent.

    The lack of consent is implicit in verb’s definition, hence the qualification without permission is superfluous.

    This brings us to another concept with which the author of the piece in question will be unfamiliar: tautology, i.e. “needless repetition of an idea, especially in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness“.

    To some it may seem that I’m being overly pedantic, but as a linguist I’m all too aware that words matter as they are the only tools we have to convey meaning and in being the main source of information the press has a duty to use them properly.

    * = Name omitted as having his name pop up once for a youthful misdemeanour in search engine results is enough without my adding to his woes.

  • IWD stencils

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    Yesterday, like 8th March every year, was International Women’s Day, this year focussing on the theme #ChooseToChallenge.

    To quote from the IWD website:

    A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.
    So let’s all choose to challenge.

    How will you help forge a gender equal world?
    Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.

    Easton Way in Bristol was yesterday sporting some new challenging stencil art in celebration of IWD near its junction with Easton Road.

    Organise Yourself Sister stencil art Feminist in Training

  • LibreOffice 7.1.1 released

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

    Towards the end of last week The Document Foundation (TDF) announced the release of LibreOffice 7.1.1, the first point release of LibreOffice 7.1, which is available for immediate download.

    This release over contains 90 bug fixes and improvements to document compatibility.

    LibreOffice 7.1 banner

    As usual, TDF suggests that this release is aimed at technology enthusiasts and power users, rather than more conservative business users for whom an older release is recommended.

    This latest release is available for all major desktop operating systems (Linux, MacOS and Windows), mobile platforms (Android and iOS) and the cloud. Instead of downloading via the link above, Linux users might like to wait until the update is provided directly via the repositories of their individual distributions, whilst those for mobile devices can be obtained via the app stores for their respective operating systems.

    TDF’s wiki charts the changes and improvements in the latest release via the changes made in the two release candidates: RC1 and RC2.

    LibreOffice users are invited to join the community so they can both get and provide individual support. Those willing to contribute their time and professional skills to the project can visit the dedicated What Can I Do For LibreOffice website.

    Finally, LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members can give financial assistance to The Document Foundation with a donation via PayPal, credit card or other means.

  • Marg’s 10K steps a day for Felix Road

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics, Social Media

    Local councillor Marg Hickman, who is also one of the trustees of Eastside Community Trust, has launched a crowdfunder to raise funds for Felix Road Adventure Playground, one of the Trust’s 2 sites in Easton, Bristol.

    Felix Road Adventure Playground
    Felix Road Adventure Playground. Photo credit: Eastside Community Trust


    Felix Road has been in existence for nearly as long as I’ve been in Bristol and provided a much-needed safe space for generations of local children to play, socialise and develop.

    Marg writes:

    Felix Road Adventure Playground is an inner-city playground supporting some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, young people and families in Bristol. Felix Road is an inspiring beacon of inclusive play, a space where children and families can come together and celebrate diversity.

    We need resources to continue to run our busy kitchen staffed by volunteers and providing much needed healthy and nutritious meals for children and families every day, and to help run a girls’ group for Somali young women.

    I plan to walk or dance 10,000 steps each day in March. I would so appreciate you sponsoring me to reach my goal. Follow my progress on my Facebook page. Much love.

    If you would like to support Marg, please visit her crowdfunding page and kindly give what you can.

    Update: Marg’s efforts ended up raising over £2,500 for Felix Road. Well done if you also contributed.

  • Amazon customer couldn’t post review in Welsh of Welsh book

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Social Media, Tech

    Cover of Llad Duw novel by Dewi PrysorAmazon was forced to apologise and blamed a “technical error” for a customer being unable to post a review in Welsh of a novel written in Welsh, Wales Online reports.

    Cathryn Sherrington of Cardiff had submitted a Welsh Language review which she then translated to English of the book Lladd Duw, by Dewi Prysor.

    The book is described by its publisher as a “hefty, ambitious novel set in London and an imaginery [sic] seaside town. It deals with the destruction of civilisation from the standpoint of the working class. An intense, dark novel but with the usual humour from Dewi Prysor.“

    Cathryn’s review reads as follows:

    Gwych Brilliant. I haven’t read a Welsh book for years – sometimes the formality of written Welsh puts me off – this is brilliant though.
    Hawdd i ddarllen, stori gyffroes, cymeriadau diddorol. Wedi joio fo gymaint dwi’n mynd i ddarllen mwy o lyfrau Cymraeg.”

    In English the review’s second sentence reads: “Easy to read, exciting story, interesting characters. Have enjoyed it so much I’m going to read more Welsh language books“.

    However, Amazon which employs 1,000 people in Swansea, emailed Cathryn implying her review might have broken its guidelines.

    There then followed a social media and email exchange between Cathryn and Amazon at the end of which the latter relented, stating: “This was due to a technical error for which we apologise. It has now been resolved.”

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