When done correctly, “Secure Boot” is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when booting. In practice, this means that computers implementing it won’t boot unauthorized operating systems — including initially authorized systems that have been modified without being re-approved.

The biggest issue with the “Secure Boot” system, is that it’ll create a vendor-lockin. This has been seen with the android system as well, but it’ll be Microsft pulling the strings on this one.

Some other interesting reads on Secure Boot:

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/09/windows-8-secure-boot-will-complicate-linux-installs.ars

http://www.osnews.com/story/25180

Someone (didn’t catch the name) talked about the digitalized University Library Ghent.
They pointed out that they’ve already gathered a lot of data and made it publicly available.
On the top of their homepage, there’s a link to available downloads and API’s for the people wanting to be creative with their data.

Next up was Pieter Colpaert, the father of the famous iRail going for word domination.
Pieter explained how iRails started, how they do it, and their goal (which is world domination).
His presentation:

After the awesome talk of Pieter, the microphone was passed on to Bart Rosseau.
Bart works as the Strategic Communication Advisor for the city.
He shared the view of the city on Open Data and what they want and will do for the public.
He noted that it’s obviously not as simple as just opening everything up to everyone, as there are privacy concerns etc…
He promised that there will be data available starting somewhere in the middle of May on http://gent.be/open
Probably on the 14th of May (source: appsforghent.be)
His presentation:

It’s not clear on which data will be placed in the public domain and/or under which license the data will be put.
So let’s keep our eyes open for changes on the http://www.gent.be/open page.

After his talk I’m glad I can conclude that there’s awareness on Open Data and Open Source within the city ​​council.

http://0×20.be

More info: https://0×20.be/Newline

Profile:
You don’t have to be an Ubuntu/Linux expert.
If you can testify about your experiences and suggest to Windows-programs,
can already make a difference.
Most people we lend a word on the fair, have none or little of Ubuntu/Linux/Computer experience.

Fun fact:
As an exhibitor you don’t have to pay the entrance fee, but between helping out, you can take our time to look around and find awesome deals.

How:
Add your name to the ubuntu-wiki page:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ComputerFairs/Ghent_2011-01-31
OR
Let me know trough mail ubuntu@mimor.be

Please in both of these cases, mention whether you’ll be helping out a full day or several hours.
That’s all you need to do.
If you can provide items such as demolaptop(s), camera, etc. .. you may also add it to the wiki page.

Hope to see you soon.

=====================================

Gezocht:
Mensen die willen helpen op de Ubuntu stand tijdens de Dipro beurs in Gent op 30 Jan 2011.
Indien het niet mogelijk is om de volledige dag aanwezig te zijn, zijn enkele uren hulp ook altijd welkom.

Profiel:
Je hoeft geen Ubuntu/linux/computer expert te zijn.
Als je kan getuigen over jouw ervaringen en uitleg geven over alternatieven voor Windows programma’s,
kan je al een verschil maken.
De meeste mensen die we op de beurs ten woord staan, hebben helemaal geen of weinig van Ubuntu/Linux.

Leuk weetje:
Als medewerker van de stand hoef je geen toegangsgeld te betalen, maar kan je tussendoor wel rond kijken en toffe deals vinden.

Hoe:
Voeg je naam toe aan deze Ubuntu-be Wiki pagina:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/ComputerFairs/Ghent_2011-01-31
OF
Laat het me weten via mail op ubuntu@mimor.be

Gelieve in de twee gevallen te vermelden of je een volledige dag of enkele uren zal helpen.
Dat is het enige dat je hoeft te doen.
Indien je items van de lijst kan verzorgen zoals demo laptop(s), fototoestel, etc… mag je dit ook telkens aanvullen op de wiki pagina.

Hopelijk tot binnenkort.

Mvg,

Mike Morraye

I’ve just send out the news to the mailing list of Ubuntu-be and the Whitespace to confirm that i’ll organise the release party for the upcoming LTS version of Ubuntu.
The event will take place Thursday the 13th of May in the Whitespace.
I’m still looking for people whom have some knowledge of something Ubuntu-related and have the guts to give a lightningtalk or a demo.
At the moment of writing, I’ve had 1 confirmation from a guy with Balls! Mandel.
He did a talk about desktopcouch at fosdem this year, and will bring an improved version of that to the Release party.
If you have questions, let me know.
I’m available at the #Ubuntu-be channel on freenode, or just PM me (mimor) or use the comment section below.

The sent mail in English:

Hello to all.
>
> I organize a RP on the 13th of May in honor of the Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)
> release.
> This is indeed a Thursday but that’s an official holiday and lot’s of
> the people don’t have to work on Friday.
> What time it’ll take place is yet to be decided.
>
> The RP will take place in the Whitespace (Blekerijstraat 75, Gent,
> Belgium)
> For people wondering what the Whitespace is: http://0×20.be
>
> The space has: power, network, internet, drinks, snacks, beamer, couches
> and I hope we can repair the coffee-machine by then.
> People whom want something else, mention it.
>
> The program is still under construction.
> This moment, my receipt looks like this:
>
> Around 13h we’ll serve a light meet & greet to loosen up the nerves.
> Next, we’ll stimulate the senses wit a series of lightning talks
> accompanied by a spicy serving of freshly cut tips.
> As the Spécial-du-chéf, you can enjoy some trial-and-error-sauce topped
> hands-on sessions.
>
> This part is for sure, but the rest is still work in progress!
>
> This is the rest:
>
> – design of Posters, flyers and web-banners
> – do you know someone, or want to present something yourself? Go for it
> & let me know.
> – spread the word! To your friends, colleagues, your student-club, etc..
> – the pleasure to have YOU with us!
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Morraye

Or in Dutch:

>
> Hallo iedereen.
>
> Ik organiseer Donderdag, 13 Mei 2010 een RP voor Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid).
> Dit is inderdaad een donderdag Maar het is een feestdag en vrijdag is
> voor velen dus een brug-dag.
> Van hoe laat tot hoe laat is nog te beslissen.
>
> De RP gaat door in de Whitespace (Blekerijstraat 75, Gent, Belgium)
> Voor wie wil weten wat dit is: http://0×20.be
>
> Locatie heeft: stroomvoorziening, netwerk, internet, (fris-) drank,
> versnaperingen, beamer, zetels en hopelijk kunnen we tegen dan ook de
> koffiezet herstellen.
> Wie nog iets anders wil, laat het gerust weten
>
> Het programma in nog in ontwikkeling.
> Op dit moment zit m’n recept er zo uit:
>
> Rond 13h serveren we een luchtige meet & greet om de zenuwen wat los te
> weken. Hierna prikkelen we de zintuigen met een reeks van pittige
> lightningtalks vergezeld van een portie vers gesneden tips.
> Als spécial du chéf, kunnen de fijnproevers genieten van enkele hands-on
> sessies overgoten met een sausje trial & error.
>
> Dit stuk is zeker, de rest is work in progress!
>
> Hier dus de rest:
>
> – ontwerp Poster & flyer en/of web-banners?
> – ken je iemand, of wil je zelf iets presenteren. Go for it & let me
> know.
> – Spread the word! In je vriendenkring, op het werk, in je
> studentenclub, etc…
> – het genoegen dat JIJ er ook bent!
>
> Mvg,
>
> Mike Morraye

A bit off topic for this list, but there are a lot of ubuntu/fos-users
in the space,
so I assumed this can be interesting for ubuntu users.

Whitespace would like to invite you to its opening weekend 19-21 March.

When: From Friday 19th of March to Sunday the 21st.

Where: Blekerijstraat 75, Gent, Belgium

Whitespace is the first hackerspace in Ghent and will be opening its doors
for the first time on the weekend of 19-21 March. The space is ready for
launch, but far from finished: we’ve got a roof, multiple walls,  and some
cat5 and now we need more people to have fun with.

Don’t know what a “hackerspace” is? Check http://hackerspaces.org

We hope to see you drop by.

The (dynamic) agenda[0]:
————————————

Friday:
20:00: Opening drink, see the space, meet the locals, fun hacker partygames.

Saturday:
14:00 : OpenWRT presentation: a big os for small devices.
15:00 : Flashing for fun & profit:
1 Bring your compatible wireless router[1]
2 Flash it! (don’t worry we’ll walk you trough).
3 …
4 Profit!
17:00 : Everything you always wanted to know about IPv6 but were afraid to ask.
18:00 : Open recipe burgers (with secret sauce).
21:00 : Evening entertainment: Powerpoint karaoke hosted by fs111.
After that : something involving liquids.

Sunday:
12:00 Hungry-Hacker is hungry. Breakfast.
15:00 lightning talks:
Such diverse subjects as: Google summer of code, The talk too trollish to
mention, How to get  yourself a lot of work that you didn’t plan by being
creative, Something about something, Awesome talk will be awesome, …
(open stage, schedule will be on the wiki, add your lightning talk there)

Registration:
Is not necessary but it would be nice to give us an idea on how many of you
to expect so we have enough chairs and secret sauce.
Please add your name: http://www.doodle.com/bg5x7xrbcg5z9h8q
Feel free to invite your friends.

[0] Keep an eye on http://0×20.be/ for the latest agenda updates,
and maybe follow the bird on http://twitter.com/HSGhent
[1] http://wiki.openwrt.org/oldwiki/tableofhardware

–
ubuntu-be mailing list / mailto:ubuntu-be@lists.ubuntu.com

It’s there:

Grotere kaart weergeven

Its amazing

Saturday

• 11:45 to 12:30 Evil On the Internet
  

  This talk will show you live examples of these sites, explain how they work, and tell you what we currently know about the criminals who operate them.
  There’s a lot of evil things on the Internet if you know where to look for them. Phishing websites collect banking credentials; mule recruitment websites entice people into money laundering; fake escrow sites defraud the winners of online auctions; fake banks hold the cash for fake African dictators; and there are even Ponzi scheme websites where (almost) everyone knows that they’re a scam. This talk will show you live examples of these sites, explain how they work, and tell you what we currently know about the criminals who operate them.

• 13:15 to 13:45 Mozilla Europe
  

  General Introduction followed by an update on the work of Mozilla in Europe.

• 13:45 to 14:00 Mozilla Foundation
  

  Latest MoFo news and projects.

• 15:30 to 16:30 HTML5
• 17:00 to 17:15 csync: Roaming Home Directories
  

  his talk will be about a file synchronizer designed for the normal user. I will tell you how it and works and how you can use it to synchronize your music collection or set it up for Roaming Home Directories.
  csync is a lightweight utility to synchronize files between two directories on a system or between multiple systems.
  It synchronizes bidirectionally and allows the user to keep two copies of files and directories in sync. csync uses widely adopted protocols, such as smb or sftp, so that there is no need for a server component. It is a user-level program which means you don’t need to be a superuser or administrator.
  Together with a Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM), the intent is to provide Roaming Home Directories for Linux.

• 16:45 to 17:45 Mozilla Sync/Weave
  

  How Weave and in particular sync is going to integrate with Firefox through 2010 and Firefox 4.
  There will be some discussion on how add-on authors can integrate with Weave starting now, and directions being made to surface this data in the browser.

• 18:00 to 18:15 SyncEvolution: From the SyncML Protocol to Free and Open Implementations
  

  Data synchronization is still mostly a missing piece in the free desktop puzzle: solutions that are reliable and ready for the mythical Average User just aren’t available. This talk presents the SyncML protocol, introduces the Synthesis SyncML engine (developed since 2000, open sourced 2009) and outlines how SyncEvolution is used as the synchronization solution in Moblin, GNOME and other Linux desktop systems – stay tuned for more news about this.
  SyncEvolution is meant to be a cross-platform solution, therefore this talk would be suitable for the cross-desktop developer room.
  Direct synchronization with other mobile devices is the main new feature in the upcoming Moblin 1.0 release. It will be covered in this talk for the first time.
  SyncEvolution is a tool that synchronizes personal information management (PIM) data like contacts, calenders, tasks, and memos using the SyncML information synchronization standard. SyncEvolution compiled for GNOME’s Evolution supports all of these data items. Compiled for Nokia 770/800/810 Internet Tablets, Mac OS X and the iPhone (only 0.7), it supports synchronizing the system address book. The command-line tool ‘syncevolution’ (compiled separately for each of these platforms) executes the synchronization. In addition, there is the GTK “sync-UI”. The external Genesis is a graphical frontend for SyncEvolution written in PyGTK. The GUIs make SyncEvolution accessible without having to use a command line and provides graphical feedback of transaction results.
  SyncEvolution was written to have a small, reliable solution for Evolution PIM data synchronization without reinventing the wheel. SyncML is the established industry standard and Funambol has kindly provided their source code under the GPL, so there was already an existing code base for client and server development. During SyncEvolution’s development special attention was paid to automated testing and coverage of corner cases of the SyncML, vCard and iCalendar standards to ensure that no data gets lost or mangled.
  The focus right now is to deliver the best possible SyncML client for Moblin and Linux. With the switch to the Synthesis SyncML Engine it will be easier to also implement a server mode and direct device-to-device synchronization – this is already working in the 1.0 alpha release.

• 18:20 to 18:35 GeeXboX: An Introduction to Enna Media Center
  

  Enna is GeeXboX’s next generation Media Center interface, built upon Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL). It allows you to listen to your music files, watch your favorite movies, TV shows and photos across your network. It relies on libplayer multimedia A/V abstraction framework to control your preferred player and libvalhalla, a fast media scanner API that will grab metadata (covers, fan arts, song lyrics and so many more) from your multimedia contents.
  GeeXboX is a free embedded Linux distribution which aims at turning your computer into a so called HTPC (Home Theater PC) or Media Center. The GeeXboX project features both a LiveCD distribution and a standalone media center application (Enna); the project developed also several libraries (libplayer, libvalhalla) to enhance the multimedia experience under GNU/Linux.

Sunday

• 11:00 to 11:45 Tor: Building, Growing, and Extending Online Anonymity
  

  A review and update on Tor, how open source solutions work well worldwide, where we’re headed, and where we need help from developers like you.
  Tor is a tool to protect your online privacy and anonymity. We rely on thousands of volunteers to run our network, review our code, and help enhance the experience for all.

I’m still not sure if I’ll make it for the Friday evening beer event.
It all depends on whether I find a place to stay for the night.
But I’ll be at the Ubuntu Dinner on Saturday evening!

Hope to see you there.

Interesting links:
Fosdem Homepage
Ubuntu @ Fosdem Wiki Page
Fosdem Mailinglist
Flickr Fosdem 2010 Pictures and foto’s
Press & Promotional material

But you could also just come by to say hi too of course.

If you feel like helping us out a bit, visit our wiki page here to find out what we still need or how you could help.