Open Source at SF State University - Code

etckeeper

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:01:12 -0700

etckeeper is an interesting package...definitely a very specific itch!

From their site (http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/etckeeper/):

"etckeeper is a collection of tools to let /etc be stored in a git, mercurial, or bzr repository. It hooks into apt (and other package managers) to automatically commit changes made to /etc during package upgrades. It tracks file metadata that revison control systems do not normally support, but that is important for /etc, such as the permissions of /etc/shadow. It's quite modular and configurable, while also being simple to use if you understand the basics of working with revision control."

The Law of Code

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:33:29 -0700

I wrote a short article for the Decision Line magazine, on the topic of how law and code intersect and why it is important for us to pay attention to document formats. An excerpt from the article to tease your senses:

Now, imagine your collection of literary works, where, say, verbs become proprietary. What if your books refused to reveal their pages every 10 years or so because the publisher went out of business? Of course, all this sounds downright silly in the context of analog media, but digital media brings with it possibilities of encryption, lock-ins and DRM—Digital Rights Management. It remains to be seen as to whose rights are being managed.

The entire PDF is at http://www.decisionsciences.org/DecisionLine/Vol39/39_1/dsi_dl39_1ecom.pdf Read and feel free (pun intended) to pass it on!

Translating for XO using Pootle

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:08:09 -0800

These are slides based on how one would go about translating text for different pieces of software on the XO machine for OLPC. Typically, translation involves a good understanding of different pieces of software, but Pootle makes it easy. Its a web component that allows anyone to type in translated strings and click a button. That's it!

See attached slides for more specifics.

Update: Slides with newer screenshots are available at http://dev.laptop.org/~sayamindu/pootleforxo2.odp and http://dev.laptop.org/~sayamindu/pootleforxo2.pdf

SquirrelMail: An example of security lapse and recovery in FOSS applications

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:08:58 -0800

Towards the end of last week the SquirrelMail team posted information on their site about a compromise to the main repository of SquirrelMail. Two versions were compromised - 1.4.11 and 1.4.12. The breach and poisioning were detected by a difference in digital signatures which are generated before the upload to a repository. Because the code was poisoned after it was originally uploaded to the repository, the digital signature (using MD5) did not match the original. A clean version - version 1.4.13 - is now available.

Software Freedom Day 2007: A great success

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:31:59 -0700

Software Freedom Day events were a great success and of course, a lot of fun. There's something liberating about heckling passers-by and enticing them with free software.

"Free software, free software! Come and get it. Free software, free software! No strings attached. Nothing to sign. No forms to fill out. Come and get it. Free software, free software!"

Software Freedom Day 2007 at SF State

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:12:53 -0700

SF State students from the Information Management Systems Association (IMSA) will be hosting Software Freedom Day on campus (Malcolm X Plaza) on Thursday, the 13th of September, 2007 from 10am to 4pm. As faculty advisor for IMSA, I'd like to invite you to come by their tables and find out how free and open source software can be of some use to you!

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). SFD is a public education effort, not only to celebrate the virtues of Free and Open Source Software, but also to encourage its use, to the benefit of the public.

Relevant Links:

Clipperz - Online password manager with source code to go

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:53:01 -0700

There are plenty of OpenSource clients for Windows, Linux, and Mac but what about an online one that works in your browser? Clipperz is one such beast that went live in March. The source code is in Google Code and you can build the same file that's loaded to your browser when you log in to Clipperz.

The Penelope Project

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 06:43:26 -0700

Qualcomm, makers of many good things also make Eudora, a commercial e-mail client. However, the e-mail business isn't aligned with its core business of mobile phones, etc. So, Qualcomm has decided to move its platform to a Mozilla Thunderbird base and contribute to that project. Will it actually go somewhere? Its a wait-and-see game at this point.

From their FAQ section:

QUALCOMM has decided not to remain in the email market because it is not in alignment with the core business or strategic goals. By moving Eudora to an open source product, QUALCOMM can exit the Eudora business while still supporting Eudora users and advancing the Eudora e-mail client at a faster pace than before, through the power of the open source development community.”

Second Life goes open-source

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:21:34 -0800

Linden Lab on Monday released as open-source software the viewer used to access Second Life and plans to follow suit with the server software that powers the company's virtual realm. Second Life is a virtual world where people's electronic incarnations--called avatars--can chat, fly, buy goods and interact with programmable objects. Basic membership is free, but Linden Lab sells real estate to those who want to set up shop.

More at: http://news.com.com/Second+Life+software+becomes+open-source/2100-7344_3-6148148.html

Glipper...

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:38:27 -0800

One key feature GNOME has lacked, in comparison to KDE, is a clipboard manager like KDE's Klipper. That's now about to change, thanks to the efforts of a project called "Glipper". The first distribution that will include Glipper appears to be Feisty Fawn Herd 1, which will eventually become Ubuntu 7.04. Ubuntu users who want to try it without using the barely-alpha Feisty Fawn can do so by downloading it from the Universe file repositories.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5699540648.html

Two Gentoos?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:26:18 -0800

gentoo is a two-pane file manager for the X Window System. gentoo lets the user do (almost) all of the configuration and customizing from within the program itself. If you still prefer to hand-edit configuration files, they're fairly easy to work with since they are written in an XML format.

gentoo features a fairly complex and powerful file identification system, coupled to a object-oriented style system, which together give you a lot of control over how files of different types are displayed and acted upon. Additionally, over a hundred pixmap images are available for use in file type descriptions.

gentoo was written from scratch in ANSI C, and it utilises the GTK+ toolkit for its interface. For more information and screenshots, please see: http://www.obsession.se/gentoo/

Software Freedom Day 2006

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:20:26 -0700

SF State students from the Information Management Systems Association (IMSA) and Information Systems Audit Control Association (ISACA) will be hosting Software Freedom Day on campus (Malcolm X Plaza) on Thursday, the 14th of September, 2006 from 10am to 3pm. As faculty advisor for both organizations, I'd like to invite you to come by their tables and find out how free and open source software can be of some use to you!

Relevant Links:

Code Breakers

Mon, 08 May 2006 17:32:18 -0700

A documentary series from the BBC on Free and Open Source Software...

A two-part documentary, Code Breakers will be aired on BBC World TV starting on 10 May 2006. Code Breakers investigates how poor countries are using FOSS applications for development, and includes stories and interviews from around the world.

The famous digital divide is getting wider. A two-part documentary, "The Code Breakers," to be aired on BBC World starting 10 May 2006 examines whether free/open source software (FOSS) might be the bridge?

Open Source Maturity Model

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:15:15 -0700

Maturity of Open Source - quite oxymoronic on its surface. How can an open source project be mature? Does a slow-down in development imply maturity? Does a dead project qualify as mature? What would qualify an open source project to be mature?

Several approaches exist, but these are either development centric or use centric. Lines of code, patches, bug fixes, etc. are good measures of a community's health. However, its only part of the picture. Large user bases imply stability and popularity. It could definitely point to maturity.

In context of the class that I teach, we have looked at a few maturity models for open source. The one put forth by Navica seems to be the most comprehensive. The OSMM, which is a service mark of Navica, is a structured approach to analyse the open source landscape, and quantify the assessment of various elements that represent an open source project. Elements are typically based on the project software itself, the community around it, the technical support, professional services, etc. Each element is assessed and assigned a score, thereby quantifying the assessment. In the next step, the assessment team assigns a weighted score to each element score, which is a way of redistributing the importance of various elements for your scenario. For example, tech support (that dreaded toll-free number) may be more important than code for groups that implement open source software, but are too busy (or too lame) to dig into the code and fix it themselves. These groups could care less about code availability. In such cases, you would assign a higher score to tech support and a lower score to code availability. Here's an overview from Navica's site.

EiffelStudio is GPL'd

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 23:24:33 -0700

EiffelStudio, an IDE for the language Eiffel, developed by Bertrand Meyer, is now available under a dual license - commercial and GPL. From their website:

EiffelStudio is the most robust, reusable, and secure integrated multiplatform development environment on the market. It offers the following key benefits:

Coverage of the complete software life cycle within the product itself (from analysis and design through implementation and testing).

Multiplatform availability (Windows, Windows on .NET, Unix, Linux, Linux PPC, VMS, embedded systems, and Mac OS X).

Full .NET compliance.

Cuts development costs by 50-80%, or more.

Eiffel is an object-oriented language which uses a method called Design by Contract.