Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
EFF Kicks Off Campaign to Free Your Phone
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced a launch of the FreeYourPhone.org campaign. "Hundreds of thousands of cell phone owners have modified their phones to connect to a new service provider or run the software of their choosing, and many more would like to. But the threat of litigation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has driven them underground. The DMCA prohibits "circumventing" technical protection measures used to protect copyrighted works. But many cell phone manufacturers and service providers build these software locks to protect their business models instead of copyrighted material."
FSFE on EU Web browser interoperability decision
The Free Software Foundation Europe congratulates the European Union on a web browser interoperability decision. "On the 16th of January the European Commission DG Competition reported that it had issued a statement of objections regarding Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer (IE) to the Windows Operating System product family. This action builds on a complaint originally submitted by Opera, a European company involved in web browser development. Free Software Foundation Europe welcomes the European Commission's decision and offers its support in the coming anti-trust investigation."
New Friends of GNOME program launched (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org has announced a new Friends of GNOME program. "Now supporters can sign up to help the GNOME Foundation with recurring $10/month donations. Friends of GNOME is a way for individuals to support the GNOME project's mission of providing a free and open source desktop for everyone regardless of ability. With no advertising or outreach, we've raised anywhere from $6,000 to $20,000 a year from generous individuals.That money has contributed to the funds for hackfests, local events and programs which in turn have enabled the GNOME project to create an internationalized, accessible and easy to use desktop software for both traditional desktops and for mobile devices."
Gandhian Approach to Promoting Free Software
During the Freedom Walk a team of 4 people walked the entire length of Kerala, India, more than 1200 kilometers, on foot to spread the message of Free Software. This was recently covered by the Free Software Foundation.
Commercial announcements
Fixstars reduces price of the PowerStation Cell Workstation
Fixstars has announced new pricing on their PowerStation Cell Workstation. "Fixstars is pleased to now offer the PowerStation for just $1250, a reduction of $645 from the original $1895. The PowerStation offers: - Quad-core 2.5GHz IBM 970MP CPUs. - Up to 32GB RAM and 4 hot-swap SAS drive bays. - ATI X1650 Pro graphics card. - Dual Gig-e and 5 USB 2.0 ports. - DVD/CD-RW and YDL v6.1 pre-installed."
Jaspersoft announces new advisory board
Jaspersoft has announced that it has created a new advisory board for guiding its business intelligence software direction. "The Jaspersoft Advisory Board members are Matt Asay, vice president of business development at Alfresco and Chairman of the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC); Bob Bickel, consultant and former executive vice president at JBoss; Mark Burton, vice president, MySQL Global Software Practice, Sun Microsystems; Barry Klawans, co-founder of Jaspersoft and current consultant for a variety of open source companies; and Lawrence Rosen, open source software expert, attorney and author, and founding partner of Rosenlaw & Einschlag."
New Books
Active Directory Cookbook, Third Edition - New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Active Directory Cookbook, Third Edition by Laura E. Hunter and Robbie Allen.CJKV Information Processing - New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book CJKV Information Processing by Ken Lunde.Head First Rails--New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Head First Rails by David Griffiths.
Contests and Awards
KDE voted Free Software Project of the Year (KDE.News)
KDE.News has announced the that they have won the Linux Format Free Software Project of the year award. "Linux Format magazine has unveiled its annual Reader Awards (PDF) for 2008 and KDE won a 'landslide' victory in the category of Free Software Project of the year in recognition of the 'incredible' work done with KDE 4. Amarok, Qt, Konqueror and the KDE-based Asus Eee PC were also recognised in the awards. Read on for more details of the KDE related successes."
Education and Certification
UKUUG/O'Reilly presents - Perl Tutorials
UKUUG and O'Reilly have announced two Perl tutorials in Buntingford Herts, UK. "Early bird rates apply for just a few more days... UKUUG (in conjunction with O'Reilly) presents: Introduction to Perl - 25th February 2009 Advanced Perl Techniques - 26th February 2009 Tutor: Dave Cross".
Calls for Presentations
Registration and CFP open for Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit
A call for papers has gone out for the 2009 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. "The Linux Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of registration and call for participation for the 3rd Annual Collaboration Summit which will take place April 8-10, 2009 in San Francisco." Submissions are due by February 15.
CfP: ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security
A call for papers has gone out for the 2009 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS). The event takes place in Chicago, IL on November 9-13, 2009, submissions are due by April 20.LAC2009: Paper deadline extended
The paper deadline for LAC2009 has been extended to January 29, 2009. "The LAC (Linux Audio Conference) is an annual event where developers, users and composers from all around the world come together for 4 days to present current developments, new compositions and other news to the public, listen to concerts, and generally have a good time together. The LAC2009 is taking place at the Casa della Musica in Parma, Italy, from April 16th to 19th, 2009."
OSCON 2009: Call For Participation
A call for participation reminder has gone out for the 2009 OSCON. "The O'Reilly Open Source Convention has opened up the Call For Participation -- deadline for proposals is Tuesday Feb 3. OSCON will be held July 20-24 in San Jose, California."
PGCon 2009 RFP
A request for papers has gone out for PGCon 2009. "PGCon 2009 will be held 21-22 May 2009, in Ottawa at the University of Ottawa. It will be preceded by two days of tutorials on 19-20 May 2009." Submissions are due in the near future.
Upcoming Events
Events: January 29, 2009 to March 30, 2009
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| January 25 January 29 |
Ruby on Rails Bootcamp with Charles B. Quinn | Atlanta, GA, USA |
| January 31 | Greater London Linux Users Group meeting | London, UK |
| January 31 February 3 |
Black Hat Briefings DC | Arlington, VA, USA |
| February 4 February 5 |
DC BSDCon 2009 | Washington, D.C., USA |
| February 4 February 6 |
Money:Tech 2009 | New York, NY, USA |
| February 5 February 9 |
German Perl Workshop | Frankfurt, Germany |
| February 7 | Frozen Perl 2009 | Minneapolis, MN., USA |
| February 7 February 8 |
FOSDEM 2009 | Brussels, Belgium |
| February 9 February 11 |
O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing | New York, NY, USA |
| February 15 | Free Software Awards 2009 Deadline | Soissons, France |
| February 16 February 18 |
Open Source Singapore Pacific-Asia Conference | Singapore, Singapore |
| February 16 February 19 |
Black Hat DC Briefings 2009 | Washington, D.C., USA |
| February 20 | Demonstrating Open-Source Health Care Solutions | Los Angeles, CA, USA |
| February 20 February 22 |
Southern California Linux Expo | Los Angeles, CA, USA |
| February 24 February 26 |
VMworld Europe 2009 | Cannes, France |
| February 25 February 27 |
German Perl Workshop | Frankfurt Main, Germany |
| February 27 | PHP UK Conference | London, UK |
| February 28 | Belgian Perl Workshop | Leuven, Belgium |
| February 28 | uCon Security Conference | Recife, Brazil |
| March 1 March 4 |
Global Ignite week | Online |
| March 3 March 8 |
CeBIT 2009 | Hanover, Germany |
| March 4 March 7 |
DrupalCon DC 2009 | Washington D.C., USA |
| March 6 | Dutch Perl Workshop | Arnhem, The Netherlands |
| March 7 | Ukrainian Perl Workshop 2009 | Kiev, Ukraine |
| March 8 March 11 |
Bossa Conference 2009 | Recife, Brazil |
| March 9 March 13 |
Advanced Ruby on Rails Bootcamp with Charles B. Quinn | Atlanta, GA, USA |
| March 9 March 12 |
O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| March 12 March 15 |
Pingwinaria 2009 - Polish Linux User Group Conference | Spala, Poland |
| March 14 | OpenNMS User Conference (Europe) 2009 | Frankfurt Main, Germany |
| March 14 March 15 |
Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2009 | Chemnitz, Germany |
| March 16 March 20 |
Android Bootcamp with Mark Murphy | Atlanta, USA |
| March 16 March 20 |
CanSecWest Vancouver 2009 | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| March 18 | Linuxwochen Österreich - Klagenfurt | Klagenfurt, Austria |
| March 21 March 22 |
Libre Planet 2009 | Cambridge, MA, USA |
| March 23 March 27 |
iPhone Bootcamp | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| March 23 April 3 |
Google Summer of Code '09 Student Application Period | online, USA |
| March 23 March 27 |
ApacheCon Europe 2009 | Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| March 24 March 26 |
UKUUG Spring 2009 Conference | London, England |
| March 25 March 29 |
PyCon 2009 | Chicago, IL, USA |
| March 27 March 29 |
Free Software and Beyond The World of Peer Production | Manchester, UK |
| March 28 | Open Knowledge Conference 2009 | London, UK |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Event Reports
Brookings Conference on Software and Business Method Patents Highlights Need for Reform (Red Hat News)
Red Hat News has a posting from Rob Tiller, VP and assistant general counsel for IP, about a recent conference on software and business method patents. "Some of the harm from software patents is obvious. Do they provide any compensating benefit? There was little, if any, evidence that they encourage innovation. Although the number of software patents has exploded in recent years, one panelist expressed doubt that success in the technology area was associated with patent ownership. He observed that had the young Bill Gates been confronted at the outset with the litigation risks of tens of thousands of software patents, he might have chosen to exercise his entrepreneurial skills in a field other than software. The point, of course, is that the current system to some extent discourages innovation and entrepreneurship a travesty of its intended purpose." (thanks to Rahul Sundaram)
Mailing Lists
Migration of the Fedora Mailing Lists
The Fedora project has announced a migration of its email lists to a new domain. "Over the last several years, there has been some contention over why our mailing lists are @redhat.com instead of @fedoraproject.org, and there are also some concerns over the process of requesting new lists and so on. As a result, we (myself and Dennis Gilmore) are beginning an effort to migrate fedora-*@redhat.com to lists.fedoraproject.org."
Page editor: Forrest Cook