Older blog entries for pjcabrera (starting at number 7)

Quick comment for Dougiamas

In your article, you say the software is being "sold pre-installed on a web host." This description is a little vague. The correct answer to your plea for help and comments depends on the correct interpretation of how your software is being used.

1. Is the offending software used by customers of a shared or dedicated hosting provider? In that case, there is nothing you can do. This particular use falls under the "internal use" clause. As long as the binaries of the Moodle-based software are not being distributed, they are allowed to modify and host sites with this modified base all they want.

The GPL only covers distribution of source and binaries; it says absolutely nothing about the third-party use of modified code.

2. Is the offending software bundled with hardware? In that case, they are not required to provide "the original software and patches". What they are required to provide is the source for their modified version. If they are not doing so, then they are in breach of the GPL. I encourage you to contact them and inform them of their breach, and see where it leads. If they don't comply, there are many groups willing to help at least educate you about your legal options (they may not be able to help you mount a legal response, though, because of financial concerns).

Quick comment for all of us

I take this opportunity also to call for broader financial support from our community to the FSF, Linux International, EFF, and other similar organizations. Maybe I am preaching to the choir, but it may be worth repeating.

Many of us are working on free software on our free time, and do not have the financial resources necessary to defend our freedoms and property. These organizations are willing to help, because in the long run it helps defend their freedoms and property too. But these organizations need our financial support to even be able to operate their offices in any recognizable manner. Soon, maybe sooner than we think, one of them may not be able to operate continuosly any longer, to say nothing of coming to our defense.

If we all chip in just a little bit, we can accomplish the same as one single person giving a lot.

Over and out,
New Radio Free Oz :-D

Gasp!

It's four days past the two-week self-imposed deadline for my latest diary entry! Do I even remember what I've been doing? Argh! :-)

Mono documentation

Spent some free time writing the Learning C# chapter for Mono's documentation, MonkeyGuide. The chapter is still in the early stages, but the first few sections are pretty much finished (unless someone thinks they need corrections or need more content). There are still two large portions missing (Object oriented programming in C# and Introduction to the System namespace).

Go see the latest draft, or visit the official "released version".

If / when I get CVS write access to the Mono documentation tree, I won't need to keep an off-site version anymore (except to request comments on any uncommitted work-in-progress, I guess).

Feel free to visit the latest draft often, and send in any comments or suggestions, or submit your own tutorial text or code samples!

Gtk+, Gtk#, and GNOME hacking

I continue playing around with the code for GNOME Calculator in the hope of learning something useful. :-)

I honestly think GNOME Calculator needs some sort of improvement. It needs a face lift, at least. When compared to all the new GNOME development going on, it just looks so old and bland and pathetic. (It would be a great starter project for me, seeing that I have no original ideas. :-)

Should I say anything first to the GNOME developers mailing list, or should I just go ahead, implement something and then mention it when its ready for first release? It's my first project, and I have no idea what the correct protocol is.

But then again, this is GNOME Calc. It's not like I'll be stepping on hundreds of active developers' toes if I don't mention what I'm up to. :-p

Dinner and a movie

On Saturday January 4th, I went to see The Two Towers with a few friends. I want to marry Eowyn and live happily in the Gap of Rohan, and kill some Yrrch (yes, I also want to be a Lothlorien elf; so sue me).

After the movie, we went to Hard Rock Cafe in San Juan, Puerto Rico (that's the city where I work; I live 45 minutes west in the small city of Vega Baja). Hard Rock Cafe is located near the cruise ship docks in the old part of San Juan. Anyhow, the service was awesome, especially for a Saturday night. And the waitress had an awesome body and a really cute face! :-D

If any of you ever visit Puerto Rico, send me an email, and I'll see about how we can meet up. I like meeting new people.
21 Dec 2002 (updated 21 Dec 2002 at 21:25 UTC) »

Well, it seems only robocoder caught on to the joke in my diary entry last Thursday. Thanks, robo, for the comment. It was meant to be funny.

It goes like this: I was talking to someone on #kernelnewbies. The poor guy was suffering from analysis paralysis, what with so many guides and how-tos out there. And he was taking a survey to determine which guide was most recommended so he could read that one (which I think is such a waste of time; just pick one and read it, and if it doesn't help, pick out another one). He asked me which kernel guide I recommended reading just for starters. I mentioned Val's "LinuxChix Kernel Hacking Lessons".

He answered with "but that's for girls!" I thought his response was very funny, so I wrote a parody of it for my diary.

Mono documentation

I've started writing a chapter on System.Windows.Forms for the Mono documentation project. With the upcoming holiday and things going so slow at work for the next two weeks, I should be able to post it for review by next Friday, if not sooner.

More GTK+ and GNOME hacking

I am also writing lots of little GTK+, GTKMM, and GTK# test programs, to continue my learning. And I've made progress unraveling GNOME calculator. I'm thinking of revamping the GUI, for my own enlightenment at least. I just think it looks so bland compared to all the newer GNOME software out there. It clearly hasn't been touched since GNOME 1.0.

Wow, how time flies!

In the two weeks since my last entry, I've been having lots of fun on my copious free time, reading up on X, GTK+, GTKMM, GTK#, and GNOME component-based programming. I've written a few example programs in each of these libraries, getting a feel for how native UNIX GUI software is written.

From my 5+ years of Java experience and the smattering of Delphi and C++ Builder I did in 1997, GTK+ and its Object Oriented ilk are nothing new; only the toolkit and API is different. The overall concept is identical. So it's not going to be difficult to learn GNOME programming. It's just going to take practice and time to learn all the GNOME specific gotchas and tricks.

Halting steps

I tried looking over the code of GNOME-calculator (I thought it would be easiest), and quickly got lost. So I still have a ways to go before I can start contributing substantially to the body of free software. But I'm getting there.

I built GNOME 2.1.3 using GARNOME, to help submit bug reports towards GNOME 2.2. I know that when something fails to build, it's a GARNOME bug. But when something fails to run or crashes because it couldn't find some configuration something or other, how do I know it's a GARNOME bug or a GNOME bug?

Maybe this knowledge too will come with more experience. In the meantime I will be discussing what I find on the GARNOME mailing list, to get the help I need to file the report in the right place.

Biting more than I can chew?

In a gutsy move, I've volunteered to help write documentation for Mono (and by proxy, for GTK#). Like I said above, GTK+ programming really isn't all that difficult. It is only different from what I already know, and that never ever killed anyone.

Cross dressing, or "How I nearly lost my virginity at a clam dig and loved it"

Many, many weeks before I started this diary, I began reading Linux kernel hacking guides. And by far, the most accessible guide and resource has been the "LinuxChix Kernel Hacking Lessons", written by Val Henson. Val and gals' kernel hacking guide is complemented by a mailing list, the cleverly named "grrls-only" mailing list.

This mailing list presented me with a conundrum: it is only meant for women, and to join I would have to write a statement of some sort certifying that I am female. Yet this grrls-only mailing list could well be a very valuable resource I could use to learn about kernel hacking. What's a guy to do?

I am obsessed with ways I could fake my way into that mailing list. For almost a month, I've been listening to Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler at work, and watch chick flicks like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Thelma and Louise", "Notting Hill", "Three Weddings and a Funeral", "Pride and Prejudice" (Hugh Grant is just so cute) on DVD nearly every night. I hold my tea cup just so, and sigh deeply as I read old tattered copies of Ann River Siddon's novels at lunch.

But I'm afraid that when push comes to shove and I sit to write that message showing I'm female, something would slip by and I'd say something utterly masculine.

I imagine Val teaching kernel secrets to her tribe of amazons, secrets only known to her because of the keener insight of the gentler sex. Perhaps they all have their own cleverly tuned scheduler, much more clever and efficient than Ingo's O(1). Perhaps their virtual memory runs rings around FreeBSD. And alas, maybe they have crafted their own working version of Hurd. God, how I want to be in the grrls-only list!

If I ever make the attempt and get in, I probably will not have the guts to pipe up and ask any questions or reply to any posts. I will probably lurk for years, absorbing all of Val's arcane arts. And when anybody asks me anything, I'll just giggle and hold my index finger to my cheek. But I'm scared I'll freak and type the wrong emoticon.

Maybe this tribe of amazon hackers is really benign and I have nothing to be afraid of if I'm caught, and I come out of this experience without losing body parts. On the other hand, I worry about something else: for like three weeks now, I wake up every morning humming show tunes. :p

Apparently my email volunteering to help write Mono documentation got lost when my CVS copy of Evolution crashed. It's not in the sent or outgoing bin. It's not in drafts, and it's been hours since I "sent" it and it's not in the mono-docs-list mailing list. Oh well, I'll rewrite and send tomorrow. I gotta go to bed!

20 Dec 2002 (updated 20 Dec 2002 at 07:33 UTC) »

(this entry left blank on purpose because of something clever I'm doing)

6 Dec 2002 (updated 6 Dec 2002 at 04:05 UTC) »

Heh, I've edited the notes on my page a dozen times or more in less than 12 hours. Hopefully that will make up for the times I don't add a diary entry for more than a couple of weeks. :)

Well, I've finally done it. I got an advogato page. I hope I actually have the presence of mind to update this often enough. Let's see how that goes. :p

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