Logiciel Libre

Mifos’s beloved director George Conard will be giving a talk on Mifos at the 2008 O’Reilly Open Source Conference in Portland, Oregon.

The phrase double bottom line refers to having a bottom line besides just profit.

See you there!

IRC is an ancient, tried-and-true one-to-many chat protocol. Pidgin is a feature-rich instant messaging client that can handle many protocols, including IRC. Pidgin runs on many different platforms, including the three most popular ones. Pidgin integrates nicely with the desktop.

Here’s how to set up a Freenode IRC account in Pidgin:

1. Open Pidgin; click Accounts -> Add/Edit.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Change the protocol to IRC and enter
   irc.freenode.net as the server.
4. If you have a Screen name (called a “nick” or “nickname” in IRC
   parlance), type it (e.g. MrOpenSource) in the Screen
name field. If you don’t own one yet, make one up.
5. Click on the Advanced tab, and fill in the Real
name field.

Now, register your nickname. This helps people recognize you, protects your
identity, and allows you to send private messages.

1. Click on Buddies -> New Instant Message.
2. Fill in NickServ for Name.
3. Change Account to the Freenode account you just created,
   and click Ok. Now you can “talk” with the
   NickServ robot.
4. The first message you send should be register PASSWORD
   (where PASSWORD is one of your choosing).
5. Next, set an email address. This will give you a way to reset your
   password later should there be a need. Send set hide email on
   to NickServ.
6. Next message should be set email ADDRESS (where
   ADDRESS is your email address)

Then, join #mifos. :)

One problem sometimes occurs when you have connection problems. You may be disconnected from the internet and the IRC server may not realize you’ve dropped off. When you reconnect, you may see what appears to be two of your username in the channel with slightly different names. Like: USERNAME and USERNAME_. Send help release to NickServ, and NickServ will tell you how to release the original, correct nickname.

Further instructions can be found here or by saying help to NickServ. Commands like /msg NickServ help do work in Pidgin.

This guide was heavily inspired by the following article on freesoftwaremagazine.com.

One more final tip: enable the “Join/Part Hiding” plugin to supress the many “so-and-so joined the room, so-and-so left” messages that will likely show up in the channel.

Mifos was mentioned in the New York Times yesterday. The big news is that I.B.M. is having 10 software engineers work on the project. Can’t wait to meet ‘em!

Check out this map of Mifos deployments (created by Sam). Nice!

I’m pretty stoked about my new job at the Grameen Foundation working on FLOSS accounting software: MifOS. This video gives a nice technical perspective of the project.

I was also lucky enough to catch a lecture by the founder of Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus. Dr. Yunus’ delivered an inspiring message about the end of poverty. “We will have poverty museums to remember what poverty was, and we will run full-page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post offering a reward to anyone who can find a poor person.”

I must admit, it was cool to be a part of this!

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/0…d_online_5.html

It was announced today in a press release that United Online acquired Classmates.com for $100 million. Congratulations to everyone at Classmates.com for your hard work!

This story: Yahoo! News - Singing Japanese plants will have plant-lovers fuming.

To my Friends and coworkers here Classmates,

Thank you! I have learned from you, with you. We have worked hard together, laughed together, and accomplished many things. Leaving is bittersweet; I am turning away from much that I will miss. Still, I will not regret my decision. It is the right choice for me right now, and I’m sure you all wish for me to be the happiest possible person I can be! You have the chance and can take the choice to make a difference. Do it.

For those that are curious, my short term goals include:
* working at an organic coffee farm in Kona, Hawaii
* writing more papers
* teaching
* taking the summer off
* working on open source projects

Yes, Science. Ok, fun, too.

Poopy Pants. He he.

Heh, no more sending real poop in the mail: “All Ordering has been removed from our site as we have recently learned it is not legal.”

Idea to feature smellypoop.com courtesy Eva.