Ilumina TV runs on Ubuntu
There has been a slew of tech news and blog postings about the Ilumina TV, a prototype unveiled by a local startup here in the Philippines called Inovent Inc. At first glance on the description of the said device, it seems to be like what any computer can do attached to an LCD display, perhaps running some type of PVR software with a modified front-end. What is interesting for me though is that it is claimed to be running a stripped-down version of Ubuntu, so its possible that it could be running MythTV or Elisa with a different interface (I really doubt it if any PVR software here was made from scratch). The company has a blog that shows some pictures and slides but I’m more interested on seeing a movie of the thing in action because all I’ve seen and read at the moment are PRs.
I haven’t seen the prototype in action but one of the people behind the sofware of the said project is a friend of mine so probably I could get a sneak peak of the thing in the near future. Honestly, I would prefer a box that can be attached to my existing TV set than getting a new one, but I’ve already done that with Elisa running in a Shuttle and an AppleTV with Boxee.
The OLPC PH Special Interest Group at Software Freedom Day 2008 Quezon City, Philippines
We had a lot of fun during the Software Freedom Day celebration at the National Computer Center in Quezon City. Major props to Bluepoint with Engels and Magie Antonio for spearheading the organization of the very successful event!
I didn’t get myself involved with Ubuntu for this year’s Software Freedom Day celebration. Instead, I focused on our small, but thriving OLPC Philippines Special Interest Group where we had a table and placed a bunch of XO-1 and prototype B2 and B4 machines as well as some Ubuntu laptops with the Sugar emulator for people to really appreciate the hardware and the potential of the software.
Harry Harrison also joined us and took time to explain to people about the XO-1 hardware and what OLPC has been doing. There were a lot of questions ranging from “Where do I get this?” to “When is it coming to the Philippines” and other related questions (“Does it run Ubuntu?”. We also had the chance to talk to press people, but since we’re currently a hobby group, we can only point to the right resources and people to get in touch with. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to tell about with regards to local pilots and stuff like that with the OLPC and XO-1 despite the fact that almost all the major UMPC/4P computer brands are readily available in the market quite cheap (you can get an Intel Classmate 1 here for something like $200 USD). But the fact that people are able to really see and use the XO-1 make them realize its difference to the current crop of Netbooks and UMPCs being sold at retail.
Of course, any meetup is not complete with the obligatory group photo. Too bad Harry left early as he wanted to go to the mall early to get a new router. If there is one thing that I enjoyed doing this day is that it was truly refreshing to do something else not related directly to Ubuntu (we’ve grown our local community to a point that others can become resource persons easily).
Some of you are still celebrating Software Freedom Day at this moment – create magic and inspire people! That’s the best result any SFD or advocacy can achieve.
Ubuntu Love Day Manila 2008
Me and some friends are currently organizing an event for Ubuntu enthusiasts in Manila, called Ubuntu Love Day Manila, tentatively scheduled on the 23rd of August. The venue is still for confirmation, but we plan it to be at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.
We plan this to be a half-day event in the morning, which will allow participants to a chance to group together and have high-bandwidth, face to face networking.
Going to the event proper, we are thinking of 5 talks from the local Ubuntu to community, not to teach concepts, but to share experiences in how they use Ubuntu in their computing needs. We have already 2 volunteers to talk about:
- The 30 day Ubuntu challenge – being productive in using Ubuntu for daily computing needs for 30 days from a Windows user
- Experiences of a local volunteer in contributing to upstream KDE and supporting the Kubuntu community.
We’re looking for 2-3 more volunteers that would like to share their experience with Ubuntu. These could be in various fields like Multimedia/Graphic design, Software Development, Social work, Legal, etc. A 30 minute discussion with slides would be ideal. If you would like to contribute, please remember that this is not a tutorial session, but rather a chance to share to the community the potential of Ubuntu as the ideal operating system based on your experience in your field. I’m also working on an OLPC session to be included so this would be very interesting.
We’ll also try to do a live stream of the event via ustream.tv or justin.tv.
If you are interested to help out, you can send me an email (my contact info is in this blog) or leave a comment here.
WordCamp Philippines 2008
Organized by Mindanao Bloggers, WordCamp Philippines 2008 happening at the College of Saint Benilde is sure to be one of the most talked about “blog events” not only in the Philippines, but also in the region.
Why WordCamp Philippines 2008?
That’s a good question! If you’re responsible for doing the following:
- WordPress user (running your own or hosted at WordPress.com),
- Responsible for administering a WordPress installation in your organization,
- Looking at WordPress for your next blog engine.
- or even someone who would like to start blogging,
you should reserve September 6, 2008 and register for the event!
As of press time, 220 have registered and the camp will be limited to 350 participants. The event is getting so much traction that no less than Matt Mullenweg (the founding developer of the WordPress software) wil be coming over for the event!
The camp is sponsored by the following organizations:
- i.PH: the Domain for Individuals
- Free Online Flash Games
- Wazzup Manila Philippines
- Real Estate CRM
- Real Estate Website Designers
- Orange County Real Estate
- Auto Insurance Quotes
- Lane Systems Inc.
- RedMedia
See you there!
leave a comment