This guest post was submitted by Ole Tange, maintainer of GNU Parallel.

I am the maintainer of a piece of free software called GNU Parallel. Free software guarantees you access to the source code, but I have been wondering how many actually read the source code.

To test this I put in a comment telling people to email me when they read this. The comment was put in a section of the code that no one would look to fix or improve the software -- so, the source code equivalent to a dusty corner. To make sure the comment would not show up if some one just grepped through the source code I rot13'ed the source code.

Two-and-a-half months later I received an email from someone who not only managed to find the comment, but also managed to guess the code had to be rot13'ed.

The first cookie was released on January 24, 2011 and was won by AEvar Arnfjord Bjarmason on April 10, 2011.

I inserted a new cookie on August 18, 2013, that was a bit harder as you would have to use rot14. On July 19, 2015 Mark Maimone won that cookie.

This brings me to the conclusion that there are people who are not affiliated with the project who will read the source code -- though it may not happen very often.

Join the Free Software Foundation and friends in Boston, MA, USA on the evening of Saturday, October 3rd for our 30th Birthday Party. We'll share hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and an address by FSF founder and president Richard Stallman, as well as plenty of social time for catching up with old friends and making new ones.

RSVP now! If you want to brag about it on social media, use the hashtag #FSF30.

If the free software movement is coming together for a party, we might as well get some work done, too. We're planning a mini-conference for the day of October 3rd, before the party, where we'll share what we've learned from the first thirty years of the free software movement and swap ideas about the future. Stay tuned for more details about this, as well as a possible dinner on Friday night.

Bookmark the event homepage for lodging suggestions and more information about the mini-conference and other festivities that weekend, coming soon.

Not coming to Boston?

We've been flattered by supporters around the world asking to hold their own local events for the FSF's birthday. Of course! We'd even love to write about it, or come up with a creative way of connecting it to the event in Boston. Contact us at campaigns@fsf.org if you're interested.

We also intend to stream the event and post videos online afterwards.

Support our work for computer user freedom

Our supporters have made our thirty wonderful years possible. By becoming an associate member you'll help us achieve even more in the next thirty. Members also get special benefits, including gratis admission to our LibrePlanet conference each spring.

If you'd rather not become a member, you can also help by making a donation when you RSVP, or on our donation page.

Volunteer or sponsor

If you are interested in helping out at the mini-conference or the party, we welcome you! In addition to setting up the venue and greeting guests, we need people with skills in free software livestreaming. All volunteers will receive a special reverse birthday gift from us to you.

The FSF is also seeking general event, beer, or food sponsors. To sponsor or recommend a sponsor, or to volunteer, reply to this email.

Also, we'd like to introduce Georgia Young, our newest FSF staffer, in the role of program manager. Georgia is planning the thirtieth birthday events, so expect to hear more from her soon.

See you in October!

Read the New Yorker Article, The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty by Maria Bustillos.

Join the FSF and friends this Friday, July 24 — at a new time — from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode. There are also weekly FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential to be a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to join on IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started helping the Directory today!

Still can't figure out what time the meeting starts? Open up a terminal and enter the following to get the start time in your time zone:

date --date='TZ="America/New_York" 12:00 this Fri'

The Seattle GNU/Linux Conference -- we like to call it SeaGL -- is the Emerald City’s best grassroots technical conference for free and libre software. The 3rd annual conference happens Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 at Seattle Central College, and it’s already shaping up to be better than last year!

First, we’re thrilled to announce the keynote addresses will be delivered by the FSF’s own Richard M. Stallman, and Shauna Gordon-McKeon, the main organizer of OpenHatch’s campus events. This year we’re honoring the origins of free software while recognizing the importance of growing the movement through recruiting new activists, users, and enthusiasts.

We are also accepting nominations for the first annual Cascadia Community Builder award recognizing a person who has significantly contributed to the free software movement in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, or Idaho. Please take a minute to nominate someone who is doing great community work in the area!

We’re also looking for speakers. Our Call for Participation is open until July 26. SeaGL welcomes a diverse range of topics. It doesn’t matter if this is your first conference presentation or your fifteenth; If you’re excited about a topic related to GNU/Linux or free software, then we want to hear about it. We’ll be helping folks edit and flesh out their proposals in our IRC channel, #seagl, a few times over the next couple of weeks.

Finally, for groups or businesses interested in sponsoring the event, the Exhibitor & Sponsor Prospectus is now posted. We will have a small hall with tables available for sponsors and exhibitors, with free tables available for local nonprofit or educational organizations.

Here are the details:

http://seagl.org

Friday, October 23 to Saturday, October 24, 2015

Seattle Central College

Cost: Free (as in beer). No registration necessary.

Do you want to help people learn why free software matters, and how to use it? Do you want to dig deep into software freedom issues like copyleft, Digital Restrictions Management, or surveillance and encryption?

The Free Software Foundation is looking for fall interns to work in one of three areas: spend the semester contributing to our campaigns, licensing, or technical team.

These positions are unpaid, but the FSF will provide any appropriate documentation you might need to receive funding and school credit from outside sources. We place an emphasis on providing hands-on educational opportunities for interns in which they work closely with staff mentors on semester-long projects that match their skills and interest.

Our current campaigns intern is focusing on computer user privacy and encryption, expanding our Email Self-Defense project. Past licensing interns have worked to improve the Free Software Directory and analyzed the compatibility of other licenses with the GPL. And a past sysadmin intern did extensive work to set up our StatusNet instance.

Fall internships begin on or about August 31st and run through December 4th. We prefer candidates who are able to work in our Boston office, but may consider remote interns. The deadline to apply for a fall internship at the Free Software Foundation is July 31st.

To apply, send a letter of interest and a resume with two references to hiring@fsf.org. Please send all application materials in free software-friendly formats like .pdf, .odt, and .txt. Use "Fall internship application" as the subject line of your email. Please include links to your writing, design, or coding work if it applies -- personal, professional, or class work is acceptable. URLs are preferred, though email attachments in free formats are acceptable, too. Learn more about our internships, and direct any questions to info@fsf.org.