bandali's personal site

LibrePlanet 2021: Jami and how it empowers users — bandali

2021-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

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.

+ +

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

+ +

+
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.
+ +
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.
+ +
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.
+

+ +

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.

+ +

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

+ +

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

+ +

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 — bandali

2020-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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 — bandali

2020-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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 — bandali

2019-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

inspired by the computing page of +rms

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

Actual computing

I spend most of my time in +GNU Emacs.

TODO: elaborate