Tony Yarusso's Blog

All righty, so while most of the tech world has already noticed, I'm still taking this opportunity to continue my encouragement for my original readership to take a harder look at open source software and its associated communities. Yes, that means you everyone reading from Xanga. As a bit of background, last fall when Ubuntu 6.10 (codenamed "Edgy Eft") was released, the Ubuntu community held a week of introductory sessions on various topics, ranging from what on earth this whole Ubuntu thing was all about to getting involved with development, and everything in between. With the release of Ubuntu 7.04 ("Feisty Fawn"), we're doing it again. These sessions are not the sort of thing that you need to be a full-fledged coding geek to understand, and frankly, those people would only benefit from a handful of them really, as the week is aimed at taking people without various kinds of experience and helping them get more answers, more knowledge, or more involvement. If you're mildly curious about Ubuntu and Linux, but still a bit intimidated by the concept (since you've never seen it on your school computer lab, most likely), this is your chance to put some questions to rest. Also good for folks who have popped the CD in, or maybe even installed, but don't yet know where to go for support, how to file a bug, or who they can hang out with to talk about how cool it is.If you're starting completely from scratch and haven't heard me describe what Ubuntu is before, take a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu.

"Okay, you have my attention. So when are you going to tell us what and when the session are?"

Well, I actually don't need to say much, since Melissa totally beat me to it. The full info about the week is being kept on the wiki, at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek. I know IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is new to many of you, so there is help on that linked to from the "Joining In" page, as well as links to clients for those of you using Windows but trying to find out about Ubuntu. Logs will be posted if you can't make a session, but note that many sessions are happening twice to make scheduling more convenient. I go by tonyyarusso and am in many channels (including ##tonyyarusso, with two hashes) if you have questions for me, and hope to see you in #ubuntu-classroom with your questions for all of the great session leaders!

So as it turned out the Timberwolves were convinced to offer grants to both of the top organizations, so both Northern Voices and Camp Heartland will be receiving $10,000. The voting reportedly resulted in a split of only a few hundred, with 60,000 votes cast, so quite the close call. Congratulations to both groups, and thanks to the FastBreak Foundation and everyone who helped click buttons!

The announcement is here.

(Nothing else interesting to report today, so that's all for now.)

So I did my taxes over the weekend, and concluded that the baboons from quiz bowl must be in charge of the IRS/Congress as well. I had two jobs and interest from one bank, and still clicked through something like three dozen pages of questions in TurboTax (from how many children do you have to did you sell a farm or produce ethanol to do you wish to claim the my cousin knows a Martian who once ran for governor of Indiana while a schoolteacher deduction...). Initially I had looked at the paper version of the applicable form, which since I made so little was the "EZ" edition, which still referenced some four other forms, tables, instructions, etc., all with four-digit numbers or weird letter codes, suggesting that there are at least 1,300 different possible forms for you to need for this process.

My conclusion? The professional tax preparers must be behind it all. There is no other reason we need this many different deductions, variations, and "if box 6 is greater than box 5, turn in three circles clockwise, if otherwise, turn counter-clockwise; regardless, fill in the sum of box 3, your birth year, and smallest car's license plate in box 7". I'd be much relieved if we could simplify tax law down to one or two pages of stuff. What do you think? There are various ideas that I've heard proposed for that, which people seem to like bickering about the relative merits of, so have at it! ;)

Hey all, a bit last minute in this call, but today is the last day of voting for a $10,000 grant being given by the Minnesota Timberwolves (professional basketball team here) to one of five finalist organizations in the community. The five potential recipients were chosen ahead of time by the FastBreak Foundation's selection committee for exemplifying their mission to "provide and support hands-on programs that positively impact Minnesota youth. Through giving, education and basketball opportunities, the Foundation enables young people to make responsible decisions, contribute to their futures and experience lifelong memories".

The idea is for one of those five to now be chosen by an online poll, which ends today. I'm encouraging you to go vote for the Northern Voices Oral School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which is housed in the classroom spaces of my church during the week. Northern Voices' mission statement is summarized as

and you can find out more about what they do from this page of their web site.

In addition to renting space from my church, the students served by the school includes the daughter of Mrs. Daniels, a teacher at the high school I went to, who has benefited greatly from their work. So, my church, school acquaintances, and many others around town here would appreciate it if all of you could take a moment to go vote for Northern Voices please. You can even vote once for each computer you have access to, and you don't have to be from Minnesota to vote. Or, since it's a very close race between them and one of the other organizations (and all of the finalists are quite respectable and deserving), and as we all know professional sports teams are not exactly short on cash, after you vote it would be even better if you could take a few more minutes and write a message to the Timberwolves encouraging them to actually double the grant and give it to both groups - the contact form to do so is here.

The link one last time:
http://www.nba.com/webAction?actionId=secPoll&pollId=14953&showResult=true&team=timberwolves&useFrag=true

Thanks!

As part of their promotion of Vista's release, Microsoft has set up an "ice house" in downtown Toronto, with various aspects of the new version on display in the different rooms. Now, just having the Microsoft folk there to present their product (and their side of the story when it comes to its "features"), a group of dedicated Ubuntu users will be on hand nearby with a ten-foot tall inflatable Tux (the penguin mascot of Linux) telling people about free open-source software and its merits over closed, proprietary, restricted systems such as the one showcased inside the ice house. They will also have laptops on hand to showcase Ubuntu and Kubuntu and let passersby check it out for themselves, and CDs to take home for anyone interested. The group will be on the sidewalk just next to Yonge & Dundas Square in Toronto from 4:00 to 7:00 PM EST today, Friday February 2nd - look for the penguin. If you're in the area, drop by, and if not, tell your friends!

The purpose of this display is to "promote software freedom, and to raise awareness about Microsoft's freedom-inhibiting software licenses." says Dave Sullivan, a freelance IT consultant specializing in Linux and open source, who has helped organize the event, and to educate visitors about the various increasingly widespread alternatives that exist to proprietary software. Also, the laptops on display will allow visitors to see features of Ubuntu and the opportunity to try it out on someone else's computer with knowledgable volunteers on hand to explain things as they poke around, which should be more comfortable and inviting than the prospect of installing a new system often is (which is also what Live CDs are fantastic for). There will be literature printed up (which I authored some of actually) for everyone to take home with them to learn what Ubuntu is and what this free software stuff is all about.

One of the points they will be making to the people considering using Windows Vista is the state of the End User License Agreement (EULA) for it. Microsoft licenses have long been restrictive, but with Vista they take an even larger step in that direction, leaving those who choose to use it very limited in what they are allowed to do with their own computers. Michael Geist, a Canadian copyright lawyer recently brought some of the items of serious concern in this blog post, and another analysis is provided at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/%7Epgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html, with legal explanations at http://shearer.org/VistaForLawyers. If you would like, you can read the license yourself, and compare it to the GNU General Public License, a common license for free open-source software.

Ryan Kavanagh graciously accepted the challenge to put together a press release explaining the event, which has already been sent to various major local and national news outlets. David J Patrick, another organizer and the owner of Linuxcaffe, also contacted someone at CTV. Regardless of what official media is on hand, there will be people along documenting the event hopefully both in pictures and video.

Turns out a handful of people from the Microsoft display have already heard about the plans, and dropped by the Linuxcaffe, asking for the group not to wreck their ice house. David Patrick assured them then, and I will again to anyone concerned, that is not at all the intention. "We're all about freedom and interoperability" he said "collaboration, not knocking things down". This is supposed to be about making people aware of alternatives and knowledgable about the issues regarding freedom as they pertain to the software on their computers, hoping to empower users to work, solve problems, and create more effectively - not destroy or cause the problems. A number of people in the group have been doing background research on the legalities we need to be aware of and comply with, so you can be assured that this is a peaceful and well intentioned effort! It could even be good that some of the ice house workers know about us - maybe they'll even be intrigued!

Thanks to everyone who has already put effort into organizing and researching for this amazing opportunity to educate the public, donated their time or resources for the production of CDs and flyers, written items up, offered their suggestions and ideas, offered laptops for demos, and of course everyone who can show up and actually talk to people! We are still looking for people to contact more of the press particularly in the technology sector (online or otherwise), more happy volunteers to come out to greet and talk to people, more CDs or burners, and paper/funding for flyers, some more really decked out laptops - preferably with Beryl up and running, and another car type battery to help power ten-foot Tux. If you can offer any of these things, contact someone via the mailing list, IRC, by leaving a comment here, or just showing up!

For more information, see:
Dave Sullivan's post about it
David J. Patrick's post about it
The Facebook event entry for it
The flyer that will be handed out
The relevant page on the Ubuntu wiki
The threads on the mailing list here and here
The Ubuntu web site
Ubuntu Canada
Ubuntu Toronto