Free Software Linux

Insurgent methodology clearly fascinates master tactician Peter Mandelson who recently urged the UK Government to behave more like insurgents in order to beat the Conservative Party in the forthcoming election. Superficially, it is a mildly bizarre statement but maybe not.

General McChrsytal no less believes that the US is in real danger of never being able to beat the Talebs... unless they find the 'right strategy'. Pretty shocking statement that.

We should all give Brandon Rhodes a hearty "Thanks!" for doing a great job representing Python at the Atlanta Linux Fest on September 19th. You can read Brandon's account of the day for more details and his advice to anyone planning similar outreach activities.

The Google Highly Open Participation contest ('GHOP') is going to run
again this year in December starting around Dec 7th. Closer to December we will start talking about suggestions and thoughts on how to make GHOP
work well for the PSF and Python.

What's that?

If you're not familiar with GHOP, it is a contest framework that lets
Google pay students for doing small units of work (coding, testing, doc
writing, etc.) on a wide variety of projects. It was a success for the
PSF last time, in that tons of doc changes and test fixes got committed to core, many
other projects benefitted, and most of the people involved had a pretty
good time.

Why is it so hard to sell Free, Open Source solutions into the Public Sector especially Local Authorities?

You would have thought that it would be easy - after all FOSS solutions for services such as e-mail, collaboration software, and learning platforms are demonstrably cheaper and more effective than their proprietary equivalents.

You would also be encouraged by the Government mandating that all public sector IT procurements show that due consideration has been given to Open Source solutions alongside proprietary ones.

With an election on the horizon both the Conservatives and Labour are increasingly triangulating on issues they believe will win them votes. This is business-as-usual, but what is remarkable this time round is that Information Technology is heading for centre stage in the game.

Never before has ICT been considered political, but after a long string of Government projects most observers would characterise as failed or failing, absurdly late, and obscenely expensive it has earnt it's place.

It's political - a measure of both a Government's competence and it's financial acumen - both key issues in an election.

In the Open Source world we are rarely privy to what goes on behind closed doors in the world of ICT in UK gov. However, we have been remarkably 'lucky' over the years to fish out just what is going on. By popular request here's how it's done: The Spencer System.

This is my own system used for detective work when dealing with official releases written or spoken in Mandarin-Speak. They invariably consist of: lies (verifiable and non verifiable); 'economical truths'; weasel words; spin and monkey shaking. A glossary is provided at the end for those unfamiliar with the terms.

Ok, so now we know,

John Suffolk's (the Cabinet Office CIO) generously replied to my questions posed in last week's blog. G-Cloud is 'go' and it will be a Private Cloud, based on Open Standards and will use a mix of proprietary and (free?) open source software. All I reckon is left it to see whether it's stitched together by Microsoft's technology or Red Hat's.

The PSF is looking for information about successful uses of Python in order to create an updated list of success stories and find organizations that might be interested in sponsoring activities for the community. If you know of a company that uses Python for any purpose, please take a few minutes to answer the questions on our short survey. You don't have to work at an organization to tell us about how they use Python! Don't worry about duplicates, either, we'll take care of them once we have all of the data collected.

Anyone remember Computer Assisted Learning or CAL? No? Well it's back.

Ever since the first computer to draw a graph or do that parsing thing to allow kids to fill in missing words, ICT has been the 'Great Beige Hope' that would revolutionise teaching and learning.

It's all tosh by the way. Ignore the fake stats and the deluded evangelists. CAL (or interactive computer lead learning) is simply a gimmick perpetuated by the faux trendsetters with good hair that stalk education.

This month naked marketing muscle once again shows us how it should be done. In the UK, Microsoft made it to number one as the most respected and trusted brand, ahead even of Mercedes-Benz. The people have spoken.

Quite an achievement considering Vista bombed and no amount of PR power could persuade the non-OEM consumer otherwise. Now, obviously before it was too late and the Windows brand itself was damaged, Windows 7 has been released. Word is that it is OK, better even than XP.

There are fine lines between realism and cynicism, wariness and paranoia and never more so when trying to piece together what a particularly slippery government is doing. One could just read what they say they are doing on the public record and believe what they say but that surely would, in the light of experience, just be plain silly.

Most people use only one browser. They further divide into the ones that choose the browser they use and so use the browser they prefer, and those who use the browser they were given.

Even fewer, myself amongst them, use different browsers on a regular basis. Depending on which machine and platform I am on I use Firefox, IE7, Chrome and Opera. Updated, the list now reads Firefox 3, Opera Unite and IE8; I am waiting for Chrome on Linux.

I am currently re-reading an oldish book on post-Piagetian child brain development. It has proved to be a real thought provoker, ironically for me not so much about young children but about the way adults think when you get the communication wrong. Hence the title of the article.

Specifically I am thinking about our attempts to explain the nature and importance of open source Software to people who have barely heard of it.

I am currently re-reading an oldish book on post-Piagetian child brain development. It has proved to be a real thought provoker, ironically for me not so much about young children but about the way adults think when you get the communication wrong. Hence the title of the article.

Specifically I am thinking about our attempts to explain the nature and importance of open sour [...]

If the epidemiologists are right, which they most probably are, in the Northern Hemisphere this September onwards should see the now firmly established and officially pandemic virus known as Swine Flu re-emerge with potentially serious consequences.

Hopefully, its pathological effects will be mild but, one thing is for sure, in order to limit the progress of the virus, schools and colleges will have to close. If not, many parents will be reluctant to send their children to the schools which stay open where they could be exposing them to infection.