Books going digital
This is a really good summary of the problems faced with DRM or Digital Rights management on e-books.
Links
Tags
#Ebooks,#DRM,#Problem,#Campaign,#DFD,#DefectiveByDesign
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Linux Screen reader
I found this earlier this week, looks like a really great project, so another great find from the Fediverse.
Links
Tags
#a11y #accessibility #blind #screenreader #coding #rust
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STEM GROUP MEETING
The Paignton STEM Group's aim is to bring together people who are interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Provide a safe space for discussion, showcasing of projects and to encourage and advocate STEM subjects.
The first Paignton Library Stem Group meeting is
Date : Saturday 13th November 2021 Times : 11am –> 1pm & 1pm to 3pm
Booking essential. Under 8's must be accompanied by a parent.
01803 714 460 for details / booking
In preparation for this, I have been working on creating some electronics resources to demonstrate at the event.
These are quite simple to make, solder on headers and which ever component is needed for that particular board
Various resistors 270ohm 330ohm 1k ohm 10k ohm
Power supply, we need to get power from a battery to the circuit.
Reed switch (not soldered), 1uF capacitors (soldered) and a switch block, not soldered as I want to figure out which switch block to use (I have a few)
Transistor NPN 2n222A
All soldered up so they can just be wired up.
I have added a 3 way header as this allows for:
- Components to be attached together
- Branches in circuits
- Connection of meters, scopes and other equipment
It should be possible to build a circuit that, internally will flash, for example an LED then use a scope to examine the frequencies at different points in the circuit.
I plans to solder up other component boards. Hopefully I will have something to demonstrate, but other visitors should be able to have a go.
TAGS
#Electronics,#STEM,#STEMGroup,
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Trojans Rookie Camps 2021 2
Date : Sunday 31st October 2021 Time : 10 am —> 14:00 Location : Foxhole playing field, Bellfield Road, Paignton
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Updated STEM display at Paignton Library
As next week is Chemstry week, I have further updated the display at Paignton library. Be sure to drop in and check out the info on offer.
Tags
#Chemistry,#Week,#Science,#Diversity,#RSC
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Libreplanet 2022 planning
I am part of the FSF Libreplanet planning committee. We had a really productive brainstorming session on Tuesday via Big Blue Button, with a 2nd on Friday.
The theme for LibrePlanet 2022 is living liberation. All good stuff.
Links
Tags
#LibrePlanet,#Conference,#March2022,#LivingLiberation,#FreeSoftware
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Women in Chemistry
To celebrate International Women's day, Compound Chemistry have released a great poster celebrating the contribution women have made to Chemistry.
Posting here too, in the hope it will inspire more Women and Girls in Science and Chemistry.
REFERENCES
TAGS
#YearOfTheFediverse,#Chemistry,#Women,#science,#international, #women's, #day,#women, #WomenInChemistry
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Afghanistan in 2021
I wrote this a few weeks ago, intended to publish, but then the site went down. So am publishing now. The situation in the country has changed since this.
Firstly I am NOT an expert in any of this. I decided to write a follow up to my history of Afghanistan post [1]. This is in order to try and help make some sense of the current situation. Bringing together various wikipedia articles, which explain different related topics together.
As of August 2021. The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan. Their intention seems to be to run the country as an Emirate[ [2], which, I think just describes the system of government, so I would guess this is a similar system to the UAE or United Arab Emirates [3]
By contrast and as a point of reference, IS / ISIS or Islamic State want to set up a Caliphate [4], which of course is a different system of ruling the country.
As we are talking about countries that follow Islam.There are two “denominations of Islam” [7] within this. One is Sunni [5] and Shia [6] Islam. So the same religion, just with a slightly different way of interpreting the Quran and or messages therein.
Over the centuries, as with Christianity (eg, Catholics & Protestants) the two systems have not seen eye to eye, all the time. The article [7] on Wikipedia, explains how relations have changed over the centuries.
As you can tell from this, the situation is pretty complex. There are lots of different ideas and clashes of cultures. Probably one of the reasons, the west will probably never be able to impose its own values on these countries. They have their own values, laws, morals, and ways of doing things, such as conducting every day business.
It seems, that while Taliban, have stopped men and women studying together in the same classes. They have NOT, as yet, stopped women from studying altogether. So they have kept their word, which is part of Islamic law.
I guess if the UK / England government tries to mention this to the Taliban, they could throw it back at Boris Johnson, who said he would not raise National Insurance, which is a different matter..
Disclaimer : I fully acknowledge that Wikipedia is NOT an academic source of information. However for the purpose of this article, I think it is good enough to refer to in order to help explain things. It is not an academic essay anyway.
References
1 History of Afghanistan 2 Emerate 3 United Arab Emirates 4 Caliphate 5 Sunni Islam 6 Shia Islam 7 Sunni – Shia Relations
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Trojans Rookie Camps 2021
Date : Sunday 24th October 2021 Time : 10 am —> 14:00 Location : Foxhole playing field, Bellfield Road, Paignton
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AGPL enforcement
The announcement of Donald Trumps social media network, could be in hot water before it has even been formally launched.
Below is a QUOTE
As you may have seen in the news today, Trump's media team has set up their own social network "Truth Social".
What they aren't admitting is it's actually just a Mastodon instance with all the Mastodon branding removed, including all of the messages acknowledging that it is FOSS, as required by the software's free open source licence. This is breaking the terms of the licence, and is essentially stealing the software from the volunteer community which made it.
This kind of behaviour cannot be accepted by anyone who believes in FOSS. Keeping to the requirements of a FOSS licence is fundamental to building software together. If powerful people get away with stealing FOSS, people may be reluctant to build FOSS in the first place.
So the issue is stated in the second paragraph above. It is looked at more in this article
Software freedom conservancy have taken up the case to try and enforce the AGPL and ensure compliance with the AGPL
There has been a similar case in the past – FSF vs Canon
Clearly this is an ongoing situation, If you want to follow this more closely I suggest you join mastodon and follow from there.
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