Author Archives: mjr

Python 3 and Backwards Compatibility?

2009-08-18 by mjr

A while ago, we had a big discussion in the software.coop about what programming language we should prefer when we have a completely free choice. Ultimately, while all the workers have our own favourites (like my Lisp and Perl bias), … Continue reading →

Posted in Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

#ukgovoss and Poor gov.uk Websites

2009-08-17 by mjr

Using gov.uk websites is an ordeal at the best of time. Even the most polished websites tend to reflect the structure of the government body, which I find counter-intuitive – and I’m a councillor who pays attention to these things. … Continue reading →

Posted in Wordpress and Blogs | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Would you help to Connect SouthWest England?

2009-08-14 by mjr

Martha Lane Fox, the recently appointed Champion for Digital Inclusion visited Bristol recently and met Bristol Wireless Community Cooperative. I follow Digital Inclusion topics, but I only heard about that after the event because of a technical fault on ConnectingBristol.org, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cooperatives | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Facebook Disrupts Activism

2009-08-11 by mjr

Last week, I caused a little bit of upset by using the wrong word when questioning why an online course was advertising Facebook in its title. (Another typical MJR tact failure… I’m sure many people can guess how it went … Continue reading →

Posted in SPI | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Karoo Chooses to Start Three-Strikes

2009-08-08 by mjr

You may remember that I did some work last year campaigning against the “three strikes and you’re out” disconnect system, where suspected filesharers are disconnected from the internet after the third allegation is made. That’s allegation, not any sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in ThePhoneCoop | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

FOSS Screencast Tools?

2009-08-07 by mjr

As I wrote yesterday, the Koha IRC meeting started discussing tutorials for new contributors. I’d really like to avoid expecting people to use non-free software to learn about contributing to free software. Too many so-called webinars are not webinars. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Koha | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Koha IRC Meeting August 2009

2009-08-06 by mjr

Quite a good turnout for the Koha general IRC meeting yesterday. I think the headlines are: 3.2 enters a soft feature freeze for end of 2009-09-06; UTF-8 problems and circulation bugs are blockers or criticals for 3.2; user testing of … Continue reading →

Posted in Koha | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Great British Broadband Speed Lie

2009-07-29 by mjr

I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone, but Ananova reports: No-one getting top broadband speeds based on the Ofcom/SamKnows/GfK research. In the village where I live, our “up to 8Mbps” service is stable at about 4. As … Continue reading →

Posted in ThePhoneCoop | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

SPI Voting

2009-07-28 by mjr

Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is currently electing to fill two vacant seats on its board. The dates aren’t shown on the vote pages, but on the email: voting closes at 2009-07-28 23:59:59 UTC (UK residents note: UTC not … Continue reading →

Posted in SPI | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Amazon Kindle Un-selling Books

2009-07-27 by mjr

I’ve been reading ebooks for years, since I had a Palm IIIe. It’s probably approaching ten years, looking at the sale date of the IIIe. Now I read them on my mobile phone (see app 7). One common thread all … Continue reading →

Posted in Koha | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments