Paul Sutton – personal blog
Lubuntu 22.04 Released
Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04 LTS has been released. With the codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.
Pragmatic Use of Nonfree Software
This is a really interesting idea and some of the points presented do also raise important issues.
If we don't reach out via non-free platforms, then we can't easily spread the word.
There are also situations where we are forced to use non free software, it is sometimes better to just get on with it, at least until we can upgrade.
Same for non free hardware support, given the choice between working and non working hardware, I will go with the former,rather than buying a suitable wifi adapter for an old laptop, I would rather save that money, and make a better choice with my next laptop purchase. vendors who use freedom respecting hardware, will be rewarded with custom.
Code Club & STEM Group updates
Both Code Club and the Paignton Library STEM Group are going well. We now have a group of regulars who attend. There is quite a lot of crossover between the two groups anyway in terms of attendeeship.
We have a few talks and practical activities planned for the STEM Group. These include further talks on amplitudes which should eventually lead to digital logic as the underlying ideas are to do with analogue and digital signals.
There are also plans to get the equipment PAT tested. We will then have access to resources we can't currently use until they have been cleared. This PAT testing is part of the annial cycle at the library.
Hopefully at the next code club, I can undertake some more physical computing activities and build on what I was teaching on the 16th April.
I have also now fixed the LED traffic light board that we were looking at on the 16th April, just needed a little more solder on the resistor joint, seems OK now or at least the multi meter reads about (due to tolerance) 270ohm. Hopefully can make use of this now.
Will post more soon.
Tuxiversity Update
Development of the Tuxiversity forum is going well. Not many mew members, yet but, I am working on adding more topic areas and still finding my way around the PHPbb system.
The idea of this forum, is to allow people to share ideas and help each other with study skills, study providers etc. I have added an employment section, as I feel this is complementary.
If you don't want to sign up to an old fashioned brick college, having to attend classes at fixed times, But do want to learn and develop skills then distance learning could be a really good option.
If you are worried about practical side of this, providers such as the Open University run courses, where practical work can take place, for some courses there is OU Lab access, or for astronomy courses access to a observatory, which is linked to a specific practical project based course.
I find being able to just sign up to a course and undertake immediately very useful. This way of learning is flexible, and learners are not held back, by school holidays every few weeks.
The forum allows learners to communicate and discuss providers, what they offer. As it is possible to study to a very high level, then it always good to have a range of options. This is more important if life gets in the way of the old fashioned way of doing things, The internet is really good tool for learning.
Links
Univention Summit
Univention Summit in Bremen and as Virtual Venue on May 17 & 18, 2022
The topic of digital sovereignty for companies, the education sector and public administration is more relevant than ever and more and more projects are starting to make it a reality. At the Univention Summit 2022, well-known drivers and those responsible for digitization will give insights into ongoing and planned projects and the successful use of open source solutions. From Phoenix, Gaia-X and Possible, through the national education area to BILDUNGSLOGIN - so much happens. Also we will focus of course the roadmap of UCS and UCS@school and the presentation of our numerous technology and project partners.
Links
Torbay Trojans vs Bristol Apache Game 2
Our third game and second home game of the 2022 American BritBall Season. We are, again playing Bristol. This is due to the number of teams in the league.
Links
Tags
#Trojans,#Football,#BAFA,#BristolApache,#TorbayTrojans
Fixtures
Fixtures 2022 10/4 – Bristol – Home 17/4 – Somerset – Away 15/5 – Bristol – Home 29/5 – Cornwall – Away 5/6 – Somerset – Home 17/7 – Bristol – Away 24/7 – Somerset – Home 7/8 – Cornwall – Away
Ordering From Amazon
While ordering products from Amazon is easy, avoiding signing up to their prime service. The screenshot below, tries to illustrate this, the sign up link is the stand out area on the right, the small link in the centre, allows you yo just complete the order without signing up to prime and their £7.99 (or what ever they charge).
So next time you order something, if you don't want to sign up to prime, make sure you double check the links. The way the site is designed appears to try and trick you in to signing up.
Why people order online.
The Internet is often cited as causing the death of the high street, lets quickly look, at why this could be the case.
The Matrix Resurrections was released on DVD recently. This was on the shelf in my local Morrisons, however there was no price on the shelf, well there was, but not for that particular DVD.
Giving up, I just ordered on Amazon, along with a few other items, it is easier.
If shops are going to sell products, perhaps take the time to ensure that.
Perhaps then, people will actually buy products from high streets, and not buy online.
Just a thought.
Software Testing
Big Blue Button and Overleaf Testing
I am currently involved in testing various software resources, this include Big Blue Button and Overleaf.
Big Blue Button Testing
The instance of BBB I am using is hosted by Faircam, we have access to both the current stable release,but also the alpha release. This allows for testing of the software. I am part of the BBB developer google group, so can report issues and have just joined the Users' list to discuss there too.
Overleaf Online LaTeX Editor testing
With Overleaf, users are given access to new features to try out, so right now they are introducing a new editor, so the options are the Beta editor, Normal editor and the usual Rich text editor. As I prefer to just write in LaTeX, then I am using the normal editor, but also switching between that and the new test editor and can fill in a simple online form to give feedback on new features.
TAGS
#BigBlueButton,#Overleaf,#Software,#Testing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
BigBlueButton 2.5.0-beta.1 released!
Just sharing this announcement
We are pleased to announce BigBlueButton 2.5.0-beta.1!
This beta iteration of BigBlueButton 2.5 includes some packaging and configuration improvements and several fixes. It also includes an upgrade of Tomcat to mitigate any danger of Spring Framework Remote Code Execution (CVE-2022-22965) by upgrading Tomcat**
Note that BBB 2.3.x and BBB 2.4.x (the maintained versions) are safe, see #14719
At this point we're “feature complete” for BBB 2.5.x Switching to “beta” to iterate with increased focus on testing and clean up bugs. Development is moved on to the next release, BBB 2.6, with pull requests targeting branch 'develop' until we branch out into 'v2.6.x-release' when it's time for 2.6.0-alpha.1
Note that it runs on Ubuntu Focal (20.04). If you have a BigBlueButton version earlier than alpha.5, please check the alpha.5 release notes as they contain imporant information on upgrading.
The full release notes can be found on https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/releases/tag/v2.5.0-beta.1
To try out 2.5.0-beta.1, visit * https://test25.bigbluebutton.org/
Tags