Category Archives: SPI

Software in the Public Interest

Friday Opinion Request 2: Are Your Free Software T-Shirts Ethical?

2008-09-05 by mjr

News reports have described the use of forced child labour for cotton harvesting in Uzbekistan, which is then used in t-shirts and so on, including those sold by some major shops in England like Asda/Wal-Mart, as I mentioned on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Training and Information, SPI | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Canada: Land of the Non-Free?

2008-09-03 by mjr

I’ve been seeing a bit about Canada recently, what with plastic-bottled water (more on that next month), the airline I used for my last trip (Zoom) going bust and stranding passengers and being a fan of Co-op Radio‘s documentaries, so … Continue reading →

Posted in SPI | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Plesk open_basedir and PEAR: the missing step

2008-09-02 by mjr

I hate the Plesk server control panel webapp but our webmaster cooperative still maintains one (but only one) server that uses it. That non-free software means that it’s under our “limited support agreement” which essentially says “you understand that the … Continue reading →

Posted in GNU/Linux, SPI, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

More Free Software for Libraries

2008-08-28 by mjr

Two interesting nearly-free-software articles about Free Software for Libraries:- May/June 2007 Library Technology Report: Open Source Software for Libraries, from ALA TechSource (recently republished under CC-By-SA) Open Source Business Resource, August 2008: Education, Is Open Source Right for your Library?, … Continue reading →

Posted in Koha, SPI, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bristol and Bath LUG Meeting 23 August 2008

2008-08-22 by mjr

Apparently the LUG’s website is still off-line and there’s no idea when it will return, so let me use this site to help announce that the LUG’s regular meeting at the Knights Templar public house, near Isambard Walk, Bristol, will … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Training and Information, GNU/Linux, SPI | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

USB Charging: Greener or Not?

2008-08-22 by mjr

I’ve ordered some USB charging leads for various portable devices, mainly because I’ve already got mains-USB and car-USB power adapters (they came with a bluetooth headset that charges from USB) and I agree with things like this: “management of an … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Training and Information, GNU/Linux, SPI, ThePhoneCoop, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Would a Real Free Software Developer Group Bite Apple Like FSF Did?

2008-08-20 by mjr

I’ve been installing free software for library cataloguing onto Apples recently. It’s not been great (GNU/Linux is still easier and faster, in my opinion) but it has worked much better than older Macs. As well as making servers that are … Continue reading →

Posted in GNU/Linux, SPI, ThePhoneCoop, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gov.UK Consults on Forced ISP Snooping: Please Say NO

2008-08-15 by mjr

Argh! Our beloved leaders have just started a consultation on making it mandatory for internet service providers to keep email and web logs for a year and deliver them to local councils and police on request. Large ISPs have already … Continue reading →

Posted in SPI, ThePhoneCoop, Web Development | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

SPI Meeting Announcement and Why People Don’t Join SPI

2008-08-13 by mjr

Jimmy Kaplowitz writes: “Software in the Public Interest, Inc., will hold a public board of directors meeting on Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 19:00 UTC. […] SPI meetings are held on the OFTC IRC network, irc.oftc.net, in #spi. […] Agenda“ A … Continue reading →

Posted in Drupal, GNU/Linux, OSCommerce, SPI, Web Development | Tagged | 7 Comments

SPI Election Result and Apology

2008-07-30 by mjr

Regular readers may remember that I stood in the board election of Software in the Public Interest, the main democratic free software corporation, a few weeks ago. Well, the result is posted with David Graham and Jimmy Kaplowitz are re-elected. … Continue reading →

Posted in Drupal, GNU/Linux, SPI | Tagged | Leave a comment