El Gobierno de Canarias ahorra un 70% por el software libre http://t.co/JO9ztuLo #freesoftware

100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website http://t.co/PZP6v60I via @worldprofit

100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website http://t.co/hk2FNHbO via @worldprofit

RT @meanmicio: Richard Stallman at #IWEEE 2013 Las Palmas #GNU #GnuHealth #FSF http://t.co/L7VuChUT #eHEalth #MDG6 #freesoftware #tryton

I watch a lot of TV. Although I would really like to get rid of my satellite provider and switch to streaming the shows I like off of the Internet, living in Canada means a lot of the streaming video services aren't available, and even if they were, the bandwidth required to watch them would bust my download quota.

I'm also really picky about video compression, and some of the streaming services compress so much that watching their shows on the 55” TV I have in my living room is painful. Also, for some reason, half the shows and movies on Netflix have audio sync issues on my setup.

MythTV plays a large part in my household. All shows I watch are scheduled and recorded in HD off my satellite provider. While I wait for Ubuntu TV to take shape, I've recently upgraded my MythTV setup to Mythbuntu 12.04.
Backend
My MythTV backend is running on an HP Pavilion a4310f, with 4GB or ram, and a 1TB HDD. It's hooked up to a Hauppauge HD-PVR which records the video stream coming from my satellite provider's box. I have set the satellite provider's box to output 720p, as that gives me reasonable file sizes with an acceptable picture quality. Video is recorded over component cables, and sound is recorded in 5.1 over a TOSLINK cable. I use the IR blaster included with the HD-PVR to switch stations on the satellite box.

Instructions for setting up the HD-PVR in MythTV can be found in the wiki. This pretty much works out of the box with Mythbuntu. Although I originally had stability problems with the HD-PVR where every couple of months it would switch to recording audio at 25fps resulting in audio drift, a firmware upgrade to version 1.6.29353 has made it rock solid. I haven't risked upgrading to the most recent 1.7.x firmware as I don't currently have any issues.

You can obtain the script I use to change channels, my lircd configuration files, and the rc.local file I use to set the audio input here.

To set the picture control values to reasonable settings, I change the defaults for all channels in the MythTV database by running the following SQL command:

update channel set contrast=16384,brightness=32768,colour=16384,hue=3840;

I schedule programs to record using the MythTV web interface, and recorded shows are streamed in HD over the built-in UPnP server to any one of the three Playstation 3s I have around the house which also serve as Blu-ray players. I also have a dedicated MythTV frontend in the living room, which allows me to view TV shows without commercial interruption, and to delete shows once they've been watched. These are all connected using the wired gigabit network I installed during house construction, preventing the problems associated with streaming HD video over a wireless network.
Frontend
In the living room, which is my main TV viewing area, a dedicated MythTV frontend is used. I am using a Jetway HBJC600C99-352W-BW mini computer. I chose that model because it came with a built-in remote control, which allows me to power it on and control it from my Sony RMVL610 universal learning remote. It also features Nvidia Ion2 graphics, which enables me to use VDPAU with MythTV in order get the performance necessary to decode HD video.

I added a 1GB SO-DIMM to it, along with a cheap 32GB KingSpec SSD. It is also running Mythbuntu 12.04, and is hooked up to the gigabit wired network.

Getting the remote to work was a bit of a challenge. The device has a bogus HID report descriptor, resulting in a compatibility issue with the kernel HID drivers. Before a kernel fix was available, I discovered an application called “hid-mapper”, which allows converting any HID event into a keypress event. This is what I use on my frontend. I have packaged hid-mapper, along with some fixes, and all of the configuration scripts necessary to get it working on my frontend in my PPA.

If you do use my configuration files, please be aware that since I use a universal remote, I opted to make use of all buttons on the original remote without any regard to their placement or function. If you intend on using the original remote, you may want to reconfigure the button mappings to your liking.

Web Served, part 6: Form the forum http://t.co/yF8Bgo9H #freesoftware

SCO, now calling itself TSG, has just filed a motion [PDF] with the bankruptcy court in Delaware asking it to authorize "the abandonment, disposal, and/or destruction of certain surplus, obsolete, non-core or burdensome, property, including, without limitation, shelving, convention materials, telecommunications and computer equipment, accounting and sales documents, and business records."

Ah. "And business recrods." Burdensome to whom? To whom would SCO's business records be burdensome? Not me. I hereby volunteer to pay for storage for those records, in order to preserve them. Obsolete how? Does the bankruptcy court know that SCO has a petition [PDF] before the US District Court in Utah asking the court to reopen SCO's litigation with IBM?

The excuse is money. They are paying to store them, poor dears, as of January 31, I gather, since they ask the court to authorize payments nunc pro tunc back to that date. Either that, or there's more to this story than you can find in the motion. They also ask the court to let it not inform all its creditors about this. Heh heh. Imagine how messy it could get if they all showed up asking for a computer or shelving.

top tags for #ebenmoglen on lastfm : #freesoftware, #fuckingawesome, #history

Recently I became involved in Ubuntu Friendly and one of the tools I wanted was a wireframe application so I could make quick mockups moving forward. I learned about several options:

• Pencil – Pencil is built for the purpose of providing a free and open-source GUI prototyping tool that people can easily install and use to create mockups in popular desktop platforms.
• Wireframe Sketcher – WireframeSketcher is a wireframing tool that helps designers, developers and product managers quickly create wireframes, mockups and prototypes for desktop, web and mobile applications. It’s a desktop app and a plug-in for any Eclipse IDE.
• Balsamiq – Using Mockups feels like drawing, but because it’s digital, you can tweak and rearrange easily. Teams can come up with a design and iterate over it in real-time in the course of a meeting.

I eliminated Balsamiq because it requires Adobe Air (which is no longer being developed for Linux).

Pencil:
I found working with Pencil very easy to create the mockup of Ubuntu Friendly. Pencil included resources for Windows, Android, iOS and Web Applications. The drawing produced is very clear and does not simulate being drawn by hand. I had one rather important issue with Pencil; it would not export the mockup as a .png. The dialog box would come up and you would take the steps to save a file, but no file was actually saved. When making a .pdf file the table resource was not rendered.

Wireframe Sketcher:
Working with Wireframe Sketcher was not quite as easy as Pencil, nor were there as many built-in resources. The program had no tool to create a table. The resulting sketches simulate being drawn by hand and the program was able to export .png files. This software is also not free and will cost roughly $100.

In the end Wireframe Sketcher is the winner as it is able to create functional mockups without requiring Adobe Air or Java and was able to successfully save .png versions. An added feature, that I will not make use of, is that it works with Ecplipse IDE as well. If you are comfortable with Eclipse, or even Visual Studio, the application will be comfortable immediately.

The IDE style allows you to build an application with multiple screens and even have the screens be interactive. All the other mockup programs I tried lacked this depth. The program even allows for custom made svg images to be used as additional shapes or icons.

If you are an Ubuntu User like I am you can find it in the Ubuntu Software Center.

100% Give Away: Software Packages To Generate Massive Waves Of Traffic To Your Website http://t.co/0Q2V6E5O via @worldprofit

Over the last few months, a few friends have asked me for help in writing a CV and applying for a job. As a person who has interviewed dozens of candidates and reviewed hundreds of CV's, I think I can safely say I know what I'm looking for and I know what makes a great CV for me. Unfortunately, most people suck at writing CV's. If you want to make it easier for a hiring manager to think he should interview you, make sure you understand the importance of the CV. There are no rules for writing one, though the following rules guidelines should help you write a great CV.

You are writing an ad. Not a CV.

Your CV is the only thing a hiring manager knows about you. After reading your CV, he needs to be willing to invite you in for an interview, so make it easy for him to decide to do so. Advertise yourself! This means:

• Tell the hiring manager who you are
• Give good, detailed information about you
• Don't waste his time

I like CV's that start with an objective. What do you want in your career? This tells me a lot about whether you will fit in my team or not and whether I can give you what you want.

When reviewing CV's The worst thing there is, is a 14 page CV. Seriously. As a hiring manager I do not have enough time to waste it on 14 pages of a detailed description of your life, there are 30 other CV's waiting for me. On the flip side, I do want to know all the relevant things about you. So tell me what's relevant! For each education or experience item, tell me what you did. And tell me who you are.

Give facts about what you did, and start with important ones. Something like "Built a puppet environment for application X, allowing me and my team of 3 to install 200 servers in 3 days" is an excellent item. "Contributed to projects" (Yes, this is a quote from an actual CV) is not.

Also horrible is the common trap us techies fall into: mentioning everything we worked with. This is utterly useless. I "read" A CV the other day, which was a list 7 pages list each and every technology the person used in all of his jobs. This tells me absolutely nothing about this person, and it's really easy to make a decision: no interview. Remember: you're writing an ad for yourself. Have you ever seen an ad that was just a list of ingredients?

You don't have `a CV`

You should tailor your resume for the job you're applying for. Every job is slightly different, so you will want to present yourself slightly different, putting emphasis on what's more important for this job. For instance, if I were to apply for a sysadmin team leader position, I would start the booking.com section of my CV with:

Booking.com, unix team leader (2010-2012) and systems architect (2012-2013)

• I led a team of 5 sysadmins/developers, developing tools to make system administration easier, such as a central infrastructure database, linked to our kickstart, puppet, nagios and dns infrastructures
• Designed a database loadbalancing scheme and implemented the prototype of it, guiding other engineers in implementing it further

But if I were to apply for a python development position, I would start with:

Booking.com, unix admin and team leader (2006-2012) and systems architect (2012-2013)

• Developed our central infrastructure database and management system, a python/django application, and integrated it with every service that needs server information, such as kickstart, puppet, nagios and DNS
• Introduced Func as remote execution framework and built various deployment and monitoring tools using it.

Both are an accurate description of things I did, but emphasis is on what's relevant for the job I am applying for.

A natural follow-up of this customization per job, is that you shouldn't be sending your CV to a bajillion places. Do you really want to interview for any company that may want to hire you? Before applying, I'd rather know the company. Your personality, past results and future potential are things a hiring manager thinks about when reading about you, so why aren't the company culture, past results and future prospects important to you? If you don't know anything about the company before applying, you're only setting yourself up for failure.

Following on even further from there, I would be very careful with applying via a recruitment agency. They tend to blast your CV around to any company that has an opening that may be relevant, without doing this customization. As a hiring manager, I find the hit rate for most recruitment companies far too low. Some also insist on "fixing" your resume, turning "played with mysql once" into "advanced mysql DBA" (yes, this actually happens), or removing your contact info and replacing it with a large ad for them.

Know your CV very well

A surprising amount of people do not know their own CV, which I find mindboggling. A good hiring manager will base many of his questions on your CV, making you explain what you did, trying to find your thought patterns, your reasoning and deduction skills. If your CV starts with "designed a database for an e-commerce app", you'd better be able to explain your design. If you list an MSc. in computer science as one of your degrees, you should be able to tell me what you learned there.

So read your CV. Twice. Three times. Put yourself in the hiring managers shoes and ask yourself questions about what you did, for every job and education you list. For every hobby you list. And if you find it difficult to talk about a part of your CV: leave it out or reduce the importance of it.

Cover letter

Not many people include a cover letter with their CV, which I find a shame. Your CV is an overview of your education and experience, but equally important for the hiring manager is your motivation. Why do you want to work for me? If I can't answer that question, do I know you really want to work for me? Or are you just machinegunning your CV to all places you can find? Your cover letter should tell me you care about landing a job you want, why this job would be good for you and why you would be good for the company. The CV is the evidence to back up those statements.

And a tip I really should add here: your e-mail to HR when you apply is your cover letter. But those e-mails don't generally reach the hiring manager, especially when organizations grow and have a recruitment system. So prepend your cover letter to your CV document to make sure the hiring manager gets it too.

The dreaded soft skills part

It's a common issue for people applying for technical positions, forgetting that their awesome technical skills are not all that matters. For me it's only about a third of what I'm looking at in a resume, and especially during interviews. And it's the easy part, as most answers are verifiable and it's playing to your strengths. But there are four more questions that I need to see an answer to, and your CV should start giving those answers

• Can I work with you?
• Can my team work with you?
• Can the company work with you and for you?
• Do you understand out business?

The first three are all about your personality. How driven are you? Are you a creative or process-oriented person? What's your communication style? Do you lead or follow? All in all these questions can be summed up as "Do you fit the company and does the company fit you?". Your technical skills may be excellent, but if your personality would not fit with the rest of the team, you would not be happy at this job.

The last question I find really important and most candidates utterly fail to prepare for this. The company does not revolve around you or the position you are applying for. Do you understand how our industry works? Show it on your CV! Can you translate your contributions to improvements for customers? Make sure I know that!

It depends

I said before that there are no hard rules for the CV. So questions such as "Should I add a photo?" "Should I list hobbies?" or "How about wife & kids?" don't have an answer other than "It depends". Do they add anything to your CV? Does it tell the hiring manager more about who you are or are you wasting his time with useless trivia?

One pet peeve of mine is people who add the text "Curriculum Vitae" to their CV. Yes, I know it's one and you just look like a prick spelling out a word you had to google in the first place. Why not put something useful there, such as a one line summary of you? Instead of "Curriculum Vitae of I.M. Weasel", why not say "I.M. Weasel - Actor, Deep sea diver and Astronaut".

Summary

• Research the company whose job opening you are responding to
• Sell yourself! Make sure your future employer knows how awesome you are
• Customize your CV per job, emphasize the things that are most relevant for the job
• Know your CV and prepare to answer questions about all parts of it

RT @gnusolidario: #IWEEE 2013 resume and pics #freesoftware #GNUHealth #ehealth #phealth http://t.co/kMqJeUGi

RT @t_grote: #Jitsi says at #FOSDEM: "You can not claim to be secure if you are not #FreeSoftware" #Skype !FSFE

#CommunitySource #Digitalfreedom #FreeSoftware #NetworkEffect #OpenAccess #OpenContent #OpenData #OpenDesign #Linux #Drupal #FreeInternet

#Jitsi says at #FOSDEM: "You can not claim to be secure if you are not #FreeSoftware" #Skype !FSFE

Network Monitoring With Etherape http://t.co/1M9b0Q1c #Etherape #FreeSoftware #Linux #NetworkMonitoring #OpenSourceSoftware #Ubuntu

@erkanyilmaz @question If I could go to just one conference or #freesoftware meeting in my life, that one would be #FOSDEM for sure :)

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