Re: Anonymous Voting System

2020-03-26 Thread Michael McMahon
Is it time to revive GNU FREE?

https://www.gnu.org/software/free/

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
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Re: Anonymous Voting System

2020-03-30 Thread Michael McMahon
With free software, you can fork a project if you can find the code.

It still seems like a valid concept as long as it does not scale to
politics.

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org | https://gnu.org

On 3/30/20 4:03 AM, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:
> Am Donnerstag 26 März 2020 19:50:46 schrieb Michael McMahon:
>> Is it time to revive GNU FREE?
>> https://www.gnu.org/software/free/
> All links on that page are dead, it's from 2002 and in November
> Stallman restated that they withdraw the software.
> https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/2019-November/012957.html
>
> Best,
> Bernhard
>
>
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Re: Anonymous Voting System

2020-03-31 Thread Michael McMahon
https://sourceforge.net/projects/free/files/FREE/GNU.FREE-1.9/

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
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On 3/31/20 3:29 AM, Cryptie wrote:
> True enough, "Free Software products never die, they only sleep". 
>
> Could you find the code?
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Re: Wiki page about Free Software for remote working

2020-03-31 Thread Michael McMahon
The FSF is also working on a similar list.

https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
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On 3/31/20 3:29 PM, Paul Boddie wrote:
> On Tuesday 31. March 2020 17.30.12 Sandro Santilli wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 04:45:28PM +0200, Erik Albers wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> last week some people created the a FSFE-wiki page about Free Software
>>> solutions for remote working. I think it has grown quite cool and gives a
>>> good overview. What do you think? Is it good? Is there missing something
>>> essential?
>>>
>>> https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/FreeSoftware4RemoteWorking
>> Under the Chat/InstantMessaging app IRC is completely missing, while
>> still being the most stable and ubiquitous system for instant
>> messaging ?
> This is actually a good point. Since a lot of workplaces have suddenly been 
> forced into thinking about remote working, the media narrative seems to be 
> dominated by technologies like videoconferencing, "feature-rich" real-time 
> chat, and other things that happen to have prominent and opportunistic 
> proprietary vendors looking for new customers.
>
> Yet successful distributed work can take place without these proprietary 
> products. Indeed, some of the currently-hyped solutions are possibly some of 
> the least efficient ways of getting work done, as some people are finding 
> out. 
> Meanwhile, asynchronous communications like e-mail keep getting the job done 
> for many, despite continuing threats from the forces of consolidation and 
> monopolisation towards independent mail (and Web) service providers.
>
> Paul
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Re: Free Software for live streaming

2020-07-02 Thread Michael McMahon
OBS could stream to a server.  Icecast could be the server and stream to
the viewers.

https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Icecast

BBB would be good if you want participant interaction.  It might get
overloaded with a city council meeting.  I have seen BBB used for a
classroom sized event with approximately 30 people.

Many alternatives are listed at
https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org | https://gnu.org

On 7/2/20 7:56 AM, Erik Albers wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> there is the interest of a medium-sized German city to stream its city council
> meetings to the internet. They would like to use Free Software, are willing to
> spend some money for it and are looking for help now.
>
> Apparently there is OBS Studio in this area [1]. Theoretically, this could
> also be possible via Big Blue Button [2]? Does anyone here have experience
> with any of the mentioned software or in general with live streaming and Free
> Software and can share recommendations / pitfalls?
>
> Thank you and best regards,
>Erik
>
> [1] https://obsproject.com/de/
> [2] https://bigbluebutton.org/
>
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Re: Help with gathering resources for how to learn programming for children book

2021-10-26 Thread Michael McMahon

Hi, Matthias!

I have several years of experience teaching introductory programming 
concepts to children aged 6-18 in an after school setting using free 
software.


The 5-6 age range (at least with my students) was limited to drag and 
drop concepts such as Music Blocks [1], Blockly [2], Scratch 1.4 [3], 
and code.org.  Music Blocks, Blockly, and the old offline Scratch 
version 1.4 are the only popular drag and drop options that are 100% 
free software that I am aware of.


Around the age of 10, I would switch them away from drag and drop 
languages to Python or Lua if they were inclined through modifying 
simple games and modifying Minetest mods.


I would primarily recommend Music Blocks as it can even be used offline 
through a browser on old hardware.  The surrounding Sugar project [4] is 
also appropriate for this age group and can be found bundled with 
Trisquel [5].


Blockly is more of a framework than an easy to point to resource.  
Scratch is more focused on vendor lock-in rather than generally teaching 
programming in my opinion as there are not resources for moving on from 
Scratch within their platform.


I would also recommend the book Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer 
Science and Other Improbable Things by Carlos Bueno from No Starch Press 
[6] which targets ages 10 and up.


[1] https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/

[2] https://github.com/google/blockly https://developers.google.com/blockly/

[3] https://scratch.mit.edu/scratch_1.4

[4] https://www.sugarlabs.org/

[5] http://mirror.fsf.org/trisquel-images/trisquel-sugar_9.0_amd64.iso 
https://cdimage.trisquel.info/trisquel-images/trisquel-sugar_9.0_amd64.iso.sha256


[6] https://nostarch.com/laurenipsum

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org  |https://gnu.org

On 10/26/21 1:28 AM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:

Hello Cryptie,

* Cryptie [2021-10-12 09:43 +0200]:

What do you think about adding scratch ?
It is a great way for young kids to learn algorithmic and having something fun 
fast.

We use it in my association with 5y.o. so they can start fast...

BUT
1) They don't provide scratch 3.0 on GNU/Linux (it is installable but it 
requires a parent able to find and follow a command-line tutorial to install it 
or you can use one of the website providing it and play in a browser...).

2)  it is a modified BSD licence (+/-) to limit the use of the name Scratch.

I am not 100% sure about the best approach. What do you and others here
think about it?

Best regards,
Matthias



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Re: Help with gathering resources for how to learn programming for children book

2021-10-28 Thread Michael McMahon

Hi, Bernhard!

The lack of reading and writing skills was the issue I faced. You nailed 
it.  I was also teaching lower income families so starting with a 
written language could start earlier depending on the student or groups 
writing level.


Yes, I did try codecombat and it was good.  When I tried this a few 
years back the site was newer than it is now and there was not a lot of 
content to keep the kids intrigued.  At the time it was a good activity 
for a few days.  The page is free software, but "Note: the levels on 
codecombat.com are not open source."  It would be amazing if there was a 
community effort to make libre levels.  If it exists, I am unaware.


From the board game page you listed, I have Code Master and Robot 
Turtles which are similar.  I found that the board games like that are 
not very exciting to young kids, but could be useful for an introduction 
to robotics concepts.  A successful game we would use to introduce 
robotics was using the instructors as robots and the room as a game 
board.  The children would write instructions and the instructors would 
interpret the instructions very literally. This can add comedy which 
balances out the frustration. Interpreting a one line program written as 
"Walk across the room" might result in walking in a straight line 
through the room and falling over the couch for example.  Ambiguous 
instructs like "Turn right" could be interpreted as a 360 degree turn in 
place. "Walk forward three steps" would be interpreted correctly.  The 
low tech nature of the game also helps reduce the economic barrier to entry.


The partner program that we used for robotics chose the Lego mindstorms 
platform which is proprietary, but also drag and drop like blockly and 
friends.  A blockly based Arduino robot would be a great free software 
addition to the education space.  If it exists, I am unaware.


Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org | https://gnu.org

On 10/28/21 7:59 AM, Bernhard E. Reiter wrote:

Michael,
thanks for sharing your experiences.

Am Dienstag 26 Oktober 2021 18:38:20 schrieb Michael McMahon:

Around the age of 10, I would switch them away from drag and drop
languages to Python or Lua if they were inclined through modifying
simple games and modifying Minetest mods.

Reading and writing is an important precondition of course.
So is logical thinking and having fun with puzzles.

Do you have experience with
   https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat
and the service based on it?
What I found good is that they were available in German.

So the local language matters a lot, because most children cannot do enough
English at 10 years.

Anyone experiences or even research about board games that should prepare for
coding, like
   https://www.thinkfun.com/type/coding-games/

Best Regards,
Bernhard


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Re: LibreJam - FSF* should host a Libre Game development tournament!

2022-01-03 Thread Michael McMahon
 participated in a game jam, but I have searched 
through many hundreds of game jam games to find materials for teaching 
programming to children.


[1] https://opengameart.org/content/opengameart-late-fall-game-jam-2021

[2] Fast, Good, or Cheap: Pick Two. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good,_fast_and_cheap


Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org

US government employee? Use CFC charity code 63210 to support us through the
Combined Federal Campaign. https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/


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Re: LibreJam - FSF* should host a Libre Game development tournament!

2022-01-05 Thread Michael McMahon
In my response I wrote, "The purpose of a jam is education, 
socialization, and friendly competition while gaining functional 
experience through creating something in an area that they are 
interested in."


From what I gathered, most game jams participants are children, 
students, hobbyists, and mentors who are not professional programmers.  
I have tried hundreds of game jam games and I would only recommend a few 
of them to be worth playing or distributing through a repository.  The 
majority of them are incomplete concepts of games.  Many are not 
playable without reading the source.  Many cannot be played.  Some are 
great!  If most game jam games ended up in standard repositories, there 
would be a negative effect on the entire ecosystem.  As gamers search 
for free games to play, they would install these game jam games and find 
a large number of low quality games.  After trying several duds, the 
negative experience could turn them away from free software altogether 
without context.  Every program does not need to be packaged.


Jams do have value.  Sometimes the journey is the destination.

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
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On 1/4/22 10:54 PM, Richard Stallman wrote:

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

If the aim of a Game Jam isn't to produce a game that people use,
what is its purpose?



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Re: [FSFLA] LibreJam - FSF* should host a Libre Game development tournament!

2022-02-14 Thread Michael McMahon
FSFE is doing a relevant stream today about gaming to celebrate I <3 
Free Software day.


"""
Only [less than one hour] left till our #ilovefs 
<https://mastodon.social/tags/ilovefs> gaming event begins!


Learn about #FreeSoftware <https://mastodon.social/tags/FreeSoftware> 
games, engines, Wild Jams, and play Veloren with our community.


We are looking forward to seeing you all there! Remember that you can 
stream the event as well:

https://stream.fsfe.org/ <https://stream.fsfe.org/>
"""

https://mastodon.social/@fsfe/107796971271375507

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org

US government employee? Use CFC charity code 63210 to support us through the
Combined Federal Campaign. https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/

On 1/19/22 10:12 PM, Sebastian Silva wrote:
Once upon a time, FSF, Mozilla, and OpenGameArt and Creative Commons, 
actually raised funds for a two-part project:Liberated Pixel Cup. 
<https://lpc.opengameart.org/>
I thought the discourse and organization around it was quite nice. 
Perhaps an annual event of the sort would be quite motivating for 
aspiring coders, and some not so aspiring, especially with cash prizes 
and shared assets, just a humble opinion.

--
Sebastian Silva



El mié, 19 ene 2022 a las 8:24, Ismael Luceno (<mailto:ism...@iodev.co.uk>>) escribió:


On 18/Jan/2022 18:03, Dennis Payne wrote:
> You did ask an actual indie game developer. I chose "We" in my
> statement because I was including myself in the group of game
> developers. I recently made Anagramarama available for sale on
itch.io <http://itch.io>
> to gain funds for free software game development. I also have a
> merchandise shop where I've started trying to make money for free
> software game development.
>
> If you want commercial closed source game developers, I've done that
> two. I worked on the game Devil's Whiskey. I enjoyed the experience
> and made money from it but don't particular enjoy closed source
> development so I haven't done it since.
<...>

I meant, to make a large representative sample.

I wish everyone was of your opinion, but I've been hearing otherwise
from the majority of people I talked with; geography, environment,
economy, and other factors might play a role in which groups are
louder and/or larger.

It would be important to understand who they are, their positions,
and what might prevent their games from being free software.
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