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Debian’s predictable random number generator bug in OpenSSL saw me regenerating SSH and TLS keys. I almost always have to look up how to use openssl for certificate generation, so I improved my tiny personal certificate authority setup with a makefile, similar to the one used in this howto by Jeremy Mates.

The fool that I am, I locked myself out of my flat (again). This time, thankfully, I didn’t end up paying some extortionate amount of money to call someone out to slide a piece of plastic through the latch. Instead, as well as realising I had left my keys inside, I realised I had left a window open, and borrowed some ladders from a neighbour.

The latch is effective enough to keep someone unprepared out, but with just a piece of plastic can be opened in less than five minutes. Normally, I’d lock the mortice lock too, but then if I could lock the mortice lock I would have my keys. That would then have been of little use had I not realised I left the window open, which is probably the way things would have gone had I not forgot my keys. Arrgh!

To complete my mini adventure, the reason I left my flat in the first place was to go to a shop around the corner. I bumped into PerfDave and said “hello”, etc, went into the shop to find they didn’t have what I wanted, went to another shop across the road and bumped into PerfDave again, who thought I may have got lost because I was coming from the wrong direction.

The day after the RMS speech, and it was time for currybeer again. Paul was skiving, so I took the twelve of us off to the Punjab restaurant. We have been there before, but with a larger group that ended up sitting around two tables. This time we got one, although there was still no talk between the extremities of the table.

I had keema dosa, which was quite filling. So filling I didn’t eat all of my main course, which was a fairly nice dish that I can’t remember the name of (a Punjab special tawamix thingy).

I didn’t say an awful lot in my last post. I was a bit tired by that point. The RMS talk was indeed a success.

Before the talk, a few of us handed out flyers for Manchester Free Software and the Free Software Foundation, hopefully gaining some publicity there.

The badgering to get the larger lecture theatre (and possibly the blog posts too) paid off, with the talk being moved from a 100‐seater to a 300‐seater room. Most, if not all, of the seats were taken, with some people sitting on the stairs or standing at the back. I was one of the latter. I tried some different positions that didn’t make me any more comfortable, but I lasted it out.

Stallman’s talks mostly boil down to one of a small number in similarity, and this was one of them. He covered off the GNU project, the principles of free software, some of the bad things about proprietary software, and free software in educational institutions. I had heard most of it before but it still interested me and possibly filled some bits I had missed. I suspect a fair number of the audience hadn’t.

The questions and answers at the end lasted a long time. There was something about how works of art compare to software, and how computer games fit in; an amusing look into the future when machines may have freedom; and a drawn out debate from someone desperately trying to argue that they should be allowed to make money through proprietary software and, in Stallman’s view, subjugate the users.

RMS then auctioned off a copy of “Free Software, Free Society”, which was fun to witness. John Leach put in his first (or second?) bid following with a request for a hug. The next bidder requested not to get a hug, with Stallman saying “how much will you pay not to have a hug?” (maybe paraphrased). Eventually, I think £90 was raised for the FSF, and the winning bidder (not John) got a hug.

I thoroughly enjoyed the talk, and wish Richard Stallman well. Also, thank you Matt Lee for setting things in motion, and Paul Waring and the BCS for the effort that went into organising the event, and Paul Robinson for hosting Richard Stallman during his visit.

Success!

Tim Dobson seems to forget his manners. Common (or maybe not so these days) courtesy would suggest that all one has to do is ask the authors if you wish to reproduce their works.

A copyright licence giving such permissions is merely an enabler to get around current laws being overly restrictive. A licence shouldn’t even be necessary: We should be attempting to reduce copyright terms to a reasonable length that both encourages people to author works, and allows society to benefit from them. Further, if you circumvent copyright by pressuring everyone to release works under free licences, you will also remove some of the incentive, which copyright is supposed to provide, to write.

I don’t like being pressured into licensing my site or making changes to make the licence visible, even though I already intend to do so. If you would like to reproduce a part of my site, be polite, ask. Chances are I won’t take a chunk out of your ankle, and will allow the reproduction.

I’ve brushed the dust from my Yahoo! account to add Richard Stallman’s talk in Manchester to Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/495367/

If you’re going, stick your name down. Let’s see how many are really going¹.

1. or how the number reflects the reality post‐event.

I’m sure everyone who knows me knows by now, but just in case you don’t: Richard Stallman is speaking in Manchester.

Paul Robinson, who has kindly offered to host Richard Stallman for his visit, expresses his opinion on the size of the lecture theatre the BCS have booked. He’s not alone, I wholeheartedly agree. We don’t just have people coming from Manchester. We have, that I have heard rumour of, people from Yorkshire, and even the Midlands. As said on the Futuresonic site:

A rare UK talk by Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software movement.

This is a rare thing, attendance is very likely to be good. I can only hope the catering guys sorting out the “refreshments” before the talk have been forewarned.

Note: The Futuresonic talk is a different one to the Manchester Free Software and BCS/IET‐organised event. Go to both!

I wouldn’t mind knowing about Paul Robinson’s backup plans though:

however there is a backup plan those of us with an ear to the ground will have in place.

I haven’t had my ear pressed to the ground hard enough, despite being a silent(‐ish) observer of the liaison between Paul Waring on behalf of Manchester Free Software, RMS and the FSF, and the BCS (and IET, but apparently they left it all to the BCS to sort out).

Manchester Free Software (well, Paul Waring) asked the BCS and the IET to help, because we knew it would be big. Manchester Free Software didn’t get a mention on the initial flyers from the IET (they didn’t know there was an involvement), so if I’m being a little paranoid I hope you can understand. That is not important though: What is important is that Richard Stallman’s words on freedom are heard by many.

Like Martin and Daniel I vastly prefer people to call me by my real name in real life. Unlike them, and more like David/Dave/Schwuk, I’ll tolerate people calling me “sward”, and accept that some people are really weird and just find it easier to associate with my online identity. I tolerate it because I was taught that names didn’t matter. I’m a “little squirt”, I was going to have to put up with some really stupid names that were meant to insult. All recite after me:

Sticks and stones may break my bones
but names will never hurt me.

I have been called “Swardman”, “Junior” (characterised from the film Cool Runnings), and lots of foul words. I ran with them. It doesn’t really change who I am.

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

“Si” is an exception, I don’t like it.

If you know me through IRC there is no excuse for not knowing my real name, I do use it in IRC:

[OFTC] -!- sward [~simon@sward.bleah.co.uk]
[OFTC] -!-  ircname  : Simon Ward

[freenode] -!- sward [n=simon@fsf/member/sward]
[freenode] -!-  ircname  : Simon Ward

If you have trouble associating people with their preferred names, maybe you should configure your IRC client to display them? Of course, that does assume that people set their “realname” or equivalent appropriately.

Life seems to have been taken up with other things these past few weeks.

Since I mentioned OpenStreetMap I have done a little bit more mapping, including Birchfields Park in Longsight, and some bits around Deansgate Locks. I have a number of pending questions about mapping bits of the latter area, but just haven’t got around to asking.

I had neglected my bike a bit. To make up for it, I gave it a good clean. The cadence sensor to go with my Edge 305 arrived last week, so I’m sure I’ll have a little “must play with new shiney gadget” phase that gets me out a bit more. I had hoped to cycle over to my mum’s this weekend, but I think I have left it a little late.

Also last week, I have suddenly become a whole lot more involved with Manchester Free Software. We had Alex Hudson speak mainly about the Bongo Project, and followed up in Fab Cafe with a meeting to discuss the future of Manchester Free Software. The minutes are online in the Manchester area of the FSF Groups wiki for those interested. Next month we have John Leach, author of Everybody Loves Eric Raymond. He’ll be talking about that, as well as well as Brightbox, a Ruby on Rails hosting provider.