It’s 2017 and nine years ago I started writing a set of Python scripts that would become Total Open Station, a humble GPL-licensed tool to download and process data from total station devices. I started from scratch, using the Python standard library and pySerial as best as I could, to create a small but complete… Continua a leggere Total Open Station: a specialised format converter
Categoria: Free Software
Debian Wheezy on a Fujitsu Primergy TX200 S3
Debian Wheezy runs just fine on a Fujitsu Primergy TX200 S3 server A few days ago I rebooted an unused machine at work, that had been operating as the main server for the local network (~40 desktops) until 3 years ago. It is a Fujitsu Primergy TX200 S3, that was in production during the years… Continua a leggere Debian Wheezy on a Fujitsu Primergy TX200 S3
Archaeology and Django: mind your jargon
I have been writing small Django apps for archaeology since 2009 ‒ Django 1.0 had been released a few months earlier. I love Django as a programming framework: my initial choice was based on the ORM, at that time the only geo-enabled ORM that could be used out of the box, and years later GeoDjango… Continua a leggere Archaeology and Django: mind your jargon
The OSGeo umbrella
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation ‒ OSGeo ‒ is an umbrella organization for a lot of free and open source software projects focused on geospatial technology, that is, maps 🙂 Projects range from low-level programming libraries like GDAL/OGR (that is also used by ESRI software) to full-fledged desktop apps like QGIS and gvSIG and powerful… Continua a leggere The OSGeo umbrella
Innovation: Ubuntu Edge vs FairPhone
“We’re fighting for free software running on top of hardware that was manufactured by slaves.” – Vinay Gupta at #ohm2013 I have a smartphone, a Samsung Gingerbread device that does its job and allows me to use a mobile phone, check my email, use social networks and take decent pictures on the go (it does… Continua a leggere Innovation: Ubuntu Edge vs FairPhone
GFOSS news
I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now (since 2009 apparently). I am proud to announce the first issue of GFOSS news, a newsletter from and about the GFOSS community with a focus on Italy. The tagline is “software, dati, persone” (software, data, people) and it is exactly like that. It’s a… Continua a leggere GFOSS news
What is coming in Total Open Station 0.4
More than one year has passed since the first release of Total Open Station (TOPS). Version 0.3 already brought support for multiple data formats and devices, the ability to export your data to common standard formats and a programming library to create scripts around the core functionality of TOPS. We were very proud when TOPS… Continua a leggere What is coming in Total Open Station 0.4
Open archaeology: otto anni di discussioni tra tecnica, metodologia e professione
For my non-Italian-speaking friends and readers: there is an older post in English, touching several of the topics discussed here. Il 17 e 18 novembre ero a Paestum per il workshop “Il futuro dell’antico” organizzato dall’Associazione Nazionale Archeologi (ANA) che mi ha invitato a parlare di “Open archaeology”. I risvolti nel mondo professionale della cosiddetta… Continua a leggere Open archaeology: otto anni di discussioni tra tecnica, metodologia e professione
Total Open Station packaged for OpenSUSE
Thanks to Angelos Tzotzos (Remote Sensing Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens) Total Open Station has an installable package for OpenSUSE, since a few weeks. Installing is as easy as: $ sudo zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Application:/Geo/openSUSE_12.1/ GEO $ sudo zypper refresh $ sudo zypper install TotalOpenStation Any report about this package will be very welcome. We… Continua a leggere Total Open Station packaged for OpenSUSE
ArcheoFOSS 2010: back from Foggia
ArcheoFOSS 2010, the 5th Italian workshop on “Free software, open source e open format nei processi di ricerca archeologica” took place in Foggia, on the 6 and 7 May. First of all, it was very good. I’m satisfied with this meeting. Why? Here are some thoughts I sketched while traveling back to Siena. Lots of… Continua a leggere ArcheoFOSS 2010: back from Foggia