Firstly a disclaimer, I dislike Facebook for many reasons and would prefer it
if the company went bankrupt and shut down. But as that's not going to happen
and there's an estimated 17.7 million Facebook users in Australia (almost 2/3
of the population) we have to deal with that.
Currently a Facebook search for "Linux" and "Australia" will (for me at least)
return the Linux Australia organisation and not much else. The Linux
Australia organisation hasn't posted since 2024. I think it would be nice to
post at least once a year but that's not the main point of this message.
Currently a Facebook search for "free", "software", and "Australia" returns as
the only appropriate result the group "100% free software" which is more about
"free as in beer" software.
I think that what we need is to have a number of Facebook groups for beginners
in free software and Linux which can answer basic questions, help people get
started, and then point them to more open communities (Lemmy, mailing lists,
Matrix rooms, etC).
I'd be happy to join any such groups and answer questions, but I've got enough
going on that I don't want to be any sort of moderator or anything.
Is anyone interested in running such a group?
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My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/pascoe-vale-south/laptops/thinkpad-e531-16g…
This is a nice laptop, some cracks in the bottom of the case but nothing
stopping it working correctly, screen seems good. I'll take out the SSD
before giving it away or you can buy the SSD from me. It takes a 2.5" SATA
storage device and I could probably find a 2.5" HDD you could have for free if
you want cheap.
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/pascoe-vale-south/laptops/macbook-pro-core-…
This isn't a great laptop, battery and CD-ROM drive are dead and it works fine
on mains power. That's annoying but it's a Macbook so still might get some
use. The screen is very nice so could be good as a portable ssh client
system.
Neither of these systems look like they will sell for enough to be worth the
hassle of selling. I could sell them for a few dollars to someone who wants
the scrap metal but I'd rather give them to someone who has a use for them.
If you want to buy a laptop there are some nice Thinkpads on Facebook
Marketplace, $300 or less for a Thinkpad X1 Carbon that's recent enough with
FullHD screen and 16G of RAM. Thinkpads with 8G soldered on to the
motherboard are really cheap, $200 or less.
I've also got some desktop PCs that have DDR2 or DDR3 RAM in a cupboard that I
should get rid of, if anyone wants them I can arrange it and fit them with
enough RAM etc to be useful.
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My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Flounder: Apr 2026 Fail2Ban and other fun things
Date/Time
Date(s) - April 11, 2026
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
https://flounder.linux.org.au/events/flounder-apr-2026-fail2ban/
Fail2ban – A guide to setting up and running it.
This talk will cover installing and configuring F2B but only on Debian
but other distributions are much the same.
All the common topics including Ban times and Find Times will be covered
and the various jails that apply to a basic LAMP stack.
Also some basic custom jails which will dive into a little regexp.
Like a lot of things now it’s hosted on GitHub
https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban
After the fail2ban lecture there will be general discussion of FOSS
stuff. As usual lightning talks are welcome!
Meeting will be at http://b.coker.com.au. No need to register just click
on the link on the day.
Meeting officially opens at 1PM Melbourne time (02:00UTC), 11th of Apr.
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Regards,
Phil Steel-Wilson
https://flounder.linux.org.au/events/flounder-apr-2026-fail2ban/
The main talk is: Fail2ban – A guide to setting up and running it.
This talk will cover installing and configuring F2B but only on Debian but
other distributions are much the same.
All the common topics including Ban times and Find Times will be covered and
the various jails that apply to a basic LAMP stack.
Also some basic custom jails which will dive into a little regexp.
Like a lot of things now it’s hosted on GitHub https://github.com/fail2ban/
fail2ban
After the fail2ban lecture there will be general discussion of FOSS stuff. As
usual lightning talks are welcome!
Meeting will be at http://b.coker.com.au. No need to register just click on
the link on the day.
Meeting officially opens at 1PM Melbourne time (02:00UTC), 11th of Apr.
--
My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/
My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
