I want to stress how important it is to understand that donating even U$25 or U$5 or whatever you can is important. It’s also an easy decision for many people (I am not saying it is the case for everyone), to donate and make a difference, instead of spending that same money having lunch at the restaurant or taking a cab. You can also ask your employer to chip in – just ask! Your employer could donate to these projects, become a corporate member of the associations I mention, or pay your membership as part of mutual benefits (non-profit tax receipt + happy employee) Just ask. The worse that can happen is you get a “no, sorry”.

“OpenStreetMap‘s Operations Working Group, who have the important role of keeping core OSM services running smoothly, have planned to invest in a new server which will provide [them] with a database back-up. This improvement is at the very core of the OpenStreetMap infrastructure, giving services greater resilience. It means [they]’ll bounce back quicker and easier in the event of a hardware failure. In time the new server will also bring about some performance improvements.” – you can read more details about the fund drive and donate here. I am donating 50€ to this project.

The Debian Administrator’s Handbook was first written in French (and is a best-seller already) by two Debian developers who are translating it to English and possibly publishing it under a free license. The latter will only happen if the liberation fund reaches 25 K€. A physical book is a big helper when doing advocacy for free software. Imagine if instead of just showing the book to anyone interested, you could also show them how to search it electornically, cite it, use it, modify it, circulate it, share it at will ? I donated 100€ to this project.

Become a member of the Free Software Foundation and/or The Linux Foundation. I don’t always agree with everything that is said and done by the FSF, although I consider myself an active member and advocate – I certainly couldn’t do any of my advocacy work without all I’ve learned from the FSF and other fellow members. My membership at The Linux Foundation is a way to contribute to finance important projects (such as paying Linus Torvals’ salary). If you have a local free software advocacy group (such as FACIL or APELL in Quebec), consider joining as a full member or even making a donation – meeting space, flyers, CDs and food/drinks go a long way when networking locally. Becoming a member also increases the organization’s footprint, if nothing else. Numbers speak! This coming year I am sponsoring a student associate membership at the FSF.

• Linux Foundation membership benefits – Become a member
• Free Software Foundation membership benefits – Become a member (referred by me, member #3877)
• Free Software Foundation Europe fellowship form (including benefits)

Do you have any other ideas on where to donate cold, hard cash to further free, open technologies and software ? I’d love to hear them.

Update: I am helping putting together an accordingly “freedom geek” buying guide here, if anyone wants to peek or get inspiration for it.

This year I was able to bring two simultaneaous events together, in different locations.

Cette année j’ai pu programmer 2 événements différents, ça se passe demain, à deux endroits différents .

Les détails à / All details at: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2011/Canada/Montreal

See you there! À demain!

Personellement je commence toujours ce genre de recherche dans mon quartier, À Outremont il y a d’Un Sport à l’autre, qui propose beaucoup de pièces à prix raisonnable, du service sur place immédiat et des amélioration “custom” sur demande pour de très bons prix. Deux employés (toujours les mêmes depuis 2 ans que je connais cette boutique), pas d’uniformes, un seul comptoir… autant de pistes qui indiquent tout de suite qu’il s’agît d’un magasin de quartier très près de ses clients.

Sur le Plateau / Mont-Royal c’est la bicycletterie JR qui me donne la même première impression, quoiqu’on y vende moins ou pas de matériel usagé.

Pour un vélo usagé de qualité la meilleure chose c’est souvent les sites d’annocnes comme lespac ou kijiji mais il faut s’y connaître et c’est long. Pour voir sur place je conseille ÉcoVélo:

Chaque ÉCOVÉLO recyclé dans notre usine est tout d’abord démonté en entier. Les composantes réutilisables selon nos standards de qualité sont ensuite sablées et repeintes. Nous avons développé depuis plusieurs années des processus de fabrication nous permettant d’offrir un vélo de qualité à un prix compétitif.

SOS VÉLO récupère plus de 4 500 vélos par année. Ces vélos proviennent en grande partie de la générosité du grand public qui supporte année après année notre mission sociale.

Attention, c’est pas nécessairement très bon marché mais certainement moins cher que neuf – et un choix de consommation plus intéressant qu’acheter du neuf. Il y a aussi parfois des ventes chez Canadian Tire (!), mais on finit souvent par remplacer les accessoires trop cheap.

Si on veut se procurer un vélo gratuitement, il y aussi les ventes de garage, le réseau Freecycle et les encans annuels qui sont maintenant de compétence de chaque arrondissement. Et pourquoi pas demander dans vos réseaux sociaux (Facebook, G+, etc.) ? Qui ne demande rien n’a rien!

Avez-vous d’autres tuyaux ?

Longueuil, le 23 janvier 2011 –  Le CollectifVélo365 vous invite à participer à un Pellete-in afin de déneiger l’accès à  la piste cyclable du pont Jacques Cartier.
Quand :     le samedi 29 janvier à 10h.
Où :         Au pied du pont, à l’intersection Lafayette et Saint-Laurent (Longueuil).

Apportez votre pelle et votre pic car nous dégagerons l’accès à la piste cyclable!

Il s’agit d’une réédition du Pellete-in organisé à la même époque, l’année dernière.

Beaucoup d’eau a coulé sous les ponts depuis. En effet, les personnes qui participeront à l’évènement pourront constater de visu que le tronçon de la piste cyclable donnant accès au pont Jacques Cartier a été complètement reconfiguré. Ainsi, le printemps prochain, les cyclistes et les piétons vont découvrir une piste cyclable élargie et sécuritaire. De plus, la pente pour accéder au pont a été adoucie. Dorénavant, Monsieur et madame « Tout le monde » pourront circuler en toute sécurité sur cette piste. Que ce soit pour aller travailler ou pour aller s’amuser au parc des îles Jean Drapeau, dans le Vieux-Port ou au canal Lachine. Bien sûr, les gens de la métropole pourront faire le trajet en sens inverse et venir découvrir les beaux coins de la Montérégie : le parc des îles de Boucherville, le parc Marie Victorin…

Maintenant que la piste est sécuritaire, le CollectifVélo365 se permet d’insister pour que la SPJCC ainsi que la ville de Longueuil en permettent l’accès 12 mois sur 12. En effet, depuis la première tempête de l’hiver, le 6 décembre dernier,  une chenillette n’aurait eu qu’à passer trois fois pour en garantir l’accès. Pas besoin de fondant, ni de sable ou d’équipements sophistiqués. Juste un peu d’ouverture d’esprit et de jugement de la part des autorités permettraient d’encourager l’utilisation du moyen de transport le plus efficace, le plus économique, le plus écologique et le meilleur pour la santé en milieu urbain; le vélo.

Le CollectifVélo365 espère que la SPJCC ainsi que la ville de Longueuil trouveront le moyen de convenir d’un protocole permettant d’encadrer l’accès à cette piste cyclable 12 mois sur 12.

-30-

Sources:          Renald Desharnais (450) 646 2869, renalddesharnais@hotmail.com
Porte-parole :     Francis Casaubon (450) 748-4658, collectifvelo365@gmail.com
Le CollectifVélo365 est un regroupement de personnalités et d’organismes unis dans le but de promouvoir la pratique du vélo en toute saison.

Les membres du Collectif Vélo365 sont:

• Renald Desharnais, Instigateur de la pétition pour le parachèvement de la piste cyclable du pont Jacques Cartier qui a recueilli 4 000 signatures à l’automne 2008.
• Jean Dorion¸député de Longueuil-Pierre Boucher
• Bernard Drainville, député de Marie-Victorin
• Marc André Gadoury, conseiller municipal de l’arrondissement Rosemont-Petite-Patrie (Projet-Montréal)
• Coopérative de plein-air Mountain Equipment Co-op  (Montréal et Longueuil)
• Vélo quatre saisons
• Équiterre
• Environnement JEUnesse, stimule le développement d’une conscience environnementale et d’une pensée critique auprès des jeunes afin qu’ils exercent des actions citoyennes pour un avenir viable.
• Centre d’économie urbaine de Montréal
• Association générale des étudiants du CEGEP Édouard-Montpetit
• Association générale des étudiants du CEGEP Rosemont
• Fédération étudiante collégial du Québec
• Association étudiante du campus de Longueuil de l’Université de Sherbrooke
• La coalition pour la réduction et l’apaisement de la circulation
• Déménagement Myette
• Le Centre d’Information sur l’Environnement de Longueuil (CIEL) est un organisme à but non lucratif visant la protection et l’amélioration de l’environnement à Longueuil.

Nous avons discuté de tout et de rien, entre autres la sortie imminente de LibreOffice, sa compatibilité avec Antidote (Miche a promis de tester!), la nouvelle entreprise en consultation et logiciel libres que Sipherdee démarre bientôt (IdleOne aussi était intéressé de collaboré avec les services que nous offrons), mais surtout, nous avons savouré de délicieux mets chiliens (le Pastel de Choclo reste mon choix préféré) et rencontré les gens qu’on cottoie souvent sur le webchat IRC d’Ubuntu QC J’ai vu deux nouveaux visages, Michel et Jack, qui ont bien aimé leur expérience – Jack voulait faire retirer Ubuntu de son laptop car il ne s’en servira pas mais il dit qu’il avait trouvé génial que ça “fermente” et ça “mijote” ainsi, toutes ces discussions animées ! Je crois qu’il va revenir

Cette heure Ubuntu s’est terminée à 15h30!!!

À vendredi prochain!

It just took a few minutes. Considering the massive amount of time Wikipedia saves me every day explaining technical terms and providing historical references to many projects and products I work with, it’s time and money well spent. You can only resist Jimmy Wales for so long

But I hate my cellphone provider, Rogers Canada. I hope that’s clear. Rogers CANADA.

Being a community, people-oriented person, free software activist and open source enthusiast, and on top of that a full time technical trainer and support analyst, last summer when I heard that Rogers Canada would be the first company to sell & support the mighty HTC Dream (known as G1 to T-Mobile customers), I decided I would trust them. In fact I got my HTC Dream the day it came out, on June 2nd. If Google trusted Rogers with their first Android deployment in Canada, I would be OK. Big mistake!

I’ve posted before that Rogers Canada sucks. I’ve thought about documenting my own problems, but it’s getting easier to just gather other similar experiences Android customers have at Rogers:

• Rogers Mandatory Update Debacle
• How Rogers Ruined My HTC Dream
• Rogers and the Squashing of Personal Freedom
• I want my one point six – a blog dedicated to the HTC problems
• …

That’s right, there is a whole blog dedicated to document and share all the mistakes Rogers Canada has made and all the problems they have caused.

When I saw that I started my own Identi.ca group: RogersSucks (or !rs)

As I write this I am waiting for a replacement HTC Magic which was promised once, order “lost”, promotion postponed, then secretly available again, then finally ordered on Sunday. I know, it’s Wednesday and we’re only a province away, but the phone hasn’t even shipped. Nevermind it’s only a slightly less outdated phone, I am waiting again to get the Rogers Canada Android Revolution.

Rogers Canada thinks it’s good business practice to suspend data service in order to force customers into upgrading to a firmware that basically locks down my phone. Why is it important it’s unlocked and rootable ? Because otherwise it’s very much useless, or should I say even less useful than a regular cell phone. At least regular cell phones behave well with BT headsets, don’t crash or reboot spontaneously, and don’t lag for >30 seconds when going from one application to the other. Among other things. It used to be possible to use Cyanogen Mod and other custom firmwares to make these phones somewhat usable. Not anymore.

How did Google let this happen ? I have no clue.

A lot of similar mistakes can be made by any company selling devices based on free, open-source software (and yes I know Android devices don’t come with 100% free software). I secretly hope some anonymous person inside such companies learns something from Rogers Canada mistakes. This is truly an example on how NOT to launch and service such a product.

Meanwhile I am gathering details on my own problems and getting all my services with Rogers cancelled without penalty for breach of contract. If that doesn’t happen, small claims court in Quebec should help, and I’ll document this in true free, open fashion so I can help as many people as I can do the same: vote with their money. I am angry such a great platform got such a bad start in Canada.

I guess the Revolution is not going to be available in Canada for some time.

Lunch & Ubuntu

Well, this is only a friendly reminder and invitation to come and join us at Café Suprême, (4190 Boulevard St-Laurent, Montreal – Plateau Mont-Royal) tomorrow Thursday at noon. We’ll have lunch and who knows, perhaps meet some new people. Or just have lunch.

Télévision de Radio-Canada is a Canadian French language television network. It is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, known in French as Société Radio-Canada, or just “Radio-Canada”, for the rest of us. – from Wikipedia

A couple of weeks ago they launched a new web site, tou.tv, making “available” all their TV shows (or most of them)… in Flash

Never mind it’s 2010 and HTML5, Ogg Theora and in general open standards and formats are the talk of the day on most web development sites… Flash 10 is a bad enough choice as it is, but apparently tou.tv’s team just forgot that Linux existed.

Within hours of the launch Ubuntu Québec team members started complaining on the mailing list and on tou.tv’s Facebook group. We wrote to their admins, provided details, wrote to the ombudsman, got canned replies for all communications. We then put together a Facebook group, and started inviting people to join and we shared our findings (now all on a public wiki). 451 people joined the group which is an amazing number for Quebec province, given the context. I never ever thought I’d use Facebook for open formats and Linux support advocacy in such a way!

Only one programmer from the tou.tv’s team first acknowledged the problem, then asked for testers. That’s it, total silence from the tax-payers-funded TV network and website.

Within hours of the initial launch people on the mailing list had analyzed the streaming protocol, the Javascript code, etc. and ruled out problems there. To our amazement, a single commented line was preventing any shows to be displayed. Someone put together a GreaseMonkey script, someone else tested it… we went online on IRC to coordinate testing + blogging. Bottom line is we came up with a workaround. A week later tou.tv finally applied minimal fixes to unblock the Flash display on Linux systems.

The site is not perfect and now other minor issues subsist, and yes, I wish open formats were an option. For now I just wanted to thank Ubuntu for providing not only an incredible operating system but also an amazing community that made all this possible I also wanted to thank the Free Software Foundation as we used several resources from them such as the Defective by Design web site to explain the problems associated to using DRM-like implementations of web TV sites, and the problems of not using open formats, such as Flash.

I also wanted to send a big FAIL to Radio-Canada and tou.tv’s team. To this day they don’t even mention Linux on their FAQ.

You can also find more details about this little victory of ours in my original blog post in French.

Your taxes at work!

Rogers Canada really sucks. It’s really a pitty they were the first to introduce Android devices in Canada. Fortunately now other companies also offer them. I hope Rogers never sells Android devices anymore to anyone.

I just found out 85% of online users agree with me. Now I feel like I am part of a big dysfunctional family.

I am doing my best so 100% of possible Rogers customers (and others too) all know their rates, customer service and technical service suck to no end.

I am so fed up with them I won’t bother explaining why they suck. The above links should provide ample accurate, complete historical data.

Of course there’s a dedicated Rogers Sucks Facebook group.