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Early reminder: Norwich evening meeting on 10th June
by Syd Hancock 27 May '04

27 May '04

The next 'second thursday' evening meeting in Norwich will be held this Thursday, the 10th of June at the City Gate, Derham Road, from about 8pm. Full details are on the ALUG website: Venue and meeting details: http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2004/all-NorThu.html Venue: full address, photo, link to map etc here: http://www.norwichpubs.info/norwichpubs/pubpages/citygate.htm Syd

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New
by Sue Green 27 May '04

27 May '04

Hi Just dropping a hello in here. My name is Sue and I'm trying to convert from windows to Linux (why does it sound like AA meeting when you start with my name is ....) Anyway, have installed Cygwin on an NT machine for SSH fun and games and looking to replace the current server type unit here with a Linux one in the next round of upgrades. I'm officially IT manager of a small (um, two people including me) company, learning as I go. Anyhoos, I work in Ipswich, live in Kesgrave.. Will be lurking about reading your comments and might chip in with a few dumb questions here and there. Sue www.datadesign.co.uk www.textravaganza.com

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Software Patents
by John Seago 27 May '04

27 May '04

I have recieved this from the Green Party, which I find rather strange, I'd prefer everything in writing. any advice? Margaret Wright has offered to speak to you by 'phone - best probably to email her your tel no. From: Stephen Lawrence, 8 Supanee Court, French's Road, Cambridge, England, CB4 3LB. Tel/Fax +44 1223 564373 -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Boot partitions
by John Seago 27 May '04

27 May '04

later today I am planning to attempt, after years of using Slackware, an installation of Debian. I have two questions: a) I have the kernel for my Slackware in its own boot partition, as this suits my hardware I intend to use it for the Debian. Can I take it that the proceedure for using the same boot partition for two OS's is to delete the boot file from the second and write the boot partition into /etc/fstab and then reboot? b) I have the seven disks for Debian 3.0 r0, can I take it that I only need to buy the update disk for the latest version to upgrade to the latest stable version? -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Re: main digest, Vol 3 #164 - 9 msgs
by John Seago 26 May '04

26 May '04

On Wednesday Syd Hancock <syd(a)toufol.com> wrote: > I thought it might be worth replying to point out that the wishes of > the elected representatives are being thrown aside and if they wish > to prevent s/w patents they will need to vote against them when the > proposals come before the European Parliament again later this > year. As far as I was aware that was the intention, was it not? (See my initial post of Sunday).: > Just send this: > <What is the XXXXX party's policy on Software patents within europe?> > to the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, BNP, Greens, English > Democrats and the Indepedents. It serves to make them think, and raises > the matter as an issue in this election. You can then follow it up with > whatever Mark has later -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Software Patents
by John Seago 26 May '04

26 May '04

I have received the following from the Green Party: "I can confirm that the Green Party is opposed to the EU proposals on software patenting, and supports open source operating systems such as Linux. The GP also wishes to see an end to the effective Microsoft monopoly in many software applications. Margaret Wright, our lead candidate for the European Election, attended a meeting in Brussels last month, at which the Federation of European Green Parties took this view. yours sincerely, John Matthissen Campaign Co-ordinator" -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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[Alug Announce][lugmaster] FW: SANE 2004: Call for Posters (fwd)
by MJ Ray 26 May '04

26 May '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 2004-05-17 21:06:46 +0100 From: Alasdair G Kergon <agk(a)lug.org.uk> Subject: [lugmaster] FW: SANE 2004: Call for Posters could you please pass this Call for Posters for SANE 2004 around?? The deadline is approaching and we need posters :) http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane2004/CfPosters.html ---------------------------------- Call for Posters 4th International SANE Conference September 27 - October 1, 2004 RAI Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands A conference organized by the NLUUG, the UNIX User Group - The Netherlands Co-sponsored by Stichting NLnet and with the co-operation of USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association OVERVIEW Technology is advancing, the systems administration profession is changing rapidly, and you have to master new skills to keep apace. At the 4th International SANE (System Administration and Network Engineering) technical conference and tutorial tracks you'll find a wealth of opportunities to meet other system administrators and network (security) professionals with similar interests, while attending a program that brings you the latest in tools, techniques, security and networking. You can learn from tutorials, refereed papers and invited talks. The official language at the conference will be English. The conference will be located at the Amsterdam RAI Congress Centre. Included in the conference are: * Tutorial Program (September 27-29) * Technical Conference (September 30 - October 1) * Exhibition (September 30 - October 1) POSTER SESSIONS The SANE Posters provide an excellent forum for authors to present their work in an informal and interactive setting. Posters are ideal for presenting speculative, late-breaking results or for giving an introduction to interesting, innovative work. Posters are intended to provide authors and participants with the ability to connect with each other and to engage in discussions about the work. The posters will provide information about the applications, architecture, implementation, performance and security of modern computing systems and IP networks. Posters that present Work In Progress and draw important conclusions from practical experience are especially welcome. Posters are being solicited in areas including but not limited to: * Security tools and techniques: IPsec, Network Intrusion Detection * Systems, Firewalls, VPNs, practical cryptography, auditing and * computer forensics * Attacks against networks and machines, including denial-of-service * attacks * Adventures in nomadic and wireless computing * Web security fundamentals and practical web site maintenance * Integrating new networking technologies like IPv6 * Network monitoring and traffic shaping solutions * System and network performance tuning * Managing enterprise-wide email and fighting spam * Innovative system administration tools and techniques * Distributed or automated system administration * Managing large amounts of computers * Unix on the desktop (including MacOS X) REFEREED POSTER SUBMISSIONS Successful posters are carefully designed to convey technical details. They should also attract the attention of attendees as they stroll past the displays. The goal is to develop a poster that encourages and facilitates small groups of individuals interested in a technical area to gather and interact. Posters will be reviewed and selected by the Poster Committee. An award will be given at the conference for the best poster. A submission must include an abstract of up to 400 words. Including a rough sketch of the poster is recommended. Also include the URL of a web site related to the poster, if applicable. Submissions must be done through this web form Authors of accepted submissions must provide a one or two page summary for publication in the conference proceedings. This brings the subject to an even larger audience. These summaries are held in the highest confidence prior to publication in the conference proceedings. By agreeing to present your poster at SANE 2004, you also give permission to the SANE 2004 conference organizers to publish the poster and summary on the NLUUG and SANE web sites. PRACTICAL * One author per accepted poster can attend the conference, * exhibition and social event free of charge, excluding travel and * lodging expenses. * The posters will be located in a public area, close to the * exhibition, viewable for all conference attendees. * The size of the board for the poster is about 1.40 meter wide and * 1.00 meter high. Note that this is landscape orientation! Push * pins can be used to attach material to the board. * There is a small table beside each poster with room for leaflets * and a laptop for a live demo. If you need more room consider * getting a booth at the exhibition. * The posters are to be set up Wednesday evening, September 29. * During both lunch breaks someone must be present at the poster to * interact with conference attendees. At other times this is also * possible, putting a time schedule on the poster is recommended. IMPORTANT DATES Submission due: June 7, 2004 Notification to authors: June 28, 2004 Summary due: August 16, 2004 CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS Poster Committee sane2004-poster(a)sane.nl Bram Moolenaar (chair) Armijn Hemel, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NL Hans Onvlee, Stichting NLnet, Den Bosch, NL Peter Honeyman, CITI, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Event Organization sane2004-org(a)sane.nl Wytze van der Raay, treasurer, Stichting NLnet, Amsterdam, NL Mari??lle Klatten and Sabina Beeke, conference organizers, ICONIQ, Baarn, NL _______________________________________________ lugmaster mailing list lugmaster(a)mailman.lug.org.uk http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/lugmaster -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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OCR for Linux
by Wayne Stallwood 26 May '04

26 May '04

Has anyone had experience of (or know of) a practical (and preferably open source) OCR application for Linux. I am looking for something that will play nicely with any scanner Sane recognises and is either scriptable or has a batch mode. Regards Wayne

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Software Patents
by John Seago 25 May '04

25 May '04

I have received the following from Rosalind Gill Liberal Democrat EP candidate for the East of England: "Dear Mr Seago, I have concerns about the EU Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions. The party position is as follows We addressed the issue in the Liberal Democrat IT policy paper "Making IT Work" which was adopted at our Spring Conference in 2003. This made it clear that we are extremely sceptical about the application of patents in the software field. We state that we would "support continued widespread innovation in software by resisting the wider application of patents in this area." The full policy paper may be of interest to you and can be read in the policy section of our website at: http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.folders/section.policy/ folder.policy_papers Richard Allan MP, the Liberal Democrat Information Technology Spokesman, who has been campaigning actively for the Directive to be amended. He has raised this in correspondence and meetings with the relevant Ministers and liaised with colleagues in the European Parliament and campaign groups. Most recently, Richard lobbied Jacqui Smith MP as the Minister representing the UK at the Competitiveness Council to try and persuade her to reconsider the Government's support for the current draft of the Directive. I attach an extract from his letter to the Minister: "Software is very different from other inventions that are appropriate for the patent system. In the software world there is no shortage of ideas but rather the difficulty lies in implementing these ideas. It is the production of the code that is difficult and this is adequately covered by copyright law which safeguards the returns of the author. This is very different from fields such as pharmaceuticals where the hard work lies in the research that produces the discovery. There is a public interest in a patent granted to an invention that has been produced after challenging and expensive research as this enables others to use it under license conditions. There is no such public interest in awarding a patent to a computer related invention that many other people are likely to arrive at with very little outlay. "The response from the patent authorities is often that the inventiveness test means that they will not grant patents to discoveries that others could easily arrive at. However, the speed of progress in the IT field means that what is not obvious today may frequently be obvious tomorrow. "A very good case that highlights the inappropriateness of broad patentability in this field is the Bromcom case. This case is being conducted by the Department for Education and Skills who are seeking to break a patent awarded for the use of wireless network systems to transmit pupil data. This was deemed to be inventive in 1993 when the patent was applied for but would now be seen as trivial with today's wireless network systems. "What we are faced with because of the Bromcom patent is a situation that is harmful to the public interest in a number of respects. "Firstly, it could require schools to pay license fees using public money whenever they wish to implement pupil management systems over wireless networks. The DfES has presumably mounted its legal action as it sees this as a better value option than paying the license fees. "Secondly, it has created uncertainty in the market thereby discouraging a range of suppliers from creating products in this area. It has acted to reduce the quality of product by existing suppliers. "Thirdly, it acts as a disincentive for any new small supplier to get into this business. The fact that they would need the financial and legal expertise to deal with patent and licensing claims means that many small businesses will stay out of these product areas leading to a reduction in overall innovation. "The Bromcom patent was issued under the existing rules. It involves hardware as well as software so is presumably covered by the Directive as a computer-implemented invention rather than being pure software. I would suggest that a very good test for the Directive would be to see if it will allow the Bromcom patent through. If the answer is yes then this contributes to the argument for there to be a tightening of the definition of patentability rather than just a continuation of the status quo as currently seems to be on offer. "I hope that your officials will be able to liaise with the DfES to look into the Bromcom patent case as this is such a prime example of the threat that many people fear may result from the unamended Directive. "In general terms, the fear is that we may inadvertently create a situation in which innovation is reduced rather than increased, where far from helping small businesses to exploit their products we set them at a disadvantage against large businesses that can afford patent lawyers and legal action, and where the public interest as a whole suffers as license fees have to be paid for discoveries that would anyway be made." The Westminster parliamentary party will continue to press the Government on this issue as the Directive proceeds through its legislative stages. I hope this is helpful to you. Yours Rosalind Gill Liberal Democrat EP candidate for the East of England" -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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Re: Software Patents
by John Seago 25 May '04

25 May '04

Syd Hancock <syd(a)toufol.com> wrote: > Interesting to note that the responses are now over-taken by events. > Worth responding to perhaps? How have events overtaken the responses, (I live a rather insulated life), and what is the suggested response? I won't be back at my keyboard until around tea time. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org)

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