Kwartzlab – the flying squirrel

Ubuntu Global Jam this Saturday!

This Saturday, join the Jam!

The Waterloo Region Chapter of Ubuntu Canada will be jamming at Kwartzlab in Kitchener

What’s an Ubuntu Global Jam, you ask? Well! This video may help give you an idea:

Or you can read this interview I did with Charles Proffitt of the New York LoCo Team.

Basically, we’ll be trying out the first Ubuntu 12.04 beta (to be released this week!), triaging bugs, fixing things, working on artwork and promotional materials and anything else that we feel can help Ubuntu be better than ever. If you don’t have a computer you can bring, we have some at the lab you can test with.

We’ll also have drinks for sale, order out for food and maybe break out a game of Hedgewars or Teeworlds. Because games need testing too!

See you there!

Ubuntu 11.10: Oneiric Ocelot Party in Kitchener!

[The Oneiric Ocelot] Ubuntu 11.10–the Oneiric Ocelot–is set to release this week. As usual, we’re hosting a release party at Kwartzlab to celebrate.

Join us Saturday, October 15th at 4pm (till late) and celebrate the latest and greatest release of Ubuntu! Release parties are a fantastic opportunity to meet other Ubuntu users face to face. And, hey, it’s a good excuse for a party.

We’ll have cake, devilled eggs, commemorative collector’s CDs and a fast repository proxy to help with upgrades!

For any other Canadian Ubuntu users reading this, if you’re not in Kitchener-Waterloo (or Toronto) and there’s no party in your area, you should host one! Join the Ubuntu Canada mailing list and let us know where and when your party is. Tell your friends and post on local message boards. We’ll help do what we can to announce it to the Canadian Ubuntu community.

If you are in KW and want to help publicize the event, please print out some posters and paste them up around town.

Ubuntu Global Jam in Kitchener-Waterloo

Kwartzlab is hosting Ubuntu Waterloo‘s Global Jam a week from Saturday (Sept. 2).

Along with the usual upgrade and install testing, bug triage, documentation work and so on, Ralph has a project idea. We’re going to run a hackathon to build a new GUI packaging tool, starting with the relatively straight-forward process of upgrading an existing package to the latest version.

So if you’re interested in learning about packaging, GUI development in Qt or Ubuntu development in general, be sure to come by!

If development isn’t your thing, we still need lots of people trying out Oneiric Ocelot on their hardware and submitting any bugs they might find.

Come out and see how you can contribute to make Ubuntu better!

Inaugural Address

During our AGM last month, [[Kwartzlab]] elected a new Board of Directors for 2011-2012. The new Board begins its term today. I figure it’s a good time to look forward on the year ahead, so I gave my “inaugural address” to the Kwartzlab mailing list this morning as the Board’s new President. (Reposted from [kwartzlab.ca](http://www.kwartzlab.ca/2011/07/inaugural-address/))

Hi, Kwartzlabbers!

It is a great honour to have been elected to the Board of this fine and noble institution, and it is also humbling and a teensy bit terrifying to be appointed President. I am told by previous presidents, however, that the job is a doddle and that I have nothing to worry about. The fact that you are all awesome leads me to believe this is almost certainly true. But I do feel there’s a certain weightiness and austerity that comes with a title like “President” that means I really ought to get better at making speeches.

Speeches aside, I’d like to see the Board do a better job involving the membership in what’s going on. It’s the board’s responsibility to make sure we stay solvent and nobody gets killed, but after that, we all have a stake in making Kwartzlab better. When there’s something that needs to get done, any one of us can and should do it. The Board can, I think, do a better job letting people know what needs to be done so that those with the time, skill or enthusiasm can see it through. Continue reading Inaugural Address

Ubuntu Global Jam, April 2

[I'm going to Ubuntu Global Jam!] Ubuntu Waterloo is hosting our third Ubuntu Global Jam, Saturday, April 2 at Kwartzlab.

The Global Jam is a worldwide event to make Ubuntu better. Ubuntu 11.04, the Natty Narwhal will be released in a little over a month and the Global Jam give the community (that’s us) a chance to help find bugs, triage them and fix them.

Starting at 2pm, we’ll have an informal open space conference on the theme of contributing to Ubuntu (and open source in general) in the afternoon. If you have experience or questions, please bring them. In the evening, we can embark on whatever exciting project we were inspired to do in the afternoon.

Join us and help make Ubuntu better!