Call for participants Dipro-fair Ghent 30/01/2011

Wanted:
People who want to help out at the Ubuntu booth during the Dipro-fair is in Ghent on January 30, 2011.
If you’re not able to attend the full day, some hours of help are always welcome as well.

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

Forwarding of the so-called ‘funny’ mail isn’t funny anymore!

Screenshot-2Everyone knows them. The so-called ‘funny’ mails.
Most of the time they contain a hoax, a big-ass picture, a power-point presentation or a video clip.
On top of this, they usually also contain a huge list of mail-addresses from people you don’t even know.

By this post, I’d like to point out that not all people like these mails unlike what some people tend to think.
Consider that there are people that get a lot of serious mail. (yes, it can be used in such manner)
You might not be aware of it, but reading all those mails take an huge amount of time.
These people are constantly fighting against unwanted messages as it consumes way too much time.
This is not such a big deal, but it gets harder if their mail-address is being used in a inappropriate way.

By inappropriate I mean that their mail-address, along with a lot of other addresses, is put inside the ‘cc:’ field, making it visible to all people ever receiving that mail.
If you’re not aware of the implications, just imagine that your home address or your cell-number is published instead of your mail address.
Some people use this medium for work related communications or for serious business. The so funny mails become quite annoying in this context.
In the end, they are unwanted messages, also called spam.

I understand that you might want to share the funny stuff with people you know.
But take some actions to prevent spamming people.

Things you can do

  • Use the BCC: field to place the mail-addresses in.
    This will prevent you from distributing people’s address to the world.
    You can do this in Outlook .
  • Think twice when forwarding a mail to your contacts.
    Differentiate people that use the mail-system for social contacts and those that use it for serious business.
    You can do this by making distribution listsin Outlook or Windows Live (alias hotmail), categorizing these people.
    This makes it also faster and easier to send the mails.
  • If someone answers your mail asking you to stop sending this kind of mails, don’t ignore it.
    That person will possibly just block all your mails, resulting in the ignorance of serious mails.

For an overview of the email etiquette you can check out this website for a nice and comprehensive list of things you should know before using any mail-system.

Ubuntu-be update

Due to inactivity the last month on the Ubuntu-be mailing list, I had some catching up to do on the huge list of unread mails.
Amongst them I found this mail from  Pierre Buyle:

Hi,

for those requesting a Forum for Ubuntu-be, there is an alternative
solution (which has already been discussed in the past). Gmane
provides two web interfaces for our mailing list. A blog-like one at
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ubuntu.region.belgium and a threaded
one at http://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ubuntu.region.belgium.

In addition, I registered the mailing list for archiving on Nabble
which also provides an forum like web interface at
http://n2.nabble.com/Ubuntu-be-f3354669.html

These three interface allow one to follow activities on the mailing
list without dealing with it as a bunch of mail. Both Gmane and Nabble
allow posting to the list through the Web interface (only for
subscribed user registered there).

So, if you’re interested in following the Ubuntu-be mailing list, you can easily do so without the ‘hassle’ of subscribing to it.
It’s also a perfect way to check it out for a while, as you don’t receive all these mails in your mailbox.

I have to say, it’s the first time I’ve seen the integrated nabble forum in action, and have to agree that it’s awesome.
Also the blog-styled layout of gmane is making the mailing list (more) enjoyable to read.

Of course, you can also just send a mail to the ubuntu-be mailing list.
Warning: This is a public medium! If you want to send messages to this list you’ll have to register first through https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-be. Keep into consideration that every message posted will be visible in the public archives!