bandali's personal site

LibrePlanet 2021: Jami and how it empowers users

2021-03-20T09:00:00-04:00

I am giving my very first -LibrePlanet talk today on -March 20th. I will be talking about -Jami, the GNU package for universal -communication that respects the freedoms and privacy of its users. -I'll be giving an introduction to Jami and its architecture, sharing -important and exciting development news from the Jami team about -rendezvous -points, JAMS, -the plugin SDK, -Swarm -chats, and more; and how these features each help empower users to -communicate with their loved ones without sacrificing their privacy or -freedom.

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Here is the abstract for my talk, also available on the -LibrePlanet -2021's speakers page: - -

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Jami is free software for universal communication that respects the -freedoms and privacy of its users. Jami is an official GNU package -with a main goal of providing a framework for virtual communications, -along with a series of end-user applications for audio/video calling -and conferencing, text messaging, and file transfer.
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With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has -become the norm for many workers around the world. More and more -people are using videoconferencing tools to work or communicate with -their loved ones. The emergence of these tools has been followed by -many questions and scandals concerning the privacy and freedom of -users.
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This talk gives an introduction to Jami, a free/libre, truly -distributed, and peer-to-peer solution, and explains why and how it -differs from all other existing solutions and how it empowers -users.
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I have been an attendee of LibrePlanet for some years, and am very -excited to be giving my first ever talk at LibrePlanet 2021 this year! -You can watch my talk and other speakers' talks live this weekend, -from the LibrePlanet 2021 -- Live page. Attendance is gratis (no cost), and you can register -at https://u.fsf.org/lp21-sp.

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Presentation slides: -pdf -(with notes) | -bib
- -L^aT_eX sources: -tar.gz | -zip

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I hope to see you around this year's all-online LibrePlanet -conference this weekend!

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LibrePlanet is a conference about software freedom, -happening March 20 through 21, 2021. The event is hosted by the Free -Software Foundation (FSF), and brings together software developers, -law and policy experts, activists, students, and computer users to -learn skills, celebrate free software accomplishments, and face -upcoming challenges. Newcomers are always welcome, and LibrePlanet -2021 will feature programming for all ages and experience levels.

My internship with the FSF tech team and beyond

2020-12-18T15:31:00-04:00

Originally published on the Free Software Foundation's -sysadmin blog:
-My internship with the FSF tech team and beyond

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Hello! I'm -Amin Bandali, -and this is my second blog post on the FSF sysadmin blog, concluding -my internship with the FSF tech team this year.

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Throughout my internship with the tech team, I have worked mainly -on sysadmin tasks related to setting up and/or managing FSF's -GNU/Linux servers. Perhaps most significantly, I set up an instance -of the Sourcehut forge software to -help -evaluate -it as a candidate for the upcoming -FSF forge project. -I documented the installation and setup process of Sourcehut's various -components in the form of a literate GNU Emacs Org-mode file, where -source blocks are interspersed with comments and prose explaining -them. One can then progressively evaluate and execute the source -blocks, and optionally have their results stored back in the Org file -itself to help with documentation/demonstration.

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I have also been slowly working on various improvements for the -server running www.gnu.org, and will continue doing work on it as a -volunteer after the end of my internship. This will hopefully be -beneficial to the FSF sysadmins running the server, the GNU webmasters -who do webmastering work on gnu.org, and the general public browsing -and using gnu.org's pages. Notably, changes included upgrading the -server to the latest release of Trisquel GNU/Linux, and revamping and -improving the search mechanism for gnu.org's pages. Additionally, -there are several other projects that I would like to tackle with the -tech team in the near future.

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During my internship with the FSF tech team, I picked up a variety -of new skills and learned more about a diverse set of topics and -tools. This included building and installing a complex piece of -software like Sourcehut and debugging issues encountered along the -way, using Ansible for managing and deploying infrastructure, as well -as learning more about the Exim mail transfer agent used to run FSF -and GNU's array of mail servers.

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In conclusion to my internship and the year 2020, it's safe to say -that this year has been an eventful year for many people, including -myself. I started my internship with the tech team back in May, and -as a graduate student at the time, I was expecting a reasonable and -balanced workload for my work on my thesis over the coming months. -However, early on (less than two weeks) into my internship I learned -that due to a number of reasons, I needed to complete my master's -studies on a two-month deadline. I told the tech team about the -issue, asking whether I could take a hiatus to complete my studies -without affecting my internship. I am beyond thankful to the tech -team and the FSF as whole for being accommodating, and for their -flexibility in allowing me to take a leave to focus on writing my -thesis and wrapping up my master's studies. I managed to successfully -wrap up my studies in that short timeline, and focus on my internship -afterwards.

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However, all good things must come to an end, and this internship -is no exception. I am incredibly grateful to the members of the FSF -tech team -- Ian, Andrew, Ruben, and Michael -- for welcoming me to -the team as an intern and mentoring me, answering my many questions, -and helping me learn more. It has been an honour and a wonderful -experience for me all around working with you all and seeing the -energy and passion with which you take on the work and -responsibilities that come with being an FSF sysadmin and Web -developer. While most of my interactions were with the tech team, I -also got to interact with FSF staffers from several other teams during -my internship, and I'm thankful for our conversations and the chance -to get to know and appreciate the important work you do.

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This internship has come to an end, but I will carry with me all of -the good memories and the lessons I learned along the way, and will -happily to continue working with you as a volunteer. The things I -learned have been invaluable and greatly helpful to me, as I -transitioned into my new full-time job at Savoir-faire Linux as a Free -Software Consultant, where I get to work on various parts and aspects -of Jami, a GNU package for universal communication which respects the -freedoms and privacy of its users.

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I would like to thank the FSF for providing me this excellent -opportunity to work alongside the tech team as an intern, and take -away so many valuable lessons and great memories.

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Interested in interning for the Free Software -Foundation? The application period for spring 2021 internships is -currently open. Please see -https://www.fsf.org/volunteer/internships -for more details and information on how to apply!

Internship with the FSF tech team

2020-05-29T14:38:00-04:00

Originally published on the Free Software Foundation's -sysadmin blog:
-Introducing -Amin Bandali, intern with the FSF tech team

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Hi there, I'm Amin Bandali, often just bandali on the -interwebs. I wear a few different hats around GNU as a maintainer, -webmaster, and Savannah hacker, and I'm very excited to be extending -that to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as an intern with the FSF -tech team for spring 2020.

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Growing up around parents with backgrounds in computer engineering -and programming, it did not take long for me to find an interest in -tinkering and playing with computers as a kid, and I first came into -contact with GNU/Linux in my teenage years. My first introduction to -the world of free software came a few years later, when a friend -kindly pointed out to me that what I had vaguely known and referred to -as "open source" software is more properly referred to as free -software, and helped me see -why -"open source" misses the point of free software. After learning -about and absorbing the ideas and ideals of free software, I have -since become a free software activist. As a computer scientist who -enjoys studying and hacking on various programs and sometimes writing -my own, I have made a point of releasing all I can under strong -copyleft licenses, particularly the -GNU AGPL -license.

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My involvement with the GNU -Project started in 2016, first as a volunteer webmaster, and later -as one of the maintainers of -GNUzilla and -IceCat late last year. Also around the same time, I led a group -of volunteers in organizing and holding -EmacsConf 2019 as a -completely online conference, using only free software tools, much -like the excellent -LibrePlanet -2020. I love GNU -Emacs, and use it more than any other program. GNU Emacs helps me -do a wide variety of tasks such as programming, reading and composing -emails, and chatting via IRC.

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More closely related to my internship with the FSF tech team, I -have been familiarizing myself with various pieces of the -GNU Savannah infrastructure -with help from veteran Savannah hacker Bob Proulx, gradually learning -and picking up tasks helping with the administration and maintenance -of Savannah. I am also a member of the Systems Committee of my -university's computer science club, overseeing and maintaining a large -fleet of GNU/Linux servers for our club members.

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For my internship with the Free Software Foundation, I will be -working with the FSF tech team on a number of tasks, including helping -with -the free -software forge project, as well as various improvements for -gnu.org. I look forward to learning many new things and picking up -valuable skills through my internship with the FSF's exceptional tech -team, who do so much for the GNU project and the wider free -software community.

How I do my Computing

2019-09-14T12:00:00Z

inspired by the computing page of -rms

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Computers

My librebooted ThinkPad X200 -computer is the machine I use the most and where I do most of my -computing. I also have the privilege of having access to a fleet of -servers through our school's -Computer Science Club that I -use for some more computationally intensive tasks every now and again, -and also for hosting this very website.

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GNU/Linux distribution

I used a wide variety of distros over the years; but I have since -found Trisquel to be my favourite -and it's put my "distro-hopping" days behind me. Sometimes I pair it -up with GNU Guix. For the kernel, -I usually use -GNU -Linux-libre from jxself's -APT repository.

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Actual computing

I spend most of my time in -GNU Emacs.

TODO: elaborate

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Maintaining this site

The pages of this site are (manually) written in plain HTML using -GNU Emacs. You can run git clone -https://bndl.org in a terminal to get the git repository -containing all the pages of the site and the history of changes to -them.