- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Torvalds talks about GPLv3
by Ian McDonald 26 Sep '06

26 Sep '06

http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/19/1531258&from=rss -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Short article on Gnome 2.16 new features
by Ian McDonald 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

This will be in Ubuntu 6.10 out next month: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/18/2031230 -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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MEETING TONIGHT: Codebreakers documentary, end of year windup and free pizza
by Craig Box 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

For tonights meeting, we will air BBC World's documentary "The Codebreakers", about free/open source software. We will also present a short recap of the events of Software Freedom Day and a general pre-AGM wrapup, and then we will feed you with the promised Italian flatbreads. A synopsis for the documentary is below. Craig -- The famous digital divide is getting wider. A documentary, The Codebreakers aired on BBC World in May, examines whether free/open source software (FOSS) might be the bridge? FOSS contains 'source code' that can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. It has been around for over 20 years but most PC owners are not aware that the Internet search engines and many computer applications run on FOSS. "It's not that FOSS has had a bad press, it has had no press because there is no company that 'owns' it," says executive producer Robert Lamb. "But we found that in the computer industry and among the afficionados, it is well known and its virtues well understood." The crew of the independent producers who made the film went to nearly a dozen countries around the world to see how the adoption of FOSS presents opportunities for industry and capacity development, software piracy reduction, and localization and customization for diverse cultural and development needs. Stories from The Codebreakers include computer and Internet access for school children in Africa, reaching the poor in Brazil, tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos, connecting villages in Spain, and disaster management in Sri Lanka. The documentary also includes interviews from key figures around the world. Intel, IBM, Sun and Microsoft all seem to agree that FOSS is a welcome presence in computer software. According to Jonathan Murray of Microsoft "The Open Source community stimulates innovation in software, it's something that frankly we feel very good about and it's something that we absolutely see as being a partnership with Microsoft." For more information, and to download a copy, see http://www.apdip.net/news/fossdoc

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Myspace videos in Debian or Ubuntu??
by Ian McDonald 23 Sep '06

23 Sep '06

Folks, Most myspace videos don't play in Linux that I can see because they use a newer flash movie format and the Linux version is still stuck on 7 (although 9 is on it's way...) Can anybody tell me if I'm wrong or a workaround? Ian -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Open office to support plugins
by Ian McDonald 23 Sep '06

23 Sep '06

http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6118676.html?part=rss&tag=6118676&subj=news -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Running Linux on old PCs.
by Ian McDonald 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

Good article here: http://polishlinux.org/choose/linux-on-old-hardware/ -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Updated proprietary drivers
by Ian McDonald 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=551&num=1 https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&q… This may be of interest to people. It shows the drivers changing and in some cases improving. It also shows the danger of non-free drivers as well. These drivers support old versions of X and not the latest (so I can't use easily on Debian Unstable). They don't yet support ailgx and of course you are limited to Intel/AMD platforms. The ATI driver drops support for old cards too... Now if Intel would mark their cards faster as they have supported the community by making open source drivers. -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Ubuntu Local Community Team for New Zealand relaunched
by Craig Box 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Ubuntu New Zealand: Local Community Team ---------------------------------------- Ever since the birth of computers, enthusiasts and fans around the world have collected together in garages, universities and pubs to talk about their interest, learn from each other and help promote their interest. Combine this with the huge popularity of Ubuntu, and you get the Ubuntu Local Community (LoCo) project. A LoCo team is formed to help groups of Ubuntu fans and enthusiasts in a particular region to help advocate, promote, translate, develop and otherwise improve Ubuntu. With the support of Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, and the awesome AustralianTeam, we're launching a New Zealand team for Ubuntu (http://ubuntu-nz.org/) What's involved? ---------------- What would you like to be involved? Activities other teams have engaged in include, but are not limited to: * development & coaching new, interested contributors * regional customisation * translations * advocacy, both virtually and locally * CD & merchandise distribution * IRC support (or just hanging out) There are no set goals for the team yet - it's entirely up to you, the new members, to decide as a group what we should do. Involvement in a LoCo is an easy way to get involved with the global Ubuntu community for non-developers and developers alike. There are people involved from many teams within Ubuntu who can help you gain useful skills for further involvement if you are keen! How can I get involved? ----------------------- Join our mailing list (https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-nz) and our IRC channel (#ubuntu-nz on Freenode - irc://irc.freenode.org:6667/#ubuntu-nz) More details are available from the website: http://ubuntu-nz.org/ Craig (Please pass this message onto your local LUG mailing list if it hasn't been there already!)

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Linux Client Migration Cookbook
by Martin, Anthony (NZ) 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

"Linux Client Migration Cookbook" available for download IBM has published a final draft of its "Redbook" titled Linux Client Migration Cookbook, Version 2: A Practical Planning and Implementation Guide for Migrating to Desktop Linux. The 376-page book, which targets enterprises needing to begin an evaluation of desktop Linux, is available for free download. <http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5790800597.html>

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Problem with Google Earth Updating
by Leslie Katz 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

Thanks very much to both Simon and zcat for taking the trouble to reply to my query. I began by trying zcat's solution (merely editing my .bashrc to change Firefox to firefox) and it worked, so it seems as though some PATH designation already supplied the necessary path. Funny about that capitalisation. Like many things, it's so obvious, once someone else has the wit to point it out! Thanks again, Leslie

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Correction re AGM
by Craig Box 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

The regular meeting location is room TW2.07, not room LitB, at the University of Waikato. Sorry for causing confusion. Craig

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REMINDER: Annual General Meeting, 2 October
by Craig Box 19 Sep '06

19 Sep '06

In accordance with Rule 6 of the charter, I would like to announce to all members that the Waikato Linux Users Group (Incorporated) will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Monday, 2 October, 2006, at 7pm, at the regular meeting location of room LitB at the University of Waikato. New committee ============= All WLUG members are encouraged to stand for election onto the WLUG committee for 2007. The charter specifies the committee as consisting of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and three general committee members. To stand for the committee, please email secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. If you wish to nominate someone, please contact them and ask if they are willing to stand; if you would rather not contact them yourself, feel free to email me and I will pass your request on for you. People with uncertain futures (who may be leaving the Waikato) are encouraged not to let this stop them standing for election, but please only stand if you are committed and prepared to take on a relatively small workload. To be granted voting rights at the meeting, you must have been a paid member for 2005-2006, and signed a new membership form for '06-'07. (Remember, you have 90 days to pay.) Regards, Craig WLUG Secretary

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Problem with Google Earth Updating
by Leslie Katz 19 Sep '06

19 Sep '06

When I try the above from within the application, I get the following message: "Could not launch any web browser. Please make sure you have set the $BROWSER environment variable to the name of the filename we should launch!" When I issue the command "env", among the output, I find the following: "BROWSER=Firefox" Why is that not sufficient for Google Earth's purposes? Do I need to add a version reference or some other thing?

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Software Freedom Day Event
by Lindsay Druett 17 Sep '06

17 Sep '06

Hi There, From what I have seen and heard, the feedback has been awesome. I'm still getting up to speed as to what other LUGs and other groups have done to celebrate Software Freedom Day, but on the whole, from what I have seen looking at the software freedom webpage, I feel very confident to say that ours was world class and we gave awesome open public exposure to open source software. There are photos of the event that took place online, look at http://softwarefreedomday.org/gallery/2006/gallery/2006/oceania/nz/hamilton Thankyou all who got involved in making this event happen. I would like to this opportunity to single out three people out who did an outstandingly stunning job of making this happen... Craig Box, Ian McDonald, and Bruce Kingsbury. Without you guys, this event would not have happened. I would also like to thank Sue Kingsbury, Bruce's wife who supported Bruce, and also Cairo and Destiny, Bruce's daughters, who took turns dressing up as Tux, I think it was mostly Cairo. And, I would also like to thank our supporters... IT Partners (http://www.itpartners.co.nz/) for the loan of the computers WAND Group (http://wand.cs.waikato.ac.nz/) for loan of the TV and other bits and pieces Gateway Christian Centre (http://www.gateway-net.com/) for the loan of the tables and chairs Mystique Costume Hire who made the Tux Penguin Suit especially for us and also Telecom, Centreplace/Downtown Plaza management. Furthermore, I would also like to thank those who helped behind the scenes, those who came on the day, demonstrated open source software and shared their experiences with OSS, and also Ron Dean particularly, but others who have taken photos of the event that has taken place. I would like to take an opportunity to make comment that Open Source Freedom day is about celebrating and putting a day aside to promote free and open source software, however, it is not a day to be seen as a day put aside, or a an event to be held on that day, where there is open season to denigrate vendors, in particular Microsoft, who choose the copyright and charge out a licence fee on a per user and/or per seat basis. Hey, excellent work... Regards, Lindsay Druett, WLUG President.

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Problem Installing Democracy Player
by Leslie Katz 16 Sep '06

16 Sep '06

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I should've said in my original post that I had already installed pyrex, without overcoming the error message about Pyrex.Distutils by doing so. I apologise for that omission, which was caused by my being a bit flustered. However, something written by Dominic reminded me of an earlier occasion on which I sought help on this list regarding a python script. The person who kindly helped me then pointed out that installing python2.4, while not uninstalling python2.3, wouldn't, of itself, help me to run a script that said it required python2.4. Python2.3 was being used as the default version on my system, so that I had to force the script to use python2.4. When I did that, the script worked. Since Dominic had told me that the Pyrex scripts should appear in /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages, I went looking, not there, but in /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages. Sure enough, that's where they'd been installed. I therefore copied Pyrex/ into /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages and re-ran run.sh. On that attempt, there was no longer a complaint about the absence of the module Pyrex.Distutils. Instead, I got a different complaint further into the setup script, as follows: Traceback (most recent call last): File "setup.py", line 175, in ? packages = getCommandOutput("pkg-config --list-all") File "setup.py", line 124, in getCommandOutput raise RuntimeError("%s outputted the following error:\n%s" % RuntimeError: pkg-config --list-all outputted the following error: Package dbus-1 was not found in the pkg-config search path. Perhaps you should add the directory containing `dbus-1.pc' to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable Package 'dbus-1', required by 'NetworkManager', not found I went looking on my system for RPMS with dbus in their name and found I had four of them. One in particular was called dbus-python-0.22-10.FC3.2.i386.rpm and I assumed it was the relevant one. I got a list of all the files in that package. There were six of them: dbus.py; dbus.pyc; dbus.pyo; dbus_bindings.a; dbus_bindings.la; and dbus_bindings.so. I went looking for those six files and found them all in /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages. I therefore tried the same trick as I'd tried with the Pyrex directory, namely, copying all six files into /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages, but the trick would only work once. When I re-ran run.sh, I still got the same error message I set out above. (It's those files with "binding" in their names that are causing the trouble, I suspect.) My current question, therefore, is how do I get into /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages copies of the dbus-python rpm's files that will work? One last thing. Craig raised a wry smile on my face by telling me upgrading was good. I've been wanting to upgrade for ages, but I'm too afraid. What I really need is a step-by-step guide in words of one syllable, explaining to me how to prepare for an upgrade, so that, after upgrading, I'll still have all my current data, my applications that I've separately installed and my settings for my current applications. Without that security blanket, I feel I'm stuck with FC3 indefinitely. Thanks again, Leslie

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Problem Installing Democracy Player
by Leslie Katz 15 Sep '06

15 Sep '06

Thank you to all of you who've offered help with this problem. I haven't given up yet and am slowly inching forward with the installation process. Now I've reached some problem about pygtk. Whether I'll ever get to the end of the process, I don't know, but, in the way of these things, I suppose that if I do, the application won't be much anyway. Oh well. Thanks again, Leslie

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Asterisk on a large site
by Ian McDonald 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

Replaces Cisco VoIP and PABX Interesting read: http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2006/091206-von-sam-houston.html?page=1 -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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What is democracy player?
by Ian McDonald 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

Saw this today at lwn.net and thought it is timely given SFD. Democracy player 0.9 Last February, the Participatory Culture Foundation announced its existence with the launch of the "Democracy" player, billed as "the world's first comprehensive open source Internet TV system." Many Linux users may be excused for not trying out the program at that time; despite being a GPL-licensed program, Democracy had not been ported to the Linux platform. That situation has now changed; on September 11, Democracy 0.9 was announced. It runs on Linux, and packages for Debian, Fedora Core, Gentoo, and Ubuntu are provided; the source is available for everybody else. Beyond the Linux port, this version promises a polished user interface, a new playlist capability, Flash video support, and more. Your editor clearly had no choice; a tool like this simply must be tried out. Unfortunately, the Democracy experience is still rather spotty at best. It requires the installation of a number of proprietary codecs (which is not particularly surprising, once one thinks about it - the Democracy developers will have no magic solutions there). The system can be sluggish to respond, and your editor never was able to get it to display a video in its own window. It also would not explain why it failed to display anything, so there was little to be done about it. But your editor was able to get far enough to realize one important thing: video display is not really what Democracy is about in the first place. This tool is really a sort of video feed aggregator for free video content; it has all the required features around sorting feeds into categories, collecting votes for interesting videos, using BitTorrent to download videos in a provider-friendly way, and more. There is also significant support for people who want to create their own video feeds. What Democracy and its supporting foundation are trying to do is to get as many people as possible into the business of creating and distributing interesting content. The term "Internet TV" is somewhat off the mark - Democracy will suit couch potatoes just fine, but its real purpose is to get them off their couches and participating in the process. It is trying to create a world where video content is free, universal, and compelling - so it has tools for finding and distributing videos but a distinct lack of DRM support. This is an important goal - television is too important to leave to the TV companies. If the Democracy system can help to bring more free content into existence, it will have done good thing. Some progress in that direction has been made: there are, it is said, some 600 channels of free content available now, and, doubtless, more to come. The current code has real promise; it looks like a capable system for discovering, distributing, and managing interesting video content. If they can get past the remaining troublesome issues, the Democracy hackers will have created a valuable tool indeed.

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Problem Installing Democracy Player
by Leslie Katz 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

I read about Democracy Player on the Web and thought I'd like to try it. My distribution is Fedora Core, but I'm still using v 3 and there was no RPM for that version. I therefore downloaded the tarball and got to the stage at which I was told to run run.sh to see whether I had the necessary dependencies installed. This is what happened when I did that: [root(a)localhost gtk-x11]# ./run.sh Traceback (most recent call last): File "setup.py", line 46, in ? from Pyrex.Distutils import build_ext ImportError: No module named Pyrex.Distutils [root(a)localhost gtk-x11]# I don't understand how to overcome the problem disclosed. I thought that it might be possible for me to get an RPM which was or included Pyrex.Distutils, but I couldn't find such an RPM. I then Googled on Pyrex.Distutils, but, to be blunt, what I read was beyond me. If anyone can explain to me what I should be doing to overcome the problem, I'd be grateful. Leslie

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Command line internet
by Ian McDonald 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

Quite an interesting article here: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-speakingunix3.html?ca=… -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Ubuntu wireless tutorial
by Ian McDonald 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

For those interested: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/05/2055232 -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Linux permissions
by Matthias Dallmeier 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

http://forums.wlug.org.nz/viewtopic.php?t=50 Is anyone able to help with this? -- Matthias

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Setting console font size
by Ian McDonald 11 Sep '06

11 Sep '06

Folks, Is there a recommended way to alter this easily without going into great pain in the config file. I'm using debian-unstable and just added a kernel boot parameter vga=ask and hacked /etc/init.d/console-screen.sh by putting an exit in. Is there a nice easy way or is this hack just as good? Ian -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Software Freedom Day
by Craig Box 11 Sep '06

11 Sep '06

Software Freedom Day is this coming Saturday. Everything is coming together nicely, and I'd like to thank everyone who has helped so far. Again, it's been mostly carried by the committee; we put up a forum and requested comment on it, as well as announcing it at meetings and on the mailing list, but other than a couple of people signing up on the wiki page, not much traction from the general membership. I hope you all make up for this by coming down to see us on the day! On the day ========== We have a stand in Centreplace, which we'll have some computers running demos of OSS. Everyone is encouraged to come down and say hello, and if you don't have an Ubuntu 6.06 CD, we might be able to flick one your way. Extra help ========== We'll need people to assist at set-up and tear-down time, and help with general things during the day. If you're interested, please drop me a line by e-mail. Regards Craig

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linux.conf.au 2007 Call For Participation - Five days to go!
by Craig Box 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

linux.conf.au 2007 Call For Participation - Five days to go! ============================================================ There are only FIVE DAYS LEFT to submit your proposal for linux.conf.au 2007. Heed our words, procrastinators -- your time has come! Remember to check the 'travel assistance' box if you can't get to Australia under your own steam... If your submission rocks, we'll sort that out for you. :-) http://lca2007.linux.org.au/cfp Important dates =============== * Extended proposal deadline: September 15, 2006 * Notifications by review committee: October 15, 2006 * Conference begins: January 15, 2007 Call for Participation ====================== Presentations are the main part of the conference and consist of a 40 minute talk followed by 10 minutes for questions. Presentations provide an an ideal opportunity to present a new technology or idea to the community. Papers related to their presentation can be submitted by academics who are accepted to give a presentation in the conference. These papers are peer-reviewed by an international papers committee. Papers will be included in the conference proceedings. The papers track allows students, researchers and academics to have their work formally recognised. Tutorials are half-day presentations which provide an opportunity to provide an in-depth and hands on look at a specific technology. These tutorials should be interactive, and the level of expertise required by participants should be clear so people can choose tutorials appropriate to their level. Mini-confs form an important part of linux.conf.au by providing an opportunity for various groups within the community to come together to share ideas and experiences. Mini-confs can be 1 or 2 day events, and an appropriate room will be provided by the linux.conf.au team. There will be other opportunities to participate in linux.conf.au 2007, such as poster sessions, lighting talks and BOFs however organisation of these events will happen immediately before, or at the conference. Topics ====== Most presentations will be of a technical nature, however we encourage presentations covering educational, organisational, community or similar aspects of Open Source software. Promotional presentations, commercial advertisements, sales pitches and their like are not appropriate for this conference. Proposals on the following topics are encouraged: * System administration: - Monitoring - Deployment - Best practices - Linux deployments, practical experiences and war stories * Deep hacking: - Low level design and implementation of large and complex pieces of software such as kernels, database engines, or compilers. * The Craft of Programming - Programming languages - Tools - Project management * Free culture - Open Source in education - Important legal - Advocacy - Community - Government * The user experience - Open media, multi-media - Desktop environment - End-user applications, productivity apps * Cool hacks - Anything which doesn't fall under one of the other topics Review Committee ================ * Angus Lees * Andre Pang * Conrad Parker * Erik de Castro Lopo * Glynn Foster * Mary Gardiner * Martin Pool * Michael Davies * Peter Chubb * Robert Collins * Rusty Russell * Silvia Pfeiffer Proposal Guidelines =================== Proposals for presentations and tutorials should be around 400 words and should detail the subject you want to talk about and include links to any other relevant details, such as a project home page. Remember this proposal needs to convince our programme committee that you should be talking at linux.conf.au 2007. Proposals for miniconfs can be up to 2000 words, and should detail the community involved, the expected number of attendees, proposed activities and detail any support you would like from the organising committee. This proposal needs to convince us that you can organise an interesting, successful miniconf that people are going to want to go to! Papers should be no longer than 14 pages and are reliant upon the related presentation being accepted for linux.conf.au. Papers and proposals should be submitted in an appropriate open format, such as 7-bit ASCII text, HTML, DocBook or LaTeX. Proposal requires pre-registration, providing the following information: * Full name (and preferred handle, if any) * Complete email address * Short biography, in around 1 - 3 paragraphs. The biography should include any previous speaking or organising experience. Proposals and papers and should be submitted through our web form: http://lca2007.linux.org.au/cfp Any featured software in papers must be available under a licence compatible with the Open Source Definition. Any papers that are accompanied by non-disclosure agreement forms will be rejected. All successful papers must be eligible for republication on-line and on distribution media given to conference attendees. linux.conf.au requires publication rights to accepted papers, including the publication of the audio proceedings as well as publication and reproduction rights to any video filmed during the presentations. These rights are non-exclusive. Copyright ownership is retained by the author. Submitting an abstract indicates understanding of and consent to these conditions. In the event that you miss one of the deadlines we reserve the right to revoke any offer to present your paper. We take having the paper for the conference proceedings very seriously and late proposals place an undue burden on our formatting team. All proposals must be complete by the closing date -- that is, the 15th of September is not merely a closing date for abstracts.

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