Archives of NatickFOSS Meetings

FOSS Meeting Dates:	Agenda Topics:
Unless otherwise noted, meetings run 3PM to about 5PM (following a 2:45-3PM help session) on the first Thursday of most months (second Thursday in January, July and September) DURING THE PANDEMIC, WE'LL BE ON-LINE. When it becomes logistically possible we hope to combine On-line participation, and to again meet in person at the Natick Community-Senior Center, 117 East Central Street (Rte.135), Natick MA To get announcements, send "Please subscribe me to the NatickFOSS e-mail list." to: algot.runeman@verizon.net	Future agendas are subject to change because, with FOSS, good news arrives on a daily basis.
February 1, 2024 (3-5PM) ONLINE. - 2:45PM: One-on-One Help ONLINE.	FOSS Meeting Agenda TBD
January 11, 2024 (3-5PM) ONLINE. - 2:45PM: One-on-One Help ONLINE.	Reminder that the January Meeting is the SECOND Thursday of the month. FOSS Meeting Agenda TBD
December 7, 2023 (3-5PM) ONLINE. - 2:45PM: One-on-One Help ONLINE. VIEW us (live or later) on YouTube (thanks to Dennis Payne). Or, to actively PARTICIPATE, use open-source Firefox or Chromium (rather than, say, Chrome or Edge or Safari; no add-ons needed for Jitsi Meet!) - Join our meeting https://meet.jit.si/natickfoss - Opens at 2:45PM for FOSS Help. - Mute your microphone except as needed. - You can download and print this 5-page Jitsi Meet Help Sheet with Keyboard Shortcuts. As fans of FOSS and an inclusive, open Web, we will try to find, and link to, sources with limited or no ads. That may not always be possible. When we do need to link to sources with many ads (especially animated ones) with an icon. Some web links are paywalled! You need to subscribe/create an account. We will attempt to avoid those sources for our links, but in case there's just one we will try to warn you.	Draft Agenda - some of this and maybe more! FOSS Introductory Slide Talk: Newcomers: Welcome! For help, be online about 2:45PM (NY/Boston time). The FOSS News: Ubuntu LTS 24.04 Opened and Daily ISO (9to5Linux, November 1, 2023) GSConnect works with Gnome45 to share with KDEConnect app on Android (Algot) Fedora 40 to include KDE Plasma 6 and drop KDE X11 FOSS History: Mainframes Still in Use Ruffle - Adobe Flash Player sandboxed written in Rust Hot Software: Bluetooth Control App “Overskride” first release to work with all Linux desktops Exercism.org free coding language practice for 67 programming languages Hot Hardware: Why Apple Thunderbolt is $130 Adam Savage on Youtube has guests who have used CT Scans of the cable to show the reasons. Astrophotography with Raspberry Pi Driverless Printing How Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops (and why it’s called ‘Project Sputnik’) FCC Opens Up 6GHz Spectrum for Super-Fast Wireless Communication Intel’s failed 64-bit Itanium CPUs die another death as Linux support ends Accessibility: Electro-mechanical Braile video with accented English Hackaday Entry of Braile Prizewinner open source hardware/software Nomouse.org - Can your application work without a mouse? Hot Internet: Make Firefox Scrollbar More Visible (Algot) How to Fix the Internet Firefox lost users during “failed” Yahoo search deal, says Mozilla CEO Computer Security, Privacy and Freedom: Google forced to reveal user search history in Colorado court ruling Chrome not proceeding with Web Integrity API deemed by many to be DRM (9to5Google, November 2, 2023) As YouTube Declares War on Ad Blockers, Google Sponsors Ad Blocking Conference (404 Media, November 3, 2023) YouTube’s plan backfires, people are installing better ad blockers (Android Authority, November 3, 2023) YouTube’s ad blocking crackdown is facing a new challenge: privacy laws (The Verge, November 7, 2023) Internet voting remains a risky method of casting election ballots (The Hill, November 10, 2023) YouTube facing criminal ‘spying’ charges for ad blocker detection (Android Authority, November 13, 2023) VSStudio Designed to Fracture FOSS Development - Microsoft at the “embrace, extend, extinguish” game Large Language Models and General AI: AI Guide Mozilla’s general guide to what AI is FOSS Fun: Game of the Month: (Dennis Payne). How to ID Junk mail: Samples from Dick’s Junk Mailbox (Jill Miller) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
November 2, 2023 (3-5PM) ONLINE. - 2:45PM: One-on-One Help ONLINE. VIEW us (live or later) on YouTube (thanks to Dennis Payne). Some of the links to web pages of information on which there are intrusive amounts of advertising. While we will try to find sources with limited or no ads, that may not be possible. We are thinking of labeling such links with an icon. Some web links are paywalled! You need to subscribe/create an account. A *Boston Globe* link illustrates the issue this month. Please let us know what you think.	The FOSS News: GNOME Foundation names new Executive Director Wordpress.com Users can join the Fediverse by activating the ActivityPub plugin (Algot) Landmark Technology Patent Troll Case Over (finally) FOSS History: What is Debian? the very stable community GNU/Linux distribution (a blog post) (Algot) Hot Software: OpenStreetMap and KDE Itinerary Open source travel planning and mapping (Algot) openSUSE Introduces Slowroll (currently experimental, Ed is presently testing) to eventually replace Leap Inkscape Stickman Animation video tutorial from 2dgameartguru (Algot) Paperstrips Font-Creation Demo - Using Inkscape to make a fancy font (Algot) Warehouse - GUI for Flatpack Management (Algot) Hot Hardware: Dead Bug Found Underneath an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU Core Hot Internet: X (formerly known as Twitter) testing $1.00 charge to tweet/retweet X (formerly known as Twitter) to launch two new subscription tiers FCC moves ahead with Title II net neutrality rules in 3-2 party-line vote Computer Security, Privacy and Freedom: Massachusetts, 40+ other states sue Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram) over child marketing. (Boston Globe, October 24, 2023) Google forced to reveal user search history in Colorado court ruling Firefox gets a Review Validity Checker (Algot) Super-Long Stable Linux Kernel for Civic Infrastructure think electrical grid, etc. (Algot) YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown escalates, aggravating users (Ed and Dick) FOSS Fun: Game of the Month: (Dennis Payne). How to ID Junk mail: Samples from Dick’s Junk Mailbox (Jill Miller) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: What about using Ad Blockers? Is there a volunteer to take over maintenance of the Introductory Slide Show so we can move it onto the NatickFOSS.org site (and make it easier to use for people who don't have or know about LibreOffice Impress). As of now, the link leads to an Impress (odp) file at millermicro.com.
October 5, 2023 (3-5PM) ONLINE. - 2:45PM: One-on-One Help ONLINE. VIEW us (live or later) on YouTube (thanks to Dennis Payne).	The FOSS News: Linux giving up on six-year LTS kernels - too much work. Long-term support for Linux to be cut as maintenance remains under strain. Thinking about switching to Linux? Nine things you need to know. FOSS History: GNU Operating System turns 40 Making a free UNIX Linux Kernel Turns 30 a retrospective Original GNU Announcement Hot Software: U.S. rejects AI copyright for art. humans can get copyright Fedora 39 Beta. (Jerry Feldman) Hot Hardware: Google says it can’t fix Pixel Watches - please buy a new one. Doctors say most metrics provided by your Apple Watch, Fitbit aren’t helpful to them? USA Today interviewed doctors about how to use the data effectively. – and medical – experts. (Bob Primak) Google extends Chromebook support from eight years to 10 after heightened backlash. RaspberryPi 5 and Ubuntu 23.10 has official support Powerful pair? Hot Internet: The Unicode Consortium has approved Emoji 15.1 - new emojis are on the way to your phone. Firefox 118 offers language translation (no cloud) W3C Updates Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - first update since 2008 for blind/deaf/etc. users Computer Security, Privacy and Freedom: Some spam might not actually be spam - it could be legitimate. (Ed) This dangerous Android malware is stealing from 100 banking apps - protect yourself now. Local banks listed in article: Bank of America, Chase, PNC, Santander, TD What Is Wi-Fi Eavesdropping? Understanding the Risks and How to Stay Secure. Apple executive defends corporate decision to make Google the default search on iPhones and Macs. Windows Is adding Windows Copilot AI to the Operating System There is already concern that Apple may need to follow suit in Mac OS. Not to be outdone, there is a Linux distro under development which will integrate AI into the OS. Android is also integrating AI into their phone OS. And there is a lot of AI baked into iOS 15 and upwards for iPhones. A previous Microsoft AI project called GitHub Copilot generated a lawsuit. FOSS Fun: Godot Funding; Game of the Month: Acid Flight (Dennis Payne). Recommended Reading: Linux Starters Guide (Dick Miller) How to ID Junk mail: Samples from Dick’s Junk Mailbox (Jill Miller) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: Should we have a page listing recommended software? – Consensus: Yes – Please email us your favorite regularly-used FOSS applications and reasons for your choice. Should we have a page listing board members’ background? – Referred to Board group for consideration New: We will attempt to avoid providing links to paywalled articles, and will attempt to note those sites heavily littered with advertising. Correction: Dick Miller’s mention of AI-generated “stickers” should have referred to Meta (Facebook, etc.), not Google as heard in the recording.
September 14, 2023 (3-5PM*) VIEW us (live or later) ONLINE at Youtube. Thanks to Dennis Payne. (in spite of some network technical difficulties during the live meeting, you should be able to review this meeting's recording.)	The FOSS News: Government of India Switches to Linux OpenELA forms to offer sources compatible with RHEL includes SUSE, Oracle, CIQ (Rocky Linux) The Maddog View of the IBM/Red Hat issue FOSS History: Bram Moolenaar, creator of Vim, the text editor, has died. Hot Software: Rhino Linux has released version 2023.2. Also watching BlendOS (by young author of Ubuntu-Unity) and 'Mantic Minotaur' Desktop (Ubuntu-Unity at Ubuntu) - and, for smartphones, Phosh. All these can be tested easily in RAM by booting from a Ventoy thumb drive. (Dick Miller) Widen too-thin scrollbars in gtk-based applications – a demo based on this and this solutions. (Bob Primak) Hot Hardware: Ethernet in Your Car Ventoy is the current recommendation for making live USB sticks for exploring different GNU/Linux versions. 12-v. LED Rechargeable Mini-Flashlight for $4 (Dick Miller) 16"x12"x5" excellent Tigernu/Lapacker Laptop Backpack for about $10 (Dick Miller) Hot Internet: The Wayback Machine (demo by Dick Miller) The Wayback Machine Supports Environmental Research (Dick Miller) The WayForward Machine (Dick Miller) Computer Security, Privacy and Freedom: Data from Autonomous Cars EFF poses the need for laws to deal with the mass of data collected. Broadband Fees - FCC says “publish them” Library E-book Bills Are Back; Publishers Respond (Bob Primak) Large Language Models, etc. The State of AI - P.Z. Myers Language Is a Poor Heuristic For Intelligence Comparing “Language Fluency” vs “Intelligence” - very thought provoking (Algot Runeman) Statistics of ChatGPT Copyright by Machine FOSS Fun: Game Availability Study; Rockstar sells cracked game; Game of the Month: Wipeout Rewrite(Dennis Payne). How to ID Junk mail: Samples from Dick’s Junk Mailbox (Jill Miller) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: Essential FOSS Software - Should we have a similar list which we publish on the web site?
August 3, 2023 (3-5PM) ONLINE. - 2:45PM: One-on-One Help ONLINE. VIEW us (live or later) on YouTube (thanks to Dennis Payne).	The FOSS News: 7 leading American AI companies offer Voluntary Guardrails to President Biden (Dick Miller) Can a Unicode Character be Trademarked? Twitter re-branding with U+1D54F (𝕏) ARM supports GPUs for Linux through Collabora’s open source Panfrost GPU driver; OpenGL vs Vulkan - open source graphics APIs compared. (discuss?) FOSS History: Forth Revisited - The language that writes itself Hot Software: Fotoxx Without A Camera (demo by Dick Miller) Hot Hardware: Chromecast Patent Violation $339 Million Awarded (Ed Piecewicz) Hot Internet: Open Street Map (demo by Dick Miller) The National Map/USGS (Dick Miller) BenMAP-CE/US EPA (Dick Miller) Web Feed How-To Demo (Algot Runeman) Computer Security, Privacy and Freedom: Microsoft Cloud Services Breached - The Verge (Bob Primak) Biden Administration Tells Car Companies to Ignore Right to Repair Law (Bob Primak) Photos Reused - something of a follow-up to the Tineye tool mentioned last month Opinionated Guide to AI Updating an older Open Education Resource Textbook using GPTChat Web Environment Integrity - Google API proposal to “Lock Down” the web. FCC Chair proposing 100Mbps national broadband speed standard Vivaldi, Mozilla Raise Alarms over Google’s Proposed ‘DRM for the Web’ FOSS Fun: Game of the Month: (Dennis Payne). How to ID Junk mail: Spam “from FedEx” (Jill Miller) Check SPAM folders to ensure you are getting NatickFOSS emails. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS & EXTRAS: The Next Monthly BLU Meeting is Wednesday, August 16, 2023 at 06:30 pm Online at Jitsi The meeting will demo and discuss AlmaLinux OS, the community-supported alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. (Jerry Feldman) Software Freedom Day is the third Saturday in September (the 16th), and it will be 20 years old this year. At how many Town Public Libraries might we staff a NatickFOSS demo table with at least two volunteers? Ask that, and solicit other ideas, on this August agenda? Corey Doctorow's blog Pluralistic contains the following "EULA": READ CAREFULLY By reading this website, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer. Compare to the version Dick Miller has posted on the MMS Money is not Wealth page: READ CAREFULLY: By reading this website, you agree, on behalf of your employer and yourself, to release us from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that we have entered into with you, your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to our ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release us from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer. (Dick Miller)
July 13, 2023 (3-5PM*) ONLINE. VIEW us (live or later) on YouTube (thanks to Dennis Payne). The links shown in the topics to the right are discussed in the meeting's video and are valid links at the time of the meeting. Over time, websites may change or even disappear, and the older the links are, there is a chance they'll no longer work.	The FOSS News: NatickFOSS.org Update: Hosting change - In order to make the user group more resilient, and to remove the burden from our founder, Dick Miller, NatickFOSS.org is hosted on the Boston Linux Unix server. Big thanks to them! Linux Reaches 3% of worldwide Desktop Use Software Containerization - Red Hat to stop shipping LibreOffice with RHEL, Limiting Fedora LibreOffice Involvement Open Source Project “Relationships” Martin Owens video: “Are you being served?” Open Source Computer Science Curriculum - a curated list of free courses available online from reputable universities FOSS History: Ethernet is 50 years old RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) are not dead. Google Reader Shut down in 2013 - Feeds in Thunderbird. Member Laura M. likes QuiteRSS for reading feeds, and has made an online tool for creating an Atom feed for a website. (Algot Runeman) Hot Software: Snap-free Ubuntu BlendOS v3 is in beta (Dick Miller) Thunderbird 115 “Supernova” (Dick Miller) Lovely photo - but what, where, by who and when? TinEye as a Firefox add-on (Dick Miller) Ubuntu Unity 23.04 Improved 8 min. video (Dick Miller) Distro Packaging Model is Broken (video from TheLinuxExperiment) strong opinion against .deb, .rpm, etc. and for containerized GUI programs like Flatpak, Snap, etc. Hot Hardware: Blatant tech frauds run amok on the biggest online marketplaces 4TB Solid State Drives for 4 cents per GB (Dick Miller) Hot Internet: Online e-books celebrate 52 years Making Web Pages (part 3) - JavaScript for Interactivity (Algot Runeman) Twitter requires sign-in to see posts, limits 3rd party access Reconsidering Mastodon Expensive Emoji Typed O.K. and Thumb’s up emoji contractually the same. Computer Security, Privacy and Freedom: 800,000 Maryland License Plates have URL for Gambling Site - highlighting the need for long-term domain name planning and control How a Cloud Flaw Gave Chinese Spies a Key to Microsoft’s Kingdom (Dick Miller) Pause in AI development increasingly unlikely (Dick Miller) More AI Links at https://www.millermicro.com/money.html. Taxpayer Data Shared with Google, Meta (Dick Miller) FOSS Fun: Game of the Month: (Dennis Payne). How to ID Junk mail: Samples from Dick’s Junk Mailbox (Jill Miller) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: NatickFOSS Housekeeping Mailing Lists: NatickFOSS Discuss, Mailman User Manual, Announce list
Original Archive (March 2011 to June 2023) Web page standards have changed through the years. The information in the earlier archive is still good, but the file has grown in ways that made it too difficult to bring it all up to more recent standards. Please follow the link to get to the past meeting notes. Thanks for your understanding.

Draft Agenda - some of this and maybe more!