Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
Python Software Foundation is sponsoring sprints
The Python Software Foundation has put out a call for requests for funding assistance for coding sprints. Up to $250 is available for each sprint, and more information can be found on the Python sprints blog or by clicking below for the full announcement. "Whether you call them Sprints, Hackfests, Hack-a-thons, or any other name, they're a great way to hang out with like-minded developers and work on common code. Sprints are an unbeatable way to build friendships and contacts that will last for years to come, and they're a great way to learn about something new if you're just starting out. [...] The Python Software Foundation has set aside funds to be distributed to world-wide sprint efforts. We're anticipating 2-3 events per month focused on covering topics to help the entire community".
KDE e.V. Quarterly Reports Relaunched
KDE.News looks at the relaunch of KDE e.V. quarterly reports. "KDE e.V. is the legal body which holds our finances and represents the project in a range of issues. Our Quarterly Reports have restarted with a special bumper issue covering 2009 Q2 to 2010 Q1. It covers the many sprints which e.V. organises for our contributors to get together in person with their KDE teams. It also covers events e.V. has helped KDE to attend and the working groups it oversees."
Articles of interest
Open Source Hardware Definition released, first Open Hardware Summit
BoingBoing covers the launch of the "Open Source Hardware Definition" and the announcement of the first Open Hardware Summit. "Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is a term for tangible artifacts -- machines, devices, or other physical things -- whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things. This definition is intended to help provide guidelines for the development and evaluation of licenses for Open Source Hardware."
Multi-Touch Sugar on XO-1.75 ARM Laptop Coming Soon (OLPC News)
OLPC News reports on news of the XO-1.75 laptop. The article mostly quotes from an email by Chris Ball of OLPC, in which he mentions a touchscreen for XO-1.75 and continuing to use Fedora as the distribution, even though the new hardware is ARM-based. In addition, Sugar will get multitouch: "We've begun working on modifications to Sugar to enable touchscreen and multitouch use (the XO-1.75 will have a touchscreen, as will future OLPC tablets based on its design), and we'll continue to do so. The first outcome from this work is Sayamindu Dasgupta's port of the Meego Virtual Keyboard to Sugar".
Supposed 'Proof' Of SCO's Infringement Claims Against Linux Seem Lacking (Techdirt)
In what should come as no surprise to most folks, the alleged "proof" of SCO's infringement claims, as recently posted by SCO lawyer Kevin McBride—Darl's brother—is weak, at best. Techdirt takes a look and is unimpressed. "If you look through the files, you don't have to be a programmer to start questioning the copyright claims. Most of the lines are not direct copies at all, and seem to be on really, really, really basic functions -- the type of thing that just about anyone would program to create that functionality. In other words, it's difficult to see how there would be any copyright on that code at all, since it was hardly original or requiring any form of creativity. Others in the Slashdot comments point out that some of the code appears to have originated in BSD code, outside of what SCO was claiming it held rights to, and others suggest at least parts of the code came from a separate third party. Furthermore, even looking through the files it's difficult to find many cases where you could even claim 'cut-and-paste copying' as was alleged." Much (all?) of it seems like the same stuff that was debunked back in 2003.
Weir: ISO/IEC JTC1 Revises Directives, Addresses OOXML Abuses
On his blog, Rob Weir looks at changes to the ISO standardization process, that would eliminate some of the abuses that were seen in the OOXML standardization effort. In 2007 and 2008, Microsoft pushed its office document format (OOXML) through the ISO fast track process, which allowed it to become a second ISO standard—the first was Open Document Format (ODF). "On July 1st, 2010 a new set of rules (directives) took effect in ISO/IEC JTC1 including new processing and voting rules for JTC1 Fast Track submissions. If these rules had been in effect back in 2007, OOXML would have died after its initial ballot." (Thanks to Martin Jeppesen.)
New Books
Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, Fourth Edition--New from No Starch Press
"Ubuntu for Non-Geeks", 4th Edition, is available from No Starch Press.MySQL High Availability--New from O'Reilly
"MySQL High Availability", Tools for Building Robust Data Centers, is available from O'Reilly.JavaScript Cookbook--New from O'Reilly
"JavaScript Cookbook", Programming the Web, is available from O'Reilly.
Calls for Presentations
Linux Plumbers Conference call for working session submissions now open
The Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) has opened up its call for the submission of working session topics that would become part of the "micro-conferences" that make up LPC. Each micro-conference has a number of related working sessions centered around a particular topic (Power Management, Virtualization, Mono, Desktop, Tracing, and so on) and is a half-day in length. "The topics that will actually have working sessions scheduled at the LPC will depend on the submissions to the microconference and on the ability of its respective community to organize a successful working session; see the "Responsibilities of a working session leader" page on the LPC wiki for more details." LPC will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts November 3-5.
Kiwi PyCon 2010 Call for Participation
Kiwi PyCon will be held in Paihia/Waitangi in the Bay of Islands November 20-21, 2010. Proposals are due by August 2, 2010.DeepSec 2010 - Call for Papers
DeepSec In-Depth Security Conference 2010 will be held in Vienna, Austria, November 23-26, 2010. The call for papers closes July 31, 2010. "Additionally we call for [submission] from young security researchers of 21 years and younger for exhibits of their own research during the conference."
Upcoming Events
Events: July 22, 2010 to September 20, 2010
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| July 17 July 24 |
EuroPython 2010: The European Python Conference | Birmingham, United Kingdom |
| July 19 July 23 |
O'Reilly Open Source Convention | Portland, Oregon, USA |
| July 21 July 24 |
11th International Free Software Forum | Porto Alegre, Brazil |
| July 22 July 23 |
ArchCon 2010 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| July 22 July 25 |
Haxo-Green SummerCamp 2010 | Dudelange, Luxembourg |
| July 24 July 30 |
Gnome Users And Developers European Conference | The Hague, The Netherlands |
| July 25 July 31 |
Debian Camp @ DebConf10 | New York City, USA |
| July 31 August 1 |
PyOhio | Columbus, Ohio, USA |
| August 1 August 7 |
DebConf10 | New York, NY, USA |
| August 4 August 6 |
YAPC::Europe 2010 - The Renaissance of Perl | Pisa, Italy |
| August 7 August 8 |
Debian MiniConf in India | Pune, India |
| August 9 August 10 |
KVM Forum 2010 | Boston, MA, USA |
| August 9 | Linux Security Summit 2010 | Boston, MA, USA |
| August 10 August 12 |
LinuxCon | Boston, USA |
| August 13 | Debian Day Costa Rica | Desamparados, Costa Rica |
| August 14 | Summercamp 2010 | Ottawa, Canada |
| August 14 August 15 |
Conference for Open Source Coders, Users and Promoters | Taipei, Taiwan |
| August 21 August 22 |
Free and Open Source Software Conference | St. Augustin, Germany |
| August 23 August 27 |
European DrupalCon | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| August 28 | PyTexas 2010 | Waco, TX, USA |
| August 31 September 3 |
OOoCon 2010 | Budapest, Hungary |
| August 31 September 1 |
LinuxCon Brazil 2010 | São Paulo, Brazil |
| September 6 September 9 |
Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference | Barcelona, Spain |
| September 7 September 9 |
DjangoCon US 2010 | Portland, OR, USA |
| September 8 September 10 |
CouchCamp: CouchDB summer camp | Petaluma, CA, United States |
| September 10 September 12 |
Ohio Linux Fest | Columbus, Ohio, USA |
| September 11 | Open Tech 2010 | London, UK |
| September 13 September 15 |
Open Source Singapore Pacific-Asia Conference | Sydney, Australia |
| September 16 September 18 |
X Developers' Summit | Toulouse, France |
| September 16 September 17 |
Magnolia-CMS | Basel, Switzerland |
| September 16 September 17 |
3rd International Conference FOSS Sea 2010 | Odessa, Ukraine |
| September 17 September 18 |
FrOSCamp | Zürich, Switzerland |
| September 17 September 19 |
Italian Debian/Ubuntu Community Conference 2010 | Perugia, Italy |
| September 18 September 19 |
WordCamp Portland | Portland, OR, USA |
| September 18 | Software Freedom Day 2010 | Everywhere, Everywhere |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Event Reports
Ruby on Rails Community Shines at RailsConf 2010
O'Reilly Media takes a look at last June's Ruby on Rails conference. "Chairs Chad Fowler and Ben Scofield created a program that highlighted the vibrant and expanding nature of the Rails community itself. While the exploration of Rails 3 attracted many, the conference explored many other areas of the Rails landscape. Featured speakers at RailsConf 2010 included Michael Feathers of Object Mentor, Inc., David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals, Yehuda Katz of Engine Yard, Inc., Bob Martin of Object Mentor, Inc., Derek Sivers of Thoughts, Ltd., and Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol