Last weekend (on Saturday, 17th of May 2007 to be exact) I’ve officially become a member of Linux User Group of Slovenia (LUGOS for short). I must say it was about time as I do quite a lot of work for Linux, like translating software, testing, bug reporting, spreading the word about it and helping new users. So joining my local Linux user group was only natural. This happened while I was attending the 11^th meeting of LUGOS. It was my first LUGOS meeting and I must say it was quite fun. We talked about accomplishments in the past year and made some plans for this one. During the meeting we had some nice snack and after it we also had a cake. The first event that LUGOS is preparing for 2007 will be dedicated to all people who are interested in translating and localising free and open source software into Slovenian language. People who will come will be able to see how our work looks like, see some presentations and take part in workshops. Currently the planned date is 21^st of April. I hope to see many people, I’m sure it will be fun. Oh and by the way, this year LUGOS is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, so: Happy anniversary LUGOS!

Tags: linux, lug, lugos, slovenia, translation, events

When I woke up yesterday morning a message from Tim Ansell was waiting for me on Jabber. It was some extremely great news about open source game project Thousand Parsec, which I joined a couple of months ago. Google has just published the list of mentoring organisations for Google Summer of Code 2007. What is so great about it is that Thousand Parsec was one of the selected organisations. This also means that I get to be one of the mentors.

I must say this has surprised me a bit. Thouand Parsec is quite a small project, not that well known and 4X space strategy games are unfortunately not as popular today as they were a few years ago. Who knows, maybe the foundation of existing code base, our plans for the future or some other part from the project description convinced Google to choose Thousand Parsec. Whatever the reason, this is our chance to get some fresh new developers, to get the project to the next level and make it more known and appealing to gamers. We have to make the most out of this chance.

So, if you are a student and would like to work on a task for a vibrant free and open source game project, I encourage you to take a look at Thousand Parsec : Google Summer of Code 2007. Here you will find some instructions and ideas for a project on which you can work during the summer. I’m sure it will be fun, you will learn something new and if you finish your project you will even get 4500$. Our community is waiting for you! And don’t forget that the deadline for submission of student applications is 26^th of March.

Update: The deadline for student applications has been changed to 26^{th of March, So you now have about 4 days left to join the fun.}

Tags: games, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, stars!, galactic civilizations, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc