sturmy - Slashdot User

Submission + - The FSF Adapts the Kickstarter Approach to Fund-raising 3

Submitted by ChronoEngineer on Tuesday October 16, 2012 @02:32PM

ChronoEngineer writes: Recently the Free Software foundation launched a new fund-raising system starting with the GNU Mediagoblin project. Rewards from its new tiered donation reward system include physical objects such as a 3d print of the project's mascot as well as digital ones (Rewards List). This gives free software projects an alternative crowd-funding source where all of their contributions go to advancing free software since the administrative cut taken from the earnings goes to the Free Software Foundation. Chris Webber, of GNU Mediagoblin, mentions this as one of the reasons he chose the FSF over Kickstarter for his project.

Comment Better title: Software patents bad for Australians (Score 5, Informative) 150

by sturmy on Saturday May 19, 2012 @09:57PM (#40054737) Attached to: Software Patents Good For Open Source?

I (Ben Sturmfels) am saying is that software patents are bad for the whole software industry and the Australian public. Software patents inhibit innovation for *both* proprietary software and free software/open source businesses. Getting rid of software patents is something the entire software industry should be working towards.

FOSS RTS Game Glest Gets Revival — Enter Mega-Glest 103

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 12, 2010 @04:08AM from the strategic-fork dept.

Softhaus writes "Many readers here are likely familiar with the popular, open source RTS game Glest, which comes packaged with nearly every Linux distro. Unfortunately, all development ceased on the original game back in 2008, disappointing many around the world. During the past year, a new fork (called Mega-Glest) has endeavored to take this great game and bring it to the masses. This new fork can provide hours of fun at your next LAN party, as it supports up to eight players in real-time (with or without CPU AI players), and the newly released v3.3.5 offers Internet play via a master server lobby. Cross-platform network play is now a reality, which could help bridge the gap between Linux and Windows users in a cohesive manner. One of the best features of Mega-Glest (and indeed Glest itself) is the ease with which new 'factions' and mods may be produced via a Map editor, model viewer, Blender plugins, XML files describing your unit traits, particles, weapons, and LUA scripting for scenarios and AI. Full installers for Windows, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit are available on SourceForge, promising hours of fun. But one warning: the game can become highly addictive. You can provide feedback for the game through the official forums."

Submission + - Oscilloscopes for modern Engineers? 2

Submitted by dawning on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:00PM

dawning writes: I've just graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering (and did a Comp Sci one while I was at it) and I'm finding myself woefully under-equipped to do some great hardware projects.

I'm in major need of a good oscilloscope. I'm willing to put down $2000 for a decent one, but there's several options and they all seem so archaic and limited. I'm happy to use something that must be controlled through a PC if that gives me more measuring features.

What would you, my esteemed /. colleagues get for yourself?

Submission + - Letter to abolish software patents in Australia (softwarefreedom.com.au)

Submitted by

Ben Sturmfels

on Monday August 02, 2010 @11:07PM

Ben Sturmfels writes: "400 members of the Australian software industry have have signed an open letter, urging their government to abolish software patents. Signatories include free software luminaries Andrew Tridgell and Jonathan Oxer. In 2008 the Australian government began a Review of Patentable Subject Matter. While we missed the 2009 public consultation period, we hope to influence the government's response to the Review, due in February 2011. The letter will be presented to Minister Kim Carr in early August."

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