Older blog entries for slef (starting at number 844)

Top 10 Benefits of Mailing List Software

Particularly around local government, but also some not-for-profits and universities, I’m trying to persuade people to stop using huge Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) lists that they keep in their address book and switch over to using mailing list manager software. Our co-op even gives some simple mailing list hosting away with web hosting. I think good mailing list software is better because:

  1. List members can help themselves – they can subscribe, unsubscribe and set options by sending email to the software or visiting its website, which reduces the worker time required to manage the list. But you can still manage it directly if you prefer.
  2. Your address book is smaller – because you don’t need every address on the mailing list cluttering up your email software’s address book any more
  3. Errors are handled automatically – if an address doesn’t work any more, the software will unsubscribe it
  4. Privacy is safeguarded – dedicated email list software will not put the recipients in the To-line by mistake (as often happens with Address Book announcement lists)
  5. Spam is filtered – rules can be set centrally and they can be different to the rest of your organisation
  6. Messages can be moderated – if needed, the list managers can be asked to pre-approve the messages
  7. Emails can be archived – most list software can save copies of messages for you, or put them on the web
  8. You can offer digests – offer members the choice between getting every message or daily or weekly batches
  9. Multiple versions can be sent – some list software can send different versions of the same email (like rich and plain text, or different languages) as chosen by the user
  10. You can syndicate news – some list software can also put your announcements on content management systems or social media
  11. (OK, I’ve done 10… there are two more which matter to a tech worker like me which I’m going to mention as free extras.) It’s more efficient – most list software is designed to handle hundreds or thousands of recipients and sends email with more robust settings than a typical desktop email client. It is less likely to fail after recipient 373 and ask you to resend them all.
  12. Comply with standards – good list software either follows standards for things like self-service and digests automatically or can be told to do it. Some desktop email software (Outlook?) usually can’t.

Do you think these are good reasons? Are there other reasons you would include above some of these? Would they persuade you to stop using your computer’s address book?

Syndicated 2011-05-19 10:11:06 from Software Cooperative News

SPI May 2011

Software in the Public Interest (the organisation behind debian and many more) will hold a public board meeting later today (Wednesday) at 20:30 UTC (=21:30 BST, 22:30 CEST or date -d @1305145800 to you). SPI meetings are held in #spi on irc.spi-inc.org (the OFTC network). The agenda for the meeting is available at http://www.spi-inc.org/meetings/agendas/2011/2011-05-11/

At the time of writing, there’s a single resolution regarding Jenkins joining as an SPI associated project. Jenkins (formerly known as Hudson until the Oracalypse) monitors execution of jobs like software builds or scheduled tasks. Its website is http://jenkins-ci.org/

Why not come along and wish Jenkins well? Or just see if I’m awake after a #koha meeting at 3am UK time? ;-)

Syndicated 2011-05-11 03:08:44 from Software Cooperative News

Standing for election, times 2 or 3

It’s a bit quiet on this blog recently because I’m busy with lots of non-software tasks, including:

  1. I am standing for election to the UK Worker Co-operative Council. Thank you to software.coop for the nomination and help. Voters can ask me questions on the uk.coop site.
  2. I was renominated to Kewstoke Parish Council and even though there’s no contest (just enough candidates to fill the council), I’ve another 16 pages of legally-required forms to complete to take up office. I hate bureaucracy and I think it deters a lot of good people from helping their villages.
  3. I’m contemplating standing in the co-operative group area committee elections again.

So, I’m far from idle. I’m still developing software for clients of our co-op but not finding time to write about it just now. Maybe this would be more interesting to readers: I’ve moved my wifi antenna out of the metal box it’s been in for a while. Now it covers a half-decent area, I’m looking at installing CoovaAP to offer some free public access wifi while trying to limit the risk of illegal activity. Would you do it? Do you run a public wifi point? What should I watch out for?

Syndicated 2011-05-03 12:22:08 from Software Cooperative News

Kilman IT Services social engineering phone call attack

I just received a strange call. Basically, someone phoned me up and tried to convince me to change my computer’s settings. They called my direct line (not the co-op switchboard), so I think they might be calling other numbers in the Weston-super-Mare area. Watch out for this attack.

I’d heard about these calls from Box Bush Farm a year or so ago, but this is the first one I’ve had. They introduced themselves as calling from “Kilman IT Services” (if I heard it correctly – I didn’t find it in a web search, so hopefully they’re not defaming a real company) and say they’re calling about the critical error that I reported from my computer (I guess they mean the dialogue that some applications pop up when they crash). I said something non-commital like “riiight” and they continued.

Apparently, that error has been registered in my computer’s files and could cause damage at any time! So, they need me to edit my computer’s registers to remove the error. Then they started trying to talk me through the process of running regedit. I’m guessing the changes would have allowed them to control a Windows computer somehow.

At this point, I introduced myself and hung up the phone. Of course, there was no caller ID shown. If only I’d picked up the call from a phone with a record button, I would post a recording! It sounded like a call centre and the caller spoke English with a far-eastern accent, but of course it could be from anywhere.

This is a crude social engineering attack. Don’t fall for it. As it says on Get Safe Online: “How to spot social engineering: You get an unexpected call, email or visit from a technical support person”. Better yet, make sure you know the names of your tech support providers and refer any unsolicited repair calls to them. I think real IT services would talk to your lead support provider.

This sort of obnoxiousness is part of the reason why our co-op doesn’t publish our client list. I’m posting this mainly so if anyone searches for “Kilman IT Services” they’ll find details of the call.

Syndicated 2011-04-06 18:38:44 from Software Cooperative News

Windows 7 Bites Your Files?

A new comment on the Samsung N150 Ubuntu Netbook Remix reminded me that maybe I should post this here:

I’ve just seen a report of lost files in a dual-boot Windows 7 situation. One suggestion is that you shouldn’t suspend Windows, boot GNU, edit files on the Windows disks, shutdown GNU, then resume Windows.

I’ve not dual-booted for over a decade, but friends and clients do and they’re slowly moving to Windows 7 as it comes on new PCs. Is this a new twist on the old Windows-expects-one-user-at-a-time sharing problems, perhaps?

Syndicated 2011-04-05 04:41:21 from Software Cooperative News

#Budget11 – one #coops response

I’ve posted #Budget11 – one #coops response on UK.coop because it’s a bit long and I doubt many of the people reading this through software-related sites will want to read it. If you’re interested in UK co-ops and the budget, click through to read points including:

  • it’s a mixed bag for co-op members and not really clear if we win or lose. The BBC reckons individuals will lose about £400 on average.
  • Basically, the business measures which I can understand are bad for co-ops and seem to be aimed at private businesses, but some of the other things might be useful.
  • Co-operatives UK general secretary Ed Mayo asked for changes to employee share ownership annual tax concessions, easier starts for co-operatives and encouragement for grassroots successes. I don’t see any of those in this budget. Do you?

Comment here or there, as you prefer. I’ll read both every day or so for the next little while.

Syndicated 2011-03-23 16:18:30 from Software Cooperative News

#Debian and #KohaILS Conference Planning

This seems an active time for conference planning in two of the projects I like:

  1. KohaCon11 is being planned for Thane, India. Registrations are open and I’m helping to admin the conference system (OCS). If you’d like to talk, submissions are also open now, although how we review and choose has yet to be decided (should be at the next volunteer meeting). If you’d like to sponsor the event, please register as a potential sponsor.
  2. DebConf12’s location will be picked at an IRC meeting today (Tuesday). Bids from Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Managua, Nicaragua are on the web and you are invited to help choose between them.

Are there any other Free and Open Source Software community conferences you’d like to mention?

Syndicated 2011-03-22 05:05:15 from Software Cooperative News

SPI March 2011

Software in the Public Interest, the contributor-led not-for-profit corporation that supports debian GNU/Linux, OpenVAS, OpenOffice.org and an ‘ole load of other free software projects meets tonight (Wednesday 9th) at 20:30 UTC in #spi on irc.spi-inc.org. The agenda has been published and the main item to be discussed is adding LibreOffice as an associated project.

What do you think of that, then? SPI supporting both LibreOffice and OpenOffice? A balanced position, fence-sitting or something else?

Syndicated 2011-03-09 05:37:29 from Software Cooperative News

John the Revolution!

If you were watching itv1 last night (or since), you might have seen the co-operative group’s Join the Revolution advert that hints at how buying from co-op shops helps to support a wide range of other co-operative efforts. This isn’t unique to that co-op – our co-op has been helped by the group and many others over the years, both formally and informally, and we’ve helped other co-ops too – but the shops are one of the biggest co-ops and it’s great to see them getting the message out there.

It’s rather less great that my mobile phone is convinced that “John the Revolution” is much more probable. Got to love software. If only it was free software I could fix…

Syndicated 2011-03-08 18:54:55 from Software Cooperative News

Event for creative co-operatives

Last week, I was at this event in Bristol where we heard some interesting stories from other creative co-ops. I think the oldest had been running for about the same length as time as our co-op, but with a bit of a smoother history.

The organisers have posted their report on the event.

What did surprise me is that it seemed that the other tech co-ops weren’t as strong about free and open source software. I felt that the links between co-op values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others and the freedoms to use, study, adapt and share were obvious, but maybe I should try to write them out very clearly?

Syndicated 2011-02-24 09:52:30 from Software Cooperative News

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