- SFD-discuss - lists.mailman3.com

Re: [SFD-discuss] Open Source personal assistants
by LM March 17, 2018

March 17, 2018

My apologies on that last post. That was supposed to go to the Schoolforge mailing list and I accidentally hit the wrong e-mail address. Hope the Open Source projects I'm mentioned are at least of interest to someone on this list as well.

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Open Source personal assistants
by LM March 17, 2018

March 17, 2018

Our school district's tech conference had a few speakers talking about voice assistants like Google Home and Alexa. One speaker mentioned his students were creating their own programs to use with Alexa using Amazon's API. That got we wondering if there were Open Source options that would let students see how to build their own personal assistants not just add code to a commercial project. So, below are some related links on the subject. If you know of others, please share. I am especially interested in finding a decent C or C++ Speech to Text library. If anyone has ideas on that topic, please let me know. Would like to include it in some Open Source software I'm porting to improve accessibility. Thanks. The FSF has more information on personal assistants and this is one of their priorities for Free Software development: https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/personalassistant Open Source voice assistant projects: http://openassistant.org/tools/ https://github.com/MycroftAI https://github.com/claritylab/lucida https://jasperproject.github.io/ http://www.theadrianproject.com/ Open Source Speech to Text resources: https://github.com/cmusphinx/pocketsphinx https://github.com/cmusphinx/sphinxbase/tree/master/src https://github.com/sphinxsearch/sphinx https://github.com/kaldi-asr/kaldi https://github.com/julius-speech/julius DeepSpeech (which uses tensorflow): https://github.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech/tree/master/native_client https://github.com/mozilla/tensorflow/ https://github.com/arthurv/srec Text to Speech resources: http://www.festvox.org/flite/index.html http://espeak.sourceforge.net/ https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng https://github.com/MycroftAI/mimic

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Re: [SFD-discuss] Introducing TTCS OSSWIN online resource of Free and Open Source Software (#FOSS) for Windows
by LM March 15, 2018

March 15, 2018

Adonay Felipe Nogueira wrote: > As far as I know they do include other platforms besides GNU+Linux, but > this one must be supported by the software seeking to be listed > there. That is: the FSD doesn't accept Windows-only "free software" > (sic). My interest is mainly in cross-platform software. So, if it only works on Windows, I'm typically not interested in it. I do port software to various platforms. Most of the time I end up porting Linux/BSD/Unix applications to Windows. However, sometimes I'll run across an interesting program for Windows and port it to other systems like Linux. > I must say that you all have done an awesome work with Schoolforge, I've > been planning to integrate Schoolforge into FSD for quite some time. I'm sure the members of the Schoolforge project would greatly appreciate that. We're trying to find new people who might want to get involved. The mailing list has been pretty quiet lately. > Oh, be very careful with Android, I'm not a developer, but I was told by > Replicant project that Android has somethings that don't come with stock > Android, or that are not essential to make the operating system work in > minimum level, even if you do development with Android that came from > Google. Am familiar with that. I am working strictly with Open Source libraries/compilers or standards that have Open Source options available. I tried out Android-x86 ( http://www.android-x86.org/ ) and VirtualBox for testing. The Android-x86 project seems to be doing a nice job. I just recently tested building some software with the Debian Android packages. Was reading that Debian and Ubuntu were good platforms for Android development on Linux. Was able to build Android packages and compile Java with their tools. However, was very surprised that they don't have a package for the NDK/cross-compilers needed to support porting C/C++ code to Android. (Actually, they do have one package, but it just does a wget and downloads from Google.) Recently asked about it on one of their mailing lists. Also, I've been reading that Google intends to switch from using gcc to llvm/clang. I'd personally prefer to stick with gcc, but it's being deprecated from the NDK and will be removed in future versions. I think creating a GNU gcc cross-compiler toolchain with ABI compatibility to the Google NDK should be an important step for working with Free Software on Android. So far, I haven't found anyone working on a project like that or even interested in it. I'd certainly be willing to volunteer to help out if someone did put a project like that together. There are also lots of great FLOSS programs written in C/C++. Many would port to Android with some modifications. The priority for most people seems to be to write new programs from scratch in Java or Kotlin rather than make use of what is already available. I think it's a shame there aren't more projects supporting FLOSS C/C++ development for Android. > However, I find it odd that they refused. Considering that I don't have > the full context of the conversation (patch submission requests and > replies), I can't agree that it was due to lack of interest on > cross-platform compatibility, but I can't deny either. I know the developers from some of the projects I contacted didn't want to support a specific platform (such as Windows), because they told me. I have it in writing from them. > I would also like to add that free/libre software proponents discuss and > care for other topics and issues that most "open source" people don't > care to, like: > > - digital restrictions management, such as those found in most Android > and Apple devices; >... A lot of the issues the FSF tries to promote are very important. It's nice that the FSF advocates them. Many of those issues often get ignored by projects that are Open Source but not Free. I read some of the articles about Android at the GNU site and was very interested in them. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a lot of information on how to get involved further. I did check out projects like Replicant, F-Droid and some others, Haven't had any luck finding a project I could volunteer with that could use my particular talents. I'm not thrilled with closed source online app stores and the abilities of companies to limit who can put software on devices. The idea of owning a computer (even if it's a tablet) and not being able to put software I wrote on it is abhorrent. That's one reason I'm a proponent of cross-platform software. I want to avoid vendor lock-in. The FSF covers many important philosophical topics. I was, however, surprised by their stance or lack of interest in respecting patents though. I understand software patents can cripple development and it's a shame when a patent is given for something that's universal and should not be proprietary. However, if one expects the courts to uphold things like software licenses then one should respect the legality of patents in countries where they are the law. I had to check commercial sites like Red Hat to find relevant information regarding FLOSS and patents. Most of the GNU compliant Linux distributions that I looked up ignore the issue. I think Free Software is at a crucial period. More people are now using tablets/phones rather than desktop systems as their computers. With things like secure boot, operating systems making it hard to install anything that isn't from their app store of choice and other hardware and software restrictions that promote specific vendors, it's getting very difficult to get Free Software to people. I also feel like software development isn't a level playing field any more. Large companies have the resources to build complex software that might require a lot of computing power to create such as AIs, Speech to Text engines, etc. Would like to see Free Software alternatives that can compete. Otherwise, developers are left with little choice but to use proprietary solutions when customers want specific features in their software. If you know of any good mailing lists or other places to discuss topics like the NDK/gcc one I mentioned, avoiding vendor lock-in or just talking about sharing/advocating FLOSS software in general, please let me know. Thanks.

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Re: [SFD-discuss] Introducing TTCS OSSWIN online ? a online resource of Free and Open Source Software (#FOSS) for Windows
by LM March 14, 2018

March 14, 2018

> Dev Anand Teelucksingh wrote: > In essence it is the same web interface from the TTCS OSSWIN project > (which makes the collection of Free and Open Source Software for > Windows as a 4GB download, along with a web based interface) ? the key > difference being that no installers are shown, just the link to the > program?s website. Wanted to thank your group for the wonderful job you all do on the OSSWIN project. I gave away some of the OSSWIN CDs at our school district's tech conference in past years. It was a big hit. Look forward to checking out the online interface. I'm always looking for interesting new cross-platform software to try out. > Adonay Felipe Nogueira wrote: > Awesome, at Free Software Directory --- co-run by UNESCO in the early > 2000s, but now carried by FSF --- there's similar facility, see [1] for > a pretty printing of all software that we know to run on Windows. The FSF directory is also very useful. It's nice that you include other platforms besides just Linux. > Every Friday we get together in #fsf at chat.freenode.net IRC to update > the FSD, see [3] for more information on which time the meeting > happens. But you can contribute every day, it's just nice to get > together to talk in some predefined time. :D Didn't know you had a chat. That sounds like a lot of fun. I've been helping out with maintaining the Schoolforge web site's list of Free Software: https://www.schoolforge.net/ I'm sure there are a lot more interesting and useful Free and Open Source programs that could be added to the site. I add new information when I have time. Also, I do a lot of porting of Open Source software, so I'd be willing to bet I have some applications working on Windows that are not in any of those lists. I'm currently working on porting some of them to Android as well. Unfortunately, haven't found too many good ways to share the programs once I port them. Typically, my first try is to send the patches back to the developer, but I've found out that several Open Source developers/projects are not usually interested in cross-platform support. At present, I'm concentrating on SDL, FLTK and PDcurses/ncurses based applications, because many of them port well to a large variety of platforms (including Android and even FreeDOS). Always enjoy finding new and interesting programs. It's great to be able to discuss and share Free and Open Source software or recommend useful and educational programs to others. Best wishes. Laura http://www.distasis.com/cpp/osrclist.htm

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Introducing TTCS OSSWIN online – a online resource of Free and Open Source Software (#FOSS) for Windows
by Dev Anand Teelucksingh March 9, 2018

March 9, 2018

The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society is pleased to announce TTCS OSSWIN online at http://ttcsosswin.ttcs.tt/ , an online resource of Free and Open Source Software for Microsoft Windows 10/8/7. The web-based interface allows you to quickly browse the variety of software organised into the following categories: Desktop Applications, Educational, Games, Graphics, Internet, Server, Sound and Video, Utilities Each program has information about on what the program does, a screenshot or a video showing the program in action, and to find a link to the program’s website to download and install the program. In essence it is the same web interface from the TTCS OSSWIN project (which makes the collection of Free and Open Source Software for Windows as a 4GB download, along with a web based interface) – the key difference being that no installers are shown, just the link to the program’s website. The web-based interface for TTCS OSSWIN online was redesigned to take advantage of modern web standards (HTML5, CSS3) and should be usable on Windows 10 touchscreen tablets and on mobile / tablet devices (such as iPhone/iPad and Android devices). So you should be able to browse the TTCS OSSWIN online to learn about FOSS for Windows on any device. Browse TTCS OSSWIN online at http://ttcsosswin.ttcs.tt/ Dev Anand

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Introducing TTCS OSSWIN 2.0 - a collection of Free and Open Source Software for Windows available for download with an all new web user interface and video clips of various programs
by Dev Anand Teelucksingh March 9, 2018

March 9, 2018

Hello All, The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society is pleased to announce the release of the TTCS OSSWIN v2.00, a collection of the latest version of Free and Open Source Software for Microsoft Windows 10/8/7. You can use your web browser to read detailed information about each program in this compilation : what the program does, view a screenshot or video of the program, and to find links to the program’s website and to download/install the program from the TTCS OSSWIN collection. The web-based interface allows you to quickly browse the variety of software organised into the following categories: Desktop Applications Educational Games Graphics Internet Server Sound and Video Utilities The web-based interface was redesigned to take advantage of modern web standards (HTML5, CSS3) and should be usable on Windows 10 touchscreen tablets. Also, the web UI attempts to autodetect whether your machine is running a 32 bit version of Windows or a 64 bit version of Windows to offer the appropriate installer so you can install programs as quickly as possible and browse the programs in the various software categories quickly. In addition, several programs have screencasts with sound to give the user a better idea of the program capabilities. Visit the TTCS OSSWIN page at http://www.ttcs.tt/osswin for more details and to download the collection as an ISO file for extracting to your harddrive or USB storage device and/or burning on to a DVD. Regards, Dev Anand Teelucksingh

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Photos SFD 2017
by Paulo Henrique de Lima Santana Sept. 24, 2017

Sept. 24, 2017

Hi, Photos from Curitiba - Brazil https://www.flickr.com/photos/curitibalivre/albums/72157689188066765 Best regards, -- Paulo Henrique de Lima Santana (phls) Curitiba - Brasil Membro da Comunidade Curitiba Livre Site: http://www.phls.com.br GNU/Linux user: 228719 GPG ID: 0443C450 Apoie a campanha pela igualdade de gênero #HeForShe (#ElesPorElas) http://www.heforshe.org/pt

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SFD 2017 Sri Lanka Photos and Video
by Ruwan Ranganath Sept. 24, 2017

Sept. 24, 2017

Hi, We have done the SFD with nearly 300 participants and with more than 40k social media expressions here at Sri Lanka, 12 Universities Mozilla Campus Clubs organized the event . We had entertainment sessions from music crews, and tshirts / stickers etc ( check the photo album ) Speakers video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwvXZZRQq_4 Event Photo Album 1 : https://www.facebook.com/pg/usitharupasingha/photos/?tab=album&album_id=350… Speakers List : Thanks. -- Ruwan Ranganath

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SFD video at HSBXL Brussels
by Tom Behets Sept. 23, 2017

Sept. 23, 2017

Hey! Someone shot a video on our SFD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ModMat9DPjM Awesome! Tom

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Registration form issue
by A. Mani Aug. 30, 2017

Aug. 30, 2017

The registration form does not allow single letter last names. I used "AM" instead of "A" in the field My team: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2017/India/Kolkata/KWFS Thanks and Best A Mani Prof(Miss) A Mani CU, ASL, AMS, ISRS, CLC, CMS, IEEE HomePage: http://www.logicamani.in Blog: http://logicamani.blogspot.in/ sip:girlprofessor@ekiga.net

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